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Seeds Of Change (UK / US) is a short story anthology edited by John Joseph Adams. The theme of the anthology is explained by in the introduction:
 

"I asked the contributors to this anthology to write about paradigm shifts--technological, scientific, political, or cultural--and how individuals and societies deal with such changes."

And then Adams goes on to state his wishes for the stories:

"It is my hope that reading these stories inspires some to plant their own seeds of change--that when we see something wrong, we'll do something about it"

A laudable goal, and one which Science Fiction us uniquely place to achieve. It's nice to see an attempt to gather some optimistic stories, or at least stories that inspire towards optimism, when there seems to be so much doom and gloom around.

Each story has an short introduction, many with brief thoughts from the author.

So, onto the stories themselves:

The Chronicles Of Hollow Earth : The Next Race is a new indie SF film, out on DVD and with a slick Flash web site. It's made by Stewart St. John, who apparently wrote episodes of Power Rangers(!). The trailer shows an interesting look, in a world where humans are ruled by a superior race, the Ghen,  which they created. The human's world is bleak and sparse, the Ghen's world is slick and corporate. Plus there's a a few SFX shots of underground cities.

Sly Mongoose (UK / US) is Tobias Buckell's third novel and is set in the same universe as Crystal Rain and Ragamuffin. Pepper is back as one of the main characters, jumping out of an orbiting spaceship, into the atmosphere and into the action. It's a great opening set-piece and sets the tone for the rest of the novel: plenty of action.

The novel also contains an awesome enemy, zombies! Yes, an alien virus that infects humans and is spread by biting, called The Swarm. Pepper meet zombies, meet carnage. The interaction between The Swarm and Pepper is highly entertaining. Unfortunately the other parts of the novel didn't excite me as much.

The novel is focussed on the world Chilo, in which the population lives in floating cities, above the high pressure and hostile air. Some of the cities are second class Aztec descendants, the others are higher tech Aeolian who have mass consensus voting to decide what to do. There's some nice ideas here, but I don't feel that enough is made of them. The voting in particular feels under-developed, I wanted to explore more of that society. I think the problem is that I'm much more inclined to be interested in the high tech stuff, rather than the steampunky surface suits or clockwork flying monsters. If you like steampunk, akin to Crystal Rain, then you'll probably like all this.

The plot continues at quite a pace, there's plenty of action and a couple of twists. It's adventure Science Fiction. And I think that's my problem. I'm beggining to realise that the SF I really love is either the more questioning type, asking deeper searching questions or the emotionally resonant stories. And I've read quite a few of these this year (it's been a good year!). Sly Mongoose is neither of these, and is not supposed to be. So, it's a fine book, and if you liked Tobias's other novels then you will no doubt like this too, but for me it was missing that extra special kick.

It's easy to forget the impact that the X-Files made when it first appeared on TV: it was fresh, slick, intriguing, had an amazing on-screen chemistry between Mulder and Scully, had the promise of a long term arc and it was genre! Unfortunately the long term arc didn't deliver and the series trailed off into mediocrity. Still, the first three series were excellent.

I'm a big Star Wars fan, from A New Hope (the first film I saw at a cinema) all the way up to Revenge Of The Sith. Yes, I like the prequel films too, I enjoy them for what they are, and I try and view them the same way as when I was a kid. So the prospect of a new Star Wars film at the cinema is just awesome. Of course, it was never intended to be a film, just a TV series, but I'm glad they packaged up the first few episodes to see on the big screen, with big sound, to make Star Wars, The Clone Wars

I haven't read everything PKD has written (I'm working on it), but everything I have read I've thoroughly enjoyed. Somehow he has the knack of making his stories feel futuristic even though that future has so obviously been passed by and never happened. It's near future Science Fiction that never dates.

And it's normally always quite weird, in a crazy loopy hallucinogenic kind of way.

Dr. Bloodmoney (UK / US) does not disappoint on all counts. It starts before the apocalypse, and continues after it, with one stray chapter that leapt forward with no warning and completely confused me. But that's why I read PKD. The apocalypse is nuclear, the rebuilding after is successful in the countryside, but life in the city is hard. The man responsible for the apocalypse, or rather assumed to be responsible, is hidden away. Some people are exhibiting mutations...

