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Books & Movies for July & August, 2012
Sep. 4th, 2012 12:04 amBooks:
8/28 Charles Stross: The Apocalypse Codex
8/22 The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul
8/7 Douglas Adams: Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency
7/30 Suzanne Collins: Hunger Game
7/26 Neal Stephenson: Reamde
7/13 Viz, The Future Is Japanese
7/6 Rob Reid: Year Zero
Movies:
8/10 Men In Black 3
7/24 Ice Age: Continental Drift
7/23 Batman: The Darknight Rises
7/18 Moonlight Kingdom
7/6 Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter
Apocalypse Codex: I have been eagerly awaiting this book, a dear friend turned me on to Charles Stross' Laundry series and I immediately snagged all of the books and had to chomp at the bit for six months waiting for his new one. Well, finally got it and devoured it. The Laundry is a secret British intelligence organization devoted to battling Cthulhu as the stars are slowly coming right. It is revealed that there is one immutable rule in The Laundry: never spy on Number 10. So what happens when you think Number 10 is being subverted by agents of The Old Ones?
Absolutely loved it.
Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency and The Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul. Though I like to re-read the Hitchhikers series occasionally, it's been a long time since I re-read the two Dirk Gently books. And sadly, I was disappointed. The Dr. Who aspect of the first book was pretty cool, but overall, the story just didn't do much for me. The second book more prominently features Dirk, and I really don't like him. The character, for me, just isn't that likable, and he doesn't fall in to the likable rogue role like Han Solo or Rick in Casablanca. I found it kind of sad as I thought they were rather awesome when I read them when they came out, now they're just sort of *meh*.
The Hunger Game. Loved it! I've been wanting to read it, and when we were in Phoenix in late July getting a new poodle(!), I found a used copy. Absolutely devoured it. I was surprised that, to my memory, the movie was surprisingly faithful to the book. I particularly liked that the entire book was written from a first-person perspective, I'll be picking up the other two books and I'm eager to see if she continues the first-person writing.
Reamde. Wow. Stephenson is a great author, and he is really wordy! I sometimes balk at thousand-page books, but he's definitely worth it. I can't say that I've read a lot by him, only Snow Crash and Cryptonomicron come to mind, but I definitely like his work. The plot is really complex and IMHO, that complexity is worthy of early Tom Clancy (I stopped reading him after Rainbow Six, IIRC). The story starts with an MMO game through which a randomware virus is spread. It only affects people who play the game who use Outlook, but if it hits you, it encrypts your entire hard drive and sends you a message to drop a huge amount of in-game gold at some specific coordinates for the key. The game allows real-world purchase of in-game gold, and the ransom is only some $15 or so, but eventually you have an amazing cast of characters from the Russian Mafia to Chinese Hackers to international terrorism and British spies. Excellent plot, it's possible that Stephenson is going to get added to my "buy new releases on sight" list.
The Future Is Japanese is a collection of short scifi stories published by Viz Comics, the stories are either written by Japanese authors or other authors but set in Japan or Japanese settings. As with lots of short story collections, it's a mixed lot of quality, but overall it's a very good collection. Some of the stories are decidedly Japanese in feeling, i.e. somewhat abrupt endings or strong honor sacrifices. I quite enjoyed it, even though I got it in May and let it get set aside for other books as my sometimes surprisingly short attention span got in the way. Apparently this is going to be a series, so I'm looking forward to seeing what the future releases bring.
Year Zero. I already reviewed this one, I got my copy as a result of entering and winning a drawing the author ran to distribute pre-release copies so he could get some reviews out quick. I quite liked it, it had lots of good stuff in it.
Men In Black 3. I barely caught this one in a discount theater. It was lots of fun, they did a very good job of lip-syncing Tommy Lee Jones on top of Josh Brolin's face. I thought it was a good MIB story, makes me sad that I don't have the franchise on DVD, but I'm sure they'll do a collector set late this year or some time next.
Ice Age: Continental Drift. Fluff. Fun if you're a kid or you're really in to the series, but mostly unremarkable as animated movies go. Cute twist with the pirates and complete with a pirate song.
Batman: The Darknight Rises. Excellent conclusion to the series, and actually makes the trilogy feel like a series. I want to see it again as we missed the first five minutes, I'm sure the DVD will be out for Christmas.
Moonlight Kingdom. Going in to it, I didn't know it was by Wes Anderson, the man behind The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissu, which I also loved. Which means I loved this one. I don't normally go to coming of age movies, but the trailer really struck me that this was going to be a very fun movie, and it did not disappoint. Not as good as Life Aquatic, IMO, but still fun with some cute kid adolescent awkwardness.
Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter. I simply had to see this. It was fun. Not a great movie, but sufficiently entertaining as to be worth the price of admission. Again, sadly, we missed the first couple of minutes, but I don't think it seriously detracted from the film.
