[Movie] Crimson Peak was Interesting.

So I have to be about the hundredth person who thinks they might have been a little cheated by Crimson Peak. Let's face it, the next major holiday is Halloween. This is prime time scary movie territory. With the crimson and black ghosts popping up in the trailers, one would definitely think of this as just the right kind of movie for the season. Unfortunately, the ghosts don't really seem to make it more than halfway through the movie before they're abandoned for more of a thriller/mystery vibe. Not that I'm complaining about the thriller vibe. It was very well done. I enjoyed sitting in the theater trying to get one step ahead of the story. (Normally this is not a problem for me.) However, I wanted more ghostly ghastliness.

The manor house served as the perfect setting for something very Edgar Allen Poe with its blood red clay tainted water and the massive hole in the ceiling causing it to snow indoors. Then there were the outdoor shots of the snow also dyed crimson by the clay. Made the entire front yard look like a massive field of battle. Exceptionally pretty in its dilapidated state like an old matron seeking her youth through make-up. Yet it wasn't used up to its full potential. I guess I was looking for something more The Haunting of Hill House from it, making the very house party to all the secrets.

All in all, I thought the acting was well-done. Tom Hiddleston (Thomas Sharpe) stole the show for me, of course, though I still have a hard time not thinking Loki when I see him. I guess there are just some roles that leave indelible marks on a watcher's consciousness. This is not to say that the women, Mia Wasikowska (Edith Cushing) and Jessica Chastain (Lucille Sharpe), weren't mesmerizing, just that my eyes gravitated toward him and the expressions he gave. The three of them together however made the movie. In the pivotal scene of confrontation with the pounding on the door, it is the interaction between the three of them that makes it work. Charlie Hunnam (Dr. Alan McMichael) isn't an afterthought, but he certainly isn't as captivating as the other three.

I suppose I should back up a second and discuss the actual plot of the movie: Down and out heirs with nothing to peddle but their name seek funding for a mining gadget. During their attempts to secure funding, the male heir falls for a wealthy heiress who could be the end of their financial woes. They marry. Come to find out, the man is already married and has been several times, killing each of his successive wives for their money. The ghosts of these murdered innocents still haunt the family manse and make several attempts to warn the young heiress of her oncoming fate.

Things I saw coming: The brother-sister relationship. After Lucille mentions they were often left in the nursery alone while their parents traveled, that part sort of wrote itself in my mind.
The revelation of Lucille as the killer of Edith's father. No offense to Thomas, but he just doesn't have the spine to actually kill someone.

Overall, Crimson Peak was a pretty drama with some horror elements, not a horror movie. Will I watch it again? Probably once it comes out on DVD.

Catching up with Chains of Fate

Wow. Hard to believe I passed an entire month without a word. In June, I showed off the awesome cover for "Chains of Fate" I received. It really is beautiful and while it doesn't tell you exactly what is behind the cover, it does hint strongly at the romance aspect. "Chains" has been out for a month now and what have I learned? I learned you can sell a book through one on one contact. Actually, my favorite review comes from a young lady I met on the Nerd Fitness Rebellion forums. (Hi, Gaming_Jeweler!) While I won't go through her entire review, I'll look at my favorite part:

~The ending to this book took me by surprise. I was half-right about how it was going to end. It was the half that I had guessed wrong that took me by surprise. Throughout the book, I saw several ways the book could have ended. I kept guessing how the story would end. I am normally able to guess how a book is going to end by the final chapters. However, when I was at the last three chapters I was guessing the book would end one of two possible ways. I wasn't even remotely close. I was partially right, but the ending took me by surprise. The question of who will win is answered towards the end of the book, but I won't answer it here. That answer is best answered by the book. If you like medieval fantasy stories, go ahead pick up a copy. It's definitely worth reading.~

The ending of the book has always been something I've been a little worried about. Was it too obvious? Or too obscure? Did I set it up correctly? With all those things floating around in my head, it is good to see that for at least some of my readers, the ending hit exactly like it was supposed to. Enough of a surprise to keep you guessing, but still set up enough that it was satisfying.

Another reader was much more terse in their praise of the book. They gave it five stars but fit the entire review on a single line.

~Great Story... Well written and engaging throughout. Would definitely recommend.~

I was very pleased to get that review.

All in all, "Chains" is being well-received. I look forward to getting more reviews now that the Goodreads Giveaway has closed. Oh, dear, that was something I never talked about. Through Goodreads, I offered ten signed copies of "Chains" to those who would enter the drawing. 935 people entered. I was almost sad I could only give out ten. As a result of that, "Chains" is now on over 400 bookshelves on the website, which will undoubtedly lead to more sales. That was both surprising and gratifying.

