It’s always hard to judge movies aimed squarely at young kids from the perspective of a jaded adult.  Especially because I love to go back and revisit the movies I have fond  memories of - unfortunately, after watching them I’m disgusted with my taste as a child.  Still, the new entry into the Witch Mountain franchise(?) starring The Rock and a couple of kids looks like it could be good, disposable fun to take young cousins or nieces and nephews to.  Something the slightly older too cool for Pixar crowd might like.

Also, The Rock ya’ll.  Definitely the action star we’ve been looking for since Arnold, Sly adn JCVD’s slide into irrelevance.

Official Plot Synopsis: Race to Witch Mountain is a thrilling action-adventure about a hard luck Las Vegas cab driver Jack Bruno (DWAYNE JOHNSON), whose life is thrown into chaos when apparent ‘runaway’ teenagers Sara (ANNASOPHIA ROBB) and Seth (ALEXANDER LUDWIG) jump into his taxi. He soon realizes his two fares are children with exceptional paranormal powers whom he must protect as they elude a collection of ruthless enemies.

Race to Witch Mountain hits theaters on March 13th 2009.

Of all the books I’ve borrowed, there’s one book that holds a seminal place within my personal canon. Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash has not only made me friends (there’s something about the idea of a city franchise that’s an instant bonder with new acquaintances) but it actually got me my first job (the magazine was doing a story on Second Life, a virtual reality program inspired by the cyberpunk novel). The book was slow to start and the ending was close to nonsensical, but everything in the middle was nothing short of genius and I would be lying if I denied that Stephenson holds a special place in my heart.

Above is a video of Stephenson giving a lecture on literary genres at Gresham College in London last May. It’s a pretty interesting topic and if you’re a “SF kind of person” you will get a kick out of Stephenson’s referral to anything not of the SF world as the “mundane”.

[Neal Stephenson Lecture on Genres]
(via BoingBoing via Beyond the Beyond)

There is a free online novel that takes place in the Firefly universe being put out by sci-fi author Stephen Brust. I confess I am not familiar with him, but those who are seem very appreciative of his talents. I can’t tell you how good it is, because after reading the first couple of pages, I had to drop everything to make sure that I got the news to everybody in Oysterland.

If you’re like me, and find the best thing about the Whedonverse is the way he crafts dialogue, I think you will not be disappointed.

The novel is My Own Kind of Freedom, which can be downloaded here.