Summer 2015 Sci-fi & Fantasy capsule book reviews

I’ve been reading a number of books over the summer: tales of magical lawyers, medieval samurai, peculiar children, interplanetary missionaries, and blade-carrying death-gods really run the gamut, but sadly most of them have been disappointments. (Given that they all had good reviews out there, maybe it’s just me.) Nevertheless, I think they’re all worth checking…

Humans – TV Review

This summer has made itself a home to many sci-fi shows. It’s a good fit because the short season allows for modest budgets and the chance to take more risks with less at stake for the networks. There have been a number of returning shows: Extant, Orphan Black, Defiance, Dominion, Teen Wolf, Under the Dome, along…

Armada by Ernest Cline – Book Review

When I found out that Ernest Cline, author of Ready Player One, was putting out another novel, I was so eager that I didn’t even bother to read anything about , this tale of aliens invading Earth and the humans who defend us by playing videogames. I just put it on my Audible pre-order list,…

2015-2016 Fall TV preview

I love it when the TV networks put out trailers for the new fall shows that they’re planning to air. They come out just in time as the current seasons are ending, giving us TV fans something to look forward to over the summer hiatus. This year’s batch seems kind of mediocre (unfortunately) and nothing…

Hyperion by Dan Simmons – Book Review

Featured image – “The Shrike” by Edouard Noisette Hyperion is one of my favourite science fiction novels. It’s one of the few books I’ve actually read twice (I’m not one of those re-reader types). When I wanted to start the sequel, Fall of Hyperion, I realized that I needed to refresh myself on all the…

Movie Reviews – Interstellar & Hobbit: Battle of 5 Armies

Thanks to their both being available on home video (take the hint, cinema-industry) I was finally able to watch two of the biggest movies of …. 2014! The only reason I didn’t find The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies even more disappointing than I did was because my expectations had been lowered by the…

The Liebster Award

Thanks to YoungCinemaBuffs for the nomination RULES • Thank the person who nominated you and link their blog. • Answer the questions given by the nominator. • Nominate 11 other bloggers who have less than 200 followers, and link them. • Notify all the bloggers you nominate. • Create 11 new questions for your nominees…

Midseason TV 2015

Midseason is here again. It’s that time of year when TV networks (and a growing number of non-TV channels who are delivering episodic content) take a second run at catching the audience’s attention. It’s usually a time when some of the more outlandish/inventive shows come on, which the programming execs might have thought were too…

Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey – Book Review

I was surprisingly disappointed by Leviathan Wakes, which is the first of a series of books now headed to tv on the US SyFy channel as “The Expanse”. They characterize the show as a Game of Thrones set in space, so that gave me all kinds of expectations of an array of interesting characters and…