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China's Town and Redemption Ark The new wave of Brit-pack authors takes the SF world by storm. China Miéville and Alastair Reynolds lead July's invasion of book reviews.
Redemption Ark is the third novel set in the same universe as Alastair Reynolds's somewhat splendid Revelation Space and Chasm City (one of which deservedly won the British Science Fiction Award, as I recall). The plot sets up a number of different characters in a very complex universe, managing to carry off the original Star Wars trick of throwing a melange of groups and back-history into the mix so fast you feel you've walked into a twenty part series of Flash Gordon during episode eighteen, having totally missed the first seventeen. Of course, we are now two books into the series, but these are very stand-alone novels, and only a couple of the characters from the last book get a direct carry-over. The human colonized section of the galaxy has suffered a terrible blow after the Melding Plague has swept through it - an alien disease which corrupts nano-technology and sends the tech haywire, merging with human flesh where it can. Humanity has fallen into a near dark age, with a war being fought between the two main factions ... the Demarchists; normal humans, and their enemy, the Conjoiners. The Conjoiners are a borg-like hive-mind who can link minds and parallel process their thoughts at a greatly enhanced speed. The hyper-intelligent Conjoiners have stopped the production of FTL drives for decades - a real problem, as none of the rest of humanity understand how to make them. Battles are now being fought for the last of the interstellar drive vessels trading among the stars. The mystery of why the Conjoiners have banned FTL-travel proves one of the driving plot-lines of the book. Along with the true motives of a bunch of killer machine life, the Inhibitors, who have just turned up with the view of making humanity extinct. The race is on for a stash of lost Conjoiner technology, hell-class weaponry which nobody alive even understands any more. Imagine the talking bomb in the movie Dark Star - then give it the personality of Hannibal Lector - and you have some idea of what a hell-class puppy can do. These weapons, as readers of the earlier books will know, are on the plague ship Nostalgia for Infinity, which is still hanging around the small colony planet of Resurgam. The only problem is that as a result of Melding Plague, the vessel is possessed by a barking-mad suicidal Captain, who has been cruelly warped into the very substance of the ship. Redemption Ark is an absolutely cracking page turner. Reynolds manages to blend the space opera of Iain Banks with a Stephen Baxter-like enthusiasm for the beauty of advanced physics turned to quantum weaponry, and combines the whole act with the scale of a Greg Bear spectacular. If you are the busy sort who rations your SF reading to, say, only five books a year, make this one of them for 2002! Stephen Hunt.
One of the recurring pieces of advice given to struggling wannabe authors is to find an 'original voice'. Then every so often an author comes along with a voice so original that he or she practically creates a new sub-genre. Gibson did it with cyberpunk, E. E. Doc Smith did it with space opera. Tolkien did it with sword and sorcery. And now our China has done it with his Dickens-style SF London warped into some terrible, mutant Gormenghast-bad arse city. The town in question is New Crobuzon, set - like Gormenghast - in a world without any explanation save its own presence. Is New Crobuzon fantasy? Is it an alternative reality? Is it London in an incredibly far future? Is it an alien world? Who knows, just kick back and enjoy the procession of the bizarre that China whips into existence before you. The main plot line concerns a rogue human scientist, Isaac, and his quest to find a way to grow a new set of wings for an exiled warrior from an avian species, the Garuda. Said flying desert warrior has had his wings amputated as a punishment for some strange crime of philosophy against his people. Unfortunately for Issac, his quest to let his non-human patron soar in the sky again leads to big trouble - both for him and the city. The universe is unique. New Crobuzon is a dirty, squalid mess, loosely based in society & touch on the rookeries of early 19th century London. Except that dozens of outlandish species inhabit its streets in uneasy coexistence, ruthlessly ruled by a tyrannical parliament which inflict horrific mutations and cruel genetic alterations as punishment for the most minor crimes. From democrats demanding a free press, to child criminals stealing bread, sentences that could have been conjured up from the mind of a Nazi doctor are handed out widely by the city's courts. The patrician rulers are fighting a running battle to keep a lid on the simmering slow motion riot of its citizenry. There is a side-nod to steam-punk, with babbage machines, steam-powered robots, and Victorian-like brands proliferating throughout the book's pages. If Michael Moorcock had been born in the early 1970s and was just now turning his hand to creating a mutant hybrid of the cyberpunk genre - as warped as any of the 'Remade' criminals shuffling through the pages of Perdido Street - such a bastard, inventive work might have been birthed. Weird. Disturbing. Compulsive reading. Stephen Hunt.
