FEATURED POST: Blood Child and Aliens

When it comes to science fiction, there is nothing I love more than aliens. Perhaps it is because I grew up fascinated by animals, creatures, monsters, and reptiles. The biggest impact on me was the actual alien, from the movie Alien. I remember as a little kid thinking that it was the coolest looking creature ever and playing with the alien toys. To me, aliens are really the pinnacle of science fiction. Often what will sell me on a work of science fiction is the inclusion of aliens. They just have so much potential for variation, in appearance, intelligence, evolution, you name it. They can be essentially monsters, like in the Alien movies, or more humanoid and intelligent, like in say, Star Trek. even more interestingly, they can often be a combination of both- like the very alien appearing creatures from the film District 9, who are still quite human when it came to emotion and intelligence. Or, the insect aliens from the short story Blood Child, by Octavia Butler. These aliens are extremely alien; they are essentially giant bugs. Multiple limbs, claws, mandibles, everything. These creatures could easily be mistaken for some B-movie horror monsters. But they are more than that. They are actually intelligent beings, with emotions and awareness of their surroundings that matches that of a human. Even more interestingly, in the context of the story of Blood Child, they are actually the superior species, holding humans in what you could call controlled captivity. It is quite interesting how humans and these insect aliens interact in the short story, living together almost as a family. The dependence of the aliens on the humans also adds another layer to the strange relationship between species. These aliens need humans for hosts for their young larvae newborn. Without humans, these creatures would have a hard time multiplying, so they keep humans almost as cattle. It is interesting that the humans go through with the process, though they do not seem to have much of a choice. Part of the reason these insect aliens interest me so much is that their method of using other species as hosts is literally straight out of the movie Alien. In both cases, humans are used as the hosts, the newborn aliens living inside the human body. The difference being that in the movie Alien, humans are unwillingly used as hosts by the monstrous aliens, whereas in Blood Child humans accept this relationship and often expect or even volunteer to be hosts for the, somewhat at least, more caring insect aliens.

Existenz

This is an interesting film to go back to. I watched it many, many years ago and when I was much younger. I really enjoyed the movie back then, mainly because I am just a hardcore video gamer. So it was interesting watching it again in class today and having a new, more mature, and refreshed perspective on it. I have to say that seeing it again it seems extremely cheesy. But that is in a good way. The movie is extremely unique, with a much grittier world than a movie like the Matrix- which ironically came out the same year. That goes to show you how popular the virtual reality theme was back in the later 90's. The movie definitely has a lot of gross out moments when it comes to the organic controller that plugs into the user's spine. The one thing I remember the most watching this as a kid was the gun that used human teeth as ammo. There was something disturbingly cool about that. Again, seeing the gun now when I'm older, it looks very weird to say the least. Not to mention the functionality of the gun is almost entirely lost which breaks my believability a bit. I mean, how does it operate and actually manages to shoot? But hey, this is supposed to be a game after all. Well, a game within a game. Actually, a game within a game within a game. The ending of the film was definitely a disappointment, however. I remember thinking that as a kid, "Really, that's it?" I guess they did get lost in their own plot line since they did not know how to properly end it. The end just seemed contrived, like they ran into a wall or something. So they just resolved it by saying the whole film was a game, so they did not have to try and figure out how to get themselves out of the mess they got in from the whole movie. Oh well, the ending is not what I remember the movie for, not in the least. It's the tooth gun. Crazy awesome. And weird too.

BloodChild

Bloodchild has something that instantly grabs my attention when it comes to sci-fi. It has aliens. Aliens are definitely my favorite part of sci-fi. Ever since I first saw the movie Alien, I've just loved them. I do prefer the more animal, monster type aliens to that of the more humanoid ones. Granted, humanoid aliens can be just as aweseome to me. Mass Effect, one of my favorite games, is a great example of a universe with humanoid aliens with high intellectual capacity- however they are very different in appearance. A giant bipedal lizard with an angry mindset but still has the ability to reason and an intelligence to match that of a human... Now that's what I'm talking about.

Bloodchild is interesting then because it does in a way combine both the monster type alien and the humanoid intelligent type alien into one entity. The insect like aliens of the short novel are definitely alien in appearance. Described as large insects with multiple claws and limbs, you could easily look at these creatures as movie monsters. Yet they are clearly intelligent, even to the point of having dominance over humans. They can be looked at as very human in nature, aside from their appearance of course. They actually remind me of the aliens from the movie District 9. They are very alien in appeance but human in nature and intelligence. Of course, the first thing I thought of when reading BloodChild was the movie Alien. Humans are used as the hosts for the alien newborns in both stories, in very similar ways. The primary difference here is that the aliens from Alien were pure animalistic and monsters in nature, wheras the insect aliens in BloodChild were more relatable to humans when it came to the ability to reason, having personality and emotions, etc etc. I was surprised at the idea reading through this story of a more sympathetic alien species that implants its young into humans. Perhaps its because the movie Alien has already engraved into my head the idea that it is clearly "bad". Or maybe its human nature to imagine that getting implanted by insect aliens would be a bad thing. Personally, whether the aliens are "good" or not, I find that something that would not be good at all. Assuming that was real, I know I sure wouldn't ever want that to happen. But bottom line of the topic is really that I love aliens. They are awesome.

