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

Let Me In

Promo copy:

From Matt Reeves – the writer/director of Cloverfield – comes the new vampire classic that critics are calling “chillingly real” (Scott Bowles, USA Today) and “one of the best horror films of the year” (Cinematical). In bleak New Mexico, a lonely, bullied boy, Owen (Kodi Smit-McPhee of The Road), forms a unique bond with his mysterious new neighbor, Abby (Chloë Grace Moretz of Kick-Ass). Trapped in the mind and body of a child, however, Abby is forced to hide a horrific secret of bloodthirsty survival. But in a world of both tenderness and terror, how can you invite in the one friend who may unleash the ultimate nightmare?

Based on the Swedish novel, Let the Right One In, “Let Me In is a dark and violent love story, a beautiful piece of cinema and a respectful rendering of my novel for which I am grateful.” (John Ajvide Lindqvist, author).

I haven’t seen this one yet, though I loved the Swedish version Let the Right One In. Fellow reviewer Derek Johnson said over at SF Signal: "As remakes go, it’s certainly one of the better ones." Good enough for me. Perhaps I’ll check it out.

Ryder on the Storm Issue 2
Written by: David Hine
Illustrated by: Wayne Nichols
Cover Art by: Francesco "Matt" Mattina

Promo copy:

Ryder learns the truth about his heritage and Charles Monk’s mysterious Order of the Sacred Blood – and what he must do to stop the Dantons from rising to power. After discovering that a Daemon hive queen still lives beneath their city, Monk and Ryder enter the catacombs to exterminate the queen and her brood – but when Ryder takes the fight to Rebecca Danton, he learns of a terrible secret that will shed new light on the mystery of his murdered brother.

Bloodshot
by Cherie Priest
Cover by Jae Song

Promo copy:

VAMPIRE FOR HIRE

Raylene Pendle (AKA Cheshire Red), a vampire and world-renowned thief, doesn’t usually hang with her own kind. She’s too busy stealing priceless art and rare jewels. But when the infuriatingly charming Ian Stott asks for help, Raylene finds him impossible to resist—even though Ian doesn’t want precious artifacts. He wants her to retrieve missing government files—documents that deal with the secret biological experiments that left Ian blind. What Raylene doesn’t bargain for is a case that takes her from the wilds of Minneapolis to the mean streets of Atlanta. And with a psychotic, power-hungry scientist on her trail, a kick-ass drag queen on her side, and Men in Black popping up at the most inconvenient moments, the case proves to be one hell of a ride.

Cowboy Angels
by Paul McAuley
Cover by Sparth

Promo copy:

The first Turing gate, a mere hundred nanometers across, is forced open in 1963, at the high-energy physics laboratory in Brookhaven; three years later, the first man to travel to an alternate history takes his momentous step, and an empire is born.
For fifteen years, the version of America that calls itself the Real has used its Turing gate technology to infiltrate a wide variety of alternate Americas, rebuilding those wrecked by nuclear war, fomenting revolutions and waging war to free others from communist or fascist rule, and establishing a Pan-American Alliance. Then a nation exhausted by endless strife elects Jimmy Carter on a reconstruction and reconciliation ticket, the CIA’s covert operations are wound down, and the Real begins to wage peace rather than war.

But some people believe that it is the Real’s manifest destiny to impose its idea of truth, justice, and the American way in every known alternate history, and they’re prepared to do anything to reverse Carter’s peacenik doctrine. When Adam Stone, a former CIA field officer, one of the Cowboy Angels who worked covertly in other histories, volunteers for reactivation after an old friend begins a killing spree across alternate histories, his mission uncovers a startling secret about the operation of the Turing gates and leads him into the heart of an audicious conspiracy to change the history of every America in the multiverse–including our own.

Cowboy Angels is a vivid, helter-skelter thriller in which one version of America discovers the true cost of empire building, and one man discovers that an individual really can make a difference.

Earp: Saints and Sinners Issue 1
Created by: Matt Cirulnick & David Manpearl
Written by: M. Zachary Sherman
Illustrated by: Mack Chater & Martin Montiel
Cover art by: Alex Maleev

Promo copy:

In a world where the American economy has collapsed, bandits roam the country and the law is as corrupt as the criminals its sworn to stop, one lawman remains a steadfast moral compass for the people: WYATT EARP. After a violent assignment claims the life of his brother, Wyatt sets out to forge a simple life in the only boomtown left: Las Vegas. Though Earp no longer wears a U.S. Marshall’s badge, his past is about to catch up to him. With nearly everything to lose, Earp will have to beat the odds stacked against him in order to bring old-fashioned justice to Sin City.

