Sigh-fy.

Judge not this race by empty remains
Do you judge God by his creatures when they are dead?
For now, the lizard's shed its tail
This is the end of man's long union with earth.

Genesis, Watcher Of The Skies

Thanks to the magic of PVR, I've just finished watching the three-part Syfy adaptation of Arthur C. Clarke's novel Childhood's End. Although I'm disappointed by their interpretation of this 1953 SF classic, I can appreciate what they were attempting to do with their changes to the story.  Unfortunately, I'm not convinced that they succeeded.

For the most part, Clarke's writing concentrates on carefully thought out and logical stories dealing with space exploration or science, such as The Fountains of Paradise, A Fall of Moondust, or Rendezvous with Rama.  Sometimes he combines this focus on hard science with an element of metaphysical mysticism - 2001: A Space Odyssey and its ambiguous conclusion would be a good example.

Childhood's End is a bit of a departure for Clarke, in that it deals less with science and more with spirituality.  The story begins with the arrival of gigantic menacing starships that take up strategic positions over all of Earth's major cities à la Independence Day.  However, these visitors are not invaders.  Calling themselves the Overlords, their spokesperson Karellen announces that they are there to take control over human affairs on a global basis, and to channel Mankind's energies into positive pursuits - no more wars, no more crime, no more violence against each other or the innocent creatures with whom humanity shares the planet.

The Overlords graphically demonstrate their ability to enforce their control through episodes like making everyone at a Spanish bullfight feel the picador's spear as it enters the body of the bull, or by blotting out all sunlight over South Africa.

Over time, resistance to their rule comes to an end as the world begins to realize how much better life has become.  However, in spite of all entreaties and demands, the Overlords refuse to reveal their physical appearances until after fifty years on Earth, at which time Karellen takes his first public steps onto the surface.  This first appearance clearly explains the reasons for their long concealment,* but the delay has allowed the people of Earth to become more enlightened and accepting, and the moment of crisis passes.

At this point, humanity has entered a golden age of enlightenment and leisure. But there are always those who are restless, who are unable to ignore the mysteries of the universe.  One of these people is Jan Rodricks, a young man who is fixated on the origins of the Overlords.  By concealing himself in a full-sized model of a whale, Rodricks is able to make his way to the homeworld of the Overlords, albeit by paying a time-debt of 80 years.

Upon his return, he finds humanity as he remembers it to be gone, its children having evolved into a new form of life shortly after his departure. The climax of the novel deals with the transition of this new version of humanity into its final state.*

Syfy's adaptation of this tale of evolutionary apotheosis seems to have lost an awful lot in translation. It's a bit like someone read the book while drunk, and then described the plot to the screenwriters a week later.  The sequence of events is altered, characters are added or removed, people keep their names but change drastically otherwise, or lose their names and sort of stay the same.**

It's possible that they were attempting to humanize the story - as a writer, Clarke is not always at his best when dealing with the subtleties of relationships - but to me, the changes added nothing to the original, although I was intrigued by the religious elements that they introduced into the plot.

However, when all was said and done, I was more confused than anything else, either in spite of or because of my knowledge of the book.  Although I think that the strength of the original concept helped to make the adaptation work, ultimately there were just too many holes and inconsistencies.

The next question is: do I want to see what Syfy is doing with - or to - the Expanse series? Perhaps - but I may well be happier just letting sleeping adaptations lie.

- Sid

* Dorothy, I know you already know the story, but I'm still doing my best to avoid spoilers for the rest of the world.

** Why on earth - no pun intended - would they feel the need to change Jan Rodricks to Milo Rodricks? Or change one of the final fathers of humanity from George to Jake, and from a set designer to a golf course architect?  Not to mention making an American farmer the sole direct contact with the Overlords rather than the secretary general of the United Nations - although they did at least keep his name the same.

First Contact.

 

It's December 24th, and while the rest of the world celebrates Christmas Eve, my gorgeous girlfriend Karli and I are also commemorating the start of our correspondence through blog comments which would eventually lead to our first date - not exactly Tinder™, but it worked for us.

- Sid

Insert Android OS joke here.

It's December 17th and tomorrow marks the North American release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens.  (To describe this event as "eagerly awaited" would be redundant.)

