Science Fiction

[ramonmercado]

Is High Rise classed as sci fi? The novel is certainly dystopian but it's surely more of an urban horror story. I guess in its day it might have been classed as speculative fiction, but that's a classification no-one seems to use any more.

Looking forward to it, anyway.

Horror/SF maybe.

I'm seeing it tomorrow evening.

 

[Mythopoeika]

For better or worse, Ballard is still classed as science fiction, so it probably is, even though you could ask, is Concrete Island SF?

No.

 

[GNC]

No.

And yet I bought my copy many moons ago in the SF section of a bookshop.

 

[Graylien]

I read Concrete Island last week and I certainly wouldn't call it sci fi. In my library they shelve his 60s stuff in sci fi and his later novels in general fiction. Seems about right. (I took out Crash and Super Cannes.)

You could make a decent film of Concrete Island on a tiny budget. I'm surprised no-one's done so yet. Perhaps if High Rise does well, we'll see some more Ballard adaptations.

 

[ramonmercado]

10 Cloverfield Lane: A Woman is involved in a car crash after breaking up with her boyfriend, there appears to be an earthquake and reports over the radio of electricity failure in many cities. She comes to in a cell and soon finds out that she is being held in an underground bunker by an ex Naval technician (John Goodman) who claims to have rescued her. He babbles about nuclear, biological/chemical attacks and even muses about a Martian attack. The third inhabitant is a not very bright local who helped Goodman build the bunker and believes in his spiel.

After an attempt to escape she finds that there really is a deadly virus loose outside the bunker. But there still may be something sinister about Goodman.

Great SF/Horror. 8/10.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1179933/

 

[ramonmercado]

High Rise: A suicide jumper from the Tower hits a car bonnet and windscreen in slow motion, Tom Hiddleston roasts the haunch of an Alsatian (dog) he had earlier treated as a pet, wild orgies. Yes its a faithful adaption of the Novel. Jeremy Irons lives on top of the Tower in a Garden of Eden roof garden, literally playing God. His wife (dressed as Beau Peep) keeps a black sheep and a horse in the garden, both of which meet the same fate as the Alsatian when supplies run low.

Is an allegory of the state of British Society in the 1970s? Class War certainly breaks out in the the Tower as the lifts malfunction and electricity blackouts occur. Not an easy film to watch, I'll be thinking about it for a while to come, I'l probably see it a second time over the next week. 9/10.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0462335/

 

[ramonmercado]

 

[Mythopoeika]

I'd go, but...Edinburgh. Too far for me.

 

[ramonmercado]

Amazing Sci-Fi Space Stations

From Babylon 5 to the Death Star, space stations have been integral to some of the best science fiction movies of all time. Here are our picks for some of the best fictional space stations ever put on screen.

Did your favorite space station make the list?

FIRST STOP: Bond, James Bond ... in Space

Drax's Space Station ("Moonraker")

This station — featured in the Roger Moore-era James Bond movie "Moonraker" — is owned by the movie's Nazi villain Hugo Drax. The privately owned station is the ultimate show of wealth that Drax wants to use to keep himself safe from the chemical warfare he's about to wage on the surface of Earth. Bond hitches a ride on a space shuttle and attempts to stop the ultra-rich villain before it's too late. [Photos: James Bond's Space Adventures on Film]

- See more at: http://www.space.com/22262-best-spa...&adbpl=tw&adbpr=15431856#sthash.fhOXqA5W.dpuf

 

[ramonmercado]

 

[Mythopoeika]

Nice to see that Fangorn is still doing stuff.

 

[ramonmercado]

VALERIAN NEW PICS COULDN’T BE MORE LUC BESSON
Dane DeHaan, Cara Delevingne and more stand revealed in the first Valerian pics

1 / 5

We couldn’t be more excited about Luc Besson’s Valerian And The City Of A Thousand Planets. Yep, we said it. Besson is one of the few remaining purveyors of flamboyant and unashamedly space operatic sci-fi, and it’s good to see the latest results of his return to the big screen. Marmite he may be, but we suspect that fans of The Fifth Element are going to be in for a treat if these new pics, courtesy of Entertainment Weekly, are anything to go by.

For those who have forgotten, the synopsis is as follows:

Rooted in the classic graphic novel series, Valerian and Laureline- visionary writer/director Luc Besson advances this iconic source material into a contemporary, unique and epic science fiction saga.

Valerian (Dane DeHaan) and Laureline (Cara Delevingne) are special operatives for the government of the human territories charged with maintaining order throughout the universe. Valerian has more in mind than a professional relationship with his partner- blatantly chasing after her with propositions of romance. But his extensive history with women, and her traditional values, drive Laureline to continuously rebuff him. ...

http://www.scifinow.co.uk/news/valerian-new-pics-couldnt-be-more-luc-besson/

 

[Mythopoeika]

Ohhh...let's hope it's as good as those costumes look.

 

[ramonmercado]

Watch the Short Animated Film Version of Charles Stross’ “Rogue Farm”
Posted on April 11, 2016 by John DeNardo in Movies // 0 Comments

Thanks to Paul Di Filippo for alerting us to this short film version of Charles Stross’ story “Rogue Farm”, apparently created back in 2005.

In it, a farmer defends his farm from a so-called farm collective (a biological entity made up of people who want to migrate to Jupiter), deals with his weary wife, and bonds with his talking dog. ...

