Author Archives: Eric

Comfort Zone

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I don’t spend a lot of time watching shows or movies that are outside of my comfort zone. I think it’s worth noting that getting outside your own comfort zone is important, but it’s also work. I have declared before that I am a true child of media – the original MTV generation – but over all this time I have really moved away from so many forms of entertainment. I have narrowed my focus and made an effort to get away from the things I just don’t enjoy.

I was drawn to a particular publisher based on the description listed on their submission page:

If it’s a story about a 13 year old girl named Mary coping with the change to womanhood while poignantly reflecting the recent passing of her favorite aunt Gertrude, we DON’T want it! Now, if Mary is the 13 year old daughter of a vampire cowboy who stumbles upon a government conspiracy involving aliens & unicorns while investigating, hard-boiled style, the grizzly murder of her favorite aunt Gertrude, then we’ll take a look at it.

This seemed like a place where I would fit right in. I stick to what I like a lot of the time. It has taken a long while, but I have started to figure out what it is that I like. I can define it. I understand it. Yes, sometimes it’s quite predictable and I’m just fine with that.

So, when I was given a homework assignment for a class I am taking that amounted to reporting on the movie The Peanut Butter Falcon I was… less than enthusiastic. This movie had a lot going against it.

First and easiest, it was assigned homework. I could get past that ~ I am taking the class after all. I’m paying for it, I’m sure as hell going to do the homework.

It’s frequently described as “heartwarming”, “real” and “wholesome” along with a lot of other things that make this story about a man with Down syndrome who goes on a life altering adventure start to sound WAY too close to that description above. Definitely not something I’d consider go-to entertainment.

It also stars Shia LaBeouf. I have never met the man in person. I don’t know him and would genuinely reserve my personal opinions about a person… however he has managed to so thoroughly annoy me that I can’t stand watching him. It doesn’t matter the role, I only see his annoying face. I really can’t stand him. At all. He makes it easy to dislike all things Hollywood.

Normally that’s strike three, that movie would be out. Add to the case against with it’s hard to find. It’s not on any streaming service that I have. I have been told it’s on Hulu, but I wasn’t signing up for an additional service just to dig up this film. Thankfully my Luddite self is still part of the DVD program with Netflix. Yes, you digital natives, I get an actual physical disc in the mail when I request it so that I can play it in my local player. I do not depend on the whims of streaming services nor the speed of the internet when I really want to just sit and watch without interruption. So I added this movie to the que and waited for it to come in.

A couple of Saturdays ago I found myself in possession of said disc and happened to have a couple of hours to deal with it. I treated it like a chore. It was an unpleasant side effect of something I wanted to do, so I sucked it up, sat down and hit play.

I believe your expectations of a film factor heavily in how you feel about the film when you’re done. I had built this up to such a terrible thing in my mind that it would have had to be truly terrible to meet what it had become in my head. Tempered with that in mind, I will tell you that this is a genuinely good movie. It’s not just good, I’d recommend it.

No, I still can’t stand LeBeef. Yes, he was exactly what that part needed. Exactly. I will not hesitate to tell you that Zack Gottsagen’s character hooked me immediately. He’s hilarious and genuine and IS that part. Yes, it was written with him in mind, but I’ve seen films where the script is written with an actor in mind and they still suck. Definitely not the case here. The other characters were dead on. There was no smarmy pandering – Zack is an actor playing a role and he killed it. Yes, it was a little bit predictable, but that does not detract from the story at all. It was real.

I’m glad I watched it.

All The Birds

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All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I didn’t know what to expect heading into this book. I don’t know if I would have picked it up if not for it being a selection of Watch The Skies. I’m glad it was picked, and I’m glad I took that chance to read it.

I enjoyed this book. I fear that my total enjoyment was hindered by the simple fact that I read it during a global pandemic – and there are apocalyptic things happening in the book. It’s a challenging juxtaposition. There were any number of parts to the story that I found completely plausible and that made the rest easy to go with.

I enjoyed the characters. They are certainly not ‘traditional’ in any sense, but they were true I think. They were exactly the sort of people that would be involved in things just the way they were. I was also a little surprised by the peculiar way the romance worked out in the story. Very well done.

I look forward to talking about all the various parts of this book with our group. Like all good science fiction there are a number of ideas worth exploring in here.

IF you get a chance – pick this one up.



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More Dresden!

