Author: Lynn

Categories
Books Science Fiction

The Breakers Series: Books 1-3 Bundle, a 99¢ Bargain

I’m not usually on the lookout for cheap books because I tend to be a reader who wants now whatever it is I want to read and waiting for a bargain isn’t in my nature.

That’s not to say I never run across bargains though, and today I did.

The Breakers Series: Books 1-3

So what’s it about?

In the Breakers series, humanity faces not one apocalypse, but two: first a lethal pandemic, then a war against those who made the virus. This collection includes the first three books and is over 1000 pages (350,000 words) of post-apocalyptic survival.

See the little screencap (11/3/13)? Apparently a lot of people like this set. :)

Breakers Series, books 1-3 bundle Screencap of ratings at Amazon

Including Breakers, Meltdown, & Knifepoint, this bundle isn’t the complete Breakers set, but it definitely will give you a good start on the series. I personally haven’t read these books, but I have started reading The Cutting Room, which is a serial (now complete) by the same author, Edward W. Robertson.

Categories
Books

Zombies Are So Passé, But an Apocalypse Makes It All Better: This Plague of Days (The Zombie Apocalypse Serial)

I’m not a big fan of serialized fiction. I love series, but series and serials aren’t remotely the same when done correctly. However, this one has caught my attention, with its creepy cover and interesting description. The cover doesn’t say zombies to me, but it certainly does right by the apocalypse. Regardless, I love the atmospheric covers. The autistic character is a big draw too, since I enjoy characters who are a bit out of the ordinary. If there’d been only one book here, I’m not sure I would have picked it up yet but it looks like the story is going to be worth it.

This Plague of Days, Season 1 This Plague of Days, Season 2

Links:

This Plague of Days Season One (The Zombie Apocalypse Serial)

This Plague of Days, Season Two (The Zombie Apocalypse Serial)

Jaimie Spencer is a strange autistic boy caught in a fight for survival as the Sutr-X virus spreads across the United States. While governments lie to their citizens to quarantine victims and isolate cities, the inexorable mind virus brings civilization as we know it to an end. Sutr-X sweeps away all we knew, but the plague doesn’t stop there. As the virus mutates to become Sutr-Z, Britain falls as the zombies rise.

The war for the future has begun and the greater numbers are on the side of the infected. Terrorists created the plague and made ordinary civilians into rabid bio-weapons. The Ungrateful Living and the rabid cannibals all share one thing in common: they are just like you.

Categories
Television

Grimm is Back for Another Season

And boy am I happy to see it. I love this show entirely too much. But really, who doesn’t love a fun show like Grimm? (If you hate it, I’m definitely not talking to you. Don’t rain on my parade, please.)

Grimm

Amazon’s got the show all ready to go and that’s where I picked up the season 3 premiere (The Ungrateful Dead) last night. I know, I know, I shouldn’t have been able to wait so long to watch it, but the truth is I was using it as a reward to get something done and I couldn’t seem to get done. It took me days to finish, when I’d planned to be done Saturday afternoon so I could watch Grimm ASAP.

I suggest you go ahead and buy the season pass. It’s cheaper and you know you’ll want to watch all the episodes. However, if you want them real cheap, just go to the NBC website and you can watch them there. I’ve watched shows at the NBC site before and it’s not bad. Might try out the new Dracula tomorrow night over there before I commit to buying a season of it. :)

Watch at:

NBC’s website: http://www.nbc.com/grimm/video/

Categories
Books Television

A List of the Stargate Atlantis Legacy Series Books; Because It’s Finally Over

Stargate Atlantis: The Legacy Series: Inheritors
It’s done. The end. The Legacy series is over.* And I’m a few months late with this post. Oops. Here’s all the books in the series, for those who might be interested.

  1. Homecoming by Jo Graham & Melissa Scott
  2. The Lost by Jo Graham & Amy Griswold
  3. Allegiance  by Melissa Scott & Amy Griswold
  4. The Furies by Jo Graham
  5. Secrets by Melissa Scott & Jo Graham
  6. Inheritors by Melissa Scott, Jo Graham, & Amy Griswold

One reviewer wasn’t that pleased with the way the series turned out. I wouldn’t know. I gave up reading after Homecoming because I don’t like reading series in progress. The series came back to mind recently though, after I received a notice from Fandemonium that some out of print books in the Stargate Atlantis series were now available—books I meant to pick up but just hadn’t gotten around to it. Anyway, back to the unhappy reviewer.

