Wonderful escapism in this first of the series. John Carter is our hero. A Southern American gentleman from Virginia. He is accidentally passed through an astral porthole in the year of 1865. He awakes naked on the surface of Mars. From here on, we are taken on a magical fantasy adventure. On Mars, John Carter is rather strong due to the planet's weaker gravity. He can jump 100 plus yards into the air when the occasion demands. There is a gorgeous Princess of human appearance, giant green Martian nomadic warrior people who are 15 foot in height. They have four arms and move from one ancient derelict city to another. These places are deserted ruins of a bygone humanoid race. The Redmen are human in appearance and are called human. They have big sky ships etc. It is all fun fantasy stuff. Some would call it pulp. Perhaps it is. But I would say it is very enjoyable.
A rather exciting Gothic style eighth Doctor Who story. It is set in Vienna of 1876. The Doctor jumps his Tardis from Lake Geneva in Switzerland of 1816 with his companion, Mary Shelly. At one of the cities entertainment halls, they come across a strange man wrapped in bandages and playing all the musical classics on violin or piano etc. The Doctor, in the audience, is instantly on alert because the being in bandages is none other than a Mondaisian Cyberman. The story begins to develop and we are all going for a grand Gothic ride. A real fun Big Finish adventure. I enjoyed it and would recommend to any Doctor Who fan.
In many ways, it is Mary Shelly living her own science fiction adventure. This makes it all the more fun to listen to.
I'm a total geek when it comes to science fiction. I'm a closet sci-fi buff. My friends and workmates know nothing about this aspect of me. Perhaps some of them are like me too? I would not know. I indulge more in this field of interest via the web. There are always other folks on this wavelength via the web. My wife is tolerant of these little excesses. I love Doctor Who. I've loved it since I was a kid. I remember the show from William Hartnell. I can remember many stories that are lost from the archives. I loved to be spooked by the Daleks. These wonderful bad guys. All our excesses of badness are poured into the Daleks. These pathetic looking pepper pots that defy the logic of fear. I just love the whole concept of them. Over the years we have created ways to give these bad guys excuses for being masters of the universe and looking pathetic. Now they can simply levitate up stairs. We have not quite worked out the lavatory plunger for a hand, but I'm banking on a ball of kinetic energy that glows from the sucker. It can work complex controls and all. - lol!
The web is a delight for people who enjoy Doctor Who and the spin-offs that might emerge from the retro sci-fi show. Some of these invented spin-off stories keep that old retro feel. Almost like the off-shoot annuals and comics of the 1960s decade.
I've stumbled across something called Big Finish. These are serious of audio adventures of retro TV shows etc. Among them are a large selection of Doctor Who stories. This collection is growing. You can experience new adventures of bygone Doctors and companions.
I have downloaded and enjoyed a number of these. I have barely dipped my toe in this ocean and have listened to some very clever stories. Among them is a spin-off set of stories known as 'Dalek Empire.' There are a large number of these tales and I have only listened to the first set of 'Dalek Empire' stories. The plot moves over a series of years. It involves conquest and invasion etc.
Very entertaining and great to listen to if one works outdoors as I do. I would highly recommend this well written and wonderfully presented audio story. It has a great retro feel with actors that inject a great atmospheric feel through dialogue etc.
Wonderfully atmospheric. A real trip down memory lane too. Sylvester McCoy's Doctor with Ace. A clever story of a grand and extra special library on an outback planet. The whole presentation of this story is splendid. The Daleks are after all the knowledge they can get and have a diabolical plan to get at such desired things. If you are a Doctor Who fan, I would highly recommend this one. Splendid fun.
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea is a story we all know of. We have all watched the movie, but many of us have never read the book. I always told myself that one day I would read it. After many years of keeping this on my bucket list, I finally decided to take the plunge. I am so pleased that I did because this is an absolute peach of science fiction! A glorious adventure from the 1860s decade. Jules Verne must have had some vision to write this splendid novel. It was gripping. The story takes the reader on a journey of a lifetime. All sorts of discoveries await the reader's attention. If you are a lover of H.G. Wells type fiction than France's Jules Verne is a must. This man is the original pioneer of science fiction and his stories still pack a punch in this day and age. It is like reading a superior steampunk novel. A total triumph and a story that will echo forever.
I read this a long time ago. It was in my school's library and the front cover caught my attention. There were a few human visitors on board a boat. A rowing boat if my memory serves me correctly. In the background was a floating round spaceship. A sort of lifeboat from which the boatmen had left. There were tentacles thrusting up out of the water and they were about to attack the boatmen. I was captivated by space travel and dreamed of adventure on other worlds. The cover flicked the switches so I borrowed it from the library. I remember the book focused on twin boys. They had telepathic connections. One could go on the adventure to distant stars while one stayed home. The travellers could communicate by telepathy. As the ship got further away from Earth travelling in excess of light speed etc. The time lapse increases as the twins communicate. What seems like a day or two on board ship becomes months back on Earth. Lots of other concepts too. I remember I enjoyed the adventure when the travellers explored the new world they come across. Also coming to the part that the front cover depicted.
