Define "Normal" by Julie Anne Peters

Define "Normal" by Julie Anne Peters
Well done family crisis story, bit of an easy resolution, but overall a good teen story. Clinical Depression, punks, posers, snobs, classical piano.

David Drake's RCN Series RCN Forever! Up Cinnabar!

With the Lightnings

Lt. Leary Commanding

The Far Side of the Stars

The Way to Glory

Some Golden Harbor

When The Tide Rises

In the Stormy Red Sky

Just re-read all 6 previous in prep for the new one In the Stormy Red Sky, excellent as they all are, one of the better all round, perhaps because it has a tad more Mundy in it. overall series is 7-10, average 9.

Spam-a-Lot

Spamalot - was fun, but overall not worth it. I mean at $45 I expected a bit more than some dancing girls and a rehash of skits from Holy Grail with a smattering of other Monty Python skits thrown in the mix to change them up. Little new stuff. The dancing girls were good looking and the skits were fun, but none of them really measured up to the original, so re-watching Holy Grail would have been more fun. It was good don't get me wrong, but I've yet to go to a theatrical event and feel I've gotten money's worth, even this, which was probably the best of them (although Wicked was good). I guess I just don't have an appreciation for theatre, I'd rather see the movie. Actually I'd likely enjoy it more just seeing a filming of the play from right up close, than have the theatre experience. And they skipped over Castle Anthrax, which is one of the best bits in Holy Grail. a 6.

Ai Yori Aoshi - vol 17

Finally finished the story. V1-17. V17 is mature readers due to the quite tasteful sex scene, some minor nudity that US audiences might think objectionable for youngsters. But I was pleased to see they didn't gloss over it after building up for 16 volumes! Happy sweet ending, with everybody mostly happy and Aoi getting what she wanted for so long. Although the cover shows her in a wedding dress, they actually skip over the wedding and jump to an denouement 4 years later. Overall nice, and gives closure that the Anime didn't.

Manga

Ai Yori Aoshi V1-17 nice sweet romance, with some interesting dark backstory.

Free Collars Kingdom V1 - cats - that look like people but are cats and only look like people to other cats...

F. Paul Wilson - The Tomb

F. Paul Wilson - The Tomb
Repairman Jack #1 Good stuff, Kali in New York. Good characters, excellent action, Horror in name, a good dark fantasy, somewhat bloody, but not without sucessful ending. Dunno why never read it before. This was the revised edition - with ipods, not the original with walkmen... not much other changes. an 8

Ken Grimwood - Replay

Well written, with good characters and some fun alternate history stuff, but , overall there wasn't a reason, or explanation, hell Groundhog's Day at least had a moral, (and Bill Murry which certainly didn't hurt). It was fun, reminded me of Jumper a bit, esp early on, but sort of a deflated ending. A nice love story aspect but ends well, not sad, but not happy, sort of eh. Mostly after searching for meaning, I'd expected them to find something. but it's more of a character study after all.

Martyn Pig by Kevin Brooks

YA,
drunken father, death and murder mystery. betrayal, and 'acting'. interesting, and well written, but depressing, realistic, but not pleasant ending. a rather sad affair all told, but some pretty good mystery stuff, trying to dispose of the body and then an actual murder. lots of soul searching. don't like the title, doesn't tell anything about the story. a 6.

Hoot by Carl Hiaasen

Hoot by Carl Hiaasen
his first YA novel, with mystery, adventure, good teen story, and some environmentalism. Characteristically quirky characters and comic twists. Some good standing up to bullies, both the kids in school, and the adults in business.

Edward Bloor - Crusader

A good book, but not what I was expecting after reading the blurb. The cover and blurb imply sort of a SF alternate reality layer to the story that is not there. Her family owns an arcade, her mother was killed when she was 8, her father is never around and now at 16 she's finally dealing with it. Journalism, media, ideals, politics, family, friends, drugs, hate-crimes, murder, coming of age, it has a lot in it. A good strong story where even the lesser characters change and evolve by the end of the book no one is the same. Growth is not always pleasant, but necessary. a 6. well written with good strong characters that you grow to like. x.

Rob Thurman - Nightlife, Moonshine, Madhouse

Rob Thurman - Nightlife, Moonshine, Madhouse.
First three in the series, a half-elf - (although the Auphe are more like dark elf/goblins), his human brother (warrior noparriel), and their friends, Puck, a modern Vampire, an oracle. The first is a bit rough, but the writing gets better as it goes. The plots are good, adventure/mystery in the modern world with hidden monsters, compares favorably with Jim Butcher. an 8 the series.

Donna Jo Napoli - Beast

An interesting retelling of the Beauty & the Beast story, with the Beast a persian noble. Touted as both Exotic (& Erotic but I think that was a typo), and a young adult novel. Overload of middle eastern in the first chapter, but once that is out of the way, it's smooth and quick. Persia to India to France, the locals are well drawn. Well written with a sweet ending. a 5, X.

Christopher Stasheff - Saint Vidicon to the Rescue

Touted as more irreverent, when in fact it was rather catholic, but for something that sort of felt like several short stories strung together with a connecting story, it worked pretty well. a 4. Not his best, but not bad. Sort of cyberpunk religion. X.

Julie Kenner - Demon Hunter

Julie Kenner - Demon Hunter series
Carpe Demon
California Demon
Demons are Forever
well done - if Buffy grew up settled down and had kids, then started hunting again. sometimes pushes the romance a bit, but mostly very good stuff.

Alan Dean Foster

Alan Dean Foster - Lost and Found
The Light-years Beneath My Feet
The Candle of Distant Earth.
A trilogy of short novels, a broker Kidnapped by aliens and joined by a modified intelligent dog, travel the universe trying to get home. The ending was sort of bland. There was some fun stuff along the way, but not really much adventure. More a story of personal growth. a 5, X

James Patterson - Maximum Ride

James Patterson - Maximum Ride
Angel Experiment
School's Out --Forever

Andrew Clements - The Report Card

Andrew Clements - The Report Card

Dean Karnazes - Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of an all-night runner

Astounding, and gripping. Started flipping through it, and got so hooked I finished it up while supposed to be working.. Very readable, it's almost spiritual - but without any touchy-feely stuff. an 8.

John Levitt - Dog Days

John Levitt - Dog Days. 20080410. Modern fantasy. a bit unpolished much like the early Butcher novels, I was a bit surprized to find it was his 3rd book, it felt more like a first novel. The characters took a bit to develop but the plot went well. Magic structure was a bit simple, but then things were added to flesh it out more. Hook of being a musician who is also magical, but doesn't bother with it much is pretty good. Not bad at all, I was going to say it was a sort of a magic-mystery but it's not really a mystery, more an investigation where they already know who did it mostly. a 6. There's to be a sequel.

Louis Sachar - There's a Boy in the Girls' Bathroom

Louis Sachar - There's a Boy in the Girls' Bathroom. R. YA. Not quite what I'd expected from the title, but a good self-redemption story. A little dated, but nothing serious. The class Bully/gross kid
becomes a regular kid and pulls him self out of his hole. Some stuff resonated well, esp the taking pride in being the worst at something. Good analysis of the fear of failure so don't attempt therefore you can't fail. a 6.

Mirror Mask

Watched the DVD last night, 1st time I'd seen it since it was in the theatre. Even better than I remembered, the first time I'd thought she looked too old, but I didn't see that this time, there were a few parts where she acts like a brat, but it does follow her character. Then I'd thought she was lead thru the danger too easily and didn't have to do anything on her own, but while there was a bit of that, it wasn't as much as I'd remembered, and if it was all a dream, it was all her anyway... so while not perfect it is great a 9. The Sphinxes were just as creepy, and the really useful book was even more heroic.

Jerry Spinelli - Loser

Jerry Spinelli - Loser. YA. interesting voice, very much like a news report on the kid. Follow Z from birth to jr. high, loves school, but is a failure at success. Yet he has a quality of never giving up never giving in and always enjoying himself. There isn't an overall plot, but there is a bit at the end with the snowstorm that it quite touching. good. a 7.

Alichino 1

Kouyu Shurei - Alichino 1. R. 20080220. beautifully drawn manga, the Alichino seem somewhat like the old cruel and beautiful elves, they steal souls, and grant wishes. It's not always easy to follow the story, or tell the characters apart, but the art is wonderful.

Doll 1

interesting manga, collection of related shorts, relating to artificial humans 'dolls' as servants, substitute children, lovers, mothers. very soft SF, more to do with the relationships than the tech. good a 7. nice art and well done stories.

Pet Shop of Horrors

Pet Shop of Horrors - short stories with mythical beasts sold and generally gremlin like rules and the breaking of them is the horror of the patrons - yet! with a very likeable shop owner and not a creepy tone. a 7

Yun Kouga - Loveless 1

Loveless 1 Yun Kouga - started out interesting, good art, but then got all yaoi-ish. Did like Yuiko quite a bit, a good character. a6.

Felipe Smith - MBQ 1

Felipe Smith - MBQ1 - really good, excellent storytelling, good art, good story, some great perspective. an 8, a modern 'slice-of-life' not a standard sf manga.

Barbara Corcoran & Bradford Angier - A Star to the North

Barbara Corcoran & Bradford Angier - A Star to the North. R. 20080201 a YA novel in the vein of Hatchet - sort of, set in the late 1960's as there is mentions of the 'evil' Hippies & LSD, but beyond that bit of anarchonism it's pretty well done. a 6. teen boy and his younger sister visit canada wilderness and take a thrilling canoe ride, also quite a bit about growing up and apart from their parrents, they sort of run away, but more of a taking the summer off, the sister sneaks along. Some good self reliance, and a nice sibling relationship.

Dean Koontz - The Husband

Koontz, Dean - The Husband. R. 20080130 an interesting thriller. the revelation of the villians is interesting. The villians themselves are a bit flat, but a good comon man thrown into extraordinary circumstances, some weird childhood experiances, but the love of the husband for his wife was a good hook. a 6.

Andrew Clements - Things Not Seen

He wakes up one morning and is invisible... but it's more of how he develops than some sort of spy mystery. an excellent bit of young romance, and a great family story. an 8.

Denise Vega - Click Here (to find out how i survived seventh grade)

a cute and quite well written teen story. makes an accurate reference to Harriet the Spy. Friendships and hardships of middle-school. a 7.

David Weber - Honor Harrington Series

Weber, David. Honor 01 On Basilisk Station. R
Weber, David. Honor 02 The Honor of the Queen. R
Weber, David. Honor 03 A Short Victorious War. R
Weber, David. Honor 04 Field of Dishonor. R.K. possibly the best one! (also saddest..)a 10. still my favorite. the Duel.
Weber, David. Honor 05 Flag in Exile. R.K.
Weber, David. Honor 06 Honor Among Enemies. R.K.
Weber, David. Honor 07 In Enemy Hands. R.K.
Weber, David. Honor 08 Echoes of Honor. R
Weber, David. Honor 08b Worlds of Honor 01 More Than Honor R
Weber, David. Honor 08c Worlds of Honor 02 Worlds of Honor R
Weber, David. Honor 09 Ashes of Victory. R.x(hb) excellent. Honor series is a 9/10!
Weber, David. Honor 09b Worlds of Honor 03 Changer of Worlds. R.K.
Weber, David. Honor 10 War of Honor. R. 2004112?. where WhiteHaven gets Samantha & Honor & WH learn they Love each other - not one of the better ones, all politics, little action. a 5.
Weber, David. Honor 10b Worlds of Honor 04 The Service of the Sword. R. 2004121?
Weber, David & Eric Flint. Honor 10c Honorverse 01 Crown of Slaves. R. 200510? Zilwicki, Erewhon. an 8-9
Weber, David. Honor 10d Honorverse 02 The Shadow of Saganimi. R. 200510? HB.BC a 7. at least it's a return of individual action, not admirals & politics, but no Honor.
Weber, David. Honor 11 At all Costs. 20080111. More personal, a bit less politics, but still not enough adventure and too much going on with secondary characters. At times the battles become lists of numbers of missiles and sound more like math equations than stories. With so many characters it is at times, hard to remember who's in what navy. The introduction of a 3rd party villain, brought over from the Honorverse series with Flint, was good as it was getting depressing to see 2 groups of essentially good guys slaughtering each other. The end is a bit depressing many popular characters getting killed, but the stuff about Honor's personal life was fun. Good but not as fun an adventure as the earlier stuff. a 7. R.X.

