Category Archives: Science Fiction

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I Am Legend by Richard Matheson

MathesonIAmLegendWhy I Read It: It’s a classic & I saw the Will Smith movie a few years ago and wanted to read the book it was based on.

Where I Got It: Own it – through paperbackswap.com

Who I Recommend This To: Those who enjoy horror flicks without the overly gross bits would enjoy this.

Narrator: Robertson Dean

Publisher: Blackstone Audio (2007)

Length: 5 hours 19 minutes

It’s the second half of the 1970s in California. Robert Neville’s world will slowly crumble over several months. We first meet him as a single man living in a fortified suburban house, going through his daily survival routine, which entails cooking, cleaning up his yard, refortifying his house as needed, stringing garlic, removing the bodies to the burning pit on the outskirts of town, topping off his gas tank, and drinking excessively. Indeed, Robert Neville is not particularly healthy in mind, spirit, or body. Through flashbacks, we glimpse his life before the decline of known society. He has a job, a wife, a daughter. But the plague took them and left him to deal with the aftermath.

At first, it is not clear to the reader what we are dealing with – vampires? zombies? merely the deranged left over few humans that survived some sort of plague? I’ll leave it up to you to read it and make up your own mind. This is one of the things I really enjoyed about the book – it didn’t follow any solid fantasy/horror trope. Instead, Robert Neville spends quality time at the local library digging up science texts, learning how a virus or bacteria could spread through out humanity, why the infected need sleep during the day, why garlic repels them. Indeed, Richard Matheson builds science into this horror story, which makes it all the more frightening in the end.

I went back and forth on liking Robert Neville. He isn’t the brightest of the bunch. Initially he seems a decent sort – missing his family and friends, questioning his own sanity, feeling conflicted about hunting and disposing of the ‘monsters’ by day. He’s also obsessed with sex. One comment had me rolling my eyes a bit – something along the lines about how it would be worse to die a virgin than to become one of the blood-needy monsters that prowl around his house at night. Really? Sigh…. But, on the other hand, it goes to show his loneliness and his possible slow slip into depravity.

Yet Robert rallies, digs into his science and experiments, and the second half of the book was even more interesting than the beginning. I began to feel for Robert and his lonely plight, his messed up purpose in life, his questions of whether or not he was the only uninfected human left alive. The ending was not what I expected at all, but I found it very fitting, satisfying, and a good explanation of the title.

The narrator put all his feeling into Robert Neville – the anguish, frustration, surprise, tender loneliness truly came through. The narrator was a perfect fit for this characters.

What I Liked: A horror flick without the gore and with the science; Robert Neville is a conflicted character and his plight comes through loud and clear; the ending was very satisfying.

What I Disliked: Very few female characters with primary roles as love/sex interest.

This book was originally published in 1954 and has been made into several movies over the years. This fits nicely into the Ye Olde Booke Clubbe challenge hosted by Darkcargo. Anyone can join in the fun!

What Others Think:

Lynn’s Book Blog

doorly.com

The Ink Slinger

Geeks of Doom

Leeswamme’s Blog

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Interview: Joshua Silverman, Author of The Emerald Tablet

Everyone, please welcome Joshua Silverman, a talented author who combines mythology, science fiction, and fantasy into his planned 7-part series Legends of Amun Ra.

Joshua Silverman was born in Washington, D.C. He moved to Orange County, California where he was raised.

While attending California State University, Fullerton and studying Criminal Justice, Joshua was introduced to a creative writing class where he wrote a series of paranormal stories. As a child, he has always been an amateur historian, focusing on ancient Egypt, Greek, and Roman civilizations.

Since working in the legal environment he has combined his passion for creative writing with his love of ancient history by penning his debut novel, The Emerald Tablet, the first of seven in the Legends of Amun Ra series.

Joshua currently resides in Orange County, California and enjoys hiking, reading, and spending time with his family.

SilvermanEmeraldTablet1) In my experience, some of the best fiction is based on facts and history. How do you build your research into your fictional works?

I usually try not to be terribly overt about it. Sometimes it’s as simple as names of places (i.e. Karnak district in the Thothian Empire is a real place in Egypt). The story Pythos tells Atlantia of Lycurgus and Osiris – Lycurgus was a real person in ancient Greece. Or even how the Amun Priest’s all have shaved heads and beards, which was standard grooming for priests in ancient Egypt. Also, foods they eat, how they’re cooked (which I get more into in subsequent books – The Emerald Tablet doesn’t focus too much on food), are all based on real cuisine in ancient Egypt or Greece. In The Soul of the World (book 2), I introduce a drink called Henqet, which is a whiskey-like cocktail. But the word “Henqet” is actually the ancient Egyptian word for ‘beer’. So it’s little things like that. Thoth’s conquest of the district of Messenia is inspired by true history as well, except it was the ancient Spartans that conquered Messenia in the 7th century, BCE, and made the Messenians into “helots” or slaves.

2) Hearing historical tales and ancient myths as bedtime stories, was there a time in your life that those stories were very real to you?

I’ve always been enamored with the story of Thermopylae. Not the fake one in the movie 300, which was an interpretation of Frank Miller’s comic book, which was an interpretation of real events, but the true story of the battle and that whole war, is quite amazing.

3) Which ancient or historical works have you not read and periodically kick yourself for not having made time for them yet?

Ah, that’s such an impossible question. There are 21 books on ancient Egypt in my immediate TBR pile. A quick Amazon search reveals that there are 5,800 books on ancient Egypt available on Amazon. So you can see, the danger in writing about mythology is that there’s so much research material available, one could never stop researching. But, the most alluring books in the TBR pile are Serpent in the Sky, The Quest for Hermes Trismegistus: From Ancient Egypt to the Modern World, Thoth: The History of the Ancient Egyptian God of Wisdom, and Egyptian Magic: The Quest for Thoth’s Book of Secrets

4) In one of your first writing classes, you wrote a paranormal series of stories. Any plans to brings those to the published world?

Let’s just say that I have ideas. Something’s brewing back there for a story, but I need to work out some big questions first.

5) Your educational and work background is in legal stuff (technical term), including a degree in criminal justice. Does this background add to your writing skills, or was it all pretty much a snoozer and you keep it completely separate from your writing identity?

