Book Review: The Automaton

Book Review: The Automaton by Ian Young XR-345x awakens to find itself apparently the last of its kind. According to his holographic AI helper Holographic Automaton Navigation Console (Hank for short) humans left the surface of the earth around five thousand years ago, and the other automatons eventually followed suit. But an anomaly has arisen… Continue reading Book Review: The Automaton

Magazine Review: High Adventure #200: Special Last Issue

Magazine Review: High Adventure #200: Special Last Issue edited by John P. Gunnison Much like the pulp magazines it reprints, HIgh Adventure is at last coming to the end of its publication history. But a 200 issue run over 33 years (starting as Pulp Review) is pretty darn impressive. And to celebrate the occasion, this… Continue reading Magazine Review: High Adventure #200: Special Last Issue

Comic Strip Review: O Human Star Volume Three

Comic Strip Review: O Human Star Volume Three by Blue Delliquanti Quick recap: Robotics genius Alistair Sterling dies and wakes up more than a decade later in a robotic copy of his body. He’s reunited with his then lover Brendan Pinsky, who definitely didn’t arrange this and is understandably freaked out. Alistair is also puzzled… Continue reading Comic Strip Review: O Human Star Volume Three

Comic Strip Review: Hägar the Horrible: “Caught in the Act!”

Comic Strip Review: Hägar the Horrible: “Caught in the Act!” by Dik Browne It is the age of Vikings, what some will call the Dark Ages. In a coastal village somewhere on the coast of Norway lives a minor raider chieftain named Hägar the Horrible. This doughty warrior travels around the known world, and sometimes… Continue reading Comic Strip Review: Hägar the Horrible: “Caught in the Act!”

Book Review: A Prayer for the Crown-Shy

Book Review: A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers In A Psalm for the Wild-Built, tea monk Sibling Dex went into the wilderness on a journey of discovery, and was introduced to the robot Mosscap. (See my previous review.) This sequel volume picks up not too long after the conclusion of that one, as… Continue reading Book Review: A Prayer for the Crown-Shy

Book Review: Sal & Gabi Break the Universe

Book Review: Sal & Gabi Break the Universe by Carlos Hernandez Culeco Academy of the Arts is a magnet school for gifted middle schoolers in a Cuban-American neighborhood of Miami, Florida. It’s usually a fun place for a school, full of creativity and teachers who want to bring out the best in their students. But… Continue reading Book Review: Sal & Gabi Break the Universe

Movie Review: Never Take Candy from a Stranger

Movie Review: Never Take Candy from a Stranger (1960) directed by Cyril Frankel (aka “Never Take Sweets from a Stranger”) The Carter family, Peter (Patrick Allen), Sally (Gwen Watford), nine-year-old daughter Jean (Janina Faye) and Sally’s mother Martha (Alison Leggatt) have moved from Britain to Jamestown in Canada so that Peter can take up a job… Continue reading Movie Review: Never Take Candy from a Stranger

Movie Review: Fiddler on the Roof

Tevye will never see his home again.

Movie Review: Fiddler on the Roof (1971) directed by Norman Jewison Anatevka at the turn of the Twentieth Century is a small village in the Russian Empire, what is now Ukraine. It is home to a community of Jews, as well as Orthodox Christians. Our protagonist is Tevye (Chaim Topol), an impoverished milkman who has been… Continue reading Movie Review: Fiddler on the Roof

Magazine Review: Analog Science Fiction & Fact January/February 2024

Cover art by Julie Dillon

Magazine Review: Analog Science Fiction & Fact January/February 2024 edited by Trevor Quachri Let’s look at a recent issue of this long-running science fiction (and fact) magazine. The opening editorial by Howard V. Hendrix, “Machines Passing for People Passing for Machines”, which among other things discusses the Turing Test, where a simulated person tries to… Continue reading Magazine Review: Analog Science Fiction & Fact January/February 2024

Manga Review: One Hundred Tales

Manga Review: One Hundred Tales by Osamu Tezuka It is the Warring States period of Ancient Japan. Ichirui Hanri, though of the samurai social class, has been an accountant his entire life, never training in combat or lifting a sword. This has not prevented him from getting caught up in a rebellion against the lord,… Continue reading Manga Review: One Hundred Tales