Detroit Says No to Robocop

News from DenofGeek:

For a legion of movie geeks, 1987’s RoboCop is an action cinema classic, jam-packed with absurd violence, quotable lines (“I’d buy that for a dollar!”) and an iconic central character in the shape of its titular tin law enforcer.

Even the pair of meagre sequels and a poverty-stricken television series hasn’t sullied the memory of Paul Verhoeven’s lip-smackingly satirical film, and while there’s been talk, in recent years, of a reboot with Darren Aronofsky at the helm, the Reagan-era RoboCop remains an enduring favourite.

On Twitter, one user, known simply as @MT, made the not unreasonable suggestion that the city of Detroit (the setting for the movie’s unforgettably brutal antics) should erect a RoboCop statue in the law enforcer’s honour. After all, Philadelphia has a statue of Rocky…

Article continues here.

RIP Brian Jacques

It is with a sad heart to announce that Brian Jacques, the author of the beloved Redwall Series has past away at age 71.

Jacques is best-known as the author of the Redwall series of animal fantasies. The 22nd novel in the series, The Rogue Crew, is complete and due for publication in May 2011. He also wrote an additional number of other books, including companions to the Redwall series and unrelated books. Overall, his novels had sold more than 20 million copies worldwide and been translated into 29 languages.

REVIEW: Out of the Dark by David Weber (Kindle Edition)

Out of the Dark by David Weber
Publishing infomation: Kindle; 1166kb also available in hardcover 384 pages
Publisher: Tor; 28 September 2010
ASIN: B003P8Q5LM
ISBN 10: 0765324121
ISBN 13: 978-0765324122
Book 1 in a planned trilogy
Copy: out of pocket
Reviewer: Tyson

Description "In the stunning launch of a new military-SF series, DAVID WEBER tells the tale of humanity’s near extinction by hostile aliens and of the surprising alliance that fights back.

Earth is conquered. The Shongairi have arrived in force, and humanitys cities lie in radioactive ruins. In mere minutes, over half the human race has died.

Now Master Sergeant Stephen Buchevsky, who thought he was being rotated home from his latest tour in Afghanistan, finds himself instead prowling the back country of the Balkans, dodging alien patrols and trying to organize the scattered survivors without getting killed.

His chances look bleak. The aliens have definitely underestimated human tenacity—but no amount of heroism can endlessly hold off overwhelming force.

Then, emerging from the mountains and forests of Eastern Europe, new allies present themselves to the ragtag human resistance. Predators, creatures of the night, human in form but inhumanly strong. Long Enemies of humanity…until now. Because now is the time to defend Earth."

Out of the Dark grew from a short story that was featured in the George RR Martin and Gardner Dozio's Warriors anthology. While I never got around to reading the anthology, the book itself sounded appealing. I have read a previous Weber novel but for the life of me cannot recall the title or what occurred in it, it was just too long ago. I only remember that it had a fair amount of military action. So, to a certain extent I expected more of the same. If you enjoy a fair amount of military acronyms and terminology you will not be disappointed. Out of the Dark starts out at the battle of Agincourt where the aliens first encounter humanity and take their negative report back to their superiors. After that encounter the rest of the novel takes place a few years into the future. Tensions are still high between the west and Iran. There is a fair amount of world building in the beginning of the novel as we play catch up on world events and we gain a better prospective on how the Shongairi think and how their caste system works. We also learn their true motivations for arriving on earth.

There are quite a few characters to juggle in Out of the Dark. Each chapter jumped from one continent and character to another as action spans the globe. While none of the characters ever became a favorite, they all had a part to play and sometimes their luck was a little too lucky where it bordered on divine intervention. It was not too bothersome but it did seem to make for an easier time than one should have encountered considering every major city and military installation just got blown to smithereens.

In Out of the Dark we have both the various human prospective and the Shongairi's, While the humans seemed normal, or as normal as they could be considering the situation they faced, the Shogairi were a little too human. They did have problems understanding human psychology and human motivations. At times this was humorous but I could not understand why Weber had them seem so much like humans. Aside from the fact that they are described as "puppies," meaning they look like dogs that walk upright, I would have liked to have seen something completely different from us. Aside from their pack like instinct and appearance they were far too similar to humans and that was a disappointment albeit a small one. However, that said, I did enjoy their military staff meetings and they way they analyzed the human's actions. They were humorous and insightful.

When the Shogairi arrive they find three super powers with vast and powerful militaries: The United States of America, Russia, and China. The Shogairi then act swiftly to nullify the three powers. However, throughout Out of the Dark we only get to hear about the US and Russia. After the build up from the first portion of the novel we never hear about China again. As I read the beginning, I was all set to read about those three regions and was disappointed to read about two of them for the duration of the book. The book also takes place in Romania but I felt that that was like a booby prize and I know that Romania was only to set things up for humanity's great undead hope.

