The Vandermeers have done it again. Once again, they've got an AWESOME anthology with a totally bad-ass lineup on the way- Last Drink Bird Head, due out in October/November. (Basically on my 21st birthday. I may need to buy myself a present.) It's a limited print, and the release party will be held at the World Fantasy Award ceremony (where the Vandermeers will be holding their own award ceremony for the newly inaugurated Last Drink Bird Head award.) Yes, it's a strange name. Yes, it's probably a very strange anthology. And yes, I want the damn thing so bad I can taste it. Hey, it's only $30...plus shipping...maybe I can sell my TV. You only turn 21 once, right? I deserve it.
And damn Vandermeer for also releasing Booklife in the month I am the most broke. (I think it's coming out this month, at least. Maybe not!) And I missed the very short print life of Steve Berman's latest book, Mr. October's Naughty Bedside Reader. Damn, damn, double damn. It was released in August and it's already out of print and unavailable. I knew I should have pre-ordered the damn thing. I wonder if he'll be putting out another Wilde Stories anthology this year?
Showing posts with label new releases. Show all posts
Showing posts with label new releases. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Friday, September 18, 2009
"Good Books Don't Have to Be Hard"?
Ok, I respect Levi Grossman. However, I have to call bullshit on his article in the Wall Street Journal. Catherynne Valente (my hero) beat me to the punch here, and in fact brought Grossman's wrong-headed meandering to my attention. However, I still need to grouch a little bit.
Grossman seems to think there is some sort of vast intellectual conspiracy, which looks down upon contemporary literature and plot and calls it 'popular fiction', 'entertainment', 'escapist', and not at all literary. The crap he spews on the 'evils' of Modernist literature stands on its own.*
I'd spend more time on this, but I need to go home and write my book. Read his article, Valente's response, and if you have a few dozen hours to kill read Hal Duncan's blog. All of it. (I tried to skim through really fast and locate a few of Duncan's posts on genre and on literary fiction vs. popular fiction, but of course since I'm actually looking for them they are nowhere to be found. But, they are there, and they are excellent, so I encourage you to go on the hunt.)
Also, on a completely unrelated note, I want this book- Rhetorics of Fantasy by Farah Mendlesohn. Fuck yeah.
*All the words in quotes are mine, not his.
Grossman seems to think there is some sort of vast intellectual conspiracy, which looks down upon contemporary literature and plot and calls it 'popular fiction', 'entertainment', 'escapist', and not at all literary. The crap he spews on the 'evils' of Modernist literature stands on its own.*
I'd spend more time on this, but I need to go home and write my book. Read his article, Valente's response, and if you have a few dozen hours to kill read Hal Duncan's blog. All of it. (I tried to skim through really fast and locate a few of Duncan's posts on genre and on literary fiction vs. popular fiction, but of course since I'm actually looking for them they are nowhere to be found. But, they are there, and they are excellent, so I encourage you to go on the hunt.)
Also, on a completely unrelated note, I want this book- Rhetorics of Fantasy by Farah Mendlesohn. Fuck yeah.
*All the words in quotes are mine, not his.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Gundam 00
Today was the day the first season was due to be released. I have credit built up from selling things back at Hastings. So, can someone tell me why it is 6 o'clock in the afternoon and I'm not at home watching Ritsuka-look-alikes (such a sour face!) and robots blow things up?
Because Hastings doesn't have my box sets.
BASTARDS.
I want my Gundam 00 and I want it now!
On a somewhat related note, this is why I love cosplay and cosplayers. It warms my heart a little.
Because Hastings doesn't have my box sets.
BASTARDS.
I want my Gundam 00 and I want it now!
On a somewhat related note, this is why I love cosplay and cosplayers. It warms my heart a little.
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Thor 2011!
Holy cow, Kirk's daddy is going to be Thor in Marvel's 2011 adaptation of the comic! They've cast Loki as well, but he's not listed on Imdb yet.