A fortunate few have attended press screenings and midnight showings, whereas the rest of us have had to remain content with the trailers.  Fortunately, the trailers have struck a good balance between revelation and suggestion - there have been broad hints, but very little in the way of specifics.

However, the visuals themselves are wonderful:  crashed Imperial cruisers, battles with the next generation of stormtroopers, the Millennium Falcon in flight, epic aerial dogfights between the iconic ships from the original trilogy...wait, what?

Okay, let's assume that the time lapse in the Star Wars universe is congruent to the years gone by in the real world - in other words, Han Solo is about 40 years older* than he was during the events of the first film.

Compare the technology of 1914 with that of 1945, or 1945 to 1985: Sopwith Camels to Spitfires, Spitfires to F18s.  War is one of the great drivers of technological development, and yet the previews show what appears to be X-Wings locked in aerial combat with TIE fighters.**

How odd that in four decades, nothing has changed!   Even the despised prequels acknowledge that there was different technology in the days when Obi-Wan Kenobi was a young man, and yet, under the relentless lash of armed conflict, neither the Rebellion or the Empire (if that's still what the duelling polities call themselves, the trailers aren't explicit) has improved on their hardware? Other than through the introduction of plasma quillons for lightsabers?

For that matter, I gather that C-3PO is in the new movie.  My god, C-3PO was built by the young Anakin Skywalker - by the contemporary standards of The Force Awakens, he might as well be steam powered.  Let's see, it's generally assumed that Darth Vader was 45 when he died...he built C-3PO when he was nine... Computers from 25 years ago are useless antiques in our world, how would they be able to maintain a homemade 76 year old android?

- Sid

* And he certainly looks it in the previews.  Nothing personal, Harrison.

** This is odd all on its own.  Generally civil wars are fought with more or less the same weapons on both sides, although not always - interestingly, the American Civil War supports both sides of this argument.  How is it that the Rebellion has such completely different spaceships?

Also for wearing those outfits.

 

Cowards die many times before their deaths,
The valiant never taste of death but once.

William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar

I'd like to pay tribute to Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, two women of such incredible confidence and courage that, given all of time itself from which to make their selection, chose to release their latest movie in head-to-head competition with Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Ladies, you have my respect.

- Sid

Stuff for Noobs: 13-25.

This is the second half of a list created as an alternative response to a WIRED article entitled The 23 Best Sci-Fi Books and Movies to Give to a Noob - here are numbers 13-25 on my version of the starter list. (Numbers 1-12 here.)

13. Farscape
The WIRED list suggested Firefly, but I'm going to go with Farscape.  Farscape has great aliens (courtesy of Henson Associates - these are not your father's Muppets, as the Oldsmobile commercials used to say) the scripts are just as clever and good (okay, all you Joss Whedon fans, just SIT DOWN) and the main characters are interesting and intriguing. Four seasons - and a pretty good follow-up movie, The Peacekeeper Wars* - to choose from.

14. Downbelow Station, by C.J. Cherryh
This 1982 Hugo Award-winning novel** is a taut dramatic political story of conflict and resolution. Orbital stations, giant warships, alien primitives, dueling empires, betrayal, tragedy, redemption, love. Questions?

15. Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card
This award-winning novel*** describes the training of Andrew Wiggin, known as Ender, to be a strategist and a commanding officer in an almost hopeless war against an alien menace which has only been defeated once in battle. The training is psychologically brutal and designed to break Ender if he show any sign of weakness or inadequacy - he may well be humanity's last chance to avoid extinction.

Ender is six. 

16. The Lathe of Heaven, by Ursula K. LeGuin
I really wanted to have a LeGuin novel in here.  The WIRED list suggests The Left Hand of Darkness, but I thought I'd go with a less challenging read. The Lathe of Heaven is the tale of one George Orr, who has a very simple problem:  his dreams can change reality.

17. The Forever War, by Joe Haldeman
The Forever War describes the realities of fighting across interstellar distances.  Published in 1974, just as America's intervention in Southeast Asia was coming to an end, this book is an intense condemnation of the ultimate futility of waging war.   Haldeman served as a combat engineer in Vietnam and received a Purple Heart, which gives his work a strong basis in experience and reality.  Students looking for a bonus mark can compare this novel with Robert A. Heinlein's Starship Troopers, written in 1959, which glorifies exactly the same sort of situations that Haldeman disdains in The Forever War.

