The StepSister Scheme by Jim C. Hines

The Stepsister Scheme 

By: Jim C. Hines






The Stepsister Scheme is a different take on the classic Cinderella story we all know.  The story we all know still happened it's just that Cinderella didn't settle down to a perfect boring princess life afterwards.  As is the case with anyone who is noticed by the mysterious powers of the universe, being special attracts attention, and much of it is bad.  This story is not what you would expect from Cinderella, but that is what makes it awesome.  The book is a fast paced adventure novel with magic, secret passages, dangerous trips to a Fairy land that is every bit as treacherous as the actual legends imply, and some princesses that kick ass.  I cant really think of anything that I didn't like about this book except that I wish it had been longer and that I had been able to put it down at times.

Mutineer's Moon By David Weber Book Review

Mutineer's Moon is an older novel, but still very good.  It is the first book in a trilogy that includes Mutineer's Moon, The Armageddon Inheritance, and Heirs of Empire, and all three were later republished as Empire From the Ashes.  It touches any number of interesting science fiction concepts in an interesting way that explores their human impact as well as the technology itself.  This epic story will catch your interest, and keep you engaged with its fast paced action.

The first time I read this book I had a hard time putting it down.  There are not really a lot of good stopping points because you just want to see what happens next.  In fact that is one of the things I both loved and hated about this entire series.  Once you start reading it you don't want to stop even when you run out of books.

The plot of this book is that the moon is really a giant starship, and a mutiny 50,000 years ago stranded it in orbit.  The modern population of earth is made up of the survivors of the loyalists.  You would think that after 50,000 years the mutiny would be resolved, but fast forward to now and the mutiny is still going on between bouts of cold sleep.  The mutineers, who maintained a tech base, act as puppet masters playing the descendants of the fallen loyalists off of each other.   When NASA Astronaut Colin Macintyre is tasked with surveying the moon with an advanced new sensor Dahak's (the starship) AI, who has become self aware after 50,000 years of autonomous operation, is forced to act or be revealed.  He snatches Colin ship and all, and fakes a crash.  After determining that Colin is the descendant of loyalist's Dahak is provided a way to finally deal with the mutiny.  Which is good because the reason that he was built in the first place is on the way, and his empire is terrifyingly silent.  Colin Gets shanghaied into becoming Dahak's Captain, and now all he has to do is put down a mutiny that's been going on for 50,000 years.  That task is easier said than done, but Colin is possibly the only man for the job, and when the mutineer's make things personal for him they don't stand a chance.

This book will appeal to anyone who loves a good action science fiction novel complete with clandestine battles between advanced combatants.  It is a fun read and the start of one of my favorite science fiction series.

This book can be purchased in print or as an e-book at www.amazon.com.

The number of the beast by Robert Heinlein book review

This story is a non-stop adventure through space, time, and a whole bunch of parallel realities.  As with any Heinlein book there is quite a bit of philosophy as well, but unlike his earlier books where the characters mostly state their philosophy, his later books (of which this is one) demonstrate it through the actions and reactions of his characters, and in bits and pieces of conversations they have.  If you pay attention you can find it all over.  This particular book explores the concept of parallel realities, and the idea that all possible things will happen in some universe.  The story illustrates this point by linking many of Heinlein's story-lines, and a few other fictional universes together using a device that allows for dimensional hopping.  There is even a trip to Oz thrown in there.

As with most Heinlein books there is not really anything I don't like about this book.  That being said some of the technological concepts that it is based on have long since been surpassed particularly in the field of computers, and the way they operate.  On the other hand the things that he has the outdated hardware doing are still largely out of reach today.  Personally I think that the two things balance out, but it could be jarring for some if this is their first Heinlein book.

