First Book Foo of 2013 (also TV and movies)

So... I just got some books in the mail, finally using up my Xmas gift card (I got Impulse, by Steven Gould, the third book in the Jumper series, one of my favorites, The Fractal Prince by Hannu RajaIdon'twannalookuphisnameagainrightnow, and an anthology of zombie stories because it was in the Bargain Books list), and I realized it had been a while since I'd done a post like this. So, let's get caught up on the books I've been reading lately.

Finished: Gridlinked, by Neal Asher
Finished: The Line of Polity, by Neal Asher

I'm going to treat these more or less as one. I bought The Line of Polity first, accidentally thinking it was stand-alone (or perhaps the first book in the series). Once I realized my mistake, I went back and found the first book.

This series didn't particularly do anything for me. It's sort of a combination of secret agent tales and space opera, and I suppose it's fine for all that, but none of the characters really connected to me and I saw many of the events coming, and, for the most part, I read just to get through it. I did notice that one of the main personality characteristics of the main character, from the first book, seemed to have been completely brushed aside in the second... and while I didn't much like him then, I don't think the best approach was to make him even blander.

It's kind of a sad commentary on the series that my favorite character in it is an artificially intelligent shuriken that never communicates to others or indicates its thoughts to the reader or anybody else in anything but the most limited ways.

Maybe I'll give the series another chance somewhere down the line, but I don't think I'm going to be reading the rest anytime soon.

Finished: Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card (reread)
One of my all time favorite books (and yes, I know, many of the author's political views are abominable, but the book rises above it... I can hold it against the author, but not against the book), and I just felt like reading it again, especially because the movie'll be coming out this year.

Finished: The Lady of Mazes, by Karl Schroder (reread)

I've read this before, but I still really enjoy this. I'll do a bit longer here, behind the cut, because I just reviewed it on Goodreads, too and I might as well copy and paste. ( Read more... )

Started: Ender's Shadow, by Orson Scott Card (reread)
Started: Rainbows End, by Vernor Vinge (reread)

Also, last book foo, in a short story collection (Year's Best SF 15), there was one thing that I wanted to quote, just because I liked it, but I forgot to. Well, now I'm remembering. It's from the story Collision, by Gwyneth Jones:
"Down all the millenia, people like you have said science is 'challenging the Throne of God.' The funny thing is, your 'God' doesn't seem to mind. Your 'God' keeps saying to us, Hey, wonderful! You noticed! Follow me, I've got some other great stuff to show you--"

Okay, off books, and onto TV... I don't have a lot to talk about. Walking Dead starts again this Sunday, which is cool. I've also been lately getting into Leverage in reruns... it turns out to be a lot of fun (and a lot of SF people in it). And I've been watching Tabletop online. Oh, Wil Wheaton, if someone had told me years ago you'd become my favorite TNG cast member (okay, maybe just behind Patrick Stewart), I would have thought they were crazy. It's a lot of fun, but I especially like the games where there is some roleplaying involved, and indeed think they should do a spinoff that is just RPGs (I never watched Being Human, either version, but Sam Witwer from the US version is clearly not just a gamer, he's apparently also a GM so I like him now, too.)

But the main show that I think we need to talk about is Fringe.

Fringe... what happened to you, man? You used to be cool.

(major spoilers for the series will be behind the cut... spoiling pretty much the whole last season... no, wait, the WRITERS spoiled the last season).

In the end, I'm so disappointed in Fringe that I wish it was cancelled, not LAST season, but the season before. Yes, they screwed the pooch so much that I wish we could undo that last two seasons. And maybe a few minutes or seconds before the end of the finale before that (just to better wrap it up rather than leaving on a surprise dangler).

( Read more... )

On a similar vein, and moving from TV onto movies, we have the movie Looper.

Looper has a silly premise. I'm sorry, it does... "Time Travel gets invented... but it's only used by the mob... to dispose of bodies! Because there's nothing else that can be done with it!"
is silly on the face of it. But you look past it... and some of the silliness that comes with stylistic choices... and it's actually pretty enjoyable. Well acted, tense, and even introduces a few plot elements out of left field that don't automatically fit in with a time travel movie, but made things a little cooler. And they went to some very dark places, with a lot of ambiguity. And then... that ending (major total spoiling spoilers behind cut)...
( Read more... )

Also watched The Dark Knight Returns Part 2. Still don't get why this was two movies. Put the runtime of both together, no special features, and you get an hour and a half of movie. But it was enjoyable, and I liked it a lot more than reading the comic (I didn't like the art). I know it's heresy, but I actually think they should make a sequel... The Dark Knight Strikes Back, in animated form. Except... don't do the sequel Frank Millar actually wrote. Just take the best ideas in it and write the sequel it SHOULD have been.

I think that's about it. I've got a few other recent new (on DVD) movies but I never get around to actually watching them.