Science Fiction and Fantasy

I had an interesting conversation with a patient recently. I guess the topic turned a bit friendly when he was satisfied with my explanations of the disease process and treatment.

Basically he said that he was giving a piece of unsolicited advice, that I should look towards writing a book because he apparently enjoyed the way I conducted my narrative, that I was able to  hold his attention unlike the stereotypical doctor dealing out scientific jargon not normally understandable to the lay person.

I thanked the dude for his compliments, but it really got me thinking... Could I really transition into writing an actual full-fledged narrative?

I mean, it wasn't for lack of trying. I recall sometime in grade school when I first set out to write my own science fiction novel (since I was still on a high from reading all the Robotech novels from my collection), but this project fell short because (in hindsight) I really didn't have a concrete story to build around. I thought that I had shelved that idea for good, until now.

Structure. That is the one thing great stories have which I didn't prepare for. We learn in school about how stories  are made, about the different parts and how the narrative should flow together, but since that just seemed like a random concept, it never occurred to me that I needed to apply it to my own work.

AS you can see, most of the stuff I write here on this blog are pretty much free-flowing. I just pluck the thoughts from my stream of consciousness and hope that the thought will be cohesive enough for my readers (or even myself in the future) to understand.

To be honest, the idea of making a structured story now kinda intrigues and excites me. The fact that I would need to craft a dramatis personae with their own backstories that would provide a logical flow to their actions has piqued my interest..

 I had been reading my way through the Dune novels since I passed the diplomate exams and is my constant activity during clinic downtimes, but to tell you quite frankly, it has lately become a struggle to keep myself engaged, since the latter original Dune novels dwell a lot more on political intrigue and the inner workings of a prescient mind. 

This entry also has "Fantasy" in the title for good reason. I have recently come across a D&D-based story entitled the Tale of an Industrious Rogue, which basically details an entire Dungeouns and Dragons tabletop campaign conducted by a flexible and creative Dungeon Master (DM) and played by an equally creative bunch of players controlling the colorful and devious characters that serve as their in-game alter-egos. This story has renewed my interest in old-school tabletop RPGs (I used to play the Sci-Fi equivalent of D&D called Star Frontiers which was also made by TSR, the company behind Dungeons and Dragons). I realize that this would present a set of challenges, since the people I would normally play with (the BNO guys) ave much difficulty organizing our nights out, much less a long term campaign requiring multiple sessions. The magic of the internet offers some promise however, especially with the advent of videoconferencing. All we would have to do is work out who controls the dice so that there would be no accusations of cheating. Hehe.

Seriously though, I think I am yearning for a return to the good old days, when adventure games were driven more by imagination and creativity than visuals and gimmicks. We'll just see what comes up. ;)

Avatar

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Movies
Genre:	Science Fiction & Fantasy

At long last, I finally managed to scrape together the time to post this review! Watched this movie with the family during a Sunday when I was "from" duty. At first I was hesitant to watch, seeing as I was really tired and badly needed sleep, but the movie didn't disappoint AT ALL.. :D

See related video: http://brainiaxmd.multiply.com/video/item/43
I wont go into so much detail with the plot, but I hope I will do it some justice here..

The story kicks off with some guy named Jake leaving a dying Earth behind for some distant moon (Pandora) found in the Alpha Centauri system to be involved in a weird-ass "Avatar" program, wherein people hardwired themselves to genetically-engineered creatures made to resemble the indegenous sentient life-forms there on the planet, with the goal of winning the hearts and minds of the Na'vi populace and conducting extensive scientific research at the same time. As we all know, exploration and colonization is not all fun-and-games. Along with the research teams are a group of paramilitary marine-type forces which are tasked to secure the foothold on the strange new world, which would eventually serve as the antagonists in the movie. The world of Pandora is also home to a strange new (and very valuable) mineral called "Unobtanium" which is the main reason the "Corporation" came to Pandora in thew first place.

