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Terry
Brooks gets Tanequil
Fantasy author Terry interviewed about his new novel, Tanequil, the second book
in the High Druid of Shannara trilogy, on growing as an author, and his plans
to return to his earlier Word & Void series.
(AUTHOR INTERVIEWS)
Sea,
Sky by Rosemary Kirstein
The author of The Language Of Power ruminates about world creation and comes
to the conclusion that there are basically two ways to do it. You can begin
from the top down, or from the ground up.
(ARTICLES)
Third
World
One of our famous one page stories by GF Willmetts.
(FICTION)
Black
Cat Investments Ltd. - Your Money Is Safe With Us
One of our famous one page stories by Rod MacDonald.
(FICTION)
San
Diego Comic-Con '04
So, it looks like half the people who voted in a Crowsnest poll a couple of
months back have never been to a convention. Which is a little sad when you
come to think of it - there's really nowhere else on earth you get to indulge
your genre weakness like a Con. If only because everyone else there is doing
exactly the same thing.
(CON REPORTS)
One
Page Stories Submissions (or What To Do, What To Write And How to Submit)
This is an experiment on the website for all of you writers and neo-writers
out there. One of the criticisms that I raise when working my way through our
slush pile is that writers need to learn how to tell a story with a limited
word count to make everything count and tell a good story.
(ARTICLES)
I
Remember Superman
Christopher Reeve, 1952-2004 - a lament by: GF Willmetts.
(ARTICLES)
Offworld
Report: Science Fiction and Fantasy, November 2004
Interviews with Stephen R. Donaldson, Clive Barker, Matt Stone and Trey Parker,
Clark Kent's foster father, and John Clute, Dell Magazines' SF boat cruise,
fiction by Peter Crowther, and getting laid at a science-fiction convention.
(NEWS)
Offworld
Report: Weird Science, November 2004
Iran's first satellite, the X Prize is won, a fossil dragon, robot fish, why
space access costs must, and can, drop dramatically, and has the Great Galactic
Ghoul lost its appetite for Martian probes?
(NEWS)
Resident
Evil: Apocalypse (Frank's Take)
Director Alexander Witt takes over this elaborate gory gaming gimmick by ushering
out the second installment Resident Evil: Apocalypse. The labored formula remains
the same regarding a curvy and calisthenics cretin-kicking cutie leading the
charge in eliminating some serious zombie butt.
(FILM REVIEWS)
Shark
Tale (Frank's Take)
DreamWorks tries awkwardly in their blind ambition to continue the delightful
digital-animated ditties in the celebrated spirit that has been previously so
vastly successful at the box office. As a result, the DreamWorks creative machine
conjured up a spry but uneven underwater adventure in the derivatively upbeat
animated feature Shark Tale.
(FILM REVIEWS)
Sky
Captain and the World of Tomorrow (Frank's Take)
In the stylistically ambitious sci-fi fantasy Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow,
Conran concocts a colorful creation dripping with cheerful arty set designs
armed with a refreshing old-fashion storytelling sentiment that drives this
opulent noir to its creative core.
(FILM REVIEWS)
Shaun
of the Dead (Frank's Take)
The devilishly dandy flesh-eating farce Shaun of the Dead certainly fits the
bill as a monstrously subversive parody that delivers the ghoulish goods. With
its British-oriented sense of stinging wry wit coupled with some truly genuine
gloomy gumption, Shaun of the Dead is a delightfully sick-minded yet spry frightfest
that captures the twisted imagination.
(FILM REVIEWS)
Ghost
In The Shell 2: Innocence (Mark's Take)
Mark checks out this popular Japanese anime flick and discovers the animation
is never flat, but demonstrates varying degrees of dimensionality, frequently
within the same frame.
(FILM REVIEWS)
Hero
(Mark's Take)
China tries to make its own Crouching Tiger with a story of an enigmatic stranger
who has killed a triad of assassins for the benefit of China's first Emperor.
The stranger tells the emperor multiple versions of how he killed the emperor's
enemies. Visually Hero is stunning. The telling is operatic in style but becomes
muddled.
(FILM REVIEWS)
Les
Revenants (Mark's Take)
A creative and intelligent recycling of the horror concept of the dead returning,
but this time it is used for non-horror purposes. Les Revenants runs into pacing
problems toward the middle.
(FILM REVIEWS)
Primer
(Mark's Take)
This SF film gets the research environment and the baffling scientific techno-jargon
just about right. The story is hard to follow, but that might not be so unrealistic
either. Definitely this is a demanding and puzzling film that does a lot with
its minuscule budget.
(FILM REVIEWS)
Shark
Tale (Mark's Take)
Dreamscape's latest animated film is set in a sort of undersea urban environment
and should entertain the whole family. The story is familiar but the jokes come
in a rapid fire.
(FILM REVIEWS)
Shaun
of the Dead (Mark's Take)
This film is like a crossbreeding of George Romero and Mike Leigh. Oblivious
lower-middle-class Londoners slowly become aware that the dead are returning
at trying to eat the living. This satire laughs at the tropes of the zombie
movie, but even more at the foibles of English life today. The first half is
very funny and the second half is at least witty.
(FILM REVIEWS)
Sky
Captain and the World of Tomorrow (Mark's Take)
The Art Deco future as it was seen from the late 1930s is the background for
this super-paced sci-fi adventure. The plot is just a chain of action sequences,
one leading to the next, and the characters are one-dimensional. Even the artwork
is a little too dark, but the images are genuinely exciting and they are what
make the film worth seeing.
(FILM REVIEWS)
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GHOST
IN THE SHELL 2: INNOCENCE is a new adventure set in the world of
the original GHOST IN THE SHELL. This is a future world where everybody
is part machine. The main characters are two police officers, one
almost all human, one almost all machine.