I don’t know if working in the legal environment has helped me directly with writing fiction – they’re completely different skills and styles of writing. What working in the legal environment has done for me, however, is give me a crazy passion for research and legwork as well as a very organized, logical way of doing things. It makes the writing easier.

SilvermanGardensOfAmpheia6) The Legends of Amun Ra series strongly incorporates Egyptian mythology. What are a few nonfiction books you would recommend to the uninitiated who are curious about alchemy, the Egyptian gods, and their daily practices?

The first one I’d say to read has nothing to do with alchemy. It would be Normandi Ellis’ modern translation of the Egyptian Book of the Dead. It’s called Awakening Osiris. If that doesn’t get your curiosity going on the pure power of that book, then reading everything else won’t interest you at all. For a good intro book specifically on Thoth/Hermes/alchemy, I would go with The Hermetica by Thimothy Freke and Peter Gandy. It’s about 100 pages and a quick, easy read.

7) Conventions, book signings, blogging, etc.: what are some of your favorite aspects of self-promotion and what are some of the least favorite parts of self-promotion?

Conventions are by far the best thing about being an author. I love meeting fans and talking to them about Egyptian mythology and the book series. I’ll never forget that one guy asked me to write a blog post specifically about the Egyptian cat goddess, Bastet, because he couldn’t find any information on her in mainstream books. So I did. It’s that interaction that I thrive on. My least favorite things is anything to do with social media.

8) Brain candy – things that make you grin, guffaw, and let your mind relax: What do you relax with?

Some weights, my guitar, a scotch and a cigar and I’m good.

9) You’re constantly learning & paying attention to things like the Discovery Channel. What is the latest thing you learned about an ancient civilization that astounded you or rocked your socks? 

The find of the ancient port city of Heracleion in Egypt’s Bay of Aboukir. Researcher’s found 64 ships down there and the port is thought to be 1,000 years older than any other ancient port found. It lends some credence to John Anthony West’s and Robert Shoch’s theories about the origin and inadequate dating techniques we’ve used with ancient Egyptian artifacts.

Places to Find Joshua Silverman

Joshua’s Website

Facebook

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Undertow by Elizabeth Bear

BearUndertowWhy I Read It: I love Elizabeth Bear‘s fantasy novels, so it was time to try her scifi.

Where I Got It: the library.

Who I Recommend This To: Folks who want to sink into an alien culture on an alien planet and watch the humans struggle along.

Narrator: Timothy Reynolds

Publisher: Recorded Books (2008)

Length: 11 hours 13 minutes

In a galaxy where nearly all humans have implants that allow them to access the collective net at will, Cricket makes a good living on Novo Haven gathering secreted information. Even memories can be accessed (shudder). Her sometimes lover, Andre, kills people, humanely and quickly, for a living. though he isn’t very open about that. Jean is a sorcerer of a kind, affecting Chance, making unlikely outcomes blossom into being. He is also one of the few humans who has taken the time to get to know the native sentient species, the Rannids (often called the Froggies). A series of events surrounding the questionable mining of a valuable resource brings the world close to destruction.

While this book took a little while to get into, I definitely appreciated the build up once the plot began to unfold. Cyberpunk meets alien suppression and exploitation meets assassin meets turning on a chance. Indeed, this tale brought together several tropes and spat out something unique and highly memorable. Told mostly from Andre’s point of view, and an interesting view it is, we see his impersonal approach to his job, assassinating folks. He also has a somewhat impersonal approach to his love life with Cricket. But then things change, and get weird, and very cool. The Charter Trade Company wants folks dead, a valuable mineral mined and off planet before anyone notices, and doesn’t care who gets injured along the way. That includes a good friend of Cricket’s and the Jean’s lover.

The Rannids are introduced bit by bit giving the reader time to get to know them. They think differently, and hence, their actions don’t always make sense to their human overlords. They have no visible sign of advanced civilization, which has left Charter Trade Company legally able to exploit them and remove the planet’s resources. But they are far more complex, able to communicate world wide through vibrations in the water, treasuring stories. Humans have many stories in many forms, and so many Rannids learn to read human lips (lacking the natural auditory equipment to hear human speech) in order to enjoy these stories.

Jean, in introducing Andre to these planet natives, may not only save Andre’s retched existence but also the planet. Jean is a Conjurer, a man who can and does affect chance outcomes. Andre has this latent ability in himself but lacks the training, and the mindset. I found Andre’s storyline the most fascinating because he starts off the least human (psychologically) and grows so much as a character by the end of the book. Listening to the culture of the Rannids unfold bit and bit as Andre would learn of them piece by piece kept me coming back for just one more chapter before bed.

Timothy Reynolds was a great choice of narrator, giving Andre’s voice precision, upper class tones, and that assassin’s detachment. His female voices were decent and his Rannid voices were unique from other voices.

What I Liked: Alien culture; assassin psychology; character growth; lots of cool tech; not everyone walks away scar-free.

What I Didn’t Like: There were a lot of concepts crammed into a single book and occasionally, it felt a little crowded.

What Others Think:

SFReviews.Net

SF Site

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Dissolution of Peace by Richard Flores IV

FloresDissolutionOfPeaceWhy I Read It: Epic space opera – why wouldn’t I?

Where I Got It: Through the blog tour host Orangeberry (thanks!)

Who I Recommend This To: It’s very fast pace, so someone looking for lots of action.

Publisher: Plasma Spyglass Press (2012)

Length: 216 pages

Series: Book 1, I think, based on how this book ended.

In this far future space opera, humans have colonized not only the moon, but also Mars. In fact, a schism arose between the Martians and the Earthers decades before our tale begins. Captain Christina Serenity is one of the youngest Navy captains ever in the history of bureaucratic naval red tape. She kicks ass by the way. However, she recently was the recipient of an ass-kicking and requires body guards. Barely recovered from her injuries, and guarded by long-time Security Officer Michael Carlson and newbie Janice Kanter, she takes the E.S.S. Australia out on an unexpected mission.

Assassination attempts crop up left and right. Cpt. Serenity also has to deal with rogue ships attacking, even ramming, her ship. But then it gets even better, because aliens become an issue. Friendlies? Baddies? Perhaps they are just neutral. Serenity has to walk a tight line to safely navigate the awkwardness of First Contact. But her ship is badly damaged and many of her people killed before the mystery of who is behind the assassination attempts is unraveled. Then there is also the distraction of the blossoming romantic interest in one of her body guards, which is totally against regulations.