I knew that Out of the Dark featured vampires and to be honest it was one of the reasons I picked the book up as I wanted to see how Weber went about blending science fiction with horror. However, that being said it would have been nice if Weber kept the vampires a secret, if he somehow kept it as the twist in the plot. But it is stated on the blurb on the inside of the book. While the vampires slowly reveal themselves and don't outright show up, they were not treated very well in Out of the Dark. They were the Deus ex Machina. They only show up near the end and when they do they are unmatched at killing. They turn the tide of war so far over to the human's advantage that you have to wonder why Weber made them so powerful, while the story was a lot of fun the addition of vampires took the wind out of the sails of the book. They are just too powerful for the aliens to overcome.

I really enjoyed the idea of aliens coming to conquer earth only to find we are a lot stronger then their earlier (600 years ago) estimates. The battles at the beginning of the book were a lot of fun and it was interesting to read how humanity continued to wage war even when the chips were down. The vampires were interesting but the way the book set itself up in the beginning it could have been a bunch of highly trained military special forces or intelligence operatives that survived and began conducted the strikes towards the end of novel in place of the vampires. It would have made it a more interesting book and it would left the strong possibility that humanity could still fail and the Shongairi could still conquer Earth.

Out of the Dark has an interesting ending which was a little too warm and mushy for me, but there are still  a lot of loose ends and issues to be resolved. I am sure that they will all be solved in the remaining two novels in the planned trilogy. While Out of the Dark was not one of my top reads it certainly was a fun book to escape to after a long day of work. It does exactly what I had in mind for it to do, entertain me.

Plot 8
Characters 7
Style 7

Overall 7/10

REVIEW: Corvus by Paul Kearney

Corvus by Paul Kearney
Publishing Information: Paperback; 464 pages
Publisher: Solaris 26 October 2010
ISBN 10: 1906735778
ISBN 13: 978-1906735777
Series- Sequel to The Ten Thousand
Copy: Tyson- Out of Pocket; Yagiz- Sent by the publisher
Reviewers: Yagiz and Tyson

Back of the Book: "It is twenty-three years since a Macht army fought its way home from the heart of the Asurian Empire. The man who came to lead that army, Rictus, is now a hard-bitten mercenary captain, middle-aged and tired. He wants nothing more than to lay down his spear and become the farmer that his father was. But fate has different ideas. A young warleader has risen to challenge the order of things in the very heartlands of the Macht. A soldier of genius, he takes city after city, and reigns over them as king. What is more, he had heard of the legendary leader of the Ten Thousand. His name is Corvus, and the rumours say that he is not even fully human. He means to make himself absolute ruler of all the Macht. And he wants Rictus to help him."

Yagiz

In The Ten Thousand (review here), the first book of the Macht Trilogy, Paul Kearney introduced the world of Kuf, an intriguing world, home to different races. This great first book took us to the heart of The Empire far away from the homeland of the legendary Ten Thousand. In Corvus, the author takes us back to the land of the Macht, the fabled warrior race.

And to the readers delight, he also brings forward a familiar face: It was a great pleasure to meet Rictus again from page one. The book starts with Rictus going back home twenty-three years later after the events of The Ten Thousand.

For Rictus, the Paean was something different. He no longer joined in the singing, and had not since returning from the Empire all those years before. He had never forgotten the second day of Kunaksa, when the Ten Thousand had sung that song, believing they were marching to their doom but advancing anyway, to make themselves worthy of memory. It had kept them going that day, had reminded them of who they were.

Machts are a warrior race and they excel in this art. And not surprisingly, there are constant quarrels between cities. However, twenty three years later, Rictus is not the same man. He is torn between war and family. As he struggles to decide between two, life makes a choice for him. Sometimes it's easier that way, when the choices are made on one's behalf.

Kearney is amazingly talented in creating very realistic military scenes. The picture of the terrible face of war that he paints tugs at the heart of the reader. War is a terrible thing but it is in us, in our genes. You kill or you are killed. But everyone is somebody's son, brother or father and every single one of them has their own story that one ends in a blink of an eye.

[Fornyx] nudged a corpse with his foot. It was the man Rictus had speared through the neck. He wore a bracelet of dried grass about his wrist, the kind a daughter might plait for her father on a summer afternoon. Rictus looked away from it.

Some parts of the book reminded me of another great book that I read last year: Brandon Sanderson's The Way of Kings. Especially the Antimone's Gift, the magical black armour of the Cursebearers reminded me of Shards: Their origin is unknown, they are limited in number and offering money for one just doesn't work.

