CHRISTMAS SPECIAL: "Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal" by Christopher Moore (Warning! Readers Advisory!)

HO HO HO! MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Just in time for the holidays, its the Warning! Readers Advisory! CHRISTMAS SPECTACULAR! This year, I eschew the ills of Twilight and instead focus on a far more pleasant and beloved classic. Digging into the roots of this happy holidays, its:

LAMB: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore

"Changeless" by Gail Carriger (Warning! Readers Advisory!) (book review)

WRA returns! This time with a review of the sequel to Gail Carriger's Soulless!

This...is CHANGELESS!

WITCHBOARD (Better Off Read)

Today on Better Off Read, we look at the 1980s phenomenon of the haunted Ouija board movie! Oh yes, get your planchettes and stop pushing the pointers, kiddies, because today we're gonna take a trip in the 1986 "horror" film:

WITCHBOARD

The Shadow (WRA Ep- 34)

Today on Warning! Readers Advisory!, we look at a GOOD pulp movie after the disastrous results of reviewing SF Shinseiki Lensman. Instead, we're going to take a shot at the 1994 film THE SHADOW starring Alec Baldwin, and see if the weed of this film bears bitter fruit.

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Derek the Bard reads "Its a Book" by Lane Smith (Warning! Readers Advisory!)

In this very special episode of Warning! Readers Advisory!, Derek the Bard reads from his favourite children's book,

Its a Book by Lane Smith

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You can now subscribe to Warning! Readers Advisory! and other great Chasing the Muse shows

So...my new snazzy show page has been updated on Blip TV. This means that you, my friends, can now SUBSCRIBE to Chasing the Muse.

So please, subscribe and support the show. You will receive updates when new episodes go live, and you'll be helping my overall numbers.

I thank you.

The Spider and the Slaves of Hell (WRA Ep- 33)

Tidying things up with another pulp adventure, this week Warning! Readers Advisory! kicks it in 1939. It is a dark time, when The Spider, Master of Men, takes on the insidious forces of a mad bomber and his pack of wolves in...

The Spider and the Slaves of Hell!

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Short: Ain't NASA-carily So (What We Watched)

In What We Watched, Derek the Bard takes a look back at the weird cartoon shows of his childhood. Today we're looking at a single weird episode...mainly because the Bard was too busy this week to get the full review of Bravestarr up. So instead, lets look at The Real Ghostbusters in

Ain't NASA-carily So

Monsters (Better Off Read) HALLOWEEN SPECIAL!!!

So, for Halloween, I teamed up with The Film Renegado to review a terrible creature-feature set in Mexico. A film that proves why if you don't have the big budget to pull it off, you probably shouldn't try to make a big monster movie. This is...

MONSTERS

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What We Watched: Toxic Crusaders

In What We Watched, Derek the Bard takes a look back at the weird cartoon shows of his childhood. This week, we take a look at the 1991 Troma Entertainment series:

TOXIC CRUSADERS

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Skies of Yellow Death (WRA Ep- 32)

WRA returns, 5 days later but none the worse for wear, with this classic pulp novel: G-8 and His Battle Aces in SKIES OF YELLOW DEATH!

What We Watched: INHUMANOIDS

In What We Watched, Derek the Bard takes a look back at the weird cartoon shows of his childhood. This week, we take a look at the 1986 Sunbow series:

INHUMANOIDS

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The Asylum's Sherlock Holmes (WRA Ep- 31)

In this episode of Warning! Readers Advisory!, Derek the Bard tackles the cinematic abortion that The Asylum likes to call:

SHERLOCK HOLMES!

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The Toxic Avenger (Better Off Read)

So way back at FanExpo 2011, I FINALLY picked up a copy of The Toxic Avenger. Well, I finally got around to reviewing it.

So give it up for everyone's favourite hideously deformed monster of superhuman size and strength, TOXIE!

What We Watched: Conan the Adventurer

In What We Watched, I examine the WEIRD TV shows that I watched as a child. So BY CROMM, today we're going to look at a cartoon show about barbarians, wizard, and asskicking:

Conan the Adventurer.

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WRA Episode 30- Soulless

This week we return to Warning! Readers Advisory! after a one-week hiatus.

So sit, back, relax, and take a gander as Derek the Bard dares to ask if Gail Carriger's best selling novel, Soulless, has some soul as a decent bit of supernatural steampunk.



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What We Watched: Visionaries Knights of the Magical Light

In What We Watched, I examine the WEIRD TV shows that I watched as a child. In the first episode of the show, we take a look at one of my favourites:

Visionaries: Knights of the Magical Light.

BOR - Confessions of a Dangerous Mind

Well. This took a few more days than usual to get up, but I am satisfied with the result! So without any further introductions, score the theme music...

(Almost) live from Toronto its...THE BETTER OFF READ GAME!

