3 of the best ‘Star Wars’ documentaries were made by a fan (Movie commentary)
I don’t mean to rain on the parade of fans who are excited for the Sept. 16 release of the “Star Wars” saga on Blu-ray, but I’m not getting too worked up about it. As […]
Science Fiction
‘X-Files’ flashback: I want to believe the 2008 film is great, but it’s probably just OK (Movie review)
I think the second “X-Files” movie, 2008’s “I Want to Believe,” is a nice thank-you letter to fans, who are given one last chance to follow Mulder and Scully into the darkness (plus: Hey, there’s Skinner!). It […]
‘Heir to the Empire,’ the book that jump-started the ‘Star Wars’ Expanded Universe, celebrates 20 years (Book commentary)
Sometime in the late 1990s, I was at Paradox Comics in Fargo, N.D., talking with the proprietor about “Star Wars.” I mentioned Timothy Zahn’s novels, and he said, “To me, those have nothing to do […]
Timothy Zahn proves he’s still got it with ‘Star Wars: Choices of One’ (Book review)
Through the years, I’ve been tempted to label authors other than Timothy Zahn as my favorite “Star Wars” scribe — Michael Stackpole for his plotting, Aaron Allston for his humor, Karen Traviss for her characters […]
10 movies John wouldn’t mind seeing this fall (Commentary)
I’ve done the hard work of perusing Entertainment Weekly’s fall movie preview and watching the trailers, and I now present the top 10 movies to see this fall:
Malgus joins the parade of Darths in ‘Star Wars: The Old Republic – Deceived’ (Book review)
For a reader, one of the fun parts of the explosion of “Star Wars” spinoff literature in recent years is finding meanings in the names of all the new Darths. Darth Vader, famously, stood for […]
How did the apes get that way in the first place? ‘Rise of the Planet of the Apes’ has the answers (Movie review)
A cool thing about science fiction novels is that not only do they explore future possibilities, they also inspire other writers’ imaginations; sometimes one writer’s little idea leads to a whole line of fictional exploration […]
Allston’s ‘Conviction’ gives momentum to ‘Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi’s’ final leg (Book review)
In researching for my blog post on the “Luke Skywalker Must Die” controversy awhile back, I was surprised to find out that the “Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi” series has gotten a lot of […]
SyFy’s ‘Alphas’ is just another superhero show
First episode impressions (TV review): “Alphas” doesn’t do anything new out of the gates.
First episode impressions: ‘Falling Skies’ (TV review)
Watching “Falling Skies” (8 p.m. Central Sundays on TNT) is like buying a greatest hits album where you already own all the songs. The opening scenes of the resistance fighters hiding in abandoned tunnels and buildings from […]