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Showing posts from December, 2017

Witcher Saga - Blood of Elves

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”You've mistaken the stars reflected on the surface of the lake at night for the heavens.” Isn't that just the coolest quote? The first novel in the Witcher series, Blood of Elves is written by Andrzej Sapkowski - try to pronounce that English speakers! - and was popularized further by the Witcher games that drew quite a following. It starts sort of confusing - you don't get much of an introduction to the universe so I really wasn't sure if this is the first novel of the series or not. It feels like a really well developed universe and I like that the author isn't afraid to include a lot of different creatures and monsters - including elves, dwarves but also vampires and all sorts of other things that bite or have humans in their meal preferences. The magical system is pretty basic but well made and it plays an important part in the story. The book is a sequel to a bunch of short stories set in the same universe - Sword of Destiny and The Last Wish

Starship troopers - "Would you like to know more?"

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“Man has no moral instinct. He is not born with moral sense. You were not born with it, I was not - and a puppy has none. We acquire moral sense, when we do, through training, experience, and hard sweat of the mind.” I have to review the book side by side with the movie in this case. Only the first film though as the others answer the question - can you make a good film with bad acting, crap cgi and terrible dialogue. The answer is no. The classic sci-fi novel from Heinlein is kind of crap. Harsh statement, but it's militaristic, boring sci-fi at it's best - there are dozens of pages dedicated to showing off gear and how to clean it. I mean if you have a fetish about cleaning gear and drilling this is definitely the book for you! Also a tonne of training and quite a bit of propaganda about how only people who serve in the army are fit to lead. Now if you've watched the movie you'll say that it's tongue-in-cheek but actually no, that's only the
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 “We've already established whoever is writing us is an asshole.” A novel written by John Scalzi, Redshirts is very different from any novel you've probably read in the last year or so. It won the Hugo for best sci-fi novel in 2016 and I can definitely see why. It has popular appeal and it resonates with anyone that's watched Star Trek before. You don't even have to be a sci-fi fan to enjoy the book and since the Hugo nominations are voted on by fans it makes sense that the book's large popular appeal would be an asset. The audio book is narrated by Wil Wheaton(lt Crusher from Star Trek) so that's a plus for listening instead of reading. You can also check out Geek and Sundry where Will Wheaton plays table top games with celebrity guests or just friends. “You’ll notice that the Intrepid’s inertial dampeners don’t work as well in crisis situations, Dahl remembered Jenkins telling them. The ship could do hairpin turns and loop-de-loops any other time and yo