The fantasy choice this week is Byzantium a tale of two lonely vampire girls hiding from their past. The cast includes Gemma Arterton, a personal favorite of mine. While not genre, the film Redemption also stars a favorite in the form of Jason Statham, odds are good if you are in the mood for an action flic this will be the one you want.
The BBC reported today that Iain M. Banks lost his battle with cancer this morning. With the M. he wrote his science fiction, most notable of which was his Culture series, an amazing galaxy spanning utopian/anarchistic society which somehow was always at war.
This Kickstart project will do exactly that: Put a Tardis in Orbit! It is on a par with an AM-SAT or OSCAR launch in that it is an amateur satellite launch, except without the radio relay functions. It does include a computer to operate the passive positioning system that will allow the camera to take pictures of Earth, and a low power transmitter to send those images back to earth. I like the project, and I like that attitude of the father/daughter team who put it together, so I have to contribute to this one. Check out the video to see what I mean about attitude.
Beginning tomorrow Primeval New World hits the Syfy Channel. If it gets enough viewers in the US, they may make a season 2 after all. If you are not already aware, this spinoff from the UK program brings the time travel anomalies to North America, and the cast includes a few favorite folks from Eureka as well as a member or two of the original series, at least in guest spots. I followed what the Canadian fans had to say, and it was very positive, but there just wasn’t enough of them. I am hoping it picks up enough fans here that they decide another season would make the company some money.
Like all good filk artists Danielle Clarke took a tune that everyone knows and added some Sci-Fi/Fantasy lyrics, in this instance all about Terry Pratchett’s DiscWorld series. I find this appropriate because NADWCon, the North American Disc World Con, takes place July 5th through the 8th in Baltimore, MD. Unfortunately the audio quality of this recording leaves a bit to be desired, So I am posting the lyrics after the video so you can follow along.
We Didn’t Start the Turtle
By Danielle Clarke
(and Billy Joel)
Twoflower comes to stay, Rincewind runs away,
Homicidal luggage and Ankh-Morpork burns.
Zoon traders can’t lie, Esk learns magic on the sly,
Death takes an apprentice and Mort’s lifetimer turns.
Spelter and Carding plot, Half-brick in a sock,
Try to make a tortoise run, and the pharoahs raise the sun.
Change the play’s murder scene, Lancre’s got a new king,
Guards! Guards! dragons fight, Eric’s demonology.
We didn’t start the turtle,
It was always swimming since the Disc was spinning.
We didn’t start the turtle,
No, we didn’t write it but we idolise it.
Ancient Leshp is waterlogged, Gaspode the Wonder Dog
Snow globes, fields of corn, Fresh Start Club
Magic Kindom far away, Chelonian Mobilé
Mica, Beryl, Shale, Nanny’s bathtub
Crop circles, bees swarm, Edward’s rampage with a gonne
Dead Punch and Judy man, Imp y Celyn and the Band
Lord Hong’s clothes chest, Red Army, unrest
Joy of Snackes, Opera Ghost, Walter Plinge’s roses
We didn’t start the turtle,
It was always swimming since the Disc was spinning.
We didn’t start the turtle,
No, we didn’t write it but we idolise it.
Golem king, clay feet, arsenic candles, Cockbill Street
Hogfather, ho ho ho, blood on midwinter snow
Captain Jenkins, sea squall, Battlefield football
Bugarup Mardi-Gras, Rincewind the Archchancellor.
Carrot and Angua, Space Ape, Breccia
Lettice Earwig, gold cup, Granny messes minds up
Igor’s dog Scraps, Brother Oats’s holy axe,
Balls of rock in motion, Blobs in the oceans
We didn’t start the turtle,
It was always swimming since the Disc was spinning.
We didn’t start the turtle,
No, we didn’t write it but we idolise it.
Low King, Dr’zka, Sybil sings an opera
New Firm, William, and Dog Bites Man
Deja fu, Auditors, saga of the Silver Horde
Spider, rat pipe, Maurice gives an extra life
Magic symbols, special robes, Elves and wizards at the Globe,
Lilac, 25th of May, what else do I have to say?
We didn’t start the turtle,
It was always swimming since the Disc was spinning.
We didn’t start the turtle,
No, we didn’t write it but we idolise it.
Tiffany, Wee Free Men, Roland Chuffley’s back again,
Hiver at the Witch Trials, chocolate nougat missiles
War in Borogravia, Stanley’s acuphillia,
Giant chicken, Mister Shine, Reading “Where’s My Cow?” on time
Rescue Summer, Winter dies, Mister Bent with battle pies
Glenda’s kindness, Brazeneck, Nutt, Trev and Juliet
Goblin slaves on foreign shores, Leap knave, jump whore,
Geoffrey’s shed with poo galore, Still the fans all scream for more
We didn’t start the turtle,
It was always swimming since the Disc was spinning
We didn’t start the turtle,
But when we are gone, it will still swim on and on and on…
Not much in genre movies this time beyond AE: Apocalypse Earth and Battle Earth, both direct to DVD. The first at least has actors I like and an actual web page.
We do much better in TV, with Doctor Who: Series Seven, Part Two coming out. Looking around Amazon I found a listing for the complete Series 7 costing twice as much as the first two parts combined, and with no release date listed. That tends to make me wonder if they have plans to bundle it together with all the different 50th anniversary specials and bring it out in November for the anniversary itself, or possibly Christmas. Speaking of Christmas, Doctor Who: The Snowmen is also out on disk this week.
In Anime only one entry this time around: Phi-Brain: Puzzle of God: Season 1 Collection 2, bringing still more deadly puzzles along for our protagonist to resolve. Kaito doesn’t really want to solve these puzzles, but they are all deathtraps which will kill him and his friends if he fails to figure them out. This series is different in that the person with the brain is the hero, rather than the one with the biggest muscles or best school of Kung Fu, and I quite enjoy it. If you don’t know it already, bop over to Crunchyroll and watch some episodes (the link takes you to the start of the first season, so you don’t drop into the middle of the series).