Imdb.Com's Thor Page
Marvel's Announcement of Loki's Actor
What's next? Confirmation that Samuel L. Jackson will in fact be Nick Fury? (Who seems to be white again in the comics...except in Ultimates, where he's still black...jeez, I can't keep up with this guy's racial changes...)
Imdb.Com's Thor Page
Marvel's Announcement of Loki's Actor
What's next? Confirmation that Samuel L. Jackson will in fact be Nick Fury? (Who seems to be white again in the comics...except in Ultimates, where he's still black...jeez, I can't keep up with this guy's racial changes...)
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Wolverine: Origins
I'm rather disappointed with the new Wolverine movie.
I haven't heard what other people have said about the film (other than the group I went to the release with, but we were all pretty much on the same page) so maybe someone out there had a slightly more positive experience...but I don't see how. I don't think there was a single aspect of the storyline that caught me off guard or made me think. Oh no- my friends and I were crowing about "ooh, that's *spoiler's* dad! I betcha it is!", "oh, that guy is so going to die" and "she's really a traitor! Five bucks says she turns on him!" and in every single case, we turned out to be right (sadly) except for the time I said "oh, the elevator is going to be empty when it arrives on the floor" and Deadpool (err...just Wade, actually. They weren't calling him Deadpool yet, I think) was still in plain view when the elevator landed. That may have been the only surprise in the entire movie- and I haven't even read the Origins comics, so it's not like I was cheating! (That also means I don't know how close the movie followed the comics, or indeed if they follow them at all, so don't take this review of the movie as a commentary on the comics.)
As if the transparent plot wasn't insult enough, the special effects wound up leaving the same acidic aftertaste in my mouth as the cheap-as-fuck special effects employed by none other than the SciFi (SyFy now) channel. Granted, they weren't as God-fucking-awful as the SciFi/SyFy effects are, but they were way below par for a movie with the kind of history and fanbase (and one would think with the funding!) usually associated with the X-Men movie franchise. Granted, this is a prequel, and we all know how much those suck, but I still find it difficult to believe no one somewhere along the line of production said to his friend "hmm...do Wolverine's claws look a bit... I don't know, flat? Unfinished, maybe?" because the first thing I thought when Wolvie unsheathed his newly-minted adamantium claws was "those look totally fucking fake", especially in the farmhouse bathroom scene where Wolvie examines his funky snow-white claws in excruciating detail. (Also- am I the only person who asked "when and how the hell did we wind up in Smallville?" when Wolvie showed up at that farmhouse? Seriously- what the fuck?) The explotions and most of the fighting was so-so in quality, pretty much what you'd expect in any typical action flick, though I really dug the one awesome scene torward the end when Sabertooth and Wolvie teamed up against a teleporting Deadpool (for reasons that I'm choosing now to spoil).
Gambit. Oh, for the love of God, why? I spent way too freaking long to see my dear Remy in a movie for THAT to be all I get. Weak accent, not a word of French, very little screen presence and 90% of his fighting techniques were annoying rather than awesome. And, to add insult to injury, he had normal eyes. That's right, not the infamous red-on-black- he had normal eyes. They glowed a wee bit when he used his powers (and only when he used his powers during a closeup), but generally he had normal pupils, normal irises, the whole works. I am PISSED. First they screw up Rogue, now they've gone off and screwed up Gambit, too.
Cheap cheap cheap fucking cheap.
On the plus side, I loved Ryan Renolds as Wade (for the all of five minutes he was actually on the screen), and Liev Schreiber's performance as Sabertooth was excellent- much, much better than the stuntman they had play his part in the X-Men films. And what's more is I've heard there's an extra scene at the end were Deadpool shows up, breaks the forth wall (his trademark in the comics) and shushes the audience, after his *spoilers!* decapitation in the film. Healing powers for the win! The scene I saw at the end of the credits in the particular theater I attended just showed Wolvie drinking at a Japanese bar and being mopey. *end of spoilers*
I haven't heard what other people have said about the film (other than the group I went to the release with, but we were all pretty much on the same page) so maybe someone out there had a slightly more positive experience...but I don't see how. I don't think there was a single aspect of the storyline that caught me off guard or made me think. Oh no- my friends and I were crowing about "ooh, that's *spoiler's* dad! I betcha it is!", "oh, that guy is so going to die" and "she's really a traitor! Five bucks says she turns on him!" and in every single case, we turned out to be right (sadly) except for the time I said "oh, the elevator is going to be empty when it arrives on the floor" and Deadpool (err...just Wade, actually. They weren't calling him Deadpool yet, I think) was still in plain view when the elevator landed. That may have been the only surprise in the entire movie- and I haven't even read the Origins comics, so it's not like I was cheating! (That also means I don't know how close the movie followed the comics, or indeed if they follow them at all, so don't take this review of the movie as a commentary on the comics.)
