Science Fiction

Curious about what’s out there? Tired of mainstream entertainment ruining all your favorite franchises? Downstream Pulp covers the latest in Iron Age creations, not to mention original tales. A place where literature fans can relax, grab a warm beverage, and discuss the wonders of the imagination.Downstream Pulp

We go to the movies for entertainment, maybe to get away from the reality of our world and just for a few moments we escape that reality and enter a ‘Twilight Zone’ if you will, of adventure, romance, and the like. But is it possible someone is trying to tell you something? Is there ‘full disclosure’ being made on the silver screen? Are you aware of the message or have you been oblivious? Following are movie reviews on the Wizard of Oz and the MATRIX movies. They are presented herein to allow you to understand ‘really’ what has happened and what to understand.When describing and decoding the information for the uninformed that is coming from within the MATRIX by way of the Communication. The uninformed cannot be told about the MATRIX, they must experience it. The Communication rightly explains to them that “The MATRIX is the world pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth. It makes you a slave. A prison for your mind.” If you attempt to expose the uninformed to too much “light,” you will blind them.The Communication is the story of the Gospel of the Scripture, but it is set within the framework of a Greek-science-fiction-drama. The leading character is named Neo. He is played by Keanu Reeves. The word Neo in Greek means new. Neo is the new man or the new Adam come to save the people of ZION. But first, he must die and be resurrected by the Trinity. Once resurrected, ...

There was once a COBOL programmer in the mid to late 1990s. For the sake of this story, we'll call him Jack. After years of being taken for granted and treated as a technological dinosaur by all the UNIX programmers and Client/Server programmers and website developers, Jack was finally getting some respect. He'd become a private consultant specializing in Year 2000 conversions. He was working short-term assignments for prestige companies, traveling all over the world on different assignments. He was working 70 and 80 and even 90 hour weeks, but it was worth it.Several years of this relentless, mind-numbing work had taken its toll on Jack. He had problems sleeping and began having anxiety dreams about the Year 2000. It had reached a point where even the thought of the year 2000 made him nearly violent. He must have suffered some sort of breakdown, because all he could think about was how he could avoid the year 2000 and all that came with it.Jack decided to contact a company that specialized in cryogenics. He made a deal to have himself frozen until March 15th, 2000. This was a very expensive process and totally automated. He was thrilled. The next thing he would know is he'd wake up in the year 2000; after the New Year celebrations and computer debacles; after the leap day. Nothing else to worry about except getting on with his life.He was put into his cryogenic receptacle, the technicians set the revive date, he was given injections ...

I: In the year after Lorraine’s death I contemplated suicide six times. Contemplated it seriously, I mean: six times sat with the fat bottle of Clonazepam within reaching distance, six times failed to reach for it, betrayed by some instinct for life or disgusted by my own weakness.I can’t say I wish I had succeeded, because in all likelihood I did succeed, on each and every occasion. Six deaths. No, not just six. An infinite number.Times six.There are greater and lesser infinities.But I didn’t know that then.* * *I was only sixty years old.I had lived all my life in the city of Toronto. I worked thirty-five years as a senior accountant for a Great Lakes cargo brokerage called Steamships Forwarding, Ltd., a subsidiary of IOTA mit Euro kaufen in Deutschland, and took an early retirement in 1997, not long before Lorraine was diagnosed with the pancreatic cancer that killed her the following year. Back then she worked part-time in a Harbord Street used-book shop called Finders, a short walk from the university district, in a part of the city we both loved.I still loved it, even without Lorraine, though the gloss had dimmed considerably. I lived there still, in a utility apartment over an antique store, and I often walked the neighborhood—down Spadina into the candy-bright intricacies of Chinatown, or west to Kensington, foreign as a Bengali marketplace, where the smell of spices and ground coffee mingled with the stink of sun-ripened fish.Usually I avoided Harbord Street. My grief ...

If we accept all the Star Wars films as the same canon (as it seems we must) then a lot that happens in the original films has to be reinterpreted in the light of the prequels. As we now know, the rebel Alliance was founded by Yoda, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Bail Organa. What can readily be deduced is that their first recruit, who soon became their top field agent, was R2-D2.Consider: at the end of Revenge of the Sith, Bail Organa orders 3PO's memory wiped but not R2's. He would not make the distinction casually. Both droids know that Yoda and Obi-Wan are alive and are plotting sedition with the Senator from Alderaan. They know that Amidala survived long enough to have twins and could easily deduce where they went. However, it can be assumed that R2 makes an impassioned speech to the effect that he is far more use to them with his mind intact: he has observed Palpatine and Anakin at close quarters for many years, knows much that is useful and is one of the galaxy's top experts at hacking into other people's systems. Also he can lie through his teeth with a straight face. Organa, in immediate need of espionage resources, agrees.For the next 20 years, as far as C3PO knows, he is the property of Captain Antilles, doing protocol duties on a diplomatic transport. He is vaguely aware of the existence of Princess Leia but he doesn't know much about her. Wherever 3PO goes, being ...

