6.29.2005
Babylon 5: Signs and Portents (Season 1)
6 disc set
Amazon site
JMS's Babylon 5 site
Overall grade: A
How could this not get an A? This is B5 for cryin' out loud! This most excellent season is where it all began. All the naive attaches, all the unnerving ambassadors, all the officers still building their relationships to each other. And of course, you can miss out on Cmdr. Sinclair, who of course, disappear right after this season, for mysterious reasons that you will only find out down the road. Babylon 5 is seriously one of the best sci-fi shows around because it takes itself seriously, but not so seriously that the characters don't have fun. The premise is that a decade after a devastating war with the superior Minbari, humans have built a space station in neutral space to act as a meeting place for commerce and diplomacy. Along with the station officers, main characters include the major ambassadors from the Minbari, Centauri, Narns, and Vorlons, as well as a commercial telepath who shows up every now and again. What is great about B5 is that it is epic in scale. You really do have to watch most every episode and every season to follow all the subplots and conspiracies through. I love it when they bring back in details or explanations down the road, and you're like "OHHH, so that's what that was about!"
Amazon site
JMS's Babylon 5 site
Overall grade: A
How could this not get an A? This is B5 for cryin' out loud! This most excellent season is where it all began. All the naive attaches, all the unnerving ambassadors, all the officers still building their relationships to each other. And of course, you can miss out on Cmdr. Sinclair, who of course, disappear right after this season, for mysterious reasons that you will only find out down the road. Babylon 5 is seriously one of the best sci-fi shows around because it takes itself seriously, but not so seriously that the characters don't have fun. The premise is that a decade after a devastating war with the superior Minbari, humans have built a space station in neutral space to act as a meeting place for commerce and diplomacy. Along with the station officers, main characters include the major ambassadors from the Minbari, Centauri, Narns, and Vorlons, as well as a commercial telepath who shows up every now and again. What is great about B5 is that it is epic in scale. You really do have to watch most every episode and every season to follow all the subplots and conspiracies through. I love it when they bring back in details or explanations down the road, and you're like "OHHH, so that's what that was about!"
Labels: genre: scifi, media: DVD
6.27.2005
Washington's General
by Terry Golway, 315pgs, hardcover
Amazon site
Official Grade: B+
Golway has pretty decent writing style, which is important in historical writing otherwise it can be mind-numbingly dull. I didn't really have any agenda behind reading this book, I just saw it at the library and picked it up. Anyway, this book is about Nathanael Greene, one of Washington's sub-generals during the Revolutionary War. Like most of the early patriots he was a pretty interesting fellow, and this book mostly details his involvement in the Continental military during the war. Though he never won any outright victories, Greene was awfully important to the army's success.
Amazon site
Official Grade: B+
Golway has pretty decent writing style, which is important in historical writing otherwise it can be mind-numbingly dull. I didn't really have any agenda behind reading this book, I just saw it at the library and picked it up. Anyway, this book is about Nathanael Greene, one of Washington's sub-generals during the Revolutionary War. Like most of the early patriots he was a pretty interesting fellow, and this book mostly details his involvement in the Continental military during the war. Though he never won any outright victories, Greene was awfully important to the army's success.
Labels: genre: historical, genre: non-fiction, media: book
Majipoor Chronicles
by Robert Silverberg, 275pgs, paperback
Amazon site
Official Grade: B-
I think this book was better than the first Majipoor novel I read. Not sure why. Maybe because it has a handful of short stories instead of one long narrative. Maybe because it looks back on some interesting stories through out the history of Majipoor and give you a view of different times and places in that world. Plot: After Hissune is elevated into his government job by the re-throned Lord Valentine, he becomes bored of the tedious work and finds amusement and education by sneaking into the archives that hold memory records from millions of people in the history of Majipoor. We learn some of their tails along with him.
Amazon site
Official Grade: B-
I think this book was better than the first Majipoor novel I read. Not sure why. Maybe because it has a handful of short stories instead of one long narrative. Maybe because it looks back on some interesting stories through out the history of Majipoor and give you a view of different times and places in that world. Plot: After Hissune is elevated into his government job by the re-throned Lord Valentine, he becomes bored of the tedious work and finds amusement and education by sneaking into the archives that hold memory records from millions of people in the history of Majipoor. We learn some of their tails along with him.
