Yup, I got a rejection notice today for Artemis from Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show. So, tomorrow morning it’s going off to somewhere else. Best of luck to it on its journey. (Don’t click the read more, there isn’t any more after this!)
During my long eleven hour flight to England (and the thirteen hours back) I had the opportunity to watch several movies from last year and I decided I’d do reviews of all of those movies here, since they are sf/f flicks and might be of interest to some of you who haven’t seen them yet and are wondering whether they are worth your time. One of those films was The Last Mimzy.The Last Mimzy was a film I wanted to see in theaters last year, but missed. Now I’m glad I missed it. This is a poorly made film, which is sad considering the interesting story it is trying to tell, the relatively decent graphics, and the strong cast of adult actors. The story follows a pair of kids in Washington who find a mysterious alien box, inside of which is a stuffed bunny and some other nifty stuff. We’re told from the start that this has something to do with saving the human race and the box is from the future (apparently the genetic structure of humans has become tainted and needs new genetic material to act as a cure). What could have been a really brilliant idea (based on a book) fell flat on its face for a variety of reasons. Direction 2/5Whether or not I’m basing this on poor acting or writing is irrelevant. There is a lot a director can do to make sure scenes come out right and not the way they arrived on screen. There were so many poorly built scenes that could have been fixed with a bit of direction, or heck, even re-shooting said scenes. Regardless, the directing falls desperately short, but certainly doesn’t take the mantle as the biggest flaw in the film. Cast 2/5One big flaw in the cast are the two child actors (Chris O’neil and Rhiannon Leigh Wryn) chosen to play the roles of brother and sister (Noah and Emma). There is, and always will be, a certain amount of leeway we can give to children. After all, they aren’t professional actors (Dakota Fanning is not a professional, she’s a child actor), and often have very little experience when chosen for a role. The problem with this movie is that these children are clearly not ready for this level of acting. They come off stilted and obviously too fake. Some of this has to do with the writing, which gives them gee-golly wow lines from time to time that just sound stupid (they made me cringe). I personally have no problem with child actors, as they are often times rather good and add a childish flare to things (look at those Harry Potter kids), but these two, especially the oldest boy, are clearly not right for this sort of role.Other issues are with the characters themselves. Beyond the children there is a homeland security agent (played by Michael Clarke Duncan), a somewhat nutty teacher (Rainn Wilson from The Office) and his mystic girlfriend (Kathryn Hahn). These characters would work well if they were written better. We don’t see Duncan’s character until nearly the end of the film, and we’re supposed to actually care about him even though we only have a brief glimpse into his life. Moments later we see him using the Patriot Act to take into custody Noah, Emma, and their parents, whisking them away to a hospital or something along those lines for questioning (a note here is that a little bit before this Noah and Emma, while fiddling with the toys, accidentally shut off the power to all of Seattle). Adaptaion N/AI didn’t read the short story this is based on, so I can’t say anything here. Writing 1/5The writing serves to be probably the biggest flaw in the movie. First off, there is no child who magically teleports a soda can across the yard who goes “oh wow, what did I just do?” (that’s almost word for word). I mean, really. Surprise, yes, a little of the woah factor, yes, but this sort of thing happens all throughout the story. Sometimes happens and the boy goes “gee golly wow” rather than doing what most kids would do: freak out a little.The story and pace also fall short. Things occur within the story too suddenly or when they occur we never hear from them again. At one point Noah actually teleports a soda can, which is presented like a big surprise. The problem is that he never does it again. That’s it. He teleports once. Noah is also supposed to be the “engineer” of sorts, and miraculously this C- science student suddenly starts building bridges through time when he’s barely old enough to even know the basic rules of physics. We’re supposed to believe it is from the alien artifacts, but because there is no gradual change in the character it just seems stupid. Really? He suddenly becomes a genius overnight? Uh huh. And I’m a popcorn monster. What else? The pacing moves so slow that we spend most of the movie seeing little of anything happen at all. Rather than trying to pull all the juicy bits to the front of the movie to keep people interested, the movie instead forces us to watch these two kids being nothing more than kids, even though we KNOW that there is something much bigger going on. The film makers should have pulled more of the magical intrigue to the forefront to really drive people to being interested, but instead we’re left with a movie that doesn’t go anyway for a long while, and then tries to get us interested in what does happen at the tail end, even though we don’t really care anymore. Visuals 4/5The graphics are probably the high point of the whole film. They intentionally try not to be too ridiculous, which a lot of SF and films for kids tends to do. Instead there is a focus on some sense of realism, which is great. The spinning rocks look like
Another review! Check it out here! It’s a cute little story for the younger folks. The review says it is all. Enjoy! (Don’t click the read more, there isn’t any more after this!)
