reviews

WIJFR: Cradle and All

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In the midst of a series of unexplained plagues and famines, two teenage girls are heavily pregnant, despite being virgins. According to the sacred prophecies of Fatima, one will bear the child of Christ and the other, the spawn of Satan. Both Anne Fitzgerald, a former nun turned private detective, and the Vatican’s Father Rosetti are sent to investigate. But which girl carries which child?

So I just finished James Patterson’s “Cradle and All” and, well, I was unimpressed. Patterson originally published this story in 1980 as “Virgin” and then updated it and re-published it more recently under the new title.

In a nutshell, there are two teenage, virgin, girls who are almost 9 months pregnant: one rich and well off in Rhode Island and the other a poor country girl in Ireland. Meanwhile, all around the world there have been outbreaks of disease, terrible droughts, and other signs of a pending apocalypse (if you’ve ever seen “The Seventh Sign” you’ll get the picture). The book jumps back and forth between third- and first-person narratives (which apparently Patterson does a lot in his writing). The chapters in first-person are told by Anne, the former nun turned private investigator who is asked to investigate Kathleen, the pregnant girl in Newport. Meanwhile, Father Rosetti, from the Vatican, checks out Colleen in Ireland. Eventually Anne’s and Rosetti’s paths will cross as both investigators try to determine which girl is carrying the supposed savior and which will give birth to evil.

Have read other semi-religious thrillers like Dan Brown’s “Angels and Demons” or “The DaVinci Code,” or even more recently Patrick Tilley’s “Mission,” I just wasn’t that thrilled or intrigued by “Cradle and All.” It was easy enough to read, so I finished it (I hate not finishing a book once I start it), but it was nothing fantastic or riveting.

I’m going back to hardcore SF for my next few reads: Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars trilogy.

WIJFR: Black Friday

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A courageous federal agent, a powerful and resourceful woman lawyer–only they can possibly stop the unspeakable from happening. New York City is under siege by a secret militia group–and that’s just the beginning of the relentless terror of Black Friday. While Patterson’s thriller is slightly out-of-date with its Cold War setting, it remains dramatically contemporary in its vision of a stock market thrown into chaos when a group of saboteurs blows up several Wall Street institutions.

Taking a break from my recent run of science fiction and fantasy books, I found an old (but unread by me) copy of James Patterson’s novel “Black Friday” (originally titled “Black Market”) on my bookshelf and decided to give it a go. Like the excerpt I included above mentions, the Cold War setting is a bit outdated, but considering Patterson wrote this book in the mid-80s, before 9-11 and the current economic crisis, it still seems timely and feasible.

The story opens with terrorists threatening to destroy a large swath of Wall Street in New York City that Friday evening. At first I figured the bulk of the novel would be about trying to stop the bombings (and find out who was behind them) but just pages in, boom the buildings of major financial companies (banks, etc.) in the Manhattan financial district are gone. With the threat of the collapse of the entire Western economic system hanging above their heads, anti-terrorist agent Archer Carroll and SEC investigator Caitlin Dylan find themselves traveling around the globe trying to unravel the mystery of Green Band: who are they and what do they really want?

WIJFR: Outcast of Redwall

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When ferret Swartt Sixclaw and his arch enemy Sunflash the Mace swear a pledge of death upon each other, a young creature is cruelly banished from the safety of Redwall. As he grows, he seeks revenge on the people of Redwall and finds himself embroiled in a hostile battle with far-reaching consequences.

I’ve finished the last of the Redwall novels I will be reading, “Outcast of Redwall.” As I mentioned in my last post, the repeating formula is getting tiresome for me. My daughter will probably continue to read the rest of the novels, but I’ll just have to hear what goes on from her.

This installment of the series probably should have had a different title: Veil the ferret almost seems like a secondary character. He’s not even the titular “outcast” until about 170 pages in! The main thrust of the story revolves around the badger lord Sunflash the Mace (son of Bella from “Mossflower“) and Swartt Sixclaw the ferret warlord as they try to track each other down. The usual supporting cast of creatures is present, as is the secondary storyline that eventually ties into the main plot. The extra variable in the formula is Veil: a (archtypically evil) ferret raised by the peaceful creatures of Redwall Abbey. Will he end up being good, or evil (does his name give that surprise away?).

That’s really all I have to say about this one …

Two thumbs up for “Up”

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Today on Father’s Day we went and saw the latest Disney Pixar movie, “Up.” It’s an amazing stat: every one of Pixar’s movies have been consecutive hits. “Up” is the 10th and it keeps the streak going.

