Author Archives: James Pyles

A Few Centuries More or Less in the Man Cave from Hell

man cave

PHOTO PROMPT © Alicia Jamtaas

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“Oh now, it’s not all that bad,” said the Dark Prince.

I reacted in appropriate horror. “Are you kidding? It’s hideous. Could we just go with the traditional lake of fire with demons wielding pitchforks?” I knew I was whining, but what more could he do to me?

“This isn’t on me. I wasn’t the one who spent decades swilling booze, snorting coke, and who ended up committing suicide after bankrupting his family.”

He had me there. I was a louse. There were reasons but they didn’t matter.

“It’s not forever,” he said smiling. “Just until you redeem your soul.”

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DVD Review of “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” (2023)

ant q

DVD cover for the movie Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania

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A few days ago, I checked out a DVD of the film Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023) at the public library (so it didn’t cost me a cent) and got around to watching it yesterday.

First of all, I miss the “Wombats” (Michael Peña as “Luis,” David Dastmalchian as “Kurt,” and Tip T.I. Harris as “Dave”). I understand there wasn’t a place in them given the story, and they weren’t as well utilized in Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018) as they were in the original Ant-Man (2015), but they’re great comedy relief.

Secondly, I miss Abby Ryder Fortson as Cassie. I know the MCU blipped ahead five years so the actress (now age 15) would be too young, but she was a lot of fun. I also know that an older daughter for Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) means she can join him on his adventures, but at 26, Kathryn Newton, who replaced Emma Fuhrmann in the role after Avengers: Endgame (2019) might be a little bit too “old” (Fuhrmann is only 21 which is just about right).

Most of the movie seemed to be pretty much in the dark, which made it hard for me to tell what was going on half the time. For instance, in the opening sequence with Janet (Michelle Pfeiffer) and the Traveler/Kang (Jonathan Majors), I couldn’t see their faces and had no idea what was going on until later in the film.

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Book Review of Joe Haldeman’s novel “Camouflage” (2004)

cam joe

Photo credit: James Pyles

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I just got done reading Joe Haldeman’s novel Camouflage. I used to read Haldeman a lot back in the day. I loved classics such as The Forever War and All My Sins Remembered. It was after reading his novel The Accidental Time Machine that I said I’d never read him again (more on that later).

But a friend suggested giving him another try, so I found “Camouflage” at my local public library.

It’s generally a good book and a very easy read. I shot through it in just a few days. In spite of the title, the protagonist is an alien being simply called “Changeling.” We find out early on that Changeling came to Earth from over 10,000 light-years away and evolved in a very different environment. Apparently life is rare in the galaxy and Earth is where it found life.

Its ship landed in the Pacific Ocean, specifically the Tonga Trench about a million years ago. The narrative made it seem that Changeling is a subset of the life form in the ship that separated itself to explore. For the vast majority of that million years, Changeling was various forms of sea life swimming around, primarily an Orca and a Great White Shark.

But by-the-by, Changeling started observing human beings on ships and became curious. It came on shore in California in 1931 and superficially imitated a human being.

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The Anthology “One-Way Ticket” is Selling Great!

one

Screenshot from Amazon.

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That’s right. The Starry Eyed Press science fiction anthology One-Way Ticket is selling great guns on the free kindle market just now.

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Cover art for “One-Way Ticket”

Here’s what it’s all about:

Space, with its infinite possibilities, calls us to explore, but makes no promises of returning home for those brave or foolish enough to test its resolve.

Starry Eyed Press proudly presents One-Way Ticket, a collection of fourteen science fiction tales of action, adventure, suspense, mystery and terror. Follow hopeful explorers, observe new settlers and terraforming efforts, meet sentient planets, witness lethal attacks, and discover alien species beyond your wildest imagination.

This one-way ticket takes you forward in time to a place where technology, infinite possibility and the vastness of the galaxy itself combine.

Embark upon this journey to new worlds, new possibilities and unforgettable adventures.

It’s also getting some great reviews but still needs more (hint, hint).

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Book Review of “Cowl” by Neal Asher

cowl

Photo © James Pyles

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I just finished reading Cowl (2004), a science fiction novel by Neal Asher. Of the seemingly endless supply of books he’s written, I chose “Cowl” because A) it is a stand alone novel where most of his works are bound to series and B) it was available through my local public library system.

Okay, the third reason is that it is specifically a time travel story, and I’m a sucker for time travel stories.

