Books, movies, politics, and whatever I want

Friday B-Movie Pick: The Flashpoint Paradox

Friday, October 11th, 2013

Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox

One of my kids told me about this one. A deliciously dark alternate history story that starts with a good deed. Events ripple out from that change up and down the timestream and the Flash ends up in a rather nasty universe. One of the best parts was the effect on the Wayne family. In this timeline, it’s Bruce who is killed, not his parents. Thomas Wayne becomes a very dark and deadly Batman and the shock turns Martha Wayne into the Joker, his arch nemesis. The Flash works to find the cause of the timeline change and set things right. It’s hard road, but the Speedster is ready to run it.

Friday B-Movie Pick Archive

 

 

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Monday Book Pick: The Evil in Pemberley House

Monday, October 7th, 2013

The Evil in Pemberley House by Philip Jose Farmer and Win Scott Eckert

Win Scott Eckert finishes an unpublished Farmer novel set deep in Farmer’s Wold Newton settings. Half the fun of this book is spotting all the references. Some are obvious, others require a Farmerphile, such as myself, to spot. Overall, a nice bit of pulp set in the early 70s. Patricia Clarke Wildman, the daughter of the Pulp Hero known as “Doc Savage”, is in a rough emotional spot, after the death of her parents, and her recent husband. Then she discovers that she is inheriting an English estate, made famous in the Jane Austin novel, “Pride and Prejudice.” Of course there is a ghost involved, and some shady characters among the living up to no good. With only minor spoilers, let me say that good mystery and spot of adventure is just what Patricia needed to get her out of her funk. She is her father’s daughter after all. Mild warning about the sex scenes. Very risque by 1970’s standards, but not so much today. Milder than what you would find in John Ringo’s Ghost series. A good read for the Farmer fan, but perhaps a bit too much ‘inside baseball’ references for someone not familiar with Farmer’s body of work.

Monday Book Pick Archive

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Monday Book Pick: Fire With Fire

Monday, September 23rd, 2013

Fire With Fire by Charles E. Gannon

A near future SciFi adventure that reminds me favorably of Dr. Pournelle’s Future History stories. Smart characters, deep secrets nested inside other secrets, action, aliens, and more action. It sets the stage for multiple sequels, which is a good thing.

Monday Book Pick Archive

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Sunday SciFi: Doc Savage

Sunday, September 8th, 2013

I read my first Doc Savage novel, The Land of Terror, somewhere between mid 1970 and mid 1972.  I was living in Curundu at the time, and I remember buying it in Panama City.  Since then I’ve read most of the original 181 novels, PJF’s Escape From Loki, and a number of the newer ones written by Will Murry. I have two well read copies of Farmer’s Doc Savage: His Apocalypic Life. I have comics from both the Marvel and DC series.  I also own the George Pal “Man of Bronze” movie in glorious VHS.

Needless to say, I’m looking forward to a well done Doc Savage movie.  Shane Black, of Iron Man 3 fame, has obtained a green light for a Doc Savage movie.  So, high hopes for a really cool movie here. Have to say, I’m more interested in who he is going to cast as Doc’s cousin Patrica than Doc at this point.

Update: According to IMDB, Chris Hemsworth is rumored to play Clark Savage, Jr.   This would be fornicating awesome.

Update: IMDB now lists Dwayne Johnson as playing Doc Savage.  Which is also fornicating awesome.

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Sunday SciFi: Star Trek Phase II restores the time line

Sunday, September 1st, 2013

 

It seems that ACME has improved their quality since Wiley E. Coyote was a customer.

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Monday Book Pick: Blood of Heroes

Monday, August 26th, 2013

Blood of Heros by Steve White

A well researched time travel tale. The author lays out the rules for time travel in his future universe up front, which is a plus in time travel stories. Our heroes travel back to bronze age Greece to observe a historical event and then the fun starts. They run into humanoid aliens. Very long lived, technologically advanced aliens. These aliens didn’t reproduce very often, but they had been there long enough produce a second generation. The older ones had names that included Chronos and Theia. The younger ones included Zeus, Hera, and Apollo. You can see were this is going. There is much action and adventure (adventure: bad things happening to other people far away). A fun read with two sequels already.

Monday Book Pick Archive

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Sunday Sci-Fi: The Office

Sunday, July 28th, 2013

The Office is a small branch of the Environmental Protection Agency that deals with Mad Scientists and other Evildoers that want to harm the environment, and/or large chunks of the human beings in said Environment.

The Office is another “Men in Black” group that likes dark suits, sunglasses and large black American made sedans.  They deal with the government bureaucracy, mad scientists, and wacko cultists.

You can read about the Office in two (so far), short stories by Leslie Bates.  The first is Weekend, followed by Tuesday.

In Weekend, you meet an agent of the Office who’s most common alias is John Flanders.   Agent Flanders spends his weekend dealing with some not so nice people wanting to ‘immanentize the eschaton.’  Oh, and he fills out all the relevant paperwork.  The Office is part of the EPA after all.

The second Office short story, takes place on a Tuesday.  The Office has a new politically appointed head, who has been placed there as a punishment detail for annoying the President.  This does put her in better standing with the non-politically appointed Office Staff.  The action once again takes place in what many people politically to the Left of Agent Flanders refer to as one of the “flyover states.”  This time is a cult founded by a hack writer of pulp fiction.  Ya, it’s a thinly disguised version of that cult.  Once again, Agent Flanders deals with Evil, and fills out the paperwork, in this case a lot of paperwork.  There are events the EPA frowns upon.  Agent Flanders doesn’t manage to stop the event, but he does save the damsel in distress and his boss.

The Office stories are short bits of fun filled with movie and SciFi tropes, 80’s and 90’s pop culture and some not so thinly veiled political commentary.  Oh, and Mr. Bates is not above Rocky Horror Picture Show references, so be warned.

 

 

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Monday Book Pick: The Dracula Tape

Monday, June 3rd, 2013

The Dracula Tape by Fred Saberhagen

Vampires have been all the rage with the kids lately, but back in the mid 1970, Fred Saberhagen wrote one of the best Dracula books ever, IMNSHO. Dracula tells his side of the story told by Bram Stoker. In his version, it is Van Helsing that is the blood thirsty monster and Vlad is the misunderstood hero. A fun read, but better if the you read the Stoker version first.

Monday Book Pick Archive

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Quote of the Day

Sunday, May 26th, 2013

“He had some measure the infuriating trait that causes a young man to be a noncomformist for its own sake, and found that the surest way to shock most people, in those days, was to believe that some kinds of behavior were bad and others good, and that it was reasonable to live one’s life accordingly.”

The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson

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Monday Book Pick: The Sting of the Scorpion

Monday, April 1st, 2013

The Sting of the Scorpion by Warren Stockholm

Delightfully dark pulp. Kurt Reinhardt is the product of Nazi genetic engineering in a world were the Germans won WWII and occupied America for sixty years. He was bred to be super solider but didn’t like the job. After another war which saw American regain its independence, he immigrates to America and works his way to wealth. Of course he has serious issues, which he works out by fighting crime in slums of Pittsburgh  It’s dark, gritty, and nasty. Just what you want in Noir Pulp.

Monday Book Pick Archive

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