Arthur C. Clarke in his 1979 sci-fi novel, The Fountains of Paradise, builds a space elevator on Earth as a solution to the monetary and technical expense of Earth-based rockets.
A space elevator is a conceptual solution for a low-cost, low energy planet-to-space transportation system. The challenge to building the elevator is finding a material strong enough to withstand the immense compressional and tensional forces that with a counterweight balance, would be 44,490 miles long (71,600 km). Carbon nanotubes offer a possible solution but currently they are only strong enough to work on Mars or the moon.
This is not Clarke’s best novel, but he thoroughly explains the concept of a space elevator and a lot of the engineering problems that would need to be solved to build one. The solutions to all the problems are solved by the book’s protagonist, Dr. Vannevar Morgan, a thinly veiled character that likely refers to himself as Arthur C. Clarke when he is among friends.
As an aside, both within the book and as a reader, he spends 5-6 pages harping on his belief there is no God. Why he does so is a mystery since it adds nothing to his story and in the end, it is a pointless, garrulous, one-sided debate.
Vincent Di Fate, born 1945 in Yonkers, is a New Yorker and American artist known for his depictions of science fiction, fantasy, and realistic space art. He has an MA from Syracuse University.
People Magazine noted the Di Fate is, “one of the top illustrators of science fiction…” His specialty is imaging technologies and environments in the nether regions of space and the universe. His clients include NASA, IBM, Scientific American, and The National Geographic Society. James Lizowski, Omni Magazine critic, noted that Di Fate, “combines the skills of a masterful painter with the fierce demand of an uncompromising artist to create visions of the future that are precise, powerful, and dazzling to the eye“.
His numerous awards include the: Hugo, Sklark, Lensman, Chesley, and Rondo Awards, among others for illustration of science fiction and fantasy subjects. He was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2011 and the Illustrator’s Hall of Fame in 2019. He has consulted for MCA/Universal, 20th Century Fox, Walt Disney, MGM/United Artists.
Di Fate has also written three books and is currently working on his fourth. His second book Infinite Worlds was the first comprehensive history of science fiction art in America. Listed below are some of the books of fiction he has illustrated. Additionally, he has illustrated hundreds of sci-fi and fantasy book covers in his four decades as an artist.
Di Fate Book Illustrations (Partial):
2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke
Prelude to Foundation by Isaac Asimov
The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester
The Fabulous Riverboat by Philip José Farmer
The Dark Design by Philip José Farmer
The Magic Labyrinth by Philip José Farmer
The World of Null-A by A.E. van Vogt
Rules of Engagement by Elizabeth Moon
The Time Traders by Andre Norton
The Godmakers by Frank Herbert
Di Fate Bibliography:
Di Fate’s Catalog of Science Fiction Hardware 1980
Infinite Worlds: The Fantastic Visions of Science Fiction Art 1997
The Science Fiction Art of Vincent Di Fate 2002
Clement Biography:
“Human beings are prone to believe the things they wish were true.” – Hal Clement
Hal Clement, born in 1922, in Massachusetts, passing away in 2003, was an American science fiction writer and a leader of the hard science fiction subgenre. Hard science, as it was defined in 1957 by P. Schuyler Miller, is characterized by scientific accuracy and logic. Hard science fiction is strongly rooted to known physical laws in the natural universe. In an interview with “The Science Fiction Radio Show” in the early 1980s Clement said that he had “…trouble writing something unless, I can, more or less convince myself it might happen.” In the old days before computers, he was known to whip out his slide rule and run through the calculations to make sure his stories passed the law of physics test.
FootNoteB
Clement received a degree in astronomy from Harvard University in 1943, an M.Ed. from Boston University in 1946, and eventually an M.S. in chemistry from Simmons College in 1963. He was a B-24 Liberator, a heavy bomber, pilot during WWII, flying combat missions over Europe, finishing his Air Force career after the war in the Air Force Reserve, retiring as a colonel. He taught astronomy and chemistry at the high school level in Massachusetts.