Most of the books of Asher’s I’ve read thus far (the reviews are elsewhere on my blog) are set off Earth, well outside the solar system, and so far in the future that anything that even vaguely refers to Earth is incredibly removed.

So it was odd to start out with the protagonist Polly, a teenage prostitute and drug addict in the 22nd century. Through an association with the sister of a soldier who had access to odd technology, she ends up in the crosshairs of a “U-gov” assassin named Tack. She sees the soldier Nandru killed by something called the Torbeast while Tack is trying to kill her.

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Steamflight

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PHOTO PROMPT © Liz Young

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“You really like it in that steampunk reality?” Josue Hunter stood in this secret museum admiring the flying machine with his best friend Wyatt Ellison.

“You sound so surprised, Josue. I got into time traveling for the adventure, so when history made this turn, you knew I’d jump for it.”

“And you knew I’d pass, giving up time travel. My universe became safe and mundane, well except for this.” He motioned toward alternate reality’s first steam driven aeroplane from the mid-19th century.

“You needed your history to be safe for your family. The time change gave you that, my friend.”

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Collector’s Item

guitar

PHOTO PROMPT © Jennifer Pendergast

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“You’re kidding. No. Absolutely not.” Daniel stared in disgust at the rainbow-striped acoustic guitar. It was hanging with others of the more common variety in a second-hand store catering exclusively to metanormal customers.

“I’m serious. In a couple of months, when GenZ discovers the music of legendary folk singer Kain DeMarko, it will be worth millions. He played it three times at the Fillmore West during the Summer of Love.”

“You are the silliest predictive AI I’ve ever engaged.” He’d just leased Sofia and uploaded her into his cranial implant last week.

“It’s on discount for one-fifty. C’mon, buy it.”

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Book Review of “Second Stage Lensman,” Book Five in the Lensman Series

Cover art for “Second Stage Lensman” by E.E. “Doc” Smith

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It has been almost a year-and-a-half since I reviewed E.E. “Doc” Smith’s Gray Lensman the fourth book in the “Lensman series” following Triplanetary, First Lensman, and Galactic Patrol.

Today, I’m reviewing Second Stage Lensman. While the Lensman series of books was first published in mass market paperback in the mid to late 1960s when I was in Junior High (and when every boy I knew was reading them), as a hardback book, it first came out in 1953. It had been published serially in “Astounding Science Fiction” from Nov 1941-to-Feb 1942.

Keep that in mind for the entire series since it is not only absolute classic science fiction and the emergence of the “space opera” but it really old.

That part is important, especially if you are used to more contemporary works “updated for modern audiences.” The 21st century progressive SciFi industry has little tolerance for it’s own past.

In this case, as with the others in the series, I can sort of see it, at least a bit.

For instance, slang. After all, from the 1940’s perspective, this is the future, but how would “future people” express themselves, especially when excited and agitated? How about:

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Macau

rickshaw

PHOTO PROMPT © Amanda Forestwood

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Demetrius saw that Charles and Diane had chosen two human-pulled rickshaws rather than self-driving e-shaws. They were meeting with Mr. Phoebe at his estate near Zhuxian Park. This should have been an easy kill, but where were the drivers?

The bounty hunter walked down the street pretending to be a western tourist. There they were. Not just drivers but bodyguards. They were vaping near the service entrance.

He released the brake on the first rickshaw and watched it roll downhill. One driver would be gone for awhile as Dem killed the other and then slipped inside for his real prey.

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Book Review: “Pines” (2012) by Blake Crouch

pines

© James Pyles

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I found out about the SciFi/Mystery novel Pines by Blake Crouch when I was looking up something totally unrelated. I had watched (again) the pilot episode to the 1966 Irwin Allen TV show The Time Tunnel and was wondering why the government would want to invent time travel.

Time travel, contrary to popular fiction, isn’t easily weaponized. If you want to change the past and say prevent anyone else besides the U.S. acquiring nuclear weapons, it would be incredibly complicated. Unforeseen variables could cause all kinds of unanticipated results, assuming you could change your own timeline at all.

It gets complex and it’s not the focus of this review. In one article I read, Blake Crouch said that changing time would most likely not be possible. If you tried to, as in the Back to the Future movies, prevent Marty’s Mom and Dad from meeting in 1955 so they couldn’t get married and ‘make” Marty, time would find another way for them to get together and sustain history.

I became curious about Crouch and looked up his books, finding the Wayward Pines novel series. My local library had a copy of “Pines,” so I checked it out.

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