lurkerwithout: (Book on bed)
January:
Short Fiction: Seanan McGuire's Snake in the Glass, Ursula Vernon's Razorback and Jim C. Hines' Chupacabra's Song

New Reads:
Robert Jackson Bennett's City of Stairs
Josh Fruhlinger's The Enthusiast
(editors) John Joseph Adams & Hugh Howey's the End Has Come:  Third in a triptych of apocalypse-themed short fiction anthologies.  The last focused on post-apoc survival and rebuilding.
Ilona Andrews' Magic Stars: A "Kate Daniels" series novella focused on Derek and Julie.
Tanya Huff's Third Time Lucky: Collection of short comic works about an immortal wizard.
Lexie Dunne's Superheroes Anonymous & Supervillains Anonymous: Gail is nicknamed "Hostage Girl" because villains think she's super-hero Blaze's girlfriend.  And then we he leaves town she ends up getting super-powers herself.
Michelle West's The Broken Crown
Andre Norton's Tales From the High Hallack vol.1: Collection of "Witch World" short stories.
Delilah Dawson/Kevin Hearne/Chuck Wendig's Three Slices:  A short story from each writer's setting.  All with a cheese divination theme.
Kevin Hearne's Staked: Latest "Iron Druid" book with, shockingly, many vampire opponents.

Rereads: None

Graphic Novels/TPBs:
Garth Ennis/Jonh Mcrea's The Demon: Hell's Hitman

Total: 13

Febuary:
Short Fiction:  Django Wexler's the Shadow of Elysium, Delia Sherman's the Great Detective, Joe Abercrombie's Two's Company, Seanan McGuire's Velveteen Presents: Action Dude Vs. Doing the Right Thing and Brian McCellan's Ghosts of the Tristan Basin

New Reads:
C.E. Murphy's Baba Yaga's Daughter the Tales of the Old Races:  World building short fiction for Murphy's "Old Races/Negotiatior" series.
N.K. Jemison's the Fifth Season:  Excellent read, even if the flash-back part of the story somewhat overwhelms the "now" bits.
Daniel Polansky's the Builders:  Like if Sam Peckinpah directed a "Redwall" movie.
Peter Clines' Ex-Isle:  Supers vs. zombies AT SEA.
Nicola Griffith's Hild:  Iron age Britain historical fiction yumminess.
Greg Van Eekhout's Dragon Coast:  One more crazy heist, one more group of nasty cannibal wizards.
Michael McCloskey's Trilisk Supersedure
T. Kingfisher's the Raven & the Reindeer: Ursula Vernon's Snow Queen adaptation.
Daniel O'Malley's the Rook:  What if you woke up with no memories of your life but were told you were one of the leaders of England's super-powered, super-secret spy orginization.  Oh and some of your co-workers wanted to kill you for what you used to know.
(editor) Eric Flint's Ring of Fire IV:  Most recent pro-anthology for the "Ring of Fire" series.
Georgette Heyer's the Quiet Gentleman:  I've liked other Regency Romance style books, but this one didn't really work for me.
Sherwood Smith's Whispered Magics:  Collection of Smith's short fiction.
Joe Haldeman's All My Sins Remembered:  Such a depressing ending.  Soooo bleak.

Rereads: None

Graphic Novels/TPBs:
G. Willow Wilson/Adrian Alphona/Dan Slott/Christos Gage/Guiseppe Camuncoli's Ms. Marvel: Last Days vol. 4:  Short arc leading into whatever last year's summer crossover event was, with some Spider-Man team-up filler.
Joe Hill/Gabriel Rodriguez' Locke & Key: Alpha & Omega:  Used part of the tax refund to finally finish up the series.
Stjepan Šejić's Sunstone vol.4:  Argh!  Open lines of communication people!
Joe Casey/Nick Dragotta/Brad Simpson's Vengeance:  Better than average Marvel mini-series that got lost in the Big Events.

Total: 19

March:
Short Fiction:  Seanan McGuire's Swamp Bromeliad & Velveteen Vs. the Consequences of Her Actions, Alyssa Wong's a Fist of Permutations in Lightning & Wildflowers, Melissa Marr's the Maiden Thief, Carrie Vaughn's That Game We Played in War Time, Caighlan Smith's the Weather, Dave Freer's the Changeling & the Phooka and David D. Levine's Discards.