Clement while working towards his B.S. at Harvard wrote and published his first piece of science fiction, a short story called “Proof“. The story first appeared in a 1942 issue of Astounding Science edited by his mentor John W. Campbell. Campbell was known as the leader of the hard science wing of the science fiction genre which Clement admits affected his writing standards. Clement’s first three novels were Astounding Science serials under Campbell: Needle in 1950, Iceworld in 1953, and Mission of Gravity, his best-known novel, in 1954. Clement followed up Needle and Mission of Gravity with the sequels: Through the Eye of a Needle in 1978 and Star Light in 1971, respectively. He also wrote two additional short story sequels for Mission of Gravity: Lecture Demonstration in 1973 and Under in 2000.
In addition to his writing, Clement also painted astronomically oriented artworks under the name George Richard. In 1998, he was inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame and was named the 17th SFWA Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 1999.
Hal Clement wrote over 120 novels, novellas, short stories, and collections. Below is a listing of just his novels.
Clement Bibliography (Novels Only, Shorter Fiction not Listed):
Needle 1950
Iceworld 1953
Mission of Gravity 1954
The Ranger Boys in Space 1956
Cycle of Fire 1957
Close to Critical 1958
Natives of Space 1965
Star Light 1971
Left of Africa 1976
Through the Eye of a Needle 1978
The Nitrogen Fix 1980
Intuit 1987
Still River 1987
Fossil 1993
Half Life 1999
The Essential Hal Clement, Volume 1: Trio for Slide Rule and Typewriter 2007
The Essential Hal Clement, Volume 3: Variations on a Theme by Sir Isaac Newton 2007
Heavy Planet 2002
Noise 2003
Hal Clement SF Gateway Omnibus 2014
Mission of Gravity:
Mission of Gravity was first published in serialized form in The Astounding Science Fiction Anthology of 1953 with the hardcover coming out in 1954 followed by the paperback in 1958.
The story takes place on the planet Mesklin, an object thought to be in the 61 Cygni system, eleven light years from Earth. Mesklin is a super-giant bowl-shaped planet, flattened at the poles, an oblate spheroid, with an extreme rotation that allows for 18-minute days or approximately 9 minutes of daylight. The high spin rate creates gravity that equals about 3g at the equator and 700g at the poles. Clement eventually re-calculated the gravity over the planet and changed the polar regions to 200g. For comparison purposes the Sun has a gravity of 28g or 28 times that of Earth.
Earth has sent a probe to Mesklin to study its extreme gravity and other matters of value, but it became stranded in the high gravity areas of a pole ruling out a rescue by a human team. Earth wants to recover the probe at all costs to learn what secrets it contains.
The planet is populated by an intelligent species of centipedes that come in assorted sizes, but the ones be-friended by the Earth visitors are about three feet long. An Earth spacemen, Charles Lackland travels to the equator of the planet where he can just manage the 3g environment and meets Barlennan a captain of a sailing raft named the Bree. The Bree and its crew are on a trading voyage in the equatorial areas making a profit by bartering goods from isolated populations all over the planet. After Barlennan learns English, a deal is arranged for him and his crew to retrieve the probe at the poles and return it to the equator where the humans can pick it up. So begins the centipedes’ journey to the pole.
Literary Criticism:
As with all science fiction, Mission of Gravity suffers from futuristic technology that outdates itself in a few years. A quaint process in mapping the surface of Mesklin involves taking a series of high altitude photographs, displaying them of photo paper and trying to put them all together like a giant jig-saw puzzle. No GPS coordinates, no digital, just 1950 Earth tech and methodology. Leaving that aside though, the story is well worth reading. The science as presented is sound, mostly, the story telling and plot is a page turner, and the characterization of the alien’s life-forms is plausible and interesting. It will be worth your time and at 223 pages a quick read.
