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Wednesday, July 27, 2016

An Examination of a SciFi Hero



by Jess Anastasi

If you ever ask me about my favorite sci-fi heroes, one of the first that always comes to mind is John Crichton from Farscape. His journey from scientist without a clue of what he landed himself in the middle of, to badass space soldier who saves the universe is one of my favorite character tropes. 

Back in the late 90's and early 2000's, sci-fi shows were actually doing okay. Maybe it was the turn of the new millennium or something, but there were a number of them on TV at the time, with Stargate SG1 leading the pack. For a while through the late 2000s, a few new sci-fi shows popped up every year, but none of them seem to catch on. Shows like Terra Nova, Almost Human, and Intelligence never got more than one season. It seemed like sci-fi just wasn’t marketable anymore. But with the recent popularity of series such as Killjoys, Dark Matter and The Expanse, and Netflix ordering a remake of Lost In Space, I’m hopeful that’s about to change!

Considering the fact that Farscape, as whacky as it could be with all those puppets and what-not, managed to last for four seasons is pretty remarkable in the current cut-throat, ratings-driven television industry.

One of the things that really hooked me on this show in the beginning was the relationship between John and the ex-peacekeeper soldier Aeryn Sun. After recently re-watching the series, now I remember why.


From the first moment these two laid eyes on one another, the chemistry sparked to life. In the pilot episode, even when they didn’t know each other, they both put the other first to detriment of their own well being. Aeryn spoke up for John when the villain, Crais, threatened to lock him up and experiment on him. Crais turns on Aeryn, and accuses her of being contaminated. When John realizes this means a death sentence for Aeryn, he risks his own life to take her with them when they escape. 

From there the connection only deepened. I don't know if maybe the fact that they were the only two humans on board the ship Moya had anything to do with it or not, but John and Aeryn continually gravitated to one another.


The amount of body-on-body contact these two have in the first four episodes alone is more than some TV couples get in an entire season. They covered everything; when the ship was making an emergency landing on a planet (which structurally it wasn't designed to do), Aeryn and John wedged themselves into a corner and braced against one another. When the ship overheated and Aeryn started deteriorating because her people can't handle extreme high temperature, John lost it for a moment over the fact that Aeryn may die. When D'Argo put on a cuff that made him more aggressive and started shooting at them, they took cover in a corner, pressed up against one another. And let's not forget stuff blowing up and Aeryn landing on top of John. Yep, they were pretty much all over one another. It’s exhausting to keep up with!

The relationship with Aeryn aside, I really love the character of John Crichton. He started out as a scientist lost in space, who didn't know much about weapons or defending himself. In fact in the fourth episode, he blew up Aeryn's rifle when he tried to fire it. And there's several times when he runs instead of fighting. But as the seasons progress on, and he has no choice but to fight in order to save himself and Aeryn, John becomes the Alpha male, but still retains that sensitive side, the one which fell in love with Aeryn so easily and could still hold out hope, even when things were looking so dark.

One other thing that’s so great about John — he’s one of those tough guys who couldn't stop the tears. A bit like Dean Winchester on Supernatural. Yeah, they're tough guys who'll do anything to protect the ones they love, but if something really gets to them, they're not ashamed when a few manly tears roll down those handsome cheeks. And you always remember the first time. Like with Dean, when he made that desperate phone call to his dad, because he was worried about Sam.

For John, the first time we saw this depth of emotion was toward the end of season one. Crais had been relentlessly chasing them all over the galaxy to get revenge for John killing his brother in the first episode (though, it was an accident, a collision that happened only moments after he first came through the wormhole).

Moya’s crew manage to capture Crais, and while he's locked up, John goes to confront him about why Crais wouldn't listen to reason and just leave them alone. Until that point, no matter what had happened, John had just gone with it, adapting as best he could. But I think in that moment, everything that had happened finally caught up with him, and the knowledge that he may never get home to see his friends and family again, that he was stuck in this deadly galaxy he still didn't quite understand, just trying to survive, overwhelmed him, and the emotion needed to come out. Yeah, give me a tough guy who cries, and I'm a sucker.




