After a strong run of animated movies in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Walt Disney Animation Studio started going downhill. The quality and box-office both dropped until they were behind Pixar and Dreamworks. And, while I’d love to say that their newest film, Wreck-It Ralph, is a throwback to the great Disney movies, it isn’t.. It’s a decent enough movie that has some fun parts, but really is just a decent kids movie. Nothing exciting in the way that the Pixar movies are. And, for Disney, maybe that’s all they’re going to end up as, a studio that just makes decent kids cartoons. So, let’s check out what the movie is about.
The Man Who Fell To Earth by Walter Tevis
Walter Tevis was not an extremely prolific writer. Over 22 years he only published 6 novels and a couple dozen short stories with the late 60s and 70s being a virtual wasteland of publications for him. But what he did write was extremely well received and half of his novels were made into movies, including the classic The Hustler, its sequel The Color of Money and the science fiction classic The Man Who Fell To Earth. The movie version of the book starred David Bowie as the main character and wasn’t that well received when it came out, but has since attained a cult status. So, let’s check out the book and see what happened.
Existence by David Brin
I’m not a huge David Brin fan. I’ve really only read a couple of his books, although I did enjoy them. But when Brin’s newest book, Existence, came out, it looked interesting enough to put on my reading list.. And it did not dissappoint. The book deals with a first contact scenario unlike any other and contains some interesting ideas. Let’s see what happens.
Wayne of Gotham by Tracy Hickman
There have been several good novels featuring Superman, but Batman seems to be a much harder nut to crack when you take him out of the visual environment. The latest effort, Wayne of Gotham, tries to expand the Batman mythos by digging into the Wayne/Gotham backstory. But Tracy Hickman falls flat in his attempt to add depth to Bruce Wayne. The story is a rehash of previous Batman stories(most notably the The First Batman – which has Thomas Wayne dressed up in a proto Batman costume and being forced to help out gangster Lew Moxon) with not much interesting added. Let’s take a look at where this went wrong.
Telegraph Avenue by Michael Chabon
As a general rule, I don’t review most mainstream fiction here. Mainly because I don’t read a lot of mainstream fiction. Stories about dysfunctional families working to break up or overcome their particular dysfunctions don’t interest me a great deal. But I do make exceptions for writers I enjoy and that’s why I read Michael Chabon’s latest Telegraph Avenue. I love Michael Chabon’s work as he has a way with word choices that make his work feel exciting and fresh even when he’s retelling a ages-old story. But I had trouble with this book. The subject matter didn’t interest me a great deal, even though it was well told. So, let’s check it out.
Hotel Transylvania Review
I had fairly low expectations for Hotel Transylvania when I entered the theater. It looked like another cute and stupid kids movie with mediocre animation and was voiced by Adam Sandler’s gang of friends. I hadn’t heard too much about it and wasn’t expecting much. So I was pleasantly surprised. The movie, with an admittedly thin and silly plot, was a lot of fun. The animation was frenetic and exciting and more than covered for the sins and contrivances of the plot. Then the credits rolled and it all made sense. Somehow I had missed that the movie was directed by Genndy Tartakovsky. The TV animation wonder had spread his wings to feature films and it made my day. The movie was goofy and fun and there was a style to the animation that was all Tartakovsky. So, let’s see what it’s about.
Devil Said Bang by Richard Kadrey
We’re back for the fourth installment of the Sandman Slim series. When we last left our hero, he was literally stuck in Hell. The good news was that he was in charge, the bad news was that he didn’t know enough about the Devil’s powers to get out. So we start off in Devil Said Bang in Hell and go forward from there. James (Sandman Slim) Stark is a wonderful protagonist and Kadrey does enough with Stark and his supporting characters to keep things fresh. So, let’s see what’s going on in the latest book.
Continue reading
Graveyard Special by James Lileks
I’ve been a fan of James Lileks for years, although I’ve rarely read any of his newspaper stuff. His daily personal blog, The Bleat is appointment reading (especially now that he has the RSS feed working) and I loved his podcast The Diner(currently on hiatus). Lileks is best described as an archaeologist of recent public culture with his loving of the ephemera of the early-mid 1900s. He has pages dedicated to old postcards or matchbooks. He gives an amusing and interesting look at our recent past that many people simply ignore. So, when Lileks announced that he was writing a mystery trilogy, I was interested. The first book in that trilogy is now available and I loved Graveyard Special. Let’s see what it’s about.
The Map of the Sky by Felix J Palma
I loved Felix J Palma’s first US published novel, The Map of Time (my review), where we followed the adventures of Jack the Ripper, HG Wells and a man who advertises journeys to the year 2000. It was a fun book with a lot of twists and turns and an inventive story and structure. Palma’s new novel The Map of the Sky, is a direct sequel that features several players from the first book. Only, where the first book dealt with Wells’ The Time Machine, this book is more focused on Wells’ The War of the Worlds. So, let’s check out what happens.
Revolution Pilot review
So, the big new network science fiction show is Revolution. It has decent backend support with the creator, Eric Kripke, who was the creator and producer for Supernatural and the pilot directed by Jon Favreau. The basic concept is interesting and there is a bit of a mystery behind the scenes. So, on the surface, it looks like it has some potential. But the execution leaves a lot to be desired. Lets check out what happened.