Feature Discussion: RoboDave, Brian-209, Summer and Jen discuss the 1987 hit movie RoboCop. A groundbreaking movie when it first came in, in terms of production as well as treading into new territories of movie ratings controversy, much can be said about RoboCop, and we try to hit all the fun points.

Brief Story Description: The city of Detroit is besieged by crime, and an overworked police force is struggling to keep from being outgunned. Because of the city’s financial problems, Omni Consumer Products (OCP) won the outsourcing contract to retool the city’s law enforcement ranks, in order to protect future plans to raze Detroit and build a better future city, Delta City, on top of it.

After a disastrous demonstration of the ED-209 enforcement robot, the corporate plans to implement RoboCop program is fast-tracked, but the project can’t proceed until a Detroit office has been gunned down.

Part man, part machine, all cop. And something more.

Listener Feedback: You can leave comments here for the show, or at the Kick-Ass Mystic Ninjas Forum. You can also email all of us at ninjas-at-kickassmysticninjas-dot-com, and yes, you can also email in recorded commentary.

Movies mentioned:

Link: Criterion Collection: RoboCop
Link: Wikipedia: RoboCop
Link: RoboCop Archive
Promo: Adventures in SciFi Publishing

Yes, we put the promo at the beginning, because once we got rolling on the discussion, we never took a break. ‘Tis why we’re geeks.

Feature Discussion: Summer, David and Jen tackle Joe R. Haldeman’s The Forever War, which was first serialized in Analog magazine in 1972, then published in novel form in 1974. It was the Nebula Award winner in 1975 and the Hugo Award winner in 1976.

Brief Story Description: This is the story of William Mandella, a student who is conscripted into an elite force being trained to fight in Earth’s first extraterrestrial war. The problem is that while they age normally while traversing deep space, time is speeding by faster on Earth. How can you go home again when you’ve aged only a few months or years while the only home you’ve known has aged 50-500-1000 years or more?

Listener Feedback: You can leave comments here for the show, or at the Kick-Ass Mystic Ninjas Forum. You can also email all of us at ninjas-at-kickassmysticninjas-dot-com, and yes, you can also email in recorded commentary.

Books mentioned:

Link: Wikipedia: The Forever War
Link: We Read Science Fiction: The Forever War by Joe Haldeman - Cams #4
Link: Joe Haldeman’s Tangled Website
Promo: Parsec Awards 2008

Not surprisingly, the Ninjas voicemail number is gone. But we can probably handle smallish recordings emailed to us… check first before sending longer comments.

Feature Discussion: Summer, David, Brian and Jen tackle Invasion of the Body Snatchers, both the 1956 version startting Kevin McCarthy, and the 1978 remake starring Donald Sutherland and Jeff Goldblum. The 1956 version was based on a story called “The Body Snatchers” by Jack Finney, that was first serialized in Collier’s Magazine in 1954, and published as a novel in 1955.

Brief Story Description: A handful of people uncover an alien plot to take over the human race, and go to great lengths to remain themselves and warn the rest of the world.

Silly aliens… Earth is for Humans! You might catch something here unless you’ve had all of your shots.

Listener Feedback: Give us some! You can leave comments here for the show, or at the Kick-Ass Mystic Ninjas Forum. You can also email all of us at ninjas-at-kickassmysticninjas-dot-com, and yes, you can also email in recorded commentary.

Movies mentioned:

Link: Wikipedia: Invasion of the Body Snatchers
Link: Wikipedia: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978 Film)
Link: Wikipedia: “The Body Snatchers” by Jack Finney
Promo: The GeekSpin

Yes, it’s been a while. We’re still around, though!

Feature Discussion: Welcome newcomer ninja stunt double Jen Crawford. Jen is a big fan of 90s TV, so we’ll have to explore that in future KAMN episodes.

David, Brian and Jen chat about “The Broken Lands”, Book One of the “Empire of the East” trilogy by Fred Saberhagen, first published in 1968, and most recently printed in an omnibus collection of the entire trilogy by Tor in 2004. Book Two is “The Black Mountains” (1971) and Book Three is “Changeling Earth” (1973). “Changeling Earth” was later renamed “Ardneh’s World”, and a followup story, “Ardneh’s Sword” was published in 2006.

Fred Saberhagen passed away in June 2007.

