Paul Levinson's Blog: Levinson at Large, page 32

Invasion 2.2: Jamila and Trevante

Episode 2.2 of Invasion had two good, non-intersecting stories about Jamila in the UK and Trevante in the USA.

[Spoilers ahead ... ]

I thought Jamila's story was tighter at this point than Trevante's. She's determined to find Casper. She knows he has some sort mental connection and control over the invaders. She feels she's been in some sort of touch with him. She joins up with the two of the young gents from last season, picks up another other guy and his young sister, and they're off to Paris, where she has reason to believe Casper may be, and the newbies say their parents have a flat. The makings of a good story.

Trevante's starts off a little lamely. He saves his young nephew, who jumps into the deep end of a pool, and screams at him after he's out of the water and awake. Trevante's sister is so furious at him for screaming at the kid that she throws Trevante out of the house. Does that make sense? She wouldn't be happy about Trevante screaming at her son, true, but where's her gratitude for Trevante saving the boy's life?

Fortunately, Trevante finds a better reason to leave Florida -- he finds there's some kind of invader activity in Oklahoma. At this point, his story gets back on track, as he maneuvers his way to getting where he wants to go, and gets put behind bars for his effort.

In both cases -- Jamila's and Trevante's -- the authorities and their military and police are worse than useless. getting in the way of our heroes, obstructing their worthy actions, at every turn. This is an old story in science fiction, but one which alas seems ever reasonable. See what I said about governments and invaders from space on Ancient Alien (at 1 min 23 seconds in the video) 13 years ago:

And I'll be back here next week with something to say about the next episode of Invasion.

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Published on August 30, 2023 19:56

"It's Real Life" Nominated for Sidewise Award

Some really good news came in this morning: "It's Real Life" (my alternate history story about The Beatles) has been nominated for the prestigious Sidewise Award (short form) for Alternate History. The winners (short form and long form) will be announced at the World Fantasy Convention in Kansas City at the end of October. Congratulations to the other nominees -- deeply honored to be among you. (Details in the attached press release.)
"t's Real Life" -- read the short story for FREE, buy it for Kindle or on paper, listen to the radio play for FREE, or buy the audiobook
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Published on August 29, 2023 16:06

Foundation 2.7: Is Demerzel Telling the Truth?

Another excellent episode of Foundation -- 2.7 -- which may be the best episode so far this second season, which means maybe the best episode so far in the series.

I'll address three issues here:

[Spoilers follow ... ]

1. Demerzel tells Sareth she's the last surviving robot, that once upon a time robots were bound to follow three laws which makes them bound to prevent any harm from befalling a human, by action or inaction (actually, just the first law of Asimov's Three Laws) but that changed and now she's bound by only one law, to "serve Empire".

Ok, but is Demerzel telling Sareth the truth? Is she bound by any robotic law to never lie to any human? Or never lie to Day's betrothed? Not likely. And why did she mention the three laws to Sareth, and then only recite to her the first law? Was that just inexact writing, or is there some meaning in that omission? And is Demerzel telling the truth about being the last surviving humanoid robot, aka android? (And, while we're at it, what happened to Asimov's Zeroth Law?)

2. The Cleons had quite a night. Day had Demerzel kill Sareth's family. She understandably hates him. Day and Demerzel know this, so why are they going ahead with the marriage? And Sareth beginning to seduce Dawn is a risky and exciting venture indeed. I don't see how they'll be able to hide that from Demerzel. Also notable is Brother Constant conveying the holographic Harry in the meeting with the Cleonic clones and Demerzel in a very strong scene -- actually, any scene with the Cleonic clonic triumvirate and Demerzel is good to see, let alone one with any version of Hari.

3. But speaking of Hari -- it looks like he's also alive in the flesh, with his head above water, just as I said I thought was likely the case last week. And now Salvor has joined him? Well, not exactly, her face is down in the water, but if Hari survived why can't she? On the other hand, this episode is entitled "A Necessary Death," and whose death is that? Sareth's family? Not likely, especially since that happened off-camera.

Lots of information and lots of questions, which is why I much enjoyed this episode.