Snow Crash...

This novel is somewhat of an odd one to me. The plot is quite strange and has some unusual layers of depth from what I've read. The whole idea of the virtual reality-esque metaverse is, while interesting, a bit flat to me. While this is definitely a very cool premise and world, I can't help but feel it's a little generic at this point. This perhaps is not the novel's fault though, as it was released in 1992- long before many movies, games, and other series adopted the virtual reality premise. This arguement is actually very similar to my opinion on The Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit being somewhat generic to me at this point. While those are generic fantasy, Snow Crash falls into generic sci-fi to me. Movies like the Matrix have delved into this subject matter before. So many games I've played deal with stories of vitual reality and simulators, such as Perfect Dark and Mass Effect. Especially games like World of Warcraft, which I've never played, have practically brought the term 'avatar' into the mainstream... James Cameron's new movie, entitled Avatar, just goes to show you show mainstream and overexposed the whole virtual reality concept is at this point. So I can't help but feel a little burnt out or put off by Snow Crash, because it shares its premise with something so overdone to me.

The one more interesting aspect of the novel was the idea of the drug itself, snow crash. More specifically, the idea that the 'drug', so to speak, has some kind of paranormal ability to affect users both in the metaverse and in reality. This reminds me of the game novel I read not to long ago, Mass Effect Ascension. In that novel there was a drug called red sand, which gave its users temporary biotic abilities, such as telekenesis. The idea of drugs granting these abilities or affecting the user in a more uncommon way such as these two novels is an interesting notion. It gave Snow Crash a bit more flare for reading to counter the somewhat blandness of virtual reality for me.

Empire Star, Bladerunner

When deciding whether to read through Babel 17 or Empire Star, I decided to go with Empire Star. It seemed like a more interesting read. One particular draw was the idea of the novel being narrated by an "alien" so to speak. Ok, whether or not the narrator, Jewel, is an alien or not I am not actually sure of. But the way the character is described and presented definitely in my opinion makes Jewel seem other-worldly. Which is of course true anyway; being that Jewel is one of the two individuals rescued from the ship wreckage by Comet Joe. I find it to be quite a clever and intriguing way to have a narrator for the story. As opposed to simply having a non-existant character be the narrator, the narrator is one very close to the hero character Comet Joe. And the ability for the narrator to know so much about the story to be able to tell it is actually justifiable in this novel's case; being that Jewel, in the crystaline state, is able to see multiple points of view. Aside from the narrator, the story itself is interesting. While the story is essentially a coming of age tale for Comet Joe, I do personally enjoy stories that span large amounts of time, or even an entire character's life. I enjoy seeing that character evolve and change, going through "character arcs" as we say in Computer Animation. This is what kept Comet Joe as a character, for the most part, engaging.

I was quite excited to discover we were watching Bladerunner today in class. I first saw this movie back in June this year, and liked it quite a bit. I guess I like cyber-punk, although in all honesty I didn't know what cyber-punk was before it was brought up today relating the Bladerunner. It just makes up a really cool setting. The reason I first watched Bladerunner was actually because of many video games I've played in the past, such as Mass Effect and Fallout 3. Both games have references to this film, and since I loved that games I took it upon myself to watch the movie. I was not disappointed. There are many facets of this movie that are really good, but my favorite would simply have to be the dark, grungy, yet still futuristic setting.

Stars my Destination

Sci-Fi time... Probably my overall favorite genre. While I love aspects of horror, fantasy, and sci-fi, science fiction has to be my favorite. This is really because I grew up playing science fiction video games such as Perfect Dark and Halo. The genre has stuck for me and of course branches into every form of entertainment and not just video games. Although to be most specific, my favorite genre would have to be the science fiction horror. Thank Alien for that.

Onto the Stars my Destination. This is quite an interesting story being told. The main character, Foyle, is intense, to say the least. He is the highlight of the novel. He is a character that you as the reader both root for and reel away from at the same time. The way he is described as being an empty, near worthless individual at the beginning of the novel makes you feel sympathetic and pitiful for the character. In a way it gives the reader faith in the character, knowing that he has the entire novel for things to turn around in his life and start going his way. The reader gets excited for Foyle when he suddenly gets motivated for revenge. For the entirety of the novel, Foyle's intense determination for his vengeance is what keeps the audience interested and excited, because we know that when he gets his revenge he will be fullfilled and will have done something worthwhile in his life. That is what the reader wants; we want to see Foyle find meaning in his life- even if it's through revenge. However, some of Foyle's actions make him quite a shocking character. So much so that more than just a few readers would likely turn away from the novel. He is not a nice guy. Foyle is brutal and often it is hard to remember he is the protagonist and the character the audience wants to root for- and some of us probably won't.

