Twelve Years Too Late for the Space Odyssey

One of my Fantasy Literature students turned this in.  I really enjoyed it, so I thought I'd share.  Enjoy! JS

Is it too late?Many authors from the early 20^th century to modern day have written influential and entertaining science fiction about what could happen with the advancement of technology; Asimov, Bradbury, Dick, Heinlein, Clark, among others. We have embraced these predictions into our popular culture through adaptations, merchandise, reprints, and movies. The possibility of space colonization is much more widely accepted now than it was when these authors were writing about it, and these feats are certainly much more possible. When I look up at the moon, I don’t see any flashing lights to guide incoming cargo ships or the dim glow of a colony’s solar-powered street lamps. I see an unexplored rock that could possibly tell us more about our own history than any taken from Earth’s soil. And yet, the human race as a whole seems not to care.

How can we have spent so much time thinking and dreaming about outer space, about the unforeseeable possibilities it will open for us, and then just play all of our hypothesization off as some stupid idea we had 40 years ago? It took eight years for the human race to go from the first man in space to the first man on the moon. We were interested in the bettering of our country as a world power, and certainly weren’t about to let the commies be ahead of us for long. It was a healthy competition, a rare occurrence between world powers, but one of the most productive competitions there can be. Americans cared about space, the public eye was on the moon, and we were genuinely invested in what was said to be the coming Space Age.

Well, here we are. The Space Age. In the forty years since its beginning, we have explored a massive 0% farther than where we were when we started. As far as knowledge goes, that certainly has changed. Our study and probing of our solar system has led us to a very different extraterrestrial knowledge than what we had pre-space. In this respect, the Space Age hasn’t been a failure. We must first have background knowledge about something before we can safely explore it. But it seems that we have become content with simply gaining this knowledge without putting it to use.

With our space shuttle program shut down in 2011, space and Wall Street speak the same language. The only planned space expeditions are backed by privatized companies, like Bigelow Aerospace. Perhaps that long-lost sense of competition that fueled our first foray into the Final Frontier will be returned by competing companies. Maybe we can finally stop dreaming and start doing. Maybe the Final Four bracket in 40 more years will be the top four companies predicted to reach Proxima Centauri. No one can say for sure, but if the government has foregone space exploration altogether, then help us, privatization, you are our only hope.

by Drew Raleigh

Quick Review: The Wind Whales of Ishmael

"With no seas to sail and no safe harbor to call home, Ishmael must take to the Heavens in pursuit of a beast more fearsome and deadly than he was ever known."From the back cover: “Ishmael, lone survivor of the doomed whaling ship Pequod, falls through a rift in time and space to a future Earth – an Earth of blood-sucking vegetation and a blood-red sun, of barren canyons where once the Pacific Ocean roared.  Here too there are whales to hunt, but whales that soar kike airships through a too-dark sky.”

I haven’t read a whole lot of the late Philip Jose Farmer’s vast output.  I’ve read through Riverworld twice, and I’m familiar with his Wold Newton alternate literary history.   I’ve always heard that the World of Tiers was his high point, so I’ve been promising myself to read those in the near future.  I’ve always taken him to be a high concept writer – I mean, it doesn’t get much bigger than resurrecting the entire human race along the banks of a world-spanning river, right?  So when I picked up a copy of The Wind Whales of Ishmael, saw that it was the Ishmael from Melville’s Moby Dick, I had to read it.  Had to.

Being a fan of Melville’s masterpiece, I couldn’t wait to see how Farmer would continue Ishmael’s story, let alone plop him into the middle of a science fiction story.  I was honestly expecting to read a tale of the Wold Newton family.  For those not familiar with the concept, it’s basically a linking of a vast array of literary characters (Tarzan, Doc Savage and Sherlock Holmes, just to name a few) to the meteor strike in Wold Newton, England in the late 1700’s.  Even though it wasn’t a part of that universe, the story was a wild, exhilarating ride.  It picks up right after Ishmael’s rescue by the Rachel at the end of Moby Dick.  Five pages later – bam – Farmer has him a billion years or so in the future, trying to not only stay alive, but also to understand what’s going on around him. 

As I was reading, and after I’d determined this wasn’t part of the Wold Newton universe, I kept trying to figure out why have Ishmael as a character.  He could have created any other John Carter-style hero fit the bill.  Brave guy from our world transported to a strange world, becomes a hero, saves the known world, marries the princess – how many times have you read that?  I guess if you wanted to, the comparison between the setting here and Jack Vance’s Dying Earth are pretty evident.  There’s no super-science or sorcery here, but the alien landscape and the ever-present bloated, red sun is.  Farmer, however, is not copying anyone.  His fading earth has regressed.   Cities are isolated and rivals, and people “fish” the skies in boats that are not too unfamiliar to the protagonist’s time.  Then it struck me, why Ishmael? John Carter types are doers.  Ishmael is a scholar, a thinker, an observer.  We see this future earth in some detail through his eyes, we speculate about its origins with him, and by the end, we will have pondered the follies of Captain Ahab battle with the white whale to identify the nature of mankind’s ultimate enemy.    

Do you have to have read Melville to get it?  Definitely not.  The astute reader will understand Ishmael in the end.  Does it help?  Definitely.  There are references to Queequeg and his coffin, Ahab, even Typee.  That was just like icing on the cake for this reader.  In the end, there’s even a Moby Dick equivalen.  From start to finish, The Wind Whales of Ishmael is an exciting, fun read. 

Titan Books is currently reissuing several of Farmer’s works, including some about the Wold Newton universe.  The Other Log of Phileas Fogg (yes, it’s the guy from Verne’s Around the World in Eighty Days) is available now.  They are providing a great opportunity to get acquainted or reacquainted with one of the grand masters of science fiction. 

