Elysium Movie Review

Elysium is a truly classic science fiction movie in that it takes the biggest troubles of the time and uses a story about the future to talk about where those issues could lead.  The movie is sad and hits very close to home in our recent economic recovery.  The effects are very good and for the most part the science is even accurate.

The only problem I had with the movie is that I can't see how things would get as dystopian as they are presented in the movie.  First it presumes that somehow the inhabitants of the space station Elysium completely disenfranchise most of the world including the people of the united states, after fleeing it.  This seems a bit far-fetched considering that the major space powers would not allow the kind of technology that would allow that to happen without having similar technology to counter it.  Second the people of Elysium seem too disconnected to be believable.  Their hoarding of miraculous medical technology in particular seems particularly cruel.

The plot of this movie is a mixture of the Savior archetype, and the Prometheus archetype.  Basically the richest people in the world have fled to the luxurious space station named Elysium.  There they have robotic servants, and disease free nearly immortal lives brought about by medical technology that has the capability of completely rebuilding a body from the faintest spark of life.  Cancer, Birth defects, and deadly radiation poisoning are all quickly and easily fixed.  In contrast the people on earth are left with modern medical technology or worse, and must deal with massive overpopulation and a poisoned biosphere.  Meanwhile the people of Elysium rule over and profit from the people of earth as a permanent lower class.  The hero of the film is not a good man, but at the start he has cleaned up his act, gotten a job, and is trying to better himself.  When he is exposed to a lethal dose of radiation on the job he is given pills that will allow him to function for the rest of his now very short life and fired.  This is done despite the fact that the company has the means to cure him.  Due to his criminal past he has contacts that allow him to do something about it instead of waiting to die like a good slave.  A plan is launched to steal an Elysium citizens identity giving the underground access to billions of dollars.  In the end the hack yields more than they ever bargained for, and he is presented with a choice.  Save himself, or save the world by taking control of Elysium.  In the end he decides to save the world by making all earth residents Elysium Citizens.

This film addresses some of the biggest issues facing America today.  The rampant inequality and disparity of access to health care are currently dividing this country at an accelerating rate.  While things have not gotten nearly to the point that the movie portrays, it is frighteningly easy to see parallels to our current problems.

Science fiction lovers and people who see the current inequality building in our society as a bad thing will likely love this film.

This movie can be purchased digitally or on disk from www.amazon.com.

The Quantum Connection by Travis S. Taylor

This book is the even more action packed sequel to Warp Speed.  While it is a sequel it stands alone quite well.  I actually read it first and was not confused at all.  The book picks different characters to focus on and at the beginning they do not even know about the crew from the first book.  The book is a fun read if you want a classic style science fiction story where the good guy wins, and the bad guys are left in the dust by the hero's mighty intellect and wise tactical or technological decisions.

This book's strength is also its weakness because the bad guys don't really have much of a chance despite having an initial advantage.  This is really a geek, techno-fantasy, superhero style story with some real science at its heart.

The book is the story of how Steven Montana(the hero) saves the world.  At the start of the book Steven is a gamer geek and college student studying computers when the warp war from the first book breaks out.  In the fighting his entire home town with everyone he knows is wiped out and he is told it was because of a meteor.  He slides into a spiral of depression and only begins to come back out of it when a chance encounter gets him a job working on reverse engineering a strange circuit that turns out to be a quantum supercomputer.  When a background check fails due to him having no-one to vouch for him he has a major relapse and heads into the desert after taking all of his "happy pills".  At this point the book takes a bit of a turn because he is abducted by aliens that have been experimenting on him for years and were the ultimate cause of his depression.  Because of the pills he took he is able to wake up from their sedation and take over the ship. The research ship turns out to be run by a quantum supercomputer, the very thing Steven was just studying.  Using the supercomputer and the nanotechnology on board the research vessel he enhances himself and a female fellow captive, and together they take off to save the world.  Soon they meet up with the crew from warp speed, and god help anything that threatens earth from that point on.

This book will appeal to classic science fiction, and comic book fans.  To be honest the writing reminds me of some of Heinlein's stories.  The action in the book never stops, and there is not a lot of time spent on introspection.  This book also has a little bit less explanation of the science behind whats going on than warp speed so it may not appeal to hard science fiction fans as much.

This book can be found at www.amazon.com as an e-book or in print.

The number of the beast by Robert Heinlein book review

This story is a non-stop adventure through space, time, and a whole bunch of parallel realities.  As with any Heinlein book there is quite a bit of philosophy as well, but unlike his earlier books where the characters mostly state their philosophy, his later books (of which this is one) demonstrate it through the actions and reactions of his characters, and in bits and pieces of conversations they have.  If you pay attention you can find it all over.  This particular book explores the concept of parallel realities, and the idea that all possible things will happen in some universe.  The story illustrates this point by linking many of Heinlein's story-lines, and a few other fictional universes together using a device that allows for dimensional hopping.  There is even a trip to Oz thrown in there.

As with most Heinlein books there is not really anything I don't like about this book.  That being said some of the technological concepts that it is based on have long since been surpassed particularly in the field of computers, and the way they operate.  On the other hand the things that he has the outdated hardware doing are still largely out of reach today.  Personally I think that the two things balance out, but it could be jarring for some if this is their first Heinlein book.

This book is a story about a group of people who discover a way to hop between dimensions.  They are not the first to obtain this technology, and their excursions are almost immediately noticed.  The main characters Zeb, Deety, Hilda, and Jacob are thrown into a fight of flight situation in Zeb's modified ( read armed) roadable aircraft.  Jacob rigs the air-car for dimensional travel and they are off keeping one step ahead of the black hats.  Whenever they think that they have lost them they show up again.  As I mentioned earlier they make stops at several fictional universes along the way where they augment their capabilities and move on.  In the end their problems start to get resolved when they meet up with Lazurus Long (from time enough for love), Mike(from the moon is a harsh mistress), and several other Heinlein hero's.  Throughout the story the concept of parallel realities making all things be real things is explored.  This book will really make you think about the reality you see around you, and ponder the 'what if's' of your favorite stories.

This book will appeal to any Heinlein fan, and any science fiction fan.  It will also appeal to people who like action adventure or fan fiction since the book is full of references, and interactions with characters or worlds from other works.

This book is available at www.amazon.com as an audio book or in print.  I could not find it in E-book, so if you see it in that format please let me know where.