Tag Archives: science fiction

Book Watching: So many TV-comic adaptations…

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Book Watching

This week, I’ve got comics on my mind. Comic-books-to-TV and movie adaptations, that is, and there are a lot hitting the small screens soon. Unfortunately, I can’t seem to get excited about any of these yet. Maybe the first episodes will change my mind?

This is happening:

Inhumans

Oh ABC. You’ve got to commit.

So the costume reveal went over like the-Friday-before attempt at a cosplay, and the first trailer wasn’t any more encouraging. They’ve since redone the trailer, but it still looks low budget as hell. What can I say, we’ve been spoiled by the movies, and we’re not going back.

Movies have raised the bar on superhero action sequences, and shows have got to be either super smart about the superpowers they showcase (Legion, Sense 8, Agent Carter, Jessica Jones, etc) or put their budget where their mouth is (Heroes, Supergirl, Constantine). Or, you know, embrace the camp a la Freeform. But you can’t waffle and then expect to eat your waffle and have it too.

Release date: September 29, 2017. So, this Friday.

The Gifted

Fox looks like it’s going to try a bit harder with this Heroes meets X-Men show which follows a couple mutant powered kids whose father works for the creepy government agency charged with catching and containing mutants. I wonder if we’ll get a lot of awkward Breaking Bad-style dinners out of this one.

On the bright side, Amy Acker will be in this show. (Unfortunately, looks like she’ll be playing Mom-normal. As opposed to, you know, a badass hacker assassin prophet (Person of Interest) or soulless alien goddess (Angel).) Continue reading →

Today’s Book Blurb: Universe Builders

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The latest, greatest and (sometimes) strangest blurbs from the book world.

Silly subtitle aside, this charming blurb completely won me over. I had the hardest time deciding whether to feature this one, or the one in the third book.

Builders

“As Bernie graduates from God School, he is thrilled to land his dream job as a builder of universes. His first assignment is to build his own universe. Determined but unsure, Bernie forges ahead, only to find problems everywhere. Mysterious asteroids, unexplained volcanoes, shifting continents and more lead him to suspect sabotage. But who could sabotage his universe? Only another god could do that. 

It’s god vs. god, guile vs. goodness, where only one of them plays by the rules.”

 

What books caught your eye recently?

 

Book Watching: Upcoming adaptations and a definite to-read list.

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This week, I got movies on my mind. Book-to-movie adaptations, that is.

This is happening:

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle

Also known as the first book assigned for English that I read and liked. My sixth grade self was enthralled, and I remember listing is as “Favorite Book” for about a year hence.

Except, I have a confession to make. I have absolutely no memory of the plot. I remember the experience of reading it (positive), but so foggy on the details (all the fog). The trailer looks like pure magic, but doesn’t help out in the story department.

Yesterday, I got my hands on this book to do some much needed brushing up on plot. Anyone with me?

Release date: March 9, 2018

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

Another book that’s on my To-Read list and my actual shelf.

Just hoping that it will do more than a feature length fan service for 80’s/90’s nostalgia. In the trailer alone, I’m seeing Tron, Iron Giant, Back to the Future, and dozens of other references. There is a plot, though, right?  Continue reading →

Today’s Book Blurb: Dogs of War

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In which we bring you the latest, greatest and (sometimes) strangest blurbs from the book world.

It’s no secret that I hate rhetorical questions in book blurbs. But this blurb totally rocked by expectations. Talk about concept! This could be incredibly hackneyed, or incredibly good.

Call me intrigued. Now to wait till November 2017…

Dogs

Rex is a Good Dog. He loves humans. He hates enemies. He’s utterly obedient to Master.

 

He’s also seven foot tall at the shoulder, bulletproof, bristling with heavy calibre weaponry and his voice resonates with subsonics especially designed to instil fear. With Dragon, Honey and Bees, he’s part of a Multi-form Assault Pack operating in the lawless anarchy of Campeche, Southeastern Mexico.