This story was very much action driven, being fast paced and lots of injuries and some dead bodies. While I liked all the action, sometimes we flitted from one scene to the next a little too quickly and my brain was a bit jarred off and on. The characters are very easy to connect with, even though they lack depth and growth. But let me point back to that ‘action driven’ part: if you just want a space opera that is easy to jump into without having to concentrate on character or setting details, then Richard Flores‘ book is for you. The espionage aspect coupled with the secret society bit was intriguing and kept me guessing about characters the entire time. The side romances added tension without taking away from the main reason I was reading the book: Action In Space. Not bedroom action, but space fights and first contact, etc. You get the point. There were lots of females in power without being all Hear Me Roar. It simply was a well integrated navy without the bullshit of gender inequality. Very refreshing.

Of course I need to talk about the one negative point. Unfortunately, this is a biggy for me. I love words and stories in which every word was thought about and carefully placed to be pleasing to plot and reader brain. This book was not well edited. Yes, someone used spell check, but forgot to use grammar check. I kept stumbling over wrong words – like wonder where the author clearly meant wander. Then and than drove me crazy. There were very few pages of this book that were clear of such mistakes. Most of the time, I quickly discerned what was intended, but sometimes I found myself stumbling over a sentence, taking far too much time to puzzle out the meaning. I have this belief that I should give the words as much attention as the author did. I ended up scanning the last half of this book, simply getting the plot gist.

What I Liked: The characters were easy to connect with; lots of women in positions of power; conflict in space; espionage and secret society; alien first contact.

What I Disliked: Poor editing; occasionally moved from one scene to another jarringly.

I received a copy of this book as part of the Orangeberry Book Tours. If you want more info on Richard Flores, check HERE. If you would like to check out the other bloggers participating in the book tour, click HERE.

Here is the book trailer:

 

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Zenn Scarlett by Christian Schoon

SchoonZennScarlettWhy I Read It: Exobiology, on Mars. Of course I am going to read it.

Where I Got It: Review copy through NetGalley (thanks!)

Who I Recommend This To: Curious about the insides of alien pets? If you jumped up and down in excitement, then this book is worth your time.

Publisher: Strange Chemistry (2013)

Length: 304 pages

Series: Zenn Scarlett Book 1

Set at the Ciscan Cloister Exovet Clinic on Mars, Zenn is in her final few weeks of training, and testing, to become an exovet. Throughout the book, she sees to the biological needs of the cute and fuzzy, the regurgative and smelly, the large and faithful, and the deadly and swift. At 17, she is dealing with several stressers on top of trying to pass her finals: her mother was lost in an unprecedented exovet accident years ago and her father left her with her uncle at the Cloister to search for answers; she herself has been having odd spells that leave her in the lurch at the oddest moments; and of course, there is the potential entanglements of a first romance in the making. On top of that, the lease is almost up on the Cloister’s lands and the bulk of people on Mars feel there is a better use for the lands than pandering to the needs of infirm and sickly alien beasites.

Zenn herself is often thoughtful, driven, and focused on the animals (though many wonder why she isn’t more interested in the local available boys). She often feels a stronger connection to the animals she tends than to any human outside the Cloister. The story is full of intriguing alien species, and their ailments. Add to that, some cool vet tech, and you have a bio nerd fest in the making. I also enjoyed the mystery of the various ‘accidents’ involving the beasties. townies push hard from every direction to shut down the Cloister, not renew their lease, and use the land for agricultural purposes. Indeed, Christian Schoon is an author to keep an eye on as I expect his writerly talent will increase with each book.

While there are many things about this book I enjoyed, the underlying plot could have used a little more polish. The driver for much of the book was that the bulk of the farming populace of Mars had an underlying fear and detestment for all things ‘alien’, which meant the Cloister was shunned by the bulk of the community. Truthfully, I had trouble buying into this premise as they are humans living on an alien world and many of them use or have alien items and/or animals on their farm. But once I turned off the part of my brain that kept saying the basic plot didn’t carry the weight of the entertainment value for me, I was able to focus on the cool tech, the aliens, and the sometimes vomitous situations Zenn found herself in.

One of the things I love about science fiction is when the author captures the feel of the location (like Mars) and that the location itself shapes the culture of the inhabitants. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein is a great example of this. Ray Bradbury’s Mars stories are not; he builds a great story and characters, but they could be placed anywhere including your nearest small town on Earth. Zenn Scarlett wavered back and forth on this; the requirements of living on Mars forces the communities to live under atmospheric domes, hence forcing a cultural norm of bubble communities. However, many of the characters talk and think like your nearest small town agricultural center. With that said, I still had one repeated nerdgasm after another over the biodiversity on display.

What I Liked: Cool tech; lots of alien pets; Zenn was an easy character to connect with; the immediate crisis was solved while leaving a bigger, over arching mystery for another book.

What I Disliked: The underlying plot did not hold water for me; sometimes felt a little to small town Earth for me to believe we were on Mars.

What Others Think:

Phoenix Fantasy

On Starships & Dragonwings

The Nocturnal Library

The Book Smugglers

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Heroes Proved by Oliver North

Hannibal is way more interested in a bird outside than my pick in books.

Hannibal is way more interested in a bird outside than my pick in books.

Why I Read It: Near future military tech? Why not?

Where I Got It: A review copy from the publisher (thanks!)

Who I Recommend This To: Hmmm…. Not sure I can.

Narrator: Peyton Tochternman

Publisher: Simon & Schuster (2012)

Length: 12 CDs

In the year 2032, James Newman and his family struggle for justice in a difficult political climate. Bombings and a kidnapping of a key physicist in Texas set off a chain of events that have not only James, but also his family and their closest friends fleeing from their own government even as they attempt to unravel the plot behind the Texas events. In a country where all military personnel and their dependents are tracked through a personal implanted unit, firearms are banned to the bulk of the populace, and the US President is only concerned with her political career, James must face one obstacle after another.

Let me tell you up front that I went into this book with no preconceived notions. How did I do that, you may be asking. Well, I had no idea who Oliver North was before this book. Yes, this trifle admission to my lack of political knowledge has led to snerkling from my man and friends. That’s OK, as I now realize my own mistake and snerkle at myself.

