Yesterday I received in the mail the latest Faction Paradox novel, Philip Purser-Hallard’s Of the City of the Saved….. The novel takes place in the City of the Saved, essentially a secular heaven after the Big Crunch where humanity in all of its forms, from Homo habilis to post-human intelligences that bear no physical relationContinue reading “Sherlock Holmes against the Irrational”
Van Helsing
Friday afternoon I asked people, several times over, what they thought of Van Helsing as they left the theatre. “Better than Hellboy!” some said. “Better than LXG!” others said. I loved Hellboy, enjoyed LXG for the most part. It seemed, then, that my fears that Van Helsing would reveal itself as a disaster were unfounded.Continue reading “Van Helsing”
Van Helsing – The Short Review
What a stupid fucking piece of shit. A longer review will follow in a day or two, once I’ve had the time to digest the colossal monstrosity that is Van Helsing.
A Recent Acquisition – Arthur Wontner as Sherlock Holmes
Alpha Video released over the past few months onto DVD several Sherlock Holmes films made in the 1930s starring Arthur Wontner—The Sign of Four, The Triumph of Sherlock Holmes, and Murder at the Baskervilles. I chanced across The Sign of Four at Suncoast Video a few weeks ago, then ordered the other two direct fromContinue reading “A Recent Acquisition – Arthur Wontner as Sherlock Holmes”
The Third Age
Today EA Games announced their new Lord of the Rings video game, The Third Age. Speculation had been rampant since the release of the Return of the King game, which ended with a “James Bond Will Return”-style notice that Lord of the Rings: Trilogy would be coming in 2004. The Third Age is, from allContinue reading “The Third Age”
Who are you?
Steve Roby, Star Trek fan and author of the God-Thing and Star Trek: The Lost Books webpages, has started up his own blog. Steve posts frequently on Psi Phi and the TrekBBS Literature Forum, and I’ve been an avid reader of his posts for the past seven years. I find his writings on Star TrekContinue reading “Who are you?”
The Van Helsing trailer
The first time I saw the Van Helsing trailer, when I went to see Hellboy for the first time, I thought the movie looked to have some promise. One of my employees thought Jackman had too much of an Amish look to him; I tried to explain that no, that’s not an Amish look, andContinue reading “The Van Helsing trailer”
Hellboy on the silver screen
I saw the Hellboy movie a few days ago. I liked the film, though it’s not without some problems. The film’s greatest flaw is also, I think, it’s greatest strength–its fidelity to the source material. A person who knows the Hellboy comics will have a ball with this film, identifying which story which little throwawayContinue reading “Hellboy on the silver screen”
On Future Evolution
In Greg Benford’s Foundation’s Fear there’s mention of a planet in the days before the fall of the Galactic Empire where humans are green. I don’t know the hows or whys–Benford doesn’t explain. It seems to me that it would be an adaptation to their environment, and a green pigmentation provided a protection against unusualContinue reading “On Future Evolution”
On Things You Don't Want To See
Two weeks ago I was driving to a business meeting in the western part of North Carolina, and along I-40 I thought I saw my boss’s car ahead of me. As I passed him I looked to my right, saw that it was, in fact, my supervisor, and he appeared to asleep at the wheel,Continue reading “On Things You Don't Want To See”