I suspect the Spider-Man movie has had more people whetting the lips than the Star Wars Clones movie. Certainly the first weekend cinema sales seem to bear witness to that thought. With the shelves full of ‘Lord Of The Rings’ and ‘Star Wars’ merchandise, you’d have thought there’d be more Spidey material floating around. All right, yes in terms of models and toys, but not so much in the way of books. Outside of the film novelisation, ‘Behind The Mask’ is the main one dealing with the film. No doubt Boxtree probably pulled the rights to ensure it had no competition. Quite right, too, cos this book covers the making of the Spider-Man film in great detail. Not only do we start off the with legal wrangles of film rights before Sony got them all but we also get a complete technical breakdown of everything from storyboards to models to final design of, well, practically everything. You want to see how the Goblin’s glider developed or how the stunts were performed then this is for you. There are also chapters devoted to the cast and production team with photos covering every inch of the way. About the only thing missing from the book is a complete credits list although the cinema main one is on the back of the book. Considering that director Sam Raimi was working on the film until it was released, this reviewer suspects it wasn’t available when the book went to the printers. Such is life. Although I’m going to have to wait until video release before seeing the film, this book has certainly made sure that I’m going to see it the first chance I get. Although I have tribulations about the costume make-over for Daredevil let alone the origin change for the Hulk film, ‘Spider-Man’ as a film looks definitely like it’s going to stay pretty much with the essence of the comicbook character. You simply have no excuses for not buying this book. GF Willmetts Check out websites: www.panmacmillan.co.uk and www.sony.com/Spider-Man
"There were 41 Worlds, ranging in size from cramped little laboratories to vast New New York, home to a quarter of a million people." "They were called 'the Worlds' for convenience, not as an expression of any significant degree of political autonomy or common purpose. Some, such as Salyut and Uchûden, were simply colonies, with populations that were still loyal to their founding countries. Others owed their first allegiance to corporations like Bellcom or Skyfac or, in one case, to a church." (page 10) Set in the late 21st century, 'Worlds' is ostensibly the story of Marianne O'Hara, citizen of New New York, and the postgraduate year she spends on Earth, studying (American History: literature, religion, language) and sightseeing (on a Cultural Relativism tour). Since Marianne is a brilliant, fiercely independent, almost rebellious woman this is, of itself, an interesting premise. However, her story is set against the much larger political situation between the nations of earth and the Worlds. It's a tense situation, too. The Worlds' maintains solar power operations and exports materials primarily. The former showed great promise - until cheap fusion was developed. They need to import carbon, hydrogen and nitrogen in order to keep running, which at this stage makes them heavily dependent on Earth, at least until they can drag the asteroid Deucalion into a convenient position - a project that will take 28 years. Deucalion is a carbonaceous chondritic asteroid, containing those elements required for life in the Worlds. And then large deposits of carbonaceous chondrite are discovered on the moon - which is, of course, easily accessible by the Worlds... Earth itself is not the happiest place to be - it's heavily polluted, and split into independent Dominions, States and Unions, with laws and customs varying wildly between them. Violence is rife. Most travel between cities and countries is by subway (including one under the Atlantic Ocean). And there's something worrying going on, underneath the normal, mundane business of the humans on the planet. Marianne manages to get involved with a group of revolutionaries. It starts innocently enough but gradually becomes more and more threatening. The tension between Earth and the Worlds gets worse. Kidnapping, blackmail and sheer stupidity lead to a breakdown in communications - the Third Revolution erupts; the Worlds are attacked and all hell breaks loose. And if I say any more I'll give away the plot... ‘Worlds’ is written with Haldeman's usual lucidity and accessibility in very short chapters that switch back and forth between straightforward narrative, diary entries, official reports, and letters - which may sound messy but actually maintains reader interest extremely well. I was halfway into the book before I bothered to check when it was written (the mention of pre-decimal English coinage - 'shillings' - brought me up sharp): 1955? This is a misprint. On checking further the book was first published in 1981 - which is strange, since the UK converted to decimal coinage in 1971, but since there is an emphasis on pride in one's own culture and history throughout the book. I prefer to think that this is deliberate, that the England of the story has reverted to its old, delightfully eccentric coinage. Nevertheless, the book reads with extraordinary freshness and immediacy. It combines sociological and political awareness with an understanding of the forces that shape the human race; the characterisation is deftly done, the individuals sketched vividly in very few words - and the end is starkly frightening in its dispassionate, blunt depiction of destruction. A thoroughly good read. Not a comfortable one, but certainly thought-provoking and a little scary - the final scenario is unfortunately far too plausible. Not recommended for people who like happy endings... Joules Taylor