As many of you are aware, or at least some of you are aware, I took a trip to England over spring break. This is a cross between an academic trip and a trip to visit my girlfriend, who happens to be a native (a term I find rather humorous). I said I would talk a bit about my trip, and so I shall, because that’s what bloggers do I suppose (well, maybe only some bloggers).There are going to be quite a few gaps in the pictures, since I didn’t catch everything. There’s a logical reason for this: I was a little preoccupied with my lovely girlfriend. You’ll simply have to forgive me for those gaps.The trip started from SFO (San Francisco International Airport). If you can’t tell, that’s in San Francisco, in California. Yeah. Hopefully that’s blatantly obvious (here I’m sticking my tongue out of course). Now, one thing I have to say about airline travel is that there has never been a single case where I showed up early and barely made it to my flight. Nor has there been a case when I showed up semi-early (within that 1.5 to 2 hour time frame) and barely made it. In fact, I have to either be one of the luckiest individuals when it comes to airline travel or all that hubbub about long lines, delays, etc. is all a load of cods wallop. I’m leaning towards the former, since that makes me feel special.So I showed up at SFO an hour and forty-five minutes early, stood in the extremely short little US Airways line to have my bag checked and make sure I knew that the bag was going to follow me to my final destination and proceeded to security. Security has changed in America, but it didn’t surprise me because I had flown to Oregon last year and had seen the changes. I knew to take off my shoes, take my laptop out of the bag, take all the metal off, etc. Well, one thing I forgot was to take my wallet out, thinking that there couldn’t possibly be any metal in there. Except…there was something metal in there and I have no freaking clue what it is.So, after the machine beeped once, twice, and a third time, the security people corralled me into a clear glass box with a locked door at the end, in much the same way that cattle on corralled to the slaughtering run. The feeling at that moment was a pinch of surprise–because, after all, I had done nothing wrong–and nervous anticipation at what evil act was to follow. Okay, so anticipation is the wrong word. I think fear would be more appropriate, since the thought of having my innards examined via some large man with a surgical glove had crossed my mind.I waited for a few minutes before a man came, unlocked the door, and led me to a little waiting area. There I emptied my pockets and found myself violated, to a certain degree, by a man with surgical cloves. There’s nothing comfortable about a grown man feeling searching every inch of you but your most delicate bits with prying fingers. It was…interesting. Then I had to go through the humiliating experience of presenting my legs and arms in different manners so he could scan them with his magical plastic gizmo that randomly beeps when exposed to belly buttons, or at least to his belly button. I’m sure he was relieved to find that my rear didn’t beep, as was I. So he checked my wallet and lo and behold, it beeped. What the hell is metal in my wallet? I don’t know. He doesn’t know. And neither do the people at the x-ray machine that looked at it. It just beeped.So, having finally secured my belongings and told I could continue on my way, I headed into SFO to look for my departure gate and waited. Then I waited some more. And some more. I managed to get through security, even after being frisked and delayed, in about forty minutes, so I had about an hour to waste. The result was this picture:That’s SFO airport. Or a part of it at least. Then there was this picture of me being tired and utterly bored:Alright, so I got on my flight and spend the next five hours or so flying through the air over brown landscape in a slightly comfortable chair until I landed here:That is Charlotte, North Carolina. Well, that’s the airport at least. It looks exciting doesn’t it? There’s a little luggage car zooming by in the background, and some yellow car thing next to a plane nearby. Oh so exciting, eh?Yeah, not. So, I had to get off my plane that landed in Charlotte to get on another plane that flew up to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. No, it’s not exciting. It’s sort of irritating really, but it came with the cheap ticket, so I dealt with it. At least I got fed. Once my plane from Charlotte took off, albeit LATE, we headed off to Philadelphia. Apparently Philly’s international airport gets a lot of traffic because when we got there we spent about thirty minutes going in circles, which confused a vast majority of the passengers who probably thought the plane was either possessed or crashing in a spiral very slowly. I think the plane was possessed, but the logical explanation is that Philly is just busy.So we landed and I had the exciting opportunity to spend about twenty minutes walking from my arrival gate all the way to my departure gate, which was conveniently on the complete opposite side of the airport. Philly’s international airport isn’t small by the way. It’s actually rather big and my feet and butt hurt after walking so much. Then when I got to my gate I found out I had to have my passport inspected to make sure I could legally get on the plane. I went over the the
Just thought you all should know that my review of John Varley’s Rolling Thunder can be found here! Hope you like it and give the book your consideration. It was a fun read and would recommend it! (Don’t click the read more, there isn’t any more after this!)
