Category: Books, Movies & More

Thoughts inspired by, cool things discovered in, or reviews of:

• Books I’ve read
• Movies I’ve seen
• TV I’ve watched
• Music I’ve listened to
• Games I’ve played
• Software I’ve used

Most of this is usually posts about science fiction & fantasy books & movies, though I also often enjoy history & historical fiction, and occasionally post about cool music, videos, geeky software or tech gadgets I’ve used.

Review: Abaddon’s Gate

Abaddon's Gate coverAbaddon’s Gate by James S.A. Corey
The Expanse series #3
View book info on GoodReads

My Rating: 3.5 out of 5 Stars 3.5 out of 5 stars
First Published: June 4, 2013
Read from: February 2 to February 12, 2015

Abaddon’s Gate – The End of a ‘Trilogy’, the Doorway to a Series

“Corners and doorways… It’s always corners and doorways.” – Miller, Abaddon’s Gate

This is the third book of an excellent space opera science fiction series. While I did not enjoy it quite as much as those that came before, it was still a very well written and entertaining read, and sets up a future for the series, and the “franchise” that it has become, with a lot of promise.

I am a little unsure how to proceed with a review of this book without spoiling any of the cool premise of the previous books. Even what is printed on the book backs and the published book blurbs seem a little “spoilerly” to me. While I will strive not to deliver anything that will spoil the reading of this specific book, if you have NOT read the previous two novels in the series I strongly recommend you check out my review of Leviathan Wakes and Caliban’s War and then read those books first, before proceeding with this review.
Read My Full Review →

Review: Caliban’s War

Caliban's War coverCaliban’s War by James S.A. Corey
The Expanse series #2
View book info on GoodReads

My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars 4 out of 5 stars
First Published: June 26, 2012
Read from: January 26 to February 2, 2015

This Week on “As the Protomolecule Turns… “

The Space Opera that is “The Expanse” just keeps getting better.

Book Blurb

For someone who didn’t intend to wreck the solar system’s fragile balance of power, Jim Holden did a pretty good job of it. When a single super-soldier begins slaughtering soldiers of Earth and Mars, the race is on to discover whether this is the vanguard of an alien army, or if the danger lies closer to home.

Caliban’s War is the second book of the Expanse series that started with Leviathan Wakes. The series, written by James S.A. Corey – a pen name for the collaboration of Albuquerque, New Mexico authors Ty Franck & Daniel Abraham, has garnered a lot of attention. There is a SyFy television series coming out soon based on the books. Having enjoyed the first novel so much, it was long over due for me to read the sequels. Read My Full Review →

Review: Downbelow Station

Downbelow StationDownbelow Station by C. J. Cherryh
Company Wars series #1 – Alliance-Union universe
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My Rating: 3.5 out of 5 Stars 3.5 out of 5 stars 
First Published: February 1981
Read from: October 1, 2014 to January 26, 2015
Awards: 1982 Hugo Award for Best Novel

Downbelow Station: Classic Sci-Fi & an Inspiration to BSG reboot?

Read My Full Review →

Mentally Strong

A friend of mine on Facebook shared one of those inspiring a/o funny text graphics you see all the time. This was a serious one called “6 Things Mentally Strong People Do”. I’m not sure the person who originally posted it is the original creator as it looked like one of those canned images that has been around awhile. I thought the message was powerful enough that I wanted to remember it and strive to follow the things it recommends. So I stripped away the graphic and am just posting the message here so that I can keep reminding myself of it.

6 Things Mentally Strong People Do

  1. They move on. They don’t waste time feeling sorry for themselves.
  2. They embrace change. They welcome challenges.
  3. They stay happy. They don’t waste energy on things they can’t control.
  4. They are kind, fair and unafraid to speak up.
  5. They are willing to take calculated risks.
  6. They celebrate other people’s success. They don’t resent that success.

The golden apples of the sun

WB Yeats 1908Stumbled across this old W. B. Yeats poem in the weirdest of places (a sci-fi show). The mention of this poem interested me enough that I looked the poem up and it meant a lot to me. Wish I could write like this.

Anyway, thought I would quote it here so I won’t forget it. Continue reading The golden apples of the sun

Can you resurrect dead dreams?

A friend of mine posted something on Facebook that really hit me where I live today. I’m going to quote it in it’s entirety here cause I do NOT want to forget this. I’ve looked it up. The source is the book “The Pilgrimage” by Brazilian author Paulo Coelho. You can find this on a page of his blog. I’m going to look into reading “The Pilgrimage” and his novel “The Alchemist” which I read a lot of raves about. Anyway, on to the quote… Continue reading Can you resurrect dead dreams?

The deep and lovely dark…

Doctor Who - Listen

“The deep and lovely dark. We’d never see the stars without it.”
The Doctor — Doctor Who S08E04 ‘Listen’

The Doctor at the end of a speech about the “superpower” of fear, and the reasons to harness and use it. The character Clara summarizes and expounds on this idea near the end of the episode:

“Didn’t anyone ever tell you? Fear is a superpower. Fear can make you faster and cleverer and stronger. … You’re always going to be afraid, even if you learn to hide it. Fear is like a companion, a constant companion, always there. But it’s okay because fear can bring us together. Fear can bring you home. Fear makes companions of us all.” Clara — Doctor Who S08E04 ‘Listen’

Started re-watching the latest season (season 8 of the new series) of Doctor Who, as the last episode should be coming out in a couple of days. For the most part, I haven’t been a big fan of most of this season, but the first several were pretty good. And the second to last one kind of grabbed my attention too. It’s interesting to note that most of the episodes that I have liked from this season were written or co-written by Moffat. The other episodes haven’t necessarily been bad. They had great acting and production values as usual. It’s just that the writing (the plot and banter) just did not grab me and hold my interest. The first time watching many of them, I got involved doing something else while watching. Still there are quite a few episodes, this one included, that grabbed my from the get go and wouldn’t let go.