Alastair Reynolds Troika

Posted on by

Alastair Reynolds is one of my favorite writers (even though I wasn’t fond of his last book Terminal World), so I was excited to see he had written a novella called Trokia. The story is a simple one with a man and a woman discussing past events. But it quickly becomes clear that both of them have had issues in the past and the remembrances and story might not be what they think it is. So, let’s go visit some Russians.

Continue reading →

Apollo 18 movie review

Posted on by

Somehow, I got talked into going to see Apollo 18. I knew it wasn’t going to be good since it only had  18% on Rotten Tomatoes, but I wondered how bad it could be. Well I’m glad I saw it, since now I can warn the rest of you away from seeing it. This is a boring, horrible movie. It isn’t good as a horror movie and doesn’t even try as a science fiction movie. And, worst of all, it’s boring. The movie focuses the last hour of the movie on the two astronauts who are on the moon. So we spend an hour focusing on two people and, in the end, we know nothing about them. They are simply props there to speak dialogue which advances the so-called plot. So, lets see how the movie got this bad.

Continue reading →

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

Posted on by

Ernest Cline has written, not just a paean to early 80s video games, but a nostalgic trip back to the entire 80s geek culture. It pulls in details from earlier decades as well that were popular in the 80s (such as Monty Python) and is a celebration. Ready Player One is a book for people who grew up in that time or have an affection for that culture. The rest of the book is a mediocre mystery with not a lot of characterization, setting or plot. But if the subject matter is in your wheelhouse, then you’ll love it. So, let’s visit the future who wants to visit the past.

Continue reading →

Rise of the Planet of the Apes movie review

Posted on by

Having missed the Tim Burton remake of Planet of the Apes, I went into Rise of the Planet of the Apes only having seen the original movie. The movie trailers made it look interesting and I heard some decent reviews, so we decided to go and see it. Truly, how bad could it be with apes fighting humans? I was surprised. This summer action movie deals more with the drug testing and approval process than it does with ape fighting. I’m surprised that such a low key movie could be a summer blockbuster.So, let’s go visit Caesar and see what makes him rise.

Continue reading →

The Astounding, the Amazing, and the Unknown by Paul Malmont

Posted on by

I’ve been a fan of Paul Malmont since the day I saw The Chinatown Death Cloud Peril in the bookstore. Any writer who told a story including the creators of Doc Savage and The Shadow and tell it in a pulp-like story deserves wider recognition. I enjoyed his second book, Jack London in Paradise, but not quite as much as the first book. So, when I heard that Malmont was writing a sequel to The Chinatown Death Cloud Peril about Robert Heinlein and Isaac Asimov fighting Nazis in WW-II, I started eagerly waiting for The Astounding, the Amazing, and the Unknown. What’s amazing is that a lot of the story that Malmont tells in the book is true. So, let’s go into the unknown with some astounding, amazing folks.

Continue reading →

Defending Your Life by Albert Brooks

Posted on by

Originally I was going to review Albert Brooks new book 2030, but the first 100 pages read more like an essay than a novel. So I decided to put it back on the shelf and try to read it again later, since I’m getting backed up on books. But, since I still love Albert Brooks, I decided to review my favorite movie of his, Defending Your Life. Brooks generally only releases a movie every 5-6 years (and 2030 reads more like a movie than a book so it might have started as a screenplay) and generally they are very high quality. With Defending Your Life, Brooks takes on a whole range of topics including love and the afterlife. So let, see what is worth defending in your life.

Continue reading →

Hard Magic by Larry Correia

Posted on by

The subtitle of Larry Correia’s new book Hard Magic is Book 1 of the Grimnoir Chronicles, so I expect that he will be writing others in this series. If you asked me to describe the book in one sentence, it would be “Steampunk X-Men with magic instead of mutations”. Set in an alternate Earth, it’s a nice mashup of steampunk, fantasy and superheroes with some great characters. So, let’s see what’s so hard about magic.

Continue reading →

Catching up on Torchwood: Miracle Day

Posted on by

I came here to bury Torchwood: Miracle Day and explain to you why it was sucking and how I was probably not going to be watching any more. Then a funny thing happened. The last episode was easily the best episode of the season and it actually kicked the plot forward (by going backwards). This last episode restored my faith in the show enough that I’m willing to stick around for the last 3 episodes. So, let’s revisit what’s gone wrong this season and what went right this last episode:

Continue reading →