review – Page 5 – Finious's Folly

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
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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 →

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

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
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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 →

Review: Eric

Eric by Terry Pratchett
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My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
First Published: January 1990
Read from: February 04 to 19, 2014

This parrot is NOT dead, but very much alive. And VERY funny.

The British TV series Monty Python’s Flying Circus had a famous sketch about a dead parrot that is very funny. This story, like much of Pratchett’s Discworld novels, reminds me a little of Monty Python. And Eric even has a parrot in it. While not dead, the parrot, and the book as a whole, is very funny.

Eric is a want-to-be demon-summoning “hacker”. In an attempt to summon a demon, he summons instead Rincewind the wizard who was trapped in the Dungeon Dimensions in a previous Discworld novel. The two of them, Eric’s parrot and Rincewind’s sentient Luggage commence to bumble into one adventure after another.

Read My Full Review →

Review: Elminster in Myth Drannor

Elminster in Myth Drannor by Ed Greenwood
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My Rating: 3 of 5 stars
First Published: January 1997
Read from: January 30 to February 01, 2014

Much better than I thought it would be. Had a few minor issues with it that I won’t bother to go into, mainly because what this book did well, it did very well indeed… Namely keep me entertained and wanting to find out what would happen next.

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A Sherlock Holmes Day & Review: Sherlock (Season 3)

By sheer luck, today has been Sherlock Holmes day for me…

First: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes was born on this day in 1854.

Second: I watched the first two episodes of season three of the BBC series Sherlock.

While the new Sherlock episodes were fun and quite good, considering that there are only a total of three episodes in the entire season and I just watched two-thirds of them, where are the MYSTERIES? The mysteries should be the CENTER of any Sherlock Holmes tale. The ones that have appeared so far seem to be like appetizers to a meal that is never provided. I have an idea where they may go with the last episode, but really… So much wasted potential.

Review: Dayworld

Dayworld by Philip José Farmer
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My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
First Published: January 1985
Read from: December 04 to 05, 2013

Dayworld – An Engaging and Exciting Read

“Dayworld” by Philip Jose Farmer (1985) has elements that remind me of a lot of other classic sci-fi books. For example, some of the police procedural, hi-tech dystopian world elements and pulp sci-fi & action story tropes of “Dayworld” remind me of “Bladerunner”, (the Ridley Scott movie more so than the “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep” Philip K. Dick novel from which it was based). I guess its not that surprising as the visually-stunning and goundbreaking vision of a future dystopia that was Bladerunner came out in 1982, just a few years before Farmer published Dayworld. Continue reading Review: Dayworld

Review: Guards! Guards!

Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett
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My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
First Published: 1989
Read from: November 21 to December 04, 2013

Guards! Guards! This much fun must be illiegal.

Wonderful fun! Best of the Discworld series so far. Loved the characters, plot, humor and excellent prose. And underneath it all incredibly deep undercurrents with serious (but ironically funny) truths about life, love, civilization, patriotism, politics, evil and heroism. But all those serious thoughts are delivered in such a way that they only add to, instead of disturbing, the fun.

Read My Full Review →