Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

Release Date: April 27, 2010

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus is the brainchild of monty python's Terry Gilliam and Charles McKeown.  Remember the Adventures of Baron Munchausen.

"The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus is a fantastical morality tale, set in the present day. It tells the story of Dr Parnassus and his extraordinary 'Imaginarium', a traveling show where members of the audience get an irresistible opportunity to choose between light and joy or darkness and gloom. Blessed with the extraordinary gift of guiding the imaginations of others, Dr Parnassus is cursed with a dark secret. Long ago he made a bet with the devil, Mr Nick, in which he won immortality.

Many centuries later, on meeting his one true love, Dr Parnassus made another deal with the devil, trading his immortality for youth, on condition that when his first-born reached its 16th birthday he or she would become the property of Mr Nick. Valentina is now rapidly approaching this 'coming of age' milestone and Dr Parnassus is desperate to protect her from her impending fate.

Mr Nick arrives to collect but, always keen to make a bet, renegotiates the wager. Now the winner of Valentina will be determined by whoever seduces the first five souls. Enlisting a series of wild, comical and compelling characters in his journey, Dr Parnassus promises his daughter's hand in marriage to the man that helps him win. In this captivating, explosive and wonderfully imaginative race against time, Dr Parnassus must fight to save his daughter in a never-ending landscape of surreal obstacles - and undo the mistakes of his past once and for all..."

This was also Heath Ledger's last film.  He died a third of the way through the filming of the movie and and the writer's creatively recast Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Collin Ferrell portraying Tony (ledger's character) in  different transformations as he traveled through the dream world.    The movie also includes Andrew Garfield, Christopher Plummer, Tom Waits, Verne Troyer and Lily Cole. 

Forgive me from deviating from the book path, but sometimes a movie comes along that just sounds wild and imaginative and fun, plus has some great talent in it.  I'll be ordering it as soon as it is released.


What movies have sparked your interest lately that you just have to have?

Author Spotlight and Happy Birthday to Kim Stanley Robinson

Happy Birthday!

Yes, Today is Hugo award winner Kim Stanley Robinson's Birthday.   He was born March 23, 1952 in Waukegan, Illinois, however he considers himself a California native since he has lived in California since he was two years old.    He discovered science fiction, much like I did in the 70's. During his college years, while working on his bachelor's degree,  developed an idea for a series  set in Orange county, California taking one character through 3 different futures.
                                                       

Post Apocalyptic                                 Dystopian                                          Utopian 

 

After earning his Master's Degree in English at Boston University in 1975, he returned to California to complete his PhD.   In 1982 he completed his thesis on the works of Philip K. Dick titled:  The Novels of Philip K Dick - Studies in Speculative Fiction.

 In 1982, he also married Lisa Howland Nowell, a environmental chemist whose work took them to Switzerland where Kim was able to start writing full time, which results in the futuristic Mars Trilogy in which explore and establish a settlement on Mars.

                                    

After writing the Mars trilogy, Robinson decided to explore what would have happened in Europe if the black plague had wiped out 99% of the population and  Islamic and Buddhist societies emerged as the world's dominant religious and political forces which resulted in his alternative history novel:

He went on to explore how science and politics interact in Washington DC in the near future with the Science in the Capital trilogy exploring events leading up to and during a worldwide environmental collapse brought about by global warming.

Which brings us to his latest book, Galileo's Dream, a mixture of historical fiction, time travel and alternative history.  In Suduvu, Kim talks about Galileo's Dream - 400 years later.

Kim has won numerous awards and been nominated many times for his creative imagination

1984, World Fantasy Award for Best Novella, for "Black Air" 
1985, Locus Award for Best First Novel, for The Wild Shore 
1987, Nebula Award for Best Novella, for "The Blind Geometer" 
1991, John W. Campbell Award for Best Science Fiction Novel, for Pacific Edge 
1991, Locus Award for Best Novella, for "A Short, Sharp Shock" 
1992, British Science Fiction Association Award for Best Novel, for Red Mars
1993, Nebula Award for Best Novel, for Red Mars 
1994, Hugo Award for Best Novel, for Green Mars
1994, Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel, for Green Mars
1997, Hugo Award for Best Novel, for Blue Mars
1997, Ignotus Award for Best Foreign Novel, for Red Mars 
1997, Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel, for Blue Mars 
1998, Ignotus Award for Best Foreign Novel, for Green Mars 
1999, Seiun Award for Best Foreign Novel, for Red Mars 
2000, Locus Award for Best Collection, for The Martians 
2003, Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel, for The Years Of Rice And Salt


In 2007,  an autobiographical story - Kistenpass - was published in the webzine, Flurb about his time in Switzerland.

