by Gene Wolfe (1980 – 1983)
Gene Wolfe‘s imagination is truly formidable. A industrial engineer (and devoted Catholic) who has become a living SF legend, Wolfe’s work is rich, dense, and not always exactly what I’m looking for. But that’s no slight: when Wolfe’s writing what I want to read, it’s amazing; when he’s not, it’s still fine, it just tends to get a bit… overly complicated and less than satisfying – but a return to form is always just a few pages away.
Brittany will be posting her impressions of Wolfe’s early short story compilation, The Island of Dr. Death and Other Stories and Other Stories (not a typo, FYI), and I imagine her take on Wolfe will be equally conflicted.
But the Book of the New Sun is the big one: the magnum opus (he’s since spun off a coda and two additional series, the Book of the Long Sun and the Book of the Short Sun).
The four novels that make up the tetralogy are packed so densely with episodes alternately incredibly compelling and kind of… kind of like you just want to get through them as quickly as you can, that, sitting here now recalling the bits I remember, I’m truly astounded at the way the story is so compartmentalized in my brain.
The plot unfolds in a distant future inspired by the work of the writer who has appeared more times then any other on this blog, the great Jack Vance. The first novel, the Shadow of the Torturer, opens with its protag, Severian (who is blessed/cursed with a perfect memory), serving as an apprentice in the guild of torturers. His kind of weirdly idyllic childhood is interrupted by a key chance meeting in the nearby necropolis and the professional discipline he’ll expertly develop over the next few years is kind of slow-burn compromised.
While I suppose I could offer a more comprehensive plot synopsis, I’d really be doing everyone (particularly you, dear reader) a disservice. Suffice to say, a lot happens very quickly: Severian makes a judgement call that ultimately results in his exile from Nessus (the capital city), is challenged to an alien poison flower duel, demolishes a church, meets a young lady who’s been submerged in (for lack of a better description) internment water for who knows how long, meets another young lady who’s definitely hiding something, gets a crazy note from a bus boy, and becomes aquatinted with a fairly unique traveling acting troupe. Oh, and he’s given an awesome sword called Terminus Est and dispatched to a place called Thrax: the city of windowless rooms.
Click here for the rest of The Book of the New Sun
Illogically Attractive, Sir
directed by Larry Cohen (1976)
written by Peter Berry (2008)
Kurt Vonnegut is an utterly beloved author by anyone that's discovered his equally humorous and gravely poignant novels, but he is rarely given satisfactory adaptation to screen. His time traveling anti war sensation 
If you don't know how much I adore the work of 
When you're dealing with a writer like 
You wouldn't necessarily think an independent, militant lesbian sci fi drama with spoken word poetry would in any way be a watchable, let alone an enjoyable cinematic experience, but the vibrant 
After a serious economic downturn in America that effects the global economy (sound familiar?) proletariat rebellions have led to China's global communist domination and America becoming nearly a third world country. 
I heard about 
Jam packed with quirky humor and two fisted action, I wasn't too shocked to learn that 
T.C. Boyle specializes in fringe characters, usually misguided and desperate men who go to extreme measures to quelch their boredom, fear, and/or pain. 
It's no big surprise to learn that David Cronenberg wrote 
This is certainly one of many Jack Vance books I will be recommending. And while this is not my absolute favorite of his – it is one of the most fun. Two wily rogue showboat captains adventure on a planet settled by Earth's misfits.
Marc Singer (Beastmaster) plays a tough guy news cameraman convinced that “The Visitors”, humanoid aliens that have landed on our planet led by the beautiful Diana, are evil. Singer is totally right, the Visitors are evil, and they quickly enslave the human race by expertly manipulating the very news station Singer once worked as a photog for. This 3 and a half hour mini series began the whole V cycle, continuing with V – The Final Battle and concluding with V – The Series. Throughout the story, poignant parallels are drawn between the alien regime and Fascist movements of the 20th century, sometime there parallels are a little too poignant (I remember Robin ((who I hate)) having to say goodbye to her grandfather or something equally schmaltzy being a perfect time to order take out). All in all, this series is great, and even though there are some evident shortcoming and the production feels a little bit dated (it was a TV show made in 80s, after all), this is an ideal program to commit to on a chilly weekend if you happened to find yourself too hung over to really leave the house.
This book takes place in the future (the future Wallace envisioned in the mid 1990s, the future we envision today is a bit different, there's really no place for the Clean Party in the coming years), in the Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment, which I think is 2009. Set in the Metro Boston area, about half of the story takes place at the Enfield Tennis Academy, an elaborate campus atop a scenic hill offering a view of the massive catapults that hurl waste north to the Great Concavity, while the other half of the book (it's a massive tome, 1000 or so pages including the copious foot notes, which you really can't skip) focuses on a halfway house half way down the same hill. A number of unforgettable characters populate the pages, the entire Incandenza family (including the long departed patriarch, the “Mad Stork” James Orin Incandenza, who visits Don Gately in wraith form after Gately gets shot by the Canuck with the “Moose” shirt after the coke addict who kills the dogs… it gets complicated.) The book is excellent, the first fifty pages or so may not be exactly easy going, but soon the book opens right up and you< do not want it to end. Which it does, eventually. Kind of. Oh–and there's Eschaton and the wheelchair assassins and the Madame Psychosis radio program and the Whataburger invitational and Pemulis buying that DMZ...