To those of you who wear the scarlet in war for the first time today, do not disgrace it, either in the thick of the fight or afterwards. The colour has been worn by both good men and bad for centuries, but it has never been worn without courage.

Not surprisingly, in Corvus, Kearney maintains his fluid and addictive style. He creates and develops some great characters in a memorable fantasy setting. The author is amazingly talented in mixing military aspects of the fantasy with drama and individuality, which, at times, gives the impression to read a mixtures of Steven Erikson and Guy Gavriel Kay.

Even though I read The Ten Thousand previously, the reader is not required to do so to fully enjoy Corvus. Although I would recommend to read The Ten Thousand before just because it is another excellent book.

Corvus has confirmed that Paul Kearney is an amazing writer. Unfortunately, and very surprisingly, he is also incredibly and criminally underrated. Corvus was one of the best books of 2010 and made the last book of the trilogy, Kings of Morning one of the most anticipated books of 2011. Just pick it up and read it. Resistance is futile.

Memorable Quotes

"A man who has a passion will always find life to his taste. A man who cares for nothing is a man already dead."

"Every legend begins with the ordinary and the everyday, as the acorn begets the oak" - Corvus

"The anvil is on its way. Brother, we are the hammer" - Corvus

"It is a fine line, sometimes, between guest and hostage. The key to it is left unspoken, buried in courtesies. The fist inside the glove" - Rictus

Plot 9/10
Characters 9/10
Style 9/10

Overall 9.5/10

Tyson

After finishing The Ten Thousand and enjoying it I quickly decided to read Kearney's follow up, Corvus. While the novel is a sequel, it was superior in nearly every way imaginable. When I read the first book The Ten Thousand I found myself really enjoying what was a great military novel. In Corvus, Kearney has taken the myth and transported it a few years into the future and tells us the story of a young man setting out to make his mark on the world. A world that at times has given him the short end of the stick. In order for the young man, Corvus, to realize his dream, he gains the support of an old warhorse that was just about to put down his spear and sword for a more peaceful rake and shovel and tend his farm and his family.

Corvus does an excellent job of bridging the gap between his two novels. Rictus the hero from The Ten Thousand returns as a man larger than life and an honorable reputation. Corvus uses this to his advantage with his own troops and his enemies. When Rictus and his famed Macht warriors take to the battlefield the tide of war changes dramatically. The mythos that surrounds his unit is palpable when you read the book.

I do not know why, as I cannot put my finger on it myself, but I found this installment a much better novel than The Ten Thousand. The pacing was top notch, the characters were well-rounded. The action and military concepts seemed plausible and made sense. There was a little bit of politics involved in the book but it took a back seat to the various battles and sieges. The book was just a great story of a winter campaign and the rise of a young, charismatic young man with a dream of uniting his people under one banner.

I believe that with Corvus Kearney is at the top of his game. Corvus is Kearney's opus. I know that the third book in the series, Kings of Morning, is coming soon, but he will have a difficult road ahead of him to write a better book then this one. Regardless, I will be there to read the next book in the series. Highly Recommended.

Plot 9/10
Characters 10/10
Style 10/10

Overall 9.5/10

The Unremembered and Cradle of the Scar Peter Orullian

With Paul Oullian's debut novel The Unremembered set for an April release from Tor, he is planning a little bit different marketing campaign. He has written six webisodes entitled "Cradle of the Scar." Part one is below.



The Unremembered is starting to look like one of the big releases for the year. Here is the blurb:

The gods, makers of worlds, seek to create balance—between matter and energy; and between mortals who strive toward the transcendent, and the natural perils they must tame or overcome. But one of the gods fashions a world filled with hellish creatures far too powerful to allow balance; he is condemned to live for eternity with his most hateful creations in that world’s distant Bourne, restrained by a magical veil kept vital by the power of song.

Millennia pass, awareness of the hidden danger fades to legend, and both song and veil weaken. And the most remote cities are laid waste by fell, nightmarish troops escaped from the Bourne. Some people dismiss the attacks as mere rumor. Instead of standing against the real threat, they persecute those with the knowledge, magic and power to fight these abominations, denying the inevitability of war and annihilation. And the evil from the Bourne swells….

The troubles of the world seem far from the Hollows where Tahn Junell struggles to remember his lost childhood and to understand words he feels compelled to utter each time he draws his bow. Trouble arrives when two strangers—an enigmatic man wearing the sigil of the feared Order of Sheason and a beautiful woman of the legendary Far—come, to take Tahn, his sister and his two best friends on a dangerous, secret journey.

Tahn knows neither why nor where they will go. He knows only that terrible forces have been unleashed upon mankind and he has been called to stand up and face that which most daunts him—his own forgotten secrets and the darkness that would destroy him and his world.

