Books, Movies & More – Page 9

Basically, RUN!

One of the things I like about the silliness & craziness of the later incarnations of the Doctor in Doctor Who is that when he suddenly turn serious, angry or threatening, it carries VASTLY more weight. You know he’s serious when events manage to crack his child-like persona. Calling this a personality trait of the later Doctors though is a little untrue, as the Second Doctor played by Patrick Troughton was the first to start to exhibit those childlike personality quirks.

Anyway, one of my favorite examples of the crazy Doctor suddenly turning deadly serious is in the episode The Doctor’s Wife featuring Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor. Continue reading Basically, RUN!

Weber’s Big Book of… YUMMY!

So I stumbled on this cook book the other day that inspired me to start a cooking and grilling “project”…

I don’t normally read a lot of cookbooks, but Weber’s Big Book of Burgers caught my eye. Or I should say, what caught my eye first was the gorgeous photography on the cover of some of my favorite, and very delicious looking food. Caught by the attractive cover, I started to flip through the book, and every SINGLE thing in there looks simply awesome, with clear and well laid out instructions. There is much, MUCH more in the cookbook than burgers and brats. There are side dishes, salads, drinks and general grilling and cooking tips too. Continue reading Weber’s Big Book of… YUMMY!

Review: “Witches Abroad”

Witches Abroad by Terry Pratchett
View book info on GoodReads

My Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
First Published: 1991
Read from: May 31 to June 20, 2014

Witches on Holiday Make ‘Ugly Americans’ Look Like Saints

Three witches take a road trip through the Discworld on a quest to complete a deceased fairy god-mother’s last wishes: The goal, to stop the wishes of a princess from coming true, and instead give her what she really needs.

Read My Full Review →

Review: “X-Men: Days of Future Past”

X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)
My Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Directed by: Bryan Singer
Starring: Hugh Jackman, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Halle Berry, Anna Paquin, Ellen Page, Peter Dinklage, Ian McKellen, Patrick Stewart
View Movie Info on Wikipedia

The Days of Meh…

I went to the movie “X-Men: Days of Future Past” last night with high expectations. I had heard a lot of people who said they really liked it and was looking forward to some fun comic book entertainment. My final assessment however was simply, “Meh.” I liked it, but not nearly as much as I hoped.

Without giving away any spoilers, the premise of the story is that in the future, the world has gone to hell in a hand basket. The X-Men send Wolverine back into their past in an attempt to make a vital change to their time-line that would prevent the horrors of their time from ever occurring… Read My Full Review →

Sea Level Maps

So I’ve been reading the sci-fi novel Green Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson, the sequel to Red Mars. A plot spoiler follows, so if you plan on reading Green Mars, do not read this…

…. Continue reading Sea Level Maps

Reading Updates: 5 Book Ratings

Reaper Man, Red Mars, Moving Pictures, Elminster: The Making of a Mage, and Altered Carbon

Haven’t been updating my blog as I should. I have read a lot recently, and while I’ve been posting ratings on GoodReads, I apparently had not checked the “update my blog” box to have those posted here. Oops…

So I guess I’m going to manually post the book readings & their ratings here. Books rated were… Continue reading Reading Updates: 5 Book Ratings

Living Mars

I’ve been reading Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson. I’m about 1/3 of the way through it and so far it gets about 3.5 out of 5 stars. I’ve always been fascinated by Mars and have fantasized about visiting it.

Anyway, reading the book got me interested in looking up some good images of Mars so I could “see” where some of the events of the book take place. Continue reading Living Mars

Review: The Einstein Intersection

The Einstein Intersection by Samuel R. Delany
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My Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
First Published: 1967
Read from: February 22 to March 08, 2014

Can’t You Just Let a Story Be a Story?

“The Einstein Intersection” by Samuel R. Delany won the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1967 and was nominated for the Hugo Award for 1968. I had read some things that piqued my interest in this novel so I managed to get a copy through an inter-library loan — strangely my huge local library system did not have a copy of their own.

Sadly, this book continues a trend I’ve noticed recently where many “award-winning classics” are not really all that good. It seems that genre novels that do something for the first time — whether it is for artistic effect, to state their often biased opinion on current political or sociological trends, or to capitalize on some popular fad of the time — books that do stuff like that so often become award winners… whether or not there is actually a decent or engaging story wrapped around all that “stuff”. Read My Full Review →

Review: RoboCop

RoboCop (2014)
My Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Directed by: José Padilha
Starring: Joel Kinnaman, Gary Oldman, Michael Keaton, Samuel L. Jackson
View Movie Info on Wikipedia

RoboCop Reboot Better Than I Expected

Some parts of the new RoboCop movie, (and not just the effects,) were much better than the original. Other parts; not so much… Read My Full Review →

Review: Assassin’s Apprentice

Assassin’s Apprentice by Robin Hobb
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My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
First Published: August 1995
Read from: February 04 to 19, 2014

Proving Assassins Can Also Be Nice Guys

The novel Assassin’s Apprentice by Robin Hobb was much different than the title led me to believe, as I probably never would have given it a try if I had judged this book by it’s title. However it’s very high ratings and the frequency with which fantasy discussions brought it up moved it to the top of my “to read” list. For a story about an Assassin’s Apprentice there is actually very little killing going on. Thinking this would focus on assassinations I had thought I would be turned off. Ironically, one of the few problems I had with this book was actually the LACK of action in places. But it is safe to say that the main character, and most of the characters as a whole, do not fall victim of the traditional stereotypes of the genre tropes. Over all I had mixed feelings about this book while reading it. Read My Full Review →