Sci-Fi and Fantasy Planet

Poison

2010-05-23T06:39:00.002-05:00

Poison

By Sara Poole

This book is a little bit out of my norm, though not entirely as history is an interest of mine, and Poison is historical fiction. In context, I thoroughly enjoyed "Water for Elephants" which transported readers to the era of the Great Depression in the United States and life aboard a travelling circus of that era, and read The Book Thief, which took us to World War II Germany. Poison takes us a little bit further back in history for the story that it wishes to tell. So while Poison doesn't fit into the category of science fiction or fantasy as this website usually focuses on, I am taking the liberty of including my thoughts on this book here.

The setting for the story is Rome, 1492. The main character, Francesca Giordano, works for Rodrigo Borgia, one of the most important people in Christendom as his poisoner. It is a job that she had to murder a person to get, a job that she felt it was her right to have based on the fact that her father had previously held the position. Her father had been murdered, and she demands to see justice--or is it vengeance--whereas it seems that no one seems to care about what happened to her father, and she sees fit to take it upon herself to find them. Thus enters her foray into the political and religious intrigue of 15th century Rome, and soon earns the attention of the same force that murdered her father.

This book is eloquently written from the start, with almost a Victorian flare of description and flow of the story. The prelude to the story drew me into wanting to continue reading this book and caused me to drop the other books I was currently reading to focus more on this particular book. Unfortunately, the prose that the book is written in slowed the story down in its early going, and the first 20 pages were less than exciting as I struggled to understand fully what was going on. After that, however, the story really took off on a nonstop adventure through the streets of Rome and the underbelly of the Vatican as Francesca struggled to make sure that her master became elected pope, not only for her sake and his, but the very survival of the Jewish population in Rome, which depended on Borgia's election as well.

Once it starts, the action doesn't stop through the book at all, continuing right up to the very end, making it hard to put the book down. However, the conclusion of the book does seem a bit rushed. Most of the story unfolds over the course of a couple of days, and then the four days of the sealed conclave to elect the pope was given a scant few pages at the end.

Overall, I think this is one of the better books I have read in a while and would read other books by Sara Poole, especially if they pick up the story of Francesca in her quest for vengeance.

The book will be available on August 3, 2010.

Creature: Cockatrice

2010-05-18T05:56:00.003-05:00

A cockatrice is a legendary creature which is closely related (but not identical or interchangeable, as some sources would have you believe) to a basilisk. A cockatrice has the body, wings, and tail of a dragon but with a head and feet of a rooster. It is sometimes described as having dark red or pitch black eyes. It was thought to be the result of an chicken egg that was incubated by either a toad or a snake.

Having such a large creature around would undoubtedly be dangerous, especially given its size and ability to fly like a dragon. In addition to those, there are two other dangers. One, it is said that its breath is poisonous (or by some accounts, the poison is contained in its saliva). Another magical ability of the cockatrice is that it can turn people to stone by its gaze and through touching them. Even after death, the power of petrification was still effective.

Killing the cockatrice was no easy task, either, especially if you tried killing it in a normal fashion. According to medieval bestiaries, the weasel is the only animal that is thought to be immune to the glance of a cockatrice. According to some legends, the hearing of a roster's crow would instantly kill a cockatrice, or getting it to view it's own image in a mirror would also kill it.

King Arthur's Court

2010-05-15T06:41:00.000-05:00

As someone who has an interest in things such as dragons, knights, renaissance festivals, and the like, it stands to reason that I would also have an interest in the legend of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. Surprisingly, while I have a passing familiarity of the legend, and from time to time have considered picking up a book about King Arthur and his knights--looking at the actual legends instead of the more contemporary stories of such, I never really knew the full story.

That changed thanks to my purchasing of the nook. I downloaded a copy of Sir Thomas Malory's "Le Morte D'Arthur." Sadly, I found that I could not make it through this delightful story--what is considered to be the definitive and authorative source of King Arthur legends. Given that it was written in the 15th century, and the style and prose is not changed much from what Malory actually wrote, including a lack of quotation marks and the like, that may have a lot to do with why I couldn't make it through. Perhaps I need the "No Fear" version of King Arthur instead. I made it through the death of Balin and Balan when I needed to give this a rest, though at least I did learn a bit more about the legend of King Arthur than I had before I had picked up the book, so while I could not complete this book, all was not lost. In fact, it gave me a greater appreciation of the legend, and I may one day return to this book.

But that was not the end of my current interest in the Arthurian legend. Next, I picked up an electronic copy of Mark Twain's "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court." I remember reading at least a portion of this story when I was younger, and thanks in no small part to what I managed to learn from the very beginnings of Le Morte d'Arthur, I am sure my enjoyment of this book is greatly enhanced. Unfortunately, my copy of this book is a book scanned in by Google Books, which means that there are a lot of mistakes and wrong letters and symbols where some of the words should be, slowing down the reading of that book as well.

Of course, the legend of King Arthur is not confined to the bindings of a book, nor in 2-hour long movies. I am, of course, speaking of the the BBC's "Merlin" TV series, which came to the US via NBC and the SyFy Channel. It, however, is a drastic re-imagining of the legend. King Uther Pendragon is the reining monarch, and Camelot already exists--not Tintagel Castle, and Arthur is not raised by Sir Ector and doesn't have a (half) brother by the name of Sir Kay. Morgana is the ward of King Uther and not a daughter and half-sister to Arthur. Guinevere is a servant of Morgana's and not of royal blood. As for Merlin, while he knows magic, he is the manservant to Arthur, and the bonds of friendship cement between the two of them. Uther is blinded by his hatred of magic, which he has outlawed in Camelot, setting up the stage on a weekly basis it seems for a magical threat to Camelot to surface. And Geoffrey of Monmouth, who in reality was born centuries after the legend of King Arthur is believed to have occured and is responsible for the enduring life of the legend, plays the role of royal librarian. Rarely has a series caught my interest the way that Merlin has (not since the series "Primeval" which also happened to be brought to us from England, and Canada's "Corner Gas"). So despite the creative license this series has taken with the legend of King Arthur, it is one that I keep going back to with more interest than reading the stories ever could.

And there is another King Arthur series that is currently in development that I hope to be able to see soon. "Camelot" being produced by Starz, and being based on Sir Thomas Malory's version of the legend. It will be written by Chris Chibnall, of the supernatural British shows “Life on Mars” and “Torchwood,” and produced by a team that includes Graham King (“The Departed,” “Gangs of New York”) and Morgan O’Sullivan and Michael Hirst (both of the Showtime period drama “The Tudors”). The 10-episode series is expected to begin production next month with episodes expected to be shown in early 2011. The series will be shot in Ireland with postproduction work to be completed in Canada. It may be enough to make me subscribe to Starz at least for the duration of this series.

Creature: Afanc

2010-05-11T05:49:00.004-05:00

The Afanc is a lake monster from Welsh mythology. Throughout different myths and stories, it has different shapes and descriptions, ranging from a giant beaver, a crocodile, a dwarf-like creature, or even a giant frog with claws on all of its limbs. In some legends, the creature is said to be a demon. In some legends, it is a specific monster, or it could be a generic lake monster. The lake in which it dwells also varies; it is variously said to live in Llyn Llion, Llyn Barfog, near Brynberian Bridge or in Llyn yr Afanc, a lake near Betws-y-Coed that was named after the creature.

The afanc was a monstrous creature that was said to prey upon any foolish enough to fall into or swim in its lake. In some legends, it is said that the creature has magical powers and can speak Welsh.

As for defeating this creature, one tale relates that it was rendered helpless by a maiden who let it sleep upon her lap. While it slept, the villagers bound the creature in chains and dragged away to the next lake. Some later legends ascribe the creature's death to King Arthur. Close to Llyn Barfog in Snowdonia is a hoof-print petrosomatoglyph etched deep into the rock "Carn March Arthur", or the "Stone of Arthur's Horse", which was supposedly made by King Arthur's mount, Llamrai, when it was hauling the afanc from the lake.

The creature came to my attention thanks to the episode of the TV series, "Merlin," where it was magically conjured out of water and clay, and the water where it was living in within Camelot was making the villagers sick and dying from this plague. Prince Arthur, with Merlin's help, is able to kill the creature with fire, thus saving the village.

Comic Book: The Guild #2

2010-05-05T05:45:00.005-05:00

The Guild #2

by Felecia Day

The prequel introduction to the web series The Guild continues in the second of this three-part series from Dark Horse comics, written by The Guild creator and star, Felecia Day.

The story that is being told in the comics is who the Knights of Good got to know each other and formed their guild before the first season--hence the whole prequel idea. In this issue, things continue to not be good for Cyd. She is trying to cope with the events in her life, particularly the fact that her boyfriend is taking all of her ideas for the band and presenting them as his ideas without giving her credit for them, all the while not letting her join the band. When she asks to join the band at one point, she is told that they are trying to keep the band small, and then the band goes out and finds another band member to fill in the position that Cyd had offered to do. So she turns once more to her new roleplaying game, where she runs into all the members of the still unformed guild, though Vork is already making references to the Knights of Good, and Cyd--in the guise of Codex for the game--is already suffering from the effects of retreating from real life into the online gaming world and that particular addiction. The last scene from issue 2 is a real shocker that I wouldn't have seen coming from a mile away if I hadn't thumbed through the issue quickly before actually sitting down to read it.

Overall, this is a good introduction to the webseries, which will see Season 4 coming to Xbox, Zune, and PCs this summer.

If you haven't seen this series, I would definitely recommend it. You can head over to http://www.watchtheguild.com/ where you can buy the first three seasons and other cool products to go along with it.

Hero Wanted

2010-04-30T05:44:00.001-05:00

Hero Wanted

by Dan McGirt

Trove Books

204 pages

December 2009

A rollicking fantasy romp across the Eleven Kingdoms with reluctant hero Jason Cosmo and cynical wizard Mercury Boltblaster. Forced to flee his home in Lower Hicksnittle and pursued by bounty hunters, demons, and the sinister Dark Magic Society, Jason goes from the bright realm of The Gods to the depths of the Incredibly Dark Forest to learn the awful truth behind the price on his head.

I wasn't quite sure what to expect from this free book from Barnes & Noble, and it's relatively short at 204 pages.

With that small amount of pages, the characters, the plot, and the story is not overly involved. The plot so thin that the suspension of disbelief is even more of an issue with this story than it would be with most. However, that is the extent of the negativity that I can have with this book.

This was a fun, quick read that spoofs modern culture as well as fantasy adventure stories, and it is difficult to go even one page without laughing out loud at the absurdities that it presents. I have not had such a good time reading a story since.....well, never. I would list this book's comedic value in the ranks of Tom Holt, Robert Asprin, and Douglas Adams (probably Adams more so than the former two). This book has it all--the damsels in distress that then latch onto the hero longer than they need to who have their turn at miraculously saving the day to green luminous talking spiders.

If you like spoofs of popular culture and movies like Naked Gun, Airplane, Date Movie, Scary Movie, and the like, then you will probably like this book. If you want more substance and a story you can lose yourself in, this probably isn't a book you're going to like. I, however, look forward to reading more of the adventures of Jason Cosmo

However, I am giving this my top award for the simple fact that it kept my interest on every page and made me laugh more than I've laughed from any other book. Five out of five stars.

The Mermaid's Madness

2010-04-28T05:27:00.000-05:00

The Mermaid's Madness
by Jim C. Hines

352 pages

DAW Books

October 6, 2009

What would happen if a star writer went back to the darker themes of the original fairy tales for plots, and then crossed the Disney princesses with Charlie's Angels? What he'd end up with is The Mermaid's Madness-a whole new take on The Little Mermaid. And with Jim C. Hines, of Jig the Goblin fame, penning the tale, you can bet it won't be "They lived happily ever after."

Jim Hines is one of my favorite authors--he has been since I picked up his Goblin Quest book a year ago. His style of writing is reminescent to me of the likes of Robert Asprin or Tom Holt, telling a good story while still maintaining a sense of humor.

Whereas Mr. Hines Jig Trilogy felt like a Dungeons & Dragons sort of feel, his new series, of which The Mermaid's Madness is the second book, he takes on a Charlie's Angel's feel. His slant, though, is what if the fairy tales got it wrong? Remember Cinderella, Snow White, and Sleeping Beauty? Those are his three main characters, and they go on quests, working with Queen Beatrice who is starring in the role of Charlie. Book one saw the trio rescue Cinderella's Prince Armand from Fairytown, and The Mermaid's Madness continues about a year after they came back from that adventure. While comedic writing can still be found in The Mermaid's Madness, and parts of it made me laugh out loud, he has moved into a slightly more mature and darker theme than his Goblin series.

Enter into the mix a couple of more characters--Lannadae, a mermaid who has had to go into hiding from her sister Linea (remember the story of the Little Mermaid?) who has gone mad, and a tree dryad who happens to be the captain of Queen Beatrice's ship.

So, in a group of four women characters, you add three more women characters. The men in the story--the king, Prince Armand, and various assorted sailors, are delegated to supporting roles and barely present. That alone makes the Princess series seem much like an adolescent's fantasy, though the same could be said of Charlie's Angels. But The Mermaid's Madness seems to take that one step further, as Mr. Hines doesn't waste any opportunities to mention the fact that the mermaids are less than fully clothed, and dryads are a sensual, sexual character as well. It's obvious who Mr. Hines targetted audience is--teenaged boys--however, as with any of his books, you may enjoy his version of these fairy tale characters even if you don't fit into his targetted audience. I know I do.

Overall, while maintaining a somewhat darker tone than other books by Hines, the story is still a fun retelling of the Little Mermaid lore, making you want to keep turning the pages to see what little twist will be coming next, as well as to continue to see how the story and the characters continue to unfold. There are some unexpected twists and turns along the way that I must admit I did not see coming, despite being aware of Mr. Hines' other stories. The characters are great--though his little princess universe is vastly changed at the end of the book from what it was at the beginning, and it will be interesting to see what direction his universe and our three princesses as well as Queen Bea take in the next book, which is due out later this year.

