Views from Medina Road

Despite the fact that I didn't attend any of the many SF conventions held around the country this past weekend, I was busy enough, managing some website updates in between family events and seeing movies.

Some quick takes: I liked Troy better than I thought I would, considering the reviews. Perhaps it's my already-lowered expectations of standard Hollywood flix, or my relative unfamiliarity with the source material (I've never actually read The Iliad) so that I can't quibble closely about the changes made; but overall, despite this quibble and that quibble, I enjoyed it and thought the time seeing it was well spent.

Also saw The Day After Tomorrow, with its great FX drowned in a wholly implausible silly plot, garnished by occasionally witty bits. (OK, if they had to burn books to stay warm, Tax Law books were OK.)

An hour after seeing that movie, I saw the US edition of Kim Stanley Robinson's novel Forty Signs of Rain on the shelves at Barnes & Noble, and realized that KSR's book is basically a realistic, un-sensationalized version of The Day After Tomorrow, the overall plot arch remarkable similarly. Will Bantam take advantage of this fortuitous timing in any way? Not that I can tell so far.

I'm gradually introducing the new advertising onto pages of the website, and making a point to create separate News pages where possible (reversing a trend toward the blog style of the Locus Online homepage since January). Thanks to A.R. Yngve for his PayPal contribution... Several feature articles are in fact forthcoming in the next few weeks. Next up is Cynthia Ward's essay about manga, as soon as I can read and edit and format it.