John’s Reviews – books, movies, whatever

  • Laff and Learn

    ByJohn Brown

    My daughters have introduced me to Studio C, a comedy program that started with The Divine Comedy troupe on the BYU campus who all growed up and were given a gig on TV. They do these  hilarious skits.

    Like “Drivers Ed”

    And “Blind Date“.

    And “Shoulder Devil”.

    I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.  BTW, Studio C airs weekly on BYUtv.

    My oldest daughter introduced me to Olan Rogers. Who is crazy.  Here’s “Ghost in the Stalls”

    If you loved that, I think you’ll enjoy “Midnight Claw”  

    Sock slouch . . .

    Next is John Branyan’s brilliant “Three Little Pigs”. My family and I have been enjoying this for months.

    Finally, here’s something to think about. You know I enjoyed Jonathan Haidt’s book The Righteous Mind. Matt Wolfe pointed it out his TED talk to me. The one that preceeded his book. If you’re conservative, like I am, this talk will, at times, annoy you.  But the ideas behind it are great.

    If you want to be equally enlightened but less annoyed, let me suggest you watch Bill Moyer’s interview of Haidt instead.

     

  • FireBoy and WaterGirl and date night with Number 4

    ByJohn Brown

    It was date night with daughter number 4. I asked her what she’d like to do.

    She said she wanted to play a computer game. She likes the ones on friv.com. Probably because there are a couple hundred to choose from, and they’re free.

    Every time we’d play games before, we’d play Miragine War. Warriors, monks, zombies. My army against hers. Sometimes I’d win. Sometimes she’d win. It’s a fun game. It gets a little tedious with the back and forth, but we always had a good time with the slaughter.

    This time she wanted to play something new called FireBoy and WaterGirl.

    Fireboy and Watergirl

     

     

     

    The animation is done in a style similar to FancyPants, which I just love. Not as exaggerated, but still fun movement. The two characters are cute. FireBoy dies in water. WaterGirl dies in fire. Both die in the green mud. And the interesting thing is that it isn’t a competition. I don’t have anything against games that pit players against each other. I love them. But this one was a nice change. The two players actually have to help each other to progress. Part of the fun is figuring out exactly what each of you have to do and in what order to make it through the scenarios.

    So daughter 4 and I laughed and yelled and cheered when we didn’t die. We had a great time. We must have played for at least two hours.

    If you’re looking for a good date, give FireBoy and WaterGirl a try. Oh, and if you go to Friv.com to play it, it’s the little guy with the burning head.

    Fireboy and Watergirl on Friv

  • For those whole love ENDER’S GAME

    ByJohn Brown

    Enders World Essays SmartPopThere’s a special joy in sharing a wonderful experience with someone else. There’s a delight in reliving the experience afterwards, in recalling key moments and quoting funny or cool lines. This is especially true of books. One of my favorite book experiences is Ender’s Game. Which is why I’m so happy to announce that Smart Pop is about to release a collection of articles written by folks sharing their experience with that book.

    You get to hear from Eric James Stone about how the book should have ended. You get to hear from Matt Nix (creator and producer of Burn Notice) how the book was a guide to his life. You get to hear from Colonel Tom Ruby why he made the book mandatory reading for the Air Force’s Air Command and Staff College.

    There are 11 other articles from Neal Shusterman, Captain John F. Schmitt U.S.M.C., Mary Robinette Kowal, Hilari Bell, Ken Scholes, Mette Ivie Harrison, and many others. There are Q&A sections. And there is Card’s own introduction in which he explains what Ender’s Game is really about for him. All of these articles are wonderful reads.

    If you loved Ender’s Game like I did, you’re going to enjoy this book. You can get a free PDF excerpt from the book that includes a few of the Q&As from Card along with the full version of my essay “The Monster’s Heart.” To download the PDF, just scroll down to where it says “Sign Up for Free Chapters & Book Updates”: http://www.smartpopbooks.com/book/enders-world.

     

  • The 2009 BBC version of Austen’s Emma

    ByJohn Brown

    Emma BBC Romola GaraiYou read some reviewers because they regularly set you back in your chair with keen insight. You read others because their phrasing and voice are so delightful that you find yourself unable not to read, even when they venture forth into exciting areas like soup cans and lug nuts. I, alas, fear I cannot occupy either role when I tell you about the BBC’s 2009 mini-series production of Jane Austen’s Emma.

    I cannot because have no keen insight into acting or film-making or film adaptations. I am not an expert on the late 18th and early 19th century England.  I am not an Austen junkie (although you can be sure I intend to become one shortly).