One extra note is the tattoos. That is an extra tidbit of the novel I quite like, for obvious reasons. The way Foyle's face tattoos appear when his emotions run high is a very cool, unique mechanic in a story. It is the standout part of the novel that really sticks in your mind as something you remember when thinking of Stars My Destination in general. It's the novel with "the cool face tattoos that reflect animalistic emotions."

Anansi Boys

For me, the class discussion on this novel quite greatly expanded my knowledge on the work itself. Even more so than the other class discussions on other novels we've read, and for a few reasons. Mainly I did not realize the novel's story was based on a form of African beliefs/religion. I will say right now that I have no cultural knowledge on any of these specifics, so I may sound unfamiliar with what I am talking about. I simply thought the premise and god-like characters were just a fantasy element that author Neil Gaiman thought up for the sake of the novel. And as with others, I did not realize that the characters were of African descent. I would have most likely read through the entire novel without ever knowing, just assuming every character was white. It was not until the in class discussion that I found out otherwise, which was somewhat of a suprise. After the class discussion however I felt as though I would have preferred reading American Gods instead of Anansi Boys. From what I heard it seemed like the type of novel that I would have found more interesting, wheras Anansi Boys wasn't all to my taste with the African animal-type god characters. What I mean is the characters themselves somewhat disinterested me. I like animal-type characters, but the characters in Anansi Boys were somewhat uninspired in the way of their divinity, I should say? Well, for example, I was turned off from the novel when the character Spider essentially shapeshifted or magically disguised himself as Charlie. To me that's just a little on the cheesy side of things. The novel went more and more down this road as it went on and to me it was hard to focus because it really stretched my believability.

Golden Compass

Now here is an interesting novel to look at. I originally heard of the Golden Compass a few years ago because of the movie that was released. I also remember the movie getting a negative response which kept me from ever getting too interested in it. At the time, as far as the movie goes, it seemed as if it was a less interesting or less unique version of the film Pan's Labyrinth. Both movies followed a young girl protagonist with mythical and animal companions, grounded within both a fantasy world and a real world. I also never knew the Golden Compass was based on a fantasy novel. Having become more familiar with the novel now, the Golden Compass in my opinion comes off a bit too much on the scale of being a children's fantasy tale than what I would prefer- despite the more mature ending. I also find the main character Lyra to be quite unlikable. This in turn really makes it hard to enjoy reading. Reading a novel or story based on a character you don't like really just takes you out of the experience, and it frustrates me as a reader in a way. It prevents me from enjoying the read. Lyra comes off as a brat to me. She is somewhat snarky, annoying kid that puts me off of the story. I'm not interested in the peril she gets in, or her eventual "hero's journey" because I don't care about the character in the first place. The most interesting character in the novel is Lord Asriel, who has a lot of depth. He gives off an impression when first introduced, and as the novel progresses more and more of his character is revealed. The ending especially reveals a lot about the character's true motives and person. While not neccessarily a character arc, the way the reader learns more and more about Asriel, with their views of him changing as they learn more, make him a very multi-dimensional character. As for the story, the ending is definitely the most interesting part of the story. And you can be sure that was the author's intention, since it is meant to get you excited and want to read the second novel. The pathway to an alternate world is always a very intriquing concept, the reader will always want to learn more. The possibilities with alternate realities are endless, and it is always a treat for a reader to delve into the author's perception of the alternate world.

The Hobbit and Fantasy

Lord of the Rings... The Hobbit. Even if you are not a fantasy enthusiast, you definitely still know of these novels. I've always had a belief in my head of what I've thought of the J. R. R. Tolkien novels. I am a fan of fantasy, but never personally found The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit to be all that interesting. Even though it is fair to say a lot, if not the majority, of today's fantasy foundation can be rooted back to Tolkien's works. But it is perhaps because of that fact that somewhat turned me off from the series. After growing up with so many different unique takes on the fantasy genre, almost every aspect of the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings books comes off as very generic and cliche. While almost every piece of fantasy has orcs, elves, wizards, dwarves, etc, they all just came off as 'nothing special' to me in Tolkien's work. I struggled multiple times to watch the Lord of the Rings films, as they just couldn't seem to interest me. The length of each movie made it feel like a chore to try and watch them and remained engaged. When I was a young teenager, I also attempted to read the annotated Hobbit. I got through one or two chapters before I felt I couldn't read anymore. It just seemed flat overall. Perhaps it was growing up as an avid video gamer, with fantasy games at my fingertips that warped my perception of the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. I could freely explore these amazing game worlds rich with unique twists on fantasy that has had decades to evolve from Tolkien's take on fantasy. However, going back to the Hobbit now, I am willing to give it another chance. It managed to grab me this time as opposed to my first attempt at reading. Maybe it's because I'm more mature and my attention span can last longer, I don't know, but it seems more interesting and engaging this time. I'm more willing to look past the generic and cliche stuff because the characters themselves have a lot of personality, which is always what really drives a story forward.

