Hippoi Athanatoi

Review forthcoming.

Review forthcoming.

After a long delay during which funding for the series was somewhat up in the air following the production of the pilot, the first season of Babylon 5 finally appeared. The question is, how was it? It was good, but not great. It certainly showed some distinct differences from its predecessors in the genre -- especially Star Trek, whose then-latest series, DS9, would turn out to be rather a pale, tradition-bound shadow of what B5 was to become -- but at the same time it moved a bit too deliberately. As noted previously, JMS envisioned the series as following a typical dramatic structure, with…

When word first began to spread that a brand new science fiction series that wasn't Star Trek (of which, I should hasten to add, I was and remain a fan) was in the works, no doubt there was a lot of incredulousness about it's chances. But the creator of this show, J. Michael Straczynski (better known on the Internet as JMS), argued passionately for it. He promised an epic scope such as had never been before in genre television in the U.S., with a five-year arc played out in a novel-like fashion with each season corresponding to a part of classic dramatic structure: exposition, rising action,…

Fantasy Flight Games, publishers of the A Game of Thrones CCG and boardgame, have put together a very impressive collection of art and artists in this first and hopefully not last visual companion to George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire. Much of the art comes from the CCG, but they have also reprinted art from other sources, such as Meisha Merlin's & Subterranean Press's limited editions of the first three books and the cover art for the regular editions, as well as commissioned quite a few original pieces. The list of artists include names such as John Howe, Charles Vess, John…