Review: Area 51 - Nosferatu - Robert Doherty

Title Area 51: Nosferatu
Author Robert Doherty
Pages 310
Year 2003
Publisher Dell Publishing Company
Reading time 5 day (March 2009)
Rating 7 / 10

This was my first book by Robert Doherty. Afterwards I understood that this book was just one of the series of Area 51. Fortunally it could be read as stand-alone... Well I enjoyed the book but it didn't make me want to order other books. If I found it on a store I would buy it but not order it.

This book starts nicely and gives us an introduction of few elments for the series and the history behind it interested me. I think that is one of the most important things on a book. The background..

We get to know about the aliens Airlia and the story in the past and how they shaped our history. Our main history is Nosferatu and we learn how where they created (bred) just for they could awake and feed on human blood and it turn fed upon the gods. We learn about the love that Nosferatu held with Nekhbet that was sentenced to a living death inside her tube. From this moment on this book turns into a love story (a race to get his love) and the agenda of another one called Vampyr.

The all love story and the sadness of being apart is very well portrayed. We feel like Nosferatu feels (or as the author wanted us to feel).

It is recommend for anyone who life Robert Dohery novels and anyone who likes vampires and want to read a different way of making them.

Review: The Mystery of the Blue Train - Agatha Christie

Title The Mystery of the Blue Train
Author Agatha Christie
Pages 296
Year 1928
Publisher RBA
Reading time 1 day (February 2010)
Rating 7 / 10

This is a story not told on the first person as much of the previous books were. In this book Poirot has already retired from his work and now is going to the French Riviera by "Le Train Bleu" but the mysteries follows him. In this train a woman is murder called Ruth and there are two suspects on the spot. There is the husband of the late murderer woman called Derek Kettering who was spying on her and the Conte de la Roche who is the lover of Ruth.

Ruth who had recently adquired a famous ruby is also missing.

Being there at the time Poirot says he will help with the investigation and the father of the woman also asks Poirot to help on the case.

The story is a complex one and the first 50 pages we get to know several of this characters and all the reasons that each one had to murder the woman

As the story progresses we get to see Poirot in action and as all the stories by Agatha Christie we get to suspect each character and in the end we are presented with two (not one) killers/robbers.

As most of the stories by Agatha is very hard to find who is the killer and I think that is good. I would like to know if anyone find it out because it seems to my mind it's darn hard.

My last thoughts is that this is a solid and quick book and I enjoyed it reading it. Being at the hospital for several hours I got to read it all and to my pleasure I found out that this is a good thing... reading the book all straight in one take. I don't remember doing it. Well now the next novel that I will read by Agatha Chrstie will be "The Sittaford Mystery". I read good things about it being the first one dealing the supernatural.

William King is back to Black Library

It was one of the most beloved authors ever to write to Black Library. He created Gotrek and Felix and also wrote Ragnar of the Space Wolves and one book from a trilogy based on Eldar. Then he left... Fortunally he is returning... Maybe the money now is better no?


From the Black Library website..


http://blacklibraryblog.blogspot.com/


Saturday, 13 February 2010
The Return Of Bill King


William King has signed a major new deal with the Black Library, for a trilogy based on the high elf characters Tyrion and Teclis.


Twin brothers Tyrion and Teclis are the greatest heroes of an age, and their like will never be seen again. Prince Tyrion's skill with a blade unmatched by any living swordsmen, whilst Teclis is the most powerful mage of his generation. Set over two hundred years before the current Warhammer timeline, the new trilogy tells an origin story of these two phenomenal champions.


Head of Black Library, George Mann, said of the deal: “I’m overjoyed to be welcoming Bill King back to the Black Library, particularly with such an exciting and auspicious series. Bill has a real flair for a good story and his writing really brings the Warhammer world to life. I know people are going to adore these books.”


William King was born in Stranraer, Scotland, and is one of Black Library's best-selling authors, with sales in excess of half a million books. He started writing for Games Workshop in 1988, and later he worked in the design studio. His swords and sorcery series Gotrek & Felix and his Space Wolf novels have become a staple in the Black Library range. His short fiction has appeared in Interzone, Zenith, and a Year’s Best SF collection. He currently lives in Prague.


