Want to catch up on some books you might have missed? The TOR web site has some excellent series going on, one of my favorites being Rereading. It introduces new readers to excellent stories they can fall in love with (and lets them know why they are worth their effort to check out). It also reminds long-time fans why they became fans in the first place, and connects the dots on aspects of the story that only became apparent some volumes later, so you get to experience the foreshadowing you never knew was there. The fact that they keep choosing some of the best series ever written keeps me coming back, if only to get some one else’s take on the plot, characters, and twists these tales offer the reader. This time around the offering is Lois McMaster Bujold’s masterpiece The Vorkosigan Saga, starring Miles himself, and sometimes his mother, and every now and then his cousin. Rereading the Vorkosigan Saga will definitely take you places you didn’t expect to go, but will no doubt enjoy. I hope you like them as much as I do, if you are not already a fan!
This week has radical scientist Victor Frankenstein, who along with his lab assistant sidekick Igor breathes new life into an old classic. And that’s it for western TV and Movies as far as I can tell.
Anime has Psycho-Pass 2, the cutting edge police procedural that brings predictive paranoia to a whole new level. Note that this one is just in time for you to binge watch it and make it to the theaters in a week to see the season finale in the form of Psycho-Pass the Movie. The Chinese historical epic Kingdom: The Complete Second Season is the retelling of a classic series of wars as multiple kings and generals all fought each other to unite over a hundred countries under their own banners. The artwork and style on this is quite nicely done, and the history is as accurate as you usually get when talking about a war that covered an entire continent for 500 years. Season 2 is 39 episodes long on top of season 1’s 38 episodes; considering this portion of the war lasted about 30 years, the last nine of which were the Qin’s wars of unification which founded the Qin Dynasty ruling a unified China in 221 B.C., this portion of the story was every bit as realistic as the gap between now and then would allow it to be. Finally, Wolf Girl & Black Prince didn’t turn out to be a fantasy about royalty employing werewolves in their wars as I had been hoping, but if you are looking for a little lite RomCom you might find it enjoyable.
Alice Through the Looking Glass will be on the big screen on May 27th, but while you are waiting, here are a few things to watch…
There are less than positive implications sometimes when a Humanoid Robot With AI meets the cold, cruel world. This interpretation on how it might work out is not exactly comforting to the intelligence at the core of this story, and should not make the rest of us feel very easy about it. When the time comes that we face these situations, I hope you are ready to stand up and be counted among those who believe in freedom and justice.
MTV brought The Shannara Chronicles to television, and you can watch the first 4 episodes now on their web site. The show is based on the Epic Fantasy series of books of the same name written by Terry Brooks, and are the stories of the Four Lands. The story arc for season 1 is all about saving the tree that protects the Four Lands from the Demon World.
Pride And Prejudice And Zombies will also be on the big screen on February 5th. While I think Hail, Caesar! had the better trailer, I really enjoyed the book, so I might just go see this one.