From a technical standpoint, once again the animation quality is incredible. Clouds, fire, sweeping vistas, the physics in a group of balloons … you’ll forget you’re watching something generated on a computer. And the 3D? It was cool … it wasn’t full of “in your face, try to make you jump” 3D effects, just added depth to these amazingly beautiful scenes. The entire movie wasn’t in 3D either (as my daughter attested to because some scenes “weren’t blurry” when she took her glasses off … I confirmed this myself) but wearing the glasses the whole time wasn’t really distracting at all.

What about the story? Let’s just say that the first 10 minutes is pretty powerful, emotional storytelling (moreso even than the first half of “Wall-E“). You might find yourself tearing up a bit …

Some random thoughts:

  • this is the first time I can recall seeing blood (twice, no less!) in a Pixar film
  • John Ratzenberger keeps his streak alive
  • squirrel!
  • caught a few Star Wars references
  • why does every young woman in a Pixar film (i.e., Ellie)  look like Elastigirl?
  • I want a few of those dog collars for my own pups 🙂

Strange cloud-related side note: one of the previews shown was for “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs,” the Pixar short before the film was “Partly Cloudy” and then the film itself had a lot of clouds in it. Coincidences?

WIJFR: Eastern Standard Tribe

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Cory Doctorow’s Eastern Standard Tribe is a soothsaying jaunt into the not-so-distant future, where 24/7 communication and chatroom alliances have evolved into tribal networks that secretly work against each other in shadowy online realms. The novel opens with its protagonist, the peevish Art Berry, on the roof of an asylum. He wonders if it’s better to be smart or happy. His crucible is a pencil up the nose for a possible “homebrew lobotomy.” To explain Art’s predicament, Doctorow flashes backward and slowly fills in the blanks.

My latest e-book read was Cory Doctorow’s “Eastern Standard Tribe” (actually I finished his group of short stories, “A Place So Foreign and Eight More” a while back but I guess I forgot to post about it, oh well!).

“Eastern Standard Tribe” tells the story of Art, a UE (user experience) consultant and member of the EST tribe (meaning his loyalties are to those people living in the eastern standard time zone and he tries he schedules his life accordingly). One part of the story takes place in the “present” and is told in the first-person: this is Art currently in the mental institution. The other part of the story takes place in the “past” and is told in the third-person: this is Art and the series of events that culminate in his being placed into the asylum.

In this semi-futuristic world, some people are double agents pretending to be a member of a different tribe (say, GMT or PST) so they can slowly undermine the competiting tribe from the inside. In Art’s particular case, he is working for a client in London (GMT) and his proposal is not so off-target that the client won’t accept it, but off enough so that overall the project will fail and he can sell the better version to a different client back in his own EST tribe (trust me, Doctorow does a better job of laying this out than I do).

Each chapter alternates back and forth between the present Art in the nuthouse and the actions in the past that Art was involved in with his partner and girlfriend. Both storylines intertwine as we slowly put together the whole picture of Art’s fate. It was a good read.

Next up on my e-book list: Doctorow’s “Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town.”

Vizio VECO320L 32″ LCD HDTV

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Vizio VECO32LWe’ve been transforming our guest bedroom into a combination guest bedroom/exercise/game room. The TV in that room was an old silver 13″ Magnavox tube that just wasn’t going to work for playing Rock Band 2 on the Wii, so I started shopping for a new flat screen television.

While I wasn’t specifically looking for a white display, once I found the Vizio VECO320L 32″ LCD HDTV it made perfect sense: it was a good size for the armoire and matched the white furniture in the room.

I couldn’t find the VECO320L locally in any store, so I ended up ordering it from target.com (with free shipping). It arrived earlier this week so I set it all up and then moved the Wii over from the family room. I don’t have a spare TiVo (yet?) to hook up to the new TV, but the built-in ATSC tuner is pulling in all the clear QAM HD channels over my Brighthouse cable service (and they look pretty good).

Vizio touts the VECO320L as an EnergyStar 3.0 compliant “green” display that uses 15% less energy. According to my Kill-a-Watt, the VECO320L uses about 65W while running (the manual states an 85W average). While I have no other 32″ LCD displays to compare that to, my Sony 23″ LCD uses 53 watts while powered on (110W max) and my Panasonic 42″ plasma gobbles a whopping 225W while running (with a listed max of 395W!). No surprise there, though, as plasmas are known to be power hogs. In standby mode the Panasonic uses 18W whereas the new Vizio uses 0.4W when “off” (which makes me wish the Panasonic had a true off mode).