 

[ramonmercado]

Hardcore Henry: Filmed completely from Henry's viewpoint this is much more than just a shooter game (but there is plenty of that. A great line of dark humour runs through this SF/Thriller. Henry is literally raised from the dead to become a cyborg soldier in the army of Super Villain Akan. Escaping, Henry realises the only way to survive is to thwart Akan's plans for World Domination. 8/10.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3072482/

 

[ramonmercado]

17 Science Fiction Books That Forever Changed The Genre

Speculative fiction is the literature of change and discovery. But every now and then, a book comes along that changes the rules of science fiction for everybody. Certain great books inspire scores of authors to create something new. Here are 21 of the most influential science fiction and fantasy books.

These are books which clearly inspired a generation of authors, and made a huge splash either in publishing success or critical acclaim. Or both. And these are in no particular order. ...

http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2016/0...al&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

Read all of them. Well, I didn't finish Dhalgren.

 

[Mythopoeika]

Read most of them.

 

[Peripart]

Wow - I've only read 7 of those. I obviously have some catching up to do (though if any of the remaining 10 leave me as stone-cold as Dune, I'll have to tread carefully!).

 

[Monstrosa]

Need to read 3.

 

[Coal]

I've read about half, might have to look at the others! I did hear a R4 dramatization of the Martian chronicles a bit back, thought it was rather good.

 

[ramonmercado]

Ken MacLeod - Launches Science Fiction Book Group

Central Library are starting a new Science Fiction Book Group and Ken MacLeod will launch this new venture on 6th May.

When, Where & How Much...
Date(s): 06 May 2016
Time(s): 7pm
Where: Stirling
Price: £5 / £3

Contact Information
★ Event organiser/part of Off the Page Book Festival
★ Visit the Ken MacLeod - Launches Science Fiction Book Group website here
★ Follow culturestirling on Twitter
★ Facebook information can be found here

About Ken MacLeod - Launches Science Fiction Book Group

Ken was born in Stornoway, Isle of Lewis and now lives in West Lothian. He holds both an Honours and Masters Degrees and has worked for some years in the IT industry.

Since 1997 he has been a full-time writer and is the author of fifteen science fiction novels, from The Star Fraction (1995) to The Corporation Wars: Dissidence (Orbit, May 2016), which is part of a space opera trilogy.

His novels often explore socialist, communist and anarchist political ideas, most particularly the variants of Trotskyism and anarcho-capitalism or extreme economic libertarianism.

Central Library, Corn Exchange Rd, Stirling FK8 2HX, 01786 432107

http://www.whatsonstirling.co.uk/event/031946-ken-macleod---launches-science-fiction-book-group/

 

[ramonmercado]

Criminal: SF/Espionage/Conspiracy Thriller. Involves a Bond Style "Anarchist" Billionaire Bond style villain who wants to destroy all governments. His hacker henchman has a wormhole into the US Missile launch system but decides Nuclear Armageddon isn't such a good idea after all. CIA Agent Ryan Reynolds hides him away but is then mortally wounded before he can reveal the bolthole.

Scientist Tommy Lee Jones transfers Reynolds memories to psychotic prisoner Kevin Costner. But things don't go too smoothly.

Gary Oldman as the CIA Chief chews up the scenery and there are some implausibilities in the way the CIA deploy Tactical Forces in London. But this is an entertaining film with a great performance from the brain damaged Costner as he absorbs the transplanted memories. 7/10.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3014866/

 

[ramonmercado]

 

[Frasier Buddolph]

I'm puzzled that more of these "Greatest Science Fiction" compilations don't include any works by Stanislav Lem. IMHO, his writing is on an entirely different level from mainstream commercial writers like Bradbury, Asimov, and Heinlein (All of whom I enjoyed growing up, but as an adult not so much.) Lem was drummed out of the SFWA (Science Fiction Writers of America) in 1976 when he had some unflattering (and indisputable) things to say about the state of the genre.

Solaris, Fiasco and His Master's Voice are three of my all-time favorite SF novels, and Golem XIV remains the most thoughtful treatment of AI that I have read. Highly recommended.

 

[Mythopoeika]

Lem was drummed out of the SFWA (Science Fiction Writers of America) in 1976 when he had some unflattering (and indisputable) things to say about the state of the genre.

Was it about the move away from hard SF?

 

[Frasier Buddolph]

Lem's criticism (and I am paraphrasing liberally) is that SF was trivial pulp literature, produced in volume for an unsophisticated and undiscriminating audience. His criticism of fandom was that they demanded so little of SF writers (other than continuous and copious output) that the writers had little incentive to produce works of lasting value. Lem went on to say (and he named names) that despite some writers' pretensions to being serious writers, their work was in fact poorly structured, unimaginative, and lacking internal logic.

To quote from the liner notes of Microworlds, a book of Lem's essays on SF, "Lem writes with polemical passion about what he regards as science fiction's squandered potential; he sees it as bogged down in a rehash of myth and fairy tales. Too often, says Lem, science fiction resorts to well-worn patterns of primitive adventure literature, plays empty games with the tired devices of time travel and robots, and turns its back on time-honored cultural and intellectual values."

Needless to say, this did not go down well with some of the more self-important members of the SFWA. Phillip Jose Farmer was one of the most vocal in demanding that Lem's honorary membership be revoked. Ursula K. LeGuinn, among others, protested and demanded that Lem be reinstated. When Lem was invited to return to the SFWA, he refused. Not SF's finest hour.

 

[GNC]

Independence Day: Resurgence trailer:

Looks like two hours of things falling over and exploding. Er, hooray?

 

[Mythopoeika]

No Will Smith, so the aliens will win.

 

[GNC]

But we have Jeff Goldblum's supermind!

 

[Tigerhawk]

Read the Mars trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson, thought it was brilliant, but the rest of his work just doesn't interest me at all...