 

Rex is a genetically engineered bioform, a deadly weapon in a dirty war. He has the intelligence to carry out his orders and feedback implants to reward him when he does. All he wants to be is a Good Dog. And to do that he must do exactly what Master says and Master says he’s got to kill a lot of enemies. But who, exactly, are the enemies? What happens when Master is tried as a war criminal? What rights does the Geneva Convention grant weapons? Do Rex and his fellow bioforms even have a right to exist? And what happens when Rex slips his leash?

 

– Dogs of War by Adrian Tchaikovsky

 

Have you come across any books that have caught your eye recently?

2017 (Scifi) Reading Resolutions – Update

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This year, one of my reading goals included a dive into the science fiction Locus Award list, from 1978 to 2016.

Progress so far: 

Barayar
Embassytown
redshirts
Cryptonomicon
Trees
  • 1985    The Integral Trees by Larry Niven ★★☆☆☆
  • 1992    Barrayar by Lois McMaster Bujold ★★★★★
  • 2000    Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson ★★★☆☆
  • 2012    Embassytown by China Miéville ★★★★★
  • 2013    Redshirts by John Scalzi ★★☆☆☆

And here are my upcoming reads: Continue reading →

[Book Review] That’s one way to make it in New York

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Omega

Book Review: Omega Rising by Jessica Meats

What’s this? A quick 90-page novella of a story about a down-on-her-luck Jenny who moves to New York City in hopes of getting a minimum wage job to cover her rent, only to find herself hired by a security firm and leading a secret battle against aliens.

I know, right? Continue reading →

[Book Review] Girl meets cyborg, starts a war

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Book Review: Wanted and Wired by Vivien Jackson

wantedandwired

A mercenary running from a past she can’t remember, a renegade scientist running from a past he can’t forget. What more can you ask for? Throw in a double-cross, explosions, hacking, cyberpunk shenanigans, plenty of heat, and you got something.

It’s a fun read, light on the plot, good with the pacing, with a kind of space opera romance vibe without the space part (well, mostly). It’s a partners-to-lovers story with sizzling romance that builds on the characters’ long history of working and relying on each other. Continue reading →

[Book Review] Where no man has gone meta before

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redshirtsBook Review: Redshirts by by John Scalzi

This book was talked up so much that almost nothing less than a comic masterpiece could have met my expectations. I was also just coming off reading three Bujold books in a row, so my humor bar was set high.

And so it shouldn’t come as any surprise that this book didn’t quite meet them.

In case you haven’t heard about this book, here’s the setup:

In a Star Trekian style universe, Ensign Andrew Dahl joins the Intrepid, a spaceship that explores the universe and fixes problems. He soon realizes something screwy is going on. The crew is acting weird and every Away Mission seems to involve some kind of lethal confrontation with alien forces. And while the senior officers always survive, at least one low-ranked (red shirt uniformed) crew member is, sadly, always killed, often in the craziest of ways. As he starts digging into this mystery, the craziest theory begins to make the most sense: Are they characters on a campy science fiction show?  Continue reading →

Today’s Book Blurb: Luke, I am your doppleganger

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Nothing against this book because it sounds like a lot of fun…except, how in the world did the main character’s name ever get past the editors? 

InjectionBurn.jpg

Skyler Luiken and his ragtag crew of scavengers, scientists, and brawlers have a new mission: a long journey to a distant planet where a race of benevolent aliens are held captive behind a cloud of destructive ships known as the Swarm Blockade. No human ships have ever made it past this impenetrable wall, and Skyler knows not what to anticipate when they reach their destination.

Safe to say that the last thing he expects to find there is a second human ship led by the tough-as-nails captain, Gloria Tsandi. These two crews—and their respective captains—initially clash, but they will have to learn to work together when their mutual foe closes in around them and begins the outright destruction of their vessels—along with any hope of a return to Earth.

– Injection Burn  by Jason M. Hough

[Book Review] Politics the cyberpunk way

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infomocracyBook Review: Infomocracy by Malka Ann Older

I got this for the cover, I stayed for the story.

It’s been a while since the science fiction genre surprised me with something new. Enter Infomocracy, a thought experiment in the concept of democracy, corporate power, and human nature. And, so you don’t think this is a political treatise, there are other things too, like explosions, anarchists, a paranoid operative, and campaign spies. Continue reading →