HMS Thunder Child Charging the Martian Fighting Machines.
I found this wonderful artistic image of HMS Thunder Child engaging the dreaded Martian tripods. It is the fabulous creation of an artist named Rado Javor and I think it is absolutely breathtaking.
I always find it so interesting to get other people's vision of the Battle of the Blackwater from H.G. Wells imaginary story of War of the Worlds. I always wanted to know why Thunder Child engaged the three alien fighting machine - the dreaded tripods that roamed Britain and the rest of the world to destroy mankind.
I wondered about HMS Thunder Child's story so much that I decided to invent a pastiche story concerning the ironclad. Every time I see a wonderful image like this one by Rado Javor, I wonder some more.
There is so much more to steampunk than dressing up in Victorian style clothing. It is developing in various fields of interest and carving out a signature in music, movies and literature. It can cross a multitude of topics and the boundaries are constantly expanding. Because these boundaries are always being pushed and explored, steampunk is becoming more diverse and varies in a number of fan's imaginations.
One might enjoy the fashion or clothing. Another might enjoy fantasy stories set in Victorian style realms or futuristic alternative Gothic/steampunk worlds. There are also various steampunk style ornaments. I've even seen a lavish looking bathroom complete with toilet and tiling in the wonderful steampunk style.
Steampunk of today appears to be an alliance of Victorian age coupled with science fiction. It seems to have a ruled structure yet an invitation to meddle and redesign while maintaining that old world vision of clothing, steel and rivets.
Do you love those retro British and American comics and the glorious pulp sci-fi reads of times gone by?
Ironic, isn’t it?
Why do we love the retro science fiction stories of the past about our future?
Were you a fan of H.G. Wells, Jules Verne, or Edgar Rice Burroughs? Of course, there are so many more authors, who delightfully tweaked our varied imaginations.
Do you remember the first time a story ever gripped your fancy?
Can you re-live the wow factor again?
Did you ever imagine yourself inside the adventure and veering off at a tangent and going somewhere else inside the story? Do you want an adventure tailor-made for you?
As an impressionable young lad, I always found myself pondering such things.
I would walk about in my dream thinking, “If I was in that story, I would do this or that.” I found myself wishing for all sorts of adventures.
When I read H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds, I remember getting a tremendous lift out of the short excerpt when an ironclad called H.M.S. Thunder Child attacked three Martian tripods in the River Blackwater to save a paddle steamer full of refugees.
It was not more than half a page and the uplifting and brave event was short lived. Yet it achieved great admiration from me as a young and impressionable avid reader. Anyone who has read War of the Worlds or listened to Jeff Wayne's musical adaptation will know.
In my mind's eye, I wanted to know more about the crew and the bold ironclad. I found myself re-inventing a small section of the story from a whole new perspective. I wondered what it would have been like to be on such a ship that cruised into legend, blazing away at the Martian abominations in defence of mankind.
The whole endeavour of this written work was inspired by an evening school writing class and it developed from there. It was a wonderful project that I found most absorbing.
So I decided to Something About it. It was a labour of love and a project that I thoroughly enjoyed. I would come home of an evening and sit down to add to my re-invented story set in H.G.Wells' Victorian Britain. Of a day I would ponder each step of my story. I had a dramatic ending, but there was to be a journey to that ending with characters showing the reader the way. Everything began to fall in line and each day I became more excited about my creation. When complete, I knew I had to get professional editing done. This was achieved by requesting for applicants to edit the story. This was done via an agency for freelance editors with relevant qualifications. I offered a price and the interested parties would come back with their price offers and examples of what they could do. As the freelance editors began to bid for the work and sent me samples of what they could do, I was impressed by the skills. I was also shocked by the amount of correction I could see on the pages they sent back. After about four or five applications, I settled for one person who did a wonderful editorial job for around the price I was asking. £10 per 1,000 words of a novel containing around 54,000 words. When I read the corrected text, I was overjoyed with the way my Sci-fi retro adaptation novel was flowing. I got a wonderful cover from a professional book cover artist. Also, the word alignment with font size got done professionally. It all made for a dynamic presentation. I sat back and saw sales begin to come in from the USA, UK, Canada, Australia, France, Germany and Japan. I was delighted.
My Pastiche novel about H.G. Wells' fictional battleship H.M.S. Thunder Child (The Last Days of Thunder Child) was based on H.M.S. Devastation. In my imagination, I could see this design for Thunder Child going into battle against three Martian tripods on the River Blackwater in the county of Essex, England, the UK in 1898.
Muzzleloading guns went obsolete around 1889. All Royal Navy ships, including Devastation, were converted to Breech loading. However, I invented a political excuse to keep Thunder Child antiquated and still retaining the short stubby muzzleloading guns inside revolving turrets.
This was to give Thunder Child a feeling of being behind the times, but still plucky when the occasion demanded. The diagram above was found in a library book and then I was fortunate enough to find it online. This gives a great internal view of the working of H.M.S. Devastation and I used this plan for my vision of H.M.S. Thunder Child in The Last Days of Thunder Child by C.A. Powell.
