Tag: Science Fiction

Book Review: Spock’s World by Diane Duane

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Author: Diane Duane
Title: Spock’s World
Publication Info: New York : Pocket Books, c1988.
Summary/Review:

Several years ago I learned that Diane Duane wrote some excellent novels in the Star Trek franchise, and I’m finally getting around to reading one.  As the title states, this story is set on Spock’s home world of Vulcan (as it’s known to humans).  A crisis emerges when separatists force a planetwide vote for Vulcan to exit the United Federation of Planets (Vulc-exit?).  A conference is called with diplomats called in to testify for or against secession, including Spock, Kirk, and McCoy.  While on Vulcan, the trio along with Spock’s parents Sarek and Amanda, uncover a conspiracy by someone from Spock’s past.

This is a very character focused book as well as philosophical and intellectual debates.  Alternating chapters also focus on the long history of Vulcan and how its peoples’ identity formed.  This book would be almost impossible to adapt into a good tv episode or movie, so it’s good that exists in book form.  To anyone familiar with Star Trek lore, there’s some continuity that’s been replaced by later shows and movies, but it is nonetheless fascinating to see the worldbuilding ideas Duane had in 1988 when there was still a lot of Vulcan history that was unexplored.

Recommended books:
Rating: ****

Book Review: A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers

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Author: Becky Chambers
Title: A Prayer for the Crown-Shy
Narrator: Em Grosland
Publication Info: Macmillan Audio, 2022
Other books read by the same author:

Summary/Review:

The sequel to A Psalm for the Wild-Built sees the tea monk Dex traveling with their new friend Mosscap the robot and introducing it to human society, including their family.  The first robot to interact with humanity in ages naturally attracts a lot of attention, but the interactions are largely positive and cordial.  Along the way Mosscap and Dex each ponder Mosscap’s question “What do people need?” and how it applies to them individually and the philosophical underpinnings.  This unique and wonderful buddy travel story feels like a warm hug of a book.

Rating: ****

365 Movies in 365 Days: World of Tomorrow Episode Three: The Absent Destinations of David Prime (2020)

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This year I’m trying to watch one movie every day of the year, with the provision that the movie be no longer than 36.5 minutes long. I’ll be selecting movies randomly from this list that’s already way too long, but I still welcome suggestions for short films.

Title: World of Tomorrow Episode Three: The Absent Destinations of David Prime
Release Date: October 9, 2020
Director: Don Hertzfeldt
Production Company: Bitter Films
Main Cast:

  • Julia Pott – Emily
  • Jack Parrett – Young David

Synopsis (via Letterboxd):

A hidden memory sends David across the far reaches of time and space to solve a deadly mystery involving his time-traveling future selves.

My Thoughts:

The third, longest, and to date final installment of World of Tomorrow series changes protagonists to David, the supposed love of Emily’s life.  David goes to the ends of the galaxy removing parts of his personality as he goes along to find a message left for him by an Emily clone which ultimately leads him into an Inception-like time travel murder plot.  This is the darkest of the three films and is not leavened by the child’s voice of young Emily. It was a bit too much for me, but still magnificently animated.

Rating: ***

365 Movies in 365 Days: World of Tomorrow Episode Two: The Burden of Other People’s Thoughts (2017)

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This year I’m trying to watch one movie every day of the year, with the provision that the movie be no longer than 36.5 minutes long. I’ll be selecting movies randomly from this list that’s already way too long, but I still welcome suggestions for short films.

Title: World of Tomorrow Episode Two: The Burden of Other People’s Thoughts
Release Date: September 22, 2017
Director: Don Hertzfeldt
Production Company: Bitter Films
Main Cast:

  • Julia Pott – Emily
  • Winona Mae – Emily Prime
  • Jesse Cilio – Dial Up

Synopsis (via Letterboxd):

Emily Prime is swept into the brain of an incomplete backup clone of her future self.

My Thoughts:

Emily Prime once again receives a time traveler, this time Emily 6, a back-up clone who was never fully linked to Emily’s identity.  She decides to merge consciousness with Emily Prime leading to an adventure within Emily 6’s mind visiting memories they both share and Emily 6’s memories of her best friend and sister Emily 5/Felicia.  It’s an even darker and heartbreaking story than it’s predecessor.

Rating: ***1/2

365 Movies in 365 Days: World of Tomorrow (2015)

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This year I’m trying to watch one movie every day of the year, with the provision that the movie be no longer than 36.5 minutes long. I’ll be selecting movies randomly from this list that’s already way too long, but I still welcome suggestions for short films.

Title:  World of Tomorrow
Release Date: January 22, 2015
Director: Don Hertzfeldt
Production Company: Bitter Films
Main Cast:

  • Julia Pott – Emily
  • Winona Mae – Emily Prime
  • Sara Cushman – Simon

Synopsis (via Letterboxd):

A little girl is taken on a mind-bending tour of her distant future.

My Thoughts:

A grim, strange, and wonderful animated film features a small child visited by a clone of herself from the far future.  They travel together through the “outernet” exploring memory, identity, and existential questions.  The characters have a child-like drawing style and they’re set against remarkably rich backgrounds with bold colors and mid-century designs.  And little Emily (voiced by Hertzfeldt’s  4-year-old niece) is adorable!

