Reading List: Heroes of the Space Marines

Another book Ive read recently is a collection of short stories set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe, Heroes of the Space Marines. This book collects 10 stories in total, all involving Space marines and/or their evil counterparts, the Chaos Space Marines. One thing I loved about this collection is the inclusion of a story involving the Death Watch. The Death Watch in Warhammer 40k is a specialised group of Space Marines chosen from different chapters to go on basically suicide missions that have them going up against incredibly insane odds. Most of the short story collections of Warhammer 40k include such a story. Also included in this collection is a prequel story to the Salamander series coming soon by author Nick Kyme. His story really showed promise and got me all excited about reading the series when it is finally available to buy. There were also a few stories included that failed to catch my attention and also a few that were at best decent. But there were several that were outstanding and that alone makes this worth buying for any Warhammer 40k fan.

Reading List: Tyranny of the Night

Glen Cook is one of my favorite authors. He ranks up there right behind Scott Lynch as a matter of fact. Mr Cook brings a stark realism to even the most outlandish of fantasy stories. He does simply by making the story about the people and not the champions like every other fantasy novel does. Tyranny of the Night is no exception. He brings back the style that made him an international best seller with his Black Company series. Tyranny of the Night is about a soldier named Else Tage. He is sent by his Warlord to infiltrate and spy on the lands to the west so that his country can anticipate when the rulers of the western kingdoms will try to raise an army to purge his country from what the world believes to be the Holy Lands. Unbeknown to his leaders, Else is attacked by and actually kills a minor god, one of many that plague this world during the night. Not only does Else have to play the spy game and keep himself from being revealed to his new comrades and employers, but he also has to watch out for the wrath of the gods. It did take me a while to get into this book. Like most of his novels, Glen Cook really develops the characters and their homelands to great detail. One really has to pay attention when reading this book or you can easily become lost in the vast amount of details and actions of the many involved parties int he story. Once I got everyone down, where they were from and what their motivations were, this book become very enjoyable, that and the fact that the plot evolved from the intrigue to actual battles and so forth. It can be a little overwhelming but Tyranny of the Night is a very good read.

Autobots! Roll out!

Finally. After several weeks of comedies, I was ready for a big summer action movie. A movie where there is no real story beyond getting the characters from one location to another. A movie where everything you see gets exploded to hell and there are hot chicks running around. Transformers 2 delivers on all of those fronts with ease. I really liked the first Transformers movie, mainly because it ended up being way better than even the slightest amount of hope I had for it. With this one, I was ready for what awaited me and I think that's the main reason, I didn't like this one as much. This time around Sam and company are trying to find an energy source before the evil decepticons find it and use it to power a machine that would *gasp* destroy the sun and kill us all. Most of the robots are back from the first one and there are many more added to this movie, most notably Soundwave, the former boombox decepticon who in this film changes into a satellite orbiting the Earth. Also appearing in this film is the true Devastator who is made up of 6 separate decepticons and my all time favorite Transformer, Ravage, whose robot form resembles a panther. Most of the human cast return as well for this time around. Missing are the hot chick computer hacker and Anthony Anderson and Jon Voight. The cast performs admirably, Josh Duhamel and Tyrese Gibson are all military, Shia is running around and Megan Fox just looks hot. It was a very enjoyable film. IT made me laugh, awed me with huge explosions, and truly gave me my money's worth. The final battle alone makes up for about 45 minutes of the films 2 hour film time. A great movie to see if you re wanting some good summer blockbuster fun. I give Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen a score on the Heath-meter of 8 out of 10.

Babe of the Week 6/28 - 7/04/09

The gorgeous Isabel Lucas is the babe of the week for the first week of July. She has mainly appeared in television. She appeared in her first major american movie in Transformers 2.

Wow, nothing funny like sacrilege

I have to say, I wasn't all too hyped to see Year One. I thought it would be funny but I could give or take seeing it. I expected to see something that would make me laugh in what was being called the movie about the world's first road trip. Well, I did laugh a few times, but those times were few and far between the moments where I cringed at the amount of time spent making fun of Christianity, Judaism and basic good taste. Now, I'm not a hardcore christian or even devoutly religious, i was however raised in church and I still have a very healthy respect for God. Ive watched other movies that people have said makes them uncomfortable such as Dogma and I saw no problem. This movie however made me feel like I was going to be struck by lightning for watching it. Instead of being the world's oldest road trip, this movie could basically be called The Bible: The gross out joke edition. It starts out in a village of primitive humans. Zed (jack Black) a hunter who is very inept gets kicked out of the village for eating the forbidden fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. His friend Oh (Michale Cera) decides to leave with him. On their journey they meet Cain and Abel, Adam and Eve and their family including Seth who is nothing but a 5 minute fart joke. They also manage to meet Abraham and Isaac which leads to many unfunny jokes about circumcision and other basic Jewish tradition. They end up in Sodom which the movie tries to play out like Vegas, even though in the Bible, it was destroyed by fire from heaven for being such an evil place, which they also poke fun at in this movie. All together, I felt wrong for watching this film. Even if there was significantly less sacrilege, I would still not like it because its not really that funny. jack Black plays the same spazzed out character he plays in almost every movie he's ever been in. The only good thing about this entire movie is Olivia Wilde who is pretty hot. So if you re headed to the movies to see something funny, go see The Hangover or Land of the Lost, just forget Year One. I give Year One a score on the Heath-meter of 2 out of 10.

Babe of the Week 6/21 - 6/27/09

This week's babe is the gorgeous Olivia Wilde. She has appeared in several movies such as Alpha Dog and more recently Year One.

Heath List: Anime Series

Ok here goes. This is the Heath List for my top 5 favorite Anime series that I have seen. If there is a series that you like that I fail to mention, please let me know.

#5 Neon Genesis Evangelion

#4 Rurouni Kenshin

#3 Naruto

#2 Ranma 1/2


#1 Death Note