Labels: genre: fantasy, genre: fiction, media: book, series: Majipoor
Eric
by Terry Pratchett, 197pgs, paperback
Amazon site
Official Grade: A-
Series: Discworld
This maybe the shortest Discworld book I've ever read. Although it certainly takes me back to when I first discovered the books and their absolute Brit hilarity. Because this is definitely one of the older works, where there was less complicated story and more guffaws. [As a side note: this is one Discworld book that I have to be sure to keep because I got it signed by TP himself!] Plot: Rincewind is certainly not dead after his last adventures (read Sourcery) and in fact is summoned up from the other dimensions by a precocious teenage boy named Eric, who then demands his wishes be met. And somehow, they are...sort of...not really the way you'd expect.
Amazon site
Official Grade: A-
Series: Discworld
This maybe the shortest Discworld book I've ever read. Although it certainly takes me back to when I first discovered the books and their absolute Brit hilarity. Because this is definitely one of the older works, where there was less complicated story and more guffaws. [As a side note: this is one Discworld book that I have to be sure to keep because I got it signed by TP himself!] Plot: Rincewind is certainly not dead after his last adventures (read Sourcery) and in fact is summoned up from the other dimensions by a precocious teenage boy named Eric, who then demands his wishes be met. And somehow, they are...sort of...not really the way you'd expect.
Labels: genre: fantasy, genre: fiction, media: book, series: Discworld
When a Loose Cannon Flogs a Dead Horse There's the Devil to Pay
by Olivia Isil, 122pgs, paperback
Amazon site,
Official Grade: A
So I picked this book up in BC at the Nautical History Museum (which is awesome awesome, btw) because I am a nut for all things having to do with old-school sailing and tall, wooden ships. This book is brimming with nautical phrases and figures of speech that hail from the jargon of sailors or are thought-to. Some are as famous as 'Shiver me timbers!' and 'Avast!' but some are more obscure and some are everyday terms that you'd never have thought came from the sea.
Amazon site,
Official Grade: A
So I picked this book up in BC at the Nautical History Museum (which is awesome awesome, btw) because I am a nut for all things having to do with old-school sailing and tall, wooden ships. This book is brimming with nautical phrases and figures of speech that hail from the jargon of sailors or are thought-to. Some are as famous as 'Shiver me timbers!' and 'Avast!' but some are more obscure and some are everyday terms that you'd never have thought came from the sea.
Labels: genre: historical, genre: non-fiction, media: book
The Fabric of the Cosmos
by Brian Greene, 493pgs, paperback
Amazon site
Official Grade: A
In some ways I think this book is better than Greene's first (The Elegant Universe). He has much better writing style this time around that makes it easier to read. Additionally, he spends more time developing analogies that lead up to hard ideas, although he has more hard ideas and often has to lead you along a jump or two to get there from the analogy, so you still don't know everything. He does reference his first book quite a bit, so you should probably have it around, although it doesn't necessarily need to be read before this one. What book is about: more formulations on string theory, or should I say string/brane theory?, what physical evidence supports it, what predictions it makes for spacetime, physics and cosmology, and future experiments that will give it even more support.
Amazon site
Official Grade: A
In some ways I think this book is better than Greene's first (The Elegant Universe). He has much better writing style this time around that makes it easier to read. Additionally, he spends more time developing analogies that lead up to hard ideas, although he has more hard ideas and often has to lead you along a jump or two to get there from the analogy, so you still don't know everything. He does reference his first book quite a bit, so you should probably have it around, although it doesn't necessarily need to be read before this one. What book is about: more formulations on string theory, or should I say string/brane theory?, what physical evidence supports it, what predictions it makes for spacetime, physics and cosmology, and future experiments that will give it even more support.
Labels: genre: non-fiction, genre: science, media: book
Today I Will Nourish My Inner Martyr
by Ann Thornhill & Sarah Wells, 183pgs, paperback
Amazon site
Official Grade: A
This book is hilarious! If you are completely sick of motivational books, and self-help talk, and positive thinking, you need to pick up this book. Inside are 365 quotes that completely cynical and depressing. I love it!
Amazon site
Official Grade: A
This book is hilarious! If you are completely sick of motivational books, and self-help talk, and positive thinking, you need to pick up this book. Inside are 365 quotes that completely cynical and depressing. I love it!
Labels: genre: non-fiction, media: book
Six Easy Pieces
by Richard Feynman, 138pgs, paperback
Amazon site
Official Grade: B-
I suppose this work be a good book if you were scientifically inclined, but not a physicist by trade because it would give you a really nice way to think about basic physical theories. But its not worth your time if you're an actual physicist or even physicist student because this book is totally qualitative and that is annoying as heck. Might as well just go buy yourself the actual Feynman lectures that these 6 chapters were stripped from anyway because then you'll get the meat of the physics (I mean, come on, you can't imagine Feynman going light on Caltech physics undergrads can you?) Basically was this book is about is 6 chapters of Feynman adeptly explaining various elementary physics concepts and also linking physics to other sciences. (What Rutherford said is true, All science is either physics or stamp collecting.)