The deal was conducted with agent John Jarrold, and the first novel in the trilogy will be published in 2011.

Review: Urban Gothic - Brian Keene

Title Urban Gothic
Author Brian Keene
Pages 301
Year 2009
Publisher Leisure Books
Reading time 5/6 days (August 2009 and Februrary 2010)
Rating 7.5 / 10

Having read four books by Brian Keene he is probably one of my favourite authors within Horror Fiction. But this book... I don't know what to make of it. I start reading as soon I bought it but after reading 100 pages I was a little dissapointed and stopped altogether.

In December I said to myself that I won't leave any un-read books behing.

Well even if I had leave it behing I would still have bought more of his books because I really enjoy him and everyone can make a book that isn't that good right? Well as I said my first impression was not a good one but after picking it I finished it in two days.

In end was a pleasent reading (but unfortunally not the same level as City of the Dead or The Rising) but a good book that knowing what I know now I would still buy it and read it.

This book is not connected to other books of the series but at some part the big awful mean guy says that is deity is Ob (I hope you remember it/him?). Apart from that I don't see how the books are connected to other ones...

In this book we have a straightforward plot. A bunch of kids (all white, all pair up) end up in a not so friendliy zone and when a group of other kids (all black) tries to help them they get scare (not before insulting them) and run away into a victorian house.... Well this is how all begins...

In that house there are a bunch of mutant-like sick people that you see in some horror movies who try to kill, eat, rape and everything disgusting you can imagine and believe me with that descriptions Keene gives us you will feel disgusted (in a good way that only a horror/gore fan can understand).

This black kids who after all a bunch of nice people try to help them with an elderly resident of that residence... The plot is this and I won't say that much more...

The end is predictable, much to my deslike and the survivors are easily detected as you read the book. The end as well don't "end" the fate of our mutant friends and as other horror novels you are keeping wonder what will happen and Keene can pick this characters in later books...

******************************************************************

Now an off-topic but at the same time related to my thoughts on the choosing of my characters... (attention that is my opinion and nobody else)

I would not dwell much on this subject but the white/black kids that are portraited in this novel makes me wonder what is Keene trying to accomplished...

Since everyone knows Harlem imagine this. You are a bunch of white rich kids with a broken car in the middle of Harlen and you see a bunch of black kids coming your way. What a hell would you do? I bet that most of the people would think... Well I am getting to be robbed. Some would flee and others would resign to their fate. And how many would thing... Well they are getting here to help me... PLEASE! If you say that you would be this last one you are liar, or you are psicopath.

There have been some controversy as why there aren't that many good black characters in horror, fantasy and sci-fi. Some writers are trying to incorporated them in the books but I think most of them just fail big time. Most of them are not believable and seemed false and they are there to make a point (or trying to show you that they have a point).

This thing that I said is easily understood but it seems everyone nerves are on edges and anyone is a spacegoat. I read in a blog that because some cover didn't feature a more dark skin they are making a petition or something like that. What a hell??

Some people don't seem to understand that 90% of the people who read fantasy, horror or Sci-Fi are white. (probably more). And there are only a handful of black writers... It's the way things are. Are this is how it is. It's easier for a white person understand a white character than a japonese or black character. We have different knowledges, backgrounds, history and therefore we are different. As most of the white kids don't understand why japanese's kamikazes or muslims suicide bombers, they in their turn don't understand how ways. It's the way that life is, not rascism but life. Get us to it.

Believe me, I don't care about what colour the skin of the person is, Earthsea of Ursula L K Guin make the characters a colour that is neither black or white and the book is one of the most appreciated books in the genre and mine. If you feel that I am being racist or something like that well bad luck because I ain't. Go pick your fights somewhere else.

Review: Earth Last Citadel - C L Moore and Henry Kuttner

Title Earth's Last Citadel

Author C L Moore and Henry Kuttner
Pages 128
Year 1943

Publisher Ace
Reading time 4 days (August 2009)
Rating 6 / 10

Having read and reviewed No Boundaries by the same authors I found this book in a store I would never imagined and with a ridicolous low price so I grabed it and start reading imediately. Bare in mind that these story was written in the middle of WW2 and are one of the most revered names in what would be called SF's Golden Age (one of it), besides this C L Moore (the wife of Kuttner) was already publishing books when women at that time were not seen as today. Well when Kuttner died in 1958, Moore stopped writing altogether and she lived until 1987. It's a shame because she was very talented woman.