Swans Songs is a collection of six novels covering the exploits of Grainger, an itinerant space pilot. The Halcyon Drift Grainger is stranded on a remote planet where a mind parasite takes up residence in his brain. A ship of the Caradoc Company rescues him and for that honour he finds himself presented with a bill he has little chance of paying. Somewhat too fortuitously, he is offered the position of pilot on the Hooded Swan, an articulated spaceship that is flown by merging with a human pilot's metabolism. Given its near magical capacity, the New Alexandrians, who commissioned the vessel, send it to retrieve the Lost Star. Abandoned in a virtually impenetrable region of space, many are willing to take the risk of salvaging the ship's cargo. Given that virtually no one knows what it is, on the surface the venture seems more like machismo than acquisition. As well as that hazard for Grainger, there is a lot of wading through strange vegetation with attitude. Perhaps it was over optimistic to hope for a heart stopping twist in the plot of the first novel. Rhapsody in Black The premise of worms that can devour cities being let loose on the Galaxy is intriguing: the debate about whether the perpetrator should be allowed to do it, less so. Plenty of situation, though not much action and the story has a leaden quality that inevitably comes with a virtually all-male cast. The narrative sometimes verges on a treatise about religious commitment. Stableford almost get away with it because he is a good writer. Promised Land A young alien girl is ostensibly kidnapped. In pursuit, Grainger unexpectedly discovers that she is important to her species who have been oppressed by the intolerant Zodiac people. They believe that they had been chosen to colonise the promised land of Chao Phrya. Stableford has an acute grasp of commitment driven bigotry in humankind. The wading through vegetation here is livened up by the threat of two-ton arachnids that would not even fit into the bath, let alone allow themselves to be flushed down the plughole. Though the plot is somewhat pedestrian, given the way the author tells it, I did want to finish the story. The Paradise Game One for the anti globalisation protesters. Multi-planetary companies are set to overthrow or at best ignore the relatively ineffectual role of the New Rome authority. Caradoc, a multi-planetary company, make a start by attempting to annex Pharos which is inhabited by the Anacaona who apparently do not evolve, let alone age. Grainger, cynic with a golden heart, is in the thick of it attempting to rationalise his way through it all. He doesn't need to - good old Nature lays down the law instead. The Fenris Device On the inhospitable planet of Mormyr is stranded the ship Varsovien which contains the massively destructive Fenris Device. In a story reminiscent of ‘Halcyon Drift’, Grainger finds himself caught up in a perilous enterprise to retrieve it for the ridiculously taciturn Gallacellans. The plot is pivotal on the odd concept of a human dwarf having a hang up about his size in a the universe filled with aliens, seriously enough to turn his mind and commit murder as well as hijack the Hooded Swan. This novel contains more action than the others and is strong on description. Probably the best story of the collection. Swan Song The tag line of the first description in this book is, 'Sam was a giant designed by a committee who wanted to go easy on materials.' Here Grainger is apparently free of the service of Titus Charlot, a powerful force of New Alexandria, only to be pursued with his new friend, Sam, by Caradoc who need the content of the pilot's memory. The Sister Swan and crew have apparently been destroyed in the Nightingale 'nebula ' and Grainger is inveigled to pilot the Hooded Swan through it. The wind, his mind parasite, at last describes the nature of nebulous existence more eloquently than ever managed in ‘Star Trek’. Nightingale, actually an organism, is absorbing matter, including the wind, like a black hole minus the gravity and the event horizon. It wouldn't be giving too much away to say that everything comes right in the end. After six novels, I would have been uncharacteristically put out if it hadn't. Very much a product of the 70s, the stories are readable, even though generously laced with pseudo-scientific explanations. In many cases, Stableford gives them a peculiar veracity which tends to condense the magnitude of the Galaxy into manageable bites. Nevertheless, the ease with which space is traversed here, despite the effort put into describing the wonderful faster-than-light drives available, can be disconcerting. The author also has a fascination with pervasive vegetation. If ground ivy ever behaved like this, gardeners would need to weed with an AK49. While appreciating that faster than light travel needs some explanation, it usually only goes to prove that the Cosmos is far more elegant than humans dare to entertain. Stableford's attempt at confounding Einstein's theory is just as valid as any later ones. Overall, the impression of a Galaxy immense beyond mortal comprehension is the same as much in the SF genre: a Star Trek home-to-home principally occupied with near-humanoid aliens who are either misunderstood or just out to get the human race. There is also the underlying inference that ignores the opportunism of Nature, implying that there are habitable worlds just waiting for humans to colonise. The