Musings of a Babylon Lurker

Hugo Reading : Short Story : “Bridesicle” by Will McIntosh

Tuesday, June 1st, 2010 | awards, books, scifi | No Comments

A story on the possibility of being preserved at death with the possibility of revival.

The combination with a “dating service” may seem a bit macabre, but the story actually works better than the other Hugo nominated short stories this year – at least for me.

This one will get my preferred vote for setting more thoughts in motion than the others.

7/10

Tags: Hugo Awards

Hugo Nominee, Short Story : “Non-Zero Probabilities” by N.K. Jemisin

Sunday, May 30th, 2010 | awards, books, scifi | No Comments

A bit of an odd story, about very improbable things happening much more often than they should – or concentrated in one place, but not in others.

This one has an unusual take on probability and superstition. I generally liked it, even if is not something exceptional.

N.K. Jemisin was another complete unknown to me, so good to see a new author.

6/10

Tags: Hugo Awards

Hugo Awards 2010 Short Story : “Spar” by Kij Johnson

Saturday, May 29th, 2010 | awards, books, scifi | No Comments

Hmmm

A short story on the theme of “Sex with an Alien”.

The whole story has one single scene , the alien is certainly non humanoid.

Unfortunately the most often asked question during reading the story was “when is it over” I found it repetitive and boring. Sorry I could not give a better review. The story must have been found good by someone, since it was nominated.

This may be an experimental story, but to me it failed.

2/10

Tags: Hugo Awards

Hugo Nominee 2010 Short Story, Mike Resnick : Bride of Frankenstein

Friday, May 28th, 2010 | awards, books, scifi | No Comments

This is a nice little story, picking up from the original Frankenstein story.

Thoughtfully made, and with a nice twist. The diary form works ok, though the title gives away a part of the plot.

6/10

Tags: Hugo Awards

Hugo Nominee, Short Story : “The Moment” by Lawrence M. Schoen

Tuesday, May 25th, 2010 | authors, awards, books | No Comments

Schoen was a complete unknown to me, so I do not know if this is his usual style.

As stories go this one does not, to me, have a real plot. The closest to a story line is the search for archeological evidence.

The story feels like a series of disjointed images with an extremely loose connection. there is the search (see above), then an image of a generation ship (crash) landing on a moon, and finally a connection to a great machine, apparently near the center of the galaxy.

I found the conclusion a bit anticlimactic, oh, yes, this seems to be about a species (probably humanity) leaving a planet (probably Earth).

While I do not particularly like the story, I respect the author going where few have gone before, even if this did not work out for me. It must have worked for other people, since it was nominated for the Award.

3/10 from me.

Tags: Hugo Awards, short story

Hugo award voting and material, an overview

Friday, September 18th, 2009 | books, fantasy, film and tv, scifi | No Comments

As a preparation for the voting for the Hugo Awards 2009 I downloaded the package of material from their website, and listened to some the short stories on a variety of podcasts, and watched what I could easily get hold of.

There was not enough time to read the rest of the material.

This is what I got to see or read before voting :

Dramatic presentations, short form :

Doctor Who : ‘Turn Left’
Doctor Who : ‘Silence in the Library’/'Forest of the Dead’
Battlestar Galactica : ‘Revelations’
I would have liked to see more, especially ‘Doctor Horrible’s Sing Along Blog’ . I was not aware that the DVD version from the US was Region Free, so missed out on that one. I will have to get it some time

Dramatic presentations, long form :

‘The Dark Knight’
‘Iron Man’

Novels :

Charles Stross : Saturns Children
Neil Gaiman : Graveyard Book
Cory Doctorow : Little Brother
John Scalzi : Zoe’s Tale

Short stories (audio podcast format) :

Ted Chiang : ‘Exhalation’
Michael Swanwick : ‘From Babel’s Fall’n Glory We Fled’
Mike Resnick : ‘Article of Faith’
Kij Johnson : ’26 Monkeys, Also the Abyss’

A bit of info on my preferences will follow when I get to the different categories.

