Books, movies, politics, and whatever I want

Monday Book Pick: The Given Sacrifice

Monday, April 21st, 2014

The Given Sacrifice by S.M. Stirling

Once again, S.M. Stirling proves himself to be the current master of the epic trilogy. Set in his Emberverse, he wraps up another historic period of his alternate universe where Powers have denied technology beyond gunpowder. Don’t worry, there will be more epic trilogies set in the Change series. It’s just time for the next generation.

Monday Book Pick Archive

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Sunday SciFi: Stargate SG:1

Sunday, April 13th, 2014

It’s taken a few years, but I’ve finally finished all ten seasons of Stargate SG:1.  That, along with two movies, and seven seasons of two different spinoff series, make it one of the longest running and successful Science Fiction series of all times. Don’t forget the movie that the series was based on.

Over ten seasons, the series had time to do rich character development, story arcs, and even took the time to poke fun at themselves.

Overall, it is a good action series where the bad guys are truly bad.

 

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Friday B-Movie Pick: Logan’s Run

Friday, March 21st, 2014

Logan’s Run

We have to travel back to 1976 for this SciFi flick staring Michael York and Jenny Agutter. Based on the much better book, it tells the story of a Post-apocalyptic society where people are limited to 30 years of life (21 in the much harsher book). Logan is a “Sandman”, a government official who hunts down and kills people who want to live longer than the government allows. Excellent special effects for when it was made, and it has Jenny Agutter.

Friday B-Movie Pick Archive

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Monday Book Pick: Big Boys Don’t Cry

Monday, March 17th, 2014

Big Boys Don’t Cry by Tom Kratman

Tom Kratman writes a Bolo Novella. OK, they aren’t called “Bolos”, but Parthas. They are just huge, tank like, war machines with an AI core, that are pretty damn smart by the time they reach revs in the late thirties. Let’s just say that in this morality play, the Partha’s human masters do things to them that no Bolo (or Partha) should have to live through. I know a few things about the military, military history, and training. Subjects that Kratman is an expert on, and all three play a part in this story. An interesting read, with a happier ending than you would expect.

Monday Book Pick Archive

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Sunday SciFi: Meme Mixing

Sunday, March 2nd, 2014

Trek Wars

There is so much wrong with this, which is what makes it awesome.

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Friday B-Movie Pick: Sands of Oblivion

Friday, February 21st, 2014

Sands of Oblivion

From 2007 comes this SciFi original movie in all its B-Movie crunchy goodness. It was spectacular in all of its low budget glory. The real draw to this was the cast. It had Morena Baccarin and Adam Baldwin, who worked together in Firefly and Serenity. Baccarin played her role pretty straight, while Baldwin was a bit over the top, which is what his role needed. It also had an 82 year old George Kennedy, who was pretty damn good. What you would expect from him, even for a role to get him out of the house for a couple of days. The other cool bit of casting was Dan Castellaneta hamming it up as Cecil B. DeMille. Which brings us to the plot of this thriller. The plot hook is that DeMille used actual Egyptian artifacts he picked up in his travels in his film “The Ten Commandments.” One of these released an ancient ‘Evil’ loose to roam his California desert location, killing stage hands and committing other mayhem. DeMille and his Freemason buddies manage to capture the “Left Hand if Seti” and bury him, along with all the other sets and props beneath the sands of the California desert. Fast forward to the early 21st Century and we find a youthful Doctor of Archaeology, played by Morena Baccarin, engaged in digging up DeMille’s old sets before some public works project destroys them. Stir in Adam Baldwin as her almost ex-husband, also a Doctor of Archaeology, and an expert on ancient Egypt. Add a young hero type (who they go to great lengths to mention having served in the First Infantry Division in Iraq), some young co-eds, and some low budget special effects, and you have a fine example of B-Movie making at its finest! Oh don’t forget to throw in the Dune Buggy race and gratuitous shotgun-fu for flavor.

Friday B-Movie Pick Archive

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Monday Book Pick: Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD: Empyre

Monday, February 17th, 2014

Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD: Empyre by Will Murray

Will Murry is well known to pulp fans for his new Doc Savage novels. This book is about Marvel’s Nick Fury, Director of Shield. It was published back in 2000, and features the “old school” Nick Fury. The one who lead the “Howling Commandos” back in WWII. This is before someone decided that Sam Jackson would make a Bad Ass Nick Fury (which he did/does). In this adventure, Nick Fury has brought back the psychic division (called “Special Powers” in this iteration), and just in time too. The Special Powers group plays a major role in solving the latest evil plot from Hydra to cause death and destruction around the world. The afterword to the book says that Will Murry is a practicing psychic and has used all the of the techniques the SHIELD Special Powers group uses, including remote viewing. For you skeptics, consider this. This book was published in 2000. Spoiler alert here: It has a Middle Eastern base group (a fragment of Hydra and a thinly disguised Saddam Hussein) using commercial airliners to attack major cities by crashing the airliner into the target city. OK, Tom Clancy also used that one his books back before 9/11/2011. Still, the point had to be made. Either way, this is old school Marvel adventure with a flying SHIELD Humvee taking out Iraqi (of course they use another name, but it’s not hard to figure out) MIGs and Nick Fury at his cigar chomping best.

Monday Book Pick Archive

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Monday Book Pick: The Forever Engine

Monday, January 13th, 2014

The Forever Engine by Frank Chadwick

Crunchy Steampunk goodness from one of the founders of the genre. Yes, it’s that Frank Chadwick, creater of the Space:1889 RPG. Those of you, like me, will find a good deal familiar with tale of adventure and Mad Science. Including Liftwood, stout hearted British Marines, and a five barrel Nordenfelt!

Monday Book Pick Archive

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Friday B-Movie Pick: The Wolverine

Friday, January 3rd, 2014

The Wolverine

This Marvel Comic based movie didn’t get the best reviews. It worked for me, but then I was really into comics back when Wolverine was first Uber-Popular with the fan base. So I knew all the backstory they tried to cram into this movie. It was a good action movie with nice fight scenes. The “ghost of Jean Grey” that the writers stuck in in order to give Logan more of tortured back story was a trifle over done in my NSHO. Bottom line, this is a Marvel Fan-Person movie. If you aren’t you can give this a pass. If you are, and are willing to put up with the backstory butchering these films are infamous for, fire up the popcorn.

Friday B-Movie Archive

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Friday B-Movie Pick: RIPD

Friday, November 22nd, 2013

RIPD

I admit that I’m OK with missing this one in the theater. It was worth the rental as a B movie though. It’s one of those flicks where it looks like the actors had more fun making it than the audience did watching it. Good special effects and some decent acting by the leads. Don’t worry about the plot holes, just sit back, enjoy your home made popcorn and let yourself be entertained.

Friday B-Movie Archive

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