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Evolution by Stephen Baxter is an astonishing piece of work. If you liked Walking With Dinousars/Beasts/Man then you'll appreciate the amount of research gone into this most epic of stories, and the translation of fossil record to narrative. Wow. Just wow. 762 pages of wow. I liked it and I was *impressed* by it.

Contains spoilers about the future of the human race )
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Even less than a review than usual of Acorna's children: Third Watch by Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Ann Scarborough. I advise fans to stop reading (this post, not necessarily the book which you might like) after the first sentence.

Read more... )
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Today I finished reading Great Working Horse Stories by Angela Goode (Allen and Unwin 2009), which was a Christmas present from Mum. I've been nibbling away at it for a while because it's a huge collection of hundreds of Australian anecdotes, some as short as a few hundred words.

Read more... )

New NewWho

Apr. 25th, 2010 08:46 pm
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Being on a FTA broadcast schedule I've just now seen the second New New Doctor Who (XI) and feel sufficiently qualified to comment. And without being too specific about any of it: Read more... )
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It's been a dot point kind of day, so I'll make less of an effort than usual at grammar. Sometimes I feel obliged; tonight, not so much.

Read more... )
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I got a bit ahead of myself and posted an in-progress not-a-review of The Rookie by Scott Sigler here. I've finished the book now--it certainly qualifies as a page-turner--and the news is still good.

I don't think there are any serious spoilers here )
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Carried away by what felt like a rare opportunity, I picked up Rookie by Scott Sigler at Swancon. I didn't mean to, because while I like aliens (and by extension space travel) I'm not that familiar with american football. I am, however a fan of milfic, and so this sporting tale presses enough military buttons to keep me reasonably interested if not intimately aware of the significance of every play. Tim Powers has written several poker-heavy books where I have the same problem, but as long as I can get a feel for the shapes, the ebbs and flows of the action, that is enough. Sigler has managed this quite well.

Read more... )

ED: And now I've finished it the final cut is here: http://stephbg.livejournal.com/517148.html
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*Usual review disclaimer, plus declaration of interest that I am acquainted and/or friends with a number of people involved in this book's production. Not that that would slow me down any.*

Scary Kisses edited by Liz Gryzb (Ticonderoga Press) is a collection of short stories of a paranormal romance/dark fantasy bent. The bent bits are the best bits :-)

Read more... )
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* usual not-a-review disclaimer blah blah blah it's-all-about-me blah blah blah*

I didn't quite know what to expect from A Book of Endings by Deborah Biancotti. Off the top of my head most of the other Twelfth Planet Press publications I've read have been pulpy and/or noirish, and so I just let this one flow over me. I also don't recall having read anything by Biancotti herself, so there were no expectations there. Short story authors don't tend to stick in my head.

Read more... )
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I'm not quite sure where to begin in this record of my impressions of Scott Sigler's Ancestor. Let's get out of the way that it's a Jurassic Park ripoff. Maybe ripoff is too harsh but the comparisons are undeniable: Genetic Experiment Goes Awry On Small Island Resulting In A Mismatched Group Of Scientists et al Being Hunted Down By Monsters Whilst Isolated From The Outside By Harsh Weather Conditions. Let's throw in some industrial espionage and a lot of guns and...

Hmmm. Maybe "ripoff" isn't too harsh after all.

More thoughts, including spoilery ones )
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I've just watched a not terribly inspiring or educational documentary on the ABC called I, Psychopath, although to be fair it worked reasonably well as a behind-the-scenes-why-we-couldn't-make-the-documentary DVD extra. One thing, however, caught my attention.

Read more, but just warning you I unexpectedly wander into personal gender perceptions )
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In common with large chunks of fandom (now there's an image) I went to the cinema to see the three Star Wars prequels when they first came out. Ever since then I've been meaning to watch them again, for surely it was only the weight of my expectations that made them seem so awful? Yes, III was better than II, and II must have been better than I. But compared to IV, V and VI they were appalling.

I never did watch them again, despite multiple opportunities to do so. The re-release of Star Wars IV: A New Hope* didn't exactly boost my faith in George Lucas, so I was left with my bitter memories of the new trilogy unsullied by repeat viewings. I haven't yet managed to watch The Phantom Menace again all the way through, but last night I bravely parked myself on the couch and watched The Attack of the Clones and the start of Revenge of the Sith, finishing the latter this afternoon.

So, here are some of my deeply disorganised thoughts on Star Wars II and III. I figure the organised thoughts have long since been taken care of by other people.

It's a trap! )
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I happened to be in the right place at the right time to take a look at the ABC kid's program In The Night Garden. I'd heard it was especially weird, although claiming weirdness for children's programming is a bit like shooting fish in a barrel, and besides, I've not got much basis for comparison. But whoa, WTF?

Read more... )
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We've been watching a lot of The Outer Limits lately, but the episodes tend to blur together. I think the following outline covers most of them.

The Outer Limits generic shooting script

VO: Since the Dawn of Time, Man has searched for understanding blah blah space is infinite blah blah. Woo spooky.

Read more... )

Avatar

Jan. 4th, 2010 06:17 pm
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Avatar was, in a word, pretty. On balance I liked it, but it wasn't a complete triumph by any means.

In other (spoilery) words... )
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Teehee. Read more... )
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I really really really wanted to like the premiere of Stargate: Universe (SGU), and in theory it was an attractive proposition with spaceships and guns, and the involvement of John Scalzi, although sadly not as a writer.

And did I really really really like it? )
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My faith in the teen vampire romance genre has been restored. Actually, I started with none, and went into heavy negative territory with Twilight. Unless you count Buffy/Angel/Spike. But I digress, the two Evernight Academy books Evernight and Stargazer by Claudia Gray are infintiely superior to that Twilight trash. I must thank [livejournal.com profile] leecetheartist for pressing them upon me, for although I value her opinion (which was that they were awesome), I was not really interested in going there.

Cut but not for spoilers )
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The film Stage Beauty has been on my to-see list for aaaaaaages, but I'd long since stopped looking for it at the local video shops. Yes, there's Planet Everything, but the 2 or 3 times I'd gone there with intent it hadn't been there. And so over time I forgot, but it's just finished on the ABC (thank you ABC!) and it was spoiler alert )
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I wasn't fit for anything today but more bulky teen vampire romance, so after another marathon session I've come to the end of the Twilight saga. And now I get it.

Twilight
New Moon
Eclipse
Breaking Dawn )

The reading pile

The apparently infamous fanfic

ETA: And multiple posts of awesomeness explaining just how mormon the whole thing is (much worse than I'd feared), starting here.

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