18. The Expanse series, by James S. A. Corey
The original three books: Leviathan Wakes, Caliban's War, Abaddon's Gate.  Good solid writing, strong characters, well thought out plot.  Also a Syfy series, but don't let that score against the books. The Syfy promo describes it as Game of Thrones in outer space - which it isn't. If anything on this list was going to have that title, it's number 14, Downbelow Station.

19. 2001: A Space Odyssey, by Arthur C. Clarke
Another tough call  - book or movie?

The novel was written in conjunction with the production of the movie version, and there's a certain chicken-and-egg aspect to the development of both, but the story as told in the book is certainly more approachable.  Clarke is one of the pillars of classic science fiction, and there were a lot of representative choices - but let's face it, 2001 has to be the best known.  Although, I don't know if the same can be said about the plot: enigmatic alien powers mold the development of humanity at its origin - and then they wait.****

20. Daybreak: 2250 AD, by Andre Norton
Andre Norton was one of the mainstays of my early introduction to science fiction.  My mother was a large fan of Norton's work, and both my sister and I have followed in her footsteps. (My sister more than me, to be honest.)  Norton's writing is quietly brilliant, her style understated but eloquent, and there's never an ill-chosen word.  I could recommend a dozen of her books without having to think, but let's go with Daybreak 2250 AD, written in 1952 - a good standalone example of her work.

21. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, by Robert A. Heinlein
Robert A. Heinlein was one of the Big Three of science fiction when I was growing up - the other two being Arthur C. Clarke and Isaac Asimov. Written in 1966, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is not Heinlein's best known novel - that prize would have to go to his 1961 novel Stranger in a Strange Land.  However, Stranger in a Strange Land is, well...a bit strange, and it's not the novel that I'd suggest to a noob as their first Heinlein read.

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress tells the story of Luna's fight for independence.  Established as a penal colony, the Moon has become a major supplier of grain to Earth, but the convicts and their descendants labour under an increasingly onerous yoke. I've always considered this book to be Heinlein's best, and a good introduction to his writing that would allow a curious reader to proceed in either chronological direction for his other work.

22. Blade Runner
Another keeper from the original WIRED listing, but a bit of an unusual one. Blade Runner is the story of Rick Deckard, played by Harrison Ford, who is tasked with hunting down a group of rogue androids. It's an oddly beautiful movie  - you'd expect anything directed by Ridley Scott to look good, but Blade Runner is full of almost surreal images and sequences.  Rutger Hauer, who plays android Roy Batty, delivers what may well be the best adlibbed speech in cinema history.

Blade Runner is based on a science fiction novel titled Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick, but the movie is only loose connected to Dick's slightly paranoid 1968 novel.  Regardless, the film went on to develop a life of its own, and the relative quality of the various cuts has been a hotly debated topic over the years since the 1982 commercial release of the original version.  The different cuts result in widely varying conclusions to the movie, so the curious viewer can actual pick and choose the ending they prefer. I have the feeling that there are seven or eight extant versions of this film.

23. In the Courts of the Crimson Kings, by S. M. Stirling
One of the most fun periods in science fiction is what I think of as the Planet Stories days, taken from the magazine of the same name that was published between 1939 and 1955. In the Planet Stories era, all the inner planets are habitable (for a given value of habitable) - Mercury is a searing rocky wasteland, Venus a primordial Jurassic jungle, and Mars is a dying planet, inhabited by the equally moribund remnants of an advanced society.

In the Courts of the Crimson Kings, written in 2008, is a cheerful homage to those innocent days. It's actually the second book set in an alternate reality where there is life on those other worlds, but it stands perfectly well all on its own, and it's a superb balancing act that combines an original view of a dying Mars with a wonderful evocation of Edgar Rice Burroughs' John Carter of Mars books, the Mars of Ray Bradbury, and the swashbuckling Martian stories of Leigh Brackett.

24. Captain America: The First Avenger
I'd like our noob to see a comic book movie.  Something like Guardians of the Galaxy is far more obviously science fiction than Steve Roger's transformation from 98 pound weakling to supersoldier, but the first Captain America movie is a more accessible entrée into the genre - and probably a better film. I'll admit that Iron Man was a very close alternative choice, but all that sort of second-guessing will appear in the Runners Up posting.