It’s only been a few days, but so far I’m very happy with our new TV.

WIJFR: The Bellmaker

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Vicious Foxwolf, Urgan Nagru–a fox who long ago discovered the body of a wolf and skinned it to wear as his own–is holding the young Mariel and Dandin captive. The pair are at the mercy of the evil despot and have only one hope of survival. But can they really count on the legendary freedom fighter, Martin the Warrior, to come to their rescue?

On my flight to New York the other week I finished the next of Brian Jacques’ Redwall novels, “The Bellmaker.”

Mariel and Dandin, who were the central characters in “Mariel of Redwall,” along with Mariel’s father Joseph (the titular Bellmaker) make a re-appearance in this book, along with some other characters from that story. Whereas the previous book, “Martin the Warrior” took place in the farth north of Jacques’ world, most of this one takes place in a new area to the south known as Southsward.

Some seasons have passed since Mariel and Dandin left Redwall in search of adventure and Joseph is worried about what has become of them. In a dream, Martin the Warrior instructs Joseph (through the typical set of riddles) to leave the Abbey with a few companions and search them out to the south.

Meanwhile, Mariel and Dandin have become entangled in a siege of Castle Floret. Once ruled by the squirrel king Gael, it has been taken over by the foxwolf Urgan Nagru and his vermin horde (sound familiar?). Mariel, Dandin, and the usual cast of hares, shrews, mice, otters, moles, etc. etc. attempt to drive the horde from the castle … but will Joseph and his crew arrive in time to help them?

I have to admit now that I’m seven books deep into this series that it’s starting to get a little tiresome and repetitive. As mentioned in the wiki article on the Redwall series (which closely mirrors what I have said before):

Many reviewers have also criticized the Redwall series for repetition and predictability, citing “recycled” plot lines and Jacques’ tendency to follow a “pattern to the dot.” Of course, other reviewers note that such predictable “ingredients” may be what “makes the Redwall recipe so consistently popular.” Although the series does not continue to break new ground, it does provide satisfying adventures with “comforting, predictable conclusions for its fans.”

J.K. Rowling did the same thing with her Harry Potter books, but they were a lot more intriguing for some reason. I started reading the series with my daughter just over a year ago and continued reading it so we had something shared to do. We don’t read them together out loud anymore, and she hasn’t really waited for me to catch up any longer, so by the time I finish a book she’s already read a few more beyond it. It’s still fun to discuss them with her (and she still loves reading them over and over), but I’m feeling less of a desire to continue reading them myself (we’re not even halfway through the entire series!). I’ve already started “Outcast of Redwall” but I think that might be my last foray into the world of Redwall for a time.

Star Trekkin’, JJ Abrams style

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We wrapped up work a bit early today (Memorial Day) so I decided to walk over to Times Square and catch the new Star Trek movie. I’m a fan of the original series and I have to say I was skeptical of what this “90210” version of Star Trek was going to be like.

Well, I really enjoyed it. You can’t have a good Trek movie without lots of space battles, explosions on the bridge, and some sort of time travel. Luckily, this movie has all of that and more. Some random thoughts (warning, possible spoilers ahead):

  • nice opening sequence! off to a good start …
  • Vulcan bullies? Bullying doesn’t seem logical.
  • why don’t Romulans ever look consistent in any of the movies or shows?
  • love the look of the Enterprise: classic and yet updated and modern
  • the audience is cheering and applauding at every classic line
  • umm, Spock and Uhura … WTF? 😮
  • Spock’s Sylar moment

And some final, longer, thoughts.

On the matter of red matter: anyone who was a fan of JJ Abram’s “Alias” television series must have about choked on their popcorn like I did when Nero’s red matter turned out to be nothing other than a Mueller device! At that point I just about expected Sydney Bristow to show up (dressed as a Romulan agent of course) and start kicking ass. Maybe the smoke monster from “Lost” should have had a cameo as well! 😀

As for the reboot: I haven’t read a lot about this (and I don’t want to put in any blatant spoilers) but it seems clear to me that this is a reboot of the franchise and obviously the vehicle for more sequels to come. The methods they used to achieve this will probably anger or alienate some classic Trek fans, but I think it was a neat way to do it. It probably helps that I already went through this kind of anxiety with Ronald D. Moore’s re-imagining of Battlestar Galactica. I loved the original series as a kid and really hated the pilot movie for the new series when it aired in 2003. The Cylons look like humans? Special effects cop-out! Starbuck and Boomer are girls!? I don’t think so. I almost didn’t watch the series at all (in fact, I was right here in New York, on a similar business trip when I watched the first three episodes on my laptop because I had nothing else to do!). I’m glad I did, though, because it turned out to be a fantastic, gripping show (well, except for the end). I can see the same thing happening to this new series of Trek movies. And as long as they’re still fun and exciting, I’ll keep going to see them … the even-numbered ones, anyway. 😉

