Number6's Journal

Yes, I survived Fan Expo 2014. Did I have fun? Honestly, no, there were a couple minor bright spots, but on the whole, it was depressing exhausting affair. I didn't even wind up taking many pictures.

I'll give a bit more detail behind the cut (feel free to ignore the whining and skip right to the pictures).

The Narrative:( Read more... )

Picture time! Not very many!( Read more... )

Oh, and the sketch I got from Adrian Alphona (Runaways artist): ( Read more... )

I think, in the future, unless there is a specific person I want to see and get an autograph from (or I ever figure out somebody I want to cosplay), I'm going to skip cons from now on. I always wind up depressed after, and it was even worse this time around. And I'm still feeling run-down and drained.

Just a roundup of some recent-ish TV-related thoughts I've been saving up.

Walking Dead ended... it was pretty good, but (major spoilers ahoy if you haven't seen it) ( Read more... )

Game of Thrones started... not much to say on it, but still really enjoying it.

Supernatural's still in the hack writing mockworthy stage, but I have to especially mock something in the latest new episode (spoilers... it's the Sam's second "trial" one) ( Read more... )

Doctor Who... I don't know. I like Clara so far, although I wish we got one of the other versions we saw rather than the one we did. First episode was okay, second started great but they blew the ending (more later), and third episode I mostly liked.

My main problem right now is with the writing for the character itself. And it's not a new problem, it's been going for a long time, it's just starting to grate on me more and more the more they continue it.

1) The Doctor as know-it-all tour guide.
I love that he's a smart character.

But a thousand years old is not enough to see a whole universe, particularly when you've got not just all of time, but time and space. Which means that for him to know everything about every race he comes across... he's gotta be revisiting the places he knows well a lot. And that bears it up, I looked up past episodes, and was hard pressed to find one where the Doctor and his companions visit somewhere he's never been, just for the hell of it. There were a few times where circumstances, accidents or distress calls have dragged them to places they've never been before (but usually with a familiar threat), but most of the time, they're trying to get to places he knows. There might have been two-three cases in the entire New Who era where he's got a goal other than that. They're always visiting places he's either been at some other time, or heard a lot about, and so the Doctor can point out all the alien races and know their particular quirks. And of course, Earth, but that's part of the show and you're never going to get rid of that, but I'd like the episodes where they're away from Earth to break that mold. That's my problem, the doctor is no longer an EXPLORER. He's a tour guide.

I want a companion, when asked where they want to go, to say, "I want to go someplace you've never been, a place you've barely even heard of, where you don't already know everything about what's going on." But mostly I want the Doctor to WANT to go to new places. Because as it is, he doesn't so much have to rely on being clever, he has to rely on already knowing the right thing. He doesn't have to figure out what an alien creature's motives and desires are, he just has to know that particular alien race so he can point it out to the audience and companion and explain what they want. And that's easier to write, because it's the LAZY way to do it.

This attitude seems to creep into writing in other ways, a sort of laziness I noticed, which brings me to Episode 2 of the new half-series, the Rings of Akhenaten. It started out okay, except of course, Doctor was playing know-it-all tour guide AGAIN, but the ending combined two of my least favorite and laziest endings. Spoilers, ahoy, both for it and "The Cold War", which I use to contrast. ( Read more... )

Anyway, that's enough of that, let's move on...

And the newest of the SF series to debut is "Defiance", created by Rockne S. O'Bannon, who was behind Farscape. And you can see some Farscape influences here... made-up swear words, a set of well-designed alien races, as humanoid ones go, anyway, (except the white haired ones look a little too much like bad costumes), a female heroine who isn't particularly "nice" and "approachable".. it's almost like they were trying to catch lightning in a bottle and create "Farscape set on a future Earth". And I do like the alien races (and the alien Doctor is kind of my favorite character so far, despite only having a handful of lines). But the whole thing feels a little... the word that keeps jumping to mind is "stilted". Awkward, artificial... it doesn't feel like a real world, like Farscape usually managed, it feel like... well, it feels like a video game world brought to life, which in some ways it is. Too many plot points I called in advance and dialogue that I too often cringed at. But, pilots are sometimes pretty weak, often the weakest outings of the series, and I'll give it a little time to find its legs. Right now, though, I'm not confident.

Syfy did announce recently a slate of new SF series, some of which sound like they have potential, but, with that channel, I don't have my expectations that high. (They also announced minis based on Ringworld and Childhood's End, which I'd love to see but have little confidence in)

Cartoons... now that Young Justice is cancelled, nothing really to look forward to until Korra S2 premieres, I guess. Are there any other good cartoons on that I'm missing?

Oh, and Continuum S2 starts this Sunday, so I guess that's worth a look.

Finished: Spin Control by Chris Moriarty
So, I read the first book, Spin State, and I was... mixed on it. I liked a few of the characters and relationships and some of the tech/universe, but I felt it failed a bit on the hard science by including too much 'woo-woo' stuff and forcing a "19th century coal mining town" type situation.

Still, I figured I'd give the author another try, and I'm glad I did. I liked this one much more. Minor spoilers ahead, but nothing really dramatic. ( Read more... )

Anyway, quite an improvement and I look forward to the third book, Ghost Spin, due in 2013.


Finished: Blind Lake by Robert Charles Wilson (reread)

I kind of got a hankering to reread lately, but not just old favorites... instead, I wanted to reread novels that I read once long ago and had somewhat mixed feelings on. So, I chose Blind Lake.

The premise of Blind Lake... well, it centers on a small town that's the center of a big government research project into alien life, thanks to a telescope...ish thing that gives them views of an alien planet and its inhabitants. The town goes through a quarantine, both physical and informational, leaving them to wonder what's going on and their own place in it.

