a byte of sci fi

Star Wars: Purge – The Hidden Blade

Due out April 7th from Dark Horse

On a remote world, Darth Vader chafes at the assignment given to him by the Emperor: guarding an Imperial manufacturing facility from the anti-Imperial natives. Vader feels the duty is beneath him-until he learns that a Jedi Master and his Padawan are in league with the natives!

Now the game is afoot, and Vader is on the trail of his favorite prey. No ambush, no local monstrous lizards, will deter him his pursuit. Woe be to the Jedi when Vader catches up with them! This issue follows events in Revenge of the Sith!

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Blood Ties: The Complete Series

Due out April 6th

Before True Blood and even before Moonlight there was Blood Ties, a Canadian made vampire series which starred Christina Cox (Defying Gravity) and Kyle Schmid (Odyssey 5, Smallville).  Cox plays Vicki Nelson, an ex-cop turned private investigator, who gets involved with a case that results in her forming a partnership, and relationship of sort, with a 480 year old vampire (Schmid).  The series aired on Lifetime in 2007 and had a pretty rabid following and now all 22 episodes are available in one DVD set!

See more of this week’s new releases at Amazon.com at this link

Phillip K Dicks Electric Ant #1 (of 5)

Due out April 7th from Marvel Comics

FROM THE MIND OF LEGENDARY SCI-FI AUTHOR PHILIP K. DICK!

Garson Poole had a pretty great life: good job, nice apartment, a sexy, flirtatious assistant. And then he wakes up in a hospital room when the doctors inform him that he’s been in a car accident and they can’t treat him. Because he’s a robot. Specifically, Garson is an Electric Ant, a human-like robot created and programmed to serve a specific function. But what is Garson’s function? How will his friends and co-workers treat him, knowing that he’s a machine, and not a person? And how much of his world is real, and how much of it is part of his programming?

Written by Kabuki scribe David Mack and illustrated by Pascal Alixe.

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The Lord of the Rings (1978 Animated Movie) (Remastered Deluxe Edition)

Due out April 6th

Amazon.com Product Editorial Review:  Although it was ultimately overshadowed by Peter Jackson’s live-action Lord of the Rings trilogy, Ralph Bakshi’s animated adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantasy classic is not without charms of its own. A target of derision from intolerant fans, this ambitious production is nevertheless a respectably loyal attempt to animate the first half of Tolkien’s trilogy, beginning with the hobbit Frodo’s inheritance of “the One Ring” of power from Bilbo Baggins, and ending with the wizard Gandalf’s triumph over the evil army of orcs. While the dialogue is literate and superbly voiced by a prestigious cast (including John Hurt as Aragorn), Leonard Rosenman’s accomplished score effectively matches the ominous atmosphere that Bakshi’s animation creates and sustains. Bakshi’s lamentable decision to combine traditional cel animation with “rotoscoped” (i.e., meticulously traced) live-action footage is jarringly distracting and aesthetically disastrous, but when judged by its narrative content, this Lord of the Rings deserves more credit than it typically receives. –Jeff Shannon

See more of this week’s new releases at Amazon.com at this link

Yeah, you heard it right. TFAW.com has started to sell exotic meats and they are starting out with Tauntaun Steaks!  And right now they have them at 35% off, but you better hurry before supplies run out!

Science Fiction And Alternate History: A Collection of Short Stories by David Scholes

Alien invasions, alternate realities, the Battle of Britain and a futuristic Los Angeles are just some of the subjects Scholes’ wicked imagination has tackled, with spellbinding twists.

In “The Day Nobody Died,” Scholes poses the question — what if no one ever died for one day? What would our world and culture be like if overpopulation were taken to the nth degree?

“Grey Power” is a chilling tale of senior adults having a disquieting power in Los Angeles.

Unless you’re very wealthy or very old, life is dreadfully unpleasant in “Life Wasn’t Meant to Be Easy.”

In “The Battle for London, the troubled youth of today are innocent and benevolent babes compared to Scholes’ characters — feral youth challenging authority in a decaying futuristic city.

Scholes expertly weaves tales of suspense, terror and unexplored “what if’s.” His characters come vividly to life and you’ll wonder if the alternate world you’re in while reading may be lurking at the fringes of reality. Travel from the Mediterranean to black holes across the Universe — this one is an impossible to put down read.

Buy the Book Now from Strategic Book Publishing

Essential Reading in Science Fiction: A Collection of Short Stories by David Scholes

Essential Reading in Science Fiction contains some 24 short science fiction stories that cut across a broad range of the genre. In “Battle at Time’s End”, Times Guardian makes one last throw of the dice against Fate, calling on a great champion from the past. In “The Tribunal”, the Galactic War Tribunal operates under a quite different basis to Nuremburg. “The Safest Place” in the Universe is just that, though for different reasons than you might think.

The child of an alien shapeshifter father and Earth mother is of considerable importance to human history in “The Shifter Child”. In “Star Ravagers”, impossibly alien life forms seek to consume our Sun, while in “Final Revenge” the rape of future humanity is avenged. An extra-dimensional visitor seeks to help an Earth besieged by both aliens and alien gods in “A Long Way from Home”. While to the advanced inhabitants of Lhorran 4, “Visitor 51347″ is not at all what he seems to be. In “Internet Writer”, a reclusive writer achieves fame beyond his wildest dreams, without even knowing it. “Spitfires over Stalingrad” is a sort of alternate history story with the German attempt at a break out blocked in an unexpected way. And much more.

In general the stories are intended to be entertaining and easy to read.

Buy now from Amazon.com

Dawn of the Dead: Hare Krishna Zombie 7-Inch Action Figure

Amazon.com Product Description:  Dawn of the Dead was George Romero’s high point in his film career. The movie topped the infamy of the classic Night of the Living Dead, and became a legendary cult favorite to watch on any given Halloween! Now from the ’70s classic comes the Hare Krishna zombie, complete with tambourine, cardboard boxes, and a stockroom display base that’s modeled from scenery straight from the film!