Bomb Queen

Bomb Queen comic book (Image)
V1. Great black comedy! emphasis on the comedy, with plenty of fan service, a mature readers title - not erotic, but with enough gratuitous nudity and language to warrant it. Mostly she gets her wardrobe blown off fairly often. Very funny, and violent with an overall social commentary that doesn't bludgeon you with a moral. an 8
V2. more of the same great stuff, a bit more fan service perhaps. an 8
V3. starts to get a plot, and crosses over with shadow hawk, less humor to the detriment of the title, starts to be more about where it's going not what's going on. Something that happens often to humor titles, once the characters are developed plot starts to leak in, and it waters down the humor. (see oots) a 6

Bleach - Anime, Season one

What's with the title? It's got to mean something in translations that I don't get. Still Bleach is one of the better anime I've seen. Maybe not as good as NGE, but close. It starts a little slowly, but quickly hooks you in, it has a good long plot and the episodes are often 2 or more part stories. Near the end of season one before then go to soul society, are some of the best episodes, but you need the background of the earlier got really appreciate them. Once they get to Soul Society they throw in some stupid characters for pure comedy relief and I didn't care for them as much, still the overall plot is going along nicely and the adventure is great. The animation has some interesting character designs, the people are not always standard fare, and that was neat. The intro has some great 70's-ish style. Death-Gods, and evil souls. Season one a 9,. season 2 an 8 season 3 a 9

Alan Moore - Promethea

Promethea, a superheroine explicitly from the realms of the imagination drawn by J.H. Williams III, explored Moore's ideas about consciousness, mysticism, magic, écriture féminine and the Kabbalah [wikipedia] . Intensely well written as just about anything from Moore, this series seems to contain his entire magic philosophy, and in fact over half of the issues are a primer on magic, kabbalah, tarot, etc, as Promethea learns it, by traveling the Qabbalistic Tree of Life. The series explores Moore's ideas about art and magic, combining elements of superhero action, metaphysical theorizing, and psychedelic hallucination, all focused on the adventures of Promethea, a metafictional character that possesses magical power over the real world. Promethea is also notable for wide-ranging experimentation in visual style and storytelling technique on the part of Williams and Moore [wikipedia]. Visually stunning with unusual layouts and art techniques, with characters commonly breaking the 4th wall, it is often a rather didactic philosophy lecture, yet overall is an intriguing and uplifting story. a 7.

S.E. Hinton - Hawkes Harbor

Wow, I hate to give away anything but this is the oddest vampire story I've ever read. but good! the ocean tramp travel and friendship and storytelling kell & jamie at the beginning was good, and would have even been good enough for a novel, but then hawkes harbor, and weirdness, and vampire - and then not, and IRA and death and redemption, the end tho happy is still sad. a 7. interesting, excellent character. the setting running from the 50's to the 80's is slightly dated, but doesn't really matter. finding your place, and being happy in it.

CHARLES DE LINT - MOONHEART

DE LINT, CHARLES. MOONHEART. Old pre Arthurian Celtic, Talsien and Magwin (Merlin) come to America or at least Canada. Also native American Canadian stuff mantious. All very very neat, the House reminds me of the house in Little Big and the characters are well likable and the story is nice, fulfilling, sad that friends were lost but the evil was overcome and things are good. a 10

DE LINT, CHARLES. SPIRITWALK. SEQUEL TO MOONHEART - And a good one too, more a collection of stories containing the same characters, or a few short stories that are linked and one long piece I think moonheart was better but only because it was all one long piece. a 9

ROALD DAHL - JAMES & THE GIANT PEACH

DAHL, ROALD . JAMES & THE GIANT PEACH . CH, R. best dahl book a 10 .

STEVEN K. Zoltan BRUST - TO REIGN IN HELL

BRUST, STEVEN K. Zoltan. TO REIGN IN HELL. R. SATAN'S SIDE OF THE STORY. A 10! certainly the best Satan story ever.

John BRUNNER - THE SHEEP LOOK UP

BRUNNER, John. SHEEP LOOK UP, THE. PB. R. A very hard hitting sf cyberpunk w/o the cyber. an apocalypse novel which ends as the apocalypse begins. well written, but I thought too many characters with not enough to differentiate between them too many times I was confused at who was who. The damn scariest novel I have ever read! extrapolating the environmental problems we currently have and if we continue like we are we will end up as sheep. Entirely convinced me to become a Trainite (but one of the peaceful ones) If you've ever been worried about the environment but put off doing anything you'll never do it again after reading this book. The scariest thing is that it feels so real. There's hardly a thing that seems implausible let alone unlikely! disease run rampant, mega toxic fallout, wearing masks to breathe in any city. The jumping pov to all the many characters really brought the global perspective to you made the problem all the more huge looking. Liked the design of the book as well many many small
episodes, advertisements, tv, news, billboards, etc. And the chapter quotes were horribly great. Unfortunately the solution wasn't very nice. Real but not nice. Recommended more for it's ideas and philosophy than for spectacular writing style but worth getting thru the problem places to see the whole picture. a 10 for content a 6 for construction and an 8 for style = 8

STEVEN R. BOYETT - THE ARCHITECT OF SLEEP

BOYETT, STEVEN R. ARCHITECT OF SLEEP, THE. R. GREAT STORY ALTERNATE WORLD- RACCOONS INSTEAD OF APES, SIGN LANGUAGE INSTEAD OF SPEACH, INTELLIGNET RACCOONS! SPELUNKING, MARTIAL ARTS, A HERO WITH GLASSES! there's written bk 2 but never pub, & was designed as trilogy -editorial prob's creative differences etc. squashed it. probably will never be finished and it's a damn shame. A 10
Wow! there's a slim chance the Architect might be someday finished and published in it's entirety!!
Which is quite a bit better than the last time I checked his website where he thought there was no hope of him ever going back and completing the last book

Lloyd Alexander - Prydain Chronicles

Alexander, Lloyd. Prydain Chronicles. HB. R. YA. one of my very favorite books as an early teen. doesn't hold up as well as some on a later reading, but I remember thinking this was just the best series ever! when I read it. It's a good mythic Celtic fantasy, with excellent characters. a 10 / 6.

Kim Harrison - Hollows series

Harrison, Kim. Dead Witch Walking. R.20060529, reread 200709
Harrison, Kim. The Good, the Bad, and the Undead. R.20060530, reread 200709
Excellent series very reminiscent of Hamilton's Anita Blake but without feeling like a knock-off. interesting characters, stumbles a bit on the 1st book, throws a lot of stuff in all at once, but once you get the setting and background the story flows smoothly. Witches, vampires, werewolves, pixies and elves oh my... magic as a college course, demonology, dark books, vampire mobsters. Sexy main characters, tough, 'runners' sort of bounty hunters/detectives. excellent settings, such as their home/office/church. a 9.
Harrison, Kim. Every Which Way But Dead. R.20060531, Reread 20070927. #3 in the series. drifting toward Hamilton much more sex in this one, but not over done yet. Ceri appears, more to do with Trent & her father, much more with Big Al. set in an alternate present where creatures have come 'out'. very similar to Laurel K. Hamilton, but unique enough to be it's own thing.
If you like this try Laurell K. Hamilton - Anita Blake. Charlaine Harris. Kelley Armstrong. Robin Mckinley - Sunshine. Nancy Collins - Sonja Blue. Carrie Vaughn.

Tamora Pierce - The Immortals

Wild Magic. shades of Bradley's Hawkmistress, and again Lackey's Heralds. a stronger more emotionally gripping story than the first of Lioness. Continuing the same land with the Lioness grown and with children. about 9 years since the end of the lioness quartet. Return of the Immortals - the mythological beasts, harpies, gryphons, dragons, fae, etc. good an 8.
Wolf-Speaker - the valley of the magical and intelligent beasts, or at least once Daine's done with it. off in it's own direction, so less of an homage to Bradley. good an 8.
Emperor Mage. land of slaves and cages, an good adventure, and quite a bit more god-works going on, some more hints of her father. an 8.
The Realms of the Gods. a good conclusion to the tetralogy, much ado with gods, and beats gods, meets her parents, and new darkings, and big battle against forces of chaos. a bit disjointed, but fairly epic. some romance brewing, and a good happy ending. an 8 the series.
good Young Adult fantasy that isn't such kids stuff that adult fantasy readers would be bored, and isn't so violent or sexual that even youngster who read above their grade wouldn't enjoy it.

Tamora Pierce - Song of the Lioness

Alanna, In the Hand of the Goddess, The Woman who Rides like a Man, Lioness Rampant. nice Young adult stories in the vein of Lackey's original Herald series. a 7. some romance, some growing up and overcoming obstacles, some magic, quests, the woman in a mans job was nicely underplayed, and not an overt theme. The friendships and the villain were a bit too easy or too evil and the first couple felt at times written down to a certain level, but the 2nd 2 didn't have that feel as if she let the story flow on its own.

Maria V. Snyder - Poison Study

It being a Luna book I was worried it would be too much a romance and not enough a story, but it's an excellent fantasy with the romance coming lightly at the end. The poison taster is a interesting twist, and the magic simple and effective. Yelena's a great characters, strong of mind, and overcoming her horrors and becoming strong of skill, spymasters, magic chocolate, and a kind of opressive, stalinesque, 'kingdom' but not over done. good, but for a bit of a sequel cop-out ending. an 8. perhaps more if the sequel lives up to it.

http://www.mariavsnyder.com/about.php

ASSASSIN STUDY is an online serial story about the trouble Valek is involved in while Yelena is in Sitia.

MAGIC STUDY: YOU KNOW YOUR LIFE IS BAD WHEN YOU MISS YOUR DAYS AS A POISON TASTER.

FIRE STUDY: SURROUNDED BY FIRE WITH NO WAY TO ESCAPE THE BURN.

Madeleine L'Engle - Meet the Austins

After the sad news of her passing I went and checked what books of hers I hadn't read. It's a sweet family story, but doesn't have the fun impact of A Wrinkle in Time. a 6.

Stardust

Great, beautiful, and excellent acting. Some very funny bits, but they didn't overshadow the adventure, great sets, and good dialogue. Good acting, even if I'd thought some characters oddly cast before I saw it, they did a great job, no-one sucked. Fun with a sweet ending. Co-produced by Gaiman, it had an authenticity to it that another adaption would have lacked. a 9.

