Water, Metal, and Religion

I finished Startide Rising by David Brin. This is the third book I’ve read from Brin and the second in the Uplift Series. After reading the first one, this book was a little more like the normal SF books I’m used to. Read my initial review for some background on this universe and its history.

This book follows the first spaceship crewed by advanced dolphins. Of course there are also some neo-chimps and humans on board as well. This historic test mission has hit a snag though. One thing that Humans have started doing is testing the veracity of the Galactic Library. They have been doing random spot checks and have found it lacking in accuracy of detail. That simple mapping mission led the crew of the Streaker to an enormous find. They found a derelict fleet of ships the size of moons that appeared to be billions of years old and the mummified body of one of the aliens. By eavesdropping on a transmission to Earth, Galactic religious zealots have come to the conclusion that this is the fabled return of The Progenitors. These super powerful races have now chased Streaker to the water covered world of Kithrup. Now Streaker’s crew has to survive Galactics, an ocean poisoned with heavy metals, dissention among the crew, and a secret the planet itself holds.

This was pretty sweet. The book revs up pretty good so that about halfway through you don’t want to put it down. The intrigues, plots, and plans are well executed and smart. I can easily see why so many people call this an excellent series. I can’t wait to start the next one.

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Bright Shines the Shadow

Well Saturday I went to see “The Dark Knight.” I can’t wait to say it. WOW! That’s all I can say. That is the best movie I’ve seen in years. Seriously, I’m not sure when I last saw a movie that good in the theater. When you add in that it is a sequel, based on a comic series, and it’s an action/drama movie. It’s spectacular. I’m going to try to keep this short.

TDK is several times better than the first one. It’s quite a bit better than “Ironman.” This is the movie to beat this year, but I don’t know that anyone can do it. The acting, writing, directing, and special effects were great. Seriously it’s enough plot and action and drama for two movies, but they molded it all together so well. I watched it and kept wondering when it was going to climax and start the wrap up, but it just kept going and getting better. There’s not really anything I could complain about. My only fear is that they have set the bar so high that they can’t possibly come close to it for a third movie. Just Wow!

If you didn’t get it already, go see it. This is the kind of quality in cinema that we should support. I may go see it a second time myself. See it even if you have to brave lines and pay full price. I’m definitely getting this on DVD.

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Work Release

This is the third of the Harry Potter series I have been able to work my way through. That’s right I have finished Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. The short reviews of the first and second books are available too.

This was a pretty decent jump from the last book to this one. It’s almost 100 pages longer. It makes it a little longer to read, but it also makes the book feel much heftier. And the inside of it does so as well. I like how the books are starting to take on darker, more serious tones. The characters are growing nicely, and the situations are becoming more complex and less black and white. I can see why so many people have praised the series, and I’m looking forward to the fourth book.

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What’s so Special?

So previously I posted my first foray into graphic novel review. This is my second trip. I purchased a series started by J. Michael Straczinsky, the “Rising Stars (spoilers so don’t go there unless you have read it already.)” series. The series is sold in five collections now: 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. The first three were written by JMS. The second two were by other authors and artists that were filling in story parts JMS skipped over in the original series. That’s not particularly unusual for JMS. He somewhat regularly bypasses talking about something big that may have happened, even though he mapped out what it was that happened. Sometimes others go back and cover that event in detail later. So the fourth and fifth books occur before or during the first three books. Anyway, on with the show. There will have to be some small spoilers to whet your appetite.

This series of course takes place in an alternate universe that diverged from ours at one point in the late 1960s when some sort of meteor or object fell from the sky onto the town of Peterson in the Midwest US and exploded. No one was killed, but all the children who were in utero, all 113 of them, eventually begin to show abilities. Slowly, as situations test them, they find each has some unique abilities. Some can fly, are very strong, very smart, can control light, move small objects with their minds, or many other things. They eventually become called “The Specials.” This of course scares authorities who want to study and control them. JMS talks about the legal battles that ensued.

But that’s where the story began. The tale begins in Volume 1 when a man is found dead in his home. He’s a portly man, and someone murdered him. The thing is, he was a Special. His ability wasn’t being strong, fast, able to fly, or any of that. He was simply invulnerable. So how does one go about murdering an invulnerable man? Well it requires intimate knowledge of the person you are trying to kill. Then the question becomes, Who with that knowledge would want to kill him? And here is a spoiler if you want to skip to the next paragraph. Honestly invulnerable was not my word and not the word I would have chosen. I would say he was impenetrable. You could shoot him with a howitzer and he wouldn’t feel it. He could swim in a blast furnace or liquid nitrogen and not feel hot or cold. In fact he couldn’t feel anything. Not even the caress of someone’s hand or the touch of their lips. How does being invulnerable sound now? One of the Specials begins an investigation of what happened. That leads to flashbacks and the unfolding of the plot of the story.

