Random musings on books, code, and tabletop games.
Hrolf Kraki's Saga, by Poul Anderson; original copyright 1973, Baen 1988. I don't know the source material Anderson used so I can't judge how authentic it is, but as a fictional treatment it seems very coherent. Definitely worth reading, especially to those who are interested in the root sources of fantasy literature.
City of Bones, by Martha Wells; Tor, 1995. This tale is set in an interesting post holocaust world (almost certainly not our own) where Charisat, the Imperial city, rules a collection of city-states on the edge of a great desert waste waste that was once a sea. It has a number of interesting characters, a sense that there is more to the world than this one story revealed (a good thing), and does not end the easy way. It is an enjoyable fantasy that is not derived from any of the obvious sources; well worth reading.
Pride of Kings, by Judith Tarr; Roc, 2001. A very good historical fantasy of John Lackland and Richard the Lionhearted.
Ringworld, by Larry Niven; Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1977; orignially published in paperback by Ballantine Books, a division of Random House, 1970. Accessible, entertaining, idea-filled science fiction.
Bruce Baugh has a very interesting article on his blog looking back at Dave Sim's monumental and ultimately disappointing 300 issue comic book Cerebus. I enjoyed a lot of the early Cerebus, but found most of the latter issues boring and unconvincing.
“The Duel”, by Joseph Conrad. Ridley Scott's The Duellists (1977) is one of my favorite movies, but I'd never read the Conrad short story on which it is based until now It's definitely worth reading.
Alphabet of Thorn, by Patricia A. McKillip; Ace/Berkeley Publishing Group, 2004. Another slight but worthwhile and delightful book from McKillip.
Seduced by Moonlight, by Laurell K. Hamilton; Ballantine Books, 2004. This is the third book in her “Meredith Gentry” series about the mortal Faerie princess and private detective. Like her “Anita Blake” books, Hamilton has continued to increse the amount of sex in these books, and the sex scenes are very graphic now; however, the sex is an integral part of the story, not just tacked on, and the writing continues to be very good. Overall, an enjoyable book.
Daredevel, 2003. Directed by Mark Steven Johnson; staring Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner. This was an ok movie; worth renting or watching on cable.
My wife is surprised that I enjoy the TV series Tremors; she categorizes it as Redneck SF. It is set in a rural area, and one of the characters is an ex-racecar driver, but I don't think that is enough to qualify it as Redneck SF. In any case, I enjoy Tremors. Like The Chronicle, another TV series that I liked, it doesn't take itself too seriously. And, since it doesn't take itself too seriously, it is easy to take on its own terms, which seem to those of GURPS Atomic Horror, subtitled: “Science Runs Amok in B-Movie Adventures!”.
As for the Sci Fi channel in general, I wish it had more actual Science Fiction in its line-up than horror and repulsive “reality” shows.
Kumonosu jo, 1957. (Also known as Throne of Blood.) Directed by Akira Kurosawa, written by Shinobu Hashimoto, Ryuzo Kikushima, Akira Kurosawa, and Hideo Oguni, and starring Toshirô Mifune. Akira Kurosawa's reworking of Macbeth is interesting, but not as compelling as Yojimbo or Shichinin no samurai. Again, from IFC's Samurai Saturday.