Christopher Moore - A Dirty Job

One that just make you want even more Moore. Back to San Francisco, with several supporting characters from previous books (including the Emperor of SF) chock full of dark humor, and light humor, and adventure, and death. Lots of deaths actually. Sort of a Santa's helpers for Death. Plus used bookstores and thrift stores and used record/cd stores. And all the Deaths of history and mythology. Hellhounds and battle crows, true love, and squirrel people. a 9. superb, probably his best so far.

The Sweet Collection - Leland Myrick - B&W GN - collection of short stories. Great use of blacks, interesting collection of lovestories, from Vampires, to Frankenstein's assistants, to Kidnaped by Indians, and on Mars. As the title suggests all very sweet stories. Short and sweet as it were. clear and concise, well done. a 7.

Derek Kirk Kim - Same Difference and Other Stories - B&W GN - Korean-American in the bay area, semi-autobiographical story, good art and excellent storytelling. Slice of life stuff, not really my favorite. a 4.

The Last Mimzy / MIMSY WERE THE BOROGOVES, by Lewis Padgett

Went and saw the movie Sunday with some friends and so I searched out the story to see how close it was. They changed it quite a bit really, but it was a pretty good movie, sort of ET-ish, but it's a bit slow for a kids movie.
They happied up the ending of course, added some environmentalist aspects, and changed the mathematical aspect to a mental/psychic ability. The story is heavily psyhonalitical, and poses questions about children and learning. If you learnt non-Euclidean geometry, would you see the world differently than those whose minds have been conditioned to Euclid? In the movie they change it to mental capacity and sidestep the aspect of learning making the mind different. The character of the children was actually fairly similar, older brother with an annoying sister whom he loves and helps even when she's a bother, they aged them slightly in the movie, but it would have been difficult to really get a 2-year-old to act as the sister. The movie also gave away the AIW connection early, (of course the title implies a connection), but it was fun to see. The movie intro and outro were a bit overdone, and I could have done without the intro at least, or much less of one.

300

Bloody Awesome!, emphasis on the Bloody. Blood-splatteringly great. Yay, Goat-headed Sitar player! Great action, some hokey bits, but nothing large or long lasting. a 7. Great violent fun and what acting there was, was well done. Kelly Craig - Oracle girl - yowza.

Raymond E. Feist - RIFTWAR

Feist, Raymond E. RIFTWAR 01A: MAGICIAN APPRENTICE. (author's prefered ed) reread. 20070119. not much difference - certianly nothing I noticed, tho it's been years since I read the original version. The begining, Pug and Thomas as kids, until the start of the riftwar.
Feist, Raymond E. RIFTWAR 01B: MAGICIAN MASTER. A GREAT 1st novel. a 9.(author's prefered ed) reread. 20070119. not much difference - certianly nothing I noticed, tho it's been years since I read the original version. Pug in Kelewan master of magic, Thomas the Valeru.
Feist, Raymond E. RIFTWAR 02: Silverthorn. not a bad followup, an 8. Jimmy.
Feist, Raymond E. RIFTWAR 03: A DARKNESS AT SETHANON. much better an 8 or 9. ReRead 20070206 excellent combination of high otherworldly magic and gritty fantasy battles.
Feist, Raymond E. & JANNY WURTS. RIFTWAR: MISTRESS OF THE EMPIRE. Good, interesting. very far eastern. a 7 or 8
Feist, Raymond E. & JANNY WURTS. RIFTWAR: SERVANT OF THE EMPIRE
Feist, Raymond E. & JANNY WURTS. RIFTWAR: DAUGHTER OF THE EMPIRE. PB,R,SIGNED!.
Feist, Raymond E. RIFTWAR 04: Prince of the Blood. the sons of Arutha go on an adventure. a 4, bah, the kids are just dumb.
Feist, Raymond E. RIFTWAR 05: KING'S BUCCANEER, THE. PB,R. better! a 6 or 7.
FEIST, RAYMOND E. RIFTWAR 06: SERPENTWAR SAGA 1: SHADOW OF A DARK QUEEN, RIFTWAR. REG PB ah, now it's good again a 9.
Feist, Raymond E. RIFTWAR 07: SERPENTWAR SAGA 2: Rise of a Merchant Prince, an 8
FEIST, RAYMOND E. RIFTWAR 08: SERPENTWAR SAGA 3: RAGE OF A DEMON KING. R,pb. A Good conclusion to the trilogy but not as good as the 2 books before it. calis & thomas loose their valerhu-ness! poor pug = everybody dies on him, but good, an 8
Feist, Raymond E. RIFTWAR 09: SERPENTWAR SAGA 4: Shards of a Broken Crown.
Feist, Raymond E. RIFTWAR 10: Krondor 01: The Betrayal. much better than expected novelization of a compter game. a 6 or 7.
Feist, Raymond E. RIFTWAR 11: Krondor 02: The Assassin.
?read? Feist, Raymond E. RIFTWAR 12: Krondor 03: Tear of the Gods. R?
Feist, Raymond E. & Joel Rosenberg. RIFTWAR: Legends of the Riftwar : Murder in LaMut. R. 20070113. Good fun, takes Joel's 3 not-musketeers from Guardians series and drops them into the Riftwar back when it was going strong. An interesting idea and a good story, not a murder-mystery by any means, but effective. Still there was no great goings on and since it was the past no furthering of any plot. a 7.

Catherine Asaro

Asaro, Catherine. Primary Inversion. R.X. 20070113. Soz and Jub heirs to feuding empires fall in love, much shakespearian. a 5.
Asaro, Catherine. Catch the Lightning. R.X. 20070114. interesting blend of high-math science SF and romance and sadistic psi vampire types - with strong overtones of Jacqueline Lichtenberg's sime-gen series. Not spectactular but good adventure and well done romance. 100's years later. acidentially into the alternate past of 1987 LA. then back, some darkoverian feel. a 5.
Asaro, Catherine. The Last Hawk. R.X.` 20070117. the thought dead brother was instead lost and kidnapped by a society esentailly reverse muslim with the women in charge and the men in hoods and harems. the Dice game as a meme-program was interesting, and that aspect I quite liked, but overall while slightly better written still the same theme and feel, not quite as much sadism, but still... a 5.5.

David Drake - Lord of the Isles

Drake, David. Isles 01: Lord of the Isles. Reread 20061231. excellent epic high fantasy series. a 9. multiple characters, but kept within a reasonable and rememberable number, excellent magic, and lots of alternate worlds. but mostly just great characters, and good battles.
Drake, David. Isles 02: Queen of Demons. Reread 20061231. an 8.5
Drake, David. Isles 03: Servant of the Dragon. ReRead 20070101. again great characterization, epic -cross-dimensional battles, necromancy and armies of undead. an 8.5
Drake, David. Isles 04: Mistress of Catacombs. R. 20070103. further adventures, and bring more islands into the kingdom, some time travel as well as dimension hopping, all leading to the same point, woven together quite well. Giant spiders. an 8
Drake, David. Isles 05: Goddess of the Ice Realm. R. 20070110. more in a similar vein. The group is split each to their own quest, then reunites at the final battle at the end. Ilna - the evil version. an 8.
Drake, David. Isles 06: Master of the Cauldron. R. 20070111. excellent, still the same overall format, but a good story. made men coming and 3 attack. Cashel & Ilna's Mother - Mab queen of - somewhere, the King of stone and trolls, a cauldron of monstrous made men. an 8

Sean Stewart - The Night Watch

Stewart, Sean. The Night Watch. R. 20061227. modern fantasy, similar to De Lint. Strong with great depth to the story. futuristic and mythic, in the near future the magic returns, bringing with it powers of grand design. 2 cities one of the plains, one a Chinatown, with all their historical magical background become real, one high tech, one infested with gods. a very good story and certainly as good as Nobody's Son - one of my favorites. a 9.

Jane Lindskold - Wolf - FireKeeper series

Lindskold, Jane. Wolf 1: Through Wolf's Eyes. 2004?. R.k. neat feral wolf-raised girl to 'queen' animal speaker. good battle & some intrigue. a 9. Reread 20061212
Lindskold, Jane. Wolf 2: Wolf's Head, Wolf's Heart. 200505? R.k. more intrigue, more magic. an 8 very good sequel. Reread 20061213
Lindskold, Jane. Wolf 3: The Dragon of Despair. 20050513. R.k. revolt of the beasts, to new Kelvin and oddities and more magic an 8. good series, set for more. reread 20061215
Lindskold, Jane. Wolf 4: Wolf Captured. 20061216 R. kidnapped to a distant - sort of aztec - land, much to-do with religions, more romance than usual. Derian & woman of the new land, Firekeeper & Blind Seer (yow). Lots of divine and divination, not quite as good as the previous a 6. answers some minor questions from the very beginning. missed the usual gang tho, with only 3 characters from the previous books involved.

Dave Grossman & Leo Frankowski - The Two-Space War

Grossman, Dave & Leo Frankowski. The Two-Space War. R. 20061208. excellent space opera very very hornblower (or aubry) in space. great references to sf as classic lit of the future heinleiners, webers, tolkien, and a very good sailing ships in space story with a well thought out and reasonable - reason for them. the whole of 2-space was well done. flatland, compressing the universe so things are closer. a bit overdone pushing the military science, tho sort of a authors personal crusade going drops it from truly great to just very good. Still the poetry was excellent and well woven into the story more tolikien influence. an 8. ending set it up for sequels sort of leaving it hanging a bit much.

Christopher Paolini - Eragon

Paolini, Christopher. Inheritance 1: Eragon. R. 20061115. A good mix of Tolkien High-Fantasy with a dash of Harry Potter. Epic feel, high elves, powerful mysterious evil. Interesting dragons. Nothing that you've never seen before, but a good interesting mix put together well with a few good twists to make it somewhat unique. Growing up and leaving home, finding friends, some excellent supporting characters, perhaps overly evil villains, but a staple of high fantasy. Well developed magic system, and societies. good especially for a first novel a 7.

Gary Paulsen - Hatchet

Paulsen, Gary. Hatchet. R. 200611. YA adventure. 12 year old Brian lost in the Canadian Wilderness uses his wits to survive, and becomes more than an average kid. The first of the Brian books, has a sub-plot about his parents divorce. The sequel revises the ending of this book so that he doesn't get rescued quite as easily. good stuff a 6.

Jasper Fforde - The Big Over Easy (A Nursery Crime)

Fforde, Jasper. The Big Over Easy (A Nursery Crime). R. 20061112. a crime noir mystery, with characters from children's nursery rhymes, as real. Humpty is murdered, Jack Spratt (the giant killer) investigates, with Sergeant Mary Mary. A wild cast of characters you instantly recognize, or eventually recognize with surprize, including Prometheus, Old Mother Hubbard, all the famous detectives of fiction from Sherlock Holmes, to Mrs Marple, Solomon Grundy, Georgie Porgie, the woodcutters, 3 Little Pigs, Big Bad Wolf, and many many more, all for some reason living in Reading. A true crime mystery with all the trimmings, and all the extra's you'd expect from Fforde. an 8.

Mail Order Ninja ; volume 1

Elder, Joshua & Erich Owen. Mail Order Ninja v1. R. 20061110. Graphic Novel. Amusing idea, adequate art, a few in jokes (like the article by Charles 'Eastman-Laird', or the Asimovian aliens). Overall quite pointedly aimed at 5th graders. similar to ninja high-school, only it's grade school, and while it has it parts, there's a bit too much kiddie to it. a 4.