What Wilson tends to do really well is combine both a compelling human drama and a big SF idea, in ways that sort of reflect on each other, not always directly, but echoes each way, and that's one of the strongest parts of this. (some spoilers ahoy) ( Read more... )

All in all, worth the reread, I think. Enjoyed it more than Julian Comstock... not as much as Spin, but probably more than Chronoliths and Vortex.

Finished: Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins (Hunger Games #3)

So, it's hard to talk about this without spoiling either the first two books (which are probably more likely to be read, or watched as movies, than most of the stuff I comment on), not to mention this one here.

I'll try to keep it short. Same problems I found with the other books in the series. On the plus side: They went a couple different places (storytellingwise) in this one, and didn't make it as 'easy' as I'd feared. And yet... the ending doesn't really satisfy for a number of reasons I don't really want to go into. It's okay, but weaker than the first couple books (aside from a few moments which were strongly affecting, but might still have been misplaced).

Finished: House of Suns by Alastair Reynolds
Another book from Alastair Reynolds, this one a stand-alone one set (mostly) millions of years in the future, and centering on a line of clones that are bigshots in galactic society, but suffer a sudden ambush that decimates (figuratively) their population, the survivors must gather together and try to figure out who attacked them and why, while dealing with where they go from there.

I really think Reynolds does better at stand-alone works. I've usually liked them quite more than his big universe stuff. It's a big book but proceeds along at a nice clip, although the big revelation is a little bit of a letdown, it doesn't matter much. The characters are supposedly clones of a single person but although they keep saying it's a special type of society, it never really sells it... they all pretty much feel like different people who happen to share memories in many cases (unlike the ones in Spin Control who also have slightly different personalities but it actually feels like that's the natural outgrowth instead of us just being told that they're clones even though they're all different people).

Solidly enjoyable, not likely to become one of my favorites, but I might reread someday.

Finished: Schild's Ladder by Greg Egan (reread)

Another in my 'second look' plan, this one by Egan is also set... well, at least millenia in the future, when an experiment expected to confirm fundamental physics creates a new region of space with unknown properties, that's expanding, consuming the galaxy as it does so. The people who come to study it tend to split into two camps, people who want to let it go, maybe even adapt themselves to the new void, because the potential for new knowledge is too great, and those who want to destroy it to preserve the homes of people it would inevitably destroy (but it's growing slowly enough that evacuation is a viable option). The arguments come to a head, obviously.

It's Egan, so the science sometimes gets pretty heavy, even for me, and it's sometimes difficult to visualize exactly what he thinks is happening and why, and the people are all humans who've abandoned many characteristics like, say, growing old, death, and gender (and some have abandoned bodies entirely). Part of the story's theme is on how we can call ourselves the same when we keep 'changing'. (One particular line waxes poetically about how we're all just our imperfect memories of the person we were yesterday, though I can't find the exact quote).

The story does read a little dry, although there are some nice character moments and explorations. Towards the end it does tend to drift off even more into 'too much science'.

However, I do want to highlight one quote I really liked, when somebody responds to a suggestion that they should do something controversial because it's the natural order of things. This is a common tactic (one I've occasionally used myself, even as deriding its use on things I don't agree with), but it's usually wrong and I liked the skewering it recieved here (note: the speaker is using sarcasm, oh and it may constitute some spoilers):( Read more... )

Started: Old Man's War by John Scalzi (reread)
Started: For the Win by Cory Doctorow

So, that's it for books... what else is there? Well, Comicon has been over with, so what's come out of it...? Not a whole lot, actually. A nice Firefly reunion panel. News that DC is going out of their way to screw over fans of Stephanie Brown AGAIN (and AGAIN in favor of Barbara Gordon. I've abandoned DC because they regressed Babs to Batgirl, and this does not make me regret my decision one bit). And, Legend of Korra was renewed for another 26 episodes, beyond the 12 in the first season and 14 in the second. Good. I've said this needs to be happened and I really hope this fixes many of the problems with the first book (which I did like, but it could have been SO MUCH BETTER, even without changing anything fundamental about the plot, but just having more time to play things out and exploring different characters, motivations, and themes).

Otherwise... a bit of news here and there that makes me mildly interested, but nothing that really makes me even remember it a couple days later.

Speaking of cons...

I guess I probably will be trying to make the Toronto Fan Expo this year. They added Alan Tudyk (Wash from Firefly) to the guest list, and I want to meet him and get his signature on my Firefly DVD boxed set box (already containing signatures from Sean Maher, Summer Glau, and Morena Baccarin). Also at that con (but I'll probably not wait in line for any/most of them unless they happen to be short lines): Stan Lee, Gillian Anderson, William B. Davis (Cigarette Smoking Man), Patrick Stewart, John Barrowman (Cap'n Jack), Christopher Lloyd, Norman Reedus (Daryl from the Walking Dead), Jon Bernthal (Shane, the Walking Dead), James Marsters and Juliet Lloyd (Spike and Dru! I'd visit Marsters but at every other con here he's been at I think you needed a special ticket even to get an autograph), John Rhys-Davies (OMG I DIDN'T EVEN NOTICE HIM UNTIL RIGHT NOW I HAVE TO MEET PROFESSOR ARTURO! if the line's not too big), Amanda Tapping (Carter from SG1), Jamie Bamber (Apollo from BSG), Joe Flanigan (Shepherd from Stargate Atlantis), Nana Visitor (Kira from DS9)

Right now, I'm really enjoying Avatar: The Legend of Korra (I refuse to call it TLAB). Especially what glimpses we saw at the end of the last episode that I hope will get far more detail. But instead of talking directly about Korra, I want to talk about what might potentially come After Korra.

