Let's Get Off This Rock Already!
Musings on space travel, science fiction, and the radiant future
Happy November, everyone! I'm starting up my blog again with what is admittedly an oddball of a post. It was originally a handwritten exercise for my personal nonfiction class, until the thought occurred to me: "Hey, this is about Star Trek, and I write about Star Trek sometimes on my blog, so why not upload... Continue Reading →
Ranking the Star Trek movies is always a fraught question. Wars have started that way. You can hop onto message boards dating two decades back, and see countless battles between angry fans at the dawn of the internet---like the clash of titans when the world was young1. Their disputes still echo: is Wrath of Khan... Continue Reading →
Hello, all! I have returned from my hiatus---and now that I've wrapped up my hectic school term, I ought to have ample time to blog during the long, hot summer. Let's kick things off again with another book review! You may remember my post on the novel Mission One, by Samuel Best. I deemed it... Continue Reading →
Space navies are among the great tropes of science fiction. Countless works transplant the traditions, tactics, and structures of maritime forces to space opera settings: Star Trek has Starfleet, Space: Above and Beyond has the equivalent of World War II carrier battles, and of course Warhammer 40,000 goes full-on Age of Sail with floggings and... Continue Reading →
Hello, all! This will be something of a silly post today, discussing a film that's a little hard to classify. Is it fantasy? Sci-fi? Comedy? Alternate history? Steampunk? Well, this tale of adventure through a clockwork universe is all of the above, an enchanting and beautifully animated voyage into space as it was once understood.... Continue Reading →
"Only the incredible, unhuman massiveness of these vast stone towers and ramparts had saved the frightful thing from utter annihilation in the hundreds of thousands—perhaps millions—of years it had brooded there amidst the blasts of a bleak upland. 'Corona Mundi . . . Roof of the World . . .'" Long ago, in a simpler, more wholesome era---fall 2011, to be... Continue Reading →
I don't think I've really made it clear on this blog before, but I am, in fact, a huge Trekkie. Been one ever since I can remember. In kindergarten, I spent a day painting my rendition of the duel between the Enterprise and the Reliant, and in third grade, I would zealously record reruns of... Continue Reading →
George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four defined the dystopian genre1. It became one of the greatest fictional examples of a totalitarian government ruling through fear and force, permeating every last aspect of its citizens' lives, and it tackled complex themes about individuality, resistance, and even the nature of reality itself. Altogether, the book is a timeless classic,... Continue Reading →
My search for good indie sci-fi novels goes on. It is a perilous test of literary endurance, an endless journey through a wilderness of Kindle previews---perhaps an expedition into the heart of darkness itself. Some days I doubt I shall return with my health or sanity intact... Just kidding. There is no place for snobbery... Continue Reading →
As much as I love indie books, they're a minefield. You never know what you're going to get in terms of quality. I've had some books that started promising, then turned into total slogs; I've had others that were actually pretty solid. The novel I'm reviewing today definitely falls into the latter category---in fact, it... Continue Reading →
Let's Get Off This Rock Already! 