Tony Millionaire - Premillennial Maakies

Millionaire, Tony. Premillennial Maakies. R. 20061109. HB. 5 years collection of the weekly independent Maakies comix featuring Uncle Gabby the monkey, and Drinky Crow in all their blasphemous, darkly suicidal, murderous, hilarious, glory. part Winsor McCay part George Herriman part Partrick O'Brian, dash of don martin, with plenty of blood and gore. tremendously well illustrated in a turn of the century style, with darkly humorous, surreal, and/or just violent stories. quite fun. an 8.

Tony Millionaire's Sock Monkey Uncle Gabby

Millionaire, Tony. Tony Millionaire's Sock Monkey Uncle Gabby. R. 20061107. GN HB. in nice muted color that gives it an extra wow. Edward Gorey meets Winsor McCay. Sock monkey poetry, toys adventure, marvelous monsters, flying ships, and Uncle Gabby discovers the sad truth about his owner-creator Ann-Louise. an 8.

The Adventures of Tony Millionaire's Sock Monkey

Millionaire, Tony. The Adventures of Tony Millionaire's Sock Monkey. R. 20061107. TPB. excellent. reminds me of Edward Gorey - the style looks old and turn of the century, you might think. the humor is bright, with dark twists. Uncle Gabby the sock money, and drinky Crow the drunken toy crow have adventures, involving toy ships constantly on the attack. death, insanity. an 7.

Wen Spencer - Alien Taste

Spencer, Wen. Alien Taste. R. 20061102. other than the title giving away too much it's excellent! an 8. very good near future sf. boy raised by wolves with near supernatural abilities. gangs of feuding aliens trying to take over the earth. excellent PI search, good gunfights, satisfying ending, although it doesn't close up all the loose ends, and there could easily be a sequel. cover looks more high-tech than it is. good characters, good low-level romance, excellent adventure, and finding self story.

Nina Kirki Hoffman - A Fistful of Sky

Hoffman, Nina Kirki. A Fistful of Sky. R.20061102. a good modern fantasy. romantic. family of powers. simple living life. a family story with magic. kind of similar to Alice Hoffman. ends oddly tho. a 5.

Cemetery Man (Dellamorte Dellamore)

Cemetery Man (Dellamorte Dellamore) - 20061101. the greatest zombie sex comedy. the most surreal zombie movie of all time - I'm sure. In great the company of comedy horror, like Army of Darkness and Shaun of the Dead, it's doesn't have the jokes per minute, but it also has sexy surrealism. Falchi is hot, delamorte is intriguing and very Italian. The production is amazing for such a low budget seeming film. The camera work is great, there are some shots that are so amazing it almost takes away from the story, the moon in the pool, the broken wings bracketing delamorte, the ending! is one of my favorites, def a surprize. the beginning is great nonchalant zombie killing, sets the tone perfectly. a 9.

Wen Spencer - Tinker

Spencer, Wen. Tinker. R. 20061027. a good elves and sf story. near future and someone built a machine that opened the way back up to elfhame of old. good characters. the sex scenes were cribbed from a typical romance novel, a bit stereotypical feeling. the ideas magic as a waveform, spells as a type of technology, the 2 able to work together science and magic print out magic spells, cast them - was interesting. But the best of it was the main character, able to overcome her enemies without being a 'fighter' using her considerable brains instead. a 6.

David Weber & John Ringo - March Series

Weber, David & John Ringo. March 1 March Upcountry. R.k+file good an 8 better than Ringo alone. maybe not quite as good as Weber alone. the kid is bratty but gets over it quick enough that you don't end up disliking him. wagons west on another planet ) having to 'go native' to get weapons. guns & dinos. an interesting setting. hardcore military
SF. Reread 20040120.alice.
Weber, David & John Ringo. March 2 March to the Sea. R.k-file 20040122. lots of vs. barbarians, developing primitive artillery & guns. much the same, only larger scale. a 7 or 8.
Weber, David & John Ringo. March 3 March to the Stars. 20040208. R.x. take the port, easy enough, lose more and more people tho, sad end, but the series isn't over at least one more, prob only one more. a 7.
Weber, David & John Ringo. March 4: We Few. R. 20061026. finish the story of sorts, but sets up for new stuff. a 6. loses the effect of the 'march' but still good fun. Becomes more intrigue, less battle, 'tho there is still much. Add many more characters - tho lost many in book #3 so prob didn't add overall to the number. The series is Written by Ringo from an outline by Weber. Ties up most of the previous loose ends, and only makes few more. Ringo's website says something about 3 more books to finish the series, but there is a good ending to the plot in this one, not particularly happy, but successful.

David Weber - In Fury Born

Weber, David. In Fury Born. HB. R. 20061023. not really a sequel, more of a prequel plus. a combo of a prequel and the original into one volume, about 50% new, tacked onto the front of Path. Very well done hard military marine sf, but not a better book. Sure there's ton's more backstory on Ally, but with out the 3 fury's the 'hook' of path is missing, and while good military sf, it lacks the great that Path had on it's own. Sure the original is still all there, but with such a long buildup it come off a bit odd. a 9.

Identity Crisis (Meltzer, Morales, Bair)

Identity Crisis (Meltzer, Morales, Bair). GN. R.X. 20061018. excellent story, JLA/JSA classic DC comics characters, and a few of the old unused ones. very gripping, emotional story, 'real' deaths, and some excellent character developments. if it wasn't for so much needed backstory to get some of the characters, or history to understand the emotions, it would be even better, but you just can't get that with an ensemble cast of characters with such long back stories. still excellent writing, and good art. exposition of the why behind the secret identities. a 7.

Neal Schusterman - The Dark Side of Nowhere

Schusterman, Neal. The Dark Side of Nowhere. YA. SF, excellent story, coming of age. the glove thing that they always use for the cover is an odd aspect to focus on. boring town has secrets that, once discovered, will change the world. Jason is in the middle of it, there's a girl he likes, a friend who's just died, maybe... a mysterious janitor, and secrets in old town. Nature or nurture? go with the crowd, or do what you think is right. a 7 or 8.

Gary Paulsen - Brian's Series

Paulsen, Gary. Brain's Winter. R. 20061016. Young Adult. sequel of sorts to Hatchet. What if Brian had not be rescued and stayed the winter? an excellent outdoors survival novel. excellent descriptions, and narration. You're in Brian's head the whole time and deep in his thought and musings. a 6.
Paulsen, Gary. Brian's Return. R. 20060921.
Paulsen, Gary. Brian's Hunt. R. 20060921. Good, very short, reminds of My Side of the Mountain, but more spiritual-bonding to nature. one with nature, young teen on his way to being a mountain man' of the north Canadian woods. a 7. Continuation of Hatchet I think books 3 & 4.

Kolchak The Night Stalker and Night Strangler

The Night Stalker very 70's TV movies. but there is something about the story and plot that are interesting. It's not that scary, but there are some interesting spooky bits. the Las Vegas setting is interesting, the Vampire is sort of flat. a 5
Night Strangler - is a bit better, McGavin really gets into it, the Seattle underground setting is quite interesting, and the back story on the mysterious murderer is quite interesting. plus denouement as they drive off is quite fun. John Carradine has a great bit part. the effects are a bit better, or perhaps budget was a bit higher.  a 6.

Brian K. Vaughan & Niko Henrichon - Pride of Baghdad

Vaughan, Brian K. & Niko Henrichon. Pride of Baghdad. R. 20061012. Graphic Novel. an excellent talking animals story, very 'real' feeling the lions freed, and confused, wandering in the ruins. loosely based on true events, which make for a sad ending. a 7.

Neil Gaiman - 1602

Gaiman, Neil.   1602. rx. 20061012. Graphic Novel. the beginning of the marvel universe as it would have happened in 1602. All the greats, Fury, Strange, X-men, Doom, daredevil, Magneto, Thor. and he even made it work without being an elseworlds story, (although I think that would have worked just as well) excellent cover art by Mckowen very much in the style of woodcuts. An interesting story but more a gimmick than anything great. a 5.

Tony Millionaire - Billy Hazelnuts

Millionaire, Tony.      Billy Hazelnuts. 20061011. Graphic Novel. astounding turn of the century style art & story. very reminiscent of Winsor McCay. Girl scientist, boy poet, billy the thing the rats made! A grave yard for worn out & broken planets, flying ships, magic-science. marvelous. a 9.

Mercedes Lackey & Rosemary Edghill - Bedlam's Bard Series

Lackey, Mercedes & Rosemary Edghill. Beyond World's End. R. 20061005. Continuing Bedlam's Bard + Knight of Ghosts & Shadows (and apparently mostly Rosemary's work). bard goes to NYC to finish Juliard. meets Guardian House, magic guardians of NYC, & a gargoyle. The Wild Hunt which is rather taken aback to find they're not much of a threat to modern armed paramilitary drug runners. Good story, but takes along time to get going, and you really do need the backstory of the previous books to know the characters, in fact you ought to have read all the serrated edge books too (not as necessary but there are references). a 6.
Lackey, Mercedes & Rosemary Edghill. Spirits White as Lightning. R. 20061008. Direct sequel to world's end, with all the same characters, but a new plot. govt agency after elves and search for 1/2elf breeding info. lord of the hunt - scary guy, but some interesting background on him. a 5. Really overall sort of Lackey-lite.
Lackey, Mercedes & Rosemary Edghill. Mad Maudlin. R. 20061010. more gripping that the previous 2. some tail ends unfinished, and a sequel at least is listed. some good interweaving of story lines, the mad protector/Bloody Mary was interesting. a 7.

Jordan Sonnenblick - Drums Girls & Dangerous Pie.

Sonnenblick, Jordan. Drums, Girls & Dangerous Pie. R. 20061004. Young Adult tear-jerker. Quite well written. Brothers. cancer. Girls. and Drumming. an 8. Astounding depth to his passion for drumming - something which comes through well. Love of brothers and annoyances of little brothers, family crisis and growing up, taking control of what can be controlled. Girls, finding what was there all along, not what it looked like. Much sadness, quite a tear-jerker esp near the end, but a nice upbeat heartwarming ending. A little pat, but I was beginning to worry he was going to die, and I'd of thrown the book across the room if he'd had. Strong emotional story similiar to much of Cynthia Voight.

Walter H. Hunt - 'Dark' Series

Hunt, Walter H. The Dark Wing. R. 20060929. good space opera, fairly polished, a bit of honor harrington and bit of Babylon 5 a bit of Enders Game. interesting aliens, simplistic military maneuvers and combat, but good intrigue. a 6.
Hunt, Walter H. The Dark Path. R. 20060930. part one of a series. a continuation of The Dark Wing but not directly following it, 80 years later. a lot more about the mental special abilities, and the Zor mythology and prescience. a 6.
Hunt, Walter H. The Dark Ascent. R. 20061001. direct sequel to path, jackie continues lots of mystical dream stuff. some minor revelations about the masterminds behind it all. a 6.
Hunt, Walter H. The Dark Crusade.       R. 20061004. jump 20-some-odd years, war with the Bugs. still the 6 colors the villains behind the scenes. Cults, AI, betrayals. not over yet. a 5.

