Cascoly Books - Cascoly Science Fiction Reviews

Star Wars: The Essential Guide To Vehicles And Vessels Bill Smith, Doug Chiang, Troy Vigil, Del Rey  .

Bill Smith provided the text for this book, Doug Chiang did the original illustrations and Troy Vigil provided the schematics.

One must know about the world one moves in to understand the nature of the conflicts one is presented with. George Lucas did this in wonderful fashion and it is pretty amazing that the Star Wars phenomena still continues. So, if you ever wondered exactly what made some of those ships, speeders, bikes, 'bots, etc., tick then this is the book for you. It's a great book just for the illustrations and to get an idea what kind of detail can and probably should go into world creation.

Everything is here, even things you probably never even knew existed in the Star Wars universe. But then, that's the mark of a great concept, that there is such good stuff thrown away and never used. If you're a Star Wars fan then you'll want to get this book. If you're a fan of technology and just want to see what all those protrusions and knobby things on the AT-AT Walker then you need this book. There's more detail than you could ever want or need and you'll love every word, sentence and paragraph. A must-have for any real fan of either Star Wars of Science Fiction.

Steven Sawicki 

Blade Runner -- The book came first here. Secondly, this is the original story not the one based on the screenplay, so ignore the cover and the back cover and know that this is what Dick wrote back before Hollywood even knew of him. Expect something different--especially if you still have not seen the Director's cut of the film. Expect to have your mouth hang open in wonder at how Hollywood could have treated this story so shabbily. Expect to be pleasantly surprised at how well this still reads. Expect to finish it and go searching for more of Dick's work. Expect to be surprised over and over again.

Dick is perhaps best known for the bizarreness of his writing and of his person beliefs. None of this really comes through here but it does bear mentioning in case that is exactly the kind of thing you are looking for. This is still the story of Deckard and his search for androids but it is also a much deeper tale a darker one (which is very Dick-like) and a broader one in scope. It is more involved in the themes it delves into while being trickier to figure. It is, in a word, pure Dick. Read it for the pure pleasure of letting the words slide around in your head. Read it for the thoughts it will produce. Read it to see how they turn a story into a film. Read it to see who Dick is (although what you see will be but a shadow). Read it for the enjoyment. But read it!

  So, we come to the end, having revisited two masters of the field and having come to the conclusion that good stuff did indeed exist before 1990.  We should not let the best of us slide into the darkest rest without often bringing them to light in remembrance. For writers this is doubly important. For great writers it is a must.

 Steven Sawicki

Related Blade Runner books:

A Stirring of Dust, Susan Sizemore

In the world of the Television Series Forever Knight.

To someone not familiar with the television show, and the history of the characters, this book will not make much sense. This story takes place during the final season of the television show, during the time when Nick is partnered with Tracy Vetter, and Jannette is still missing. This book reads very much like a novelized script. Through thought monologues, it provides additional insights into some of the driving forces behind the characters, something that was missing from the television show. The story hinges around two new features of vampire biology, the ability to return after being reduced to ash, and a possible disease.

In this volume, we learn that under some circumstances (that are not fully revealed), a vampire can return to activity after it has been reduced to ashes, hence the title, "A Stirring of Dust". The vampire who returns to activity from his ashes is Radu, a very conservative being, who's ideology comes from a barbarian upbringing prior to the 1200AD. Not unsurprisingly, Nick had a hand in turning him to ash, 200 years prior to the present.

Radu does not have any understanding of the constraints that co-existing with modern society now impose on vampires and vampire society. He goes about feeding with abandon, resulting in a string of murders, a trail of not quite corpses, and an inflamed the media. Nick and Natalie rush to try to stop him and to keep the mortal world from discovering the vampires in its midst.

Some background:

Nick Knight, became a vampire in 1228. He feels remorse for all of the humans he has killed, and longs to be mortal again. As part of his atonement, he works night shift for the Toronto Ontario Canada police force as a homicide detective. He works with Natalie, the coroner to solve crimes that not fully rooted in the normal world, and to conceal that anything out of the ordinary has happened.

Jason Venner

The Arthur C. Clarke Audio Collection : 2001 : A Space Odyssey, Transit of Earth, Fountains of Paradise, Childhood's End; Arthur C. Clarke; Audio Cassette

Childhood's End; Arthur Charles Clarke

 Okay, this is a book that Ballantine first published in 1953. However, Clarke is a big name in the genre and one needs to understand why. A casual flip to an interior page brings one to a list of his published works which almost needs two full pages of small print to present. The second thing about this book is that it came out at about the time that modern SF was being born. Read this book and you see the seeds of the present. Read this book and you understand what drew so many of us to this type of fiction. Read this book and you start to understand the genesis of this very magazine that you now hold in your hands. Is it dated? Sure, a bit. It's also somewhat dystopian in nature which might turn people off. Bottom line though is that it's a classic that has held up extremely well and is still an amazingingly entertaining, intellectual and emotional read.

 -- Sawicki