gagglefrak - science fiction blog

A very good friend of mine, Craig DiLouie, recently published a book of speculative fiction titled The Thin White Line: A History of the 2012 Avian Flu Pandemic in Canada. As the subtitle pretty much spells it out, this book describes what might happen in Canada if bird flu crossed over to humans and triggered a pandemic.

The book is written so that it reads as if it were a non-fiction history book from the future about a pandemic that has already occurred some years before, complete with realistic photos, tables, and graphs. It combines written history — names, dates, events, etc. — with oral accounts of people who survived the 2012 tragedy, and the “heroes” of the story are average people like you and me, doing the best they can in a terrible situation.

This story-telling technique is similar to that used by one of my favorite novels from 2006, Max Brooks’ World War Z, which assumes the pretense that a zombie epidemic has occurred many years before the writing of the book. So if you liked that one, odds are, you’ll like this one too.

For much more information about the book, about the author, to read some sample chapters, and for ordering information, just visit www.pandemicbook.com.

Apparently, the past isn’t all that important. It’s all about the future, baby! At least, that’s what I took away from this week’s episode of Battlestar Galactica.

For instance, Gaius Christ is helping his followers dismiss the past by convincing them that the twelve gods of the colonies that everybody’s been praying to for thousands of years never really existed. What’s more, worshiping the wrong god can lead to bad things happening — you know, like Cylons killing your entire family. (”And the correct answer was … Mooormon. Mormon. Everyone else goes to Hell. Sorry.” - South Park) But if you worship Baltar’s One True God, who as we learned last week loves you because you’re perfect, then all will be well. Be sure to grab yourself a complimentary cup of Kool-Aid on the way out, courtesy of God. Continue Reading »

But why quibble? No matter what you call this movie, Iron Man rocked.

(The following review is all qualitative, and does NOT contain any spoilers.)

Continue Reading »

Would you like a free book? Of course you would. I do.

Well, between now and May 13th, to celebrate the pending release of Invincible, the final chapter in the Star Wars: Legacy of the Force series, Random House and Del Rey are letting the general public download a FREE audio or digital version of Betrayal, the first book in the series.

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Spanning 9 volumes, the Legacy of the Force series deals with events that occur in the Star Wars universe starting roughly 40 years after the original trilogy of movies (Episodes 4-6). Luke, Han, and Leia are back, but much older now, and they all have kids. And one of this new generation has not quite lived up to the standards established by his/her parents. Yes, you guessed it — somebody gets seduced by the Dark Side. And yes there’s a war. And yes … there is a Big Bad Sith Villain behind that war, a student of Darth Vader, who needs to be taken down.

I haven’t read the series myself, but it sounds like great fun, and each of the books have received excellent reviews. So I’ve already downloaded the audio version, and I’ll be adding it to my iPod this weekend. Remember, the offer ends May 13th, so if you’re going to download it, do it soon. Here’s the link again …

http://www.randomhouse.com/delrey/starwars/sw_legacy.html

In case the title of this post and the nice logo above didn’t pretty much give it away, Saturday May 3rd is Free Comic Book Day. This is a single day each year when participating comic book shops across North America and around the world give away certain comic books absolutely FREE. Now don’t get crazy — these stores aren’t just throwing away profits. There are specific comics, contributed by the publishers as part of the promotion, and each store has a per-person limit. The idea is to reward existing comic book fans, and hopefully create some new ones.

So find a participating store near you, and be sure to go get your free comics tomorrow!