Tag: Reviews

I finished reading Douglas Adams’s Starship Titanic quite a while back but just didn’t feel motivated to write a review about it. Don’t get me wrong; I think Terry Jones did a wonderful job and I did enjoy it a lot (4.5 out of 5 points). I just didn’t feel like writing another review, so I am going to give the reviews a rest for now. I’ll probably restart them when I read a book that’s new to me (right now I’m reading through Asimov’s Foundation series).

This evening I went out to help Pukka celebrate his last night as a single man. We went over to the Cantebury Inn’s restuarant/bar and had big, big goblets of alcoholic beverages. It was no wild party with strippers and hookers. But we had fun anyway; at least, I think we had fun. The night is kind of blurry in my memory. 🙂

I also finished reading Joe Haldeman’s Forever War, which I’m happy to say that I enjoyed very much. Basically the story deals with a war with an alien race viewed from the perspective of one of our soldiers and how space travel (with the accompanying relativistic effects) affected his life. The story is a bit dated now (some of the events take place starting in the 1990s) but it’s still a good read and overall, I give it 4.5 out of 5 points.

Next up, I’ll be reading Robert A. Heinlein’s Number of the Beast. This book is about double the previous 2 I’ve read combined so it might be a bit longer before I make any further comments on it. On the other hand, when I read Heinlein’s work; I usually get so absorbed into it that I forget about time/sleep/food, so it might take less time than I think.

On a different note, I updated my copy of the Amazon Media Manager hack for WordPress. As such, you can now see what video games; I’m currently playing (UT2004 – rockin’!, Wild Arms 2 – ‘sokay). I’ve also added another DVD set to the movies I’m watching.

Ultraviolet is the modern, vampire thriller mini-series that was made over in Britian. I’ve had it for a while but just restarted watching it the other night and it’s fantastic, though that bit in the 2nd episode where the biker girl is walking around gives me the willies! If you like British movies/tv or are just a fan of well made vampire stories; I highly recommend you check this out!

I finished reading The Ladies of Mandrigyn last night and I have to give Ms. Hambly a bit of credit; she didn’t go with the more obvious of the 2 scenarios that I thought she was going to. In the end the book wasn’t all bad, but I definitely wouldn’t recommend anybody buy this book at the cover price; still it’s short and if you can find it for just $1-$2, then that’s probably worth it. Overall, I’ll give this book 2 out of 5 points.

I looked around the house some more and found that I did have 2 more sci-fi books from the last library book sale, huzzah! 🙂 So the next book I’m reading is an oldie, but a goodie; it’s Joe Haldeman’s Forever War. I’ve read this before –actually when I was going through my closet I found I’ve got multiple copies of it– and really enjoyed it. I’ll let you know how I feel about the book after I finish reading it again.

Though I should mention that reading Mr. Haldeman’s work has a slightly unreal feeling for me. Why? Because unlike most of the authors I read; I’ve actually met Mr. Haldeman and his wife. In my area, there is a local sci-fi club, called SFLIS that was founded in part by Mr. Haldeman back when he was attending the UofI. That group also started a sci-fi con in the area called ICON. When I moved into this area several years; I started going to ICON to meet the local geeks. After going to the con for a couple of years, I heard about it’s history and then realized 2 of the people that the con staff were always friendly with were in fact Joe & Gay Haldeman.

No, I’m not a slobbering-gooberhead fanboy but it still throws me for a bit of a loop when I meet/see the author of a book I really like. Anyhoo, I need to get back to work; so keep those pages turning.

For my next book, I’ve started reading Barbara Hambly’s The Ladies of Mandrigyn. I’m about halfway through with it and looking very forward to finishing it, as it’s really not that good (so far, it could improve but I’m not holding my breath).

Why so harsh? Well, when I read a book; I generally don’t try to analyze it. I just try to let the events in the book wash over me and absorb myself in them. As such, I allow myself to be surprised by events that occur later in the book, which if I were analyzing it would be obvious. There are several characters that have appeared in the story which are making it pretty, dang obvious that certain other events will take place later.

I realize that sounds vague, but I don’t want to include any spoilers in my reviews so you’ll just have to live with it. When I’ve finished the book; I’ll either post another review and let you know if I was right or I’ll come back to this one and add a comment.