The first sequel to Mary Robinette Kowal’s Hugo-nominated novel, The Calculating Stars takes us to Mars—in the early 1960s.
Author Archives: JD DeLuzio
The Twilight Zone Review: “The Blue Scorpion”
“The Traveller” was perhaps the best outing this season, and the same author’s second script also scores high among the new Twilight Zone episodes. The premises feels like The Twilight Zone and, despite Peele’s epilogue, which emphasizes one particular interpretation of the episode, “The Blue Scorpion” could be about many things.
Movie Discussion: Aladdin and Brightburn (2019)
We have a pair of genre releases this week that we won’t be reviewing soon. If you want to discuss Disney’s live-action reinvention of its 1990s adaptation of the story from Arabian Nights, or the horror-movie twist on Shuster and Siegel’s reinterpretation of the hero mythos, here is a place to do it.
Game of Thrones Review: “The Iron Throne”
Game of Thrones has always presented a distorted and phantastic version of European history. The finale’s earliest scenes echo history of [spoiler]recent vintage. The post-battle scenes rival what we’ve seen in the last hundred years, and we even experience a fascist rally.[/spoiler]
The second half of the finale [spoiler]feels more like the Renaissance [/spoiler]again.
Obligatory: “And now our watch is ended.”
Expect spoilers.
The Twilight Zone Review: “Point of Origin”
Rod Serling created the original Twilight Zone, in part, to tell stories and address themes otherwise off-limits to period television. The new show operates with a good deal more freedom. “Point of Origin,” a Kafkaesque outing, has clear enough targets, and one wonders if it wouldn’t have been better to just tell some version (even a creepy, Twilight Zone version) of the real-world story.
Weekend Review: Daphne & Velma
Our recent Weekend Movie Reviews have looked back to 2019 Hugo Nominees that didn’t receive notice here when they hit the theatres. This week, we look back to a 2018 movie that received little notice anywhere, and certainly won’t be winning any awards. However, it fills up this space until Brightburn and Godzilla, King of the Monsters get released later this month.
Did anyone realize they made another live-action Scooby-doo film last year? This one reimagines Velma and Daphne’s first mystery together, before they hooked up with a couple of guys and a talking Great Dane.
Game of Thrones Reviews: “The Bells”
Game of Thrones went to war in its most recent episode.
This review contains spoilers. At this point, the alternative would be to black out 90% of the text…
The Twilight Zone Review: “Not All Men”
The Twilight Zone takes a familiar starting point and develops a story that actually makes good use of its longer running time. The ending, however, may leave some viewers cold….
Novel Review: The Calculating Stars
Do you remember the first time you saw the stars again?
We follow up Brian’s entertaining 1950s SF Movie podcast with a review of a current Hugo nomination, set in an alternate version of the mid-twentieth century.
A large meteor strikes earth, initiating what may be an extinction event. The space program hits the fast-track, as do certain elements of social progress. Neither movement goes smoothly.
Comic Review: Exit Stage Left: The Snagglepuss Chronicles
A bit of a retro-review here, tying into the recent Dorky/Geeky/Nerdy Podcast:
DC has certainly tried to profit from the Hanna-Barbera characters, though only Scooby-Doo retains cultural cachet. One of the more interesting results: a GLAAD Media Award-winning limited series/graphic novel from 2018 that reinvents Snagglepuss as a closeted gay playwright1 fighting conformity in an alternate 1950s2 America where anthropomorphic animals and humans co-exist. The Puss proves the darling of talk shows, makes the social scene with his beard wife, hangs with fellow author Huckleberry Hound, mentors Augie Doggie, runs cover for Marilyn Monroe, testifies before the House Un-American Activities Committee– and slips away to see his human paramour at the Stonewall Inn.
No, I am not hallucinating. This 2018 graphic is an actual thing, and it’s surprisingly good.