Stories from the Calindratem

Recently I joined a website about Science Fiction art. While most pictures were extremely artful and inspired several story ideas, there was one picture that actually annoyed me. It was a drawing of Princess Leia from "Star Wars - A New Hope", with her white dress. Unfortunately the artist has decided to give her extremely fake boobs, a ridiculous cleavage and a slit in her dress that reached to her hip. It wasn't neccessarily that fact that she was potraited sexy, but that she was made into a sex doll. Princess Leia is so much more than that and to reduce her to her sexuality is just sexism in its worst from.  Although Leia, played by the brilliant Carrie Fisher, is usually referred by "princess" she is much more: Senator, rebel, leader, general and spy. In fact I would go as far as saying that she is the most qualified of the lead characters.  She is a born Skywalker, which makes it clear that although she wasn't trained in the Force, she is very ...

Don't get me wrong, I love "The Hunger Games" trilogy and believe the stories are great. This is however also the reason why all the errors upset me.  To be a good writer you don't need 'just' a good story but you also need an eye for detail and sometimes is means to painstakingly comb trough your own story to eliminate flaws, no matter if they involve grammar and syntax, characters acting ilogical, plot holes or continuity errors.  "The Hunger Games" trilogy  is full of them and because of these errors instead of being an incredible book it seems like a wasted oportunity.  Of course you can ask how a non published writer dares criticizing a bestselling author. Well, just read my list and you might decide if I am right and by the way: Once my book is out I welcome all the detailed analysis as it will help me improve my writing.  Repetition: In each of the books she keeps repeating "he says", "she says", "Pee...

Usually I am not a friend of remakes, but I wouldn't mind seeing a remake of Ladyhawk. Not because the old movie isn't good but because today's visual effects techniques could make this an unforgettable fantasy event.   But let's start with the classic version. The built of the story as a medieval legend was done so perfectly that many people believed it was truly inspired by an ancient story, which could also be due to the fact that initially it was promoted as if it was. In reality however that story was written by Edward Khmara. The plot is marked by its simplicity without ever being boring: A dashing knight and beautiful noble woman fall in love and then are cursed by an evil man. They pair can be close without ever being together. She is hawk during the day, he is a wolf during the night. But thanks to a solar eclipse and two good friends they get the chance to break the curse. Of course their way is full obstacles and there are challenges to be mastered....

Before "Avatar" and its computer animation, there was Ray Harryhausen's stop motion. In more than one way Ray Harryhausen is the father of modern special effects in movies. Although he didn't invent all relevant techniques, his work first made artists believe that everything can be done and it inspired them to look for new techniques and to find a way to make their vision a reality. Harryhausen was born in California in 1920 as the son of German immigrants. He was first inspired to go into movie making, after seeing King Kong (1933). Harryhausen started experementing himself with model animation afterwards. The animation work in King Kong was the work of  Willis O'Brien who would become Ray's lifelong mentor after a friend introduced them later. On O'Brien's suggestion Harryhausen started taking classes in graphic design and sculputure to improve the quality of his models. It was around that time that Harryhausen met the writer Ray Bradbury an...

This is probably THE original nerd debate. When you strike up a conversation at a science fiction convention sooner or later someone asks: Star Wars or Star Trek? For too many people it can only be one or the other, which for me doesn't make sense, as they cannot really compare. Let's start with Star Trek, which ist older by a decade. It is Science Fiction in its purest element. All technology is explained in detail using scientific theories and terms. Some of it might even become reality in the future and some of it already has. Take for instance "Star Trek IV - The Voyage Home", when there is a scene during which Scotty tries to talk to the computer and the scientists surrounding him barely shake their heads and Scotty complains on the primitive computers. While this was probably accurate for the 80ies, now in 2019 we are all used to talk to Siri on our Iphones or to our cars. Voice activation is no longer part of science fiction but a real part of our ...

Many science fiction fans won't be familiar with the name Philip K. Dick, but the names "Total Recall", "Blade Runner" and "The Man in the High Castle" are quite known. All of these movies  and shows were based on stories originally written by Philip K. Dick. But who was this writer?  He was born in 1928 in Chicago with a twin sister named Jane Charlotte Dick, who died only a few weeks later. This would influence his work later on with the "phantom twin" motif. His mental problems first came to light, when he was 7 years old and he was told that he was a potential schizophrenic. The family moved then to California. After his parents divorce Philipp and his mother moved again before returning again to California in 1938. It was around that time that Philipp began to develop an interest in Science Fiction. After graduation high school he briefly attended the University of California before leaving in 1950 due to ongoing problems with a...