FI Books

Many, many years ago I happened to hear an audio tape of Harlan Ellison reading the first part of his "I, Robot" script for a Science-Fiction convention, so when what may well be the most infamous unproduced script in Hollywood history was finally available in print I picked it up immediately. Ellison takes several of Isaac Asimov's classic Robot short stories (including "Lenny," "Liar!" and "Evidence") and weaves them into the life story of Susan Calvin, told in flashbacks to a reporter at the funeral for Stephen Byerley, First President of the Galactic Federation. For example, Susan nows becomes the little girl in "Robbie." Consequently, Ellison avoids the traditional pitfall of omnibus movies, such as "Tales from the Crypt," "The Twilight Zone" or "Creepshow," where whatever is used to link the segments together is of little or no importance to the overall film.

Ellison's introductory essay is certainly not as vitriolic as his story about what happened to his "Star Trek" script "The City on the Edge of Forever," but it does recount the bizzaro world of movie making to explain why this remained an unproduced screenplay. Both the essay and the script are testaments to Ellison's deep personal affection for Asimov and a special treat is Ellison's revelation as to the casting he had in mind when he wrote the script: Joanne Woodward as Susan Calvin, George C. Scott as Reverend Soldah, Martin Sheen as Robert Bratenahl, and Keenan Wynn and Ernest Borgnine as Donovan and Powell. Sounds good to me.

You may come to this illustrated screenplay as a fan of Ellison or of Asimov or most likely of both. However, regardless of your point of origin I think it is important that you have read the original Asimov Robot stories before you read the script. The stories are Asimov's but the adaptation is Ellison's, and you have to know the original tales to appreciate the inspired organization of this script that weaves them together. The artwork that illustrates the screenplay is by Mark Zug, and consists of both full-page color paintings and black & white character sketches that help to flesh out your mental images of Calvin, Donovan, Powell, and the rest of the gang.

The fact that there is a movie version of "I, Robot," starring Will Smith, now available on DVD, simply helps prove the superiority of Ellison's adaptation. Just read Ellisons' script and compare it to what Hollywood has wrought and you get exactly what Tinsle Town is all about in a nutshell. The fault with the movie is that it celebrated action over intellect, and that the story it tells would be better suited for an Asimov Robot story down the road once you really understand the three laws. You will also note that at the start of "I, Robot" the three laws of robotics appear one by one, imposed over bubbling water. The water, it turns out, is not part of a super computer, but it sure strikes me as an intentional homage to the start of Ellison's screenplay. If it is not, then you know full well there would have been a lawsuit coming (cf. Ellison and "Terminator").

"Eighteen illustrations, eighteen tales." "The illustrations came to life..."

A man is encountered who has skin Illustrations all over his body. Each illustration represents a tale from the future. The illustrations come to life and tell a tale of doom or impending doom. In this way ray Bradbury can tell related but different tales in this book. Its Bradbury's writing style and dialogue that holds you as much as the storyline.

At first they are intriguing and fresh. Later they don't as much repeat but are similar in form and function.

One of the best "The Veldt" is first. Of course everyone will have a different favorite.

I suggest that you make your cats leave the room so the do not hear this.

Illustrated Man ~ Starring: Rod Steiger, Claire Bloom Director: Jack Smight

I recently picked this book up to learn a few new things about the great drawing program Adobe Illustrator. I was totally impressed. The artwork in the book is amazing. And the tips and tutorials on how the artwork was accomplished are very thorough and to the point. The artists are very good and their insight into how they created their art is very inspiring. I highly recommend this book to all digital artists, and even those who are just casual users of a computer.

This is a massive, historical survey of "science fiction" prose before the term science fiction had been invented.

In 1941 Gove published this work through Columbia University Press. At some point in time it was packaged as "Number 152 of the Columbia University Studies in English and Comparative Literature." It was resurrected via reprints in the 1970's, most significantly as part of a substantial series (over 60 fiction and nonfiction books) on early speculative or fantastic fiction put out by Arno Press. This series was rather generically titled "Science Fiction."

Table of Contents of this book:
- Preface
- A History of the Criticism of the Imaginary Voyage (pp 3-178)
- Annotated Check List of Two Hundred and Fifteen Imaginary Voyages from 1700 to 1800 (pp 179-402)
- Bibliography (pp 403-420)
- Index
- Appendix: complete list of titles in Arno Press' Science Fiction series

One of the greatest books describing the PLO I have ever read. Livingstone and Halevy make the book incredibly easy to read and understand. The book is an indepth look at the most formidable terrorist organization in the world. Although the book is out of print and slighlty out of date (1990), it is still on of the best works to date. Definitely worth combing the used book stores for!

I just got this book and am very pleased with it! It is a great compilation of multiple technologies. A must for any admin.

You are selling it but could not give any info about it whatsoever? Is it in English? I have a project and need info about the theme related to the title of the book

I think this was one of the best comic series I read in quite sometime spanning over 40 years. It was great to see how the good guys got their acts together and worked cohesively to beat Krona. The real hero of the story was probably Captain America, with Superman being a close second. I would love to see more joint projects of this sort--maybe it would be great for Marvel and DC to actually switch some of the heroes and villains by placing them in the each other's universe for a year or so, and have them combat each the villains of the new world, e.g., the Mandarin vs. Green Lantern, Metamorphis vs The Absorbing Man, JLA vs. Dr. Doom, and Avengers vs. Brainiac, and so on.

I had difficulty planning my database to achieve the reports I wanted and needed. This book not only breaks the planning process down into easily achievable information, but gives examples and a disk to practice on. I am very happy with the book and my results.I recommend this book to anyone who has a database with enormous amounts of data to plan for. It is easy to transfer the reading into practice right before your eyes. I can tell you my boss was completely impressed with my gained knowledge and ability working with the Access program. This book met and went blazingly past my epectations.I cannot recommend it enough.

This is a great tutorial for the beginner. I felt really comfortable with the pace of the material. The step-by-step instructions were accurate and easy to follow. I read the tutorial and worked through the exercises in a total of 2 days. As a result, I was able to create a brand new PowerPoint presentation for a client's meeting. My colleagues were impressed with my ability to deliver in a matter of days. This book is a life saver!