Well as I said most of SF from that period has historical value but the SF used or thought are completely surpassed and most people cannot understand those books or ideas. Well this book is about four people. Two allies (one american spy and one scottish scientist) and two Axis (one renegade american and one german girl) who stumble upon an alien craft in the Sahara and they are catapulted into the far future on a dying earth where aliens control a bred some of our own human descendents.

As I said this book is in the beginning of the SF era and at my modern measure I thought this book was dull and pretty small. There is no depth to the characters and the story relies on imagery like as they arrived and the moribund earth is populated by giant worms and fylging creatures and the views are shrouded in continuous mists. This part of the book drawns there and makes us feel the desolation and melancholy of our beautiful earth. The aliens are portrayed as devilish beings that are sucking the life of our earth and they resemble more akin to Lovecraft's aliens than anything else. I wouldn't advice to read this book as a CL Moore story or Henry's Kuttner. No Boundaries is far better... Then come back to this one.

The book is quite small and at the end starts being a little strange with the plot being quite strange and confusing...

Review: Liberty's Crusade - Shadow of Xel'Naga - Speed of Darkness - Starcraft

Title Liberty's Crusade / Shadow of Xel'Naga / Speed of Darkness
Author Jeff Grubb / Gabriel Mesta / Tracy Hickman
Pages 256 / 258 / 242
Year 2001 / 2001 / 2002
Publisher Pocket Books
Reading time 4 days / 5 days / 5 days (October 2009)
Rating 6 / 4 / 7

I've trying to read this three books but never had the disposition to read them because in total the trilogy had around 756 pages. But in October having read that Starcraft 2 was going to be release and trying to play again my old starcraft game I tried to read the books...

In the end what were my conclusions? The game is better.
With the first book, Liberty's Crusade, we are more into the characters of the game. We see how Raynor falls into the grasps of Mengsk. How the confederacy falls as well. We see the beautiful Sarah Kerrigan and how she is crossed and turned into the Queen of Blades. In the end I enjoyed the book. The book was a fast paced one and unfortunately the characters pay dearly with it being a bit more than two-dimensional ones with the sole excpetion of the main character, but what can you expect? In the end there were no surprises but one thing it was better than the second because it didn't feel like he was narrating a video game.

The second book was Shadow of the Xel'Naga written by Moesta (Kevin J Anderson and Rebecca Moesta) and it was awful. I always thought Kevin Anderson should be so good since he was writing Dune with the son of Frank Herbert but this book I read until the end because I forced myself. Grab some new and old characters and make a plot. Then add the names of every building and every creature and we've got 258 pages and a story. Now make some advances while inserting names and buildings. Bah... It reminds me of those games the south koreans play and someone is narrating as a football game. It was very bad book and I really hope that this is not the best Kevin can do...

The Third book was called Speed of Darkness and was written by Tracy Hickman, one of the founders of Dragonlance. This book was probably the best of them all but as the others they didn't do it for me... This story we get to know a bit more of all military aspect of the Terran Confederacy. Marines are a brainwashed conscript with no porpuse with the expection of following orders. The narrative is quick and the plot is throw at us briefly. At the middle book we get the zerg and the attack on the outpost. And the main character? Well he is a newly recruited with a dream/quest and this voyage is to reveal his true identidy. As he battles fragments of unknown memories start to surface and at a time he can't distinguish real from unnatural (implemented) ones. This book is no Dragonlance novel and nowhere the standart of them.

If you like Starcraft and want to read a book I would advice the last one, Speed of Darkness. Do not read Shadow of the Xel'Naga. Is worthless. Check the amazon and see the reviews from the three books...