This book is a story about a group of people who discover a way to hop between dimensions.  They are not the first to obtain this technology, and their excursions are almost immediately noticed.  The main characters Zeb, Deety, Hilda, and Jacob are thrown into a fight of flight situation in Zeb's modified ( read armed) roadable aircraft.  Jacob rigs the air-car for dimensional travel and they are off keeping one step ahead of the black hats.  Whenever they think that they have lost them they show up again.  As I mentioned earlier they make stops at several fictional universes along the way where they augment their capabilities and move on.  In the end their problems start to get resolved when they meet up with Lazurus Long (from time enough for love), Mike(from the moon is a harsh mistress), and several other Heinlein hero's.  Throughout the story the concept of parallel realities making all things be real things is explored.  This book will really make you think about the reality you see around you, and ponder the 'what if's' of your favorite stories.

This book will appeal to any Heinlein fan, and any science fiction fan.  It will also appeal to people who like action adventure or fan fiction since the book is full of references, and interactions with characters or worlds from other works.

This book is available at www.amazon.com as an audio book or in print.  I could not find it in E-book, so if you see it in that format please let me know where.

Thor Movie Review

The movie Thor is an adaptation of the Thor Comics by Marvel, and it exists in the same world as the Iron Man series, Captain America, and The Avengers.  This movie serves as the introduction of Thor and the Asgardians including Loki, and Odin.  I really like the fact that Thor has to find a reason bigger than his own ego to regain his power.

What I didn't like about this movie and the comic series was that while the asgardians take the name and some of the characteristics of the Norse gods there are also some issues that make this impossible.  Things that very old Norse stories speak of are told as current events, and some of the relationships are not correct.  If you ignore that the movie is very good.

In the movie Thor is presented as a very powerful warrior who has arrogance and ego to match his strength.  When the frost giants attempt to retrieve their most powerful weapon from Asgard Thor is enraged and goes to their home to pick a fight, nearly restarting the war between Asgard and the frost giants.  As punishment Odin strips his son of his hammer and his strength and banishes both him and the hammer to earth.  Thor can regain his power, but only if he can shed his ego, and learn to be worthy of his power.  On earth Thor runs into(literally) a young scientist named Jane Foster who is studying wormholes, which is the true form of the bifrost used to transport him to his exile.  While Thor attempts to regain his power, and make Jane his girlfriend, on earth Odin Slips into a coma when Thor's brother Loki discovers that he is really a small frost giant that Odin stole.  Being Odin's non-exiled son Loki takes power and sends a fire automaton to kill Thor in exile.  This, combined with his humbling experience on earth, allows Thor to finally become worthy of his power by nearly getting killed defending a town from the rampaging automaton.

This movie will appeal to anyone who likes action adventure, Superhero and comic fans, Science Fiction fans, and Fantasy fans.  It is an  easy move to watch and the special effects are great.  Except for the violence this would be a great movie for anyone.  As it is anyone but very small children should enjoy it.

This movie can be found at www.amazon.com as a disk or for streaming rental or purchase.  If you have Prime it is available as a free video right now.  It is also available as an instant stream on www.netflix.com.

The Mummy Movie Review

This movie retells an old horror story as an action adventure thrill ride.  The action never lets up and really bad things happen, but the main characters take it in stride and set about fixing the problem.  The reaction of the characters to the challenges is what sets this movie apart.  They make the movie more of an Indiana Jones style archaeological adventure than a horror film.

There isn't really anything that I didn't like in this movie.  The special effects are pretty good even today.  The story is engaging, and the characters have great chemistry.  They have just the right mix or comic relief and confident action to make this into a great movie.

