If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B-Movie Actor (Bruce Campbell)
When reading autobiographies, I find it's important to know what you're getting into - are you getting a book the author actually wrote themselves, or a lazy cash grab where they talked into a tape recorder? Luckily, this is the genuine article, an entertainingly conversational, breezy autobiography about the actor's life and career. Bruce is a good stoyteller, and even his childhood - a subject in autobiographies which I have complained about before and I'm sure I will again - is never boring to read, although I did find myself shaking my head and some of the pranks he pulled with his brother.
Once Bruce gets to college and starts making horrible Super-8 movies with Sam Raimi the book really picks up, with the most ink given to his best known roles in the (let's be honest) absolutely terrible movies "Evil Dead" and "Evil Dead 2". This book was published in 2002, so if you're a huge Bruce Campbell fan you might want to be aware that it's not exactly up to date, but then again if you're a huge Bruce Campbell fan you probably own this already instead of parousing obscure book review blogs to see if it's something you're interested in.
Grade: B+
Monday, February 20, 2012
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
"Deliverance Lost"
Deliverance Lost (Gav Thorpe)
I had high hopes for this book. It's about the Raven Guard, another one of the long-neglected space marine chapters, finally getting a turn in the spotlight as they try to rebuild after Isstvan V. It's all right, but the book has a major problem - it never seems t get out of second gear. The issue, I think, is that Corax, the head of the Raven Guard, goes back to Earth to get some forbidden technology that will let him rebuild the legion, which drives the narritive, except that we already know his plan isn't going to work, because we'd have already heard about it in other novels if the Raven Guard got 75,000 new recruits in a month and defeated Horus right off the bat.
So that's one issue. On top of that, this book has surprisingly strong ties to "Legion", and you might be a little bit lost if you haven't read it; The Alpha Legion is attempting to infiltrate the Raven Guard and steal the technology they're getting to rebuild. I find the Alpha Legion is a little less annoying when they're sharing the book with the Raven Guard instead of the cryptically named army units they were paired up with in "Legion", but I still wanted to see more Raven Guard. Amazingly, even THE CABAL from Legion shows up, with little to no explination.
Now I kind of feel like this review is too much about the Alpha Legion, which I guess is fair since this book suffers from it too. Really, this is just a perfectly serviceable middle-of-the-road Horus Heresy novel. I've seen some people complain that there isn't enough fighting, which I can understand, but don't personally agree with. If you already read Legion, you might as well take the plunge, but I can't really recommend that you go too far out of your way to read this otherwise.
Grade: C
I had high hopes for this book. It's about the Raven Guard, another one of the long-neglected space marine chapters, finally getting a turn in the spotlight as they try to rebuild after Isstvan V. It's all right, but the book has a major problem - it never seems t get out of second gear. The issue, I think, is that Corax, the head of the Raven Guard, goes back to Earth to get some forbidden technology that will let him rebuild the legion, which drives the narritive, except that we already know his plan isn't going to work, because we'd have already heard about it in other novels if the Raven Guard got 75,000 new recruits in a month and defeated Horus right off the bat.
So that's one issue. On top of that, this book has surprisingly strong ties to "Legion", and you might be a little bit lost if you haven't read it; The Alpha Legion is attempting to infiltrate the Raven Guard and steal the technology they're getting to rebuild. I find the Alpha Legion is a little less annoying when they're sharing the book with the Raven Guard instead of the cryptically named army units they were paired up with in "Legion", but I still wanted to see more Raven Guard. Amazingly, even THE CABAL from Legion shows up, with little to no explination.
Now I kind of feel like this review is too much about the Alpha Legion, which I guess is fair since this book suffers from it too. Really, this is just a perfectly serviceable middle-of-the-road Horus Heresy novel. I've seen some people complain that there isn't enough fighting, which I can understand, but don't personally agree with. If you already read Legion, you might as well take the plunge, but I can't really recommend that you go too far out of your way to read this otherwise.
