Steven Howell Wilson's Blog, page 47

REVIEW - "The Guy with the Eyes" by Spider Robinson

I have a confession to make: I lived nearly forty-seven years, calling myself a science fiction fan, and I'd never read Spider Robinson. 

Correction: I've read Variable Star, which Spider wrote based on an outline for a novel left behind by the Grand Master, Robert A. Heinlein; but I read that because it was a "lost" Heinlein novel.  It's also technically a collaborative work, though I think Spider had little more than six pages to work from, and those included no ending for the story.&nbsp...

REACTION: A vs X #0 from Marvel Comics

The tell-off. It’s one of our favorite dramatic devices, isn’t it? It’s so satisfying. Great tell-offs which come to mind include everything from Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence to Louise Jefferson telling off the snotty bigot-of-the week; from Flo telling Mel “Kiss my grits!” to James T. Kirk telling Khan to… Oh yeah, he just said “Khhhhhaaannnnnn!” 

But we knew what he meant, and we loved it.  (And wow, I just dated myself!)

But there’s a problem with most tell-offs, excepting ...

Review - Dorsai! by Gordon R. Dickson

Flashback to high school - Nineteen-eighty... something. War games were catching on. There were role-playing games in the wake of Dungeons & Dragons, then only about five years old; there were those bookcase-packaged strategy games from Avalon Hill, and those trays of maps and cardboard chits from... was it TSR?  I bought a lot of them.  Rarely played them. Then came to my high school the first L.A.R.P. (Live Action Role-Play) I ever encountered.  I think, though I can't swear, that it was ca...

REVIEW – The Grayspace Beast by Gordon Eklund

So, it was about 1981. My Mall still had an independent bookstore (It grew later to have two chain bookstores, and now it has none.)  I was at a point where I was fascinated by Star Trek, probably fueled by Vonda McIntyre’s excellent novel, The Entropy Effect. Certainly, in 1981, no one was excited by the Star Trek movies, as Harve Bennett had not yet rescued the franchise. There was no TV Show. I had devoured Alan Dean Foster’s Star Trek Logs series, and had enjoyed (as I mentioned a few...

Lessons Learned: Self Publishing - Part Two

Last week, I discussed my experiences with production and distribution as a self publisher / small press.  Obviously (or maybe it isn't obvious!) the job isn't done when the book is created and made available for sale.  There's a lot that has to happen to let potential readers and listeners know that your book exists.  Also, since I focused so heavily on distribution last time, I neglected to mention some things about the pre-distribution steps involved in actually creating the book itself...

Lessons Learned: Self Publishing - Part One

Taking a break from reviewing, I thought maybe I could (or should?) share some information that's in my head.  It may be of benefit to some.  It may be stone useless.  As always, the reader decides what's useful.  (I hope eternally, at any rate.  Please don't let anyone tell you what information is useful to you! If they try to do so, at the very least be skeptical.) 

See, I've been doing a lot of panels lately, at Farpoint and Mysticon.  Some of them were just entertaining at best, some...

Review - The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham

I wrote this article during a delightful weekend at Mysticon 2012 in Roanoke, VA.  I’d like to publicly thank the MystiCon committee and staff for allowing me to be part of a fantastic convention.  I was on a handful of panels which were well-attended and generated some fascinating discussion, and I met some great people.  If you have a chance to check this on out in 2013, I’d recommend you do so.  Now on to the review...

“And I really got hot when I saw Janette Scott fight a triffid that spit...

Reflection: Farpoint 2012

No review this week.  My brain is simply too fried to evaluate.  What I’ll write about instead is the thing that fried my brain, that thing being an event called Farpoint 2012.  Farpoint is a regional science fiction media convention.  “Regional” because it primarily draws its attendance from Maryland and the Mid-Atlantic area, although it occasionally pulls in members from as far away as Texas, California, Canada or even Germany.  It’s not a Dragon*Con or a San Diego ComicCon, which pull hea...

REVIEW – "The Martian" by Ray Bradbury

Today I want to comment on a story from Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles.  This novel was assembled largely from previously published short stories, and “The Martian” is no exception.  It was published in Super Science Stories in November, 1949, a year before the serial novel in which it was included would be released in the U.S.

SPOILER WARNING! If you haven't read this story and want to, seek it out now.  It's a short piece, and my discussion necessitates that I reveal the ending. 

This ...

REVIEW - Sensation Comics #1 - The Perfect Golden Age Comic Book

So this review seems particularly retro.  It’s one thing to review a book which came out during or right after World War II.  Books tend to stay in print for decades, if they’re deemed worthy.  But a ten-cent comic book from 1942?  70 years after-the-fact may seem a bit late to be telling you how great it was, especially since getting hold of a copy is a little more expensive, comparatively, than securing a copy of The Humanoids or Friday.  Looking on eBay just now, I see that an original cop...