Showing posts with label movie tie-ins. Show all posts
Showing posts with label movie tie-ins. Show all posts

Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda: Waystation Review

Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda: Waystation
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Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda: Waystation ReviewI began WAYSTATION without high expectations, since spin-off novels from video series or films are rarely masterpieces. I was pleasantly surprised. The novel shows some surprising quality in places. It really had me turning pages and enjoying myself. Too bad that, overall, it lacked a satisfying ending and -- at the end -- just sort of twittered out into limbo.
At first I was a bit put off by the constant flip banter between the characters. However, this constant banter became more familiar by the second chapter and I started to flow with it. Perhaps because I came to enjoy the characters. I have seen the Andromeda TV show and expected the characters to be cardboard cut-outs from the show, but the author did a surprisingly good job of bringing them to life. The best developed character by far was Trance Gemini, that peculiar little elfin woman whose role I never understood in the TV series. She becomes the focus of this book, and carries it. I need to give Mr. McDonald a gold star for developing her into an interesting character for the reader, given that I am not sure the TV show provided him with much to work with in this regard.
The novel also helped me to understand some riddles of the TV series that never made sense to me. Like, why there are TWO Andromedas -- one a hologram and one an android. Turns out they are two different characters. At times they even begin to argue with one another.
The plot started so well. The ship Andromeda Ascendant has been badly shot up in a battle with defense forces of the planet Kantar; she escapes, limping, into Slipstream drive, but is forced to drop out of hyperspace when systems fail. The ship thus defaults into a very bad location, a quadrant with little but empty vacuum. No planets, no moons, no asteroids. However, by good fortune Andromeda's star charts reveal an old waystation, built centuries earlier to service starships in the early days of exploration. The plot centers on a desperate effort to (1) travel to the waystation, (2) find materials necessary to effect repairs on the Andromeda Ascendant, and (3) return.
Here's where the book runs into major problems. At least three-quarters of the book (roughly 200 pages) has concluded before members of Hunt's crew even REACH the waystation. Thus the author has only about 65 pages to roll out most of the plot and wrap up the book. Scene follows scene in a rush, blurring past the reader as the author tries to tie everything up in a few tens of pages. Even with all this haste and compression, a lot is left hanging as the book ends.
Perhaps the author might have had more room to conclude the book if he did not devote so many pages to Trance Gemini's dimension doors and encounters with quantum alternates of herself. While this element worked well for a while, and was genuinely interesting when first introduced, it eventually got to be very repetitious and overworked. I kept asking, "oh, no, not again -- haven't we been there before-- like four times at least?" A sub-plot that got out of control?
To wrap this up -- this novel had many elements I liked a lot. The characters, plenty of drama, great sense of humor, and a fast-moving action plot that takes us to about page 200. At that point structure seems to break down. The ending is compressed, cursory, and disappointing.
This book is too good to pan, but too weak to praise.
Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda: Waystation Overview

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Night of the Living Dead TP Review

