Looper (on DVD)

Looper [DVD Looper]

One of the best time travel films of the past 20 years! Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Bruce Willis are both superb, playing the same character, Joe. in 2074, time travel has been invented but it is essentially illegal and only used by black market forces, such as organized crime. When the mob wants to make somebody vanish, they send them backwards in time 30 years, where a “Looper” is waiting to execute the unfortunate victim. Things get complicated when old Joe (Willis), a former Looper, runs afoul of the mob in the future, and they send him back into the past for elimination by his own younger self (Gordon-Levitt). Suffice it to say, old Joe survives, and what results is a riotus action drama, with terrific stunts, lots of action sequences, and some mind-bending time travel dilemmas. I was particularly impressed by Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s performance — you could easily see his character aging into Willis’ later version of the same man. Terrific cast, and thought provoking action film. I highly recommend it!

[ Internet Movie Database entry for this film ] | [ official Looper web site ]

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library

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Timescape

Timescape
by Gregory Benford

Fans of theoretical time travel stories, and fans of hard SF should find this classic science fiction novel by Gregory Benford right up their alley. Published in 1980, the events in this novel take place 18 years before and after that date. In the "future" 1998, the planet is suffering from global ecological disasters, and despite the fact that humanity is facing the danger of extinction, a small group of scientists must still fight bureaucracy and limited financial resources in order to attempt an experiment that may allow them to send a message back in time to try to forestall or prevent the catastrophes that their society is facing. In 1962, scientists in California are analyzing seeming unexplainable results they are getting from an experiment they are running -- results that appear to be static but when analyzed seem to be a message from the future. Benford handles the theoretical physics in his SF plot very well, without talking over the heads of his non-scientific readers. His characters are well-developed too, although sometimes their "soap opera" plot elements get in the way of a gripping science fictional story. This one is a true modern classic of the genre -- having won both the Nebula Award and the John W. Campbell Award (both for best SF novel of the year!) -- and I highly recommend it! -- recommended by Scott C. - Bennett Martin Public Library

[ Timescape page on Wikipedia ] | [ official Gregory Benford web site ]

See more books like this in our Nebula Award Winners booklist

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New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide web site. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month.

How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe

How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe
by Charles Yu [Compact Disc Yu]

I really wanted to like this book (which I happened to listen to in book-on-CD form). I'd read quite nice reviews of it on various online sites, and have always been a fan of time-travel stories, so I was looking forward to giving it a sample. Yu, using himself as a narrative hero, creates an interesting time paradox, but I ended up finding the the non-stop internal monologue to become a bit tiring. The style of Yu's writing ranges from the humorous satire of Douglas Adam's Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series, to more serious scifi fare. The supporting characters -- Tammy the time machine's operating system, Phil -- the manager who doesn't realize he's a computer program -- and Ed, the dog who doesn't exist...but still does -- are all intriguing, and at times, I felt on the verge of buying into the whole tale. But then it gets mired in too much introspection and lost me again. I think some SF fans will enjoy this, for its component parts, so I'll recommend it for the casual genre fan. -- recommended by Scott C. - Bennett Martin Public Library

[Also available in downloadable E-book formats.]

[ publisher's official Charles Yu web page ]

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New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide web site. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month.