What's next from the imaginative mind of Kim Stanley Robinson?   In 2009, Orbit Publishing agreed to a three book deal with him and his first book, tentatively titled 2312 will be released in 2012.

"Tim Holman, Orbit VP and Publisher, says: “Kim Stanley Robinson is a writer who can make the future credible, no matter how incredible it might seem. 2312 will be set in our solar system three hundred years from now; a solar system in which mankind has left Earth and found new habitats. This will be a novel for anyone curious to see what our future looks like – a grand science-fictional adventure in every sense – and I’m thrilled that Orbit will be publishing it in both the US and the UK.”

Today, Kim is a stay at home dad, devoting his time to his kids and writing, while his wife continues her work as a full time chemist.    Happy Birthday to Kim Stanley Robinson

Under the Dome by Stephen King

Under The Dome

By

Stephen King

** Caution:  Spoilers ahead **

Author Synopsis:   "On an entirely normal, beautiful fall day in Chester’s Mill, Maine, the town is inexplicably and suddenly sealed off from the rest of the world by an invisible force field. Planes crash into it and fall from the sky in flaming wreckage, a gardener’s hand is severed as “the dome” comes down on it, people running errands in the neighboring town are divided from their families, and cars explode on impact. No one can fathom what this barrier is, where it came from, and when—or if—it will go away.

Dale Barbara, Iraq vet and now a short-order cook, finds himself teamed with a few intrepid citizens—town newspaper owner Julia Shumway, a physician’s assistant at the hospital, a select-woman, and three brave kids. Against them stands Big Jim Rennie, a politician who will stop at nothing—even murder—to hold the reins of power, and his son, who is keeping a horrible secret in a dark pantry. But their main adversary is the Dome itself. Because time isn’t just short. It’s running out."

Under the Dome by Stephen King is a humongous 1074 page book about a town that is suddenly cut off from the rest of the world by a huge dome.   Who generated the dome?  Is it man made, did another country managed to come up with a new technology, is it a supernatural phenomenon or put there by beings from another planet?   And why Chester Mill's - a small New England town with really no one of major importance who lives there. No celebrities or congressman.  Just your typical small town of about 2000 people living their lives.  Except......

When this dome slams down around the town, several people die including the chief of police when he gets too close to the dome and the electrical current explodes his pacemaker.  The board of selectman (town leaders) take over and the leader, Big Jim Rennie is (surprise) corrupt and very dominating. Plus his son, Junior,  is slowly going crazy, murderously crazy.  Rennie enlists  his son and his friends to police the town.   The military chose military vet, Dale Barbie to take over the leadership of the town but they have no way to enforce it since they can't get in.   And Junior and his friends have it in for Barbie, no way are they going to listen to him.   

It's been less than two days since the dome descended and people are dying. Kids are having mysterious seizures and folks are committing suicide.   Add in one crazy, drug addicted named chef who has holed up in the radio station, behind which is housed Big Jim Rennie and friends methamphetamine lab.   Big Jim and friend had also been borrowing everyone's propane tanks to run the lab.    People are running out of propane and getting suspicious of where it all disappeared too.   Big Jim decides it's time to shut the lab down because they can't ship it out and when the dome eventually disappears, the military will be all over the town.   However, Chef won't let then anywhere near it.   

Meanwhile, the good guys - Barbie, some very observant teenagers, Julie who is the editor of the towns newspaper and a few others discover the source of the dome.  It's a weird box up near the edge of town.  When someone touches it, they see some weird looking aliens.  The  town is being observed, like ants in an ant farm by alien children who have no concept of what they are doing.  They are determined to destroy the box because the box is not only keeping them hostage inside the dome, but it is affecting everyone's emotions.   They don't want Rennie to find out because he is enjoying having control of the town and doesn't want to turn it over to anyone and will stop at nothing to keep control.  

