Black Death review - beauty from ashes?

Ring around the rosie
Pocket full of posies
Ashes, Ashes
We all fall down

There is serious debate about whether this rhyme really originated in 14th century, plague-ridden England. Snopes says no. But I couldn't resist including it here. Especially since it's Ash Wednesday. Black Death debuts on Friday, March 11th in Los Angeles. Below is Emily's movie review debut for Science Fiction and Other ODDysseys.



Black Death
Writer: Dario Poloni
Producers: Phil Robertson, Jens Meurer, Robert Bernstein, Douglas Rae
Director: Christopher Smith
Starring: Sean Bean, Eddie Redmayne, David Warner, Carice Van Houten

Reviewed by Emily Bettencourt


In this age of movies with confusing and unnecessarily pretentious titles, Black Death is refreshing in that you know exactly what you're getting. Still, I wasn't really sure what to expect when it came to a horror film about the bubonic plague. From the press info I'd received, I knew that it starred Sean Bean (always a plus), was intended to contain notes of religious conflict (also a bonus if done well), and that it was shot entirely on-location in Germany. The latter was a major selling point for a viewer who remains somewhat skeptical of the use of 3D graphics in film.

The atmospheric and dark, orchestral opening leant an ideal backdrop for Sean Bean's ruggedly handsome appearance as battle-worn Ulric, an envoy to the bishop, who has been tasked with discovering the truth behind reports of necromancy in a remote village in the marsh.



The movie had its ups and downs. I was impressed by Eddie Redmayne's performance as Osmund, the young and conflicted monk who accompanies Ulric on his journey. He was just jaded enough to make his internal conflict real, but just boyish enough to endear him to the audience. Sean Bean also delivered a gritty and intense performance, though that was to be expected (I'm a Sean Bean fan, can you tell?).

Director Christopher Smith noted in an interview that he tried to stay true to the real atmosphere of life in 1300s plague-ridden England, and he did so without being overly grotesque. There were bodies on the streets and an ever-present haze of smoke, but he avoided unnecessary depictions of gore throughout the film.

A director who has perfected the art of classy violence is a rare breed in a cinematic era populated by movies like the Saw series, Hostel and Final Destination. There's something to be said for the pure shock value and visceral reaction that blatant displays of violence elicit in an audience, but I personally prefer films like those of Alfred Hitchcock, which rely more on atmospherics and psychology to make the movie thrilling. Christopher Smith gets major props from me for his balance of violence and interpretation in Black Death.

Sean Bean portrays gritty, conflicted characters well, but the role of Ulric seemed to be almost (dare I say it?) Boromir 2.0. This is of course no fault of his own, being victim of unfortunate typecasting after his Lord of the Rings success, but it was difficult at first to see Ulric and not immediately think "Boromir." Especially when the two characters have so many similarities.

The film promised to be an exploration of the conflict that arises when the Church loses its ability to truly protect those who believe in it, but it wasn't nearly as eloquently delivered as I'd hoped it would be. Instead of being about inner struggle and the destruction of faith, the portrayals of the extremes of the conflict (Ulric and the witch woman Langiva, played by Carice van Houten) were so heavy-handed as to nearly be caricatures. Almost no mention is made of people, events and environments that shaped their personalities. It's hinted at that Ulric had lost family to the plague and Langiva had lost family to the Church, but the storylines don't develop beyond that, making the supposed religious conflict fall somewhat flat.

Black Death is a film worth watching. The atmospherics, the stunning performances by Bean, Remayne and van Houten, the captivating and well-orchestrated soundtrack, and the excellent balance of gore and interpretation more than make up for the film's few shortcomings. Christopher Smith did an excellent job with the film, and I look forward to seeing what he comes up with next.