Christopher Rowley - Fenrille Series

Rowley, Christopher. The War for Eternity. R. 20060920. a 5. starts a bit disjointed, but he writing really picks up by the last 1/3 and the quality improves noticeably. had a hard time keeping track of the characters at first. good adventure/military stuff, and the addition of the 'spirits' and the created world was interesting. 1st written in a series of 2 with 2 prequels.
Rowley, Christopher. The Black Ship. R. 20060925. sequel to war for eternity. a 6. good continuation of the story. excellent military adventure, with the addition of mental powers. A combination of stories, the military sf, 1st contact, and human evolution of the mind. well written, his skill was raised to a good level by the end of war for eternity and stayed there.
Rowley, Christopher. The Founder. R. 20060926. prequel to war for eternity. a 5. the writing was good, polished, but the plot jumped from childhood, to young adult, to the trip, then when I'd just gotten a good hold on the character - he had a breakdown. the revolution in the ship was well plotted, the new info on the woodwose was interesting. But being a prequel there was nothing surprising.
Rowley, Christopher. To A Highland Nation. 20060927. R. 2nd prequel, Fair Fundan's history, the beginning of the Fein/human highlander community, less military sf than guerilla warfare, and banditry. a 5. Suggested reading order: The Founder, To A Highland Nation, The War for Eternity, The Black Ship. Since Black Ship is really major ending to the series, and the prequels don't give away anything of the plot.

Gary Paulson - Brian's Return & Brian's Hunt

Paulson, Gary. Brian's Return. R. 20060921.
Paulson, Gary. Brian's Hunt. R. 20060921. Good, very short quick reads, reminds of My Side of the Mountain, but more spiritual-bonding to nature. one with nature, young teen on his way to being a 'mountain man' of the north Canadian woods. a 7. Continuation of Hatchet I think books 3 & 4.

Mario Acevedo

Acevedo, Mario. The Nymphos of Rocky Flats. R. 20060919. TPB. Interesting vampire story, Gulf war syndrome a cover for vampirism, UFO's, Roswell, vampire hunters, Nymphomaniacs, Red uranium, death and murder, and redemption. dryads, and potions, and turning people to frogs! Secret vampire organization. a Mexican-American vampire P.I. investigating the nymphos, secret DOE compound. then the weirdness starts. pretty good adventure. a 6.


Mario Acevedo - X-Rated Bloodsuckers, sequel to Nymphos. R. 200801? TPB. It has the elements of the original, but not the angst, and unfortunately not the level of sarcastic humour. The ideas are there, but the humour just didn't come across as well. Still fun, and a good adventure, set in the valley this time, with vampires and porn stars and evangelists, but not quite as good as the first. a 5.

Christopher Moore - Fluke

Moore, Christopher. Fluke. R. 20060913. excellent as usual. Even though for quite over half the novel it's still about scientists studying the whale songs - it's still quite gripping and funny, he does excellent characters, dialogue, and plotting. It's both real and humourous. Then it goes SF on you and gets even more fun. Okay so the villain is a bit flat, and only comes in at the end of the story, but it's not about that sort of conflict. a 7.

John Ringo - There Will be Dragons

Ringo, John. There Will be Dragons. R.K 20060907. excellent historical-military with high-tech nano-SF, body mods, universal power utopia. a bit hard to swallow that they so quickly accept the loss of all the high-tech. but once that's done, it does go very well. several hints of previous 'history' and excellent fantasy/medieval warfare. start of a series. a 7.

John Ringo - Princess of Wands

Ringo, John. Princess of Wands. R. 20060907. interesting modern fantasy. Christian with out bible thumping. - as the character is also. really a collection of 3 short stories, one fairly long, one novella, and a short ender. Con stuff in the 2nd story, and several characters who were certainly parodies of real sf authors including the villain who had to be David Drake, allusions to Robert Jordan, a character who had to be Baen, and one may have been Ringo too. secret magical defenders in the FBI to fight the demons and monsters which are really there. power of faith, any faith, even Christian :) to combat evil. good stories. a 6.

Lois McMaster Bujold - The Hallowed Hunt.

Bujold, Lois McMaster. Chalion series(hmm needs another name) 3: The Hallowed Hunt. 20060831. It's certainly set in the same world as Chalion, but not the same land, it has the same gods, with the addition of shamanistic animal magic. An excellent story, but lacking a truely evil villain it was hard to get entirely behind the heros - one of those that if they'd only talk! they could work it all out. But! far better than '2' so I'd say an 8 she's getting excellent in fantasy.

Carrie Vaughn - Kitty and the Midnight Hour

Vaughn, Carrie. Kitty and the Midnight Hour. 20060830. Werewolves and dominance, Dj's and vampires and murders. starts a bit wavering, but ends well, there are sequels, and is as good as Charlaine Harris or Kelley Armstrong. a 7. an excellent start. as good as the first Hamilton Blake.
If you like this try Laurell K. Hamilton - Anita Blake. Kelley Armstrong. Robin Mckinley - Sunshine. Nancy Collins - Sonja Blue. Kim Harrison. Charlaine Harris'- Southern Vampire series.

Greg the Bunny

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0280257/
Don't know why I thought it was terrible when it first came out, but just watched the DVD's and G the B is really really funny. Some eps are better than others, Dottie's video tape fiasco is prob my favorite. Jimmy & Gil bonding is really one of the lesser ones - not enough puppets. Sarah Silverman is funny and sexy in a dominating career woman way. The puppets are really funny, for the most part. Dottie is cute and bubbly and sexy, the bathroom wall writing was her - spot on. Didn't find Tardy as amusing as they did, and Susan is kinda creepy. Count Blah is quite great as was Junction Jack.

L. NEIL SMITH - HENRY MARTYN & BRETTA MARTYN

SMITH, L. NEIL. HENRY MARTYN. R. YET ANOTHER SAILING THE STARS BOOK, I WISH WE'D STAYED WITH 'HENRY' MORE OR AT LEAST FOLLWED ALL HIS ADVENTURES INSTEAD OF SKIPPING THE MIDDLE AND WATCHING HIS EVIL BROTHER SO MUCH. BUT A GOOD BOOK, IDEAS 8, STORY 7
WRITING 6. Reread 20060818. that was neat, but perhaps a bit overly brutal? Still quite, fun, and yes should have stayed more with 'Henry' and less with the villains, but that's my nitpick with POV and not necessarily a fault of the story. rather think it's more an 8 this time there was a lot of invented modified language, but I 'got' it more this read. Loved the archaic Walther .22 and the old Lego style of building! amusing fun bits. but the story freedom vs. governance of empire underlying theme is still a good one.

SMITH, L. NEIL. Bretta MARTYN. sequel to Henry Martyn. R. 20060821. very libertarian, and it shows in the luna colony. not quite as good as Henry, not due to story, but due to sequel, spent quite a lot of the beginning - felt like over half recapping (and revising) the 1st book, but it was all telling little showing. Once it finally took off - when they took off, it when quick and was quite fun. A bit less rape and pillage, lots of adventure & pirates at war. anti-slavery, pro-self government. a 7.

Greg Bear - Vitals

Bear, Greg. Vitals. R.X. 20060812. ugh, a disappointment, actually rather reminded me of Tim Powers last - Declare. starts off as if it's going to be an interesting immortality story and ends up a spy/intrigue/mind-control story. Never really got into the biologist character - I remember being at pg 80 and thinking, when is it going to get good... The historian character (2 character pov story, half way thru switches) was much more interesting - but it could have been that the plot was going strong by then. but worst of all he loses, and never really figures out exactly what was going on... bah. I'd expected much better from BEAR, GREG. since THE INFINITY CONCERTO. was amazing, but this isn't up to his old stuff. It is a good spy/mind control/mild sf story, and might appeal to the Dan Brown Da Vinci Code crowd, if they weren't too much into the art & religion aspect of that story. a 4.

John Varley - Red Thunder

Varley, John. Red Thunder. R.X. 20060806. good story, lots of gosh wow, great fun yay we did it, and excellent built it ourselves stuff. a 6. The adventure is great, the afterwards was inconclusive, and sort of a let down. but easily dismissable. an excellent hard sf story, with the addition of the one 'fantasy' element of the drive, all else is quite 'real' science and tech. very like a perhaps somewhat more thoughtful Heinlein juvenile.
If you like this you might like Frankowski, Leo & Dave Grossman. The War with Earth.

Michelle Shirey Crean - Dancer of the Sixth

Crean, Michelle Shirey. Dancer of the Sixth. R. 20060804. an excellent 1st book. Military, Spy, fighter jock, secret spy organization, in depth secrets, multiple races of men, torture death. well written for the most part, just a few bits where it gets confusing, unfortunately the end is one, not the big finish, but the denouement is off, bit of romance. a solid 6. great potential for further stuff. good plotting. excellent detail filled setting. One of the fighter-jock sf sub-sub-genre. Dancer code name of a former hot shot pilot now assumed KIA, joins the 6th - apparently the clean up crew war, sort of well armed spies, full of vengeful Aruyx a race of minor telepaths massacred by the enemy who has an odd love of torture. She finds a double has taken her place in the 4th (the fighter-jocks) and is in their version of the Blue Angels. There are some excellent twists and revelations. It's set up for a sequel without truly needing it to finish the story. I would have said she was a writer to watch out for - great things might be forthcoming - if it didn't look like this book from 1993 is her one and only book. A shame, she had a good voice, and this could have been continued to an excellent trilogy.

James Kochalka Superstar - Spread Your Evil Wings and Fly

James Kochalka's James Kochalka Superstar - Spread Your Evil Wings and Fly CD, was probabaly the most fun thing I got at the San Diego Comic-con 2006. Saw him at the Top Shelf booth, with Eddie Campbell, and Melinda Gebbie. He didn't really have to talk me into it that hard, I've been waiting for a collection of the SuperF*ckers comics and stopped to see if I could get a sketch. Good rock music, with darkly humorous lyrics, some songs more pop rock, some dark rock, with some catchy and horrifying refrains (Justin Timberlake, Justin Timberlake, Justin Timberlake, Justin Timberlake, Justin Timberlake... Gah!!) an 8 it's only problem is that it's too short!

Juliet E. Mckennan - Einarinn fantasy series

Mckenna, Juliet E. Einarinn 1 The Theif's Gamble. Elemental magic, atheric magic, evil Eskimo people, a fun story mostly. a 6 Livak the theif's pov
Mckenna, Juliet E. Einarinn 2 Swordsman's Oath. Ryshad the warrior's pov. too little Livak in it. but more odd cultures shown, the archipelagoes. find the lost land. revive the lost people.
Mckenna, Juliet E. Einarinn 3 The Gambler's Fortune. 20060730. a 6 the series so far, at least another probably 2 more books to finish. Livak the theif pov. the forest folk, and the mountain folk this time.

Gail Carson Levine - The Princes Test

Levine, Gail Carson. The Princes Test. R. 2006071? cute novella, ya, classic princess tests, pea in the bed etc. nowhere near as good as Ella enchanted. but of the same style. a 5

Laser Mission Force

Laser Mission Force - Brandon Lee. DVD. 20060710. some ok fight scenes, nothing special tho, some gawd-awful dialog, definitely B-movie grade action, direction, plot, and effects. Where it was set.. maybe Africa? by way of Russian Cuba? confusing setting, but it was actually shot in a desert somewhere and that bit looks good. Poor Brandon was saddled with some truly horrible dialogue, the chick side-kick (Debi A. Monahan), was ok. And although her greatest assets were definitely the 2 in front, at least her dialogue was better. The bumbling enemy pair who eventually help them were actually amusing. The evil bad-guy who just won't die was rather amusing after awhile too, how many times to they have to kill him before he'll stay dead? a 3. Not really worth seeing. There are only 3 reason to see this movie it is Brandon Lee's 1st, has Ernest Borgnine, and Debi A. Monahan trying desperately not to fall out of her dress (and unfortunately succeeding). On the other hand - you can get it for $1 so it was actually worth the price, but not a penny more.

