Cult Sci-Fi Movies: Discover the 10 Best Intergalactic, Astonishing, Far-Out, and Epic Cinema Classics by Danny Peary (
Wikipedia), a much-published professional film critic, is a collection of essays devoted to Exactly What It Says In The Title, free courtesy of publisher Workman.
This seems a bit on the sampler-y side to promote Peary's other upcoming cult cinema books which are advertised in the front of this (only 10 essays compared to the 30+ that the other volumes are getting).
But the 10 provided are fairly substantial, full-length essays that go into a fair amount of depth and not only discuss the films as such, but also provide nifty behind-the-scenes production notes and other trivia, plus pictures and further recommended viewing.
So, if this is the going to be the trend in samplers instead of those silly first-chapter excerpt things, I'm all for it.
And this does cover not only the sort of schlock cinema that makes it to cult status on So Bad It's Good™ reputation, but also genuinely quality films such as
2001: A Space Odyssey.
So you get a nifty selection from
Barbarella to
Zardoz, both of which are notorious for putting its stars into the skimpy cut-down outfits of the imagined future, although Sean Connery's red diaper from the latter is far more widely disseminated* on the internets, as far as I can tell.
Currently free @
Amazon (available to Canadians & in the
UK),
Kobo &
Google Play (both available to Canadians).
ETA: Now also free @
B&N (also
UK).
ETA 2: Now also free @
iTunes (available to Canadians).
And this has been the selected 3rd (non-repeat) free ebook thread of the day.
Because even though I'm considerably more picky about my sci-fi watches than my science fiction reads, this is actually a pretty nifty guide to some of what's out there, and if the other books in the upcoming series are also equally nicely and interestingly done, I might even consider picking them up when the good discount codes are floating around (especially since they're already set at a relatively low cost and also couponable @
Kobo), which is the entire point of offering an official publisher promo freebie to begin with.
So, (maybe) mission accomplished, Workman!
Enjoy!
Description
Cult Sci-Fi Movies is a collection of 10 essays that examine, dissect, defend, and exalt the greats of classic cult sci-fi films. Film geeks, cinema snobs, VHS collectors, and anyone else who likes their entertainment a little on the weird side will appreciate author Danny Peary’s in-depth approach to their favorite sci-fi films ranging from Barbarella to Liquid Sky.
* If you have somehow managed to miss seeing the one screenshot of this which has been making the rounds for years as an example of Why You Shouldn't Design Costumes On Drugs and/or It'll Take A Lot More Than That To Disassociate Yourself From Your James Bond Role If That's What You Were Aiming At and/or The 70s Were A Bad, Sad Time For Anything That Wasn't Rock Music, there's a handy pic of it in
this review of
Zardoz, along with Sean Connery wearing a wedding dress.
Also, after seeing those and being baffled as to how they came to be, don't miss The Onion AV Club's excellent
Commentary Tracks of the Damned feature† which analyzes the Zardoz DVD commentary, among others, for just what seems to have gone wrong.
† I really, really wish they'd do
more of these things, which are some of the most enjoyable media-related reading I've ever done.