Let me start with the fact that this book had lots of near-future or cutting edge tech sprinkled through out it. I really liked those parts of the book.

OK, now I can tell you the biggies about the book that turned me off. There is only one woman in a position of authority (the US President) and she is a bad guy; a stupid bad guy at that. No, that is not spoiler as you learn this early on. All the rest of the women are meek, mild mannered, most of them are wives and mothers. Sigh…… Often the author was patronizing in his admiration of the quiet strength and fortitude of the female side of the species.

I disagreed with nearly all the politics. If you happen to agree with them, then this book probably won’t be such a drag for you. Basically, the gist of the book was that Christian, heterosexual, white males rule. *quirked eyebrow*. Can you hear me sighing again? I am not male or Christian, so perhaps that limits my sympathizing with the main characters. Also, there were some lines about gay marriage contributing to the decline of the US (I’m for marriage equality). Then there was that part about Islam being inherently evil (raises both eyebrows). I think organized religion, any religion, in general can be unhealthy for a person. But singling out a major world religion as inherently evil seems simplistic to say the least.

So, there you have the biggies. There were some other bits – like so much of the book seems to be a regurgitation of some military procedure or another, making what would otherwise be an exciting rescue scene something you may doze through. This book probably could have used just one more round of editing to trim these parts down. There was a plethora of acronyms in this book and some were not explained, and some were (usually a knowledgeable male was explaining them to some helpless female). The ending of the book was a bit sudden, left some side plots unfinished, and wasn’t fully satisfying; it left me with a sense that the author started to suffer from Lazy Author Syndrome, relying too heavily on deus ex machina.

But, hey, there was cool tech.

This might have been the first book for our narrator, Peyton Tochterman, so I will be gentle in my critique of his efforts.  Essentially, he had two voices – one for the men and one for the women (basically a hushed male tenor voice). The story line called for Middle Eastern and Hispanic accents, which our narrator failed at. Sometimes the pacing was stilted and sometimes I felt the narrator was yelling out the times and locations, and for some reason, acronyms.

What I Liked: The cool tech.

What I Disliked: Patronizing to women; the good guys are all white heterosexual Christians; some political comments were extremely discriminatory; acronym soup; inexperienced narrator; weak ending.

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Giveaway & Interview: Guy Hasson, Author of The Emoticon Generation

HassonEmoticonGenerationCoverFolks, please welcome Guy Hasson back to the blog. Recently, I enjoyed being part of The Little Red Reviewer’s blog tour featuring Guy Hasson’s The Emoticon Generation. If you missed my review, check it out over HERE. Today, we have a great interview with Guy, followed by his generous giveaway of 10 ebook copies of his book The Emoticon Generation. The giveaway is open international – scroll to the bottom to enter.

Without further ado, here is Guy Hasson:

1) This year you have published two novels, The Emoticon Generation and Secret Thoughts, both collections of stories. The first focuses on artificial intelligence (AI) and the second on telepathic women. How did you go about developing these stories as the two subjects are so very different?

The Emoticon Generation is filled with stories about Big Ideas and what they mean to us and to the characters in the stories. For example, the story that gave the book its title, Generation E: The Emoticon Generation came to me when I realized that emoticons are actually words that are too small to say. For example, if instead of using a smiley, you would say, “Hey, I like that” you would give too great an emphasis to whatever it is you wanted to put a smiley on. It’s not the same. Smileys are words that are smaller and shorter than written or spoken words.

So once I had that idea in my head I asked myself, What’s the tinniest tiniest word that could ever be? The answer’s in the story, of course. And out of the answer came all the situations and all the characters that you meet there.

In Hatchling I figured out a new way to create a human being. The result is the most human and touching story in the collection.

In Freedom Is Only a Step Away I tried to suggest a new way to teach kids everything they need to be taught in school in a way that doesn’t limit their imagination and feeling of freedom.

So The Emoticon Generation is a story about Big Ideas. Just like the science fiction I grew up on.

HassonSecretThoughtsMeanwhile, Secret Thoughts is about delving deep, deep, deep into our own brains. If telepaths, capable telepaths, ever exist, wouldn’t it make sense that their understanding of us, and themselves, would be so much greater than our own? If someone could delve into the depths of everyone they see, wouldn’t that give them knowledge about what we are and what they are? I wrote the book’s first novella The Perfect Girl imagining a world in which telepaths exist and there are experts at what they do. These experts teach the newbies about the secrets of our minds. It was a chance to go exploring our deepest places and the dark crevices we never allow ourselves to see. I wrote The Perfect Girl back in 2005 as a stand-alone. It won the Geffen Award for Best Short Story of the Year. I never meant it to be anything more. But even as I was writing it, I knew I was creating a world, and that there could be dozens of stories written about it. Part of what makes The Perfect Girl story rich is that I hint in it to about six other stories about telepaths I could have written, but never did. The world feels like it has so many possibilities.

Years passed, and I kept returning to that world. I had crazy ideas about what real telepaths would do. For example: Telepaths connect by touch. What if a telepath got pregnant? She would feel the baby growing in the womb. She would feel not its thoughts, but its first half-thoughts, its first half-formed emotions. She would feel the brain that isn’t yet human, but is half human, a quarter human. She would sense what it’s like to become human, step by step. That’s the story of the last novella in the book, Most Beautiful Intimacy. Now, if you had ideas like these, could you resist writing them and putting them in a book?

2) You also work in film and will be releasing an independent science fiction short film soon, The Indestructibles. Care to give us a little tease and temptation on what this film is about?

Ah, this is fun. The Indestructibles is an idea I had for a film. The budget? A mere $600 million. The story was carved out, I knew everything that was going to happen in it, and I had the first twenty minutes written.

And then I stopped. I’ve already written big budget scripts on spec. They’re still waiting for Hollywood to glance in my direction. But why should I wait for Hollywood? Even if producers bought my scripts, my scripts would not survive the experience the way I had intended them to be. So… Why can’t I do these films at home? I already had a low-budget feature-length SF film under my belt, which I had written, directed, shot, and produced. So I knew I could shoot a professional film, guerilla-style. If I could find a way to rewrite the script so that it fit my budget, why, then… I have a camera at home, I know great actors, I could limit the number locations, I could write it for one-shots which would almost eliminate the need for an editor, and I’d shoot and direct it myself for free… It could be done!