As the story progresses, Jake masters the use of his Avatar, and while on a routine scouting mission, gets separated from his group and encounters a wild jaguar-like creature called a Thanator. He eventually gets saved by a female Na'vi named Neytiri. She brings him to her tribe (the Omatikaya) and, to cut a long story short, eventually gets accepted as one of them. However, before Jake becomes totally immersed with the Na'vi and turns native, he agrees to spy for the military faction which are eying the "base tree" of the Omaticaya, seeing as it sits right smack on top of a huge deposit of Unobtanium. The humans eventually attack and overrun the great tree, much to the dismay of Jake and his fellow researchers. The tribe runs for the shelter of their Tree of Souls, kind of like a central hub for their culture and religion which allows them to interface with nature. Jake and the other Na'vi sympathizers are imprisoned for their betrayal, but are busted loose by a pilot named Trudy who is disgusted by the strong-arm tactics of the corporation. The renegades set up shop at a remote scientific outpost safely hidden from scanners due to intense magnetic interference in the area. Jake eventually manages to win back the natives' trust by taming Toruk, a badass dinosaur-like flying creature that a total on only 5 Na'vi have ever managed to tame. He eventually assembles the different Na'vi tribes together in a sort of "final stand" against the human marauders who have made it there objective to launch a preemptive strike on the Tree of Souls to force the locals to submit. With a little help from the mother godess Eywa, the Na'vi repel the invaders and eventually kick the humans off-planet.

Apart form the computer-generated visual spectacle that defined Avatar, I was really impressed by the depth of the culture created for the Na'vi people, especially the fact that they even created a whole new language just for the movie. The neural interface between the Na'vi and their animals/environment was pretty cool too. With a compelling storyline and all the right bells and whistles attached to it, Avatar was really well worth the money and time we spent in the cinema. Definitely a must-have for your home-video collection.

Transformers - Revenge of the Fallen

Rating:	★★★★
Category:	Movies
Genre:	Science Fiction & Fantasy

I was able to watch the TF2 movie at the SM Mall of Asia IMAX theatre last night, however, it was kind of a dizzying experience since we sat at the second-to-the-front row. Oh well..

This new TF movie picks up where the first one left off. The Autobots are in cooperation with the world governments in hunting and destroying Decepticon remnants around the globe. I won't delve too much into the plot so as not to spoil it for anyone. ;) So... I'll just give my own assessment on certain basic points.

Visuals - IMAX or not, the CG rendered Transformers are a sight to behold. (Although I find them a little too "dirty" with too much transformation going on as compared to the original robots of cartoon lore)

Plot - pretty sketchy at best, but I liked it as it gives additional depth to the lore of the TF universe. Too much movie time is spent following Sam (Shia LaBeouf) running around, running away from Decepticons, etc.. I liked the critical plot twists though. ;)

Audio - Soundtrack? Well, it has what anyone would have come to expect from a "realistic" scifi movie, with lots of metal in the background. But it also has master soundtrack guy Hans Zimmer aboard, and that makes it cool. Voice acting was so-so at best, except when Peter Cullen's booming voice makes itself heard whenever Prime opens his vocabulators. :P Having the Transformers speak in Cybertronian (as in the first movie) is always a cool touch.

Acting - Nothing really extraordinary. Well, Megan Fox is hot.. :P

All in all, I give it a 4/5 only out of respect for the TF franchise. (should've been a 3) I grew up watching this stuff on TV, and it was great having seen real-life movie adaptations, although I'm thankful that Michael Bay is fed up with the Transformers and dosen't want to do any more TF movies. Will someone bring back the old-school robots please?... Oh, and Devastator sucked ass.. :P

Sci-Fi bookworming..

I've been bitten by the reading bug these past few days, thanks to a healthy exposure to great finds at Booksale and Goodwill. :P It's just insane.. In a span of 4 days, I was able to burn through 3 different books! And here they are in the order they were read..

I'm such a Star Wars geek. :P Dad snapped this one up for me at the Booksale branch there in Shoppesville. Turns out it was a sourcebook of sorts for the now-defunct Star Wars role-playing game. It contained a lot of in-depth (presumably canon) material on the inner workings of the Rebel Alliance, from the chain of command, down to the equipment dossiers. Being true to the RPG form, it also provided pre-rolled stats for certain characters mentioned within that can be used as NPCs. I totally devoured this book, finishing it in around 5 hours. :D

On the same day that dad bought me the Star Wars book, I browsed through the bargain shelves there at Bridges Bookstore in VMall. I was hoping for another Dune book, having initally found House Atreides there. Alas, my search was fruitless, but I picked up this novel about Picard's first command  and his foray beyond the galactic barrier. This book didn't put up much of a fight either, and I finished it in around 5 hours (9pm-1am)!

When we went to SM City North EDSA this past Sunday, we browsed through the Booksale there as well. Lo and behold, I was able to secure a copy of the second book in the Dune series (I was so entranced by Dune: House Atreides that I went out and bought a copy of the original Dune novel at full price). I started work on it right away, and finished reading it around midday yesterday.. :P

I still have a book up my sleeve, having bought Das Boot (The Boat) at the same time as the Star Trek novel. :D Now if only I could make this enthusiasm carry over to my academic readings.. :P 

Sands of Time

In a previous post (click here), I lamented the rapid decline of the science fiction genre from bookshelves. After having read the most recent (and final) addition to my Star Wars: Republic Commando collection, I thought that my sci-fi reading days were over.

