Posts tagged Book Reviews
I suck at first-person shooters. There, I said it.
That being the case, I have only a passing knowledge of the Halo universe. Its impact on the gaming industry is obvious, and my two younger brothers are avid fans of the series—but my knowledge pretty much ends there.
Perhaps it was that more than anything that made me jump at the opportunity to review Halo: The Art of Building Worlds. I’ve come to grips with the fact that I’ll never be able to compete with my brothers (or anyone more talented than your average chimpanzee), but why not take a look at what Halo has to offer behind the scenes?
Sherlock Holmes is everywhere lately. There’s the Guy Ritchie film, BBC’s Sherlock (which is excellent, by the way)—it’s even infiltrated my comics circle in the form of Daniel Corey’s Moriarty.
In short, my interest has been piqued. Mystery may not be my normal genre, but Holmes is a classic all to himself, and as a result I’ve been reading Doyle’s classic stories on my iPad—and quite enjoying them.
It was at this point that I rather fortuitously discovered Guy Adams’The Breath of God, in which Watson and Holmes must seek the aid of Aleister Crowley (among others)—which caused a bit of ambivalence for me.
On the one hand, mashups sometimes work rather well; I love the idea of Holmes and Watson interacting with the real-life Crowley and other literary characters such as John Silence and Thomas Carnacki.
A few weeks ago I received what I thought was Kevin J. Anderson’s latest book, Captain Nemo—only to find that it’s actually just the latest edition (originally published in 2002—a new edition from Titan Books is in stores now). I do try to keep up with these things, but the guy’s written over 100 novels—I’m not beating myself up too much.
So just in case YOU missed out, here’s a look at Captain Nemo - The Fantastic Adventures of a Dark Genius.
In reading Captain Nemo, I realized there’s a gaping hole in my credibility as a Sci-Fi aficionado. I’ve read Bradbury, Heinlen, Huxley—but to my shame, never Verne.
But I do have some knowledge of Verne, especially in regards to Captain Nemo; just recently I’ve been trying to convince my wife to watch Disney’s 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, which I haven’t seen in years.
So while I might be Verne-deficient, I’m not totally unaware.
The conceit of Captain Nemo is that it imagines Nemo as a childhood friend of Jules Verne, and many of Verne’s novels are thus inspired by Nemo’s adventures. I won’t tout Kevin J. Anderson as a replacement for Verne (I’d lay odds he’d scoff at the notion), but it does function as a nice sampler of Verne’s work.
In discovering that Terry Goodkind was writing another Sword of Truth novel—excuse me, anotherRichard & Kahlan novel—I had some mixed feelings. Like many people, I really enjoyed the first few books, but by the sixth or seventh book I’d checked out (although I still read a couple past that).
When Goodkind began the series, it almost seemed he wasn’t sure he’d be greenlit for a sequel. As a result, the first five novels continued to up the ante for the increasingly poweful Seeker of Truth. But with Faith of the Fallen, the novels began to bridge togther into a long, drawn-out saga.
The increased focus on politics and lack of a satisfactory conclusion drove me away from Goodkind’s series; eventually, I stopped reading altogether.
But with the main story concluded in Confessor, I rolled the dice on The Omen Machine being a fresh start for Goodkind’s universe—a return to the episodic adventures of yesteryear.
In the year 2044, the world is a pretty grim place. The oil’s run out, the planet’s a mess—you know the drill.
But then there’s OASIS: a virtual reality MMO that’s grown into something more akin to Second Life. Sure, you can work or go to school there—but in your off-hours you can also fly an X-wing through space, find and complete countless quests, or shake your moneymaker in a zero-G dance club.
That’s the state of affairs in Ernest Cline’s debut novel Ready Player One, which is a far cry from your typical dystopic novel. Instead, Cline follows the old adage: Write what you know!
And what Cline knows is gaming and 80’s pop culture.
Warning: The Last Four Things is the second book in a series. Spoilers for The Left Hand of God ahead.
Last June I reviewed The Left Hand of God, the first installment in Paul Hoffman’s trilogy. It had its flaws, but I really enjoyed the dark view of the world and the atypical protagonist, Thomas Cale.
Many reviewers found Cale to be unlikeable, but I found him fascinating; raised in an abusive monastery, Cale is trained for one thing: to be the perfect killer.
No kid is going to come out of that and feel “likable,” yet Cale manages to feel compassion for a young girl on the verge of a slow and painful death. Her rescue catapults him and several compatriots on a grand adventure that was, I felt, refreshingly original.
Since then, I’ve been anxiously anticipating the trilogy’s second installment—even going so far as to recommend the first book as the beginning of a good series—but much to my chagrin, Last Four Things simply doesn’t hold up. I found Left Hand to be darkly compelling despite its flaws, but The Last Four Things totally derails the sense of adventure of its predecessor.
If you’re thinking the name Robopocalypse says it all, you’re not wrong—but that doesn’t stop it being a fun romp through the not-so-distant future.
You may have already heard of Robopocalyse—it’s gotten some press over the film rights being snatched up by DreamWorks before the novel was even finished (Steven Spielberg is already signed on to direct). It’s odd, but far be it from me to question Mr. Spielberg.
At first, the media buzz ove this title made me chuckle. I mean… Machines Take Over has been done. A Lot.
But where Robopocalypse shines is its unique take on the concept. Rather than focus on a central protagonist to save us from ourselves—e.g., The Terminator or Neo—Wilson pits humanity as a whole against the artificially intelligent Archos by creating a body of characters across all borders and walks of life.
I have to give Steven Lisberger, Syd Mead, Moebius and the other designers of Tron immense credit. In 1982, before most people had desktops, they imagined a world where people would go live in alternate realities as avatars, and today we find ourselves in a world of Second Life and MMOG’s. The world they imagined—it has happened.”
—Sean Bailey, Producer
It’s been 28 years since the original Tron—the longest awaited sequel in movie history. The filmmakers behind Tron: Legacy have taken advantage of its unique time span to go a little meta on us.
In 1982, Steven Lisberger and his team used mostly practical methods to simulate a digital world for our hero, Kevin Flynn, to explore.
But in the ensuing decades, both real-world computer technology and the world of Tron (The Grid) have evolved exponentially, allowing directorial newcomer Joseph Kosinski and the Tron: Legacy team to go the other way, using CGI to give the digital world a more real and visceral look.
If you’re a Sci-Fi/Fantasy geek like me, you’ve probably seen Brent Weeks around at Ye Olde Bookstore. Orbit Publishing did something interesting with Week’s debut series, the Night Angel Trilogy, by releasing all three in consecutive months. Fantasy fans are used to long waits between books, so for me, that was a pretty cool move.
I feel obligated to admit I haven’t read the Night Angel trilogy—the first book, but it’s still in my stack of “to-be-read,” which is quite large—but when I saw his new Lightbringer Series had been upgraded to a hardcover release, I figured there had to be something to this Brent Weeks guy.
The publisher’s blurb really grabbed me. Rather than the standard boy or girl starting out on a quest, The Black Prism is about Gavin Guile—the most powerful man in the world. A lot of fantasy ends up that way, but I can’t recall the protagonist like that at the beginning. So…what’s the deal?
Well, there’s a catch or two. For one, Gavin knows he only has a few years to live, and he has a list of things he needs to accomplish before he meets his end.
But the most interesting thing about Gavin Guile is while he’s the most powerful man in the world, he’s also trapped by that power—and by the lies he’s told to achieve it. I asked myself, what would a man in that position do in order to accomplish his goals?
I don’t know who writes the blurbs, but give that man (or woman) props—I picked up the book.