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I’m still forging ahead with my own Dresden files re-read. I’m going to start with what I’ve got posted over at Goodreads and tack on a little more at the end.

Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files: Ghoul Goblin by Jim Butcher

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I very much enjoyed this story. I’m not sure when it was written vs. when it was supposed to fit into the overall Dresden time line, but this was excellent work.

Yes, it was still Harry being Harry, but the characters around him all seemed very solid to me. The most powerful, the ones with the most influence and best story were all the women. I won’t spoil it for you but I can say that it’s almost as if Harry is just a catalyst in this one. Heroes, bad guys, powerful influencers… all women. There’s a love story wedged in there too. I wish that were expanded a little more, but there was an awful lot going on in this relatively short book.

Well done and I can’t wait to keep forging ahead with my personal Dresden files re-read.



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So along with the graphic novel I also read the short story “B is for Bigfoot” as this is supposed to be where it fits in the timeline. I don’t know where the story was originally published, but I read it from the collection of stories in “Working for Bigfoot“.

I liked this story for two main reasons.

The first reason is simplicity. This short story delivers an expansion to the world of Harry but doesn’t become a maze of politics and over arcing story. Yes, there are creatures of unearthly origin but they do not become the political mesh that so many others do.

The second, and main reason is that it gives a very clear view of an important part of Harry’s world view / philosophy. Harry has a mission that involves a kid. Harry has to explain, at least in part, why he does what he does. He has to make a clear and cogent argument for using power for protection.

This story is well worth the effort. I like it a lot.

Being Back

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I’ve survived the first week back in the office since the global pandemic shut things down. It was as surreal as I suspected it would be. It was going through the same motions as before, but with something missing. While working from home I used all the discipline I had to stay on the same schedule I had when I was leaving the house and going to the office (thankfully). Getting up at ‘the regular time’ and getting ready for work wasn’t really any different.

Leaving the house was different.

There’s normally a level of activity and noise that are going on in the neighborhood where I live. In the mornings on the way out the door there’s a feeling, a sense that aligns with people going through their daily routine. There are cars I recognize from the area, delivery trucks, buses and all sorts of… well, people. This past week did not have that feeling. It was weirdly quiet when I left of the office. Traffic around the house was down to a handful of cars at the most. It wasn’t terrible, it just gave this sense of something being off.

It became more pronounced once I crossed the bridge. The state capitol building is literally two blocks from my office. It’s always busy on all those streets and alleys during a business day. Three lanes solid to or from either highway, trucks, buses, delivery drivers of greater variety… and none of them were there.

Sure, there were other cars on the road. There are a large number of people that fall under the tag ‘essential worker’, but it was nothing like it was before. I have always attempted to get a feel for the ebb and flow of when traffic was the heaviest and slip in between those times. Some days worked better than others. This week? This week it didn’t matter. I was at the office in what seemed like mere moments.

The biggest thing about actually being at the office? Inconvenience.

Yes, you read that right. We have a relatively small staff with ample social distance. There’s nobody else even sitting in the room I’m in while I’m at work. I’m back on the beefy work computer and connected to the servers. I’ve got two wide screen monitors and all the bells and whistles. So, what inconvenience? Everything is closed. Our communal kitchen with the microwave is closed. The water cooler is shut down. The ice machine is closed off with the kitchen. The restaurants around us are super limited in choice and delivery options. It has actually made certain aspects of getting work done more challenging. I didn’t have to worry about where and how I was going to get some water during the day. I didn’t have to give a second thought to lunch when I was home – I could stroll into the kitchen and get it. It’s odd, but it’s almost like being back in the time when I worked for a construction crew and we had to have a thermos and a lunch box because there were no amenities. Sure, our bathroom is WAY better than a port-a-potty (or a shrub), but it’s almost as if I’m back at a construction site inside the office. If you don’t have it with you, it doesn’t happen until you’re back home.

It took a day or two of adjustment along with a corrected grocery list, but I think I’m back on track and ready for things to start picking up. Construction is underway and requests for all manner of paperwork and sketches are flowing again. Hopefully people will continue to be safe and we’ll get things up and really moving again soon.

Flexible

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One thing that the pandemic has done for me is given me a certain amount of flexibility. There are a number of times when I’d have the motivation to write and then need to be running off someplace where I’d lack the ability to actually get things typed up. Now, since just about everything is locked down it has given me the chance to take advantage of those moments. There is no place to run off to right now.