Firefly, Wonder Woman and live sci-fi

The Star Trek franchise aside, Firefly is THE best ever science fiction series. Argue with me if you want, but not before you've seen it. You have another chance to do just that without the help of your local video store (Do you still have one?) or Netflix. Firefly is returning to the TV on the Science Channel beginning this Sunday, March 6th, at 8PM ET. The show will air on Sundays at 10PM ET thereafter and will follow an encore from the week before. And because it’s the Science Channel, renowned astrophysicist and co-founder of string field theory Dr. Michio Kaku will scrutinize the science of each episode.

In Firefly, Earth has colonized planets outside its solar system. The Alliance had asserted too much authority over the central worlds and rebels (or Browncoats) like Malcolm Reynolds fought back. They didn't win, but the outer worlds are still relatively safe, if rustic. The new frontier.

The crew of the Serenity roam the galaxy looking for any work they can find, staying out of the way of the alliance. The adventures and banter remind me of the Wild Wild West only these guys don't work as government intelligence agents. Mostly, they're smugglers. Mal's Serenity crew includes Wash, a talented pilot and his wife, Zoe (who fought with Mal in the war), innocent Kaylee, their engineer who can fix an engine with bubble gum and toothpicks and Jayne, an opportunistic, uneducated criminal, who doesn't mind risking his life so long as there's something in it for him.

The script is outstanding and the quazi-Southern, military, frontier dialect is infectious.

Here's some examples from Firefly WIki. (And you Browncoats best get over there and add some more!)

"Wash, we got some local color happening. A grand entrance would not go amiss."
"Shouldn't you be off bringing religiousity to the fuzzy wuzzies or some such?"
"Still a little whimsical in the brain pan." [to Shepherd Book about River]

Most women will fall for Nathan Fillian in his role as Malcolm Reynolds the same way they do for Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones. Confident, strong, fallible and slightly oblivious. And those crooked smiles that say "oops, my bad".

The ship's complement also includes a preacher who mysteriously knows a lot about alliance tactics and how to fight, a doctor and his crazy, vulnerable (but sometimes deadly - as in a weapon) genius sister River (Summer Glau) and Inara (Morena Baccarin), the government-sanctioned and licensed "companion" who rents one of the ship's two shuttles.

Firefly is space opera at its best in the all new "out west". ;)

If I haven't convinced you to check it out yet, maybe something from the Science Channel press release below will. No, I'm not getting paid for this. ;) But I AM a Browncoat.


The Wait Is Over!
“FIREFLY” Premieres Sunday, March 6 with Two Episodes Beginning @ 8pm ET

New episodes air every Sunday @ 10pm ET only on Science Channel

Renowned Astrophysicist Dr. Michio Kaku also reveals the “Science behind Firefly”

From the creator of the hit TV series “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” sci-fi savant Joss Whedon delves into the final frontier with “Firefly,” which lands exclusively on the Science Channel on Sunday, March 6 @8pm ET with the airing of the original 2-hour pilot. Immediately following, episode one of the 15-part series will air at 10pm ET.

“Firefly” will dominate the airwaves every Sunday with an encore episode of the previous week airing 9pm ET to be followed by the network premiere of the next episode in the series airing at 10pm ET.

As a special treat for “Firefly” fans, star of Science Channel’s “Sci-Fi Science,” and the co-founder of string field theory, Dr. Michio Kaku, will be commentating on the science behind “Firefly” for each episode. From terraforming, to anti-matter, Kaku will be explaining why the science fiction featured in the show really isn't that far from science fact.

When “Firefly” first aired in 2002, Whedon’s sci-fi western quickly became a cult favorite. Set 500 years in the future, in the aftermath of a universal civil war, the story centers on the renegade crew of a small transport spaceship led by “Castle’s” Nathan Fillion, who directs the ragtag team through adventures into unknown parts of the galaxy, as they try to evade warring factions as well as authority agents out to get them.
Pilot- "Serenity" Premieres Sunday, March 6 @ 8pm ET
Set 500 years in the future, we are introduced to the of the spaceship Serenity led by the former soldier Sergeant Mal Reynolds. Part transport ship, part scavenger vessel, the second-in-command is the loyal Zoe who served beside Mal in the war and owes him her life; Wash the ship's easygoing pilot and Zoe's husband; and Kaylee the ship's young and effervescent engineer.

