Category Archives: Reviews
Reviews of various things
Book Review – Zone One
My rating: 1 of 5 stars
In recent years, there has been only one book that I can hated so much that I threw it into a corner, never to finish.
At least, only one until I started to read this book.
Colson Whitehead may be a great writer, but this book does not show it. Nothing happens in the 111 pages I struggled through. I failed to make any connection to the main character, or garner any sympathy for him either. It’s possible that Whitehead meant to make the character as much a zombie as the ones he is charged to clean up, but in doing so, he fails to make a character that I could connect with. With no emotional connection to the character, I have little interest in what happens to him, which is why it is so easy to toss the book aside with no desire to finish it.
To be honest, the only reason why I have this book one star is that there really isn’t an option for something worse than “I don’t like it.”
Book Review – Zombies: Complete Guide to the World of the Living Dead
Zombies: Complete Guide to the World of the Living Dead by Zachary Graves
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
It’s an decent read, covering zombies in a cultural sense as well as in popular media. I felt that the book for have gone into greater detail with some of the media references (there are a number of zombie movies that the books mentions in passing, but never revisits them to explain why they were included). There is a section of zombie movies that feels redundant since at least five of the movies (White Zombie, I Walked With A Zombie, and the first three Romero “Dead” movies) are covered extensively in previous chapters. A better use for the chapter would be to give a brief description of some of the other “zombie movies” that are mentioned in the book once, then never mentioned again.
Book Review – The United States of Strange
The United States of Strange: 1,001 Frightening, Bizarre, Outrageous Facts about the Land of the Free and the Home of the Frog People, the Cockroach by Eric Grzymkowski
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
This would have been a much better book if it simply just gave us the facts, many of which are quite interesting.
Sadly, the author feels the need to comment on each entry with what he claims is humor. At best, the comments are unfunny, at worst, they are incredibly insensitive, dismissive and demeaning. Given the nature (and style) of the comments, I actually thought that the author had written another book I had read with the same sort of comments. Surprisingly, he had not, which means there are two authors who have the same writing style.
Book Review – The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest
Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest by Stieg Larsson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Let me start off by saying that the title of this book is the most appropriate title Larsson could have come up with.
The Dark Knight Rises – Spoiler Filled Review
The Dark Knight Rises (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Two weeks after the release of Dark Knight Rises, I finally got a chance to see it. I liked it, but it was not the best of the series.
WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD
Book Review – Apocalypse How
Apocalypse How: Making the End Times the Best of Times by Rob Kutner
My rating: 1 of 5 stars
There are so many more books out there on this subject that are so much better, both serious and tongue in cheek. You would be better off reading one of them than this one.
Book Review – Alexander Outland: Space Pirate
Alexander Outland: Space Pirate by G.J. Koch
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
A decent adventure, similar to something I might have seen on Firefly if it had survived past the first season. The biggest drawback is the title character, who happens to be the narrator as well. The first introduction to Alexander Outland does not make a good impression. In fact, it created a very bad impression for me. It did not help that he seems to relish being an arrogant, womanizing criminal jackass. With this clouded first impression, it becomes harder to accept him as a hero, or even an anti-hero. I felt like Outland needed to be toned down a bit, at least at the start of the book, for him to work as the narrator. Either that, or the book needed to be a third person narration, where we focus more on how the crew reacts to such a unlikable, albeit very skilled character.
Book Review – Animal Man Volume 1: The Hunt
Animal Man, Vol. 1: The Hunt by Jeff Lemire
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Probably one of the best of the New 52 books, this new Animal Man series takes Buddy baker and his family into a new, much darker world. Baker’s origin is tweaked, still paying homage to his “alien gift” powers while bringing him into a new conflict with a terrifying new villain. Rising from his original obscurity, and from his odd Vertigo book, Animal Man now stands strong in the darker corner of DC’s new continuity, one that is also populated by the classic character Swamp Thing.
Book Review – Shada
Doctor Who: Shada: The Lost Adventure by Douglas Adams by Gareth Roberts
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
For fans of the classic Doctor Who, Shada was a story of legend, even before this novelization. Written by Douglas Adams and intended to be a six part series for Tom Baker’s fourth Doctor, the series was never finished because of a strike. Some of the footage shot for the series did eventually surface as part of The Five Doctors special.
Now, thanks to Gareth Roberts, himself a veteran of the new Doctor Who series, we can finally see what this unfinished series might have looked like.
Book Review – The Zombie Handbook
The Zombie Handbook: An Essential Guide to Zombies And, More Importantly, How to Avoid Them by Robert Curran
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
An interesting read, though it focuses more on the historical and cultural zombies than on the Romero style of undead. It is a quick read, focusing on the various types of “zombies” that are found in the world, from the well known “Voodoo zombies” to mummies to even Irish zombies. Also included are stories of people who were supposed to have created zombies, and tales of zombies themselves.
I did have a problem with the treatment of the Romero zombies. There is some passing mention early in the book about this style, and one chapter called “Know Your Enemy” which seems to focus on the cinematic zombie entirely. These references seem out of place in a book that focuses almost entirely on zombies in the traditional sense. I felt that the book would have been better served if it just focused on the traditional rather than the cinematic.