The Unremembered: Book 1 of the Vault of Heaven series is scheduled to be released 12 April 2011.

New Artwork of Peter F. Hamilton's Greg Mandel Trilogy

We now have the new artwork for Peter F. Hamilton's Greg Mandel trilogy. The trilogy will be republished in the UK in October 2011 by Tor.

The stories are set in a near-future England, centred around Hamilton's own home county of Rutland. Mandel is a former officer of the "English Army", who fought in the "Mindstar Brigade", a tactical psychic unit. He was given the psychic powers of intuition and detecting emotions, skills he uses for his new profession of psychic detective.

Mindstar Rising

It's the 21st century and global warming is here to stay, so forget the way your country used to look. And get used to the free market, too – the companies possess all the best hardware, and they're calling the shots now.

In a world like this, a man open to any offers can make out just fine. A man like Greg Mandel for instance, who's psi-boosted, wired into the latest sensory equipment, carrying state-of-the-art weaponry – and late of the English Army's Mindstar Battalion.

As the cartels battle for control of a revolutionary new power source, and corporate greed outstrips national security, tension is mounting to boiling point – and Greg Mandel is about to face the ultimate test.

A Quantum Murder

Dr Edward Kitchener, a brilliant researcher into quantum cosmology for the Event Horizon conglomerate . . . but no good to anybody now, lying dead with his lungs spread out on either side of his open chest.

The security system at Launde Abbey was premier-grade, yet a mercenary could still have got through, and plenty of people anxious to stop Kitchener’s work would pay the killer’s fee. But why would a professional waste time in ritually slaughtering the target?

Event Horizon needs to know fast, so Greg Mandel, psi-boosted ex-private eye, is enticed out of retirement to launch himself on a convoluted trail involving confrontation with a past which – according to Kitchener’s theories – might never have happened.

The Nano Flower

Julia Evans, billionairess owner of Event Horizon, has for fifteen years been the power behind England’s economic renaissance – but now she’s in trouble.

With her husband missing, and rival companies suddenly claiming to have acquired a technology impossibly superior to anything on Earth, she has no time to take notice of a single flower delivered anonymously. But this flower possesses genes millions of years in advance of any terrestrial DNA.

Is it a cryptic alien message, or a poignant farewell token from her husband? One man might discover its origin – but Greg Mandel will not be alone in his desperate search. And, as they both now discover, simply being first in the race isn’t nearly good enough when the Nano Flower begins to bloom ...

Physical Book VS eReader, Does There Have to be a Winner?

I visit a few forums and a lot of times there is a debate, what is better an actual book or a eReader? I live in South Korea and while I like my house situation, it is much smaller than I am used to when I lived in the United States. I no longer own a car and so when my girlfriend suggested I buy a book-case in an attempt to tame my ever growing book collection I jumped at the chance to use her car and head over and pick one out. The problem is even though I bought the biggest bookcase Homeplus had to offer, it was not large enough. So, I had to head back and buy another book-case to ensure that everything I had was contained in one area.

Since I made my home decor purchases I have had a goal: read all of my physical books by the end of the year. I already have the goal of reading 100 books for the year 2011 (at time of this post I have read 13 books for the year) so, why not start with what is on my shelf? Also, when it is an option I will purchase the eBook over the physical book as a new year's resolution. This is so that my tiny living space has more room and I can reduce clutter, which makes my girlfriend happier. The bad side to this resolution is once I have finished a novel I donate it to my school's library so there will no longer be any donations once I have read everything that I have.

It was then when my friend sent me the following jpeg:

Picture I am told is from Amazon.com

With that in mind I am still going after my goal, even though I have bought a few physical books since my goal came to fruition. However, it just comes down to personal preference. When all is said an done it is just a matter of convenience, I ride the subway and bus nearly every day, the Amazon Kindle is a light alternative to the physical book. The problem is that the majority of books remaining on my shelf are huge. Omnibuses? Omnibii? And large tomes like Peter F. Hamilton's Night's Dawn Trilogy where they each come at a very impressive 1,000+ pages for each installment. I have been purchasing a lot of the books currently on my shelves and converting them to eBooks when the opportunity presents itself so, that may be an option once I get to the specific book I want to read. I know that I am years away from going completely away from purchasing physical books, but I am doing my best.

Regardless of which format you choose to read, it is a simply impressive that you read.  I am curious as to what you prefer and why you have either held on to the belief that physical books are the only way to go? Or you have switched to the digital format and feel that physical books are no longer the way to read a novel? Let me know. Or perhaps you are where I am currently heading and think that perhaps there is a no real winner. After all the does not have to be a winner for everything. Leave us some comments with your opinion.