Tag Archives: Recommendation

Defiance

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The Monsters We Defy by Leslye Penelope

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I recommend you go get this book if you’re a fan of modern fantasy. It’s not ‘urban fantasy’ in the way of the wave of current day, hidden magic stories but it is evocative of that same aesthetic from the early 1900s. There are bits of historic religious practices (I think that’s how VooDoo is categorized) combined with the reality of life for the characters at that time in the world.

The area and the characters are so real. There was romance and drama. Concern for the ripples a ‘heroic action’ would send out into the world. It had action as well, with spells and thugs and stakeouts leading to police raids and chases.

I went through this book in a rush and was completely satisfied when I finished it. Go and read this author’s work!





View all my reviews

Combo Platter

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In catching up with my news feeds and other posts that I have missed over the past few weeks I found two that have some synergy. The first is a post about how much science fiction is created and published each year.

SFF is Too Big?

There are so many stories published at this point that no fan, no matter how quickly they read,  can keep up with what’s out there. There are hundreds and hundreds of stories that come out regularly. I particularly enjoyed the math portion of the article that showed a certain rarity of story from decades ago. It seemed that it could have been my faulty memories from when I was young that the stories I enjoyed so much were so desperately hard to find. As it turns out, the numbers show it actually was hard to find those stories, as fewer of them were published each year compared to today’s standard.

This is certainly not a post, or commentary about how things were better back in the day. I don’t believe that. Things may have been more clear, or more clearly defined with less overlap,  however, it didn’t mean that things were better by definition. I enjoy the simple fact that I have a huge number of choices when I’m looking for a new thing to read. I say “thing” simply because it might be a novel, it might be an anthology, or a series of blog posts, or an online published story or a graphic novel… you get the idea. There are SO many choices out there. I love it.

The second post is Just Plain Good.

The post praises things simply being ‘good’, and enjoys recommendations that match that qualification. Quality and popularity are not always meshed together, in either direction. There is a modern standard that they discuss where reviews and commentary need to be hyperbolic in order to get attention. I agree with the author of this post that there is a need to be circumspect in our word choice.

I have been posting my book reviews for many years. I always try to show why I felt the way I did about any given work. I have some small understanding of how difficult it is to get any work published, so I always hope that an author reading my review understands that my review is precisely that, mine. My opinion and nothing more. I also attempt to avoid hyperbole. I have a special and specific shelf of books in my house that hold the books that have truly changed me or impacted my thought process so much that I return to them again and again. It’s a single shelf and that’s it. There are so few it’s easy to keep them in one place. I’ve written essays in the past about what sort of works changed me. I don’t want to be extra dramatic or willfully polarizing. I hope the clear and simple choices I make in reviewer terms will help people who read my reviews to understand how that affects their choice.

That all seemed a little convoluted as it fell out of my head. Let me see if I can explain this more clearly. If you read my review of a book, then you go read that book and you agree with me, you could then trust that my next review might better match for you.If you read my review of a book, then you go read that book and you think, “my God that was terrible! How did he praise that? I hated it all”, then you could understand the next time you read one of my reviews that if I loved it you won’t. I often find that an ‘opposite’ reviewer is just as helpful as one I match well with. That is the idea behind being as authentic as possible. If you find a match, then you will look to that person or those reviewers, whoever they may be, as a trusted source for finding the next thing you want to read. The screaming noise makers just don’t fit that category.

That is where the synergy comes in with the article about science fiction publishing becoming too big. Finding a reviewer or a series of reviewers you can trust to give you honest and clear opinions on things, without exaggeration, will help you sift through the hundreds and hundreds of choices and perhaps even guide you to finding works that you would never have otherwise found. I suppose it’s very similar to panning for gold. You spend a great deal of time trying to wash away the grit and find the shiny treasure that you can then show to others. 

Revel in the multitude of choices that you have when looking for your next entertaining read.  Look for, or perhaps even become, a trusted source for your circle of friends. It takes time to learn and see the pattern of things you enjoy,  but once you find it, be authentic about it. It’s okay to say that something is good and that you enjoyed it. Everything you read doesn’t have to be a revelation of the highest order, nor does it have to be something that you despise and would publicly denounce. Sometimes just finding something enjoyable is enough.

This is how I approach my reviews and why a one-star or a five star are so vanishingly rare among my reviews. The highest high or lowest low truly should be rare. Reviews should not fall into the same category as The Boy Who Cried Wolf. Scream and yell on too many occasions and people will presume that is your default setting. Keep panning for that gold and be sure to share your treasured fines with others.

You Should Be Watching

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This was originally published in Watch The Skies Fanzine, July 2021 issue.