One of the things I really like about the story and the specials is that they are all just regular kids and people. They all have problems and issues. That includes some bad ones like child abuse and molestation. Real people are complicated and sometimes damaged things. Giving a random group of them superpowers can be interesting. This one will be shared with friends as well.

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Even more movies

I tell you this is a great summer for good movies. I don’t think I gave the theater this much money in all of last year. So last weekend I went to see “WALL-E.” Yeah I was lazy and didn’t write a review right away. So what the pay for writing this is crap so it say until today. And yesterday I went with some friends to watch “Hellboy II: The Golden Army.”

First I’ll do “WALL-E.” This is just another fantastic movie by Pixar. Frankly I don’t know how they keep hitting them out of the park. They have some talented people there and must have the management willing to let them run where they need to run. I don’t know what it’s like to work there, but I can’t imagine how overstressed, depressed people could turn out stuff like this. I congratulate everyone that worked on it.

Everyone knows WALL-E is a robot, and it takes place in the future. I’m not telling much else, because you have to see the movie. Wait. No. You HAVE TO see the movie! There. That’s better. If you like any of Pixar’s movies, then you will like this one. There’s loads of humor, drama, and moral lessons. It’s worth seeing at full theater price, and the kids should love it.

As for Hellboy, if you liked the first one you should like this one as well. Some things are done better in this one, and some things aren’t quite as good. But the action and the humor are there. I recommend anyone who liked the first one go see it. Full price is warranted if you loved the first one. If you merely liked it then catch a matinee.

And now I await “The Dark Knight.” I’m all excited.

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It’s popcorn and a movie time. It’s popcorn and a movie time. It’s…

So last week was busy. I had been meaning to go see several movies and the perfect storm seemed to form that allowed me to finally go. What follows is a ramble about each of the movies. I’ll tell you now they are, “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,” “The Incredible Hulk,” “Kung Fu Panda,” and “Wanted.”

So first I’ll do IJatKotCS. Man that is a mouth full right there. I saw it first because I was afraid it might leave the theaters first. I don’t know what some people were complaining about. Most of the movie seemed on target for the time period portrayed. I mean as far as plot points. As for the reviewers and nay sayers. It’s a friggin Indiana Jones movie. Did you see Temple of Doom? I mean come on. This was exactly on par with the rest of the movies. It was full of humor, slapstick, improbabilities, and sheer dumb luck. I thought it was nice and I enjoyed it. Frankly I don’t know what you were expecting. If you like the other IJ movies you should like this one, unless you are complete twit.

Now Hulk. You know I never understood why some people bashed the last Hulk movie. It went out on a limb on a couple things, some of which I liked and some I didn’t. Some of the high emotion scenes were tough to swallow, but it was strange characters reacting in ways unfamiliar to them. Consequently I forgive a lot. This one was better, but it’s still a Hulk superhero, kinda, movie. There are parts that are corny, some of them are simply because Bruce Banner is corny. There are some touching moments between Bruce and Betty. The general is a real f&*%er for lack of a better term. I mean lots of the plot and dialog are telegraphed. There aren’t many surprises, but it’s still a nice, fun ,pretty good movie. Well I take that back. There is a good turn at the end, that I was still hoping for but not exactly expecting them to actually do. When you last see Bruce, remember something Betty suggested that Bruce dismissed outright. At least I hope that’s what it is.

What about KFP? Well. You know. That was just a good movie right there. I had no idea the cast they got for it. The voice acting was fantastic. I mean Jack Black, Dustin Hoffman, Angelina Jolie, Jackie Chan, Lucy Liu, Ian McShane etc. I wasn’t expecting that cast, and I was well pleased by it. It’s a hoot and surprisingly has a decent moral lesson in it. I mean of course it does. It is a movie parent and child should both be able to enjoy immensely. This was easily the best of the 4 movies, and right now only Ironman beats it for the summer. I recommend everyone see this one.

Finally Wanted. This made me conflicted. Some of it is fast paced and almost blinding in speed. Some of it made me go “Yeah Kick his ass.” And some of it made me go, “Did a 10^th grader write and direct this part?” I don’t know how it got better reviews than Hulk. It was entertaining, but it wasn’t much more than decent. Though the effects are pretty sweet.

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