ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

Fans of sci-fi author Larry Niven are familiar with his short stories dealing with magic, along with his novel, "The Magic Goes Away" and its sequel "The Magic Returns".

Niven is the hardest of the "hard science fiction" writers, and he approached the concept of magic the same way he does with science: he exampled it logically and imaginatively. According to Niven, the force employed by magic is a non-renewable resource that must be used sparingly.

He dubbed this energy "mana" and described it as something residing in a region until it was used up by acts of magic -- after which no magic could be performed in the area. The focus of the novel is a plan by a group of master magicians to renew the Earth's mana by ( -- are you ready for this?) draining it from the Moon.

I wish I could say The Sorcerer's Apprentice had a similar approach to magic, but it tosses out any pretense of orderly logic, and it slings the magic spells around like every other movie of this type.

If anyone knows of a fantasy film whose plot resembles Niven's more logical (and interesting) approach, I'd love to hear about it.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bud Brewster]

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Just to inspire some discussion about this movie, here's the trailer. And a pretty cool trailer it is, too.


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Pye-Rate]

Unlike Niven this movie finds common ground for science and magic. Energy is energy it is the difference the how of control and manipulation.
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The road to tomorrow runs through yesterday.

[orzel-w]

[Bud Brewster]