James Pyles's Blog, page 81

Review of Season One of “Star Trek Discovery,” Part One

Disclosure: I rented the first season of Star Trek Discovery as a DVD set from my local public library. For the sake of this blog post, I’m reviewing the first two episodes. I have to admit, I went into this expecting not to like Discovery. Even when CBS offered the option to watch the first […]

Film Review of “Star Trek” (2009)

Just for giggles, the other night I re-watched J.J. Abrams’ reboot of Star Trek (2009). Yes, I saw it in the theater ten years ago with one of my sons, and what I pointed out was wrong with the movie then, is still wrong with it now. Oh, it’s a fun romp. There’s great action, […]

Ashes of Avalon Revisited

I’ve been considering science fiction awards named after flawed human beings lately. Of course, on my blog, this all started with Jeannette Ng’s Campbell Award Acceptance Speech and Here We Go Again, and then continued into The Sins of John W. Campbell Revisited, Tiptree Award Name May Change (Here We Go Again), and here, and […]

Book Review of “War Factory: Transformation Book Two”

Disclosure: My short story “Joey” appears in the Zombie Pirate Publishing science fiction anthology World War Four. It also features Neal Asher’s novelette Monitor Logan. Neal Asher’s War Factory is the sequel to his novel Dark Intelligence and the second in his “Transformations” trilogy. We continue to follow the travails of a plethora of characters, […]

The Nature of Social Media in a Nutshell

I was checking on Facebook this evening and, alas, was inspired to end the work week with a bit of snark. This really is the nature of social media, and especially (but not exclusively) twitter. It’s also the nature of blogging and fandom. Over the past year and a month or two, my investigation into […]

Once More On Awards And How Your Heroes Will Never Be Perfect

A few days ago on File 770, Chris M. Barkley wrote a guest piece called “Barkley — So Glad You (Didn’t) Ask: A Column of Unsolicited Opinions #44”. In it, he presented his wrap up of the whole award name/honors messiness involving mystery writer Linda Fairstein, John W. Campbell, Jr., James Tiptree, Jr/Alice Sheldon, and […]

My Short Story “The Demon in the Mask” Will Appear in the Cloaked Press anthology “Fall into Fantasy 2019”

Yesterday, it was announced on twitter that my short story “The Demon in the Mask” will be featured in the Cloaked Press anthology “Fall into Fantasy 2019.” I was privileged to have my science fiction short story “The Recall” previously published in their anthology Spring into SciFi 2019, so this is a double thrill. This […]

Never Forget, Never Let Your Children Forget

This is usually a message I give when talking about Holocaust Remembrance Day, which in 2020, will be observed on April 21st. Yesterday at work, one of the fellows I’m training with called it one of the saddest days on our calendar. I’m talking about September 11, 2001. Just like the day of John F. […]

Margaret Atwood’s “The Testaments” and Other Stories

Disclaimer: This is NOT a book review. This is a commentary on books, current events, and how all that gets filtered through my brain. Over a year and a half ago, I reviewed Margaret Atwood’s 1985 novel The Handmaid’s Tale. It has since been adapted to a wildly popular television series on Hulu. I signed […]

Story Submission Limbo

This is definitely a newbie author question, but I suspect it’s something just about every short story writer has come across at one time or another. I have several stories that have been languishing at the submission phase for months longer than their due dates or even well after the actual publication date of the […]