Adam David Collings's Blog, page 17

Christian Science Fiction & Fantasy Bulletin October 2016

First Man by Robin Parrish
John C. Wright wins Dragon Award for SomeWither
Ommission by Liberty Spiedel
A Reluctant Assassin by J C Morrows Special Edition
Release Party for A Tragic Consequence
Nadine Brandes Interview
Release Party for A Time To Rise
The Flaming Sword by Heather L.L. Fitzgerald
Joshua A Johnston Releasing short story to his email list

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A Time To Rise by Nadine Brandes

A Time to Rise by Nadine Brandes

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

WATCH A VIDEO VERSION OF THIS REVIEW

A Time To Rise is the third and final installment in the dystopian Out of Time series. It picks up right after the devastating final page of A Time To Speak. The start is thrilling and intense. It dials right up to ten from the start.

Our hero, Parvin, regroups with her friends and allies. She has a new plan. It’s bold, but it will change the face of her society forever. If she can pull it off.

This book gives us a wider view of the story’s world. A lot of the action takes place in Russia, which is a far cry from the familiar settings of Unity Village, Prime and Ivanhoe. Along the way we meet colourful characters. Some friendly, others less so.

There’s some fun technology in this book. The special suits, that give you abilities, and the projected wall technology, both feature strongly in A Time To Rise.

Nadine Brandes does an amazing job of evoking emotions in the reader. Never, do I have stronger emotional reactions to fictional characters, than when I’m reading one of her books. Parvin meets a character in this book, who should be an ally, but turns out to be a real jerk. I just wanted to punch the bloke in the nose. I know he isn’t real, but still…

This brings us to the question of theme. For me, the themes have always been the most powerful aspect of the Out of Time Books. Many books have themes, but few have such an impact on the way I think, and the way I view and live my own life, like these do. That’s a tall order, and not something I would usually expect from my fiction.

In A Time to Rise, there are strong themes of faith versus fear, and forgiveness. I’ve told you how effectively Nadine makes us feel. We’ve come to despise the deliciously horrible villains. And then she hits us right between the eyes with that verse from the Bible about loving your enemies. But … but…. We can’t help but feel the struggle that Parvin is going through. She grows a lot in this book. As a reader I look at the journey she’s followed since the start of book 1, and I can’t help but feel immensely proud of her, like a big brother.

The other big area of growth for Parvin is that of faith. All Christians will say they trust God, but for that to really be true, it means you have to let go of fear and worry. Faith and Fear cannot co-exist. It’s gotta be one or the other. As Parvin learns to trust, really trust, I find myself being challenged to do the same.

Not all the character arcs in this story work out quite so nicely. We see characters falter and fail. These people have been treated very badly, and not all of them learn to let go in the same way that Parvin does. There are some tragic moments, but woven through all of it like a thread is the idea of hope. Hope permeates everything. That’s what makes this trilogy special and unique amongst the mass of dystopian stories.

So, A Time To Rise serves as an exciting and satisfying end to the trilogy. I would recommend this series to everyone. It’s very accessible, more so than most speculative stories. I think it will have very wide appeal.

I received a free advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

View all my reviews

WATCH A VIDEO VERSION OF THIS REVIEW

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Christian Science Fiction & Fantasy Bulletin Sept 2016

I’ve been thinking of doing a little news show on youTube for Christian Science Fiction and fantasy. Here is my first installment.

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Happy 50th Birthday Star Trek

This day, 50 years ago, the first episode of Star Trek was broadcast on TV. It’s been a wild ride. Who would have thought, that this science fiction drama, which Gene Roddenberry had such trouble selling to the network, would go on to be a world-wide cultural icon? What would he have thought, if he’d known we’d be celebrating the 50th anniversary today?

My engagement with Star Trek began when I was a kid. I don’t remember the year, but my parents gave me a book for Christmas – the Star Trek Annual. This hard-cover contained two original TOS stories in comic-book form. I remember reading them over and over again. It can’t have been much later that our local TV station starting showing repeats of Star Trek at lunch time on Saturdays. We’d watch while we ate each week. Spock quickly became my favourite character. I caught a few of the movies – Star Trek IV being one of them.

Then Star Trek: The Next Generation came along. We always got shows at least a year later in Australia, than in America, but since the internet wasn’t around in any real form at the time, it didn’t matter. I wasn’t sure how Star Trek would work without the original characters. Remember, the idea of spin-off, or a shared story world was unheard of in the eighties. Still, I sat down to watch Encounter at Farpoint. After all, how could I miss it? It was Star Trek. I was immediately hooked.

As TNG progressed, my love for Star Trek only grew. Deep Space Nine came about. Then TNG ended. Fortunately, we had Star Trek Generations to look forward to. A lot of people how low opinions of this film, and it certainly wasn’t perfect, but it will always have a special place in my heart. Seeing Kirk and Picard together – what a thrill!