Brief Story Description: In the distant future, society has crumbled. Dark forces now rule the land, keeping all humans under their oppressive thumbs.In the darkness of the shadows and whispered on the winds, there is talk of a rebellion. In the swamps, a small band has formed. Determined to regain their freedom, the rebellion, heavily outnumbered, plans to overthrow an army of thousands . . . with the help of one incredible weapon.

It is only a legend, a story left over from the Old World before magic and the wizards came to the land. A weapon of technology. It is the mystical Elephant, and whoever masters it holds the key to freedom, or defeat. One young man, determined to avenge the death of his family, sets out to join the rebellion and find Elephant. What he discovers will change everything.

It’s always about the elephant.

Listener Feedback: Give us some! You can leave comments here for the show, or at the Kick-Ass Mystic Ninjas Forum. If you want to leave a voicemail comment on anything we’ve discussed, you can call us at 206-666-5266.

Books mentioned:

Promo: INFECTED by Scott Sigler
Link: Empire of the East (Saberhagen’s website)
Link: Wikipedia: Fred Saberhagen

Feature Discussion: David, Brian and Summer chat about the 1987 cult feature Near Dark, written by Eric Red and Kathryn Bigelow, directed by Kathryn Bigelow, starring Adrian Pasdar, Lance Henriksen, Bill Paxton, Jenette Goldstein and Tim Thomerson, and featuring a soundtrack by Tangerine Dream.

The Ninjas talk about this not-too-widely known vampire film with both a wild west and a romantic twist in it. The second twist comes from the fact that the word “vampire” is never once uttered during the entire movie… not by the immortals, and the victims don’t really stick around long enough to be able to say it either.

Did you know that Kathryn Bigelow is planning a remake/reimagining of Near Dark? We didn’t, but an IMDb listing is rarely wrong… it’s still In Development, so no public details are available yet.

For those of you with premium movie channels, Near Dark will be airing on TMC on December 24, 2007. Check your local listings, and have some fun. But for some real fun, definitely check out the 2-disc DVD set… the bonus features are almost as long as the feature itself.

Listener Feedback: Give us some! You can leave comments here for the show, or at the Kick-Ass Mystic Ninjas Forum. If you want to leave a voicemail comment on anything we’ve discussed, you can call us at 206-666-5266.

Movies and music mentioned:

Promo: PodCulture: Equal Opportunity Geekness
Link: IMDb: Near Dark (1987)
Link: Wikipedia: Near Dark

Feature Discussion: David, Brian and Summer discuss the Hugo and Nebula Award winning 1970 novel “Ringworld”, by Larry Niven.

The Ninjas talk about this classic SF novel, and also discuss how this type of story has held up over time. David’s a big fan of the Ringworld series, and even he admits there are some issues with some of the more recent sequels.

The talk ranges from the spinoff Man-Kzin Wars novels, and the newest novel set in Known Space, “Fleet of Worlds”, co-authored with Edward M. Lerner (check out the Dragon Page Cover to Cover interview with Edward about “Fleet of Worlds”)

Who knew that there were at least 10 volumes in the Man-Kzin Wars collection?

Listener Feedback: Give us some! You can leave comments here for the show, or at the Kick-Ass Mystic Ninjas Forum. If you want to leave a voicemail comment on anything we’ve discussed, you can call us at 206-666-5266.

Books mentioned:

Promo: Podiobooks: 7th Son, Heaven, Playing For Keeps
Link: Known Space: The Future Worlds of Larry Niven
Link: Wikipedia: Ringworld
Link: Tor-Forge Author Pages: Larry Niven

Feature Discussion: Summer, David and Brian talk about the Emmy-winning series “Quantum Leap”, which ran on NBC from 1989-1993, starring Scott Bakula and Dean Stockwell.

The Ninjas talk about the series, how the show’s setup and premise began with a fun and playful flavor, and progressed to a minor shift in season 4 and completely jumps the shark and loses its way in season 5.

There’s a breakdown and a serious nitpicking, especially on the episodes that went astray. Join in and have fun with us! This is a long show folks… enjoy!

The next KAMN show will be a discussion about the Larry Niven classic Ringworld.

Listener Feedback: Give us some! You can leave comments here for the show, or at the Kick-Ass Mystic Ninjas Forum. If you want to leave a voicemail comment on anything we’ve discussed, you can call us at 206-666-5266.