Today's contestant comes to us from Director George Clooney and stars Sam Rockwell as game show creator, Chuck Barris! Please welcome to our show:

Confessions of a Dangerous Mind!

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WRA Episode 29- Starship Troopers

Yep, its that time again! Time for another Warning! Readers Advisory

This week, we're taking a look at Paul Verhoeven's 1997 attempt at an adaptation of Robert Heinlein's science fiction masterpiece, Starship Troopers

WRA Episode 28- Vampires In Their Own Words

Well, I came across this charming little piece of non-fiction titled Vampires: In Their On Words, which purports to be "An Anthology of Vampiric Voices". Edited by Michelle Belanger, 24 people who think they're vampires come forward to talk about how they're...err...vampires.

This isn't a fictional novel. Oh no. These are real people who think that they need to drink blood and life energy to survive.

So, armed with the book, I went to ConBravo! 2011, and found many an unsuspecting nerd (including a few you might recognize) to read from the book for me in order to demonstrate its crazy.

Ladies and gentlemen...Vampires: In Their Own Words.

WRA Episode 27- Fable: Teeth of Beasts

No Bard? No problem! Innis, Nachzehrer, Great Cthulhu, and the Red Chef take on this piece of cinematic garbage while the Bard is off in Bermuda!

BOR - The Edison Death Machine

Well, after a few weeks of hell at work I sat down and did another movie review while I prep for ConBravo! this weekend, where I'll be filming my review of Vampires: In Their Own Words (an anthology of vampiric voices).

This time, I'm reviewing a low grade horror movie that goes under the name The Edison Death Machine. Because why should I review a conventional zombie flick?

WRA Episode 26- SF Shinseiki Lensman

Remember when I review Galactic Patrol?

In the 1980s they made an anime of it. They called this travesty of animation SF Shinseiki Lensman.

There are days I hate being me.

Better Off Read - Generation X

Due to a cameo for the next episode being late, I took a skip week and instead reviewed this particular comic book adaptation from 1996.

This is Generation X.

On the Paper Trail: Halo Uprising (Graphic Novel)

Welcome back everyone we are on the Paper Trail once again as I take a brief turn of the plotted course to bring you this book. First off a story: I tend to stop by and check out libraries when I am in the close area of one on my travels. Today marks the 50th anniversary at the library and they had many events taking place. From a videogame truck, a full mini golf course in the building, a book sale, cupcakes, Elmo was even there at the bowling alley they made. There was fun to be had all around and more libraries should use this as some ideas on how to make their building a community center.

Naturally while looking on the shelves I came across their graphic novel section, sure it was not the greatest selection I have seen but it was WELL more then I have seen at many libraries in the area. I picked up this book, sat down in a chair and read it in full. This book took all of the positive vibes out of a festive atmosphere and just made me pissed off.

Oh where do I begin...

First although you see Master Chief on the cover on the book and is the first person you do see in the book, the book IS NOT ABOUT HIM. I can some up his cameos in a simple phrase "Michael Baysplosions can't take down Mr. Invincible." Now I often am harsh on story that just stick to the characters of the cannon and do nothing outside of the construct of the story, so you would think I would praise this direction.

However a good story this is not.

Our "hero" is a hotel attendant who in circumstance gets caught up in a firefight between the Marines and the Coven. An alien woman asks him where she can get a gun since she wants to fight with the Marines, and sure enough a solider dies and they pick up his weapons and fight along side them. Now during the course of this the hero does nothing more then help run away while the woman simply kills any threat they come across, there is a scene were she questions killing the aliens only to be swept away for a forced romance.

As you can imagine in comic book fashion they get caught soon after and ask to be taken to a key that no one knows about, except our hero and his brother. The brother is about to be killed and was tortured before giving away information that only his brother knows about and tells them to not destroy his last location of Cleveland. Yes, the key of Cleveland is not Lebron James' jump shot but a tie they used while playing Tolkien when they were younger.

Now I know I mentioned that Master Chief is not in the story as I am taking, but we see a lot of him kicking ass in between scenes for no other reason as to remind us that we want to see Master Chief and not an art major and an alien trying to fight the incoming threat. Sadly most of the "action" sequences take place here leaving all the characters in the real story standing around or running away.

Since I don't care about spoilers here we go. The hero finally does tell a Marine about the key and he is taken to a base in the sewers and tells us the story again. Well after a lengthy exposition he decides to use himself as bait to get to the mother ship by claiming he is the key. Before that however we have another forced romance scene where our alien woman tells us that he saved her life.

BULL SHIT!

The prior 30 pages just had him driving away from aliens while YOU WERE SHOOTING THEM! He did not save your life you saved his several times over, and outside of being a guy you chose at random to find guns at the beginning has no real value to you except owning a drivers license and having sight to find a vehicle.