Review: Burning Shore - Robert Earl

Title The Burning Sohre
Author Robert Earl
Pages 416
Year 2004
Publisher Black Library
Reading time 4 days (January 2010)
Rating 7.5 / 10

This is the first book by Robert Earl and the first with Florin and Lorenzo. This book turned out so good that two books were release later, Wild Kingdoms and Savage City. This book is the only oppurtunity to read some fiction in Lustria. Before this there had be no books depicting Lustria. A later book was published but in it was in the Blood Bowl universe. Well this was a year that Black Library tried to explore other places/Situations... This one in Lustria, Gav Thorpe's Slaves to Darkness went to the South with Tomb Kings and Magestorm with Mages. In Warhammer 40k Simon Spurrier wrote Lord Of The Night one of the most appreciated novels along with Double Eagle by Abnett.

Well returning to this book... This book is the first of Florin and Lorenzo as I said before. The book to my knowledge was a bit bigger... I think there was no need for 416 pages for this novel and so I thought some parts were secondary and not needed. But apart that I enjoyed getting to know Florin and specially Lorenzo. First Florin is a noble and Lorenzo is servent but in the novel I think he doesn't act like one but as a equal. Sarcastic always making fun of situations and of people yet getting Florin out of trouble but nevering acting not-peaseant like. He gets all sarcastic with other peers or nobles but not Florin. It's a fatherly, respectly love. I enjoyed it.

Florin on the other end begins as a spoiled, irresponsable kid but as the situations demands he turns into a hero-alike. I enjoyed this change.

Now the plot, Florin (a Bretonnian) likes to gamble but when a crime lord tries to earn his dues he and his man-servant flee into a ship that is going on a exploration of the New World called Lustria (the homeplace of lizard-men greatly influenced on the aztects or the mayan civilization. Well it was a great setup and it was nicely executed by the author. Well the crew is a melting pot of inhabitants of the old world such as Bretonnians, Tileans, Kislevites, Marienburgers (Empire) and Dwarves.

Well there are several important characters we get to know such as Colonel van Delft, the Dwarf Thorgrimm, Graznikov (kislev) and one that I hoped that he appeared in later novels Orbrant. He his a warrior priest of Sigmar on a quest to self-finding. Well not to mention one of the most important characters the celestial wizard Kereveld.

Well a voyage for gold turns out to be a expendition funded by the celestial college but that doesn't change anything in the plot. The men still wants gold...

In Lustria we get to know the Lizard-men, heavily inspired in some cthullu mythos beings. I thought the parts with Lizards were done great specially Xinthua. (On the great overall the Lizard-Men are not evil as Chaos. They are not corrupted by the taint of chaos but as beings of great age and understanting of magic (very different from the views of humans or elves).

On this book we get to know things that until here were unknown like the constelations of starts above or how many planets does this solar system has. We even get to know more of some beings that inhabited the s eas such as Serpentia Megalothon or the opinions of Bretonnians and Empire against and for Tilean food.

The ending was a bit of rush and the saving of Florin from the hands of the Lizard Men is a bit of... odd and easy. In the end was an interesting book that make me understand a bit more of the warhammer world and the need to read the next books with Florin...

Review: Blood for the Blood God - C L Werner

Title Blood for the Blood God
Author C. L. Werner
Pages 416
Year 2008
Publisher Black Library
Reading time 7 days (November 2008)
Rating 9 / 10

This is the second instalament of the Chaos novels that C L Werner is penning. The first book is The Palace of Plague Lord and it was a fantastic and different read. Probably the book I read that had more interesting evil characters... The third book will depicts Wulfrik (you can see more of it on my Grey Seer review that C L Werner had the amability to comment and share some new information about it. There is no need reading the first book to fully enjoy this one.

On this book it is focused on Khorne as the name of novel implies. Well on this book we are presented with Teiyogtei Khagan who had united eight tribes under his banner to entablished his own empire however he was killed in a duel with Skulltaker, the bloody executioner and champion of Khorne. On this duel the Skulltaker was wounded by Khagan weapon called Bloodeater. Well the book then jumps to five hundred generations after that conflict as the empire is divided again into eight tribes who are fighting among them with no winner... No tribe can destroy another... A stalemate war...

