Asylum's Age Of Dinosaurs Actually Looking Quite Good?

So with the news that Jurassic Park IV has got a director lined up (Colin Trevorrow, famous for Safety Not Guaranteed [which I tried to watch just a few days before the announcement but couldn't get into it]), things are firming up on that front. But that movie is still over a year away, whereas The Asylum's latest pic Age of Dinosaurs is due in a little over a month.

The Asylum movies are, generally, rubbish. Don't get me wrong... I've watch most of them. And enjoyed a few (Hello Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus!). But they are not usually something to get excited about. Their mockbusters are the worst part of their output. However Age of Dinosaurs (released as a mockbuster to Jurassic Park 3D) is looking interesting. The special effects look like some of the best from The Asylum so far (not hard I hear you cry!). Take a look at the trailer and judge for yourself.

Review: A Meeting At Corvallis By S.M. Stirling

The final book in the first Emberverse trilogy, A Meeting At Corvallis is all about the long-awaited War of the Eye between the Bear Killers, Mackenzies and their allies and the Portland Protective Association.

This book is full of fights and battles which can sometimes be a bit hard going when faced with Stirling's habit of describing every minor detail of every minor character's battle dress and weaponry. But it also has plenty of political intrigue, character development and world-building which keeps it interesting.

It is a good read, but I found the ending a little predictable and a bit of a let down. After all these "minor" battles we are denied a final reckoning and instead have an ending that bears no small resemblance to the ending of Kevin Costner's "The Postman". *sigh*

And I wasn't a fan of the death of one of my favourite characters.

However I'm too far in to stop now. The Emberverse has me in its grip. Onwards to The Sunrise Lands.

The Leftovers

Ever wondered what might actually happened to the world is the Rapture occurred? The Leftovers is a far more interesting take on a post-Rapture world than Left Behind could ever be.

Set three years after the Great Disappearance, The Leftovers focuses on what happens to one family who survived it. Now I was expecting this to be at the very least "minor league" fantasy but really this isn't science fiction, fantasy or any other exotic genre... it's a book about emotions, relationships and family breakdown. Yet I still liked it.

Do not go into this book thinking it will explain the Great Disappearance/Rapture. That event is just all Alien Space Bats. The drama comes simply from the relationships between people and the never quite knowing where things are heading for the main characters.

Weird enough to be interesting, but well-written enough to be readable, The Leftovers will be fighting for top spot on my favourite books of 2013 list.

Great stuff.

Orson Scott Card, Superman And The Well-Meaning Mob

Orson Scott Card. Where does one start? A talented writer. A dedicated Latter-day Saint. And not a very nice man. And not just because of his rather severe stance on LGBT issues. He often comes across as the sort of person one just wouldn't want as an acquaintance let alone as a friend. Of course that is a matter of personal taste I suppose, and there is no accounting for that!

He has been hired by DC Comics to write a new Superman series, Adventures of Superman. And it hasn't gone down well.

Some people are saying they will boycott the comic. That is quite fair, even forgetting about some "high-minded principle" I often find it hard to enjoy fiction when I don't really like the personal beliefs of the writer. Dean R Koontz is an example of that. I loved his stuff but once I discovered he was a little bit fundamentalist (if there is such a thing as a "little bit fundamentalist) I've read his stuff with a little less enjoyment. I still read his stuff, as it is usually very good, but it now lacks a certain something.

But others have gone further demanding that DC "fire" him. This I feel is going a bit too far. Firstly, if enough people boycott the series then that would send a far clearer message to DC than a petition. Secondly, it all stinks of the beginnings of a "blacklist".

It wasn't that many decades ago when LGBT were banned from certain jobs. Remember the blacklist of Communists (and anyone claimed to be a Communist by pretty much anyone else) in the entertainment industry in America? If we start banning people from working within the comic industry just because they aren't very nice then where would that end? Would we be any better than McCarthy? I don't think so. It is a very worrying development and it is time we rose above this sort of mob mentality. Absolutely do not buy his comics if you don't wish to. Tell your friends, family and anyone who will listen that he is a really unkind man who deserves no monetary support. But trying to get him "blacklisted" will make him a martyr. And he's arrogant enough as it is.