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

Homefront: The Voice of Freedom
by John Milius and Raymond Benson

Promo copy:

HOME IS WHERE THE WAR IS

America may be reeling from endless recessions and crippling oil wars, but hack reporter Ben Walker never expected to see his homeland invaded and occupied by a reunified Korea—now a formidable world power under Kim Jong-il’s dictator son.

The enemy’s massive cyberattack is followed by the detonation of an electromagnetic pulse that destroys technology across the United States. Communications, weapons, and defense systems are rendered useless; thousands perish as vehicles suddenly lose power and passenger jets plummet to the ground.

Fleeing the chaos of Los Angeles, Walker discovers that although America’s military has been scattered, its fighting spirit remains. Walker joins the soldiers as they head east across the desert, battling Korean patrols—and soon finds his own mission. Walker reinvents himself as the Voice of Freedom, broadcasting information and enemy positions to civilian Resistance cells via guerrilla radio.

But Walker’s broadcasts have also reached the ears of the enemy. Korea dispatches its deadliest warrior to hunt the Voice of Freedom and crush the ever-growing Resistance before it can mount a new war for American liberty.

John Milius?!?!

Heart of the Exiled
by Pati Nagle
Cover by Gene Mollica

Promo copy:

The Bitter Wars left a world divided. Now the ælven governors convene a Council at Glenhallow, while the savage kobalen gather in numbers not seen in five centuries. Vastly outnumbered, the ælven clans will send barely trained guardians to confront the kobalen, and a young female warrior, Eliani, will be entrusted with the most crucial mission of all: to reach distant Fireshore and learn why their governor has not responded to the call to war. Bound to her lover Turisan by the power of mindspeech, Eliani will feed vital information to the Ælven Council across vast distances. But Eliani cannot see the dark force watching from the Ebon Mountains. There, Shalár, the ruler of exiled Clan Darkshore, has given the mindless kobalen both power and a plan to cut off the ælven from their brave and gifted mindspeaker—and to reclaim for Shalár’s nearly extinct vampiric clan their ancestral land: Fireshore. But Shalár guards her secrets carefully, and even Eliani cannot know what terrible purpose lurks in the heart of the exiled.

Star Wars: Knight Errant
by John Jackson Miller
Cover by John Van Fleet

Promo copy:

An original adventure featuring Jedi Kerra Holt—star of the hot new Dark Horse Knight Errant comic series

A thousand years before Luke Skywalker, a generation before Darth Bane, in a galaxy far, far away . . .

The Republic is in crisis. The Sith roam unchecked, vying with one another to dominate the galaxy. But one lone Jedi, Kerra Holt, is determined to take down the Dark Lords. Her enemies are strange and many: Lord Daiman, who imagines himself the creator of the universe; Lord Odion, who intends to be its destroyer; the curious siblings Quillan and Dromika; the enigmatic Arkadia. So many warring Sith weaving a patchwork of brutality—with only Kerra Holt to defend the innocents caught underfoot.

Sensing a sinister pattern in the chaos, Kerra embarks on a journey that will take her into fierce battles against even fiercer enemies. With one against so many, her only chance of success lies with forging alliances among those who serve her enemies—including a mysterious Sith spy and a clever mercenary general. But will they be her adversaries or her salvation?

Includes a special, full-color excerpt from the Dark Horse comic Star Wars: Knight Errant

Midnight Riot
by Ben Aaronovitch
Cover by Wes Youssi

Promo copy:

Probationary Constable Peter Grant dreams of being a detective in London’s Metropolitan Police. Too bad his superior plans to assign him to the Case Progression Unit, where the biggest threat he’ll face is a paper cut. But Peter’s prospects change in the aftermath of a puzzling murder, when he gains exclusive information from an eyewitness who happens to be a ghost. Peter’s ability to speak with the lingering dead brings him to the attention of Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Nightingale, who investigates crimes involving magic and other manifestations of the uncanny. Now, as a wave of brutal and bizarre murders engulfs the city, Peter is plunged into a world where gods and goddesses mingle with mortals and a long-dead evil is making a comeback on a rising tide of magic.

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

The Curious Case of the Clockwork Man
by Mark Hodder
Cover by Jon Sullivan

Promo copy:

CONTINUING THE HIT STEAMPUNK SERIES!

