Nonstop Press has to be complemented for publishing this sequel to David Pringle’s classic Science Fiction: The 100 Best Novels, 1949-1984. Although I’ve only read 22 of the 101 best novels, I have plenty of the unread books in various stacks around the house. Lists generally generate controversy so let me dive in with my quibbles. Broderick and Di Filippo include mainstream novels that really don’t belong on a Best SF Novels list: Philip Roth’s The Plot Against America and Cormac McCarthy’s The Road. Yes, both books have SF elements, but better choices could have been made. My other quibble is that the Table of Contents merely lists the books by title and publication date. What happened to the authors? Lastly, the authors have a disturbing habit of including spoilers in their mini-summaries of the novels. So, if you don’t want your reading experience ruined, you’ll need to read their essays AFTER you read the book. Other than those flaws, I highly recommend Science Fiction: The 101 Best Novels, 1985-2010! GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Foreword 6
Introduction 8
The Handmaid’s Tale (1985) 13
Ender’s Game (1985) 16
Radio Free Albemuth (1985) 19
Always Coming Home (1985) 21
This Is the Way the World Ends (1985) 24
Galápagos (1985) 27
The Falling Woman (1986) 30
The Shore of Women (1986) 32
A Door Into Ocean (1986) 35
Soldiers of Paradise (1987) 38
Life During Wartime (1987) 41
The Sea and Summer (1987) 44
Cyteen (1988) 47
Neverness (1988) 50
The Steerswoman (1989) 53
Grass (1989) 56
Use of Weapons (1990) 58
Queen of Angels (1990) 61
Barrayar (1991) 64
Synners (1991) 67
Sarah Canary (1991) 70
White Queen (1991) 73
Eternal Light (1991) 76
Stations of the Tide (1991) 79
Timelike Infinity (1992) 82
Dead Girls (1992) 85
Jumper (1992) 87
China Mountain Zhang (1992) 89
Red Mars (1992) 91
A Fire Upon the Deep (1992) 94
Aristoi (1992) 97
Doomsday Book (1992) 100
Parable of the Sower (1993) 103
Ammonite (1993) 105
Chimera (1993) 107
Nightside the Long Sun (1993) 109
Brittle Innings (1994) 113
Permutation City (1994) 115
Blood (1994) 118
Mother of Storms (1995) 121
Sailing Bright Eternity (1995) 124
Galatea 2.2 (1995) 127
The Diamond Age (1995) 130
The Transmigration of Souls (1996) 133
The Fortunate Fall (1996) 135
The Sparrow/Children of God (1996/1998) 138
Holy Fire (1996) 141
Night Lamp (1996) 143
In the Garden of Iden (1997) 146
Forever Peace (1997) 149
Glimmering (1997) 152
As She Climbed Across the Table (1997) 154
The Cassini Division (1998) 156
Bloom (1998) 159
Vast (1998) 162
The Golden Globe (1998) 165
Headlong (1999) 168
Cave of Stars (1999) 170
Genesis (2000) 173
Super-Cannes (2000) 176
Under the Skin (2000) 179
Perdido Street Station (2000) 182
Distance Haze (2000) 185
Revelation Space trilogy (2000) 188
Salt (2000) 190
Ventus (2001) 192
The Cassandra Complex (2001) 195
Light (2002) 198
Altered Carbon (2002) 201
The Separation (2002) 203
The Golden Age (2002) 205
The Time Traveler’s Wife (2003) 208
Natural History (2003) 211
The Labyrinth Key / Spears of God 214
River of Gods (2004) 217
The Plot Against America (2004) 220
Never Let Me Go (2005) 223
The House of Storms (2005) 226
Counting Heads (2005) 229
Air (Or, Have Not Have) (2005) 231
Accelerando (2005) 234
Spin (2005) 237
My Dirty Little Book of Stolen Time (2006) 240
The Road (2006) 243
Temeraire /His Majesty’s Dragon (2006) 245
Blindsight (2006) 248
HARM (2007) 251
The Yiddish Policemen’s Union (2007) 253
The Secret City (2007) 255
In War Times (2007) 257
Postsingular (2007) 260
Shadow of the Scorpion (2008) 263
The Hunger Games trilogy (2008-2010) 265
Little Brother (2008) 268
The Alchemy of Stone (2008) 271
The Windup Girl (2009) 273
Steal Across the Sky(2009) 275
Boneshaker (2009) 277
Zoo City (2010) 280
Zero History (2010) 283
The Quantum Thief (2010) 286