However, all Rennie cares about is getting control of the radio station and his meth lab.  So, when the military arranges a visiting day and all the town folk head to the edges of the dome to talk to their relatives who were locked out, when they were locked in, he and friends, armed to the teeth head out to confront Chef and turncoat selectman Andy.    A fire fight ensues and Chef blows up the propane tanks which blows up the meth lab.  Because the explosion doesn't have anywhere to go because it is confined by the dome, all the town people who are outside are incinerated, and most of the town is leveled.     Barbie, Julie and company need to find a way, fast to communicate with the aliens, to get them to let them out before they too die from the now toxic air.

Under The Dome is a whale of a story in which a town of 2000 is whittled down to 30 in a four day period.  It's a character study of what can happen when people are shut off from everything.   The bad guys are really bad, sinister, corrupt and perverse.  The good guys do the best with what they have in order to survive.    It isn't a story for the faint of heart. It has a bit of everything including murder, necrophilia, drug abuse, and rape.  Plus Big Jim Rennie and friends are all right wing fundamental Christians and slimy as all get out.     However, It is  a story that keeps you reading, because you want to know what is going to happen next.  And you keep reading and reading and reading, because the story is compelling. 

Whether you consider Stephen King a horror, science fiction or fantasy writer, this story seems to include it all.  I can't classify this story just as a horror story because it has all the elements of science fiction, supernatural,  thriller, and  suspense in it as well.  It's fast paced and the action never stops.  So if you like those types of stories or anything Stephen King,  then I highly recommend it. 

Tron Legacy - The Sequel!

Can't wait - looks very cool!

Book coveting: new and newish Reads on the Horizon

Even though I'm on a book buying ban right now until I whittle my TBR pile down a bit, I haven't stop adding to my wish list.   Some  newish and oldish science fiction or fantasy books and authors I haven't read yet and discovered on the horizon that look interesting or intriguing. 

 Red Inferno: 1945 by Robert Conroy

Alternate history released February 23, 2010

 Chill by Elizabeth Bear

Book Two in the Jacob's Ladder Trilogy

 Which lead me to Dust which I haven't read yet!  How did I miss this one?

 Red Wolf Conspiracy by Robert V.S. Redick

Epic Fantasy 

Another one of Seth Grahame-Smith's Dark Fantasy's

Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter

 What books have you been coveting lately?
 

Finding the Irish in Science Fiction

 

Dragon Snake by Meilin Wong 

St. Patrick's day is coming up in a couple weeks and I recently joined another challenge, the Ireland Reading Challenge. 

I had been thinking of reading Dracula and while I was looking up information on Bram Stoker, I discovered he was Irish.  The first novel he wrote is called "Snake's Pass" and is set in Ireland. It about a traveler who arrives in a village that is haunted by the legend based on St. Patrick's battling the king of the snakes.   Sounds too good to pass up.    I joined in the challenge with a commitment to the Kiss The Blarney Stone level which is 6 books.  The challenge includes any books written by Irish authors, set in Ireland, has Irish characters or involves Irish history and can be fiction, nonfiction, poetry, or children's books and runs through the end of November.
 
Anyway, it's debatable whether Stoker is considered a horror or science fiction writer, but that would take us into the history of science fiction and mythology and that's a post for another time.  The challenge started me thinking that it would be interesting to read science fiction novels by authors who are either Irish or science fiction books with books set in Ireland.

I started searching the internet and I discovered some interesting sites such as Albedo's - Ireland's magazine of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror. (the electronic issue). That was an amusing diversion. 

Hugo Nominee Ian McDonald was born to an Irish mother and Scottish Father and has lived in Belfast since he was five so technically he's Irish.   I'm currently coveting one of his stories so will be adding it to my list to read. 

 

He has written a couple of older books with an Irish setting which are available in the U.K. such as "Sacrifice of Fools" and "King of Morning, Queen of Day."  Not sure if they are available any more.   There is an interesting list here but the majority of books are fantasy rather than science fiction.  Irish born, James White and his Sector General books, the Sidhe Series by Kenneth Flint,  Morgan Llywelyn's series of books centered in Ireland,  Irishman Flann O'brien and his Irish tales.

And if you are interesting in reading anything by an Irish author, there is a huge list of authors, the majority I've never heard of here, from Moytura's Irish Book store.   Warning, it will keep you busy a while as you can get lost browsing through their books and find many, many interesting books to add to your wish lists

 

My challenge to you for the month of March is to read one science fiction or fantasy story by an Irish author or set in Ireland.

Are you in?