So I was Thinking About Stuff

So there is this conversation going on at Hypable regarding that scene in Star Trek Into Darkness. You can read it here

It certainly divides opinion in ways I was not expecting but then everyone is different. Just thought that was worth mentioning. In other news there is an interview this week for a job with some interesting hours something that I could really sink my teeth into while at the same time not being too challenging for someone who has been out of the hunt for as long as I have.

I sometimes if I am always contrary or looking to stir things up but when I really look at things I am reasonably I am not, there are shows and books that I am completely over the moon about like Morganville Vampires, Continuum and Defiance but so often in the past shows I like get cancelled which then leads me to being so tough on the shows that seem to skate through while treating the audience as if they are idiots.

There is a new patch on Wednesday which I think will prove interesting at least for awhile it should do as the powers that be were probably aware through at least half of it that the numbers were down and that things needed to change.

I can't let today pass without talking at least a little about XBox One I watched a little of the conference maybe half an hour's worth but it really was just a lot of technical talk and a lot of talk about anything OTHER than gaming which is understandable when you look at the XBox 360 and the fact that streaming is a HUGE part of XBox Live.

BOOK REVIEW: Dead Ever After by Charlaine Harris

Dead Ever After is the 13^th and Final book in the Southern Vampire Mysteries series (aka Sookie Stackhouse) written by Charlaine Harris. It was released on the 7^th of May by Gollancz books and is 352 pages long. The ISBN is 0575096616. I purchased this book.

The Southern Vampire Mysteries have been made into the popular HBO show True Blood starring Anna Paquin.

PLEASE BE AWARE OF SPOILERS INCLUDED WITHIN THIS REVIEW

PLOT

Sookie Stackhouse has one last adventure in store.

Life has taken her from a waitress in Merlotte's Bar, Bon Temps, to part owner; from social outcast to the heart of her community; from a vampire's girlfriend to the wife of one of the most powerful vampires in the state.

She has survived explosions, revolutions and attempts on her life. Sookie has endured betrayal, heartbreak and grief...and she has emerged a little stronger, and little wiser, every time.

But with life comes new trials...

The question is, in the end: who will love, who will live, and who will be dead ever after?

WHY I BOUGHT IT

I started reading Southern Vampires after watching the first season of True Blood and instantly realised I had made a TERRIBLE mistake I should have read it BEFORE. The first season of True Blood was good but things went rapidly downhill from there while nearly all of the Southern Vampire novels have been excellent. They are as different from one another as chalk and cheese or say Philosopher’s Stone was to Prisoner of Azkaban.

WHAT I THOUGHT

Wow Charlaine Harris really knocked it out of the park with this one. Some of the last few books have been a bit hit and miss and I was a bit worried where this will go after all it is the final book though I would guess there would be a few short stories down the road but I digress.

I really like and admire Sookie Stackhouse most people who had to deal with the crap that has been shovelled her way would either be reclining in a straight jacket in some institution or so jaded and hardened to violence that she would just be some action hero carbon copy. Instead she is a woman who worries about the damage she may have done to her soul and how best to be a part of her community. I'm not a religious type but the way that Charlaine writes Sookie’s views on religion are something I can empathise with.

Bon Temps feels like I'm coming home the way that Harris weaves the relationships amongst the often eccentric bar patrons and local residents. Plus we get somewhat of a bonus with a huge amount of Sookie’s acquaintances from the previous books come running to offer our heroine their aid.

The murder mystery is a little different this time in that we are left with a fair idea of who did what but there is enough left to look forward to as Sookie and company work their way through it.

I love this book because it has all those little touches which make me think I am reading about someone real, someone who worries about money problems and strives to keep her house and garden clean and tidy. I swear Sookie even gives me tips on the proper way to greet and treat guests.

On the ending which as I have seen has proved a controversial one I am more than satisfied with. From the beginning of the series I could always see that Sookie did not see her real future being the partner of a vampire, she mentions again and again in the series how much she wants a family and that she cannot stand the idea of becoming a vampire. Yet I read review after review of people losing their collective minds over the fact that Charlaine Harris didn't send Sookie off into the sunset with Eric.

Sookie mainly gravitated to Bill and Eric for a number of reasons, her lack of relationship experience the fact that dating a regular human is almost impossible because of her telepathy and of course the larger than life personas of the vampires. At the beginning of the series Sookie was as naïve as she was strong, she started as a girl and came out the other end as a woman and took us all on the wild and fascinating course to get there and I for one am glad I decided to go with.