25. The War of the Worlds, by H. G. Wells
To conclude the list, let's go with the man who originates the genre of science fiction as we know it today: Herbert George Wells.  I wavered a bit on this one, The Time Traveller was a near second, but time has given The War of the Worlds a sort of charming Victorian steampunk aura. It's also a telling reversal of the manner in which British Imperialism dealt with less technologically advanced societies, and, usefully, a quick read - at this point my noob is going to be a bit worn out. 

And that's my 25 items. I've spread it out over almost the entire history of the genre,and tried to mix in film, television and the written word.  If any noobs do end up reading this posting and its predecessor, good luck!  I hope you enjoy at least some of the suggestions I've made.

And now, on to my next list, Teen Stars from the 80s: How Do They Look Today?

- Sid

* A GREAT title, in my opinion.

**  To be completely accurate, published in 1981, won the award in 1982.

*** Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1985, Hugo for Best Novel in 1986.  Why are the Hugos a year out of sync?

**** This may be a little too mysterious, but I'm going to let the existing reputation of the story carry the weight of this one.

Stuff for Noobs: 1-12

 

As per my previous posting, the following is the first half of a response to a WIRED article entitled The 23 Best Sci-Fi Books and Movies to Give to a Noob.

I found the creation of this list to be unexpectedly challenging.  It would have been easy to just recommend my 25 favourites, but "favourite" doesn't equate to "best introduction" or "most representative".  Even so, I can't claim to be familiar with the entire body of science fiction literature, or the complete catalogue of SF movies and TV shows, and as such, my list is going to have its foundations* in personal experience, just as the originating list did. However, my goal was more to present a balanced overview of the genre than to suggest possible gifts, resulting in a list which is more of a package than a selection of one-off recommendations.

Having so disclaimed myself, let's get started.

1. Dune
More than happy to keep this one from the WIRED lineup.  Dune is an amazing combination of elements whose reputation has been damaged by cinema and television adaptations that failed to capture its strengths. Frank Herbert brilliantly blends drama, action, religion, politics, science and ecology in a complex and multilayered story set in a futuristic universe which he creates and supports with a wealth of detail and explanation.

2. Alien
Also a keeper. But JUST Alien. I've always been fascinated by the degree to which each of the Alien movies is completely different from its companions,** but really, the first one does it all, and the script, acting and art direction work together seamlessly to build the archetypal alien monster movie.

The art direction is particularly impressive - not surprisingly, since the look of the movie was created by a supergroup of fantasy and science fiction conceptual artists originally brought together for Alejandro Jodorowsky's abortive Dune movie project - most notably Hans Rudi Giger, whose biomechanical art was the starting point for the unique look of the alien itself.

3. Star Wars:  A New Hope
I honestly can't recommend the entire trilogy - in my mind, the Ewoks from Return of the Jedi are the first step on the slippery slope that leads us to Jar Jar Binks. I acknowledge that The Empire Strikes Back is an excellent film, but really, if you've never run into the franchise at all, let's just keep it simple - A New Hope stands on its own as a game-changer for science fiction cinema. (And, in stark disagreement with the WIRED listing, try to get the original cut if possible, Lucas' changes add nothing to the 1977 version.)

4. Star Trek (s)
Hmmm...I'm a bit ambivalent here.  The original series is such a landmark event, but with only three seasons to choose from, you have to be a bit careful with recommendations.  The Next Generation is certainly a better example of genre writing, and has a wider selection of noteworthy episodes, but I feel that the original series deserves recognition for blazing the trail for so many people.  So, the list within a list - here are the three episodes from each that our noob should watch.  N.B. This could easily be five or ten episodes, but I decided to keep it down to the bare minimum - which was a HUGE struggle with the TNG list, just for the record.

Original Series
• Balance of Terror
• Amok Time
• The Conscience of The King

The Next Generation
• Darmok
• The Measure of a Man
• Booby Trap

5. Neuromancer, by William Gibson
Okay, busted - Neuromancer is one of my favourite books.  However, that doesn't invalidate it from appearing on this list.  Neuromancer is the breakout novel for the SF subgenre of cyberpunk, presenting an intricate underworld plotline set in an enigmatic and detailed future, written in a distinctively laconic noir style. As with so many of the other suggestions on this list, Neuromancer is the first of a series. Unlike some of that other material, the sequels are just as good.