As if the transparent plot wasn't insult enough, the special effects wound up leaving the same acidic aftertaste in my mouth as the cheap-as-fuck special effects employed by none other than the SciFi (SyFy now) channel. Granted, they weren't as God-fucking-awful as the SciFi/SyFy effects are, but they were way below par for a movie with the kind of history and fanbase (and one would think with the funding!) usually associated with the X-Men movie franchise. Granted, this is a prequel, and we all know how much those suck, but I still find it difficult to believe no one somewhere along the line of production said to his friend "hmm...do Wolverine's claws look a bit... I don't know, flat? Unfinished, maybe?" because the first thing I thought when Wolvie unsheathed his newly-minted adamantium claws was "those look totally fucking fake", especially in the farmhouse bathroom scene where Wolvie examines his funky snow-white claws in excruciating detail. (Also- am I the only person who asked "when and how the hell did we wind up in Smallville?" when Wolvie showed up at that farmhouse? Seriously- what the fuck?) The explotions and most of the fighting was so-so in quality, pretty much what you'd expect in any typical action flick, though I really dug the one awesome scene torward the end when Sabertooth and Wolvie teamed up against a teleporting Deadpool (for reasons that I'm choosing now to spoil).
Gambit. Oh, for the love of God, why? I spent way too freaking long to see my dear Remy in a movie for THAT to be all I get. Weak accent, not a word of French, very little screen presence and 90% of his fighting techniques were annoying rather than awesome. And, to add insult to injury, he had normal eyes. That's right, not the infamous red-on-black- he had normal eyes. They glowed a wee bit when he used his powers (and only when he used his powers during a closeup), but generally he had normal pupils, normal irises, the whole works. I am PISSED. First they screw up Rogue, now they've gone off and screwed up Gambit, too.
Cheap cheap cheap fucking cheap.
On the plus side, I loved Ryan Renolds as Wade (for the all of five minutes he was actually on the screen), and Liev Schreiber's performance as Sabertooth was excellent- much, much better than the stuntman they had play his part in the X-Men films. And what's more is I've heard there's an extra scene at the end were Deadpool shows up, breaks the forth wall (his trademark in the comics) and shushes the audience, after his *spoilers!* decapitation in the film. Healing powers for the win! The scene I saw at the end of the credits in the particular theater I attended just showed Wolvie drinking at a Japanese bar and being mopey. *end of spoilers*
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Upcoming Releases- 2009
So instead of reading or writing or really doing anything remotely productive, I spent the evening browsing Amazon and checking out upcoming releases by my favorite writers. I already have Anne Bishop's new book The Shadow Queen (which I'm not as pleased with as I had hoped, unfortunately) which snuck under my radar until I stumbled across a copy at Barnes & Noble. To keep this from happening again, I decided to compile a list here for books I'm gonna have to order A.S.A.P!
First off is Jeff Vandermeer's Booklife: Strategies and Survival Tips for the 21st Century Writer. Though I normally avoid books on writing like the plague on society they are, I think I'll have to break my own rules and check this one out. Vandermeer's non-fiction is, strangely enough, the reason I started reading him in the first place, and this book looks like it's going to deal with issues that actually are important for modern day writers including, as Amazon.com claims, "personal space versus public space, deadlines, and networking, [and] the benefits of interacting with readers through new technologies". This one is due out in October, so I've got a while to wait before I can get my hands on a copy.