If you happen to be a sci-fi fan and haven't watched Farscape, then you're seriously missing out. Yes, yes, I know the puppets and the hardcore costumes are a little much at first. But if you can manage to get past that, then you're in for some sci-fi romance gold. In fact, I wouldn't hesitate to say that Farscape has been to date the best example of sci-fi romance and how well it can work on TV, and will probably retain that title for a very long time. 

*This post was adapted and re-blogged from jessanastasi.blogspot.com




Jess has been making up stories ever since she can remember. Though her messy handwriting made it hard for anyone else to read them, she wasn’t deterred and now she gets to make up stories for a living. She loves loud music, a good book on a rainy day, and probably spends too much time watching too many TV shows. Jess lives in regional Victoria, Australia, with her very supportive husband, three daughters, two hyper-active border collie dogs, and one cat who thinks he’s one of the kids.

Atrophy will be on sale for only 99cents from the 1st-8th of August!

www.jessanastasi.com
Twitter @JessAnastasi
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Jess-Anastasi-Author-Page-129441077081452/


Tuesday, July 26, 2016

Portals: Volume Five Release Day! #scifi #romance #SFRB


Portals: Volume Five is out! 

Welcome! You have arrived at a portal to the galaxy.

Enter, and you'll be introduced by award-winning authors to worlds beyond imagining, with heroes & heroines who dare to take it to the edge and beyond. Count on these adventurers to take their best shot … at their enemies and at romance!

Contains 10 first chapters, with links to purchase any or all of the complete books, should you wish.

All Portals volumes are FREE. Get yours today at your favorite publishing platform:


Enjoy!

Friday, July 22, 2016

Last Chance - The Great #Scifi #Romance Sale Ends Today #99cents #free #SFRBlast

It's your last chance to stock up your summer reads with over 40 out-of-this-world romances for FREE or just 99 cents before they blast off forever!
Click HERE to be transported to the sales page.

Wednesday, July 20, 2016

Cover Reveal - DECOHERENCE (Time And Shadows #3) #scifi #mystery by @LianaBrooks


Blurb:
Readers of Blake Crouch's DARK MATTER and Wesely Chu's TIME SALVAGER will love Liana Brooks' DECOHERENCE--the thrilling, time-bending conclusion to the Time & Shadow series!
Samantha Rose and Linsey MacKenzie have established an idyllic life of married bliss in Australia, away from the Commonwealth Bureau of Investigation, away from mysterious corpses, and—most of all—away from Dr. Emir’s multiverse machine.
But Sam is a detective at heart, and even on the other side of the world, she can’t help wonder if a series of unsolved killings she reads about are related—not just to each other, but to the only unsolved case of her short career.
She knows Jane Doe’s true name, but Sam never discovered who killed the woman found in an empty Alabama field in spring of 2069. She doesn’t even know which version of herself she buried under a plain headstone.
When Mac suddenly disappears, Sam realizes she is going to once more be caught up in a silent war she still doesn’t fully understand. Every step she takes to save Mac puts the world she knows at risk, and moves her one step closer to becoming the girl in the grave.


Links:


Author Bio:
Liana Brooks write sci-fi and crime fiction for people who like happy endings. She believes in time travel to the future, even if it takes a good book and all night to get there. When she isn’t writing, Liana hikes the mountains of Alaska with her family and giant dog. Find her at LianaBrooks.com or on Twitter as @LianaBrooks


First Two Pages:
Decoherence (n): a period of time when all iterations collapse and there is only one possible reality.
~ Excerpt from Definitions of Time by Emmanuela Pine, I1