Rating: ****

Book Review: How to Live Safely in a Science Fiction Universe by Charles Yu

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Author: Charles Yu
Title: How to Live Safely in a Science Fiction Universe
Narrator: James Yaegashi
Publication Info: Recorded Books, 2015
Summary/Review:

A man named Yu is caught in a time loop as he travels through time and space in a time machine.  His only companions are the time machine’s computer TAMMY and an imaginary dog.  Among the things Yu needs to do is find his father who invented the time machine. Along the way he reads the titular guidebook which he’s also writing as he reads. I guess it’s all kind of philosophical about discovering yourself but I don’t know if I quite get it.  The book feels all too self-referential and showy to me.

Recommended books:

Rating: **1/2

Halloween Horror Movie Review: Village of the Damned (1960)

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Title: Village of the Damned
Release Date: June 16, 1960
Director: Wolf Rilla
Production Company: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Main Cast:

  • George Sanders as Gordon Zellaby
  • Barbara Shelley as Anthea Zellaby
  • Martin Stephens as David Zellaby
  • Michael Gwynn as Alan Bernard
  • Laurence Naismith as Doctor Willers
  • Richard Warner as Mr. Harrington
  • Jenny Laird as Mrs. Harrington
  • Sarah Long as Evelyn Harrington
  • Thomas Heathcote as James Pawle
  • Denis Gilmore as Keith Harrington
  • Charlotte Mitchell as Janet Pawle
  • Pamela Buck as Milly Hughes
  • Rosamund Greenwood as Miss Ogle
  • Susan Richards as Mrs. Plumpton
  • Bernard Archard as vicar
  • Peter Vaughan as P.C. Gobby
  • John Phillips as General Leighton
  • Richard Vernon as Sir Edgar Hargraves
  • John Stuart as Professor Smith
  • Keith Pyott as Dr. Carlisle
  • June Cowell as village child
  • Alexander Archdale as coroner

Synopsis (via Letterboxd):

In a small English village everyone suddenly falls unconscious. When they awake every woman of child bearing age is pregnant. The resulting children have the same strange blond hair, eyes and a strong connection to each other.

My Thoughts:

Village of the Damned is a short, creepy science fiction/horror film that feels like a slightly longer episode of The Twilight Zone. Honestly, this movie expertly exploits the fact that posh English children are naturally kind of creepy.  The ensemble cast is lead by George Sanders as Gordon Zellaby, a man of scientific detachment who nevertheless has the most compassion for the strange children born in the village.  And the one who has to make the biggest sacrifice.

Rating: ***1/2

Book Review: The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley

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Author:  Kaliane Bradley
Title: The Ministry of Time
Narrator: George Weightman, Katie Leung
Publication Info: Simon & Schuster Audio, 2024
Summary/Review:

In a time travel story with a twist, the United Kingdom government finds a “time door” and uses it to bring people from the past to the present (for initially inscrutable reasons).  They deliberately pick people out of the most just before they were known to die in order to avoid changing history.  The unnamed narrator of the book is a linguist recruited to work as a “bridge” for the historical figure to learn about the modern world.  Her assignment is Graham Gore, a real life historical figure who died in the Franklin Expedition to find the Northwest Passage in Canada.

I enjoyed the early parts of this book as the narrator teaches Graham about the present day and their friendship grows into a romance.  The supporting characters are great too, especially Maggie, a survivor of the Great Plague of London who openly embraces an open lesbian identity in 21st century England.  The last third of the book circles back to the reasons behind this project as the main characters are squared off against agents from the future (the real creators of the time door). The book becomes more of a thriller at this point and I didn’t enjoy it as much as the earlier portions.  Still, it’s a clever and interesting work of fiction.

Recommended books:

Rating: ***

TV Review: Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (2025)

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In what should be a long-term project, I plan to watch and review every Star Trek television show and movie in the order that they were released.

Title: Star Trek: Strange New Worlds
Release Date:  July 17-September 11, 2025
Production Company:  Secret Hideout | Weed Road Pictures | H M R X Productions | Roddenberry Entertainment | CBS Studios
Episodes:  10
Summary/Review:

It’s been a couple of years since I last watched Strange New Worlds and I’ve watched a lot of other Star Trek in the interim.  It’s took me a bit to get re-accustomed to this part of the Star Trek universe. Or maybe it’s not as good as I remembered. This is the New Trek series that is supposed to fun and episodic and capture the spirit of it’s 20th century progenitors.  But I found it becoming more grimdark and serialized like Discovery.  I also feel after the first two seasons the show was set to go off into new adventures, but spent much of this season revisiting old plotlines.  And the element of the show that makes references to old Star Trek to delight superfans has gone from cute to overwhelming.  There are still a lot of enjoyable episodes and great scenes and characters throughout the series, just on the whole I don’t think it’s as good as it could’ve been.

Top 5 Episodes:

  1. Terrarium
  2. A Space Adventure Hour
  3. The Sehlat Who Ate Its Tail
  4. Four-and-a-Half Vulcans
  5. What Is Starfleet?

And the biggest stinker: Hegemony, Part II

Related Posts:

NOTE: The capsule reviews below the cut presume familiarity with the episodes and contain SPOILERS!

Continue reading “TV Review: Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (2025)” →

365 Movies in 365 Days: The Egg (2019)

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This year I’m trying to watch one movie every day of the year, with the provision that the movie be no longer than 36.5 minutes long. I’ll be selecting movies randomly from this list that’s already way too long, but I still welcome suggestions for short films.

Title: The Egg
Release Date: September 1, 2019
Director: Philipp Dettmer
Production Company: Kurzgesagt
Main Cast:

  • Steve Taylor – Narrator

Synopsis (via Letterboxd):

A story about a man that died and met his creator.

My Thoughts:

You are a universe.  The universe is you.

Rating: ***