Amazon site
Official Grade: B-
I suppose this work be a good book if you were scientifically inclined, but not a physicist by trade because it would give you a really nice way to think about basic physical theories. But its not worth your time if you're an actual physicist or even physicist student because this book is totally qualitative and that is annoying as heck. Might as well just go buy yourself the actual Feynman lectures that these 6 chapters were stripped from anyway because then you'll get the meat of the physics (I mean, come on, you can't imagine Feynman going light on Caltech physics undergrads can you?) Basically was this book is about is 6 chapters of Feynman adeptly explaining various elementary physics concepts and also linking physics to other sciences. (What Rutherford said is true, All science is either physics or stamp collecting.)
Labels: genre: non-fiction, genre: science, media: book
The Moon and the Sun
by Vonda McIntyre, 464pgs, paperback
Amazon site
Official Grade: A+
You know, I've had this book on my book shelf forever, I can't even remember what induced me to get it at Bookworm to begin with, but I finally got around to reading it, thinking 'yeah, let's get this crummy alt-history volume done with so I can get rid of it'. And I will admit that the beginning was bit dodgy and slow to start. But once it got going I could believe how much this novel pulled me in. I can definitely see why it won the Nebula or whatever award it was that it got. There are some aspects I don't like, like when people always take potshots at the Church and its clergy (for every corrupted, twisted Church official there are hundreds of pious, good-hearted ones). And the possible romantic interest, once it comes to light is obvious what is going to happen. And it does take a while to keep all the characters' names straight, since the royals often have several long names, titles and nicknames that they are interchangeably referred to with. As for the story: Marie-Joseph is a lady-in-waiting to a princess in the court of Louis XIV. Her brother, Yves (also a priest) has just returned from a long sea-expedition where he has successfully captured two mer-people. One dead to dissect and one kept alive so that when they find the reputed organ of immortality it contains, the king can eat to his eternal health. Obviously, the story cannot be so simple and happy. But I don't want to ruin what Marie-Joseph discovers, or the shocking revelations that occur later on in the book. I totally recommend this one, folks!
Amazon site
Official Grade: A+
You know, I've had this book on my book shelf forever, I can't even remember what induced me to get it at Bookworm to begin with, but I finally got around to reading it, thinking 'yeah, let's get this crummy alt-history volume done with so I can get rid of it'. And I will admit that the beginning was bit dodgy and slow to start. But once it got going I could believe how much this novel pulled me in. I can definitely see why it won the Nebula or whatever award it was that it got. There are some aspects I don't like, like when people always take potshots at the Church and its clergy (for every corrupted, twisted Church official there are hundreds of pious, good-hearted ones). And the possible romantic interest, once it comes to light is obvious what is going to happen. And it does take a while to keep all the characters' names straight, since the royals often have several long names, titles and nicknames that they are interchangeably referred to with. As for the story: Marie-Joseph is a lady-in-waiting to a princess in the court of Louis XIV. Her brother, Yves (also a priest) has just returned from a long sea-expedition where he has successfully captured two mer-people. One dead to dissect and one kept alive so that when they find the reputed organ of immortality it contains, the king can eat to his eternal health. Obviously, the story cannot be so simple and happy. But I don't want to ruin what Marie-Joseph discovers, or the shocking revelations that occur later on in the book. I totally recommend this one, folks!
Labels: genre: fantasy, genre: fiction, genre: historical, media: book
The Holy Land
by Robert Zubrin, 298 pgs, paperback
Amazon site
Official Grade: D+
This book really sucked. I wouldn't have even bothered reading it except for two things. 1) I've heard of Zubrin before because he's the head of the Mars Society and 2) most of the book takes place in Kennewick, WA, which is where I originally hail from. So I thought I would give it a try. As for yourself, don't bother, there's a lot of better books to spend your time on. Not only are the details of Kennewick slim-to-none (do I detect a lack of research here? did he just like the name? has he ever seen Kennewick?) but the writing is terrible. His characters are downright annoying and this blatant social commentary is sickening. I know its supposed to be a social commentary, but it should be witty and thought provoking. Hitting people over the head with a point-for-point allegory isn't going to change their political views, just make them angrier. Anyway, what passes for a plot in this book is that this race of Minervans return to their ancestral home in Kennewick after being interstellar refugees. However the messed-up US gov decides that it will declare a holy war and reclaim the land instead of accepting the Minervans' offer of help and advanced technology. Throw in some annoying, poorly written interspecies love story and you summarized about all of this incredibly bad book.