The Vast of Night – Amazon

Pick a night. Pick a slow night. Wait until it’s quiet out. Turn out the lights. Get cozy and flip this movie on. The Vast of Night is a small film that’s big on catching you at just the right time. There are bright, glaring action movies and soft filtered romances beside the raucous comedies. This movie pulls you back to the fifties in the American southwest. The story follows two people from the little New Mexico town of Cayuga as they track down a mysterious noise and more mysterious radio station callers. It’s the kind of town where everyone knows everyone else… until they dig a little deeper.

From the Amazon description:

“In the twilight of the 1950s, on one fateful night in New Mexico, a young, winsome switchboard operator Fay (Sierra McCormick) and charismatic radio DJ Everett (Jake Horowitz) discover a strange audio frequency that could change their small town and the future forever. Dropped phone calls, AM radio signals, secret reels of tape forgotten in a library, switchboards, crossed patchlines and an anonymous phone call lead Fay and Everett on a scavenger hunt toward the unknown.”

This is definitely a movie that is all about the mood. It is quiet. It moves a little slow at the start. Give it a chance. As the story rolls, the speed and the tension build. If you take your time you will get to a place where you’ll be out staring up into the night. There are small things, inconsequential to the success of the story if you allow yourself to go along for the ride. Coming in at an hour and a half it’s definitely worth the time to catch up with the folks in this small town.

Check out the trailer here:

You Should Be Watching

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This was originally published in Watch The Skies Fanzine, June 2021

Oxygen

Oxygen is an intense little movie about a woman who wakes up with no memory of who she is or why she’s locked inside an automated pod. It wouldn’t be such a dilemma, except the level of oxygen in her single, tiny room is slowly running out. She needs to solve the puzzle of who she is, why she’s there and what she can do to fix her situation before she runs out of air to breathe.

This is a tense movie. The actress (Melanie Laurent) plays the main character. She’s stuck in this tiny pod. She doesn’t remember why. She doesn’t remember who she is. She’s got no place to go. This leaves all our focus on her as she runs through a monumental list of emotions. It’s a testament to this actor’s abilities that she can carry the whole thing off. There’s no scenery other than the pod. There’s barely any space for movement. You feel for her. You breathe with her.

Slowly, over the course of the movie memories and flashbacks give us tidbits. We rebuild all the various parts of a memory right along with the character. This is a smart lady. She figures out various ways to come at the problem even when one avenue or another runs up against a wall. She shifts and wiggles and carries the whole movie.

Were there things that didn’t work? Yes. There were one or two very small, very nit-picky things that I caught while I was along for the ride. I could very easily chalk them up to suspension of disbelief. This is a well done film that I don’t think is getting the attention it should. A locked room mystery that fits in the science fiction category. It’s a rare thing, but when it’s done well it’s a wonderful, terrible, memorable thing. This is definitely a film you should be watching!

Check out the trailer here:

You Should Be Watching

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This was originally published in Watch The Skies Fanzine, May 2021 issue.

Space Sweepers – Netflix

In the year 2092 the Earth is suffering. The planet is distressed to the point that humans are looking for a way out. Some lucky (or chosen) few get to ascend and become UTS citizens living in orbiting homes around the planet. The UTS corporation sets strict controls and financial arrangements for citizens and non-citizens alike. This is the where the crew of the salvage ship Victory scrounges out a living.

This movie is filled with action, suspense, comedy and even heart. It clocks in around two hours and fifteen minutes but it really didn’t feel that long. Watching the crew of misfit scavengers attempt to make ends meet while dealing with their own issues would have been interesting enough, but then Dorothy gets thrown into the mix. Dorothy looks and acts like a child, but the UTS has declared her a weapon of mass destruction and has set off an all out hunt to get her back. The Victory crew just happen to pick her up as part of one of their salvage missions.

As a South Korean film, I was fully prepared to read subtitles the entire time I watched this movie. I did, but not in the way I expected. I found it wonderful that the film makers included a quick bit about universal translators and then proceeded to allow everyone to speak in whatever language was their own. Space, and all the humans from all over the planet could just speak their own language. Yes, there were subtitles, but there was as much in English as there was in any other language. I could identify five different languages through the course of the film. This is wonderful and we need more of this in our science fiction. People will find a way to communicate, then language and background become less of an issue.

Beyond the language aspect, this film had well done special effects. I’m not going to claim they’ve got some kind of mastery or that the effects shots disappeared in a seamless way. You could tell there were special effects in this movie, but they didn’t get in the way. I never had a moment when I thought, ‘well that wasn’t very well done’. I just sat and enjoyed the action. The action likely works out the way you’d expect, but even that didn’t hurt the enjoyment of this story. This was a movie that has less of a dystopian downer feel and something a little more refreshing and hopeful.

