Two sci-fi giants, one spooky Halloween classic Well, it's that time of year again. Candy. Costumes. Holiday specials airing nonstop for a month....
The Halloween Tree
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movies & tv
Princess Bride
Low-Magic Fantasy? Inconceivable! How a classic tale dodges fantasy’s biggest trap. Magic system. Magic system. Magic system. Start a conversation...
The Witcher – One of the few times you don’t need to read the book first
Back in 1990, Polish author published a short story collection whose title, in English, was The Witcher. In 2008, someone translated the first of a...
12 Monkeys: Time Travel Cranked to 11
The Army of the 12 Monkey was just the start Terry Gilliam’s 1995 movie, 12 Monkeys, starring Bruce Willis and Brad Pitt, was a looping time travel...
Legion may just be the weirdest corner of the X-Men Universe
In 2017, a show called Legion premiered on FX. It was set in the X-Men universe, though you’d hardly know it unless someone warned you in advance...
District 9 – A dystopian future, or an uncomfortable past?
It never became a franchise, because it was never looking to become one. District 9 feels like a forgotten relic of an era that wasn’t even all that...
Brave New World: A 1931 novel, a 2020 television show…a 2022 reality?
George Orwell’s 1984 seems almost naive in retrospect, believing that a faceless government would strip all privacy, create a surveillance state,...
Good Omens: A Buddy Comedy For The Apocalypse
Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett are two of the better known fantasy authors of the late 20th Century. Their works are snarky, irreverent, and often...
The Best Half-Movie in Ages
If you are of a certain age and sci-fi prediliction, you’ve likely seen the 1984 oeuvre by David Lynch simply entitled: Dune. It was based on a...
Post-Secondary Wizard Education
For those who missed it, The Magicians is a fully completed television series with a satisfying ending (unlike some other fantasy series we could...
Sick of Superheroes?
By now, most people have probably forgotten about it, but for a brief period in 2017, DC had a superhero comedy starring Vanessa Hudgens and Alan...
Hear the Drums, Fear the Game
If you know Jumanji, you probably get chills just reading that drum beat. For those who don’t, Jumanji is a 1995 comedic adventure movie starring...
This show is a giant Easter egg hunt
One show that I never expected to like was Once Upon a Time. The basic premise is that Snow White and Prince Charming's daughter ended up an orphan...
Poll: What’s it take to be the greatest bounty hunter?
Back when I first launched my Black Ocean: Mercy for Hire series, I posed this question to my email insiders. The main character, Esper, may be...
Good News, Everyone! It’s the best Sci-Fi show ever
While I hold onto hope that someday this title might get passed along to a Black Ocean adaptation, I just want to talk about the best sci-fi show...
Labyrinth: Two Kinds of Magic
Rumors have circulated (as rumors are wont to do) about a potential remake of the fantasy classic The Labyrinth. This is, of course, blasphemy. Not...
Deep Space Mine
When Matt Larkin and I were first brainstorming ideas for Black Ocean: Astral Prime, one of our first sticking points was what to call the series. I...
Fighting for Freedom
With Independence Day behind us in the USA, it's a good time to talk about rebellions and revolutions in fiction. Sci-fi and fantasy are rife with...
Fantastic Fathers
Back around Mother's Day, I made a list of the best mothers in sci-fi and fantasy. Fair's fair, so now we're having a look at the top fictional...
In Honor of Mother’s Day
In honor of Mother's Day, let's talk about the greatest mothers in sci-fi and fantasy. Sadly, thanks to cloning vats and a bias toward orphan...
Game of Predicting Thrones
As a longtime fan of Game of Thrones (in book form, no less!), I'm excited at the prospect of the final season of the TV version wrapping up, even...
Are any shows “appointment television” for you?
"Appointment television" hasn't died, but Netflix sure is trying to strangle it. And while I'm certainly one to binge whole seasons or series in a...