Audio Review: The Adventures of Luke Skywalker

Audio Review: The Adventures of Luke Skywalker Most Star Wars fans are aware that director George Lucas based much of the look and feel of the first movie on classic Hollywood films and especially the thrilling chapter serials.  But have you ever considered what A New Hope would sound like if it were a big-budget film made in… Continue reading Audio Review: The Adventures of Luke Skywalker

Book Review: The Book of Andre Norton

Book Review: The Book of Andre Norton edited by Roger Elwood Andre Alice Norton (1912-2005) was a prolific author,  best known for her science fiction and fantasy novels marketed to the young adult sector.  (I’ve previously reviewed her 1960 book Storm Over Warlock.)  Her output of short fiction was much less, but enough good stories were… Continue reading Book Review: The Book of Andre Norton

Movie Review: Destroy All Monsters

Movie Review: Destroy All Monsters It is the close of the Twentieth Century, and the United Nations has achieved two major goals.  There is now a permanent scientific base on the moon, and a way has been found to safely and humanely contain Earth’s giant monsters on a remote island dubbed Kaijuland (Monsterland in the… Continue reading Movie Review: Destroy All Monsters

Magazine Review: Astounding Science-Fiction January 1946

Magazine Review: Astounding Science-Fiction January 1946 edited by John W. Campbell, Jr. Before Analog (see previous reviews), there was Astounding, the science fiction magazine that led the field for many years.  Having gotten a copy of an issue from the pulp days, let’s take a look at what wonders lie within.  Despite the cover date, the ads… Continue reading Magazine Review: Astounding Science-Fiction January 1946

Book Review: First Contact

Book Review: First Contact by Michael R. Hicks The scout ship Aurora is searching for new worlds, especially inhabitable ones for the citizens of Earth and the various worlds their descendants have colonized.   What at first seems like a bonus of two viable worlds in the same star system turns into a deadly encounter.  Those… Continue reading Book Review: First Contact

Book Review: The Infinite Arena

Book Review: The Infinite Arena edited by Terry Carr Science fiction, in a way, is a very broad genre, that can easily contain stories of other genres within itself.  Thus space westerns, fantastic romance, star war novels and so forth.   In this case, we have a sample of sports stories set in science fiction… Continue reading Book Review: The Infinite Arena

Book Review: One in Three Hundred

Book Review: One in Three Hundred by J.T. McIntosh Most of you will have run into some variant of the “Lifeboat Problem” at some point.  (In my youth, it was done with bomb shelters due to the strong possibility of atomic war.)  A disaster has occurred, and a large number of people are going to… Continue reading Book Review: One in Three Hundred

Book Review: The Marsco Dissident

Book Review: The Marsco Dissident by James A. Zarzana It’s a Marsco world. Much has changed by the last years of the 21st Century.  The rot started to set in with the Abandonment Policy (euphemized as “Divestiture”) where countries with prosperous sections and not-so-prosperous bits split off the not-prosperous sectors as “another country now, not… Continue reading Book Review: The Marsco Dissident

Movie Review: Bender’s Game

Movie Review: Bender’s Game Futurama was a science-fiction cartoon created by Matt Groening (The Simpsons) for the Fox Broadcasting Company.   It starred Philip J. Fry, a New York City pizza delivery worker who is “accidentally” cryogenically frozen for a thousand years.  In the bizarre future world, Fry has trouble fitting in at first, but… Continue reading Movie Review: Bender’s Game

Book Review: The Great Secret

Book Review: The Great Secret by L. Ron Hubbard This is another in the line of Galaxy Press reprints of L. Ron Hubbard’s pulp magazine stories.  As always, the physical presentation is excellent.  This time, we have four short science fiction stories.  The cover doesn’t actually apply to any of them. “The Great Secret” is… Continue reading Book Review: The Great Secret