Grade: C
Friday, February 10, 2012
"By Reason of Insanity"
By Reason of Insanity (Randy Singer)
Boy, this is tough. This is another free Kindle book, and this one I actually finished, although I kind of wish I hadn't.
Let's start with two minor issues: One, our dashing hero is kind of a douchebag (he sees the female lead and wants to help her because she's "an attractive woman at the mercy of the system" - if you're a man or he doesn't find you attractive, well, fuck off). Also, he has dumb facial hair.
Two, there's several boring pages where our author is playing high stakes poker, which is even more boring to read about than I assume it is fun to actually play.
With that out of the way, here's the real big roblem with this book: It's fucking dumb. The writing itself is OK, but the plotline itself is stupid in a I-can't-believe-I-just-read-that kind of moronic. About halfway through the book, a professional, court-expert psychologist is brought in to examine a person under suspicion of being a serial killer who is reporting hearing voices and having visions. This person is suspected of possibly having DID, commonly known as multiple personality disorder. Try and guess what this psychologist does.
1.) Ask for a series of interviews to attempt to diagnose this person.
2.) Guess that these visions are real and supernatural, because Belshazzar had a vision before Babylon was sacked by the Persians in the Old Testament.
Spoiler alert: It's number two. I think you can guess what the problem with this book is now. As it turns out, the female lead is psychic and is having visions from God. Really. Everything else in the book is totally straight and scientific - except that at the age of 25, this reporter suddenly develops psychic powers that give her visions. This opens a whole can of worms (Why does this just happen now? Is Jesus giving her these visions? If so, why? If he can give her these visions, why doesn't he just stop what he's sending her the vision about?) that the author never examines, because, ummmm, (indistinct mumbling). It's bad. No, not even bad; It's fucking terrible. It's kind of sad, too, the author really isn't a bad writer, it's just the plot with these beyond moronic super powers is a waste of time for everyone involved; You might as well as have it all be a dream for how plausible any of it is. The author is, as I found out after reading this, apparently considered "The Christian John Grisham", but a more accurate title might be "The Shitty John Grisham Who Writes Bad Books".
Also, the icing on the cake - the female lead, who's in jail for 70% of the book, has one of those "Hi, nice to meet you, now we're in love" romances with her lawyer, the dumb-bearded douchebag up above. Blech.
Grade: F-
Boy, this is tough. This is another free Kindle book, and this one I actually finished, although I kind of wish I hadn't.
Let's start with two minor issues: One, our dashing hero is kind of a douchebag (he sees the female lead and wants to help her because she's "an attractive woman at the mercy of the system" - if you're a man or he doesn't find you attractive, well, fuck off). Also, he has dumb facial hair.
Two, there's several boring pages where our author is playing high stakes poker, which is even more boring to read about than I assume it is fun to actually play.
With that out of the way, here's the real big roblem with this book: It's fucking dumb. The writing itself is OK, but the plotline itself is stupid in a I-can't-believe-I-just-read-that kind of moronic. About halfway through the book, a professional, court-expert psychologist is brought in to examine a person under suspicion of being a serial killer who is reporting hearing voices and having visions. This person is suspected of possibly having DID, commonly known as multiple personality disorder. Try and guess what this psychologist does.
1.) Ask for a series of interviews to attempt to diagnose this person.
2.) Guess that these visions are real and supernatural, because Belshazzar had a vision before Babylon was sacked by the Persians in the Old Testament.
Spoiler alert: It's number two. I think you can guess what the problem with this book is now. As it turns out, the female lead is psychic and is having visions from God. Really. Everything else in the book is totally straight and scientific - except that at the age of 25, this reporter suddenly develops psychic powers that give her visions. This opens a whole can of worms (Why does this just happen now? Is Jesus giving her these visions? If so, why? If he can give her these visions, why doesn't he just stop what he's sending her the vision about?) that the author never examines, because, ummmm, (indistinct mumbling). It's bad. No, not even bad; It's fucking terrible. It's kind of sad, too, the author really isn't a bad writer, it's just the plot with these beyond moronic super powers is a waste of time for everyone involved; You might as well as have it all be a dream for how plausible any of it is. The author is, as I found out after reading this, apparently considered "The Christian John Grisham", but a more accurate title might be "The Shitty John Grisham Who Writes Bad Books".