Not quite a perfect 5/5 story, but pretty close.

Heart of Stone

2010-04-26T05:07:00.001-05:00

Heart of Stone
by C. E. Murphy
416 pages
Luna/Harlequin
November 2007 (reprint: April 2010)

Okay, so jogging through Central Park after midnight wasn't a bright idea. But Margrit Knight never thought she'd encounter a dark new world filled with magical beings—not to mention a dying woman and a mysterious stranger with blood on his hands. Her logical, lawyer instincts told her it couldn't all be real—but she could hardly deny what she'd seen…and touched.

The mystery man, Alban, was a gargoyle. One of the fabled Old Races who had hidden their existence for centuries. Now he was a murder suspect, and he needed Margrit's help to take the heat off him and find the real killer. And as the dead pile up, it's a race against the sunrise to clear Alban's name and keep them both alive….

There is something different about Heart of Stone over other urban fantasy books, and I'm not sure I am quite able to put my finger on it. On one hand, Heart of Stone is a quick read, and it kept my interest going. It seems to be sort of shallow, almost like a TV show or even a movie, and not going any deeper than that concept. On the other hand, it seems to flow, and it's easy to see this book play out in my mind as I'm reading it, almost as seamlessly as it would if I were watching it on the screen. And while it seems shallow and almost fluff in nature compared to some urban fantasy, you can really get into the characters, unlike some books where you can never truly get into the characters.

There are five of the Old Races in this universe , which could be our own, and they stem from legend: Djinn, Dragons, Gargoyles, Selkies, and Vampires. Others, such as the yeti and the syrens, have died off.

At times, I found myself thinking that the dialogue seemed forced and fake, that people would talk like that outside of movies and TV, and I'm not quite sure the author did any research regarding legal aid or law enforcement seem real, but why let things like reality get in the way of a good story, right? There are two types of authors--those who believe that research is a necessary major component of the writing process and those who just put pen to paper and start writing. C. E. Murphy is among the latter.

I will disagree with the complaint that the beginning of the book starts off slow. It actually starts off a lot quicker than a lot of other books that I have read lately, with Margrit coming face to face with Alban in the first couple of pages, and then she continues to run into him. However, it does begin to move a lot faster--along the lines of an action movie fast--as you reach the middle of the book. It's here where I started to exceed my self-imposed goal of reading (I try to read 10% of a book a day--it's not much, but with limited time to read, 10% is a vast improvement from what I used to do). It also keeps you guessing as to who is behind the killings of the women in the park, and you're just not quite sure until the close of the book as to who the killer is.

There are quite a few threads that are left unresolved at the close of the book, which presumably will be dealt with in the second book--among these unresolved threads is one of the main instigators as to why Margrit got involved with the Old Races to begin with. I'm still uncommitted if I will pick up the second book of this series or not. On one hand, the book did keep me turning the pages, and it did set up a compelling alternate universe with the Old Races, and it is far enough removed from other urban fantasy books to avoid being a cookie-cutter series (including having romance that doesn't interfere with the story telling), but on the other hand, I don't know if I really found myself immersed enough in this universe to want to keep reading it.

Barnes & Noble Nook

2010-04-24T07:03:00.003-05:00

My wife and I each bought a Barnes & Noble Nook this spring to join the growing number of people who read ebooks--though I still have a number of hard copy books to read as well, thanks to the fact that I bought a number of books following Christmas as well as the Early Reviewer and Member Give-away programs over at http://www.librarything.com/. We made our decision to get ereaders following looking at the Sony eReader that is available practically everywhere--and they looked like they would be fun to have. However, I remembered that of the three eReaders that were becoming commonly available at an affordable price, Sony was ranked at number three. So that left the Kindle from Amazon (and which will start to be sold at Target this year) or the Barnes & Noble Nook. When comparing the Kindle and the Nook, I learned that Kindle apparently only allowed books from their site (and have only recently allowed .pdf books to be imported onto their device as well), whereas the Nook had more of an open system, allowing you to get your books from practically any site where you could buy or get free ebooks, as well as being able to check ebooks out from public libraries. Because of that, we chose to go with the Nook.

THE BAD

There aren't too many bad things I would say about the Nook. I personally didn't have a problem with the speed of the page turns, which is one of the improvements Barnes & Noble made with the new update. To me, it seemed to be about the same speed as turning pages if reading an ebook on a computer, so to me, that update was sort of worthless. However, after the update, it took a long time for the Nook to restart. I hope that is not indicative of how long it is now going to take to start up all the time now, because that was just ridiculous.

The built-in dictionary for the Nook is sort of clumsy to use, and if you need to use it, it's going to severely cut into the flow of the book, though I don't know how the dictionary feature works in the Kindle or the Sony eReader. And the dictionary only apparently works for books bought from Barnes & Noble, not books obtained elsewhere.

The Nook is prone to freezing up from time to time, though for me personally, this was more problematic early on and it hasn't happened recently. Again, I don't know if the Kindle or the eReader have this problem, but as with any technology, it is prone to fail. Imagine if you never had to worry about your computer crashing or getting a virus, or about your car or appliances breaking down, or your gaming system always worked flawlessly. It happens, and it's no different with the Nook. Still, it is frustrating, and to unfreeze it, you need to power off the Nook and wait for it to start back up again.

The last negative thing I have for the Nook is that Adobe Digital Editions would not recognize my Nook whereas the computer would recognize the Nook being hooked up. This may sound like either a computer problem or a problem with Adobe Digital Editions at first, the fix for this, as detailed on many Nook forums, is to unregister the Nook, reset the Nook settings, and then reregister. (Adobe Digital Editions is what you would need to use if you use a site other than Barnes & Noble to get your books, whether you buy them from another site, or get free ebooks from other sites, or check ebooks out from your public library with).

THE INDIFFERENT

One thing that the Nook has is a More in Store feature, where you can go to a Barnes & Noble and connect via their 3G network and obtain unique features. However, they are mainly short one to five page articles and interviews, or perhaps a single recipe and mostly unnoteworthy. I would not make a special trip to Barnes & Noble for these features. Since I work a block and a half from a Barnes & Noble, however, I can easily take my Nook there on a short break and see if there is anything I would be interested in (or you can check the BN website for a rundown on what they are offering as More in Store as well).

I was also at a Barnes & Noble once and could not connect to their network. I went to find the people working at the information desk, and they said that it was likely due to the large number of people there with laptops using the bandwidth.

You can customize your Nook with your own wallpaper and screensavers, which I just recently downloaded a new wallpaper for mine; however, the more pictures you put on it, the less space you will have for your ebooks.

The Lend Me feature sounds like it would be great. You buy a hard copy of a book, and you can lend it out to friends when you're done with it. So, if you buy an ebook, you should have this feature as well. However, this is in "beta" mode which means there are only some books you can do this with.

For some reason I want to keep touching the larger, black and white screen to use as a touch screen when only the smaller screen works as a touch screen. It would be great if the larger screen were touch screen as well, and in color. Only the small screen is in color, so you can see book covers in color, but they are too small to see all that well. Again, color in the large screen would be nice.

There are a number of books you can get for free, including many of them being from Google books. Others seem to be short novellas instead of actual books, and some apparently are incomplete, coming from sources such as Smashwords, so you have to be careful about what you think you are getting for free.

The daily features articles can be entertaining, though I don't go in and read those very much.

The selection of magazine and newspaper subscriptions seems sparse, and not much I would bother even picking up in hard copy edition. It would be nice if they had newsmagazines, media magazines, travel magazines, etc. included in the mix, or more than the 15 or so newspapers that they offer.

THE JURY'S STILL OUT ON...

The new Read in Store feature. It sounds like a good deal--go to a Barnes & Noble, and be able to read many of the ebooks free of charge for up to an hour per day. However, how often do you go to Barnes & Noble to read the hard copy books without buying them. Myself, I will briefly browse through a book to see if I want it, I don't go and read the book while I'm there. If you do read the hard copy books, you don't have an hour time limit to do so. And, the idea is to get people with Nooks to come into the store and be seen with them, thus making other people decide they want one, too. So, why limit this free reading to an hour? Wouldn't it make a lot of sense to not limit the time, and if someone wants to spend all afternoon at Barnes & Noble doing this, that should be up to them, plus it would increase the number of other customers who would see the Nook in use by people. The one good thing about the Read in Store feature is that since not all the stores can carry all the books that would be available, you may be able to read a book--or at least preview a book--that you wouldn't have been able to find in store.

May 16 update: Twice now, we have gone to one of the Barnes & Noble stores here in town to "read in store" (store 2080, I believe). On those two trips, we didn't get anywhere near the one hour limit. The first time, we didn't time it, but it didn't seem like we were getting an hour's worth of time. On the second trip, we did time it. I got 22 minutes. My wife got about 15. That's a total of about 37 minutes (40, if we round up). When we complained to the staff, they said they never heard of that happening. They called customer support and were told that they did not have this complaint before. They did say that it may go by email account, so together, we'd only get an hour per day. Still, we only got a maximum of 40 minutes, not the one hour that Barnes & Nobles claims. We asked if it depended on publisher, and they said that it wouldn't.

THE GOOD

As I've already said, with the Nook, you have the ability to read books in the epub and .pdf formats so you aren't stuck with only one location to get your books, and this was a huge reason why we went with the Nook.

The font, which is adjustable (one of the most commonly asked questions I get when I have it) is crisp, and the screen is clear and readable even if you're sitting outside (another common question).

I'm all about functionality, and the Nook has functionality. You can use the Nook as an mp3 player, though admittedly, due to its size you probably aren't going to take this to the gym while you work out. However, if you wanted to listen to mp3's while you read, you would be able to do this. You can also apparently use this to listen to audio books, which isn't something I have done yet.

With the recent update, you now also have games on the Nook. Right now, the oly two offerings are sodoku and chess, and I can only hope that more will be coming soon. Crosswords puzzles or other mental games would be a welcome addition.

And you have a web browser with the Nook now, allowing you to surf the internet just as you'd be able to on your other handheld portable devices such as your smart phone. I don't expect much from this, but it is nice to have, especially for times when you are looking for the news, a phone number, or a new restaurant. Sure, you may say you have that with your phone or laptop or iPad, but the phone's screen would be smaller, and a laptop seems clumsy compared to the Nook--only the iPad would be comparible to this in my opinion, and was one of the few reasons I was considering an iPad before deciding on the Nook (the iPad price was a major reason I didn't go in that direction). I doubt I'd be able to really watch videos or listen to online music through the Nook's browser, but I doubt that would be a major thing I would want to do anyway. I also tried accessing my yahoo mail, and I didn't have much luck with this, which would have been something I would have done more option, so this does bring the browser feature down a little bit in my book.

May 16 update: The wifi connection doesn't seem to work all the time. In fact, my work place is one big wifi hotspot. However, the nook can't seem to connect there. I was standing right next to another person who was able to connect to the wifi network on his blackberry phone with an android operating system and he had no problem connecting to the network whereas the nook could not connect, or if it did, it would immediately disconnect.

Free Fridays: Each week, Barnes & Noble offers one book for free, which are typically full length novels and in different genres each week. These aren't available for free for long, so if you see something you like, you'd best get it as soon as possible, and check back each Friday.

I also like the fact that the mp3 and the wifi connectivity features have more prominence in the new touch menu so that you don't have to go looking for them.

OTHER THINGS I'D LIKE TO SEE IN THE NOOK

One thing that the Nook doesn't have that a coworker keeps trying to use as his main (and really only) reason why the Kindle is better than the Nook is the text to speech feature. I don't know if I'd use this or not, but it would definitely silence what seems to be Kindle supporters' main argument from what I've heard.

The other thing I'd like to see goes back to my argument for functionality. I would like to see a calendar with the Nook. Right now, I have a PDA (traditional) that I use for my calendar since I don't have a smart phone and likely won't be spending the money on a smart phone, especially with the new features of the Nook. I could get rid of my PDA and use my Nook to keep track of my appointments with.

With the addition of things such as the games and the web browser, can a Nook app store be that far off? I would definitely be willing to spend a couple of dollars per app if they are useful apps, or fun time wasters.

All-in-all, I love my Nook, and I believe the money spent on this is definitely worthwhile. I would recommend anyone who likes reading to get a Nook. If you have any other questions for me regarding this, I'd be happy to answer them.

Star Trek: Titan: Taking Wing

2010-04-19T06:02:00.005-05:00

Star Trek: Titan: Taking Wing
By Michael Martin and Mangels
Pocket Books
359 pages
March 2005

After almost a decdade of strife against foes such as the Borg, the Cardassians, the Klingons, and the Dominion, the United Federation of Planets is at the dawn of a new era. Starfleet is renewing its mission of peaceful exploration, diplomacy, and the expansion of knowledge. Among the starships spearheading that endeavor is the U.S.S. Titan, commanded by Captain William T. Riker and manned by the most biologically varied and culturally diverse crew in Starfleet history.

But their mission does not begin as planned.

In the wake of Star Trek: Nemesis, Praetor Shinzon, slayer of the Romulan Senate, is dead. The power vacuum created by his demise has put the Romulan Star Empire, longtime adversary of the Federation, at the brink of civil war. Competing factions now vie for control of their fragmenting civilization, and if the empire should fall, that entire area of the galaxy may destabilize.

To restore order to the region, Titan's long-anticipated mission of exploration is delayed as Starfleet assigns Riker to set up power-sharing talks among the Romulan factions. But even as the first tentative steps are taken toward building a new Romulus, the remants of the Tal Shiar, the dreaded Romulan intelligence service, are regrouping behind the scenes for a power play of their own. With no other help avaiable, Riker and the Titan crew become the last hope to prevent the quadrant from falling into chaos.

In reading this book, I felt like it was almost two different books, based on the style of writing and what was happening. I know that it was written by Michael Martin and Andy Mangels, and I am unsure how that collaboration on the book went, and at the back of the book, there is a short paragraph on each author that establishes his credentials within the Star Trek universe.