I also uploaded the first five chapters of "Chains" to a website called Noisetrade. It allows people to download the information in exchange for their email address. I look forward to possibly building an email list through this website, once I get better versed in how it works.

So what's the next step? The next step is to get "Chains" out to more readers while I work on writing the next book. (Another side effect of people reading the book is that there has been some clamor for a sequel. I have as yet no solid plans to write one, but there are a few things nibbling at the back of my mind which might turn into one at some point. You'll just have to wait and see.) What am I going to do to get "Chains" in front of more readers? I am going to set up with both Smashwords and ACX, one for more e-reader formats and the other for audio books. Both offer their own benefits, plus I just think it would be cool to be able to hear my book through headphones.

In case you haven't yet, here's the LINK to pick up "Chains of Fate" on Amazon as either an ebook or a print book

[Review] The Lives We Fear by Dan Otsuki

I’ll be honest when I first opened up the book, I was thinking horror in the sense of blood, guts, and gore. There were going to be monsters and harrowing escapes. That was not what I got. What I got was a well-written tale or two about horror of another kind. More psychological. I won’t say which is better because I enjoy both rather equally. Of the stories offered, I find myself gravitating toward two the most. “A Day in the Future” considers what it would be like to be able to see a day in the future and how that could affect those you love and “Mister Jackson Monroe” deals with time travel. I’m beginning to see a theme in what I picked out. First let’s talk about “A Day in the Future”.

The short story “A Day in the Future” begins with the female lead sitting at a Super Bowl game she has bet on. She bets on sporting events and plays poker for her living. It also introduces us to Marco who will become more interesting later, but for the moment, he is just a meathead there to give us someone for Kayla to work on. What Marco doesn’t know is that Kayla has already seen the outcome of the game, she knows not quite exactly what is going to happen, but close enough. It makes it easy for her to win money off of him. This is followed by Kayla considering what she is going to do. There is a very important conversation she intends to have with her boyfriend, Toby, the male lead and for once she isn’t looking ahead to see what the conversation will be like. It’s quite noble of her really to want to experience the conversation straight through the first time with him, when she could easily see ahead and pick out what would be the best things to say. The conversation goes well. Now, Toby, who was previously kept in the dark, knows about her gift and what she can do. Of course, he’s curious. The beginning of the downward spiral begins the first time he asks Kayla to see his future. He is exhilarated by the fact that the gift has made it so easy. Of course, it makes things easy, it’s a little bit like cheating life. The problem is you can only cheat for so long before something goes wrong. The something is Toby’s project having major setbacks and him resigning from his position. Now he’s unemployed and needier than ever. He begins to rely on Kayla for everything, all the while she is getting more and more frustrated at being treated like a crystal ball. In her mind, he has become less than a person because he can’t think or do for himself any longer, he waits on her to tell him his every move. I can’t even begin to imagine how far gone one has to be to give up all autonomy in favor of a seemingly sure thing, but that’s what he does. Kayla becomes so frustrated, she runs off to Atlantic City, another fabulous gambling town so she can get some time away and maybe force him to become his own man again. I don’t want to give away the ending, but Marco reappears in the story and things spiral further out of control.

All in all, it is a wonderful story about the human spirit and the depths it can sink to if given the right stimulus. The horror is in Toby’s condition as he deteriorates into a near mindless infant in the face of knowledge of the future. Like I said, I can’t imagine falling that far, but my sense of independence is different. I would fight tooth and nail to make Kayla wrong about my future rather than passively accepting her word as some kind of holy writ. But then, I’m not Toby.

“Mister Jackson Monroe” is another story where horror isn’t the first thing I would think about it. Chilling perhaps slightly in the way that the Twilight Zone could occasionally be chilling, but it was more of a science fiction story than a horror story. Maybe I was just drawn to things that departed from the traditional horror genre once I started reading Otsuki’s work. In “Monroe” we start out with a happy, beautiful couple who are spending the day together and then the husband, Jackson, goes out to get food for dinner. He is assaulted in the parking lot by a younger man, Daniel, who is in love with Jackson’s wife, Ali. There’s a gun brandished. Then we are sent back in time to the first meeting between Jackson and Daniel, orchestrated by Ali, years earlier. Now we are following Daniel’s perspective and he is hopelessly in love with Ali. That reality will inform a number of the choices he will make throughout the story. Daniel sees Jackson as a rival and not even a very good one. Jackson might be older and seemingly sophisticated, but he can’t be as perfect for Ali as Daniel thinks he is.

