“Hope” — Alex Lifeson December 16, 2009
Posted by Steve in Music.Tags: Music
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Enjoy this …
Who else wants a solo acoustic guitar album from this guy?
Here’s another YouTube video on this. It didn’t include a code for embedding, but if you follow the link you’ll be rewarded with a closer view of Alex’s hands as he plays this. I wish the videos sounded as nice as the recording on “Snakes & Arrows,” which I highly recommend.
– Steve
Review: “Tunnel in the Sky” — by Robert A. Heinlein December 14, 2009
Posted by Steve in Books, Fiction, Reviews.Tags: Books, Reviews, Science Fiction, Writing
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Most of what I’ve read in the past year or so has been non-fiction (or occasionally fiction masquerading as non-fiction …), as fodder for my current events news column.
Having put aside the column recently, I found myself looking for something to read and determined to read something just for fun. My wife popped out a quote from Robert A. Heinlein over on Facebook, and I thought, “That’s the ticket. I haven’t read Heinlein in 10 years, I’ll bet.”
My first thought was to reacquaint myself with “Stranger in a Strange Land” or “Time Enough for Love” or “Starship Troopers,” some of my favorites. But once I got to the shelf, I found “Tunnel in the Sky,” a Heinlein I had not read previously. So I snatched it up.
It was worth the read. I’ll call this one “science fantasy” as opposed to “science fiction,” as there really isn’t much plausibility in the premise, which relies upon interstellar stargates that transport people and goods from one world to another instantly. Don’t let that put you off, however; Heinlein uses this set-up the same way “Star Trek” uses transporters — as a means to quickly get interesting characters into interesting places to solve interesting problems.
In this case, a group of students is sent to another world to test their survival skills and, or course, things go horribly wrong. Once the stargate plot element gets left behind, the story is much more of a wilderness drama, with political overtones.
“Tunnel” is a breezy read, told in solid if not sparkling prose (too often marred by typos in my copy). The book provides its share of Heinlein’s trademark quotable tough-talk one-liners, of course.
One thing I really liked was the way the story shifted directions; each time it seemed things were settled, Heinlein changed gears in a believable way. Heroes and villains alike are portrayed with a level of complexity that another author might not have attempted in what is essentially an action/adventure story. It could have been a simple “shoot the monsters” tale, but it ends up being something more.
Not too much more, though; the book isn’t particularly preachy or anything. It’s not quite as overtly political as “Starship Troopers,” for instance. Call it a good old-school science fantasy adventure that will leave you with some things to think about afterward, if you wish.
– Steve
The least attentive Federation outpost, ever … November 24, 2009
Posted by Steve in Fiction, Movies.Tags: Fiction, Movies, Star Trek, Writing
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First off, “Star Trek” with Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Simon Pegg, et al., is a lot of fun and an awesome movie and I plan to watch it again and again.
But my wife calls me “The Plot King” and my friend TW often praises my bullshit detector when it comes to fiction plots, so when I see a plot problem I can’t keep myself from jumping on it. So …
SPOILERS BELOW … SPOILERS BELOW … SPOILERS BELOW …
One bit of “Star Trek” that bugged me was the sequence in which Kirk, marooned on a small planet in the Vulcan system, runs into the Future Spock AND the Present Montgomery Scott. I know, I know … you think I’m about to harp on the convenience of that little coincidence, right? Wrong. Yeah, it’s too convenient, yeah I’d have handled it differently if I’d written it, but it is what it is and at least the movie kept moving swiftly forward.
No, my problem is with that Federation outpost to which Scotty was exiled in the first place, because I can’t figure out why it was there.
The planet, as we plainly see when Future Spock explains his presence there to Kirk, is close enough to Vulcan that a person can see Vulcan looming like a large moon in the sky. So … why doesn’t Scotty, who is on the same little planet near Vulcan in a facility full of sophisticated Federation gear, seem to notice or care that Vulcan has just been gobbled up by an artificial black hole?
