Solar Flare: Science Fiction News

Ultimate X-Men #97
Writer: Aron E. Coilete
Artist: Mark Brooks
Publisher: Marvel Comics

Well it’s not Brooks fault. The art isn’t exceptional but it’s certainly serviceable. The plot and scripting though is just plain terrible. It’s barely coherent with no flow at all. Any sort of recognisable characterization is thrown out the window. As is logic, since there’s no way the team could come back from this in the space of a few pages.

Horrible,…

I’m a fan of Star Wars. I’ve been a fan of Star Wars since I watched the original movie in theaters at roughly the age of four. So, it’s not surprising that I share my love of Star Wars with my children. When the new movie came out, we decided to see it.

After reading a number of poor reviews of Star Wars: Clone Wars, I went into the movie theaters with low,…

Sheriff Carter is in a state over the upcoming wedding between Drs. Stark and Blake. If that isn’t bad enough for him his sister has arrived for a visit. Of course the romantic tension between Allison and Carter has been a recurring theme of Eureka since episode one so it’s easy to sympathize with him as he has to give her away to Stark.

Ever seen Groundhog day?

That’s what we get…

So by now of course you know that this is the last season of Stargate Atlantis. Hopefully they plan to go out with a bang. The Ghost in the Machine starts off in very familiar territory with our in the puddle jumper and doing what they do best (squabbling).

Incidentally is the puddle jumper the least impressive looking spaceship is scifi history?

From there things go bad with some weird systems failures.…

A robot dog show. Well that’s the town of Eureka for you. But of course it’s not that simple. We have what initially appears to be a break in, followed by tremors (I’ve got to say the “mucous” looked awfully like green colored foam) and then there’s the dead dog. How does a robotic dog die? Well that’s the question isn’t it. And of course there are no earthquakes in…

Guardians of the Galaxy #4
Writer: Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning
Artist: Paul Pelettier
Publisher: Marvel Comics

The Guardians of the Galaxy gets a Secret Invasion tie-in this month. Which is a little odd because it’s not set on earth. But they make it work, sealing off the station and ramping up the paranoia. I’m still not quite sure what to make of Major Victory’s arrival. Is he part of the team or just…

The novel The Stainless Steel Rat actually comprises of a novellas The Stainless Steel Rat and The Misplaced Battleship which were then rounded out with additional material completing the story. Perhaps inevitably the origins do show through in the flow of the story.

Harrison’s Stainless Steel Rat is a career criminal. He’s not out to hurt people, he’s just out for himself. But “Slippery” Jim diGriz is outsmarted by the Special…

Booster Gold #11
Writer: Geoff Johns
Artist: Dan Jurgens
Publisher: DC Comics

How do you follow up a fan pleasing multi-issue storyline that reunited Booster Gold with the Blue Beetle? Well for a start you bring back his twin sister (end of last issue) and then you just throw him head first into a new crisis. Pretty much business as usual then.

To be fair there had to be some downtime after that last story-arc…

Sundiver is a book that I have been meaning to read for most of a decade. I just never quite got round to it for some reason. David Brin’s first novel is also the first in his highly acclaimed Uplift Saga, a series of books all set in the same universe.

Brin’s clever concept is that all intelligent species in the galaxy have been uplifted by an already existing intelligent race.…

Since the ideal episode of Eureka is fairly lighthearted and frothy they’re not the easiest things to review. Is very easy to end up saying the same things each week.

We open with yet another visit to the overly protective father protecting his daughter. It’s a cliche they use a lot on this show and the humor value is wearing a little thin.

More promising was us seeing the consumer research…