I went all out for Avatar, going so far as to dish out the extra bucks for the 3D I-MAX experience - well worth the extra money, if I may say so. Graphically stunning environments, mesmerizing action, and a magical romance make this the movie of the holiday season, if not the entire year.
A half a billion dollar budget made the almost three hour Avatar experience fly by, leaving a stiff neck the only real clue that I had just spent so much time sitting in the same position, truly mesmerized the entire time. Avatar, an incredibly apt name describing both the technology used to make the movie as well as the actual avatars within, is a story so utterly compelling and enthralling that I was very nearly moved to tears. The liberal tilt of the movie, addressing such contemporary issues as corporate greed and genocide only served to add another wonderful layer to the whole experience.
Most reviews of Avatar have been mixed, lauding the technology while knocking the story. The link provided goes to Scalzi's popular blog where he heaps praise on the technological mastery but holds back when describing the story. Indeed, to a certain extent, I am well inclined to agree. As the title of this post suggests, Avatar is essentially Fern Gully & Starcraft combined. For all of Avatar's un-originality, the mix is potent, sucking you into the adventure with the force of an addictive video game and childhood cartoon combined.
Avatar focuses on the story of a young marine recruited to a select diplomatic mission on a foreign planet called Pandora. The position, originally slated for his dead brother, involves interacting with the native Na'vi of Pandora by downloading into a synthetically grown body. Lo and behold, on his first mission the young Marine becomes lost in the jungle after barely escaping from the local version of a Saber-toothed tiger and a beautiful Na'vi, coincidentally the daughter of the local clan chief, comes to the rescue and gets him accepted into the clan.
Long story short, go see Avatar - you will not regret it. If you are able to sneak into an I-Max showing, it will be an experience to remember. Caremon's deft directorship has eliminated much of the vertigo and nausea I generally suffer when subjected to the I-Max experience. In addition there are two incredibly memorable scenes, reminiscent of native American prayer rituals that are worth their weight in gold (good thing film is light). So, go see it, love it, and leave a comment -- I am curious to see if you spec fic aficionados have the same take as me. Enjoy the movie!
Hello and welcome to issue #44 of my Weekly Roundup. As promised I don't talk about time. But maybe you have been a bit surprised that we didn't post every day. The reason for that is simple: Alec was busy with other stuff and I don't have the capacity to write more. Yay! I didn't use the magic word t**e. Did you notice? In two months time is Christmas! I started to think about Christmas gifts, especially my own wishes. Beginning with this Roundup I will add a section where I will talk about possibly gifts and so on. And now enjoy reading..... Bona Fide's Menu
Shelf discovery of the week I love steampunk. So I must ask myself why I didn't read my discovery of the week so far. I lost sight of it. I talk about a book which won several prices like The British Fantasy Society Award and The Arthur C. Clarke Award. It also has been nominated for the Hugo Award, Nebula Award and the World Fantasy Award. And the book is: Perdido Street Station (2000) [US][UK], by China Miéville.
"Beneath the towering bleached ribs of a dead, ancient beast lies New Crobuzon, a squalid city where humans, Re-mades, and arcane races live in perpetual fear of Parliament and its brutal militia. The air and rivers are thick with factory pollutants and the strange effluents of alchemy, and the ghettos contain a vast mix of workers, artists, spies, junkies, and whores. In New Crobuzon, the unsavory deal is stranger to none—not even to Isaac, a brilliant scientist with a penchant for Crisis Theory. Isaac has spent a lifetime quietly carrying out his unique research. But when a half-bird, half-human creature known as the Garuda comes to him from afar, Isaac is faced with challenges he has never before fathomed. Though the Garuda's request is scientifically daunting, Isaac is sparked by his own curiosity and an uncanny reverence for this curious stranger. While Isaac's experiments for the Garuda turn into an obsession, one of his lab specimens demands attention: a brilliantly colored caterpillar that feeds on nothing but a hallucinatory drug and grows larger—and more consuming—by the day. What finally emerges from the silken cocoon will permeate every fiber of New Crobuzon—and not even the Ambassador of Hell will challenge the malignant terror it invokes . . . A magnificent fantasy rife with scientific splendor, magical intrigue, and wonderfully realized characters, told in a storytelling style in which Charles Dickens meets Neal Stephenson, Perdido Street Station offers an eerie, voluptuously crafted world that will plumb the depths of every reader's imagination." [Source: From the back of my copy of the book]
Book trailer I'm a big fan of sword-jockey Eddie LaCrosse. I reviewed The Sword-Edged Blonde and Burn Me Deadly. Both are awesome reads by Alex Bledsoe. Only a few days to go until Burn Me Deadly will hit the book stores. In the meantime enjoy the book trailer.