BOOK REVIEW: Inferno by Sherrilyn Kenyon

Inferno by Sherrilyn Kenyon is the fourth book in the Chronicles of Nick series which is based in the Dark Hunter Universe. The book was published on the 9^th of April 2013 by Atom Books and the ISBN is 0749957735. I purchased this book.

PLEASE BEWARE OF SOME SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW

PLOT

I control my destiny and my life.

Nothing controls me.

Ever.

Turning sixteen isn't what Nick Gautier thought it would be. While other boys his age are worried about prom dates and applying for college, Nick is neck deep in enemies out to stop him from living another day.

No longer sure if he can trust anyone, his only ally seems to be the one person he's been told will ultimately kill him.

Those out to get him have summoned an ancient force so powerful even the gods fear it. As Nick learns to command and control the elements, the one he must master in order to combat his latest foe is the one most likely to destroy him. If he is to survive this latest round, he will ultimately have to sacrifice a part of himself.

WHY I BOUGHT IT

Infinity (Book 1) got me interested as basically the first YA book I had seen widely marketed featuring a male protagonist (If you’re thinking Percy Jackson that comes under MG in most listings). Once I had finished reading that I knew was in for the long haul with this series which is funny action packed and features lots of interesting lore. I can highly recommend it to that endangered species like me known as the male reader.

WHAT I THOUGHT

Ah Nick Gautier is a very interesting character someone who is both strong and weak as a result of his coming into his powers, his social class and the fact he is going through puberty. Those aspects of him play a major part in Inferno as they do in all the books. It is hard in this book to tell if Nick is growing in confidence or just being manipulated down a path and that just adds to the book.

I still for the life of me I can’t see what Nick sees in Kody, one issue I think is the way that she is described constantly going on about her beauty instead of less physical aspects makes me prefer most of Nick female friends to her. She is only slightly less judgemental than Cherise and she drives me totally to distraction. I think it is a product though of excellent writing that you have to be impressed by the way Nick doesn't destroy Stone and the others with the crap he has to put up with.

In this book we delve a lot into the supernatural outside of New Orleans visiting a host of dimensions and getting at least a hint at what Death has in store for our favourite Cajun and learning about a few others of the big players, for those who didn't know before the Dark Hunter Universe is a very large one indeed.

The rest of Nick's friends get some time including Bubba who is amazing as always but if there is one thing that I would like to see is a few more human characters especially after what is revealed near the end of this book. The anti-bullying message is pretty strong in this book and the statement/manifesto came across to me at least a little over the top and might have been better at the end of the book instead of shoe horned in like that.

BEST PART OF INFERNO

Simi. Simi. Simi. There definitely wasn't enough of my favourite demon but that little bit was still a lot of fun. I’m not a Dark Hunter reader outside of Chronicles of Nick so I don’t know a lot more about the Simi other than I like her a lot hopefully this lack of Simi will be dealt with in future instalments.

WORST PART OF INFERNO

Oh my god that ending – WHAT THE HELL? After a story that went on at a breakneck pace then careened off into the ditch of an apparent alternate universe a universe I did not like the look of. It is too early to pre-judge the next book but colour me concerned about how much time we might spend before things get back to normal.

So all in all though I do have some reservations about Illusion the next book in the series I can still say plainly that I love Chronicles of Nick and can’t wait to get my next fix.

BOOK REVIEW: Clockwork Princess

Clockwork Princess is the third and final book in the Infernal Devices Trilogy by Cassandra Clare. It was published on the 19^th of March 2013 by Walker and the ISBN is 1406330396. I purchased this book.

Cassandra Clare is better known as the author of The Mortal Devices series which has recently been turned into a film franchise; both series occupy the same universe with the events chronicles in the Infernal Devices having happened over a century before.

PLOT

If the only way to save the world was to destroy what you loved most, would you do it? The clock is ticking. Everyone must choose. Passion. Power. Secrets. Enchantment. Danger closes in around the Shadowhunters in the third and final instalment of the bestselling Infernal Devices trilogy.

WHY I BOUGHT IT

I bought Clockwork Angel on a whim and was rewarded with an engaging story with an interesting twist. Once I had finished that first book there was no doubt that I would be following the series to its conclusion.

WHAT I THOUGHT

I was late to the party with the whole Cassandra Clare thing. Of course I knew about her and The Mortal Instruments especially the whole trilogy being extended due to the runaway success of the first few books. Even as I was about to start this review people keep telling me to read the Mortal Instruments but it is just not for me. 

The reason I chose The Infernal Devices is at the time it made a change from my normal YA and the setting reminded me a little of Sherlock Holmes story plus the British setting is a hell of a change.

