Torn Branches: A Science Fiction Review

"I thought what I'd do was, I'd pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes." Episode 4 A police detective working in the Laughing Man task force is murdered after he calls Togusa, requesting to see him concerning suspicious activity by superiors in the police department. Before being murdered, the detective posts Togusa an envelope that contains a series of strange photographs. Togusa soon realises that none of the photos has been taken by a camera. Investigating further, it is revealed that the detectives on the Laughing Man case have all been bugged by their superiors with an "interceptor", a nano-machine that allows constant audio and visual monitoring of the subject via their own senses. In order to provoke a response, Section 9 leaks this information to the media, forcing the police commissioner to provide a public denial of personal wrongdoing, instead blaming an underling. It is at this point that the hacker, the Laughing Man appears. Hijacking an o

Thirty years on and still one of the best sci-fi films of all time.

Philip K. Dick to the FBI, September 2, 1974 "I am enclosing the letterhead of Professor Darko Suvin, to go with information and enclosures which I have sent you previously. This is the first contact I have had with Professor Suvin. Listed with him are three Marxists whom I sent you information about before, based on personal dealings with them: Peter Fitting, Fredric Jameson, and Franz Rottensteiner who is Stanislaw Lem's official Western agent. The text of the letter indicates the extensive influence of this publication, SCIENCE-FICTION STUDIES. What is involved here is not that these persons are Marxists per se or even that Fitting, Rottensteiner and Suvin are foreign-based but that all of them without exception represent dedicated outlets in a chain of command from Stanislaw Lem in Krakow, Poland, himself a total Party functionary (I know this from his published writing and personal letters to me and to other people). For an Iron Curtain Party group - Lem is probably a

Life is never easy in the zone. Interesting, always interesting. But never easy. Taking a few delicate steps forward, Duncan wearily looked upon the barren landscape. Dust bit into his face. Gritting his teeth against the cold, he plodded along until he reached an abandoned shack.  What did this building use to be? He knew. Somewhere deep in his memory, he knew. But the information would not come forward. Too much. Far too much had been forgotten he mumbled to himself. Inside the shack was a small dust-filled room with a set of stairs that led to a collapsed ceiling. Duncan surveyed the room before taking a seat on the stairs. The sound of a small fan started whirring and a warm breeze trickled out of a grill on his neck. Yesterday! He remembered suddenly. Yesterday I wasn’t here.  And today I’m not here again. Puzzled by this sudden thought, he wished, not for the last time, he wasn’t there again. 

Posthuman studios is in line for a gong, with Eclipse Phase: firewall being nominated for the judge's spotlight at the 2016 Ennie's. Congratulations to everyone nominated.

Film name: Jackrabbit  Director: Carleton Ranney Actors: Ryan Dailey (Max) & Josh Caras (Simon) Jackrabbit film poster Jackrabbit brings together an amazing low-tech 80's aesthetic with a pulsing hypnotic soundtrack and adds in fresh new actors to boot. Unfortunately, the slow pacing can make it hard to hook your attention sometimes. Jackrabbit is set in a future where technological progress and seemingly civilisation itself has been stunted by an event known as the Reset. What the reset actually was is never really explained. After the suicide of a mutual friend. Simon and Max are brought together to hack into their friend's hard drive and solve the reason behind his death. The relationship between these two unlikely allies is really what the film is about. Simon works for VOPO, a tech film that is the unofficial government in what is presumed the last city on Earth. Max, on the other-hand, is a drug-addled anarchist hacker. The mood of the fil