Monday, March 20, 2006

Way to go, Drew! Screw your client over!

So, T. O.'s new deal is $25 million over three years at Dallas. This after getting his ass kicked off the Eagles. This whole drama began when Drew Rosenhaus convinced T.O. that he could get him a better deal than the $48 million deal over seven years.

So, what's Rosenhaus' selling point? "Sign with me and you'll make less money, but you'll get it in less time"?

Great. What a dickweed. I'll be amazed if T. O. lasts a full season at Dallas before he pisses everyone off there, too. Not that I'll complain, because that'll just just make every tackle he gets from an Eagle all the more sweeter this year.

F.U.T.O.! I love this site. Buy a T-shirt and have a great laugh.

Wednesday, March 15, 2006

A Manchurian Thought

The case to give Moussaoui the death penalty has tanked due to misconduct on the part of the prosecution. Am I paranoid in thinking that the feds took a dive on this one just so that later Bush can say that using the criminal justice system to fight terroristists doesn't work and therefore, black prisons are the only way to go?

Monday, March 13, 2006

Book Review 3-12-06

This month is sequel-heavy. Sequel novels can be troublesome. Often, writers find themselves pressured by fans and publishers to follow up a successful novel with an follow-up, even if the author may not have anything new to say about the characters or setting. When does an author know when it's time to stop going back to the well? Or can a good writer take the same characters and/or setting a breathe new life into them by taking a different slant on it?

Ender's Shadow by Orson Scott Card

Not really a sequel, this book is what Mr. Card calls a "parallax" novel. Taking place roughly at the same time as Ender's Game, Ender's Shadow follows the life of Bean, one of Ender's classmates and lieutenants. Following Bean's early days as he uses his genius to organize child-gangs on the streets of Rotterdam to becoming a team leader in the battle school.

Generally, I like Card's approach to story telling and description, but I have an issue with the way he often portrays children. Which is a shame given his fondness for writing novels from the point of view of a children. But, Card's children often act less like actual children, but small adults. In Bean, Card gives us a genetically modified genius and kid who is mature beyond his years. While that may explain some of Bean's precociousness, at just six years old, he would still be lacking in real world experiences. Card doesn't adequately balance the genius side with the naviete of a real six-year old. Also, the other kids, while slightly other, also seem mature and worldly beyond their years.

My other complaint is that Ender's Shadow lacks the moral outrage over the kind of society that would use children as weapons of genocide. Perhaps Card feels that he covered that ground in Ender's Game, but it should be better portrayed in this book.

Overall, it's a good yarn and it has already be followed by three sequels, so I guess Card has had enough story to tell on this. I'll give it a B.

The Dark Ascent by Walter H. Hunt

The third book in what is so far a four book series, The Dark Ascent details Hunt's vision of humanity unified in a single interstellar empire. In the first book of the series, The Dark Wing, humanity finds itself at war with an alien species known as the Zor. On the surface, the series of conflicts with the Zor have gone well for humanity. After each conflict, more star systems fall under control of the Earth Empire and the Zor continue to retreat backwards even though they instigate every new round of fighting. The politicians on Earth are content with each negotiated peace, believing to be the last. One admiral, Marais, however, has decided that the endless rounds of war and peace cannot continue and determines to put an end to the Zor threat once and for all. Even if it means going against the emperor and exterminating the Zor altogether.

From the Zor's point of view, they believe that humans are agents of an enemy and that Marais is the prophesized destroyer of worlds, the dark wing. Imagine if our society were attacked by the antichrist from the Book of Revelations. In the end, Marais has to find a third way an convince the Zor that he is not their angel of death and hold his own original plan to destroy the Zor.

The two books that follow, The Dark Path and The Dark Ascent, take place nearly a century later. I would strongly recommend reading the books in order as they follow each other closely. In the sequels, humans and Zor are now allies and a new alien menace has emerged: a telepathetic and shapchanging species known as the Vuhl. Are these the long-predicted enemy that will bring destruction to the galaxy as predicted by Zor religion? And will Jackie Laperriere, the protagonist of books two and three be the mythological hero? The Zor certainly believe so. But they've already been wrong once.

Hunt spins a thrilling military SF novel. In my opinion, he's one of the best writers in this sub-genre today and I highly recommend picking these books up.

Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman

This book is a sequel to Gaiman's American Gods, but you don't really need to have read it to enjoy this book.

Fat Charlie Nancy is a very timid man. Shy and easily embarrassed, Fat Charlie (He's not really fat, but his father stuck him with that nickname years ago) works a tedious job as he and his financee, Rosie, plan their marriage. Rosie convinces Fat Charlie to invite his father to the wedding, but when he calls his father in Florida, he learns that his father has recently died. Flying out to the funeral, he soon learns that was the least strange thing going on. His father was a god, Anansi, the trickster spider and that Fat Charlie had a brother named Spider.

On a whim, he invites his brother to visit him in England and quickly comes to regret it. Soon, Spider gets Fat Charlie investigated by the police for embezzlement and makes a play for Rosie. But it's when Fat Charlie tries to get rid of his brother that things really go south.

I loved this book. It's full of the absurdest British humor in the vein of Douglas Adams and Monty Python. Pick it up and enjoy the ride.

Tuesday, March 07, 2006

Deju violet

Watching the previews for Ultraviolet, am I the only person who thinks this movie was thrown together out of leftover footage from Aeon Flux?