Film

Guardians of the Galaxy

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One of life’s great gifts is the state of anticipation. The sweet agony of waiting while hoping with every fiber of our being that whatever it is we are waiting for meets and exceeds our expectations on arrival.

Readers and moviegoers experience this state often throughout a given year, as announced release dates are followed by cover art images and movie posters. Then come the trailers and the thoughts of those lucky enough to have gotten an early glimpse at the finished work.

Anticipation…it can result in the heady rush of desires fulfilled or in bubble-bursting disappointment.

With the exception of the third and final Hobbit film, there is no movie that I have been anticipating as much in 2014 as Guardians of the Galaxy.

Although set in the Marvel Universe, Guardians looked to be less of a comic book film and more of a fun-with-a-capital-F science fiction adventure. With an imaginative set of characters, a cast filled with personal favorites and stunning special effects, it promised to be the ultimate summer popcorn flick.

Marvel Studios kept their promise, my bubble is firmly intact.

Continue reading Guardians of the Galaxy →

Book Reviews, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Short Stories

2014 Nominees for the Best Short Story Hugo

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To begin with, let me wish a “Happy Independence Day!” to all of my fellow Americans.

I hope that you all have great plans for spending time with family and friends, enjoying good food and the occasional exploding item in celebration of this great nation.

Today on SF Signal I return with a Short Fiction Friday post that looks at the four stories nominated for Best Short Story for the 2014 Hugo Awards.

All the stories are available for reading for free online and are linked in my reviews. All four are fine contenders and it will be interesting to see what wins. If you’ve read them, please head over and share your opinions. If not, take some of your holiday reading time and enjoy some of what short genre fiction has to offer.

book news

So Long, Fair Spring

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“Green was the silence, wet was the light,
the month of June trembled like a butterfly.”
― Pablo Neruda, 100 Love Sonnets

“When Summer lies upon the world, and in a noon of gold, Beneath the roof of sleeping leaves the dreams of trees unfold;
When woodland halls are green and cool, and wind is in the West, Come back to me! Come back to me, and say my land is best!”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Two Towers

We have been blessed.

Truly blessed.

For Spring in the Midwest, at least the small patch of it that I call “home”, was present in all her changing glory for the entirety of days designated to her by the Roman calendar.

We had warm days and cool, bright sunshine and varying degrees of Spring rain.

I often find myself on June 21st lamenting the Spring we did not have…not this year. It is almost enough to make me welcome Summer unreservedly.

Almost.

With the calendar’s announcement of Summer’s arrival comes the end of this year’s Once Upon a Time Challenge, our eighth in a row together.

It was a very different event for me personally this year, with much of my reading time being taken up with the fairy tale that was Spectrum Fantastic Art Live 3.  A fairy tale for me in that I still have a hard time believing I was able to be a part of the event to the degree that I was able to take part.  So much of Once Upon a Time VIII for me was reveling in the visual side of fantasy, fairy tale, mythology and folklore.  But not all of it…

Continue reading So Long, Fair Spring →

Art/Photography

Book Review and Giveaway: The Art of Fred Gambino

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Today over at SF Signal I review the upcoming art collection by Titan Books, Dark Shepherd: The Art of Fred Gambino.

Gambino has done concept work for films and games for a number of years and this latest book showcases some of that work as well as script samples and artwork from his own personal story project: Dark Shepherd.

Titan Books requested a review from SF Signal, and when John DeNardo showed me the cover for this, I was all over it.

Titan Books has but together a well-crafted collection with vivid, high-resolution images that is well worth taking a look at.

Please check out my review for more examples of his artwork.

The book is due out July 29th, by while you are over at SF Signal you can enter for a chance to win your very own copy well in advance of release day.

Film

Edge of Tomorrow

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LIVE.DIE.REPEAT.

Edge of Tomorrow, the adaptation of Hiroshi Sakurazaka’s novel All You Need is Kill, is a visceral, Groundhog Day-esque military science fiction film that makes grand use of its basic premise to give viewers the adrenaline-driven thrills they expect from summer blockbuster movies.

Lieutenant Colonel William Cage ( Tom Cruise) is the face of the United States military marketing campaign, sent to Europe to encourage the allied military forces about to embark on an invasion of France, meant to be the first step in reclaiming the area overtaken by an alien invasion force.

When he unwittingly finds himself on the front lines, his first alien contact results in a condition in which his death triggers a return to a set moment in time, the day before the invasion.

Through a series of painful, and sometimes painfully comic, events Cage begins to see how his role in this war, and that of the larger-than-life heroine Rita Vrataski (Emily Blunt), aka The Angel of Verdun, are inextricably tied together.

Now, if he can just stop dying long enough to use this knowledge…

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Eclectic Musings of a Renaissance Geek