101 Sci-Fi Movies You Must See Before You Die

Published: 6th April 2009

Billed as ‘the perfect one-stop guide to classic low budget films, such as Flash Gordon to the slick CGI-realised world of The Matrix.’, 101SF certainly covers a lot of science fiction films.

Starting in the early 1900s all the way through to the current decade, it chronicles the highlights (and argueably the lowlights) of this movie genre.

Picking only 101 films is not an easy job. What makes a good scifi film? What makes one stand out? Well, it seems that in the case of this book, it means films which either break the mold, and advance the genre, or are intelligent films.

Each film takes four pages; the first page being the film poster, second and third being information on the film (including a quote in larger letters in the centre of the third page) and the fourth being a still from the film. There is also some fascinating facts in the ‘border’ of the text pages which relate to the film.
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Mystery Of Everyman’s Way: Paul Collins

The Book/Website Says:
An expatriate American, Gregory Henry Case, is a quantum physics professor at Oxford University in London, England. His life is rather dull and predictable, until his relationship with his long time girl friend abruptly ended. Case then found a body. Naturally, the authorities examined the corpse. They tested it for its DNA composition, blood type, and conducted a myriad of tissue extractions.

Dental records are matched up. Thus Case is told that the cadaver in question is not an unknown person, but was Gregory H. Case himself— one hundred and fifty years in the future!

At this point, Case meets a mysterious CIA agent, Derek Stratton, who warns Case about the exterritorial plot to kidnap him and others. too. In time, a group of astronauts, explorers from another level of reality kidnap Dr. Case from a British military installation.

They take the physicist to their planet, which is headed by another mysterious man, Father Thomas Toomey. This person sends Case on an adventure of a life time. Through an inexplicable set of circumstances, Case unwittingly drinks a secret love potion, which makes him fall in love with Princess Daphne, who is a young Barbarian royal. His new love interest is set to marry King David, which will bring peace throughout the worlds of Everyman’s Way.

Forbidden passion become their sin. If the Daphne is tossed from the throne, a nuclear war will be the result, annihilating Everyman’s Way. Will Gregory Henry Case survive? Find out more by reading the Mystery of Everyman’s Way, where sci-fi and romance collide.
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Flames Of Herakleitos: Bob Lock

Flames Of Herakleitos is a publication from publishers of Estronomicon, a fantasy, scifi, horror eZine which contains short fiction, artist showcases, interviews and book reviews. They have since branched out into publishing printed novels; Flames being one of seven currently available. With this background, it is unsurprising that Flames is embedded strongly in horror and fantasy (less so in scifi).

The cover artwork is catchy from a distance (so good for book shelves). You can see from the image it’s predominantly red, yellow, white and black - very eye catching. Unfortunately, close up, the front image looks blurry around the edges and is bland. It wouldn’t make you want to investigate the contents, and it really doesn’t do the story areas justice. A picture of a bloke with wings, with not much detail doesn’t help ’sell’ the book at all. It’s a shame, as the image of the back cover is much more impressive.

Ok, book covers don’t make or break a book (much), so how does the story hold up?

Initially, as we’re first introduced to the characters, the pace is quite slow. Somehow, due to the overly descriptive narrative, the drama of Lucy’s father burning up is lost. After a couple of chapters, we are shown another world, but the description focuses on the characters rather than the surroundings and neither the location nor the people present, came alive for me.
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The H-Bomb Girl: Stephen Baxter

“The Cuban Missile Crisis, Teddyboys, Rock N’ Roll, The Key To The End Of The World, Timetravel - There’s nothing quite like being a teenager in Liverpool during 1962…”

Laura Mann, 14, is The H-Bomb Girl and has just moved to Liverpool with her mum. Laura’s father is seperating from her mother, and he’s in the RAF, and very close to the rising angst between the US and Cuba.

This is a fictional account of history during the Cuban Missile Crisis, rise of the Beatles, threat of nuclear war and includes bit parts by the Beatles and Cilla Black. As I’ve spent quite a bit of time in and around Liverpool in the last few years, and the descriptions of 60s Liverpool, especially the Cavern and the feeling of the loud music rockets this story onto another parallel. I even looked around for footage of The Beatles playing early on in their career, and you can image The H-Bomb Girl and her friends somewhere in the crowd.

It’s worth pointing out that Baxter is well known for his harder SF, and this is quite a departure for him, don’t expect in your face SF, this is more subtle, and the way he introduces the SF elements are perfectly paced.

There is a big downside though, and that’s towards the end where the story collapses (as does the wall in The Cavern in an idiotic display of dangerousness of the British Military) and my suspension of belief was forced to vacate the area.
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TAU 4: V.J. Waks

“A being known as TAU 4, the terrible and uncontrollable brain child of a brilliant, enigmatic and ruthless scientist.”

On a distant planet of the Homeworld Alliance, Dr. Stephen Weller, acclaimed expert in behaviour, is about to penetrate one of the greatest mysteries of his field. He spent months of planning and care to get access to Altair Base, a high security experimental research facility.

Dark work is afoot at this Base controlled by Dyle Carzon and his entourage, under the guise of its focus for the war efforts against the hostile planets of the Outworlds. Securely tucked away in Altair’s encrouching forest, the Base is a natural strong hold, both to enter, and to exit.

Weller meets the being known as TAU 4, a morph, spliced together from human and Altair animal, to learn of her ‘behavioural problems’.

Victoria J. Waks has sewn together an almost poetic narrative in her debut novel, TAU4.
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