Ponderings of science, philosophy, history, society, and many other topics
The Mercy of Gods is the first book in James S. A. Corey's new space opera series: The Captive's War. James S. A. Corey is the pen name for the writing duo Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck, the authors of The Expanse book series. This new series appears to be either in a brand new … Continue reading The Mercy of Gods
This week I came across Scavenger's Reign, a sci-fi animated series on Netflix. The show is about a crew stranded on an alien planet, Vesta, with an interesting ecosystem. It chronicles the efforts of isolated groups to survive. The groups have little hope of a rescue. It's revealed upfront that the company they work for … Continue reading Scavenger’s Reign, and other TV notes
Shows based on video games have gotten better in recent years, and Halo seems to fit this trend. I never got into the games, so my knowledge of the premise only comes from the show. Humanity is at war with an alien civilization known as the "Covenant". The Covenant seems determined to eradicate humanity for … Continue reading Halo
Blade is the penultimate book in Linda Nagata's Inverted Frontier series. I've written about this series many times. It's a sequel to her earlier series: The Nanotech Succession. These books describe a civilization that has mastered nanotechnology, to the extent that mind uploading and new bodies on demand are possible, so everyone is essentially immortal. … Continue reading Blade (Inverted Frontier Book 4)
Just some thoughts on Doctor Who, Rebel Moon, and Beacon 23. We had the three Doctor Who specials earlier this month. In general I thought they were alright. The first was serviceable, the second pretty good, and the third a decent bit of canon cleanup. I know a lot of people who were hoping Russell Davies would find … Continue reading Beacon 23 and other TV notes
E. E. "Doc" Smith's Lensman series is classic space opera. As a science fiction nerd, I'm actually a bit embarrassed to admit that I had never read it before. Part of the reason was only discovering it as an adult, and finding the opening of the official first book in the series, Triplanetary, to be … Continue reading The Lensman series
Last week, when writing the TV notes post, which included remarks about the Foundation TV show, I opened the first Foundation book to check on something. I found myself falling into the story and kept on reading. I finished the third book in the trilogy yesterday. (The books are short by contemporary standards and Asimov's … Continue reading The original Foundation trilogy
Some years ago I did post reviewing Dennis E. Taylor's Bobiverse series. In the first book, Bob Johansson wakes up in the future to discover that he died but that his mind was uploaded into a computer. He's forced into being the control system for a Von Neumann probe, a self replicating interstellar craft. Being … Continue reading Heaven’s River
As usual, I'm late to the party, not having seen this in the theaters. But it became available for streaming this weekend. As with the first, it's a visually stunning movie. And also as with the first, while I know I was supposed to be captivated by the animals and vegetation, and was to some … Continue reading Avatar: The Way of Water, and mind uploading
Still on a fiction binge. The most recent one is The Immortality Thief by Taran Hunt. It appears to be Hunt's first novel, and the writing shows a few rough edges, but not in any way that detracts from the experience of the story. The setting is an interstellar future. Humanity appears to be dominated … Continue reading The Immortality Thief
SelfAwarePatterns 