[X] My Assistant

[Backgammon]

I saw Book of Eli.

If you like playing Fallout, you'll like this movie. It's basically Fallout: The Movie, but less good. Little substance, nothing new in the post-apocalyptic genre, but visually ok and the combat is ok. Mediocre good. Like I said, if you liked Fallout, it's worth renting. My wife left to go take a bath 10 minutes in, so that sums it up for anyone else.

[Abigale]

I'm in the middle of Soulless - and then I'll pick up Changeless. Just finished Naamah's Curse and also about to pick up MONSTER by A. Lee Martinez. I'm finding I've got a fondness for the books Orbit Press has been putting out lately.

[AJCarrington]

I liked the Cassandra Kresnov books, and got some inspiration.

I'm not a fan of military/gun obsession, so it didn't rank s high as it could with me.

I found the second novel to be a lot less about "the guns" than the first. I quite like that even after 2 books, the major "bad guys" are still really unknowns - keeps the mystery alive and well.

AJC

[Synner667]

Just finished Cold Warriors and Ghost Dance, both by Rebecca Levene, and both published by Abaddon Books.

The 2nd is a sequel to the 1st, and are part of a series.

They involve supernatural government agencies in the modern world, fighting supernatural threats.
They read like James Bond novels, but with "extras" and are full of ideas.

Probably quite similar to Brian Lumley's E-Branch novels [which I've not read].

Of interest to Shadowrun players is the 2nd book, Ghost Dance, which involves someone being involved with their Totem, spirits, cults.
Of course, the title leapt out at me, so I'd probably have bought it even without it being a sequel to something I enjoyed.

Other points of interest in the series are that it's England focussed, has secret government departments, has spirits, artefacts, demons, zombies, and is quite gritty and streetlevel.

I enjoyed them both, and am looking forward to more books in the series, and borrowing ideas and the gritty feel of the setting.

[Demonic357]

I've always been a big fan of Richard Marcinko's Rogue Warrior novels, and I'm about to start reading them again. The guy founded Seal Team Six (the Navy's answer to Delta Force) in real life, so his novels have quite a grounding in reality. They get a bit self-aggrandizing at times, but I'm willing to overlook it for the sake of realism. They basically all follow a group of rogue SEALs who are trying to clear their name, A-Team style. In my youth I used them for inspiration in old 2E games when I was short on time.

[Wesley Street]

I'm re-reading Midshipman's Hope which I haven't touched since, oh, 1995 or so. It's pretty gripping even if I disagree with, oh, pretty much everything the society Feintuch portrays runs on.

[PBTHHHHT]

just read a bunch of warhammer 40k novels, including the first omnibus of ciaphas cain, redemption corp, and mechanicum. Man, I feel like playing in a warhammer 40k game.

Oh, just saw the film Despicable Me in 3D recently, it was okay. The minions made it memorable, otherwise...

[Wesley Street]

I'm currently working through the cyberpunk novel Fairyland by Paul J. McAuley. I read it years ago and picked it up for nostalgia value.

[Synner667]

I was moving some stuff around recently, and unearthed a copy of Mirrorshades - The Cyberpunk Anthology.

Inside is a receipt from an 1995, being used as a bookmark !!

I'm looking forward to rereading some stories from back when cyberpunk was a racy new concept.

Back then, Mirrorshades was the definitive collection of cyberpunk tales...
...So it'll be interesting to see how it holds up nearly 20 years later.

[Backgammon]

Just saw The Other Guys. It's funny. It should be cliché but Farrel and Whalberg are really funny together, they make it work.

[Demonseed Elite]

Just started reading The Dervish House. Ian McDonald's River of Gods and Brasyl are among my favorite books, so I'm really looking forward to this one.

[Hocus Pocus]

east of eden, steinbeck

[Wesley Street]

Last weekend, the wife and I saw both Scott Pilgrim v. The World, which was an excellent adaptation of Bryan Lee O'Malley's graphic novel series, and Inception. With its "what is reality?" questions and gravity defying stunts, Inception is the spiritual heir to the Matrix without being bogged down in goth/S&M culture.

Has anyone else noticed that all of the Caucasian male protagonists in Christopher Nolan movies have slicked hair? I wonder if that's intentional.

[Hocus Pocus]

read when you are young. I finished east of eden a coupla days ago and already it fades to the back of my mind like before.


guns germs and steel, the fates of human evolution. is next if i can find my copy, but if i forget this one too then its time for the rocking chair staring out my window.

[PBTHHHHT]

saw The Expendables. Lots of action, explosions, bullets. not bad. Good for shadowrunning.

reading Warhammer 40k novels, this time about arbites upholding the peace.

[Synner667]

Watched the last few parts of Being Human, series 2 - a series about a werewolf, a vampire and a ghost sharing a house.

There's vampire politics, deals with the police, obsessed churchmen, scientists, blood, angst, a little humour.

If you have any interest in urban fantasy, it's definitely worth a look...
...And it's a very British look on such things.


Enjoy !!

[Doc Chase]

Started reading The Imager's Portfolio, a trilogy by L.E. Modesitt. I'm already a fan of his work, and he goes into the setting with enough detail to satisfy, but not enough to overwhelm. It reads much like the Recluce Saga.

[Backgammon]

Watching Boardwalk Empire.

VERY good. Fits nicely in with all the Chandler novels I've been reading.

[ravensmuse]

I can't believe we're still posting in this thread.

Very, very little read recently, aside from a string of Ultimate Spiderman and Runaways comic books I picked up at my local comic store's closing ((IMG:style_emoticons/default/frown.gif) ). I've had the new Good Thief's Guide to Vegas sitting on my entertainment center for like a month - I'm surprised the library hasn't started howling for my blood yet. I think I'm just being lazy on it.

No, wait, I've started re-reading Bleach, because man, that last bit was a doozy (no, I'm not spoiling it for you).

I started watching Kampfer: Abridged on Youtube, and it's gotta be one of the funniest things I've watched in awhile. Kampfer is the story of a magical girls - and one guy that turns into a magical girl when his little bracelet thing goes off. But the best part is, the magical girls are armed with either guns, knives, or magic - and they're all supposed to kill each other. It's...weird.

But the Abridged version not only plays up the main character as a huge clueless dumbass, but gives the other main character the voice of the Heavy from Team Fortress 2 - and my god, is it hilarious. "Aw, what is da matta da little babiez! Is you getzin scared?" This said by this five foot something twelve year old girl with a giant desert eagle. Yeah. It's that kind of show.

Oh. And Symbionic Titan. Because if you like giant robots, and you're not watching this? You have no soul.

[Synner667]

I'm just finishing The Nano Flower, by Peter F Hamilton, the last part of his Greg Mandel near future/cyberpunk trilogy.

Still an excellent read, bursting with ideas...
...You've got Corp politics, Corp equipped combat teams, investigation, aliens, nanoware, powered armour, hacking, psychic powers, mercenary behaviour, hollowed out asteroids, courtesans, conscientious Corps, Corp conflict.

All there in one book...
...Fabulous !!

[Doc Chase]

I felt for Suzi. The Mandel trilogy is fantastic, though the noirist in me prefers A Quantum Murder to Mindstar Rising and The Nano Flower.

Neutronium Alchemist was...I wasn't as impressed with it. Hamilton wrote desperation pretty well, but the end of the book was just a little too Deus Ex for my tastes. Mandel, though? That was a hundred percent delicious.

[Synner667]

All excellent books !!

I managed to find someone's homemade rpg based on the books - not great, but has some interesting stuff.