Day 247
Year 5 of Progress

Capitol Spire

Main Continent

Iteration 17—Fan 1

… three. Rose stood and peered through the frosted, warped glass of the conference room as the speaker turned away. It didn’t matter which iteration she was in, Emir was predictable. She had seven seconds to do a head count. She didn’t need that long.
A quick head count was all it took to confirm that the einselected nodes she’d been sent to assassinate were where they belonged.
Every iteration had nodes, people or events that kept that variation of human history from collapsing. Dr. Emir had created a machine that allowed people not only to move along their own timeline, but at critical convergence points, it allowed them to cross between realities. But the Mechanism for Iteration Alignment’s greatest ability was the one that allowed Dr. Emir and Central Command to steer history by erasing futures they didn’t want.
Rose knelt beside the door, did one final sweep for alarms, and nodded for her team to move in. It was her job to cross at convergence points, kill the nodes, and collapse the futures that no one wanted.
One look at the version of herself watching this iteration’s Emir with rapt fascination was enough to make Rose want to snip this future in the bud.
Chubby was the first thing that came to mind. Rose’s doppelganger was enjoying being at the top of the social pyramid and probably gorging on whatever passed as a delicacy here. The squared bangs with a streak of riotous red only accented the corpulence and lack of self-control the inferior other had.
Even with a heavy wood door between them, Rose could hear that this iteration’s Emir was hypothesizing things the MIA was never meant to do. Everyone with half a brain knew that decoherence didn’t combine iterations, it crushed them. Only the true timeline, the Prime, would survive decoherence. Planning to welcome and integrate doppelgangers into the society was pure idiocy.
The techs sealing the door shut gave her the high sign.
Rose nodded to her hacker.
“Cameras locked. Security is deaf and blind, ma’am” Logan’s voice was a soft whisper in her earpiece. He was a genius with computer systems, a fact that had saved him when they collapsed I-38 three years ago. “We have a fifteen-minute window.”
“Hall cleared,” reported Bennet. “Permission to move perimeter guard to the exit?”
Rose nodded. “Permission granted.” She waved for the soldiers to move out. There could be no risk of failure. No chance for the errant nodes to escape, and no risk that her team would get killed here.


Monday, July 18, 2016

#Scifi #Romance Sale! #free #99cents #ebooks

Stock up your ereader for summer with over 40 out-of-this-world titles for FREE or just 99 cents.
Click HERE to be transported to the sales page.

Sunday, July 17, 2016

SFRB Blog Hop Winners #scifi #romance

And the winners of the 5th Annual SFRB Summer Blog Hop are:

Elizabeth Hyatt, Darla, and Meigan Ziegler!

Congratulations! The rafflecopter prizes along with books gifted by the authors are being sent. Thanks to everyone who participated in this highly successful blog hop. Thanks to the authors for all their wonderful posts. And a very special thank you to Lee Koven for organizing the entire thing!
 

Sunday, July 10, 2016

SFRB Summer Blog Hop: Other Worlds


SFRB authors have contributed signed books, ebooks, money towards gift cards, and some bookmarks and postcards as prizes for three entrants. a Rafflecopter giveaway

Wednesday, July 6, 2016

My Top Ten "Comfort Movies" are all Sci-Fi + Giveaway


Before school ended for my children, I was talking with one of the other parents at the bus stop about movies we like to watch when we're having a bad day, or when the world is having a bad day, and watching the news makes us incredibly sad. They're movies we watch over and over, and never get tired of watching. He called them "comfort movies", and his #1 pick was Ferris Bueller's Day Off. While I've seen that movie many times, it has never been a comfort movie for me. But, the idea made me think about my own comfort movies. And the only ones I came up with were all science fiction.

Here's my list of Top Ten Comfort Movies:

1. Independence Day - I know this may seem strange as a comfort movie, with aliens attacking the Earth, but in the end, the world came together to fight the aliens and bring them down. It's that unity in the end that gives me hope for our real world.

2. Contact - Once again, the world has to come together to send Eleanor Arroway on a mission to make contact with alien life. In this movie, the aliens are peaceful, which is what I hope for when first contact is made.

3. Avatar - Even with all the weapons one could imagine, it is love and what is right that wins.

4. Super 8 - An alien is stuck on Earth, and it only wants to get back home. Sometimes it takes a bunch of children to help us realize the truth.

5. The Host - Aliens come to Earth, and believe they have made the planet a better place to live. But, it's the human spirit they did not expect that wins in the end, our desire to live.