6. Terminator
If we're going to have a Schwarzenegger movie in here, it has to be Terminator.  (Seriously, Total Recall?)  All of the elements of Terminator work together perfectly - story, effects, casting, and direction - resulting in a fast-paced SF action film with a good time travel/causality theme, and a nod to fears about rogue AI which is actually more topical now than in 1984 when the movie was released.  It’s also, to the best of my knowledge, the first time that Arnie says, “I’ll be back.”

7. Akira
I wavered over Akira. I feel strongly that our new fan should get something from the Japanese animation catalogue, but by the standards of the anime community, I'm pretty much a noob myself, and as such I feel unqualified.  Regardless, Akira is a visually stunning stand-alone film with an unusual storyline (and soundtrack), even if it doesn't have any giant robots.

8. The Night's Dawn Trilogy, by Peter Hamilton
In lieu of Harry Potter, if we're going to add a massive example of science fiction worldbuilding to the list, let's go with Peter Hamilton.  A lot of writers rely heavily upon the standard SF building blocks to create their futures, whereas Hamilton reworks all of the conventional memes and invents his own, making this series an epic example of innovation and creativity.  By the way, be warned: each section of the "trilogy" is made up of three novels, so it's actually a set of three trilogies - the full set in paperback takes up close to a foot of shelf space.

9. The Matrix
JUST THE FIRST ONE.
Ahem.  Having said that...as much as I appreciate the Matrix series as a trilogy, I recognize that there are some problems with the overall execution of the story. However, the first movie stands on its own (perhaps a good thing), and its hyperkinetic action scenes work well to represent a virtual world where anything is possible once its structure is understood and mastered.

10. Forbidden Planet
A classic entry from 1956 which borrows some of its theme from Shakespeare's The Tempest, Forbidden Planet originates the DNA that results in Star Trek. It's not a perfect movie, but it's one of the first SF movies that's set in the future and does its best to create a believable vision of that future, and it presents an intriguing look at alien technology combined with the weaknesses of the human mind. Considering the advances in special effects since its original release, Forbidden Planet stands the test of time surprisingly well.

11. Ringworld, by Larry Niven
This is the book that I recommended to Karli at our first introduction and then brooded about.  Regardless, I'm more than happy to add it to this list, even if I'm not comfortable nominating it as the stand-alone introduction to science fiction literature.  Larry Niven excels at taking an idea past its logical conclusion - he's a creative, smart writer who expects his readers to keep up, and Ringworld offers a steady stream of clever concepts and interesting ideas.

12. The Day of the Triffids, by John Wyndham
The Day of the Triffids isn't the first post-apocalytic novel, but it paints a very clear picture of what that world would be like.  In Wyndham's case, the apocalypse is a combination of universal blindness and predatory hordes of fifteen-foot-tall mobile carnivorous plants.  Both 28 Days Later and The Walking Dead borrow from this well-written and easily read 1951 novel.

And that's the first 12.  Next posting, 13-25.

- Sid

* No pun intended.  (This comment will make more sense if you've carefully read the original WIRED list or if you're already a fan.)

** To the point that they qualify as different genres - the first one is a nine-little-Indians stalker countdown whodunit, the second one is a military action flick, the third one is a brooding psychological drama, and the fourth movie is...the fourth movie is...good question, what is Alien: Resurrection? I'm going to say, "scripted by Joss Whedon" and leave it at that.

Stuff for Noobs: Let the Games Begin.

 

The best science fiction is about more than just cool new worlds, wild new technologies, and aliens (though it’s very much about those things too). It’s about politics, economies, the very human condition itself. Just, you know, in a super-exciting way. Science fiction isn’t for a specific kind of person. It’s not “just for nerds.” Science fiction is awesome, and it’s for everyone.

