1. Not every superhero movie needs to be rated PG-13 Sure, an R rating is going to limit the potential audience for a movie, but forcing every movie into a PG-13 rating is the very definition of lowest common denominator thinking. We’ll get better movies if they’re allowed to express their ideas with as little […]
I’ve noticed this thing. Maybe you have to. You’ll be watching a tv show, or a movie, and they’ll give you this view of the car interior so you can see both the driver and passenger, plus the street moving in the background. You get a couple of back and forth camera shots, going back […]
Here are 5 cool things for you to check out this weekend. Podcast: Soundtrack Composer Rob Gokee on The Functional Nerds Podcast – Patrick, Rob and I discuss composers Hans Zimmer, Bear McCreary and Blake Neely. Rob then tells us what it’s like to score music for Dreamworks Animation, the SyFy channel, PBS, National Geographic as well […]
If you’re a writer, editor, or book publisher, piracy is an obvious issue. To help build your strategies to encourage piracy, I wanted to offer up 3 quick steps you can deploy right now, if you haven’t already. First off, price your eBooks out of the market. Having an eBook priced at $15 or above […]
The Martian by Andy Weir Presumed dead, astronaut Mark Whatley is stranded on Mars and has to figure out how to survive on his own. Apollo 11 meets Castaway. Macguyver in space. Call it whatever you want, but it’s the best book that I’ve read so far this year. Can’t wait for the movie. The […]
Your friendly neighborhood podcasting duo will be making a rare live appearance at Capricon 35 in Wheeling, IL February 12th – the 15th 2015. We’ll be on several panels and recording live in front of a studio audience! We would love to see as many of you as will fit in the room for the […]
In Emma Newman’s Between Two Thorns, the first novel in her Split Worlds series, all Cathy wants is to go to college and be with the man she loves. However, her family in the Nether, the sky-less land between Mundanus, the normal world, and Exillium, the magical land of the Fae Lords, want her back […]
Series: Pathfinder Tales Paperback: 400 pages Publisher: Paizo Publishing, LLC. (February 11, 2014) ISBN-10: 1601256140 Official Description: Gideon Gull leads a double life: one as a talented young bard at the Rhapsodic College, the other as a student of the Shadow School, where Taldor’s infamous Lion Blades are trained to be master spies and assassins. […]
Series: Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne (Book 1) Hardcover: 480 pages Publisher: Tor Books (January 14, 2014) ISBN-10: 0765336405 Official Description: In The Emperor’s Blades by Brian Staveley, the emperor of Annur is dead, slain by enemies unknown. His daughter and two sons, scattered across the world, do what they must to stay alive and […]
Walking Dead: Rise of the Governor by Robert Kirkman and Jay Bonansinga explores the backstory of the most notorious villain of the Walking Dead world, known as Philip Blake or “The Governor.” The novel, the first in a series, begins shortly after the dead begin to rise, with Philip Blake, his daughter Penny, his brother […]
Series: Vintage Original Paperback: 496 pages Publisher: Vintage (April 8, 2014) ISBN-10: 0345803639 Official Description: Humans beware. As the robotic revolution continues to creep into our lives, it brings with it an impending sense of doom. What horrifying scenarios might unfold if our technology were to go awry? From self-aware robotic toys to intelligent machines […]
Series: The Imager Portfolio (Book 8) Hardcover: 448 pages Publisher: Tor Books (January 7, 2014) ISBN-10: 0765336340 Official Description: The saga of the Imager Quaeryt, Commander in the forces of Lord Bhayar, reaches a new climax as the great struggle to unify the continent of Lydar enters its final phase in L.E. Modesitt’s Rex Regis, […]
As someone relatively new to comics and graphic novels, as well as a fan of AMC’s The Walking Dead television series, I was anxious to read the original comics that inspired the show. I readily admit that I’ve never been a huge fan of comics. I loved the illustrations, I loved the stories, but the […]
Hardcover: 352 pages Publisher: Tor Books (March 25, 2014) ISBN-10: 0765337266 Official Description: When seventeen-year-old Toby McGonigal finds himself lost in space, separated from his family, he expects his next drift into cold sleep to be his last. After all, the planet he’s orbiting is frozen and sunless, and the cities are dead. But when […]
Paperback: 374 pages Publisher: Pink Narcissus Press (September 17, 2013) ISBN-10: 1939056039 Official Description: Winter is a predator, taking villages one at a time, leaving the people either dead or half mad. For thousands of years, the Elementarí-spirits of the elements- have slept peacefully under the watchful eye of the Terakhein, a guardian tribe that […]
The Dharma of Star Wars by Matthew Bortolin is a simple, fun introduction to the basic tenets of Buddhism. By using examples from the Star Wars saga, Bortolin illustrates how Buddhism addresses the cause of suffering, and how to transcend that suffering by cultivating mindfulness and recognizing our part in the greater whole of reality. […]
The anthology, Raygun Chronicles, from Every Day Publishing showcases many of the genre stories that were featured in the “short lived zine” called Raygun Revival. In the words of editor Bryan Thomas Schmidt, “the kinds of stories that made us fall in love with science fiction and space opera.” With an engaging introduction from the […]
A Guile of Dragons starts at the very beginning of Morlock Ambrosius’s life, in King Arthur’s Court. A betrayal and capture winds up dragging the parents of Morlock, Merlin (*that* Merlin) and his pregnant mistress Nimue across the Sea of Worlds to the Wardlands, Merlin’s home plane. (A nice touch to Amber and Moorcock). Our […]
In Codex Born by Jim C. Hines, the hero and heroines from Libriomancer must face an old enemy in a powerful new form. When Johannes Gutenberg began mass printing books five hundred years ago, he made their inner magic accessible to certain people with magical abilities. Libriomancers, such as Gutenberg, could tap into the collective […]
As I write this, November draws nigh! Aspiring writers everywhere stock up on Starbucks gift cards, replacement keyboards, and that most renewable of resources, their own unrelenting anxiety about what to write for NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month. For the last few years, I’ve taken on the annual challenge of writing 50,000 words of […]
Hardcover: 352 pages Publisher: Tor Books; 1 edition (September 17, 2013) ISBN-10: 0765335441 Official Description: The colony world of Stittara is no ordinary planet. For the interstellar Unity of the Ceylesian Arm, Stittara is the primary source of anagathics: drugs that have more than doubled the human life span. But the ecological balance that makes […]
In the 163rd episode of the Functional Nerds podcast, Patrick Hester and John Anealio welcome Douglas Lain, author of the new book, Billy Moon, out from TOR. About Douglas Lain: Lain is the producer and host of the weekly podcast Diet Soap, which features insightful guests discussing a wide range of topics, including philosophy, mysticism, […]
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