This movie tells the story around when adventurer Rick O'Connell ( Brendan Fraser) and young egyptologist Evelyn (Rachel Weisz) go to find the city of the dead Hamunaptra.  O'Connell has been there before with his unit of the french foreign legion, but when Evelyn finds him he is in jail for a bar fight.  She manages to get him our of jail, and he leads her to the city.  While there Evelyn wakes the mummy of Imhotep by reading the book of the dead.  Imhotep is a priest who was mummified alive and cursed for killing his pharaoh over his relationship with the pharaoh's concubine.  The rest of the movie is about Imhotep's twin quest's to regain a working body by consuming the organs of those who actually opened his tomb (a competing archaeological team who are basically a plot device.) and to restore his lover to life.  Rick and Evelyn oppose him in this quest because completing it begins destroying the world around them. Also it turns out he wants to use Evelyn as his lovers vessel.  In the end Evelyn, Rick, and some friends set everything to right and escape with some loot as well.

This movie is great for anyone to sit and watch with a bag of popcorn.  It may not be the sort of movie that has a deep thoughtful plot, but it is the kind that is just entertaining to watch.  This is great for any action film lover, or someone who enjoys a romantic comedy since there is the budding relationship between Rick and Evelyn.  This could also be a good candidate for family movie night if your children don't scare too easily.

This movie can be picked up on disk or streaming (for rent or for purchase) at www.amazon.com.

VoidHawk Book Review

VoidHawk is a book in a genre I wish there was more of.  It is a star fantasy.  Yes you have ships traveling between planets, but they are largely wooden ships that are powered by magic and they travel through the void rather than space.  This universe is populated by all of the things you might find in a good fantasy universe.  Elves, Dwarves, Humans, Demons, and other mysterious and ancient races.  Fighting is largely done by spell and sword in person and with catapults and such ship to ship.  The book is very fast paced, and fun to read.  Captain Dexter SilverHawk and his motley crew make you wish you could go find a void ship and travel the worlds.

What I didn't like about this book was the quality of the editing.  There were some mistakes I noticed and I am sure more that I did not.  Since the book is largely available on Amazon, and this first one is free it was definitely worth checking out.  In the end I forgave the editing mistakes and bought the rest of the series because the story was really good.  This is the type of story you don't want to put down.  In fact I just found out that there is a new book in this series and I intend to read the entire series again and buy the new one.

The story starts off with Dexter finding the VoidHawk wrecked and abandoned on an asteroid.  He goes home and recruits his friend Kragor, a Dwarf, to repair the ship.  Almost immediately after beginning to salvage the ship he is set upon by pirates while traveling back to base in his federation patrol craft.  Dexter manages to defeat them, but looses his ship and winds up in jail for doing so.  He cannot prove his innocence without producing the pirates ships and that would lead his greedy superiors to the VoidHawk.  Kragor manages to bribe Dexter and a few friends he has made in jail out of trouble, and the adventure begins.  Dexter and crew go from planet to planet finding new trouble wherever they land, and somehow making a profit along the way.  The trials and tribulations bring the crew as close as family.  Every adventure is a fun story and its own little mini adventure.  I could describe them all, but the real story is how Dexter and his crew come together as a team that can accomplish just about anything.

This book will appeal to people who like either space or sailing ship adventures, and fantasy realms with sword and sorcery.  Science fiction or fantasy purists may not like it unless they can accept the fact that it is a cross over genre.  Also people who can't deal with some editing mis-steps may have issues. The book and series contains quite a bit of violence and sexual content so it is probably better for adults than children.

This book is available in E-book or print at www.amazon.com.  It is free as an E-book, but the rest of the series is not.

How to train your dragon Movie Review

This movie is the story of a boy who made friends with a dragon and a dragon who came to trust a boy.  I really identified with Hiccough the main character because he is a viking that doesn't like normal viking things.  He is clumsy, weak, and clever. These are not exactly what his clan is looking for in a viking.  I really liked how Hiccough's different way of looking at things allowed him to do things nobody else from his village had ever managed, and find his place among his people in doing so.

To be honest I cant really think of anything about this movie that I didn't like.  Seriously I think its that good.  I have watched it probably 50 times with my daughter and I still enjoy it.  How many movies can you say that about?

