The science fiction/fantasy novels thread

[davemerrill]

Yeah, he said that the bigshots wanted to put a black rapper guy in the movie to appeal to the "urban market." He was gonna be the comic releif and say how much he didn't believe what was going on. My friend was like, "You don't get it. This is D&D. He was serious about having it turn into a real fantasy movie, since there really hadn't been any since the '80s (maybe with Willow? "Traitor child, I must despise you now!"). He basically rage quit because nobody was taking it seriously. I've never seen the movie, though. I may get the DVD if there's a Rifftrax for it!

The director had a lot of excuses as to why the movie turned out lousy, but at the end of the day, he's the director. I know it sounds hard to believe, but there was a time when a Wayans in a film wasn't automatically a bad sign. And trust me on this - everybody in the film turns in a lousy performance, from Jeremy "Paycheck" Irons right on through Thora Birch, Tom Baker - who manages to shamelessly mug while LYING DOWN - but the high point is Bruce Payne as the main bad guy who paints his face blue and stands around a lot yelling "GIVE ME THE ROD!" The main hero is Justin Whalin who played Jimmy Olsen in "Lois & Clark". I had to look that up, as his performance is totally forgettable.

Seriously, it's the kind of bad movie that's a lot of fun to watch. ERAGON is probably, pound for pound, a worse film, but it's not nearly as "I can't believe this is a real movie" bad.

Critics will say HOLLYWOOD SHUFFLE is the best film starring a Wayans, but I have a soft spot for I'M GONNA GET YOU SUCKA, a parody film that was about ten years ahead of the curve in terms of making fun of 70s tropes (see also BLACK DYNAMITE & every Quentin Tarantino film)

[_D_]

I actually liked the 2nd movie...the one that was made for TV. That was much more consistent as to what should have been in the first movie. Way better than the hack job Uwe Boll did with Dungeon Siege...

[greg]

There was a D&D movie made for TV? I had no idea!

My sister gave me the Eragon book. She's not ashamed to read juvenile fiction, and she's read all the Harry Potter books and even the first freaking Twilight book. (Apparently the Mormon author, Stephenie Meyer, grew up in Mesa, AZ and my brother-in-law either knew her or knew of her from his high school years' Mormon dances. Mesa has TONS of Mormons.) She told me to read the book, but avoid the movie at all costs, and said that the director didn't seem to care at all how the movie turned out.

The only SF novel I have read more than twice is Idoru by William Gibson. I touched Neuromancer just briefly, and read only the first chapter. A protagonist who is strung out on drugs and feels like crap is not the most immediately gripping character for me. I'll have to get myself in the mood to read that book eventually.

Anyhow, Idoru is a part of Gibson's second trilogy, containing Virtual Light, Idoru, and All Tomorrow's Parties. I have yet to read Virtual Light, but I found that it isn't that very necessary to understand Idoru. (The protagonist of that novel only shows up briefly in this book and returns in the 3rd book.) The concept behind Idoru is this: imagine some rock star like Bono making an announcement that he intends to marry Hatsune Miku. That is basically what happens in this book. In the vein of Eve from Megazone 23 and Sharon Apple form Macross Plus, Rei Toei is a virtual idol in Japan, and is a huge star. Rez from a band called Lo Rez announces his engagement to Rei, and it shakes up the music world. Under suspicion that Rez is being somehow manipulated against his will, Colin Laney, a Net investigator, is hired to get to the bottom of this. Meanwhile, a young fangirl named Chia McKenzie, is sent by her fanclub to Tokyo to investigate this news and get the scoop on what is going on. The book is basically two stories being told simultaneously, switching back and forth every chapter or so, until the climactic ending when Colin and Chia cross paths.

This book is so very fun, and it really deals with Japanese pop culture and proposes a very cool vision of the future of Tokyo in which nanotech-constructed buildings populate the city and ripple creepily when there is a slight seismic tremor, and an incredibly vivid look of the future of a World Wide Web presented in virtual reality, in which a girl's virtual avatar can be clad in a kimono, woven in shimmering threads made of concert footage. It is certainly a lighter approach to cyberpunk than Gibson's prior trilogy of SF novels that had a darker, underworld tone to them.

Idoru is a fast read, delves greatly into otaku culture, and is rather exciting. Actually, because I had read this book, I was able to understand the anime Series Experiments Lain upon first viewing. Lain is the type of anime you'd need to see a second time to really understand what is going on, but the concepts of that anime is referenced to in this novel, in which a Tokyo-based cult believes that once the population of the entire world reaches a certain number, the total number of combined neural tissue in the world would create a sort of telepathic neural network among all living creatures, and that this collective conscious would manifest itself to guide mankind to its new future.