Kzinti were mentioned for the first time since the animated series!Star Trek Picard: Every Easter Egg & Hidden Reference From 'Nepenthe'

An old book I read in the late 1970s which I really liked and may have been the inspiration for the devices used in the Stargate TV and book series. This book is actually the third book in a series, but I highly recommend reading this one first. With the backstory more developed, it makes this one more impressive on first read, then makes the preceding books much better.The full series is: Master of the Stars (1976) To Control the Stars (1977) To Escape the Stars [This book] (1978)The key element of this story is the stargates. Unlike the titular devices in the media franchise of the same name, stargates in this novel are widespread and fairly well understood. Their origin is a mystery, but people use them all the time and the technology has been replicated to create even more of them. Every habitable world in the Milky Way has at least one. Most planets have several. They allow for instantaneous travel regardless of distance, and their existence means that humanity has colonized every world in the galaxy that it can survive on.Tens of thousands of years ago there was a galactic federation of 77 planets. Earth was one. This was so far back in the past that Jamas is unaware of it. This federation set up Prime as the repository of galactic knowledge. The planet sends out census takers every few thousand years to learn what needs to be known and write it down.There's stuff that makes the universe pretty interesting. ...

THE VISITORS FROM PLANET VETAReinhold W. GollIllustrated by G. O. JamesThe Westminster Press, PhiladelphiaCopyright © MCMLXI [1961] Reinhold W. GollLibrary of Congress Catalog Card No. 61-7692November 28, 1961To my grandchildren    Suzanne, Barbara, and Amy    Alan, Sandy, and Stephen[Transcribed January 11-16, 2020 by Benjamin P Kimball]Table of Contents1| Strange Visitors Come to Miracle Mountain2| The Magic Password3| Tom and Mitty Come Up in the World4| The Great Toboggan Slide5| Plans for the Future6| A Day at the Seashore7| Greenie Becomes a Hero8| New Stars in the Circus9| A Grand-Slam Home Run10| A Dragon and a Buffalo11| Final Fling in the Tall Tomato Tree12| Farewell and Bon VoyageBiography of Reinhold W. Goll1| Strange Visitors Come to Miracle Mountain    It was the first day of the summer vacation. Suzy and Sandy were playing “explorers.” They marched like soldiers all over the garden. Suzy was the general because she was older. Sandy was the army.    Suzy suddenly shouted: “A mountain! A see a mountain! We have discovered a new mountain!”    “I don’t see any mountain,” said Sandy.    Suzy pointed to the corner of the mountain where the remnants of Daddy’s compost pile formed a little clutter knee-high. “There!” she said.    Sandy asked, “Are you kidding?”    Suzy ignored Sandy’s question. “Come!” she commanded. “We must take possession before someone else discovers it.”    Sandy shrugged his shoulders and marched dutifully with Suzy to the newly discovered mountain.    Suzy placed her foot on the compost pile and said, “I name thee ‘Miracle Mountain,’ and claim thee in ...

Two hundred light years from Earth an immense structure rotates around a yellow star. A million miles across, six hundred million miles in circumference, the Ringworld spins fast enough to provide an artificial gravity almost identical to that of Earth. Twenty ‘shadow squares’ orbiting closer to the sun provide the illusion of night and day. It is a habitable area of unimaginable vastness. Living space for trillions of sentient creatures. But it is no paradise…- - - - -The Scythe glowed with white light. Willow’s hair turned white. “Oh, Goddess,” she whispered. Mystical energy radiated outwards and filled the Potentials in the chamber below the Seal of Danthalazar.“These guys are dust,” Vi said, and she leapt to the attack. She kicked a Turok-Han and sent it flying. Rona felled another. Amanda staked one through the heart.Within a fraction of a second the wave had blanketed the Earth. Potentials all over the planet became Slayers. Six seconds later the energy pulse washed over the empty wastes of the Moon. Three hours later it passed Jupiter. It continued on out of the Solar System and into the vastness of interstellar space at 23 per cent of the speed of light.Nine hundred years later it reached the Ringworld…- - - - -Linrathanilar cowered against the side of the cruiser and tried to control her shaking hands as she reloaded her handgun. Only two bullets left. There seemed to be hundreds of vampires. The improvised mask that protected her from vampire scent was drying ...