New Book Discussion!

It's been a while (I've been busy), but here's the next DAW book discussion, up at the DAW Books blog (dawbooks). We're discussing Marion Zimmer Bradley & Deborah J. Ross' latest Darkover novel, The Children of Kings. Who here has had a chance to read this one already? What did you think? And how does it compare to the rest of the Darkover novels?

Book Review: LUCKY BASTARD by S.G. Browne

This book is slightly outside of my usual reading list, since it's more mainstream than sci-fi/fantasy. It certainly has an SF&F flavor to it, as you'll see, but it still wouldn't be considered urban fantasy (even though it's close). I mostly got this book because I was the moderator on a panel at the San Diego Comic Con, and S.G. Browne was one of the panelists. I was doing some research on the panelists and read the first part of this book (about 50 pages) to get an idea of what it was about. I set it aside shortly after that, but it kept calling to me, so I picked it up recently, started it over again, and finished it off. The fact that I returned to it when I have probably a couple of hundred other books in the SF&F genre on my shelves waiting to be read tells you something about the book.

The premise is that the main character, Nick Monday, who is a private investigator with the ability to steal people's luck. Luck is something we're born with, and some of us have more inherent luck than others. Nick steals it by simply touching you (shaking your hand, etc), distills it, and then sells it on the black market. But Nick is about to have an incredibly bad day, which starts with a visit from Tuesday Knight, who wants him to find out who sole her father, the mayor's, luck. From there, it only goes from bad to worse as he's visited by the local chinese mafia, who want him to poach luck exclusively for them, and the government, who want him to hit the mafia kingpin with a dose of bad luck. All Nick wants to do is survive, without getting his sister and her family involved in his own wrongdoing.

Obviously, I got into the book within the first 50 pages, since I returned to it after the fact. The character is engaging, even though he isn't exactly "good". You can probably guess that it's sort of like a noir detective novel. It's got that flavor, with all of the Sam Spade-ish names, the mafia, the multiple twisting and interweaving plot threads, and the whole guns, PI, and women themes. I really enjoyed the twisting plot and the eyerolling situations Nick got into during the course of the day (because the description above is only the tip of the iceberg regarding the plotlines). It had a nice humorous slant and the author certainly had fun playing with all of the puns dealing with luck out there. The writing was effortless to read and easy to follow.

There were a couple of minor annoyances. At a certain point, Nick's constant reference to bosoms got irritating, especially when in a few places that became his main motivating factor. I don't have a problem with this in general, but it was overused in the book. Also, there's a "framing" construction to the book (where it starts at the end of the day with a tense moment, then skips back to how the characters got there) and once we catch up to that frame . . . it wasn't as tense as the snippit at the beginning promised. To me. So the ending wasn't as fulfilling as I'd have liked. Good, but not great. Otherwise, this would have been 4 stars of out 5, instead of 3.

But still, the point of such a book isn't the ending, the point is the convoluted path that gets you there and the fun you have along the way as it twists and turns, and this book certainly delivers on that front. The idea behind the book--luck poaching--was a cool idea and I thought S.G. Browne carried it off well. Certainly a recommended read for those into noir detectives and some humorous play on the concept of luck.

Movie Review: THE CROODS

So I went to see THE CROODS this weekend, in 3D, with a friend and her son. It wasn't high up on my list of movies to see, but it did look like it might be fun. And it was!

The premise is that we have a family of cavemen named the Croods. The main character is Eep, essentially a teenager, who's starting to get antsy about all of the rules that her father uses to keep the family safe from everything that's attempting to kill them. Which is literally everything. All of this gets interrupted when Eep runs into a boy who's good with ideas and who warns them all that the world is ending and they need to leave the safety of their cave and routine if they want to live. The rest of the movie is about the family being forced to flee toward the nebulous safety of a distant mountain, experiencing all new wonders and learning how to adapt to new situations and new relationships along the way.

I did enjoy this movie, however it is targeted toward the kids, with enough for the adults to be entertained as well. The real heart of the movie is the relationship between Eep and her dad, who's simply trying to protect everyone and doesn't realize that he's also stifling his daughter and needs to let go . . . at least a little. But the entire family is great in the movie and they all have defining moments and shifting relationships with each other along the way. So the characters are interesting and involving and keep you riveted to the movie. The visuals are also stunning, but in an appropriately stunning and non-gratuitous way. what I mean is that they were stunning when they should have been stunning (such as when the characters find themselves in a totally different environment than they're used to, so they're stunned as well) and even then the director didn't linger on the "stunning" so long that it became a gratuitous use of 3D special effects. It was stunning for as long as it needed to be stunning and then it became the background again, with the characters and their situation at the forefront. Which is as it should be.

My only real issue with it is that I can't say that it necessarily covered any new ground. Part of this is because it's targeted toward kids, and there's only so much ground you can cover with a kids movie. There were some darker moments in the movie that may bother some kids if they see it, but nothing that would make me recommend that you not take your kids to it. Everything works out in the end, as it should. But because of the "no new ground" thing, there wasn't anything that elevated this movie to the TOY STORY level.

But don't get me wrong. It was fun, entertaining, enthralling in places, humorous in others, and certainly a great way to wile away a few hours on a weekend. Based on the reactions of the kids around me, they'll thoroughly enjoy it. The kid inside of me certainly did.

Movie Review: OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN

I saw OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN this past weekend as well and thoroughly enjoyed it. I consider it the first action/adventure blockbuster movie for the upcoming movie season.

Mike Banning is a secret service agent protecting the president. During a snowy night, an accident kills the president's wife and because of this the president ships Banning off to the treasury department, not because Banning did anything wrong, but because he doesn't want to be reminded of his wife's death by Banning's presence. Over a year later, a faction of terrorists attack and take over the White House, seizing control of the president in his underground bunker and making demands of the Speaker of the House, who's now in control of the government. Banning manages to get inside the White House as everything is going down and is the lone survivor. So, a la "Die Hard", he has to find a way to save the president, even as the bad guys begin to make demands.

I'm a fan of "Die Hard" so this movie tapped into that vein and bled it dry. In a good way. But this isn't "Die Hard", because Banning is not just a regular guy in an untenable situation. He's trained for this kind of thing, and because of that, the movie does diverge from the "Die Hard" trope. It still has that feel to it for the basic premise. The bad guys are prepared and smart. The good guys are generally as well. Both sides make huge mistakes at certain points. But the entire movie is high action, explosions left and right, intrigue, betrayals, and good guys with little resources battling against bad guys with an arsenal at their command. And of course, the bad guys aren't after what they seem to be after at the beginning of the movie. (Although unlike "Die Hard" this isn't all about money.) I thought it was well plotted, well played by the actors, and it took a few twists and turns that I wasn't expecting.

You do have to suspend your disbelief a little bit. While taking over the White House was not made easy in the movie, I would still hope that we have better defenses than what was presented here. Making such a thing believable in a movie like this is always tough and I think the movie does a respectable job in this regard. If you get past this, then the rest of the movie is great. I bought all of the characters in their roles. In fact, a few of the actors seriously impressed me. In particular Melissa Leo, who played Secretary of Defense Ruth McMillan. There was only one plot moment where I rolled my eyes (when the good guys go in to attack against Banning's warning), but this was a standard element of this kind of movie. The violence is rather . . . well, violent. Not in a gratuitous way, but realistic for the situation, in my opinion.

Overall, I think the movie rocked. Intense action, some good character moments, great acting, and a good plot. Definitely recommended for the action/adventure lovers out there.