Starship Sofa – Spaceships, Quantum Physics and Jazz!

This week’s Starship Sofa story Lester Young and the Jupiter’s Moons by  Gord Sellar is absolutely mind-blowing, it has everything, spaceships, aliens, music and thick deep African-American accented voice. I wholeheartedly recommend it for anyone even if you’re not into Jazz music (Which I am certainly not) or Science-Fiction stories.

About the only point of criticism I have about the show, is that it seems to me that some kind of a jazz music track should have been played after the story concluded rather then Gord Sellar`s outro, then again the Starship Sofa never played music before and there are copyright issues, so its probably too much to ask.

Starship sofa had been going from strength to strength recently, with the serialization of  Kim Newman`s “The Serial Murders“, an amazingly entertaining story including a myriad of charmingly British characters played with extremely talented voice acting by Gareth Stack, concluded last week, and a new web site that provides much needed technical improvements over the old site such as the ability to link to an individual show.

Also worth mentioning is Tony C. Smith`s, Starship Sofa’s esteemed host, guest appearance on another favorite podcast of mine, Escape Pod. A few things can put a big smile on my face like this humorous cross-over. Now, if only Escape Pod’s Steve Eley would do a guest appearance of his own on the Starship…

Tatja Grimm’s World, not up my alley

I’ve finished reading Tatja Grimms World an acclaimed novel by Vernor Vinge, a much acclaimed writer a couple of days ago. I’m afraid to admit that, while entertaining, this book didn’t quite cut it for me.

Spoiler warning: I am going to discuss features of the story in depth.

As far as world building goes, the book is pretty good, wondering about how a technologically advanced world with little to no metal resources would look like is quite an interesting experience.

Where this book falls flat is in the department of character development, I just couldn’t overlook the heavy use of mary sue elements.

Nice EscapePod today, awsome closing music

As I usually do, I enjoyed this week’s installment of EscapePod, the story, as they typically are, was good, but what really made my joy levels rise was the inspiring closing music, “I Feel Fantastic” by Jonathan Coulton.

I’m not a real fan of Coulton, while I find his lyrics imaginative, they typically strike me as childish, and his music style is not really in line with my typical preferences in music. “I Feel Fantastic”, however, seems to be an exception, its a smart and funny song, the music placing you in a comfortable, happy and joyous atmosphere while the lyrics drive cynical arrows through your heart.

Well done. I enjoyed this.

Transpetropolitan

I’ve been reading Transmetropolitan, the excellent comic series by Warren Ellis and Darick Robertson, and enjoying it tremendously.

The comic is very well written and well drawn, portraying our world 20 to 30 years from now, but like any good science fiction, it actually discusses the present rather then the future.

The setting may be of the 2050s but the ideas and plot, it seems to me, are from the 1960s.

Awesome EscapePod today

I just finished listening to the special Christmas story EscapePod released yesterday, and while I’m Jewish and live in Israel where this time of a year isn’t a time of holidays at all for most people, I find myself deeply appreciating this story.

This story brought tears to my eyes.

I won’t go into details about the story itself, because I want everyone to just go and listen to it, but I’ll just say it made me happy for the fact that humanity is still too young to have to come to terms with the harsh, dark and cold reality presented in this story.

Last but not least, I also enjoyed the very amusing closing song.