Things I've Noticed: Sometimes it's easy to forget the books you want to read

As we begin counting down the hours left of 2010, I started thinking of the books that came out this year I haven't got around to reading yet, the ones I mean to read but simply haven't had the time to check out.

Here are the four books of 2010 I haven't got around to yet, and am really looking forward to reading.

Blue-Eyed Devil and Painted Ladies by Robert B. Parker

I came to Parker late, reading his first novel in August of 2006, but from that point on, I read one of his books a month until 2009, when I caught up with his current books. Basically they are detective stories, featuring either Spenser (the basis for Spenser for Hire), Jesse Stone or Sunny Randall. All of his books are a fun read and as he passed away earlier this year, I've both been looking forward to, and dreading reading his last few works. I know I'll like them, but I'll be sad when there won't be any more new ones for me.

I Shall Wear Midnight, by Terry Pratchett

I started reading Terry Pratchett books in June of 2005, again at the rate of one a month and if you've never tried any of his books, definitely give them a shot - they are just the perfect mix of comedy and fantasy, and they also happened to inspire my online name, Bookmonkey00k. This book is the fourth in a series focusing on a young witch called Tiffany and her varied adventures.

The Last Run, by Greg Rucka

Over the last few years, my tastes in non-genre works have moved into the spy genre. Earlier this year my wife and I watched possibly the coolest spy series I've ever seen; The Sandbaggers, a gritty '70s era show out of the UK focusing on the people who send out the people on the missions that help keep the world safe (if you haven't seen it, the series is definitely worth a viewing). Comic book wise, I took the time this year to read Greg Rucka's Queen & Country series, which, after telling a story through four large graphic novels, moved into a couple of prose novels to wrap things up. In October, the latest book in his series has come out, and I'll definitely be checking it out in January.

Genre Character of the week: Leo Graf

One kind of character I don’t see enough of in genre fiction is the problem solver. There are a lot of leaders and fighters out there, but not so many guys who are just working to get the job done. I guess the most famous one is Montgomery Scott from Star Trek, as he tended to be the guy focused on getting the ship to go, but there aren’t a lot of others like him out there, especially as main characters; which bring me to this week’s genre character, Leo Graf.

The main character of the novel Falling Free, by Lois McMaster-Bujold, is a welder. He’s been hired to go out to a remote space station and train a bunch of people of the techniques of welding in zero gravity, and upon arrival finds the students are actually a bunch of genetically modified humans called quaddies (they’ve got two sets of arms and no legs), who in addition to being his students are also all under the age of twenty.

Leo gets himself busy training these kids and even though he’s incredibly focused on getting the job done, he can’t help but notice some nasty trends going on – like for starters, these kids are genetic property of a company (considered "post-fetal experimental tissue cultures" for legal reasons) and therefore don’t actually have any rights, which makes them pretty disposable if anything bad were to happen.

Inevitably something does, and then Leo Graf makes a desicion, basically he does what needs to be done and he becomes one of my favourite characters in Science Fiction. If you've never read Falling Free, I strongly recommend it.

Movie Review: Gulliver's Travels

Happy Boxing Day everyone!

Last night my family continued our Christmas day tradition of going out to see a movie in the evening. The audience is virtually non-existent (there were less than a dozen people in the theatre), the walk outside is nice and it's a fun thing to do as a family. We saw the film Gulliver's Travels and It got me thinking of movie adaptations.

I read the original novel last year and other than the idea of a giant man visiting with tiny people and later giant people, there isn't a lot in there for kids. The novel is a satire and pokes a lot of fun at various forms of government, then the question of ancient versus modern knowledge and finally a question of whether man in inherently corrupt or corruptible. Also (mild spoiler) the end is not a happy one for Lemuel Gulliver.

The movie, on the other hand, is definitely aimed at kids, is a re-imagining of the story, taking place in modern-day and has a focus on the importance of self-confidence. It focuses largely on the first section of the novel (the second, wherein Gulliver meets people who are as big to him as he was to the Lilliputians, is touched on briefly), and overall was a lot of fun. I enjoyed how the Lilliputians were played as kind of silly and living their lives as they assumed people should live (a kidnapping scene early in the film was pretty hilarious). Although the film had a few dark points (an apparent on-screen death and a chilling off-screen one), the family had a lot of fun.

In the end I wouldn't necessarily change much of the film, adapting a satire for kids is pretty tricky and the later parts of the novel only really work if the audience has a lot of world knowledge (being knowledge of the world in the 1700s when the book was written), so I imagine there wouldn't be a lot there for kids. As a Christmas movie, it was fun, and that's about all I can say.

A quick side-note, for people taking their kids to see the movie, it might be good if the kids have seen The Empire Strikes Back and (if they're old enough, Titanic) as the movie gives spoilers to both.

Things I've noticed: Countdowns can be fun!

