Science Fiction

Serenity Shindig

This entry was posted in Anarchism Economics Government Libertarianism Science Fiction on by

Over at Catallarchy.
Jonathon Wilde explores Firefly at length and presents a review of each of the episodes.
Oh, if you haven’t seen Serenity yet just what are you waiting for? Go now!
Update: I just got around to reading Julian Sanchez’s review having previously bookmarked it until I’d seen the movie due to some spoilers:

Of course, you don’t have to have read Camus, or even be fond of berets or clove cigarettes, to be a fan of Serenity. The film’s genius is that it works on so many levels—political, philosophical, and (not least) narrative. If you show up in theaters just looking for a tightly plotted, smartly scripted sci-fi action flick, you’ll come away happy. For the attentive viewer, though, Serenity is not just a string of good chase scenes, but an “absurd reasoning,” a surprisingly profound meditation on what freedom means—both in politics and, perhaps more importantly, as a source of personal meaning.

Read the rest.

Reading Assignment:: The Hugo Nominees

This entry was posted in Literature Science Fiction on by

We are deep into the summer and I suspect a few of you are pondering what to read during that next beach or mountain journey. You would be well served to pick not one but all of the Hugo Nominees for this year. The winner will be announced at Worldcon in Scotland on Sunday.

John Quiggen has a brief review of the candidates and Professor Bainbridge notes his experience with two of the nominees.
I do recommend reading Charles Stross’ Singularity Sky prior to Iron Sunrise.

Scotty: Beamed Up For the Last Time

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Rest in Peace:

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) — James Doohan, the burly chief engineer of the Starship Enterprise in the original “Star Trek” TV series and motion pictures who responded to the apocryphal command “Beam me up, Scotty,” died early Wednesday. He was 85.
Doohan died at 5:30 a.m. (1330 GMT) at his Redmond, Washington, home with his wife of 28 years, Wende, at his side, Los Angeles agent and longtime friend Steve Stevens said. The cause of death was pneumonia and Alzheimer’s disease, he said.

I did not know James Doohan but I knew Scotty! There was never an insurmountable challenge for him. A model we’d all do well to follow.

Acid Substitute

This entry was posted in Comics Education Religion Science Science Fiction on by

PZ Myers has found a non-chemical inducer of a bad acid trip:

My cortical neurons were arcing and snapping and dying with agonized wails from the first page; it’s like the dark book of the mad Arab Abdul Alhazred to rational people, where words writhe in insane alien geometries and infiltrate the mind of the reader, leading to madness and death and worse-than-death.

Caveat Lector!