game of thrones: season 2 preview - you win or you die

Well... I really should have finished Season One by now. But the trailer looks smashing! That being said, HBO needs to tweak the storyline so it's ALL DINKLAGE, ALL THE TIME

Season 2: Preview - You Win or You Die

my book review: the time machine by h.g. wells

The Time Machine: An Invention by H.G. Wells
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Obviously, The Time Machine is a well-known classic. And from the 4 (of 5) star review, it's clear that I enjoyed it. So I'll skip that and go to some random thoughts...

I could not believe how short of a story it was. Calling it a novella is, in my opinion, a stretch. Having seen two movie versions, I thought myself familiar with the ins and outs of the story and couldn't believe how much of both movies is made up for the screenplays. I understand that an 80-page short story would need to be fleshed-out to be made into full-length movie, but WOW so much of the movies was changed and molded by the filmmakers. For starters, none of the Eloi or Morlocks speak. To be honest, I still have no idea how the time traveling main character learned their names. And the relationship between the female Eloi (Weena, the only named character) is more of a parent/child or babysitter/child than a love affair and seen in several adaptions, like the Guy Pearce movie.

Overall, it is definitely a fantastic novel. And one can easily see how it shaped and changed science fiction forever. I think everyone should forget the story of The Time Machine that they know from TV and movies and read this novella. A game changer.

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my book review: phantom by thomas tessier

Phantom by Thomas Tessier
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I first heard of Tessier’s Phantom via the Horror Reading List on the Horror Writer’s Association website. The list is available here: http://www.horror.org/readlist.htm in alphabetical order.

It is a well-used story of a young boy (pre-teen) whose family moves to a rural area, near an abandoned building, with a tainted past. A classic, supernatural-presence tale of horror and suspense. While offering nothing “new” to the genre, the book was still able, through a tight narrative and descriptive writing, to offer lots of frights and tense moments. And without employing too many twists or turns, the author managed to create an ending that was not what I was expecting. A welcome surprise, considering the book mainly followed the plot structure of a classic ghost story.

Overall, it wasn’t bad. A quick read - very crisp and concise. But it wasn’t anything to write home about either. Would I put it on my list of top 40 horror novels? Probably not. But I can see why people liked its simplicity at a time (it was published in the 1980s) when horror writers seemed to be getting more and more convoluted.

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