TV: Endgame, episode 3 "The Caffeine Hit". Endgame is a delightful spin on the Rex Stout Nero Wolfe stories. Arkady Balagan is world champion chess player who has developed agoraphobia following the murder of his wife. He pays his way by solving mysteries, using a doctoral student and the staff at the hotel where he stays as his Archie Goodwins. In this episode, Arkady helps a man with amnesia find out who he is and where his wife is.
Started watching Torchwood. I haven't decided how I feel about it yet. My first and only prior exposure to the show left me cold. Without having seen another episode, I could second guess everything that happened. Torchwood came across as very by the numbers. This time, as I'm starting at the beginning, it seems as if it's lacking something. Gwen points out as the series starts that the team is so used to dealing with alien and supernatural matters, they've forgotten how to be human. Halfway through the first season, Gwen has joined them. I'll assume this was Davies' intention.
I'm two episodes in to Crossbones. Blackbeard, played by John Malkovich, is up against agent of the crown Tom Lowe, played by Richard Coyle. The showrunner is Neil Cross, creator of Luther. It looks to be an examination of democracy, politics, and temporary autonomous zones.
With two episodes to go, I'm caught up on 24. This may be the best season of the show, with top acting.
Movies: Only Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels, and it's a rewatch. This one is definitely in my favorite caper/crime movies.
Short Fiction: "I Know How to Pick Them" by Lawrence Block in Dangerous Women and "The Metal Men of Mars" by Joe Lansdale in John Joseph Adams' ERB Mars tribute anthology, Under the Moons of Mars.
Novels: Finished Abaddon's Gate by James S. A. Corey. Near(-ish) future system space opera, third in their Expanse series. Corey manages to flesh out their universe more, up the stakes, and keep the status far from quo.
Started Half-Off Ragnarok by Seanan McGuire, third in her InCryptid series. Very enthralling, very entertaining, and very good. At this book in the series, we've traded narrators and locations: in the suburbs and a zoo in Ohio instead of New York City, and following Alex Price, cryptoherpetologist, instead of his sister Verity, dancer.
Sunday, June 29, 2014
Sunday, June 22, 2014
Culture Consumed June 15-21
TV: Finally watched the first two seasons of new Doctor Who as a whole. Noted that Eccleston's season had a theme of self sacrifice and Tennant's first season had a continuing theme of the relationships between parents and children. It will be interesting to see if Russell Davies always has a single theme unifying each season of his shows.
Started watching the first season of Luther. I'm enjoying it, though I can tell that I won't be able to make a strong judgement on the show until I finish the first season. Strong cast, with Idris Elba in the lead, and good, meaty scripts with crunchy bits.
Watched two episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation in my ST rewatch, those being episodes 4 and 5 of the first season, the introduction of the Ferengi and the Traveller.
I'm halfway through the current season of 24. It has everything I've enjoyed in previous seasons of the show with more of the fat cut out. Really good performances from all involved and characters I enjoy spending time with.
Movies: Finally saw two films that I missed: The Avengers and the animated Star Wars: The Clone Wars that came out in 2008. SW was fun, though it seemed the baby Hutt was the most intelligent character in the film. What can I say about The Avengers that hasn't been said? Nothing. I really liked it, and if Scarlet Johansson wants a Black Widow film, they should give her one.
Books: Reading Abaddon's Gate by James S. A. Corey. I started it a month or so ago and put it away when stress and depression made it hard for me to read for s few weeks. (When I'm too stressed, angry, or depressed to read, I'm way too whichever, yes.) Abaddon's Gate is a good fleshing out of Ty Franck's Expanse universe. For once, Holden doesn't seem to be the lead, though he holds a quarter of the book. The characters with agency are the other three chapter viewpoint characters whose lives are on a collision course with Holden's and his crew.
If you enjoyed the previous two Expanse novels, you'll probably like this one. If you haven't read it, but love space opera set in the solar system, read the first in the Expanse series, Caliban's War.
From Dangerous Women, an anthology edited by Gardner Dozois & George R. R. Martin, I read "Nora's Song" by Cecelia Holland (a historical, looking at the court of Eleanor of Aquitaine and King Henry II of England, as seen through the eyes of Eleanor "Nora"), "The Hands That Are Not There" by Melinda Snodgrass (space opera in a human dominated empire and how one dangerous woman with a mission can reshape the empire, as told by an unreliable narrator), "Bombshells" by Jim Butcher (a Dresden Files short starring Harry Dresden's apprentice Molly), "Raisa Stepanova" by Carrie Vaughn (about the Soviet World War II flyers the Night Witches), "Wrestling Jesus" by Joe Lansdale (a woman controls the conflicts between two wrestlers even unto their old age), and "Neighbors" by Megan Lindholm (a very heartbreaking story about an old woman trying to keep her independence and her life together in the face of Alzheimer's, the loss of friends, and , yes, the thefts from age that, if we're lucky, will hit us all).
