A nerd before the birth of TOS Red Shirts, I share my thoughts on genre media be it books, movies, TV shows, etc

Saturday, May 25, 2013

N0S4A2 - King Dynasty Is Established

Blue November by Brian James Freeman

This was a quick read - a novella length story about a shared dark secret between 5 men who are High School Football Buddies known as the Lightning Five.



This bears much similarity to King's DreamCatcher. I would have preferred a longer book length version of the story to flesh out the characters and their back story more.  Great illustrations by Glenn Chadbourne.


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Iron Man 3

Is Iron Man3 better than Iron Man2? Yes but that's not saying much. And not by much.

Both possess half baked and overstuffed plots and the drive to turn the Iron Man suits into a toyline continues unabated.  Really dislike the change on the fly suit stuff too.  Didn't buy the PTSD storyline either.



Movie's strong point is how much Downey is in the flick.  And the interaction between Pepper and Stark. Mandarin turned out to be a Bane-Bust and apparently the driving motivation to become a ubervillain requires nothing more traumatic than to be left out on a cold rooftop.

At the end Tony Stark declares he is Ironman.  Too bad that declaration came at the end of a movie that just demonstrated that any videogamer with decent skills would make a better one.

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N0S4A2 by Joe Hill


I loved this book!



This one does what the best books do - connects with the reader emotionally.  N0S4A2 creates an inscape reading reality inhabited by characters that you care about more and more as the story goes along.  Joe Hill continues to create quirky, flawed characters that makes me feel positive and negative thoughts.  By the time the story ends, my negative thoughts are forgotten.  The Brat is one of the most interesting and flawed characters I have run across in a long time.

While Manx is the story's titular antagonist, it is his sidekick - Bing Patridge - who is the most revolting and terrifying.  For he is a simple fellow that has managed to built his own complex inscape that allows him to carry out atrocities all the while believing he is doing good works. Scary.

This is my favorite type of story - bittersweet triumph tinged with sadness, gratefulness, and hope.

These are great days indeed when there are books to be read from not just Stephen King but his sons - Owen and Joe - too.

1 comment:

Bryant Burnette said...

Good call on Bing being the more memorable of the two baddies. I found some of the POV scenes with Bing to be downright chilling; Hill did a great job sketching out Bing's warped rationale for things.

Hill is a regular chip off the old block, alright. The only downside is that he doesn't seem to be as prolific as his pops. But then again, who is?