It got a little harder to be an Aussie Star Trek fan in the mid to late nineties. Channel 9 seemed to be respecting the show less and less. They showed the episodes at 11:00 PM, so you had to stay up late or record them on VHS for later viewing. Plus, there was a time where we got a season of DS9 one year, then a season of Voyager the next year, putting us further and further behind. The internet was in full swing by now, so spoilers were rampant. Of course, by this point, nobody relied on TV anyway. If you were a fan, you bought all the episodes on VHS. It was the only way to keep up (still about a year behind America). It’s interesting that now the tables have turned. Americans will be watching the new show, Star Trek Discovery, on CBS All Access, while we in Australia are likely to have a better experience watching on Netflix.

I remember, in my university days, posting Star Trek fan fiction on usenet groups. Ah, those were the days. I was also an avid reader of the Star Trek books, put out by PocketBooks. I remember longing to be able to submit a story to the Strange New Worlds competition, but it was only open to Americans. I also enjoyed the various tie-in computer games. 24th Anniversary, Judgement Rites, TNG: A Final Unity, DS9: Harbinger. These were all point-and-click adventure games (another love of mine).

Star Trek predicted a lot of innovations, some of which have come about. People love to talk about mobile phones, and tablets being influenced by Star Trek technology. The thing that really sparked my imagination was the fact that the Enterprise computer had copies of all of humanity’s literature, through the ages. It was all there, freely available to be consumed. I remember thinking how awesome that would be – imagining that in the future, every episode of Star Trek could be available on demand, so I could catch all the stories that I’d missed. Today, I sit here with Netflix open. I have exactly that. All of Star Trek at my fingertips. It happened!

So many creative people have contributed to Star Trek over the decades, in so many different ways, so to all of them I say thank you, and happy birthday.

Live Long and prosper.

Make it so.

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Songs in Code

I’m sure you’ve seen it before. People taking a well-kown song and rendering it in code. I once saw “Santa Clause is Coming to Town” in BASH script. I recently saw “Bohemian Rhapsody” in c# doing the rounds on Facebook.

Just for fun, because I’m a geek in my day job just as much as in my writing life, I couldn’t resist making a couple of my own. See how long it takes you to figure out these classics.

or this…

and finally…

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August Wrap Up!

My kids join me this time.

The books I read in August are:

Brothers In Valor by H Paul Honsinger
Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson
A Star Curiously Singing by Kerry Nietz
and my kids are reading The 78 Story Treehouse by Andy Griffiths. Illustrated by Terry Denton

NOTE: The above are Amazon Affiliate links

Shot on location at Tamar Island. Tasmania.

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Suicide Squad – Movie Review

In the face of the Kryptonian invasion, and the recent ‘doomsday incident’, high-ranking government agent Amanda Waller sets in motion a plan to recruit super-villains – the worst of the worst – to serve as expendable soldiers in coming conflicts. A suicide squad. “This is World War Three,” she says. “We were lucky that Superman shared our values. What if the next one doesn’t?”

This film picks up directly following Batman V Superman, continuing the ongoing narrative. We see the background of these super-villains in reasonable detail – given how many characters the film needs to introduce. It was fun seeing a couple of familiar faces in here. Well, familiar masks at least. Before the first of these origin-vignettes was finished, I was already choked with emotion. Deadshot, played by Will Smith stands out as a primary character in this story.

I won’t tell you who, or what, the threat is, but suffice it to say, the squad is needed sooner rather than later.

This movie is all about redemption. It’s about dealing with our past sins. Do they define us? Will they forever enslave us? Can the worst of us still be redeemed? Some of these characters desire redemption more than others. Some of them are actively seeking it. Some may ultimately find it.

The characters with the most interesting arcs in this story, for me, were Deadshot, Diablo and Harley Quinn.

I’d been wondering how characters like Enchantress (a witch) and Zeus (a greek god, who created Wonder Woman) would fit into the more realistic world portrayed in the last two movies. Then I figured out, it isn’t the lack, or presence, of any particular content that makes the DC movies feel so realistic. Man of Steel was the most science fiction take I’ve seen on Superman, but I don’t think you could call it hard science fiction. The thing that gives these stories their realistic feeling, is emotional honesty.

Suicide Squad had a lot more humour in it than the previous two films, but for the most part, it still managed to maintain that emotional honesty. There was really only one moment that the humour pulled me out of the story. Deadshot pointed a gun to the head of a character. That character then cracked a joke. It was funny, for sure, but it didn’t feel like an emotionally honest response. Now maybe joking was just his way of dealing with the stress of that moment, but it kinda broke the illusion for me briefly.