    Surely, as a writer, I could come up with some kind of amazing assessment. But I cannot because I am speechless. I am filled with a fine joy. I have spent nearly four hours with my wife and two of my lovely daughters watching a delightful tale unfold about the fates of a number of characters–some foolish, some arrogant, some quirky, but most of them splendidly human and noble.

    This. THIS is what I go to story for. To be transported. To laugh. To cry. To hope and fear and feel suspense for another.  To spend time with wonderful characters.  To have lived just a little more while under the story’s sway.

    Gush, gush, gush.

    Such an unmanly thing to do. But to hell with that. I am a man who loves Jane Austen and shoot ’em up thrillers both.

    And if you enjoy Cranford or Pride & Prejudice or Downton Abbey, then you will love this production of Emma too. You will want to own it.

    Romola Garai plays the star role of Emma. I enjoyed every minute she was on the screen. I didn’t know who she was, but it appears she was in the 2006 Amazing Grace with Ioan Gruffudd. I might have to watch that one again just to see more of her work. Mr. Knightly, Emma’s lifelong friend, is played by Jonny Lee Miller who starred in Eli Stone, one of my favorite TV series. I loved watching every minute with him equally as well. There were some other familiar British actors; and more I hadn’t seen before. I thought they all did an excellent job.

    As for the story, it’s about Emma, who believes she has an amazing ability at match making and prognosticating and very soon runs into to trouble because of it. It’s also about kindness, and generosity, and, most of all, love. Of so many varieties.

    If you’re wondering what to watch this next week, order this one now.

  • The Drowned Cities by Paolo Bacigalupi

    ByJohn Brown

    The Drowned Cities by Paolo BacigalupiI just finished The Drowned Cities by Paolo Bacigalupi, and, holy cow, folks—this story rocked.

    It’s set in the future in the area around Washington D.C. which is the titular drowned cities. They’re drowned because the climate has gotten warmer, the seas have risen, and D.C. is half under water, permananetly flooded. It’s more like Georgia or Florida—gators, kudzu, the works. But this is not another dumb book about global warming. If it were, I wouldn’t be writing this.

    No, the United States has fallen apart. Up north there’s some alliance with money and power and the ability to keep those in the Drowned Cities out. South, who knows? West? Don’t know. But right around D.C. everything has gone to hell.

    It’s like Mogadishu, Somalia in the 1990’s (Blackhawk Down) with warlords fighting each other, tearing the place apart.

    It’s like Sierra Leone at the end of that decade with different factions butchering locals and forcing kids to fight as soldiers.

    Except instead of the U.S. or Europe or the U-freaking-N sending in peacekeepers to stabilize the situation, it’s China. And just like the U.S. in Somalia, the warlords send the Chinese peacekeepers packing. And so now it’s just chaos.

    Talk about a setting for a story. But Bacigalupi doesn’t stop there. He adds in genetically modified creatures. He starts the book with one named Tool. A creature that’s got the DNA of humans, mastiffs, tigers, reptiles and who knows what else all combined to make him smarter and stronger than humans ever could be—a monster that’s the ultimate killer, the ultimate soldier, the ultimate war machine. One that was bred to submit to a master, but something went wrong with Tool. And he was able to break free of that bond.

    Tool is trying to escape prison and death. But as mighty as he is, he’s weak and injured. And then two kids from a village run into him while in the jungle. He knows they’re going to reveal his whereabouts to the warlord searching for him. In his weakened state, Tool is only able to grab the small boy named Mouse.

    Mahlia, the girl, promises to bring medicine if Tool will only spare the boy. He knows she’s lying.

    And so starts a rich tale of the monster, the boy, and the girl: a tale that is filled with friendship, triumph, loss, heroism, cowardice, and earthy sci-fi coolness all set in the midst of a guerilla war. The beginning sucks you in. The ending leaves you breathless. Along the way you get to see into the character of all three plus some of the bad guys. In the end you get a story about sacrifice and love.

    If you liked A Long Way Gone, Ishmael Beah’s memoir of his time as a child solider in Africa; if you liked The Hunger Games, and not primarily for the romance; if you like person in jeopardy fiction or war flicks where a small group has to fight for its life, I think you will love this book.

    This is the second book set in the same world. The first was Ship Breaker. Tool, one of the most interesting characters I’ve come across, is in that one too. But you don’t need to read that to enjoy this. And I wouldn’t put this read off to do so. Go give The Drowned Cities a try. Three or four pages in, I suspect you’ll be completely lost in the wondrous tale.