Star Trek: Titan is a series based on Will Riker being offered his own command, as seen in the movie Star Trek: Nemesis, and of course Deanna Troi, his wife, goes along with him. The series picks up almost immediately where the movie left off as far as Riker and the starship Titan are concerned, with the ship still in space dock. The primary mission of the Titan is long-range exploration.

I have been out of the Star Trek book circle for awhile, and recently made the decision to get back to reading some of these. And like other reviewers of this book, I felt that there were too many characters with too many different names to really keep track of them all or feel any connection to many of them. Some of those characters apparently had been in some of the Star Trek: The Next Generation relaunch of books, though I wasn't familiar with them. Others were both minor and major characters of one or another TV show. I felt that the first part of this book was littered with minute little details that had no bearing to the story that was going on, whether that the author(s) tried to put everything they knew about Star Trek (and what they knew, it seemed, came from cliff notes)into the book. Also in the first half of the book, the action seemed to be glossed over, with very little dialogue, I felt. The characters of Will Riker and Deanna Troi seemed almost out of character for how they would have acted while on TNG.

And then about half way through, everything changes. The story actually becomes exciting as the Titan finally reaches Romulan space, meets up with the Klingons and then the Romulans as they make their final way to Romulus and the various factions of the Romulans that are trying to get into power. In the second half of this book, I found it difficult to put down and was a much quicker read than the first half of the book. The action is better, the dialogue is better, with the characters acting more within character, and less of the almost constant anti-racism preaching that was prevalent throughout the first half of the book.

The Romulans are not depicted as good as they have been by Diane Duane, and because of that, I would not consider this book essential Romulan reading, but overall, the book does set up the Star Trek Titan universe fairly well.

So, whereas the first half of the book would have warranted two or two-and-a-half stars, the second half redeemed the book to get it up to three-and-a-half stars. I will add the second book of the series to my "will read" column, and give the series at least one more chance.

Dead Witch Walking

2010-04-17T06:44:00.004-05:00

Dead Witch Walking
by Kim Harrison
Pages: 368
Publisher: Eos/Harper Collins
April 2004

The underground population of witches, vampires, werewolves—creatures of dreams and nightmares—has lived beside humans for centuries, hiding their powers. But after a genetically engineered virus wipes out a large part of humanity, many of the "Inderlanders" reveal themselves, changing everything.

Rachel Morgan, witch and bounty hunter with the Inderland Runner Services, is one of the best at apprehending supernatural lawbreakers throughout Cincinnati, but when it comes to following the rules, she falls desperately short. Determined to buck the system, she quits and takes off on the run with an I.S. contract on her head and is reluctantly forced to team up with Ivy, Inderland's best runner . . . and a living vampire. But this witch is way out of her league, and to clear her name, Rachel must evade shape-changing assassins, outwit a powerful businessman/crime lord, and survive a vicious underground fight-to-the-death . . . not to mention her own roommate.

I decided to read Dead Witch Walking after reading about Kim Harrison’s book series on a Barnes & Noble Nook blog, where they were hyping this first book of the series as part of their ebook give aways. So, it’s free, why not give it a try? I had somewhat glanced over her books in the past in the bookstore, thinking that they might be interesting, but never actually took the step of either buying it or going to the library to see if I could get it there. It took this free give away and the accompanying rave review of the blogger to convince me that I should give it a try, some six years after it was published.

Dead Witch Walking has a variety of urban fantasy beings—vampires, witches, demons, were-creatures, pixies, and faeries. It’s an interesting mix, and the three main characters of the book are one witch, one vampire, and one pixie. These paranormal beings are referred to as Inderlanders in Harrison’s universe, and considered separate from actual humans. I don’t feel that was adequately explained. For instance, humans in her universe have an aversion to tomatoes, but inderlanders don’t. So, what makes a witch different from a human? What happens when a human is turned into a vampire? Do they suddenly like tomatoes again? Another thing that bothers me is the relationship between Ivy and Rachel Morgan—colleagues that set off together to form their own venture, but yet Rachel, as she has to struggle with getting to know Ivy better, doesn’t seem to be all that trusting of Ivy, something that you can hardly go two pages without being reminded of. In that regard, I think this book could have built a better framework, but maybe as the series goes on, that basic framework will improve. This book also was hard for me to get into. Is that just a funk I’m going through? I don’t think so, as my wife also decided to read this book as well, and as we were reading the first few pages, I asked her what she thought of the book. Her comment was that she had trouble figuring out what was going on, which is a description I’d agree with it. Ms. Harrison throws you right into the middle of her universe without working up to anything, leaving you the reader a bit confused. Imagine yourself walking through a door, and finding yourself in a foreign country that you know nothing about, and that is how this book starts out. Sure, you eventually find your way around, but it takes a bit.

However, as the story progressed, I found myself not wanting to put the book down, as Ms. Harrison’s universe truly came alive and the flow seemed to improve significantly. She does a good job of setting up the series over the course of the book, introducing characters—both allies, villains, future possibilities, and just who are some of these characters?—at a good pace, and she leaves room for growth within their characters as well. If you are wanting a good paranormal romance book, this isn’t it. There are other authors out there that can give that to you. There are some authors out there that started out there series as good urban fantasy and then ruined their series by focusing less on an actual urban fantasy story and turning it more into a romance story with very little action going on. If you want a good urban fantasy book with maybe a small touch of romance, then I’d suggest checking this book out.

I would have given this book a much higher rating if the story had been consistent all the way through it.

The Long Man

2010-04-06T06:02:00.003-05:00

The Long Man
by Steve Englehart
Tor books
384 pages
Copyright 2010

In 1981, DJ and Vietnam vet Max August was thrust into a hidden war between the forces of chaos and order. In that war, magick--real, potent magick--was the chief weapon. Mentored by legendary alchemist Cornelius Agrippa, Max was an eager student. Before Agrippa died in 1985--having lived for five hundred years--Max learned the secret to stopping the aging of his body, making himself "timeless."

Nearly three decades later, he saes Dr. Pamela Blackwell from a magickal dart that would have killed her. Her life-saving research has made her an enemy of the FRC, a cabal intent on world domination.

From San Francisco to Barbados to the shores of Suriname, Max and Pam must fight off magick-wielding assassins, legions of zombies, and the FRC's more mundane weapon--corporate clout and friends in high places. Max may be powerful and timeless, but he's not indestructible. He'll need all his powers, his hard-earned fighting skills, and Pam's help to prevent a genocidal apocalypse.

Supernatural enemies, dazzling magic, and nonstop excitement mark this international thriller, a page-turner from a master storyteller.

I never read Steve Englehart's first book, The Point Man, which was published in 1981. I would have been 9 years old. And I'm not Timeless. The Long Man is a follow-up to that book, and follows the continuing adventures of Max August, but just as 25 years have passed in our world, 25 years have passed in his. Because I wasn't familiar with the back story of the characters of Max, Agrippa, or the superstar singer Val, it did take some figuring out what was going on in the books first few pages. I wasn't sure if this was the sort of book that would keep my interest going or not, as Englehart kept changing the time from the current time and going back to 1985 as he filled in some of the gaps of what has happened to our main character in the intervening years between his first book and this one. His mentor has been killed by Aleksandra. Val has been to, though this doesn't stop him from spending the years in between trying to find her and bring her back on each October 31.

So, when in 2007, he feels a pull back to San Francisco, where he had his popular radio show back in the day, he thinks that it's his desire to reach Val that is bringing him back. That, however, is not what fate has in store for him when he receives a phone call from an old friend that results in a new adventure taking him from San Francisco to Barbados and to Suriname (that's in South America if you slept through your geography class) as he faces off against black magic, zombies, chupacabra, and the FRC. In tow is Dr. Pam Blackwell, a doctor who has come up with an antidote for puffer fish poison--an antidote that earns her some powerful enemies that don't want to see that antidote known about in their scheme for world domination. The Long Man is nonstop action from start to finish, presented in a fun and irrelevent manner, while at the same time putting it all into context of the way the world was in 2007 and the changes our world went through as a result of 9/11 and the need for change and hope in the 2008 Presidential election.

It's interesting that the FRC is chosen as the initials of the evil cartel that he comes up against, and how those same initials are used by these high-ranking and powerful individuals who run the world behind the scenes. One of the several examples of this presented by the author is the Federal Reserve Chair. Of course, FRC has a variety of different meanings, in all fields--politics, manufacturing, financial institutions, some of which you can find by searching Wikipedia and/or Google.

This is Steve Englehart's second book. He is more known for his work on writing for comic book series, "The Avengers," "Captain America," "The Fantastic Four," "Batman," and "Justice League of America."

I thoroughly enjoyed reading The Long Man. Will you? I would have you do what Max August says. Explore but verify.

Monster Hunter International

2010-01-17T06:57:00.004-06:00

Title: Monster Hunter International
Author: Larry Correia
Publisher: Baen
Pages: 713

I picked this book up because I thought it was going to be more humorous than it turned out being. Owen kills his boss who actually was a werewolf and tried to eat him. There were elements throughout the first quarter of the book where the author seemed to try to make it humorous, but it seems those parts were short-lived, and the author apparantly gave up on that aspect, or I failed to catch the humor that the book started off with, even with a very yoda-like ghost guide character that Owen talks to when he dreams. Throughout the rest of the book, there were one liners that made me chuckle, but by then, I was more concentrated on the action than the humor.

The only other complaint I have with this book is it's length--over 700 pages, so it does get drawn out at times and the action seems to stall. However, there was never a point in the book where I was bored and considered not reading it (despite my rather slow read of it anyway).

And ok, it was a typical "gun nut" type of book, which I am not a gun nut, so the gun talk went over my head.

While it has the vampires and werewolves that are popular right now, it's not one of those teen books or romance books, which means this book is definitely superior to those. No "Twilight" type of book, nor is it Laurell Hamilton or Anne Rice. If I had to compare it to something, it would most come acrossed as the "Underworld" movie type of story. In other words, this is a very good monster killing action book, and if it was a movie, it would definitely be in my DVD collection.

Towards the beginning of the book, I was thinking this would make a good series of books--however, due to the length of the book, a lot of the things that would work over the course of a series were dealt with in this book, and after you save the world from master vampires and the very essence of evil itself, where can you go from there? Well, it does set itself up for a sequel at the end of the book, so you never can tell.

My rating: 4 out of 5 stars.

V

2009-11-04T05:35:00.004-06:00

There's a danger in being one of fall TV's most anticipated new TV shows. There's a danger of putting out ads for the show on practically every website in existance promoting the show. There's a danger in remaking a show wherein a lot of the audience already knows the story. There's the very real chance that the show may end up being a flop.

Fortunately that wasn't the case with ABC's remake of the classic miniseries "V" which aired last night.

After waiting for months for this show to come out, I was worried that it would be given the treatment of the ill-fated one season of "V", or that the show would fail to live up to its expectations. The arrival of the Visitors was much better presented this time around, I feel, than they were in the early 80s, with much of what was going on in the real world being a part of what was happening in the show--the weak economy and terrorism, referencing Independence Day when the ships do show up. The feel of the show, however, remained the same, when it came to the anticipation of the aliens. Of course we knew they would, and the ships don't disappoint. And the presentation of the various team members--some of whom are very familiar characters--a minister who doesn't quite buy in to the "Visitors as friends" hype despite being told by the Vatican that they are to be accepted as God's creatures and the miraculous sudden filling up of his church's congregation as a result, and the newsman who is chosen to be the Visitor's spokesperson who also decides that he doesn't trust the Visitors but yet feels trapped because he wants to further his career--was well handled. I particularly liked how the investigation of a terrorist sleeper cell leads Elizabeth Mitchell's character to discover the real identity of the aliens, and how these characters come together to form the core of the resistance.

There were some elements I didn't care for in the show, one of which I won't mention as it could be a potential spoiler for those who have yet to see the show (hint: it was also an element of the original miniseries as well, but I don't want to say more as it may give things away too quickly and spoil the pilot episode). The other is how quickly the aliens are referred to as "Visitors." If aliens were to show up above our cities today and prove (or at least pretend) to be friendly, I doubt I'd accept the name "Visitors" for them. I'd refer to them as "the aliens" and/or want to know what planet they came from and call them, for example, the Gliesians (if they came from Gliese 581, a red dwarf star in the constellation Libra, which lies around 20.5 light-years from Earth).

Even Tammy, who is not into sci-fi shows other than Lost and Twilight Zone, claimed to have liked the show. She, however, had the added benefit of not knowing the original concept of the show (other than she knows an element of the show seems to have been lifted from The Twilight Zone's Canamites), with the Visitors in fact being lizards.

Hopefully the rest of the series will be as good as the first episode proved to be.

Fool's Gold

2009-10-30T07:42:00.002-05:00

I debated whether or not to post my thoughts on the book "Fool's Gold" by Hank Quense or not. In the end, I decided that I would.

The description of the book from Amazon.com:
Aliens, ancient gods, beautiful Valkyries, old-fashioned heroes, conniving nobles, betrayal, greed, incest, a magical gold horde; this story has something for everyone. Fafner, the most notorious criminal in the universe, is stranded on Earth after civilization has been ravaged by disease, war and pollution. He decides to hone his felonious skills by stealing the powerful artifacts developed by another alien, Alberich. But Alberich is determined to regain the artifacts or at least make Fafner pay for stealing them. Alberich's devices, made for the magical Rhinegold, give the user vast powers. The Chip, allows the user to receive information instantaneously from anywhere in the universe. The second device, called the Helm is a beanie-like hat that allows the wearer to see the life lines of every creature in the vicinity. Wotan, god of the Saxons and Vikings, has to recover the Rhinegold in order to prevent his aging. He recognizes the greatly enhanced power of the golden horde, thanks to Alberich's genius. He plans to make a big comeback and regain millions of worshippers. To take the devices away from Fafner, he needs an old-fashioned hero: one who is strong of arm and weak of brain. While these conflicts rage on, Brunnhilde, an ex-Valkyrie, searches for the meaning of true love. Despite a few false starts and some problems such as the wrath of the god Wotan and mean-spirited men, Brunnhilde struggles to understand mortal love while she seeks a good man to try it out on.

