Night Of The Living Trekkies

As a zombie apocalypse fan and a (recovering) Star Trek obsessive, Night of the Living Trekkies has been on my radar for a few months. But I put off getting it as I just didn't see it being all that good. How wrong could I have been?! 

Basic plot outline in one sentence: a zombie outbreak occurs during a Star Trek convention in Houston. As diehard geek, that sentence is enough to get me extremely excited indeed. But I understand it might not appeal to everyone. I say, give it a go.

The book is superbly, tightly written, with humour woven into the dialogue so well that it feels totally natural. The characters are believable and likeable. It's a short, easy read and I will say it's definitely the best book I've read this year. My only criticism would be that, for those who aren't total nerds, some of the jokes might go over the reader's head. But hey, I am a total nerd so I laughed at every one.

A must buy.


Further Reading


Night of the Living Trekkies - Kevin David Anderson (UK Book, UK Kindle, US Book, US Kindle)

Zombie Apocalypse by Stephen Jones

Full disclosure: I'm a Zombie-aholic. I've seen the movies, read the books, adored the comics and just this last two weeks raved about TV series. So when, whilst wandering through my local bookstore the other day desperate for inspiration, I saw a book entitled "Zombie Apocalypse I could not walk past. 


In retrospect, picking it up and taking it home was an excellent decision. The story is told via the medium of letters, emails, diary entries, blogposts and Twitter feeds which makes it quite disjointed but not unduly so, and is very reminiscent of World War Z by Max Brooks (not a bad thing at all). It helps create a picture of the world far more easily and quickly than a normal narrative story. 


Mixing humour, recent political and news events, horror and an underlying bleakness, the story rolls on quickly to a humourous if despairing end. I got through it in a matter of hours, which shows just how easily it grabs your attention.


You do care about the characters, you do get taken in by the story (I stopped reading half way through and was surprised to find there were no zombies trying to break down my door!) and it will leave any horror or zombie fan very satisfied indeed. 


An excellent book and one I wholeheartedly recommend. 


Further Reading 


Zombie Apocalypse! US Amazon UK Amazon

If you feel benevolent and particularly generous, this writer always appreciates things bought for him from his wishlist

Another Shark Movie... With A Controversial Budget

After yesterday's shark post, I've found another upcoming shark movie. This time it comes from Australia and looks absolutely awesome based on the trailer.



Part of this awesome factor might be because this 3D movie is receiving state funding. And that's proving controversial given the portrayal of sharks as killing machines when they are far more at risk from us than we are from them. Read more here.

Upcoming Features: Sharks

Thanks to Mega Shark Vs. Giant Octopus, we've got a lot of shark related movies coming up. As a fan of Jaws, and of sharks in general, this can only be a good thing. As long as they are better than Dinoshark anyway...

First up is the eagerly awaited Sharktopus and the B-movie lover in me got very excited after seeing this trailer:



Then next we have the less than inspiring Super Shark (it can fly... hmm...)



And finally, actually looking quite good, we have a Jaws tribute with a twist: Swamp Shark



I think Swamp Shark might just be my most eagerly awaited monster movie for the next few months... :)

The A-Team

The A-Team is far more enjoyable than Predators was. 

When I first saw the trailer for this movie, I thought it looked like total crap; cheesy and generic. But actually, apart from the rather dull ending, it's a very fun and engaging movie that holds your interest for a good while. 

Unfortunately it's let down by the lacklustre ending. If it hadn't been for that I'd put this movie as one of my favourites of the year... good acting, good script, good simple story and plenty of action. But alas, nothing's perfect. So I'd rate this a "Give it a look if you've nothing better to do". 

Predators

I'm a franchise fan. Predator was a masterpiece, Predator II was great, Aliens Vs Predator was alright and AVP:R was.... well absolutely awful but I watched it. That's how much of a fan I am. 

I've had July's release of Predators set in my diary for a while and was really looking forward to it. Alas, it turns out to be yet another bitter disappointment. 

The pacing was all wrong. In Predator, the slow parts were short and useful for building up the tension. In Predators, the slow parts of the bulk of the movie and were useful for story advancement but failed to build up the tension at all. I didn't feel the characters were in constant jeopardy, as they should have been, and I didn't feel excited or interested about their fates. Each death came with inevitability rather than surprise. Each death was in fact far from sudden. You knew it was coming. And you just don't care. 

The acting was decent, the filming alright, the overall story had promise. But the weird, glaring errors (despite being out in the open often, none of them noticed the planets above their heads until they reached a scenic clifftop setting!!) and the total lack of pacing leads this movie to be on a par with AvP. Alright but not recommended. It's worth a watch if it comes on the telly, but don't part with any hard earned money for it!

Big Brother 11: The Final Showdown

Last night was Day One for the final series of Big Brother. In a slight twist, the housemates were "chosen" on the night as sent into the house from among a group of 81 hopefuls. Our housemates, sadly, seem to be the usual sort Big Brother sends in and not the rather ordinary types (for ordinary read.. erm... porn stars, lesbian nuns and a chicken fancier) of old. I.e. FREAKS.

We have:

Josie, a loud country girl.
Steve, a former soldier who was seriously injured in Northern Ireland (just waiting to see what sort of soldier [i.e. violent pisshead or honourable defender of these isles).
Ben, POSH
Rachael, she is pretty but conceited.
Nathan, wide boy.
Dave, loony Christian (no offence to Christians, in this case the two things might be independent)
Caoimhe, erm.
Govan, camp bisexual.
Shabby, pretentious middle class muppet/alt lifestyle hero. You decide.
Ife, seems interesting
John James, Aussie randomist. Only possible totty in house.
Sunshine. Sunset
Corin, common.
Mario, the wildcard normal guy chosen at random who is to act as BB's mole in house.

So. Same old, same old. I was looking forward to this series, but it looks like it just be BB by the numbers. I hope I'm wrong.