It is 1862, though not the 1862 it should be…

Time has been altered, and Sir Richard Francis Burton, the king’s agent, is one of the few people who know that the world is now careening along a very different course from that which Destiny intended.

When a clockwork-powered man of brass is found abandoned in Trafalgar Square, Burton and his assistant, the wayward poet Algernon Swinburne, find themselves on the trail of the stolen Garnier Collection—black diamonds rumored to be fragments of the Lemurian Eye of Naga, a meteorite that fell to Earth in prehistoric times.

His investigation leads to involvement with the media sensation of the age: the Tichborne Claimant, a man who insists that he’s the long lost heir to the cursed Tichborne estate. Monstrous, bloated, and monosyllabic, he’s not the aristocratic Sir Roger Tichborne known to everyone, yet the working classes come out in force to support him. They are soon rioting through the streets of London, as mysterious steam wraiths incite all-out class warfare.

From a haunted mansion to the Bedlam madhouse, from South America to Australia, from séances to a secret labyrinth, Burton struggles with shadowy opponents and his own inner demons, meeting along the way the philosopher Herbert Spencer, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Florence Nightingale, and Charles Doyle (father of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle).

Can the king’s agent expose a plot that threatens to rip the British Empire apart, leading to an international conflict the like of which the world has never seen? And what part does the clockwork man have to play?

Burton and Swinburne’s second adventure—The Clockwork Man of Trafalgar Square—is filled with eccentric steam-driven technology, grotesque characters, and a deepening mystery that pushes forward the three-volume story arc begun in The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack.

Black Halo (The Aeon’s Gate, Book 2)
by Sam Sykes
Cover by Paul Young

Promo copy:

THE TOME OF THE UNDERGATES HAS BEEN RECOVERED…

…and the gates of hell remain closed. Lenk and his five companions set sail to bring the accursed relic away from the demonic reach of Ulbecetonth, the Kraken Queen. But after weeks at sea, tensions amidst the adventurers are rising. Their troubles are only beginning when their ship crashes upon an island made of the bones left behind from a war long dead.

And it appears that bloodthirsty alien warrior women, fanatical beasts from the deep, and heretic-hunting wizards are the least of their concerns. Haunted by their pasts, plagued by their gods, tormented by their own people, and gripped by madness personal and peculiar, their greatest foes may yet be themselves.

The reach of Ulbecetonth is longer than hell can hold.

Wolfsangel
by M. D. Lachlan
Cover by Paul Young

Promo copy:

The Viking king Authun leads his men on a raid against an Anglo-Saxon village. Men and women are killed indiscriminately, but Authun demands that no child be touched. He is acting on prophecy—a prophecy that tells him that the Saxons have stolen a child from the gods. If Authun, in turn, takes the child and raises him as an heir, the child will lead his people to glory.

But Authun discovers not one child, but twin baby boys. After ensuring that his faithful warriors, witnesses to what has happened, die during the raid, Authun takes the children and their mother home, back to the witches who live on the troll wall. And he places his destiny in their hands.

So begins a stunning multivolume fantasy epic that will take a werewolf from his beginnings as the heir to a brutal Viking king down through the ages. It is a journey that will see him hunt for his lost love through centuries and lives, and see the endless battle between the wolf, Odin, and Loki, the eternal trickster, spill over into countless bloody conflicts from our history and our lives.

This is the myth of the werewolf as it has never been told before and marks the beginning of an extraordinary new fantasy series.

In her latest Comics Wrap-Up, disappointed RevSF Comics Editor offered some unflattering opinions of Nate Neal’s Sanctuary.

I have no opinion on the book since I have yet to read it, but even if I found it to be brilliant, I would honor and respect her views. Apparently Mr. Neal doesn’t feel the same way and took great offense by Sarah’s commentary. So much so that he fired of this missive which found it’s way to former RevSF Comics Editor Jay Wilson (which he shared with the other RevSF editors).

Art by Nate Neal

For all you burgeoning professionals out there, this is NOT how you respond to a negative review. I don’t care if previously Moses, himself, came down from the mountain and anointed you as a genius. When you reply to a negative review you disagree with, no matter the perceived quality of the reviewer, I guarantee the only one who will look bad is you. There is no other option.

Of course, Mr. Neal doesn’t agree with her. It’s his baby. And perhaps he’s correct about Sarah’s "ill-informed, unjustified, confused and caustic little comments." (though I doubt it. A comics pro and reviewer for several venues, Sarah displays some keen insights). Regardless, this is the wrong tact.