Okay, it's just started really, and a little early to make predictions or even be thinking about the far future... But I'm still marvelling over how we actually got a sequel, and it's not only very good, but also very different from the original series, when it struck me... "Wouldn't it be cool if we somehow got a complete cycle of Avatar stories, one for each element, each in a somewhat different genre?" Immediately after, I thought... "Never going to happen" (at least, as animation), and yet, the thought of "But what if?" persisted. I mean Korra takes place 70 years after Airbender and has appropriate technological jumps (it's a sort of a bit of 1920s vibe), so it only stands to reason that if they made yet another sequel, it would be another time jump.

So, here are my (not especially novel) ideas of what they might do with Earth and Fire avatars... ( Read more... )
Anyway, in my head it's all pretty cool.

But enough about Avatar. What else is there?

Well, right now, Game of Thrones, but I don't feel especially talky about it. I still really enjoy it, but it's just one of those things I don't really need to converse about a lot, partly because of worries of "okay, most of the story has already been told in advance, I just don't know it yet", so it's hard to speculate or anything without looking like a fool or having people give spoilers. But yes, I do very much like it.

Other than that, not much, a couple shows running out the clock, a couple that I don't care enough to talk about, and then it's just the wait until the next new thing's on.

So let's talk about the next new thing. It's almost time for the networks to announce their schedules for the next year, and while we don't have the list of shows, we do have lists of PILOTS that the networks have been considering.

Not every show that winds up on the schedule will necessarily come from this list (and certainly, most of the shows on this list won't be on the schedule), but it gives a sort of early peek at what I MIGHT be interested in. I don't have an easy link to all the pilots there are, I looked through a bunch of sources and made notes of which ones I might be interested in, or that are in my wheelhouse but I'm unsure about. So that's mostly going to be genre-stuff - SF, Fantasy, etc.

But pilots of note that are vying for spots next year that caught my interest:
( Read more... ) So, not super encouraging. Two worth an automatic check-out, one I'll probably look at mostly due to comic-loyalty, nine that I might look at if the trailers will look good, but I'm leaning towards passing on. And that's of the stuff that holds even the slightest interest to me at all. Everything else proposed is snoozeville. But that's just the main networks.

One cable network that has announced a bunch of upcoming shows in development is Syfy. Alas, it's no longer the Sci-Fi channel, either in name or in spirit, really, but at least it has a couple SF shows, movies, and miniserieses on the slate. Full announcement is here, (and far too much is lame reality shows), but I'll list a couple potential highlights behind the cut.
( Read more... )

A little bit with potential, and actually a better odds than all the mainstream networks, although not all of this is necessarily due for next year.

We'll see how things shake out in a few weeks when everything gets officially announced.

Yes, I'm another year older. Well, technically, I'm exactly the same age as I was the day before, plus a couple days.

What did I do? Nothing particularly special. Got one phone call from my grandmother, and a handful of Facebook messages wishing me a happy birthday from people who know me in person, a few other online greetings from people who don't. My dad and stepmom took me and my brother and his girlfriend to lunch, a little greek place that's actually not far from where we live.

Had a gyro dinner, which didn't come with either tzatziki or pita (we asked for the tzatziki later and got it, it just was a bit weird that it didn't come standard), and rice and onion rings and a greek salad as sides, and it was all delicious. Also shared with others at the table a plate of "Feta Fries", which is fries with feta cheese and some kind of oil/vinegar/oregano/other stuff dressing over the fries, and it was remarkably good. Like REALLY good.

The place is close enough, and good enough, that when taste of the Danforth rolls around, instead of going to the Danforth, I'll go there and get a gyro sandwich (which was on the menu and includes the tzatziki and bread aspect I would assume), and maybe even more Feta-fries. Not just because it's probably good but it's also the only restaurant in walking distance aside from the Danforth itself that has pork gyros instead of just chicken gyros (I still don't get that. That's not a real gyros!). And maybe for the occasional gyro cravings as well..

Later had tacos (the mexican Gyros) for dinner, and a bit of cheesecake for dessert.

So, yeah, that was my birthday.

Oh, and thank you st_aurafina for the LJ gift!

In other news, I got my yearly haircut. No, no pictures. Well, perhaps eventually pictures. But not now.

The Legend of Korra's first two episodes have been released, but I haven't watched them yet... why? Because I'm engaging on a rewatch of all of the original Avatar: The Last Airbender. In the second book (Earth) now. I want to finish before I watch Korra... and it has the side benefit of meaning less of a wait before the THIRD episode, which comes out late April.

Long overdue for one of these. Let's start with books, then move on to TV and movies, and finally, snacking.


Finished: A Fire Upon The Deep by Vernor Vinge (reread)

Okay, I've read this more than a dozen times already, and many of them while I was in the habit of writing up whatever I read for my LJ, so what else is there to say? This time I was reading it with an eye to preparing myself for the long-overdue sequel that just got released. Either way, I still love it.

Finished: Under the Dome by Stephen King

Stephen King's latest (well, latest that I've read or had much interest in reading), is a high-concept idea, about a small town that is enclosed in an impenetrable (aside from allowing a little airflow, and light and sound) force field by forces unknown.

Overall, I enjoyed it. King keeps up a pretty good pace, and it's fun to explore the idea and some of the consequences of it with him. There are some big flaws, which I'll explore in the spoilery section (which will be a little more spoilery than most of the times I do this... while I won't be revealing big secrets I'll be speaking in general about how certain plotlines ended).