The basic plot of this movie is that Hiccough's Island, Berk, has been at war with the dragons pretty much forever because the dragons burn down their houses and eat their livestock.  It is so deeply entrenched that the right of passage in his village is to kill a dragon.  Hiccough, being a clumsy and geeky sort of guy, comes up with an invention to help him kill a dragon.  He ends up disabling a dragon known as a Night Fury, but because he shot it with his invention and nobody saw it, nobody will believe him.  Hiccough finds the dragon in the forest but cannot bring himself to kill him and attempts to set him free.  Unfortunately the dragon has lost a part of his tail and cannot fly.  Over time Hiccough gains his trust and names him toothless due to his retractable teeth.  Being clever he fashions a prosthetic tail piece and toothless and he teach each other to work as a team so that toothless can fly once again.  Eventually things come out and Hiccough's father ends up using Toothless to navigate to the dragons Island.  Hiccough tries to warn his father that there is something on the island making the dragons raid Berk, but his father will not listen and sets off with most of the clan.  Knowing that his people will be destroyed Hiccough recruits his dragon training class, tames the captive dragons the clan holds, and flies off to save the day.

This movie should appeal to people of any age.  It is a great movie to watch with your family.  It should particularly appeal to anyone who has ever had trouble fitting in.  It is a good parable for what can be accomplished when you change the way you look at and do things.

This movie can be found at www.amazon.com on disk or as a streaming rental or purchase.

Warp Speed by Travis S Taylor Book Review

This book is yet another story that was hard for me to put down.  It was hard even though I read the sequel and knew everything in this book had to turn out alright in the end.  Travis S. Taylor writes a good and engaging science fiction story that is also a pretty good adventure, and makes science seem fun again.  Since Mr Taylor is literally a rocket scientist the science is pretty sound, and the projections are based on real theory even if not all of it is proved out just yet.

The only problem I had with the book is that his characters can be somewhat over the top, and the scrapes they get into and out of stretch belief at times.  This doesn't take away from it all being a good story, and I moved past these issues quickly.  They are easy to gloss over because you want to find out what happens next.

The plot focuses on Dr. Neil Anson Clemons, his research team, and US Air Force Colonel Tabitha Ames.  Dr. Clemons is working on a warp drive system, and an energy source to power it, and Colonel Ames secures funding for his project after seeing his preliminary work.  Despite some very bad lab accidents Clemons is successful, and plans go forward for a warp probe to be built in orbit.  Other countries, however see this new technology as a threat and after stealing his work, sabotaging his probe, and trying to kill both him and Colonel Ames they use his stolen work to launch a pre-emptive strike using weapons made from his own stolen technology.  Clemons however knows his technology better than anyone, and has a few trump cards that allow him to partially defend against the attacks, and strike back at the launch sites allowing the United States to win in the end.

This book should appeal to science geeks, hard science fiction fans, and people who like a good action adventure story and don't mind the science talk.

The book can be purchased in print or in E-book format at www.amazon.com.

Men In Black Movie Review

This science fiction comedy takes the previously sinister boogeymen of the UFO sighting community and turns them into the hilarious hero's of humanity.  This movie stars Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones and the two play off of each other very well. The special effects are a little dated but very good considering the movie came out in 1997.  The science in the film is thin at best and there is definitely more fiction than science.  It is however a great movie with futuristic gadgets, and colorful aliens.

The plot follows a NYPD police officer named James Darrell Edwards III, Played by Will Smith. when pursuing a man on foot he sees that man do things that are not human making him a witness that the MIB(Men In Black) must deal with. His actions gain the notice of MIB agent K (Tommy Lee Jones) who is looking for someone to recruit.  Though it takes some convincing James eventually joins the MIB and becomes Agent J erasing his former identity in the process. J and K are immediately on a case to save the world, but that's just another day for the MIB.  Throughout solving the mystery J plays comedy Relief to K's Straight Man.  In the end they save the world, and K reveals that J is to be his replacement not his partner.

