A Far Out Fantastic Site

I’m sorry for posting for July so late. (This post serves as the July post, even though it's now August.) I was busy this past Friday filling out my annual fiscal year tax return for my freelance writing which, as easy as it seems considering today’s automation, is always time consuming and a headache. And that was on the due date. I usually don’t wait until then, but this fiscal year of ‘25/’26 has been exceptional. But I wasn’t going to let you go without a Book-To-Movie of the month or the latest on my upcoming book of short fiction, “Bad Apps”! Book-To-Movie Review: Arthur C. Clarke's '2001: A Space Odyssey' Credit: Pixabay Good science fiction makes us wonder about the universe and our place in it, even to the point of terror in certain cases. Both Arthur C. Clarke's short story, "The Sentinel", and the Stanley Kubrick film adaptation, "2001: A Space Odyssey”, definitely do that well. The two works make people think about the possibility of inte...

To close this month of May, I have another Book-To-Movie review for you and the latest on my upcoming book of sci-fi horror short stories, “Bad Apps”! In case, you’re new to A Far Out Fantastic Site, well, first of all welcome! Second, you should know that a Book-To-Movie is where we review a work of prose fiction and its movie adaptation, usually in the science fiction, horror, or fantasy genres. Book-To-Movie Review: 'Trucks' / 'Maximum Overdrive' Credit: Wikipedia Warning: There are spoilers throughout this review. Our first Book-To-Movie (BTM) of the year reviewed a bad Stephen King short story and its almost equally bad movie adaptation. (In fact, the movie was worse, even if just by a bit.) Today’s BTM is reviewing another bad film but one based on a way better short story by King. The movie is “Maximum Overdrive”; the story it’s based on is “Trucks”.  King’s “Trucks” is concisely written with a prophetic warning against the overuse of technology. However, the ...

I want to first apologize for missing last month's Book-To-Movie review and the Insecure Writer's Support Group post earlier this month. I had family over from out of town, and then the week after Easter Sunday I had a bad allergy attack. I was so worn that I only had enough energy to write a little at a time. I’m just now getting back on track. So, I have the BTM for you below—a review of an H.G. Wells short story and its movie adaptation--but first I have the latest progress on my soon-to-release book of short stories, "Bad Apps".  ‘Bad Apps’ Progress Unfortunately, my allergy attack also put me behind on my work on “Bad Apps”, but now I’m at the easiest part of preparing my book for the formatting. I’ve been going through the manuscript to make sure I didn’t overlook any of the words and phrases underlined by the word processor’s editing feature. Many of these are words that either the programme mistakens the context they’re being used in or that I intentionally sp...

Credit: Pixabay.com Updated at 6:53 PM on 3/21/2025 I won't be wishing anyone a Happy St. Patrick's Day here since it was originally a Catholic festival and so I try not to mix my religious beliefs with my blog posts, and I don't celebrate the commercialized, secular version of it. (I barely celebrate the religious version, unorthodox Catholic that I am.) Moving on ... The Author's Guild has come up with a service that helps consumers distinguish human authored books from AI authored ones. Paula Cappa discusses this in detail at her blog , which my comment on is below. I also have a mini movie review of "Mickey 17", which I saw over the weekend. So, read on!  Certification of Human-Authored Books The problem with books that are written by artificial intelligence (AI) is that they can hide the human-authored ones on the market and, in doing so, demean the human characteristic called creativity. A market bombarded with AI-written books would basically say that h...

Credit: Wikimedia Commons One reason I'm calling today's post an "Unofficial" Book-To-Movie (BTM) is because this review of a movie adaptation of a book is not resuming the BTM series of posts [link]. That monthly series is still on hiatus until I release " Bad Apps " which I still don’t have a specific date for but am getting towards the end of the revision process for the whole book. Another reason for titling this post the way I did is because it can’t really be called a review. That’s because I did not view the movie in question since it cannot be viewed. (You’ll find out why in a bit.) I recently found out that in my BTM of the 1922 silent film, "Nosferatu", I had gotten two things wrong: 1) I said that the movie was the first film adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel, "Dracula"; and 2) that Universal's 1930s "Dracula" starring Bela Lugosi was only the first legally made adaptation of the novel. (I’ll be revising that...

Credit: Pixabay I know, I’m posting this first weekly post of the year very late and I apologise. I did post earlier in the month, but that was for the monthly Insecure Writer's Support Group blog hop . If you haven't had a chance to look at it, please do so. I talk a little about working on my writing over the holidays and how you can be a beta reader for “Bad Apps” , my upcoming book of short fiction! [link]  After that posting, I had a sinus infection that was keeping me awake too many nights and so was not up to writing as frequently as I normally do. My doctor subscribed me some meds, and so I’m doing much better.  For today’s post, I have my new year’s writing resolutions and a list of 13 science fiction and fantasy movie adaptations of books releasing in theatres in 2025! 2 New Year’s Writer’s Resolutions of 2025 In this new year of 2025, one resolution I’m trying to make is coming up with a clear schedule of all my writing projects, and that includes “Bad Apps”. I’ve b...