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Published on August 24, 2023 21:23

Two-Hour, In-Depth Interview about My Music

a nearly two-hour interview by Greg Shanks about my music, with details I haven't written or talked about before
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Published on August 23, 2023 08:47

Invasion 2.1: Tenuous Meeting of the Minds

Invasion -- the latest narrative that explores an H. G. Well's War of the Worlds scenario -- is back on Apple TV+ with the first episode of its second season. It's entitled "Something's Changed," but I don't think all that much has changed, unless change is defined as zooming into elements that were already there in the first season, and that's fine with me.

Episode 2.1 is indeed less crowded with simultaneous stories of the interstellar invasion that were happening all over the world, and I found myself missing that frenetic, often inchoate pace. On the other hand, at least one of the remaining segments has some promise, and the other one coming into focus looks like a pretty good if less original story, too.

[Spoilers ahead ... ]

The mind-bending story, maybe literally, is Mitsuki's, who opts to go face-to-face, or mind-to-mind, with the interstellar intelligence mounting the invasion, although I guess we don't that this billowy entity mounted the invasion for sure. Significantly, Mitsuki is not so much brave as certain that she'll survive this encounter, because she already feels some undefined connection to the invaders.

How's that? We'll no doubt find out. But I'll hazard a guess and say that's because these destructive visitors have been here before. In the one scene in which she and the extra-terrestral have close to a physical but apparently not yet a figurative meeting of the minds, the two seem to know each other. At very least, the star-traveler doesn't kill Mitsuki or destroy her mind, at least, not yet.

The other main story in this episode is Aneesha and her children, who come under the protection of the "Movement," a human para-military operation who are trying to help. As I said, this is a far more conventional science fiction story, found not only in invaders from space narratives, but threats to the human species that come from Earthly pathogens. But Aneesha and her kids are so appealing that I really don't mind seeing this kind of invasion story again.

So, I'll be here watching and reviewing the second season of Invasion, and letting you know how I think it turns out.

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Published on August 22, 2023 21:21

Foundation 2.6: Hari and Evita

Well, I thought Foundation 2.6 was one of the best episodes so far. Here's why:

[Spoilers ahead ... ]

1. Young Hari -- both as a boy and a young man -- was pure gold. It was a neat, powerful story all on its own. Hari and Yanna were a great, pivotal couple. And the way he killed Yanna's killer was perfect -- standing in just the right place in the middle of a stampede, so he was safe (just as he had taught himself how to do as a boy) and she was trampled was an epitome of what he was trying to do as the older Hari we have come to know, and the current renditions of Empire.

2. Speaking of which, I enjoyed Sareth sounding like Evita as she stood next to Empire who had just proclaimed her to be his and the populace's Queen. Indeed, her proclaiming to the people that she was them, and they were standing up there via her at the center of the universe, could have been taken right out of that Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice musical. The only difference was that Juan Perón really valued Evita beside him, unlike Day who didn't seem too thrilled with what Sareth was saying.

So those were two outstanding segments and themselves worth the price of admission. The rest, I didn't like quite as much.

3. As I always say about what I see on any fictional television screen, if you don't see a character's head blown off or to smithereens, there's a fair chance the character might live. Further, in science fiction, there are all kinds of ways a seemingly killed character can survive. In the case of Hari, there is already a digital Hari who would survive the flesh-and-blood Hari's death. And, yeah, I see the poetry in his dying, just as he's thinking about and we're learning about what happened Yanna. But I didn't like seeing him drown, anyway, and I hope we see him in the flesh again. I've gotten to like Hari alive, even though he's not flesh and blood in the original Asimov stories at this point, and even though his digital self would be a close approximation of the recurring Seldon hologram in the novels.

4. I also don't especially like Tellem, even though she does have a great name that makes me think of that Exciters song every time I hear it. And I suppose the Second Foundation she may actually be beginning to think she could help create could be a believable victor, eventually, over The Mule.

But, well, we'll have to wait and see.

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Published on August 17, 2023 21:15

The Chronology Protection Case Trailer

Jay Kensinger's trailer for The Chronology Protection Case, adapted from my novelette, on Amazon Prime Video
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Published on August 17, 2023 09:17

Talking about Foundation 2.5 on the Stars End Podcast

I was a guest this past Saturday on the Stars End Podcast talking about the Foundation series on Apple TV+, episode 2.5

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Published on August 14, 2023 11:53

Outlander 7.8: Benedict Arnold and Time Travel

Outlander 7.8, the midseason finale, was superb on many levels. And it amply continued what I said about 7.7: it provided a vivid example of the insanity of war.

