Gravity Lens Weblog

Archive November 27 - December 17

Sunday, December 17

John at SF Signal has posted a review of Solstice Chronicles, and given it four out of five stars. John is obviously quite wise and exhibits excellent taste.

Solstice Chronicles is available at Lulu.com, and can probably be delivered by Christmas if one of the higher shipping options is selected.

Saturday, December 16

Regular readers know that I don't do a lot of commentary on this blog, preferring to vent my opinions by endlessly polluting other comment boards. But sometimes an issue sticks in my craw.

During the week, John at SF Signal posted a story about a possible new animated Star Trek.

I've ranted about Trek in the past, but I made some comments on the SF Signal board I'd like to expand upon and archive here:

I am once again stunned at the insistence that Star Trek has to be allegorically relevant, but if it must, I'd prefer it take on more scientific/ethical issues, like a justification for banning genetic enhancement, or how a society with FTL, molecular replication, and teleportation has managed to sidestep a technological singularity.

Star Trek is considered by many to be the public face of SF, it's flagship. I hold by my belief that to retain that title it needs to take it up a level: travel out into some heretofore unexplored quadrant and find that it is heavily populated by Type II Kardashev cultures, Lovecraftian ancients, Kirby-esque star gods, Matrioshka brain AIs trying to tap reality's source-code, post-singularity societies like Banks Culture, Wright's Oecumene, or Hamilton's Edenists, etc.

In short, Trek needs to catch up with the rest of science fiction.

It would be much more compelling and cohesive than a series of Shakespeare quote-riddled morality plays about slavery/holographic rights/drug addiction/whatever. The idea of a biological race eschewing a singularity yet still roaming out amongst the older/more powerful/scarier races could have a nice Brin/Uplift tone to it. Babylon 5 touched on this, but didn't really pursue it to the extent it could have.

I'd also like a smarter race to explain to the Vulcans what a debasement of logic they are, and that maybe working on a cure for that disease that drives them (and everyone around them) crazy might be a better use of their time than touching each others foreheads.

With the exception of Farscape, Military SF seems to be the default setting for TV SF. Even Firefly delved into several times. The only other recent American shows I can think of which really avoided it were Earth II (which replaced it with political conspiracy) and Earth: Final Conflict, both of which were horrible. Compare this to the whole of written SF, where military stories make up a much smaller portion.

Also: the idea of bringing the Enterprise "back to the glory days" sounds a bit to much like Andromeda to me. I'm uncomfortable with stories where the good guys are trying to instigate a big step backwards.

I'd also add that the current Dr. Who is the only show currently tackling actual SF ideas on a weekly basis.

Feel free to comment over at the Bar & Grill.

Friday, December 15

Assorted Items: JK Ellis gives us Ten Ways to Build a Cult-Like Following.

Cap'n Wacky asks "Supervillains, what are your plans for ruining Christmas?"

And The Spoof tells us that Mel Gibson is set to direct a Klingonese language movie.

Thursday, December 14

Currently making the rounds: Last year Keith Graham's Wanderings posted scans for Chesley Bonestell's beautiful 1950 magazine feature Mr. Smith Goes to Venus.

Popular Science gives us a neat gallery of concept art for an underwater hotel.

Wednesday, December 13

We live in a world where you can buy a Swiss Army Knife with 85 tools in it.

Tuesday, December 12