Amazon site
Official Grade: D+
This book really sucked. I wouldn't have even bothered reading it except for two things. 1) I've heard of Zubrin before because he's the head of the Mars Society and 2) most of the book takes place in Kennewick, WA, which is where I originally hail from. So I thought I would give it a try. As for yourself, don't bother, there's a lot of better books to spend your time on. Not only are the details of Kennewick slim-to-none (do I detect a lack of research here? did he just like the name? has he ever seen Kennewick?) but the writing is terrible. His characters are downright annoying and this blatant social commentary is sickening. I know its supposed to be a social commentary, but it should be witty and thought provoking. Hitting people over the head with a point-for-point allegory isn't going to change their political views, just make them angrier. Anyway, what passes for a plot in this book is that this race of Minervans return to their ancestral home in Kennewick after being interstellar refugees. However the messed-up US gov decides that it will declare a holy war and reclaim the land instead of accepting the Minervans' offer of help and advanced technology. Throw in some annoying, poorly written interspecies love story and you summarized about all of this incredibly bad book.
Labels: genre: fiction, media: book
6.23.2005
Kingdom of Heaven
R
Offical Website
Overall Grade: C+
This movie has almost no plot, or no driving storyline anyway. Sure some of the fight scenes and historical recreations of the locations are cool, but it is not pulled off nearly as well as it was in Gladiator. There are very few likable characters, and it certainly picks every misguided cleric, clergy and religious person it can to make Christianity look bad (or should I say Catholicism? because they were one and the same). Honestly, I wouldn't waste your money on this one. There's plenty of other good movies that are coming out this summer. Oh, and the historical accuracy of the characters sucks...big time. Plot: Just after Bloom's blacksmith character's wife commits suicide, an earl comes to tell him of his bastardy and offers to take him along with him on the Crusade. He of course goes eventually and is named complete heir of the earl and made a knight to boot. From there on he is involved in a lot of Near East politics that are disgusting and boring. And there is some fighting and dying and falling in love stuff.
Offical Website
Overall Grade: C+
This movie has almost no plot, or no driving storyline anyway. Sure some of the fight scenes and historical recreations of the locations are cool, but it is not pulled off nearly as well as it was in Gladiator. There are very few likable characters, and it certainly picks every misguided cleric, clergy and religious person it can to make Christianity look bad (or should I say Catholicism? because they were one and the same). Honestly, I wouldn't waste your money on this one. There's plenty of other good movies that are coming out this summer. Oh, and the historical accuracy of the characters sucks...big time. Plot: Just after Bloom's blacksmith character's wife commits suicide, an earl comes to tell him of his bastardy and offers to take him along with him on the Crusade. He of course goes eventually and is named complete heir of the earl and made a knight to boot. From there on he is involved in a lot of Near East politics that are disgusting and boring. And there is some fighting and dying and falling in love stuff.
Labels: genre: historical, media: movie
National Treasure
PG
Official Website
Overall Grade: C+
So I saw this one at the Newman outdoor movie night ages ago. It has some good parts. No stellar acting, but what can you expect from a Disney movie? The history in terms of the masons, knights templar and well, history in general this movie is just riddled with problems. But if you have to plunk some younger sibs or other miscellaneous children in front of a movie for a while, it ain't so bad. Plot: There is an enormous horde of treasure from all parts of the world and history hidden somewhere in the US by the founding fathers of the nation. They also hid secret clues to the location of this treasure on important revolutionary documents and the national currency. Of course, it would take some as crazy enough as Nicholas Cage's character to throw self-respect and professional dignity to the wind to look for and find this treasure. Joining him is the dorky computer guy (comic-relief) and a curator from the national archives (love interest). Oh, yeah, and it would nearly be an adventure if there weren't bad guys who are also trying to track down the treasure at the same time.
Official Website
Overall Grade: C+
So I saw this one at the Newman outdoor movie night ages ago. It has some good parts. No stellar acting, but what can you expect from a Disney movie? The history in terms of the masons, knights templar and well, history in general this movie is just riddled with problems. But if you have to plunk some younger sibs or other miscellaneous children in front of a movie for a while, it ain't so bad. Plot: There is an enormous horde of treasure from all parts of the world and history hidden somewhere in the US by the founding fathers of the nation. They also hid secret clues to the location of this treasure on important revolutionary documents and the national currency. Of course, it would take some as crazy enough as Nicholas Cage's character to throw self-respect and professional dignity to the wind to look for and find this treasure. Joining him is the dorky computer guy (comic-relief) and a curator from the national archives (love interest). Oh, yeah, and it would nearly be an adventure if there weren't bad guys who are also trying to track down the treasure at the same time.
Labels: media: movie
