The Letters to the Editor department is intended to be a forum for our readers to express their own opinions and ideas. While we appreciate the many complimentary letters we receive each day, you won't find them on this page. Instead, you will find letters that go beyond or even contradict what we have written, letters that offer a different perspective and provide a different view of science fiction. If you would like to submit a letter, please use our feedback form or send a message to scifiweekly@scifi.com.
-- Craig E. Engler, Editor
Your Ackerman review has holes
read the review of this CD -- which I have also had a chance to check out. I found the review and the CDs had some big holes in them. What about Star Trek, for instance? If this is such a compendium of science fiction lore, why isn't there a single mention of the international phenomenon which has inspired generations of science fiction fans? This isn't a science fiction museum; it's one man's impressive -- yet narrow -- view of science fiction. I think reviews (which I write also) should point out more of the shortcomings of this CD.
No Star Trek.
No Star Wars...
Lewis Ward
mail26583@pop.net
Editor: The CD was not meant to be a general science fiction museum but rather a look at Forry's personal collection. So you hit the nail right on the head when you called it "one man's impressive -- yet narrow -- view of science fiction."
You missed a couple
ny reason you decided to neglect both the CBS version of 20,000 Leagues or NBC's Invasion? Surely these are more relevant to your On Screen reviews than Austin Powers. Invasion was actually quite campy (or otherwise pretty bad) and might have been interesting to read about. Please keep up with science fiction releases -- you can review more than one title you know.
Gene Fender
arcanity@mindspring.com
Editor: We would love to have previewed both titles, but neither network was willing to send us advance tapes. (Unfortunately, because TV movies generally only air one-time in a given season, reviewing them after the fact is not of much use to our readers.)
The Otaku will punish you
n your review of Tenchi the movie you put down Reo-Ohki "unfortunately does not die during the film"!? The character only won an official award (in Japan, most original character). Recant...or the Otaku will punish you (may already have).
Don't take this the wrong way, you guys are great.
But comments like that really hurt your credibility on
anime. Do more research next time.
Beowulf will be butchered
am horrified by the news of the impending plans to turn
Beowulf, one of the finest examples of Old English literature, into a movie. For one thing, it is an insult to be turning the 8th-century manuscript of a Nordic saga into a two hour science fiction/fantasy film. A true saga is supposed to be akin to legend and myth, not compacted and stripped of the very essence that makes it a saga. The scope, and original feel of the lyric poetry in Beowulf certainly cannot be captured by mere Hollywood. It seems that the trend in Hollywood is to
butcher the classics because they can't create any new material for themselves. Every reader and connoisseur of classical literature should shiver in disgust that Hollywood has butchered another piece of fine literature.
Cara A. Torta
jctorta@aol.com
Solaris is one of the greats
ongratulations on reviving and reviewing Solaris, one of the truly great science fiction films. I first saw it in the year of Star Wars and couldn't help comparing the two, one action packed and mythic, the other languid and humanistic. Your reviewer's comparison with 2001 is even more apt, in retrospect. Continue your good work.
Ray Felder
rfelder@flagstaff.az.us
Upgrade Austin Powers!
totally disagree with your "grade" of Austin Powers. I
thought it was a hilarious movie and I laughed from start to finish. I realize it's the kind of movie that you have to have a taste for, but it's really quite clever in its fun-poking at 1960s (and British) culture in general, and spy movies of the '60s specifically.
Everything was a joke about something -- even the costumes (one of Vanessa's costumes came right off Emma Peel of The Avengers). This movie is silly -- but that's exactly what makes it fun.
Carma Spence
cspence@smtplink.coh.org
Please get this great novel
lease get a copy of Matt Ruff's second novel (Sewer, Gas and
Electric,), read it, and let everyone know how great this second novel is! It is great (much like Snow Crash) and book stores in the Dallas area are not even stocking it. It should be on everyone's top 10 list sure!
Jared Kelley
jkelley586@aol.com
Science fiction from a different culture
hanks for the review of Solaris.
It's definitely not an "American" film, and I have to admit that I had
trouble sitting through it the first (and only) time I rented it. Hollywood films, particularly newer ones, have much faster pacing and much more linear plots. Solaris definitely takes more time to get the "feel" of what is happening to the cosmonauts -- it's not for short attention spans. I've only seen one other Soviet science fiction film -- Aelita, Queen of Mars. Aelita is swimming in the socialist ideology that frequently played a major role in Soviet cinema. I was happy to find that Solaris avoids that. But it's definitely science fiction from a different culture.
Your review convinced me to go rent it again and take a closer look. (By the way, it seems to be the only truly foreign SF film that's available at the average video rental store -- which in itself makes it of interest.)
Anne Simmons
asimmons@nas.edu
Lem is not a Russian
et your facts about writers straight. Stanislaw Lem who wrote
Solaris was born and lives in Poland and is absolutely not a
Russian. However the book was written during cold war and the movie (a bad one) based on the novel was made in the Soviet Union.
Marcus Bertman
marcus@projector.se
Editor: We never said that Lem was Russian, merely that the movie Solaris was.
Greatest Aliens fan speaks out
hat is wrong with you people? The Aliens Technical Manual is a modern masterpiece. I am perhaps the greatest Aliens fan, owning many prop replicas and such. This book is a vital source of information...if I happen to forget anything and can't find it in the film, I look no further than this book. You think there should be
more information on the Alien itself? Fine. You go capture one and piece together its biology and write a book on it. The last section of the book has a really nice lot of information on chemical composition and behavior and the like.
Anyways, I wrote to Lee (Brimmicombe-Wood) and he's a real nice guy, so just back off, okay. You don't like it, don't buy it. But a lot of hardcore Aliens fans will buy this book and that's who it's written for...not for some two year old who likes the "monsters." It's an adult's book for those who care. Yes, I want to know the tonnage of the Sulaco.
Oh. I almost forgot...when the M41-A Pulse Rifle becomes standard
military issue because of this book, then who will be laughing, huh?
Tony Baker
106400.3562@compuserve.com
Editor: Since Lee wrote to us and said our review "pretty much hit the mark," I can't think we did that badly ;-) But indeed, you're right, this is the ultimate reference for hardcore Aliens fans.