The story in this movie is a pretty common one for its type, but the jokes keep on coming, and the chemistry between the actors is great.  The movie is fun to watch.  It never gets too serious, but at the same time explores the isolation of an absolutely vital job that must be kept from everyone.  In the end K can give it up because he has found a worthy replacement in J.

This movie can be found on disk at www.amazon.com.  It is also available there as a streaming library purchase.

Hancock Movie Review

Hancock is not your average superhero movie.  Sure Hancock, played by Will Smith, is bullet proof, super strong, can fly, and has other power's. On the other hand he is also down on his luck, lives in a beat up travel trailer, and is constantly drunk.  Compounding these problems he has amnesia and does not seem age.

This movie explores what happens when a superhero loses everything and spirals into depression, and what it takes to pull them out.  Hancock still basically cares, but because of his depression and drinking his control of his power's is not what it should be.  In addition he has also largely lost his faith in humanity.  When he tries to help he ends up causing millions of dollars in damage, and people call him names.

When Hancock saves a man named Ray Embry, at the cost of a train derailment, Ray decides to help him by working on his public image.  It turns out that Hancock cleans up nicely, but his inner demons are harder to deal with.  When his past catches up to him, and puts his new friends in danger he is forced into examining what he is doing and the effect it has on the world around him.   He realizes that being a hero is built into him, cleans up his act, and becomes the hero of legend that he had forgotten he once was.

I like this movie because it shows superheros that are not necessarily loved and have major flaws.  It portrays a man searching for redemption  that just happens to have incredible gifts that magnify any self destructive urges he may have.  Superpowers have a lot of mental traps that are often overlooked.  A single superhero would have a lot of isolation issues, and an immortal one has all the issues old people have with changing attitudes and customs but on a larger scale.

In the end while Hancock may have superpowers, and immortality he still understands what it means to be human, and that makes it much easier to relate to him.  This movie can be found at www.amazon.com as a stream or on disk.

Moon Called by Patricia Briggs Book Review

This book is a a paranormal urban fantasy novel set in a world a step away from our own.  Not only are there werewolves, vampires, and other paranormal species, but the Fae have gone public with their existence.  The history of this world before that point is largely the same as our own, and so far the Fae are the only group to come out.

We are introduced to this world by Mercedes Thompson who is a VW mechanic trying to get by in the Tri-Cities area of Washington state.   Her former boss is a gremlin that moved to the fae reservation when the the fae came out.  Mercy also has some secrets.  She is a walker who can shift into a coyote, and she was raised by werewolves.  While she puts on a good front she is very well connected to the local supernatural community, and can call in some big guns when she finds herself in a fix.

When a stray (not attached to the local pack) werewolf approaches her shop looking for a job, she knows exactly what he is, and that something is very wrong.  The boy is terrified, and seems to have been abandoned by his makers, something that she knows is not accepted among the werewolves, and would not be tolerated by the local pack ( their alpha is her next door neighbor).  Having a soft spot for strays of any sort Mercy takes him in and gives him a job.  His past catches up to him quickly and Mercy has to call the local pack when he turns up dead. 

From her conversations with him she knows that there is more going on than it appears, and with someone under her care dead Mercy will not give up until she has uncovered all of the secrets.  With an angry coyote on their tail no secret is safe, and when the coyote is friends with werewolves the secret keepers will not be in good shape either.

This book is the first in the Mercedes Thompson Series by Patricia Briggs.  I will warn you that this series is addicting, and you may end up buying all the rest of the current series as well.  It can be found at www.amazon.com in print or e-book format.