Unfortunately, this is a book I need to give a rating of "below average" to, despite being excited by reading the description. As I read it, I just couldn't help but feel that it read like a retelling of a myth, with no character development or depth at all. Since it was a "multi-generational" book, and a lot of characters just kept dying, perhaps the author didn't feel it necessary to expand on the characters or make them grow only to be killed off. But as a result, I felt less compassion or connection to the people in the story than I would hearing about someone's death on TV or reading about it in the newspaper.

I think it is an interesting idea that just needs to be worked on a little bit more.

Mr. Quense says that his story is a retelling of an ancient German myth other than the fact that he changed a couple of characters to aliens. And of course, that is his right to do. However, even with a retelling, I expect there to be more substance to a story.

Metro + Med Comics

2009-10-13T05:09:00.002-05:00

Walking through the aisles of Fallcon at the grandstand for the Minnesota State Fairgrounds, hoping to come across some great Batman-related stuff, I happened to see a booth for Metro Med comics. I walked over to the booth, as I had heard of Metro Med comics off and on for a few years, as Michael Hutchison also comes from Rochester.

I know what you're asking. What the heck is Fallcon? It's Minnesota's comic book convention. And it's nowhere near what I would imagine somthing like ComicCon would be like. First off, the number of seminars wasn't that big, and the subjects not all that interesting enough to try to be there for. You do have some people who dress up as some comic book hero, which makes it just exciting enough to see. Otherwise, you pay a lot of money to go and see what vendors are selling and/or independent artists and comic book creators are offering. I was at MicroCon in the spring (also at the MN fairgrounds, but smaller) and now this one--and I doubt I'd be interested in going back to either one. Even if you can occasionally find some great independent finds.

But back to Metro Med. For those of you who have never heard of it, it's been around for five years, though I don't know if they are actually still producing the comic or not, to be honest with you. For a comic that has been around for five years, they didn't seem to have that many different issues out on display.

Metro Med (www.metromedcomic.com) is about a superhero/super villian hospital, detailing the saga of the medical team that treats the metahumans injured when the two sides go head to head. The action is set in the fictional East Coast city of Tri-Metro. The unique nature of the medical care needed by metahumans, as well as battle sites that resemble a warzone, bringing in many more casualties than normal hospitals could handle, as well as advanced security as well as an even more important need for privacy (i.e.--unmasking superheroes, having access to strengths--and weaknesses of a particular patient) is the need for a facility like Metro Med.

Managing to snag a free copy of the #0 Summer preview special of Metro Med, I was excited to read through it. I quickly learned that it was a different angle of the normal superhero comic...this is more of a "what's happening behind the scenes" type of comic, with the reader never really knowing what's really happening out "on the field," which is the point of the comic--that doesn't really matter. As a result, though, you never really get to know the superheroes that are being brought in--unless that changes in the other issues. But with that disconnect, with heroes that you don't actually care about, it makes the outcome more anticlimatic. Nor do you care if a hero doesn't actually make it. The story in "Hard Shells and Fruity Centers" the story line seemed fragmented, with a lot of missing information. I realize this may not have actually been the first story ever done for the series, but you don't know the heroes, you don't know the medical staff--nor do you really learn much about either one. Even "inside jokes" between the heroes--whether it just be casual bantor or actual animosity--just sort of falls flat. There are references to the Monster Truck--which undoubtedly is the vehicle one of the heroes drives, but I don't recall ever actually seeing it, which tells me nothing about the vehicle, and makes me care nothing about it. It's all sort of like only being able to watch the first two minutes after each commercial break of an hour-long show.

The concept is a great one, in my opinion, and I think the creators have more of this story in their heads than what I was able to see actually inked out on paper. In fact, in this issue, they had a map of Tri-Metro, as well as a character guide for the medical staff as well as a lot of details about the different heroes and their teams. Now, if this was one issue in the middle of a six or seven part storyline, I would be much more forgiving of the shortfalls with this. However, it was apparently intended as a preview of the series. As such, I felt lost and confused as to what was going on, who was who, with all the different names of heroes, villians, and teams being thrown around. As much as I was excited about this comic and wanted to like it, it's obviously not one for me.

24 Bones

2009-10-07T07:34:00.003-05:00

My latest book took me all the way to Cairo, Egypt, and Giza to where the great pyramid is. That book, which some may lay claim to the fact that it doesn't particularly belong here, is 24 Bones by Michael Stewart. This is an ebook, available (that I know of) only from Amazon.com and Mobipocket.com.

This book follows the ancient struggle of right versus wrong, and may challenge your perceptions of what right and wrong are, and their ever changing faces. Yes, there are "evil" characters, and the return of an ancient Egyptian god as he tries to take over the world. What side are you on? And are you sure?

The characters of the book are a professor named Taggart and Samiya (Sam) as they take up their places in that struggle between two cults, and how their fates bring them together in the struggle despite Taggart living in Canada and Sam living in Cairo--both have their roles to play, whether they like it or not, as circumstances bring the two into open conflict with each other.

When I first started reading this book, I wasn't quite sure about it. The story did keep my interest, and when I stopped reading, I would look forward to continuing where I left off. I was curious as to how the book would play out.

There were two things that weighed on me, however, as I started reading this book. One, the tone of the book seemed to portray an anti-Christian theme at almost every chance it got, both in dialogue and thought patterns of the main character of Taggart, to the point that I almost stopped reading even though I am not overtly religious. Now, I realize that for the sake of the story, that was probably a necessary element, and it all becomes an important part of the story down the road to fully understand Taggart's perspective. He's not particularly sold on the Judeo-Christian belief system, yet he goes to Cairo to join "the good fight."

The other thing that bothered me in the beginning of the story was that the writing in a couple of spots seemed sort of weak. The weak spots, though, (and I think there were only two that I can remember)were confined to about the first quarter to third of the book, and were easily overlooked in the context of the continuing story, and didn't cause me to stop reading the book.

Both of those points, though confined to the first quarter or third of the book, were enough to knock half a point off each, down to 4/5 stars.

The next half-point deduction came from the first half of the book, where the details of the cults working against each other were explained in too much detail to the point that it was taking away from the overall story. Granted, much of what was said may have been necessary for the overall story to work.

It wasn't until perhaps halfway through the book that Mr. Stewart finds the proper mix, and the story really starts to take off as the two sides start to maneuver against the other in a series of attack/counter attack which finds the good side on the losing end of most of the time and things are going very, very badly for the side of good. Of course, there wouldn't be much of a compelling reason to read the book if the side of good was always in the advantage. The book is complete with twists and turns that I wouldn't have expected, and kept the suspense going throughout.

I would consider the book to be a mix of the Da Vinci Code, Indiana Jones, and The Mummy, and if you like one or all of those movies/books, you would likely enjoy 24 Bones. It was a very enjoyable journey through Egypt and a very worthwhile story.

I'm Still Here

2009-09-25T05:35:00.002-05:00

I'm still around, and trying to keep up with posting things on here as of late. I lost a good portion of my reading time as of late, smack dab in the middle of "Monster Hunter International," a 750-page novel. In addition to losing some of that time, I received the ebook from a Library Thing member give away called "24 Bones," which will in all likelihood be the next book I actually review here. And I should soon be getting the book "Earth is Ours" as well. Look for those next three books to be the next to show up here.

The Renaissance Faire season is quickly drawing to a close--at least here in the northern climes of North America, though I do have some impressions of some of the ones I have been to that I haven't yet posted, and that is also on my to-do list. That's quite alright, as geekdom doesn't die just because the temperature drops, it just heads inside. So there are some comic and writing conventions in the northern clime within driving distance this fall. I won't be going to all of them, nor probably even close to a high percentage of them, but I will be doing at least one, maybe two.

It's the season of Halloween, which has me a little excited. I'm not a blood-and-guts type of person, but Halloween can be fun. It's the one time of the year where you can laugh in the face of death and say I'm a survivor. I'm the type of person who loves going in to Halloween Express and seeing all of the cheesy Halloween decorations they have, and have a Halloween village to set up on display. I would convert the front yard into a graveyard if I had the money to spend to do it right. I'd love to see the movie "Zombie Land" but again, with time and money (mostly time) being what they are, we don't see a lot of movies in the theatres--we still have a couple of NetFlix movies on the counter where they've sat for the past couple of months.

Unfortunately, the lack of time has really meant that I didn't get to watch much of Eureka (a show I just started getting into this year, and now I want to go back and try to get caught up on) or Warehouse 13 as I would have liked. I'm hoping that changes with the season premiere of Sanctuary (again, another show I'm just getting in to, though not as much to get caught up on) and Stargate Universe. I haven't been much into Stargate in the past, but I'm willing to give it a shot. And of course, what I'm really looking forward to is the reimagining of V. Here's to hopefully finding the time.

Des Moines Renaissance Faire

2009-09-11T05:46:00.000-05:00

If you'd like to go to a Renaissance Festival, but you just feel that they tend to be too large and too overwhelming, the Des Moines Renaissance Faire may be for you. It's a small faire, and everything is within easy walking distance. The grounds are 16 acres, and it is a permanent location for the faire, with buildings on site, as well as a living history area with tents. And there is much interactivity for faire goers.

As a smaller faire, though, you have fewer chances to go. It runs three weekends in September.

There are over 50 vendors (food and shops) at the faire for your eating and shopping pleasure, so it's easy to find what you're looking for and not getting lost in the process. It also makes it easier to go back to a particular vendor if you can't find what you want elsewhere.

There are ten different venues for entertainment at the faire, though one of them is a "picnic shelter," and some offer no seating at all, and are sort of hard to find even with a map of the grounds and having walked around the grounds a couple of times. This makes some of the entertainment indistinguishable from some of the activities that you could do yourself. Some of the entertainment seems to be more "spur of the moment" or ill-planned out. We tried going to one entertainment event a few minutes before it was scheduled to begin--a singing group--only to see no patrons there, and just some of the performers sitting around talking, so we left. When we walked by later, we saw that they were up on stage singing, but I wouldn't be able to tell you if anyone was listening to them or not. Because things seemed to be ill-planned and/or ill-timed, there were things we probably would have gone to see but otherwise chose not to.

However, the faire does have a joust, and a children's area. They had jugglers, and comedic plays, and musicians, etc. So, there should be something for everyone when you go.

They also had a castle facade--something that is often times missing from some renaissance festivals, and some tower facades. And they also had a torture chamber/dungeon tour that you could go on as well--something that none of the other faires I have been to have had.

http://www.dmrenfaire.com

Survivors

2009-09-07T07:35:00.003-05:00

Survivors--Coming Soon to BBC America.

The idea isn't original or unique, which would be one strike against this program. The concept has been hashed and rehased on TV, books, and movies in the past. It is based on the novel by Terry Nation, which TV series based on novels does appear to be the "in thing" right now. This is also a remake of the 70s series as well.

Still, it will soon be coming to BBC America (no idea when), and it may be worth checking out.

You can go to the BBC homepage for Survivors to learn more information and to play the interactive game to see what kind of survivor you would be.

From the BBC page:
Imagine being the only survivor of a disease that kills every member of your family, that kills lovers, strangers, friends, nearly everyone you've ever met.

You are among the lonely few to live and now you must start over in a strange new world where everything that was once safe and familiar is now strange and dangerous.

Set in the present day, Survivors focuses on the world in the aftermath of a devastating virus which wipes out most of the world's population. What would we do? How would any of us cope in a brave new world where all traditional 21st Century comforts - electricity, clean running water, advanced technology - have disappeared?

These are the questions faced by the bewildered but resilient group of survivors at the centre of the drama. It is an opportunity for new beginnings, but with no society, no police and no law and order, they now face terrible dangers - not just the daily struggle for food and water but also the deadly threat from other survivors.

"Survivors is about what it means to be human," explains writer and executive producer Adrian Hodges. "It asks questions about our nature and confronts us with our deepest fears. When everything else is stripped away, would we band together and find the best in ourselves, or would we fall apart and retreat into barbarism and savagery? Survivors is about adventure, fear, love, loyalty and friendship. But above all, it's about new hope."

Survivors, by Adrian Hodges is a re-imagining of the classic 1970s BBC drama series which was based on the novel by Terry Nation. It launched in April 1975 and ran for 38 episodes over three series.

So You Say You Wrote a Story

2009-09-06T05:17:00.000-05:00

Since I need extra time to complete my next book (713 pages) before I can review it here, I've decided to post about an author's search engine instead.

So, you've just completed your first story, but now don't know where to turn.

Where can you submit your short story, novelette, or novella to?

This has been a sticking point for myself, at the least. I just didn't know where I could turn to.

Check out Story Pilot . They feature a useful tool to help you find a market for your science fiction, fantasy, dark fantasy, or horror stories.

Upcoming TV series

2009-09-03T05:44:00.000-05:00

It's September, and that means a new slate of television shows to watch.

And it all begins next week.

September 10
Vampire Diaries
CW, Thursdays
Based on L.J. Smith’s novel series of the same name, this new entry from the CW follows the life of Elena Gilbert (Nina Dobrev) who is the object of desire of two vampire siblings (played by Paul Wesley and Ian Somerhalder).

September 23
Eastwick
ABC, Wednesdays
Three very different women find themselves drawn together by a mysterious man who unleashes unique powers in each of them. Inspired by the popular movie, "The Witches of Eastwick" and on the novel of the same title by John Updike.

September 24
Flash Forward
ABC, Thursdays
When a mysterious event causes the entire world to black out, humanity is given a glimpse into its near future, and every man, woman and child is forced to come to grips with whether their destinies can be avoided or fulfilled. Adapting award-winning author Robert J. Sawyer's revolutionary novel, executive producers David S. Goyer (visionary co-writer of "Batman Begins" and "The Dark Knight") and Brannon Braga ("24," "Star Trek: Enterprise") invite you to embark on a journey to answer the question, "if you knew what your future held, what would you do?"