WIJFR: Slaughterhouse-Five

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Kurt Vonnegut’s absurdist classic Slaughterhouse-Five introduces us to Billy Pilgrim, a man who becomes unstuck in time after he is abducted by aliens from the planet Tralfamadore. In a plot-scrambling display of virtuosity, we follow Pilgrim simultaneously through all phases of his life, concentrating on his (and Vonnegut’s) shattering experience as an American prisoner of war who witnesses the firebombing of Dresden.

“Listen: Billy Pilgrim has become unstuck in time.” Ever since I read “Cat’s Cradle” several years ago, “Slaughterhouse-Five”  has been on my To Read list and I finally got around to it.

The main plot thread of the story follows Billy as he is captured by German soldiers in World War II and transported to Dresden, where eventually he and his fellow POWs (now residents of Schlachthof-funf) survive the Allied forces’ fire-bombing of the city.

Weaved in and out of that main plotline, we follow Billy as he jumps around in time after being abducted by the Tralfamadorians who experience time not as a linear event, but all at once, and thus have no concept of “free will” or being able to change the “future.” This has an profound effect on Billy who now knows how he is going to die (since he has already jumped forward to witness that event) but will do nothing to stop it.

It was slightly disjointing to read as each chapter consists of small sections of the story, maybe a paragraph or two, then jumps to a different part of the story, giving you a sensation similar to how Billy Pilgrim must have felt as he jumped around in time. Plus, I was reading it in bits and pieces to begin with. So it goes.

WIJFR: Childhood’s End

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The Overlords appeared suddenly over every city — intellectually, technologically, and militarily superior to humankind. Benevolent, they made few demands: unify earth, eliminate poverty, and end war. With little rebellion, humankind agreed, and a golden age began. But at what cost? With the advent of peace, man ceases to strive for creative greatness, and a malaise settles over the human race. To those who resist, it becomes evident that the Overlords have an agenda of their own. As civilization approaches the crossroads, will the Overlords spell the end for humankind … or the beginning?

The latest book I just finished was Arthur C. Clarke’s classic “<a href=”https://www.amazon.com/Childhoods-End-Del-Rey-Impact/dp/0345444051/175-8959758-0201461/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&amp&amp&amp&ref_=as_li_ss_tl&amp&linkCode=ll1&tag=chmod64409-20&linkId=024c2bc7f417adf33a07fe59c4311ef4&language=en_US” rel=Nofollow”>Childhood’s End.” Like a few of the other books I’ve read lately, I picked this up as a recommendation from Leo Laporte and Steve Gibson on their Security Now! podcast (it was their Audible pick-of-the-week back in episode #172).

I’ve decided I’m pretty bad at writing these kind of reviews. I can think of all sorts of things to write about while I’m reading, but then when I’m done and it’s time to actually put words down, I come up empty. There are plenty of reviews of these books out there, so what’s the use of another one from me? I’ll just stick to my random thoughts and observations.

I saw a lot of things in Clarke’s book that might have influenced later works, such as:

  • In the opening pages, enormous spaceships suddenly appear over every major city of the planet. Picture the opening sequence of “Independence Day” (Clarke even mentions that in his Foreword).
  • In the second part (“The Golden Age”) there is a community of people living on the remote island of New Athens who are trying to bring the creative arts back from its pre-Overlords heyday (basically a new age commune). This reminded me a lot of the Dharma Initiative in “Lost.”

Here’s one of my favorite passages from the book (I actually marked the page when I read it so I would remember to mention it here):

Do you realize that every day something like five hundred hours of radio and TV pour out over the various channels? If you went without sleep and did nothing else, you could follow less than a twentieth of the entertainment that’s available at the turn of a switch! No wonder that people are becoming passive sponges — absorbing but never creating. Did you know that the average viewing time per person is now three hours a day? Soon people won’t be living their own lives anymore. It will be a full-time job keeping up with the various family serials on TV!

Keep in mind that was written in 1952. Today, of course, the average daily viewing time is much higher (we have DVRs, cell phones, the internet, etc.) making that last line more true than ever.