Well then the Skulltaker returns and wants the heads of every ruler of the eight tribes.. why? Well there's the plot of the other characters... They must find the Black Altar (Teiyogtei's tomb) and reforge the Bloodeater so they can have a chance against their adversarie.

Well one thing for sure... C L Werner can really do landscapes as he creates a great mood that we drawn into it as he as done on the previous novel.

The Skulltaker character is never fully devoloped and we are presented with only glimpses of it. But one thing that made me give 9 out of 10 is the uber fighter. He cannot be defeated and for several chapters we see the same thing. He arrives at a tribe and he fights numerous opponents and he kills them all and then behead the chief.

This book is more than hack and slash (but there is plenty of it). It's a political game of every tribe tries to take advantage of the next or situation. After all they are chaos cultists and have history of fighting against themselves.

On this book as the previous one C L Werner gives the Chaos followers a bit of humanity (after all they are human, well most of them are...). After all we in each book of Black Library are presented with the other side of the story. It's the views of elves, humans and dwarves and now we have the chaos view. Very nice indeed. But on the same level as he gave some humanity to the chaos followers the Chaos looses some of the horror they should represent.

The other thing that I hope to see more than I did were the development of the other characters but nevertheless they were satisfactory and I did enjoy the book believe me.

Another thing that I must congratulate C L Werner is the ending... That's Chaos alright. I really hope for the next chaos book... After all it will be Wulfrik...I really hope he could do a Sigvald book. I bought the figurine and all because i find it very interesting character...

Review: The Palace of Plague Lord - C L Werner

Title The Palace of Plague Lord
Author C. L. Werner
Pages 416
Year 2007
Publisher Black Library
Reading time August 2007
Rating 10 / 10

Let us start with the cover... Isn't it great or what? It's a old cover that appear in a now quasi-mythic book called Realm of Chaos: Lost and the Damned. Published in 1988 made a great inpact... But this is not about it.

Well this book is the first depicting the forces of Chaos. There are four forces of Chaos (and Undivided but that's not a single god) who battle for supremacy. There's Khorne a God of Blood, There's Tzeentch the God of Change. There's Nurgle the God of Decay and Slaanesh the God of Hedonism. Each faction fights against themselves and against all living things human, elf, dwarf and everything else... Well why I am telling you this? Because each book tells us a story of a character than follows a faction and battle against others...

This book is one of best Black Library published and it has some elements that I've never seen on a Black Library book. On this book and the next (which I will review later) there is no "good" character. Don't expect values that you could considered to be good. The realms of Chaos are a harsh land that breeds harsh people. Either you are the hunter and a fighter or you will perish. There is evil everywhere. There is perilous situations every day. Do not expect honor or symphaty. The only rule is the rule of survival.

As you read this book you are drawn to a harsh and unforgiven battle. After the first line of the first chapter you begin to see changes in you. You begin to feel the cold weather that strikes the norcsan people. You begin to feel fear and disgust. And believe me in a good way. C L Werner can really make people grip the book until the end. He really can make you hate every character but at the same time connect to them. You hate them but you want them to succeeed.

If you are sick of reading about good characters than are perfect and almost godlike don't look here. You will not find it. And for you all that are into forgotten realms, dragonlance and warhammer... Why is Raistlin one (for me the best) character ever made? He was a true evil character and even there is was the most famous and people wanted more novels depicting his strugle. I think we are drawn to this characters that fight their way through fire and ice and still succeed. Most people who read this books will cheer for Darth Vader and his Stormtroopers but why? The Rebels are the good guys... Well it's just it. We like something different from everything that was made... (I think that's why stars wars is so special and Raistlin is the best character in the all realms).

Having said that read on...

The setting as I said is the realm of chaos.If you are a fan of Chaos then this is definetely your book. It's brings some good memories from what chaos was before the changes they made to the setting... (remember the book I told you before). Here we are presented with several characters and each are special on their own away. Werner can really make characters, there is no doubt about it.

This main character is a Tzeentch follower that fought for it against Grandfather Nurgle it return he would get another chance to get his woman back and the tribe... I will not spoil you by saying what happens but know that as I said if you want to see the Chaos on the first person read this book. It has some members from other tribes as well who help our adventurer... Well help is saying too much maybe.

