Michael G. Munz

The official website of Seattle sci-fi/fantasy author and geek Michael G. Munz

Murdering Zeus for Fun and Prophet to be published!

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(Note: Murdering Zeus for Fun and Prophet was the working title. The book will be published under the name Zeus is Dead: A Monstrously Inconvenient Adventure.)

So it’s happened.

Big news.

Epic, one might even say.

That’s right, the Seahawks actually won the Superbowl! Er, wait, that’s not it. (I mean, they DID win, but that’s not the news.) Sorry, it’s early Saturday and I haven’t yet finished my coffee. One sec.

*gulps*

Okay! So, the actual news: Seattle publisher Booktrope will be publishing my comedic fantasy novel, currently titled Murdering Zeus for Fun and Prophet!!!!

It would be accurate to say that I’m a wee bit excited about this. Yes, I do have two sci-fi novels out there right now as ebooks, but Murdering Zeus will be my first non-self published novel and will be published in both paper and electronic formats. Don’t get me wrong, self-publishing can be a great way to go–there are a great many fantastic self-published authors out there–but it’s long been a goal of mine to get a publisher interested enough in a novel I’ve written to say, “Hey, this is great! Let us put it out there!” If you’ll permit me a little pride, it’s an incredible feeling.

“That’s great, Mike, really. But quit blubbering and tell us what the novel’s about, huh?”

Impatient folk, aren’t you?

Murdering Zeus for Fun and Prophet is a comedic contemporary fantasy set in a version of our world where reality TV heroes slay actual monsters and the Greek gods have their own casinos, media empires, and Twitter feeds.

Yet the gods have only recently returned to our world. You see, Zeus (king of the Greek/Olympian gods, for those not in the know) ordered the Olympian gods to go into hiding 3,000 years ago. Everyone knows that you don’t argue with Zeus unless you want a lightning bolt where the sun don’t shine. Yet it seems that wasn’t enough to stop someone from assassinating him nine months ago, and with Zeus dead, his order fell by the wayside. The Olympians are back! (Except, obviously, for Zeus.) And if you thought mortal celebrities had big egos, you ain’t seen nothing yet.

This is not to say that killing an immortal is commonplace in this story; it’s got the entire pantheon quite consternated. Someone out there can KILL them? As in dead? Forever? Heck, even the Titans only got locked up in Tartarus after the Olympian gods overthrew them, and those bastards were dangerous! It’s got them so disturbed that they’ve all decided en masse to just, well, kind of ignore the question of exactly who ganked him. Why poke about in matters that might get them killed, too? Besides, now they can strut their stuff openly among the mortals again, and who doesn’t love attention?

I won’t go into too many details about the actual plot just yet, but I will say that I had a blast writing this book. I got to throw the full force of my sense of humor into the voice (my sci-fi novels are obviously more serious), and I’ve always been fascinated with Greek mythology. I can’t wait to share this book with all of you.

I don’t yet know quite when it will come out, but sometime in 2014, certainly. Booktrope is a new publisher (but so far quite successful–they’ve been written up in Forbes), working on a different publishing model to adapt to the evolution of the publishing industry. That means a shorter time to publication than the year or more that older publishers can take. But we’ve still got to do some editing, cover design, layout, etc. I’m excited to get going on it all, and I look forward to being able to show you the cover once it’s available.

In the meantime, why not follow one of the book’s characters on Twitter? Thalia is one of the nine Muses, and responsible for musing comedy, poems about farming, and science fiction. Yes, science fiction. What, did you think the Muses just ignored the modern genres?

I leave you now with a quote from Thalia, who tends to babble. A lot:

“I’m not Artemis here, you know! I can only talk to animals, I don’t have some special stupid slavery-power over them! You think training a cat is bad, try getting a bird to do what you want it to do! There’s a reason ‘flighty’ means what it means! And for that matter, we’re dealing with jewelry here! Birds do not like carrying jewelry for anyone! Tolkien understood that; why can’t you? Stay here!”

Keep an eye out on this blog, my Twitter feed, or my Facebook page for more info on Murdering Zeus for Fun and Prophet! Further bulletins as events warrant. (3/13/14 edit: Like this one and this one about the origins and writing of the book…)

Robocop remake (mostly non-spoiler review)

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Last night I had the opportunity to see a sneak preview of the Robocop remake (to be released February 12th, 2014) here in Seattle. My reaction?

