Sci-Fi Experience Wrap-up

The 2014 Sci-Fi Experience at Stainless Steel Droppings has come to a close. In January, as a part of my participation in that event, I read two science fiction novels.

These are the two novels I read, with links to my reviews:
Ghost Brigades by John Scalzi (second novel in the Old Man's War series)
and
The Naked Sun by Isaac Asimov (blend of science fiction and mystery)

In addition to reading science fiction, I also watched several sci-fi movies, which I have not yet reported on.

 



Dark City, directed by Alex Proyas and released in 1998, is a blend of noir and science fiction. It is very dark. Visually dark and dark in mood.

John Murdoch wakes up in a hotel  room that he doesn't remember at all. He is in the bathtub, with a dead woman in the next room. He does not know what is happening to him or around him, and the memories he does have don't make sense either.

The first time I watched this movie, I found it confusing. This time around, I was very impressed. I liked the look and the acting. I am not that familiar with Rufus Sewell but I thought he did a fine job as John Murdoch. Jennifer Connelly was good as the equally confused wife. William Hurt was superb as Bumstead, the policeman; Kiefer Sutherland was a very convincing mad doctor.

The rest of the sci fi movies I watched in December and January were 2013 releases. I saw them for the first time on Blu-ray.

Star Trek Into Darkness is the twelfth film in the Star Trek film franchise and the second movie since the reboot of the original series. On the one hand, I enjoyed the movie. On the other hand, it was disappointing, in comparison to Star Trek (2009), which I liked a lot. I like all the new actors in this reboot, and I enjoyed watching them. However, It felt like the action was too kinetic, too jumpy, that it went in too many directions. However, I certainly will be watching it again, and I may revise my opinion.

I found two articles on the web with two opposing viewpoints. Both include spoilers if you have not seen the movie yet.

At Wired, this article explores how Star Trek Into Darkness could have been a better movie.

Wil Wheaton loved the movie, and explains why in his review.

Oblivion is not the perfect movie, and has been accused of being derivative and too slow, but nevertheless I enjoyed it. It was visually stunning, and I thought the acting was good too.

All we start out knowing is that two people, a couple, are living on Earth, which has been damaged by an alien attack. The survivors have been moved to Titan, one of Saturn's moons. Jack (Tom Cruise) is a repairman who handles problems with drones that "care for" the planet. His partner, Victoria (Andrea Riseborough), manages his work and communicates with their superiors. Both have had their memories wiped for security reasons, ostensibly, but Jack has persistent dreams and memories about something from his past.

I will admit that the movie might have been better if it had moved faster, but I was fine with it as it was, and I enjoyed the twists and turns. Morgan Freeman also had a significant role, and that is almost always a plus for a movie. This is another movie that I will be re-watching.

The World's End is the third of three movies directed by Eric Wright, written by Eric Wright and Simon Pegg, and starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. All three films (Shaun Of The Dead, Hot Fuzz, and The World's End) are different types but they all do have a lot of blood and gore. I liked all three movies but I am not a fan of blood and gore, so I cannot say I loved them. They are all funny, and well worth watching. 

The World's End starts with a pub crawl initiated by Gary King (Simon Pegg). He talks a group of former friends into reenacting a pub crawl that they attempted 20 years before but never completed. As they go from pub to pub they discover more about their relationships and secrets of the past, and also run into some really strange characters in their home town.

I am sure I will be watching this movie many more times and discovering new things each time. Next time I plan to pay more attention to the soundtrack, which includes many songs from the time of the characters' adolescence.

Those were my choices for the Sci-Fi Experience and I enjoyed all of them. Thanks to Carl for encouraging me to mix some science fiction reading into my normal fare.

The Naked Sun: Isaac Asimov

The Naked Sun by Isaac Asimov is a cross-genre book with an interesting whodunit and an intriguing picture of two dystopian societies. It paints a picture of the possible ills of isolationism, automation, and the proliferation of technology.

From the back of my book:

A millennium into the future, two advancements have altered the course of human history:  the colonization of the Galaxy and the creation of the positronic brain. 

On the beautiful Outer World planet of Solaria, a handful of human colonists lead a hermit-like existence, their every need attended to by their faithful robot servants.  To this strange and provocative planet comes Detective Elijah Baley, sent from the streets of New York with his positronic partner, the robot R. Daneel Olivaw, to solve an incredible murder that has rocked Solaria to its foundations.

Isaac Asimov was in part inspired to start the series of novels that feature Elijah and Daneel by conversations with John Campbell, editor of Astounding Science Fiction. This excerpt is from the Introduction to The Naked Sun, titled "The Story Behind the Robot Novels."

Campbell had often said that a science-fiction mystery story was a contradiction in terms; that advances in technology could be used to get detectives out of their difficulties unfairly, and that the readers would therefore be cheated.

Asimov set out to prove him wrong with The Caves of Steel (my review here), published in 1954. The Naked Sun followed in 1957. Both books were serialized in magazines first.