David Pierce, WIRED 12.05.15

I recently read a WIRED article that listed 23* introductory gifts for sci-fi noobs - as the author of the article admits, not a list of the best, but a list of the best places to start.  The item on the list were:

1. Star Wars: The Original Trilogy
2. Star Trek:  The Next Generation
3. Blade Runner
4. Snow Crash, by Neal Stephenson (audiobook format)
5. Cryptonomicon, by Neal Stephenson
6. Dune, by Frank Herbert
7. The Windup Girl, by Paolo Bacigalupi
8. The Harry Potter series, by J.K. Rowlings
9. The Magicians Trilogy, by Lev Grossman
10. Ready Player One, by Ernest Cline
11. Ancillary Justice, by Ann Leckie
12. The X-Files
13. Terminator:  The Sarah Connor Chronicles
14. The Left Hand of Darkness, by Ursula K. LeGuin
15. Dark City
16. Beasts of the Southern Wild
17. Firefly
18. The Wool Trilogy, by Hugh Howey
19. The Foundation Trilogy, by Isaac Asimov
20. The Golem and the Jinni, by Helene Wecker
21. Alien and Aliens
22. The Martian Chronicles, by Ray Bradbury
23. Total Recall

Reading it over, I found this to be an awfully idiosyncratic list. Neal Stephenson, great author, yes, but does he deserve TWO spots in the introductory package?  And even his fans admit that his work isn't always the most accessible writing on the planet. The Harry Potter books?  Sorry, I'm a purist - that's fantasy, not science fiction.  And, as much as I consider the Foundation trilogy to be a classic of the genre, I don't think I'd recommend it as an entree to science fiction at large.  Similarly, The Left Hand of Darkness is a brilliant novel, but I wouldn't start someone with it unless I had an awful lot of faith in their interest.  And - Total Recall?  Seriously?

Overall, this list looks like more of a reflection of the author's interests than anything else - which in no way renders it invalid, I think that's how most people would approach this - but it's not what I would think of as a scholarly approach to the topic.
 
So, although I don't generally approve of lists as a mechanism to generate content**, I've done up a 25-item Science Fiction Starter Pack, which I've tried to base on the accessibility of the material for the neophyte, and a broad representation from the genre. In the interests of keeping it to a more readable length, I'm going to split it between two posts following this one.

- Sid

* Lord knows why 23, maybe they wanted a prime number.

** Which must make me a member of an awfully select club, at least on the Internet.

Gnomic Statements XIV.

 

Jack is back in 2016.

- Sid

Geekmas 2015: "Deck The Halls..."

A classic cover by Ed Emsh.

- Sid

Geekmas 2015: Flawed logic.

 

"Well, Sid likes hats, and he liked that giant robot thing in Japan, therefore...."

No.  Thank you, but no.  I like barbecued ribs, and I like peanut butter, but you would not have much luck if you suggested that I have them together in a sandwich.

- Sid

Geekmas 2015: These Are a Few of My Favourite Things

Here we are, the second week of December, and the clock is ticking quickly toward the 25th. I'm a bit tardy with this year's seasonal gift suggestions, my apologies to those of you who have been drumming your fingers impatiently while awaiting inspiration. As I've stated in previous years, I'm a big fan of gift cards and movie coupons and so forth, but for the people who prefer the personal touch, here are some affordable* suggestions for Santas and Secret Santas alike.

Movies
It's an easy year for this - Ant-Man! I'll accept a copy of Age of Ultron as well, but really, Ant-Man is the clear choice. However, there's still a lot of classic SF movies left over from last year that would be welcomed as gifts: Them!, The Creature from the Black Lagoon, The Day of the Triffids - preferably the 1963 version** but any of the adaptations would do. Once again, my preference is for Blu-ray, but I realize that some of the older films might not be available in HD.

Gaming
My friend Colin has already suggested that we buy each other copies of Fallout 4 - it speaks to a long and enduring friendship when you can buy each other the same gift.

 

Regardless, there's another offering in the markeplace that would be equally welcome: Legacy of the Void, the third module for Starcraft II, which tops out the price range at $49.99 CAD.  Macintosh OS please!! (This may not be an issue, Blizzard has always been very good at cross-platform installation packages.)