Okay, so I suppose I should elaborate. I’m a fan of the original. While not the best movie in the entire world ever, one cannot deny that the original most definitely has character, owing primarily to Verhoeven’s direction and many actor performances (including 3 Twin Peaks alumni). It made its mark on sci-fi culture, reflecting and informing the cyberpunk sub-genre and engraving upon geek consciousness phrases like “Dead or alive, you’re coming with me!”, “Can you fly, Bobby?”, and of course, “I’d buy that for a dollar!”

You should see him at the 99 Cent Store.

I’m not normally a fan of remakes. At the moment, I can’t think of any remake that wasn’t less enjoyable than the original; most seem pale imitations with no reason for being beyond cashing in on nostalgia. The new Robocop is the exception. It pays appropriate homage to the original, but it does not attempt to ape it. The new version is its own movie, its own interpretation, with its own reason for being. While the original is a product of the late 1980s in its satirical themes of corporate corruption and the “me-generation,” the remake reflects today’s culture in both the presentation of Omnicorp (Michael Keaton’s character feels to me very much like an evil Steve Jobs) and the theme of unmanned drones. It doesn’t have the satirical bite that the original did, but what would be the point of making the same movie in Verhoeven’s style without Verhoeven? (That’s what Robocop 2 and 3 attempted, and you know how THAT turned out. Good God, Robocop 3. *shudders*)

In many ways it’s actually more thoughtful, more cerebral, than the original. It’s not afraid to take time for emotional beats or to do what sci-fi can really do well: take a look at the human condition from another angle. This isn’t a movie you “turn off your brain” for. I suspect, had I seen it before writing A Memory in the Black, it would have influenced some of the ideas I explored in that book.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s got plenty of action, too. This is Robocop, after all. Action scenes are engaging and exciting without falling victim to the hated (at least by me) “shaky-cam” convention. The filmmakers can do things with (multiple) ED-209s that just couldn’t be done in the original. It’s PG-13, yes, but unless you absolutely need nudity and blood-festooned carnage on screen in all your movies, it doesn’t suffer for it. It’s not without graphic images, but they’re graphic in a different sort of way. And heck, the opening scene had me surprised that it WASN’T rated R. Also, Samuel L. Jackson does manage to get a “motherfucking” in there.

So how different is it, plot-wise? Like I said, it doesn’t try to ape the original. It takes the original’s premise, respects it, and finds its own way to tell the story. After seeing the trailers, I had certain expectations with how some things were going to go, but the trailers are, in some ways, deceiving. I was pleasantly surprised by many things, though I won’t go into detail here, so as to avoid spoilers. There’s a great scene about, oh, a third of the way in that made me gasp. That was the point when I completely put my faith in the film to execute itself in a worthy fashion. (If you’re curious, it’s the scene when the doctor brings the mirror up.)

If you’re at all curious about this movie, go see it. It doesn’t try to replace the original. They’re sci-fi movies of a different flavor: both good, just different. Plus, it’s got Samuel L. Jackson, Jackie Earle Haley, Gary Oldman, Michael Keaton, and a woman I recognized from the police station siege during I think it was season 3 of Supernatural. (Sadly, no Twin Peaks actors.)

Not worried about semi-minor spoilers? Here’s a quick rundown of some of the homages/differences that I can remember:

Some things still the same:
The lead is still named Alex Murphy, his partner’s name is still Lewis (but Lewis is a  guy), there are ED-209s, and a media figure still helps to frame the story. Robocop still has a good solid weight to him. The sound effects for his movement were not disappointing. There’s a definite homage to the drug factory from the original. Oh! And they used the original Robocop theme! (I was pleased.)

Some things slightly changed:
Robocop’s creator (Gary Oldman) is Dennett Norton rather than Bob Morton. OCP is now Omnicorp, but OCP is Omnicorp’s parent company. The ED-209 is already functional and out in the world (but legally bound from being deployed in the U.S.) at the start. Robocop himself is a little slimmer and SOMETIMES painted black. It’s a car bomb that gets Murphy rather than massive repeated gunshot wounds. Directive 4’s concept is still there, but it takes a slightly different form in a way that worked well for me. Oh, and I think we do briefly see the old Robocop design at one point on a screen, but I’d need to see it again to be sure.