Here you go! An interview with the author of Ten Sigmas, which I reviewed here. After an hour of formatting the text, since it was a little wonky for some unknown reason, it is ready for your viewing pleasure! Thanks again to Mr. Melko for his time and the great answers he gave to my questions! Thanks for doing this interview with me. First, could you tell us a little about yourself (your history as writer, etc.)? My fiction has been appearing in print since 1996. I’ve published dozens of stories and they’ve been translated into Spanish, Russian, Czech, Hungarian, and Romanian. My fiction has appeared in Asimov’s SF, Strange Horizons, Talebones, Realms of Fantasy, and other places. My novella “The Walls of the Universe” was nominated for Nebula, Hugo, and Sturgeon Awards — all in one year! — and it won the Asimov’s Readers Award for Best Novella. My first novel, Singularity’s Ring, appeared in February of this year from Tor Books. My second novel, The Walls of the Universe, will come out next winter.I’m trained as an engineer, with a masters in Nuclear Engineering, and this affects all my work. My characters are logical, thoughtful, and practical (I hope). They’re problem solvers. Recently, I started studying for my MBA. This education has colored my writing as well, and I find myself adding economic details that might otherwise have been ignored in my previous futures.I am an active member of SFWA, sitting on the board as the South-Central Regional Director. I also am chairman of the Grievance Committee.I live in Ohio with my wonderful wife and four fairly wonderful children. The older kids and I are studying Taekwondo. What is it about science fiction that appeals to you? What are some of your favorite authors of today and the past? My biggest influences were Heinlein, Farmer, and Harrison. I never read Clarke, and I never read Asimov except for some classics. My first books were the Heinlein juveniles, specifically Have Spacesuit, Will Travel and The Rolling Stones. Farmer is the most influential on me.Right, now I’m reading quite a bit of YA. My eldest daughter has started reading and I try to keep up with her books. It’s hopeless, as she reads a book a day. I am the proud papa. What are you currently reading, what have you just read, and what do you hope to read? I’ve been reading Gene Wolfe’s Soldier of Sidon, as well as various MBA texts and business cases. Of the recent business texts, the most interesting has been The Mystery of Capitalism by Hernando De Soto. It posulates why capitalism works so well in certain countries but fails miserably in others. His thesis is that the evolved rules of capital in some countries — land ownership and use of collateral to gain loans — allow easy creation of more capital with the capital on hand. Whereas inother countries, there is too much dead capital — land and material with no clear ownership –, and so there is no way to leverage that capital to make more. “Ten Sigmas”, being a book of short stories, explores a variety of different technological avenues (including one about superheroes) from the dangers of fiddling with the past to the dangers of traversing between universes/dimensions. What would you say is a strength of the short form and do you prefer the short form to the novel? How would you describe the works presented in “Ten Sigmas” (the pitch, basically)? “Ten Sigmas” is my collection of science fiction stories, and all of them are tainted by my training and history. I don’t write down endings, and there’s not a story in the collection in which the world is worse off at the end, except for perhaps one. I am an optimist, I am a problem solver, and most of my characters are too.I love the short story. I learned to write with the short story. The short story is the test vehicle for ideas in literature. You can get away with so much in 3000 words that a novel just can’t sustain. You can try new devices. You can take on an affectation and see where it goes. You can play games with the reader. The novel is larger, but not as free. The novel reader isn’t as forgiving of experimentation. On the subject of short stories, do you see the short form disappearing in the near future or do you feel that it will prevail and grow? (This is mostly addressing the concerns over the magazine market that seems to be losing ground, though perhaps it really isn’t in some ways) It is sad that most writers end up moving to novels for monetary reasons. Alas, the number of markets out there is small for short fiction, and declining. I hope the short story doesn’t go the way of the dinosaur; I doubt if it will. There will always be a place for a tightly constructed tale. Most likely e-zines and anthologies will take the place of the magazines as their subscription bases dwindle. The story notes say you wrote “Singletons In Love” for a Lou Anders anthology. What was the inspiration for creating these ‘pods’? What made you think of that as a future possibility where the Internet might not exist? If the human race were to give up computers and hardwired networking, there would still be a need for dense computation. In the world I posit, I assume that computation is taken over by human computers — plurals of humans that use the complexity of their networks to form higher thoughts. I love the idea of the pod: a pod is powerful yet fragile. Pods are hard to form and call fall apart if traumatized. Yet they can make intuitive leaps that normal humans can’t. Many of your stories deal with characters making either bad decisions or ill-informed decisions (“The Teosinthe War” and “Walls of the Universe” for example, one which results in people
