Books received 10/3/08 Part Two

Let’s take a quick look to see what’s arrived in the mail here at the Geek Compound.

The Living Dead edited by John Joseph Adams

Promo copy:

“When there’s no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth.”

From White Zombie to Dawn of the Dead; from Resident Evil to World War Z, zombies have invaded popular culture, becoming the monsters that best express the fears and anxieties of the modern west. The ultimate consumers, zombies rise from the dead and feed upon the living, their teeming masses ever hungry, ever seeking to devour or convert, like mindless, faceless eating machines. Zombies have been depicted as mind-controlled minions, the shambling infected, the disintegrating dead, the ultimate lumpenproletariat, but in all cases, they reflect us, mere mortals afraid of death in a society on the verge of collapse.

Gathering together the best zombie literature of the last three decades from many of today’s most renowned authors of fantasy, speculative fiction, and horror, including Stephen King, Harlan Ellison, Robert Silverberg, George R. R. Martin, Clive Barker, Poppy Z. Brite, Neil Gaiman, Joe Hill, Laurell K. Hamilton, and Joe R. Lansdale, The Living Dead, covers the broad spectrum of zombie fiction. The zombies of The Living Dead range from Romero-style zombies to reanimated corpses to voodoo zombies and beyond.

DC Goes Ape

Promo copy:

Written by Otto Binder, John Broome, Gardner Fox and others; Art by Carmine Infantino, Wayne Boring, George Papp, Ross Andru, C.C. Beck, Jim Starlin and others; Cover by Arthur Adams
You’ll go bananas for this new title collecting simian stories from SUPERBOY #76, SUPERMAN #138, THE FLASH (VOL. 1) #127, DETECTIVE COMICS #339 and 482, HAWKMAN #16, WONDER WOMAN #170, STRANGE ADVENTURES #201, SHAZAM #9, SUPER FRIENDS #30 and THE FLASH (VOL. 2) #151!

I wrote a lengthy blog entry about this back in May when this book was announced.

Caine Black Knife by Matthew Stover

Promo copy:

In Heroes Die and Blade of Tyshalle, Matthew Stover created a new kind of fantasy novel, and a new kind of hero to go with it: Caine, a street thug turned superstar, battling in a future where reality shows take place in another dimension, on a world where magic exists and gods are up close and personal. In that beautiful, savage land, Caine is an assassin without peer, a living legend born from one of the highest-rated reality shows ever made. That season, Caine almost single-handedly defeated–and all but exterminated–the fiercest of all tribes: the Black Knives. But the shocking truth of what really took place during that blood-drenched adventure has never been revealed … until now.

Thirty years later, Caine returns to the scene of his greatest triumph–some would say greatest crime–at the request of his adopted brother Orbek, the last of the true Black Knives. But where Caine goes, danger follows, and he soon finds himself back in familiar territory: fighting for his life against impossible odds, with the fate of two worlds hanging in the balance.

Just the way Caine likes it.

See Part One here.

Books received 10/3/08 Part Two was originally published on The Geek Curmudgeon

Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist review

My review of Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist now appears on Moving Pictures.

Quote:
Sollet and Screenwriter Lorene Scafaria consciously and very deliberately unveil this sweet, remarkably feminist yet egalitarian romantic tale, hitting the right notes at all the proper times into a film that plays light years beyond its peers. Reminiscent of John Cusak in The Sure Thing (1985) and Julia Roberts in Mystic Pizza (1988), Cera and Dennings dominate the screen, promising even better things ahead for this duo

More…

Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist review was originally published on The Geek Curmudgeon

DVDs received 10/01/08

Let’s take a quick look to see what’s arrived in the mail here at the Geek Compound.

Ray Harryhausen Gift Set

Promo copy:
The six-disc DVD boxed gift set features two-disc special editions of It Came From Beneath Sea, Earth Vs. the Flying Saucers, and 20 Million Miles to Earth: 50th Anniversary Edition. Each film is available in a brilliant colorized version, in addition to the pristine, digitally-restored black & white original version, and viewers are able to toggle between the two as they please. Also included in the gift set is a collectible Ymir figurine based on Ray Harryhausen’s original 1957 hand-crafted design and signed by Ray Harryhausen himself.

I previously reviewed these editions of It Came From Beneath Sea and Earth Vs. the Flying Saucers.

The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (The 50th Anniversary Edition)

Promo copy:

The single-disc DVD comes loaded with special features including audio commentary by Ray Harryhausen, visual effects experts Phil Tippett and Randall William Cook, author Steve Smith and producer Arnold Kunert; a documentary; six featurettes, and more.

Besides, this film featured the first appearance of Harryhausen’s legendary fighting skeleton. That alone makes it a must for any geek!

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (Two-Disc Special Edition)

Promo copy:

One of cinema’s greatest adventure heroes is back in this latest chapter of the immensely popular INDIANA JONES franchise! Directed by Steven Spielberg and produced by Frank Marshall, with George Lucas and Kathleen Kennedy as executive producers, the smash hit stars Harrison Ford, Cate Blanchett, Karen Allen, Shia LaBeouf, Ray Winstone and John Hurt, all following Indy on a perilous adventure to find the coveted Crystal Skull of Akator. Utterly packed with exciting bonus features, this may just be the biggest DVD and Blu-ray release of the year!

I reviewed the movie back when it played in theaters.

And the most exciting for last:

Quark-The Complete Series

Promo copy:

A spoof of science fiction films and TV series, these are the adventures of Adam Quark, captain of a United Galactic Sanitation Patrol ship. His cohorts include Gene/Jean, a “transmute” with male and female characteristics; a Vegeton (a highly-evolved plant-man) named Ficus; and Andy the Android and Betty and Betty (who always argue over who’s the clone of the other). Based at Space Station Perma One are Otto Palindrome and The Head. Though Quark is supposed to stick to his sanitization patrols, he and his crew often meet adventure with such colorful space denizens as the evil High Gorgon (head of the villainous Gorgons), Zoltar the Magnificent, and Zargon the Malevolent.

I blogged about this in August.

DVDs received 10/01/08 was originally published on The Geek Curmudgeon