[_D_]

Weird that this has a low rating but is a better film than the first one!:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0406728/?ref_=fn_al_tt_4

First watched on SyFy channel, then straight to video which made me think it was "made for TV". I actually enjoyed this film.

[Path]

There was a D&D movie made for TV? I had no idea!

My sister gave me the Eragon book. She's not ashamed to read juvenile fiction, and she's read all the Harry Potter books and even the first freaking Twilight book. (Apparently the Mormon author, Stephenie Meyer, grew up in Mesa, AZ and my brother-in-law either knew her or knew of her from his high school years' Mormon dances. Mesa has TONS of Mormons.) She told me to read the book, but avoid the movie at all costs, and said that the director didn't seem to care at all how the movie turned out.

The only SF novel I have read more than twice is Idoru by William Gibson. I touched Neuromancer just briefly, and read only the first chapter. A protagonist who is strung out on drugs and feels like crap is not the most immediately gripping character for me. I'll have to get myself in the mood to read that book eventually.

Anyhow, Idoru is a part of Gibson's second trilogy, containing Virtual Light, Idoru, and All Tomorrow's Parties. I have yet to read Virtual Light, but I found that it isn't that very necessary to understand Idoru. (The protagonist of that novel only shows up briefly in this book and returns in the 3rd book.) The concept behind Idoru is this: imagine some rock star like Bono making an announcement that he intends to marry Hatsune Miku. That is basically what happens in this book. In the vein of Eve from Megazone 23 and Sharon Apple form Macross Plus, Rei Toei is a virtual idol in Japan, and is a huge star. Rez from a band called Lo Rez announces his engagement to Rei, and it shakes up the music world. Under suspicion that Rez is being somehow manipulated against his will, Colin Laney, a Net investigator, is hired to get to the bottom of this. Meanwhile, a young fangirl named Chia McKenzie, is sent by her fanclub to Tokyo to investigate this news and get the scoop on what is going on. The book is basically two stories being told simultaneously, switching back and forth every chapter or so, until the climactic ending when Colin and Chia cross paths.

This book is so very fun, and it really deals with Japanese pop culture and proposes a very cool vision of the future of Tokyo in which nanotech-constructed buildings populate the city and ripple creepily when there is a slight seismic tremor, and an incredibly vivid look of the future of a World Wide Web presented in virtual reality, in which a girl's virtual avatar can be clad in a kimono, woven in shimmering threads made of concert footage. It is certainly a lighter approach to cyberpunk than Gibson's prior trilogy of SF novels that had a darker, underworld tone to them.

Idoru is a fast read, delves greatly into otaku culture, and is rather exciting. Actually, because I had read this book, I was able to understand the anime Series Experiments Lain upon first viewing. Lain is the type of anime you'd need to see a second time to really understand what is going on, but the concepts of that anime is referenced to in this novel, in which a Tokyo-based cult believes that once the population of the entire world reaches a certain number, the total number of combined neural tissue in the world would create a sort of telepathic neural network among all living creatures, and that this collective conscious would manifest itself to guide mankind to its new future.

Idoru sounds fascinating, I've added it to my to-read list. Any other otaku culture type books you can recommend?

[greg]

Hmm... I don't know of any other SF books that revolve around otakudom. However, there is a book called Wrong About Japan by Alex Kerr that is about otaku obsessions in Tokyo. He's an author who pulls some strings to get his son an audience with Tomino, Miyazaki, and many other big names in the anime/manga industry. I wrote a review of the book on my homepage. He is annoying, his son is annoying, his son's friend is annoying, but they're all really forgivable and it's a great read.

In other news, I got out my Man.. Or Astroman? CDs. I haven't listened to this band in a very long time. They're a sci-fi space age surf rock band, and they've finally released a new album this year after over 10 years of silence. There is a track on their album, Project Infinity, entitled "Philip K. Dick in the Pet Section of a Wal Mart." I'd forgotten about that song title. I always got a kick out of that.

[_D_]

I do remember vividly the band Hawkwind performing "Chronicle of the Black Sword" at the 1987 Worldcon. I even had a clip of Michael Moorcock signing autographs at that con up on Youtube at one time. I'm always amazed by the references to comics like Judge Dredd in Brit bands lyrics. Something really...