The Faculty Movie Review

This science fiction movie is a story about an alien invasion that is more like a disease.  The main character Casey Connor, played by Elijah Wood, finds a strange creature at school one day, and takes it to his science teacher.  They do some brief studies and find out that the creature is very strange, and Casey leaves with his science teacher promising to send the creature off for study.  After that things start to get a little crazy as the faculty and students start to have drastic personality changes overnight.  Knowing about the strange creature Casey correctly jumps to the conclusion that the two things are related

Being an unpopular photography geek Casey finds it difficult to get people to believe him, but in the end he manages to get several fellow misfits, as well as some isolated popular students on his side as things go from bad to worse in their town.  As the crew of misfits, and screw-ups seeks help it becomes clear that all the adults and many of the popular kids in town have been converted.  The only people left untouched are socially isolated for one reason or another.

In the end it becomes clear that if this is not stopped soon then it will spread to the whole world.  At this point the converted people begin to target the misfits, and it is made clear that what they have on their hands is a collective alien intelligence that has been targeting those with the most power first.  The misfits have a secret weapon however.  Zeke the school bad boy has been making an selling a synthetic drug at school that the alien organism's cannot tolerate, and Casey manages to garner his help to save the town and the world.

In the end it comes down to a battle between Casey and the alien collective.  Casey must also battle his own inner demons as the queen of the collective offers him what he has always wanted, A chance to belong.  All he must give up is his pesky humanity.  In the end he overcomes this temptation, and prevails.  This has the effect of raising his status, and his new self confidence allows him to get the things he wants out of life.

I really enjoyed this movie because the enemy doesn't come in guns blazing with starships filling the sky, but rather chooses to take over the planet one person at a time functioning much like an epidemic.

This movie is available on disk or streaming at www.amazon.com , and prime members can watch it streaming for free.

The Matrix Movie Review

The Matrix is a science fiction cyberpunk film that really makes you think.  It hooks into the feeling that many people have that there is something is wrong with the world, and rides that for all its worth.  In the end I left this movie questioning whether the reality I had lived my whole life in was in fact reality at all.  To be honest I am still not sure, but if this is not reality I do not have a way out like the characters in the film so the point is moot.

The first part of this movie is a new take on Plato's allegory of the cave.  The main character, Neo, and the whole world he lives in exist in the cave.  The first part of the story is his journey out of the cave and into the real world with the help of hacker/freedom fighter Morpheous.  The science fiction cyberpunk twist to this is that the cave is a giant MMO of modern life that everyone is neurally jacked into.

The harsh reality outside the cave is that most of humanity has been enslaved as biological energy sources for the AI's we made in the distant past.  It turns out that Neo's savior's think that he is in fact their savior.  The rest of the movie is Neo finding the answer to the question "Is he this savior figure that his new companions believe him to be?".  In the end the answer is complex.  For most of the movie Neo is not the savior, but during all of that time he is on the journey to becoming what everyone thinks he is.  It turns out that the biggest challenge he must face is within himself.

Apart from all of the philosophy hidden in this movie it is also a great action adventure film.  The people who are freed from the matrix and come back are granted powers based on their knowledge that the reality they see around them does not have set rules.  They can push themselves harder and do amazing things, but if they die in matrix their mind self destructs because it accepts the lie of death.  They have adversaries in the form of system agents (who look like secret service), and the conflict between the hackers/freedom fighters and the system agents frames and goads Neo's inner conflict.

In the end this is a great movie that causes you to really think about what reality is, and on the limitations we as humans put on ourselves that may not have any basis.

This movie can be purchased on disk or as a digital stream for rent or purchase at www.amazon.com.

Avatar Movie Review

This is a firmly science fiction movie that has a tried and true plot with enough twists to make it interesting.  I have heard it described as a science fiction version of dances with wolves and I can definitely see the similarities, but this description glosses over some of the major points of the movie.  This movie seems like dances with wolves because the main character essentially "Goes Native" but that is because the two movies have similar themes in that the "Less Advanced" culture has many things to teach our society.  That similarity is where these movies diverge however since the Na'vi are in fact not that much less advanced than the world the hero is from.  It just looks that way.