Written by: Rian Johnson (screenplay), George Lucas (characters)
Music by: John Williams
Cast: Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Andy Serkis, Benicio del Toro
Film Locations: Bolivia, Croatia, England, Ireland
Budget: $200,000,000
Worldwide Box Office: $1,322,000,00
Resistance forces are fleeing their home base while the First Order fleet prepares to destroy them. Attempting to buy some time for the evacuation, the Resistance attacks and destroys a First Order dreadnought, aka battleship, allowing the rest of the evacuation forces to escape into hyperspace. The Resistance, after their jump, believing they had bought themselves some time, soon learn that their enemy can track them through hyperspace, leaving them with but a few hours to bring about a miracle or perish.
Meanwhile Rey (Ridley) travels to Luke’s (Hamill) planet for some badly needed lessons in light sabre use, force projection, and dark side avoidance. Luke has other ideas.
Rian Johnson, writer and director of the original, exciting, thought-provoking, and well received Looper movie, takes his turn in the revolving Star Wars franchise door, by writing and directing The Last Jedi. He succeeds in producing warm milk. Not horrible, but he definitely is not going down in the annuals of great Star Wars directors and writers. Then again George Lucas couldn’t direct a golf cart to the first tee either. Johnson brings together some of the elements of a great space opera; breath-taking special and visual effects, great acting, and a wonderful score but the story is just a tedious collection snippets strung together to produce a very long movie. Ok, some of the snippets are quite good such as DJ’s (del Toro) bit pieces of breaking in and out of places that he shouldn’t be able to break in and out of.
This movie is the last that will contain elements of the old guard. Harrison Ford killed himself off in VII, Carrie Fisher passed away, and Hamill, he can act–who knew, will not be returning for IX, so Johnson spends an inordinate amount of time on character development of all the new faces. It’s all so unnecessary, mostly immaterial and boring. The development of the players can be spread out over the life of the franchise, no need to force-feed the audience the entire buffet in one sitting.
In the end this is a fair movie; there just wasn’t enough story to hold you for 2 hours and 32 minutes.
Genre: Action – Adventure – Fantasy – Science Fiction – Space Opera
els: 5.0/10
IMDB: 6.5/10
Amazon: 3.5/5 stars
Rotten Tomatoes Critics: 5.5/10
Rotten Tomatoes Audience: 3.3/5
Metacritic Metascore: 51/100
Metacritic User Score: 6.4/10
Awards: NA
Directed by: Luc Besson
Written by: Luc Besson (screenplay), Pierre Christin, Jean-Claude Mézières (comic book)
Music by: Alexandre Desplat
Cast: Dane DeHaan, Cara Delevingne, Clive Owen, Rihanna, Ethan Hawke, Herbie Hancock, Kris Wu, Rutger Hauer
Film Locations: Studios de Paris, La Cité du Cinéma, Saint-Denis, Seine-Saint-Denis, France
Budget: $209,000,000
Worldwide Box Office: $215,116,000
For centuries the International Space Station has acquired additional modules at a consistent rate and by the 28th century its mass is too much for its low Earth orbit. Consequently the decision is made to move it out of the solar system, into the wild cosmos of open space, acquiring a new name in the process; Alpha. As it travels the galaxy it continues to grow, both in size and population. Millions of life forms from all corners of the galaxy now inhabit the station necessitating a special police force to maintain peace not only on the station but throughout the galaxy. The two protagonists: Major Valerian (DeHaan) and his side kick Sergeant Laureline (Delevingne) are members of this police force.
Flash back 30 years, Commander Arün Filitt (Owen) is in a space battle with another space faring species above the planet Mul. In order to win a decisive victory the Commander must destroy the idyllic planet, killing most of the peaceful sentient beings that occupy the surface and their priceless energy pearl replicator. Flash forward 30 years; one replicator did survive the destruction of the planet, becoming the most sought after object in the Galaxy. Valerian and Laureline are tasked with retrieving the object, initiating a grand adventure through fantastic planets and the mysterious bowels of the quirky Alpha.
The movie is based on the 1967-2010 French comic book series; Valerian and Laureline, created by Pierre Christin (story), Jean-Claude Mézières (art). The best-selling comic focuses on the pair as they traverse space and time for adventure and good.