Major changes (I still don’t want to list major spoilers so I’ll only list a few):
The plot itself is different in ways I won’t go into. No direct Dick Jones equivalent, The criminal bad guy isn’t named Boddicker. (Side note: I think he stole Brad Dourif’s eyes.) Robocop’s creator is a different sort of guy from the original. No toxic waste, Cobra Assault Cannons, or gunshot wounds to the crotch. Still plenty of excellent scenes of Robocop, er, robocopping, though.

Oh, and as for certain catch phrases:
“Dead or alive, you’re coming with me!” – It’s in the movie, but with a different context. Mostly works.
“Can you fly, Bobby?” – Nope.
“Stay out of trouble.” – I’m not actually sure on this one, but I don’t remember it.
“I’d buy that for a dollar!” – At one point a character says, “I wouldn’t buy that for a dollar!” And you know what? It works perfectly. Though there’s no Bixby Snyder.

So, yeah, good movie.

Excerpt: A Dragon at the Gate

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Happy New Year! New Year’s Day finds me working on A Dragon at the Gate (Book Three of the New Aeneid Cycle, if you’re new around here). Unfortunately, it finds me just a little sluggish with the whole stringing words together part, so while I wait to regain my writer’s perspicacity, I’ve decided to give a little glimpse into some of what’s written so far.

Obviously this is still a rough draft, but I figure it’s a good teaser. Obviously again, this has some spoilers. There’s nothing major, but it does at least tell you some of whom has survived the first two books, and a hint of something that’s going on in the early parts of book three. Continue at your own discretion… [Read more…]

Farscape Rewatch: “Look at the Princess, Part I” (spoilers)

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Season 2, Episode 11: “Look at the Princess, Part I”
****1/2 out of *****

“After we’re married, and I mean RIGHT after, they turn us into statues.”
“That. Is. Fascinating!”
“Excellent. D’Argo discovers science.”

This is Farscape’s first three-part episode, which I expect likely surprised some people at the end of part 2. (Did anyone really do three-parters then?) Crichton finds himself at the center of some royal political intrigue when it’s discovered that his funny human genes are the only ones on the whole planet compatible with the colony’s princess. Soon it’s either marry her and live out his life there, or get handed over to Scorpius’s Brain Vivisection Emporium.

This is a great episode, and a great series of episodes. Caught as the planet is between the Peacekeepers and the Scarren Empire[1] the episode is primarily filled with political intrigue. It’s intriguing to watch the maneuvering all around Crichton as he tries to just figure a way through it all, torn between freedom, safety, and death. There’s not much action in this episode, but the political maneuvering keeps things tense. Scorpius is menacing even when he’s just talking calmly to D’Argo in a bar [2]. Rygel gets to play quite competently in his element (politics, I mean, not water). It’s clear he’s used to such arenas (and quite happy to be in them again, even for just a while). Someone put Rygel into Game of Thrones, hmm?

Meanwhile, Aeryn gets all cranky and complicated and frustrated because she doesn’t know how to–or is afraid to–show her feelings. It sets her on a trajectory that will lead to her soon running off with a male model.

D’Argo gets a fair bit to do too [3], and much more than one would have expected in the early part of the first season. He’s John’s sounding board, especially since Aeryn’s all riled up. In counseling John, especially after he’s just found out about the statue, D’Argo’s advice grows more philosophical than we usually see from him. It’s a nice new side to the character, and there’s a bit of subtext in that when D’Argo’s talking about all the positive things of settling down in a stable place and raising a family, there’s likely a huge part of him wishing he were in Crichton’s place. Also that scene has a great end to “cut the treacle” a little: “If I do this, you’re going to have to be my best man.” “Ah…I’m with Chiana now, John.”

Of course, it ends with John’s face being melty-warped (seems like that’d be hard to recover from), and a “to be continued…”

 Last line:
“Here’s your wedding present, from Prince Clavor.”

Other Comments:
The bit in the bar where Aeryn kisses Rygel is possibly one of the funniest scenes in Farscape.

The pyramid shape of royal palace is evocative of a goa’uld Ha’tac ship from Stargate. ‘Cept pointier.

