Escape Artists Podcast Network‘s Science Fiction Imprint, Escape Pod, is a finalist for the 2020 Hugo Award for Best Semiprozine. Their Flash Fiction contest is underway. My day job in real life involves work as a proof reader & fact…
Worth a Watch? Maybe Not?
Today a trio of groundbreaking works that need to be remembered. They just aren’t worth a re-watch. Trust me on this. Years of recommending all three. Decades of scorn and contempt in return. Well, not that much, really. But enough…
What’s the Deal?
People have Deals. Large ones, small ones. Some of our Deals are plain to see. Others are hidden by accident or design. A lot of us have multiple Deals. Everyone has them. Everyone. Everyone except fictional characters. Right?!? I write…
COVID19 Coping
A bakers dozen of the images that were bursts of sunshine peeking through clouds of anxiety and uncertainty. Laughter really is the best medicine. Not your cup of tea? Brian Gable’s works in the Globe and Mail seemed spot on…
Remake, Reboot, or Rest in Peace? Enemy Mine
Wolfgang Petersen—Das Boot (1981) In the Line of Fire (1993), Outbreak (1995), Air Force One (1997), The Perfect Storm (2000)—took over Enemy Mine in 1985. It would be his first English-language film. Enemy Mine was more futuristic melodrama than sci-fi…
Remake, Reboot, or Rest in Peace? Soldier
Writer David Peoples gave us Blade Runner, Unforgiven, and 12 Monkeys. He and director Paul Anderson–Mortal Kombat, Event Horizon–delivered Soldier. Essentially Shane in Space, this Science Fiction, One Man Army actionfest starred Kurt Russell. Critics and audiences hated it. My…
Hooray for Hollywood
Sometimes Hollywood gets it wrong. Sometimes rather a lot really. Sometimes we do, too. Get things wrong. Growing up, I really really really wanted to be an astronaut. I knew the history of the space program, the good and the…
Crossing the Streams
If you’re fortunate, you love what you do for a living. If you’re truly fortunate, you’ll do what you do for a living… with geeks. A co-worker in my current digs knows that if they send a certain email, within…
Remake, Reboot, or Rest in Peace? Dragonriders of Pern Game
For over thirty years, master storyteller Anne McCaffrey entertained us with her epic science fantasy series the Dragonriders of Pern. The settings intrigued us, the characters grabbed us, and the stories–oh the stories. Two trilogies initially, two short story collections…
Fakereals, Realfakes
“We all know synthespians are coming. Very soon we will reach a point when we switch on a television or a computer, see an actor or newscaster, and not know if they are flesh and blood and what’s more… not…