Previous Movies

Blast from the Past. 20060709. ha the ex boyfriend is the captain from Firefly! A great and funny movie, Walken steals his scenes, and Clueless girl is cute when she pouts, and the druggie/worshiper is amusing. Story is cute, sort of fun. good overall. a 6.

Young Master. 20060702. early Jackie Chan, some good kung-fu, not much plot, and what there is, is kind of confusing. oh you can follow it, but why bother? the dragon fight at the beginning is quite good. a 6

Fantasy Mission Force. 20060703. GREAT! B-Movie Weirdness! Nazis, Japs, Amazons, and post-Apocalypse Kung-Fu! One of the best B-movies, crazy kung-fu, WW2-ish, fantasy. Truly bizarre plot, nazis & Japanese attack ;? Canada? capture 4 generals - one from France, one from England, one from Africa, and one from America - Abraham Lincoln!, take them to Luxembourg! the army chooses guy captain to form a team to rescue them. including the escape artist guy, the explosives guy, the old west Elvis impersonator guy, his psycho girlfriend, weird asian Scottish highlander guy, and his sidekick dressing in roman armor. Jackie Chan is a thief the team runs into and he helps - some. they are captured by Amazons, escape a haunted house, and finally have a show down with the 70's car chariot riding Nazis & Japs. Most everyone dies. Jackie revenges them. bizarre and surreal plot, quite a bit of good kung-fu action. lots of B-movie sets, and costumes. just great! taking it for what it is
- a 9.

36 Crazy Fists. 20060703. fight choreography by Jackie Chan. 98 lb weakling, begs to join temple to learn kung-fu to avenge his father. he learns with amazing speed. tons and tons of long involved fights. he wins some he loses, he goes back for 1 week of training, he wins, gets new challenge, 1 month training, fights the big boss master, he wins, with help, the end. a 5

40 Year Old Virgin. 20060515. eh, lotta creepy embarrassing stuff,but some lovey romancey stuff, and just bit too accurate with some portrayals.

Shaun of the Dead. excellent funny movie. an 8

Underworld 2. 20060126. bloodiest movie ever. not most violent, but certainly most bloody. a good action adventure vampire werewolf amusement. a 6.x

Grand Canyon. (1991) VHS. X. a 5. a bit preachy, but excellent work from Kline, and steve martin, and danny glover was good, the teen boys were a bit over done. a nicely moralizing peace, with a pleasant end.

Light Sleeper (dafoe sarandon)(VHS) a 7. a bit slow, an interesting drug dealer story. very little action, more of a finding himself, sort of a reverse mid-life crisis. 40 yr old dealer suddenly may be out of the biz, and what to do? dafoe is good and the guy who can and is going to change, but can't find the direction to turn to.

Memoirs of a Geisha. blah, a 2. excellent photography, and some quite good acting save it from total ick. but the story and setting just were not nice.

Elizabethtown. 200512. much better than expected, a chick flick, but excellent, great wake/memorial, excellent road trip, romantic comedy, and good at all three. an 8 imdb

Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead. watched at Tracys on her big drop down screen and projection tv. yay. one of the best movies ever and prob my 2nd favorite comedy just after Holy Grail. Rape of the Sabine women, or rather women, or rather Alfred. England I don't belive it! Just a conspiracy of cartographers? imdb

Mirrormask. 200510. absolutely great a 9. The actress who played Helena was a bit off at times, but it was minor, the story could have been a little stronger - less happenstance more struggle, but was well done. Excellent visually, and I though not at all difficulty to follow. imdb

Corpse Bride. 20050925. excellent. quite reminiscent of NBX but less a musical. carter hold the show - her character the bride is the best one. Depp's characters is too much a Victorian wimp, and victoria just lets stuff happen to her - at first she tried to fight it but gave up. so the story is a bit weak, the visuals are as good as NBX, the music is very good. a 8. imdb

Brothers Grimm. 20050828. excellent, good creepy fun fantasy, keeping to the original Grimm tales, not the prettied up Disney stuff, as good as any Gilliam movie, not his best, but still good fun. an 8. imdb

Batman Begins. 20050701. a very good batman movie - Ras Al Guhl was excellent, good setup for the batman universe history, an excellent superhero movie, certainly better than the last few batmans, as good as Burton's but with a different slant. a 6. good action movie, some excellent actors in the minor parts. imdb

Wicked - the musical - live at the pantages. 20050630. Good. excellent sets, costumes good, effects very good, music good, lyrics ok, story good. overall good a 6. went with David, Shelley, Alex, Me.

Howls Moving Castle. 20050618. Miazaki's new movie - very good, a _great_ adaption. prob the least for kids of his movies, tho. thick with plot - well a little bit - certainly more than American animated films, but certainly not overmuch. good ending, added a but more war stuff than I remember from the book, and toned down howl a bit. a 9. maybe not my new fav Miazaki movie but certainly top 3. imdb

Thirteenth Floor. 200506? watched again. good as I remembered - but more, continues further than where I remember the 'end', didn't really think the clean up ending was all that memorable - I stopped when they find out they're the '2nd simulacrum' gonna have to read the book and see what it was like. a 7. atmospheric, no-name cast but many recognizable faces.

Death to Smoochy. 20050428. very good a 9. excellent cast, excellent dialogue, very funny good denouement & end.

Sin City. 20050402sat. a great movie - if you liked the comix you'll like the movie, not perfect - there are a few scenes with dialogue that is just a bit off, but a solid 9. possibly the best adaption of original work ever.

Princess Bride, The. 20050120- 5th? viewing at least. excellent. very amusing. a 10.

Black Hole, the. 20050105. wow, poor acting, plotless story, dated effects, nice theme music, and overly cutesy robot r2-d2 knockoffs. storyless random ending. a 2. actually very amusing to watch and make fun of, but not really fun in & of itself. leaden acting, very dated effects, totally unrealistic science, weird Dante & hell references, ending just trying to get by on effects with no plot what-so-ever. some of the dumbest fights, robots doing quick-draw target practice?!, very hmm suspect robot fight scene with 'rape' overtones near the end. Red 'black' hole, strangest meteor shower just aiming at the ship no-where else, could have just moved a few feet & got out of the way, still attempt the maneuver even as the ship is being destroyed via meteor - no attempt to abort & fix it first. robot esp, but wait just her, no he did it too, no just her, huh? not even consistent within itself. an all-effects movie where the effects didn't last the test of time.

Daredevil - 2 he would _never_ allow some one to die no matter _what_ they had done let alone just a rapist! yet within the 1st 5 min... bleah. otherwise ok action.

League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, the - 9. excellent

Around the World in 80 Days.jackie chan version. 20041229. good, funny, nothing really like the book or other movie, but a good jackie chan movie with vintage futuristic sf stuff. a 5.

Lord of the G-String the R version. a lot of new scenes that are not in the NC-17 version, all the sex is cut drastically. over all a funnier movie, less time between jokes, more hokey jokey stuff. 20041229 a 6.

Napoleon Dynamite. 200412. eh, more cringe-worthy than funny, but there were some laugh out loud moments. high school geek horror slice of life. a 4.

Without a Paddle. 20041120. pretty funny once it finally got funny. a 7. took too long to get them into the woods, but good. moral ending but not too bad.

Chronicles of Riddick 1: Pitch Black. 20041118. pretty good horror sf - sort of Alien/Aliens feel. not really great production. good characters tho. a 5.

Chronicles of Riddick (2) eh, lots of sf effects, but not really much of a story. a 5.

50 First Dates. drew & adam sandler. very cute with lots of funny. a 9. better than wedding singer.

Producers, the. Mel brooks, very funny, ? was a bit over the top during his anxiety attacks, the secretary was hilarious, nice and short, no slow bits. a 7. 200411? DVD - the extra cut scene was good, don't really know why it was cut. lots of slapstick, and situational comedy.

Terminal, the (tom hanks) good amusing touching funny. a 6.

Shrek. an 8
Shrek 2. a 7

Bruce Almighty. great movie. an 8

Hulk, the (2003) - ugh the best bit was the cameo by Stan Lee & Lou Feregino - a 3

League of Extraordinary Gentlemen - excellent a 8 or 9

Ladykillers (tom hanks) funny black comedy. great a 7.

Dodgeball. very funny an 8.

Harry Potter 1: the sorcerers (philosophers) stone 8
Harry Potter 2: chamber of something 7
Harry Potter 3: Prisoner of Azkaban 7

Cabin Boy. 20040317. watched DVD - no extras to speak of, but a great surreal film. a 9.

UHF. 20040317. DVD. Weird Al movie! never heard of it before, but it's good. a 6.

The Last Samurai. 20040314. with the whole crew from d&d. good choreography on the individual fight scenes, the battles were not bad too. the samurai were good tom was enh. a 7.

Traffic. 20040213. interesting, but enh,. a 5. neat structure & dir. but story...

The Rutles: All You Need is Cash. 20040310. excellent Beatles parody mocumentary. an 8

Monty Python's Holy Grail. (DVD with extra scene) 20040310. best comedy ever a 10

Spinal Tap. 20040303. heavy metal mocumentary. great an 8

A Mighty Wind. 20040303. folk music mocumentary. (most the actors from spinal tap) a 7.

The Cat in the Hat. 20040221. ug. the fat bastard in the hat. the kids weren't bad sally was pretty good actually. freak boss! what the ! a 1. i did laugh, but not much.

TimeLine. 20040125. sun. with the whole crew kathy,dan,duane,mark,shelley. fun but nothing great, poor plot but pretty good medieval action. a 3, poor acting too... but a fun to see once movie and worth $2.75 :}

Big Fish. 20040111. tall tales, very good. an 8. (Burton)

Shipping News, The. 20040108. over at Kathy & Dan's place with the huge projection screen. actually a good movie, I'd thought it was going to be a rather sappy chick-flick, but while still rather a chick flick, it had more backbone than most. newfoundland, pirates in your family tree, good work by spacy, a 5. nothing spectacular, but better than a lot of stuff.

Paycheck. 20040105. pk dick story, good as always, similar theme as usual,, not the best actors but a good story, and fun. - saw with Ally.

Cheaper by the Dozen. 20040103. a funny movie, better steve martin than usual (lately). but nothing like the book, other than 12 kids... maybe some names? - still for what it was it was amusing a 5.

Scrooged. 20031224. GREAT x-mas movie - very funny, and a bit touching at the end. - plus a bonus - book at a gift!, and Carol Kane as the ghost of xmas presents, and Bill Murry is in top form on this one. a 9 - one of my perennial xmas favs

Lord of the Rings 3: The Return of the King. 20031217 8pm. 20031221 4pm. Great! & I like the accurate to the book endings. a 10

Once Upon a Time in Mexico. 20031211. Rodrequez, bandares, . a sequel to desperado itself a remake of El Mariachi. a good if bloody movie a great as expected performance by Jonhhy Depp, over the top violence, but a nice back story with hyack. fun exciting movie. an 8.

