Author: kane2026

The X-Files S11E04 The Lost Art of Forehead Sweat - Doctor They

TV-series

The X-Files S11E04 “The Lost Art of Forehead Sweat” Review

The Lost Art of Forehead Sweat This week’s episode of The X-Files was totally not what I expected. In fact, I am not sure that I fully understand it. It is aptly named “The Lost Art of Forehead Sweat” after the conspiracy-theorist-of-the-week. This episode has a fair share of absurdist humor common to X-Files, and it might be a little bit confusing at times. Nonetheless the episode is worth viewing twice just so you get it. It starts familiarly enough. Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) meets a man named Reggie in parking garage. Their meet was arranged using the same method Mulder used...

Literature

Dark State by Charles Stross Review – Jaunting back into the Empire Games

Dark State Before reading Empire Games last year I had never read a book in the Merchant Princess series by Charles Stross. Empire Games is the first in a new trilogy that would not require prior knowledge. I certainly did not regret reading it. I have been looking forward to the second novel – Dark State – ever since. A small recap The Merchant Princess is set in a alternative universe in which certain people can travel to parallel worlds. It is called jaunting or world-walking. Such people are members of The Clan and the novels set before Empire Games dealt with their...

Sherlock Holmes

Literature

Read my Sherlock Holmes short story on FanFiction.net

Sherlock Holmes on FanFiction.net Fans of Sherlock Holmes can read a short story I wrote on FanFiction.net (follow the link to the story). I just uploaded Sherlock Holmes The adventure of the Second Woman Who Wasn’t. And so I cannot be certain others can read it straight away. It is a Science Fiction story with background references to Neural Networks and crime solving computer systems. I had been wanting to do a Sherlock Holmes story for a while. At first I considered combining it with Star Trek (a lot of Trekkies are Holmes fans too). However, the story is instead set in the...

Franzis Retro Aracde Kit

Computer Games

Franzis Retro Arcade Kit – tinkering with old-school Pong through the New Year

Franzis Retro Arcade Kit During the Christmas holidays I was in Berlin. There I visited the famous Dussmann bookstore – 4 stories worth of books, Blu-ray’s, trinkets and electronic kits. The latter surprised me and I could not resist picking up a small DIY Pong Retro Arcade kit. It is essentially a long title for a kit that allows you to put together your own small 70s console that plays Pong. At 29.99 euros I decided not to look this horse in the mouth. It is produced by a company called Franzis, but an older version of the kit is...

A Happy New Year from SciFiEmpire.net

Computer Games / DVD / Film / Literature / TV-series

A Happy 2018 from SciFiEmpire.net, your website for all Sci-Fi news

A Happy 2018 from SciFiEmpire.net I want to wish every reader of SciFiEmpire.net a Happy 2018. I think it will be easier this year. Last year we had just lost Carrie Fisher and her mother and the election of Donald Trump was weighing on the minds of a lot of people. Yet, since then things have changed considerably. Looking back on 2017 And so 2017 has also come and gone. As I am growing older it feels like the years are passing by more quickly. Well, what a year 2017 has been. Donald Trump was in the news more often than...

Solo A Star Wars Story poster

Film

Preview of 2018 Science Fiction Movies with Solo, Jurassic World and many more

Preview of 2018 Science Fiction Movies 2017 was probably one of the best years in science fiction film – maybe ever. With movies such as Blade Runner 2049, The Last Jedi and Logan spoiling us with quality and controversy. But there was plenty more: Thor Ragnarok, Alien: Covenant, War for the Planet of the Apes and Valerian. Looking back it was just too much. But the question is. Can 2018 emulate that list? The short answer is no as there is no Blade Runner movie set for 2018. Also the Han Solo movie is not part of the sequel trilogy. So what...

TV-series

Wishing you a happy Christmas, from SciFiEmpire.net

Wishing you a happy Christmas, from SciFiEmpire.net Christmas is here and so the year is also nearly over. As the author of SciFiEmpire.net I have been wishing readers a happy Christmas for a few years now. Except last year when I was on hiatus. However, the days before the holidays always make me think back to what has been going on in my life. When I wrote a similar Christmas post in 2015 I had just started a new job (and since I have started a new one) and I has just seen The Force Awakens at the cinema. Thus...

Film / TV-series

Acting Outlaws 2018 Calendar – Katee Sackhoff and Tricia Helfer get naked for charity

Acting Outlaws 2018 Calendar Acting Outlaws is a continuing charity organized by actresses Katee Sackhoff and Tricia Helfer. They use their risqué poses to collect money for a good cause – besides acting like genuine outlaws and driving motorcycles. Every year I cover the release of their upcoming calendar, this year is no different. However, it appears that the Acting Outlaws 2018 Calendar has been available on RedBubble.com for a while. It is now a self-updating offering. I especially like the colour version. Besides the calendar you can also purchase prints, mugs and pillows with the semi-naked bodies of either actress displayed...

