The big publishers piss me off with their politics, ebook demands, and the way they screw over their talent— so unless someone gifts me something I buy indie fiction exclusively. The problem with that is it has a bad name because so many writers refuse to hire editors, so I generally check out their blogs and tweets before I buy to see how serious they are, or get a promo trial and count errors.

If you see “beta readers” or “my editor”, you can usually be sure it’s not going to be someone’s personal Mary Sue fanfic with the names changed and tense-shifts and mixed metaphors that require knowledge of quantum mechanics to understand.

This author is proudly indie, and she has every right to be. Her books are professionally edited, but more importantly, she surpasses the homogenous corporate creations within her genres in creativity and entertainment value. I’ve been snatching up her whole catalog.

In this book, Drummond again masters the art of tightly knitting a Heinlein heroine with Whedonesque dialog in a world where paranormal seems normal. The first book in the Discord Jones series is dramatic and saturated with action but lightened up with considerable sarcastic and situational humor— there’s a self-defense scene that made me laugh so loud I woke the baby. (In fact, once I started I was only able to put it down when his naps were over. I didn’t even remember to eat!)

If you like Red Dwarf or anything Douglas Adams, you’ll probably get it. If you’re expecting Galaxy Quest, you might, but you might not.

The pilot starts off rocky, in my opinion, but it gets better, though like most 1970s science fiction it’s slow-paced. Richard Benjamin uses an over-the-top delivery that suits the captain of a garbage ship (far different from his character in Westworld). Add to that a bit of Absurdist humor based on retro scifi cliches, some disco outfits, and outdated TV mores and you have a mix that will make some people laugh uncontrollably and others simply shake their heads. One character is a plant who has sex through pollination, for instance, and the captain won’t sleep with either female crewmember because he doesn’t know which one is the clone. Today he’d just boff both of them.

At any rate, if you’re a big scifi fan you should probably get Quark under your belt. If you’re only mildly interested in science fiction or just watch it for the effects this isn’t really your thing.

It was OK. It had a predictable “Technology is Evil/ Personal Responsibility” plot, art direction was nice.

Had a hard time believing 98% of the world could afford to use a surrogate, and that with that customer base they still needed to advertise. Also had a hard time believing everyone wanted to look human. In a world where everyone looks like a model, you’d think other standards of beauty would emerge.

Enjoyable as fluff, really. You’re not going to spend days debating the concept of “personhood” the way you might with something like Blade Runner.

Excellent! I read this twice before finally getting down to writing a review. The main character, Tria, and the action plotline reminded me much of Robert A. Heinlein’s “Friday”, so I had to reacquire a copy of Friday to read again for comparison.

Tria isn’t artificial or polyamorous like Friday, but she possesses a similar practical attitude about work that needs to be done, kicks prodigious ass, and does so without ignoring her feminine side. The strong-willed character and her search for family are so similar to Friday’s quest I was surprised to find out (by accident) the author hadn’t read Friday.

In short, if you like the women Heinlein based on Ginny, but prefer the sex scenes wouldn’t fade to black, you can’t go wrong with this. It’s packed with action— both the armory and amorous kind, and has a few twists if you’re the “Oh, no!” type of reader.

Two things I often find disappointing about science fiction are too often writers create details about aliens for the convenience of the plot, and the humans always win. I added an extra star because the cultural details of the Drac and Katarrs and all differ from each other but make perfect sense, and Earth actually surrenders. Both of these additions are unusual and deserving of notice.

From the description I expected something like Twenty Bucks, but with a cat. It wasn’t, but nor was I disappointed. Five girls pledge eternal friendship in grade school and find themselves inevitably drifting apart after graduation, each of them for a time owning Tee-Tee the cat.

Yeah, it takes place in South Korea, but the plot is universal. I think anyone out of high school who can watch a movie free from explosions and car chases without getting antsy will easily relate to it.

This series, available in one volume as well, follows the discovery of verifiable telepathy, through the genocide of telepaths to the creation of the Psi Corps in volume one, then turns into Bester’s story for the final two volumes.