China Mieville's new novel, The City & The City, is coming out this May. I'm fighting the urge to pre-order it...at least until it gets a little closer to the release date and my willpower breaks. I'm a little behind on my Mieville books, but this one looks pretty intriguing and I just might have to bump a few things down on my reading list to make room for it.
I was hoping to get a copy of Catherynne M. Valente's Palimpsest at one of my local bookstores, but once again I forgot how weak the fantasy sections in my Hastings and Barnes & Noble are. I'll be buying this one off of Amazon before long, I fear.
Neil Gaiman has another children's book (Crazy Hair) due out at the end of May. I already have a copy of his other new children's book, The Blueberry Girl, and I love it. Charles Vess' artwork is unbelievably beautiful in The Blueberry Girl, and I'm sure Dave McKean's illustrations in Crazy Hair will be as odd and wonderful as they always are.
Oddly enough (for me), I'm greatly tempted to read Drood by Dan Simmons. Like books on writing, I tend to avoid fiction about writers, but I think Simmons may be on to something with his novel about Charles Dickens and his last, unfinished manuscript, The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Besides, this is one giant sucker of a freaking novel, which hopefully translates into plenty of reading entertainment for me!
I'm also looking out for a copy of Steve Berman's Mr. October's Naughty Bedside Reader, which doesn't have a release date yet, sadly. Like Valente, I'll probably have to order this one off Amazon, since my local bookstores don't know who he is, either (ugh! I need to have a chat with the people who pick stock. Whoever these Robert Jordan and R.A. Salvatore guys are, they need to quit taking up so much room on the store fantasy shelves!).
First off is Jeff Vandermeer's Booklife: Strategies and Survival Tips for the 21st Century Writer. Though I normally avoid books on writing like the plague on society they are, I think I'll have to break my own rules and check this one out. Vandermeer's non-fiction is, strangely enough, the reason I started reading him in the first place, and this book looks like it's going to deal with issues that actually are important for modern day writers including, as Amazon.com claims, "personal space versus public space, deadlines, and networking, [and] the benefits of interacting with readers through new technologies". This one is due out in October, so I've got a while to wait before I can get my hands on a copy.
China Mieville's new novel, The City & The City, is coming out this May. I'm fighting the urge to pre-order it...at least until it gets a little closer to the release date and my willpower breaks. I'm a little behind on my Mieville books, but this one looks pretty intriguing and I just might have to bump a few things down on my reading list to make room for it.
I was hoping to get a copy of Catherynne M. Valente's Palimpsest at one of my local bookstores, but once again I forgot how weak the fantasy sections in my Hastings and Barnes & Noble are. I'll be buying this one off of Amazon before long, I fear.
Neil Gaiman has another children's book (Crazy Hair) due out at the end of May. I already have a copy of his other new children's book, The Blueberry Girl, and I love it. Charles Vess' artwork is unbelievably beautiful in The Blueberry Girl, and I'm sure Dave McKean's illustrations in Crazy Hair will be as odd and wonderful as they always are.
Oddly enough (for me), I'm greatly tempted to read Drood by Dan Simmons. Like books on writing, I tend to avoid fiction about writers, but I think Simmons may be on to something with his novel about Charles Dickens and his last, unfinished manuscript, The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Besides, this is one giant sucker of a freaking novel, which hopefully translates into plenty of reading entertainment for me!
I'm also looking out for a copy of Steve Berman's Mr. October's Naughty Bedside Reader, which doesn't have a release date yet, sadly. Like Valente, I'll probably have to order this one off Amazon, since my local bookstores don't know who he is, either (ugh! I need to have a chat with the people who pick stock. Whoever these Robert Jordan and R.A. Salvatore guys are, they need to quit taking up so much room on the store fantasy shelves!).
Friday, February 20, 2009
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
I wait with baited breath for the day I get my hands on a copy of this book...and for the day they release the feature film! (Don't tell me this wouldn't make the most awesome zombie movie ever put to film. You know it would.)
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