I was surprisingly disappointed by Leviathan Wakes, which is the first of a series of books now headed to tv on the US SyFy channel as “The Expanse”. They characterize the show as a Game of Thrones set in space, so that gave me all kinds of expectations of an array of interesting characters and…
Category: Books
Unholy Night by Seth Grahame-Smith – Book Review
Featured image is Diamond Star by Brian Yi (please click the link to see the full image — it’s nice.) Seth Grahame-Smith is the author who brought zombies to Pride and Prejudice, and turned America’s “great emancipator”, Abraham Lincoln, into a vampire hunter. He’s been tipping some of the sacred cows of literature and history for…
Capsule Book Review Catchup
Now that I am listening to audiobooks on my commute to and from work, I’m catching up on so many books that I’ve got a backlog of books to write about on my blog. Of course, this is all thanks to Audible.com (Free credits for the plug, please!) which has been a great way for…
The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman – Book Review
I enjoy it when authors perform on the audiobooks themselves. The interpretation of the voices and the inflections of any dialogue are true to their original vision and conveys the intended feelings. That’s especially helpful in the case of Neil Gaiman’s novels because they are full of surreal imagery and magic realism. This story is…
The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson – Book Review
Featured image is The Mistborn by Hunter Bonyun The Final Empire is the first of the Mistborn trilogy, whose premise is an intriguing one for anyone who has enjoyed fantasy fiction: What if the “dark lord” had won? Imagine if Voldemort, Sauron, or Darth Vader had not been defeated. What would have become of the…
Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins – Book Review
Featured image is The Mockingjay and the Rebels by Samuel Teixeira. With the third movie in the Hunger Games series not far away, you just know I’ve got to prep myself by catching up on the books. Despite the dramatic cliffhanger at the end of Catching Fire, I was able to hold off reading the…
Movie #9: Divergent
Riding on the dystopian, young-adult coattails of The Hunger Games, Divergent was another series to make it to the ranks of blockbuster movie adaptation. Even before reading the book, I was skeptical of the premise. In a future-Chicago, society has split everyone into factions based on individual ideals (e.g. the selfless belong to the Abnegation…
Super-fiction: Brilliance, Amped, Ex-Heroes, and Steelheart – Book Reviews
In case you have not noticed, superhumans are all the rage. Whether it’s being bitten by a spider, receiving a shiny green ring, being struck by some special lightning or meteor, or just by being born this way, people on screen are getting supernatural powers in droves. Movies like Amazing Spider-man and X-Men are obvious…
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke – Book Review
I consider it a miracle in itself that I finished reading Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke. After all, the book is almost 800 pages long (and since I listened to the audiobook, it was also over 30 hours long)! While it deals with magic and is set in an England where magic…