As soon as I saw Natalie Portman in Leon: The Professional (1994) I knew she was going to be a star. I felt the same way when I saw Lindsey Lohan in the remake of Parent Trap (but Lohan’s career that didn’t turn out the way I thought). Director Luc Besson, best known in the U.S. for the science fiction thriller The Fifth Element, made his American directorial debut with this quirky action movie. An Italian hit man, Jean Reno, finds himself taking care of a young American girl played by the perky Natalie Portman. Natalie is being tracked by a twisted cop, Gary Oldman. Oldman specializes in portraying crazy characters and he’s genuinely evil in this movie. The relationship between Reno and Portman could have been phony or mawkish, but Luc Besson develops a believable rapport between them. If you haven’t seen this gem of an action movie, this Blu-ray version is the way to go!

Larry Rosen opens his interesting book with two situations. The first is at a movie theater. While Rosen tries to watch the movie, people around him are texting and talking on their smartphones. And, as soon as the movie is over, Rosen notes that just about everyone in the theater immediately checks their cell phones. The second story involves dinner in a restaurant. Rosen sees that at EVERY table, people have their smartphones next to their plates. They’re constantly checking their phones and ignoring the people they’re with. Larry Rosen thinks hand-held devices like smartphones and iPads and iPods are creating a society of narcissistic, AD/HD addled loners. I can add fuel to this fire. Walk into any of my classrooms and you’ll see the majority of students constantly texting and checking their phones. How much of my brilliant lectures are these students absorbing? Sadly, very little. Their distracted listening, their fragmented attention isn’t conducive to learning. Rosen offers a number of solutions, chiefly limits on use of these devices. I doubt if that will work with smartphone-addicts. GRADE: B

Tonight we finally find out who killed Rosie Larsen. AMC’s The Killing is based on the Danish series Forbrydelsen (The Crime). I’ve continued to watch The Killing even with its glacial pacing and tons of red herrings. For those of you not familiar with The Killing it’s basically a blend of Twin Peaks and 24. Each episode is roughly a day (we’re up to Day 26) and the police investigation centers on who killed Laura Palmer…er, Rosie Larsen. The cast, especially Mireille Enos as Sarah Linden (the lead homicide detective) and her quirky partner, Joel Kinnaman as Stephen Holder, kept me watching even as the lack of action in many of the episodes made my eyes glaze over. Yet, the intensity of Sarah Linden’s search to find the killer fascinated me and kept me watching over two seasons. It all gets wrapped up tonight. Or will there be another plot twist so a third season can be filmed?

I confess, I liked Rock of Ages. Consider it a Guilty Pleasure. How could I not like a movie with a cast of Julianne Hough, Diego Boneta, Tom Cruise, Alec Baldwin, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Russell Brand, Mary J. Blige, Paul Giamatti, and Debbie Gibson? I would have loved to see more of Catherine Zeta-Jones who plays an anti-Rock&Roll crusader with a steamy past. And Russell Brand should have been given more to do. There were almost too many stars in Rock of Ages. Yes, the movie is silly. Oh, but the music! If you love Eighties music as much as I do, you’re going to want to listen to the Rock of Ages soundtrack over and over again (check out the songs below!). Rock of Ages radiates energy and fun. Plenty of critics are going to dismiss Rock of Ages as a glorified 2-hour music video. Who cares? It’s a GOOD music video! GRADE: B+ (for both)
TRACK LIST:
Paradise City (3:43) Performed by Tom Cruise
Sister Christian/Just Like Paradise/Nothin’ But a Good Time (5:41) Performed by Diego Boneta
Juke Box Hero/I Love Rock ‘N’ Roll (2:23) Performed by Diego Boneta
Hit Me With Your Best Shot (2:28) Performed by Catherine Zeta-Jones
Waiting For a Girl Like You (3:24) Performed by Diego Boneta
More Than Words/Heaven (3:08) Performed by Diego Boneta
Wanted Dead or Alive (4:19) Performed by Julianne Hough
I Want To Know What Love is (3:32) Performed by Malin Akerman
I Wanna Rock (2:26) Performed by Diego Boneta
Pour Some Sugar On Me (3:13) Performed by Tom Cruise
Harden My Heart (2:40) Performed by Julianne Hough
Shadows of the Night/Harden My Heart (1:57) Performed by Julianne Hough
Here I Go Again (3:07) Performed by Diego Boneta
Can’t Fight This Feeling (3:05) Performed by Russell Brand
Any Way You Want It (2:31) Performed by Julianne Hough
Undercover Love (3:06) Performed by Diego Boneta
Every Rose Has Its Thorn (2:57) Performed by Diego Boneta
Rock You Like a Hurricane (2:40) Performed by Julianne Hough
We Built This City/We’re Not Gonna Take It (2:18) Performed by Russell Brand
Don’t Stop Believin’ (4:10) Performed by Diego Boneta