stories are all in first person narrative by Grainger, punctuated by dialogue with his benign mental parasite. As well as allowing the main character to hold conversations with himself, the wind, as he calls it, tempers the irrational side of a character that could well have become bogged down by his own cynicism, self-pity and misanthropy. For a hard-boiled cynic, Grainger can do a tedious amount of soul searching. Often he comes up with something worth finding, though the way there can be tortuous. The facilities of the sophisticated Hooded Swan come over as oddly cramped and, after six books, there is hardly a flicker of lust from the Grainger apart from his a love affair with his spaceship. This is probably because there is only one notable female character and she is frequently dismissed as merely bordering on competent. In this context, the all-female inhabitants of Pharos in the Paradise Game are an anomaly to be investigated. Apart from the last two stories, the plots have little substance, which might account for the weight of explanation that pads them out. Fortunately the author has an accomplished narrative style and frequent flashes of wit. More involvement with the alien and imaginative engagement - vegetation excepted - would have helped colour the plots. As they are, the stories assume that humans have pervaded the Galaxy. This is enough to make anyone wonder how science overcame the consequential bone loss. This is competent workmanlike SF in a genre now being elbowed aside by the less problematic fantasy market. It is easier to create myths that do not have any demand on their own logic. Pseudo-science, whatever you think of it, requires a little more thought and discipline for the strands hold together. Brian Stableford has that a rare ability to make it read as more than jargon, however much he engages in that inhibitor of plot, explanation. To make up for this, some of his descriptions are a tour de force. Jane Palmer check out website: www.bigengine.com
In a desert when there’s still far too little Farscape book material outside of non-canon novels, I end up buying these books when I see them. The main difference with this volume compared to the last two is this one has an 8 page colour insert showing some of the key cast and make-up effects. Other than that, it’s pretty much a mix of episode guide with interviews. There’s a chapter devoted to the animation episode - together with character designs - as well as the usual extensive look at the effects. A real tour de force for any Farscape fan. If you’re a fan, then you’ve probably got a copy by now, especially if you want a first edition. The earlier editions have gone into reprint a long while back. Some of my criticism from the previous volumes still stands. What’s the point of having an episode synopsis which doesn’t go right to the end? More so when you turn the page and there’s the start of the next episode. It’s hardly like it should spoil any surprises for any fan of the series. Episode guidebooks are there for historical reference in the years to come when it’s quicker to check through than running through a video or DVD copy to find something out. To short-change like that isn’t really serving fans right. This isn’t an outright criticism of Titan. Too many other publishers do this as well. I do think it’s about time some publisher bucked this trend and did it properly. As I commented above, the failure in the episode synopsises is made up for with the interviews. The actors give some insight into how they perceive their characters are developing. The crew into how they achieved their effects. With the producers’ desire to re-invent ‘Farscape’ every season, this is a good score card of what everyone feels about it on the set. Buy it already. GF Willmetts The Time Machine
I must confess to being a bit of a party pooper in that I don't believe travelling into the past is possible. Time enough for paradoxical quantum mechanical discussion later except to say that, irrespective of my feelings on the matter, time travel has been a pillar of Science Fiction for ages. Even if it is indeed total nonsense, the possibilities for story telling are tremendous and shouldn't be judged on science alone. The first thing to be noticed about this film was the giant poster outside the cinema which gave three names - Guy Pearce, Samantha Mumba and Jeremy Irons. With no disrespect to the first two, Irons is a well-known and accomplished actor. His presence added a touch of class and quality but the poster didn't say that he was only appearing in a short cameo role towards the end of the film. A bit of a cheat perhaps but it's been done so many times before, Marlon Brando in 'Apocalypse Now' coming to mind, that we should be well used this marketing strategy. The film opens in a New York winter and not London where the book and previous film are set. At least, being set a century ago, it has the old HG atmosphere to help it along. Pearce plays the time traveller Hartdegan, an absent-minded experimenter who delves into all matters electrical, mechanical, biological and theological. It's surprising he's had time for a love interest but there she is, Emma, an attractive blonde played by Sienna Guillory. All he has to do is rush out to Central Park and propose to the young lady. It must have been one of the shortest engagements of all time because no sooner was the ring on her finger than she was lying dead, her heart pierced by a mugger's bullet. Naturally, Hartdegan is upset. Despite everyone saying to him that though immensely regrettable, the incident was just one of these things over which poor