The big question with King is always the ending. He does some great stories, but has trouble ending them in a satisfying way. In this case, there are two versions of the problem - the human level stories and the big idea. But to discuss that, we need to start the spoilery part of the review where we'll also go into some of the other flaws.
( Read more... )

And one final non-spoilery complaint. If you are going to go to all the trouble of including a map at the start of your book... MAKE SURE IT MATCHES THE BOOK ITSELF. On several occasions, the town (and therefore the Dome) is described as being shaped a little like a sock. So, naturally, we get a map of a square/rectangular area with no indication on whether this is a subset of the dome, or the dome is a subset of it (the dome itself is unmarked). Only a few landmarks are pointed out, and often when I looked up a road that was mentioned in the book, so I could see where some events were happening in relation to others, no such road was on the map, so either it was under the dome but not on the area of the dome the map covered, or it was in the area of the map but just left off as unimportant. It was INCREDIBLY frustrating. I'd rather have had no map and just have to guess at everything instead of being teased with the prospect of having an idea of where everything takes place and not really having any clue.

Still, overall, I liked it and might read it again sometime, but probably not for a few years at least. Apparently there is already a miniseries adaptation in the works for one of the US cable networks, and I'll probably watch it, too, if nothing else there are a couple of cool visuals that would be fun to see actually visual.

Finished: The Clockwork Rocket by Greg Egan

You might remember me ranting on this book before... not the book itself, which had a novel premise that really intrigued me, but rather the price in a bookstore, compared to what was listed on the jacket. But my interest in the book outweighed my rage, especially when I found the online price was quite reasonable (almost half the bookstore price), so I broke down and ordered it.

The concept that interested me was exploring a world essentially based on a single change in the fundamental equations of geometry, a plus sign turned into a minus sign. We were promised a world where plants get energy by creating light, and where if you travelled fast enough time would stop on earth while generations passed for you. Those ideas still hold, but it got a little more complicated. I was expecting a more-or-less human society to explore these strange properties, but instead Egan created an alien race that was very different in many ways. I was disappointed at first, but eventually got into it.

The book's not perfect, though. In particular, I think it was written for somebody a lot smarter than me. I wanted the science to be a bit of a backdrop, invisibly informing the world and letting us look at it from the perspective of someone who took it for granted. Instead, we got some of that, certainly, but there was a lot of long and highly technical explanations, with charts, graphs, and diagrams, of how the science worked (some of the characters being scientists who are discovering these ideas themselves or teaching them to other scientists in class), things like how light looked to observers or geometry interacts with time. And although I struggled hard to grok them at first, eventually I started to glaze over and pretty well skip them without even trying to understand, and just trying to grasp what key point they were getting across.

On the whole I'm not disappointed I read it, but it wasn't what I wanted, either. A tiny bit more spoilery (nothing big but might ruin the joy of discovery of how the world and people work through the narrative) behind the cut about the good parts and bad

( Read more... )

This is listed as book one of a series, so the ultimate question is, would I read book 2? I think I would, but barely, and I wouldn't buy it new in hardcover, I'd be willing to wait for paperback or if I could find it used for a good price.

Finished: A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge (reread)

Another multiple reread while I was preparing for Children of the Sky. Deepness doesn't (at least, as far as I can determine so far) directly relate to Children, DitS and FutD connect by virtue of being in the same universe and having one character in common, but take place thousands (or hundreds of thousands) of years apart in a whole different part of the galaxy. But again, I've read it so often that there's not much to say. I will say this, although I probably wanted to see more of the world/area of the galaxy of A Fire Upon the Deep (although don't get me wrong, I'd love to see a sequel to Deepness in any number of possible plot threads and would buy the hell out of it), Deepness provided more surprises and emotional gut-punches that I still feel every time I read it.

Started: The Children of the Sky by Vernor Vinge
Started: Dark Light by Ken Macleod

Okay, that's it for book foo, time to move on to TV and movies...

TV, of the continuing shows, well, plenty are still holding my attention but not wowing me, and a few are trending towards losing all my interest (Supernatural, I'm looking at you. I spent half the last episode silently screaming BULL&%# because of the crap you pulled in the episode before), only The Walking Dead still gets me excited to see it every week (although it's dragging on compared to last year, I think they could have done more this number of episodes in... and seriously, can that extended search end already?).

Of the new shows?
Person of Interest: Lost my interest with the second episode. Well, really with the first, but I thought I'd give it one more just in case it suffered from pilot-itis.
Terra Nova: I'm watching, but I don't think I'd care if everybody in it except the grizzled camp-leader got eaten by tyrannosaurs. And it was only 2 episodes in before they pulled out an old SF plot that every show eventually does when it gets old, so I don't have high hopes for it to get better. If they do a 'time loop only one person remembers from loop to loop' (a la Window of Opportunity, Cause and Effect, and of course, Groundhog Day) episode this year, I'm out.
Once Upon a Time: For the life of me I can't imagine why they approved this, aside from 'the people from Lost did it'. Nor can I imagine it succeeding, but apparently it's already been picked up for a full season so apparently my imagination's lacking. It seems pretty cheesy overall, especially the fairy-tale-flashbacks, and where it isn't cheesy, it's often dull. I'm still watching, but right now it's in the 'watching a train wreck' spirit. But I'm trying to keep an open mind, maybe they'll win me over.
Grimm: It's... okay. I want to like it more than I do, given that the producers did Angel, but the lead's a little flat and the plots feel a little weak so far. The reformed Big Bad Wolf character is pretty much the only reason I watch. But I'll keep watching for a while longer.

I think those are the only new ones I tried. If I left one out, it's probably because I just didn't care.

