I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review, thank you!

 

When I requested this book I think what I was looking for was a book that could give me some background information on sci-fi movies. What I got was more than a little background. I might even say a bit too much.

 

I like watching movies, and I think I've seen an average amount of sci-fi, so I hadn't expected to feel so dumb while reading this. All these movies/actors I hadn't even heard of! (I've to admit that films from the '50s are not my speciality and I haven't seen a great deal of them).

 

There is a lot of detail, and a lot of films are mentioned (their plots are spoiled, so if you don't want that, you should pass this book). But, really, there's a massive amount of films in it (also the less successful movie adaptations like The Hitchhiker's Gide to the Galaxy).

 

The first chapter is Metropolis, the last one Avatar, and in between they travel through a century of sci-fi films. There were moments where I didn't really understood the classification of the chapters. There's a chapter on erotic sci-fi, that's clear. But, there are also two chapters on time travel, but they are far apart, and I didn't really see why some movies wound up in the first and others in the second chapter. The chapter on Independence Day also comments on MIB (and a lot of other films) but is the only combining factor in this Will Smith?

 

Overall, it was a bit of a struggle to finish this for me, but I think there's a group of people that will really like it. But you'll have to know a lot on sci-fi already or be really interested in it to fully like it.

The Howard Hughes Affair (Toby Peters Se... A well plotted PI story with lots of 1940's Hollywood lore though the main character, Toby Peters, takes a few too many blows to the head for my comfort.

I picked this up on remainder, in an edition that had obviously been rushed out to take advantage of the release of the Hughes biopic "The Aviator" (which I have not seen). Higham cites a massive number of sources and original interviews in his closing pages; why, then, do I still feel when reading his work that I am swimming in the shallow, gossipy end of the biography pool? Possibly it is something to do with his narrative tone, which admits of no argument from or doubt of his own interpretation of the facts - there are no alternative possibilities presented to the reader in the manner one is used to in more academic biographies. Possibly, too, it derives from his harsh scorn for his subject, which suggests those interpretations may be less than objective, though admittedly this particular subject is not a particularly sympathetic one. Anyway, I found, as I expect most casual readers would, that I enjoyed the early chapters about the Hollywood producing career and the sexual philanderings with both sexes, was mildly interested in the middle section on aviation, and found the last chapters on Hughes' financial, political and military misdealings both horrifying and tedious in the extreme. One thing I regretted (and it may have to do with that phrase "rushed out") is that there were no photographic illustrations at all.