Actor Boris Karloff,  23  November 1887 - 2 February 1969  Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons Earlier on this Saturday that I’m actually writing this post for the Monday I will have released it, I was going to concentrate more on writing and revising stories for " Bad Apps ", my upcoming book of short science fiction horror stories. However, my desktop has been running so slow during the past two weeks that it’s been slowing down the writing that I do on it, including my story revisions for “Bad Apps”. So, I decided to uninstall several apps that I never use because they’re probably what was causing the computer to process so slowly. Because doing that took so long, I'm keeping this post short. I thought I should talk a little about actor Boris Karloff, since the Saturday that I'm writing this is his 138th birthday! (His posthumous birthday, of course.)  Karloff played some big roles in movie adaptations of books by famous authors of horror. The most notable of these is...

Credit: Wikimedia Commons Due to yesterday’s Memorial Day holiday here in the U.S., I decided to move this week’s post to today. The Book-To-Movie (BTM) review  series is going to be on hiatus a little while longer. I'm still gathering more stories and films in my library of  “To Read” and “To Watch” so I can make a lineup. Also, I'm trying to play catchup on my two latest books which I'll talk some about later. First, I want to commemorate Roger Corman who died earlier this month, May 9th. He was 98. Because he directed several movie adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe’s stories, I’ve provided a list of those movies below.  Corman was one of my favourite filmmakers of science fiction and horror. Known by many as the "King of Cult" movies, he was a leader in directing and producing B-rated movies, many of which were horror, science fiction, action/adventure and crime. Among his horror films, and the best in my opinion, were his adaptations of Poe's works. In a big ...

Credit: Pixabay Already we're coming to the end of February! Although that shouldn't be too surprising since it’s the shortest month of the year, even with a Leap Day this year. This will make us have to wait less for the book-to-screen science fiction adaptations coming out next month. There are two of them that I know of off-hand: "Dune: Part 2" and "3 Body Problem".  Dune: Part 2: this movie continues from where Part 1 (titled just “Dune”) left off in 2021. The movie series is based on Frank Herbert's 1965 novel, "Dune". In this sequel, the hero, Paul Atreides, (Timothee Chalamet), who has been stranded on the desert planet Arrakis, teams with warrior Chani (Zendaya) and the planet's natives, the Fremen, to avenge his family who were killed by the Harkonnens. BBC says that this movie is psychedelic and art house. However, after seeing the latest trailer, it comes across as more art house than psychedelic to me, but then the trailer onl...

Credit: Pixabay As I said last post , I had to postpone our fourth Monday Book-To-Movie to this fifth Monday. In a Book-To-Movie (BTM), we review a work of prose fiction and its movie adaptation. In the previous BTM we reviewed H.G. Wells' science fiction horror classic, "The Island of Dr. Moreau" and its 1932 movie adaptation, "The Island of Lost Souls" . Today we're going to look at American International Pictures’ (AIP) 1977 film that has the same title as the book. This version has the realism of the novel and the countercultural revolution of the early 1970s.  Synopsis of the Book A short synopsis of Wells’ novel: A shipwrecked passenger takes refuge on a remote island and discovers that it is the place of exile of Dr. Moreau, a mad scientist who cruelly forces the evolutionary process in animals to make them human.  The 1977 Movie Adaptation A Twist in Plot AIP’s “Dr. Moreau” is basically faithful to the book but, as with “Lost Souls”, leaves out a lo...

Credit: Wikipedia Warning: This review contains details that may be considered spoilers by some.  Even though the fourth Monday of June has passed us, I'm still dedicated to giving you the Book-To-Movie review of the month and so I have it here today. My apologies for missing last week; I had family come from out of town. In a Book-To-Movie (BTM), we review a work of prose fiction and its movie adaptation. As far as I’m aware, there have been three movie adaptations of H.G. Wells's novel of science fiction horror, "The Island of Dr. Moreau". I'd like to do a BTM on each, but I thought it would make sense to start with the original first. The others will follow in future BTMs, I just don't have set dates for them yet. The original movie adaptation is the black-and-white 1932 one titled "Island of Lost Souls". The novel "The Island of Dr. Moreau" and movie "Island of Lost Souls" are both sci fi horror, but the former is more abou...

Well, the summer is at hand, and that means a season of movies coming out in the nice cool air-conditioned theatres but also on the internet and in stores too. I'm not really into direct-to-video movies like I'm not on made-for-TV ones, but there are exceptions. One exception, or what at least seems to be so far, is an upcoming remake of a science fiction classic. I'll talk about that in a bit. First, I want to pay tribute to another classic science fiction film that’s anniversary is today. This day 70 years ago must've been a really exciting one for movie audiences. That's when the sci fi flick, "It Came from Outer Space", released in US theatres and was one of the first movies to be featured in 3D. Also, the script was originally written by science fiction/fantasy author Ray Bradbury! I also have a little of the latest on my upcoming book of short fiction, "Bad Apps"!  70th Anniversary of 'It Came from Outer Space' In 1953, the alien in...