The natives of Pandora, the Na'vi, have solved many of the problems we use technology for with biology.  They have flying mounts as strong as the helicopters they face, and their options of ground transportation is anything on the planet that can hold their weight.  They have nighttime lighting via bioluminescent plants, and they can mentally connect to not only the animals of their planet but the plants and the entire ecosystem as well.  In fact looking at the Na'vi as a race is a bad way to think of them as they live on a thinking world named Eywa by the Na'vi.  On Pandora humans are faced with not just the Na'vi, but everything in the environment with the Na'vi serving as a thinking planetary immune system.

This story is a familiar one of mankind expanding to a new area and exploiting the resources found there.  The resource in this case is "Unobtainium", a term often used as a placeholder in science discussions for materials that are not available, but have a certain set of properties.  Unobtainium in the film is a material with gravity shielding properties.  The humans want this material, but the Na'vi are in the way.  Their hometree happens to sit on a giant deposit of it.  In order to better study the Na'vi the humans have developed avatars that look like them and can breathe their air.  They are so good that biologically they are Na'vi with traits modeled on their human operator.  To use these avatars operators climb into a sensory deprivation pod and transport their consciousness to the avatar.  The whole process reminds me of the anime "Ghost in the Shell: Stand alone complex", or the movie "The Matrix". 

The story is told from the point of view of one of the operators, named Jake Sully, who is a military veteran.  Unlike the scientists he approaches the Na'vi with the attitude that he is willing to learn from them to learn about them, and has much more success than his traditional scientist counterparts.  This is also in part because Eywa recognizes something different and valuable in him, and sends signs to Neytiri who stands as sponsor and mentor for him.

The company running the operation just wants the Na'vi out of the way and uses the avatars, particularly Jake, to gather intelligence on them.  In the end the Jake decides that the Na'vi are in the right and decides to help them.  His task is made more difficult because they have found out he was a spy.  This is made personal to him by the fact that his Na'vi mentor and lover Neytiri rejects him for his treachery.  To regain their trust he must step into their culture as a legendary hero, by taming the toruk, a massive, wild, dragon like beast. Having regained their trust he seeks to unite the clans to fight the humans, but he fears that it may not be enough.  On the eve of battle he speaks to the world consciousness Eywa and asks for help.  In the final battle when the tides have turned against the Na'vi Eywa does intercede in the form of stampedes, and roaming predators joining the battle side by side with the Na'vi.  After the battle the humans are largely ejected, and Jake, his surviving human friends, and the Na'vi are left in control of the planet.

This movie is available streaming or on disk at www.amazon.com

Job: A Comedy of Justice by Robert Heinlein Book Review

This book is a good adventure story that also makes you think.  As with many of Heinlein's works the main characters in this story are forced to keep moving, and adapting or die where they stand.  This book will also challenge your beliefs about what is good, what is evil, and what is just propaganda.  Any evangelical Christians will probably not enjoy this book as Jehovah is a character and does not come out in a good light.

Basically the plot of this story is that the original testing of Job was a bet with the Devil, and Jehovah wants to prove to his peers that his followers are still the biggest fanboys around.  The problem is the Devil still feels bad about last time so he refuses, and Jehovah finds someone who will take the bet.

The main male character Alex is an Evangelical christian who is taking a cruise to try and de-stress from a life that he doesn't realize he finds deeply dissatisfying.  The female lead is Margrethe who works on the cruise ship and is a follower of the old Norse ways.  Alex is just starting to form a relationship with her when the whole world literally changes around them.  As both of them bounce around different world lines their affections for each other grow, and Alex's prejudices begin to soften and change.  Every time that they start to improve their situation their progress is destroyed by yet another world shift.  The one rule they have been able to observe about the shifts is that if they are in contact with each other they will remain with each other.  The shifts seem to be inteligently directed, and really do happen to keep them from getting ahead, or taking a breather.  The one exception to this is when they meet a nice man with a strange family in Texas.  While in his home they are safe.