[Spoilers ahead ... ]

As a time-travel devotee, I especially liked two interactions that Claire and Jamie had with Benedict Arnold:

1. Jamie quotes Browning's "A man's reach must exceed his grasp, or what's a heaven for," and Claire slightly winces. That's because Browning doesn't publish this in a poem until 1855, and Jamie is about to fight the Second Battle of Saratoga in 1777. I love "mistakes" like this in time travel. Did Arnold at some point in the future tell someone that line -- he said he found it very impressive -- and it percolated forward in history to Browning? If so, that's an example of the "where did it come from" paradox in time travel. When a phrase from the future is set loose in the past, it's impossible to figure out where it originated, the future or the past? It bounces back and forth from the future to the past then back to the future in a never-ending circle. (I'll also note that I like what Marshall McLuhan made of this line, changing it to "A man's reach must exceed his grasp, or what's a metaphor?" That's a pretty good definition of metaphor, as well as being a pun.)

2. Later, Claire tells a wounded Benedict Arnold that he's justified in feeling his accomplishments in the American army have not been recognized. Arnold has been wounded psychologically as well as physically, and Claire's supporting his grievances may have been just the last straw that got him to leave the Americans and join the British, and therein have his name in future history become synonymous with "traitor". Another mind-bending example of where did it come from. Had Claire from the future not supported Arnold's anger, he might not have joined the British. (You can see by the expression on her face that she realizes a second too late that her answer might have stoaked Arnold's switching sides -- though, perhaps she did that deliberately, to avoid the risk of changing the history she knew.)

Other than time travelers in America during the Revolutionary War, there were lots of other excellent touches in this episode. Jamie accidentally shooting the hat off William's head and his later giving his son a hat was a beautiful, powerful little piece of storytelling. I also liked Ian and Rachel almost getting together, even if it ended with Ian on the boat to Scotland and Rachel accosted by that psycho creep, the well-named Arch Bug.

And back to time travel, as became clear at the end of episode 7.7, Roger going back in time through the Stones in Scotland promises to bring us all kinds of exciting encounters and likely more paradoxes in the second half of this excellent season next year. And I'll be back here with more reviews.

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Published on August 11, 2023 13:07

Foundation 2.5: The Original Cleon and the Robot

I'm not going to review every episode of the second season of Foundation, unless it strikes me as adding something really important to the story. So, I didn't review last week's Foundation 2.4. But tonight's 2.5 is at least doubly important, so here's my review:

[Spoilers ahead ... ]

First, we get to the meet the original Cleon. Dawn and Dusk call him forth in their (mainy Dusk's) need to find out if Day has edited Dawn and Dusk's memories. Dusk provides a good succinct explication of their dilemma: if their memories were really altered, how would they would they know that?

The original Cleon is of course played by Terrence Mann, who plays Dusk, and he does a good job of it. The original Cleon has a vibrance, a presence, a wisdom, that Dusk doesn't have. Other than that, the original offers no surprises, urging Dawn and Dusk not to rock the boat. But now that we the audience know that the original Cleon can be summoned, that adds a powerful resource for the Cleonic triad.

The other great discovery is made by Sareth's family: Demerzel is a robot! We of course already knew that (from earlier episodes in the TV series, and of course from Asimov's novels). And the Cleon clones know Demerzel is a robot, with warm, organic flesh -- indeed, in tonight's episode, Demerzel reassures Dusk that she would have memories of everything, even if Day somehow edited some out of Dusk and Dawn's minds.

But speaking of Asimov's novels in a review of this episode of the TV series, it needs to be mentioned again that Demerzel was a male robot in the novels, who basically gets Hari Seldon started on psychohistory, and gets Dors (a female robot) married to Hari, where she continues as his protector. If this sounds more intriguing a story than what we've seen of Hari so far on the screen, I'd say that's because it is. At this point, the Seldon story still hasn't come close to what's happening on Trantor, but I continue to watch in hope.

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Published on August 10, 2023 20:04