Skip to Main Content
Serving The University of Alabama since 1894.

The Crimson White

Serving The University of Alabama since 1894.

The Crimson White

Serving The University of Alabama since 1894.

The Crimson White

All content by Isabela Morales

Connie Willis novel a new take on time travel

Isabela Morales April 16, 2012

In the year 2057 — when getting a Ph.D. in history is a high-risk endeavor requiring mental and physical endurance, athleticism, a working knowledge of quantum mechanics and Victorian table manners,...

'Luminous and Ominous' offers thoughtful take on doomsday

‘Luminous and Ominous’ offers thoughtful take on doomsday

Isabela Morales April 2, 2012

It is kind of fun to think about the world ending. “Survivor” is on its 20-something season (I can’t even count them any more); AMC’s original series “The Walking Dead” wowed audiences again...

'Princess of Mars' introduces John Carter in pulp-fiction series

‘Princess of Mars’ introduces John Carter in pulp-fiction series

Isabela Morales March 19, 2012

Literally just minutes ago (as of this writing) I finished Edgar Rice Burroughs's 1912 novel "A Princess of Mars," and I'm fairly convinced that it's the best worst early-20th-century science fiction novel...

Cures for the Common Cult: Lenten reading for the non-believer

Cures for the Common Cult: Lenten reading for the non-believer

Isabela Morales February 28, 2012

As a survivor of Catholic school – 13 years of it, no less ­­– I recognized the Ash Wednesday crosses on the foreheads of students last week. Add to that the stream of Facebook statuses about what...

‘The Marriage Plot’ offers new perspective on getting hitched

Isabela Morales February 14, 2012

“There is no happiness in love, except at the end of an English novel.” That’s the motto Madeleine Hanna lives by, anyway, in the 1980s college world of Jeffrey Eugenides’s “The Marriage Plot.”...

Tudor thriller captivates

Tudor thriller captivates

Isabela Morales January 31, 2012

Everyone knows the story of Henry VIII and his parade of headless wives, but last weekend, I tried to inject some new life into the old tale by filming “Reformation! The Musical” for Campus MovieFest....

Novel adds maturity to young adult genre

Novel adds maturity to young adult genre

Isabela Morales January 12, 2012

There’s nothing like child gladiators to up those network television ratings, am I right? That’s how it works in Panem, anyway – the totalitarian, post-nuclear holocaust North American government...

‘Ender’s Game’ a classic

Isabela Morales November 29, 2011

Book lovers would be hard-pressed to find anything more perennially popular with science fiction/fantasy authors than dystopian governments doing horrible things to young children. Most recently, that...

Book explores limits of mind

Isabela Morales November 15, 2011

Put away your half-started manuscripts and tragic hopes, creative writing minors. In an economy like ours, your chances of publication are bleak - unless, that is, you have unlimited access to a mind-enhancing...

The Gormenghast Series

The Gormenghast Series

Isabela Morales October 31, 2011

Four years in Tuscaloosa, and I'm beginning to despair that I am the only person on campus who has read Mervyn Peake's “Gormenghast” series. I told myself last spring that if I got that Lifestyles...

E-book stands out among its counterparts

E-book stands out among its counterparts

Isabela Morales October 10, 2011

Edwin Windsor is not a super villain. True, he has the perfect name for it, as well as the additional prerequisites of extraordinary wealth, cold hyper-rationality, impeccable taste in suits, a flawless...

Author revisits Civil War and adds vampires to plot

Author revisits Civil War and adds vampires to plot

Isabela Morales September 27, 2011

Armed with a flame gun, an axe and an unshakeable conviction in the rightness of his cause, the 16th President of the United States stands ready to fight for the nation his fathers brought forth four score...

The Magicians is the anti-Harry Potter

The Magicians is the anti-Harry Potter

Isabela Morales September 6, 2011

In this bleak and empty wasteland of the post-Harry Potter world we live in, it’s inevitable that any book about twenty-somethings at a school for magic will come under the closest scrutiny. That would...

One throne to rule them all

One throne to rule them all

Isabela Morales July 20, 2011

This month, TIME magazine christened novelist George R. R. Martin, author of the epic fantasy series “A Song of Ice and Fire,” the “American Tolkien for a jaded age.” Possibly, it’s the two Rs...

Science fiction meets Disney in author’s first book

Isabela Morales June 28, 2011

As it turns out, Ayn Rand isn’t the only libertarian-ish science fiction writer I can name (and on that note, it’s Ayn as in “fine,” not Ann as in “can.”) If you’ve visited Gorgas lately,...

Reading for the end of days

Isabela Morales June 14, 2011

There’s nothing fun about the end of the world. When I wasn’t teleported up to the pearly gates on May 21, I nearly freaked out realizing that I did, after all, need to study for my GRE on the 27th....

Ayn Rand wrote science fiction?

Isabela Morales June 7, 2011

Ayn Rand’s name was everywhere a couple years ago, when Tea Partiers started brandishing “Who is John Galt?” signs to protest increasing government intervention in the economy (and various other...