If you’ve got access to Netflix, grab your popcorn and go check this movie out.

You Should Be Watching

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This was previously published in Watch The Skies fanzine – April 2021 issue.

Boss Level – Hulu

For folks that have loosely monitored things in the film industry over the past decade or so will know that Mel Gibson has had some rough sledding. Of course, when the “rough” is based on who you are and how you act toward your fellow humans it won’t garner a lot of sympathy. I have been just fine with Mr. Gibson dropping out of prominence and staying off the screens I watch for entertainment. Then I bumped into this Looper article that said he was having something of a resurgence to his career. I’m not a fan of that, but I wanted to listen to the reasoning. What I did not expect was praise, and was more shocked at the film that was being heralded as something positive for him. Boss Level is a Hulu original film – and yes, Mr. Gibson is in this movie. I decided based on this positive review that I needed to at least check out a science fiction/action film to see for myself.

In this movie Frank Grillo (you may remember him from his stint as Crossbones in the Marvel Cinematic Universe) plays Roy Pulver, a former special operations soldier who is caught in a time loop. He wakes up every morning to the same thing. He moves through his day hitting the same beats and changing up little parts in order to see what happens. It is every bit the same concept as any other time loop movie ~ think Ground Hog Day (Bill Murray) or Edge of Tomorrow (Tom Cruise), just add more crazy violence. As the name implies there are a lot of video game like things going on in this movie. There are other notable characters (played by the likes of Michelle Yeoh and Ken Jeong) but Frank Grillo is the main focus. He carries the movie and does it well. This kind of action is exactly the sort of film somebody would expect to see him in. It was tight, the clues and keys to the loop were clever and the action just didn’t stop.

As for the previously mentioned Mr. Gibson, yes, he was in the movie. I won’t deliver any spoilers on the part he plays (it’s very obvious, very quickly) but it does seem to be a fitting part. It’s not a long acting stretch from the days when he starred in a movie called Payback, but he does it well. The reviewer from Looper seemed to indicate that he should have been given more to do or that his role should have been expanded. I disagree. I think we got just enough of him, and that might be too much as far as I’m concerned.

You know what else? I have to recommend this movie. There’s a ton of video game level crazy violence. Yes, it’s a time loop story. I still recommend it! If you have a way to connect with a friend on a Saturday night, grab a cold one, sit down and check out this film ~ you’ll have a good time!

You Should Be Watching

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This was previously published in Watch The Skies fanzine – February 2021 – Dust.

I attempt to keep the recommendations for this article series away from one specific network or subscription service. Focus that lands entirely on Netflix would rapidly exclude and push away any reader that didn’t have, or didn’t want a subscription to that particular service. In that spirit, this particular article covers one short film individually, but I want to highly recommend going to the channel itself. Dust is on YouTube. It features dozens of films ranging in length between two and twenty minutes. They’re great for a quick hit of science fiction. As long as you can get to YouTube, you can watch them all for free. As I scrolled the various videos available there I realized I’d seen at least one of them before, some years ago. The short film “The Black Hole” lasts just under three minutes and is just as good now as it was four years ago. There’s a lot to see and recommend this channel to science fiction fans.

I was spurred on to writing this by a recent article over at IO9 pointing out the short film “Avarya”. I won’t go into depth on this film because it is certainly short and I don’t want to give too much away. I will say that as science fiction fans, and particularly those familiar with the three laws of robotics, this one is really well done. Fantastic animation, great voices and just the right length (coming in at 19:31) to fill a quick lunch time bump or give some inspiration between binge watches. It does take a bit of a dark turn as the article title suggests, so be warned!

Go and subscribe to Dust and see all the excellent films available there!

Kid Cosmic

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Normally I’d put this sort of thing under the “You Should Be Watching” section of Watch The Skies, but I feel that a lot of members of the group would find the fact that I keep going back to animated television shows aimed at kids to be problematic. Since I am a dad, I find myself leaning toward these shows more and more, even when my own kid isn’t completely interested. I say “isn’t completely interested” because often times she will jump in halfway through something I’m watching. It’s not cool when I suggest it (because what kid wants to think their parents are cool or know anything, right?) but then gets caught by the actual show.

This is the case with Kid Cosmic. I can’t call it a subversion of the super hero genre, but it is certainly an interesting look at that genre and what sort of effect that genre has on kids. This hits close to home for me because I remember all the times when I was a kid that I watched Spiderman (as part of the Electric Company show I believe) and then went directly out to play and imitate that hero.