We’ve all had our share of negative (or less favorable) reviews. Hell, RevSF, where I serve as an editor-at-large and who hosts this blog, gave my book Geek Confidential a less than glowing review, probably the worst one it received. Was I disappointed. Perhaps a little, but did I squawk? Of course not. Not everyone is going to enjoy everything I produce. That’d be absurd. And awfully boring.

Yes, Mr. Neal, I realize you worked hard on this book and it was a labor of love (aren’t they all?), but get over yourself. There is no such thing as a universally beloved creation. All of them have received a negative review or two. The best thing to do when someone writes a negative review of your work, is to shrug and move one. Same with the good ones. If you have confidence in what you’ve created, it doesn’t matter what others think.

Joe R. Lansdale, in his infinite wisdom, sums it up best: If you believe the good ones than you have to believe the bad ones, too. That’s no way to be. Just do the work.*

*(Or some such. Joe’ll say it with a lot more color and panache. But you get the idea.)

Columbia Pictures releases the first image of Andrew Garfield as Spider-Man.

For the folks over at Moving Pictures, I reviewed The Green Hornet.

Check out my full review at the Moving Pictures.

After reading the first issue of The Sixth Gun, I wrote:

Today sees the release of The Sixth Gun Volume 1: Cold Dead Hands, which collects the first storyline (fittingly enough six issues).

If you like your westerns infused with a touch of horror and the weird (and really who doesn’t?), The Sixth Gun Volume 1: Cold Dead Hands is a MUST read.

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

Of Blood and Honey
by Stina Leicht
Cover by Min Yum

Promo copy:

Fallen angels and the fey clash against the backdrop of Irish/English conflicts of the 1970s in this stunning debut novel by Stina Leicht.

Liam never knew who his father was. The town of Derry had always assumed that he was the bastard of a protestant–His mother never spoke of him, and Liam assumed he was dead.

But when the war between the fallen, and the fey began to heat up, Liam and his family are pulled into a conflict that they didn’t know existed. A centuries old conflict between supernatural forces seems to mirror the political divisions in 1970s era Ireland, and Liam is thrown headlong into both conflicts.

Only the direct intervention of Liam’s real father, and a secret catholic order dedicated to fighting "The Fallen" can save Liam… from the mundane and supernatural forces around him, and from the darkness that lurks within him.

Watch out for a special RevSF contest/giveaway for Of Blood and Honey and a Baker’s Dozen interview with author Leicht.

The Warlord’s Legacy
by Ari Marmell
Cover by Larry Rostant

Promo copy:

Corvis Rebaine, the Terror of the East, a man as quick with a quip as he is with a blade, returns in this highly anticipated sequel to Ari Marmell’s acclaimed The Conqueror’s Shadow, a debut hailed for its refreshing take on dark fantasy and surprising flashes of sharp, sarcastic wit. Now Marmell raises the stakes in a story that has all the humor and excitement of its predecessor, plus a terrifying new villain so evil that he may well be a match for Rebaine himself.

For let’s not forget how Corvis Rebaine came by the charming nickname “Terror of the East.” Certainly no one else has forgotten. Corvis Rebaine is no hero. In his trademark suit of black armor and skull-like helm, armed with a demon-forged axe, in command of a demonic slave, and with allies that include a bloodthirsty ogre, Rebaine has twice brought death and destruction to Imphallion in pursuit of a better, more equitable and just society. If he had to kill countless innocents in order to achieve that dream, so be it.

At least that was the old Rebaine. Before he slew the mad warlord Audriss. Before he banished the demon Khanda. Before he lost his wife and children, who could not forgive or forget his violent crimes. Now, years later, Rebaine lives in a distant city, under a false name, a member of one of the Guilds he despises, trying to achieve change nonviolently, from within the power structure.

Not even when the neighboring nation of Cephira invades Imphallion and the bickering Guilds prove unable to respond does Rebaine return to his old habits of slaughter. But someone else does. Someone wearing Rebaine’s black armor and bearing what appears to be his axe. Someone who is, if anything, even less careful of human life than Rebaine was.

Now Baron Jassion, Rebaine’s old nemesis, is hunting him once more, aided by a mysterious sorcerer named Kaleb, whose powers and secrets make him a more dangerous enemy than Rebaine has ever known. Even worse, accompanying them is a young woman who hates Corvis Rebaine perhaps more than anyone else: his own daughter, Mellorin. Suddenly Rebaine seems to have no choice. To clear his name, to protect his country, and to reconcile with his family, must he once again become the Terror of the East?