DVDs mentioned:

Promo: Adventures in SciFi Publishing
Promo: “Scott Bakula” by Sunspot
Link: Wikipedia: Quantum Leap
Link: Al’s Place: A Quantum Leap Fan Site
Link: Project Quantum Leap

Summer, David and Brian dive into the voicemails we received for Shows 29-31, covering mostly “Galactic Patrol” and Poltergeist.

Have we thanked Brad from PodCulture recently, for the bang-up job he’s been doing editing these shows up for us? If not, consider this here a shout-out.

Voicemails: Curt in Utah on the Lensman series; Bill in the Bronx on the upcoming Jumper movie; Moose really really wants regular and separate Ninja voicemail shows; Moose wonders why people do stupid things in movies; Gabriel in LA with Poltergeist comments; Bill in the Bronx really loves “Quantum Leap”, and can’t wait to hear what we have to say; Scott in Middletown; another Colossus comment; and Snow Cat weighs in on “Galactic Patrol”.

If you have a promo you’d like us to play, send it or send a link to it to us!

Listener Feedback: Give us some! You can leave comments here for the show, or at the Kick-Ass Mystic Ninjas Forum. If you want to leave a voicemail comment on anything we’ve discussed, you can call us at 206-666-5266.

Feature Discussion: Summer, David and Brian talk about Emma Bull’s critically acclaimed 1987 debut novel, War for the Oaks.

The Ninjas talk about the story premise, the interweaving of music into the story, and the melding of the mundane realm with the magical realm because the immortal Seelie and Unseelie can only permanently harm/kill each other when a human with special abilities is invited to play witness on the battlefield.

We get a glimpse of how there might be magic in all realms that may happen to collide in this world of ours. All in all, it’s a fast, fun read. Go check it out.

The next KAMN show will be an in-depth discussion about the TV series “Quantum Leap”, starring Scott Bakula and Dean Stockwell. We’ll post a list of episodes to watch to prepare for this discussion.

Listener Feedback: Give us some! You can leave comments here for the show, or at the Kick-Ass Mystic Ninjas Forum. If you want to leave a voicemail comment on anything we’ve discussed, you can call us at 206-666-5266.

Books mentioned:

Promo: Dragon*Con: Joe Murphy Blood Drive
Link: QWERTY Ranch: Will Shetterly & Emma Bull

Feature Discussion: Summer, David and Brian join forces to discuss Poltergeist, a 1982 offering from Steven Spielberg and Tobe Hooper. Despite the fact this movie is now 25 years old, there is some disagreement on whether this movie can rightfully be called “classic”.

The Ninjas talk about a few elements of daily suburban life that are obviously dated (TV channels going off air), the sharp contrast in tone between the first part and the second part of the movie, and whether or not the movie and it’s special effects can stand the test of time. There’s some disagreement, but it’s all in good fun.

The next KAMN show will cover “War for the Oaks” by Emma Bull. She lives in Arizona now, so you never know who may make a guest appearance on the show.

Listener Feedback: Give us some! You can leave comments here for the show, or at the Kick-Ass Mystic Ninjas Forum. If you want to leave a voicemail comment on anything we’ve discussed, you can call us at 206-666-5266.

Movies mentioned:

Promo: Heaven, Season 3: Earth

Summer, David and Brian dive into the voicemails we received for Show #29, Colossus: The Forbin Project, and much fun discussion ensued.

Many thanks to Brad from PodCulture for editing this up in a pinch, and doing a very good job with not so great source material.

Voicemails: Nick in Anchorage on the “I (heart) Colossus” t-shirt seen in the background of the final scene, and wants to know if the Ninjas will tackle Dr Who in future episodes; Moose is intrigued enough by our commentary to go check out the movie again, which leads to a Ninjas discussion about how older shows we loved as kids may or may not hold up to newer viewings; Scott in Middletown is leaving voicemails at high speed on Virginia mountain roads late at night, and thinks we need to give Colossus’ creators some slack in not being able to anticipate the machine’s growth beyond their control; RapidEye wonders why we didn’t bring up the fact that Colossus’ creators didn’t implement something akin to Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics to apply to their supercomputer to keep it reined in; Tom from Wake Forest also received a bad copy of the movie from Netflix, which leads to a discussion on older DVD players and compression methods on newer DVDs; Kurt in St George thinks that Colossus has more personality without a voice than with a voice, and grows from a petulant child into a megalomaniacal monster, and really doesn’t understand the sex appeal of an overly restrained Dr Forbin.