October 2
Stargate Universe
SyFy, Fridays
Stargate Universe follows a band of soldiers, scientists and civilians, who must fend for themselves as they are forced through a Stargate when their hidden base comes under attack. The desperate survivors emerge aboard an ancient ship, which is locked on an unknown course and unable to return to Earth. Faced with meeting the most basic needs of food, water and air, the group must unlock the secrets of the ship's Stargate to survive.

November 3
V
ABC, Tuesdays
The long anticipated remake of the 1980s mini-series "V." Aliens finally make contact, appearing in large ships over many of earth's largest cities (never a good sign). Fortunately, invasion is not imminent, and the aliens appear to be friendly. Unfortunately, things are not always what they appear to be.

TV shows returning include:

September 12
Robin Hood
BBC America

September 21
Heroes
NBC

September 25
Smallville
CW

The Ghost Whisperer
CBS

Medium
CBS

October 9
Sanctuary
SyFy

Week of November 7
Legend of the Seeker
Various/syndicated

Jim C. Hines interview

2009-09-01T05:50:00.000-05:00

Jim C. Hines, author of the upcoming "The Mermaid Madness" has agreed to answer a couple of questions for us.

Sci-Fi Planet: What sorts of things will we find in the upcoming novel The Mermaid Madness?

Jim C. Hines: Danielle, Talia, and Snow will all be back, of course. The book opens with the merfolk returning from their winter migration. Princess Danielle sets out with Queen Bea to greet the merfolk and their king. But the king is dead, and Lirea--the little mermaid of the stories--is, how shall we put it, more than a little unstable. Like Stepsister Scheme, this one has plenty of action from the very first chapter, and should be a lot of fun.

SFP: How many books will be in the Princess series?

JCH: At the moment, it looks like four: The Stepsister Scheme, The Mermaid’s Madness, Red Hood’s Revenge, and Book #4. Four books should allow me to wrap up most of the character growth and long-term arcs I’ve been playing with. I originally thought about doing five books, but I don’t really have a story for #5 right now. I’ve seen too many series drag things out without anything new to say, and I don’t want to fall into that trap.

SFP: Will there be any new major characters joining the team?

JCH: Oh, yes. There are mermaids and mercenaries and many more. My favorite new character is Captain Hephyra, who commands Queen Beatrice’s ship. Hephyra is a dryad, exiled from Fairytown for various transgressions. Her values and priorities are a bit off-kilter compared to most humans, but she’s a great deal of fun.

SCP: Will the Duchess be returning in The Mermaid Madness to cause trouble, or will there be an entirely new villain?

JCH: We haven’t seen the last of her, but Mermaid mostly takes place at sea. With the Duchess confined to Fairytown, it would have been difficult to work her in to this book. Ask me again when books three and four come out.

SCP: How will Danielle's pregnancy play out? Will she have given birth before the start of the new book?

JCH: When book two begins, Danielle is the proud mother of young Prince Jakob, which introduces a whole new set of conflicts for her as she tries to balance duty and family.

SCP: When does the book come out?

JCH: October 6, 2009, but who’s counting? It’s not like I’m over here crossing days off the calendar as I frantically search the net for pre-release reviews. Nope, not me. If it’s like my previous releases, the book will probably start showing up in a few bookstores a week or so before that date.

SCP: Where did the idea behind the Princess series come from? The idea seems a bit different from the Jig series.

JCH: The responsibility for this series rests entirely upon my daughter. More specifically, upon all my daughter’s princess merchandise from about five years ago. Princess movies, princess pajamas, princess lunch boxes, princess toothbrushes, even princess tissues. While the fairy tale movies have gotten better over the years, there’s still a lot of waiting around for some guy to some rescue the damsel, and the merchandise seems to be all about “Look how pretty we are.” I finally got tired of it and decided I was going to write my own princesses, stories that went back to the old fairy tales and put the princesses in charge of fighting the bad guys and saving themselves.

SCP: Anything else you'd like to let us know about The Mermaid Madness?

JCH: This book marks my debut as a professional mapmaker. With all the sailing my princesses do, I decided this one needed a map. DAW (my publisher) asked me to send my sketches, and they ended up liking my map enough to use it as is. (Bonus map trivia: Kagan Sea is one of two tributes in the book to Janet Kagan, a wonderful author and friend who passed away in early 2008.)

SCP: Have we seen the last of Jig? Any chance of him crossing over into the Princess series?

JCH: I don’t have any plans for another goblin book right now, but never say never. Even if I don’t do more goblin novels, Jig might still pop up in a short story one of these days. I doubt I’ll do a goblin/princess crossover, though. The goblin Diglet from Stepsister Scheme was a nod to Jig and company, but that’s about as close as I’d come to bringing Jig over. Though goblin fans might find another surprise when they read Mermaid’s Madness....

SCP: What are you working on right now?

JCH: I just started writing the fourth princess book, which currently lacks a title. So far, my editor has vetoed “Secret of the Snow Queen,” “Scourge of the Snow Queen,” and “Shards of the Snow Queen”. Right now, Red Hood’s Revenge is scheduled for summer of 2010, which means we can probably expect Blank of the Snow Queen (or Snow Queen’s Blank) to hit the shelves some time in 2011.

Star Trek 2010

2009-08-31T06:59:00.001-05:00

Here is a release schedule for the upcoming year of Star Trek books, courtesy of TrekMovie.com:

January: "Sorrows of Empire" by David Mack
This will be a Mirror Universe story set during the TOS era, and an expansion of Mack’s short story from the "Glass Empires" anthology.

February: "Inception" by S.D. Perry
This book is the (pre-Trek XI) story of four people at the start of their careers: Commander Kirk and the woman he loves, Dr. Carol Marcus; and Commander Spock and his chance encounter with a botanist, Leila Kalomi.

March: "Treason" by Peter David
This is a reprint of the already published book by Peter David, not a new book.

April: "The Children of Kings" by Dave Stern
Dave Stern's first TOS (or pre-TOS) era novel, the crew of Christopher Pike’s Enterprise must deal with the Orion Syndicate, a dying girl and the kidnapping of a Starfleet officer.

May: "Unspoken Truth" by Margaret Wander Bonanno
Set after Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, Saavik begins to wonder where she belongs, dealing with her half Vulcan/half Romulan nature. Can Vulcan and Starfleet be the wrong answer?

June: A new "New Frontier" novel by Peter David
This novel will likely fall between the events of "Treason" and David Mack's "Destiny" trilogy, which changed the face of the 24th century.

"Refugees" by Alan Dean Foster
Set in the Trek XI universe.

July: "Seek a Newer World" by Christopher Bennett
Set in the Trex XI universe, the Enterprise is on a "world-building" mission.

August: "More Beautiful than Death" by David Mack
Again set in the Trek XI universe, this story will focus on the Vulcans after the destruction of their home planet.

September: Another Trek XI universe novel, but no further details.

October: "Seize the Fire" (TITAN) by Michael Martin
Captain Riker and the USS Titan face the Gorn who are looking to step up and secure their position with in the Typhon Pact.

November: "Zero Sum Game" (AVENTINE) by David Mack
Captain Dax and the Aventine are assigned to aid with the insertion and extraction of Starfleet operatives behind Breen lines.

December: "The Rough Beasts of Empire" (DS9) by David R. George III
Joining the other books as to what is happening in the 24th century, this DS9 book will feature the crew dealing with the Romulans as they try to become the leader of the Typhon Pact, by any means necessary; and the Tzenkethi will make an appearance as well.

January 2011: "Path of Disharmony" (TNG) by Dayton Ward
Picard’s Enterprise is assigned to a conference on Andor where the Typhon Pact will show their strength by daring to reach into the heart of the Federation as they try to become the pre-eminent power. Look for the Tholians in this one.

Review: Extinction Event

2009-08-30T05:17:00.004-05:00

Extinction Event (Primeval TV series book) by Dan Abnet.

When an Entelodon goes on the rampage down Oxford Street, causing untold damage and loss of life, Cutter decides a new approach to tackling the anomalies is needed. However, his investigations expose him and the team to a violent encounter with a mysterious Russian scientist and a situation more catastrophic and frightening than they've ever faced before...

When Cutter, Abby and Connor disappear without a trace, Lester and Jenny must use every trick in the book to try and track them down...

Note: This book takes place between the second and third seasons of the prematurely canceled series.

Nick Cutter starts thinking that the ARC team needs to start coordinating their efforts with those of other countries. Surely, these anomolies must be appearing all over the globe, and there must be other teams trying to deal with them. If they started to pool their resources and know-how, it would be better for all (of course, we already know they've been opening elsewhere thanks to the first two books that took us to South America and off the coast of Ireland). While Lester is hesitant to pursue that avenue, the team soon finds itself in Russia under the not so best of circumstances.

Dan Abnett, early in the book, as the Entelodons make their rampage on Oxford Street, gives some ink to the human condition and after effect of the unexpected occurence that day. Something that I always seem to be asking myself in my life when I hear stories about someone's life being cut too short; about that person's joys and sorrows, and what they had planned for the rest of the week.

In Extinction Event, you get a burst of nonstop action right from the start, as the anomolies seem to be popping up in London at a greater frequency than they had been, which pulls you into the story without waiting for something to happen. And the chapters are very short--no more than 8 quick pages long, another tactic that makes it easy to continue on reading with the book. And Dan Abnett also uses his knowledge of what happened in the first two books (and the TV series) to his advantage in this book, as he references events from the first two books, as well as foreshadowed Jenny's resignation from the ARC in the third season as well as Connor's first starting with the idea of closing the anomolies. And I loved the connection with the 1908 Tunguska meteor strike.

But before we get to the things I didn't like about the book, let me just say that I loved the TV series--it was one of my favorites. As for the books, I loved the first one; the second one I was a bit mixed about. This one? Well...

Dan Abnett didn't seem to fully understand his characters. At the beginning of the book, it was fine. He seemed to have them all down as well as I would have expected him to have. However, with the exception of a consistent Lester and Cutter, that knowledge of the characters seemed to evaporate as the story went on. I had a hard time imagining the characters of Abby, Connor, or Jenny behaving or saying the way they did as this story progressed. He seemed to make the three of them not much more than window filling, and not very intelligent ones at that. All the characters seemed a bit shallow to me, whether they were the main characters or the supporting characters of the story. Dan Abnett seemed to keep retreading the same ideas and theories as the story progressed that it made it hard for the story to actually progress--it seemed like he was just going round and round with the story, and the story could have been a lot shorter. It makes it seem like he was just trying to drag the story out and make it longer.

(from page 158):
"Troodons," Cutter whispered to Abby. "Oh, they're amazing. Look at the eyes."
The eyes were following them keenly. The Troodons chirred and piped, lowering their necks to look inquisitively at Yushenko and his purring camera.
"Are they Troodons?" Suvova asked...

Um, wasn't it just established that they were in fact Troodons. Why retread the same information so close to each other.

It also seems that the author was trying to stick as many names of dinosaurs into his book as possible. I have to wonder if there were more dinosaurs wondering around in Siberia than in all of the Cretaceous.

So, in the end, I was thoroughly disappointed with this book. I often found myself reading it just to get to the end more than anything else. I was determined to finish the book, as I almost found myself thinking that stopping it in the middle would have been like watching half of an episode and then turning off the TV.

Science Fiction Music

2009-08-29T06:32:00.001-05:00

Some people when they start thinking of science fiction music will think perhaps of Styx (Mr. Roboto) or U2, Blue Oyster Cult, Iron Maiden, Metallica, Prince (due to his Batman CD), or some other mainstream singer or band. To me, none of those fit the bill for being considered for science fiction music. Not by a long shot.

Nor would I focus my attention on the soundtracks of the various sci-fi movies, TV shows, or even books. Or even space-sounding instrumentals and sound effects. Sound tracks, especially from something like Star Trek, tend to be more orchestral pieces and typically meaningless unless they are heard along with the particular episode that they accompany. They might produce a foreshadowing effect, or designate some action that takes place for the episode or movie, but otherwise are not all that interesting.

So what would should be considered sci-fi music? What about something like S.P.O.C.K., a synth rock band from Sweden.

S.P.O.C.K. has been one of my personal favorites for many years, enjoyable for their sci-fi themed lyrics and fun sound. And it’s not just one song in that style, but rather that is their style.

Another band that caught my interest lately has been Warp 11, a Star Trek-themed band.

Or you can always find something new and different at Sci-Fi Songs.

And then there is filk music (definition here). Or more information about filking. While there is no readily agreed upon answer as to what filk is--and "to filk" can even be used as a verb, once you read those two pages, you will be more knowlegeably confused about it than ever before.

And although I would not classify Jonathon Coulton as a sci-fi musician or as singing filk music, I do have to admit I love his re: Your Brains song.

Kansas City Renaissance Festival

2009-08-28T07:46:00.001-05:00

If you find yourself in Kansas City over the course of the next couple of months, maybe you will consider checking out the Kansas City renaissance festival, which begins over Labor Day weekend, and then runs through October 18. Like essentially all renaissance faires, the one in Kansas City features full combat jousting (three times a day), and vendors and entertainers galore. And on September 19 and 20, the renaissance festival will be featuring the Midwest Long Bow championship, so if you know how to shoot long bows, get their quick. You will need to qualify for the championship, but if you do so, you and four guests will be admitted to the festival free of charge that day. It seems like you would have nothing to lose. Other than an eye, but that could just be part of the renaissance era fun, don't you think?

Week one: Pirates adventure

Week two: Arm wrestling and juggling competitions

Week three: Tales for the sultan and longbow championship

Week four: Microbrew and home brew expo

Week five: Highland games

Week six: Pet weekend

Week seven: Halloween expo

The Kansas City Renaissance Festival is in its 30th year, so it is firmly established, with 500 customed characters. You will find 13 stages of entertainment--making it a fairly large renaissance faire, as well as 162 vendors hawking their wares

(Last photo actually from the Kansas City art musuem).

