Edward Ashton has fun with a bunch of well explored science fiction tropes and throws in a little philosophy in his latest book Mickey7. The main character of the book is an Expendable, the one member of the expedition party who does all of the dangerous jobs as they are more versatile and it is…
The term “fan service” is getting a lot of play right now. The idea is that filmmakers and movie studios owe it to “core” fans to give them what they want. In politics, they call it “playing to the base”. Of course, in this age of social media, just who are the “core” fans often…
Having not seen the original Matrix trilogy, I was totally lost for most of this fourth instalment. I took a while to understand what was going on. But it basically boils down to a simple premise – Neo has to rescue Trinity and they face many obstacles. The action takes place two decades after The…
As cultural touchstones go, few are as storied – or problematic – as Dune. Frank Herbert’s dense 1965 novel was (and is still) regarded as a breakthrough in the sci-fi genre, spawning a sometimes-fanatical following. The book was often considered unfilmable – something reinforced by Alejandro Jodorowsky’s failed attempt at it in the 1970s. Then…
Rivers Solomon describes themselves on their website as follows: Rivers Solomon is a dyke, an anarchist, a she-beast, an exile, a shiv, a wreck, and a refugee of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. Fae writes about life in the margins, where fae’s much at home. So it is perhaps unsurprising that Vern, the protagonist of her…
Australian science fiction and thriller author Max Barry has done arcane conspiracies (Lexicon), satire (Jennifer Government) and space wars (Providence) so it is perhaps no surprise that he has moved on to multiple world theory in his latest book The 22 Murders of Madison May. With its delightfully onomatopoeic title, the book is based on…
Patricia Marques’ debut The Colours of Death is a successful genre mash. Marques has taken a down-the-line crime procedural, mixed it with a well imagined alternative world in which some people are ‘gifted’ with specific powers and set it on the very real streets of Lisbon. All anchored by a strong, flawed and despite her…
The gig economy has grown exponentially in recent years. So much so, concerns are now being forcefully voiced about its actual and potential dangers. Director Noah Hutton taps into those fears as he takes audiences on an intriguing and sometimes frightening journey into a digitised future in Lapsis. Lapsis has something in common with one…
After having done giant robot on robot action in his Themis Files trilogy, Sylvain Neuvel embarks on something a little different in his new book A History of What Comes Next. Set between the dying days of the Second World War and the launch of the first man into space, this is not so much…
Brutality, cynicism and tongue-in-cheek humour mark Mortal Kombat – a video game franchise turned big screen fight night. The story thread begins with an ancient fight to the death. It is 1617 in Japan. A warrior and father of two carries a tattoo of a dragon. He confronts an opponent who can literally freeze people…
