Satan & Shoplifters in a Sci-Fi Comedy Romp

Also in This Issue: ‘Star City’ Space Race Series and the Epic Fantasy Novel ‘The Raven Scholar’

Before I get into the captivating novel The Raven Scholar and Apple TV’s new spinoff of For All Mankind, I want to draw your attention to a new movie that’s a lot of fun. No, I’m not talking about The Mandalorian and Grogu. And it’s not one of the movies that horror fans have been flocking to see from a couple of YouTubers—Obsession and Backroom. Instead, it’s I Love Boosters. This is a movie of a different color. Lots and lots of bold, bright colors. And it’s not even billed as a sci-fi or fantasy film on Rotten Tomatoes or IMDbPro. But it definitely falls in both camps.

The Velvet Gang in I Love Boosters - Photo courtesy of NEON

Not too far into the zany film about some fashion-obsessed shoplifters, a lifesaver-shaped contraption emerges that transports people halfway around the world in an instant. And it has a few other sci-fi “functions” as well. Then a seductive Satan in the guise of a model shows up, leading to a really funny sex scene.

A New Yorker review describes the Boots Riley film as political sci-fi at one point, and as socialist-surrealist and fantasy in another. So, take your pick. The political part relates to the way the film delves into some unsavory manufacturing practices within the fashion industry. But that doesn’t weigh down the souffle of antics by a gang of outrageously clad women, led by an aspiring designer named Corvette, played by Keke Palmer. The so-called Velvet Gang becomes the nemesis of an evil fashion empire ruled by Demi Moore.

You don’t necessarily need to see this film in a theater, where it’s now playing. It will no doubt transfer just fine to smaller screens when it shows up on a streamer sometime in the future. But it makes for a really fun evening out.

‘The Raven Scholar’ – Murder and a Deadly Battle for the Throne

Antonia Hodgson’s Epic Fantasy Tale Is Up for a Hugo Award

Smoke Background Photo by engin akyurt on Unsplash

Have you ever finished a book only to find that one of the characters has so imprinted in your mind, you aren’t ready to let them go? That’s what happened to me recently after finishing The Raven Scholar, by Antonia Hodgson. The epic fantasy novel has been nominated for a Hugo Award this year, which enticed me to pick it up.

The novel includes some time-tested tropes. You’ve got an emperor and his entourage ruling over a mythical land. A small group of contenders are in a battle to become the next emperor. Embedded in that story is a clever mystery with enough twists to keep you guessing until the end. A scholar named Neema is bent on solving it.

What makes Neema likeable, oddly enough, is that she’s disliked by almost all her peers, in ways that anyone who has felt occasionally friendless might relate to. Her one friend and lover, who she manages to alienate, is a rascally sort named Cain. He’s the one I missed after the novel was over and done with.

Neema’s role as sleuth is complicated when she’s thrown into the contest to become emperor against her will. Because she’s from a monastery devoted to a raven guardian, she’s helped along by some god-like (and rather eccentric) ravens that sometimes live inside her.

An author I admire, Alix E. Harlow, wrote a blurb for the book that’s about as good as it gets: “A labyrinth of a book with a deeply human heart. I’m obsessed.” I wouldn’t go quite so far as to say that. But you can bet that I’ll be picking up the next book in the series, The Fox in Winter. And because Cain is from the fox monastery, it looks like I’ll be reading a whole lot more about my favorite character.

‘Star City’ – A Thrill Ride About the Russian Side of the Space Race

It Takes Some Big Creative Liberties, But Hey, It’s Revisionist History

Agnes O’Casey plays the first woman on the moon in Star City - Photo Courtesy of Apple TV

I have a thing for oddball houses—derelict types, or the ones whose owners never cut the grass. But there’s a structure in my own neighborhood that’s really strange. In amongst the brick and stone homes with beautiful gardens is a severe, towering white apartment building for Russians who work at the United Nations in New York. They don’t mix with the locals and the grounds are carefully guarded.

As I watched the first couple of episodes of the new Apple TV series, Star City, I had to wonder what the Russians neighbors make of it—if they watch American TV at all. As you may know, Star City is a spinoff of For All Mankind. And just as that established series was a revisionist history about the space race between the US and Soviet Union, told from the American perspective, Star City gives us a Russian side of the story.

Mankind lost my interest after a couple of seasons, largely because of some characters’ personal story arcs. But so far, I’m all in on Star City’s heart-in-your-throat thriller sequences that take place in space. Espionage and some pretty ruthless characters crank up the tension as well.

Was the rarified world of Russian cosmonauts in the 1960s as dark and sinister as the series suggests? According to an article in Smithsonian magazine, not really. The article includes perspective from Asif Siddiqi, a historian at Fordham University: “We have this impression that life in the Soviet Union was really bad—and it was, under Stalin, back in the ’30s and ’40s,” Siddiqi says. “There was a lot of paranoia and shadows and people disappearing. But that stuff really stops around the ’50s and ’60s. By the ’60s and ’70s, it’s actually a moment of optimism for a lot of people because the economy was doing better and they’re going to space.” The article points out other differences as well.

Star City makes no bones about being fictional and revisionist, so the bending of reality is alright by me. I suspect my chilly neighbors would think of it as anti-Russian propaganda. What’s your take? If you check it out, I’d love to know your thoughts.

Time Travel and Legendary Love

Alix Harlow’s Ambitious Fantasy Novel, ‘The Everlasting’

A Yew tree is at the center of The Everlasting - Photo Credit: JamesB on Adobe Stock

I mentioned Alix Harlow in the story above about The Raven Scholar. If you haven’t read her book The Everlasting, I highly recommend it. It’s up for a Hugo Award this year, vying in the best novel category with Raven Scholar.

The novel uses time loops. In other words, a character goes back in time to relive particular moments again and again. And in each loop, the story changes, and sometimes the character recounting the anecdote changes.

Here’s a story that I wrote about it back in November.