Daniel has it all figured out for a college kid. He knows exactly where he’s going to work and what he’s going to do. Jackson is just a bar owner who happens to have Daniel’s dream girl. Daniel is obsessed. Not just with Ali but also with his work, a project that will allow time travel. It is to the work that he loses his only friend, Paul, who has tried to be a stabilizing force for Daniel’s life. When Paul is killed in a work accident, Daniel is set adrift without a friend and without his work. He begins to drink heavily, which is a terrible answer to how to cope. Finally, lost in a fugue of alcohol and self-pity, he goes to buy a gun. When he sees Jackson in the parking lot of the grocery store, he jumps out of his car and brandishes the gun at him, which brings us back to a very early scene in the story. The standoff only lasts moments. Again, I won’t spoil the ending, but that moment changes everything that comes after it because it brings Daniel to an even lower place where he makes a desperate choice.

Was I disappointed that there wasn’t more blood in the stories by Dan Otsuki? No, not really. Reading them for what they are, they are fine stories. They each have an element of suspense and some even reach for horror in a different way. I would give it a 5 Star rating for the read through. I’ll be looking for more of his work in the future.



This has been an Elite Book Promotion Review. Review copy was provided for the purposes of writing the review.

Review: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. I felt like this could have been a lot shorter. Yes, there were fun parts and OMG SMAUG (awesome!) but it feels like all we're doing is bridging some sort of gap. Yes, we're putting in all the details from the book, and there is technically more story after Smaug turns Lake Town into so much rubble, but truthfully, couldn't we have jumped like half of this, put in the stuff from after the destruction, and thus skipped having to have a third movie?

Well, we could have, but truthfully, then it doesn't square with its predecessor (or sequel which was made a movie first) as a trilogy.

In a way, this is so capitalistic, it's sickening, but in another way, it makes it easier to skip the stuff in the middle by simply watching the first and third movie when they inevitably come out as a DVD boxed set.

Anyway, my .02 cents on the subject of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.

Memoirs of an Antihero by Drew Blank

Drew Blank hooks you from the first page of this sarcastic book about a vigilante who will tell you, he is no hero. Drew, the writer and main character, sums it all up quickly: “Screw justice. I just needed the money.” With a line like that, you would expect a self-obsessed, undoubtedly narcissistic personality. Drew is a long way from self-obsessed. In fact, he gets into all of this for the love of his daughter, Michaela Luann Sullivan aka Moxie, who, we find out at the beginning of the book, has just been diagnosed with leukemia. Leukemia is not an automatic death sentence, but it requires treatment, costly treatment. The cost is far higher than Drew’s nearly minimum wage job at Tully’s Seafood will pay for. The corrupt town he lives in offers him an unusual out, however. Crime is rampant in the city of Cross. A good bit of it is drug deals and other such activity, lucrative activity. Drew decides to cash in by robbing the corrupt rich in order to pay for his daughter’s treatment.

Though he might not call himself a hero, there is the usual mixed response to his seemingly heroic actions. While some are truly happy he is taking drug dealers off the street, there are others (including corrupt cops) who see him as a problem. One they are more than willing to use lethal force against. At the top of the pyramid of drugs in Cross is the mysterious Benji Carver, who is certainly willing to go to some extraordinary lengths to get rid of Drew, or rather his vigilante persona Freak. After a series of interesting and escalating incidents, Freak goes up against Benji Carver, or Blueboy, with the life of his darling Moxie and her mother, Reggie, at stake. In the end, Freak survives and it looks like he just might get away with it all.

No hero truly works alone. In Drew’s case, his team is made up of: his best friend, Christine “Twisty” Bailey, a perky fellow server at Tully’s who is also an artist and science fiction junkie; Phil Kendall, a gay computer genius and his roommate; Jeff Gustafson, a non-gay machinist; and finally the former military man turned tattoo artist, Tom. Thankfully, Tom is not only a good tattoo artist; he is also a decent medic because Drew’s first few excursions leave him with some rather drastic injuries.

While not on Drew’s vigilante team, other important people include: Carmela “Mema” Severi, who fills the role of mother figure for Drew; Regina “Reggie” Sullivan, Moxie’s mother and Drew’s former girlfriend; and Dominick Prazzo, former server at Tully’s, close friend of Drew’s, and current member of the Cross police force who is assigned to the Freak’s case.