It’s nice to have the options to say, “I think pajamas and slippers all day today while I work at the computer”. No pressure. It has certainly helped.

It was never going to last. Intellectually that was easy to say, but emotionally it’s been difficult to track. It feels as though this change is never ending. Well, time is up for me.

I have been working from home (thankfully) since things have been shut down. Yes, the hours have been reduced, but I have still been on a schedule. Working days has meant that I don’t have constant ‘free time’ but outside of those hours has still been available. Starting on Monday May the 4th (Star Wars day!) I’ll be back in the office. Construction and related construction activities are coming back on line. Projects are getting underway.

In the future, when we look back at this time I wonder what we will make of the dream like state we floated through during these days of being stuck at home. I look forward to seeing how it has changed who we will become.

Ghost?

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Ghost of a story?

Shell of an anime?

Looks a lot like Laura Croft to me…

Normally I’d write up a media post about “what to watch” for the fanzine, but I really don’t know if I can recommend watching Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045.

I am not an anime purist. I suspect most anime lovers would suggest that I’m barely a fan. Yes, I’ve been hanging around the fringes for a very long time (yes, I still call it Starblazers, thank you) but I’m not super invested. When GITS popped up on Netflix I didn’t rush to it. I was interested enough to start, and finish the series so far.

IF you’d like a review filled with fans and spoilers – head over to Gizmodo and check them out.

I’ll stay away from the spoilers (I think). I’m not sure if Patrick Huge is a spoiler or not… but it was a ridiculous character name in this show. I find little things like that distracting.

Anyway, the story itself is set in the future of the GITS characters, beyond a lot of the other material I’m familiar with. It presents some very interesting world building. There’s a lot of room for action and the creators do not shy away from that. There’s a lot of clunky action.

Why clunky? Because this is all done as 3D render, not traditional anime style. It’s downright distracting and tough to watch. It’s twitchy and looks cheap. I know it can’t be cheap, but I’ve been spoiled. IF you haven’t seen the animation from the Netflix series Love Death + Robots you should definitely go watch that. That stuff is amazing work. This variation of GITS was a struggle.

So, getting past the animation style itself – the story could have continued with the starting point, but then it felt like it changed half way through the episodes. We switched focus from this giant, world building economy based story to this other post human thing and it’s just messy. I’ll probably take a look at the next season to see if they tie all this stuff together, but I’m not in a rush.

IF you’re desperate for some new GITS then you can give these a look, otherwise I’d wait and see what so called season 2 will be… and hopefully we’ll avoid naked back flipping things…

Exit?

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I just finished the last of the Murderbot Diaries – Exit Strategy. It’s #4 in the series of novellas by author Martha Wells. I very much enjoyed this series. Each one was just the right length and attitude that I was looking for right now. I burned through them terribly quickly…

You should too if you like science fiction / action stories.

I don’t know if I would have found them if not for Tor giving them away. It’s so difficult to weed through all the options out there these days. I give them their due – I am into it and will be looking forward to the release of Network Effect: A Murderbot Novel in the early part of May.

The last novella – Exit Strategy pushed the action harder than any of the others in the series. There were a couple of times when I had to stretch my willing suspension of disbelief about the amount of things MB was processing, but then the author handled that really, really well. I’m not going to spoil it for you – but I was happy with it.

I was also interested to note that MB was referred to as “it” a lot. The gender of MB was something that was only faint background stuff to me, but it was there. I only gave it more than a passing thought because of the organic parts being altered for the sake of appearance. There isn’t a super clear description of what the main character actually looks like anywhere in there. I think it really works well, and I don’t honestly know if I could pull that off as an author. I think that’s something to admire about this author’s writing. Very well done indeed.

I can certainly say that if you like action oriented science fiction (or science fantasy if you prefer) you should go and check this series out!

Cry Fowl!

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I have been meaning to post about this for a couple of weeks now and somehow I’ve only just managed to get here. Things are changing in the world. I’m starting to wonder how permanent some of these changes are going to become. In the past, if I told you a movie was going directly to video release, your thought would be, “wow – how bad is it?” or something similar. Well, Disney is taking one of their big summer blockbuster movies directly to a streaming release in June… and it looks like it’s going to be pretty good. We might be seeing the future playing out right now ~ but that’s a different topic.

The movie in question is Artemis Fowl, based on the book by Eoin Colfer. I’d recommend going and checking out the trailer here.

