Feature Discussion: Summer, Dave, Brian and Jen discuss the 1982 Ridley Scott film Blade Runner. Starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Edward James Olmos and Sean Young, this movie set the standard for futuristic noir, and inspired an entire generation of scifi fans.

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, or use the Contact Form… and yes, you can also email in recorded commentary.

Books and Films mentioned:

Promo: British Invaders
Promo: The Adventures of Indiana Jim
Promo: Slice of SciFi

Feature Discussion: Summer, Dave, Brian and Jen discuss the 1953 Ray Bradbury novel Fahrenheit 451, both the original and restored versions of the novel, and the 1966 film, directed by Francois Truffaut.

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, or use the Contact Form… and yes, you can also email in recorded commentary.

Books and Films mentioned:

Promo: Short Cummings Audio
Promo: The WEIRD Show
Promo: Upside Down and Halfway to Happyland
Link: Wikipedia: Fahrenheit 451
Link: 1 Million Words: Fahrenheit 451

Feature Discussion: Summer, Brian, and Jen discuss the 1984 pop culture sensation Ghostbusters, the lamentable GB 2, the ideas for more sequels, and even the different TV animated series.

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, or use the Contact Form… and yes, you can also email in recorded commentary.

Books mentioned:

Promo: The WEIRD Show
Promo: Upside Down and Halfway to Happyland

Feature Discussion: Brian, Dave, Jen and special guest Sam Roberts discuss Glen Cook’s 1984 fantasy debut, The Black Company. This story and series is noted for it’s gritty portrayal of war and its combatants, and its cult classic following amongst members of the military.

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 Black Company
Link: Wikipedia: The Black Company (novel)
Promo: Can’t Stop the Serenity 2009

Feature Discussion: Summer, Dave, Jen and special guest Krazy Joe discuss the 1982 scifi cult classic TRON, brought to us by Disney Studios.

Brief Story Description: Kevin Flynn is a young hotshot programmer who’s been ousted from his job at ENCOM after an older programmer, Ed Dillinger, stole the game code Flynn had been writing, and presented them to the ENCOM brass as his own work.

In his attempts to find proof of Dillinger’s theft, he’s been trying to hack his way back into ENCOM’s mainframes, which threatens to shut down the work of his friends Alan Bradley and Lora Baines.

Not realizing that Dillinger’s security program, MCP, is out of control and power hungry, Flynn uses Lora’s lab to try to access the information he’s been searching for. In retaliation, MCP digitizes Flynn to bring him into the cyber world, in an attempt to control and destroy Flynn.

But there’s another program MCP should be worried about: Alan Bradley’s TRON…

Related news: Yes, TRON 2.0 is a sequel currently in pre-production, slated for production start sometime later this spring. The electronica band Daft Punk has been signed to score the TRON 2.0 soundtrack

Go watch the lightcycle scene again just for that nostalgic kick.

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: Wikipedia: TRON
Link: Tron-Sector: dedicated to the original movie, and TRON 2.0
Promo: The British Invaders

Stainless Steel Rat. Brian and Dave delve into puns. ’nuff said.

Feature Discussion: Summer, Dave, Brian and Jen discuss the original 1961 story The Stainless Steel Rat, first in a long series by Harry Harrison.

Brief Story Description: The Stainless Steel Rat, a mastser thief and con artist, believes he has pulled off a successful bank job, but discovers that his heist is really an elaborate countersting to capture him. Once caught, he discovers that the government wants him to join them in helping them catch others like himself who live outside the law.

In the Special Corps, the elite law-enforcement and spy agency led by the former greatest crook in the Galaxy, Harold P. Inskipp (a.k.a. Inskipp the Uncatchable), he joins the ranks of an organization that is entirely constituted of ex-criminals like himself. In the novel, he has several adventures during which he believes he has escaped from the Corps, and meets his love interest, Angelina, who is even more sociopathic than he is – she too is a criminal genius but lacks Jim’s moral strictures against killing. (thanks to Wikipedia)

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 Stainless Steel Rat
Link: The Stainless Steel Rat Series
Promo: Future Traditions: A Jericho podcast

Yes, it’s a longer than typical delay, but we think you’ll still enjoy the fun. Dave apologizes wholeheartedly apologizes to Steven Brust. Why can’t we just acknowledge that there really was no fantasy idea theft, and that maybe there were similar inspirations for the object back in the day?

Feature Discussion: Summer, Dave, Brian and Jen discuss 1987 cult favorite The Hidden, directed by Jack Sholder and written by Jim Kouf. There’s a Hidden II… supposedly. But there’s love, there’s hate, there’s humor for the first one, and we share it all with you.

Brief Story Description: A murderous rampage by a previously normal individual ends in a shootout after a bank robbery, one where the suspect doesn’t seem to be normally affected from multiple gunshot wounds. The police officer in charge of the investigation, Sgt. Tom Beck (Nouri), is convinced the case is closed when the suspect dies in the hospital, but he’s unaware that another man is about to continue the rampage where the previous man left off. This new “citizen” commits a new series of crimes around Los Angeles, leaving the police department perplexed, until FBI agent Lloyd Gallagher (MacLachlan) arrives with seemingly more information about what’s going on than he’s letting on…

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 Hidden
Promo: Between the Lines Studios: Call for Firefly Writers

Feature Discussion: Summer, Dave, Brian and Jen discuss the 1983 fantasy Jhereg. A fun, fast-paced story set in a uniquely crafted world, it’s a good opening story in the Taltos saga, even though there is mucd laid down that doesn’t get explained until later books in the series.

Yes, we argue about the casting of the non-existent movie. After more thought, Summer thinks Vlad should be played by Guy Pearce. Jen wants to see Vin Diesel in anything. The casting discussion gets silly, as it should be.

Brief Story Description: Vlad Taltos, an assassin and mid-level mobster in the Dragaeran city of Adrilankha, is offered a large contract to fulfill for his house, House Jhereg, but as more details about the target and the reasons for taking him out quickly become apparent, he wonders if he might not have gotten in over his head. Can he take out a master swordsman, recover a stolen treasury, and prevent a major war, all while not getting himself killed in the process?

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: Steven Brust
Link: Wikipedia: Jhereg (Novel)
Promo: Star Wars: Codename Starkeeper

Audible.com has brought all of Fritz Leiber’s classic Fafhrd & The Gray Mouser stories, all seven books of this all-time great series, into audio for the first time.

As a cherry on top of the treat, each audio title comes with an exclusive introduction by none other than Neil Gaiman, and narrated by noted Star Wars audiobook narrator Jonathan Davis.

For those of who remember, we talked about the first story (chronologically) in the series, Ill Met in Lankhmar just about 2 years ago.

Here is a short piece by Neil Gaiman, in which he talks generally about his love of Fritz Leiber’s works and how they influenced his own works. Find out more by visiting Audible’s Neil Gaiman Presents Lankhmar

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.