Were there no tell-tale alarms in the place? Does this outpost not monitor anything? There was a large-scale space battle in this system, for crying out loud. Federation ships turned into space scrap left and right. Scotty had the best seat in the house for the whole thing, and presumably could monitor all the communications from the battle. He was in a position to see things that perhaps could not be seen from Vulcan’s surface. He certainly should have been able to fill in knowledge gaps for the Federation fleet BEFORE it got blasted to smithereens. (“Federation outpost, this is Captain Pike, U.S.S. Enterprise. What’s the situation?”)
And then there’s this: He’s Montgomery Scott, damn it, and he’s apparently got a nifty transporter on site. I’m thinking Scotty should have been able to use that thing to save at least some Federation crew members, or some key Vulcan personnel, or even turn the transporter into a weapon against the Romulans.
Billions died within sight of Scotty’s station. But what does Scotty want to talk about when Kirk and Future Spock arrive? He’d like a sandwich.
C’mon, scriptwriters. No one builds a fancy Federation outpost on an icy planet with big monsters just to make a scriptwriter’s life easier. That outpost has to be doing something. Apparently, though, this one wasn’t monitoring nearby space or relaying communications. It wasn’t even listed in the Enterprise’s computers, as far as I can tell. Heck, it apparently wasn’t even adequately feeding its two personnel.
I see one bright spot, though. This outpost world in all likelihood was in orbit around Vulcan. Otherwise, the imploding planet would not have looked so large from the surface. So, with Vulcan gone, this entirely useless waste of Federation resources may be spinning its way to a fiery death in Vulcan’s sun.
– Steve
Of tentacles and sword-and-sorcery and dark things inside you … October 30, 2009
Posted by Steve in Books, Fiction.Tags: Books, Fantasy, Flash Fiction, Horror, Literature, Short Stories, Sword & Sorcery, Writing
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Suddenly, I have new fiction cropping up in delightfully strange places.
First off, “The Book of Tentacles” will be available from Sam’s Dot Publishing in November. Tucked among the thirty or so tales you’ll find behind that really cool cover will be one from me, called “The Temple of Squoad.” This is a darkly humorous sword-and-sorcery piece in my series about Otrossius the demigod and his hapless companion Lacius. If you’ve encountered those two in the “Black Dragon, White Dragon” anthology from Ricasso Press or perhaps at Big Pulp, then you know at least a bit of what to expect. If these characters are new to you, I’ll simply say this isn’t Conan or Fafhrd and the Mouser. I hope you’ll enjoy them.
The stories in this antho are not all sword-and-sorcery, by the way, but they’re all … tentacle-ish. Some horror, some science fiction, some probably unclassifiable stuff — and me. It ought to be a lot of fun.
Camille Alexa, who used to drop by these parts now and then back when I had time to blog once a week or so, also has a story in this book.
In other news, I’ve learned that Every Day Fiction wants my horror flash “Waiting to Pounce” for its “Best of Every Day Fiction 2009″ anthology. More details on that when I get them, but I can say the 2008 edition from EDF is the handsomest edition on my vanity shelf — and I am damned glad to be in the next rendition. I know Deven Atkinson and Bill Ward are in there too, and probably a bunch of other people I should mention. I promise a link to the table of contents when that’s available.
“Waiting to Pounce,” a tale of a dark thing that might be inside you, or me, at this very moment, is the kind of horror I seem to do best — creepy, freaky and utterly plausible.
Lastly, here’s a reminder that I’ll have a Calthus story (that’s right, Calthus — sword-and-sorcery antihero raised from Hell in a new body to kick ass in a world he does not recognize) coming in the “Through Blood and Iron” antho from Ricasso Press. Editor Rob Santa wanted action, action and more action flavored with a little action, and he thought my story “Deep as Death” fit the bill.
It feels good to know my most popular sword-and-sorcery character is back in action. Damned good.
– Steve