New Reads:
Stephen Leather's Once Bitten:  Meh vampire fic.
Seanan McGuire's Chaos Choreography:  Latest "InCryptid" novel, going back to Verity Price and a reality dance show reuinion.
R.J. Ross' Shadow Boy:  Most recent "Cape High" book that wraps up the Evil Presidential Canidate arc.
(editors) Walt Boyes/Bjorn Hasseler's Grantville Gazette vol.62-64
Ken Liu's Grace of Kings.  The rise from peasant gangster to Emperor.
Orest Stelmuch's the Boy From Reactor 4:  Ukrainian and Russian gangsters, Chernobyl and hockey.
George R.R. Martin's A Knight the 7 Kingdoms:  Collection of the Duncan & Egg/Hedge Knight stories.
Tamora Pierce's Magic Steps, Street Magic, Cold Fire, Shatterglass, the Will of the Empress & Melting Stones.  Bingeing on nearly all the remaining "Circle of Magic"
(editors) Will Shetterly/Emma Bull's Liakek 1:  First in a shared-world anthology series.
Joe K. Lansdale's Savage Season.  Stupid Sundance preview week making me think I could record all of Hap & Leonard so I had to read the book instead.  Good book though.
Jeff Vandameer's Annihilation, Authority and Acceptance:  I heard there was a television adaptation for this trilogy in the works.  If they get it right it will be super-creepy and amazing.
K.J. Parker's Downfall of the Gods.  One goddess' long scam against her pantheon, though I'm unclear as to her motivation.

Rereads: None

Graphic Novels/TPBs:
Shannon, Dean & Nathan Hale's Calamity Jack:  Steampunk/fairy tale mash-up sequel to Rapunzel's Revenge
Ananth Hirsh/Yuko Ota's Lucky Penny

Total: 22

3 Movies

Oct. 28th, 2014 10:37 pm
lurkerwithout: (eastman)
Bad Words: Jason Bateman's movie about an adult who uses a loophole to get into the National Spelling Bee competition for reasons.  Which  wobbles all over the place between treating its characters as sociopaths or woobies in need of a hug.  Some funny scenes but honestly adult who plays cruel head games with children doesn't work for me...

Only Lovers Left Alive: Jim Jarmusch directs Tom Hiddleston and Tilda Swinton as melancholy vampires was a very easy sell.  Slow-paced but clever.  Doesn't try to reinvent the cinematic vampire concept and doesn't need to...

Detention of the Dead: On the other hand this last movie probably could have done with ditching of its sub-genres cliches.  Or at least done a better job of lampshading them...

3 Movies

May. 5th, 2014 06:20 pm
lurkerwithout: (eastman)
Fruitvale Station: A last day in the life of Oscar Grant who was murdered by over-reacting transit police. Powerful stuff, especially by lead Michael B. Jordan...

We're the Millers: Some genuinely funny bits scattered through out and Jennifer Aniston's machine shop/stripper scene is both hot and has a funny payoff.  But a bit too long and unfocused...

Vamps: I like several of the actors in this but it really has no damn idea what to do with its concept of vampires in the modern world.  Gave up on it probably about a 1/4 of the way in...

3 Movies

Dec. 18th, 2012 08:31 pm
lurkerwithout: (eastman)
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel: Sure, theres more than a bit of Watch White People Experience and Validate Indian Culture. But its some top quality actors doing that validating. A charming movie really despite its baggage...

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Slayer: There are times when the movie actually manages to maintain the awesome implied by the high concept. Then its generally brought crashing down by its ridiculous story and at times overdone f/x sequences. The battle atop a stampeding herd of horses is especially groan worthy...

Brave: Honestly kind of mid-range by Pixar standards. Which puts it pretty high up by general movie standards. The scenes with the marauding bear are especially effective...
lurkerwithout: (eastman)
A tolerable movie, even enjoyable at times. Depp's vampire anachronism bits were pretty good. Of course in the final act everything comes apart as minor twists are just tossed in from nowhere. The bit with Michelle Pfiefer's character's daughter especially irks me. Irks me soooo much...

Stake Land

Mar. 26th, 2012 07:26 pm
lurkerwithout: (eastman)
A zombie movie, except they drink blood instead of eating flesh or brains and so are called vampires. But really its zombies. The movie follows an orphaned teen boy and the survivalist who rescues him as they journey across the post-apocalypse country in search of a near mythical town called New Eden. A better than average zombie Earth flick, though it does have an annoying Rule Change pop up in the third act...
lurkerwithout: (eastman)
So I'm not sure if the dialogue for this is actually this bad or if its just a crazy, terrible dubbed translation. Anyways, the story of kung fu vampire hunters, emo space vampire princes and manic pixie girls. Plus Jackie Chan has a cameo as an emt who gets in a fight with some of the vampires. Just 'cause...