If you have a promo you’d like us to play, send it or send a link to it to us!

Listener Feedback: Give us some! You can leave comments here for the show, or at the Kick-Ass Mystic Ninjas Forum. If you want to leave a voicemail comment on anything we’ve discussed, you can call us at 206-666-5266.

Summer, David and special guest Tim Callender (host of The Babylon Podcast) gather ’round to discuss “Galactic Patrol”, the original first novel of E. E. “Doc” Smith’s “Lensman” space opera series.

The audio quality is still popping in places, but it’s the best Mike can do.

Summer, David and Brian join forces to discuss the 1970 feature film, Colossus: The Forbin Project.

Voicemail: caller is excited about the possibility of the Ninjas talking about “War of the Worlds”, and wants to know who does our theme song. The song is “Ninja” by 7 Seconds of Love, and while I have neglected to credit them in the show, they are completely credited on the Special Features page, where we link to the MP3 and the cute music video they created for the song.

C2 calls in with sentiments about Joe’s passing; Woody comments on the “Highlander” discussion and the retconning that happened in the sequels (that never really happened), and Summer comments on the breaking that happened in the Matrix sequels (that should never have happened); Trevor from MMM Commentaries calls in also letting us know about the HG Wells collaboration with Starship Sofa on the books and movies; Lucid Dream from Anime Roundtable offers his condolences on Joe’s passing. David reads an email from John about “Fire Upon the Deep”, and how our commentary inspired him to go out and buy the book, and the theory that the Slow Zone also affected the mental abilities and acuities of the people living there.

Feature Discussion: Summer, Dave and Brian give an overview of the film, and discuss some of the relatively groundbreaking computer usage (for 1970), and talk a bit about the understated acting performances and how they help create create the slow build up of human desperation in the face of an powerful and inscrutable adversary.

The Ninjas also talk about the original book, it’s two sequels, and the plans for an upcoming remake of the movie; one potentially directed by Ron Howard and one that would incorporate story elements from all three novels, to give the story a longer storyline with more depth, and possibly an ending that doesn’t seem quite as desolate as the original film.

Consumer warning: this film is NOT in widescreen format on the DVD. The only known widescreen home video version appears to be the laserdisc. Summer suggests merely renting the DVD, in the hopes that a widescreen version may be released as the remake gets closer to completion.

Promotional Notes: David’s pop culture show, Moldawer in the Morning, is a new member of the FarPoint Media Network!

The next KAMN show will cover “Galactic Patrol” by E. E. “Doc” Smith, and Tim Callender from The Babylon Podcast will join us for that commentary.

If you have a promo you’d like us to play, send it or send a link to it to us!

Listener Feedback: Give us some! You can leave comments here for the show, or at the Kick-Ass Mystic Ninjas Forum. If you want to leave a voicemail comment on anything we’ve discussed, you can call us at 206-666-5266.

Movies and Books mentioned:

Promo: Podcasting: Now and Beyond: The Dragon*Con Podcasting Track
Promo: George Hrab: Geologic Podcast
Wikipedia: Dennis Feltham Jones
Wikipedia: Colossus: The Forbin Project

Raise a root beer in memory of Randy Innuendo.

Song: “Mason Rocket” by Beatnik Turtle

Summer, David and Tim gather together to discuss Vernor Vinge’s Hugo Award-winning “A Fire Upon the Deep”, but first give an update on Joe Murphy.

Voicemail: CQ from OK on the pop culture impact of “Highlander” in regards to sword-fighting and collecting, and throws out “War of the Worlds” as a future topic; Bill in The Bronx with a Clancy Brown update; Yvonne shares the depths of her love for “Buckaroo Banzai”, and sends hugs to Joe. Dave and Summer then run off onto a “Dresden Files” tangent that leads into an “I-Man” tangent…

Summer, Dave and Tim give an overview of the story, and discuss some of the more interesting aspects of the book: varying zones of thought dividing up the galaxy, a sentient evil entity and its sentient countermeasure, and a quasi-lupine civilization whose packs are formed from hive minds.

Much about the story to talk about, and figuring out how to pronounce most of the character names is near the top of the list.

Listener Feedback: Give us some! You can leave comments here for the show, or at the Kick-Ass Mystic Ninjas Forum. If you want to leave a voicemail comment on anything we’ve discussed, you can call us at 206-666-5266.