mortals have no control, he spends the next four years in anti-social isolation making his antiquated looking time machine. Going back in time, he tries to change the past but had he only asked Scotty he'd have been told, 'Ye canny change the laws o' physics, laddie'. Emma is killed again, this time in a different way! One thing I couldn't understand though was why he didn't meet himself in Central Park? Emma would have two confusing proposals to cope with. If not that, why didn't the second Hartdegan stop the mugger before he mugged the newly engaged couple? Had he done so, maybe the first Hartdegan wouldn't have made the time machine and, this being the case, it's unlikely he'd bother travelling back to the past, so creating a time travel paradox that scuppers everything. Anyway, returning to the story, seeing that the past can't be changed, many of us would give up at this point but no...not our time traveller. Using logic that's dubious, he reasons people in the future may have a better idea as to the nature of time and, employing their knowledge, he would have another attempted engagement with Emma. So, it's back to the future for him, but this time, a future long after his own time. Hartdegan stops off in the 21st century. Someone comments on his mode of attire which seems a piece of cheek considering the way they were dressed themselves. We learn that people are moving to the Moon and to make living space, twenty megaton nuclear bombs are being employed to excavate real estate. On trying to discover more about the nature of time, he consults a holographic library - an interesting and entertaining touch. A further hop in time reveals that they've overdone the nukes, the Moon is falling apart and the Earth is being bombarded with the rubbish. (The idea of this happening is rubbish too - breaking the Moon apart would take energy far in excess of even a thousand bombs) Hartdegan only just makes it back to his time machine but is injured, rendered unconscious and sends himself flying away almost a million years into the distant future. This is a film of two halves. Some folk have all the luck. Had it been me, I'd have ended up with the Morlocks but Hartdegan somehow gets rescued by Mara (Samantha Mumba) and resides with her, her brother and the other Eloi in a bamboo village, stuck to the sides of a canyon. This seems quite an idyllic life but there always has to be trouble in paradise. The Morlocks attack! (A slight diversion: - why does all literature, and not necessary only Science Fiction, portray mankind as foolish idiots trying to aspire to the heights of the gods only to be brought crashing back to earth as a result of their own greed and folly? Why do seemingly perfect situations and scenarios always have papered-over cracks or some deadly flaw which comes out under closer examination? Answer - makes good stories and keeps people in their place but bit detrimental to humanity's confidence! Maybe life isn't really like that but then I think of the Millennium Dome! Enough said!) ‘The Time Machine’ makes extensive use of computer animation and graphics, some of which appears very spectacular, but is this at the expense of the script? (see article in June edition by Jane Palmer). There are instances when the dialogue is tedious but the Morlocks themselves don't possess an ability for after-dinner conversation either. That's probably because their dinners are humdrum - nothing but Eloi on the menu. Poor Hartdegan, he sees his new girlfriend taken away before he'd the chance for a nibble himself. Not very good at keeping his women, is he? Concerning the Morlocks, I thought an important point about their physiology was that they were underground dwellers for whom light is painful and damaging to their grey eyes and skin but here they are, running about upstairs without even sunglasses or factor 25. These Morlocks could just as easily live on the surface, albeit with some protection. There's also no mention of the relationship between the two species, as portrayed in the book and earlier film, where the Morlocks provided clothing, shoes and other material goods to the Eloi, allowing them an indolent existence of eating and frolicking in the sunshine. In return, the Morlocks ate excess Eloi, so preventing over-population, old age and the necessity for health services, pension plans or social security. (Don't tell Gordon Brown) After running around the Morlocks’ underground industrial underworld, Hartdegan comes across his girlfriend and also Jeremy Irons, but that's a different story which seems oddly unconnected with the rest of the plot. Irons is the chief Morlock but his part seems to be an appendix-like appendage that plays no real functioning part in the body of the film. It's a difficult task to remake a film where preconceived notions of the book and a previous film exist. It would also be a mistake to make a carbon copy of the last film or even a slavish account of a book which, as events have shown since 1898, is not a true account of the shape of things that came. Even making something in the spirit of the earlier work isn't wrong or necessarily a bad idea. In fact, there's no reason why a really good film could not have been made but this version isn't that. It has too many holes in the plot, the acting isn't good throughout, the story it's trying to tell is far from clear and the beginning is too long. Although entertaining enough in parts, taken as a whole this effort must be sadly condemned. Rod MacDonald UFO DVD Collector’s Edition Volume
2
