This week we’re reading and watching science-fiction
We just finished The Wachowskis’ Sense 8. Think of it as Cloud Atlas with fairly graphic sex. You have to hand it to the Wachowskis: they will do what they want to do. Even their “failures” are more interesting than other people’s blockbusters.
Up next: The Man in the High Castle is based on Philip K. Dick’s classic alternate history in which the Axis powers won WWII. It’s produced by Ridley Scott, the most successful adapter for film of PDK’s work. Lots of PDK stories have been filmed – Total Recall (We Can Remember It For You Wholesale), Minority Report, Paycheck, The Adjustment Bureau, A Scanner Darkly (the rotoscoped Linklater—not bad), etc, but Blade Runner (Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?) is still the best of the lot despite changes to the story (and to itself, you know how many versions were released).
Seveneves by Neal Stephenson is available at National Bookstores, Php1049.
We were reading a different book when we happened to read the first page of Neal Stephenson’s latest, and ended up abandoning the earlier book temporarily. A large section of his 90s novel Crytonomicon took place in the Philippines; this one has a Filipino plant geneticist character.
July 7th, 2015 at 23:36
I loved Sense8! I hope Sun and Capheus get more screen time and not only appear when they’re needed. And more Hernando (Lito’s boyfriend)!
July 9th, 2015 at 13:06
howcomebubblegum: We like that Sun shows up when ass-kicking is required. We also like the Van Damn. The Lito scenes are funny. The Icelandic DJ annoys us.