This time I’m taking a look at the first book in the “Books of the Raksura” series by Martha Wells – The Cloud Roads. Continue reading
Tag Archives: Books
Book Review: The Serpent Sea
The Cloud Roads created a very interesting and narratively distinct fantasy world – one that was very different than most of the other works of fantasy that I’d read, and which had a fairly clear sequel hook. So, I was ready almost right away to move on to the next work in the series. Continue reading
I’m continuing my reviews of the books in the Legend of the Galactic Heroes series with the third book, and the most recent book to date – Endurance. Continue reading
Legends of the Force: Episode 5 – The Lando Calrissian Adventures
This time we cover the last novels published contemporaneous with the original trilogy. Continue reading
I’m continuing my reviews of the books in the Legend of the Galactic Heroes series with the second title, Ambition. Continue reading
This week I’m giving my thoughts on the first novel in the Legends of the Galactic Heroes series. Continue reading
Book Review: The Last Command
We come now to the conclusion of the Thrawn trilogy. Continue reading
This time we take a look at the first batch of Star Wars novels that George Lucas wasn’t directly involved in – the Han Solo Adventures trilogy. Continue reading
This week, in a special episode of Nintendo Power Retrospectives, I’m taking a look at the companion book to the NES Classic all-in-one console, from Prima. Continue reading
Book Review: Heir to the Empire
We now come to the beginning of the Star Wars Expanded Universe as we know it. Continue reading
Book Review – The Silmarillion
This time I’ve got a book review of J.R.R. Tolkein’s classic work of fantasy mythology – the Silmarillion. Continue reading
Book Review – Jamie’s Food Revolution
This week I’m doing my first ever cookbook review, as I take a look at at the companion cookbook to Jamie Oliver’s cooking show “Jamie’s Food Revolution” Continue reading
Book Review – Midnight Riot
This week I’m reviewing an urban fantasy mystery novel – Ben Aaronovich’s book “Midnight Riot
“, published in the UK as “Rivers of London”.
Standard
“, published in the UK as “Rivers of London”.
Nash’s video about The Cartmel Masterplan can be found here: http://blip.tv/radio-dead-air/doctor-who-classic-the-cartnmel-masterplan-6368641
Book Review – Deal Breaker
This week I have a review of the first Myron Bolitar mystery novel – “Deal Breaker“. Continue reading
Book Review – The Bourne Identity
This week I have another book review, as I look at Robert Ludlum‘s classic conspiracy thriller, “The Bourne Identity” Continue reading
Book Review – The Dervish House (and my Definition of Cyberpunk)
I’m finally getting topical for once, with my review of the Hugo Award nominated novel, The Dervish House, by Ian McDonald. I also give my definition of what I define as cyberpunk.
Book Review: The Chronicles of the Chinese Emperors
Movies set in historical periods or otherwise based around historical events will never go away. We will always have Victorian tales of class-based angst. Same with tales of valorious (or conniving) knights in medieval Europe. For Eastern cinema, we’ll probably always have samurai films of various stripes, and the same with various Wuxia films, discussing various martial artists and their exploits in Imperial China.
To get try and some background on wuxia films and their I recently read The Chronicles of the Chinese Emperors by Ann Paludan. The book gives an overview of the reign of approximately every emperor in Chinese history that is considered to be “officially” an emperor. Officially is in air-quotes because the book appears to defer heavily to the official Imperial histories. Continue reading
Book Review – The Rough Guide to Anime
Finding a “canon” of important works in any field is generally difficult to settle on. Do you go by popularity, artistic merit, influence on other works, early works of prominent creators, or a combination thereof?
The Rough Guide to Anime, by Simon Richmond – in Penguin Books Rough Guides series, probably has the best “canon” list of anime titles available, and certainly makes for the best English language primer to anime currently in print in the US, and makes for interesting reading for long-time fans and newcomers alike. Continue reading
Book Review – Game Over
Buy this book from Amazon.com
As I’ve mentioned in my review of The Soul of a New Machine, I enjoy reading about the history of the computer industry. As you’ve probably gather from all my magazine recaps, I also enjoy learning about the history of the video game industry. Consequently, I enjoy books that fall in the category where the two Venn diagrams overlap. They do so with the book I’m reviewing this week, Game Over: How Nintendo Zapped an American Industry, Captured Your Dollars, and Enslaved your Children. Continue reading
Book Review – The Black Hole War
Purchase this book at Amazon.com
So, last week I talked about the documentary about Stephen Hawking, “A Brief History of Time”. This week I have a book review taking an alternative approach to Stephen Hawking’s theories of Black Holes, and how they are wrong. The book in question is The Black Hole War by Leonard Susskind.
Essentially, the plot of the non-fiction book is pretty simple. Stephen Hawking comes up with his theories of how Black Holes work, and how nothing can escape them. Well, sort of – Hawking Radiation is emitted by black holes (that’s one of the ways we can find them), but the amount of radiation emitted is not equal to the amount of material that is captured by the black hole. Thus any “information” captured by the black hole (from light to anything else) is lost. Continue reading
Book Review – The Soul of a New Machine
About 6 years ago, a sort of scandal rocked the gaming industry related to a blog post by a woman known as “EASpouse”. The blog post criticized EA’s labor practices at the time, which required employees to work massive amounts of unpaid overtime, as they were salaried employees. By massive, I mean about 12-16 hour days, 6 days a week, regularly. This was a big deal among gamers, because very few of us had ever had the opportunity to peek behind the curtain like this. It was likely that most of us viewed game development with a variation of the way that Roald Dahl as a child imagined the inside of the Cadbury Chocolate Factory near the boarding school he attended (which later led to Charlie & the Chocolate Factory). Continue reading
Book Review – Devil May Care by Sebastian Faulks
Get Devil May Care from Amazon.com
It’s been a while since my last book review on my blog, in part because it’s been a while since I finished reading a novel. But, finally (okay, after two weeks), I’ve finished the most recent James Bond novel, by Sebastian Faulks, which continues where Ian Fleming’s last Bond Novel left off. Is Faulks a worthy successor to Fleming (or at least the other non-Fleming writers to take on 007 – John Gardner and Raymond Benson)? If he isn’t, how good is the book?
The Premise:
It is the dawn of the “swinging ’70s”. James Bond has been on leave for 3 months since the events of The Man With the Golden Gun (the novel, not the film). However, he gets pulled off his leave early to investigate an heroin smuggling cartel which is suspected to be run by pharmaceutical mogul Julius Gorner, a man who has a unique deformity, one hand is large and furry like an ape’s – but it doesn’t have an functioning opposable thumb. He also has a passionate, fervent hatred of the UK, and only 007 stands in his way. Continue reading