The crew picks up some precious cargo from the hull on an abandoned spaceship. Soon, they realize they are being pursued by the Alliance, the totalitarian army which was formed to hunt down outlaws against the unification of the planets. In order to avoid detection, the Serenity takes on a group of ‘tourists’ to appear to be a passenger transport ship. The passengers include: Inara, a prostitute; Book, a shepherd; Simon, a doctor who has with him a mysterious dark blue box

The story continues as the Serenity tries to outrun double-dealers and savages, ditch the precious cargo all the while trying to hide their newest passenger, River, who’s power the group has yet to realize.


Episode 1- "The Train Job" Premieres Sunday, March 6 @ 10pm ET
Mal and his crew are hired to pull off a train heist…but the cargo turns out to be badly needed medication intended for sufferers of a deadly disease. Meanwhile men are on the hunt for River and won’t stop till they find her.

*****
If comic book characters are your thing, there's a new Wonder Woman TV series in the works. The series is still filling in the cast. Meanwhile, Geekscape lassos in a review of the new Wonder Woman pilot by avid fan, Eric Diaz.

******
How about live science fiction? If you live in the North Bay (that's the San Francisco Bay), you're in luck. The Imaginists are performing plays based on the short stories of sci-fi author Eliot Fintushel.

March 10*, 11, 12 | 17*, 18, 19 | 24*, 25, 26
All Shows at 8 p.m.

*Pay-What-You-Wish Nights: March 10, 17 & 24
Tickets for these shows will only be available at the door.

(Poster art by comic book artist Brent Anderson.)

The Imaginists Theatre Collective
461 Sebastopol Avenue
Santa Rosa, CA. 95401
(707) 528-7554

Talk back with the actors and writer, Eliot Fintushel: Saturday, March 12, 19, 26 immediately following the performance.


Below are Eliot Fintushel's production notes.

WE FROM AFAR: PRODUCTION NOTES
(from, such as he is, the author)

Science Fiction is all about extrapolation. and, oh, honey, are we gonna extrapolate tonight. To the shivering penumbral dimensions I limned in these stories, Brent Lindsay, the god of the theatre of now, of passion, pulse, and power, has added infinitely more. Not to mention my fellow Imaginists, actors, techies--groupies all--who have set sail for these unimagined lands, and are gonna drag you along in steerage, whether you like it or not.

Here at the Imaginists Theatre Collective, everything proceeds by opposites. If Lindsay cocks his head and squints and says, "That's REALLY awful," we know that he means it's a keeper. That's how we keep things hopping, and how we keep our audiences from yawning, clearing their throats, and riffling their damn programs.

Inspirations: "Kukla Boogie" was the result of (1) my learning of actual plans by a major soft drink company to use laser technology to advertise on the lunar surface, and (2) my disgust with anti-Darwinism and other sectarian mishugoss. "Afar" came, of course, out of the years of despair accompanying and following my divorce. (Thanks--I'm better now.) "Santacide" was a response to the annual flood of packaged religiosity--I used to use this story, in 6-point typeface on a folded half-sheet of 20# pink paper, as my Christmas card. "No, Really" is an actual standup routine from the future; I was actually there, via a top-secret time machine that I found during a fly-over of the Bermuda Triangle, and I recorded it word for word, before a squad of Butlers burst in and hosed us.

I was very nearly extrapolated myself.

*****

The Adversary - epic multiverse saga begins

The Adversary
by James R. Bowman
Melrose Books (2009)


Reviewed by Lyda Morehouse


In Bowman’s multiverse, Lucifer’s right-hand man, AKA the Adversary, is tired of playing second fiddle. Heck, he’s done with the whole status quo thing and decides the time has come just to wipe out all the remaining mortal heroes and destroy life as we know it. In other words: apocalypse time.

