Review: BioShock Infinite

BioShock Infinite coverBioShock Infinte
Release Date: Mar 2013
Genre: First Person Shooter
Developer: Irrational Games

My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars 4 out of 5 stars

BioShock Infinite delivers one hell of a punch.

Twelve MonkeysSo I finally finished the Xbox version of the game BioShock Infinte this “weekend” and I must say the ending of the game’s intense story truly delivered a punch to my gray matter that left me reeling in much the same way as the movies Twelve Monkeys, Seven and Fight Club did. (Hmm? Just noticed that all 3 of those movies star Brad Pitt. Very weird.)

I definitely enjoyed the game-play, the “world”, the FPS action, and the intense story. I don’t fault the ending (which I will NOT reveal here) as I think it fits the story-line and genre and is pretty cool to be honest… But STILL the ending did leave me feeling a little betrayed. Read My Full Review →

Review: Leviathan Wakes

Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. CoreyLeviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey
The Expanse series #1
View book info on GoodReads

My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars 4 out of 5 stars
First Published: June 2011
Read from: Jun 22 to July 3, 2014
Awards: Nominated for 2012 Hugo Awards for Best Novel and the 2012 Locus Award for Best Science Fiction

“Leviathan Wakes” My Appetite For Cool Space Opera

Spoiler: Book Blurb Show

 
Leviathan Wakes on the whole was a VERY entertaining bit of space opera science fiction, with some tantalizing bits of “hard sci-fi”, “horror”, “detective story” & “military sci-fi” thrown in. The book is the first in the highly acclaimed Expanse series, written by James S.A. Corey – a pen name for the collaboration of Albuquerque, New Mexico authors Ty Franck & Daniel Abraham, the last of which also is known to work closely with George R.R. Martin. Read My Full Review →

Basically, RUN!

The Doctor's WifeOne 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!

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. DelaneyThe Einstein Intersection by Samuel R. Delany
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My Rating2 out of 5 Stars2 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 Stars3.5 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 →

Swan, not Pig.

“These people who expect to be saints in heaven, though they were not on Earth, have ignored the wisdom of the founders of the great religions. This wisdom is that the kingdom of heaven is within you and that you do not go to heaven unless you are already in it. The magic must be wrought by you and you alone. God has no fairy wand to tap the pig and turn it into a swan.

People ignore this. And those who believe in sinners burning in hell are, perhaps, not so much concerned with going to heaven as with being sure that sinners-–others-–roast forever in the flames.”
Philip José Farmer