I still have some novellettes and novellas on my reader that I will want to read, but at the moment I am busy reading a much older Science Fiction story, EE ‘Doc’ Smith’s ‘Lensman’ Series

More details when I get to watch/read more of the stuff, and a few more thoughts on the stuff I am reading/watching

Tags: books, film and tv, Hugo Awards, podcast

Long time no see

Tuesday, July 7th, 2009 | blog, books, events, film and tv, general, novel, scifi | No Comments

It has been a while since I last had an entry here, things have been a bit hectic.

I became a supporting membert of the Anticipation Worldcon 2009, and with that came the right to vote on the Hugo Awards.

So for a month I was – among other things – busy reading 4 of the nominated novels, listening to the short stories, and a few other things.

Also, I have been more active building some radio equipment, and have had a successful attempt of receiving the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.

I went to see the new Star Trek movie with a friend in Denmark, and finally I have been active learning more Tai Chi and Qigong.

Some of those activities will result in some new entries in the near future. Right now I am taking it a bit easy – and watching the new “Torchwood” series : “Children of Earth”. The first episode looks very promising, so let us hope that carries through the whole story.

Tags: busy, general, scifi

Asked and answered

Wednesday, May 13th, 2009 | Babylon 5, books, scifi | No Comments

Just ordered the new Asked and Answered (part 1) book, containing an organized archive of J. Michael Straczynski’s communication with the fans on the Internet, regarding the creation of the Babylon 5 TV series.

And now …. we wait …..

Tags: Babylon 5

Majel Barrett Roddenberry has passed beyond “The Rim”

Sunday, December 21st, 2008 | Babylon 5, books, film and tv, science, scifi | 1 Comment

I have been off the net for a few days, so here is my entry on this : Majel Barrett was the widow of Gene Roddenberry of Star Trek fame, and passed away on December 18 at the age of 76. Her family was there with her. More details at the official homepage.

For me Star Trek was a breakthrough in Science Fiction on TV and gave rise to a new trend – stating social issues in SF on TV. Actually, it was, at the time, the only way of tackling issues as racism, discrimination etc in TV series, by disguising it as “alien versus human” encounters. Majel is best known by SF fans from a multitude of roles in the Star Trek universe, and a single beautiful role in Babylon 5.

While it is sad to see someone pass beyond the Rim we should also remember the things she gave to us , in Star Trek : “Number One” from the original pilot, Nurse Chapel from the original series, Lwaxana Troi in The Next Generation, and the computer voice in all the “new” series, and from Babylon 5 the Lady Morella, seer and a wife of the deceased Emperor of the Centauri Republic.

With Starstuff I will quote the wonderful line she was given by Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski : “There is always choice. We say there is no choice only to comfort ourselves with the decision we have already made. If you understand that, there’s hope. If not ..” – Lady Morella, Babylon 5, »Point of no return«

Rest in peace Majel Barrett, and may you meet your Gene in a place where no shadows fall.

Tags: actor, Babylon 5, rip, star trek

eBook reading on the iPod Touch

Saturday, November 29th, 2008 | books, technology | 4 Comments

Yes – the 2.0 software for the iPod Touch allows (finally !) 3rd party software to be installed, making the Touch a more versatile piece of equipment than just a browser and audio/video player. Suddenly it becomes more of a PDA.

I downloaded the Stanza ebook reader to the Touch. It allows downloads of free ebooks from project Gutenberg. I downloaded a few, and got to read one for now. Having watched the “Jekyll” miniseries on DVD I got curious and wanted to (re)read the story giving the inspiration for the series – the short story “Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” by Robert Louis Stevenson.

Also I downloaded a few ebooks that come as applications for the Touch. Mike Stackpole has a few there, mostly short stories, but his novel “One a Hero” is there as well.

I have read a bit of those as well.

The small screen of the Touch is not really ideal for the purpose, but if you go travelling and want to travel “light” it is an option for having a set of books with you. It is easy to adjust the font size for relatively comfortable reading. Just don’t expect to read a novel in one go on the iPod Touch.

Tags: ebooks, ipod touch