Jane Austen on a Sci-Fi/Fantasy blog? Hope you don't think I'm going crazy. I never read a Jane Austen novel so far. It is not my taste. But maybe I will change my mind. You will understand why as soon as you have watched the following book trailer.
Good news for steampunk fans Read the following lines...
"It is 1861, and the British Empire is in the grip of conflicting forces. Engineers transform the landscape with bigger, faster, noisier and dirtier technological wonders; Eugenicists develop specialist animals to provide unpaid labour; Libertines oppose restrictive and unjust laws and flood the country with propaganda demanding a society based on beauty and creativity; while The Rakes push the boundaries of human behaviour to the limits with magic, sexuality, drugs and anarchy. Returning from his failed expedition to find the source of the Nile, explorer, linguist, scholar and swordsman Sir Richard Francis Burton finds himself sucked into the perilous depths of this moral and ethical vacuum when the Prime Minister, Lord Palmerston, employs him as “King's Spy.” His first mission: to investigate the sexual assaults committed by a weird apparition known as Spring Heeled Jack; to find out why chimney sweeps are being kidnapped by half-man, half-dog creatures; and to discover the whereabouts of his badly injured ex-friend (and new enemy), John Hanning Speke. Accompanied by the diminutive and pain-loving poet, Algernon Swinburne, Burton's investigations lead him back to one of the defining events of the age: the brutal assassination of Queen Victoria in 1840; and the terrifying possibility that the world he inhabits shouldn't exist at all!" [Source]
I got totally excited! This is the description of Mark Hodder's Burton & Swinburne in The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack, the first of a planned new series. And Lou Anders aquired author and book for Pyr. But, but but there is one downer - the book is not scheduled yet!! Lou Anders expects the book in the US around fall 2010......
Blogosphere
"The Kraken" Do you believe in seamonsters like The Kraken? No? Maybe you need some more information and a bottle of "The Kraken Black Spiced Rum". Please don't get me wrong. The following videos are commercials. But they are worth to watch. You will get interesting information about the "Kraken". This is chapter one. For chapter two and three please follow the links.
New PAX BRITANNIA logo After 18 months Jonathan Green decided that the time has come to change the logo of PAX BRITANNIA. On the left side you see the new logo. What do you think about it? Is it the right one for a steampunk series?
Got to PAX BRITANNIA and leave your comment. Jonathan Green would like to know what you think about it. I left my comment. For more information about the series read my post The World of PAX BRITANNIA. I also reviewed the latest book of the series: Evolution Expects.
My tribute to Halloween I live in Germany and we don't have a real Halloween tradition. But I think I found my appropriate tribute to Halloween. The following three names should ring a bell in you: Tim Burton, Vincent Price, Edgar Allan Poe.
Let's start with Tim Burton's Vincent which is pays homage to Vincent Price and Edgar Allan Poe.
After this prelude watch the awesome Vincent Price giving The Raven
And finally enjoy the virtual Edgar Allan Poe reading his great poem "The Raven"
Movies
When I watched the first teaser trailer of Avatar - the forthcoming 3-D film by James Cameron - I have been a bit disappointed. But now the new international trailer is available. And it is much better. The movie will hit the cinemas on December 18th.