Volume one is pretty much entirely a political drama that includes telepaths.

Volume two covers Bester’s childhood and successful adult years, his personality is formed by a constant series of betrayals and propaganda, making him a more sympathetic character.

Volume three covers Bester on the run and in hiding after Lyta’s rebellion succeeds in overthrowing the Psi Corps. The media has portrayed him as a sort of Hitler type, so pretty much the entire universe is out to get him. He ends up hiding in Paris as a book critic and accidentally falling in love with a Mundane artist. Garibaldi is still looking for him, and of course it ends tragically for Bester and well for Garibaldi.

POSSIBLESPOILERS, but not bad ones. Read them if you’re on the fence about whether you should pick up the series:

30% of telepaths can’t be identified genetically. This is probably the case with Ivanova’s family.

Bester is the child of the two Blips who organized the pockets of anti-corps telepaths into a terrorist/guerrilla force, and the grandchild of the first Corps director. He doesn’t know this at first, but as a result he gets special training. Ultimately he spends his life fighting the resistance his parents started.

A piece of Byron’s psi-imprint entered Bester’s head when he died and haunts him. Or does it?

Bester’s hand injury is psychosomatic. It seems to be his way of holding a secret.

Bester is the one who put the other personality in Talia. It’s one of his specialties and he does it for decades to make sure he will always have secret pockets of telepaths loyal to him.

At various times there are Vorlons stationed on Venus, and in Antarctica. One of them plants a genetic memory in one of Lyta’s ancestors ensuring that her family line will be drawn to the Vorlons to fight the Shadows when the time comes.

Bio of Harlan Ellison. It’s like one long, well-deserved rant to and about various groups of idiots who should but won’t listen, interspersed with stories from friends and recitations of his work.

There really isn’t anything more to say. He says what he thinks. If you only like people who say what everyone else thinks, you’ll hate this.

Oh, and the answer isn’t 42, it’s Naomi Campbell.

This stop-motion movie about awakening a dinosaur with atomic testing predates Godzilla by a year. Although Gojira/Godzilla is a far superior movie, it owes much to this film, and Godzilla fans should take a peek. It’s not as cheesy as the title makes it appear.

The Gathering in this set has had the music and some of the jokes replaced that aren’t in the previous release. It’s the series pilot so some of the makeup is unfinished and the actors are still figuring out their characters.

In the Beginning is probably the best weaving of new material into a clip show ever. I have friends who are interested in Star Trek or Stargate watch this one first, then move on to The Gathering if they bite. There are spoilers, yes, but it presents the series as one complex story rather than episodes, and it raises tons of questions they want to have answered.

Thirdspace stands on its own. You probably can understand the movie without having seen the show, but knowing either the show or something about the Cthulhu Mythos would make it better.

The River or Souls stands on its own as well, the Soul Hunters are adequately described. The story is a little weak, in my opinion, but Martin Sheen’s approach to the young Soul Hunter is fun to watch.

A Call to Arms is the film that links Babylon 5 to Crusade. There’s no point in watching it unless you’ve finished Babylon 5 and are about to watch Crusade.

Two things bother me about this. Giving one of the Minbari characters a sarcastic streak didn’t sit well, but that’s overwith quickly. As most others would agree, the ridiculously complicated weapons system is the other. For some reason the Rangers replaced a firing button that anyone could use without fatigue with a floating Tae Bo chamber.

Admittedly, this doesn’t seem AS far fetched once you have played Wii, but it still doesn’t work.

The story isn’t that bad, though. It’s hard to get past the Tae Bo weapons system because the first time you watch it, that might be all you remember, but if you skip that part, the rest is OK.

Not of interest to people who haven’t watched the original series at all. Some of the movies are self-contained; most science fiction or Lovecraft fans will “get” Thirdspace without seeing the Babylon 5 series, but this one doesn’t stand alone. There’s no point in watching it unless you have some grasp of Minbari culture, Ranger history and G’Kar’s character arc.