Books
Generally, I don't recommend book shopping to people as a gift option for me - if I want to read a book, I buy it. However, thanks to a very recent Reviewers’ Choice: The Best Books of 2015 posting on Tor.com***, there are a few titles that I'd be interested in receiving for holiday reading material:  Fran Wilde's Updraft, Elizabeth Bear's Karen Memory, Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie****, Ian McDonald's Luna, and Naomi Novik's Uprooted, which seems to be a universal choice as a best book of the year.  Archivist Wasp by Nicole Kornher-Stace makes the list on its title alone, and I'm a bit surprised that I don't already own Three Moments of an Explosion by China Mieville.

Doctor Who
I've been amused and entertained by the selection of Doctor Who accessories that have appeared under the Christmas tree with my name on them: pens, USB hubs, scarves, mugs and so on.  I applaud everyone for their dedication in seeking out these BBC-endorsed items.

But if you'd like to get me something Doctor Who oriented that requires a little less ground work, how about episodes from the series? I'd love to own some more of the classic adventures from before the 2005 resurrection of the show. The older episodes have an undeniable charm, and although they're often derided for their cardboard-and-chewing-gum special effects, the stories are well-written and well-performed.

 

I do own a few of the classic episodes on DVD - The Sontaran Experiment, Genesis of the Daleks, The Robots of Death, and The Caves of Androzani, as well as the 1996 movie - outside of that, it's open season. (Okay, maybe not so much the Colin Baker episodes - some Doctors are more accessible than others.)

And there's my list! If you're one of the people in my life for whom this is intended, just leave an anonymous comment saying which item you're buying - thereby avoiding the unfortunate embarrassment of riches that would result if four or five people decided to buy me a copy of Logopolis.

- Sid

* I realize that affordability is a moving target. I think that most of the movies come in under $20 or $25, with other items ranging up to fifty bucks.

** If you're really looking to score, I'd like the British cut, which lacks the extraneous subplot with the scientist and his wife at the lighthouse which was created solely for the American release.

*** Tor.com is a great site. I'm on their mailing list, and I strongly recommend them for their combination of thoughtful, entertaining commentary and free original short fiction.

**** Astute readers will note that this is not the book recommended in the Tor article. Their review is of the third book in the trilogy, whereas my request is for the first book.  I've seen it on shelves for a while, but just hadn't quite made the leap to purchasing it.

The Village.

Number Six: I am not a number. I am a person.

The Arrival, The Prisoner

Friday afternoon, and we're off to spend the weekend in Whistler.  As a non-skier, British Columbia's best know winter sports destination isn't normally on my list of getaways, but as a scholar of science fiction, Whistler itself has always held a certain fascination for me.

There is, of course, a town called Whistler, where people actually live, and do things like grocery shopping, dropping off dry cleaning, and so on.  This is not to be confused with the resort portion of Whistler, an artificially created environment known as the Village.

This might not resonate with everyone, but for me it's impossible to visit Whistler Village without thinking of The Prisoner, a cult SF classic from the 60s.
 
This strange, surreal British television series, which ran for a brief 17 episodes in 1967, deals with a government agent who is kidnapped and held prisoner in an idyllic dystopian community following their abrupt resignation.  This community, known only as the Village, is barred by mountains and the sea, and warded by both conventional security forces and bizarre bouncing globular guardians.

 

The overseers of the Village seek information from their captive, who has been deprived of his name and is now known as Number 6.  Everyone in the Village is designated solely by number, making it impossible to distinguish the guards from the prisoners, the interrogators from the captives.

 

Number 6, played by Patrick McGoohan, embarks on an extended game of cat and mouse with his captors, most notably Number 2, who is replaced every time one of their schemes to break Number 6 fails.  The identity of Number 1 remains a mystery, although the enigmatic conclusion to the series hints at who it may be.

I realize that there's already been a "reinterpretation" of The Prisoner, the 2009 version with Jim Caviezel and Ian McKellen, but maybe it's time for a reboot.  Imagine awakening in the middle of a manufactured community, isolated on all sides by mountains and snow...

I wonder when I'll get my number?

And what number will I be?

- Sid

Counting down.

Rey: There are stories about what happened.

Han Solo: It's true. All of it. The Dark Side, the Jedi. They're real.

Trailer, Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Two weeks to go...

- Sid

P.S. Regular readers have seen Darth Edward previously - we discussed Ed's affection for Spider-Man last year.