…while it’s not the unedited dreck which I usually give one star, it was a colossal disappointment. Especially considering the strong start in Homecoming. Since I’ve already detailed much of how, in my opinion, the series went off the rails in my reviews for The Furies and Secrets, I’ll try not to reiterate too much. It’s somewhat difficult, however, because many of the faults in this final volume originated elsewhere.

It made me want to go back and dig up the other reviews mentioned, but then I came to my senses. If I pick the rest of these books up now, I don’t want to be aware of any glaring issues before I read them. I’d rather not ask for trouble if I can help it.

*Apparently, it’s not really over after all. But I’ll save that for another post.

Categories
Television

Teen Wolf: Time to Rewatch the First Half of Season 3

Teen Wolf

Just an observation, now that the first half of Teen Wolf’s third season is over: the tone of the show wasn’t only darker but lacked a lot of the themes that ran through the first two seasons. Of course, talking about the murder of children (even though they’re teens, they’re still kids) every single episode made it tough to have much fun with it.

I still enjoyed the show, although I’d love to see a few lighter episodes once the season resumes in like … five … months, but it was impossible not to notice that the series has really changed. Allison was barely there. Issac, whom I do adore, had more scenes but less to do. Boyd, poor fellow, was hardly there at all, and of course we all know what happened to poor Erica. The villains annoyed me. Kali, I hated. She was probably the best villain just because every time she came on screen I kept hoping she would finally die and that was even before I found out just how big a role she played in certain key deaths/maimings.

I enjoyed Cora though but I still don’t feel like I know how she didn’t die in the Hale house fire, so I feel like I either missed something the first time through–not impossible–or it wasn’t explained very well. And one scene I remember that makes me long for her to come back for at least a couple short episodes was the Issac & Derrick scene where Issac shows a bit of romantic interest in Cora. That would be lovely to see followed up. Not likely to happen, I know, especially with all the Allison and Issac vibes going on–which I’m not much of a fan of, TBH, because it makes no sense that Allison wouldn’t want to be with Scott if she’s reconciled herself with her anti-werewolf sentiment from season 2. If not, why in the world would she be interested in Issac? Just doesn’t make any sense to me.

It’s time to rewatch the season though to make sure I didn’t miss anything or that I’m not looking at the half-season as a whole and not remembering the lighter moments. Plus, it’s always fun to rewatch the good shows. :)

Categories
News

Science Fiction and Fantasy Book Reviews Coming Soon

As an avid fan of reading, I’ve decided to start including more science fiction and fantasy book reviews on the site. If you want to submit your book for review, feel free to use the contact page to send me a blurb and I’ll tell you if I’m interested. If you send me the book attached, do not send it in a zip file. I won’t risk opening it.

I get a lot of books through netgalley and from publishers, but not SF/F books. Any time I can, I’d rather deal directly with authors if possible, because it’s easier to go back to emails if I decide I want to review a book later that I wasn’t sure about to start with. I’m also not one to post reviews if I hate a book, simply because there’s no way I’ll finish it if I don’t like it. That’s just the way I read.

My tastes in SF/F fiction run to pulp and entertainment, although I occasionally enjoy high-minded fiction. I’d much rather be entertained, and I have high tolerance for typos and grammar foibles–I want a good story. Give me that and I’m forgiving of the rest…

I’m opening this to both industry/traditionally published books and independently published books for the time being. We’ll see how it goes.

Categories
Television

Ah ha! Teen Wolf’s Season Three Love Interest for Derrick

Teen Wolf

So, is it just me or does it appear that [SPOILER ALERT for Fireflies!] Scott’s and Stiles’ new teacher could end up being Derrick’s new love interest? Although rumors have abounded about him getting his werewolf-y self a girlfriend this season, I hadn’t seen any mention of the new teacher.

At the end of the latest episode, things looked like it could definitely go that way in the future. The rescue and then her trusting reach for him at the end… if I were a gambler, I know where I’d put my money.

This is pure speculation, I’m afraid, but I’m a fan and I sure do enjoy speculating on these things.

