The Dragon Waiting

Roman notes that John M Ford’s The Dragon Waiting is once again available. Jack Herman provides some notes about this fantasy…

This is an alternative history fantasy (a “counterfactual”) set in the time of Medici Florence (the time of the condottieri) and the Wars of the Roses. The discontinuity in this universe occurred at the time of Julian the Apostate, one of Constantine’s successors; only here Julian did indeed restore religious diversity to the Roman Empire and, after the victories of Justinian in Italy, the Byzantium flourished, and Islam didn’t.… Read the rest

Mini True

March’s Critical Mass featured Kate Treloar talking about The Ministry for the Future, Kim Stanley Robinson’s 2020 novel; I thought I’d better read it for the discussion.

I spent a week reading the novel, savouring the delight. As Bill McKibben, head of 350.org, noted1, “it’s not a utopia, it’s anti-dystopian, realist to its core.”  He compares the book to Bellamy’s Looking Backward 2000-1887.Read the rest

Delilah Dirk: Delightful!

 

Delilah Dirk and the Turkish Lieutenant
& Delilah Dirk and the King’s Shilling

by Tony Cliff (First Second)

 

Tony Cliff is a decades long veteran of the Canadian animation industry, and three times nominee for an Eisner award. The first of his Delilah Dirk novels, Delilah Dirk and the Turkish Lieutenant, is a mad adventure story set in Istanbul, 1807.… Read the rest

Far Out Sector

As a long-time fan of Green Lantern — I loved the old Hal Jordan stories — I could hardly resist a new Green Lantern series, particularly when it’s written by a brilliant writer!

Sojourner “Jo” Mullein is a rookie Green Lantern who’s been sent to a far corner of the galaxy, far removed from other Green Lanterns, to solve a murder.… Read the rest

His Dark Materials

One of the delights 
in recent TV watching is the new HBO/BBC production of His Dark Materials, based on the wonderful trilogy from Philip Pullman.

Unlike the 2007 film of The Golden Compass, the TV series doesn’t sanitise the evil of the Magisterium, a religious organisation which rules Lyra’s world. The film suggested that the evil was a military fascism with religious overtones, rather than being a key characteristic of strict authoritarian religions.… Read the rest

Novellas (novellae?) are in

There was an interesting discussion between Jonathan Strahan and Gary Wolfe a while back on the Coode Street Podcast about the attractions of the novella form: long enough to allow some interesting world-building and development, but not as major a commitment as a novel. With Tor (in particular) publishing a number of novellas, there’s a market for the stories. Unsurprisingly, authors have risen to the challenge.… Read the rest

Jane Austen: Private Eye

Sense & Spontaneity are a Perth-based duo of performers, Jess Messenger & Esther Longhurst,  who normally put on an absolutely splendid and highly enjoyable self-titled improv show set in the world of Jane Austen’s fictional realm. And this is said by someone who normally detests Austen’s fiction with the fury of a thousand exploding stars.
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Interesting new media

Pennyworth

This is the story of a young Alfred Pennyworth (the future butler to Thomas Wayne), set in the 1950s in an alternative Britain.
 He was a soldier in the war, and starts a security service after the war. Produced by the makers of Gotham, Alfred reminds us of a young Michael Caine playing Harry Palmer in The Ipcress File — not just the accent, but the working class background and gruff attitude.

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A movie can blow things up spectacularly

Ewart Shaw reviews Mortal Engines

 

“…Othello: And O you mortal engines whose rude throats
Th’immortal Jove’s dread clamors counterfeit..”
— Othello, III.ii.352

 

Mortal Engines based on the book by Philip Reeve, produced by Peter Jackson, evidently flopped badly at the box office. A film with an excellent pedigree may end up losing squillions. I loved it. I want the DVD when it comes out.… Read the rest

Loveless

A look at a brilliantly bleak russian film Jennifer rates as one of the year’s best.

Apparently the title of this Russian film comes closer to ‘Non Love’ than ‘Loveless’. There is absolutely not one speck of love. The beginning is arrestingly bleak: slow shots of a snow-covered river bank with piercingly clashing splinters of music. When will we see some life?… Read the rest

Ladies in Black

Jennifer recalls Sydney in the 1960s

A Melbourne-dweller, I visited Sydney – a family holiday – in 1960. My mother had worked there during the war and she enjoyed showing us around. We went to Coogee Beach on a tram and ate lunch at a Repin’s Coffee Lounge. So, I remember the Sydney of 1959, depicted fondly by Bruce Beresford in his recently released film, Ladies in Black.… Read the rest

The Brutal Banality of Survival

The North Water by Ian McGuire
 

Do not read this book if you are squeamish about graphic descriptions of violence, blood, gore and truly horrible men. There are murders, betrayals, seal clubbing, whale slaughter and many other grisly activities, all described in vivid detail. The characters, all men, are violent, self seeking, venal and thoroughly obnoxious.

The story is about an army surgeon in the late 19th century who, down on his luck, joins an ill-fated whaler going into the arctic ice.

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What is it, to be Human?

Dianne DeBellis Reviews season one of  Westworld

I think it is futile to attempt to summarise this show but here goes.
At the most basic level, it is about a theme park where the ‘hosts’ are computerised human simulacra and the ‘guests’ pay loads of money to act as they please, all be it in a Wild West setting, without consequences.… Read the rest

Watt: a gem

Roman was in Melbourne recently to catch one of the offerings at the Melbourne Arts Festival.

“Watt” was the second of Beckett’s novels in English, written while he and his partner were on the run from the Nazis in France. He wrote it as a way to stay sane in the face of the trauma of war.

This hour-long production, adapted and performed by Irish actor Barry McGovern, is a mesmeric delight.… Read the rest

Rampage (2018)

I’ve been playing video games since the Atari VCS first hit the market and watching movies for even longer. I still spend way too much time on both. However, the combination of the two has not proven to be quite as appealing as I might have hoped.

The problem is, (with a few significant exceptions), video games aren’t noted for providing great cinematic plots.Read the rest