While there are points in the plot that are somewhat predictable, Drew’s voice as he writes makes it impossible to concentrate on the plausibility or implausibility of what goes on. He makes it sound good. His sense of humor makes it impossible to not want to see what happens. Check out Drew’s website: http://www.screwjustice.com to pick up a copy of the book and show support for this unconventional author and his fantastic material.

Other Contact Material

FACEBOOK for Drew | FACEBOOK FANPAGE | TWITTER

Book Review: Codex by Lev Grossman

One thing stressed for all authors is finishing strong. Grossman would have benefited from taking that advice. Codex, overall, is fairly well-written. The characters are a trifle boring, but otherwise realistic. The setting, in some places, is quite good. The story flows along without many hitches or snags. However, the ending is so terribly uninspired it is hard to believe it even belongs to the same book. If you took away the last thirty pages, I'm not entirely sure the book would even miss them. I know as a reader I certainly wouldn't have.

Read the entire article here.

Review of Sagar'un: Tales of New World by Crystal Rayne and Konrad Hollenstein

As a reader, I open every book with an expectation of excellence. This writer, whoever they are, is going to sweep me off my feet into a realm of wonder and adventure. This expectation keeps me reading past the parts where things may not quite make sense in order to fully dig out and appreciate the book as a whole. In the case of Sagar'un: Tales of a New World, my expectation did not survive to the end of the prologue.

Naming the god of all creation, Kronos the Lord of Time, was one of the first things I noticed and found disheartening. Yes, the name carries with it a long history, but it also smacks of a lack of imagination. Especially when the names given to the other gods do not follow the same pattern. There is a comma splice on page one. In some cases, that alone would be enough to cause a reader to stop reading. Also on page one, there are verb tense changes within sentences and needless repetition. Keep in mind, this is all on page one. The prologue goes on for approximately ten pages.

The prologue covers the birth of a new world, the world of Sagar'un. Sagar'un is built by four elemental spirits: Safa, Savina, Nido, and Baphtomos. A pantheon of lesser gods and goddesses is also involved, called the Pathon. I'm not entirely sure if that is an attempt at a new name or a misspelling on the part of the authors. While the groups are convened together, Kronos sets the world in motion, starts time, and reveals to the assembled how he is going to make Sagar'un different from the other worlds previously made. He is going to give man command of his own destiny. I do not quite understand why the God of Evil, Malicos, gets upset about this. Malicos and his counterpart, Hyboros, get into an argument and cause the destruction of the gem created from the essence of the four elementals by Kronos. Kronos then hides the portions of the gem so neither Malicos nor Hyboros can take control of the gem. While on the surface, this seems perfectly acceptable, I have several questions at the end of the prologue.

First, why did Kronos allow these two to undo his work? He has the ability to freeze them in time, so he did not have to allow it to happen. Why let them destroy his work and then threaten them with consequences? It seems very backward.

Second, why are Malicos and Hyboros even arguing? Hyboros makes a comment that Malicos is upset about how mankind having the gem will make the balance of good and evil secondary. I do not follow this logic. Good and evil are human concepts. Giving men power and choice in no way changes how easily swayed they are. In fact, power makes it easier to sway a person to the dark side. As the saying goes: Power corrupts.

Third, why toss the pieces down to Sagar'un at all? Once the gem bursts, Kronos takes up the pieces. Why not simply use them to reconstitute the gem instead of throwing them down to the world below? Or, return the power to the elementals he took them from? His choice does not make sense.

These are not the only questions I am left with at the end of the prologue, but simply the ones I have the hardest time attempting to answer. Combined with the grammatical mistakes, these questions make it very hard to keep interest in the story. I read all 410 pages of Sagar'un: Tales of a New World and there were a few glimmers of possibility in its pages, but mostly I found it incredibly disappointing from beginning to end.

There are obvious points where the dialogue does not fit the setting. The leader of a wolf pack screaming about “LEGAL TRICKERY,” for example. (pp. 56) Or the mother of the chief asking, “Who are you guys?” (pp. 36). It destroys suspension of disbelief. Basic grammar rules such as those for comma usage and apostrophes are consistently ignored, another jarring effect. Finally, the plot itself is only cohesive in sections, not as a whole. Overall, “Sagar'un” has so many issues, I am surprised it made it into print.

Sagar'un: Tales of New World is available on Amazon.com.

