Best fantasy & science fiction movies by year
Here’s my updated list. 2014 and 2015 were amazing years for fantasy and science fiction movies — both years had multiple movies battling for positions in the “Winner” column. The Boxtrolls, Edge of Tomorrow, X-Men: Days of Future Past, Ex Machina, The Martian, and The One I Love could all easily be in that column. […]
Author discovery of the year
I didn’t happen to read many new authors in 2015. I spent a fair amount of the year reading 4 series by authors I’d read before — Dune, The Quintaglio Ascension, Spin, and Old Man’s War. The big winner is Charles Stross for Accelerando and the runner ups are Brian Herbert & Kevin J. Anderson […]
Anathem
{5/5} “People who couldn’t live without story had been driven into the concents or into jobs like Yul’s. All others had to look somewhere outside of work for a feeling that they were part of a story, which I guessed was why Saeculars were so concerned with sports, and with religion. How else could you […]
SF & fantasy collections & anthologies
Collections Best of the best I, Robot – Isaac Asimov Nightfall – Isaac Asimov Virtual Unrealities – Alfred Bester The Golden Apples of the Sun – Ray Bradbury Keeper of Dreams – Orson Scott Card Maps in a Mirror – Orson Scott Card Stories of Your Life and Others – Ted Chiang Expedition to Earth […]
All Flesh is Grass
{4.5/5} “Even in the face of potential danger, should we bar the way to them? For here was an alien life, the first alien life we’d met. Here was the chance for the human race, if it would take the chance, to gain new knowledge, to find new attitudes, to fill in the gaps of […]
Tie-in books
The tie-in books that I will continue to read come from the worlds of Star Trek, Babylon 5, and Battlestar Galactica. Ones I’ve tried in the past include Star Wars, The X-Files, and Indiana Jones. Novels Best of the best B5: The Passing of the Techno-Mages #1 — Casting Shadows — Jeanne Cavelos B5: The […]
Weaver
{4.5/5} “As for the project we’re engaged in here, well, the threat you’ve hinted at seems rather bizarre, but the country is awash with rumours about Hitler’s super-weapons. A Nazi time machine isn’t even top of the league table of outlandishness, believe it or not. If only for the sake of morale, the government must […]
The Martian
{5/5} “It has been seven days since I ran out of ketchup.” The Martian, released in 2015 The Ares 3 mission on Mars is cut short due to a huge storm. One of the astronauts, Mark, is presumed dead when his signal is lost. But he’s really still alive — and must survive alone on […]
Navigator
{5/5} “You see, Orm, I’ve found a rent in the tapestry of time…. And through that rent I have glimpsed horror. But from that horror I have conceived an ambition as big as the world, Orm. It is nothing less than the final defeat of Islam, and the preservation of Christendom into the far future.” […]
Mad Max: Fury Road
{5/5} “As the world fell, each of us in our own way was broken. It was hard to know who was more crazy: me or everyone else.” Mad Max: Fury Road, released in 2015 In a post-apocalyptic wasteland Max survives. He’s haunted by the memories of people he couldn’t save, and he’s chased by scavengers. […]