Fun Fiction-SciFi Fix

I do a lot of "light" reading. I have always been a voracious reader—I was the kid walking to school while holding a book in front of my face— I would read anything and everything, and my first degree is in Comparative Literature. But as an adult I find myself drawn to lighter, escapist reading. That is why I am grateful for my Book Club (called the Book Club) because it pushes me to read more literary fiction and even some non-fiction and memoir.

But at heart I love a good sci-fi space opera. I think my life involves so many "little" stresses—driving kids to after school activities and doctors appointments and dog to vet appts and showing up at the school meetings and concerts, that it is nice to have a reading experience that is wholly restful and not wrenching, deeply thought provoking and life-changing—not that there is not a time and place for that kind of reading! But not in my life. Not today.

This is all a long prelude to confessing that I have spent the last few months re-reading Lois McMaster Bujold's 15 book Miles Vorkosigan series. I jumped into the series this time at book #4, The Warrior's Apprentice (Vorkosigan Saga Book 4), which is the beginning of the life and times of Miles Vorkosigan, whom I just love. He is a daring, brilliant, moody, young member of the Vor Class with all the weights and responsibilities of his high caste, and and he is tortured by physical deformities which make him a target in a mutation-phobic society. Yet he manages to take us on a non-stop thrill ride through a far future galaxy that is richly developed throughout the series.

I am not Miles' only fan. The books have garnered 6 of scifi's highest awards (Nebula, Hugo and Locus) as well as a dozen nominations in those categories. Also several listings on the New York Times Best Sellers List.


If you have the winter-blues, I recommend this escape!

Movie Review: Edge of Tomorrow

picture from comingsoon.net

I am a sucker for a good sci-fi flick, and I heard from reliable sources that the new Tom Cruise movie was worth the trip. 13-year-old Fat Rabbit, an avid sci-fi fantasy reader and writer herself, came along.

Note. It is SO GREAT that my youngest child is now old enough to take to PG-13 movies!!! No more endless saccharine animations to sit through: I will take a pass on Toy Story14 and 15 and Despicable Next Generation and Mulan's Great Granddaughter and Monsters Inc Doing Post Docs. Yes, some of them were decent, but 21 years into motherhood I am ready to give them a miss.

This one was a combination of Groundhog Day, Pacific Rim and 12 Monkeys. The idea of the repeated day is not new to moviegoers, nor is mechanized war equipment, or revisiting the past to get it right. But nonetheless, it was a splendid ride and watching the evolution of the Tom Cruise character from smarmy PR salesman to passionate warrior chief was great fun. Emily Blunt does a great kick-ass female warrior, which I always enjoy, and the special effects were indeed special.

We saw the movie 3D. I have come to the conclusion that after the first 3 minutes of WOW we fatigue-out the 3D enhancement and experience the movie much as we would a 2D, so do not think it is worth the considerable price bump-up.

A satisfying summer flick, though probably ultimately forgettable. Unless we reset and see it again...

Movie Review: Ender's Game

I play Lexulous (an online scrabble game) with two of my elementary school friends. We have been doing this since 2009. In the game's little chat box we get to rib each other, exclaim over moves and exchange sci-fi reads. When Steve proposed seeing Ender's Game together, Natalie and I gave a hearty "YES!"

The movie did not get great reviews. It was a 60% on Rotten Tomatoes, just scraping on by a tomato skin to make the "fresh category." However, I have learned a trick when it comes to genre flicks—never trust the critics! I call it the Genre Bias. Examples of this for me are 1) Super Mario Bros. (1993) RT score of 16%. 2) Cat Woman (2004) RT score of 9%,Aeon Flux (2005) a stunning 10%, and all the Twilight Movies. Yes, ALL the Twilight Movies. I think they are great flicks. Yet they all got panned. And, true to the Genre Bias, this was a really good movie, and I thought pretty faithful to the spirit of the book.  Asa Butterfield was outstanding as Ender, and Harrison Ford and Ben Kingsley didn't hurt things any.

Ender's Game is a book I read over 20 years ago, yet I still remember it vividly. I passed it on to my husband who refers to it probably once every three days. I also read the rest of the original quartet of books, though have not kept up with the later quintet. In preparation for our viewing, Natalie read a collection of essays on the book by noted writers and scientists and military strategists—Ender's World: Fresh Perspectives on the SF Classic Ender's Game —and she said the essays had a lot to offer.

The Orson Scott Card books are great. Forget about the fact that Orson Scott Card has completely disgraced himself with his shameful political views in recent news, the books are still great. And there are more Ender books on the way, according to a video posted 6 days ago in the LA Times, (and hopefully no more political rants embarrassing to his readers).

As a sidenote, I actually met Orson Scott Card when I won the Phobos Book award for my short story, "The 22 Buttons," in a short story anthology edited by Card and Olexa, called Empire of Dreams and Miracles.
I had a perfectly nice and normal conversation with him at the authors' party following the ceremony. I recall him saying that people should switch jobs or careers every 10 years, something I have often thought about since that seems to be what I do. Perhaps he should not switch careers but stick to writing after all.

Natalie and Steve also liked the movie, so it is safe to say we will continue to play Lexulous together!