8/28 Charles Stross: The Apocalypse Codex
8/22 The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul
8/7 Douglas Adams: Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency
7/30 Suzanne Collins: Hunger Game
7/26 Neal Stephenson: Reamde
7/13 Viz, The Future Is Japanese
7/6 Rob Reid: Year Zero
Movies:
8/10 Men In Black 3
7/24 Ice Age: Continental Drift
7/23 Batman: The Darknight Rises
7/18 Moonlight Kingdom
7/6 Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter
Apocalypse Codex: I have been eagerly awaiting this book, a dear friend turned me on to Charles Stross' Laundry series and I immediately snagged all of the books and had to chomp at the bit for six months waiting for his new one. Well, finally got it and devoured it. The Laundry is a secret British intelligence organization devoted to battling Cthulhu as the stars are slowly coming right. It is revealed that there is one immutable rule in The Laundry: never spy on Number 10. So what happens when you think Number 10 is being subverted by agents of The Old Ones?
Absolutely loved it.
Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency and The Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul. Though I like to re-read the Hitchhikers series occasionally, it's been a long time since I re-read the two Dirk Gently books. And sadly, I was disappointed. The Dr. Who aspect of the first book was pretty cool, but overall, the story just didn't do much for me. The second book more prominently features Dirk, and I really don't like him. The character, for me, just isn't that likable, and he doesn't fall in to the likable rogue role like Han Solo or Rick in Casablanca. I found it kind of sad as I thought they were rather awesome when I read them when they came out, now they're just sort of *meh*.
The Hunger Game. Loved it! I've been wanting to read it, and when we were in Phoenix in late July getting a new poodle(!), I found a used copy. Absolutely devoured it. I was surprised that, to my memory, the movie was surprisingly faithful to the book. I particularly liked that the entire book was written from a first-person perspective, I'll be picking up the other two books and I'm eager to see if she continues the first-person writing.
Reamde. Wow. Stephenson is a great author, and he is really wordy! I sometimes balk at thousand-page books, but he's definitely worth it. I can't say that I've read a lot by him, only Snow Crash and Cryptonomicron come to mind, but I definitely like his work. The plot is really complex and IMHO, that complexity is worthy of early Tom Clancy (I stopped reading him after Rainbow Six, IIRC). The story starts with an MMO game through which a randomware virus is spread. It only affects people who play the game who use Outlook, but if it hits you, it encrypts your entire hard drive and sends you a message to drop a huge amount of in-game gold at some specific coordinates for the key. The game allows real-world purchase of in-game gold, and the ransom is only some $15 or so, but eventually you have an amazing cast of characters from the Russian Mafia to Chinese Hackers to international terrorism and British spies. Excellent plot, it's possible that Stephenson is going to get added to my "buy new releases on sight" list.
The Future Is Japanese is a collection of short scifi stories published by Viz Comics, the stories are either written by Japanese authors or other authors but set in Japan or Japanese settings. As with lots of short story collections, it's a mixed lot of quality, but overall it's a very good collection. Some of the stories are decidedly Japanese in feeling, i.e. somewhat abrupt endings or strong honor sacrifices. I quite enjoyed it, even though I got it in May and let it get set aside for other books as my sometimes surprisingly short attention span got in the way. Apparently this is going to be a series, so I'm looking forward to seeing what the future releases bring.
Year Zero. I already reviewed this one, I got my copy as a result of entering and winning a drawing the author ran to distribute pre-release copies so he could get some reviews out quick. I quite liked it, it had lots of good stuff in it.
Men In Black 3. I barely caught this one in a discount theater. It was lots of fun, they did a very good job of lip-syncing Tommy Lee Jones on top of Josh Brolin's face. I thought it was a good MIB story, makes me sad that I don't have the franchise on DVD, but I'm sure they'll do a collector set late this year or some time next.
Ice Age: Continental Drift. Fluff. Fun if you're a kid or you're really in to the series, but mostly unremarkable as animated movies go. Cute twist with the pirates and complete with a pirate song.
Batman: The Darknight Rises. Excellent conclusion to the series, and actually makes the trilogy feel like a series. I want to see it again as we missed the first five minutes, I'm sure the DVD will be out for Christmas.
Moonlight Kingdom. Going in to it, I didn't know it was by Wes Anderson, the man behind The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissu, which I also loved. Which means I loved this one. I don't normally go to coming of age movies, but the trailer really struck me that this was going to be a very fun movie, and it did not disappoint. Not as good as Life Aquatic, IMO, but still fun with some cute kid adolescent awkwardness.
Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter. I simply had to see this. It was fun. Not a great movie, but sufficiently entertaining as to be worth the price of admission. Again, sadly, we missed the first couple of minutes, but I don't think it seriously detracted from the film.
