Sewer, Gas & Electric by Matt Ruff

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Matt Ruff noticed that a lot of books were being published in trilogies, so he decided to make up the silliest sounding trilogy names that he could think of. When he came to Sewer, Gas & Electric, he knew he had a winner, so he decided to actually write the book. The book has always been published in one volume, but he’s split it into for sections: sewer, gas, electric, & (yes, the fourth section is named &). The biggest issue I have with the book is the same issue I have with several “comedy” movies where it starts off funny and then halfway through they decide that it needs to have a plot. The plot is usually silly and makes you wonder why they decided to stop being funny. This book has that problem, but the lunacy does carry you through to the end…mostly. So, read on and see why you should read the public utilities trilogy.

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Robopocalypse by Daniel H. Wilson

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Daniel Wilson’s new novel Robopocalypse has been getting a lot of press lately and not just for it’s catchy title. I saw it on several best seller and best reviewed lists as well as hearing about a possible movie. The reviews made it sound like a combination of World War Z and Terminator. So, I have to admit some surprise that I was disappointed by the novel. It wasn’t bad, but it definitely wasn’t as good as the reviews made it sound like. Let’s see what went wrong.

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Cars 2 movie review

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I found myself at the movies for a second week in a row. Normally I’m not this big a movie goer (well, not any more) and usually see “new” movies on cable. Sometimes they’re movies I want to see (such as Inception) and sometimes they’re just on (such as watching Sex Drive Saturday night which is a poorly made remake of The Sure Thing). But this time, for the first time in a couple years, I went to a movie on opening weekend and saw Cars 2. The original Cars was one of my least favorite Pixar movies, along with A Bugs Life, so I wasn’t exactly looking forward to the sequel. And, while it wasn’t as bad as I thought it might be, it wasn’t anywhere near Pixar’s usual standards. Let’s see why.

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Outcasts TV show review

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I was going to take the time and review the new BBC show Outcasts. The show aired early in the year in Britain, and is appearing during the Dr. Who hiatus on BBC America. I even watched it twice to make sure of my opinions and can confirm that I really didn’t care about the show. The only reason I watched it (beside the science fiction nature of the show) was because it was replacing Dr. Who, so I was already expecting to watch something a this time. And was I disappointed by the premise. Since we are in a low tide of TV shows right now, I’ll probably keep watching for a few more episodes. So, let’s see what it was about.

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Inception movie review

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I’m a bit behind on my movies, so I didn’t see Inception until it showed up on HBO this weekend. I was a little wary of it since it had such great reviews and I was worried that it couldn’t live up to the hype. Now, I”ve been a Christopher Nolan fan since Memento. I enjoyed The Dark Knight, but was disappointed by Batman Begins*. So I jumped head first into Inception and was somewhat surprised.


*Why did everyone seem to like Batman Begins? It’s a cut rate poorly made Batman: Year One and, for some idiotic reason, Nolan kept up the stupid tradition of Batman pulling his mask off for every cute girl that wandered by. Half of Gotham City probably knows his identity now.

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Falling Skies TV pilot review

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In a idea that sounds very familiar to viewer of V,  an alien invasion has taken over Earth and a rag-tag bunch of survivors are out to win it back. But, unlike that show, Falling Skies isn’t half bad. Starring Noah Wylie and pretty much no one else you would have heard of (except possibly Colin Cunningham), Falling Skies is fairly standard alien invasion genre stuff, but it is handled well. So, let’s see what’s happening with it.

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Super 8 movie review

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I haven’t seen many movies in the last year. It’s partially a busy life and partially that there’s not too much out there that interests me. But this weekend, I got to see a couple science fiction movies that intereste me, one from this year and one from last year. So, we’ll start off with Super 8. I generally enjoy JJ Abrams movies (and even some of his TV shows), so I was looking forward to Super 8. I can’t say that I was disappointed, because I did enjoy it, but it wasn’t quite as good as I was expecting. Let’s continue on and see why.

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Darren Aronofsky and Michael Chabon…

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Really that’s all I need to say. But I’ll mention more from Variety:

Darren Aronofsky is on board to direct “Hobgoblin,” HBO’s upcoming drama pilot in development.

Pilot, to be written by Michael Chabon and his wife, Ayelet Waldman, is about a group of con men and magicians who use their skills of deception to help defeat Hitler and the Germans during WWII.

It kinda sounds like Bitter Seeds by Ian Tregillis.

The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi

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Hannu Rajaniemi is a new name in science fiction, but hopefully he will stick around for awhile. Like a few other debut books this last year, there are a number of interesting ideas, but the story fails to stick together as a whole. I don’t think I’m asking for a lot, just a halfway decent plot and some characters that I actually care about. But too often, such as in Rajaniemi’s The Quantum Thief, there are a lot of cool ideas, but few characters I care about and not enough plot to interest me. So, let’s see what this book is about.

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