A slice through space-time

Now that “Flashforward” is finished (and on such an interesting note, too), most fans will probably turn to the book if they miss the series. And for those who don’t know, yes, the series was based on the book by the same name by Robert J. Sawyer.

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Best of F&SF

I recently realised that I haven’t been reading my quota of science fiction for quite some time now. That’s why I picked up “The Very Best of Fantasy & Science Fiction”, anthology of best stories in 60 years of F&SF magazine, edited by Gordon Van Gelder.

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Ask Turing

On the surface, “Genesis” by Bernard Beckett is an unassuming, almost novella-sized book. But a few pages through the book, you realise that you have jumped into something much more complex, and captivating.

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The game is afoot

An anthology of Sherlock Holmes stories (Point 1). Written by authors like Neil Gaiman, Laurie King, Stephan King, Naomi Novik, Stephan Baxter (Points 2, 3, 4, and so on.) So, how many more points does a book like “The Improbable Adventures of Sherlock Holmes ”need to be “pick up right now”?

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Froody

I have mixed feelings about “And Another Thing… ”. For one thing, it is hard to recreate the magic of a classic like H2G2 – the five-part trilogy. On the other hand, Eoin Colfer has enough experience of weird characters and crazier situations from his Artemis Fowl series.

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Tale of a soldier

Once you get past the main action (Denise Richards and Dina Meyer) you start getting a distinctive “1984” feeling about the whole proceedings, especially about the newscasts. Which is why I was curious to read the actual book, Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein, on which the iconic movie is based.

And unexpectedly different as it was after the movie, the book was interesting in its own way.

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RIP Michael Crichton

One of the first book-to-movie adaptations I read about was “Jurassic Park” and it remains one of the rare few cases where I saw the movie before I read the book (because it was a long time before I figured out there was a book called “Jurassic Park“). But after that, I just had to get my hands on the other books by the author. Thus Michael Crichton became one of the first English authors (after Sir Arthur Conan Doyle) whose books I have read.

Although I didn’t read the almost-Doomsday scenarios in “State of Fear” and “Next” as enthusiastically, “Timeline” remains one of my favourite time travel stories, while Jurassic Park series (Jurassic Park and Lost World)easily make it to the list of my Top 5 Sci-Fi series.

RIP Michael Crichton (October 23, 1942 – November 4, 2008). From dinosaurs to nanobots, from jungles of Congo with vicious apes to concrete jungles with ruthless humans, sci-fi will miss you.

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Ghosts of the time past

The greatest trials of the literary heroes come when they are faced with their intellectual equals. Like Sherlock had Dr. Moriarty, Feluda had his Maganlal Meghraj. In The Time Paradox by Eoin Colfer (book VI of the series), Artemis Fowl II faces his most dangerous enemy yet, his almost equal.

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The Boy from The Stars

In memory of Sir Arthur C. Clarke, I would like to introduce you to one of the first sci-fi novels I have ever read, “Preshit” (Preshit: Marathi – A man sent, by someone or from something) by Dr. Jayant Narlikar.

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RIP Arthur C. Clarke

Being a Science-Fiction author is not an easy thing (and I know that because I have tried). Being counted as one of the greats in Sci-Fi genre, indeed any genre is definitely not a matter everyone can achieve (incidentally, does anyone remember Jules Verne now?). Sir Arthur C. Clarke (16 December 1917 – 19 March 2008 ) deservedly was such an author.

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