Tomas Walker, ex-British government assassin, is one of the last of these heroes, known as “guardians.” His life takes a strange turn when the Adversary’s minions show up to try to kill him. He’s on the run and is drawn back to the mysterious Glastonbury Hill, where he encounters none other than the Archangel Michael. Michael tells him it's time for him to accept his true destiny and save the multiverse from the evil fate the Adversary has planned.

Meanwhile, another guardian awakes in Santa Fe, New Mexico -- Tomas’ sister Gwen, a Goddess-worshipping New Age shop owner. She has her own quest: to find the tree of life (not Etz Chaim, as you might expect given all the other Judeo-Christian references so far, but Yggdrasill, of Norse myth.) Turns out, her BFFs are actually a group of exiled Valkyrie and they set her on her path after a giant Kachina (Hopi spirit doll) goes Godzilla on the town.

Oh yeah, and the powers that be are actually the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse: War, Famine, Pestilence, and Death, and Michael and the Valkyries answer to them as the “Absolutes.”

Confused yet? The Adversary is a very long, dense, and intense novel. Unfortunately, it also bears the subtitle: “Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse Saga, Book One” and when the stalwart reader reaches the end of 1,028 pages, the story simply stops, with nothing resolved. Likewise, Melrose Press’s website does not yet have a listing or any information about a second book in the series, even though the official publication date of this book says 2009. That makes me worried that a reader may have to wait several years for a conclusion.

This book was short-listed for the Brit Writer’s Published Writer of the Year Award (2010), but for my money its complicated and rather epic plot isn’t helped by the constantly shifting point of view. Early sections of the narrative seem to glorify gore, like an amateur horror story or one of those “Saw” movies, but I’m personally very fond of religious mash-ups and was willing wade through that to get to the archangels and adversaries. If you’re similarly interested in eschatological fiction and okay with leaving the story hanging until the next installment appears, you may wish to seek this novel out. There’s certainly a lot to chew on in this massive book.

Nebulas Noms, Antho TOC and blu-ray DVDs giveaway

The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America released the final ballot as follows for the 2010 Nebula Awards:

Novel

The Native Star, M.K. Hobson (Spectra)
 Interview herein
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, N.K. Jemisin (Orbit UK; Orbit US)

Shades of Milk and Honey, Mary Robinette Kowal (Tor)
 Interview and review herein
Echo, Jack McDevitt (Ace)
 Review herein
Who Fears Death, Nnedi Okorafor (DAW)
 Interview herein and my review at Mostly Fiction
Blackout/All Clear, Connie Willis (Spectra)

Hmmmm. Better get interviewed here if you want to get nominated, eh? I'm just sayin'. ;)

Novella


"The Alchemist", Paolo Bacigalupi (Audible; Subterranean)

‘‘Iron Shoes’’, J. Kathleen Cheney (Alembical 2)


‘‘The Lifecycle of Software Objects’’, Ted Chiang (Subterranean)

‘‘The Sultan of the Clouds’’, Geoffrey A. Landis (Asimov’s 9/10)

‘‘Ghosts Doing the Orange Dance’’, Paul Park (F&SF 1-2/10)

‘‘The Lady Who Plucked Red Flowers beneath the Queen’s Window’’, Rachel Swirsky (Subterranean Summer ’10)



Novelette


‘‘Map of Seventeen’’, Christopher Barzak (The Beastly Bride)

‘‘The Jaguar House, in Shadow’’, Aliette de Bodard (Asimov’s 7/10)

‘‘The Fortuitous Meeting of Gerard van Oost and Oludara’’, Christopher Kastensmidt (Realms of Fantasy 4/10)

‘‘Plus or Minus’’, James Patrick Kelly (Asimov’s 12/10)

