I am very sad to know we lost Terry Pratchett, the author who created Disc World and so many wonderful characters and situations. His web site is down at the moment (probably crashed the server from so many hits), but the BBC announcement mentions a few facts that most authors can only dream of. 70 books translated into 37 languages with total sales so far of 70 million books. And that’s not even counting his stories turned into movies, animations, or TV specials. He was brilliant and funny and I will miss his voice in the world.
This amazing video has a conversation between Carl Sagan, Stephen Hawking, and Arthur C. Clarke. I was alive when this was recorded, and I had actually spoken with Sagan before this point, so I am sorry I missed this historic chat in person. Luckily there were cameras rolling, so I get to enjoy the event all these decades later. Pay attention as three of the most brilliant people the human race have spawned take a few moments to lay out how the universe actually works for the rest of us.
There are two very good choices this time around. The one I want to see first is Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb; the third film in the Museum trilogy takes place at the British Museum this time, and once more looks to be a world of fun. Also this week The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies brings that expanded story to completion.
Seventh Son is a nice looking fantasy adventure which should be on the big screen around February 6th. The film is based on Joseph Delaney’s book series The Last Apprentice, also called Spooks. I am looking forward to this one, and I think I have time to catch up with all the books before I sit down in the theater.
The Librarians arrive on Sunday, December 7th on TNT, and I am so ready for this series! TNT were behind the original movies series this is based on, and I loved those movies because of the way they blended silly with action, and for the excellent premise. I am setting my DVR now, so I don’t miss an episode!
In Movies we have The Giver, the story of a boy living in an peaceful, idealistic world; or so he thinks. When he get assigned as the Receiver of Memory for his people he learns things are quite different, and a lot more fragile, then he thought. This is based on the best selling YA novel of the same name by Lois Lowry.
I suppose I will have to put Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Turkey Day Collection in TV, even though it contains 4 movies. And the title is fully accurate, because the films are some real turkeys. While not genre, R.E.M. TV is worth mentioning; another Shout! Factory project, it is pretty much every instance of R.E.M. being on TV, including the out-takes.
In Anime, Log Horizon: Collection 1 is another virtual MMORPG that suddenly traps the players inside what doesn’t seem to be a virtual world any more. While it has a completely different flavor than my favorite of the type (SAO, of course), it is quite fun in a completely different way. We also get Road to Ninja: Naruto the Movie out from Viz Media, US home of all things Naruto.