Thursday, October 19, 2006

Work consumes

Well, two 13 hour days this week amounts to no beginning of the week post from me, which has been the regular update time here at the Blog o' Stuff. Without internet access at work, at least for non-work things, the blog has slowed down.

Anyway, I posted up my review of Wayne Batson's The Final Storm a couple of days ago right here.

The frontpage of SFFWorld has also been changed up quite a bit, so check out the interview with Neil Gaiman at the top of the page and a solid review of Jeff VanderMer's latest, Shriek: An Afterword.

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

A Rant-worthy Week and Two Reviews

It has been a relatively trying seven days. Nothing major or life shattering, but rather more frustrating than anything. Last week, my car battery died, but thankfully I was only a couple of miles from home.

Saturday, driving home, I hit a deer with my car. Or rather, the young deer ran into my car. In the area of NJ where I live, I see about one dead deer on the side of the road for every couple of miles I drive. One could say I live out in the country. In fact, when I first moved into the house last year a deer was hit right outside my house (not by me). I was woken by the gunshot which put the poor creature out of its misery. Between where I live now and where my In-Laws live, I've been avoiding deer on the roads for a while, I've become relatively skilled at spotting them. However, this little guy came out of nowhere and with the hour being dusk, it was even more difficult to see the road and my surroundings. I pulled over to check the car and glance back at the deer, the deer struggled for a minute or so, got up and bounded away. The car is driveable and Mrs. Blog o' Stuff and I are fine, just a little shaken and stirred.

Sunday, the Yankees lost to the Tigers. Considering the tall goofball who pitched on Sunday, and the whiny prima-donna who pitched on Saturday, I'm not too suprised. The Yankees loss is another rant, which I don't care to go into at the moment.

Monday, I had some plumbing issues in the house and had to have Roto Rooter come out today. Getting ready for work today, I lost a contact. Luckily, I had a spare set. Getting into the car, I spilled coffee all over my seat.

So while on the whole, life is generally "OK," I still (as I told my wife) would like to, if they were a perseon, take the past 7 days outside in the back yard and beat it about the face with a large frying pan.

I joined the revolution today and signed up with MySpace. What I'll do with it, is probably minimal.

Last and not least, I posted a couple of reviews in the past week:

The Black Tattoo by Sam Enthoven - a little bit epic fantasy, a little bit horror, and a little disappointing.

The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor - A retelling of Alice in Wonderland vis a vis Gregory Maguire's Wicked.

The venerable Hobbit of SFFWorld posted his review of Joe Hill's 20th Century Ghosts, making me want the book even more.

The new seasons of Lost and Battlestar Galactica are doing exactly what they did last season - leaving me wanting more.

Latest sign of the apocalypse: Mr. T. has reality Show.

Enough ranting for now.

Monday, October 02, 2006

10 Unread Books Meme and a Review

I posted my review of The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor, a retelling of Alice in Wonderland. In the same vein as Maguire’s Wicked, though not quite as good.

Hornswaggled from the Hornswaggler himself… The 10 Unread books mem

Fool Moon by Jim Butcher – I really enjoyed Storm Front and with the TV show upcoming, I want to get into this soon.

Smoke and Mirrors by Neil Gaiman – I feel I should read this before I get Fragile Things.

Son of the Witch by Gregory Maguire – I loved Wicked, got this about a year ago, but haven’t gotten to it yet.

Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson – I never got around to reading Elantris, so I figured this might be a good starting point for the new author.

Innocents Aboard by Gene Wolfe – really, is there a defendable excuse for having an unread Gene Wolfe book on my shelf? I didn’t think there was.

The Hidden Stars by Madeline Howard – Ms. Howard has a forum at SFFWorld and I’ve been meaning to read this for a while, shame on me.

The Chosen by Ricardo Pinto – Gary Wassner spoke very highly of this book as have others.

Tales of the White Wolf edited by Karl Edward Wagner – a collection of short stories about Michael Moorcock’s Elric of Melnibone. With writers like Tad Williams and Neil Gaiman, I couldn’t pass this up in the used bookstore.

A Hymn Before Battle by John RingoSFFWorld forum member Ouroboros goes on quite a bit about this book and series. I saw it in the local used bookshop and figured I’d give it a try.

The Last Coin by James P. Blaylock – this one has been on the shelf for at least a year, and I’ve heard wonderful things about Blaylock.

I’m sure most people who read my blog already know this, but it is worth mentioning: Clarkesworld Magazine launched yesterday. Good luck to Neil and Nick.

Last but not least, the latest installment of Greenhorn made me smile very broadly.