I haven’t read Artemis Fowl since Watch The Skies read it in 2003. I do remember the meeting when we talked about it. At the time there was a member of the group (short lived membership) that complained bitterly about reading something so specifically aimed at a younger readership. He didn’t see the sense in looking at a book like that along with a couple of other complaints about the actual story content. At the time I argued that it was important for a group like ours to look at what future book club members are reading as they’re “coming up”. I still firmly believe this – and now, 17 years later that book he wasn’t interested in is a big, upcoming movie release with a huge fan base. Love it, hate it or live in ambivalence this book has made an impact.

IF you’ve got younger fans that haven’t read it yet, I’d recommend it. I particularly recommend it right now for an extra factor – it can consume MORE than just the time to read the book. One bit of the book that I enjoyed was that it takes a basic level look at secret codes… and BIG HINT – there’s a secret code in the book! Get your young fan / code breaker working on it as a great way to lead into all sorts of interesting brain food (history, math, puzzles – there’s so many topics!). Seriously – just check out the bottom of the very first page:

Break the code!

I remember this book as a lot of fun. For the older folks setting their kids up for this, it’s not like the disappointment of Ralphie in A Christmas Story either. I’d suggest getting to this before the movie comes out, just in case they spoil something!

It grew on me?

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Semiosis (Semiosis Duology, #1)

Semiosis by Sue Burke

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This was a ‘freebie’ loan from the library. It was part of a promotion where readers in particular book clubs were given a ticket to visit Longwood Gardens as part of picking this book to read for the club. I was one of the folks that was able to get a ticket as part of this deal.

This was a slow read for me. I was really hesitant when I tried to get into it. Part of me thinks it’s because as a book club book it felt a little like ‘homework’ and I’m particularly good at avoiding that (always have been). Once I got a feel for the writing style then I was OK with it and things really moved along.

As I told folks at our on-line book club meeting, this book feels a lot like an “old school” science fiction book. The big deal part of this book revolves around the idea rather than a single protagonist. That made it difficult for a lot of our book club members, but not so much for me. There was enough tying each generation together that the story carried for me.

As for the idea itself – a sentient plant as our friend or foe on an alien planet is very interesting. There was a lot of bits that felt like science class, but I could move through those pretty easily. I liked the number of different ideas that cropped up through each section of the book as well. The story spans a fair amount of time but that didn’t seem to slow it down.

I found out this is part of a duology, but I don’t know that I’m invested enough to go and dig up (see what I did there – dirt joke) the next one. IF you’re into plants, alien life and survival stories this could be for you.



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Fool Moon

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In my continuing re-read of the Dresden Files novels I have just finished reading Fool Moon.

Spoilers if you haven’t read it ~

I had forgotten just how beat up and broken Harry gets. He gets shot. I forgot that Murph breaks an arm. I knew that her partner died in the series, but I didn’t realize that Carmichael bought it so soon. I think this is a bit of the television show creeping into the memory of the book. Carmichael in the books looks nothing like the television show version and it far less annoying… and far more dead.

I’m glad I’m going back through these books. It’s tough to recall all the little details (and not so little details apparently). I’m tempted to make a series of notes about injuries sustained by Dresden, but I’d have to go back through the first book looking for them and I’d rather forge ahead.

I do still like this book. It was tight and quick and showed a lot of expansion to the world building that the series would continue to expand on. I admire the world building.

As for my new view on things, looking for the misogynistic? That’s harder in this book.

Harry continues to state that he’s from a different school of thought. He claims to understand that he’s a bit of a chauvinist, but doesn’t do anything about changing that attitude. I actually went and looked up the definition of chauvinist – and the word itself is actually defined as aggressive or exaggerated patriotism. Only when combined with ‘male’ does it take on a different meaning… and it’s a large collection of ugly words. Not as ugly as misogynistic, but still ugly. I suspect either the author or the character really wanted it to be chivalrous. Chivalrous I think is more fitting. Harry doesn’t think women less capable, doesn’t believe that women owe anything to me and in fact depends on women in his life in many ways. Those are not the characteristics of a misogynist, and not really of a chauvinist either. To be fair – a lot of Harry’s problems go away if he quits with the “I think women are delicate flowers that must be protected” attitude, but then it makes him less of who he is. I look forward to seeing if this goes away or increases in the upcoming books. It has certainly made for an interesting viewpoint for me, and good discussion with others who don’t like the series.

I look forward to more!