Suck

Jan. 17th, 2012 06:24 am
lurkerwithout: (eastman)
So I guess Canada is the place to go for low-budget vampire parodies. This was a surprisingly amusing movie about a loser rock band that starts making it big thanks to vampirism. And its not just good because of the appearances by Alice Cooper, Henry Rollins, Moby and Iggy Pop. Its also got Dave Foley as the world's most amoral business manager...
lurkerwithout: (Huh)
Vampire enthusiasts to spend near constant daylight stuck on boat. I'm not sure why this would be in the summer and not winter. Maybe you can't do cruises in the winter...
lurkerwithout: (Reading cat)
Photobucket
iZombie: Dead to the World written by Chris Roberson, art by Michael Allred, colors by Laura Allred, letters by Todd Klein

Gwen's a brain-eating zombie. But not so much in the shambling around and attacking farm houses and malls kind of way. More in the working as a hipster gravedigger and hanging out with ghost girls and wereterriers and flirting with the new vampire hunter in town. Of course there is a new monster in town and he wants Gwen's help. But he's kind of a murderous vigilante mummy so she's not sure if she can trust him...

Chris Roberson creates Yet Another Urban Fantasy world, but he does it with style and wit and humor. And of course being backed by the art of Mike "Madman" Allred...
lurkerwithout: (Reading cat)
I was really expecting comics to be delayed this week. But I guess comics don't care about veterans or something? And its a fairly large pull week as well...

Starting with a new Criminal arc, "The Last of the Innocent". Which I swear looks to be a noir version of that What if Archie Married Veronica comic...

And Avengers Academy is one of those .1 new reader friendly issues. With the kids going out and looking up what happened to the other teens recruited by Osborne. The ones who didn't make the Avengers, High Risk of Super-Villainy list...

Heroes for Hire concludes its Spider-Man guest spot with a helping hand from Santana. And a return by Misty to active work...

Thunderbolts finish up their Middle East zombie infenstation while their prison "home" gets a visit from a "Fear Itself" tie-in. Leading to yet another mass break-out...

Leaving Marvel for DC, the Secret Six return from their visit to Hell. Where they've learned to be a family. A fucked up headcase family...

iZombie reveals that ancient mummy dudes really love skeeball. Plus a look at secret agent monster agency V.E.I.L's ongoing missions. Where we get to meet the Chief of said agency...

And gangsters vs. vampires vs. aliens Turf wraps up. With a super-busy, gigantic, piles of casulties final brawl. Still too much text though out what was more an interesting book than a good one...
lurkerwithout: (Reading cat)
Photobucket
Life Sucks written by Jessica Abel and Gabe Soria, art by Warren Pleece, colors by Hilary Sycamore

Ok, so just looking at the cover picture, guess who is the real vampire? Yep, the convenience store clerk. Dave Miller is finding that un-life is pretty crappy. Terrible job working for his creator and Master. No money. Not much in the way of cool powers since he's trying to stay vegan by not attacking humans to feed. And no girl. The best he's got is fantasizing about one of the cute goth girls who stops off at his store. But then a frequently late co-worker leaves him with no choice but to actually talk to the girl so he can get a ride and make it home before sunrise. And it looks like he's even got a chance at getting her to like him. Even if she buys into the whole "Princes of the Night" romantic vampire bull-shit. But Dave can work around that. Of course everything becomes much more complicated when he has to compete for her against his vampire "brother" sociopathic, spoiled rich kid surfer Wes...

A prefect read for anyone with a shelf full of Anne Rice or who's spent a night running around with their arms crossed over their chest to show that they're invisible...
lurkerwithout: (eastman)
This version of Stoker's classic pretty much drops all the parts dealing with London. And Transylvania. Dracula arrives near Lucy's family house aboard the shipwreck of the Demeter. Oh and the whole courtship of Lucy seems to be gone as well. No Lord Whosits, Dr. Seward or Quincy Morris. Mina is still engaged to Harker (who is a bit of a total prick in this version) and is visiting with Lucy. And Lucy is related to Von Helsing somehow. Her doctor father is his brother maybe? I wasn't paying close enough attention to be sure...