Books mentioned:

Promo: ADPOV: Support TD-0013 in the Arizona MS Walk, April 14, 2007
Promo: The Dragon Page Cover to Cover
Wikipedia: A Fire Upon the Deep
Link: Strange Horizons: An Interstellar Geography of Mind: A Fire Upon the Deep and A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge

Dave is joined this time by stunt ninja Brian Brown, who’s quickly becoming a regular all over FarPoint Media. For this, you can lay thanks or blame at Summer’s feet… this week, Brian is thankful because Highlander is one of his all-time favorite movies.

Dave and Brian go over the highlights of the movie, and some lively discussion about what does and doesn’t work for the story and the myth. It’s much easier to ignore the continent-hopping accents and origins than it is to ignore some of the plot problems. The humor and the wonderful acting by Clancy Brown truly shoot this movie to higher levels of appreciation, as well as some of the more unique camera work.

The boys also talk about the mystical quality of the swords in both the movie and the TV series… where did they hide those blades all the time? Theory 1: the coats and jackets had tesseract pockets. Theory 2: it was in the script.

As for those other movies, Dave lets us know his feelings on those abominations to the original myth, and some other storyline rewriting that happened in the series. Really, as far as the movies go, there really is only one.

Voicemail: A comment on John Keats being the inspiration for “Hyperion”; John in Seattle suggests “Big Trouble in Little China” as a pulp companion to “Buckaroo Banzai”; Curt in St George equates “A Question of Conscience” to “Far-Seer” in terms of book covers that inspire odd casual reactions, and wants to know if any of the Ninjas have read “A Bridge of Birds”.

Don’t forget to donate and help Joe out (second Paypal button on the right sidebar), and you can call the special voicemail line, 206-202-5179, and leave a message for him.

Listener Feedback: Give us some! You can leave comments here for the show, or at the Kick-Ass Mystic Ninjas Forum. If you want to leave a voicemail comment on anything we’ve discussed, you can call us at 206-666-5266.

Movies and Shows mentioned:

Promo: Firefly Talk
Promo: ADPOV: Support TD-0013 in the Arizona MS Walk, April 14, 2007
Wikipedia: Highlander
Link: Official Highlander Message Boards
Link: Highlander Official Store

Joe Murphy is back, joining Dave and Summer in the discussion of Robert J. Sawyer’s 1992 novel, Far-Seer. This is the first book in the Quintaglio Ascension trilogy, and it features a planet of intelligent and advanced dinosaurs. Book 1 follows the quest of a Copernicus/Galileo of his planet. Book 2 is Fossil Hunter, fashioned after a Darwin-like discoverer, and Book 3 is Foreigner, following a Freud-like main character.

Joe selected this book as a topic quite some time ago, and now we’re finally able to all get together and chat about it. Joe reviewed it for Dragon Page Cover to Cover when the reprint was published in 2004, and loved the story from the jump.

Dave and Summer aren’t feeling as much love for it as Joe does, but they don’t hate the book either. It’s well-written and opens up a richly detailed world for the characters to discover, like most Sawyer stories are, but David isn’t pleased with how fast the main character Afsan makes great leaps of intuition and scientific assumptions, and Summer just couldn’t connect with the characters and learn to care about their adventures and their fates.

We have a fun discussion about a number of points.

Voicemail: Rob from Alberta with well-wishes for Joe, who wants less innuendo and more follow-through on implied action; Curt from St George with well-wishes for Joe, and comments on “The Day the Earth Stood Still”; Cisco comments on “Buckaroo Banzai”, and on Hollywood censors back in the 1950s; Wally from CA lets us know about the Sherlock Holmes references we missed in “Buckaroo Banzai”; Eric in NY wants to know more about the Buckaroo Banzai comic books; Dwight from Ottawa likes us, thanks us for talking about “Day the Earth Stood Still” and completely forgot what book he called in to recommend to us.

Don’t forget to donate to the Kill Kuato Fund, and help Joe out (second Paypal button on the right sidebar), and you can call the special voicemail line, 206-202-5179, and leave a message for him.

Listener Feedback: Give us some! You can leave comments here for the show, or at the Kick-Ass Mystic Ninjas Forum. If you want to leave a voicemail comment on anything we’ve discussed, you can call us at 206-666-5266.

