Dusk Before the Dawn

Big Red Tequila is the first in a series of Tres Navarre novels, a semi-private investigator set in my home town of San Antonio. I’ve always enjoyed novels set in locations where I’ve been, describing locations I know. But this is the first I’ve read set in San Antonio that describes the places and characters so well. I will definitely be reading more in this series (and have already ordered Widower’s Two Step, the next book in the series), and recommend it to my San Antonion friends and all who enjoy a good private eye mystery…I read it through it two sittings.

Tres Navarre’s father was Bexar County Sheriff (the county San Antonio is in, for you non-Texans), and was gunned down in front of Tres. Tres returns to SA from ten years of exile at the request of his former girlfriend Lillian, leaving behind his Taichi teacher, private eye partner and lover, Maia, in San Francisco. Starting to dig up the past rapidly gets Tres in trouble with the SAPD, the mob, city councilmen, businessmen, old and new lovers. (more…)

 Yet another shining example of what will happen when geeks rule the world.

Unfortunately (or fortunately) this makes total sense to me. And, keeping it all in the family, my lovely daughter works for BB&T, so she will probably figure out how to cash it. (From tiny pic).

Book 3 of The Gap Cycle 

The classification of “space opera”can be interpreted in many ways:

• a soap opera in space;
• large-scale adventures in space whose outcome is global (or space wide) in affect;
• from Wiki, “a subgenre of speculative fiction or science fiction that emphasizes romantic, often melodramatic adventure, set mainly or entirely in space, generally involving conflict between opponents possessing powerful (and sometimes quite fanciful) technologies and abilities.”

The Gap Cycle fits all of these definitions, with book three, A Dark and Hungry God Arises, expanding the players, the scope and the level of impact of the possible outcomes. (more…)

Matt at Variety of Words had a contest to give away an Advanced Reader Copy of Tobias Buckell’s upcoming novel, Sly Mongoose. Matt started my memorial day weekend off right by emailing me this morning that I had won the copy.

I’ve read Crystal Rain, Tobias’ first novel, but have not yet read Ragamuffin, his second which was nominated for a Nebula award. Looks like I better get cracking….according to Amazon, Sly Mongoose will be released in August. I’ll read and post a review before then.

I always thought that the Justice League would clobber the Avengers in a cross-comic book brawl. But that is most certainly not the case when it comes to movies. In the last few years the Marvel Universe is just decimating DC. And the trend appears to be more in Marvel’s side of the ledger in the future.

Part of the reason is franchises / sequels. Where DC has Batman and Superman (which should be more than enough to take down anyone), Marvel has three Spidermans, two Fantastic Fours, three X-Men, three Blades and the beginnings of the Iron Man franchise. The three Spiderman movies are in the top 15 grossing movies of all time, seriously weighting the dollar battle towards Marvel.

Out of the top 150 (or so) movies of all time, DC has 5, Marvel has 8; DC’s gross take was about $1 Billion, Marvel’s was $2Billion (the Spiderman franchise thus far is $1Billion, X-Men $600 million).

Upcoming Justice League and Avengers movies will pit the franchises head-to-head. But with more Spiderman, Iron Man and an upcoming Thor movie facing off against more Superman and a possible Wonder Woman, it looks like Marvel will continue to take it to the bank.

List of highest grossing and recent/upcoming after the break. (more…)

My son and I watched the animated movie Superman Doomsday online through NetFlix. The technology worked great and the movie (an animated PG-13 superhero flick?) was well done; wish it would have been longer than it’s 77 minutes, but it still tells the complete tale, based mostly around the comic book story line of The Death of Superman / World Without a Superman and Return of Superman. The stories were also novelized in Roger Stern’s excellent The Death and Life of Superman.

And a cameo by Kevin Smith. In an animated movie. Cracking wise.

(more…)

I started out as a skeptic, but I’ve become a big fan of my nike+iPod gadget set. My wife got me the gift box set for Christmas which has an iPod Nano, the Nike+ sensor that goes in or on your shoes, and a receiver that plugs into the bottom of the iPod (just like the docking or power cord). The product has been out for a while, but has gone through some improvements, particularly on the nike+ web site.

The best characteristics of the product are the motivation, the real-time feedback and the record keeping (see below for one caveat on the record keeping). (more…)

Book 2 of The Gap Cycle 

Forbidden Knowledge is the second book in Stephen R. Donaldson’s The Gap Cycle (the Gap referring to faster-than-light drives jumping the gap). As promised in Donaldson’s author’s note in the first volume (The Real Story) it is radically different than the first novel, and an excellent read (as the first one was as well).

The first novel was little to no science fiction, almost completely interaction between three flawed humans who just happen to be in space, from the point of view of one of them, space pirate and all-around nasty man Angus Thermopyle.

This second novel still revolves around the same trio, but displays how they are flawed personality-wise and modified by technology. An alien species not discussed in the first novel plays a large role, as do several pieces of tech documented in the book by “Ancillary Documentation” interlude chapters. (more…)

I don’t live too far out in the boonies, but I do have a septic system. I’ve had it for eleven years (since we built the house) and we’ve never had it cleaned out. Before you septic knowledgeable experts give me grief, it’s been inspected every quarter as required but has never needed it.

Until yesterday. (more…)

Another playoff appearance, another first round knock out. For those of us (including yours truly plus spousal unit) who were at the two Rocket’s NBA Championship series of not too long ago, instead of having confidence going into each season that we can at least compete for the top, we are getting trained in the habit of early exits, thoughts of what might have been and what changes should be made.

Thoughts of what might have been are not productive, as they always mean discussing injuries (Yao and Rafer), bad trades and signings (Mike James, Steve Francis) and bad luck.

Inevitably, there is the “trade Yao” or “trade McGrady” conversation that comes around. My two cents is below, the overriding opinion being: the Rocks have and always have needed a decent third scoring option, and a “microwave” off the bench. Luis Scola may end up being #3, but they still need a dependable bench scorer or two: (more…)