A fairly good version of Dracula. Frank Langella has the needed presence to pull off the part of the vampiric Count. The supernatural f/x (with the notable exception of any scene with Drac in bat form) is adequate. I am disappointed in the actors playing Mina and Lucy. Until Lucy becomes a vampire I could not tell the two of them apart, neither really brings anything to their role...
lurkerwithout: (eastman)
Oh man. So much dumb. Dumb from the perspective of vampire fandom lore. From a dumb science point. From a basic storytelling start. All dumb. But saved from being truly terible by being full of exploding vampires. Because exploding vampires are pretty cool. Cool but dumb...
lurkerwithout: (Reading cat)
Another heavy pull this week. Helped along by the start of the second Incognito mini-series by Brubaker & Phillips. Which I somehow managed to miss when it came out sometime in the last couple weeks. Which has Zack Overkill going from super-villain to office drone in Witness Protection to government agent...

Sadly Young Allies comes to an end with its 6th issue. Which concentrates on Firestar and guest start Emma Frost. Who, back when she was a bad guy, had recruited the teen-age Angelica to try and train her into being her personal assassin. Oh well, one less book from the Big Two cape lines to keep up with...

But the other young supers book from Marvel, Avengers Academy looks to doing well. This time around the focus moves to Reptil, who has just been made class leader. Not that he isn't just as mentally screwed up as the others...

And lastly from the House of Ideas for the week is the next Strange Tales II. A great cover here by Jaime Hernadez, which ties into the Space Phantom story he has in the issue. His brother Gilbert has an amusing Iron Man/Toro team-up short also. Jeffrey Brown's X-Men story is also a stand out. Though Paul Maybury's Spider-Man story with Peter Parker telling various people various lies to explain his super-hero injuries, which leads to Aunt May thinking Mary Jane is beating him, might be my favorite...

The new ps238 concentrates mostly on Zodon and Victor VonFogg's cross-dimensional caper. Though we do get to check in with Ron/Argonaut and Tyler/Moon Shadow in space a few times...

Invincible hits its 75th issue with the climax of the Viltumite War. With the Coalition Viltrumite's and their most powerful allies going after the remaining Viltrumite Empire leaders. Also some nice Science Dog and TechJacket back-ups...

G0dland briefly becomes D0gland with a look at Maxim's people. And lots of..er..look its all very crazy and Kirby-tastic and I'm really going to need to give this one another read or two to follow everything thats happening here...

The cover for Secret Six has Bane wearing crude armor, wielding a bone lance and riding a T-Rex/Allosaurus type dino. Do you need anything else to sell you on this?

And we finish up with the latest iZombie. Gwendolyn (zombie) does some grave digging, Horatio goes hunting (monster hunter), Scott (were-terrier) gets a date, Galatea(?) makes her debut and Ellie (ghost) bonds with a new friend...
lurkerwithout: (Reading cat)
To start off I grabbed the first issue of Strange Tales II from last week. Mostly for the Kate Beaton's 2-page "The Distraction" story about Kraven the Hunter. But I also love the sweet Rafael Grampa cover and there are some clever variations on Marvel characters here...

Next is the start of the next arc for Darkwing Duck. With a dastardly plan by the team of Nega-Duck and Magica DeSpell. As well as the return of Darkwing's spooky lady of the night Morgan DeSpell. I'm hoping I'll finally find out if the two are related...

Kirkman's spin-off series Guarding the Globe continues with recruiting for the new Global Guardians. As does the uber-villain team The Order...

Fables follows Mr. Dark as he recieves Frau Totenkinder challenge, delivered by Mr. North. And I must say artist Inaki Miranda and colorist Eva De La Cruz do creepy very well...

Turf has the Strigoli clan continuing their take-over of New York. But mob boss Eddie Falco and alien Squeed aren't out of the game just yet. Nor is Ms. Randall intrepid girl reporter...

A double dose of Knights of the Dinner Table. Not only do we get the regular issue with strips featuring Johnny rejoining the Knight's table, but also several looking at Patty's Perps. And a disappointing ending to the Bob and the Orc Cub story. But also KODT: Black Hands 2010 Special #1. Where the Black Hands all take a turn behind the GM screen to decide who will take over while Nitro's credentials are suspended...
lurkerwithout: (Hobbes)
Today we could wish userinfodiehardgamefan aka Alex Lucard a happy birthday. Were he not of the dread lineage of Dracul and the Count and Bunnicula!

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