Books mentioned:

Promo: ADPOV: Support TD-0013 in the Arizona MS Walk, April 14, 2007
Link: Robert J. Sawyer: Novels
Link: Far-Seer
Link: Fossil Hunter
Link: Foreigner

Joe Murphy is out, still dealing with Kuato, and Brian Brown sits in to help with the analysis for this show. Don’t forget to donate to the Kill Kuato Fund, and help Joe out (second Paypal button on the right sidebar), and you can call the special voicemail line, 206-202-5179, and leave a message for him.

Two Ninjas plus One discuss the 1984 cult classic film, The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension. I apologize ahead of time for the audio quality.

It’s a little hard to classify this movie because it pulls elements from so many different genres: a smattering of extraterrestrials, a lot of swashbuckling action, a little rock-n-roll, and a little romance. It’s a busy film, both in terms of how much is going on visually in each frame and sonically with background effects and conversations, and it appeals to most geeks on several levels, which is why it’s a cult classic that still entertains today.

Did you know there’s a new comic coming out, from Moonstone Books? You do now. It’s a new story, “Return of the Screw”, written by Earl Mac Rauch and picks up right where the movie left off.

Voicemail: Will the Computer Guy comments on the audio levels from Show #24 (it’s not Mike, it’s Summer); Cisco from OK with some trivia about “The Day the Earth Stood Still”; Bill in the Bronx on Show #24, mentioning another difference between the original short story and the movie, and has an upbeat message for Joe; Curt from St George comments on Show #22, “The Omega Man” and relays some Charlton Heston trivia, and David tells us about traffic being rerouted in Manhattan for filming of Will Smith’s version of “I Am Legend”; CA in Phoenix comments on Show #24, particularly the boring car chase scenes, and the flatness of the extra characters in the boarding house, and Summer still recommends the 90min documentary that comes on the newest DVD release.

Listener Feedback: Give us some! You can leave comments here for the show, or at the Kick-Ass Mystic Ninjas Forum. If you want to leave a voicemail comment on anything we’ve discussed, you can call us at 206-666-5266.

Movies mentioned:

Promo: The Butcher Block
Promo: ADPOV: Support TD-0013 in the Arizona MS Walk, April 14, 2007
Link: Buckaroo Banzai Frequently Asked Questions
Link: The Banzai Institute

The Ninjas discuss the 1951 classic scifi feature, The Day The Earth Stood Still. Once again, the Ninjas disagree.

Both David and Joe were disappointed and displeased with the story, leaving Summer alone to defend it’s merits. She also adds a little bit more historical perspective, in terms of it being the film to create what would later become the “standard” for B-movies of the 50s and 60s, and also of it’s thematic message, especially given that Fox made this film in a political climate that was increasingly suspicious and fearful of everyone, and with a cast member who would later be blacklisted after this film’s release.

Listener Feedback: Give us some! You can leave comments here for the show, or at the Kick-Ass Mystic Ninjas Forum. If you want to leave a voicemail comment on anything we’ve discussed, you can call us at 206-666-5266.

Movies mentioned:

Promo: The Signal: Songs from the Black
Promo: Mighty Seek Podcast
Link: Wikipedia: The Day The Earth Stood Still
Link: IMDb Robert Wise

The Ninjas discuss Frederick Pohl’s award-winning novel Gateway. Published in 1977, it won the Hugo Award in 1977, and the Nebula and John C. Campbell awards in 1978.

Summer fesses up to not finishing the book before the discussion, but interjects some tidbits discovered during some web searches that she did after becoming impatient. Joe really didn’t like the book, and David was disappointed by how slow the book moves.

Everyone really enjoyed the idea of the Gateway premise, and the mystery behind why such an advanced race as the Heechee just vanished is intriguing, but compared to more modern stories where the reader is placed in the middle of the action and may or may not learn all of the backstory as they go along, the fact that it’s a setup story detracts from how well-written it is and how detailed the universe is.

Side comment: The Hugos are strictly SF, while the Nebulas can be either SF or Fantasy. For quite some time, I had the thought that since the Hugos were SF only, the Nebulas leaned more towards the fantastical. The list of winners of both awards kinda knocks my preconception out of the water.

Listener Feedback: There is no listener feedback. Blue Ninja sent in a message about the “V” discussion, incredulous that Joe could think people could behave so stupidly, but we pretty much covered that. Hey Blue, catch up!

If you have a comment on anything we’ve discussed, let us know! You can call us at 206-666-5266, or send an email and let us what you think.

Books mentioned:

Promo: Time Traveler Show
Link: Wikipedia: Gateway