As fate would have it, I chanced upon a copy of Dune: House Atreides on sale in Greenhills. I had been eyeing the Dune series for some time but due to prohibitive prices, I was reluctant to risk what little cash I had on a bunch of books I might not like. I fisrt heard about Dune way back in grade school when Westwood games came out with what is probably considered the great-granddad of real-time startegy games - Dune 2: the Building of a Dynasty. It was a solid game with a then-novel concept of real-time combat. It also had what seemed to me was an engaging storyline, pitting 3 houses wth different charcters (noble, insidious, and evil) against each other. However, I was then ignorant of the fact that it was based on a highly popular epic story, touted by some as the sci-fi equivalent of "The Lord of the Rings". As I got older, I noted the appearance of these Dune novels on bookstore shelves and discovered that it had quite a cult following as well.

Now that the opportunity had presented itself, I snapped up the book and immersed myself in the Dune universe, and it didn't disappoint.. I now have no doubt as to why the original Dune merited such high praise. The universe that Frank Herbert created is just so vast, with an intricate web of storylines and subplots that boggles the mind. The story draws upon events than span across milennia, and stretches the imagination to its limits. After putting down the book, I knew I wanted more.. I just hope that despite the dwindling stocks, I may be able to complete yet another collection of excellent science fiction lore.

Where have all the Sci-Fi gone?..

For the past few months, there has been a noticable dearth of science-fiction novels on bookstore shelves around the metro.. In most places like NBS or Powerbooks, the sci-fi section has shrank to a solitary shelf on a book rack, often sharing space with the apparently neverending Dragonlance or Forgotten Realms fantasy series. In fact, the only place I've seen with a sizable Sci-Fi section is Fully Booked there in Promenade (with Greenhills being a traditional geek haven and all).

Sigh... It used to be such great fun browsing through all those great works of futuristic fiction. I was lucky enough to have amassed my own (almost) complete Robotech collection. I have all 12 books spanning 3 generations, the complete 5-book Sentinels campaign, and the final End Of the Circle book. ( I'm still missing the Zentraedi Rebellion, which went out of stock a few weeks befote I went out to buy it.. dang!  I wonder if I can steal Wesley's copy... hehehe)

Recently, I was lucky enough to have snapped up copies of Jedi Healer and Republic Commando: True Colors, both of which are novels based upon Star Wars lore which I have almost given up hope of finding.

With stocks dwndling and hardly any new titles coming on the shelves soon, I'm forced to make the sad presumption that Sci-Fi is almost dead (at least, in this part of the world)... :(

From my observations, these are the probable causes of the decline in sci-fi titles:

1. Star Wars is officially over
 - Star Wars titles used to dominate Sci-Fi shelves (around early 90s), but with no further movies coming out, and almost all aspects of the universe realized in novels (through obscure stand-alone titles like Tales From Jabba's Palace and the like), Star Wars fans may have already lost the drive to delve into the once infinite unverse of that galaxy far far away..

2. Star Trek has lost its appeal
- another staple of the science fiction community, Star Trek novels have been losing their foothold in store shelves all around, though the upcoming Star Trek movie might be able to do something anout that.. I saw the trailer and it was AWESOME!!!

3. Recent advances in technology
- lets face it, with the current pace of technological advancement seen in society today, science-fiction is slowly turning into sciece-fact. A good example would be real-time teleconferencing, once the stuff of mystic sci-fi technobable 20-30 years ago, is now readily available with the advent of faster internet connections, webcams, and third-genereation mobile handsets. People don't have to imagine stuff about what the future could be like anymore, coz tomorrow they'd wake up and see the technology right at their doorstep.

I'd also like to include under this heading the paradigm shift from paper-based reading resources to online ones. I remember browsing thick volumes of encyclopedias just to do my research, but when my brother's time came to look stuff up for school, he could readily do so via the web! Add that to the current trends in computer and console gaming, and you now have a generation that barely bothers to look around and grab a book, much set time aside to curl up on the sofa and read it..(hmm, I guess this applies to books as a whole)

Sigh.. that's progress I guess.. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to get back to chatting with my friends on YM, while browsing the net for info on hovercars and jetpacks... ;)