As with the first volume, you get a booklet and five postcards - three with cast and two with modelwork. Outside of the Shadair plane, the rest aren’t any from what you might have in your UFO memorabilia collections. I’m in two minds about that. It would have been interested to see some of the more recognisable craft like the Moon Interceptor or Skydiver but I suspect this package is being aimed strictly at the fan base rather than the novice. This time I had more than a cursory look at the episodes. Apart from the fact that the second block of episodes were filmed after a delay in production when studios were switched, two of the episodes have never been released on video. Several years back, a few minutes each from ‘Reflections In The Water’ and ‘The Man Who Came Back’ were included in the video mess ‘Invasion: UFO’ when some bright spark decided to blend a couple episodes together into a bigger story. These few minutes prevented the original episodes from being released on video. ‘Reflections’ isn’t the best episode in the series, but ‘The Man Who Came Back’ is certainly worth a look. Watching it again today, I couldn’t help wryly thinking that Darren Nesbitt would have made a good prototype for Steve Zodiac. Story dynamics wise, it was still an enjoyable way to pass 45 minutes. It was also one of the ‘banned’ episodes put on late at night in the 70s because of its violence and because Gary Raymond playing Colonel Grey said the word ‘bloody’. We were a lot tamer in what we allowed junior audiences to watch in those days. No doubt when I’ve got time, I shall be sneaking my way through both volumes at my leisure. One thing that I did do on the spot was to look at all the extras. It’s inevitable that there you have to draw comparisons between the two volumes and I’m sad to say this one tends to look the poorer. This is mainly because the majority are production stills, merchandise and an Ed Bishop commentary over the episode ‘Sub-Smash’. Granted, actor Ed Bishop is pensionable age, but his voice sounded like he had a heavy cold when it was recorded. Apart from explaining that both he and actress Dolores Mantez - Lt. Nina Barry - were claustrophobic and the Skydiver scenes here exploited this fact in their performance, Bishop doesn’t really recall much. He recognises various actors and how well he gets on with them but there’s little behind the scenes info. It might have made a lot more sense if he directed his attention over the entire production than merely with this episode though. Often, I got the impression that he was really watching the episode performance than giving us a verbal. The merchandise extras will be of interest to all of you who have gaps in your collections. The sweet cigarette cards are shown in their entirety on screen but in batches rather than individually. Going through the books, I was ticking off what I had and only found three that I didn’t own. On the other hand, I’ve got a Japanese book and some Italian photo-comics featuring ‘UFO’ that they didn’t show, so that probably evened things out. No doubt if you’re a ‘UFO’ fan, you’ve already bought this volume even if you don’t own a DVD player just yet. The diversity of actors in the second batch of episodes here shows that the series would have expanded well had it been allowed to have a second season. If you have the nostalgia kick and want to see how the 70s perceived the look of the 80s, then you’ll love these stories as well. A sharp reminder that all the special effects crews moved over to films afterwards and how we lost our real creative front to American imports. GF Willmetts check out websites: www.ufo-dvd.com and www.carltonvisual.com 2001: A Space Odyssey
‘2001’ is regarded as great simply because it illustrates how the Space Age would have looked had we pursued over dreams into space after the first Moon landing in 1969. The fact that Stanley Kubrick had been planning and filming this movie two years previous to the 1968 release and a year before said landing is an indication of both his vision and that of writer Arthur C. Clarke. Spaceships are as they would happen. Even in the 60s, we had our share of glitzy spaceships giving no credibility to the laws of momentum. The space shuttle to the space station and the moon shuttle to the Moon indicating the tediousness of space flight. The US Discovery coasted along to Jupiter the way NASA would have intended with no glitzy sound effects greeting the vacuum. The fact that things got out of hand for Captain David Bowman in Jupiter space was entirely beyond his control. We saw the finest example of terrestrial created space flight finally meet up with alien travel that took Bowman across the galaxy in the ultimate trip and a re-birth ceremony. In case you don’t know the plot and been hibernating - hopefully without a computer watching over your sleep, ‘2001’ centres on the discovery of an alien artefact discovered on the Moon that sends a signal to Jupiter. The Jupiter Mission is sent to discover what it was doing. Along the way, the on-board computer, HAL 9000, decides the crew are jeopardising the mission and kills most of them. Bowman is abducted by an alien artefact orbiting in Jupiter space and sent on the ultimate trip. Watching scenes from this film again, I couldn’t help but wonder if NASA are going to pay attention to this particular details should they ever attempt a long distance flight. Providing some verbal commands to over-ride the computer would be a good idea. A bit of privacy from your AI isn’t a bad idea either. Having EVA pods that actually link properly to standard air-locks wouldn’t be good, too, or having spare space helmets in said pods as well. Even spacesuit design needs to be