Starship Fonzie

The Raven Scholar is a masterful work. One with one, glaring flaw: It takes far too long to set up. The book opens with an interesting story about Yana Valit. As the daughter of a traitor whose father waged rebellion against the current king, she lives precariously. When it is discovered that she secretly held onto her father's flag it is seen as an additional act of rebellion. The crime seems slight by our standards. But in the Empire of Orrun, it is a very serious crime. Emperor Bersun was about to give Yana a harsh sentence, but spare her exile, knowing that exile would be tantamount to death. But Yana's brother, Ruko, perhaps trying to curry the Emperor's favor, scoffs at the choice. On a lark, the Emperor puts it to Ruko to decide his sister's sentence. Ruko makes the hard choice, sentencing his sister to exile. But all this is the background. Enter Neema Kraa. She's an upstart scholar and scribe looking to affiliate herself with one of the eight great lands of...

Adrian Tchaikovsky has done it again. Fans of his work love to immerse themselves in the marvelous descriptions of alien life that flow from his keyboard like Niagra Falls. Shroud is no exception to this trend. Warning: there may be some spoilers as I introduce the story. If you'd rather avoid these, go read the book and come back to this blog post later. In this far-flung future scenario, a ship called the Garveneer arrives at a moon with such a dense atmosphere that no light reaches the surface. As such, it is named Shroud , as everything there is shrouded in darkness. The ship builds a space elevator and begins exploration. They send probes and are surprised to find it is inhabited by huge creatures - some of them almost sauropod sized - which defy description. They are crustaceans, of a sort, except their skins are made of metal, not bone. As they do not think this life is intelligent, they begin extracting the moon's mineral resources. They also design and build pods to ...

  It's been six and a half years since Grogu first stole the hearts of all Star Wars fans when he first appeared on the (then brand new) Disney + streaming service. Grogu and his adopted father, Din Djarin (a.k.a. "The Mandalorian," or just "Mando") have gone on to have three seasons worth of amazing adventures. A fourth season was in the works, when Disney executives decided to pull the plug. Why? Because no success is truly a success unless the margins are high enough. In spite of that colossal brain-fart, a project was greenlit to make a Mandalorian movie instead of a fourth season. That project went forward, and the movie has now been released. So far, the reviews have been mediocre. I think I know why. If you were a fan of the show, this movie is nothing short of excellent. It delivers all the cute Grogu moments we've all come to know and love, while giving the series a fine wrap-up, still leaving the door open for a bit more, should Disney execs ever d...

(This review appeared in the Speculative Fiction Writers' Association website. You can read that version here .) Few sci fi books have been as popular lately as Kalienne Bradley's novel, The Ministry of Time. It's a beautiful work, but as I'm about to show, it has its flaws. And no, they are not small ones. I'm aware of a certain controversy surrounding this book. When the BBC announced it wanted to turn the novel into a miniseries, it was discovered that the premise bears a striking similarity to the Spanish TV series, "El Ministerio del Tiempo." This led to accusations of plagiarism against Bradley. But I will overlook this crisis and instead evaluate the book on its own merit. Or rather, the lack thereof. The story revolves around one Commander Graham Gore, an officer who was part of Sir John Franklin’s ill-fated expedition to the Arctic. Gore is plucked from the year 1847 by the 21st-century Ministry of Time. Such people, designated "expats,"...

One of the books being talked about as a Hugo Award shortlist item is The Mercy of Gods by James S.A. Corey. Certainly, we're familiar with Corey (the pen-name of Daniel Abraham and Ty Frank) thanks to the success of The Expanse , and that already gives this book a leg up on the competition. But does it meet the usual Expanse standards? At first glance, it seems to. It is almost an extension of The Expanse , as humans have colonized a planet called Anjin, thousands of years in the past. One assumes that this was during the Expanse era when the alien protomolecule technology opened up a large number of ring gates, allowing humans to spread throughout multiple systems at once. The ring gates were later destroyed in order to thwart those who wiped out the ring-builders. But all this is not specifically mentioned. The humans of Anjin have completely forgotten their origins. They know the world was settled, but don't recall how or why. But remain scientifically curious about the p...

It's been out on Disney+ for a little while, now, so it's time for me to finally weigh in (now that I've seen the first two episodes). Clearly, Skeleton Crew is aimed at a youth audience. Kids are the main protagonists, hailing from a planet which seems almost too much like American suburbia for its own good. The street lamps look rather like American street lamps. The buildings look rather like those of any modern urban city. There are trams and cars - all of which run on slotted tracks - as well as speeder bikes, which seem to be exclusively ridden by the rebellious sort who refuse to conform to things like tracks on roads. The only thing that makes it look a little less Americana and a little more alien-world is the school classmates - half of which seem to be some weird sort of alien. For example, Wim, the main child-protagonist, has a best friend named Neel who is an oddly Dumbo-headed-like creature. The authority figures, from police, to firefighters, to teachers, are...

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....

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 world of sci fi in Milwaukee, and in the SFF world more generally. This podcast is being pre-recorded live from the headquarters of UNIT in central London, where the Doctor has defeated Sutekh for the second time. Actually, it's coming to you from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, or as Milwaukee businesses are calling it, “That city where the economic windfall predicted by hosting the RNC is not materializing.” Seriously. Restaurants aren’t getting their private bookings, other local businesses are not getting any special orders ahead of the convention… it’s just not materializing. Catering? Not really materializing. So right now, it looks like the only businesses that will be making any money off this are...