Steven Howell Wilson's Blog, page 36
March 15, 2016
A Visit to Monticello
More pictures than words this week. After the craziness of snows and floods and Farpoint over these past many weeks, we were so overwhelmed that we felt the need to just get away. We’d visited Monticello, Thomas Jefferson’s mountaintop home, sometime before 2008, and had always intended to go back.
Our first visit was a day trip, which was a bit hectic. Monticello is almost four hours away. This time, we decided to do two nights in nearby Charlottesville, giving us time to relax and reflect a...
March 7, 2016
Review – The Gospel of Loki
I’m a huge fan of mythology, and have myself written some humorous, modern spins on classical myths. As far as stories go, I’ve always preferred the focused narrative of the Prose Edda, the source for what we know of Norse mythology, to the more dense accounts of Homer, or the plays of Aeschylus and Sophocles, which recount the Greek myths. The Prose Edda is a story you can sit down and read. The Greek sources… well, not so much. I’ve watched Greek drama because my English teacher forced me t...
February 29, 2016
Not the Golden Age
I recently watched a fun little documentary called “The Trek Not Taken,” about Star Trek spinoffs that were discussed, developed, in some cases written and even taken to the point where sets and costumes were built, but not released to an audience.I really enjoyed it, and thought it was nicely done. There was a point I took exception to, however. I bring it up here, not to criticize the producer of this video in any way, but more to examine how I, as an aging fan, tend to see things a little...
February 22, 2016
Exactly How Does Deadpool Change the Game?
This movie was billed as “a game-changer” by its star, Ryan Reynolds. The game is changing, he advances, because the recent spate of super-hero movies have been “serious and… gritty and dark,” and Deadpool is not.
Ummmm…
Have most of the recent super-hero movies been serious, gritty and dark? I would say no. The Dark Knight trilogy was, yes. Man of Steel was, but Man of Steel was a sell-out attempt by comics creators to appeal to the cool kids who don’t like comics. The rest of the genre, rep...
February 17, 2016
No Claws, No Bamfs, No Shatterstar – Marvel Masterworks X-Men Volume 4
This volume includes issues 32 – 42 of the original run of X-Men, published between July, 1967and March, 1968. This span marks a transition from the X-Men as they were created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby—Students in matching yellow and black (or was it blue? It’s hard to tell in comics of that era) uniforms—to the four-color team made famous on down the line by Roy Thomas, Neal Adams and Tom Palmer.
The first nine issues in the collection comprise the end of the X-Men’s first epic storyline,...
February 10, 2016
Announcing Sacrifice Play – An Arbiter Chronicles Novel
Sacrifice Play is the third novel in The Mark Time and Parsec Award-winning Arbiter Chronicles series, picking up where Unfriendly Persuasion left off.
Imagine a technology so dangerous that you could be killed just for knowing it exists…
Lieutenant Terrence Metcalfe and his team combat a starship captain so driven to complete his mission that he sets his ship to self-destruct and kill everyone on board.
Sacrifice Play – A Tale from the Arbiter Chronicles premieres at Shore Leave 38, and wil...
February 8, 2016
Alan Dean Foster’s The Force Awakens – Part Two – The REAL Review this time
I explained last week why I’m so excited that Alan Dean Foster is back to novelize a new Star Wars film. The Force Awakens comes at a time when film novelizations aren’t as much of a thing as they used to be. In the 1950s, 60s and 70s, we weren’t a culture that went to see a movie multiple times, and there was no such thing as Blu-Ray, or its older brethren DVD, VHS or Beta. From the time a film went out of the theater, until it was bought for lots of money (and shown heavily edited) by a TV...
February 1, 2016
Review – Alan Dean Foster’s Star Wars – The Force Awakens – Part One – Why this book matters to me
So, before talking aboutThe Force Awakens, let me tell you a little bit about my introduction to Star Wars. A lot of fans my age will tell you they saw it on opening day, or at the advance world premiere. They camped out in line, or they stood that morning for hours, or they snuck in the side door with their friend, who was the adopted child of a great, forgotten film director, because they couldn’t pay, because they were orphans who lived in train stations…
Wait, that’s another movie, isn’t...
January 30, 2016
Podcast Interview on DoddleTalks TECH – Fans and Copyright
http://news.doddleme.com/top-featured...
I sat down with James DeRuvo this week to talk about copyright issues, the Axanar lawsuit, and the general world of fan-produced works. James’s intro to the show:
“If you raise over $1.2 million through crowdfunding to create a professional-grade film for the Internet, you’re going to grab headlines. But, if you do it to make a fan film based on someone else’s copyright and trademark, you’...
January 27, 2016
Get a FREE Audible Edition of Peace Lord – while supplies last!
A copy of Peace Lord of the Red Planet, unabridged and read by the author, is yours for the asking–if you ask before everyone else does! I have download codes available for a free copy of the new Audible audio book. No need to use your hard-earned credits! Of course, to use one of these, you will have to join Audible or already be a member. If you want a free download code, just let me know–via email, via reply to this blog, via Facebook message–get me an email address and I’ll send you your...
