A Descent into Dullness

The mostly autobiographical story of comic actor Kumail Nanjiani meeting his future wife Emily.  The twist of the clash of cultures vs. love romcom is that during the break-up portion of the story Emily is in a medically induced coma.  So Kumail gets to navigate the whole personal growth and family confrontation while worried the woman he loves might die. Which, no real spoiler as she co-wrote the movie, she doesn't.  But still very touching and funny.

I always expect to read a lot more on my birthday vacation, and yet I don't.  *shrug*

Started out the month with another of Mike Shephard's "Kris Longknife" books, Intrepid.  Later on I finished the remaining three, Undaunted, Redoubtable and Daring.  Sadly by book nine I had grown weary of Kris, her band of snarky sidekicks and the yo-yoing level of "science" available...

Got the latest "Liaden" book from Sharon Lee and Steven Miller, Necessity's Child.  This entry mostly pushes the regular character's into the background while focusing on one of the younger House Korval members.  As well as a far future version of what seems to be Roma...

During the vacation I did get to the stack of "Walt Longmire" by Craig Johnson books the roommate got me at Christmas.  I read the 1st one a  while back after getting an e-version on sale, so this was the next three.  The books, Kindness Goes Unpunished, Another Man's Moccasins, and Death Without Company, are a step above the tv adaptation (which isn't too shabby on its own) though Henry Standing Bear's voice is very much that of Lou Diamond Phillips during the reading...

I'd had Isaac Marion's zomromcom Warm Bodies for awhile, but I didn't really get inspired to finish it off until catching the movie version.  The zombies in the book have more of a weird culture than the movies.  With the skeletal skinless zombies being a kind of priest/teacher caste.  Plus the zombies eat people a bit longer than they do in the movie...

Jasper Fforde starts up yet another series with the Last Dragonslayer.  Though this modern fantasy is aimed at a YA audience.  And could work as a one-off.  But I wouldn't seeing more of his wizardry run by bureaucracy again...

Also finally got to the next two books of Alan Dean Foster's "Tipping Point" cyberpunk trilogy.  While the final bad reveal was a bit of a let-down, it was more than made up for by watching the super-assassin chasing the heroes get an ass-kicking from a giant ground sloth in the second book, Body, Inc.  And the deadly engineered family of meerkats in the Sum of Her Parts...

Peter Brett's latest "Demon Cycle" book, the Daylight War, dropped in February as well.  Which in addition large sections devoted to one character's back-story (which served to make them a great deal more sympathetic) has the confrontation between the Warded Man and the Spear of the Desert...

After sitting thru much of the recent movie version, decided to get around to Jules Verne's Mysterious Island.  Which needed more giant animals.  And I kind of felt the survivor group went from almost zero resources to being able to make flintlock weapons a bit too easily...

I mostly picked up the Myth Interpretations collection by the late Robert Asprin to get a copy of his "Cold Cash War".  Though it also has some amusing Skeeve and company stories...

And finally was a new-ish Steve Hamiltion "Alex McKnight" book, Misery Bay.  With Alex agreeing to look into the suicide of U.S. Marshall's son.  Which leads to a revenge-based cinema verte killer...

Total Books: 16

Iron Sky: Well the people behind this had an interesting high concept. Secret Nazi Colony on the Moon. And they built some excellent looking sets and models and Space Nazi costumes. Pity they didn't spend anything on competent script writing or actors with even a glimmer of talent. Ok, they had Udo Kier. But fucking hell was this a steaming turd of a movie. I had to tap out less than half way in. Such a painful and wretched waste of film...

Premium Rush: I skipped this one in the theater 'casue c'mon. Bike messengers? And the actual plot stringing the various characters together isn't much. But the action sequences are pretty sweet looking, fully invoking the needed speed and movement. And I'm nearly always a sucker for Joseph Gordon-Levitt...

The Horseman on the Roof: You've got Italian rebels being hunted thru southern France in 1832 by Austrian secret police. During a cholera outbreak. With a platonic romance between Italian rebel Angelo and French noblewoman Pauline. I wish I could remember where I stumbled across a review of this because I should thank them for putting me onto a pretty damn good movie...

I actually saw this waaay back on the 2nd but forgot to write anything about. Basically if you enjoyed Jason Siegel in Forgetting Sarah Marshall then you should like this one. It doesn't really break any new ground in romcom story-telling but it was pretty damn funny thruought. Especially dude who plays Andy on Parks & Rec and the period where Siegel's character slowly goes native/stir-crazy from living in Wisconsin...