Either way... I loved the book and I would advice it to anyone, being a Warhammer fan or not...

I must re-read it in a couple of years...

Review: Dominion & Retribuition - Steven Savile

Title Dominion/Retribution
Author Steven Savile
Pages 416/416
Year 2006/2007
Publisher Black Library
Reading time I read it in 2007/2008
Rating 8.5 / 10

Well, I am reviewing this book despite that alread 3 years have passed. I still remember most of the plot and I add some things written here about these two books...

They are the second and the third of a trilogy about a family of vampires. It was a good trilogy and it's very unfortunate that Steven Savile is no longer a writer for Black Library. He could do so much... Oh well, life doesn't not always turns out as we wanted...

The review of the first book Inheritance can be found HERE.

In this book we are introduced to a new hero that will have a great impact in this book and the last. It's a Dwarf called Kallad with his has called Ruinthorn. He lives with a promise that he shall bring death (again) to all vile creatures specially undead. He was a prince and he was fighting at the walls of some keep that fell to the undead. His father and many of his followers sacrifice themselves to give kallad time to save some women and children.

The other two main character is Mannfred and Konrad von Carstein. Since the demise of Vlad fell in Altdorf those he sired battle themselves for domion. Mannfred wanders alone and forgotten. Mannfred only goal at that time was knowledge. He still has Vlad signet ring (with it's restorative magic), and within his goal there is a book with incantions crafted by Nagash.

Konrad meanwhile rules the court and prides himself with cruel savagery. He is to paranoid to trust any one even if picked every member of elite guard. (He reminds me of Ivan IV, The terrible a Russian tzar). Strangely enough Mannfred reminds me of Peter I the Great another russian tzar).

Then the second battle against the humans...

Meanwhile there are other characters who make this book so great.. Jon Skellon andf Jared from White Wolf changes...

Well this book is a build up for the last book... It is a good book with a good plot and great characterization. This book needs the third to be fully appreciated.

The third book does not disapoint anyone. It starts the same way the others had began and the end... well it's was not expected. Again great character building.

Obviously the story the book tell us were already known cause it's the Vampire Army Book but it was great seeing these way. I only thing that the vampires could dominate the humans if not by their own superiority = stupidity. It's a shame. In the end my vampire vampire was Vlad. No doubt and again the two SS I told before are there...

There is only another book by Steven Saville before he left called Curse of Necrach... It's a shame... he could really write about Vampires and could creat good characters... I really hope he is doing great out there...

Review: Forged in Battle - Justin Hunter

Title Forged in Battle
Author Justin Hunter
Pages 256
Year 2004
Publisher Black Library
Reading time 4 days (January 2010)
Rating 7,5 / 10

This was my first warhammer novel this year. I wanted to read something small and easy to read. So I start reading this book and it took me a while to get into the mood. Last day I went to a doctor and with 120 pages to go I read it all... (just see how much I waited and the darn transports... well it was nice to read so many pages in one set, I must start doing that again).

Well now the book.. This book as a straightforward story.. The Beastman are starting to gather in the woods around a small village. There is some sacred stones than are calling the beastman and to finalize a ritual they need to kill one man from a family of some old forgotten hero than 2000 years before thwarted the plans of the beastman (of course the humans don't know this part). In this village of a couple hundreds humans they have a company of around one hundred human pikeman and handguners. Of course the beastman are more and they have 2000 years of rage with them. Well they start to incenerate the surroundings areas as they prepare to invade the village. There are some chaos cultists (some of them are not that well hidden). Then there is a final battle and such... I will not dwell on the end but suffice to say it ends well (maybe because the title says... Forged in Battle (a Ragged Company novel) It means Black Library thought of a series... But this author never again wrote anything for Black Library. It's a shame...

Well.. as I said this is no-nonsence. There is no magic, no godfear characteres that never die, and such... Everyone is expendable... As I said before this is a small novel and if you want a novel with the depth exploration of warhammer world or character build just look somewhere else. If you want to entertain yourself with a good quick read then read this novel.