So, let's move on to movies. Superhero movies, specifically. Recently I've watched:
X-Men: First Class: Quite enjoyed it. It wasn't perfect (Emma Frost in particular was TERRIBLE), and some of the choices of mutants used and lack of attention to continuity or character rankled (the minor details and inconsistencies don't matter so much, but I don't think it's out of place to want, say, Havok to actually be Scott's brother in an X-men movieverse and not some random mutant in the 60s) but overall, I thought it was a lot of fun, and certainly better than X-3, which should just be completely ignored.

Captain America: The First Avenger: Captain America is one of those characters I never really cared for. But I figured I'd give the movie a try. And, it was fun, for what it was... I certainly enjoyed it, but at the same time, if it's not the kind of movie where, if I died just before seeing it, I'd say "Damn, I didn't get to see Captain America!". Wait, that just describes my expectations... well, if I knew my reaction in advance, then I certainly wouldn't. Okay, how about this. If a magic genie came to me and offered me, not even one of my big wishes, but something of moderate value, in exchange for wiping all my memories of seeing the movie and a magic spell preventing me from ever watching it, I would probably take that deal. It was fun but kind of forgettable.

One minor problem was that the movie ended pretty much exactly where the only thing I find interesting about Cap begins - the 'man out of time, adjusting to a modern world' aspect. I would have loved that to be half the movie, but I know that's meant for the sequels and Avengers and probably would have objectively weakened the movie overall.

Green Lantern: Okay, I think the reviews I heard trashing it are probably a little over the top (except perhaps if it's by die-hard fans), but at the same time, there definitely was something missing, and at the same time they seemed to try to cram too much. I think the movie would be better served without a lot of the setup (we don't really need a lengthy explanation of who formed the Green Lanterns, what Parallax is, and so on at the beginning, we can learn it along with the character), a threat that isn't the "ultimate threat to all green lanterns ever" or taking place mostly off Earth.

Batman: Year One (animated): Well-produced, I think, but at the same time it felt like 'just another Batman origin story'. Possibly because other such stories borrowed heavily from it. I've never read the original book/series, so there was no joy of seeing it come to life. But all in all? If we had to do another Batman animated movie, I'd have skipped Year one and have squeed much more to see Batman: No Man's Land adapted. Or heck, even just Cataclysm - Batman vs an Earthquake. Really, practically anything that includes some of the characters like Spoiler, Cassandra Cain, Oracle, and to a degree, Huntress, rather than JUST the characters from the beginning of the lore over and over and over and over and over and over again.

And I think that's it. Again, if I saw any other movies, they obviously didn't make much of an impression.

And finally, snacking. Every year, President's Choice (the 'store brand' that somehow became a national brand) seems to introduce a couple new brands of chips. I found one of my favorites (greek, with feta and olive) this way, so unless they sound vile, I always want to give their new ones a try. This year they seem to have "Peppercorn Steak" and, in their slightly less fancy variety "Loads of" (where they claim to offer far more seasoning on their chips than average chips), "Jalapeno Poppers", basically Jalapeno and cheese.
The first is a little better than I expected. I probably won't put it into regular rotation, but I think I would eat it again. The second is a bit more complicated. It's certainly good, for jalapeno chips, I'll give them that... I'll probably eat them again from time to time (They're not as good as kettle-cooked jalapeno ones, but better than jalapeno-cheese Doritos). However, the problem is, they talked a really big game about how hot and spicy it is. In fact, they had FIVE chili-peppers in a row and the words "Scorching Hot" on the bag. And it just... wasn't. It was a two chili-pepper heat at best. They are making a mockery of the chili-pepper rating system for hotness. It undermines the whole system when you do that.. So because I was expecting an intense experience and just got a mild pleasurable one, I have to consider myself disappointed.

As usual, anything spoilery will be behind cuts, but mostly it'll be 'back of the book' type things, or very vague, unless otherwise warned.

Finished: Helm, by Steven Gould

I'm a big fan of Steven Gould's Jumper and its sequel Reflex, and, to a bit of a lesser extent, Wildside. So, I figured I'd pick up this book, give it
a try. In short... I liked it, but not nearly as much as his other work. ( Read more... )

Finished: Designated Targets, by John Birmingham
This is book two of the "Axis of Time" trilogy, about a multinational combat fleet from 2029 that was sent back in time to the middle of WWII, with no way back and their mere presence having changed history.

I loved the idea of the first book, but the book itself left me a little cold, mostly because many of the characters fell a little flat. This one was slightly better, although some of the similar problems existed, I felt a little more connected to what was going on, although my eyes still sort of glazed over a bit during some points, battles in particular. I did like ( Read more... )

Finished: Newton's Wake, by Ken Macleod

My first book by this author, but since he often deals with some of the ideas that I'm particularly into recently (Singularity type stuff, AIs, post-humans, etc), I figured it was about time I gave him a try, and first with this stand-alone novel before I delved into his serieses. In short: I did quite like it, although it's not without a few problems. The book's set in the far future, after a Singularity, but ( Read more... ) I don't think based on this, he's in danger of immediately becoming one of my favorite authors, but he's certainly someone I'll be reading more of.

Finished: The Witling, by Vernor Vinge

Early Vinge is a little hit and miss, and this is early Vinge. This one deals with some Earthlings who come across a planet of people with the ability to teleport (and a few other psychic abilities). The characters are a little flat, but Vinge really thought about how the teleportation worked and what the implications were for the society. For
example, speed and direction is conserved, so you can't teleport to the other side of the planet, because you'd come out flying at a speed that would be impossible to survive.

As I said it's a bit on the light end of characterization, but I did like it more than the last early-Vinge I read, Tatja Grimm's World. ( Read more... )

Not deep, not great literature, but good enough for a diversion.