Xgifts
Twice a year I create a list of things I wish. My family appreciates to have a choice. Last Christmas I got all available books of the Malazan Empire. This year is a bit different. For the first time I want to reread a series: Memory, Sorrow and Thorn by Tad Williams. The whole series (four books in paperback) has been reissued by Orbit UK. The US cover is different. Anyway all books are available. And this is book one: The Dragonbone Chair (2009) [US][UK]:
"THE DRAGONBONE CHAIR is the story of Simon, a young kitchen boy and magician's apprentice, whose dreams of great deeds and heroic wars come all too shockingly true when his world is torn apart by a terrifying civil war -- a war fueled by ancient hatreds, immortal enemies, and the dark powers of sorcery. In Osten Ard, a land once ruled by an elvishlike race known as the Sithi, the human High King is dying. And with his death, a long-dormant evil is unleashed on the land as the undead Sithi ruler, the Storm King, seeks to regain his lost realm through a pact with one of human royal blood. Driven by spell-inspired jealousy and fear, prince fights prince, while around them the very land begins to die, poisoned by a sorcerous force sworn to annihilate the humans whose ancestors had driven the Sithi from their rightful home long ages ago. Only a small, scattered group, the League of the Scroll, recognizes the true danger faced by Osten Ard, only they hold the knowledge of times past, of threats fulfilled, and of a riddle of swords, which holds out the one small hope of salvation. And to Simon -- unknowingly apprenticed to a member of this League, and unwittingly touched by magic both good and ill -- will go the task of spearheading the search for the solution to this riddle of long-lost swords of power, a quest that will see him fleeing and facing enemies straight out of a legend-maker's worst nightmare"[Source]
And these are the sequels: The Stone of Farewell (2009) [US][UK], Siege (2009) [US][UK] and Storm (2009) [US][UK]. Quotes
I missed my quotes. Therefore I decided to present a few beside the presentation of German proverbs. And again I used wikiqoute as my main source.
"*Wie Pech und Schwefel. Lit.: "Like pitch and sulphur." Meaning: "E.g. good friends, who are inseparable or/and make all together, are like pitch and sulphur."”
"* Wie man sich bettet, so liegt man. Literally: "As you put yourself to bed, so you will lie." Meaning: "You made your bed, now lie in it." Meaning: Everyone makes his own fate."”
"One need not be a chamber to be haunted; One need not be a house; The brain has corridors surpassing Material place." Emily Dickinson
"When black cats prowl and pumpkins gleam, May luck be yours on Halloween." ~Author Unknown
"There are nights when the wolves are silent and only the moon howls." ~George Carlin
Hello and welcome to a new issue of my Roundup, which will be a bit different than previous ones. Three things prevented me from spending as much time as usual on research. I took the pleasure to answer 19 questions for an interview. More information will be delivered soon.... I have been captured by The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. But the most annoying obstacle has been an infection of the middle ear (left ear). The constant pain has forced me to take pain killers because I couldn't concentrate on anything. Oh, and the antibiotics make me tired. Nevertheless, I hope you enjoy reading the following snippets...
Books
It makes me even more sick when I can't read because of the pain and nauseating medication. Therefore, I'm still not finished with The Angels's Game (2009) [US][UK] by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. It is a good book, but I feel that The Shadow of the Wind [US][UK] is better by far - more 'magic' moments. Maybe my expectations were too high. I'm still not sure whether to follow my summer reading list or not. I think my next read will depend on my mood.
Maps
Two months ago I wrote about Fantasy Maps. During one of my last web rambles I stumbled over Need help getting around the Seven Kingdoms? . You don't know the Seven Kingdoms? Ever have heard of A Song of Ice and Fire? Then I must tell you that you have missed an extraordinary fantasy series. Go immediately to the closest book store and buy A Game of Thrones [US] [UK] by George R.R. Martin, which is the first book. You won't regret it. And now back to maps. Read the mentioned post and follow the links. The map of Westeros which you see at the right side of this text - click on pic to enlarge- is a masterly peace of map art created by the Cartographer's Guild member 'Tear'. And when you finish enjoying this map then I have one more mouth-watering link for you.Watch and sink into Unusual and Marvelous Maps.
Blogosphere
Do you know the most commonly seen element appearing on fantasy books published in 2008 ? I know since I read The Chart of Fantasy Art. I don't bewray (archaic English for disclose) it, but I can promise that it is neither dragons or tattoos.
This week I will show you two trailers. The first one I found over at BCS Reviews. The second one I searched for on my own. These are the trailers to Avatar (December 2009) and Delgo (December 2008). It seems there are parallels between the two movies. For detailed information please read: The 7 Eeriest Parallels Between Avatar and Delgo. Maybe some of you have seen Delgo and can tell more about it. And enjoy the trailers:
Disclosure: Assume all links are affiliate links (i.e., we get paid a small percentage). That helps run the blog and do what we do, which is mostly reading more books.