Jehovah, noticing that his chess piece is changing, decides to cheat and end the game early by calling for the rapture.  In the process Alex is forcibly separated from Margrethe since pagans don't go to heaven, and in the end he will move heaven, hell, and a few dimensions in between to get her back.  It turns out that the nice gentleman from Texas he befriended earlier was much more than he seemed, and is willing to offer substantial help in finding his lost love.

In the end this book shows us that good and evil aren't always the way they seem, and with the help of good friends, and more wit and determination than many people possess, it is possible to find your own personal paradise.  Even if it doesn't look the way you thought it would or should.

Personally I think everyone should read this book, but you should be warned that just like Alex is changed throughout the story, this book could change the way you see the world.  To me that is a feature of most Heinlein books.

This title can be found at www.amazon.com in print format.

A Knights Tale Movie Review

This is a very fun movie that manages to be both uplifting and action packed.  The name of the movie is a reference to the knights tale by Chaucer, but it is not that story.  Chaucer is however a character in the movie.  

This story is set in medieval Europe and follows the journey of a young, peasant born, squire named William Thatcher played by Heath Ledger.  William, his knight, and two other squires tour Europe competing in the most popular sport in their world, Jousting.  The squires serve as the knights pit crew in this sport and do not compete themselves.  When the Knight dies in a tournament, William decides to carry on in his place as without him they are stuck somewhere in Europe without money or a way to get home.  He puts on the armor, assumes his identity, and somehow wins the match.  Having had a taste of success he hatches a plan to continue it.  He becomes a great jouster, but the question is how long can he keep his origins a secret.

This is a story of a boy who becomes a man by smashing through the ultimate glass ceiling of his world.  In addition to his two fellow squires he picks up Chaucer, who is down on his luck at the time, and a woman blacksmith who makes incredibly light but strong armor.  It turns out that with the team he has put together can overcome almost any hardship placed in their path, and as his fortunes rise so do theirs.  In the end despite severe obstacles William attains his dream with the help of his companions, and even finds a noble lady that loves him.    

The plot of the movie is basically the same as many underdog sports movies with a semi-medieval setting and class system thrown in as an additional obstacle.  I say Semi-medieval because the soundtrack is classic rock, and the jousting tournaments and social events, are deliberately done in a very modern way.  I really enjoy this movie and admit I have watched it many times.

I own this movie on dvd and it can be bought in this format or as a digital stream at www.amazon.com

Waterworld Movie Review

I can't really call this movie anything besides a post apocalyptic action adventure movie even though it is billed as science fiction. I have heard this movie referred to as Mad Max on the ocean, and to an extent that is fair.  The question is whats wrong with Mad Max on the ocean?  The movies have a similar setting in that they both take place in an essentially broken world.

Waterworld is set in a future where the earths surface is seemingly covered with water.  The main character Mariner, played by Kevin Costner, is a drifter traveling the world on his boat.  Mariner is very well adapted to the waterworld having a set of supplementary gills, but this causes problems whenever he meets with other people. 

The story picks up when Mariner docks with an "Atoll" which in the film is a floating artificial island.  He runs into trouble when the locals discover that he is a mutant and has gills.  He is saved by the shopkeeper Helen who needs his help to try and find the home of her adopted daughter Enola who has an enigmatic tattoo that ends up being directions to dry land.  The complication of the story is that Mariner and his friends aren't the only ones interested in finding dry land.  The local pirates called smokers, who got the name because of the smoke that comes from their motorized boats, also want Enola so that they can use her to find dry land, and use it as a pirate base.

This story is an adventure tale of a drifter who can't trust anyone learning to make friends and ultimately finding the key to save humanity.   If you don't look to hard at the setting it is a very good story, and yes it is a bit like Mad Max on the ocean, but that's ok.

I own this movie on disk and you can pick it up that way at www.amazon.com, or watch it on amazon instant streaming as either a rental or purchase.