A Far Out Fantastic Site

Credit: Pixabay.com It’s the third weekend of the month and so it’s time for another Book-To-Movie review! In a Book-To-Movie, we review a work of prose fiction and its movie adaptation. In the 1960s, American International Pictures (AIP) was the company responsible for producing and distributing many B, or low budget, sci fi and horror book-to-movie adaptations. Most of the literary works that were adapted were by Edgar Allen Poe but a few were by other authors such as H.P. Lovecraft and Jules Verne. While many of these movies didn’t stay as faithful to the books as many avid readers would probably have liked, they usually kept the basic plots. This is the case with 1961’s “Master of the World” based on Jules Verne’s 1904 novel of the same name and starring Vincent Price. This movie glosses over the novel’s story yet keeps the filming style that is distinctive of AIP’s many other films, especially those that star Price. ( Warning: Potential spoilers ahead.) The Book ...

Credit: Pixabay.com I was reading a good article the other day at Slate.com about the punk subgenres of science fiction. Much of what the article said about these subgenres was not good. But I still found it very informing and if you’re new to punk sci fi such as steampunk, diesel punk or atompunk, I suggest you take a look at it because it’s a good introduction to this category of science fiction subgenres. I did agree in part with what the article’s writer, Lee Konstantinou, was saying and so that the punk subgenres have been misused. He basically says that these subgenres work off of the template, or formula, that comes from cyberpunk, the first punk category in sci fi that started in the 1980s. The formula consists of the protagonist rebelling against the ruling system of power and its influence on society. Konstantinou says that such a formula constrains original storytelling. However, like the science fiction genre it branches from, a punk subgenre doesn’t necess...

Photo Credit: Solomon Barroa/Pixabay.com Defining science fiction can be tricky. The term science fiction can refer to anything related to science that is fictionalized, even if the story is simply set in space and with a futuristic technological background. Star Wars falls under this loose definition of science fiction, which many, including the creator of the franchise himself, George Lucas, do not like to consider it as such. Others have a more strict definition which is often: any scientific, plausible phenomenon that has not yet become a reality. Along with this definition is that the scientific phenomenon is central to the plot. Perhaps trickier yet is defining science fiction’s subgenres such as space opera, post-apocalyptic, cyberpunk and steampunk. In fact, some raise the issue whether or not steampunk is science fiction. Defining Steampunk So what is the definition of steampunk? For sure, steampunk is alternative history fiction which doesn’t necessarily have to...

(If you missed part one of this topic, you can read it here .) Last time, I went over some highlights of day two of West Sacramento’s Intergalactic Expo. I also went over in my article about how so-called outdated sci fi can be read or viewed as alternate timeline or retro future sci fi. If you missed these, then you can read about them here . Now for the second part to both these discussions. Intergalactic Expo Highlights, Day 2, Part 2 Let me begin by concluding my highlights of Intergalactic Expo which occurred the weekend of May 2 nd and lasted through Sunday, in which Sunday is what last week’s post was highlighting. If you want to know about events for Saturday of the con, then please check out my post forthat weekend . (In that post I talk about the panel on female characters in Josh Whedon’s films and television shows, collectively known as the Whedonverse.) On the second day of Intergalactic Expo, May 3 rd , after the table talk with JP Aerospace, I a...

I made sure I didn’t hold off on the article about old sci fi this time, but I also said I would have more highlights on last weekend’s Intergalactic Expo. [ link ] So I have both here, but I decided it would take up too much space in one post. So I’m dividing each of the two topics between this weekend’s and next weekend’s posts. Intergalactic Expo Highlights, Day 2 Sunday, day two of the con, went by way better than Saturday (day one). Because I took extra preparation to catch the bus at a certain location, I made it to the expo a lot earlier and so saw a lot more there. Day two saw the con’s Outpost Bazaar which consisted of sci fi/fantasy arts and crafts booths in front of City Hall. I spoke with punk musician/author Charles Passarell about his Star Wars -themed band, Mos Likely (punned off of Mos Eisley Space Port in the first (1977) Star Wars film) that would play later that day and about his satirical sci fi novels he was selling at his table. These included his latest...

Photo Credit: Adam  Christopher /Will Staehle /Angry Robot Books I’ve had numerous projects that I’ve been working on for the last several weeks, one of them being the continuous marketing of Fool’s Illusion . This includes contacting book reviewers to review my book. If any of you out there are book reviewers and care to review Fool’s Illusion, let me know by emailing me at   strosejr@gmail.com and we can talk about it.  Please indicate “Book Review for Fool’s Illusion” in the subject line when emailing me. I’m also in the middle of pitching Fool’s Illusion to local bookstores hoping they’ll sell it on their shelves for me and so I can get a cut of the profit. All this while I’m still trying to keep on top of writing new fiction as well as articles that I write for both  Examiner .com and here. And so now that brings us to my newest book review of another author’s work that I have posted here at the Fantastic Site in which I’m hoping to post many more...

A performer at the first Sacramento Steampunk Emporium Photo Credit: Steven Rose, Jr.  It's been a very busy month and so I apologise for the two or three week hold on my posts. Part of this has been due to a change of plans for The Fool's Illusion . I've been kind of working on the publishing part through a self-publishing organisation that I'm a member of. Part of the project in this group was to make a sample/excerpt of books that each of us are planning to publish. So I'm in the process of puting together my sample booklet of Fool's Illusion. I would like to give you  free e-copies of it once I put it together and show it to my self-publishing group. The problem is that I am not a digital graphic designer. That is not my primary line of work. I've taken some graphic design courses, including some that emphasises graphic design software such as Adobe and QuarkXpress. But I am not tech saavy when it comes to graphic design as I am saavy with fre...

Warning: This post may contain content considered obscene by some viewers. Sorry for ditching the blog for the last three weeks. The holidays really keep a person busy as I'm sure most of you know. Hopefully that won't be the case anymore until Christmas, but even then I'll try to post each weekend through the end of the year. A beautiful rainy Saturday, and I don't say it with sarcasm because I love the rain at this time of the year. For those of you used to white Christmases, I can't say I love the snow at this time of year since we don't get any here in Sacramento (except for Grass Valley maybe or somewhere around there, but I'm not even sure if they get that much snow).  So what do we Sacramentans do during this time of year when people elsewhere are making snow men? Simple. We make rain men. Don't ask me how, we just do it. Okay, so we don't make rain men (or rain women); at least nobody I know does.  Nevertheless, it's more the hol...