Review of RJ Astruc's A Festival of Skeletons

A Festival of Skeletons is a Festival of Laughs
A review of RJ Astruc's novella, A Festival of Skeletons, available through Crossed Genres in 2010.
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Review: Android Karenina by Ben H. Winters & Leo Tolstoy

Ben H. Winters teams up with Leo Tolstoy (from beyond the grave) to bring us his soon to be classic steampunk novel, Android Karenina, through the publishing house of Quirk Classics. You may recognize Mr. Winters from his previous work with Quirk Classics, Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters which he wrote with the assistance of Jane Austen.

Anna Karenina is a woman with an above average life. She has is married to a man of means, has a son, and appears for all intents and purposes to have it all. This is not the case. Anna, though she does not initially realize it, lacks love. Her husband is a good man, but he is undemonstrative, even cold toward her. Enter the handsome Count Vronsky who highlights that lack in her life and even strives to fill it. If it were not for the robots and the aliens, this would seem like a 19th Century romance.

Aren't we glad Ben added robots and aliens?

Android Karenina is Anna's Class III, a robotic companion created to be there for her every waking moment and make her life easier. The android cannot talk, but is programmed to glow to enhance the look of her mistress's outfits and provides emotional support whenever necessary. She is Anna's closest friend and confidante. Every major adult character in the book has a Class III available to them. Count Vronsky has a mechanical wolf. Anna's husband, Alexei, has a very unique Class III in that it is embedded in his face and linked to his brain.

This is not a good thing.

Besides the Class IIIs, which serve as companions to humans, there are Class Is and Class IIs. Class I's and IIs are not so much robots as mechnical devices, like the coffee pot (Samovar) and the electric shaver.

Now as for the aliens...I really do not know what to say about the aliens without giving away too much, so I will say this: Yes, there are aliens and they are important. You will just have to read the book to find out how and why. Pay close attention whenever they start talking about the Honored Guests.

So, to recap, Android Karenina is a sort of romance with robots and aliens. All that adds up to a fun read to me. Probably for you too if you're reading this blog.

In celebration of the book release, Quirk Classics is once again offering prize packs. Each person is eligible to win one of 25 prize packs worth nearly $100. The pack includes:
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls by Steve Hockensmith [My review of PPZ:DotD]
How to Survive a Horror Movie by Seth Grahame-Smith
Dracula's Heir: An Interactive Mystery by Sam Stall
Extreme Encounters by Greg Emmanuel
How to Tell if Your Boyfriend is The Antichrist by Patricia Carlin
An Android Karenina Poster
AND MORE!!

Just check out the Quirk Classics message board and mention my blog [Creative Chaos] to enter to win.

Disclosure: Written in exchange for a review copy of the book

A Touch of Old Magic

I just completed "Old Magic" by Marianne Curley which I picked up in Wal-Mart on one of my many impulse buys. I realize that 90% of my impulse buying centers around books and food. Figure that one out. Anyway, it was one of the few books I saw which was fantastical, but lacked the current topic of choice: vampires. So I picked it up with every intention of going ahead and reading it that day. Long story short, I did not get a chance to read it that day, or even for a few weeks after the fact. In fact, it sat staring at me from my bookshelf for over a month before I got past the blurb on the jacket. I did say this was an impulse buy, didn't I? So I finally settled down to read it and was sucked into the world of Kate and Jarrod. Short bios of the characters:

Kate is a social outcast, the daughter of a woman who has long since left for another life who is being raised by her grandmother Jillian. Jarrod is the new boy in town, clumsy, awkward, desperate to fit in and apparently the seventh son recipient of a rather powerful curse.

Curses don't get as much play in fantasy as they really should, they are such lovely things.

Jarrod, who carries the usual realist myopic view of the world, doesn't believe in curses or magic or anything he can't quantify and label. He is also very much a weak willed coward. Oddly enough, he always seems to have something of a backbone when it comes time to deny the existence of magic.

You spend the first half of the book dealing with the somewhat typical high school antics of drama queens and bullies, with a in class wind storm and coffee house earthquake thrown in. I have to admit to really feeling as if I was slogging through that section. However, them getting to go back in time to take on the originator of Jarrod's curse was much more interesting.

Rhauk, the curse maker and possible ancestor of Jarrod, is perhaps my favorite character out of the whole book, but I have a soft spot for deranged evil bastards. His best move: Tricking Kate into agreeing to stay with him. She's so level headed you almost can't believe he has managed it until she tells Jarrod to go home without her. Of course, Jarrod does no such thing. Instead, he stays and hones his gift to fight Rhauk to get Kate back.