Luc Besson, director of imaginative and idiosyncratic films, including the 2014 Lucy and the 1997 The Fifth Element, has created another highly original movie replete with a story containing unique concepts, great cinematography, exceptional special effects, and mostly superb acting. And it all fails to gel into a coherent whole. The parts are greater than their sum, great scenes producing an indifferent movie.
The movie fails because of the 2 main characters: Valerian and Laureline. Neither one has a screen presence, just reciting lines without bringing the audience along. Harrison Ford would have had you cheering and believing. DeHaan has you wondering when will he start shaving. Delevingne’s “oh please” attitude throughout the movie reminds one of a pretty high school football cheerleader being pursued by the awkward school geek. These two eventually deliver you to a mental stage of not bothering to care what they do. Unfortunately for the movie you reach that stage with these two very early on. On the flip side, Rihanna and Ethan Hawke are the movies tour de force along with the 3 goofy trumpet nosed, fuzz balls. Without their talents the whole movie would have cratered into a mess of special effects without any pretense of art or style.
I saw this in 2D so the story and acting had to carry the movie where as the 3D version likely overwhelmed the audience with inner-ear confusion and visual exhilaration. Besson personally crowd sourced and financed this big-budget extravaganza. On paper it appears to have grossed a bit more than it cost to make but with all things “Hollywood” it likely lost money. Talk of a sequel is in the air but finding the money may prove insurmountable, especially if they keep DeHaan and Delevingne in the lead roles. This is a mediocre movie at best. You will be able to carry on with your life if you miss this one.
Genre: Adventure – Family – Fantasy – Science Fiction
Theaters: February/March 2018
Streaming: NA
els: 1.5/10
IMDB: 4.1/10
Amazon: NA/5 stars
Rotten Tomatoes Critics: 5.2/10
Rotten Tomatoes Audience: 2.5/5
Metacritic Metascore: 52/100
Metacritic User Score: 2.9/10
Awards: NA
Directed by: Ava DuVernay
Written by: Jennifer Lee, Jeff Stockwell (screenplay), Madeleine L’Engle (book)
Music by: Ramin Djawadi
Cast: Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon, Mindy Kaling, Storm Reid, Levi Miller, Chris Pine
Film Locations: Eureka, Los Angeles, Santi Clarita – California – US; Hunter Valley, Wanaka – Otaga – New Zealand
Budget: $103,000,000
Worldwide Take: $39,000,000 (Opening Weekend)
Dr. Murray (Pine), an astrophysicist, referred to as Mr. Murray for reasons not stated, tells an audience of his peers that he can transverse 93 billion light years in the wink of an eye using a concept called tessering. He is laughed off the stage. Later he disappears without a trace leaving his wife and two children adrift in the world without him. Charles Wallace (Deric McCabe), youngest sibling of the two Dr. Murrays and a child prodigy, discovers the three Ws: Mrs. Which (Oprah), Mrs. Whatsit (Reese Witherspoon) and Mrs. Who (Mindy Kaling); shape shifting, time travelers who are in search of a hero to save the universe. Charles Wallace introduces his socially inept sister, Meg (Storm Reid) to the Ws and they all convince her to be that hero; to search for her father and save the universe before the evil thing, It, destroys all that is light and good.
The movie is based on the Madeleine L’Engle’s 1962 book A Wrinkle in Time, a children’s book that was rejected 26 times before eventually finding a publisher: Farrar, Straus & Giroux. The book has been in continuous print ever since. The book, as with the movie, deals openly with evil while simultaneously equating Jesus with Buddha and other notable humans. Publishers felt these topics too heavy for children and too anti-Christian for adults. Later L’Engle hinted, because the hero was female, that misogyny also contributed to its multiple rejections. Elizabeth Bennett, Jane Eyre, Scott Finch, Dorothy Gale, Anna Karenina, Joe March, Lady Macbeth, and Natasha Rostova could not be reached for comment.