Sometimes I thought there was too many characters and in then end only care for one. Edmunt. One guy who saw his family being butcher by the beastman and the main port-standart of the ragged company. He has a axe and my god, he is truly awesome with it... It kills and kills and kills... It looked like I was seeing a human Gotrek. But in then it was the only character I really cared.

There is some plots than go nowhere like the sergeant dislike of our main character and his superior office. What happened to Edmunt (he didn't die but in the epilogue he is not mentioned). What happens to the chaos cultist that was saved in the end (nobody knew besides the captain and some men in the company of his true colours.

The most interesting part suffice to say was the battles, specially in the end with the siege and Edmunt.

Well this is it... I wonder what happend to Justin Hunter. I know this isn't the best book that Black Library published but it has some good parts... It is one of those authors who dissapear like Neil McIntosh who made a trilogy then puff... Or Robin D Laws or James Wallis. What happened to them?? David Ferring made one of the most important series in the Black Library with Konrad. Old readers love those book... Jonathan Green made two good books... Necromancer one of the most scariest books in Black Library. He sure could built a dark world. And The Dead and the Damned. A novel with a bunch of mercenaries (I will read it soon..) But this author went to Abaddon to write a new series so no loss there... (I have all Abaddon books... didn't I tell you before?) Well It would be nice to someone comment in my blog if they had any information of this writers...

Disaster Movies Part III - Mega Shark VS Giant Octopus

Well this was the fourth movie about Disasters. I heard some good things with this book.. Check the links for more information...

imdb
Wiki

Well this last movie is from a company called The Asylum... This company basically grabs a blockbuster movie and turns into a mockbuster. They have a limited budget and most movies don't exceed one million dollars (that's what they say). The differences are at hand. I had already saw some of their movies and maybe this week and next week I will post a huge post with my slmi reviews...

The plot for this movie is this... There is a small sub documenting whales and such in the water. Above it there is a helicopter deploying an illegal sonar (to the army). Now what does this do? Well the whales go berserk and start colliding with a glaciar (before this we have see beautiful pictures of hammer sharks, seals and some animals that don't belong anywhere near a glaciar... it was a brief national geoghraphic thing... very cute). Now after hitting the glaciar it cracks and two animals leave it... The Giant Octupus and the Mega Shark. Intersting no? How do they got there in the first place? And after the the glaciar cracks they just leave... By this point I must say that the special effects sucked... (Movie-B in some degree). The only thing that was interesting was the girl.. and even her, well... not so hot.

After their release in Alaska the octupus attack a oil plataform in sea of japan. His tentacles were big enough to engulf the oil plataform... (how big is the oil platform). A whale is found in the beach with a big tooth... BIG TOOTH! That shark then does something amazing... It jumped out of water and grab an airplane...Now this is not a small plane..oh no... This is a big plane with a capacity of two hundred people mayhaps, so it must be two hundred meters? well this shark is even bigger.... and it jumps hundreds of meters through the air and knocks the airplane... Oh for the love of jesus and judas. Thats two big boys out there.

By the way she was fired because she had stole that sub for sightseeing...

Now she and another oceanographic says that the tooth belongs to a megalodon... that's interesting... of course I already knew that being a freak who knows things not common... and I also knows that they measure seventeen meters, not hundreds.

Well if this is to be a fictious movies with fictious animals let us do something even bigger. An ship attacks it. Not any ship a destroyer (it's around 280 meters, it was portraited by the Uss Misouri) and the darn shark sink it. Well the shark attacks them in the middle of the ship but the ship is attacking straight forward... Interesting know?

Then the navy "requests" their help (meanwhile a japanese ocenagraphic joins the two)... Interesting or not the army dude has a ponytail... eheh... Btw, why does the army in this low budgets movies don't have a hat? They never do...

Well they decide to help the guards but only if they try to catch them first... The japanese dude and the blonde oceanographic as they try to have sex in a closet they come to realize they should use pheromones. No nude scenes btw, not even a breast. Well they start their quest and another planes goes does. This one was one hundred meters and the tentacle was big enough to slap it...