The final showdown goes a bit unpredictably. I thought Jarrod might actually die, despite knowing that as a main character the chances of his demise were about .003%. Jarrod kills Rhauk and you would think this would eliminate the curse from his family, except Rhauk proves once again he is a thinking villain. He's been lying about his curse from the start. I won't tell you how because it will spoil the surprise.

Overall, I will read this again when I'm looking for something entertaining to eat up an afternoon. Even with the slogging sections, it was still a great book. Pick up a copy via Amazon.com or Half.com.

Sherlock Holmes (2009)

Despite his eccentricities there has always been something endearing about Sherlock Holmes, or perhaps it is his eccentricities that make him wonderful. Either way, I remember being fascinated by him as a child, along the same era I devoured The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew. Just the idea of being able to understand the clues and catch the bad guy all without having to be big, buff, or even remotely athletic. Exactly the kind of thing that would appeal to an ailing intellectual child like myself.

So I started seeing trailers for “Sherlock Holmes” (2009) starring Robert Downey Jr. and that little kid in me crosses its arms, stamps its foot, and says we are not going to see that because Sherlock Holmes does not act like that. (Don’t lie, we’ve all had this happen over the last ten years as the entertainment industry reappropriates characters and remakes movies for better or worse.) However, as often happens, curiosity got the better of me and I found myself sitting in a darkened theatre on Christmas day feeling the mixed butterflies of anticipation and apprehension.

Then the movie started…

Remember the little kid, the one who said no way, nuh-uh, this is not happening? It was actually happy within the first five minutes of the film with Sherlock going up against the man in the dark and describing both the man’s problems and how he would dispatch him in a rather dry clinical tone. Sherlock was still more action-y than I remember the man being, but truthfully I feel that was necessary in order to compete for the attention span of the American public. We are just not happy unless something blows up or someone is getting the snot beat out of them. Yet the parts of the movie which made me really happy were: Sherlock’s intellect and the Sherlock/Watson dynamic.

The detachment Sherlock shows toward the things going on around him and his encyclopedic knowledge are two of the things that make Sherlock great. And no Sherlock story would be complete without the grand reveal, made all the more fun by the fact that Lord Blackwood is holding on for dear life throughout the entire exposition. I admit to thinking he was going down before Sherlock finished going on about the entire set up. Made for a great moment though, especially when he finally does fall and hang.

The interaction between Holmes and Watson has seen a major revamp as well. For me, Watson has always been an overweight gentleman with glasses who could not have fought his way out of a paper bag and was really only along to hold Holmes’s bag while he did the heavy lifting. (This might not be entirely true but that’s what I remember of the pair of them.) In this newest installment however, Watson has seen an update to make him more of an action hero as well. He’s a lithe man with a cane who not only fights but fights well enough to hold his own with or without Holmes. Nothing will quite beat him taking on giant Frenchman.

Anyone who has seen the movie will probably ask why I do not going into the relationship between Holmes and Adler or the great reveal of Moriarty. Neither of these things interest me all that much. Moriarty’s reveal at the end of the movie is woven into the overall fabric quite well, but other than making me think there will be a sequel in the future, it does not do much for me. The character of Irene, like Mary, is really just a token outside force proving the two boys aren’t wholly wrapped up in themselves.

All in all, I enjoyed the movie. It makes me want to go back and reread the original stories just to remind myself of what Sherlock Holmes was like before Hollywood got its grubby paws on him because for me, the book will always be better than the movie.

Associated Content and Fat Princess

Some of you might know my Associated Content page. For those who do not, I pick up pieces there from time to time and you really ought to hop on over and take a look. Here's a piece I wrote just recently about Fat Princess, a hilarious and mildly addictive Playstation 3 game.

Fat Princess: A Playstation 3 Game Review
A video game review of the downloadable game, Fat Princess, available on the Playstation 3.
http://www.associatedcontent.comarticle/2174035/fat_princess_a_playstation_3_game_review.html

Liquid Story Binder XE

Writers are always looking for something we can get comfortable with to help us upgrade our productivity. Me personally, my greatest nemesis is: having to look for things. Whether it be a song, a separate file where I saved a timeline, or that beautiful picture that inspired my last character, I am always losing time looking for things. Of course, there are a number of people who would point to problems with my use of filenames and such. I do not deny that I have a few problems with letting things slip away from me.

A friend on a Livejournal NaNoWriMo message board recommended Liquid Story Binder XE by Black Obelisk Software. So I downloaded the free version just expecting to tinker with it, check it out.

I love this program.