‘‘Pishaach’’, Shweta Narayan (The Beastly Bride)

‘‘That Leviathan, Whom Thou Hast Made’’, Eric James Stone (Analog 9/10)

‘‘Stone Wall Truth’’, Caroline M. Yoachim (Asimov’s 2/10)

Short Story


‘‘Arvies’’, Adam-Troy Castro (Lightspeed 8/10)

‘‘How Interesting: A Tiny Man’’, Harlan Ellison® (Realms of Fantasy 2/10)

‘‘Ponies’’, Kij Johnson (Tor.com 1/17/10) Interview herein

‘‘I’m Alive, I Love You, I’ll See You in Reno’’, Vylar Kaftan (Lightspeed 6/10)

‘‘The Green Book’’, Amal El-Mohtar (Apex 11/1/10)

‘‘Ghosts of New York’’, Jennifer Pelland (Dark Faith)

‘‘Conditional Love’’, Felicity Shoulders (Asimov’s 1/10)



Ray Bradbury Award


Despicable Me

Doctor Who: ‘‘Vincent and the Doctor’’
 (Loved that episode!)
How to Train Your Dragon

Inception
 (Christopher Nolan won the Writers Guild Award for original movie screenplay, btw)
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

Toy Story 3

Andre Norton Award


Ship Breaker, Paolo Bacigalupi (Little, Brown)

White Cat, Holly Black (McElderry)

Mockingjay, Suzanne Collins (Scholastic Press; Scholastic UK)

Hereville: How Mirka Got Her Sword, Barry Deutsch (Amulet)

The Boy from Ilysies, Pearl North (Tor Teen)

I Shall Wear Midnight, Terry Pratchett (Gollancz; Harper)

A Conspiracy of Kings, Megan Whalen Turner (Greenwillow)

Behemoth, Scott Westerfeld (Simon Pulse; Simon & Schuster UK)

Final ballots are due March 30, 2011 (only active SFWA members are eligible to vote). Winners will be announced at the Nebula Awards Banquet on May 21, 2011, during the Nebula Awards Weekend (May 19-22, 2011) at the Washington Hilton, Washington DC.

****

If you don't know that I'm in two Dark Quest Books anthos already this year, I've not been tooting my horn nearly as much as I've been trying to. ;) Beauty Has her Way, edited by Jennifer Brozek, was released last month. We have two reviews already. The latter mentions "Trapped Star" specifically. The first one doesn't, which, under the circumstances, might be a good thing. You'll see what I mean when you read it.
Rise Reviews
Innsmouth Free Press

Defending the Future: No Man's Land is scheduled for launch on May 28th with a big launch party at Balticon and at least one more here on the West coast.

The table of contents has been released as follows. One story is pending.


David Weber - Introduction

Brenda Cooper - Cracking the Sky

Nancy Jane Moore - Gambit

Maria V. Snyder - Godzilla Warfare

Danielle Ackley-McPhail - Ghosts on the Battlefield

Kimberly Long-Ewing - Come Like A Tailor

Ann Wilkes - Immunity Project

Laurie Gailunas - In The Middle of Nowhere

S.A. Bolich - Fallling to Eternity

Lee C. Hillman - Under Pressure

Deborah Teramis Christian - Live Fire

(story pending)

Judi Fleming - Endings

Jennifer Brozek - M.O.V.E.

Phoebe Wray - Trashing



A&E Home Video’s Sci-Fi and Culture Classics Blu-ray prize pack giveaway
Now, for the winner of the blu-ray DVDs.

Les Baptiste answered the Space 1999 trivia question and (eventually) the Prisoner photo question correctly and had the luck of the draw. Congrats, Les! He wins the A&E Home Video’s Sci-Fi and Culture Classics Blu-ray prize pack which includes The Prisoner: The Complete Series [Blu-ray] (1968) and Space: 1999: The Complete Season One [Blu-ray] (1975).