I found this First Edition of Lightning at a library book sale. I’d read most of the 87th Precinct series, but not Lightning. Lightning was published in 1984. It’s the 37th volume in the 87th Precinct series. The body of a girl attending a local college is found hanging from a lamp post. In a parallel plotline, women are being preyed upon by a serial rapist. The rapist is raping the same women over and over. Although this novel is 27 years old, it holds up well. Yes, the computer is just being used in police investigations so it has a novelty factor in this book. But the characters, Carella, Meyer, Kling, Burke, and Fat Ollie Weeks carry the action to a satisfactory conclusion.

If you’re a fan of 1950s-style Rhythm & Blues, you’ll enjoy Memphis: The Musical. The gossamer plot merely holds the songs together. As you might expect, race plays a role in the plot and the music. A nerdy character named Huey Calhoun (based on real-life Dewey Phillips who was one of the first white DJs to play “Negro music” on the radio) causes a sensation when he promotes music written and performed by African-Americans. There’s a love story, too. My chief complaint is that the music should have been better. Couldn’t the producers have gotten the rights to some of the classic R&B songs of this era? Memphis: The Musical is entertaining, but it could have been a lot better with great songs. GRADE: B

I’m a fan of Alastair Reynolds’ space operas so as soon as Blue Remembered Earth arrived, I immediately dropped everything to read it. At 505 pages, it qualifies as a Summer Reading Book. And, as Reynolds has announced, Blue Remembered Earth is the first book in a “loose” trilogy. All three books will stand on their own (and characters of one book won’t be included in other books) but will share a similar universe. Basically, Blue Remembered Earth is a puzzle novel. A powerful and famous woman dies and leaves her family clues to a mystery. Two of the family members follow the clues to the Moon and Mars (and, eventually, farther). There’s plenty of politics and double-dealing. No, Blue Remembered Earth isn’t one of Alastair Reynolds’ best books. The novel takes about 100 pages to get started. The “mystery” is obvious (at least it was to me). But Reynolds is a master of creating innovative groups like the Aquatics (who are colonizing the oceans of Earth) and the intelligence machines on Mars. If you’re looking for a diverting beach book, I’d recommend Blue Remembered Earth. GRADE: B

After watching Prometheus, the prequel to Alien, I figured I’d watch the Blu-ray versions of Alien and Aliens that I’ve had for some time. It didn’t take long for me to re-appreciate Sigourney Weaver’s acting in these two movies. Ridley Scott directed Alien back in 1979. It’s basically a Haunted House movie. The creepy alien sneaks around the space ship killing everyone and Sigourney Weaver ends up going one-on-one with it. James Cameron directed Aliens (1986) and it is very different movie from its predecessor. Sigourney Weaver duels the Alien Queen. Yikes! For their times, both films were ground-breaking and should be re-visited.

I had moments of deja-vu while watching Ridley Scott’s Prometheus. Prometheus is a prequel to Alien (1979), and like Alien the focus is on a feisty woman character. In Alien it was Sigourney Weaver and in Prometheus it’s Noomi Rapace (from the Swedish Girl With the Dragon Tattoo movies). Noomi plays an archeologist who believes she’s found evidence that life on Earth originated and was “engineered” by advanced beings from another planet. She convinces one of the Koch brothers to spend a trillion dollars on a mission to a moon that may hold the answers. And, like Alien, the crew violates every safety protocol. And, there’s a treacherous android. As you might expect, this is a visual feast. I enjoyed the 3D effects. Prometheus will be one of the summer’s blockbusters. For a brilliant but snarky review of Prometheus, click here. GRADE: A-