The director, Ava DuVernay, opened the movie with a brief comment on making the film and thanking the viewers for watching, almost begging them to like it. This was a tact that I have never experienced before, at least that I can remember (maybe Walt Disney did the same with his movies). At some level, I suspect, she was warning us that what was to follow was an absolute rotter. She has managed to make a movie where not one single thing clicks. It’s all strung together scenes with no audience connection, no avenues provided to bring the viewers into the movie. She gives us no reason to like this movie, just reasons to hope it ends soon. DuVernay along with the writers Lee and Stockwell seem to have a lot of ideas to make great movies but using them all in one film is probably not wise. The long drudgery of scene on the planet Uriel comes across as an excuse to film in 3D and imitate the 2009 film Avatar. Sorry, but James Cameron did it better. For a children’s movie the writing was childish. The Ws tell Meg that her faults are her strengths. Later Meg tries telling her brother that she is uncoordinated and we are supposed to believe that this is a strength that will conquer the big bad evil thing, It.
This is the first movie that a female director was given a $100 million for a budget. I’m sure it’s not the last big budget for a woman but hopefully its the last for DuVernay. As for Jennifer Lee it appears animation is where her talents are best utilized.
There is very little good to say about the acting. Oprah is thoroughly wooden throughout the movie and never quite figures out where to look when using the green screen. Mindy Kaling reads her lines with no delivery — sad. Meg has no ability beyond deer in the headlights wonder. Witherspoon was charming and excellent but not enough to cancel out the bad acting going on all around her. Zach Galifianakis, playing the Happy Medium, was also fun and he had the only line in the movie that made me laugh. He is lecturing Meg and she tells him he sounds like her mother. Galifianakis responds in all seriousness, “Why is she a baritone?”.
My family watched this movie together at a theater, which we very seldom do anymore; streaming at home is so much easier. With my wife and I were our 26 year-old daughter, 15 year-old son, and 3 year-old granddaughter. Not one of us 5 liked the movie. Not the kid, not the teenager, not the young adult, not us slightly older folks.
The granddaughter didn’t exactly say the movie was bad, she just didn’t watch it. While the movie was playing she found a better use of her time; passing out popcorn to the rest of us one kernel at a time. In the end I’m not sure who Disney made this movie for or why they wasted everyone’s time with it. Save your time and cherish your time, see something else with your precious time. I haven’t seen a movie this bad in long time.
Metacritic User Score – 8.8/10 (1982); 8.2/10 (2017)
Directed by: Ridley Scott (1982); Denis Villeneuve (2017)
Written by: Hampton Fancher and David Peoples (1982); Hampton Fancher and Michael Green (2017); Movies Based on the 1968 Story Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick
Music by: Vangelis (1982); Hans Zimmer and Benjamin Wallfisch (2017)
Cast: Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young (1982); Ryan Gosling, Harrison Ford, Ana de Armas (2017)
Film Locations: Burbank–Los Angeles, US; London–Surrey, England (1982): Budapest–Etyek–Hungary; Iceland; Mexico; Almería–Andalucía–El Ejido–Sevilla, Spain; Nevada, US (2017)
In a not too distant dystopian future, replicants, or bio-engineered humans are created to perform tasks humans can’t or won’t do. Due to their greater than human physical attributes they are relegated to planets beyond Earth, kept as slaves and forever banned from humanity’s home planet. The replicants, in case they escape their captivity, are created with built-in fail-safes; a four-year life span and sterility. Blade Runners (Harrison and Gosling) are bounty hunters hired to retire, kill, fugitive replicants. In the first Blade Runner movie Ford hunts down replicants that want to live beyond their 4 years of existence. In the second Blade Runner, Gosling, a replicant himself and a Blade Runner, a rather bizarre twist causing serious cognitive disconnects, searches for the replicant miracle: the spawn of a replicant, reminiscent of the 1993 Jurassic Park fail-safe: the all-female dinosaurs couldn’t reproduce but they found a way.
Philip K. Dick in his 1968 book, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, explores the meaning of human life. What distinguishes humans from replicants or any sentient life? These two movies follow a similar path as the book, a similar plot but eventually go deeper; delving into man’s ability to create life, to control life, to supplant God. If creation is the mark of God does man reach godhead by creating a likeness of himself? What are man’s responsibilities as a creator; what are his duties to his children?