Started:
The Jennifer Morgue, by Charles Stross
Cosmonaut Keep, by Ken Macleod

TV's been relatively quiet (I continue to watch Falling Skies but it continues to not wow me, just mildly entertain), but we do have a date for the rest of the Doctor Who season... August 27th... earlier than I expected (oh, and trailer, here, if you haven't seen it)- I figured it'd be early September at the earliest.

In comics I'm still alternatively eyerolling or headdesking at the news out of DC, confirming my decision to not buy them again. And, at this point... I know it's not the best thing for the industry, but I'm actively hoping it fails. A kind of "New Coke" failure (which, by the way, is one that failed and produced a lot of dissatisfaction, but led to spectacular success for Coke when they reversed themselves and brought back classic Coke that people didn't know they missed... by the end of that year they were outselling Pepsi, who they were losing to before the change to New Coke), hopefully, but one that sends a message about what a bad idea it was, not necessarily conceptually, but in execution.

Whatever, I won't be reading it until they make some serious reversals on a few decisions they've made.

Other recent comic news is the announcement of Brian K. Vaughn's new comic series, Saga. It's described as a SF epic but very few details about the plot exist, at least that I've found. So far I'm not super excited about it (for me, comics are for superheroes, for SF, I'd much prefer to read a novel), but I'll probably check it out at least, because he's one of the few writers for whom I'd be willing to go outside superheroes.

So, for me, the biggest squee-inducing thing to come out of Comicon?

Avatar: The Legend of Korra!!!! (I'm sorry, I know the official title is "The Last Airbender: The Legend of Korra", but that's a stupid title caused by James Cameron, and I will not use it). They released the official trailer, and you can watch it here. Looks awesome to me. If you want some info on some of the characters and setup (some spoilers, I guess), including character designs, you can look here.

Been a bit lax in my Book Foos... so, we'll start with them, but they'll probably be a bit short...

Finished: The Dark Tower (Dark Tower Book VII), by Stephen King (reread)
Started: The Bachman Books, by Stephen King (reread) (Technically Four Novels, at the moment I'm on the first, Rage)

So, the Dark Tower. Entertaining story (except for the stupid overreliance on fate as a plot mechanic that I've complained about in previous ones.

Really falls apart on the ending. Spoilers. Fairly major ones. Don't say you weren't warned.
( Read more... )

Anyway.

Finished: Tesseracts 7, (short story collection)

Another Tesseracts. This one was a little interesting, because someone had written notes on most stories
in pencil. From what I could piece together, someone, probably for a school project or something, was trying to nail down specifically Canada as portrayed in SF, so each story had a note about its setting (most of them "Setting impossible to ascertain", and a couple other notes. And, at the very beginning, "Incompetently edited, some good stories".

I'm not sure I'd go with "incompetently edited", but there certainly were a lot of typos and grammar/punctuation errors(which the mysterious pencil writer often corrected... although in at least one case I felt they were being too harsh with poetical language). Some stories were okay, most were a bit blah. Can't really remember any standouts, aside from the ones by authors I already know (there was also another by my old "Apocalyptic SF" professor).

Started and Finished: Jumper: Griffin's Story, by Stephen Gould

Jumper, the book, is one of my all-time favorite escapist books, about a teen who discovers he can teleport.
It was made into a movie. A movie I did not like at all. This book is based on one of the characters from the movie, Griffin, and is set in the movieverse. However, it is written by the guy who wrote the novel. So, I figured I'd give it a chance, and figure, if nothing else, I might get a decent enjoyable story about another teleporter.

And that's more or less what this is. A story of a kid who teleports and is hunted by a mysterious group trying to kill him because of it. In many ways it reads almost like a "what if", if Davy (The protagonist in Jumper) was hunted more viciously, and in fact, sometimes I felt like I was reading Davy, except with an English accent. There are a lot of similar character-type beats.

It does end abruptly, because it has to lead into the movie, so pretty much it just gets the character to the point in the story where the movie begins, and feels more like it just stops than that it concluded. But I had a moderate amount of fun reading it. Not as much as Jumper (or even the sequel, Reflex), but not enough to regret buying it (even if I did wait until it was down to $2 in the "last copies" bin). Probably not worth reading unless you really liked the movie, or really liked the book, though.



Started and Finished: Tesseracts 8, (short story collection)
Started: Wireless, by Charles Stross (short story collection)

Tesseracts 8... I'd almost call this one incompetently edited. Not because of typos, but because it felt very unbalanced. For example, at one point in the book, there were like 5 or 6 stories in a row with "Sea" or "Lake" or similar large bodies of water in the title, and there were more throughout the book (not to mention how many deal with large bodies of water without having it in the title). It didn't seem to be explicitly mentioned as a theme anywhere in the forewords or afterwords.

However, I can't call it incompetently edited, because there WERE some pretty good stories in this one (although, oddly enough, virtually NONE of the ones that had the ocean titles or themes were among the ones I liked). Standouts were "Home Again, Home Again," by Cory Doctorow (which I liked a lot except for the end), "The Dragon of Pripyat" by Karl Schroeder, and "The Dark Hour" by A.M. Dellamonica.



And now we're up to date, I believe. Moving on... let's talk about Television.

Of shows currently on (not counting cartoons, or fairly stand-alone or procedural shows like House or Criminal Minds and such that I watch for something to watch and usually enjoy, but aren't the type I especially get invested in), I'm still watching: No Ordinary Family, V, Fringe, Supernatural.

Of that list, shows I still care about: ... Fringe, I guess.

The others just fall fall short of the marks, or are actively annoying me. V is the worst of the bunch. Seriously, EVERYBODY's an idiot on that show. (Spoilers) ( Read more... )

Thank goodness Stargate Universe kicks off the rest of its second (and sadly final) season this week). Might also give Game of Thrones a chance when it starts in April. Never read the books.

