Monday, August 1, 2022
Saturday, July 30, 2022
Thursday, July 7, 2022
Monday, December 6, 2021
The Star Trek "litverse" concluded last week with the publication of Star Trek: Coda: Oblivion's Gate by David Mack.
For the past twenty years, Trek authors have been telling stories beyond the episodes and movies. Well, all that came to a halt because of the streaming series Star Trek: Picard, which is set twenty years after 2002's Star Trek: Nemesis and ignores the litverse continuity. Dayton Ward, James Swallow, and David Mack worked together to create the litverse swang song trilogy.
Friday, November 19, 2021
The Ashes of Tomorrow, book two Star Trek: Coda trilogy, beamed down to bookstores on October 26th from Gallery Books. I got my hands on a copy before the publication and read the book within a few days. I intended to post a review at the end of last month, but life things happened, and I'm just now finding the time to share my thoughts with everyone.
Monday, September 27, 2021
It seems there's a rule that if a genre television or movie series has a big fanbase, then tie-in novels will soon follow. Once the series has run its course, all media tie-ins come to an end. There are a few exceptions, such as Star Trek and Star Wars. The Star Trek franchise has been kicking out novelizations since 1967, and the first original novel, Mission to Horatius, came out one year later. To date, there have been over 850 Star Trek books published.
Monday, August 30, 2021
Despite my disappointment with the new incarnations of Star Trek, my expectations for the spinoff Star Trek: Picard was a bit high. Like many Trekkies, I had negative feelings for the first season. Out of the new characters, Cristóbal Rios was the only one I liked, even though he was a ripoff of Han Solo. He's the captain, pilot, and owner of the small transport ship, La Sirena - a unique ship that looks more Star Wars than Star Trek.
Tuesday, August 10, 2021
Thursday, March 4, 2021
Available on Paperback and Kindle.
It's taken me nearly a year to read the anthology WRITERS OF THE FUTURE - VOLUME 36 by Galaxy Press. Why did it take me so long to finish it? There are many reasons why, including procrastination, depression, stress, allergies, and the pandemic. Then again, maybe part of me wasn't in the mood to read an anthology.
Writers of the Future is a yearly science fiction and fantasy writing contest. It was founded in the early 1980s by the late pulp author L. Ron Hubbard. The contest Illustrations of the Future started in 1988. The winning stories and illustrations appear in the annual L. Ron Hubbard presents Writers of the Future.
The stories included in VOLUME 36 are by C. Winspear, Michael Gardner, Andy Dibble, J. L. George, F. J. Bergmann, Leah Ning, Katie Livingston, David A. Elsensohn, Storm Humbert, Mike Perkins, Zack Be, Tim Boiteau, and Sonny Zae. Included with each short story is an illustration by one of the artist winners. The illustrators are Arthur Bowling, Aidin Andrews, Heather A. Laurence, Kaitlyn Goldberg, Ben Hill, Irmak Cavun, John Dale Javier, Mason Matak, Anh Le, Brock Aguirre, Daniel Bitton, and Phoebe Rothfield.
Also, there's an introduction by editor David Farland and art & writing tips by Echo Chernik, Mike Perkins, and Sean Williams. There are three bonus stories by Katherine Kurtz, Jody Lynn Nye, and Nnedi Okorafor. Last but not least are two reprinted writings by L. Ron Hubbard - the essay "Steps in the Right Direction" and the short story "Borrowed Glory."
Final Thoughts
The short stories were a mixed bag for me. A few were well-written, such as Stolen Sky by Storm Humbert, A Price in Every Box by F. J. Bergmann, and Catching My Breath by J. L. George, and the others were more on the dull side. Don't get me wrong - it's not like the stories are bad. I just didn't connect with the narrations and characters. The biggest issue I have with anthologies is that some stories keep my interest and the others don't.
The illustrations throughout the anthology are all exceptionally crafted by talented artists. I didn't have a favorite because all are equally beautiful.
Overall, I'm rating WRITERS OF THE FUTURE - VOLUME 36 a three out of five. Yes, that might seem low to science fiction readers, but as a whole, this anthology was lackluster at best. Here's hoping VOLUME 37 (set to be released this Fall) will be better.
Tuesday, July 28, 2020
There’s no bigger name in the world of science fiction than James Cameron (the director of Terminator 1 & 2, Aliens, The Abyss, and Avatar), so it shouldn’t be a shocker he wanted to make the ultimate documentary about science fiction movie and television series.
Thursday, April 16, 2020
Monday, April 13, 2020
When you're stuck at home with only your thoughts during a worldwide pandemic, the last thing you probably should do is read a book about a flu outbreak. Thanks to my insomnia (and my insanity), I read Star Trek: The Next Generation: Double Helix: Infection by John Gregory Betancourt (Available on KINDLE!), which is book one in a six-part miniseries based on the concept by John J. Ordover and Michael Jan Friedman.
Wednesday, March 18, 2020
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*This is a sponsored post. |
Reading is a relaxing activity that allows you to live in a different place and time for a while. There are many genres on the market that can hold your attention and keep you entertained. Here are some popular themes to consider.
Tuesday, March 17, 2020
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*This is a sponsored post. |
Do you daydream of star travel or science just beyond reality’s grip? If so, then you just might have what it takes to be a science fiction writer. If you’re considering writing cosmic fiction or stores that take technology down exciting new avenues, there are a few things you want to keep in mind when you’re just starting out.
