Martin Schell

Dune: Will the Audience Get Lost in the Sands of Time?

Denis Villeneuve has boldly approached the immense task of bringing Frank Herbert’s 1965 novel to the screen by dividing it into two parts, the first of which is already long at roughly 2.5 hours. Splitting a book into two movies worked well for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows because it was the final installment,Continue reading “Dune: Will the Audience Get Lost in the Sands of Time?”

Can a solid Foundation lead to a weak first story?

Yes, it can and it did. When the Apple TV series Foundation began streaming this past September, Gizmodo ran Rob Bricken’s review titled “They Said Foundation Couldn’t Be Filmed, And It Still Hasn’t Been”. He concluded that the TV series created by David Goyer (who wrote the Blade trilogy, Batman Begins and The Dark Knight,Continue reading “Can a solid Foundation lead to a weak first story?”

Mars Hoopla: Manifest Destiny in Outer Space?

About a year ago, I wrote to a friend who is part Iroquois and mentioned that a lot of syfy stories (novels, films, TV series, etc.) are rooted in the notion that earthlings will (or long ago did) colonize the galaxy, or even further. It suddenly dawned on me that Manifest Destiny had reached intoContinue reading “Mars Hoopla: Manifest Destiny in Outer Space?”

Quentin Tarantino: Alternate History? or Parallel World?

Let’s begin by looking at Ray Bradbury’s story “A Sound of Thunder” which was first published in 1952, a few days after I was born. In the year 2055, time travel to the past is available as a form of big game hunting. To ensure that killing a dinosaur doesn’t change history, the guide researchesContinue reading “Quentin Tarantino: Alternate History? or Parallel World?”

The Garden of Forking Paths: A Loop of Redemption?

https://www.derechopenalenlared.com/libros/labyrinths-borges.pdf is a free online copy of Jorge Luis Borges’ translated collection Labyrinths, published in augmented form in 1964, but “The Garden of Forking Paths” was initially published by translator Donald Yates as a story in 1958. Summary: Dr. Yu Tsun, formerly a professor of English at the German college in Tsingtao, resides in EnglandContinue reading “The Garden of Forking Paths: A Loop of Redemption?”

Awakening the Butterfly: now available for download

My quantum fiction novel Awakening the Butterfly has now been released by Smashwords for distribution as an eBook: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/994836 The Smashwords price is the same ($3.99) as at Amazon (Kindle), Kobo, Barnes & Noble (Nook), and Apple Books (ISBN number: 9780463328125). https://www.kobo.com/ww/en/ebook/awakening-the-butterfly https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/awakening-the-butterfly-martin-schell/1135472542 If you’re a Smashwords member, Favorite me at: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/martinschell Happy reading! MartinContinue reading “Awakening the Butterfly: now available for download”

Awakening the Butterfly

This is an announcement of my upcoming e-Book to be distributed by Smashwords. Suppose humanoids from a relatively close part of our galaxy came to earth not as mentors or monsters but simply as trading partners. Earth could not compete with the economy of scale of their production and distribution networks, which would be suppliedContinue reading “Awakening the Butterfly”

Is the Star Trek Reboot Racist?

Star Trek: The Original Series (TOS) first aired on NBC in September 1966. It has been praised as an exemplar of our multicultural future for more than half a century. Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a fan and personally convinced Nichelle Nichols not to leave the cast after her first season of playing Lt.Continue reading “Is the Star Trek Reboot Racist?”