The trivia question was: In Space 1999, Catherine Schell played a character in the first season, before being cast as Maya in the second season (or series as the Brits calculate). Name the episode and describe the character she portrayed.

The answer was: The robotic servant of the guardian.

And what was wrong with the picture of the penny farthing bicycle? The back supports for the canopy were missing.

In addition, DE Helbling asked for favorite episode anecdotes for a chance to win one of three copies of The Official Prisoner Companion. Nobody played that game, but Doug wants to reward effort, so Ed and John will receive the used, good condition copy of The Official Prisoner Companion”for having correct answers. And Tom will receive the third copy for participating. Congratulations one and all. We'll contact you for your snail mail addies.

Science Fiction for $500: Who is Watson?

Political revolution is in the air and on the ground in many countries these last few weeks. But as future history looks backward, it may well remember this time less as a revolutionary crossroads and more as the start of a new era of intelligent computing.

Who’s behind this? Watson, that’s who.

Watson is IBM’s latest entry in the ongoing effort to demonstrate a broad range of computer-based abilities. Watson’s test? Compete in a game of Jeopardy. The contest was a modern day version of other human David vs. computer Goliath competitions, such as 1997’s chess game pitting IBM’s Big Blue against chess master Gary Kasparov. One significant difference in this game: Watson had to listen to the questions.

The science fiction parallels are numerous. Well-known computer personalities from SF literature such as HAL 9000 from Arthur C. Clarke’s 2001: A Space Oddyssey, Dora from Robert A. Heinlein’s Time Enough for Love, and The Oversoul from Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game and the companion series spring to mind. More recent works such as Robert J. Sawyer's WWW Trilogy Wake, Watch, and the upcoming finale, Wonder, further explore this theme. Be sure to catch Ann Wilkes' interview with Robert here on SFOO the first week of April, when Wonder will be released.

There is a whole cadre of science fiction film computer entities as well, including Master Control Program from Tron (1982), Collossus from Collossus: The Forbin Project (1970) and Joshua from War Games (1983). And of course there is Skynet from The Terminator fame. For a fairly thorough roster of computer beings in written and film science fiction, check out Wikipedia’s excellent "List of Fictional Computers".

What makes Watson noteworthy? The voice recognition feature is one big difference. But that is really just the beginning. The real smarts seem to be in Watson’s ability to make sense of the convoluted communications protocol that is the English language. Watson must listen to the stated facts just as the human players must do, and then tap into its database of known wisdom and issue a response in the form of a question. Of course, there is strategy involved, too, such as whether to guess or to simply not answer if the answer is not known. Watson apparently does not guess, at least not at this time. He also struggles with completing fill-in-the-blank questions. But that did not stop him from beating his human opponents.

It is worth noting that Watson is powered by Linux. The technology behind Watson’s abilities is both hardware and software, and is beyond the scope of this article. There are certainly dozens, if not hundreds of articles out there covering some of these details. Two of my favorites:
• Mark P. Mills’ article on Forbes online magazine: "IBM’s Watson Jeopardy Stunt Unleashes a Third Great Cycle in Computing"
• Wikipedia’s “Watson Artificial Intelligence” article

Whether you believe that this marks the beginning of the end for humanity or the dawn of a new era depends in part on your overall sense of optimism for the future and for technology’s role in that future. As a seasoned technology professional, I have my own opinion. But even that opinion is based not on my understanding of electronics or my comprehension of artificial intelligence algorithms. For me this is a more fundamental and mercenary issue: job security. If Watson’s progeny replace me in the office, I’ll know we’ve birthed Skynet.

But then maybe I really should be looking at this as opportunity.

Perhaps the future Watson Babies will need someone to blog for them and write new science fiction novels with more benign and sympathetic computer characters. This could even mark the beginning of a new genre … are we ready for A.I. Romance?

- D. E. Helbling