SF
NEWS
November 2004
Terry
Brooks gets Tanequil
Fantasy author Terry interviewed about his new novel, Tanequil,
the second book in the High Druid of Shannara trilogy, on
growing as an author, and his plans to return to his earlier
Word & Void series.
(AUTHOR INTERVIEWS)
Sea,
Sky by Rosemary Kirstein
The author of The Language Of Power ruminates about world
creation and comes to the conclusion that there are basically
two ways to do it. You can begin from the top down, or from
the ground up.
(ARTICLES)
Third
World
One of our famous one page stories by GF Willmetts.
(FICTION)
Black
Cat Investments Ltd. - Your Money Is Safe With Us
One of our famous one page stories by Rod MacDonald.
(FICTION)
San
Diego Comic-Con '04
So, it looks like half the people who voted in a Crowsnest
poll a couple of months back have never been to a convention.
Which is a little sad when you come to think of it - there's
really nowhere else on earth you get to indulge your genre
weakness like a Con. If only because everyone else there is
doing exactly the same thing.
(CON REPORTS)
One
Page Stories Submissions (or What To Do, What To Write And
How to Submit)
This is an experiment on the website for all of you writers
and neo-writers out there. One of the criticisms that I raise
when working my way through our slush pile is that writers
need to learn how to tell a story with a limited word count
to make everything count and tell a good story.
(ARTICLES)
I
Remember Superman
Christopher Reeve, 1952-2004 - a lament by: GF Willmetts.
(ARTICLES)
Offworld
Report: Science Fiction and Fantasy, November 2004
Interviews with Stephen R. Donaldson, Clive Barker, Matt Stone
and Trey Parker, Clark Kent's foster father, and John Clute,
Dell Magazines' SF boat cruise, fiction by Peter Crowther,
and getting laid at a science-fiction convention.
(NEWS)
Offworld
Report: Weird Science, November 2004
Iran's first satellite, the X Prize is won, a fossil dragon,
robot fish, why space access costs must, and can, drop dramatically,
and has the Great Galactic Ghoul lost its appetite for Martian
probes?
(NEWS)
Resident
Evil: Apocalypse (Frank's Take)
Director Alexander Witt takes over this elaborate gory gaming
gimmick by ushering out the second installment Resident Evil:
Apocalypse. The labored formula remains the same regarding
a curvy and calisthenics cretin-kicking cutie leading the
charge in eliminating some serious zombie butt.
(FILM REVIEWS)
Shark
Tale (Frank's Take)
DreamWorks tries awkwardly in their blind ambition to continue
the delightful digital-animated ditties in the celebrated
spirit that has been previously so vastly successful at the
box office. As a result, the DreamWorks creative machine conjured
up a spry but uneven underwater adventure in the derivatively
upbeat animated feature Shark Tale.
(FILM REVIEWS)
Sky
Captain and the World of Tomorrow (Frank's Take)
In the stylistically ambitious sci-fi fantasy Sky Captain
and the World of Tomorrow, Conran concocts a colorful creation
dripping with cheerful arty set designs armed with a refreshing
old-fashion storytelling sentiment that drives this opulent
noir to its creative core.
(FILM REVIEWS)
Shaun
of the Dead (Frank's Take)
The devilishly dandy flesh-eating farce Shaun of the Dead
certainly fits the bill as a monstrously subversive parody
that delivers the ghoulish goods. With its British-oriented
sense of stinging wry wit coupled with some truly genuine
gloomy gumption, Shaun of the Dead is a delightfully sick-minded
yet spry frightfest that captures the twisted imagination.
(FILM REVIEWS)
Ghost
In The Shell 2: Innocence (Mark's Take)
Mark checks out this popular Japanese anime flick and discovers
the animation is never flat, but demonstrates varying degrees
of dimensionality, frequently within the same frame.
(FILM REVIEWS)
Hero
(Mark's Take)
China tries to make its own Crouching Tiger with a story of
an enigmatic stranger who has killed a triad of assassins
for the benefit of China's first Emperor. The stranger tells
the emperor multiple versions of how he killed the emperor's
enemies. Visually Hero is stunning. The telling is operatic
in style but becomes muddled.
(FILM REVIEWS)
Les
Revenants (Mark's Take)
A creative and intelligent recycling of the horror concept
of the dead returning, but this time it is used for non-horror
purposes. Les Revenants runs into pacing problems toward the
middle.
(FILM REVIEWS)
Primer
(Mark's Take)
This SF film gets the research environment and the baffling
scientific techno-jargon just about right. The story is hard
to follow, but that might not be so unrealistic either. Definitely
this is a demanding and puzzling film that does a lot with
its minuscule budget.
(FILM REVIEWS)
Shark
Tale (Mark's Take)
Dreamscape's latest animated film is set in a sort of undersea
urban environment and should entertain the whole family. The
story is familiar but the jokes come in a rapid fire.
(FILM REVIEWS)
Shaun
of the Dead (Mark's Take)
This film is like a crossbreeding of George Romero and Mike
Leigh. Oblivious lower-middle-class Londoners slowly become
aware that the dead are returning at trying to eat the living.
This satire laughs at the tropes of the zombie movie, but
even more at the foibles of English life today. The first
half is very funny and the second half is at least witty.
(FILM REVIEWS)
Sky
Captain and the World of Tomorrow (Mark's Take)
The Art Deco future as it was seen from the late 1930s is
the background for this super-paced sci-fi adventure. The
plot is just a chain of action sequences, one leading to the
next, and the characters are one-dimensional. Even the artwork
is a little too dark, but the images are genuinely exciting
and they are what make the film worth seeing.
(FILM REVIEWS)
NEWS
ARCHIVE

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