This set of essays does a fabulous job covering all the very best, and very worst, Sci Fi movies up to the early 2000s. It also makes some pretty pithy comments about the movies, the creators, and even the actors. I LOVED it. ( )

First off, in the interest of full disclosure, I need to tell you that Dan and I have been friends for years, and I received a free copy of this book from him. There's no pretending I'm completely objective, here. On the other hand, Dan and I have been arguing vigorously about science fiction, fantasy, and movies for all those years, too.

This is a collection of criticism and commentary about science fiction movies that Dan has written over his years as a movie critic. He's added some updating, new critiques, and some additional material, tying it together into a knowledgeable, educational, and entertaining discussion of science fiction movies, their value, and their significance.


The organization is more thematic than chronological, but discusses movies from the early silent masterpiece Metropolis to recent major entries such as Avatar and District 9, and little gems like Moon. There's something here for every taste, and you will smile, grin, nod in agreement, and howl with outrage (maybe not in the same places I did!) One of the important and recurring themes of the book is the way science fiction is relegated to an artistic ghetto, and when a movie is too good to be written off as "sci-fi trash," nearly everyone associated with it feels a need to insist it's not sci-fi, it's about people and ideas. This irritating behavior of those who "go slumming" in our beloved genre is not limited to movies; it's too often true of tv and literature as well. We have learned to roll our eyes and ignore it, but sometimes it's good to address it, and Dan does that very well here.

If you enjoy science fiction movies, or want to learn more about them and have a greater understanding of an unfamiliar genre, you must read this book.

Highly recommended.

As mentioned above, I received a free copy of this book from the author, who is a personal friend. ( )

http://tpi-reads.blogspot.fi/2012/06/jar-jar-binks-must-die-and-other.html ( )

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1950794.html

this is a collection of essays about sf cinema, mostly published before in fanzines and on the now sadly defunct Internet Review of Science Fiction. Several of the early pieces are a bit peevish, but most of them brim with enthusiasm and certainly gave me a few thoughts for films which I haven't seen but might enjoy. (The gaps in my cinematic knowledge, both of sf in particular and of classics in general, are pretty huge.) Inevitably, as you get from any collection of previously published pieces, it is not perfectly structured and in places repetitive, but generally interesting reading for someone like me who would like to know more about the subject. ( )