Sci-Fi Movies

2009-08-27T07:37:00.003-05:00

Here are the box office totals for sci-fi and fantasy-type movies for the year so far:

1. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen ($398,441,218)
2. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince ($290,238,524)
3. Star Trek ($256,374,154)
4. Monsters vs Aliens ($198,332,128)
5. Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs ($192,388,059)
6. X-Men Origins: Wolverine ($179,840,414)
7. Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian ($176,087,412)
8. Terminator Salvation ($125,223,374)
9. District 9 ($72,804,317)
10. The Time Traveler's Wife ($37,165,676)
11. Aliens in the Attic ($22,247,346)

The Avatar Bandwagon

2009-08-26T07:33:00.003-05:00

It seems as if everyone is posting and talking about the upcoming Avatar movie, being released on December 18, that I feel remiss if I didn't post on it as well.

To be honest, I hadn't heard of the movie until I started seeing it showing up on other people's blogs and websites. Goes to show how little I actually get to the movies. I have seen a grand total of one movie in the theatre so far this year. It was the Star Trek relaunch. But based on the trailer, and the information I have found on Avatar so far, it looks like it should be a very interesting movie.

Or there is this, from a web series about a bunch of gamers:

The Ultimate Star Trek Crew

2009-08-25T09:27:00.000-05:00

I know if any Trek fans read this, I am likely opening myself up to people who disagree with my choices for the ultimate Star Trek crew, as everyone has their own personal favorites. But with Star Trek getting top billing in the entertainment world this weekend with the movie "reboot" of the franchise (and undoubtedly some will debate whether or not the franchise is actually being rebooted or not, or if the new film is actually canon as some of the things shown contradict previously established continuity). I will also point out that my list focuses on the character him/herself, and not on the actor portraying them...for instance, Kirk is Kirk whether portrayed by William Shatner or Chris Pine. There is no difference, even though some may prefer one actor's portrayal over another.

CAPTAIN: Probably the hardest question to answer--the best captain. Archer? Pike? Kirk? Spock? Sulu? Picard? Riker? Data? Crusher? Sisko? Janeway? Someone else? So many characters have been shown as captains of one ship or another. What it boils down to is what character I would be most willing to follow. Of those, I'd have to go with Archer (Enterprise), Riker (The Next Generation), or Sisko (Deep Space Nine). And the winner is---Captain William T. Riker. He strikes me as the sort of captain who would weigh his options carefully while keeping in mind his responsibilities to his crew and not go rushing into battle or backing away from a fight. In essence, he is a combination of James Kirk and Jean-Luc Picard, with the best of both men.

FIRST OFFICER: Another tough category to fill. A good first officer needs to deliver a well-run ship for his captain as well as provide an excellent balance. I think Spock wasn't really shown to do either of those two things, so he is out of the running. Riker helped provide a well run ship and an excellent transition from the crew to the captain, but he wasn't enough of a contrast on Picard. He, too, is therefore out of the running. Chakotay (Voyager) was meant to be a contrast to Janeway--the series started out with the two of them at odds; however, he soon became too friendly with Janeway and failed at both qualifications for a good first officer. Which leaves us with Major Kira (Deep Space Nine) or Sub-Commander T'Pol (Enterprise) as well as Shelby (The Next Generation), though since she was only in two episodes and likely would have become another "yes man" officer, I'm taking her out of the running. Ironically, both of these characters are actually from organizations outside of Star Fleet, and sent to be more of a liason between Star Fleet and another government. As such, they both provide an excellent balance to a Star Fleet captain, as they undoubtedly had their own agendas and priorities. One--Kira--was more militaristic whereas the other--T'Pol--more logical. It's a tough decision, but I'm going with T'Pol with this one.

SCIENCE OFFICER: Essentially three characters filled this category: Spock (The Original Series), Data (The Next Generation), and Jadzia Dax (Deep Space Nine). We could probably add Seven of Nine to this category as well, though I wouldn't even consider her as one of the choices for the best. While I liked the character of Dax, her position as science officer wasn't the greatest. Which leaves Spock, a Vulcan, or Data, an android. Of the two, I think Spock wins out, as he seemed to have more a grasp on actual science, whereas Data seemed to be too intwined with engineering and computer knowledge.

CHIEF ENGINEER: In this category, the two top choices would have to be Scotty (Original series) or O'Brien (Deep Space Nine). One was considered a miracle worker, and the other one in charge of an old, Cardassian-built space station. Deciding factors, however, are the fact that Scotty admitted boosting his miracle work with exaggerated time frames for effecting repairs to make his skills look greater. However, he did write a lot of the engineering manuals. Chief O'Brien, however, needed to work with an alien technology that was already outdated and falling apart. Therefore, Chief Miles O'Brien gets the nod for best Star Trek engineer.

CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER: McCoy--Crusher--Pulaski--Bashir--the EMH--or Phlox. There is something to be said for each of them. Well, I will immediately rule out Pulaski, who with only one season seemed a two-dimensional rip-off of McCoy. Of course, the EMH would have supposedly all the medical knowledge in existance, as he's a computer. However, it didn't seem to work that way. Bashir, graduating second in his class and sent off to the deep corners of space, where he got involved in spy games? No, I think the best chief medical officer award needs to go to Leonard "Bones" McCoy.

CHIEF OF SECURITY: Yar--Worf--Odo--Tuvok--Reed. Of these characters, I feel that Reed (Enterprise) may be the most realistic of all the characters, followed by Yar, though she lasted less than one season. As far as Tuvok, I just couldn't get into a Vulcan as a security guard. That leaves us with Worf and Odo. A Klingon and a Shapeshifter. While I like both characters and both bring something unique and different to the table, I'm going with Odo (Deep Space Nine). When the chief of security can appear as anything he wants, that's big. And it means he doesn't need to rely on strength and intimidation to get what he needs. That being said, I'd prefer to have Worf at tactical.

OPS/COMMUNICATIONS: The role of communications officer is one that isn't given much thought to in most of the series. For instance, on The Next Generation, the security officer or the unnamed character sitting at Ops would handle communications. For that reason, Uhura (The Original Series), Harry Kim (Voyager), and Hoshi Sato (Enterprise) are the only real contenders. Kim wasn't given much development, nor was Uhura. And while Sato seemed to drop off the list of major characters on Enterprise, as least we did learn more about her background. Therefore, Hoshi Sato wins my choice for best Ops/Communications officer.

CONN: When it comes to Conn, the original series seems to have two characters to handle it--Chekov as the ship's navigator and Sulu at helm. It seems a little redundent, and as such (showing that it takes two to do the job of one), neither of them win. On the next generation, while there was a conn officer in the first season, it was usually filled by an unnamed character. That leaves us with Tom Paris (Voyager), Travis Mayweather (Enterprise), and Wesley Crusher (The Next Generation). I must say I'm not too thrilled with any of these characters, but will give it to Tom Paris.

COUNSELOR: There have only been two characters to actually have the role of ship's counselor, Deanna Troi (The Next Generation), and Ezri Dax (Deep Space Nine). Again, not the best choice of category, and one that Star Trek probably could have done without. However, I'm going to go with Ezri Dax, more because I like the character and the Trill race more than I did the Troi character or the Betazed race.

NURSE: Generally not a character you think of on Star Trek series. There was Nurse Christine Chapel on the Original Series, or Nurse Ogawa for the Next Generation, Tom Paris and Kes on Voyager. I think I remember a recurring nurse or two on Deep Space Nine, but I'm not too clear. Kes was just annoying, and Tom Paris wouldn't be my top pick for a nurse if I needed one in the absence of a doctor. No, I think I'd have to go with Nurse Ogawa as my top pick.

MOST ANNOYING: And finally, the most annoying character in a Star Trek series award goes to--well, there are so many choices: Wesley Crusher, the annoying know it all child (The Next Generation); Deanna Troi, "Captain, I'm feeling..." (The Next Generation); Neelix, the chef and guide (Voyager); and Kes, the child-like nurse (Voyager). Where was I? Oh yes. The winner is...Neelix. Out of all of the characters in all of the Star Trek series, he was the one I absolutely hated the most.

Recaps:

Captain: William T. Riker (The Next Generation)
First Officer: Sub-Commander T'Pol (Enterprise)
Science Officer: Spock (The Original Series)
Chief Engineer: Chief Miles O'Brien (Deep Space Nine)
Chief Medical Officer: Leonard "Bones" McCoy (The Original Series)
Nurse: Nurse Ogawa (The Next Generation)
Counselor: Ezri Dax (Deep Space Nine)
Chief of Security: Odo (Deep Space Nine)
Tactical: Worf (The Next Generation)
Ops/Communication: Hoshi Sato (Enterprise)
Conn: Tom Paris (Voyager)

The Original Series: 2
The Next Generation: 3
Deep Space Nine: 3
Voyager: 1
Enterprise: 2

Review: The Vanishing Sculptor

2009-08-24T05:51:00.003-05:00

why do you expect life without death? why do you welcome rain and curse the flood? you must accept both the good and the bad to claim maturity.

The Vanishing Sculptor vanishing sculptor by Donita K. Paul is one of those books that can almost be read in one sitting on a cold, rainy afternoon, as the author of the Dragon Keeper novels takes you back to that world, but at an earlier time.

Having never read the author before, this is another one of those books I was drawn towards as I perused the shelves at one of the local bookstores, largely due to the cute (perhaps a little too cute?) dragon peeking over the book's title, not to mention the sheer number of other dragon books donita paul wrote, I thought I would check the author out, and I'm glad I did.

As I pondered whether to buy the book, one of the deciding factors was that it seemed like it would be a quick, light read and not overly weighed down by a ot of burdensome details.

Let's address some of the pros and cons of the book:

Cons: There is a dictionary in back--usually bad sign it's going to be too complicated (although I must say that I did find myself flipping back to use it on occasion to refresh my memory, but it's really not needed). The story is a bit slow at first as the story gets started and you are introduced to Tipper, her absent-minded mother, and Beccaroon, her grand parrot friend. There were some pointless characters introduced as the quest to find the sculptures got underway that were shallow where it was apparent they are there merely to fill the gap and use of dialog that doesn't serve any purpose.

Pros: It is a quick read, one of the quickest reads in a while (along with water for elephants), and you should have no problem finishing this book off quickly and moving on to your next book--maybe even another one by this author. There are numerous humorous parts such as the scatter-brained mother or the incident with the sheep, and it just makes you want to keep turning the pages. This book spoke to me more than a lot of other books have about life through the sage advise of Tipper's father's quoting of Wulder or that of her talking tropical bird friend, yet not in a preachy sort of way. The descriptions of the book made it easy to mentally picture the action taking place in my mind, something that some books can't do for me.

Would I recommend this book?: Yes, I definitely would. It's not the most profound book, and the introduction and spread of the word of Wulder seems to be almost a thinly-veiled theme of Christianity, but overall, this is a worthwhile read.

Bristol Renaissance Festival

2009-08-21T06:15:00.000-05:00

A quick, half-afternoon trip to the Bristol Renaissance Faire like we tried to do just wasn't enough time. We should have known better that we would need more time at this festival, but as we were just passing through the area and needed to get to a concert on the south side of Chicago, we figured we'd stop and that we didn't need to spend the whole day there. Big mistake.

Upon entering the Faire grounds, we realized that the Bristol Faire was an extremely large place, with a lot of permanent buildings condensed into it to make it feel like a medieval village. And while the grounds themselves may not (or may have) been as large as some of the other festivals we have been to, there was way too much to see there. I don't think even a full day would have allowed us to see and experience everything that the Bristol Renaissance festival had to offer.

As a result of our condensed visit, it is the only Renaissance Faire that I was sorry to leave. That is not to say I didn't enjoy other renaissance festivals, because each one has something to offer, but when we left other festivals, I left confident that I had seen everything that I had wanted to see. Not so with the Bristol Faire.

Another thing about the Bristol Faire that stood out at me was the sheer number of participants that had dressed up in some sort of renaissance era costumes which added to the experience. Most other festivals I have been to, the majority of the patrons were wearing jeans/shorts and some sort of top. Huzzah to the festival goers in Kenosha.

With 120 different stage shows, there are 70 hours of entertainment in a single nine-hour day and never a shortage of things to see and do as you make your way through 20 different venues throughout the Faire. And first year performers are required to undergo 45 hours of training at the Bristol Academy of Performing Arts prior to the start of the season. And don't forget the food, all 73 different varieties of it, such as steak on a stake and monkey tails (chocolate covered bananas).

We will definitely try to get back to this festival, if not this year, than there is always next year. And we will plan to go for the whole weekend.

Review: The Stepsister Scheme

2009-08-16T06:23:00.001-05:00

So you think you know the stories of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves? Sleeping Beauty? Cinderella?

Think again.

And what happens after the "Happy Ever After?"

Jim C. Hines takes us to the world of fairy tales with his newest series of books. It starts off with the book "The Stepsister Scheme," picking up after Cinderella's wedding. Things begin to get interesting when one of Cinderella's evil stepsisters tries to murder her in her own quarters, and then it's revealed that Prince Armand has been kidnapped and taken to Fairytown. It's then up to Cinderella and her two new acquaintances, Snow White and Sleeping Beauty, to go and try to rescue him and bring him home. Complicating matters a wee bit is the fact that Cinderella 1)is pregnant, and 2)has no combat experience, unlike her two companions.

There is no shortage of action in the book, whether it's Sleeping Beauty trying to train Cinderella how to actually fight with a sword to confrontation with Cinderella's evil stepsisters or their minions along the way. It keeps you reading as you turn the pages to see what these three Charlie's Angels-esque characters are going to run into next. I know this book is fantasy, and in the land of make-believe and fairy tales, anything can happen, though at some points the usual suspension of disbelief can't be overcome, though, as things are just too conventient or over-the-top. One point of the book I don't care for is near the beginning as they are at Cinderella's former home and it turns out that her mother's spirit is in a tree in the backyard and ends up giving Cinderella her magical sword.

Otherwise, this is a great book and a fairly quick read, as Mr. Hines puts his own twist on the classic fairy tales. Sometimes, though, his twist may be a little bit too twisted--specifically regarding the method of which Sleeping Beauty says actually woke her up. In a way, it serves to illustrate that life is never as easy as it seems in the stories, that everyone is human, and bad things happen to good people. So, while the overall feel of the book is fun, there are dark elements to the story as well.