Will I buy the new book? Possibly. I'll wait for the reviews and, if they are good, I'll probably give it a go. I'm a sucker for a good Superman story!

Review: A Big Hand For The Doctor By Eoin Colfer

A Big Hand For The Doctor was a good opener for the 50th Anniversary series of Doctor Who e-books written by children's authors.

But it was marred by one annoying little thing... it had three or four pop culture references (all from the 21st century) that just seem so forced (Oooo... Hogwarts) that it was actually pretty jarring. Here's this nice little tale set in Victorian London featuring the First Doctor and Susan and suddenly BAM you are taken out of the story by an unnecessary reference.

Anyway, enough grumbling, it was a lovely little tale with some disturbing villains and a fantastic ending that I did not see coming (but once you know what it is, it is pretty obvious!).

Do Doctor Who Fans Really Have Anything To Worry About In This 50th Anniversary Year?

Much has been made on fan forums of this picture of a BBC Worldwide promotional poster taken at a toy convention.

After Steven Moffat suggested Doctor Who would take over TV for the anniversary I would say fans could be justifiably miffed at the paltry offerings on display. But I'd caution that 1) Doctor Who producers are infamous liars and should never be trusted and 2) we don't know that that is everything on offer. 

Unfortunately a lot of fans seem to be losing their heads over this. I suppose, because I became a Doctor Who fan in the wildnerness years of the early 90s, I'm a little more willing to accept whatever I'm given. But even if we get nothing more than what has already been announced I really don't think Doctor Who fans have anything to be complaining about. 

So we've got 8 standard episodes of Doctor Who series 7 to come. A 50th anniversary special and An Adventure in Space and Time which dramatises the production of the first series of Doctor Who. Plus we get  11 Doctor Who audio stories in the form of the Destiny of the Doctor (starting this month with Hunters of Earth). And we get a Big Finish multi-Doctor story The Light At The End featuring all 5 surviving "Classic" Doctors and multiple other Doctor Who stars. 

Big Finish are also giving us, in their main Doctor Who range, a trilogy of stories set in 1963 with the final story featuring a return of the stars of the 25th anniversary! Meanwhile their Companion Chronicles series will feature another trilogy starting in November with the first story telling the tale of the Doctor and Susan on Gallifrey before they began their adventures. 

Meanwhile in the world of books... Each month between now and November Puffin are releasing a short story by e-book written by well known children's authors. I read the first one last night, A Big Hand For The Doctor, and was suitably impressed. 

Plus IDW are printing a special 11 part series of comics featuring every Doctor and the Doctor Who Magazine has just started its own Doctor Who anniversary special comic story. 

And on top of all this we are getting other Doctor Who books, the usual Big Finish output (which is considerable) and the new IDW Doctor Who volume 3. 

So no, I think content wise this year is going to be mammoth!!

Review: Micro by Michael Crichton and Richard Preston

I bought this in my post-Christmas Amazon spree based solely on Michael Crichton's name. Then I read the reviews and was a little taken aback. Harsh is not the word!

When I was 10 years old I read my first "adult" book; Jurassic Park. I have vivid memories of reading it whenever I could, barely able to put it down (even to the point of reading it in the dark on a long car journey trying desperately to read as we went past lampposts!). Ever since, even after I found our politics didn't quite match up, I've had very fond feelings about Michael Crichton's books. When he passed away I was deeply saddened. Micro was an unfinished work and Richard Preston took over the task of finishing after Crichton's death. With the nasty reviews on Amazon fresh in my mind I started reading with a little bit of trepidation.

I needn't have worried. It does have a little bit of "unpolished" feel and it does feature Crichton's rather typically OTT villain (Denis Nedry for example) but I like it. Not loved it, but very much enjoyed the journey.

It is very much Honey I Shrunk The Kids meets Jurassic Park, featuring people shrunken to a tiny size fighting their way through a forest and encountering ants, wasps, centipedes and murderous robots. I suppose that makes it a little Innerspace too really.

As his last work (that we know of currently) it fittingly had a very Jurassic Park feel. I look forward to the movie!