So I rewrote the script. I turned an epic SF tale that spanned centuries and contained scenes with dozens and hundreds of superheroes – I turned that story into a 45-minute film that was shot for $250.

I already shot the film, it’s been edited, and right now we’re going back-and-forth on the soundtrack. If all goes well, it’ll be ready in a few weeks. At which point I will release it for free on the web and let the story find its audience.

I really don’t want to say anything about the content of the film, because everything in it is a spoiler, except that it’s a classic superhero tale turned on its head two times over, to create something you’ve never seen before.

If you want to be updated when it comes out, follow my blog.

And the most important thing is: Now that it’s done, I know I can do it by myself, without a studio. I can tell almost any SF story I want in film… By myself. At home. With my little camera.

HassonTheIndestructibles

3) You also have a serialized fairy tale fantasy, Tickling Butterflies, on your blog. What drew you to attempt to capture 128 fairy tales in one story?

This is turning out as a confessional for how my pieces are made. Works for me.

Here’s how Tickling Butterflies was created.

At first, I wanted to create a story that’s such an explosion of imagination the readers would be thunderstruck. The original concept was to create some kind of encyclopedic map of a magical fairy tale land and have the book be a dump of story ideas. Well, that idea died quickly. If it doesn’t have a story that runs through it, I can’t write it.

So I found a story about King John the Cute. John is born with a prophecy hanging over his head: That this little farm boy will become king at the age of 18 and would die at the age of 20, having saved the fairy tale land. We follow John through his adventures, which, as a side benefit, take us through all the fairy tales of the land. It begins innocently enough with the fairy tales of his childhood up to the point where he becomes king. Then, forced to discover the secrets of the land, John explores it. It begins with regular-themed fairy tales (like the Happily Ever After Home for the Married, where all the romantic fairy tales go to live), but then twists to discover an island where all the funny fairy tales go (The Land of No Respect), and then to The River Red Continent where all fairy tales for adults exist. With John we go through fairy tales about the secrets and origins of magic, through legends about a land of storytellers, a land that has no magic, no happy endings, and no fate. And then the story gets really crazy…

It’s all done through fairy tales that are seemingly independent, but actually form to create an epic story involving all the threads of fairy tales we’ve seen along the way.

Writing Tickling Butterflies also gave me a chance to explore a writing technique I’ve never used before. I discovered how to write beautiful stories. Not just good stories or fun stories or interesting stories or wow stories, but stories that give you a feeling of beauty. Every few fairy tales, I would insert a beautiful tale, while in the fairy tales themselves I would slowly explore the nature of beauty.

As I wrote it, I realized why something is considered beautiful. So I created the solution to the big mystery in the book in such a way that it isn’t just a wow ending, but also a breathtakingly beautiful ending.

Don’t believe me? Read the book.

Tickling Butterflies is being translated to Hebrew and will published in Israel later this year. I’m also in talks with a European publisher that I can’t name yet. And after 45 agents in the US and the UK refused to look at it, I decided to serialize it online. A new fairy tale is being published every Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday at my website. Here’s a page with the links to all the Tickling Butterflies stories that have been published so far.

4) You are also a playwright. What are a few of the key things you keep in mind when picking your medium to tell the story?

To me, every medium is about something else. Prose is about exploring a story, a plot, and ideas. The theater is about either comedy or the most gut-wrenching dramas. Film is about looking into the eyes of the actors/characters and seeing their souls.

A big thank you to Guy Hasson for adding a few more books to my towering To-Be-Read pile!

THE GIVEAWAY

Entering the giveaway is simple. Leave me a comment on this post about the interview or about Guy Hasson’s works or his webpage. For greater chances to win, enter the rafflecopter below. Guy Hasson is generously giving away 10 ebook copies of The Emoticon Generation (see blurb below). This giveaway will be open for 4 weeks, closing on May 22, 2013. The giveaway is open international.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

From Goodreads:

Guy Hasson’s The Emoticon Generation features seven stories about life-changes brought about by our new electronic generation: stories that blur the borders between our world and science fiction, stories that make you ask, ‘Has this already happened? Is that actually true?’

In this collection you’ll find a man who, after losing his fiancée to a terrible accident, seeks to learn if true love really exists; a girl, hardly a teen, who searches for her father only to learn a terrible truth about herself; a man who wants to immortalize his genius but ends up tricking himself out of it; an old hero whose entire life unravels when the truth about his heroic act is revealed; a harmless birthday gift that triggers a profound search into the depths of a young couple’s relationship; and more.

Guy Hasson is one of the freshest new science fiction authors out there, with a knack for finding the human heart in the biggest ideas.

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Around the Sphere April 2013

Yes, it is that time again. Time for me to be social. Which usually means snarking on things. In this case, other folks have already put together the snark for me. Enjoy!

I love making fun of Disney heroines. Mostly because they are not particularly heroic. Or rather, running through the woods, cleaning house, or reading a book all while looking gorgeous is heroic for the female form. Sigh….

Here is a really cool article about the what ifs of drawing female superheroes fully clothed. I love the idea and I think a competent, mostly clad superhero (of any gender) is far more attractive than stepping out to fight crime in a bathing suit or highheels and thong-bustier combo.


http://www.geeknative.com/38733/drawing-the-impossible-fully-dressed-superheroines/

Remember Mr. Smith (Hugo Weaving) from The Matrix? Yeah, I do. Here he is again in the GE commercial. If all ads were this cool, I would spend more time rotting my brain watching them. Are you ad companies paying attention?

Cracked.com is a great place to visit if you need to kill some time waiting for the bus, that last load of laundry, or you’re stuck at work and can get away with it. Not that I would ever encourage folks to be slackers. Not me. This particular article is on real life places that could be sets for science fiction or fantasy movies. I wish some of these places made up my lawn art.

http://www.cracked.com/article_20357_7-modern-ghost-towns-that-look-like-sci-fi-movies.html?utm_source=thechive.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=7-modern-ghost-towns-that-look-like-sci-fi-movies-pics-article

I’m sure you have seen this trailer by now, but hey, it stars two of my all time favorite actors – Jodie Foster and Matt Damon. So there is no way I was not going to plague you with this trailer one more time.