Olde World Renaissance Faire

2009-08-14T06:45:00.000-05:00

The Olde World Renaissance Faire is a small renaissance festival near Duluth, Minnesota, and occurs over just one weekend in June. Started in 1998, this 11-year old festival represents the history and lore of Europe from the 1200s to the 1700s. It has slowly grown from a handful of vendors and entertainers over the years, and in 2009, the event was able to add jousting to its list of entertainment, something that it had lacked in previous years.

Over the course of the weekend, you can expect to see Middle Eastern belly dancing from a band of gypsies; juggling, fire eating, and magic; a comedic sword fight; and what renaissance festival would be complete without a wild chicken show?

There are also demonstrations galore--drum making, jewelry making, leather tooling, and painting just to name a few.

Tickets are $12 for adults and $8 for seniors and children (though if you come in costume, adults are $9 and seniors and children are $7).

Werewolves on the Moon: Versus Vampires

2009-08-10T05:25:00.000-05:00

The three-part series from Dark Horse Comics starts off on the moonbase, where two archeologists are about to call it a day. However, they never make it to the bar for happy hour--one is killed by Lord Till (the self-declared king of the moon and leader of a band of vampires which live in a mobile castle) and the other captured. Meanwhile, a shuttle from Earth loses contact, and when it docks with the moonbase, three werewolves jump out and begin to terrorize the inhabitants there, until Captain Maggie Pilgrim fights back. In between the fighting, the leader of the werewolves decides that he likes Pilgrim and tries to woo her. Unfortunately, Lord Till has two goals--to take over Earth by using the moon as his base and to make Pilgrim his bride. As if vampires and werewolves needed any reason to be enemies.

The series with a refreshing read, one that you don't find in a lot of comics today. It felt more like an independent comic with a unique take, and not trying to delve too dep into the back stories of the characters--though their back stories were there--and not muddying up the flow of the comic by making it too complicated. I really can't say enough good things about this storyline--it quickly became one of my all-time favorites. It reminds me, to a certain degree, of the online comic turned Tokyo Pop manga Van Von Hunter in its clever, unique, extremely humorous yet basic storytelling.

The artwork was also extremely wll done. Early on in the story, one of the werewolves sustained an injury, of which I was very impressed that the injury remained through the first two (of three) issues and not conviently forgotten about or mysteriously fixed between frames.

I would say that this title should come with a PG-13 rating for some comic violence as well as adult humor. Here's hoping that I get the chance to read the next issue soon, as well as hoping there are more titles like this out there.

The Batman Universe--July 2009

2009-08-07T05:40:00.001-05:00

Here's a run-down of some of the things that happened in the Bat-Universe in July:

Batman and Robin #2:
In the midst of taking on the Circus of the Strange, Dick Grayson continues to have problems keeping Damian in line--with Damian not pleased that he is expected to play nice with the cops. This dilema weighs heavily on Dick. Also, Commissioner Gordon and the GCPD begin to realize thta they are dealing with a new Batman and Robin. As part of Robin's defiance, he takes off on his own to take on the Circus, and he ends up walking into their trap.

Batman #688:
Batman's presence in Gotham is gaining a lot of video coverage, in contrast to the Batman of old, and Dick continues to try to train Robin. Meanwhile, things go bad in the Penguin's operation, not to mention that Two Face tries to focus Batman's attention onto the Penguin. But like others, Two Face has also come to the realization that it's not the same Batman patrolling the streets of Gotham.

Detective Comics #855:
Over in Batwoman's world, she goes up against Alice, trying to uncover the reason why Gotham's covens would be interested in coming after her. This leads to some trouble for Kate that she may not be able to handle.

Gotham City Sirens #2:
Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy attempt to get Catwoman to reveal the identity of Batman, but thanks to training from Talia al Ghul, she is able to resist the effort yet keep the trust of her roommates by claiming that Batman is more of a title held by many men at one time or another, including naming Bruce Wayne (as well as Commissioner Gordon). Harley decides to go shopping after that, where she meets up with Hush masquerading as Bruce Wayne, though she is unaware of the ruse. Hush decides to take advantage of Harley's close proximity to kill her. Catwoman is able to see through the ruse, though, after seeing Hush and Harley together on TV, and rushes off to try to save Harley. When they get to the location of the TV shoot, however, Hush and Harley are both gone.

Streets of Gotham #2:
The comic starts out with Hush escaping from his locked cell at the Batcave by seemingly setting himself on fire, and when Alfred tries helping him, makes his escape. We also find that Batman and Robin get some unwanted help from a new Gotham vigilante that they don't know, but who seems to be familiar with Batman and takes offense when Dick doesn't recognize him. Meanwhile, Firefly double-crosses Black Mask, and starts putting chemical implants into people so that he can cause them to "spontaneously combust." Firefly tries to kill Black Mask, which is when Batman and Robin show up. In the fight, Zsasz comes to the defense of Black Mask and saves him, much to Damian's dismay. Hush, free once again, and looking like Bruce Wayne, resurfaces as an apparent benefactor of Gotham by giving out money.

Being Human: Episode One Review

2009-07-26T07:09:00.001-05:00

As one British TV show disappears from the airwaves in the US as a result of it being canceled, another one takes its place on BBC America. As with other shows airing on BBC America, those of us in the US are seeing it more than half a year after it aired in Britian.

The concept of the show is that a vampire (John Mitchell) and a werewolf (George Sands) become friends and move into a flat together, only to find that it is haunted by a ghost (Annie Sawyer), who joins their unusual friendship. Complicating matters is that the landlord of the flat is Annie's fiance.

In Britian, a pilot was filmed, and by the time it was picked up for series, most of the cast had already moved on to other projects and not available for the series anymore. The pilot was aired in Britian, but not in the US. Therefore, the first episode does suffer somewhat, as there are particulars that are never shown in the US--such as the back stories of the characters, or how they met and ended up living together, or such. Therefore, at the beginning of the series, you get the feeling that you are starting to watch the series at some point after episode one.

But such is life--in life you don't often get to see how things are from the very beginning. You have to learn about your friends as you go along and get to know them better.

And if you can get passed the beginning of the episode where you feel that you are missing out on a good chunk of their backstory, the episode does get better. You learn that Mitchell, though being a vampire, is trying to be human once again and live his life like a human working in a hospital. It is clear early on that despite being a vampire and needing to feed, he has turned away from the vampire caste. That is something that the other vampires don't like and they want to bring him back to their side. He looks after his friend, George, especially during times of his transformation, telling him that he can't separate his two halves, that it is something that is apart from him.

The main two elements of Episode One are the vampire caste trying to bring Mitchell back into their fold, and this includes an ex-hospital worker that Mitchell had turned into a vampire showing up while he is on a date with another hospital worker. Lauren showing up makes Mitchell realize that he can't turn this new young lady into a vampire and tells her that he won't be going home with her. She gets mad and storms off; unfortunately, Lauren attacks her and attempts to get Mitchell to "save her" by turning her into a vampire. The other element of the episode centers around Annie and her desire to see her fiance, Owen, again. She texts him with George's phone to lure him to the flat but then is disappointed by the fact that he can't see her.

Primeval at an end

2009-07-26T06:32:00.000-05:00

The final episode of Primeval has aired in the United States. Yes, the final season may have had it's ups and downs as it progressed through the longer, ten-episode season this year. The series lead, Nick Cutter, was killed as his ex-wife supposedly tried to prevent the future from whence the predators came from. This put Jenny Lewis--who was part of the team only as a way to spin the events that the ARC team had to deal with for public consumption--as the leader of the team. I didn't understand that at all, but she, too, eventually left the series. Enter Danny Quinn, an ex-cop whose brother had been killed by a creature that had come through an anomoly and who had spent the first half of the season trying to get onto the team.

The last three episodes were a closely tied arc leading to the finale of the season, and unfortunately of the show as well. An anomoly was found that lead to the future. In the last episode, the team follows Helen Cutter through the anomoly into the future, where they discover the abandoned ARC building. Helen uses the computers there to control the anomolies and allows her to travel back through time in a plot to wipe out humanity by killing off the first hominids. Danny, Abbey, and Conner manage to follow her into the past; however, their handheld device fails, and they are trapped in the past whereas Sarah and Captain Becker think that the team is still in the future and not returning to our time.

Clearly, this was meant to be a cliffhanger leading to next season. Unfortunately, ITV chose to cancel the series for budgetary reasons.

At this point, it is still uncertain what the possible future may hold for Primeval. Jonathan Drake from Impossible Pictures and Tim Haines, one of the series creators, are trying to pitch the idea of a North American version of the series for this side of the pond, which if successful may find resolution of how our team gets its way back from the past.

Warner Brothers has acquired the rights for doing a movie based on the series as well, with the action being moved to the US.

So while the first stage of Primeval is over, hopefully it will just be entering a new phase of its existance.

Transylvania TV

2009-07-23T06:48:00.000-05:00

Every once in a while, something comes along that really stands out from the crowd.

Transylvania TV is just one of those things. Filmed in the Twin Cities of Minnesota, the show was filmed with the idea of selling it to a network, but that hasn't been too successful, so instead, it's done as an online TV show. And while the characters are puppets, it isn't meant for kids.

The show is set in the castle of the vampire Le Shoc, and it deals with his running a TV station deep in Transylvania, Furry J. Akermonster--an orange yeti who graduated college in the US, the appropriately named bat, Batfink, and Dwayne Frankenstein--a new take on the Frankenstein monster.

With this show, the laughs just keep on coming, and it's one of those things you really shouldn't miss.

Transylvania TV website and Episodes.

An American Castle

2009-07-22T06:44:00.000-05:00

Who says that castles are only something to be found in Europe? Case in point, The Loveland Castle, also known as the Chateau LaRoche, located in Loveland, Ohio, just outside of Cincinnati. Getting there may be slightly easier than flying to Europe, though narrow roads through a hilly region make it only slightly so. Nevertheless, taking a trip to visit the Loveland Castle is definitely worth the time and effort.

Every second weekend in the summer, the castle hosts a Knights Tournament, and they also have other activities to do on the grounds once you get there. And they have a Haunted tour in the fall as well.

Located throughout the castle, you will find a fine collection of period swords and other weapons, as well as suits of armor that will take anyone who is fascinated with the age of kings and knights back in time.

The Loveland Castle was built by hand by Harry Andrews, essentially all by himself following his tour of duty during World War I. He had been declared dead during the war, for six months' time, during which time his fiance married someone else. Following the war, he stayed in Europe, visiting many different castles there. When he returned, he decided that he would build a castle for the youth, who he thought were getting into too much trouble and needed some place to go. It is a full-size keep, except for the ballroom, which is a 1/5 scale replica. Mr. Andrews kept working on the castle, and lived there until his death in 1981, at the age of 91.

More about the Loveland Castle can be found HERE.

Do You Remember: Dungeons and Dragons Animated Series

2009-07-21T06:15:00.000-05:00

The Dungeons & Dragons cartoon from 1983 ran for three seasons on CBS before being cancelled, with our teen-aged adventurers never getting home. It was successful enough that it lead its time slot for two years. Of course, it was not without controversy--particularly one episode where the characters considered killing their nemesis Venger. In 1985, the National Coalition on Television Violence called the cartoon the most violent show on TV.

It begins with our six heroes getting into a roller coaster ride at a theme park and are magically transported to the world of Dungeons & Dragons, where they meet the Dungeon Master, who gives them their powers and outfits to help them survive the Realm. Though the Dungeon Master is their mentor while they are there, he also seems to be manipulating them as well to do what he wants them to do. They also encounter Uni the baby Unicorn there, as well as Venger--the show's main antigonist. The teens try to make their way home over the course of 27 episodes, though it's not as easy as they thought it would be as they try to help the people they meet along the way.

You can buy Dungeons & Dragons on DVD--there is a five-disk package that contains a lot of extra features including a radio-type program of the final, unaired episode; or you can wait until August 25 and buy the bare-boned 3-disk compilation that won't have the extra features.

Defying Gravity

2009-07-20T06:58:00.000-05:00

A new sci-fi drama will be airing on ABC starting on August 2. It will be 13 episodes long.

It comes from creator/executive producer James Parriott, who served as an executive producer on ABC's "Grey's Anatomy" and "Ugly Betty," and executive producer Michael Edelstein, former executive producer of the network's "Desperate Housewives." Parriott says that he has three seasons of the series planned out, in case it does well, and knows how he plans to end the series.

It will center around eight astronauts--four men and four women--from five countries who are on board the spaceship Antares on a six-year mission. From the ABC website:
Maybe, just maybe, some of them will even hook up. How cool is that? ABC is calling the series a "sexy, provocative thriller set in the very near future" that is set against the backdrop of being in space. Despite the fact they are in space and billions of miles from the nearest people, there is still room for guest appearances, though, as it is in Lost, because as the crew heads to Venus, there will still be flashbacks that reveal the effects of past actions have consequences in their present situation.

To me, it sounds like it will be a drama/thriller that could probably be set anywhere, but they just chose to set it on board the spaceship Antares.

Being Human

2009-07-19T06:32:00.000-05:00

On July 25, BBC America will begin airing the series Being Human. This is a series that deals with the day-to-day struggles of a vampire and a werewolf who decide to start off on a new life together and move into a home, only to find it haunted by a ghost. Given who and what they all are, they quickly realize that they need to depend on each other to cope.

Some information from the BBC America website:

VAMPIRES:
*Vampires don't necessarily make humans into fellow vampires by simply biting them. Vampires must allow some of their own blood into the mouth of their dying victims to transform them into vampires.

*The "dead" human bodies are collected by the vampires.

*Vampires cannot have their images captured by mirrors or photographs.

*Vampires can venture out into daylight, but they are extremely sensitive to light.

*Vampires prefer blood from a living human body; stored blood from a donor does not create the same satisfaction.

*Vampires can be killed by a wooden stake to the heart, but the vampire can be saved if the stake is removed quickly enough.