improved. Having an exposed air hose just waiting to be snipped is just an accident waiting to happen. I can be critical simply cos I know the film so well. Watching this film on widescreen has felt a bit odd though. I’ve watched my video tape version enough times to know what I might have been missing this time around. The little peripheral details like seeing out of the windows of the space station and seeing the Earth revolve in the distance. The attention to such detail was always staggering. CGI might be doing as well as this now but in the late 60s it was a lot more work to attain perfection. With the computer controls on hand, it’s a very simple matter to freeze-frame and have a closer look at the marvellous screen displays that Doug Trumbull concocted. As the box notes, this version is ‘digitally restored and remastered’. It isn’t simply a copy of the video version. This is the film version! When I saw the film in 1970 - I missed its first distribution although I stayed in the cinema for 3 screenings - there was always an intermission about 80 minutes in. Cinemas had to be served and everyone needed an ice cream break or simply to go to the loo. The intermission is retained here, both in time and with some of Ligeti’s ‘Atmospheres’ music. Whether you want to share the original effect is debatable but if you want the nostalgia, everything is intact. As commented regarding other DVDs I’ve bought, I tend to be more interested in the extras more than the film itself, mainly because I’ve seen them enough times on video. It’s unfortunate that there’s very little here. A selection of language variations in case English isn’t your native tongue and the original movie trailer. Now the trailer isn’t something I’ve seen before. The trailer whizzes through scenes from the film at a very rapid pace in such a linear fashion that it looks like a quick abridged version of the story. Even back then, the film company weren’t quite sure how to sell this film and depended entirely on Kubrick’s visuals. The fact that it actually makes sense at this speed is the biggest wonder. Considering the amount of photos and technical sketches that have abounded in books on ‘2001’, it’s really a shame that nothing could have been added as additional features. The normal punter isn’t likely to look at them more than once but the die-hard fans would. The bits and bobs that come with a deluxe version of this DVD are more to do with the wrapping than any changes in the disk. No doubt if you’re the proud owner of a DVD player and SF fan, then you already own a copy of this DVD. The main attraction has to be the full widescreen effect. Even without the extras, this is still a bewitching film to watch. GF Willmetts Check out website: www.warnerbros.com The Science of Discworld by
Terry Pratchett, Ian Stewart and Jack Cohen
Instead, it was an original and largely successful attempt to combine a fictional world with the real one and to blur the lines of science fiction and science fact. After 25 novels, the Discworld universe could be seen as almost as established as our own, complete with its own ideas on life and death, religion, science and philosophy. It has creation myths – the turtle Great A’Tuin carries the world on its back – and death is a concept made real, as a character in black robes holding a scythe. It also runs largely on magic rather than science and gods are numerous and have their place, too. However, rather than explaining all this at great length, Pratchett uses it as a comparison and platform from which to explore and explain our own universe. Together with the added credentials of Ian Stewart - a mathematician - and Jack Cohen - a reproductive biologist, it becomes a combination of fact and fiction. A Discworld novel and a factual science book which covers everything from the Big Bang to Evolution, and is now reprinted in an updated and revised edition. The basic premise is that the Discworld wizards of the Unseen University accidentally create a universe whilst playing around with chemical reactions. Our universe. This universe is contained in a small globe the size of a Christmas ornament. Soon they discover the creation of a small ‘roundworld’ which appears to operate on rules completely alien to them. For one thing, there is no magic on this world. For another, there is no ‘narrativium’, the element which provides a story, and therefore gives narrative structure and logic to a situation. Randomness appears to describe the way that the Roundworld works and so the wizards set about studying it and it’s confusing rules. The story develops from here, with alternative chapters reading like a whirlwind trip through our universe’s history, and a Discworld novel exploring Rincewind’s (who is sent into the Roundworld and try and understand it) adventures on this world. We travel through the creation of the universe, stars, planets, atoms and chemical elements, formation of the Earth, Moon and Solar System, through to the beginning of life on Earth, evolution, dinosaurs, and finishing with the possibility of space colonies and further evolution of the human species. Interspersed with this are Rincewind’s reports that the world is full of gases, full of water, raining, raining still, raining again. There’s strange and scary life in the seas, now there’s a colony of crabs. The crabs get killed by a meteor and life begins its struggle again. Soon there are huge lizards roaming around. They get killed and a race of apes takes their place. Sadly, they only appear to Rincewind to be interested in sex, but he and the Librarian (who, being an orang-utan felt a great affinity with them) teach them about fire and hope for the best. The rest, as they say, is history. Or, should that be the present? ‘The Science Of Discworld’ is both interesting and entertaining. It becomes a brief yet up-to-date journey through popular science which is accessible to laymen but also detailed enough for those with a little knowledge in the area. It is presented with the usual Pratchett wit and originality and should still satisfy strong Pratchett fans as well as newcomers to his work. Laura Kane The Tomorrow People 1:3: The