I kind of glossed over cartoons, but let's go back to them and deal with them directly. Young Justice is continuing and... I'm not loving it. I hoped I would. But I'm just not. I think my biggest issue is that Miss Martian seems to be there solely to moon over Superboy, be mooned over by the Flash, and occasionally either screw up or be useful, depending on the episode (and seriously, one time she 'screwed up' and everybody patronized her about "oh, she's still new", when they all screwed up JUST AS MUCH by following her rather logical deduction, and there was no comeuppance. I sometimes think they're going to go all the way and just have someone say, "well, she is just a girl."). Artemis likewise, the moment she joined, entered the "let's start being romantic leads!" game. I'm not opposed to a little romance in cartoons, but it seriously feels like that's ALL they're there for.

Earth's Mightiest Heroes was more enjoyable but it seems to be off for a bit.

I also watched All Star Superman. And it seems to match with my opinion of Morrison in general: He can do cool epic story ideas. And he can do tiny moments and details that really sell you on the characters living in a realistic world. But he can't do either of them consistently, and almost never both at once. In this case, it's not all his fault since it's an adaptation, and they had to leave several things out, but basically, I though the general idea and progress of the story, if you broke it down to a three-or-four line summary, was good, but too many of the details I didn't really care for. ( Read more... ). Anyway, I guess it was an enjoyable movie, but it's always depressing when I can SO easily see how it could be lots MORE enjoyable (to me, at least).

In the "commercials that are ticking me off" dept, there's a scratch-and-win lottery commercial. Basically, this woman is bungee jumping and shouts "I'd rather be playing Instant Keno!". Then, it cuts to her friend, who is getting suited up for her jump, and is scratching a card, and says, "That's great, but I'd rather be playing Instant Keno too."

NO. THAT DOES NOT WORK. You can say, "That's great. AND I'd rather be playing instant Keno too." Or you can look at the prospect of bungee jumping and say "Yeah, I'd rather be playing instant keno too." But the way you say it is just aggravating to some irrational part of me. It's like somebody saying, "Hey, I'm in the mood for tacos for dinner." and you replying, "That's great, but I'm in the mood for tacos for dinner!" The "That's great, but..." is a NEGATION of what they said. You don't say "That's great, but..." and then go on to AGREE.

Less annoying, but more amusing, is a Honey Nut Cheerio's Commercials with a song in the background with the following line in its chorus: "A Taste of Honey's Worse Than None At All".

...

You really want that to be on your commercial for Honey Nut Cheerios? If you wanted to use it at all, shouldn't it be in your commercial for REGULAR Cheerios?


Anyway, is there anything else going on in my life?

Not really. In a few weeks, my birthday, but that's nothing to celebrate. There is a chance I might pay off all my remaining student loans in one lump sum, rather than waiting a few more years and paying interest. It's actually doable, and while it's not a major improvement in my life, would at least feel good (and, after that initial hit to my finances, which I can weather easily at this point), would mean basically a hundred extra a month income (or, rather, that much less deducted automatically). The major concern is that they don't let you do it online, so I'll have to call somebody or possibly visit somewhere in person, and, well, I'm not good on the phone or in person, I have to work up some nerve for it.

It's been a while since I've done one of these, but, well, here's another.

So, the 80s have been strip-mined for material for a while. Remakes, reboots, reinterpretations. The latest (as I start this), is the release of the first look at the new Thundercats cartoon.

It doesn't look too bad, actually, based purely on look. Anime-esque, of course, which is not my favorite style, but I can live with it. But this is not about that.

The Thundercats peeks are what got me thinking along the "What I'd Do With..." lines. What would I do, if I could take an abandoned property from the 80s and remake it for the modern age.

The hard part would be choosing one that's not already been done, but surprisingly, I do have a choice, one that would have been in my top 3 even if I didn't limit myself in that way.

Dungeons and Dragons.


As usual, this is partly planned, partly extemporaneous thoughts, so sometimes I'll state an idea and then decide against it later, or come up with something on the fly and then get really excited about it. I should also not that I specifically decided NOT to try to rewatch the series in preparation for writing this. Last time I rewatched this it didn't live up to how awesome it was in my memories (production values and animations and stuff mainly), and I didn't want to suffer that again. Also, it would take a lot more time than I was willing to invest. So, although I did research, it was mostly reading up on fan sites, wikipedia entries, and such. Consequently, some of what I say might not be strictly speaking, correct. If I was doing it for real, I'd probably immerse myself much more in the original series, but for the purposes of this, my faulty memories and internet research are good enough.


As I see it, we have three basic approaches, and I'll deal with each in its own section:

1) The Reboot

This one, we do basically what Thundercats looks to be doing... taking the general premise and characters, but updating it and making a few changes.

So, the changes: ( Read more... )

So, that's option one. Option two is...

2) Dungeons & Dragons: The Next Generation
(maybe we could call it Advanced Dungeons & Dragons!)

This one's pretty self-explanatory. The original series all happened, and at some point, they came home, grew up, and (some of them, at least), had kids. When their kids are teenagers, they find a portal to the Realm, and begin having their own adventures. Presumably we'd have Hank and Sheila's kids, maybe one kid of Diana and Eric, and a couple who are just unrelated. I imagine Hank and Sheila's kids being the nucleus of the show, which allows us to bring their parents in later.

So, the details:( Read more... )

You know, I'm actually loving this setup. If I wasn't creating it, I'd totally watch it. Well, I suppose that's not saying much because if I didn't like it I'd hardly be doing it, but, still. Obviously the main characters need to be fleshed out more, but in terms of general concept, I like. Even if we did have Rusty the Team Pet.