~ Side note ~ Yes, kids have always done this. Imitating what they see is part of developing who they will become. Yes, it can be dangerous. It was then and it is now. Teaching kids safety will ever only go so far. Pushing boundaries is part of being a kid. One of my earliest memories of being a super hero ended with a trip to the hospital for stitches. It’s going to continue to happen. If you’re a parent too, be prepared.

Kid Cosmic actually takes this whole concept head on. The star of the show is steeped in the heroic stories of comic books. He’s got energy and enthusiasm to spare. He finds cosmic stones in a crashed space ship and just knows to his core that he’s supposed to become a hero and save the planet. He scoops up the stones and does his level best to prepare to be a hero. The problem with this prep is that he really sucks at it. Constantly.

In an interview about the project, the creator (Craig McCracken) states that was at least part of his point, “It’s just part of being a kid, and I like the idea of exploring that fantasy, but also this blind confidence that they’re going to be immediately great at it.”

It’s a dose of realism in a genre that is packed with over the top expectations. A short, ten episode season is available on Netflix right now. My daughter and I have watched them all. There’s a good, solid message in the show along with some very entertaining moments. Definitely worth checking out if you’re into the super hero genre, kids fantasy shows, or just good writing.

You Should Be Watching

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This was previously published in Watch The Skies fanzine – January 2021

The lost Star Wars film.

A very Star Wars look, right?

Diving into 2021 does not mean we’re charging forward and looking at something new. In fact, this is a retro view that I had somehow missed along the way. Like 40 years missed along the way. I admit I’m not a super fan when it comes to all things Star Wars. Yes, I saw the original films when they came out. Yes, I had a ton of the toys. No, I’m not a member of the Jedi church. I love them and they hold a place within me even if I don’t keep up with every single release. It’s a film (and TV show and book and toy…) franchise like no other and it turns out that something really interesting was tacked onto it. Fantasy.

That’s right, fantasy. George Lucas commissioned a fantasy film. He wanted this fantasy film to be shown before or in association with Empire Strikes Back. You read that right. Empire Strikes Back – tied directly to a swords and horses fantasy film. It was made, it was shown, then it was lost.

Recently, during the preparation for a discussion about the influence of films on fantasy gaming I was digging for clips and information about various movies I’ve watched or heard about over the years. There are a lot of excellent films out there is you love fantasy. Then I stumbled onto a thread about fantasy and Empire. That’s how I came to know about Black Angel.

The age of Black Angel is part of why I wanted to put it here, along with the story of how it was made, lost and subsequently recovered. It is a very moody piece. The scenery is amazing. The background music is haunting. There is a look and feel to this film that is undeniable. In the notes about the film it was revealed that parts of the crew for the movie Excalibur watched this and took copious notes. The look and feel of Excalibur and Black Angel are quite similar. Some of the techniques used in Black Angel were picked up and used in Empire as well.

As a fan of the history of science fiction and fantasy it’s a neat treasure that’s available for free. The mood, the look, the sound all make Black Angel worth the short run time.

You Should Be Watching

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This was previously published in Watch The Skies fanzine – November 2020

As we wrap up our final fanzine of 2020 I wanted to move away from some of the things I have been recommending lately that definitely skew younger and generally more positive. Saying you ‘should’ be watching this one will be considered a stretch by more than a few folks.

The Titan is a cerebral science fiction film that appeared under the radar back in 2018. Starring Sam Worthington, Taylor Schilling and Tom Wilkinson. The film, set in the relatively near future of 2048, is the story of scientific research to save the human race by expanding into space. Normally when you see this theme it involves either finding a Goldilocks planet (and getting there) or going to a distant planet and changing it to meet our physical needs. This film does neither of those things, but rather comes at the problem of adaptability by attempting to change the biological function of the people going to the planet.

The characters in the film are all forced to look at and deal with what physical adaptation means, how that effects many of the aspects of life and how to change their lives here before departing the planet. There are a number of times where one could draw comparisons to somebody like Frankenstein attempting to manipulate the core of what makes us live. There are also a number of questions about what actually makes us human. Do humans have to breath oxygen? Are you still human if you can’t speak? If you can’t see the way others do? If you can’t remember the people you love?

The movie is not action based. The characters are diverse. The special effects and body prosthetics toward the end of the film are very well done. Yes, there are a number of plot holes and unanswered questions when we get to the end of the film. I can’t say that this was one of the best films I’ve seen, but it certainly meets the criteria of giving a lot of things to talk about. If you have access to Netflix, you should be watching The Titan.