Archive for the 'Literature' Category

Moderan

August 05th, 2008 | Category: Literature, reviews by doctord

moderan book

moderan book

The Sf Marginalist
Books that may have escaped your attention

One:

moderan, by David R. Bunch

The stories that appear in this book first stated showing up in sf mags in the late 50s. Amazing, Fantastic, and the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction were the havens of the late Mr. Bunch’s peculiar and poetic visions, partly satire (though what he was satirizing was often open to debate), partly dark comedy, wholly engrossing and original. The world of moderan is one of a plastic-coated landscape where the denizens are consumed by their quest to rid themselves of the flesh they bear and become eternal, and by their incessant territorial wars. Not typical of the sf yarn of the late 50s, the time of the Engineer-as-hero paradigm, practiced by Asimov and Heinlein and del Rey among other notables, and stylistically the precursor of the “new wave” that was to begin appearing a couple of years later, in tales by British authors like Ballard and Aldiss.

 

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Book Review: Dragonlance: The Annotated Chronicles Volume III: Dragons of Spring Dawning

August 02nd, 2008 | Category: Dragonlance, Literature, Reviews by Paul Talon

Book Review: Dragonlance: The Annotated Chronicles Volume III: Dragons of Spring Dawning dl_annotatedchronicles

Dragonlance: The Annotated Chronicles Volume III: Dragons of Spring Dawning

Written by: Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman

The finale.  It all built to this.  Was it worth it?  Certainly.  What’s surprising though is that in such an epic tale, the epic battles are much more individual.  The stories are really about the characters acceptance for who they are and what their place is in the universe.  To that level, there is a bit of letdown in terms of the war, as it just seems to…end…slightly abruptly.  But the characterizations make up for it in spades.

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Book Review: Dragonlance: The Annotated Chronicles Volume II: Dragons of Winter Night

July 22nd, 2008 | Category: Dragonlance, Literature, Reviews by Paul Talon

Book Review: Dragonlance: The Annotated Chronicles Volume II: Dragons of Winter Night  dl_annotatedchronicles

Dragonlance: The Annotated Chronicles Volume II: Dragons of Winter Night

Written by: Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman

The second act of a three act story is always the hardest.  It is by definition a set up.  We’ve already been introduced to most of the main characters, and yet we don’t have the final climactic events to end the saga.  Therefore what are we left with.  The tale that takes our main characters and bring them far enough along yet not to completion.  It’s toughest to end.  To find a satisfying conclusion that leaves the rest open for discussion yet is not completely without hope.

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Review; Casino Royale (2006)

July 09th, 2008 | Category: Literature, Movies, SecondViews SubSection Updates

Review; Casino Royale (2006) Casino%20Royale%20-%20Shooter

Many already consider Casino Royale as modern classic and the movie has also gathered praise, not only from the press, but from people who wouldn’t necessary see a Bond movie when a new one is out….

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Review; Dr.No

July 08th, 2008 | Category: Literature, Movies, SecondViews SubSection Updates

Review; Dr.No Dr%20No

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….My guess is that this movie would be as good as any movie in the series (okay, some of them aren’t all that good, but I find all of the movies enjoyable) to acquaint oneself with the Bond movies.

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Book Review: Dragonlance: The Lost Chronicles: Dragons of the Highlord Skies

July 03rd, 2008 | Category: Dragonlance, Literature, Reviews by Paul Talon

Book Review: Dragonlance: The Lost Chronicles: Dragons of the Highlord Skies highlord_skies-150x150

Dragonlance: The Lost Chronicles: Dragons of the

Highlord Skies

Written by: Tracy Hickman and Margaret Weis

While the story is not as easily and naturally set up for placement as the storyline for Volume 1, it is a both a decently important and entertaining story to tell.

As can be gleamed from the title, this novel fills us in on what Kitiara was up to when she sent the note saying she would not make it back to Solace as they all had sworn. Set up as a tale of Tanis Half-Elven’s two loves, Kitiar and Laurana, we see Kit’s early days as a Highlord. It’s a very intriguing tale as we see her relationship with her dragon Skie really take off and in truth we see her rise to power enough to later challenege Ariakas, the leader of the Dragon Highlords.
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Book Review: Dragonlance: The Lost Chronicles: Dragons of the Dwarven Depths

June 14th, 2008 | Category: Dragonlance, Literature, Reviews by Paul Talon

Book Review: Dragonlance: The Lost Chronicles: Dragons of the Dwarven Depths dwarvendepth-150x150

Dragonlance: The Lost Chronicles: Dragons of the Dwarven Depths

Written by: Tracy Hickman & Margaret Weis

When a “midquel” is planned, it is usually for one reason. Money. It’s usually a tale that while sometimes entertaining, often feels shoehorned between two stories. There are often contradictions and since it has been so long since the story, the author’s styles have changed greatly.

So how does the first volume of the Lost Chronicles do with that in mind? It does well despite a few of the same problems.

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News: Star Wars Comics Out May 21st

May 20th, 2008 | Category: Literature, News, SecondViews SubSection Updates

Star Wars Legacy continues when Cade Skywalker determines to deal with the Empire once and for all in this conclusion to one of the most important stories of the year!

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In Part 5 of ‘Vector’ in the popular Star Wars: Dark Times series, the biggest Star Wars story of 2008 comes to the era of the Empire as Darth Vader’s pursuit of power releases a force unlike any he’s ever witnessed!

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News: Star Wars Comics Out May 14th

May 12th, 2008 | Category: Literature, News, SecondViews SubSection Updates

This week comes the exciting adventures in part 4 of both Star Wars: The Knights of the Old Republic and Star Wars: Rebellion, on sale at your local comic book store May 14th.

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News: Star Wars Legacy #23 Released

May 09th, 2008 | Category: Literature, News, SecondViews SubSection Updates

The continuing adventures of Cade Skywalker, Deliah Blue and Jariah Syn are told in the latest issue of the popular Star Wars Legacy series from Dark Horse comics.

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