6. Home - This is such a fun movie about aliens again learning about the human spirit.

7. The Martian - While this is a newer movie, I have watched it many times already. Once again, the world comes together for a purpose. This time, to bring Mark Watney home.

8. Any Jurassic Park movie - While some in the series are better than others, I love watching these movies about genetically engineered dinosaurs.

9. Any Star Wars movie - Once again, there are some I love better than others, I will watch any of these space adventure movies.

10. The new Star Trek movies - I do love some of the older Star Trek movies, but it is the new ones I will pop into the DVD player. I love all of the interpersonal relationships involved in these movies, and I've become attached to the characters. I admit, I wasn't around when the original series was on television, so the actors playing the characters now are the ones I've become accustomed to.

Please share with me your comfort movies. Are any of them sci-fi?


ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Jessica E. Subject is the author of science fiction romance, mostly alien romances, ranging from sweet to super hot. Sometimes she dabbles in paranormal and contemporary as well, bringing to life a wide variety of characters. In her stories, you could not only meet a sexy alien or two, but also clones and androids. You may be transported to a dystopian world where rebels are fighting to live and love, or to another planet for a romantic rendezvous. Check out her new release, BRYCE:

A dedicated Defender…

Bryce fell in love once, but after Lalia was ripped away from him, he locked his heart from feeling anything for anyone else. Instead, he devotes his life to the Galactic Alliance, killing every bloodthirsty Erebus he comes across.

A shunned princess…

Lalia Comosova fell in love with the wrong man. When her parents learned of her transgressions, they sent her to Earth to hide her error in judgment from the rest of the kingdom.

A second chance?

When these lovers are reunited after many years apart, they have a chance to find happiness together. But fate steps in and threatens to rip them apart as it did years ago.

For more information about Jessica and her books, visit her website: http://jessicasubject.com



Not only is Jessica E. Subject celebrating the release of BRYCE, the first book in her Galactic Defenders series, she is also celebrating FIVE years published. And she is offering three fabulous prize packages. Contests are open as stated, except where prohibited by law. Must be 18 or older to enter. Contest will close July 24, and winners will be notified by email. Good luck!

RTC Giveaway (Canada/US only) includes:
3013: Renegade by Susan Hayes (signed)
Reader Abduction by Eve Langlais (signed)
As Cold As Ice by Mandy Rosko (signed)
Alien Next Door: The Complete Series by Jessica E. Subject (signed)
Cosmic Desires by Jessica E. Subject (signed)
other goodies from some of the authors who attended Romancing the Capital

My Favorite Things Giveaway (Canada/US only) includes:
The Host by Stephanie Meyer
The Martian by Andy Weir
Alien Next Door: The Complete Series by Jessica E. Subject (signed)
Cosmic Desires by Jessica E. Subject (signed)
Bryce by Jessica E. Subject (signed)

International Only Giveaway includes:
Alien Next Door: The Complete Series by Jessica E. Subject (signed)
Cosmic Desires by Jessica E. Subject (signed)
Bryce by Jessica E. Subject (signed)


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Saturday, July 2, 2016

Sci-Fi Romance Quarterly #11 Is Live!



Sci-Fi Romance Quarterly #11 is now available for your reading pleasure!

This issue includes…

Image source: http://www.ejwhitaker.com/

* An interview with Shawnee’ and Shawnelle Gibbs, the creators of the forthcoming comic THE INVENTION OF E.J. WHITAKER


* A guest column by author Ella Drake about how SFR explores the body-ownership conflict 

* Xoe Juliani’s delightful f/f short story “A Light in the Dark”

* A “Trail Blazer” spotlight on author and SFR advocate Veronica Scott

* SF Mistressworks review of BIBBLINGS by Barbara Paul

* K.S. Augustin’s Editorial about the changing nature of the SFR genre and its community

* In Cosmic Lounge, I pose the question, “Why Is #SFR Something to Talk About?”

* Plus, reviews, coverage of the latest SFR releases, and Sneak Peeks!


Sci-Fi Romance Quarterly is brought to you by K.S. Augustin, Diane Dooley, and Heather Massey.

Enjoy!