The Road Not Taken

Short story by Harry Turtledove, 1985

Whenever most of us picture extra-terrestrial beings with the capabilities of visiting Earth from light-years away, it is assumed that all of their technology vastly exceeds that of our own. But what if only their space travel technology outdoes us and nothing else? Would that make the alien race stupid, or us stupid for not finding faster-than-light travel before such things as cell phones and machine guns?

Harry Turtledove asks this question in this spectacular short story that left me with so many questions about our own technology and evolution as humans. I found this gem in Orson Scott Card's anthology, "Masterpieces: The Best Science Fiction of the Century" but you can read it online here through pastebin.com.

 

Prometheus (2012)

Film directed by Ridley Scott

Two anthropologists (?) or scientists anyways find cave paintings that show a star map to the same planet that was the focus of Ridley Scott's and James Cameron's "Alien" and "Aliens", respectively. Needless to say, stuff gets scary and stuff gets really really gross. I really don't want to give too much away as the thin plot needs every subtle surprise it can afford if you so choose to undertake this gross/fear-fest. Seriously, don't even watch the trailer or you will figure out the entire movie after the first few minutes. 

Have you seen the classic sci-fi horror, "Alien"? Then you've essentially seen "Prometheus". This is pretty much what a friend of mine told me and, after seeing the movie myself, I have to agree totally. That being said...it was visually amazing and if you don't mind some pretty gross scenes, the movie is psychedelic sci-fi + H.R. Giger gothic wierdness. It also happens to feature what could be my all-time favorite android since Bishop of "Aliens" or Jude Law's "Gigolo Joe" from "Artificial Intelligence: A.I.".

Still, I would recommend waiting until this one makes it to DVD or even the SyFy channel.

Well, fellow Earthlings, I know I was brief today, but that's all folks!

Space out!
--Liam

Star Wars: Tales of the Bounty Hunters

Anthology edited by Kevin J. Anderson, 1996

If you've seen Star Wars: Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back...OK let's be real, you've seen it. Remember that short scene with all of the bounty hunters on Vader's ship? The authors that took part in this anthology had enough from that scene to write pages on these guys. Not only do you learn where each of these villains come from, but their (mostly) futile attempts to catch Han Solo during Episode V are described as well. If you read the whole book, you get five totally different stories, only sharing the aforementioned scene from Episode V in common (and a few other encounters between each other).

I found this book at a hospital on a "free books-shelf" [AWESOME]. What's neat about this collection is you don't have to read the whole book to enjoy it. I did, of course, but each story is great by itself too. If you're not a big Star Wars fan the first "tale", IG-88's "Therefore I Am" by the editor, is an awesome sci-fi story by itself. You don't really need to know anything about the Star Wars universe to get it and it's classic homicidal robot madness. If you ARE a Star Wars fan I would recommend the second story in the anthology, "Payback", Dengar's tale. It includes a fair amount of lore on Han Solo's past as well as other locations during Episode V and was definitely my favorite in the book.

I've seen this book in most bookstores and it's not expensive. It's definitely worth a look for at your local library at least!

Well that is all for today's posts, Space Homies. I hope to bring you more next week.

Until then,

Space Out!
--Liam