I found The Naked Sun especially interesting because Elijah is out of his element on the planet of Solaria. Not only is he on a different planet, but the culture and the development of this planet are very different from the direction that humans on earth have taken. He and the people of Solaria have very little in common and many of the people he needs to interview have contempt for the people of earth and for him.

In the future that Asimov has depicted, the people of earth have protected themselves in huge domes and never (or rarely) experience wide open spaces or the outdoors or even elements of nature.  They have developed a fear of being exposed to these experiences. The humans who have settled on other planets in the galaxy are referred to as Spacers, and each group has developed in different ways. The Solarians seclude themselves from other human contact. Even husbands and wives meet face to face only at appointed times. Humans usually meet with each other by "viewing", which sounds something like a sophisticated type of holographic projection. They can play games or eat a meal together, but not be in the same room physically.

The Solarians consider the society that has developed to be near perfect, and have a small population whose every need is met by specialized robots. Thus they don't even have a police force to deal with crime. Elijah is assigned to this case at the request of a Solarian, but comes into the situation with very little knowledge, and gets little cooperation from the Solarians in his investigation. Robot Daneel, again assigned as his partner, does understand much more about the culture of Solaria, but he is from a very influential planet, Aurora, and does not share all of his knowledge with Elijah. The investigation of the crime is thus very different and challenging for Elijah.

I enjoyed this book a lot. I recommend it highly. The way this book is written, the reader can come into it without knowledge of the first book (I had forgotten a lot about that book myself). The next book in the series, The Robots of Dawn, was not published until 1983. I will be getting that one sometime to follow up on Elijah and Daneel.

John at Pretty Sinister Books wrote an excellent evaluation of this book in this post, which includes some lovely book covers.

The Ghost Brigades: John Scalzi

From the summary at Fantastic Fiction:

The Ghost Brigades are the Special Forces of the Colonial Defense Forces, elite troops created from the DNA of the dead and turned into the perfect soldiers for the CDF's toughest operations. They're young, they're fast and strong, and they're totally without normal human qualms.

The universe is a dangerous place for humanity—and it's about to become far more dangerous. Three races that humans have clashed with before have allied to halt our expansion into space.

The Ghost Brigades is military science fiction, not my normal reading fare.  It is part of the Old Man's War series by John Scalzi, but it is not a traditional sequel. It is set in the same universe and the events follow the previous book, and there is a bit of overlap in characters. I read the first book in the series, Old Man's War,  mostly because it was written by John Scalzi and had a lot of good reviews, and I was glad I did. I look forward to reading the third book in the series someday (The Last Colony).

The main character in this book is Jared Dirac, a member of the Special Forces group. However, he is different. He was specifically created to house the consciousness of a scientist who has turned traitor, in hopes that he can help the Special Forces track the scientist down. Because the process of transferring consciousness is new and untested, he ends up developing his own personality and sharing his "self" with the memories and attitudes of another man.

So, what did I like about this book? The military scenes and maneuvering were definitely not my favorite part. What I liked were the characterizations: the portrayals of all the humans working at all levels , the portrayals of the alien species.  Also the moral issues surrounding using clones bred to defend earth and its colonies are explored. The soldiers in the Special Forces are trained to see themselves as elite because they have one purpose: to protect the colonies. Yet, in reality they have no freedom of choice. Some say that they are treated as slaves. And Jared is in the best position to see the situation from both sides.

This book gives us more information about the universe created by the author, the Colonial Defense Forces and their motivations. This is a universe where we cannot judge who are the good guys or the bad guys. There are just a lot of civilizations competing.

My review of the first book in the series, Old Man's War, is HERE.

Check out this list of Scalzi's publications at his website, Whatever.

I read this book as a part of the 2014 Sci-Fi Experience at Stainless Steel Droppings. The event began in December 2013 and runs through January 2014. The Review Site can be found here; check out other bloggers reviews and related posts.

Planning for the 2014 Sci-Fi Experience

For several years, Carl V. at Stainless Steel Droppings has hosted a science fiction non-challenge in January and February. Last year I joined in for the first time, and added some science fiction to my reading.

This year Carl is making a change. He is beginning the The 2014 Sci-Fi Experience on December 1st, 2013 and it will go through January 31st, 2014. For this event, readers are encouraged to:

a) Continue their love affair with science fiction
b) Return to science fiction after an absence, or
c) Experience for the first time just how exhilarating science fiction can be.

There are no rules really... There are no numbers of things you are required to read or view. This is not a challenge, just an opportunity to experience the wonder of science fiction.

If you are interested, please consider signing up. Check here for more information. There will be a review site where you can post any SF book, television, film or game reviews for things you experience during the months of December and January.

I don't know if I will start my sci-fi reading before the end of 2013, because I have a few challenges I want to finish in December. And I want to read some Christmas books. But I will read at least one sci-fi book in January. I have several I want to read in 2014 so if I don't fit them into this event, I will spread them out through the rest of 2014.

Last year I read Old Man's War by John Scalzi (my review here). In January, I plan to read the second book in that series, The Ghost Brigades.

I also have two science fiction / crime fiction books that I want to read: The Naked Sun (1956) by Isaac Asimov and The Demolished Man (1951) by Alfred Bester.