Posts Tagged ‘ Science Fiction ’

Book Review: ‘The Days of Laméch’ (A Reposting)

August 20, 2011
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Book Review: ‘The Days of Laméch’ (A Reposting)

The Days of Laméch — By Jon Saboe — Outskirts Press — 2011 — Novel — Trade paperback: 503 pages — ISBN: 978-1-4327-4643-8. In the aftermath of the Family Wars, the Semyaz arrive from unknown lands with a message of peace and hope. Their advanced technology and wisdom helps to rebuild the fallen cities, and their teachings that all people are Children of the Light promises to ensure that such horrific wars are a thing of the past. But there are those who don’t trust their motives—or their stated promise to improve the human race. Are the Semyaz altruistic benefactors, or do they represent the ultimate enslavement—or even eradication—of humanity as we know it? The youthful and reckless Laméch is ripped from his comfortable city life and thrust into a centuries-old resistance where he discovers the true nature of the Semyaz and their multi-generational designs on humanity. Numerous clandestine operations bring him face to face with their secret research facilities, his long-absent grandfather—and a beautiful dark-haired prisoner who teaches him the true meaning of love and sacrifice. Laméch learns a new kind of warfare that entails trusting the plan established by his grandfather—even though it seems destined to grant the

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‘The Days of Laméch’ — A Preview

July 29, 2011
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‘The Days of Laméch’ — A Preview

For an idea of how extensive, comprehensive, and just plain fascinating Jon Saboe’s latest novel, The Days of Laméch, is, read the following chapter headnotes: Chapter 1: Abduction “The irony of what brought about the end of the Family Wars was the realization that the abhorrent dehumanization inherent in those wars would be replaced by a surreptitious scheme to redefine humanity itself.” Chapter 2: Discovery “The savaged, broken masses who survived the Family Wars welcomed the civilizing philosophies of the Semyaz as a drowning man welcomes air. It required subsequent generations who had never known the horrors of war to realize that the Semyaz were patiently engineering their own pervasive and furtive agenda.” Chapter 3: Curse “Until the advent of Aenoch’s city design, establishing settlements was always fraught with the difficulties of holding the ever-encroaching growth of the thick forests that blanketed the planet at bay. By laying a marble foundation that rested upon the invariably soft soils and erecting surrounding walls which separated societies from the elements, large cities and centers of commerce were finally able to flourish.” Chapter 4: Research “For centuries, the Librarian class provided the repository of all human knowledge and culture. However, as inscribing became

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Book Review: ‘Voyage of the Mind Carriers’

July 20, 2011
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Book Review: ‘Voyage of the Mind Carriers’

By Mike Gray Voyage of the Mind Carriers — By Gary Wolf — iUniverse — 2011 — Philosophical science fiction novel — Trade paperback: xv + map + 189 pages — ISBN: 978-1-4620-0433-1. Gary Wolf doesn’t write conventional fiction, and more so for his science fiction. He may occasionally use a common SF trope, but you can bet he’ll put his own unique spin on it. You almost never know where his stories will go. Wolf’s science fiction trenchantly explores the same territory that many “crime fiction” and SF authors only rarely and tangentially venture into with their works: the contested battleground of culture, the professed — and often hypocritical — acceptance of certain norms, and the cognitive dissonances that result from these clashes. In short, Gary Wolf could be unique in specializing in what might be termed “cultural science fiction.” In Voyage of the Mind Carriers, the main character is a police detective (who once spent some time in a sanitarium) trying to solve a murder (and another one later on) while dealing with his adolescent daughter’s teen angst; he’s fallen in love with one of his best suspects; and he’s come to seriously doubt his own place in

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“The Magic of Words” – Prose & Poetry Update

June 14, 2011
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“The Magic of Words” – Prose & Poetry Update

In the 21st century science reigns. Some, however still believe magic exists in words. Computer scientist, Anu Garg is one of them. He’s fascinated by the magic of words and created a website dedicated to the “world of words.” He and hundreds others explore such questions “Where do words come from? Who made them up? Who dictated that a rectangular opening in a wall was to be called a window?” His love for words and belief in their magic led him to create Wordsmith.org. You can see a sample for “Wordsmith.org” below. A single word has a magic of its own. Words collected into a story or poem takes that magic to a whole new level. I hope you enjoy this weeks collection of writers whose work brings a bit a magic into a world dominated by science. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ “The bad poet is usually unconscious where he ought to be conscious, and conscious where he ought to be unconscious. Both errors tend to make him “personal.” Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion; it is not the expression of personality, but an escape from personality. But, of course, only those who have personality and

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Prose & Poetry Update

May 24, 2011
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Prose & Poetry Update