Tell me that they are irresponsable.. Okay, they want to grab the shark. I understand is one of a kind. But they drawn it to the San Francisco Bay because of the low waters.. So what happens? Another war-ship is sink and the Golden Gate gets a little decoration with a romantic bite. And the ship is attacking with their main weapons near horizontal and the shots go near the shark. Well.. It's interesting the side effects. Remember those old ww2 movies where the airplanes were dodging flak? Wel it was the same but underwater.. Talk about coolness... Oh and the shark mouth just engulfs the ship...

Well what the army want is to try next nuclear weapons... Their lines are completly nosence.. "Thouands of lives just die in san francisco. Well the only thing he attack was the golden beach and it only took one part (interesting the rest the bridge stood without problem). Well I don't think a twenty or thirty meters of a bridge don't have thousands of people. Then the oceanographic says that the underwater nuclear weapons will provoke milions deaths (hmm how? if he wanted in the middle of pacific ocean?) and then he says that it will create tidal waves... Well USA has done that and no tidal wave that big... Well their tactc is what next? Well let them fight together...

I must say that by this time the movie had several deus-ex-machina situations... The ocean is so big that to them to meet would be astronomic but yet they did... and a big fight begins... Shark attacks american sub (the shark is several times bigger than the sub) but fails... Octupus attack the five subs and destroys four of them. Only the one with the main character is saved. DEM (Deus-Ex-Machina situation happens here), Then as the shark is closing in the sub the octupus attacks (DEM)... The shark attacks the sub and has it destroys but before the guy that had threat them, the girl and the oceanographic guy escapes (DEM)... The japanese sub appears and attacks the shark and the octupus grabs it... but don't destroys it... Well it has strenght to sink a oil platform or to grab a three hundred shark but not to destroy a small sub... (DEM). Then the monsters begin to fight yet again and this time the octupus wins (but what a price... it sinks into the depths with the shark on his clutches...) The oceanographic says... finnally they ended what they started 80 milions years ago... Well the first time the guy said that the shark had lived from 25 milions to 1.5 milions years ago (and I checked on wiki). And then the movies ends...

Btw, where did they get so many flasks with pheronomes? Kilos and kils (or liters?) of it...
Japanese sub crew that talks english.. odd

So, what I thought of the movie? Well I won't get back this hour and an half back. I didn't learn anything new. I only learn that this guys can't make good special effects. Everything was wrong. The moving of the shark and the octupus. The ships and the subs were weak and move in ways they would be destroyed if they did. The characters were weak and two dimensional. Well... Everything was weak.

I would rate it 1/10. And I give 1 for the trying... but if you keep trying like this I will end up giving 0/10. At least show us some boobs so I can give you a star or two...

Disaster Movies - Part II (Megafault)

Now this is an awful movie. It almost made me cried... I really wanted to stop seeing because the book was just awful... It's like torture.

Wiki
imdb

When you make a disaster movie you choose what disaster you want to create and then you combine that with a good plot and good characters... Well this movie was just weird. The characters were weak without any depth. No character was good. Not even the late Brittany Murphy.

The story is somewhat odd.. Well some guy (one of the main characters) detonated TNT in some mines... What happened? Some earthquake happens in a zone where our main character, a seismologist says that that area should have none earthquakes due to the platonic plaques don't something in that area. Well so why this earthquake happened? Well then... earthquakes continue to happen along in an area, sometimes they seem to follow the main characters. A guy is running away in a truck and the fault just follows him. And then again with the father and daughter when they pick a truck to get to a city... Talk about pursuit. Well then the husband and daughter of the seismologist is going back up home through a airplane and somehow the plane loses connection with earth... and then what happens? Well... a plane crashes again other plane (what a hell? What are the odds???) Well... the only survivors in the plane is who? Both father and daughter... the dramatic of the movie.. the father is looking after the girl after they crash and the daughter is several hundreds meters of the plane crash. The military don't work as military. They look like some... bimbos... who have a weapon that creates an earthquake (isn't that nice.. and in handy). The seismologist and the guy who denotated the TNT loses family and don't even mourn them...

And the effects? Computer make as usual but with such bad quality... Watch a trailer and then see for yourself...

Megafault has an interesting title but the caps letter should have been on the F. It's truly a megaFault. I would give this movie in a scale 1 throught 10, 2. No more. And the 2 it's because is a disaster movie.