If the Scarrens are trying to get the prince into office so they can gain influence, but the prince won’t actually begin ruling for at least 80 years, they’re playing quite the long game. Or maybe we’re just not supposed to think of that.

——
[1] Scarrens as a race were briefly mentioned before, but this is the first time we see one, and the first time we hear of the Scarren Empire being a major force.

[2] Is this one of the few scenes he has with D’Argo in the whole series?

[3] Including Chiana…

Game Review: The Last of Us

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So my blu-ray player failed me a little while ago, and I decided to take the excuse to pick up a PS3 and enter the console world. One of my reasons for going with the PS3 was because it was the only way to play The Last of Us, for which I’d seen some previews before it came out. As a PC gamer, I’d been disappointed to learn that it was PS3 only. So now I could finally give it a try. Save for some minor quibbles, I wasn’t disappointed.

I tend to prefer games with a great story to go with the gameplay (Mass Effect, Deus Ex, Planescape: Torment, Knights of the Old Republic, etc.). The Last of Us is engaging and touching, set in a well-realized world with very human characters voiced in most cases by skilled actors. (Joel can be a little over-grizzled at times, but it’s a minor thing.)

As for the gameplay, I had a great time. I really like games where you can’t just blast your way through everything with unlimited ammo and health packs everywhere. The Last of Us has a limited ammo system that really made me feel like I was scavenging my way through a real post-apocalyptic setting. There were times I had to make real choices between trying to handle an enemy with the few bullets I had left, sneak in and use my last shiv, or just try to slip by completely unnoticed. Finding ammo or supplies was almost always fun in itself, because they had real value and were never something I could take for granted.

The fact that it was my first console game and I was unused to the controller may have also contributed to this. I was a lousy shot for a while, which made things all the more fun in its own way in this context.

The setting was quite well rendered, both graphically speaking and in terms of story. There’s something about climbing through the ruins of modern buildings covered in ivy with escaped zoo animals roaming around that’s just plain fun, and the infected enemies were more than a little disturbing (I hate that damned clicking sound!), though perhaps not quite as much as, say, Half-life 2’s screaming headcrab zombies.

I only had two real problems with the game. The first was that it seemed to end rather abruptly. I hadn’t realized I was IN the endgame; gameplay-wise it felt like more of the same. (I was still having fun, but it didn’t feel like there was any ramp-up.) The story also fell apart just a little bit for me toward the end, at least in the sense that I stopped sympathizing with Joel and was becoming a bit frustrated that I was having to go along with one particular choice he made in order to continue to play the game. Granted, that choice WAS in character for him, so it’s not bad writing. I just felt a bit of a disconnect at that point.

As for the second, I’d really been hoping for more of an exploration for just how this whole spore-zombie thing got started. I wanted to know more about the infection itself, and that just wasn’t explored. Perhaps I missed something? I understand that after 20 years, such information is probably less important to most people in the game than just finding ways to survive, but I wanted more satisfaction there. Maybe in the sequel.

Farscape Rewatch: “Out of Their Minds” (spoilers)

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Season 2, Episode 9: “Out of Their Minds”
****1/2 out of *****
“Disgusting! ‘If you say so, John!’ ‘Trust me. It’ll be all right!’ And she believes it! Well, yotz, if I said that you’d all VOMIT!”
Body-swapping is such a common occurrence in sci-fi/fantasy television that I’m sure it’s got its own page on TVTropes. (Yep!) Even so, I’m going to go on record as saying this may be the most entertainment body-swapping episode in all of TV. It’s one of my favorite Farscape episodes, and a welcome high point in the sometimes mediocre first half of season 2.
Moya runs across a damaged alien ship that turns out to be Halosian [1] and a survivor of a recent battle with Crais and Talyn. The Halosian’s weapon interacts with Moya’s partially-functioning defense screen in the utterly logical way of making people near each other switch bodies. [2] Hilarity ensues.
I put this episode above all the other body-swap episodes I’ve seen for two reasons:

  1. The actors. They’re excellent at portraying their fellows in both body language and tone of voice. Claudia Black manages an American accent, Jonathan Hardy’s voice coming out in non-cranky fashion is a curious novelty, and Anthony Simcoe does such a great Chiana-in-D’Argo that I can’t help but wonder if he’d been doing impressions of her on the set already.
  2. It goes where most body-switching eps don’t in terms of how the characters deal with the fact of being in new bodies that they might have previously admired.[3] Plus with the characters being aliens it adds another element to it. Yeah, so it might be bathroom humor, but the bit with John, mortified, telling Rygel how to urinate (and Rygel’s utter enthusiasm for the process) is priceless. Too bad he didn’t warn him about zippers.