Artemis by Andy Weir book cover

Literature

Review of Artemis by Andy Weir with his first novel since The Martian

Artemis It has been nearly 6 years since author Andy Weir ‘officially’ published his novel The Martian. That story set of a renewed interest in popular hard-science fiction and spawned a Ridley Scott movie. Now the author is back with Artemis – another hard sci-fi novel, this time set on the moon. Artemis is very different from The Martian. It focuses on a female protagonist, professional under-achiever Jazz Bashara. It is also a heist story, of sorts, whereas The Martian is a survival story. Non-spoiler synopsis Set in the late 2080s Jazz must try to live on Artemis base. Despite being...

The Western Star review by Craig Johnson

Literature

Review of The Western Star by Craig Johnson

The Western Star Ever since the final season of Longmire became available on Netflix I cannot get enough of the franchise. As the series has come to an end I have to satisfy my Longmire urges through other means. And so I have started to read the novels that inspired the series – written by Wyoming author Craig Johnson. This is a short review on The Western Star, the latest novel published in September. A small synopsis The Western Star tells the story of how Walt Longmire first began to deputize Sheriff Lucian Connolly, back in 1972. The title of the...

Skyrim on Nintendo Switch Review 6

Computer Games

Skyrim on Nintendo Switch Review – a mostly successful second lease of life

Skyrim on the Nintendo Switch Review One of the games first announced for the Nintendo Switch was The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim by Bethesda. Skyrim was previewed in the Switch announcement trailer back last year. My initial impressions were not favorable, I did not want the new Nintendo console to become the dumping ground for ports of 5 year old games. Nonetheless, I believe the initial announcement did make the Switch more palatable for gamers and developers. Now Skyrim has been finally released for Nintendo’s new console and it comes hot on the heels of Super Mario Odyssey. One thing that Bethesda has done new is...

Happy Thanksgiving wallpaper

Computer Games / DVD / Film / Literature / TV-series

Wishing everybody a Happy Thanksgiving + some Black Friday tips

Happy Thanksgiving I wanted to wish everybody a happy Thanksgiving. I am sure that after all the roast turkey, pastries, marshmallows and drinks you will be looking to do something else. Perhaps even browse the internet to see what is worth your money on Black Friday. So what can you do during thanksgiving if all the fine dining is over? Well, if you need any persuasion in playing Super Mario Odyssey or Star Wars Battlefront 2 here are links to my reviews. Of course for Super Mario you will need a Nintendo Switch. I have uploaded an unboxing article just recently....

Longmire Walt and Vic together

TV-series

Longmire Season 6 Review – Walt and Vic go on a rodeo one last time

Longmire Season 6 Review Season 6 of Longmire was released by Netflix just under a week ago. Only now have I been able to complete my binge watching sessions. And so here is my review of the, sadly, last season of Longmire. I am not certain why I started watching Longmire. I think it may have been because a promo Katee Sackhoff did before the show even aired. Frankly, I have been addicted to my seasonal Longmire episodes for 5 years. The titular character, Walt Longmire, is a different breed of police officer. He is not a detective, but a Sherriff in the...

Berlin Station S02Ep07 Right and Wrong Review Hector DeJean aims his rifle

TV-series

Berlin Station S02Ep07 Right and Wrong Review – Does Hector take the shot?

Berlin Station S02Ep07 Right and Wrong Review Fuck my life. Well,…. Pardon my swearing but Berlin Station just yanked my chain like few shows have. I suppose there no way to avoid a spoiler but this seventh episode ends on the sound of a suppressed weapon being fired. This happens as Hector DeJean is aiming his rifle at far-right politician Catarina Gerhardt. So the questions is. Did he take the shot? Or was he shot instead, and if so, by whom? Betrayal This my review of the seventh episode of Berlin Station’s second season. During the last episode Robert and Steven discovered...

Battlefront 2 - Janina Gavankar as Iden Versio

Computer Games

Star Wars Battlefront 2 Review – finally a Star Wars story campaign to remember

Star Wars Battlefront 2 Review Finally I have been able to spend some decent quality time with EA’s latest Star Wars offering. Star Wars Battlefront 2 is the official successor to the lackluster Battlefront 1 from 2015. That game, whilst very pretty lacked a campaign story and suffered from repetitive multi-player. For Battlefront 2 EA and Disney have tried to address these major gripes, and mostly succeeded. I won’t go too much into the micro-transactions debacle that has been reported on. Lets just focus on the game. Single-player Campaign Finally Star Wars fans are able to once again play a single-player story....

Justice-League-Batman-Wonder-Woman-and-the-Flash

Film

Justice League Review – a team of superheroes that cannot match The Avengers

Justice League Review So finally after many years of speculation the first Justice League movie has arrived. Well, there was Batman v Superman, and Wonder Woman before it. Nonetheless Justice League is meant to be for DC Comics what The Avengers is for Marvel. Sadly, it cannot match the quality of that other movie. If I was a cynical person I would say that Justice League was yet another failure on the part of Warner Brothers and director Zack Snyder. Now don’t get me wrong, it is not a bad movie, not by any means. But it is weak. In my...