Ever wonder how to make that superhero Aquaman sexy, useful, and manly all in one go? Well, yeah, I hadn’t actually spent much time thinking about Aquaman either. I mean, who does? Here a cool pic of Aquaman, medieval style. It does the trick.


http://www.ilyke.net/i-thought-this-deserved-to-be-seen-by-more-people–batman–aquaman-medieval-garb/25303/?utm_source=u212&utm_medium=p212137&utm_campaign=aff

Confession time. I love the Riddick movies. I have watched Pitch Black like dozens of times since I first caught on the once appropriately names SciFi channel. When The Riddick Chronicles came out, I hauled my main man off to the theatres to watch it. It was great. Now, a third movie is nearing completion.I know, some of you….perhaps most of you, are quirking your eyebrow at me. I’m OK with that, because I am picturing you all in The Next Generation combat leotard. You look smashing.

This last video is Honest Reviews. Now I love me some Harry Potter – books first, movies second, trick jelly beans third. This video covers all the movies, so beware of spoilers, if you care about such things. Had me chuckling out loud.

Finally, stuff about me that you may or may not care about. I care, and that is good enough. First, I gave an interview over at the Book Store Book Blogger Connection. If you haven’t heard of this, it’s a great site where you can provide little snippets about books you love. Then bookstores, usually small, independent ones so far, print off those snippets and place them on their shelves to entice book browsers to pick up the book and perhaps take it home. Genius. (both the site and my interview).


http://bookstorebloggerconxn.com/2013/04/03/bloggers-who-win-dab-of-darkness/

Almost finally, David Lee Summers, an author, scientist, blogger, and all around fun guy, passed the WordPress Family Award on to me. This is my first bloggity award and I am still figuring out what to do with it. The rules with this award are simple – chat about some other blogs that you enjoy. I assume from the title of the award they are suppose to be WordPress blogs, but I am not one for rules really. I think rules, as well as recipes, are really just guidelines. In some cases they really only denote some end goal and how you get there is up to you.

So, let me take a moment to talk about a few blogs that have been in my life recently. On Starships and Dragonwings has one of the snazziest looking blogs around – not too much glitter or flash, and plenty of dragons. If you love your YA SFF, that’s the blog to check out. We recently wrapped up Book 2 of The Wheel of Time series and we’ll shortly be starting Book 3 (The Dragon Reborn). The Little Red Reviewer, who is also the power and master mind behind the Book Store Book Blogger Connection I mentioned above, has always got something SciFi good going on. I recently participated in her The Emoticon Generation blog tour. Stainless Steel Droppings is running his annual Once Upon A Time reading event that runs the duration of spring and is a celebration of anything fantasy (mostly books and film). It is a wonderful, fun event. We just finished up the Stardust Read Along this past week. Coffee, Cookies, & Chili Peppers has been joining me on all my crazy read alongs, including The Shadow of the Sun Read Along which goes to the end of the month. Barbara Friend Ish is giving away digital copies of her book on her site (just follow the read along link to download yours). Let me just say that Sue from Coffee, Cookies, & Chili Peppers always has such great comments. She really takes the time to read the post and leave meaningful comments. Lynn’s Book Blog has been teaching me UK words, like numpty. Lynn has also been a big participator in recent read alongs. And what is a read along if you ain’t got nobody to play with? Yes, I left the bad grammar in. Yes, I can see you wincing. You’re cute when you wince. There are many more to name, but I think I will save some for the next bloggity award or the next time I am feeling social. Yes, you may very well be on that list. It’s better than being on the Other List.

And just yesterday, Lynn from Lynn’s Book Blog awarded me the Liebster Award. So, I had to come back in here and edit because this was the perfect place to stick this.  She gets a wicked chuckle from me on timing alone. First, she has these questions I am suppose to answer. She says I can’t say ‘both’. But she also says rules are for breaking. Hehehehehehhe.

  1. Beer or Wine - Chocolate milk stout or muscato dessert wine. But not both together.
  2. Dogs or Cats - I have to say both as I live with both and if I picked one, the other would find out and kill me in my sleep. For Reals.
  3. Fantasy or Sci Fi - This is a cruel, cruel question. How about Scitansy? The best of both worlds.
  4. Book or Film – Book. Except for The Hunger Games trilogy. That is one series I hope the movies end better than the books did.
  5. Star Wars or Star Trek - Star Wars for the women and star trek for the bald headed men.
  6. Batman or Superman - Batman all the way. There is nothing sexy about a grown boy scout in a blue and red unitard.
  7. Anime or Manga - Manga
  8. Gaiman or Tolkien - Gaiman for the everyday. Tolkien for the once a decade read.
  9. Reading or Music - Reading. But you knew that already.
  10. Chocolate or Cheese - Chocolate. Unless there are fresh local cheese readily available.
  11. Morning or night - Morning. Shit needs to get done in the morning.

On top of that, I am suppose to reveal 11 things about myself. Well, I already told y’all about my Riddick fascination above. That should really count for 2. My favorite bookmarks are the ones my aunt made several years ago. We live on a small farm and I rather clean chicken houses than fold laundry. Alas, folding laundry happens like every other day, and cleaning the chicken houses happens likes 3-4 times a year. Yes, I do wear a respirator when doing that. I often salt my icecream. I know you want to also. Oh you think it might be weird, but I bet you love other sweet & salty food. I have two addictions in my life – my man and Dr. Pepper. I once hit a puppy with my car on a dark night. I broke it’s neck, but it was still alive. I took it home and my man helped me grant him mercy. He is buried near the apple tree. I have a consuming fear of ladders. No, shaking the ladder while I am on it to prove how stable it is DOES NOT help. Just being clear about that. I have been with the volunteer fire and emergency response for 6 months now and seen two fatalities. The only girly thing about me is my super secret cutsy wutsy collection of My Little Ponies.  I have been peed on by a cat more than once. No, I am not on speaking terms with that cat. I have spent quality time in a public place with one boob hanging out of the bra (still covered by shirt). Lots of odd stairs went my direction, but no one took me aside and chatted about wardrobe malfunctions.

This last part is where I torture others. But I am going to mix it up (see rule breaking previously in this post). Instead of nominating 11 others and posing 11 questions to them, I am going to leave it open to you, my dear readers. Leave your answers in the comments.

1) I love interviewing folks, digging into their lives, etc. Would anyone like to do a real interview on my blog? Leave your email or twitter handle, and I will get in contact.