Clockwork Princess is the finale of the Infernal Devices trilogy and had a lot of things to tie up. Did it manage to do things well? It managed to do things excellently and I never had that feeling which all too often occurs when reading YA that one knows exactly where the plot is heading and that for me is a big plus.

Finally we have all of Tessa’s origins revealed which felt like a huge load off my mind I had been racking my brain especially with all the tiny slivers of hints over the past two books. Also I can’t really talk about this book without examining the central love triangle; the way it is handled is beautiful and touching. Other YA books should take note on how the triangle is handled it is elegant.

There is not much I can say about what goes on without it getting into spoilers so suffice it to say that this is the best trilogy that I can bring to mind at the moment and the books go flow together smoothly and the ending, definitely did not see that coming in anyway shape or form and it blew me away.

TV REVIEW: DEFIANCE Premiere

Defiance is the much anticipated Sci-Fi series from the Syfy channel developed by Rockne S. O’Bannon, Kevin Murphy and Michael Taylor. As well as a TV series there is also a cross platform MMO game tie-in. It premiered in the US on April 15 2013 and in a number of international markets later that week.

PLOT

The series is set in the near future, where aliens known collectively as Votans have come to Earth seeking a new home after their solar system was destroyed. However, when they reached Earth, they discovered despite a prolonged negotiation with the government on Earth, they were not welcome. Rather than turn away, they began a war with the humans as they are determined to make Earth their new home. During the war, the Votans drop terraformers on the planet and transform the surface of the planet; scorching the earth, opening chasms in the ground and covering the surface of the planet in dust and debris. After decades of war, a ceasefire is declared when both sides realise they must focus on survival on this new almost alien planet. 

WHY I CHECKED THIS OUT

First off the hype for this show has been slowly gathering for more than a year so long in fact I thought it would be a series starting last year. I can remember way back when it was just that new show that starred Julie Benz now it is so much more, it is the new Hail Mary Sci-Fi programme hoping to actually get past its first season.

Then consider the cross platform game (which I have yet to play, not having managed to get into the beta) and you have a HUGE marketing plan which I sincerely hope doesn’t go pear-shaped on us in the first season.

WHAT I THOUGHT

Defiance had so much to live up to with the hype but after the 2 hour premiere well I can’t say it has delivered 2 episodes in but it certainly has not let itself down. The show instantly manages to convey that feeling of epic that this is a whole new world that we the viewers instantly want to know all we can about and the info dump at the beginning is just enough without going overboard.

I am not sure if I would say that the show has echoes of Firefly or not but it has the aesthetic of most Sci-Fi shows set in the near future after a disaster. From what I have seen of the lore (the background if you will) I see a richly detailed world including a language or two which sounds great. For the Sci-Fi fans we have cool weapons (look at those knives) lots of new slang terms and more than multiple alien races each with their own significantly different cultures by the look of things.

The storytelling itself is tight and interesting which it could well be argued is to be expected in a two hour premiere but I can point you to a few examples where Sci-Fi shows have tried to start big and failed. I get the feeling that the next few episodes will continue on at this high level and hopefully get even better after all a lot of the fun of true Sci-Fi shows it finding out about the people who inhabit this brave new world.

One of the reasons that I like Science Fiction is the central cast actually matters, look back at Babylon 5 and you know it isn’t just about Sheridan and Battlestar Galactica isn’t just about the Adamas. The same is true with Defiance being about the various factions who live in Defiance so you don’t have to be a fan of one or another or like me you might be a fan of them all.

If I have not peaked your interest yet in Defiance I don’t know what will. Defiance is a very ambitious project with its game tie-ins especially on a network that doesn’t have a great track record of standing by its more ambitious shows. Don’t me wrong the show is worth watching and striving to do something that real fans of Sci-Fi have been without for far too long, the question is whether or not the network is going to blink if ratings aren’t record breaking.

BOOK REVIEW: Social Suicide by Gemma Halliday

Social Suicide is a 2012 YA/Mystery Book written by Gemma Halliday and is the second novel in the Deadly Cool series. The book was released on April 24, 2012 by HarperTeen and its ISBN is 0062003321. I imported this title from Amazon US as it seems to not have been released in the UK. I purchased this book.

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SOME SPOILERS FROM THE FIRST BOOK.

PLOT

Twittercide: the killing of one human being by another while the victim is in the act of tweeting.

Call me crazy, but I figured writing for the Herbert Hoover High Homepage would be a pretty sweet gig. Pad the resume for college applications, get a first look at the gossip column, spend some time ogling the paper's brooding bad-boy editor, Chase Erikson. But on my first big story, things went . . . a little south. What should have been a normal interview with Sydney Sanders turned into me discovering the homecoming queen-hopeful dead in her pool. Electrocuted while Tweeting. Now, in addition to developing a reputation as HHH's resident body finder, I'm stuck trying to prove that Sydney's death wasn't suicide.

