Horror Movies

This is the fourth and last to date, the novel by SM Stirling Draka stories (there are also an anthology of stories by various authors, Drake!). Apparently, fifth book, a sequel to this one, entitled "To us a Child" has been planned, but Stirling has indicated it now seems unlikely to ever be published.

Drakon's plot is fairly simple, and arguably is more science fiction than alternate history: hundreds of years into the future, the Draka have conquered all of Earth and, in fact, the solar system, although one of reminant the Alliance for Democracy (see the stone dogs) he missed the flight to Alpha Centauri Draka. As a result of an accident, a single Draka reaches a parallel world – a 20th century Earth is almost exactly like the Earth (sharp eyed readers may notice minor differences importance as the name of the actor who plays Obi-Wan Kenobi in the Star Wars prequels). Can the Draka be stopped before it makes contact with his home timeline enabling this new land conquered?

Obviously, this story is not intended to be plausible, and not even get to the credibility of faux devices are running through Georgia, under the yoke, and the dogs of stone. The book is written in a tone lighter than the previous novels, and the plot is also much more simplistic and action-oriented (I guess Drakon make a damn good movie). Furthermore, since the technology is truly magical, which is mainly used to configure the environment of the story, but here are a back seat to action. Another remarkable thing is that this book is much less brutal and less sadistic than novels earlier in the series (not that they are not gruesome scenes in Drakon).

One criticism I would make is that (as seems to occur quite frequently in Stirling novels) people with environmental sympathies is positioned as a bag of idiots, or even useful to downright bad (other examples of this in the work of Stirling T2 includes his novels, and the island in the Sea of Time). I found this disappointing – even if you are skeptical about many aspects of the green movement, there is no reason to assume that the human race wanting to be exterminated (T2) or enslaved (Drakon) is a common sentiment among environmentalists.

My main criticism of others is the end. There are two real end – the first of which is reminiscent of all the myriad ways of Larry Niven, except that Stirling wholeheartedly commit themselves to ending – I guess I did not want to leave readers with the feeling of having worked through a whole novel just to finish with a final saying that it was useless. If that is not enough, then get a second end as a kind of epilogue – and this seems to be transparently inserted to allow a sequel – that since there is no sequel and can never be one, I found it quite frustrating!

I personally enjoyed this book, and if you've read and enjoyed other works of Draka, so I hope you too. On the other hand, if you do not want to read the last three Draka novels, this book can also be read as an independent science fiction novel.

By S. Tanna. First published at http://www.alternatehistorybooks.com/p1_books_drakon.php. For more alternate history books, please visit http://www.alternatehistorybooks.com/

The Cinefiles – Anthology Horror Films

Creature From The Black Lagoon: A Symphony Of Film Music By Hans J. Salter (Film Score Anthology) $25.98 …

Choice Cuts: Wicked Sounds Of Horror (Film Score Anthology) $0.47 The fundamental concerns of the horror genre haven’t changed much since the ’70s: have an audience identify with the innocent protagonist, introduce a menacing whatever, and then scare the bejesus out of viewers. The oeuvre’s score has always been a key ingredient to its success, and the best music has risen above mere cliché. This loosely Halloween-themed collection (bookended by–what else?–di…

Aliens [Blu-ray] $13.71 Aliens is one of the few cases of a sequel that far surpassed the original. Sigourney Weaver returns as Ripley, who awakens on Earth only to discover that she has been hibernating in space so long that everyone she knows is dead. Then she is talked into traveling (along with a squad of Marines) to a planet under assault by the same aliens that nearly killed her. Once she gets there, she finds a lo…

Alien [Blu-ray] $13.80 A landmark of science fiction and horror, Alien arrived in 1979 between Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back as a stylishly malevolent alternative to George Lucas’s space fantasy. Partially inspired by 1958’s It! The Terror from Beyond Space, this instant classic set a tone of its own, offering richly detailed sets, ominous atmosphere, relentless suspense, and a flawless ensemble cast as the crew…

Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors [VHS] $9.98 …

Trick ‘r Treat $3.42 Trick ‘r Treat, directed by Michael Dougherty of Superman Returns fame, has a comic book feel but does a nice job of conveying the real things that can spook kids, making for a good Halloween thriller. Composed of four intertwined stories that unfold simultaneously, starting on the same block in Ohio, Trick ‘r Treat initially bears some resemblance to John Carpenter’s Halloween, in that it focuses…

Grindhouse 7-Inch Action Figure Set $47.99 Wow! These figures are fully loaded! Great detailing with multiple points of articulation! This is the collection for you! From the Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino double-feature film Grindhouse, comes this wild assortment of highly detailed 7-inch action figures. They feature great detailing and multiple points of articulation, and include specially individualized accessories. If you lov…

Frankenstein (Norton Critical Editions) $10.45 The text of this Norton Critical Edition is that of the 1818 first edition, published in three volumes by Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, and Jones, in which only obvious typographical errors have been corrected. This text represents what Frankenstein’s first readers encountered and is the text favored by scholars. A special critical section, Composition and Revision, includes essays by M. K. …

Different Seasons (Signet) $4.87 Different Seasons (1982) is a collection of four novellas, markedly different in tone and subject, each on the theme of a journey. The first is a rich, satisfying, nonhorrific tale about an innocent man who carefully nurtures hope and devises a wily scheme to escape from prison. The second concerns a boy who discards his innocence by enticing an old man to travel with him into a reawakening …

Complete Vampire Chronicles (Interview with the Vampire, The Vampire Lestat, The Queen of the Damned, The Tale of the body Thief) $16.00 For the first time you can find all your favorite night-stalking, blood-guzzling undead–Lestat, Claudia, Louis, Akasha, Armand, and Memnoch–all in the same place at the same time. Here, collected in one box-set, are the four bestselling, original titles of Anne Rice’s sprawling vampire series….