Monday, February 24, 2020
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Purchase Your Copy Here! |
About the Book
Phil, Tim, and Dakota are three survivors taking refuge in Atlanta, Georgia. The year is 2027, ten years after a nuclear fallout decimated the known world and left it in shambles. With hordes of the undead flooding their once safe home and a city now depleted of all resources and supplies the three must make a daring gamble. To trek across the States and Canada, looking for a new place to call home; safe from the monsters that plague the lands.Monday, January 6, 2020
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Available on Paperback and Kindle! |
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away . . .
There was a little bitty science fiction film titled Star Wars, written and directed by George Lucas. Released in 1977, the film became so popular that it spawned two sequels, Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, two made-for-television Ewoks movies, two short-lived Saturday morning cartoons, and the infamous (and laughable) 1978's Star Wars Holiday Special. The entire franchise was pretty much dead until 1991 when the Bantam Books published Star Wars: Heir to the Empire by Hugo Award-Winner Timothy Zahan, which is book one in a three-book cycle. Dubbed the "Thrawn Trilogy," the books introduced four new characters — Mara Jade, Talon Karrde, Gilad Pellaeon, and Grand Admiral Thrawn.
Monday, August 26, 2019
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Amazon; Best Buy; Walmart; Target |
Monday, April 29, 2019
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AMAZON |
Does anyone remember hearing about a the movie Replicas being released to theatres back in January? If your answer is no, don't worry you're not the only who's never heard of it either!
Replicas landed on Blu-ray, DVD, and Digital earlier this month from Lionsgate Home Entertainment.
Directed by Jeffrey Nachmanoff and written for the screen by Chad St. John based on the story by Stephen Hamel, the film stars Keanu Reeves as William Foster, a neuroscientist who moved his family to Puerto Rico when he took a job working for the Bionyne Corporation. Along with cloning scientist Ed Whittle (played by Thomas Middleditch), William is attempting to transfer the mind of dead soldiers into robots. Despite many attempts, their experiments have failed.
While on a family trip, William, his wife Mona (played by Alice Eve) and their children Sophie, Matt, and Zoe are involved in a car crash. William is the only the survivor. Instead of calling the authorities, he ends up calling Ed to help him recover their bodies and take them back home, where he plans on cloning their bodies with technology that Ed sort of borrowed from the Bionyne Corporation. Sadly, there were only 3 cloning tank available, so William must make a horrible decision not to clone one of his children.
The cloning process only takes 17 days per clone, and during that time William brainstorms on how to successfully copy the human mind's neural pathways to an artificial mind. Luckily for him, he succeeds just in the nick of time. However, bringing his family back from the dead will have deadly consequences.
Blu-ray Special Features include:
- Audio Commentary with Director Jeffery Nachmanoff and Executive Producer James Dodson
- Imprint Collection: The Making of Replicas
- Deleted Scenes
Final Thoughts
Friday, April 1, 2016

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Rated R; 100 minutes; $25.99; Amazon |
Special Features on the single-disc DVD includes:
Discussion with Writer/Director Simon Pummell
Visual Effects Breakdown
Set in a strange futuristic world, Identicals centers on Slater (played by Lachlan Nieboer), a man who witnesses his girlfriend's abduction by the Brand New-U Identifies, a network that helps people have a better life by walking into the body of someone else.
After a confrontation with Nadia's look-alike (played by Nora-Jane Noone), Slater is accused of murder, well that is until the Brand New-U Identifies offers him a choice - take the rap for the murder or upgrade his life.
Slater chooses the latter and becomes an Identical. Sadly, he can never let his past disappear, and he ends up searching for his only true love, Nadia.
Friday, February 12, 2016

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Rated R; $9.98; 364 mins; Amazon |
No, this title isn't related to The X-Files revival, but instead it is an newly released Mill Creek Entertainment DVD, featuring four science fiction flicks - Night Skies, Alien Hunter, Ghosts of Mars and The Day The World Ended.
Directed by Roy Knyrim, Night Skies was released in 2007, and starred A. J. Cook, Jason Connery, George Stults, Ashley Peldon, Joseph Sikora and Gwendoline Yeo. The plot involves a group of friend driving an RV to Las Vegas, NV. After a wrong turn and a slight accident, the group end up in the middle of nowhere, where they encounter the strange "Phoenix Lights" in the sky.
Alien Hunter is an underrated 2003 science-fiction thriller from director Ron Kraus. The film centers on Julien Rome (played by James Spader), a Cryptologist who is sent to Antarctic to investigate a strange alien-looking vehicle that mysteriously appeared in the snow. The vehicle is sending out some sort of signal. By the time he decrypts the signal, which gives the warning "Do not open!", it's already too late. I saw the film on television several years ago and it isn't a bad low-budget film.
Back in 2001, Cinemax aired a series of movies called Creature Features, which remade old creature films. The Day The World Ended was one those films, which is a remake of the 1955 film of the same name. Directed by Terence Gross, the remake stars Nastassja Kinski, Randy Quaid and Bobby Edner. The plot involves a young boy that believes he's part alien just as a series a strange murders occur all over town. Honestly, this is a horrible movie with bad acting and dumb special effects.