Sword Woman and Other Historical Adventures
by Robert E. Howard
Introduction by Scott Oden
Illustrations by John Watkiss

Promo copy:

The immortal legacy of Robert E. Howard, creator of Conan the Cimmerian, continues with this latest compendium of Howard’s fiction and poetry. These adventures, set in medieval-era Europe and the Near East, are among the most gripping Howard ever wrote, full of pageantry, romance, and battle scenes worthy of Tolstoy himself. Most of all, they feature some of Howard’s most unusual and memorable characters, including Cormac FitzGeoffrey, a half-Irish, half-Norman man of war who follows Richard the Lion-hearted to twelfth-century Palestine—or, as it was known to the Crusaders, Outremer; Diego de Guzman, a Spaniard who visits Cairo in the guise of a Muslim on a mission of revenge; and the legendary sword woman Dark Agnès, who, faced with an arranged marriage to a brutal husband in sixteenth-century France, cuts the ceremony short with a dagger thrust and flees to forge a new identity on the battlefield.

Lavishly illustrated by award-winning artist John Watkiss and featuring miscellanea, informative essays, and a fascinating introduction by acclaimed historical author Scott Oden, Sword Woman and Other Historical Adventures is a must-have for every fan of Robert E. Howard, who, in a career spanning just twelve years, won a place in the pantheon of great American writers.

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

Robinson Crusoe on Mars (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray]

Promo copy:

Special effects wunderkind and genre master Byron Haskin (The War of the Worlds, The Outer Limits) won a place in the hearts of fantasy film lovers everywhere with this gorgeously designed journey into the unknown. Robinson Crusoe on Mars tells the story of U.S. astronaut Commander “Kit” Draper (Paul Mantee), who must fight for survival when his spaceship crash-lands on the barren waste of Mars, a pet monkey his only companion. But is he actually alone? Shot in vast Techniscope and blazing color, this is an imaginative and beloved marvel of classic science fiction.

Special Features

Restored high-definition digital transfer, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack

Audio commentary featuring cast and film historians

Destination Mars, a video featurette

Music video for Lundin’s song "Robinson Crusoe on Mars"

Stills gallery

Theatrical trailer

PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by Lennick

Sadly, I don’t own a blu ray player. (And yes, I already passed it on to an appreciative individual.)

Jack Goes Boating

Promo copy:

Jack (Academy Award winner Philip Seymour Hoffman, making his directorial debut) and Connie (Amy Ryan) are two single people who on their own might continue to recede into the anonymous background of New York City, but in each other begin to find the courage and desire to pursue a budding relationship. As Jack and Connie cautiously circle commitment, the couple that introduced them, Clyde (John Ortiz) and Lucy (Daphne Rubin-Vega), confront their own unresolved issues, and each couple comes face to face with the inevitable path of their relationship. Based on the acclaimed Off-Broadway play of the same name, this unconventional romantic comedy is a tale of love, betrayal, friendship and grace.

Stone

Promo copy:

Academy Award® winner Robert De Niro and Oscar® nominee Edward Norton deliver powerful performances as a seasoned corrections official and a scheming inmate whose lives become dangerously intertwined in this “gritty and engrossing thriller” (Steve O’Brien, WCBS-FM). Jack Mabry (De Niro), a parole officer days away from retirement, is asked to review the case of Gerald “Stone” Creeson (Norton), in prison for arson. Now eligible for early release, Stone needs to convince Jack he has reformed, but his attempts to influence the older man’s decision with his wife Lucetta (Milla Jovovich) have profound and unexpected effects on them both. This tale of passion, betrayal and corruption skillfully weaves together the parallel journeys of two men grappling with dark impulses, as the line between lawman and lawbreaker becomes precariously thin.

Today Vertigo announced they were finally collecting the much sought-after early Grant Morrison/Frank Quitely collaboration Flex Mentallo.

Back in late September/early October over a glorious six day period, we (being RevolutionSF) produced
Uncanny Un-Collectibles, which outlined the comics that have never been collected (or were currently not available) but really should be. On October 1, the sixth and final day, Brandon Zuern, manager of the finest comic shop in the land, made this pronouncement.

And here we are a scant three months later and Vertigo is announcing that very collection. If that doesn’t demonstrate geek power, I’m not sure what does!*

*To be fair, Brandon was far from the only person clamoring for this collection. But, this does make the second title from the feature to be collected. Not sure if someone is paying attention, but I like to think so.