Magic Knights Rayearth - whole series. 200311.not bad, but not really great, good but not great animation, sorta pushed it to get the giant robots into the show, okay story, a bit simple minded, liked the end of season 1, season 2 was more action fighting robot story and less good story than 1st but better action stuff.

Nauscia of the Valley of the Wind. Anime. 20031021. excellent drama, good animation, great story, an ending that fits very well with the story (unlike a lot of anime!) a 9.

Captain Studly. cartoon on cartoon network. The Originals. 20031008. old superhero (superman parody) & the League (Justice League parody) some really funny bits, (like the Sgt.Rock/Cap.Fury parody character having had a sex change!), come back from retirement to fight their old nemesis. overall it's been done before (powerpuff girls ep with the batman/robin parody jumps to mind as most recent) but not really done any better. Still fairly amusing overall, don't know if I'd bother to keep watching the series, but this episode was fun. a 5.

Trigun. Anime ep#1 the $$60 billion Man. 20031008. amusing, great action animation, a bit too goofy, but pretty much a fun romp, western SF. a 7

Charlies Angels 2: 20030911. a 7. very very funny, very, and good action, not seamlessly putting the actress into it all the time but not too bad, great cameos.

Slackers - 200309 - SVCD - what the hell?!? gah, weird!, Freak!!, & what did it have to do with 'slackers' anyway? they put waaaay too much effort into their shenanigans. cool ethan is a stalker psycho freakmonkey! the cheating stuff was good 'con' style action adventure & the puppy love stuff was sweet & there was lots of funny bits, but this movie is very very odd. an 8 of 10. low production values, but not adversely affecting, slap-dash ending tho. might be more disturbing than amusing in the final count, but it is fun.


Pirates of the Caribbean. 20030710. Thurs. very fun. Depp was excellent! lots cool cannon & skeleton fight scenes, good pirate stuff. sabre fights actually looked good & 'realistic' too.

RollerBall (200x- the new one) (2 SVCDs) silly & dumb. a 3.

Orange County (2 SVCDs) funny, jack is great.

Minority Report (3 SVCDs)very good, but sorta cop-out end

Boondock Saints (2 SVCDs) excellent!

Mr. Deeds (Full Screen) (2 SVCDs) funny

New Guy, the (2 SVCDs) hillarious! funk, & Henry Rollins!

Birthday Girl (2 SVCDs) Good!

Rat Race (w/extras) (3 SVCDs) quite funny(cleese)


Collateral Damage (2 SVCDs) glad didn't pay much for it..

Core, the. Armageddon rip-off not as good. Better than it looked

Gangs of New York. 20030626. really neat an 8

Holes. 20030629. a9 great - word for word the book.

Formula 51 (sam jackson)SVCD good story, not that great done, but fun.

X-Files. a 2 hour episode of the show, with some bigger effects, but not many...

DareDevil. 20030422. well it had a better story than spiderman .. but . Lots of in references to daredevil artists. Dan & Kathy worked on it :} sort of odd, that he kills that guy early on, not his style. good job showing the 'sight' tho. great action - hong kong wirework.

4 Dogs Playing Poker. 20030421. pretty neat W/ Tim Curry supporting character - tho he has a fairly big part. Reservoir Puppies. art thieves, suddenly need $4million life insurance & murder pact some plot holes but a good b movie.

Spirited Away. 200304. excellent. one of the best fantasy Anime ever seen. strong plot, good ending not too surreal, interesting characters with good designs, excellent creepy ambiance, an 8. not humor tho there are funny bits, not horror tho a bit creepy, sort of an action/romance/fantasy. well done, deserving of the Oscar.

John Q. 200304. good as I'd thought it might be.

Wedding Singer, the - -much funnier than I expected. very good,kind of hokey but fun, an 7.
20041022. watched again on tape. a great funny movie drew & sandler are a good pair. great soundtrack, amusing story. great performances by the older secondary actors. an 8.

007: Goldeneye 007 - I didn't like the beginning (which is often the best part of a 007 movie) and it was so obvious who the villain was going to be. a disappointment. it seems that w/o a book to base it on the 007's aren't too hot. - 3 -

007: World is Not Enough - worst bond yet, dumped all the intro stuff no t&A cute chicks but dumb story, rotten use of Cleese! a 1 just 'cause it had cleese

3000 Miles to Graceland. cool one of the best movies he's done, as good as escape from NY

Alice in Wonderland - DeBell 'R' version (well an NC-17 version anyway)

Alien 4: the resurrection - -hella better than #3! very good - guys from city of lost children an 8

American President, the(an?) okay fairly humorous and with an upbeat social commentary fix the environment ending - 5 -

American Strays - -interesting - tilly - 3 near separate stories a 6

American Werewolf in Paris - -ok, a 5 - good FX

Antz - -good 7 -

Armageddon (WideScreen) - -damn good. a 9

As Good as it Gets (nicholson) - -pretty good a 6

Asswoman in Wonderland - xxx - -great! xxx version! funny as all hell 8 -

Avengers, the (Uma, Connery) - -eh. a 3 liked her evil twin better

Bad Boys - Action, okay no big deal some small funny bits but not enough. - 3

BASEketball - -ok 5 - a disappointment after their other stuff -(like Cannibal the musical drunken director's cometary!!)

Batman forever - (please be forever before I have to see it again)

Big Lebowiski, the - funny!

Billy Madison - good funny

Biodome - good funny

Birdy the Mighty -anime - bleah

Blade - -pretty good. a 7 great action - dumb actor

Blue Thunder - McDowell played The Bad Helicopter Guy -

Underworld. ok. vamps vs. weres. a 5.

Blues Bros - -neat, kinda funny, some ok blues stuff even if it was a musical - a 6 -

Blues Brothers 2000 - -awful a 2

Bound (theft comedy) - a neat sexy thief-mobster girls night out and putting one over the bader guys - very sexy lesbian stuff, and fair suspense. - 8 -

BraveHeart (gibson) - v good, very real battle scenes, gripping, epic - 8

Bride with white Hair, the & The Bride with white Hair 2 - -(jap fantasy/martial arts, w/leslie cheung) - saw a dubbed vers and it was pretty neat, sfx tho not super expensive were good action interesting in the interview a section shown with subtitles translated totally different than what it was dubbed as - so how much of interesting subplots were lost? - 2 was subtitled and the story was mildly more interesting but the ending is not a really happy one more or less the 2nd half of the movie a 7 for the pair -

Buffalo '66 (Ricci) -good, ricci - wide screen would rock 7-8 -

Bullets Over Broadway _ very funny, good twists of black humor, - 8 -

Camp Nowhere (lloyd) - i like lloyd

Can't Hardly Wait - -eh 3 - I could've waited a looong time

Cemetery Man - -hilarious black comedy/surrealism - 9

Chase, the - ok not bad thievery and the ending was nice but no big deal - 5 -

Chasing Amy (clerks, mallrats) - -an 8 - -neat! comix and lesbians, and very much connected to clerk and mallrats but more adult and more relationships,
fun but not happy story

City of Industry - -good tarentino like 7 -

Clerks - weird, b&W very funny but the thing with the dead guy was sicko - 8 -

Clueless - cute

Coneheads - bleah

Conspiracy Theory - -A great movie - it's all true! and the ending was very well done, didn't kill him off but didn't ruin it by giving a 'happy' ending with girl. - 9

Crow, The. a 10. one of my favorite adaptions of all time, not 'right on' but the feel was good, wished for a better actor for that black cop, but.. the main villain was cool (even if a extra addition) excellent soundtrack,

Crow, the: the city of angels - they killed off the girl! that was extra disappointing - besides the fact that it just wasn't 'right' enough. some nice visuals, but a major disappointment - 5 -

Dark City (dir crow) - -cool atmospheric a 7-8

Dear God - An amusing thing sort of funny and such but no great winner - 4 -

Desert Blue =- bittersweet cool story Ricci character an odd one (as usual) but was quite a neat story sky blue empire cola. an 8

Desperado - not as good as the low budget original version - el mariachi (or however you spell it)

Die Hard with at vengeance (3) © terrible © all the connecting aspects of the DH series were dropped, xmas, his wife, and what was left was mediocre, -2

DRAGONHEART _ loved the part where the dragon and the knight team up to scam the villages the rest was no big deal - 6 -

Dumb and Dumber - very bad - sick in parts, toilet humor sicko - 1 -

Ella Enchanted. hmm. the book is much different and perhaps much better, or at least a lot different. this is fun modern/fantasy/fairy-tale mixed all up. added different villain. changed a lot.but. liked the music. a 6.

Peter Pan (2003) very good version an 8. excellent hook!

Ed Wood © very good, the guy who did bella was awesome, - 9 -

EMPIRE RECORDS - GWAR APPEARANCE - This movie is about a record store. One of the employees (who wants to be a rock star) dreams about being fed to the World Maggot (or something like that). - -a fun movie too unreal not like a place 'I've' ever worked! - 7

Escape from L.A. - as bad as you would expect - tho I really liked the end. campy funsville - 6 -

Ever After (Drew) -good 8 - great visuals

Everyone Says I Love You (drew)...

Exit to Eden (anne rice-comedy!) - I actual only saw parts of it - kind of sexy, but very dumb nothing like the book (which is ok, I wasn't thrilled with
the book either) but the comedy was weird -my god how they ruined that book, it turned out to be kind of a funny movie but geeze - 4 -

Faculty - -good rip off of invasion of the body snatcher which was a rip off of Heinlein's puppet masters(book) - but good action 7 -

Fallen, the (denzil, demon) kinda creepy

Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas (ricci,thompson, Depp, Gilliam) - excellent! 8

Fifth Element, the - a great visual sf movie, mobieus' set designs were spectacular, flying 30's cabs most of the aliens were good too, campy plot,
but xianity being from some aliens was great - 8 - but that dj guy was too annoying!

Final Fantasy = great CG animation, okay story. a 7 not perfect but getting better human cg ani, prob better if I'd ever played the game

Fire & Ice (bakshi & Frazetta!) but still bakshi! ummm

First Wives Club, the - blah

Four Rooms - some were very good, some not so. -

French Kiss - funny, cute, good romantic - 7 -

From Dusk 'til Dawn - the 2nd half is especially great - 8 -

Get Shorty - very funny, the best thing travolta's done since pulp fiction - 7

Godzilla - -not so hot. a 4 -

Gone in 60 sec. remake - cool cars - makes you race around on the way home from the theatre, don't really like cage but this was an excellent flick good balance of fast cars & theft stuff. an 8

Grosse Point Blank (highschool assassin reunion, cusack) - funny but doesn't go far enough - a 7 -

Guncrazy (drew) - -not bad a 6 -

Gundam 0083 eps ? & ? - -good would like to see the series -

Hackers - kind of cutesy at parts, sort of derivative but interesting view of the culture, and him as a kid was neat - 7 -

Happy Gilmore - actually much better than it looks, or our best testing would seem to indicate - 6 -

Hard Rain - -ok 5 -

Heat - a bit depressing - 4 -

Hellraiser 4 - parts were good, but too many parts, and not long enough for them all - 5 -

Highlander (dir cut) - extra flash back scene to ww2, and letter boxed - extra good an 10 -

Holly Man - eddie murphy - -funny but not wildly - good but not that type of comedy 6-7 -

Home Fries (Drew) - ok, 6 - sexy preggers Drew

Hunt for Red October, The (1990. Doctor Petrov Tim Curry) -

Hunted, the (lambert) - not bad - he got a jap sword again! (near the end) and it was a pretty good modern ninja movie - 6 -

Hurricane Street - -ok, but very bittersweet ending 5 -

I Worship His Shadow - prequel Tales from a Parallel Dimension, showtime) - 7 great series!