This week’s issue begins and ends with G.K. Chesterton. Up first, the “Prophet of Common Sense” on Art, Literature and accepting the status quo: “The beautification of the world is not a work of nature, but a work of art, then it involves an artist.” – Illustrated London News, 9-18-09 “By a curious confusion, many modern critics have passed from the proposition that a masterpiece may be unpopular to the other proposition that unless it is unpopular it cannot be a masterpiece.” – On Detective Novels, Generally Speaking “And all over the world, the old literature, the popular literature, is the same. It consists of very dignified sorrow and very undignified fun. Its sad tales are of broken hearts; its happy tales are of broken heads.” – Charles Dickens “The aim of good prose words is to mean what they say. The aim of good poetical words is to mean what they do not say.” – Daily News, 4-22-05 “A dead thing can go with the stream, but only a living thing can go against it.” – The Everlasting Man, 1925 Short Fiction The Disadvantage of Having Two Heads written & illustrated by G.K. Chesterton “A little boy once looked

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Prose & Poetry Update

April 18, 2011
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Prose & Poetry Update

I’m back and I’ve decided to drop the “Weekly” from the post’s title. At least until I hit a good, say, three months of regular weekly updates. Without further ado, here’s a few links for the fiction and poetry fans visiting the American Culture. To start things off, a few literary quotes concerning education: “Reeling and Writhing, of course, to begin with,” the Mock Turtle replied; “and then the different branches of Arithmetic–Ambition, Distraction, Uglification, and Derision.” - Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventure’s in Wonderland “At forty you stand upon the threshold of life, with values learned and rubbish cleared away.” - Algernon Blackwood, A Prisoner in Fairyland “There is no education like adversity.” - Benjamin Disreali, Endymion “So long…as we consider finance, industry, trade, agriculture merely as competing interests to be reconciled from time to time as best they may, so long as we consider ‘education’ as a good in itself of which everyone has a right to the utmost, without any ideal of the good life for society or for the individual, we shall move from one uneasy compromise to another.” - T. S. Eliot Short Fiction Shtetl Days by Harry Turtledove “Jakub Shlayfer opened the door and walked

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A Perfectly Realized Nightmare

March 29, 2011
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A Perfectly Realized Nightmare

By Mike Gray “It’s a Good Life.” An episode of The Twilight Zone, Season  3, Episode 8. First air date, 3 November 1961. Director: James Sheldon. Writers: Rod Serling (1924-1975), based on a story by Jerome Bixby (1923-1998). Billy Mumy (Anthony Fremont), John Larch (Anthony’s father), Cloris Leachman (Anthony’s mother), Don Keefer (Dan Hollis), Max Showalter (Pat Riley), Alice Frost (Aunt Amy), Jeanne Bates (Ethel Hollis), Lenore Kingston (Thelma Dunn), Tom Hatcher (Bill Soames), Rod Serling (host and narrator). Tonight’s story on The Twilight Zone is somewhat unique and calls for a different kind of introduction. This, as you may recognize, is a map of the United States, and there’s a little town there called Peaksville. On a given morning not too long ago, the rest of the world disappeared and Peaksville was left all alone. Its inhabitants were never sure whether the world was destroyed and only Peaksville left untouched or whether the village had somehow been taken away. They were, on the other hand, sure of one thing: the cause. A monster had arrived in the village. Just by using his mind, he took away the automobiles, the electricity, the machines — because they displeased him — and

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Science Fiction and Libertarianism

February 15, 2011
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Science Fiction and Libertarianism

By Mike Gray “Novels, especially science-fiction novels, have been an important means of spreading the word where libertarianism is concerned. They will continue to be an important means of getting our ideas out.” — Jeff Riggenbach Eric S. Raymond has written that science fiction (SF) . . . has a bias towards valuing the human traits and social conditions that best support scientific inquiry and permit it to result in transformative changes to both individuals and societies. Also, of social equilibria which allow individuals the greatest scope for choice, for satisfying that lust for possibilities. . . . the strongly-bound traits of SF imply a political stance — because not all political conditions are equally favorable to scientific inquiry and the changes it may bring. Nor to individual choice. The power to suppress free inquiry, to limit the choices and thwart the disruptive creativity of individuals, is the power to strangle the bright transcendant futures of optimistic SF. Tyrants, static societies, and power elites fear change above all else — their natural tendency is to suppress science, or seek to distort it for ideological ends (as, for example, Stalin did with Lysenkoism). In the narratives at the center of SF,

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ABC’s Smart Sci-Fi Series ‘V’ Returns

January 4, 2011
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ABC’s Smart Sci-Fi Series ‘V’ Returns