[greg]

So last week I FINALLY got around to completing The January Dancer by Michael Flynn. After having to restart from the beginning once, going back several chapters once, and just not reading it for very long periods of time while I focused on studying Japanese, I finally finished reading this book. It took just over 2 years to read it. It's not that it was a difficult read, although apparently some people complain that it is difficult because of the terminology and characters' numerous aliases involved. People have likened his space opera writing style to that of Doc Smith's, but I wouldn't know from experience. It was a pretty cool book, and in fact I am already about 50+ pages into its sequel, Up Jim River.

[usamimi]

There was a D&D movie made for TV? I had no idea!

My sister gave me the Eragon book. She's not ashamed to read juvenile fiction, and she's read all the Harry Potter books and even the first freaking Twilight book. (Apparently the Mormon author, Stephenie Meyer, grew up in Mesa, AZ and my brother-in-law either knew her or knew of her from his high school years' Mormon dances. Mesa has TONS of Mormons.) She told me to read the book, but avoid the movie at all costs, and said that the director didn't seem to care at all how the movie turned out.

The only SF novel I have read more than twice is Idoru by William Gibson. I touched Neuromancer just briefly, and read only the first chapter. A protagonist who is strung out on drugs and feels like crap is not the most immediately gripping character for me. I'll have to get myself in the mood to read that book eventually.

Anyhow, Idoru is a part of Gibson's second trilogy, containing Virtual Light, Idoru, and All Tomorrow's Parties. I have yet to read Virtual Light, but I found that it isn't that very necessary to understand Idoru. (The protagonist of that novel only shows up briefly in this book and returns in the 3rd book.) The concept behind Idoru is this: imagine some rock star like Bono making an announcement that he intends to marry Hatsune Miku. That is basically what happens in this book. In the vein of Eve from Megazone 23 and Sharon Apple form Macross Plus, Rei Toei is a virtual idol in Japan, and is a huge star. Rez from a band called Lo Rez announces his engagement to Rei, and it shakes up the music world. Under suspicion that Rez is being somehow manipulated against his will, Colin Laney, a Net investigator, is hired to get to the bottom of this. Meanwhile, a young fangirl named Chia McKenzie, is sent by her fanclub to Tokyo to investigate this news and get the scoop on what is going on. The book is basically two stories being told simultaneously, switching back and forth every chapter or so, until the climactic ending when Colin and Chia cross paths.

This book is so very fun, and it really deals with Japanese pop culture and proposes a very cool vision of the future of Tokyo in which nanotech-constructed buildings populate the city and ripple creepily when there is a slight seismic tremor, and an incredibly vivid look of the future of a World Wide Web presented in virtual reality, in which a girl's virtual avatar can be clad in a kimono, woven in shimmering threads made of concert footage. It is certainly a lighter approach to cyberpunk than Gibson's prior trilogy of SF novels that had a darker, underworld tone to them.

Idoru is a fast read, delves greatly into otaku culture, and is rather exciting. Actually, because I had read this book, I was able to understand the anime Series Experiments Lain upon first viewing. Lain is the type of anime you'd need to see a second time to really understand what is going on, but the concepts of that anime is referenced to in this novel, in which a Tokyo-based cult believes that once the population of the entire world reaches a certain number, the total number of combined neural tissue in the world would create a sort of telepathic neural network among all living creatures, and that this collective conscious would manifest itself to guide mankind to its new future.

Idoru sounds fascinating, I've added it to my to-read list. Any other otaku culture type books you can recommend?

A little late to the party, but omg IDORU! I love that book so much. I read it in jr high and it quickly became one of my favorites (and was the first William Gibson novels I ever read). It's a fantastic book, I recommend it to everyone. XD

Speaking of William Gibson, the last book of his I read was "Pattern Recognition", and it was really good. I actually found one of his newer books (Spook Country) at the Dollar Store, of all places (lol) but I haven't gotten around to reading it yet.

[greg]

Yeah, Idoru is so much fun that I have read it three times. It was my first Gibson book too. I read the next in that series, All Tomorrow's Parties, and it explores the ethics of faxing solid objects. When I first read it 10 years ago, I thought it was a bit too out-there, much like a Replicator from Star Trek. But it really isn't that too far-fetched nowadays, with this 3D printing that has begun. People are excited about this technology, but I am dreading it. It goes beyond copyright violations. Already on the news recently here in Japan there was some young man who was arrested for fabricating firearms with a 3D printer. He was probably just some harmless otaku, but the implications of this is severe. There could be no gun control or the control of any such mechanism if the technology will allow you to fabricate it.

I have also bought the first book in that series, Virtual Light, but have yet to read it. Someday I'll read it and plow through the trilogy. It'll be another excuse to read Idoru again. I have yet to get myself into the mood for reading Neuromancer.