It’s not all played for humor, though. There’s a great moment between Pilot and D’Argo where they discuss all the things that their respective lives give them and deny them. It’s a very grass-is-greener moment, and considering Pilot’s existence of being bonded to Moya for the rest of his life, very poignant.
The episode’s only weakness may be Zhaan aboard the Halosian ship. In order to provide enough time for things to develop on Moya, it seems the plot requires her to spend a little too much time reasoning with the Halosians via using arguments that would sway her but clearly have no effect on them. Granted, having her take such an approach is in character for her, but she keeps it up a bit too long before changing her approach.
Last line:
“Excuse me?”
Other Comments:
It’s amazing that the Halosians can speak so well without lips. (Yeah, okay, so they did look like Skeksis, but the mouths were…not the strong point of the design.)
Boy, this episode’s version of the semi-recurring Chiana/Rygel “let’s bail and run” scene has an entirely different feel to it, doesn’t it?
——
[1] Upon my first watching, even before the body-swapping began, I liked this episode just for the Halosian’s resemblance to another Henson creation, the Skeksis. I was disappointed that Crichton didn’t make a reference, but he does eventually do so in a later episode, if I remember correctly…
Source
[2] Yeah, okay, just a liiiittle unlikely, but it’s fun, so screw this thing called “realism.”
[3] John in Aeryn: “Oh, come on, man! I’m– They’re here. They’re right here. They’ve been here for a couple of arns, and I just had to–“
Aeryn in Rygel: “You are mentally damaged.”
John: “I’m a guy. A guy. Guys dream about this sort of thing.”
Aeryn: “I’ll tell you one thing Crichton, if I find you’ve been dreaming anything else to my body I’ll break your legs, even if they are mine.”

Farscape Rewatch: “Dream A Little Dream” (spoilers)

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Season 2, Episode 8: “Dream A Little Dream”
** out of *****

“I thought we might even pull this off. But you and me, not lying? Are you mad?”

Dream A Little Dream is actually the original first episode of the second season [1], re-tooled now as a flashback that shows what everyone on Moya went through between Family Ties and Mind the Baby.

While searching the last planet Crichton, Aeryn, and D’Argo might have escaped to after destroying Scorpius’s Gammak base–a planet that’s 90% lawyers–Zhaan is framed for the horrible, unthinkable, savage crime of jaywalking. Well, okay, so first she’s framed for jaywalking, THEN framed for murder. So I guess the latter is really more the issue.

It’s an interesting idea that a lawyer on this planet who puts on a defense he even suspects as being false he suffers the same fate as his client. I’m not sure how a 90% lawyer society could actually function, but, as often is the case with stories like this, it’s really meant more as a satirical tool rather than a model of a real society. Creative license.

While the concept of Chiana and Rygel having to win a trial without lying is a fun idea, in execution the episode isn’t terribly interesting to watch after you know what happens. And since it’s a flashback in the first place, and we already know that nothing of consequence really goes on, it’s not so interesting to watch the first time, either, as I recall. The whole “light of truth” bit seems far too hokey to actually work without more political backing.

One thing the episode does accomplish is to show us a bit more of the group’s emotional states as they dealt with the loss of their friends. Zhaan is taking it especially hard due to the fact that she’s both trying to cope herself and trying to aid the others in working through their own loss. The stress of it all is fraying Zhaan’s sanity. She’s going to pieces and hallucinating her lost comrades. It’s some insight into why she was re-entering the Seek in Mind the Baby. It’s just a shame the episode that brought this insight wasn’t a little better.

Last line:
“Thank you for your compassion.”
“Thank you for yours.”

Other Comments:
Zhaan hallucinates Crichton so accurately he even makes a pop-culture reference that she probably couldn’t have come up with herself.

——
[1] Named “Re: Union”