In a symbolic scene from the first movie, Roy (Hauer), leader of the renegade replicants, is reaching his pre-programmed death as he pursues Deckard (Harrison) for destroying his vision of salvation from the fail-safe. As his death advances he loses control of his hand muscles and to stave off the inevitable he pushes a square nail through his palm and out the other side to stabilize the involuntary contractions. A painful suffering from, or possibly for, his creators’ designs. Roy finally reaches Deckard who is slowly slipping from the roof of an apartment building. As Deckard’s grip gives way, Roy clasps his wrist and pulls him to safety; the hunted saving the hunter. As the two sit on the roof and face each other, Roy’s life slowly leaves him as he recites his eulogy:
“…All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die.”
The creation dies having shown mercy and empathy.
The second movie explores the miracle of birth that couldn’t happen. A birth from the womb of a replicant, a birth of a detached and lonely creature, but a true gift to humanity. A child that transcends our being by giving us our memories. Memories that make us whole and real: human. A child burning bright, leaving a future by leaving a past, but denied progeny. She is Asimov’s 1951 Foundation Mule; a conqueror and a giver, but sterile.
These are movies examining the meaning of God, what it is to be God. An examination of the burdens of God. An investigation into what it means to strive towards godhead. An investigation of paths taken and not taken. An inquiry into our will to die for our creations or to live with them. Will God come when we become gods?
Produced by: Peter Chernin, Dylan Clark, Rick Jaffa, Amanda Silver
Music by: Michael Giacchino
Cast: Andy Serkis, Woody Harrelson, Steve Zahn
War for the Planet of the Apes is the third, and unlikely the last for Cornelius is just a young monkey, installment of the Planet of the Apes reboot series, or if you are keeping track, the eighth movie since the original 1968 Plant of the Apes film. Keeping the story front and center, director-writer Matt Reeves, and co-writer Mark Bomback have created a compelling drama with just enough action-adventure-war added to maintain the tempo and interest in this 2 hour and 10 minute epic about biblical-type survival, family, and revenge.
Caesar played by Andy Serkis delivers a compelling performance of a compassionate angry ape, succumbing to baser instincts of survival, eventually finding peace through the delicate innocence of a mute little girl; enabling him to assume the mantle of Moses, leading his people from bondage. It might be a tad much to have both Caesar and Moses on the same stage, but it does seem to work.
Woody Harrelson, playing the hard, single vision, blinders on, Colonel, finally has found a role, post Cheers, to showcase his talents. Harrelson produces a highly believable persona of a driven man that allows the survival of his species to obscure the other options available to this other-wise intelligent character.
Bad Ape played by Steve Zahn provides the comic relief that so far has not entered into this franchise. A short 2007 song by Bad Religion seems to provide some predictive pathos for Bad Ape and the movie as a whole.
Murder
Bad Religion – written by Brett W. Gurewitz and Greg Graffin – 2007
If you didn’t know your world’s a pile of s— Listen to a riddle that’ll tickle every bit of it
Ha ha ha!
Ape shall not murder, ape wasn’t so sure Bad ape, you made a mistake Annihilation in a cannibal war Well, cultivation might have served you Might have raised you up unscathed If you had called that f—– by its name…
Did you listen to the arbiter’s beck and call? Did you find what you were looking for or not at all?
Not at all!
Ape shall not murder, ape take the cure Bad ape you made a mistake Annihilation in a cannibal war Culture might have cured you And raised you up unscathed
If you had called that f—– by its name…
Say the name! Say the name! Say the name!
The film is not a must see, but it is a worthy addition to the trilogy. The title sells the movie as something that it isn’t: a war movie; it’s a drama about survival-family-revenge with some battle scenes thrown in to quicken the pace.
The movie is based on the Madeleine L’Engle’s 1962 book 
Cast: Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young (1982); Ryan Gosling, Harrison Ford, Ana de Armas (2017)
War for the Planet of the Apes
elsToday 