Fireflies is also available as streaming video on the MTV website if you prefer. I tried it, and it sucked so I bought a season pass at Amazon. I love the show too much to settle for crappy commercial-filled playback. Every time a commercial came on, it knocked the video out of full screen mode. Since I was streaming to my TV it was very unpleasant to have to get up and reset the full screen mode every time the show came back on, because there were a LOT of ads.

If you stream from the MTV website, has this happened to you? Were you able to fix it?

Links:

https://www.mtv.com/shows/teen-wolf

Categories
Books

Grimm Has a Book on the Way: The Icy Touch

Grimm The Icy Touch

Lookie what I just found! Grimm: The Icy Touch by John Shirley has a November 5, 2013 publication date.

Now this is something I’ve been waiting for and didn’t even realize it.

As a huge fan of Grimm, seeing that they’ve moved to media tie-in books excites me for the future of this series and the universe it has created. Especially after that season 2 finale on Tuesday (May 21) that’s still currently available to watch on the Grimm video page at NBC.com.

Portland homicide Detective Nick Burkhardt discovers he is descended from an elite line of criminal profilers known as “Grimms”, charged with keeping balance between humanity and the mythological creatures of the world.

The book can be bought at most online books stores.

I’m assuming the book is going to get a better description at some point and possibly a better cover that actually makes use of the title…

Then again, television media tie-in novels aren’t known for their fantastic covers and mostly use stock images of the cast.

The book’s cover does say “Book 1” which could indicate a possible series of books are already planned and that this isn’t just a one-off release.

On top of that, I’m not sure it’s realistic to hope for it, but I would love to see Amazon make a deal with the owners of Grimm for their new Kindle Worlds program. I know I’d try my hand at it! I adore the show, have written some (inappropriate) fan fiction that I’d never be able to use in that way, but I’d certainly be willing to give a shot to a more plausible, sticks-to-the-known-canon, story. In fact, I have one in progress that I abandoned at about the 5,000 word mark about a year ago that I’d probably revisit.

Categories
Television

Why I Bailed on The Walking Dead

The Walking Dead

I watched The Walking Dead very shortly after it appeared on Netflix the first time, and I developed a real interest in the series. The finale of Season one piqued my curiosity, and I had some hopes that a bigger mystery surrounding the cause of the outbreak would develop or at least we’d discover whatever it was what’s-his-name whispered into Rick’s ear.

When I finally realized the show isn’t about that, and never will be, I gave up.

What The Walking Dead is about is the constant struggle of survival. Nothing more, nothing less.

There’s insight into the human psyche to be had, if that’s one’s interest, and there’s gore aplenty.

I’m not a fan of the gore, but the human relationships were fascinating. The action and adventure aspects, when played out, was entertaining. But I had bigger questions, and the implicit promise, with the trip to the CDC and the passing on of some whispered secret, was that I might get answers.

Then there was just more killing.

That wasn’t enough to sustain my interest.

So, yeah. I finally bailed. I haven’t watched any episodes of season 3 and it’s unlikely I ever will.

Categories
Television

As Season 2 Nears its End, Grimm is still my favorite show. But…

Hank Griffin

Hank GriffinI’m worried about Hank. His role feels incomplete, extraneous. Not integral to the show any longer. The thing is, I don’t want to lose Hank, but if they don’t find a way to make him truly part of the series, he has no place on the show.

That’s after watching this week’s episode on NBC.com, The Waking Dead, which aired on 5/14/13. (Aside: the video starts right off, so if you hate that don’t follow the link.) With the season finale coming up, Hank Griffin seems like a character worth worrying over. Maybe if he weren’t so supportive of Nick, there could be some animosity develop between them related to the Wesen world. Or he could side more clearly with Captain Renard in a situation where Nick has to go against them both.

I don’t know … there are thousands of possibilities that would bring Hank back into a significant role within Grimm. As it is, he’s not even the sidekick, or at best, a sidekick half the time when no one else is around. I don’t want Hank to do something foolish, but I don’t think that would be necessary. Nick has already had run-ins with Wesen that have made him make questionable decisions. Hank obviously believes in the law, or he couldn’t be where he’s at, so the idea that there could come a time when Nick makes a decision that could put a major rift between him and Hank is very real. That would make for some excellent story too.

But the show’s writers seem determined to keep Hank in a marginalized role.

So I’m going to worry about Hank and his fate until after the season finale airs on 5/21/13, or until season 3 starts. Maybe both.