Also, the icing on the cake - the female lead, who's in jail for 70% of the book, has one of those "Hi, nice to meet you, now we're in love" romances with her lawyer, the dumb-bearded douchebag up above. Blech.
Grade: F-
Sunday, February 5, 2012
"Lady Chatterly's Lover"
Lady Chatterly's Lover (D.H. Lawrence)
Well, God help me, I tried, but I just couldn't make it through this book. It's just too British; I got 67 pages in, and it's nothing but British class-consciousness, being navel-gazed and fretted over. I'm sure it picks up, but I just couldn't stand to read any more. The writing itself is fine, but the subject matter is incredibly tedious to an American like me. YMMV.
Grade: N/A
Well, God help me, I tried, but I just couldn't make it through this book. It's just too British; I got 67 pages in, and it's nothing but British class-consciousness, being navel-gazed and fretted over. I'm sure it picks up, but I just couldn't stand to read any more. The writing itself is fine, but the subject matter is incredibly tedious to an American like me. YMMV.
Grade: N/A
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
"Food Rules"
Food Rules: An Eater's Manual (Michael "Bossy" Pollan)
The idea here is simple: Pollan takes his rules from his previous book (Eat food, mostly plants, not too much) and expands them here by giving you tips on how to follow them. I like his approach - he realizes that you're not going to remember every rule he gives you, so he re-states them various ways - to get you to avoid chemicals, he advises that you don't buy food with a chemical a third grader couldn't pronounce, but then also suggests staying away from the center of a grocery store and getting fresh produce on the one end and diary on the other.
This is actually pretty helpful, but I gave up about a third of the way through when I got to "mostly plants," where he suggests that you treat meat as a "special treat". Fuck off, Pollan - I want a burger! This is where the book goes from helpful advice mode to annoying nutritionist uncle lecturing you at thanksgiving mode. (This is also where you're forbidden to get anything drive-thru - which I know isn't healthy for you, but holy hell, live a little!) Eventually I put the book down because I wanted to just go out and start eating Big Macs for spite; Pollan, in annoying lecture mode, makes you want to do the opposite of what he's saying.
So I dunno - I did get something out of this book, and you may get even more. If you, apparently like the author, have time in between getting home from work and going to sleep to do nothing but cook up a nice big meal, by all means pick this up - unfortunately this doesn't apply to me and, I suspect, most people anymore.
Grade
First Third: B+
Last Part: D+
The idea here is simple: Pollan takes his rules from his previous book (Eat food, mostly plants, not too much) and expands them here by giving you tips on how to follow them. I like his approach - he realizes that you're not going to remember every rule he gives you, so he re-states them various ways - to get you to avoid chemicals, he advises that you don't buy food with a chemical a third grader couldn't pronounce, but then also suggests staying away from the center of a grocery store and getting fresh produce on the one end and diary on the other.
This is actually pretty helpful, but I gave up about a third of the way through when I got to "mostly plants," where he suggests that you treat meat as a "special treat". Fuck off, Pollan - I want a burger! This is where the book goes from helpful advice mode to annoying nutritionist uncle lecturing you at thanksgiving mode. (This is also where you're forbidden to get anything drive-thru - which I know isn't healthy for you, but holy hell, live a little!) Eventually I put the book down because I wanted to just go out and start eating Big Macs for spite; Pollan, in annoying lecture mode, makes you want to do the opposite of what he's saying.
So I dunno - I did get something out of this book, and you may get even more. If you, apparently like the author, have time in between getting home from work and going to sleep to do nothing but cook up a nice big meal, by all means pick this up - unfortunately this doesn't apply to me and, I suspect, most people anymore.