Vampires

Vampires....this subject is interesting to say the least. I am a big fan of monsters- classic horror creatures and so on. But I have a hard time deciding where I stand on the current state of vampires. The concept is definitely cool. Near immortal beings that feast on blood. Big fangs. They are just cool, intimidating, and in a lot of situations, scary. It is very clear that modern vampire stories are essentially for female audiences though. They are like gothic chick flicks. Everything revolves around desperate relationship issues. It's almost awkward for me to read. The focus has in some ways shifted away from real horror and envoking feelings of fear in favor of just being gothic romance for a modern audience. Oldschool vampires are definitely cheesy, on the flip side. When it comes to vampires, for me, I really enjoy the monstrous bat-like vampires. Much more animalistic. Same goes with warewolves, really. I love the big monstrous ones, as oposed to the dorky hairy-man type of warewolves. The novel, Interview with a Vampire, is quite an interesting one though. I do like the dark interpretation of the story. I remember seeing the movie as well when I was younger, and it had that dark vibe to it that I always accociated with horror. It was somewhat perverse though, but I guess that is really just the norm when it comes to vampires.

Zombies, Mass Effect: Acsension

This week deals with Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. This is an interesting novel for a number of reasons. It is somewhat hard to judge how I feel about this book. The original novel of Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austin, is a book that I would lack interest in and unlikely read. This type of novel is simply not engaging to me. The subject matter is not my cup of tea, involving the overly complicated yet very minor relationships each character has with one another. There issues with each other just does not peak my interest in what is essentially a love story with high class characters in this society. BUT... on the other hand, this novel has zombies. Now right away you would think this would actually peak my interest and get me into the novel. I mean, they're zombies after all, and along with zombies always comes over the top violence that is morally acceptable. However, this is really not the case. I still lack real interest in the novel. Zombies aren't enough for me to really enjoy it, so to speak. While there are zombies, the story is still essentially the same. It still can't hold my interest and keep me entertained. It would be like trying to add some kind of seasoning to a food you don't like. It might change the dish slightly, but you still won't like what you are eating. Simply incorporating something like zombies into what is the same basic story doesn't really change how I feel about it.

Over the past week I also listened to the entirety of an audio book for a novel called Mass Effect: Ascension. This sci-fi novel is the second novel based on the video game, Mass Effect. This is the type of book I really enjoy: novels based within the universes of various video games, usually science fiction. Being based on something I already enjoy, my interest is always peaked when reading these novels, seeing how they are interwoven with the storylines of the video games, and catching other nods to the games in the little details. This particular novel I quite enjoyed because of how it eluded to potential tidbits that will appear in the soon to be released next game in the series, Mass Effect 2. Overal though, I prefered the original Mass Effect novel, Mass Effect: Revelation.

Frankentsein

I will first say that the story of Frankenstein has become so familiar, widespread, altered, and in a way mainstream that the story itself has somewhat lost its appeal and its uniqueness. If I had no prior knowledge of the story of Frankenstein's monster, the novel probably would have had more of a moving reaction, evoking more interest and emotion from me. I have also previously watched movies such as Bride of Frankenstein prior to reading the novel, which I personally felt were underwhelming films that left more to be desired. Because of this my interest in Frankenstein was so-so. The way in which the novel is written was also quite wordy and somewhat hard to concentrate as I read it, making it harder still to enjoy the novel and Frankenstein property. However, I will say that there is a surprising amount of depth to the characters and motives. The characters are sympathetic and have a lot of emotion which is the best part of the novel. Particularly the motives of the monster and its emotions as the story progresses. This was the most interesting aspect as I read through the story. It all came together for me when the monster was seen mourning at Frankenstein's body after he passes away. That was the moment that sticks in my mind the most because of the monster's reasoning and sorrow. In a way I almost felt that everything that transpired throughout the novel between the monster and Frankenstein was justified in this scene. If not justified, at least resolved in a sympathetic matter. I wouldn't consider them at peace by any means. Frankenstein did die in unrest after all, attempting to track down his monster. Though the monster is still alive, he is clearly troubled by the culmination of everything he's been through up until this point. It's almost as if the monster has accepted the misery of his existance, and knowing the fate of his creator, is prepared to accept his own sad fate. It's this emotional relatioinship that really keeps the novel going in my opinion, moreso than the simple concept of Frankenstein creating the living being that is his monster.