Gary Varner

Gary Varner is a Science Fiction and Fantasy enthusiast with a bachelor’s degree in Theater Arts, and he spends his time working and raising his daughter who he suspects will one day be president of the United States. For more reviews as well as serial novels, go to www.garypaulvarner.com to read more.

Archives

2001: A Space Odyssey Review Part 6

_{Is Bowman a victor for reaching the stargate or has he been caught in a trap?}_{Gary Varner
January 10, 2026}

Clarke seems to be going for something more religious: technology gives mankind the means to become God, and our alien overlords will be there to help once mankind is worthy.

2001: A Space Odyssey: It Comes Down at Last to Bowman vs. HAL

_{In Part 5, we see that both Clarke and Kubrick treat AI as a potential threat to humanity but for different reasons}_{Gary Varner
January 3, 2026}

A critical question for assessing the future of AI is, why did the space agency give HAL almost total control of the ship.

2001: A Space Odyssey: The Brief Story of Heywood Floyd

_{In Part 4, we look at what the middle story — meeting the Monolith on the moon — is doing}_{Gary Varner
December 27, 2025}

We don't really get to see enough of HAL 9000 when he is actually a help to the space travelers, which reduces the impact of his turn.

Space Odyssey 2001: Were Clarke and Kubrick at Odds?

_{Part 3: The ambiguity in 2001 is not the result of artistic muddiness but the middle ground for an unspoken conflict between the two writers}_{Gary Varner
December 20, 2025}

One thing is for certain. In the iconic Dawn of Man sequence, the Monolith is conveying information. The question is how.

Space Odyssey 2001: Decisions To Make About That Monolith

_{In Part 2 of my series on the sci-fi great, I want to consider where the Monolith fits in the hard vs. soft magic systems that make for sci-fi stories}_{Gary Varner
December 13, 2025}

Letting the question of who sent the monolith remain a mystery was probably a wise dramatic choice on the part of the writers.

2001: A Space Odyssey Was a New Type of Science Fiction

_{The film is perhaps best understood as three completely different stories whose only connection is the monolith}_{Gary Varner
December 6, 2025}

The greatest measure of a film’s success is the test of time. Something about this film works even though it breaks conventions.

How To Write a Time Travel Story That Keeps Making Sense: Part 2

_{In this sixth and final installment, I show how narrowing a rather than escalating it, avoids unwanted paradoxes}_{Gary Varner
November 29, 2025}

Escalation is where the Terminator franchise went wrong. The writers kept enlarging their world until it became contradictory.

How To Write a Time Travel Story That Keeps Making Sense, Part 1

_{Here in Part 5, I offer an approach that allows for time travel without obvious giant plot holes}_{Gary Varner
November 22, 2025}

To keep the story under control, the time machine itself should be a hard system even if the concept of time is soft and pliable.

Time Travel in Science Fiction: Now For Some Examples That Work…

_{Here in Part 4, we look at how to make time travel work as either soft or hard magic}_{Gary Varner
November 15, 2025}

Time travel into the future is not as tricky as travel into the past because altering the future does not create so many complex story problems.

Time Travel: The Threat of Escalation in the Terminator Series

_{Part 3: The Terminator series writers never new whether there would be a sequel, and that had implications for how they plotted time travel}_{Gary Varner
November 8, 2025}

Shrouding the story rules in mystery only works with soft magic systems where the story focus is on something other than the system.

Time Travel: How and Why the Terminator Series Worked—Then Didn’t

_{Part 2: Time travel works well enough as a soft magic system but time-travel stories run into problems when it is treated as a hard magic system}_{Gary Varner
November 1, 2025}

Terminator 3 crossed into hard magic territory when it added the concept of fate to time travel, which means that specific rules began to matter.

The Pluses and the Perils of Time Travel in Science Fiction

_{Time travel can be treated as a form or hard or soft “magic” but it is important not to confuse the two}_{Gary Varner
October 25, 2025}

Soft magic is vague and incidental; hard magic imposes rules on the story. Too often in science fiction, these rules get broken.

Time Machine 2002: When the Good Guy Somehow Becomes the Bad Guy

_{In this final part of my six-part review, I look at a basic problem: The movie is pretentious without ultimately having anything to say}_{Gary Varner
October 18, 2025}

The writers of Time Travel 2002 merely use Wells’s story’s name and reputation to tell a less satisfying tale of their own making.

Time Machine (2002): When the Bad Guy is Nicer Than the Good Guy…

_{In Part 5 of my extended review, we get an answer to the story question: Can the traveler save Emma?}_{Gary Varner
October 11, 2025}

The answer to the traveler's dilemma is provided by an Uber-Morlock, unique to this version of the story and perhaps the most interesting character in the film.

Review: Time Machine 2002 — Hold On Again. That Snarky AI Returns

_{In Part 4 of my review, we look at plot devices and holes. How DID that AI survive the destruction of New York?}_{Gary Varner
October 4, 2025}

The time traveler, good-natured gentleman that he is, ignores the hologram’s snootiness and continues asking urgent questions.

Time Machine (2002) — A Gordian Knot of Freshman Philosophy

_{In Part 3 of my extended review, I look at the film’s effort to tease apart the philosophy of fighting vs, accepting one’s fate}_{Gary Varner
September 27, 2025}

Good and bad writing are on a spectrum. Underlying this spectrum is the suspension of disbelief. That is, viewers should forget where they are while watching.

Review: Time Machine 2002 — Hold On. Someone’s Destroyed the Moon

_{Part 2: The Eloi we meet in this film are radically different from H.G. Wells’s Eloi and that of the 1960 film version}_{Gary Varner
September 20, 2025}

By making the Eloi more hearty and capable of surviving on their own, the writers destroy the seriousness of the threat the Morlocks represent.

Review: Time Machine 2002 – Wells’ Tale Gets an Unneeded Makeover

_{Part 1: This doesn’t seem like the same story as H.G. Wells’s 19th-century tale! But there's still a time machine, Eloi and Morlocks here, so let’s look at it anyway}_{Gary Varner
September 13, 2025}

In this film, the time traveler has a girlfriend whom he is trying to save from death. But can time travel really alter the course of events?

Time Machine (1960) Back to the Past, and Then Fast Forward Again

_{In Part 4, we look at why the movie was, in many ways, better than the book}_{Gary Varner
September 6, 2025}

The film demonstrates that time travel captivates audiences if writers avoid goofy paradoxes and focus on story premises that offer believable emotional stakes.

The Time Machine (1960): The History of the Eloi and the Morlocks

_{In Part 3 of my four-part review, we look at the difference the Cold War made to how the Eloi and the Morlocks are portrayed}_{Gary Varner
August 30, 2025}

In the 1895 novel, Wells was working out a Communist-inspired theory of evolution but the 1960 film’s screenwriters chose an anti-war narrative instead.