Vanishing Earth Looks to me like Revelation are keeping up their promise of a bi-monthly Tomorrow People video or DVD - depending on which format you prefer. If it’s anything like Taunton’s MVC shop, then they’re selling quite well as they’ve been restocking the earlier tapes as well and I didn’t see any around when I was in Bristol a month ago. My publisher might disagree regarding the fascination my generation has with seeing old 70s shows, but the figures are beginning to speak for themselves. People out there are collecting these videos. There’s definitely a nostalgia kick going on that should be encouraged into the adult market. Anyone remember ‘Spyder’s Web’? This isn’t to say ‘The Tomorrow People’ isn’t perfect nor dated compared to some of the shows of today, but it was still one of the first shows using humans with extra-powers in the children’s hour. It’s very much a history lesson of how things were done back then and how it had to deal with limited budgets. The way some of the dialogue is set, the script wasn’t entirely aimed at the younger audience. With this story, the Tomorrow People become involved when natural catastrophes are getting out of hand and discover it is caused by an alien called Spidron and his sometimes partner, Joy aka Sander (actress Llewellyn wearing the kind of clothes that could resurrect 70s fashions) who are mining a rare element that keeps the Earth together with the aid of some abducted mind-controlled humans, including Ginge Harding. Spidron (actor Woodnutt) is suitably villainous, rolling his S’s as all good villains should do. Even Ginge describes him as looking like a Ku Klux Klan member as we never see what he truly looks like. Into this mix, is an adult alien Tomorrow Person in the form of Harry Steen (actor Stoney), a galactic policeman powerless to interfere on a ‘closed world’ until he discovers the terrestrial Tomorrow People and whose developing powers means they can be considered for Federation protection. An indication from him about the size of the Federation also indicates there are far too few law enforcement officers around to keep tabs on the more villainous types. This is last story from Season One. The last episode feels especially cut up. We only infer the rescue of the kidnapped people and the replacement of the mineral in the Earth’s crust and the scene changes. I suspect creator/writer Roger Price was planning this story as a 5 parter and then had to cut back either because of budget over-runs or space allocation or whatever. Watching on TV when it was first shown in 25 minute chunks didn’t always make it apparent. Watching them all in a single sitting, it’s obvious that everything had to be shoe-horned together. In many respects, there are far too many cast members waiting around to do something at times. It isn’t too hard to see some changes were likely to happen in the second season as well as spreading the plot to accommodate everyone. Considering this is writer Roger Price getting his feet wet scriptwriting, we are seeing something of his development here. Get while it’s still available. GF Willmetts
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OTHER CONTENT - July 2002
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Redemption
Ark by Alastair Reynolds 
Perdido
Street Station by China Miéville 
Behind
The Mask Of Spider-Man: The Secrets Of The Movie by Mark Cotta Vaz
Worlds
by Joe Haldeman 
Swan
Songs by Brian Stableford 
Farscape:
The Illustrated Season 3 Companion by Paul Simpson and Ruth Thomas
This
movie is loosely based on HG's 1898 novelette of the same name and
is directed by the author's great-grandson. Given the additional
dimension of modern computer effects, hopes were high for something
potentially very good but, sad to say, on leaving the cinema a feeling
of great loss was evident - loss of a £5 admission fee and the loss
of a couple of hours time.
Following
the release of the first volume, it you’re going to be a completest
for this Gerry Anderson Production, then it stands to reason that
you’ll, like me, pick up the second volume to complete the set.
I picked my copy up from the local Woolworths and spotted a sticker
that indicated it would only be on the shelves for a limited period.
Doesn’t mean you can’t buy the DVDs individually later, but as a
collected volume of 13 episodes probably not. Don’t leave it too
late!
You
know how it is. An opportunity arose where I got this DVD second-hand
isn’t something that could be over-looked. I might not have a DVD
player connected to my TV but the one in my computer lets me look
at the new format. An opportunity to look over one of the greatest
SF films ever should never be over-looked. Never look double opportunities
in the mouth. You never know when they can turn up again.
‘The
Science Of Discworld’, first published in 1999, represented a substantial
departure for Terry Pratchett and the Discworld novels. It was not,
as many may suspect, just another guide to the fictional universe
and characters of Pratchett’s popular fantasy series. 
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