2) If you took the main characters from Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time, Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn Trilogy, and Brent Week’s Night Angel series and stuck them in a gated, locked grove, who would come out in the end?

3) Honestly, are the fig leaves really necessary?

4) Should they have a third go at turning Dune by Frank Herbert into a movie?

That’s all I got folks. This turned out to be a longer post than expected, but for anyone who makes it to the end, leave me a raspberry in the comments!

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Outer Diverse by Nina Munteanu

MunteanuOuterDiverseWhy I Read It: Space opera with a lead female – why not? Oh, and the supreme bad guys, a race of aliens, have my last name. No joking.

Where I Got It: Review copy from the publisher via Audiobook Jukebox (thanks!)

Who I Recommend This To: Adults who enjoy a space adventure with a strong female protagonist.

Narrator: Dawn Harvey

Publisher: Iambik Audio (2012)

Length: 11 hours 31 minutes

Series: Book 1 Splinter Universe trilogy

Rhea Hawke is a Galactic Guardian, and I love to say her name. Her name alone let’s you know that there is a bad ass super hero of a woman on site. I can picture her boots, her great coat, and her side arms. I want to be her when I grow up. Obviously, you can tell I developed some hero worship for her by the end of this book. Back to the story, where we start off with the massacre of a religious sect. Hawke has her ideas about who is ultimately behind it, but, alas, the more bureaucratically minded in the Galactic Guardians refuse to listen to her. Nina Munteanu has spread alien races thickly throughout this story, with just a peppering of humans. The Eosians are very similar to humans genetically, yet Rhea has a prejudice towards them since childhood, when she inadvertently killed a male Eosian in a gruesome way.

Let me come clean. There is a nefarious, evil race of aliens that have perpetrated more than one attempted genocide. They are the Vos. For those of you who know me, you know that is simply one S short of my name, and pronounced exactly the same. I confess – it was a bit of an ego rush to hear Rhea Hawke, my hero, threatening death to all Vos. Indeed, she called them all sorts of nasty names.

OK. I feel better getting that off my chest. So, Rhea manages to kick too much ass in a very public way in a very messy way. We call this pissing off a whole lot of people in a very short amount of time. So, her badge, her Guardian issued-weapons, her ever so cool Great Coat, and her little AI ship are all taken. She is left on her own to cool off a bit. So, of course she joins a gym, and develops a romantic interest. Hehe. Why not? But then the book picks up again and the adventure, intrigue, and cursing of the dastardly Vos.

I really got wrapped up in this novel. Yes, the characters only grew a little bit, and that growth was mainly on Rhea and her relationship to her mother, but I really connected with her. I loved all the fancy tech and the variety of alien races, with humans barely hanging on as a species. I will definitely be keeping my eye out for Book 2.

I have to mention the sex. No, there aren’t any diagrams. So, Rhea and her beau have some pretty steamy sex off and on throughout the book. Nothing really shocked me. What I did find curious is that Rhea really considers a certain position (anal) to be perverse. This theme carries through in the background until Rhea herself experiences that certain position. Oddly, that is all tied to some of Rhea’s personal history and she suddenly understands so much more about her own mom. Anyway, I am trying not to give away too much. Just a note – this book contains sex, in some detail. There was one scene I was so wrapped up in and later tried to explain to my man – and it sounds ridiculous without the back story. This shows that the author totally had me sucked in.

Dawn Harvey was the perfect narrator for this novel as it is all told from Rhea’s point of view. Dawn came across as strong and determined without over playing it. Plus, I like how she says my last name with a variety of epithets. The alien voices were challenging, and Dawn met those challenges with gusto.

What I Liked: Rhea Hawke, her tech, her ship, and her attitude; my last name was cursed thoroughly throughout the novel; lots and lots of aliens; humans are not the main focus of the book as a species; Rhea has a very complicated past, of which she knows so little of.

What I Disliked: There were a few loose ends dealing with Rhea’s ancestors that left me with question marks – minor complaint as I look forward to Book 2.

 

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The Emoticon Generation by Guy Hasson

HassonEmoticonGenerationCoverWhy I Read It: This book came highly recommended by The Little Red Reviewer.

Where I Got It: Review copy from the author (thanks!)

Who I Recommend This To: Folks wanting to explore AI in computer programs would find this interesting. Oh, and the humor in the first story about emoticons is awesome.

Publisher: InfinityPlus (2012)

Length: 271 pages

In this collection are seven stories that I am excited to tell you about. Guy Hasson has mostly focused on near-future technology concerning artificial intelligence (AI) and the human quest for immortality. There’s also some emoticon humor mixed in, regret on past decisions, relationship problems, and the hunt for one’s origins. If this sounds interesting, you can catch further reviews, interviews, and giveaways on the blog tour hosted by The Little Red Reviewer.

Generation E: The Emoticon Generation

A reporter and parent takes it upon himself to snoop on his teen-age daughter, checking her cell phone messages. However, all he finds are a bunch of emoticons, circles, partial circles, and exclamation marks in different colors. So, he decides to do what he does best – research this new ‘language’ of the e-generation. First he finds an emoticon poet in a small Nevada town in the basement of his mom’s house, working with dial-up connection. Next he hunts down the founder of Ping!, the creator of the instant mobile attention for the on-the-go teen: texting ! back and forth to friends and loved ones to show them you care. Of course, if you receive a Ping!, you need to acknowledge it, by using the roger – a full circle filled in. This story starts off very believable and I almost mistook it for an introduction to the collection. Hehe. It was too long for that, and the second half of the story was too ridiculous, with all that Ping!ing going on. The story makes some interesting arguments back and forth about the necessity for language, yet it’s overuse. Overall a fun piece that gave me a chuckle throughout the second half.

Hatchling

Glynis leads a pretty quiet life for a teen. She lives at home, exclusively, having a rare bone calcium deficiency that makes her frail. Her mother, Olivia, and two of her mother’s friends from work are the only people in her life. However, she does spend lots of time on the internet and watching daily news and tv. So she knows that most kids have 2 parents, or at least know something about both of them. Yet she knows nothing about her father. She lays a small trap for her mother, requesting simply her father’s name for her 13th birthday. Her mother relents and tells her this one name, and nothing more. But this only leads Glynis on an interesting and sometimes frustrating chase for the truth through cyberspace. Breaking into a variety of databases and using public cameras, she tracks a man who may know something of her origins. Eventually she blackmails him into telling her, and it was not what she expected. I enjoyed this story immensely. It was not what I expected it to be, nor did it end the way I thought it would after the plot twist was revealed. Oooo! I really wanted to pop one of the characters in the nose at the end of this book, so well did the story have me in it’s grasp. This was the jewel of the collection for me.

