While the general science that Weber puts into his books often makes my head hurt, I have to give him credit for the ‘Space Opera’ style story. He does a good job of pulling you into the story and connecting with at least one of the characters if not more. He is also good at developing characters into something more than they were when the story started.

Crusade is a story focusing on the strange dichotomy that is the Human Race and how it can affect those around us. It also goes a long way in showing why it is a good idea to leave cultures alone until they are developed enough to be able to interact with us on a even footing.

All in all I would recommend this book to others, as long as you can get around the science inaccuracies.

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Grimspace by Ann Aguirre

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Having completed this book, I have to say that there are definitely aspects to it that I liked a lot, unfortunately there were considerably more that I didn’t. With that in mind, it is unlikely that I will read any more of this series and I would be hard pressed to read more by this author.

While the concept of the story was very interesting, I didn’t really connect with any of the characters. They tended to be a bit more broody and passive-aggressive than I like. I recognize that the author tried to make at least one of them into the ‘Dark and Broody’ character type, unfortunately she really only succeeded in making him seem shallow and confrontational until the end where he become so emotionally unstable as to be practically laughable.

Worse, the whole story was haphazard. I constantly felt like the storyline was up in the air without any real direction. You met many individuals only to have them killed off quickly. Plot-lines were started, but never really went anywhere. You moved into new settings and situations that had no apparent bearing on anything, only to be jarred back in some other direction entirely. One of the worst parts is that the characters, who seem extremely intelligent, don’t seem to pick up on some of the most obvious hints that would have tipped them onto what was going on around them.

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I’m really starting to enjoy this series. Mark Del Franco is starting to add a lot more depth to the storyline that is really building on events that you were exposed to in both the first book as well as things going on in this one. I’m looking forward to picking up the next in the series.

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Its an unique and interesting setting involving Fey, Elven and Human aspects in a setting surrounding Modern Boston.

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Tron: Legacy

Summary:

Kevin Flynn has gone missing. His Son, Sam Flynn, is eventually drawn into a mystery the leads him to the digital scape first seen in the original Tron.

Some Spoilers in this Post. Don’t read if you haven’t seen the movie yet.

Initial Thoughts:

I have to say that all in all I really enjoyed this movie. It touched upon a genre and storyline I’ve loved for years. This continued along that vein. There was a lot of ‘I remember THOSE!’ moments while watching it. The nostalgia factor for the film was extremely high.

Added to that was the reunion between Father and son as well as the surrounding story that they created since the end of the first movie. I think there were a lot of very good messages in this film that I’m certain were not even considered as a factor on if this was a good movie by major critics.

That being said, I feel the movie could have done with a little more added length. I just wanted to see more. But for the point they were after in the movie, it met it’s goals and was highly entertaining doing it.

Conclusions:

I think this was a good, if short, movie. The 3D was added to it in a way that was enjoyable and not overwhelming. There was enough going on to enjoy and keep you active in the film. While I don’t see it becoming a blockbuster, the effects were awesome and the movie itself is definitely worth watching.

The only thing I, personally, think would have added a lot to it was if they had somehow tied into the storyline released in the Tron 2.0 video game. That game had as FANTASTIC storyline that would have been a very good one to watch and develop on.

Tron: Legacy. Where to even start. I’ll admit freely that I was completely taken away with the original Tron. It was an amazing bit of Science Fiction that completely swallowed up my imagination. And now, almost three decades after it’s release they are finally making an official movie sequel. I say movie sequel because there was a storyline sequel that was put out in video game form as Tron 2.0. For those who loved Tron, it was an excellent game to play, added to that, they did a fantastic job with a storyline that continued where the original movie took off.  Although in Tron 2.0 instead of the main character being the son of Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges), it was the son of Alan Bradley (Bruce Boxleitner).

Now we finally have it. An official movie release sequel to the original. As an avid lover of the original I simple can’t wait. The same goes for most of the people I know. However I recently read a review at wired.com (Tron’s Triumphant Return to Cyberspace – http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/11/ff_tron/). While the review was extremely flattering to Tron: Legacy, I can honestly say that I was unimpressed with the tone used to describe the original. This is movie that along with William Gibson has defined the concept of what a Virtual Cyberspace would be in the minds of the world round. I am hard pressed to find many people who haven’t seen the movie or know of it. That is amazing cultural integration and the fact that its lasted almost 30 years. To hear them talk about it. You’d think that tron was a small drop in the pond that hardly anyone even remembers playing. Personally I think they are not giving the original the credit that it honestly deserves.

At anyrate, I think everyone, EVERYONE, should go see Tron: Legacy. Matter of fact, try and find the original (at a reasonable price of course) and watch it again before you go see the movie. Get as much as you can and see if you can link things from the new one to the original. It always adds a lot to the enjoyment, especially when its been a while since the original.

New things in the works! One of which is that I’ll be adding a regular post of reviewing O’Reilly Associates books to the blog. They have started a new program where some bloggers get the chance to see new or just release books for review.

Next Review:

HTML5: Up and Running – The goal behind this book is to give you a good feeling behind the new features in HTML5 and how to get started with them. I’ll let you know what I think and how best to use this book.

Let me know if there is any specific topic you’d like me to look into and I’ll see what I can find for review!

‘What am I talking about?’ you might ask. Well I’ll be happy to explain. Ars Technica recently published that the Songwriters Guild of America is calling for FBI investigation of all potential piracy crimes because they investigate ‘lesser’ crimes like Bank Robbery. That’s right. Apparently robbing a bank is not nearly as big of a deal as downloading a file off the internet without putting an bit of money into someone’s pocket. I don’t see why I never saw it before.
Its hard to know where to begin. First, how about the fact that the FBI is involved in bank robberies because the banks are insured with a federal system. (FDIC) That’s specifically the reason why the FBI is involved in those actions. That being said, I am actually a little disappointed with Ars Techinca for not linking that article to the recent facts that completely change the whole dynamic of the argument. Not the least of which is that the government has admitted there is no way of substantiating the numbers being used in all of these arguments because there is no actual study been done to give solid evidence of the underlying numbers. None. That there is no single way to accurately measure the effects of piracy (And they refer to counterfeiting, not piracy, BTW. Piracy is even harder to track because it requires one to try and guess what percentage of the people might have actually purchased the content if it hadn’t been pirated. A number that is impossible to quantify.)

So where does that leave us? We have groups calling for blood and the slaughter of our rights as US citizens to protect money that they can’t even prove was an actual loss to them. Of course at this point they’ll respond with things like ‘Between loss of material sales, job positions and similar task items, the music industry is losing tens of billions of dollars per year to piracy’. The problem with this statement is that it assumes that the person making downloading the content would have purchased the materials otherwise. Something that can not be assumed. There is no way of knowing the mind of someone and what they might do if the content was not available for free.

The worst factor in this is not only the trampling of rights, but the complete misuse of power. The large media organizations like SGA, MPAA and the RIAA are clamoring about lost funds, and how its being stolen from the songwriters. The problem is, none of the money gained through things like litigation or the proposed changes to law that stamp on our rights, have any benefit to the songwriters they claim are being hit he hardest. Very rarely does a penny of that money go to the people actually making the content. Instead if falls completely into the pocket of the groups complaining.

Now who’s the thief?

Two thumbs up from me for sure.