Starship Fonzie

Greetings, all my fellow Milwookies, homo-sapiens, and all other sentient lifeforms of the Planet Earth. This is Starship Fonzie, the official podcast of the Milwaukee Science Fiction and Fantasy League. I’m your host, Eric J. Hildeman, and we’re going to let you know what’s going on in the SFF world generally, and in Milwaukee particular. This podcast is being pre-recorded live from the planet Walloch 9 where the sisterhood of the Bene Gesserit are plotting to seize power withing the Imperium. Actually, it’s coming to you from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, or as it’s better known, the world’s beer garden. Welcome to the episode #45 of Starship Fonzie! We’re in episode #12 in our fourth year of existence. There’s a lot to go over, so let’s get under. Way, that is. It’s been too long since our last episode. A lot has happened, not the least of which was the travesty which was the presidential election. Those of us that love future dystopias within science fiction are all just a little bit more ...

So, the latest YouTube video to go viral involves a CGI version of William Shatner being reunited with a CGI version of Leonard Nimoy. It's called "765874 - Unification," and I can only assume the string of numbers refers to a stardate. It is simple, touching, and feels to the viewer like the reuniting of old friends, not just between Kirk and Spock, but between Trek fans and the franchise. This viral moment is a little bit like back when Gazelle Automations did the Star Trek: The Next Generation: The Animated series video, featuring the moment when Picard was abducted by the Borg. It was the Trek video which "broke the Internet." ( To see it again, click here .) This time, the animation isn't a cartoon. Instead it's the simple face-swap software which has been both a blessing and a plague upon entertainment and culture over the last three years. But it got used for good, for once. The film doesn't rely solely upon CGI actors, as Robin Curtis, the ac...

  Are you participating in NaNoWriMo this year? Well, don't. Seriously, November is a stupid month to do a national writing month. You have TONS to do that time of year, whether it be taking down the Halloween decorations, putting up the Christmas decorations, getting ready for Thanksgiving, getting a jump on your Christmas shopping, making sure you get your leaves down to the curb before the final leaf-pick-up day in your city or village, etc., etc. You don't have time for novel writing in November. Unless you're a complete hermit, none of us do. Which is why, for the second straight year, I'm pushing the idea of "NotNovWriMo." That is, doing your novel writing month in some other month besides November. My personal pick? January. When the holidays are over, all the parties have concluded, and you're there with a (hopefully) mild hangover on January 1st with nothing better to do on your day off than watch an old movie or, better yet, start on your book...

  I’m going to begin this podcast with a salute to a great man who passed away 23 years ago on the 11th of May, 2001. Douglas Adams, whose full name was Douglas Noel Adams, meaning his initials were DNA, which was something he was especially proud of, was a gentle giant of a man (he was six feet, five inches tall). And he deserves to stand alone in his own special category in the same way Ray Bradbury and William Gibson do. He was the greatest sci fi humorist of all time, and that’s not hyperbole. When you think of humorous sci fi, what immediately comes to mind? If you Google “humorous science fiction,” Hitchhikers’ Guide is everywhere. If you look at the Goodreads ranking for the greatest humorous science fiction, the first 6 or 7 items on that list are all Douglas Adams. Then you finally get down to some other writers like Jasper Fforde, or John Scalzi, or Kurt Vonnegut. Douglas was a soft and giddy soul who loved nothing more than a good story, good food, and a good joke. But...

Recently, I was asked by the Wisconsin Writers' Association to read and review a sci-fi/fantasy novel called The Citadel, written by Frank Dravis. Since it was the third in a trilogy, I read the first two volumes before reading the current, third installment. But I only wrote up a brief review of The Citadel. Here, I will go into more detail by incorporating my reviews of the first two books as well. The Citadel is the third in the "Dianis, A World In Turmoil" chronicles. It is set in a world so dizzyingly multi-faceted that Frank Dravis has to provide the reader with a detailed cast of characters, terrestrial and intergalactic maps, and continual background descriptions throughout every scene. This sometimes lends the stories a complexity which is difficult to follow, and the early chapters are prone to info-dumping. But later chapters skillfully capitalize on what was established before. When one gets the hang of it, it's really quite a good story. The first two vol...

Re-telling the Christ narrative is nothing new in fiction. Norman Mailer's classic work, "The Gospel According to the Son," or Michael Moorcock's "Behold The Man" come to mind. But Geoff Ryman takes a radically different approach based on an unusual, yet trendy, premise: What if Jesus were trans? At first, it seems ludicrous. Perhaps even gimmicky. But Geoff Ryman weaves a clever narrative that is both respectable and surprisingly plausible. Much of the story is told through Maryam, the Savior's mother, who, just like the original story depicts, gives birth without the aid of a man. And here begins one of Ryman's more interesting plot insights: of course Maryam's fatherless child would be female, because only the mother's line could be drawn upon. It's a simple and elegant argument, albeit one that betrays a modern knowledge of genetics - something no ancient person would have had. Maryam's child is named Avigayil, at least at first....