I'm starting to long for the days when my biggest worry was whether the cafeteria was serving pizza sticks or Tuesday Tacos. . . .

WHY I BOUGHT THIS

I loved the first novel and was always going to look this up in fact I do believe that this was available or at least announced before I even took delivery of Deadly Cool. It manages to remand me of two decades ago (sheesh I’m old) when I was happily working my way through the 50 or so Hardy Boys books (wasn’t a Nancy Drew kind of guy). Deadly Cool also manages to stay current with believable characters (as believable as this many murders at one school can be) and stay funny and entertaining to. That left me with little doubt that this book would be more of the same.

WHAT I THOUGHT

Pretty much what I was expecting which is an extremely good thing. Hartley is actually more fun now that she has dropped that idiot boyfriend of hers and has stopped questioning herself about his choice to cheat. It is nice to read a female protagonist with a little self confidence.

Hartley or Death Magnet as I affectionately like to call her is on the case again and we slip easily into another one of her crazy cases. There has to be somewhat of a suspension of disbelief because well most of us would hope that there aren’t as many reasons as these for things at a high school to end in multiple murders but move past that and you get an engaging storyline with realistic characters.

One of the best aspects of Social Suicide and the Deadly Cool series is how realistic the high school community seems to me, it is a reasonably sized school so the protagonist doesn’t automatically know everyone in her year and there does seem to be a good mixture of social groups interacting though to be fair I am struggling to think of any prominent non-white characters but I might have missed one or two because of how fast I burned through this book.

Her will they, won’t they with the dark bad boy editor is reasonably interesting but I think it doesn’t quite work for me as I’m a guy and I just don’t see him being that passive unless he is either really shy or has some serious unrevealed issues. In the real world especially in high school guys just wouldn’t wait around that long but I digress because this is not the first time I have come up against a YA book that tends to portray boys/men in unrealistic ways.

I think that can be the first of only two issues I have with Social Suicide the second being that it is so short, it only took me three hours to get through it. That is pretty much a daily commute for me, or more likely for me an interview trip. I prefer bigger reads where possible.

The best aspect of this book is how Hartley pretty logically works through the suspects and after a little coaxing she really shows off her detective skills though some of her choices come across as a little ridiculous and only made to move the plot on “Why yes why wouldn’t I meet you alone at night on the wrong side of town and tell no one where I’m going”. I think that could be worked on for the next book but we will see.

In closing if you are looking for a modern Nancy Drew with a little romance thrown in Deadly Cool is a series worth adding to your TBR list in fact it should be first on there as I can’t think of another YA mystery series off the top of my head. If you have already picked up Deadly Cool then Social Suicide is definitely worth checking out.

FILM REVIEW: Sexy Evil Genius

Sexy Evil Genius is a 2013 Thriller directed by Shawn Piller and starring Katee Sackhoff, Seth Green and Michelle Trachtenburg. Shawn has previously worked on Haven and Greek.

WHY I CHECKED IT OUT

Michelle Trachtenburg, Seth Green and Katee Sackhoff what more reasons could someone need with cult favourite actors from Buffy and BSG. However it doesn’t stop there when you also throw in a nice intricate back story and a very unique thriller about a VERY unique young woman.

WHAT I THOUGHT

I found this to be a really exciting film. I really didn’t know what to expect from a video release which in the past always tended to be mean badly made and cheap looking. I think though in the last five years or so the quality of so called Video release films has gotten so much better.

Onto the film itself, I would call it a smart thriller something that goes in the middle of a range between Smokin’ Aces and Ordinary Suspects, skilfully combining comedy elements with a thriller that keeps you guessing.

The flashbacks are handled very well and this is coming from someone who despises them. You should have seen me suffer through Lost and the first season of Once Upon A Time but the flashbacks on Sexy Evil Genius are brief and to the point and actually support the plot instead of serving as so much pointless filler.

I am beginning to develop a real liking for these single scene films; it makes the films much more dependent on exploring the characters within. The characters are all very interesting and we spend perhaps the first half of the film learning about the ex partners of the Sexy Evil Genius and see how different they are.

There is not a lot more that I can tell you about what takes place without spoiling things for you and I definitely want to save the twists and turns for you to enjoy yourself. Sexy Evil Genius is a great film for a night in with enough to keep you thinking for awhile after which in the end is one of the few things you can ask for from a film.