Good to see Paul Krugman weigh in with his thoughts on the TV adaptation of Asimov’s Foundation series: “Foundation” might seem unfilmable. It mostly involves people talking, and its narrative inverts the hero-saves-the-universe theme that burns many acres of CGI every year. The story spans centuries; in each episode everything appears to be on the… Continue reading On Foundation
Tag: speculative fiction
Foundation
And so it begins: Influential sf sequence by Isaac Asimov (whom see for fuller discussion), initially a trilogy beginning with Foundation (May 1942-October 1944 Astounding; fixup 1951; cut vt The 1,000 Year Plan 1955 dos), in which Psychohistory predicts the fall of a Galactic Empire and points the way to a newer, more stable organization… Continue reading Foundation
Visions
So, how does Star Wars: Visions stack up when you compare it to The Animatrix? A difficult question at this stage, before we’ve got to see what their stories involve. Clearly this will require further, in-depth study. [Via The Verge]
Missions season 2
Season 2 of BBC4’s French speculative fiction series Missions has popped up on iPlayer. I wish it hadn’t been so long since the first season aired (May 2018), because while I had a vague recollection of the show’s big plot points I’d almost entirely forgotten much about the characters and their relationships, which meant that… Continue reading Missions season 2
Foundational
At last, we have a new teaser for the Apple TV+ take on Asimov’s Foundation trilogy: Given that it’s a ten-part series that we still know very little about, it’s difficult to form a coherent opinion on what turns out to be a series of very brief, context-free clips from what will presumably be an… Continue reading Foundational
GCU Negotiations Were Short
I realise this is thoroughly immature of me, but I adored Listen, Strange Space Wizards Sitting In Temples Distributing Laser Swords Is No Basis For A System Of Government, a fanfic depicting just how capably Palpatine’s Empire would have dealt with Ian M Banks’ Culture. Before the Death Star can begin its campaign of terror… Continue reading GCU Negotiations Were Short
What’s Italian for ‘Chairman Bruce’?
So, Cory Doctorow tells us that Bruce Sterling has a sideline as Bruno Argento, producing work in Italian set in and around his adopted city, Turin: I am no expert on fantascienza, so I don’t know if these are representative of the field, but I am here to tell you that they are completely different… Continue reading What’s Italian for ‘Chairman Bruce’?
For All Mankind season 3
So, For All Mankind dropped the season 2 finale and gave us another end-of-season peek at what’s to come in the next season: someone’s going to Mars. Despite some YouTube commenters being convinced that that’s a Soviet boot treading the Martian surface a decade on from the season 2 finale I think that’s wildly premature.… Continue reading For All Mankind season 3
Varley’s Worlds
Cory Doctorow brings sad news that John Varley, a writer whose work from the 1970s onwards gave me faith that the world of speculative fiction was not doomed to be swallowed by interminable multi-volume epic sagas about future galactic empires and their fall, has been having health problems. John Varley, a beloved, versatile, funny, and… Continue reading Varley’s Worlds
Time travel
I really wish I’d read Craig Mod’s piece on The Healing Power of JavaScript earlier: [As we join the story, Mod has decided to use some of the time afforded him by the pandemic to rebuild his personal web site…] In that spirit, as I moved my homepage I also rebuilt it as a so-called… Continue reading Time travel