From Rogues, again edited by Dozois & Martin, I read "How the Marquis Got His Coat Back" by Neil Gaiman. The Marquis de Carabas returns and we get an answer to one of the mysteries left from Neil's novel/tv series Neverwhere.
From Engineering Infinity edited by Jonathan Strahan, I read "Bit Rot" by Charles Stross. This story can be read on its own but is set in his "Freyaverse" stories. This series/sequence is set in a future where humanity is extinct and the characters are all robots and AIs. "Bit Rot" is a hard science fiction tale with a hint of space opera and spiced by a currently popular subgenre of horror that shouldn't work in a robot story, but does here. Very nice, and highly recommended.
Started watching the first season of Luther. I'm enjoying it, though I can tell that I won't be able to make a strong judgement on the show until I finish the first season. Strong cast, with Idris Elba in the lead, and good, meaty scripts with crunchy bits.
Watched two episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation in my ST rewatch, those being episodes 4 and 5 of the first season, the introduction of the Ferengi and the Traveller.
I'm halfway through the current season of 24. It has everything I've enjoyed in previous seasons of the show with more of the fat cut out. Really good performances from all involved and characters I enjoy spending time with.
Movies: Finally saw two films that I missed: The Avengers and the animated Star Wars: The Clone Wars that came out in 2008. SW was fun, though it seemed the baby Hutt was the most intelligent character in the film. What can I say about The Avengers that hasn't been said? Nothing. I really liked it, and if Scarlet Johansson wants a Black Widow film, they should give her one.
Books: Reading Abaddon's Gate by James S. A. Corey. I started it a month or so ago and put it away when stress and depression made it hard for me to read for s few weeks. (When I'm too stressed, angry, or depressed to read, I'm way too whichever, yes.) Abaddon's Gate is a good fleshing out of Ty Franck's Expanse universe. For once, Holden doesn't seem to be the lead, though he holds a quarter of the book. The characters with agency are the other three chapter viewpoint characters whose lives are on a collision course with Holden's and his crew.
If you enjoyed the previous two Expanse novels, you'll probably like this one. If you haven't read it, but love space opera set in the solar system, read the first in the Expanse series, Caliban's War.
From Dangerous Women, an anthology edited by Gardner Dozois & George R. R. Martin, I read "Nora's Song" by Cecelia Holland (a historical, looking at the court of Eleanor of Aquitaine and King Henry II of England, as seen through the eyes of Eleanor "Nora"), "The Hands That Are Not There" by Melinda Snodgrass (space opera in a human dominated empire and how one dangerous woman with a mission can reshape the empire, as told by an unreliable narrator), "Bombshells" by Jim Butcher (a Dresden Files short starring Harry Dresden's apprentice Molly), "Raisa Stepanova" by Carrie Vaughn (about the Soviet World War II flyers the Night Witches), "Wrestling Jesus" by Joe Lansdale (a woman controls the conflicts between two wrestlers even unto their old age), and "Neighbors" by Megan Lindholm (a very heartbreaking story about an old woman trying to keep her independence and her life together in the face of Alzheimer's, the loss of friends, and , yes, the thefts from age that, if we're lucky, will hit us all).
From Rogues, again edited by Dozois & Martin, I read "How the Marquis Got His Coat Back" by Neil Gaiman. The Marquis de Carabas returns and we get an answer to one of the mysteries left from Neil's novel/tv series Neverwhere.
From Engineering Infinity edited by Jonathan Strahan, I read "Bit Rot" by Charles Stross. This story can be read on its own but is set in his "Freyaverse" stories. This series/sequence is set in a future where humanity is extinct and the characters are all robots and AIs. "Bit Rot" is a hard science fiction tale with a hint of space opera and spiced by a currently popular subgenre of horror that shouldn't work in a robot story, but does here. Very nice, and highly recommended.
Tuesday, June 3, 2014
Daily Links 6/2/14
Seanan McGuire has new short fiction up. It's set in her InCryptid Universe.
Lawrence Schoen asks Benjanun Sriduangkaew about her most memorable meal. Sriduangkaew is one of the Campbell nominees this year. I must read some of her work soonest.
Hard surface planet with a mass seventeen times that of Earth discovered, designated mega-Earth.
Solar powered plane makes its inaugural flight.
The Silk Road may have reduced the level of drug related violent crime.
Two twelve year olds stab a third to gain the love of Slenderman who they claim is real.
RIP Alexander Shulgin
Scientists teleported quantum information between two diamonds located ten feet apart.
Dr Joe Hanson brings you The Science of BBQ.
Lawrence Schoen asks Benjanun Sriduangkaew about her most memorable meal. Sriduangkaew is one of the Campbell nominees this year. I must read some of her work soonest.
Hard surface planet with a mass seventeen times that of Earth discovered, designated mega-Earth.
Solar powered plane makes its inaugural flight.
The Silk Road may have reduced the level of drug related violent crime.
Two twelve year olds stab a third to gain the love of Slenderman who they claim is real.
RIP Alexander Shulgin
Scientists teleported quantum information between two diamonds located ten feet apart.
Monday, June 2, 2014
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