The Assassination

Mr. Shamgar is in his 90s. He has been interviewed countless times over the decades about how and why he assassinated a British officer in the 1940s. Now, this time, Mr. Sanders has some new bit of technology that shows glimpses into the past, but only sounds. Recordings have been made of the conversations by the Levi resistance officers leading up to when Shamgar was assigned to the assassination. First, Mr. Sanders plays the recordings of Shamgar’s conversation with his superior officer concerning the assassination and the reasons for it’s necessity. All is as he has remembered and told countless times over. The British officer had planned nefarious deeds on the orders of none other than Churchill himself. By killing this one man, countless lives would be saved. This recording vindicates and supports what Shamgar has believed and told his entire life. But Mr. Sanders has another recording, one that he fears may break Mr. Shamgar’s spirit. This was an interesting piece in which a man carried out an irreversible deed for the wrong reasons, even though he believed he was doing good at the time. When I finished this story, I didn’t get the ending right away. Indeed, I found myself pondering it in my sleep. But by the light of another day, I think I finally understood the smile that creased Mr. Shamgar’s face at the end. This is one of those stories that keeps you thinking, and I do so enjoy me a good think.

Freedom Is Only A Step Away

Meet the Grants: Roger & Joan and their kids Russell and Rose.  This is a family in which the adults rely heavily on the tv for news and fresh thoughts. Roger listens to a news program that features a Dr. Burrows, whose research has determined that adults have the same capacity for imagination as children; only that ability has been bottled up, caged , bit by bit over a number of years, turning the masses of adults into boring drones. Further research goes on to show that there are 4 things that cage imagination: time constraints, living to someone else’s standards, appeasing others, forcibly performing a task at a certain time.  This was an interesting piece in that can we truly live as a free society, where we live each moment whim by whim? Who wants to go to work anyway? Or clean the house, or make dinner, or see the dentist, or obey traffic laws? This story focuses on the kids – meaning that the adults don’t want to inflict permanent damage by caging or blocking their imagination. So, no homework, no set tasks in school, etc. I enjoyed the ending of this piece because this Freedom Revolution did not lead to a utopian society. Thought provoking.

All-of-Me

Melanie has a present for her besotted man, Jake. She is one of the few privy to a new technology – one that she will help market. For Jake’s birthday, she gets him all set up with this new ‘toy’. In essence, a copy of Jake’s brain is taken and broken down into some simple equations, with numbers representing any time in his past life and in his future life. Plus, this little ‘toy’ can also give Jake different versions of himself based on decisions or different upbringing, etc. At first Jake is fascinated, enjoying the memories of birthdays gone by. But then Melanie starts spending more time with his ‘toy’, leading to relationship issues. This was yet another interesting piece, causing thought to accompany my entertainment. Would I really want a copy of myself to play with? Intellectually, I mean ;) . But seriously, what memories would I spend the most time on – the happy ones? The sad ones? The confusing ones? And would I end up spending more time on this ‘toy’ than I would being out and about building new, meaningful memories? Yet another great story giving us a glimpse of possible future tech, and the possible pitfalls to that tech.

Eternity Wasted

Professor Arthur Bates is a mental giant in the field of mathematics. He is also in his 90s. Dr. Jeneane Gold is a pretty sharp scientist herself, and 20. She has brought a little something by for Prof. Bates to read, and he is not going to like it. Still, he gives it a read, and yes, his reaction is thoroughly unhappy. Yet, there is relief and understanding beneath the unhappiness. Back in his younger days, Prof. Bates got his mathematical theories all in one weekend through an ingenious technological trick. He created a copy of himself in computer program form and then set the program to give his computer self 1 year to dream up new theories. To the physical Prof., only a few seconds pass – just long enough to hit all the proper keystrokes. However, his computer self was very, very bored during that 1 year. The two argue back and forth about the time – to the computer Prof., the year is very real, he has memories of it all, and only 4 white walls and a bed to keep him company. The physical Prof. finds this ludicrous, and pushes the program forward a decade, and further. With each leap in time, more and more theories have been thought up by his computer self, and therefore, more are downloaded to be used by the physical Prof. This story I found chilling. We are right there as a society, on the cusp of true AI, to be used by us humans for our human needs. This tale points to how cruel and inconsiderate we humans could very well be to an AI being that we created for a simple purpose.

Her Destiny

Tony & Tony had planned to marry. In fact, Tony Moore had his entire life planned out – the stages of his career, when to marry, when to have kids, etc. So, when he accidentally bumped into Tony and her friend, who were searching for a phone to call a car service about a flat tire, he believed it was destined. Tony is a CEO of EternityPlus, a company on the edge of what is possible – copying a person into a computer program. The whole thing – memories, personality, everything. His company is in the testing stages, merely months away from being able to go on the market. Tony and his fiance are soon to be wed, when a tragic car accident steals her life away. In the last few seconds of her life, Tony manages to capture an image of her brain with the EternityPlus technology. However, then he becomes obsessed with playing the same 10 seconds over and over, analyzing it ever deeper, and pulling more and more images from her past. Then one day Tony and Matt notice a new image, one they can’t explain, at least, not until they meet the man from the image. As you can see, this story followed the same theme as several others in this collection – the what ifs of capturing a human personality, mind, and potentially soul in a computer program. While I found having the two affianced characters named the same to be slightly confusing at points throughout the story, the main focus was on Tony Moore, a desperately sad character. Throughout this story, Tony moves from absolute certainty in his love and in her love for him to the opposite, only to have his doubts reinforced by his take on a series of coincidences. Thought provoking.

What I Liked: The emoticon humor; Hatchling was my favorite in this collection for the plot twist and the unexpected ending; the AI theme pervades through several of the stories; the characters were very real to me – definitely human even if they did not have blood and bone.

What I Disliked: A few times in two of the stories (Her Destiny and Freedom Is Only A Step Away) things seemed to drag on a bit and didn’t have the same pacing as the rest of the collection (minor dislike, obviously not enough to make me put the book down).