Night of the Living Dead TP
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Night of the Living Dead TP ReviewThe movie Night of the Living Dead came out in 1968 and through its creators John Russo and George Romero, the movie created the template that future zombie movies would be made and judged. While both would go on to do other zombie projects in their careers, and be the standard that their work would forever be judged by.
However, no matter where a story starts, all characters have their own backstory to them, most of which never ends up in the primary story. So it goes with "Night Of The Living Dead", and despite writing two novels in this universe (see Undead), it would take until 2009 and 2010 for John Russo to come back and do some major writing for his story. And that is to write an eight chapter, braided graphic novel that tells both the backstory of the initial plague days and the backstories behind the characters that populated the movie. Although it isn't clear as to how much input Russo actually had in this book's creation, and how much is from Mike Wolfer. Some editorial words on the matter would have been appreciated.
Starting off as series of comic books, this book collects the first series of books, and all of the variant covers, many of which are poster worthy. Chapter One has artwork by Sebastian Fiumara and tells the story of Tammy, her date Mike and their friend Alex, who was stood up by Christine (who we'll meet later), who are out drinking in the nearby woods when they have a run-in with the resurrected. It isn't pretty.
Chapter Two is where the stories start getting really interesting. It's the day after the first chapter and Christine is getting dressed for her job while waking up her grandmother. She leaves for her job with her boyfriend Don, while at the same time that a tour bus that is travelling through Willard goes off the road, killing all aboard, then the dead rise.
In a nearby cemetery two gravediggers are burying a dead man when he rises. This is the primary zombie that we see throughout the original movie (see customer images. The surviving gravedigger flees to a nearby house, where Christine's grandmother is. Some of the bus zombies will lay siege to the house, while some will end up at the Beekman's Diner where Don and Christine work, and where Ben has stopped for something to eat.
It's this, and the third chapter, in which we find out what happened in the diner that Ben will flee from, and the house where he will flee to, in the original movie. In Chapter Three we will also meet for the first time Sheriff McClellan who will leave a less than inspiring impression. The situation in the diner goes from bad to worse in Chapter Four, as Ben finally flees, and the sheriff shows up with his posse. Here we find out that Ben's later death wouldn't be the first time that the not-to-bright trigger happy sheriff shot first before he figured out what the hell he was doing.
Chapter Five tells the story of Karen Cooper and her family. Harry is abusive, his wife is passive and complacent, and Karen bares the brunt of it all. As we saw in the movie, all will suffer because of Harry's weak character and his stupidity. This is Karen's chapter, so the farmhouse's siege and her family's fate is told from her viewpoint, and stands up as an independent horror story, and the artwork here passes from Fiumara to Edison George.
In Chapter Six a whole new set of characters, independent from the movie are introduced. Here a local thug, and his crew, terrorize and rob a local drive-in. Their antics are interrupted when the dead come to feed. This is a solid zombie story that could have been written by Joe Lansdale. Unfortunately, the artwork by Ryan Waterhouse is less than inspired, and the characters are universally ugly.
In Chapter Seven we find out that Don and Christine have survived (how?) the siege and massacre at Beekman's Diner and they are on their way to WIIC, the home television station of the reporters that are seen in the movie, to rescue Christine's father, and it's here they pick up two new survivors. We also find out the fate of the scientist commentator who was seen on the television in the original movie. The art this time around is by Edison George and Luis Czerniawski, and seems to flux throughout the story, although, on the average it is top-notch. For the fans of the movie we also get cameos from zombies Karen, Barbra, and her brother Johnny in this story.
Chapter Eight takes place in New York City and Lisa and her date Eric are out on the town as the zombies invade. They are trapped in a diner with a trio of gun-toting maniacs as the city goes to hell. The story documents their fates as they escape the diner. The art is by Fabio Jansen, and is dramatic and well rendered, and its breathless telling would honor any zombie flick.
In the end all the stories are well told, with emphasis on the stories of the movie's characters as the world falls apart, and on independent stories chronicling the fall. There are also a lot of pages that are, or are near dialogueless, in which the authors allow the art to tell the story without cluttering up the pages with unnecessary verbiage. This isn't a kids comic though, there is VERY graphic nudity, gore, violence (a baby is feasted on), bad behavior, sexual situations; all the good stuff good violent exploitative fiction should have. This is coupled with mostly great art all around, with all of the characters well rendered, the action well staged, solid writing, sixties fashions well rendered, and the inclusion of all of the covers, variant and otherwise (see customer images for examples). The book is beautifully full-colored, and solidly bound; it should hold up to multiple readings, and is well worth the money that all horror fans will spend on it. There's even room for a sequel as Don and Christine survive the book.
For this site I have also reviewed the following graphic novels:
Batman: The Sunday Classics 1943-1946
The Complete Saga of the Victims
Creepy Creatures (Goosebumps Graphix)
Green Candles (1 of 3)
Green Candles Volume 2
Green Candles Volume 3: Don't Forget Me
Ju-On Volume 2
Kolchak The Night Stalker Volume 1
The Secret of the Swamp ThingNight of the Living Dead TP OverviewA prequel to the original film from the original creator and co-writer John Russo! You've heard the eyewitness accounts and were shocked by the television reports, but now for the first time you'll experience the horrifying events which led to that first Night of the Living Dead! A strange mist brings the unburied dead back to life, hungry for the flesh of the living.This incredible prequel to the blockbuster classic 1968 Night of the Living Dead film gives new insight into many of the film's characters and locations, including horrific encounters at the farm house and Beekman's diner, and introduces, for the first time, the Cemetery Zombie, Sheriff McClellan, the zombie girl Karen, and NOTLD hero Ben.

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James Cameron's Avatar: The Na'vi Quest Review

James Cameron's Avatar: The Na'vi Quest
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James Cameron's Avatar: The Na'vi Quest ReviewHad the first review posted with this item ACTUALLY described the item he was SUPPOSED to be reviewing and not the movie, I wouldn't have bought this book. I was hoping for a novel that would expand on the story of the movie. This is not a full length novel but a child's adaptation instead (maybe for nine year olds?). I suppose for what it is it's OK. However, if you're expecting a novel based on the movie, this is NOT it.James Cameron's Avatar: The Na'vi Quest OverviewFOR USE IN SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES ONLY. In the futuristic world of James Cameron's Avatar, a young man named Jake becomes part of an exploration team on the planet Pandora, inhabited by the exotic Na'vi. Scientists have created an avatar-a body that looks like a Na'vi but is operated by a human's consciousness. When in his avatar body, Jake finds himself drawn to the planet's way of life. But before the Na'vi will accept him as one of their own, he has to pass a series of fantastic and dangerous tests. Can Jake survive long enough to become a full-fledged Na'vi? And will he ever want to live as a human again?--This text refers to the Library Binding edition.

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