Subscribe
Social
/dev/random (Tumblr)
@LukeMaciak (Twitter)
+Luke Maciak (Google+)
Tag Archives: review
Iron Man 3
Iron Man 3 is the first of the post-Avenger era Marvel movie. Joss Whedon’s epic super hero romp is a tough act to follow, both in terms of quality and box office success (which are not the same thing mind … Continue reading
Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny
When I reviewed Illium and Olympos by Dan Simmons I was quite impressed by how he managed to seamlessly blend the legendary ancient epic with post-singularity science fiction while staying true to both. I gave Simmons a lot of credit … Continue reading
Diaspora by Greg Egan
I believe I have found a new favorite writer. His name is Greg Egan and he writes science fiction so hard you can’t consume it in hasty bites least you want to break your mind’s teeth on it. You have … Continue reading
Looper
The trailers for Looper looked quite amazing but unfortunately I missed it when it was in theaters. I was pretty excited to finally see it, though the lack of Looper themed memes on the internet concerned me a bit. You … Continue reading
The Postmortal by Drew Magary
If you know me, you probably realize I’m a firm believer in the fact that aging is a disease that can, and should be cured. Our short lifespans and high reproductive rates have been instrumental in getting us where we … Continue reading
Safety not Guaranteed
A small town newspaper publishes a strange add in it’s classifieds section. It is one of those odd-ball ads that usually end up on reddit where they are proved to be internet jokes, or just silly pranks made by the … Continue reading
Capacity by Tony Ballantyne
Here is a very poignant question: what happens when you digitize a human mind and then bootstrap it and run it as a self aware software entity? How that virtual person relate to the original physical person from which it … Continue reading
The King of Pain (Król Bólu) by Jacek Dukaj [part 3]
Welcome to the third and final installment of the exhaustive review of this remarkable (and remarkably long) book. The Social Tragedy of Post-Scarcity Imagine a world in which nano-assembly has been perfected and made super cheep. Imagine a nation in … Continue reading
The King of Pain (Król Bólu) by Jacek Dukaj [part 2]
I’m usually not a huge fan of anthologies. Not that there is anything inherently wrong with collections of short stories – it’s just that when I buy a book, I prefer the more substantial experience of a novel, rather than … Continue reading
Dishonored
Back when I was still actively playing World of Warcrap, one of the games’ many inside jokes were the pandas. According to the lore, somewhere in Azeroth there existed a race of pseudo-Chinese panda bears that were mostly known for … Continue reading
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
So, how did you guys like The Hobbit? I found it a little bit underwhelming. Then again, I’m not sure what could have been done differently to improve it… This story and this movie… They are what they are, and … Continue reading
Dark Knight Rises
I didn’t see Dark Knight Rises in the theater when it first came out. The timing wasn’t right and the logistics just weren’t right. Now I’m actually kinda glad, because the whole thing was rather disappointing. And I’m saying this … Continue reading
X-COM: Enemy Unknown
X-COM is not a video game – it is digital crack cocaine. It will suck you in. It will keep you up until 4am on a weekday. It will make you mutter “just one more turn, just one more spin … Continue reading
FTL
FTL is a new indie game that explores a novel concept: how do you fuck up an idea that simply cannot fail. It is one of the first games that was crowd-funded from the ground up via Kickstarter. The development … Continue reading
Line of Resistance (Linia Oporu) by Jacek Dukaj
If you asked me who were the most interesting SF writers of the last decade or two, I would without give you five names: Vernor Vinge, Charles Stross, Cory Doctorow, Neal Stephenson and Jacek Dukaj. Not necessarily in that order. … Continue reading
Diamond Age by Neil Stephenson
Oh, you liked Anathem by Neil Stephenson? You should totally read Diamond Age, they told me. It’s his best book yet, they told me. You know what? That’s bullshit. Diamond Age is nowhere near as good as Anathem. You see, … Continue reading
Red Faction: Guerilla
Red Faction: Guerrilla is a remarkable game. I don’t think I have ever seen a product with so many good ideas, all of which are implemented poorly. And it is not that the implementation is buggy or half-assed. The game … Continue reading
Dear Eshter
Can video games art? This is a really dumb question. Of course they are. Or rather they can be. Anyone who would say no to this is wrong. Artists can choose to express themselves in just about any medium and … Continue reading
Dead Space 2: The Good Parts
Last week I talked about why Dead Space 2 does not work as a survival horror game. This week I would like to point out the few things that I liked and that I thought worked well. And no, the … Continue reading
Dead Space 2: The Fear Factor
Dear diary, I played Dead Space 2 and didn’t fear even once. Is there something wrong with me? As you might have guessed, I spend a shameful amount of money on the recent Steam sale. It happened pretty much exactly … Continue reading
Celestis by Paul Park
Celestis by Paul Park is yet another book to add to my collection of stories with unconventional and interesting aliens. One thing I dislike in my science fiction are space opera style aliens. I’m willing to tolerate that kind of … Continue reading
City at the end of Time
I often rag on Fantasy for being redundant, but I have realized I might be unfair. Perhaps my definition of Fantasy is to narrow. After all, I like Neil Gaiman’s writing, and what is it if not Fantasy. Gaiman is … Continue reading
Avengers
I have been waiting for this movie since 2009. Actually, scratch that – since 2007 and it was worth it. I don’t have to tell you that Marvel’s grand experiment in bringing the comic book shared continuity concept to the … Continue reading
Chronicle
Over the last few years the phrase “found footage” became synonymous with “not very good at all” – especially in Hollywood. While there are some amateur projects framed around this paradigm that are surprisingly decent, big budget productions using it … Continue reading
Inverted World by Christopher Priest
As much as I love hard SF, I must admit that it often does not age well. If you pick up a 20-30 year old science fiction book, you will often find it full of outdated notions, discredited scientific theories … Continue reading
RSS Feed