Book Review: Mile 81

Mile 81

I don’t know exactly what King was going for here. At the end, he throws out a dedication to a few people who supported his earlier work, so I’m guessing he was going on nostalgia?

This thing reads like a really bad B-movie. Not in a good way. I could’ve done without the blatant and unnecessary plug for AT&T wireless internet. Also, all the mentioning of an ongoing series that he’s working on (American Vampire) and a film adaptation from his previous work (Christine) was kind of distracting and pulled me out of the story.

I don’t know what I expected. I loved Blockade Billy (his short story I read last summer).. but this just bothered me way too much.

Gah.

Book Review: The Burning Soul

I was lamenting to a friend on Friday how annoyed I was coming into the long weekend knowing that the new John Connolly book wouldn’t be out until Tuesday. It annoyed me that it was given two separate release dates, one for Australia, England and Ireland (September 1st) and another for North America (September 6th). I wanted it now! I definitely wanted to take advantage of all this free time I expected to have this weekend. So you can imagine my surprise and glee when I walked into the local bookstore on Friday night and saw it sitting on the shelf for sale.

As I’ve said before, Connolly’s Parker was the character that sucked me into mystery/detective fiction in the first place. After I had read Every Dead Thing about two and a half years ago, I knew this was going to become my genre of choice. When I had read that this novel closely resembled The Unquiet, I was a little nervous. It was by far, the book I had been most disappointed in. I opened that review stating I was getting “burned out” on the character! If not for the books that succeeded that entry, I may not have stayed with the series.

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The Amazing Spider-Man: Trailer #1

I’m not entirely sure how I feel about this one.  On one hand, I think it would’ve been a little crazy to try and take a new director and new cast and insert them into the series that Sam Rami created.  On the other hand, I think it’s a little soon to reboot the franchise.

It’s also hard for me to be critical of the movie, what with the fact that it’s only 2 minutes in footage.  It looks almost like they’re making Peter look less like a nerd and more like a brooding teen.  I mean, look at that shot in the class room with his hood up while he’s drawing/writing something in a notebook.  I don’t know, looks kind of fishy to me.

I’ll reserve my judgement for the 2nd trailer or the film itself.

Goldeneye: ReLoaded.

I’ve been trying to decide whether or not I wanted to own the re-release of Goldeneye on the Wii for the past few months.  I was waiting for some imaginary price drop but as you know, for whatever reason, Wii games hold their value.  It’s often pretty rare that anything drops to a decent price.

However, you can imagine my excitement when I found out they plan to release this remastered in HD for PS3 and XBOX 360.  I’m totally all over this.  Check out the trailer.

Metallica. Finally.

Nothing Else Matters

I’m not sure where and what category this actually belongs to on the blog but screw it, I’m writing it anyway.

Last Thursday I had a chance to live through something that I never thought I’d have the chance to experience.  Metallica live.

About 7 years ago, I went to see an episode of WWE Raw.  As a kid, I had been (and still am) a fan of professional wrestling and always wanted to see their flagship show live.  When I experienced that, my excitement level had been so high that I felt like I was having a heart attack.  Yes, that may be sad to some of you but when you get to be a part of something you had dreamed of, it can be a little surreal.

The point of that story?  Well, like WWE,  I’ve been a fan of Metallica most of my life.  Myself, along with many close friends, took in the show in Halifax @ The Garrison Grounds.  Like that episode of Monday Night RAW in 2003, this had been something I had only fantasized about.  Something that I never would have imagined I’d be a part of.

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Book Review: Rico Slade Will Fucking Kill You

He Backs It Up.

I’ve been so busy lately that it took me almost a week to read a 112 page book. This is sad. I am a sad Brandon. That being said, there really isn’t a whole lot to say about this one.

Honestly, this is totally insane. There’s no better word to describe it, really. There are a lot of awesome one-liners and the humor is just completely off the wall. Next time I threaten someone, I’m totally going to tell them that I plan on “punching them in the fucking face a bunch of fucking times”.

Short review is short.

Thank you.

The Dark Knight Rises Trailer Review

It’s a new Batman movie.  This is the trailer for it.

http://www.thedarkknightrises.com/

It’s fucking awesome.  That is my review.

Book Review: John Dies At The End

Spoiler?

After reading a particular great review on GoodReads, I had to get my hands on this ASAP. Several people I follow on this glorious website have been singing the praises of bizarro fiction over the past number of months and have stirred up some interest in me about exploring the genre.

John Dies at the End was my first bizzaro experience and now has me dying to devour more material. It was everything I thought this genre was supposed to be.. totally fucked up, thrilling and interesting characters with hilarious dialouge.

I could go into detail explaining the plot, but it’s so out there that it’s best if maybe you go into it with a little ignorance and just let it unfold before you. There are so many twists and turns that I found it hard at times to put it down. It’s only because I’ve been so busy lately with personal matters that it had taken me about two weeks to fully finish.

 

Book Review: Room

Room

Room

A woman is taken captive at the age of 19 and held against her will in a small 11 x 11 garden shed. Her captor, Old Nick, has basically fortified the shed into a type of prison, keeping the woman as a sex slave. During her stay there, she gives birth to a boy, Jack. We’re brought into the story at the point of Jack’s 5th birthday as the woman and her son begin to formulate a plan to escape.

I’m not really sure what to say about this one. In all honesty, the writing really should have bothered me. In fact, when I started reading, I almost gave up immediately, I didn’t think I could handle an entire book written through the viewpoint of a 5 year old. I carried on however, and I’m glad I did.

I told a co-worker I was reading this book and proceeded to explain the plot. We often exchange recommendations in regards to what we’re currently reading and mine usually tend to be darker fiction. When I came to him with this recent purchase, he said “There must be something wrong with you. Why do you always pick the most depressing sounding books to read?”. I didn’t have an answer for him.

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Video Games: Kinect Fun Labs

I scanned myself into my XBOX.

Yesterday, Microsoft announced a new addition to the default Kinect software called Kinect Fun Labs.  Apparently, you can not only scan yourself into an avatar.. but you can also scan random things in your home.  Here’s a scan of me as an XBOX avatar.   If you cannot tell, I’m wearing a Starbucks t-shirt.

I’m awesome.