Killer Crock was a much more humorous character than I expected. I found it kinda hard to be terrified of him, in the way that I felt I should. Captain Boomerang brought in a bit of the old Aussie humour. At least, as much of it as the international audience would understand, even if it was was mostly just filling stereotypes.

The joker isn’t a central character to this story, but features more than I expected. Jared Leto brings a chilling interpretation of the character. It’s a new take, but it feels right.

Something I found really interesting after seeing this film, was to compare and contrast Amanda Waller with the members of the squad. What makes her different from them? Is she really any better? Is she, in fact, worse? While some members of the squad deeply regret the heinous things they’ve done in the past, and have tried to implement changes in their life, she is without remorse. Without mercy. Could it be said that the only thing separating Waller from Deadshot, is the question of who signs their cheques?

Unlike the last two DC films, Suicide Squad has a mid-credit sequence at the end. I nearly missed it, having come to the conclusion that DC are not following that particular trope. It is definitely worth watching, so stick around for it.

Having now seen three of the movies, I’m starting to understand how DC are approaching their film universe. It’s a different approach to Marvel. DC have faced a bit of criticism of not introducing the characters to us fully before bringing them together. In fact, when Justice League comes out next year, half of the team won’t have been seen in anything other than cameos. Only two of them will have had their own dedicated solo film. Conventional wisdom might have suggested they follow Marvel’s proven formula. Each character gets their own trilogy, with them coming together on a semi-regular basis for larger story-telling events.

The approach DC seem to be taking is to tell one big story. Each DC film feels like the next chapter in a book. You wouldn’t want to watch these out of order. You probably could, but they’re much more satisfying when viewed as a whole. This is a single narrative, logically following from one to the next. I think both approaches are valid, and I’m really enjoying DC’s fresh new take.

Due to the humour, Suicide Squad will probably have a wider appeal than the last two DC movies, though I doubt DC will even have quite the mass appeal of the Marvel franchise. As they say in self-publishing, every story has its audience, you just need to find them. The fans of the DC Extended Universe may be a smaller subset of movie-goers, but they are very dedicated, and DC seems to be serving them well.

As with the previous two films, Suicide Squad gives you plenty to chew on. There are issues to mentally ponder. The future is very bright for the DC Extended Universe. If they can ignore the critics, and continue to make awesome movies, then we should be in for quite a ride. Bring it on.

You may also like my review of Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice.

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July Reading Wrap-Up

It’s time for another monthly wrap-up video. In this episode I talk about some great Aussie fantasy, a James Bond Thriller, and finishing Camp NaNoWriMo.

A Swirl of Purple of Jessica Scoullar
Casino Royale by Ian Flemming
Heart of The Mountain by Jeanette O’Hagan
More stories set in Jeanette O’Hagan’s Nardva World
Jewell Of The Stars Series

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Justice League and Wonder Woman Trailers

Wow, what a big day. While I was sleeping, two epic trailers were released. My already substantial enthusiasm for the DC Extended Universe has now blown skyward. Let’s have a look at the trailers for Justice League and Wonder Woman.

Looks like 2017 will be a big year for movies. I’ve been long looking forward to seeing Jason Momoa as Aquaman, but after this clip, I’m also really looking forward to Ezra Miller’s Flash. The tone of Justice League seems a little comedic from this trailer. We’ve been hearing from the start that its tone would be a bit lighter, and while this trailer made me laugh out loud a few times, I’m hoping they don’t go too far. Once the threat to earth manifests itself, I’d like them to return to the gritty realistic tone of the last two films. I want to feel the weight of the danger that the human race are facing.

And if all the excitment about the DC Extended Universe wasn’t enough, the new Star Trek show now has a name. Star Trek: Discovery. It will follow the adventures of the USS Discovery. The name suggests to me that exploration will be an important part of the story, which will be very welcome.

It’s a great time to be a geek!

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Star Trek Chronology Playlist on Spotify

As we approach the 50th anniversary of Star Trek, coming up in just a few months, it’s a good time to reflect on the many things that Star Trek has contributed to enrich human civilisation. One of these many contributions is the music of Star Trek. The various TV series and movies have spawned some beautiful and powerful musical scores.

To celebrate this fact, I have put together a special playlist on Spotify called Star Trek Chronology.

The playlist starts with the theme from the original TV pilot ‘The Cage’ and progresses through 50 years of musical history, right up to Rihanna’s song Sledgehammer, the theme song of this year’s Star Trek Beyond.

Featuring the awesome talents of composers such as Alexander Courage, Jerry Goldsmith, James Horner, Dennis McCarthy, Jay Chattaway and Michael Giacchino, the playlist runs for almost 4.5 hours, and gives a taste of each iteration of Trek.

Feel free to listen and enjoy

Listen to the playlist on Spotify

Live Long and Prosper.

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