It allows me to gather up all my various debris and make it accessible through this one program. It has a function allowing me to build playlists of songs for this particular manuscript. I can save all my pictures wherever, go back and get them so that the binder can pull them up for me. Character write-ups have a place in dossiers. Sequences for the events I can already see in my head.

Best of all, saving a workspace that pulls up all the files I want at the same time. Pull up my MC’s dossier, the chapter I am currently working on, my overall timeline, all at one time, without having to flip from window to window like I used to have to do with Microsoft Word.

Needless to say, 30 days was not going to be anywhere near long enough for me. $45.95 to buy it and keep it forever, plus being able to update it forever. With registration, all future upgrades and updates of Liquid Story Binder are absolutely free! So 50 dollars and I get a program I really love and any updates on the program for life. That is an investment I am willing to make.

Go to their website, download the 30 Day version (which isn’t really a trial because everything is available on this version just like the paid on) and check it out for yourself. I am happy I did.

The Fall of Lucifer by Wendy Alec

I always find myself somewhat saddened when I cannot bring myself to finish something that I started. However, The Fall of Lucifer by Wendy Alec has simply left me with no interest in it whatsoever. I find the idea of someone detailing the fall of Lucifer fascinating, which is perhaps why I love Paradise Lost so much. This did not live up to my expectations.

The descriptions were very pretty. The story which should have been gripping, simply had no traction. I wanted to like the angelic triumvirate, I truly did. I just didn't in the long run and as such have found myself unable to even finish the book. It has gone from pleasurable reading to simply a chore worse than the texts for English 101 I originally read back in high school.

I know because I did not finish reading, I cannot offer a complete review. Yet that in a way is a complete review. The book bored me so much I did not finish. Think I might be wrong? Pick up the book at Amazon or Barnes and Noble.

Batman: Arkham Asylum

Batman: Arkham Asylum was not perfect, but I loved it anyway. Batman is perhaps the only DC comic character I actually like, not unlike many readers of comics. As the YouTube craze states: I’m a Marvel. I’m a DC. One cannot be both. I am fully a Marvel when it comes right down to it, but I can get behind the Batman. Either way, I played the new Batman game, Batman: Arkham Asylum and fell in love with the graphics. All the grit and grime one comes to expect from Gotham. The Asylum itself literally makes the game for you. In some cases, I found myself thinking I was playing a horror game instead of a comic book game. The graphics were just that good.

The other aspect of the game I fell in love with was Detective Mode, the mode that brings to bear the gadgets and the genius of the Dark Knight. Ranging from easy things like finding a way out of a locked room to much more difficult tasks like following a DNA trail, detective mode makes the game.

My only major gripe: Controls. I have a hard time getting myself together switching between the D-pad and the analog stick.

Overall, I loved the game.

King of Fighters XII

I can describe King of Fighters XII in one word: disappointing. I have been playing King of Fighters for a long time, almost since it first came to the United States, so I have pretty much seen absolutely everything they can do to this franchise. Up to this point, I have been perfectly okay with the things they have done. This time, however, I just cannot find it in myself to forgive this newest installment. The graphics, while they are very pretty, are such a departure it is off putting. Clark and Ralf look like they are about to go into a fit of steroid induced rage. Iori in a short jacket just looks utterly wrong. Disappointing.

Then there is the simple number of characters available. This version gives a character approximately 20 characters, the lowest number of characters available in a King of Fighters game. Somewhat sad since I am used to there being a character for every mood; not to mention, several of my favorites (KING!) are missing. The decision to cut her has cost them at least one longtime player.

Finally, there are the moves. Yes, there were like three special moves per character previously, which is maybe a bit much. However, having that many moves allowed each person to play their characters a little differently. With fewer moves, the number of strategies and tactics goes down. It is simply a given.

All together, not worth the money spent on it in my opinion.

Just After Sunset: Stories Worth Reading?

King, Stephen. Just After Sunset: Stories. New York: Scribner, 2008.

I always find myself looking forward to a book of short stories that comes out from Stephen King. I have been a fan for almost as long as I have been reading horror. Of course, when Just After Sunset: Stories came out, I was very, very interested in getting a chance to read it and find a new favorite story or two. Truthfully, while I was not really frightened by any of the stories offered, I found them interesting in other ways. Willa, the story of realizing ghost-hood, offers an interesting look into the very stubbornness of the human spirit even once it has left the mortal plane. The Things They Left Behind touches on the tragedy of the destruction of the Twin Towers and those who were killed. A Very Tight Place looks at how hate can seek destruction and how the spirit can find the strength to overcome in spite. All together, thirteen stories are offered, each of them unique and good in their own way.