Ice Storm, the (ricci, kline) - -cool a 6-7 -

Independence Day - ugg - the spfx weren't bad, one or 2 neat lines, - 3 -

Jackal, the remake (willis was good as a villain!), good! some bad camera work, but a good action movie - good a 7 -

James and the Giant Peach - not bad at all, added some to the book (mechanical shark thing!) and didn't kill the aunts (brought them back at the end) and added the north sea pirates stuff (Jack reprise!), and toned down and changed some of the end but was still quite good, most of the spirit of Dahl. - 8 -

Joe's Apartment - actually really good. 7 funny, surprising from MTV

Johnny Mnemonic - a disappointment - cut down the best part of the story, the dolphin, to a mere cameo, and what was that rap guy doing in there!? - 5 -

Judge Dredd _ fair action, god_awful acting. ok sfx. only one of the freaky villains. mean machine. dredd's character changed _ unlike the comix _ but the rest was mostly fairly close. - 4 - but didn't use the Anthrax song!!!

Jury Duty - was ok not a good as the college one but not bad - not really a parody of oj as the preview's tried to say but it had some funny bits. - 6 -

Killing Zoe (from creators of pulp fic + true rom) _ quite good, comparable to true romance. - 8 -

Kingpin - funny

Kite (anime) - actually the edited version is a better story than the uncut dir vers. add more sex but mostly for no effect.

Knock Off - DVD pretty bad some interesting camera-editing work but overall poor dir & acting 3

Serial Experiments Lain: (anime) seen eps (layer) 1-7 the 1st 2 DVD's excellent surreal cyberpunk schoolgirl Techo-rave wired story, bizarre and really neat an 8 so far but will get better if ending makes any sense at all! - a 9 for the series.

Last Action Hero - surprisingly good for all the reviews that panned it. it certainly could have been better if they'd left the funny bits in but it was good. - 6 -

Last Man Standing - willis 30's western/gangsters thing great gunfights 7

Lawnmowerman 2 - boo 4

Lethal Weapon 4 - blah

LEXX: Tales from a Parallel Dimension - -tim curry! - excellent series

Liar, Liar (carry) - not bad funny stuff and a good vehicle for carry - a7 -

Lord of the Rings (live action 2001) 10!

Lord of the Rings (Bakshi,ani) - well it's a bakshi, AND it's also only half the story. - 5 -

Lost in Space - yuck, little girl is cute but... 3. chandler as the pilot!? :)

Mask of Zoro, the (banderas) - -ok a 4 -

Matilda - good, left quite a bit of the stuff in a 7

Maximum Risk (van damme) - very forgettable, I can't remember it. - 2 -

Meet Joe Black - -good 7 - meet the incarnation of death on vacation

Men in Black - quite funny but they had to put in a plot and it wasn't so great, but all the little bits were great - 7 - rap shit at end sucked

Mercury Rising (willis, kid-codes) -found myself agreeing with the villains! should just off the kid. blah, don't _want_ to agree with the villains!

Michael - -ok 4 - angel

Mimic - -ok 4 - mira

Mortal Kombat (lambert) - lambert was great! as the wizard, the rest was so-so, but he was cool! - 4 (lambert - 8) -

Most Wanted - much forgettable

Much Ado About Nothing (Branagh) -amusing - 7 -

Mulan - -diz - funny dragon - not bad story 6 -

Multiplicity - another that could have been great but - he did do a good job of acting against himself - a 7 -

Muppet Treasure Island (1996, Long John Silver- Tim Curry) curry was great! but there was far too much singing - 3 (curry 7) -

My Boyfriend's Back - -great cult comedy horror zombie madness 6 -

Mystery Men - excellent!! 9 next time I play a superheroes game I gotta be Carmine the bowler (as he is now!)

Natural Born Killers - very good equal to pulp fiction but darker, i loved the jagged production aspect with toons and b&W. - 9 -

Negotiator - -ok 4 -

Net, the - a more realistic hackers - but with less to it. 5

Niagra Niagra (action/kidnap/turetts)

Ninth Gate, the - DVD Lots cool antiquarian book stuff, freaky satanismentalist neat book movie 7

Nothing to Loose (martin) - -ok, some funny bits, but very very obvious, and the combination of black social cometary with the buddy humor wasn't so great, and martin is too much a 4 -

Opposite of Sex - -great! ricci 8 -

Orgazmo - 10 - absolutely funny, much better than BASEketball, -

Oscar (1991, Dr. Thornton Poole=Tim Curry) -

Pam & Tommy Lee -slightly xxx -mostly boring 1 -

Patch Adams - -funny but with short horribly sad bits 7 -

Patriot (gibson) great rev. war story, (my favorite US war <g> ) good story, only minorly jingoistic. good action, 'realistic' battles (much like braveheart in that respect) a 7

Patriot (segal) dvd ok not much action 4

Peacemaker - ewww action of sorts s - a 3 -

Pecker (Ricci, John Walters) - v.good 9 -

People vs. Larry Flint, the - a really good movie - strong, not that much t&a (not that I mind...just sort of expected more) creepy - didn't know he'd been shot and paralyzed - 9

Playing God - -ok 6 -

Powder - good, few movies make me get all teary eyed and this one did - it must have some emotional impact. and it does plus it's a good light (as in social) SF piece with a bit of religion but it wasn't 'god' stuff and was nice enuf. - 8

Practical Magic - -very good 8 - great witches

Princess Caraboo - really cute, bit of a steal from moll flanders at times but also very neat - an 8 -

Professional - -great ! 10 - really really want to see uncut french version

Prophecy, the - great cometary on xtian religion - pretty good movie too - 8

Whole Nine Yards, the a 6.
Whole Ten Yards, the a 4.

Puppet Masters, the ©(Heinlein) low budget and far from the book, not even in the future and cut out the whole aspect of nudity as a defence. - 5 -

Van Helsing. 2004 great horror-adventure with comedy. exactly what I expected. fun. an 8

Quest, the (vandame) - -god awful - but r.moore was cool - 2

Quick and the Dead, the _ okay a western a little over done at the end. - 6 -

Replacement Killers, The (chow yung-fat, sorvino,Woo) I expected far better things from them... 5

Reservoir Dogs - good gritty and hard - 7 -

Ring Master - -jerry springer - ick 2 - girls were cute

Road to Wellville - funny! and a bit suspect i think - 7 -

Rob Roy _ a bit too real at times more than braveheart not as epic again slightly over done ending - 7 -

Rocky Horror Picture Show, The (1975, Doctor Frank-N-Furter= Tim Curry) - a classic, but must see at theatre - 8-9 (on video 4) -

Romeo & Juliet (new '90's vers) decaprio -really cool! the update was great! - 9 -

ROMY AND MICHELE'S HIGH SCHOOL REUNION - funny silly, and ditzy - a 6 -

Ronin - quite disappointing for the great cast it had, 4 -

Rounders - -ok - poker isn't got much action to it 5 -

S.F.W. _ interesting and fun darkish comedy - 7 -

Saint, the (val) - -eh, ok, some neat stuff, much better than the phantom, but not as good as the Shadow - -a 4 - it could have been much better with just a little care -

Screamers - creepy sf from p.k.dick 5 not much money on sfx

Siege - -ick 3 -

Sgt. Kabukiman NYPD. amusing, but tromeo & Juliet was way better. 5

Shadow Conspiracy (sheen sutherland hamilton) - sort of obvious and silly - a 3 -

Shadow, The (1994, Farley Claymore -Tim Curry) - good a 6

She's All That - -had ok parts but gaah rich kids in high school dumbnesss 2

Six Days / Seven Nights. eh. 4

Small Soldiers - -ok 5 -

Snatch: brit with deltorro & pitt, diamonds & boxing, very very funny shit, pikers & thugs, &goofs, similar feel as lock stock & 2 smoking barrels or trainspotting but with a larger body count & less drugs. :) a British pulp fiction has the mcguffin - diamond in this case, a great! cast of characters with the best! names I've seen ever, a great editing job quick cuts to stills on the introduction of the characters, - much like a sequel in spirt to lock stock & 2 smoking barrels - a 9

Soldier - -good, tough- despite having russel ,<g> 7 -

Sorcerer Hunter vol 2 anime - -horrible!! just bad pseudo comedic love 0 -

South Park vol 7, 8, 9 - -8

Starship Troopers. well finally did a Heinlein movie with lots of FX but... no actors... 5

Strange Days (dir Cameron) - neat - quite millenialish - 7

Striptease -demi moore - -funny a 6 -

Tank Girl - the toon stuff was good, but all around not surreal enough to compare with the comix - 5 -

Taxi Driver - -disturbing but slow 5 -

Terminal Velocity - okay no big deal, action sky diving was neat - 5 -

There's Something About Mary - -eh 2 -

Things to do in Denver When you're Dead - good 7

Three Musketeers, The (1993, Cardinal Richelieu =Tim Curry) - and in the theatre at the end when king asks what they want someone in the back of the theatre yells out "to sleep with your wife" - very rocky horrorish cracked me up.

To Die For - great black comedy 5-6

To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar - funny -7

Touch - -weird religious crap - good tho 6 -

Toy Story - ok 6

Trainspotting - totally great - 10 -

Tromeo and Juliet (dir cut, Troma, soundtrack sublime, motorhead+) -sick and very funny - a 9

Truman Show - -slow but ok 5 -

Twelve Monkeys - Gilliam - 9 -

Undercover Blues - very bad © some funny bits but.... - 1 -

Unstrung Heros (weird uncles) - they advertised this tear jerker as a comedy!!! - a good story for all that kids mom dying and dad's a funky inventor - and uncles a bit nuts - a 7 -

Vampire in Brooklyn - pick what movie it's gonna be a comedy or horror you really can;t do both! and not creep people out -

Vampire$ - very bad adaption! 3 of what was rather a good book, not as good as Armor but ..

Very Bad Things - -very bad- -sick black humor 4 - too disturbing for me very creepy black comedy - funny! but... ewww.

Waking Ned Devine - -good- amusing 6 -

Water Boy - -eww 4 -

WATERSHIP DOWN - good but the book was better, mixed up some stuff and not long enough. - 6 -

Waterworld - oh horror the horror this is such a awful movie, I could happily strangle the little screaming tattooed girl! - a 0 freaking zero! - © far too over done © mad max in the water © no big deal. I hate!!! that little girl!!! she was sooo annoying!

What Dreams May Come (williams ) - -great 8 -

King Arthur. (2004) not too bad a historical action/fantasy but not really Arthurian. a 5.

White Dwarf (Francis Ford Coppola & Bruce Wagner) pilot so is severely lacking in the finish - since it's only the pilot! , but very stylish, even if I didn't like the main actor - a 7 -

Wild Palms (Oliver Stone & Bruce Wagner) tv miniseries - neat, not the best actors, or acting from them but the story was good - a 7 -

Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory _ kept surprisingly close to the book, good even for a musical - 6 -

Wizards (bakshi/Frazetta) - -usual bakshi ani -ok - 4

Shaolin Soccer - amusing - if you are somewhat of a soccer fan or martial arts fan it's good if you're too into it - it's probabaly insulting, but it's fun. a 7