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tardis_stowawayI'm going to Dragoncon next weekend! Will any of y'all be there? I'm looking forward to it, although the crowds might be even more crazy than usual due to some big name guests (Leonard Nimoy! Patrick Stewart! Adam Savage from Mythbusters! William Shatner! I'm glad I'm not in charge of crowd management.) Gareth David-Lloyd will doubtless spend the whole time beset by grief-stricken fangirls & boys. I'm also thoroughly excited about the chance to see my family, who live in Atlanta and will also attend the con. (Well, my dad and brother will attend the con full time. My mom will probably come for a few hours one day to see Adam Savage and look at costumes.)
I saw District 9 this week. It was amazing! (No spoilers in my discussion, no promises about comments.) The premise is innovative. (Alien spaceship parks over Johannesburg, but the aliens inside are impoverished and disorganized. They end up living in a shanty town in Jo'burg. The movie hinges around an effort to evict them for relocation to a farther away camp.) The treatment of social issues is complex. The acting is superb. The effects are great, integrating so well into the documentary-style film that you don't notice them. This is what science fiction is for: thought-provoking movies that can also feature a giant robot throwing a car. Plus, I lived in South Africa for five months during a semester abroad in college, so parts of the movie were a trip down memory lane but with added aliens. I highly recommend it, with the caveat that the severely squeamish might want to stay away. There are some intensely gross scenes of illness and quite a bit of violence.
While I'm recommending things, I'd like to direct you to the book Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve. It's young adult (but entirely suitable for adults) post-apocalyptic steampunk about moving cities that eat other cities. There are also airships! And cyborgs! That premise alone may be enough to send you to your local book store, but it's not just a cool idea. It's a thrilling adventure that I found hard to put down, but it's really more about the fascinating characters and their complex moral dilemmas. The warning for this one is that I came about thisclose to crying on the Tube while reading it. Tissues are your friends!
I saw District 9 this week. It was amazing! (No spoilers in my discussion, no promises about comments.) The premise is innovative. (Alien spaceship parks over Johannesburg, but the aliens inside are impoverished and disorganized. They end up living in a shanty town in Jo'burg. The movie hinges around an effort to evict them for relocation to a farther away camp.) The treatment of social issues is complex. The acting is superb. The effects are great, integrating so well into the documentary-style film that you don't notice them. This is what science fiction is for: thought-provoking movies that can also feature a giant robot throwing a car. Plus, I lived in South Africa for five months during a semester abroad in college, so parts of the movie were a trip down memory lane but with added aliens. I highly recommend it, with the caveat that the severely squeamish might want to stay away. There are some intensely gross scenes of illness and quite a bit of violence.
While I'm recommending things, I'd like to direct you to the book Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve. It's young adult (but entirely suitable for adults) post-apocalyptic steampunk about moving cities that eat other cities. There are also airships! And cyborgs! That premise alone may be enough to send you to your local book store, but it's not just a cool idea. It's a thrilling adventure that I found hard to put down, but it's really more about the fascinating characters and their complex moral dilemmas. The warning for this one is that I came about thisclose to crying on the Tube while reading it. Tissues are your friends!