It's a wonderful journey. At the end I was left guessing as to what really happened in parts, doubt and confusion evident as always. Also interesting to me is how it's the self contained sustainable communities that are happy and succeeding, something that feels pressingly relevant to today.

If you like PKD then read it, if you don't you won't like it, if you have never read PKD it's a good place to start.

The Death Of Grass by John Christopher (UK / US) is often talked about as one of the classic post-apocalyptic books. It's funny then that it's not in print. And consequently the second hand copies are going online for a decent amount of money. Fortunately Niall lent me his copy, thanks!

The apocalypse in the story is triggered by a virus which wipes out all types of grass, which includes rice and wheat and of course, plain old grass. The story follows a band of people as they try to escape London and make it to a safe valley in the North of England.

Initially it felt pretty much like a John Wyndham novel. Slowly though differences began to emerge, the main one being that it was a lot nastier. People kill other people for survival, the government tries to nuke London and there is no collective survival instinct beyond immediate small tribes. Also surprising was that the story was just about the journey to escape, whereas I expected it to be a longer examination of the situation.

I particularly enjoyed the slow build up to the apocalypse, which felt real, no sudden cataclysm. And I enjoyed the idea that potatoes could be our saviour :-)

An interesting book, it's easy to see why it's been remembered as a classic, but it doesn't quite reach that status for me.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars: The Visual Guide (UK / US) is slightly different from the recent DK Star Wars and Indiana Jones books. For a start it is a slightly different shape, wider and less tall, it is also clearly aimed at a younger audience. What isn't different is the feel of quality, the nice hefty hardback feel and the big full page pictures.

Often these guide books, although nice to hold and look at, offer little new information. With The Clone Wars its all new as the film hasn't even been released yet. There are pages on all the main characters, including Clones and Droids, and new planets and battles. I assume that this book covers just the film and not the following TV series, but we'll only know that once the TV series starts. The fonts are big and colourful, lots of diagrams and pictures, and not too many big chunks of text, all of which makes it ideal for kids.

My only complaint is that the full page images don't seem very crisp, presumably because they are blown up from the digital film stock? It's slightly dissapointing.

But that doesn't stop this being a great book for younger readers, who are presumably going to love the new Clone Wars series with it's cartoon colour and action.

Normally prologues tease, throwing action and intrigue but in a short dollop. The first part of The Mirrored Heavens (UK / US) begins at flat out pace, like a prologue, and then keeps going and going, in a highly enjoyable, multi-plotted action sequence. Unfortunately the rest of the book doesn't live up to the openeing.

Wall-E (UK / US)

Pixar does SPACE!

Let's face it, that would have been enough for me: gorgeous spaceships, stunning panoramas of galaxies and lots and lots of robots.

Yet they give us more: an abandoned Earth, a city full of rubbish that is wonderfully apocalyptic and dead.

The textures and animation are quite stunning. The Earth looks real. Really real.

But it's Pixar, so of course they give us even more: a fantastic story and amazing characters. Wall-E is so expressive, and so lovely and funny. And then there are the Science Fiction nods: the 2001 music, the crazy ship's computer, the robot and spaceship design.

Genius.

I loved it.

What might be more interesting however is whether the kids loved it. I saw Wall-E in a cinema full of kids. For the first half an hour; when there's not much talking, just lovely visuals and witty slapstick and (shock!) character development; the kids were noisy, talking about sweets mainly. When the action picked up they quietened down a bit. It mainly seemed to be the adults that were laughing. (I laughed an awful lot.) Behind me some annoying kids kept asking what was happening, perhaps they were stupid? Perhaps parents don't teach their kids how to watch films these days? Then near the end, at a sad bit, a kid behind burst into tears, sobbing that Wall-E was hurt. As adults we know that a Pixar film will have a happy ending, but this child didn't know the rules and was very upset. Meanwhile, the adults just laughed.

So, my unscientific analysis suggests that Wall-E is more fun for adults than kids. But all that will change once they've watched it for the hundredth time on DVD.