Tag: fiction

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Armor – Starship Troopers Re-imagined

Quick update. I just picked up Armor from John Steakley. And this book is really intense, as in really really intense! Armor is a brilliant re-imagining of Heinlein's "Starship Troopers". And while I am not into military sci-fi it offers something different:

Armor is a military science fiction novel by John Steakley. It has some superficial similarities with Robert A. Heinlein's Starship Troopers (such as the military use of exoskeletons and insect-like alien enemies) but concentrates more on the psychological effects of violence on human beings rather than on the political aspect of the military, which was the focus of Heinlein's novel.

It was first published in December 1984.

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Lathe of Heaven

Lathe of Heaven is a very cerebral book and an equally rewarding film. It has a non existent budget, being filmed for WNET in 1979, but it hides it well. It's a great idea and there are some pretty great twists and turns. This is a movie that I can't believe hasn't been remade with a massive budget.

But this version is very well written and just omits expensive scenes as best as possible. the budget is not a distraction at all, and it's a great story.

The Lathe of Heaven is a 1980 film adaptation of the 1971 science fiction novel The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin. It was produced in 1979 as part of New York City public television station WNET's Experimental TV Lab project, and directed by David Loxton and Fred Barzyk. Le Guin, by her own account, was involved in the casting, script planning, re-writing, and filming of the production.
The film stars Bruce Davison as protagonist George Orr, Kevin Conway as Dr. William Haber, and Margaret Avery as lawyer Heather LeLache.

It is the story of a young man who has the ability to change the future when he dreams. His doctor, Haber begins to use Orr's "effective dreams" to first create a prestigious, well-funded institute run by himself, then to attempt to solve various social problems.

These solutions unravel quickly: Haber suggests that Orr dream of a solution to overpopulation. This results in a plague which wipes out three-fourths of the human population. The end to all conflict on Earth, which results in an alien invasion uniting mankind, and an end to racism. This has the effect of a world where everyone's skin becomes a uniform shade of gray.

It is immensely satisfying and Ursula K. Le Guin is rarely a disappointment.

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Carnosaur

Carnosaur by Harry Adam Knight is a great read. Its pulpy but very well written. I generally recommend the novel if you can find it. It’s on Amazon for a reasonable price for a copy that’s readable, though not mint. It’s kinda surreal reading a pre-Jurassic Park book that has some similarities to Crichton’s work out of sheer coincidence and is otherwise totally unrelated and vastly different than the movies. High fiction it is not, but if given a decent budget I’d think it make for a fun film that is earnestly good and not so-bad-it’s-good. There is little evidence Crichton might have even been aware of Carnosaur the novel as it wasn’t a very well published book and the similarities in JP the novel and Carnosaur the novel lay in use of a Dromaeosaurid and fossil DNA. However the methods, themes, settings, and characters all drastically differ. That said if you got some info I’d love to see it! This was just me observing some odd similarities between the Carnosaur novel and what is visible in the Fallen Kingdom footage. It is my pick for second best dinosaur horror novel after the Jurassic Park. On a side note Brosnan disliked Roger Corman’s film adaptation of his novel, nonetheless it was the reason that I was even aware of the original story. Everybody goes through a Corman phase right?