Starship Fonzie

It's an old trope: The brat kid of a robber-baron hitches off with a band of misfits hoping to find a more mundane life. But she ends up finding even more adventure instead. This is the basic premise behind Becky Chambers' book, The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet. The main character, Rosemary, wastes a bunch of her family's dirty money in order to buy herself a new identity. Then she joins the crew of a run-down spaceship called the Wayfarer. Her skills are immediately useful, and this allows her to work well with the crew, but they intrinsically know something's up with her. When she uses her linguistic skills to prevent a band of alien marauders from leaving them completely stranded, it becomes clear that there's more to Rosemary than meets the eye. The crew itself is exotic. Sissix is a reptilian-like pilot, an Aandrisk, and Rosemary has to correct her thinking regarding their fundamental differences: complicated family structures, no concept of personal space...

  Well, here we are again. Time to look back at 2023 and name what the best items were for TV, movies, and books. Here's what the most recent meeting of the Milwaukee Science Fiction and Fantasy League came up with for our Best Of lists. See if you agree: Best Movies: By full consensus, it was agreed that Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse was probably the best sci fi film overall. But there were lots of others that created a huge impression. For example, the movie They Cloned Tyrone was an excellent turnaround of "blacksploitation," to say nothing of outstanding performances by John Boyega, Jamie Foxx, and Teyonah Parris. Also agreed upon was Poor Things , and not just because our local heroes, Mark Ruffalo and Willem Dafoe, starred in it. Also included in our best of the best list was The Creator, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves , and Godzilla Minus One . We also couldn't help but list Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 . Although it disappointed a little...

I recently treated myself to the Netflix movie, "Leave The World Behind," featuring an all-star cast of Julia Roberts, Ethan Hawke, Kevin Bacon, and Mahershala Ali. It's a near-future apocalypse, and so crosses over into the area of science fiction. It was really, really good! The movie admittedly starts slow. Amanda Sandford (Julia Roberts) surprises her NYC family with a spur-of-the-moment getaway weekend to a house being rented out in Long Island. Her husband, Clay (Ethan Hawke), is unenthusiastic about the idea, but goes along with it. Naturally, they take along their two children, Archie (Charlie Evans) and Rose (Farrah McKenzie). The first sign of trouble comes when Rose can't stream her favorite show, which happens to be "Friends." But otherwise, things seem fine - at first. The house is a gorgeous mansion, with a beautiful interior, spacious yard, and swimming pool. But then something really odd happens. They visit the beach, and while there, Rose n...

  Every year, around November, people participate in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) as a way to help motivate their novel writing. The goal is 50,000 words in 30 days. Every year it seems to get more popular. Except this past November, it got a little - weird. No, make that a LOT weird. I won't go into detail about it here. I did a deep-dive into it for the Starship Fonzie podcast, so if you're interested, give that a listen. But the bottom line is that NaNoWriMo has gotten way too big, way too understaffed, and way too fraught with drama and scandal to be the main standard bearer for this sort of collective writing event. It's time for something different. Maybe with a little less drama. Maybe with a little more control. And definitely with a lot less weird shit taking place on group forums. Most importantly, something that's NOT during November - a month filled with holiday preparations, home winterizing, and family events. I mean let's face it, November...

My wife and I just couldn't let Christmas go by without watching the new Doctor Who premier, "The Church on Ruby Road," featuring the new Doctor, Ncuti Gatwa (pronounced "Shoo-tay Gatwa"). Already people are piling on with their own views and reviews, and its entertaining to watch the right-wing remnants of the Sad/Rabid Puppies claiming (stupidly and obviously) that the episode's low Neilson ratings have anything to do with anything other than it being a release on Christmas, when everyone has something better to do than watch television. Yet there is some blowback regarding the episode. Despite a 100% fresh-tomato rating on RottenTomatoes.com, the episode has an abysmal 44% audience review rating. This is about the same audience rating as the other three Christmas specials, so it's not just review-bombing, although there is certainly some of that going on. No, there's a bit more, and I thought I would add my take to explain what I see as the dispa...

Well, folks, I believe NaNoWriMo has finally run its course. It was already too big before, but now it's gotten way out of hand. Let me explain what I mean as I try to give an unbelievably brief recounting of what happened with Nano this past November. (And please bear in mind, my understanding of this is cursory, at best. It's all just too convoluted.) The NaNoWriMo forums, where many writers congregate to socialize and get advice, is only administered by several key people, only one of which is even paid. That paid administrator, one Letitia Jones, was the target of a racist comment by the lead moderator who goes by the name "DragonChild" (I won't use her real name here). As such, "DC" was asked to step down last October after 20 years of volunteer service with NaNoWriMo. Now, Letitia admitted she was a little lax in her duties (for which apologies were made all around), but that didn't lessen the impact of what was said or done. Losses of other e...

  Last year, a few months before Chicon 8 took place, a literary giant passed away. His name was Eric Flint, the man responsible for the 1632 "Ring of Fire" series. I first learned about Eric Flint from a panel which took place at Chicon 8, which covered the life and works of Eric Flint. One of his friends, who was on that panel, was none other than Orange Mike Lowery, a man who has come to be a friend of mine. I was utterly unfamiliar with Eric Flint at the time. But I purposed to read some of his works and get familiar with him. I'm so very glad I did. The 1632 series is historical alternate universe fiction. Its premise is simple. In the year 2000, the West Virginia town of Grantsville gets magically transported to Thuringia, Germany in the year 1632 - right in the middle of the Thirty Years' War. The transported Americans quickly make their presence felt with their advanced technology and weaponry. But they face many challenges, too. For starters, they have no mea...