(Full Disclosure: Titan Books provided Nerdbloggers with a preview copy of this novel. We received no payment or compensation for this review and find the act of writing paid reviews pretty scuzzy).

I Liked Lifeforce and I Am Not Ashamed To Admit It!

Okay, so I do believe the title says it all. 

I saw Lifeforce in the theater twice.  I own it on DVD.  I've read Wilson's Space Vampires from cover to cover.  And yes, the first thing that comes to mind when I think about this film is the naked lady walking around the building. 

But honestly, I didn't know there was so much hostility aimed at the film.  It's not great, but it's entertaining - sometimes that's all you can ask for.  Anyway, here's the piece from Roger Ebert's site that got me thinking about it:  2315 Words On "Lifeforce." Yes. "Lifeforce" - by Peter Sobczynski.

May have to go dig out my DVD now . . .

Update on Sunday, February 24, 2013 at 09:29PM by Jeff Sergent

Just saw this - Lifeforce is coming to us in Bluray at the end of April.  You can pre-order at Amazon.  In case you're wondering, yes, I did.

Quick Review: James P. Blaylock's The Aylesford Skull

A Langdon St. Ives AdventureFrom Amazon:  "It is the summer of 1883 and Professor Langdon St. Ives - brilliant but eccentric scientist and explorer - is at home in Aylesford with his family. However, a few miles to the north a steam launch has been taken by pirates above Egypt Bay; the crew murdered and pitched overboard. In Aylesford itself a grave is opened and possibly robbed of the skull. The suspected grave robber, the infamous Dr. Ignacio Narbondo, is an old nemesis of Langdon St. Ives.  When Dr. Narbondo returns to kidnap his four-year-old son Eddie and then vanishes into the night, St. Ives and his factotum Hasbro race to London in pursuit... "

I had come across the name James P. Blaylock several times in my reading, usually associated with Tim Powers, usually connected to the emergence of Steampunk.  I had always meant to get around to checking him out, and now I can say I'm sorry I waited so long.

James P. Blaylock's The Aylesfore Skull, to me, was more of a throwback to pulp's thrilling adventures than the steampunk it claims to be.  Gadgetry and airships were a part of that tradtion long before folks at sf conventions started wearing pith helmets.  That being said, I really, really enjoyed this book.  From the mysterious prologue to the mad dash of a plot that followed, the story constantly rushed forward.  Things would slow down just enough to tease my curiousity once more before another mad dash would set forth.  I enjoyed the steampunk elements, but they never got in the way of the story, which can happen in so many books labled as "the newest epic in the xxxx-subgenre."

I did happen to glance upon a review that didn't like Blaylock's characterization, claiming it tended to be shallow.  I disagree.  I knew enough about Langdon St. Ives (think part Sherlock Holmes, part Professor Challenger) to want him to thwart the evil plans of Dr. Narbondo.  Again, following in the pulp tradition, you're not going to find any Hamlets running around London in these types of stories.  When the protagonist was thinking back to a previous adventure in the first chapter, I knew this had to be a series character.  One look on Amazon confirmed as much.   To find the deeper St. Ives, perhaps one needs to read more of his earlier adventures.  I'm sure you'd find some interesting tales and tangents, but what is in this volume serves.  Everything in here works as a stand-alone yarn.

One of the great joys to me of this book was Blaylock's writing. The prose often reminded me of the best of those turn of the century writers. It was elegant and refined but never stuffy and awkward.  He is defintely a writer I will be following in the future, just as St. Ives is a character I definitely want to revist. 

Several, if not all, of the St. Ives adventures are available in ebook format at Amazon.com.

(Full Disclosure: Titan Books provided Nerdbloggers with a preview copy of this novel. We received no payment or compensation for this review and find the act of writing paid reviews pretty scuzzy).

Quick Review: Douglas Niles's The Black Wizards

Yet again, the Moonshae Isles comes under the threat of sinister and supernatural forces.From the back of the book:  "A council of dark sorcerers has usurped the will of the High King.  An army of ogres and zombies guided by Bhaal, the super-deity of death and destruction, threatens the gentle Ffolk while the puppet king acquiesces.  Meanwhile, the young druid Robyn grapples with her new powers, and Prince Tristan Kendrick struggles to earn his birthright.  They must join forces with the chrildren of the Goddess for a showdown with the dread Black Wizards that will seal the fate of the Moonshae Isles."

I really enjoyed The Black Wizards.  I read book one, Darkwalker on Moonshae, a couple of months ago for nostolgia's sake and loved it.  I remember buying that one in highschool when it first came out and not finishing it for whatever reason.  So, I read it and loved it.

I am an avid D&D player (2nd edition only please) to this day, but I don't think that influenced me in any way.  It's nothing as complicated as A Game of Thrones - it's not as complicated as Stormbringer for that matter - but its heart is in the right place.  It is like playing D&D.  I caught myself trying to id spells and monsters, but I also got caught up in the stories of the main charachters.  Douglas Niles's writing is tight and brisk and the stories flow well.

I took a break before beginning this second book.  The story pretty much picks up where the other left off.  Again, it is what it is, and I recommend it to any fan of the high fantasy genre.  This is definitely good vs evil, so if you're all into that whiney, tortured anti-hero stuff that dominates the fantasy market today, avoid it. 

The Black Wizards ended, but it has more of a lead in to another story than the first book.  I very much look forward to reading the final book, Darkwell.

Ebook versions of the entire Moonshae Trilogy are available at Amazon.