After a long hiatus, ABC’s sci-fi drama series V returns to the network’s regular lineup tonight at 8 EST. It’s a show well worth watching. Based rather loosely on a 1980s limited-run series from NBC, V tells the story of the coming of a large group of extraterrestrials to the earth and the world’s reaction to them. In the twelve episodes of season 1, the aliens presented themselves to the world as interested only in making things better for mankind, offering us new technologies and healing abilities. The aliens are all physically attractive, and the great majority look like humans in their twenties and thirties. That, of course, was just their public face; in reality, it soon became clear, they are ugly and reptilian under their human skins and have an agenda to exploit humanity in some way, either as slaves or as food or both, or perhaps some even worse and more horrible fashion. And a small group of people have divined this agenda and set up a small, loose, but dedicated resistance organization. Central to the narrative is the resistance against an intrusive government that claims to be for nothing but the good of humanity but is in

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TAC Fiction Review

December 10, 2010
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TAC Fiction Review

A weekend’s worth of reading – short fiction, reviews, commentary, criticism, news and miscellaneous other bits from around the publishing world. Highlighting this week’s Review is Andrew Klavan’s short story “The Windows.” It is the first short story ever published by in the Manhattan Institute’s City Journal. Andrew’s story is a fascinating exploration of real world threats and personal paranoia. Let’s hope City Journal continues presenting quality short fiction, such as this, alongside its excellent selection of political and cultural essays. Another item that might interest American Culture readers is Gerald Howard’s essay, titled “Never Give An Inch.” Tin House, the literary journal that originally published it, subtitled the article, “The Working Class Meets the Literary Class.” Howard’s essay opens a topic that demands greater exploration. Short Fiction The Windows by Andrew Klavan “During his life — that’s how he thought about it: back in the old days, during his life — he had had a reputation as a hard case, a tough guy.” May Day by F. Scott Fitzgerald “All through the long spring days the returning soldiers marched up the chief highway behind the strump of drums and the joyous, resonant wind of the brasses, while merchants and

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TAC Fiction Review

November 26, 2010
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TAC Fiction Review

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. Enjoy a hearty helping of links to short fiction, news, reviews, criticism, a taste of poetry and other miscellany from around the Web. Short Fiction: “An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving” by Louisa May Alcott “Two Thanksgiving Day Gentlemen” by O. Henry “The Blizzard” by John Dunklee “Back Trail” by Kerby Jackson Reviews: That Jewish Novel – Benjamin A. Plotinsky reviews Gertrude Himmelfarb’s The Jewish Odyssey of George Eliot. Love and War – Alan Mintz reviews David Grossman’s To the End of the World. A Man Out of Time – Theodore Dalrymple reviews Byron Rogers’ The Man Who went into the West: The Life of R. S. Thomas. Literary Criticism – Timothy Farrington reviews Orhan Pamuk’s The Naive and Sentimental Novelist. Miscellany: “What I’m Thankful For” an interview with Mark Twain from New York World Sunday Magazine (Nov. 26, 1905) Mark Twain’s Autobiography Flying Off the Shelves Reinventing the Book: Jonathan Safran Foer’s object of anti-technology. The Fall and Rise of Science Fiction – John C. Wright briefly reviews science fiction’s literary credentials before and after the editor of Astounding Science Fiction, John W. Campbell. A Limerick History of Science Fiction – Mike Resnick describes it in terse verse. Nine

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TAC’s Fiction and Poetry Review

October 10, 2010
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TAC’s Fiction and Poetry Review

This week’s issue begins with the fantastic and closes with a great man of letters, who takes poetic license, literally, with a pivotal 16th century event. Some might describe much included below as escapist drivel, but as Tolkien wrote ‘Why should a man be scorned, if, finding himself in prison, he tries to get out and go home? Or if, when he cannot do so, he thinks and talks about other topics than jailers and prison-walls?” Short Fiction & Excerpts: The Dark Muse by Karl Edward Wagner “Alpha Ralpha Boulevard” by Cordwainer Smith “The Lady Who Sailed the Soul” by Cordwainer Smith “Twenty-Ten” by Christian Moody Essays, Commentary, and Criticism: Gospel Echoes in Fantastic Fiction – Part I and Part II by Travis Buchanan Religious Science Fiction? by Hal G.P. Colebatch Are Labels Useful? or Why I’m not sure about “Christian” Literature This Side of Sunday: Theological Fiction in Light of G.K. Chesterton’s The Man Who Was Thursday (link opens PDF document) Reviews: Learning to ‘Pack a Punch’ in 150 Pages – Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg reviews Philip Roth’s Nemesis News: The Imaginative Conservative on Mario Vargas Llosa’s Nobel Prize for Literature Literary Criticism Comes to the Movies – ” ‘Howl,’

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