WEREWOLVES:
*A fully transformed werewolf resembles an actual wolf, with fur and a wolf's nose and mouth.

*Werewolves have their transformations only one night a month, during a full moon.

*Werewolves don't remember anything that has happened after they have transformed.

*Werewolves often have strong sexual desire in the days prior to a transformation.

*For a human, the transformation itself is a painful process in which several vital organs begin to shut down.

*Werewolves cannot cross bodies of water.

GHOSTS:
*A ghost results when a person dies but has "unresolved issues" in the living world. When a ghost is ready to move on to the world of the dead, a door will appear out of nowhere, allowing passage to the nether world.

*Ghosts can sometimes be seen by the living. In Episode One, Annie is seen by a pizza delivery man. A ghost's visibility may be linked to his or her subconscious desire to hide from or be seen by other humans.

*Ghosts cannot ingest food or drink.

*Ghosts can "will" themselves to move instantaneously to other locations.

*Ghosts that are in emotional distress can become poltergeists, moving and throwing objects with their minds.

Torchwood: Children of Earth

2009-07-18T07:20:00.000-05:00

BBC America will be airing the epic, five-part "Torchwood: Children of Earth" miniseries starting on July 20. Torchwood: Children of Earth, though a miniseries, could be considered the third season of the show.

What is Torchwood? As a series, it is a spin-off from the recent incarnation of the Dr. Who series. As an organization, it is a secret organization that was created by Queen Victoria to fend the planet Earth from alien threats.

Children of Earth starts as all of the children of the world stop to deliver the chilling message: "We Are Coming!"

Check it out.

Primeval

2009-07-16T06:24:00.000-05:00

I'm sure this is really no big news to those who follow the ITV series Primeval, but I just found out officially that it will not be returning for a fourth season. This was apparently reported a month ago, and while the last two episodes of the season have yet to air in the US, apparently the series ends with a cliffhanger, as the creators say they had no reason to suspect that they would not be returning for another season. This despite the fact that half of the cast left between the second season finale and the first half of the third season.

Primeval is my favorite series on TV right now, as its special effects and character interactions made this a really great show, and I'll be sad to see it go.

There is some hope, however, of its return. There are ongoing talks supposedly for a US production of the show, which would hopefully resolve the third season cliffhanger. There is also discussion of a possible Primeval movie.

If you've missed this season of Primeval, you will have another chance to see it on BBC America, which will be airing the 10-episode season in its entirety on July 25.

Review: Goblin Quest

2009-07-10T06:37:00.000-05:00

I just finished reading the book "Goblin Quest" by Jim C. Hines. Overall, this was a book that I enjoyed. it is an older book, but one that I just happened to come across at the bookstore as I looked for new books from authors I hadn't read before.

The attraction of the book: 1) I have a cat named Goblin, for which the title drew me in, and then 2) a little blue goblin with a small knife no bigger than his hand facing down a dragon.

The story is told from the perspective of Jig, who is a puny runt of a goblin who has never been able to move beyond the chores assigned to younger goblins and has never been out on patrol. One day, he finally gets his chance, even if it is just so that the other goblins in the patrol can have a good time and not have to worry about routine patrol. Unfortunately, the patrol is anything but routine as he stumbles upon a group of adventurers who are on a quest to find the Rod of Creation, a powerful magical device. The group ends up taking him prisoner, assuming he can help them navigate the tunnels and lead them to the Rod, while at the same time killing the other goblins who were on patrol.

The members of the adventure party aren't what you'd expect to find in a normal adventure epic--you have Barius, an arrogant prince who is out to prove himself to his family after feeling like he has been overshadowed by his other siblings; Ryslind, the prince's younger brother and the group's wizard--but there's something not quite right about with his mind; Darnak the dwarf, who can yield his weapons greatly and also the mapmaker on the quest, though he is a bit overzealous in his religious knowledge; and Riana, the outcast elven teen-aged thief, herself caught by Barius as she tried to rob him and then forced to come along on their little adventure. As the ragtag group makes its way through the tunnels of the mountain, the story feels very much like a Dungeons & Dragons-type adventure, with a group of teenagers playing the various characters with all of their shortcomings, as they battle many of the monsters that one would tend to find in a classic Dungeons & Dragons campaign--hobgoblins, carrion warms, animated skeletons, giant bats, a necromancer, ogres, and eventually a dragon itself.

Since I remember playing Dungeons & Dragons in my youth, I considered this to be a good read and brought back the memories of many such games and adventures. The cover of the book claimed that it was the "one of the funniest dungeon-delving epics ever!" That may be true, given the mismatched characters involved, and the conclusion of the book was cleverly worked out. That said, it wasn't a hilarious book along the lines of Tom Holt or Robert Asprin or Douglas Adams, though it really did not take itself too seriously, and after reading this book by Jim Hines, I found myself thinking of this author as one of my favorites and put him in the same category as those mentioned above as my favorites. The book had its moments, especially near the end, after the dragon had been defeated. None of the games I played growing up ended quite like this little adventure ended.

Goblin Quest is the first of a trilogy, of which I will be sure to pick up the other two books.

The SyFy Channel

2009-07-09T06:22:00.000-05:00

As of yesterday, the SciFi Channel has rebranded itself as the SyFy Channel, with the tagline of "Imagine Greater". Below, find a reprint of another blog entry I had posted back on April 13 regarding the SyFy Channel as a whole.

First off, I will say that I enjoy watching the SciFi Network. It has had some very good programming in the past, and of course, the present, and I hope the future. It was home to such shows as Farscape--one of the first of the original programming that it did. It brought back such shows as Lost in Space, Land of the Giants, Sliders, Quantum Leap, X-Files, V, Space Rangers, and the like. Granted, not all of the older shows were the greatest television or even the greatest science fiction. But it was fun to see those shows again, and the SciFi Channel was one of my all time favorite channels. It's gotten a couple of the Star Trek series, which is a good fit for them. And then it's also getting shows such as Lost and Primeval and Doctor Who.The SciFi Channel is now also home to such shows as Ghost Hunters, which has been successful enough to spawn numerous copy cats and even the spin-off show Ghost Hunters International. There's Battlestar Galactica or the Stargate Series, both of which have been successful, and they've had some slightly less successful but still good original TV shows.

The point I'm trying to make is that there is enough in the world of science fiction that this channel should become a repository for all things sci-fi. I think that was the original intent for the network, but they have started to move away from that concept, and as a result, are alienating some of its fans.Take Ani-Mondays. Okay, fine, I'm willing to accept that anime fans and science fiction fans may cross. But you know, there is already an anime network out there. I don't know how many of us get it on our providers, but it does exist. Charter in my area offers it as an On-Demand pay subscription only, but it is there for me should I chose to watch it.

But, okay, I'm willing to give up one night (and I believe it is later in the evening, anyway) for the anime genre. But what's with the ECW wrestling being aired on the SciFi Network? In no way can anyone make the argument that it belongs on the network. Are there sci-fi fans who watch wrestling? Yes, probably. I watched some of the wrestling myself, back in the day before it was aired on SciFi. But it doesn't fit into the genre, and shouldn't be wasting schedule time.

Paranormal? Yes, that does belong on the SciFi network. There may be those who may differ, who say that there is a difference between paranormal activity and science fiction. They may claim that paranormal activity is real whereas science fiction is, well, totally unbelievable. However, I think that overall a science fiction fan is going to be a paranormal fan as well, though I could be wrong on that. So shows like Ghost Hunters does belong on the SciFi Network.

The horror concept has always been a component of the SciFi Channel. In one way, this make sense. I mean, where do you draw the line between the paranormal with Grant and Jason investigating ghostly sightings and horror movies such as the Exorcist. Or between the movie Cursed and a TV show such as Wolf Lake or She-Wolf or American Werewolf in Paris. And once again, a science fiction fan may also be a fan of horror movies. But I, for one, am not a fan of most horror movies. There have been a few that I have enjoyed, if they fit a certain specification. And the argument can therefore be made that the two genres do tend to blur a little bit around the edges. While they may blur, though, the two are still distinct genres, and being a fan of one doesn't necessarily make you a fan of the other. The horror genre is a big one...why isn't there a Horror channel out there? Or maybe there is but it's not well known. And, I suppose such a channel would almost exclusively be movies, as there aren't a lot of TV shows that would fit a horror genre, except things like Wolf Lake or Moonlight or Dark Shadows--shows that I would watch and would give a place on the SciFi Network. So, I once again would compromise, and allow some of these shows to remain on the SciFi Network. But only some.
(July 9 EDIT: It has been pointed out that there is in fact such a channel--Chiller TV--also owned by NBC who owns the SyFy Channel, and to me, only serves as another reason why the two genres can and should be divided. It does apparently air some of the series that I listed above such as Wolf Lake and the newer Dark Shadows as well as some anthology series--including Twilight Zone (?)).

What's missing from the SciFi Channel? Plenty. Bring back some of the older shows--even the campy ones. Even the ones that lasted only a few episodes in first run. Let them live forever in science fiction heaven, i.e., the SciFi Network. Also missing--fantasy shows. Granted, I can't think of many--Hercules and Xena spring to mind immediately. And there are fantasy movies that can easily fill this void. There are a few Robin Hood series as well, or the old Dungeons and Dragons cartoon from the 80s. At least the SciFi Network does do an occasional fantasy-related movie or mini-series which helps fill this void, and generally these are done on a relatively qualitative scale. But still this genre seems to generally be lacking. Also missing is the superhero genre, which is essentially a subset of the sci-fi genre. What about bringing back the campy 1960s Batman series (which I currently enjoy laughing at on the American Life Network). And there are other hero TV programs. Anyone remember Birds of Prey or MANTIS?

Overdone on the SciFi network? Originally produced movies. Usually, these take the form of killer crocs, rabid rats, or extremely hungry hippos. Which if the SciFi Network wants to produce its own movies, that's great. But instead of pushing these out at a dime a dozen rate, why not produce some better quality movies? Make them events to be seen rather than cheap filler? It's because of these cheap B movies that I usually ignore the SciFi channel when I'm seeing whats on TV. I can understand the desire to have a movie night, or at least air science fiction, paranormal, superhero, fantasy movies. But there are a lot of quality movies already out there. Obtain the rights to those movies instead of producing cheap movies.

So, if I ran the SciFi Network? Heralding back to an earlier programming design of the network, I believe, I would go back to theme nights:

Mondays: Anime. I'd try to through in some other animated genre-specific shows, too, like Invader Zim or Duck Dodgers. Even the Justice League/Superman/Batman/Teen Titans cartoons, or the Clone Wars.
Tuesdays: Super Heroes.
Wednesday: Paranormal.
Thursdays: Horror.
Friday: Original programming episodes.
Saturday: Fantasy. Saturday mornings could also be a re-run of some of the cartoons from Monday.
Sunday: Re-broadcast of first run shows (i.e., Lost, Primeval, Dr. Who--those shows that they have rebroadcast rights to that are also being shown on other networks).

Wow, I got through the week without even getting into the movies and reruns from the days of old. And that is what the day times can be filled with. Come on, SciFi Network. Return to your roots. Give us a true science fiction channel that we can once again enjoy watching.

Warehouse 13

2009-07-08T07:52:00.000-05:00

Warehouse 13 made it's debut on the rebranded SyFy Channel last night. While I was not looking forward to the rebranding of the channel, I have been eagerly looking forward to the new series. And while I can easily criticize the direction of the channel and the fact that it tends to play third-rate horror and cheesy science fiction and fantasy made-for-TV movies, it generally does do a very good job at good new series. And so I looked forward to this new series with baited breath, despite reading some people criticizing it long before it aired as something that the SyFy Channel would likely ruin and poorly execute.

I have to admit to missing the first 15 minutes of the show, so I'm not sure if I missed anything really important (other than the fact that Myka Bering and Peter Lattimer--the two main characters--were on opposite sides of the action during a Presidential visit to a musuem), though for the first two hours of the show, Myka and Pete continued to get to know each other and learn about the other. I started watching the show just as the two show up at Warehouse 13 in South Dakota.

It didn't take long to realize, however, that there was something vaguely familiar about the premise of the show as it was unfolding. Two government agents, one an excited male agent who seemed to embrace the aspect of his job, and a skeptical, unenthusiastic female agent who balances out the other. Government cover-ups. Unusual and bizarre actions that can be explained by using the unexplained. I think we all know which other TV show this sounds like. Myka and Pete have an added gadget, though, that the other two government agents didn't have--a neutralizer, which only brought to mind aspects of the Ghostbusters, emptying ectoplasm into a storage container to transport it. Warehouse 13 also brings to mind something out of Wild, Wild West....all of their nifty gadgets seem to come straight out of the 1950s in their appearance, despite their being capable of things that we currently don't have the technology to do--or at least that hasn't really been mass produced and available on the open market. Even the keyboard Artie Nielsen (the agent in charge of Warehouse 13) uses for his computer seems to have a very antique look to it. I realize that this was all done on purpose--to make it seem that these items were actually invented at an earlier time and not necessarily coming from outer space, and to give them more of a musuem feel to it, and to make it seem like Warehouse 13 is something that has been going on for some time now. And maybe that concept will work. Maybe it won't. Only time will tell in that regard.

I will give Warehouse 13 more time to work it's magic on me before I decide whether or not it is something that I will use my time on. While the characters of Pete and Myka seem to be an over-used stereotype, and I'm not entirely sold on the character of Artie, I am a bit intrigued by the other supporting characters and what role they will play as the series matures.

Welcome

2009-07-08T07:28:00.000-05:00

Welcome to the Sci-Fi and Fantasy Planet. Orbitting a star in the distant part of the galaxy, hopefully you will take up residence here and make this your new home--or at least a regular stop--for news and commentary on science fiction and fantasy in various media. What sorts of genre will you find here? There are a variety of sub-genres in the world of science fiction and fantasy that will be covered, from space operas to super heroes to magic to mythology. If it's querky, weird, or a little bit different from the norm, it just may be covered here as well.

So settle in to your new little planet in the galaxy and make yourself at home.