But, since many things come in threes, there's still a third option to if I had a chance to make a modern Dungeons and Dragons cartoon. This one is more pet-projectish. It's:

3) The Throw-it-all-out-but-the-title-and-a-concept-or-two
And probably won't even keep the title.

But let's strip down the Dungeons & Dragons (cartoon) concept to it's most basic level, IMHO: It's about a bunch of modern teens travelling through a fantasy universe.

If that and that alone was the directive for creating a show, I wouldn't reboot Dungeons and Dragons, or make a sequel (well, maybe I would, I'd probably have trouble deciding, honestly... but let's say for whatever reason the other options are off the table). I would look to my all-time favorite campaign setting, one built around magic portals and the idea that somebody from ANYWHERE could wind up there.

That's Planescape. For those who don't know, it was an AD&D 2nd edition campaign setting, based around Planar Travel. ( Read more... )

Anyway, it would focus on a group of kids on Earth who open up one of the only portals to Sigil. I'm thinking we have some of the characters have a family history... their parents came from the outer planes and settled on Earth because it was one of the safest places, there are only a handful of portals there, and the keys are very rare. More details behind the cut.
( Read more... )

So, there it is. 3 Dungeons & Dragons style shows for the modern age. Which would I choose, given the choice? I think.... it's between the Next Generation, and the Planescape-style one, because I could make it more mine. I'd probably choose Next Generation to WATCH, and Planescape if I was going to create one.

But I wouldn't turn up my nose at watching or producing any of the three options. So, if you run a network and happen to have the license to produce such a show... please, hire me and give me a show-runner position! Or steal my ideas and give me something good to watch.

And if you don't, just comment, if you feel so inclined.

(As usual, the WIDW tag contains all the prior installments of What I'd Do With...).

Let's start with the books.

Finished: Ender in Exile, by Orson Scott Card

This story deals with Ender on his trip away from Earth and his first couple colony worlds. And what can I say about it? It's okay, but nowhere near the best of the Ender books. (slightly more spoilers behind the cut) ( Read more... ) Worth reading for Ender completists, probably, but for casual fans (or non fans), it's not really that necessary.

Started and Finished: Disapora, by Greg Egan
Started: Blindsight, by Peter Watts (reread)

Peter Watts finally won a Hugo last weekend, for his story The Island. I started rereading it during Fan Expo, while I was waiting in line, and will want to finish it.

Anyway, Diaspora. It's sort of a post-singularity fiction, dealing with humanity after some segment of it decided to exist only as software, and the efforts to explore the universe/ensure their immortality. There are some cool concepts there, and I enjoyed reading it, but it's not one of my favorites, even in the Singularity-fiction-type genre. While I like science, I think this one focused a bit too much on science at the expense of enjoyable plot. Not bad, though.

Finished: Tatja Grimm's World, by Vernor Vinge
Started: The Dreaming Void, by Peter Hamilton

Another disappointing one. I love Vernor Vinge, but, well, Tatja Grimm's World is one of his earliest novels, and it shows. It focuses on a super genius in a rather primitive, metal-poor world and her allies, who are occasionally her enemies, and really more the viewpoint characters. But most of the characters fall a little flat, and the plot jumps around too much between not-all-that-interesting sub-settings. I only began to be engaged towards the end of the book.

-

What about comics? Well, I'm still down to just New Mutants, and nothing I've seen lately coming up is convincing me to change my mind. I might give "Generation Hope" a chance, but I don't really like their new model of mutant (gaining their powers older, needing to be 'activated'), or even the characters themselves so far, as shown by the first glimpses we've seen of them in Uncanny X-Men.

So, enough about what I've read... what about watched?

Not much, it being summer. Most everything I'm interested in has been in reruns, and nothing new's started. But there are a couple of things.

Kick-Ass, the Movie: Was actually pretty enjoyable. I gave up on the comic after two or three issues, but I liked the movie. (Minor spoilers for both behind the cut)( Read more... )

I also dipped into a new cartoon, Generator Rex, by the same team that made Ben 10. It involves the world after an 'Event' spread nanites all over the place. Sometimes the nanites go crazy and turn people into monsters. The main character, Rex, controls his nanites and can both deactivate monsters by touching them, and create various machines out of his body.

It's mildly enjoyable. It started a little flat, and some of the characters are a little on the silly side (Six, badass secret agent who uses swords for some reason... you know, just running up and doing impossibly acrobatic stunts to slice at a monster with a sword), but it's watchable.

My only real complaints are 1) that I wish they respected science a little more. I know, I know, it's a cartoon, but... ( Read more... ). 2) Sort of touches like one. Generator Rex reminds me a LITTLE of another nanite-themed property that I always thought would make a kickass cartoon, and it would probably now never be possible. Not like it ever was, but still, every time I watch the show I think, "Man, I wish I was watching a Cybergeneration show.". Cybergeneration was a sequel to the RPG Cyberpunk 2020, sort of trying to combined Cyberpunk and teen-mutants. ( Read more... ). I would so LOVE to see a cartoon along these lines, with ( Read more... ) Anyway, I almost want Rex to, in future episodes, assemble a team of other people who have powers, like the Pack, but good, just because those people would seem to be more interesting than the monkey, the secret agent, the best friend, and the Doctor (who are all okay, but, I don't know, none really stand out yet).

Coming up in TV, I'll probably give No Ordinary Family a chance, maybe the first few episodes of The Event, just to see what the titular Event is, Walking Dead of course, but that's not till Halloween and... were there other new SF shows coming? If so, they haven't made much of an impression. Oh, the Cape, I guess, I'll give that a shot, but only because of Summer Glau.

In video games, still playing with zombies. What else?