Genre Fiction

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Geekomancer Under Glass – Marvel’s Transmedia Gambit

(No, not that Gambit, Shaun :P.) Spoilers for Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD and Captain America: The Winter Soldier ahead.) When Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD was announced, there was excitement, there was wariness, and everything in-between. An ongoing TV show as a tie-in to a powerful superhero franchise? This was something new, something different. There have been TV->film->TV movements, from La Femme Nikita to Star Trek, Star Wars, and more. The Matrix universe delved deep into transmedia storytelling, with animated shorts, video games, and comics. But Agents of SHIELD was something different — clearly designed as a bridge between movies, the show started weak. Really weak. The pilot episode showed some promise, with Clark Gregg as a compelling lead and Mike Peterson giving a voice to an interesting thematic question (is the American Dream a lie?).

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Film Review: The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec (2010) — A (World) SFF Film Odyssey

Readers may be familiar with director Luc Besson’s previous work, which includes the excellent films like The Fifth Element (1997), Leon the Professional (1994; featuring a quite young Natalie Portman), or the lesser-known, but personal favorite, Unleashed (2005; featuring Jet Li, Morgan Freeman, and the late Bob Hoskins).  These are wildly different films, but they are a testament to Besson’s versatility as a writer and director.  The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec (Les aventures extraordinaires d’Adèle Blanc-Sec; 2010), seems, then, to be a departure from what has come before, in no small part because this is a film which is coded for a younger audience by its humor and delivery.  In that respect, it is a fun, if not somewhat uneven adventure comedy.

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Mining the Genre Asteroid: Telzey Amberdon and the Federation of the Hub by James Schmitz

Fifteen year old Telzey Amberdon of the planet Orado is the daughter of a relatively rich and well connected family. A law student on the fast track to follow in her parents footsteps and active in her world’s politics, she is also certifiable genius. Smart enough to be a serious contender in planetwide chess tournaments, in fact. When she and her family are on vacation on the planet Jontarou, however, she inadvertently unlocks dormant psionic powers (and xenopsionic at that) that she has had since birth. The nature of her psionic powers is rather unusual — xenotelepathy, the ability to communicate with sentient aliens of all kinds. Take, for example, her 200 pound crest cat pet Tick-Tock, whom she did not even know or expect was as intelligent as any human being. And addition to the rarity of her powers, Telzey is now probably one of the strong psychics in all of human space. Powerful enough to be able to rewrite aspects of someone’s personality, even. A fifteen year old xenopsionic, especially a genius powerful one, is in much demand in the Psychology Service of the Federation, and while Telzey has the same problems, hopes and dreams of a fifteen year old girl, she quickly gets wrapped up in much bigger matters as she takes her place in this “new” world and grows into her abilities and her role. On her own terms, of course. The Federation, however, is never going to be the same when it gets to meet Telzey.

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The Disquieting Guest — Tentacles and Patriarchy

As something of an appendix to our Shoot the WISB discussion of the new Godzilla (where we were joined by Rachael Acks), I thought I’d talk a bit about something that I’ve always found very striking about It Came from Beneath the Sea (1955):  the portrayal of Faith Domergue’s character, Professor Lesley Joyce. She is, on the one hand, part of a mini-trend in 50s monster movies where women are scientists (Them!, Creature from the Black Lagoon), roles that were virtually non-existent in the films of the preceding decades.* What makes It stand out, though, is that the narrative is at least as concerned with Joyce’s struggles to be taken seriously in a male-dominated world as it is about Ray Harryhausen’s magnificent octopus. Joyce is, unsurprisingly, the only female character of any importance in the film. What is unusual, however, is that we are meant to notice her position, repeatedly pointed out in her interactions with submarine commander Peter Mathews. The latter is played by Kenneth Tobey, doing very much the same self-confident officer as in The Thing (1951). He keeps refusing to take her seriously, and the body language in the (colourized) still below is pretty telling:

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Book Review: The Dirty Streets of Heaven by Tad Williams

Doloriel, a.k.a. Bobby Dollar, has a tough job for an angel. He’s an advocate, which means when someone dies, he gets the call to argue that the soul should go to Heaven. Or, at worst, Purgatory. Every death has an on-the-spot trial, with a representative from Heaven and Hell arguing for the soul before an impartial judge. It gets even tougher when the impossible happens — a soul disappears from the body of a recently deceased before that judgement can take place. Hell blames Heaven. Heaven thinks it’s Hell doing a false flag operation.The rules are going out the window, and Bobby is in the middle. Add in the fact that more souls are disappearing, everyone thinks Bobby has something unique, special and oh-so-coveted, and Bobby is in a run and gun for stakes that are getting larger moment by moment… As I said, Bobby Dollar has a tough job, but he’s also not an ordinary angel by any means…

The Skiffy and Fanty Show Podcasts

207. David Edison (a.k.a. Kahlua Engine) — The Waking Engine (An Interview at ICFA)

http://media.blubrry.com/skiffyandfanty/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/archive.org/download/SandFEpisode207InterviewWDavidEdisonAtICFA/SandF%20–%20Episode%20207%20–%20Interview%20w%20David%20Edison%20at%20ICFA.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | iHeartRadio | Podchaser | Podcast Index | Email | TuneIn | Deezer | RSSCities of the dead, sass, and New Yorkers, oh my!  Shaun and Julia have a little fun with David Edison in a hotel room.  We talk about words, David’s new book, The Waking Engine, the after life, urban fantasy, his publishing journey, Torchwood, and a whole lot of random, silly stuff, and sass. We hope you enjoy the episode! Note:  If you have iTunes and like this show, please give us a review on our iTunes page, or feel free to email us with your thoughts about the show! Here’s the episode (show notes are below): Episode 207 — Download (MP3) Show Notes: David’s Website David’s Book David’s Twitter You can also support this podcast by signing up for a one month free trial at Audible.  Doing so helps us, gives you a change to try out Audible’s service, and brings joy to everyone. Our new intro music is “Time Flux” by Revolution Void (CC BY 3.0). That’s all, folks!  Thanks for listening.  See you next week.

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