Grade
First Third: B+
Last Part: D+
Friday, January 27, 2012
"[Citation Needed]"
[Citation Needed]: The Best of Wikipedia's Worst Writing (Conor Lastowka & Josh Fruhlinger)
A fun little larf of a book, this is another case of a website being turned into a book done right. The authors pick out 200 examples of goofy Wikipedia writing and add their own mocking jokes at the end. There's not a whole lot to this, but it's always entertaining and makes a great bathroom book (altough I found myself lingering so I could read a few more pages more than once).
Grade: B
A fun little larf of a book, this is another case of a website being turned into a book done right. The authors pick out 200 examples of goofy Wikipedia writing and add their own mocking jokes at the end. There's not a whole lot to this, but it's always entertaining and makes a great bathroom book (altough I found myself lingering so I could read a few more pages more than once).
Grade: B
Monday, January 23, 2012
Starfish
Starfish
Peter Watts
There's an inherent danger in over-recommendation. I think it's half the reason Final Fantasy 7 is so reviled at this point in history, it was over-recommended. The eventual backlash against the game was so overwhelming that it has significantly tainted the reputation of every RPG to come out of Japan, and it's possible that the coming (and don't lie, you know it will come) backlash against the backlash against Final Fantasy 7 may be so immense as to destroy our reality.
Such was I think the byproduct of my knowledge of Starfish before reading it. All I knew was it was AWESOME. And that it was about people surgically and technologically modified to be able to survive at the bottom of the ocean.
Starfish wasn't bad. To be honest, I thought it was pretty good. It just wasn't the most amazing, fantastic book I've ever read. Does that mean I'm now participating in the requisite backlash against all the hype I'd experienced because I'm a smartass on the internet? I hope not, the book was still good.
Sort-of-not-really spoiler below:
Good stuff: Interesting view of the future, still dystopian, but less so than your average Atwood sci-fi book. The sort-of but maybe not really lack of an "antagonist" was probably the most interesting aspect of the book to me, as the not-protagonists/but-not-antagonists-either were more compelling than the "main" characters. Some of the terminology was funny, I particularly liked suffering from Nitrogen Narcosis being referred to as getting "narked."
Stuff I didn't really need: All the psychodrama. I know Evangelion is influential, but I don't think every Sci-Fi genre piece published after that pivotal day in the history of Fiction in which Shinji yelled at his dad needs broken characters doing badass stuff brokenly (see: Xenogears.) To me, characterization needs to be more than "was abused and has brown eyes." It was a bit too distracting in the middle of the book, but I got over it after the story moved on.
Grade: B
Peter Watts
There's an inherent danger in over-recommendation. I think it's half the reason Final Fantasy 7 is so reviled at this point in history, it was over-recommended. The eventual backlash against the game was so overwhelming that it has significantly tainted the reputation of every RPG to come out of Japan, and it's possible that the coming (and don't lie, you know it will come) backlash against the backlash against Final Fantasy 7 may be so immense as to destroy our reality.
Such was I think the byproduct of my knowledge of Starfish before reading it. All I knew was it was AWESOME. And that it was about people surgically and technologically modified to be able to survive at the bottom of the ocean.
Starfish wasn't bad. To be honest, I thought it was pretty good. It just wasn't the most amazing, fantastic book I've ever read. Does that mean I'm now participating in the requisite backlash against all the hype I'd experienced because I'm a smartass on the internet? I hope not, the book was still good.
Sort-of-not-really spoiler below:
Good stuff: Interesting view of the future, still dystopian, but less so than your average Atwood sci-fi book. The sort-of but maybe not really lack of an "antagonist" was probably the most interesting aspect of the book to me, as the not-protagonists/but-not-antagonists-either were more compelling than the "main" characters. Some of the terminology was funny, I particularly liked suffering from Nitrogen Narcosis being referred to as getting "narked."
Stuff I didn't really need: All the psychodrama. I know Evangelion is influential, but I don't think every Sci-Fi genre piece published after that pivotal day in the history of Fiction in which Shinji yelled at his dad needs broken characters doing badass stuff brokenly (see: Xenogears.) To me, characterization needs to be more than "was abused and has brown eyes." It was a bit too distracting in the middle of the book, but I got over it after the story moved on.
Grade: B
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