Did I really find any of the stories scary? Not really. There were some hints of things that might tingle the spine, but for the most part, they are less horror and more thriller. I have nothing against thrillers and think that Stephen King does that almost as well as he does true horror worthy of putting in a night light. I suppose the one that horrified me the most was N. N. is the story of a man who stumbles into the stewardship of a ring of stones meant to keep the dimension of normal human existence separate from a dimension of creatures seeking to consume all that comes before them. The slow breakdown of Dr. Bonsaint is done beautifully through the use of journal entries in a fashion that seems to harken back to Lovecraft, but that is something to be considered at another time. The journal entries and case notes seemed to make the story more real, as if you could look up the mentioned newspaper article and find the discussion of the deaths of the doctor and his sister.

My other scary favorite is The Cat from Hell. It starts out feeling almost ridiculous, with the hitman, Halston, hired to get rid of a house cat. Even after the explanation of why the cat needs to die, it still feels like using a sledgehammer to swat a fly until the cat lives up to the name the Drogan gave him. First causing a car wreck and then crawling down a man’s throat to eviscerate him from the inside, truly frightening. Even though I love cats, I found myself looking at the cats in the neighborhood sideways for a little while, checking to see if they might be up to something.

Though Just After Sunset: Stories does not seem all that scary, it is still a worthwhile read. Maybe not for the exact reason I was looking forward to it, but just for its content. Pick it up on Amazon, Barnes & Nobles, or Half.com.

Is G. I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra a touch of nostalgia

A touch of nostalgia? Not quite. Looking at the plot, characters, and action sequences, the movie does hit a lot of high notes. Unfortunately, it does not manage to hit them all. The overall plot was quite old school G.I. Joe. It is still the good guys versus the bad guys with the entire world on the line. The Joes and Cobra still have the best high tech toys, shown best through Duke and his original crew taking on the Cobra attack squad. One major high note, they managed to work in the old laser noise the show was known for. For that, high marks.

However, my single biggest problem with the movie was the character of Baroness (Sienna Miller). It was already shown in the previews she was not going to have her trademark accent. Every word coming out of her mouth does not sound like it should be followed by ‘Hiel, Hitler’. That was a bit disappointing. Not the most disappointing thing about her character though. Her real name is Ana Lewis, she used to be a blonde, and was once Duke’s fiancée (Channing Tatum plays Duke). It was enough to set off a random bout of blinking followed by a spontaneous what! Adding to that the revelation that her supposedly dead brother Rex (Joseph Gordon-Levitt)is Cobra Commander and she is being controlled by nanotechnology and I just had a hard time wrapping my head around it all.

The character of Destro (Christopher Eccleston) is given some historical context, though the why is a little iffy. As important as the character is to push the plot forward, the opening vignette showing his background seemed tacked on. The movie could have run just as well without it and no one would have missed a thing.

Cobra Commander is actually a man named Rex Lewis, Baroness’s brother, disfigured by a fire, who worked under Dr. Mindbender (Kevin J. O'Connor). Considering Rex is wearing a monocle, I thought he was Dr. Mindbender. After all, he was doing Mindbender’s job of creating new technology for Cobra.

Then there is Zartan (Arnold Vosloo), who actually seems to be less crazy now that he is no longer wearing the raccoon make-up and running with a biker gang. He manages to play a pretty pivotal role in the story despite barely being involved in anything at all directly.

Characterization seems to have been something of a problem. The Joes were well done. The Cobra operatives needed serious work. While the changes and additions might have been interesting or necessary, they were also rather distracting.

Now what to say about the action sequences, they were beautiful, well-done, and gripping. My favorite, oddly enough, is Storm Shadow (Byung-hun Lee) versus Snake Eyes (Ray Park) as children. While not as CGI dependent as some of the other scenes, I still find it the most entertaining because Snake Eyes spits food in Storm Shadow’s face. Not exactly an expected tactic, but amusing just the same. The longest sequence is Duke and Ripcord running through Paris with the accelerator suits. This sequence has some amazing acrobatics in it. My favorite is the landing from going over and through the train. Both Duke and Ripcord (Marlon Wayans) end up flattened on top of a car and have a short discussion about the suit and its manual. A bit of levity to pull back from the tenseness of the situation.

Overall, I would not recommend seeing G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra for the similarity to the old cartoon show. I would recommend it as a decent action movie.

Follow up from HERE