David Weber is probably best known for his Honor Harrington space opera series, but this is my favorite of his books. Colin MacIntyre is pilot of a NASA experimental moon vessel sometime in the not-too-distant future, with a simple-seeming mission: use a new "gravitonic" probe to map the mass distribution of the moon in detail. Unlike prior gravity surveys that merely use the slight variations in mass to give a very general idea of the mass distribution, the gravitonic probe should provide fine detail of structure and composition. But the [ Continue reading... ]
On My Shelves: JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure
March 22, 2016 By Leave a Comment
What do you get when you have a Japanese who's a fan of Western horror movies and pop music and who's been involved in – and come to despise – the fashion industry? No, no, not Kill La Kill, although there's certainly aspects of commonality. What you get is Jojo's Bizarre Adventure. A manga by Hirohiko Araki which began its run waaaay back in 1987, it had a few sporadic one-off OVA/movie animations many years later, but only in 2012 did it begin its run as an anime (which is primarily what I know it from; I've seen pieces of the [ Continue reading... ]
On My Shelves: One Punch Man
March 17, 2016 By Leave a Comment
IN A WORLD… where monsters and supervillains run rampant, opposed by a variety of heroes and wannabees, there was a man who had reached the point that he did not care whether he lived or died; a monster he encountered was so amused by his "I don't care" attitude that the monster spared him. But then the same monster tried to kill a child in front of him, and the man remembered that he had once dreamed of becoming a hero. After saving the child, he set out to train himself to be the greatest hero… for fun. Saitama – for that was his name – [ Continue reading... ]
On My Shelves: Dragon Age II
September 29, 2015 By 1 Comment
While I had enjoyed Dragon Age: Origins (and its DLC add-ons) immensely (see my prior review), things I had heard about Dragon Age II made me somewhat reluctant to get it; the most weighty of these being that unlike the prior game, Dragon Age II limited you to a single character, not to the several different choices of character (classes of Rogue, Warrior, Mage and species of Elf, Dwarf, and Human, with Dwarves unable to become Mages, and other choices of social class creating multiple combinations of character type, each of which had [ Continue reading... ]
On My Shelves: Disney’s Aladdin
September 17, 2015 By Leave a Comment
The Disney Corporation has produced many animated films over the years, ranging from the old classics like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (wow, not available?) to newer films like The Black Cauldron, The Little Mermaid, The Lion King, and many others, some very good, some… not so good. One of my favorites of all is Aladdin. The basic plot of this Disney version of the old classic is probably very well known. Street-rat Aladdin (with his sidekick monkey Abu) encounters the runaway princess Jasmine and has a few [ Continue reading... ]
On My Shelves: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
September 8, 2015 By Leave a Comment
"Into every generation, there is a chosen one. One girl in all the world. She alone will wield the strength and skill to stand against the vampires, the demons, and the forces of darkness; To stop the spread of their evil and the swell of their numbers. She is the Slayer." Buffy the Vampire Slayer is one of the biggest media phenomena of its generation, and probably the single largest reason for the explosion in popularity of urban fantasy in the last few decades. While it has many ancestors (including the original movie, which [ Continue reading... ]
On My Shelves: Kill La Kill
September 1, 2015 By Leave a Comment
"In Heaven's stead, we smite clothing!" A grim avenger appears at Honnouji Academy. Their father was murdered, the only clue the weapon embedded in Isshin Matoi's chest – half of an immense pair of red-metal scissors or shears, and whispers of a connection to the leader of the Absurdly Powerful Student Council of Honnouji, Satsuki Kiryūin. Armed with nothing but an unbendable will, the half-scissor as a sword, and startling combat skill, this lone mysterious figure swears they will confront the super-powered Council and tear the [ Continue reading... ]
On My Shelves: Secret Identity
August 27, 2015 By Leave a Comment
Clark Kent is a teenage boy living in Picketsville, Kansas, a boy who has dreams of being a writer, and a well-developed ability to endure the constant teasing – both well-meaning and malicious – that comes with being named after the secret identity of the most famous superhero of all time. For he lives in our world, or one very like it, where there are no superhuman beings, only stories of them. But one night, while camping alone, he awakens to find himself actually floating in midair. He can fly. He has super-strength, and [ Continue reading... ]
On My Shelves: The Shadow
August 25, 2015 By Leave a Comment
"Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows!" In 1930, Street and Smith's Detective Story Hour began featuring a sinister-sounding narrator who identified himself only as "The Shadow". Somewhat to the publisher's surprise, The Shadow was so distinctive that listeners started asking for "The Shadow" magazine rather than "Detective Story". Not being foolish, they immediately began publication of such a magazine, featuring a fleshed-out version of the character who had previously been little more than a voice with an [ Continue reading... ]
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