Do you want to escape into a retro British world of dystopian adventure?
Look no further.
Read: THE LAST DAYS OF THUNDER CHILD by C.A. Powell For the USA: Please click For the UK: Please click
The big kid inside this 55-year-old body got all excited this week. A missing Doctor Who story from 1966 was brought back under an animation. I remembered watching the first ever Patrick Troughton story when I was five years of age. I can remember near Christmas time with pictures in the newspaper of Ben and Polly (The Doctor's travelling companions) They were kneeling down with the dreaded Daleks in the background. It was the final episode of the six-part story and the Daleks went on an extermination spree. I was looking at it from behind the armchair. Not daring to turn my eyes away. I eagerly bought the BBC download the other day and have been watching an episode each day. Today was the sixth and final animated adaptation and the Daleks went on that good old killing spree. I was back in 1966 again in my old house in Limehouse, East London. Good old days and the adaptation via animation made me swoon with nostalgic little boy memories. GREAT STUFF! :D
This single episode story was a prelude to THE DALEK MASTERPLAN. The Doctor was not in this introduction story, but what followed was a twelve episode story. Thirteen episodes if one includes this single introduction story.
The original science fiction story of the Victorian age was H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds. It terrified readers across the globe. It was a sensation that captured people’s imagination. Even today we love to read the story set in Victorian Britain during the height of empire. A nation consumed by its own vanity and self-belief that there could be no other colossus apart from the mighty British Empire of industry and commerce. Everything paled to insignificance. Britain was great and there could be nothing greater.
Other empires of other nations had existed once. They did the same thing. Empires rise and fall throughout history. However, we Brits never dreamed or even indulged such an idea that it could happen to us. That was until a writer boiled the notion in words – prepared it and served such a feast upon an unsuspecting audience as a science fiction story.
This seller of dreams and notions was Herbert George Wells – a product of that vain empire. He decided to destroy the global domain in his imagination and every reader too. The story is a poignant now as it was back then over a hundred years ago.
An unforeseen enemy that made a mighty empire’s huge navy redundant. For the foes were from Mars and they fell from the sky directly onto the soil of the kingdom’s heart. It was an era of steam and steel culminating in great feats of engineering. Iron ships with great guns that floated and traversed the seven seas of planet Earth. No one had considered outer space and extraterrestrial life.
Very rapidly our glorious kingdom falls into chaos and dystopia. Refugees are fleeing in their millions before the onslaught of the alien monstrosities. Death and destruction are reaped upon Britain as one by one, cities and towns fall before the Martian advance. In one part of the story, we are presented with a minor diversion whereupon a Victorian ship confronts three of the alien fighting machines in the River Backwater of Essex, England. One small token of the failing empire’s might, but we get nothing more than a short-lived victory. A moment of hope and triumph dashed in a valiant confrontation. The incident is over before it can be properly digested, but there remains a faint echo of hope and resolve.
What would the crew of the battleship have been like?
How would they have come upon such a situation?
At sea, how could the crew imagine what the mainland was enduring?
How could they believe such things were so?
Martians were not real!
The British Empire could not fall!
Read the adaptation story set in the age of iron and steam. Look through the eyes of the disbelieving crew as they cruise around the coastline and receive nothing more than semaphore messages that are so fantastically outrageous, none can believe the reports.
Interest grows by the hour as the determined crew of HMS Thunder Child cruise closer to their ominous destiny – a reckoning with three alien fighting machines from Mars.
When you see the magnified ice crystal in this picture, imagine it in a human cell - a minute sack with a membrane wall. The little sharp stalagmite edges would rupture such membranes. Imagine if it is what happens inside every human cell when frozen. The crystals puncture our cell walls and as we defrost our cell structures can't contain water and we turn to mush. That is why we can't defrost frozen people. The links above offer ideas that could provide answers for Tomorrow. Cryogenics can be very useful to us, in the future, if the defrosting can be mastered to bring a human out of cryogenic freezing - intact. Obviously, it is much easier said and imagined in theory.
Great art impression of HMS Thunder Child charging into action
H.G.Well's famous novel (War Of The Worlds) is set in Victorian Britain during the year of 1899. It is the height of the British Empire and all her Britannic might is futile and laid bare by Martian tripods dropping into the country from the sky. During the story, there is a moment when a paddle steamer filled with refugees is trying to flee the country into the sea. As the packed steamer paddles out of Maldon in Essex, England and into the River Blackwater; three Martian tripods come after the boat from the opposite shore.
What Thunder Child might have looked like
The old Victorian ironclad called H.M.S. Thunder Child is stationary in the river but must move to action stations and defend the fleeing paddle steamer. The brave ship charges the three alien tripods and the fictional legendary battle begins.
The valiant H.M.S. Thunder Child as always stirred my imagination and because British ships of this time never came up against a formidable enemy; Thunder Child gives us a little make belief battle to saviour. Artists have constantly painted and designed artwork depicting their own views of the battle.