Merry Christmas Eve everyone!

As we are approaching the end of 2010 (eight days and counting), I am happily working through the various things I’ve borrowed from friends to try and return them for the New Year.

Currently my list of borrowed materials is a simple three items, and I’ll do my best to return them before the year is out.

1. Dorian Gray - the 2009 gothic horror adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s classic novel, starring Ben Barnes and Colin Firth, this film has sat on my gotta see it for almost a year now. Luckily my good friend the Edmonton Public Library (or if you prefer my wife’s name, my girlfriend – as in “Your Girlfriend called!” referring to the automatic messaging system which lets me know when one of my hold items is available), had a copy on hand and for the next week it belongs to me. Now, is the story of an immoral immortal a pre- or post-Christmas story?

2.The Avengers - The Emma Peel DVD megaset, featureing every episode of the Avengers featuring Diana Rigg as Emma Peel. This was loaned to me by my friend Ron and so far it’s been one of my surprise favourites of 2010. I’ve got a few discs into the colour episodes and so far they are pretty great.

3. Super Mario Galaxy 2, leant to me by my younger brother a few months back, I’ve finished the game, but am now collecting Green Stars for the second, secret ending (and yes I know I could just watch it on Youtube, but what’s the point if you haven’t earned it yourself?).

In the end no one will be annoyed at me if I run a little late – except for the library, which will charge me a dollar a day for overdue DVDs, but my hope is to finish everything up in the next week and a half!

Genre Character of the Week:Quorra

Last Saturday I went to see the film Tron Legacy with my younger daughter and a friend of hers, as well as my BFF Mike. Although the movie was a little short on story, it was big on wish fulfillment (as to why Sam hasn’t seen his father in 20 years) and action, also the effects were pretty cool. The standout character for me, however was the love interest for Sam, Quorra (pictured above).

When we first meet her, Quorra (played by Olivia Wilde) is saving Sam’s life (a pretty awesome introduction in any action film). She is quickly introduced as Kevin Flynn’s (Sam’s father and the main character of the movie Tron) assistant.

Now the tricky thing for me is to explain why I liked the character without going into spoilers. Basically she’s loyal and pretty much an innocent – although she is a creation of the grid, she is willing to back Sam’s father even into exile, not something I would necessarily do in her shoes. Past that, all I can say is that the concept behind her character was my second favourite thing about the movie (right after the score, which was amazing).

Book Review: Stand on Zanzibar

Last week I took some time to read Stand on Zanzibar, a 1969 science fiction novel by John Brunner, dealing with a dystopian future and issues of overpopulation.

The book had a lot of really interesting features: first the structure, each chapter fell into one of four categories, either focusing on the main narrative, supporting characters who show up later in the book, conversations had either by the main characters or other denizens of the world and finally chapters made up of slogans, news clippings, speech excerpts, etc. In the end the effect is to create an incredibly dense world where the reader gets a pretty comprehensive view of the state of the world in this setting.

The main characters are two roommates, one a VP for a major company and the other a trust fund layabout who is a lot more than he seems. Almost the first two thirds of the book is set up, but when you move into the last act of the book everything starts moving very quickly.

My favourite bits (not to be misunderstood as things I would necessarily like in our world), include 1) a television adaptation wherein the audience can have their own images/voices imprinted over the main characters in television series, news stories, films, etc., called Mr. And Mrs. Everywhere, 2) the concept of Muckers – being people who have gone Amok and basically start killing everyone around them, and how these psychotics are becoming a problem the world over, and finally 3) the fact that one of the supporting characters, Chad C. Mulligan seems to be a pre-curser to one of my favourite comic book characters Spider Jerusalem.

The book took me about a week and a half to read, but in the end was definitely worth the effort.

Things I've Noticed: Good things come to those who wait

For years now I've been holding off some of my favourite Holiday films from my kids - mostly due to age. A few years ago I got to show my oldest daughter my favourite Christmas movie of all time, and this year I get to show it to my youngest.

Waiting for my kids to be age appropriate has been pretty rough, as many of my favourite holiday films are not for kids, but this year I can finally show them all of my favourite (except for Bad Santa - I love that movie but my kids will only be allowed to watch it when I'm no longer in a position to stop them.)

So this year we get to see three of my favourites, and for your reading pleasure here they are:

1. Die Hard - best Christmas movie ever, seriously, I cannot think of a better film to get the holiday cheer rolling. You have holiday songs, explosions, and machine guns.

2. Gremlins - second favourite Christmas movie, gifts, mogwai, references to The Time Machine, and a young Corey Feldman! Man, Horror mixes well with every season.

3. National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation - I don't even know where to start with this one, Grizwalds, the best sledding scene ever and one heck of a Turkey.

Honestly one of the best parts of my kids growing up is no matter what age they are, I've got all sorts of genre stuff I get to show them!