Matthew Hunter

The Wreck of the River of Stars, despite winning the Heinlein award, is a book well suited to it’s title. It bears the unfortunate stigma of a tragedy with little impact, a disaster with little meaning. It lacks impact. If one is to consider the obvious parallels, it is a failure of Titanic proportions. There are many reasons for this. The writing is extremely awkward at times; unfocused and peppered with authorial asides and pointless digressions.

Thief of Lives is an unusual combination of mythology. The traditional pseudo-medieval fantasy setting, with elves and (presumably) dwarves, contrasts sharply with the primary focus of the characters: killing vampires. Or rather, exploiting the ignorance of the people who believe in vampires, because two snake-oil salesmen can make a good living getting rid of things that don’t really exist. This book follows up on the first, which revealed to the protagonists that their mythical enemy actually existed, with an exploration of the stereotypically dark and mysterious past.

Ethan Kaille is a thieftaker, someone who is hired to find thieves and recover stolen property, in Boston during the time right before the Revolutionary War. His life is complicated by a rival thieftaker, Sephira Pryce, who is more like a female caricature of a mob boss than someone on the side of justice, and her ire at his being hired by a coveted rich client to investigate the murder of the client’s daughter.

Having rejoined Prince Josua, bearing the great sword Thorn, Simon (now knighted as Sir Seoman Snowlock) must begin to fight in earnest. King Elias has sent an army to destroy the stronghold of Prince Josua’s resistance. Only if that army can be defeated will the prince be able to make his claim credible before the realm and attract the support necessary to topple Elias from the throne. Even in defeat, however, the sword Thorn must be kept from the clutches of the Storm King, for in that great sword and its two brothers lies the power to defeat Prince Josua’s enemies… or so prophecy seems to say.

The first volume in the Chronicles of the Lensmen, Triplanetary brings a tedious 6-chapter introduction to the universe of the Lensmen before focusing on the intricacies of the story itself… the story of a time before the Lens, and humanity’s first successful encounters with the agents of Eddore. There’s a lot of science, a lot of heroic secret-agent-scientists, and a lot of interstellar conflict with impressive technobabble. Clearly, this is where space opera was born.

So there’s a new vampire movie out, and I really need a few hours to sit and take in someone else’s vision of impossibility with the hope of seeing something cool. These factors combined to put me in a theater seat watching Ultraviolet, despite having nothing more than the posters and the previews to go on. I’ll give you the short version: it’s bad. Really bad. So bad I’m surprised I sat through the whole thing (which probably had a lot to do with the fact that if I didn’t, I would have to start thinking again – something that I was trying to avoid in the few hours between work and more work that I had).

Ultraviolet is one of those interesting experiments that occasionally show up on British television. Mostly, I’m a fan of British Comedy; for some reason the really good britcom just hits my funnybone when a lot of more American comedy falls flat. (If you’re looking for recommendations, you can’t go wrong with BlackAdder or Red Dwarf). But sometimes something that’s not a comedy comes along and nevertheless works. I heard about Ultraviolet by word of mouth.

If Kindred: The Embraced is the Storyteller universe transferred to television, Underworld is the Storyteller universe transferred to the big screen with the serial numbers filed off. Vampires and werewolves at war with a extra helping of melodrama, all taking place under the veneer of the modern world. Unfortunately, taking that universe to the silver screen didn’t work out much better than the small screen. This movie was portrayed as an action-adventure with “romance” as the plot motivator.

The original Underworld could best be described as a movie made according to the rules of the World of Darkness roleplaying universe from White Wolf, postulating a supernatural underside to our familiar world where vampires and werewolves battle endlessly, with a plot based on cliches filtered through the rules of Hollywood scriptwriting. Despite that, it actually worked pretty well. The key, as with many such movies, is to ignore the plot holes, physics errors, and lack of characterization, instead focusing on shiny things that go bang, fanged cool factor, and Kate Beckinsale in a shiny skintight corset-enabled piece of tactical eveningwear.

Fans of the vampire genre and anime have both embraced Vampire Hunter D, the tale of a conflicted vampire hunter in a far-future world where a nobility made up of vampires rule a distinctly more supernatural and dangerous earth. A bizarre mix of magic and technology allows humans to hold their own against the monsters, but when especially powerful monsters are involved, they must turn to the specialists. Want to know about vampires?