Books, movies, politics, and whatever I want

Monday Book Pick: Stranger in a Strange Land

Monday, October 12th, 2009

Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein

Another classic by the Grandmaster of Science Fiction. Valentine Michael Smith, born during, and the only survivor of, the first manned mission to Mars. Raised by Martians, he looks at Human society through a very different perspective than the rest of his species. Heinlein takes on sex and religion in a most irreverent fashion.

Monday Book Pick Archive

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Monday Book Pick:

Friday, October 9th, 2009

Ya, ya, it’s Friday already.  Various technical difficulties slowed down posting this week.  Nothing major, and I’m back on track.  B-Movie pick will show up later….

Arguing with Idiots by Glenn Beck

That candy munching, round faced former acoholic is at again. This time, he’s dressing up as “the Book Czar” and telling you to buy his book. Fact filled and organized to counter the pretty consistantly fact free arguments of the typical leftiest. No wonder they hate this guy over at MSNC.

Monday Book Pick Archive.

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What America is reading

Thursday, October 1st, 2009

Number 1 top seller at Amazon, Gov. Sarah Palin’s book, Going Rogue, which isn’t coming out until November! I’m betting it outsells any of our Dear Leader’s books.

Number 3 is Glenn Beck’s Arguing with Idiots.

If  you like these books, here are some more you may like.

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Damn You John Ringo! Damn You!

Wednesday, September 30th, 2009

First off, ya…I’m  a big fan of John Ringo‘s books, and he’s written a lot of them. I’ve been reading the Sluggy Freelance comic, which gets a lot of references in his books, even longer and I’m a long time Schlock Mercenary fan too.

I took a peek at the leaked advanced chapters for his next book, Live Free or Die, over at Buckley’s site (ya, that Buckley) and Ringo explains in the forward that this book is “sort of playing about” in the Schlock Mercenary universe, but back when the galactic civilization first made contact with Earth.

Now  to highlight what an evil being John Ringo is (something he freely and perhaps just a bit too gleefully admits), this book won’t be released until February 2010.   Oh…Baen will have an e-ARC version available earlier, which could be mine for about the cost of the hardcover that won’t be out for another four months.

Ok, so both John Ringo and Baen Books are EVIL!  I say that with the highest level of respect for their grasp of the capitalistic system.

While I’m here, I’ll put in a good word for Baen’s ebook sales.  No DRM (i.e. the copy ‘protection’ crap that assumes that paying customers are thieves), available in multiple formats, and when new books are released in hardcover, you can pick up the e-book version, direct from Baen, for usually $6.  If that is still too much for you, check out what they have on the net for free! If you haven’t read of any of John Ringo’s books, you can read seven of his book for free.

Update: It’s late January, so you can pick up a DRM free e-book version of Live Free or Die at Baen‘s webscription.net site for $6. Or you could wait a little longer and get Live Free or Die as a hardcover from Amazon for $17.16. My bet is that Baen will make more money off that $6 e-book than the hardcover with a suggested retail price of $26.

Update: Live Free or Die was my Monday Book Pick for 2/1/2010.

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Monday Book Pick: The Forever War

Monday, September 28th, 2009

The Forever War by Joe Haldeman

The classic anti-war military SciFi book seen by many as an answer to Robert Heinlein’s Starship Troopers (the Monday book pick from Feb. 9, 2009). Haldeman claims that isn’t how he wrote it, and Robert Heinlein thought it was a damn good good book. An opinion I share.

Monday Book Pick Archive

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Tuesday Book Pick:The Tuloriad (The Legacy of Aldenata)

Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009

The Tuloriad (The Legacy of Aldenata)

by Tom Kratman with some help by John Ringo

The latest in the Posleen War series. Ya, this is supposed to be the Monday Book Pick, but I’m late with the post.

Monday Book Pick Archive.

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Monday Book Pick: Tokyo Suckerpunch

Monday, September 14th, 2009

Tokyo Suckerpunch, by Isaac Adamson

The first of his Billy Chaka adventures. Billy is an American writer who covers the Japanese teen scene for American teenagers, and a student of wide range of martial arts. The stories are fast paced fun “urban noir” with Chaka delivering lines that would make Raymond Chandler proud.

Monday Book Pick Archive

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Monday Book Pick: To Where Your Scatter Bodies Go

Monday, September 7th, 2009

To Where Your Scattered Bodies Go, by Philp Jose Farmer

This is the first book in Philip Jose Farmer’s Riverworld series, which includes a cast of everybody who was born and died from early proto-humans to 1985. We’re talking grand scale, epic Science Fiction here.

Monday Book Pick Archive

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John Carter of Mars film still in the works

Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009

A film version of “A Princess of Mars”, the first in Edgar Rice Burroughs’ John Carter of Mars series has been listed  on IMDB since 2005.

It’s still listed as  in pre-production, with the latest in release dates as 2012. There are also some cast listings.  The most interesting is Willem Dafoe as the Green Martian King Tars Tarkas.

As I said before, this film could be amazingly cool or a fiasco of epic proportions. With William Dafoe on board, I’m leaning more toward amazingly cool.

If the four armed Green Martians look sufficently cool, this could be a plus toward getting David Weber & John Ringo‘s March Upcountry made into a film.  That would be a good thing.

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Monday Book Pick: Two Hawks From Earth

Tuesday, September 1st, 2009

Two Hawks From Earth, by Philp Jose Farmer

This classic alternate history/alternate reality book is back in print, which is a good thing. During WWII, Army Air Corps bomber pilot Roger Two Hawks bails out of his shot up bomber and lands in a different reality, one also experiencing a world spanning war.

Monday Book Pick Archive

Ya, I know. It’s Tuesday.

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