Well then as you can guess the hero does get taken, tell them to kiss his ass, as a weapons destroys the ship, while Master Chief is looking on giving the proverbial thumbs up at his choice. We end however with the brother that explained that they wasted all this time trying to figure out something he made up and lost great causalities due to this as proof that Man will always survive and they will win the day. He then dies off panel.

This novel is just horrible. The main person you are selling to us has a cameo just to prove he is a bad ass, the main story is told with little to no character development, our female lead depends on a man when clearly she can go and take care of herself, the reach of events to take place to prove a point, and the end result to go and sympathize with our hero who simply plays a pawn at his brother's bluff is insulting at best.

Who the hell would think this is a good idea to get people interested in Halo?

Editor in Chief: Joe Quesada

This must be what Linkara and the Last Angry Geek feel like after they do a review, I need to take a break, see you back on the trail with a better book (I hope).

The Literary Loon's Library: American Gods

As with most noir heroes, we meet Shadow, the protagonist of Neil Gaiman's hard-boiled fantasia, "American Gods," after he's lost everything. Fresh from doing three years in prison for a stupid crime, he learns that his beloved wife, Laura, is dead, killed in a car accident with his best friend, the guy who'd promised him a job when he got out. To make matters worse, he has a series of unsettling encounters with a persistent older gentleman in a pale suit. Each meeting seems to be the result of extravagantly improbable chance, and the gentleman, who offers Shadow a job as his bodyguard, just won't take no for an answer. "Who are you?" Shadow asks, and the older man replies, "Let's see. Well, seeing that today certainly is my day -- why don't you call me Wednesday?"

If you have a basic knowledge of mythology (or, for that matter, etymology, or, really, if you just have a good dictionary) and a vague idea of what "American Gods" is about, you can figure out this fellow's real identity pretty easily. Shadow, however, hasn't yet realized that he's stumbled into a kind of underground, a loosely connected network of burned-out, down-on-their-luck deities, the remnants of every god, godling or other supernatural being that any person who ever set foot in America has ever believed in. Their circumstances are, to say the least, reduced: Wednesday, who used to be a contender, ekes out a living by running cons on inattentive clerks and bank customers, and later in his adventures Shadow will meet a Mr. Ibis and a Mr. Jacquel, who run a shabby-genteel mortuary for "the colored folk hereabouts" -- "hereabouts" being Cairo, Ill.

Wednesday, who finally succeeds in hiring Shadow, is traveling across the country, enlisting his peculiar colleagues -- who include Czernobog, the dark half of a dualistic pair of Slavic brother gods, and Mr. Nancy, the human embodiment of the West African spider-trickster god Anansi -- in a titanic battle. Their opponents are the "new" gods, gods that represent America's shift from the spiritual to the tangible and material: the Technical Boy, who says things like "[Wednesday] has been consigned to the dumpster of history while people like me ride our limos down the superhighway of tomorrow"; a bunch of men in black who call themselves "the Agency" but are referred to by everyone else as "the spookshow"; a "perfectly made-up, perfectly coiffed" newscaster goddess by the name of Media; and a never-seen contingent called the Intangibles, who join the conflict somewhat reluctantly because they are "pretty much in favor of letting market forces take care of it."

Shadow goes through some of the requisite hard-boiled experiences -- getting kidnapped and beat up by the bad guys, discovering that his employer hasn't been exactly honest with him and so on -- along with a few others that never crop up in Chandler and Hammett. A magical coin, given to him by a drunk claiming to be a leprechaun, a token that Shadow tosses into his wife's grave, has the unnerving result of reanimating her, and while she's unquestionably dead, she helps him out of a few scrapes. The characters in TV sitcoms (controlled by Media) drop their shtick and look out of the screen to address him directly, trying to talk him into joining the new gods. And then there are the weird dreams Shadow keeps having about a buffalo-headed figure who issues a series of cryptic pronouncements. But none of this is quite as creepy as Lakeside, the small Michigan town where he holes up for a while, a place that's just a little bit too good to be true.

With its mythological echoes, puns, in jokes and other decodable references, "American Gods" will delight the sort of reader who likes to hunt for such things. (Gaiman even jokes about this by including a bit about "hidden Indians," that is, the kind of visual puzzle in which disguised figures are worked into a drawing.) The novel also has a big theme about the nature of America, which, most of the characters insist, is "a bad land for gods," supposedly because we get tired of them and they dwindle from insufficient worship. This, it must be said, doesn't jibe with reality, and perhaps that's because Gaiman (who wrote the seminal graphic novel "The Sandman" and has authored several traditional novels, including the delightful "Neverwhere," which sets uncanny doings in the London Underground) is British. When Mr. Jacquel observes that "Jesus does pretty good over here," well, that's an understatement.

But the slightly off skew of its take on the U.S. doesn't really matter much, for "American Gods" is a crackerjack suspense yarn with an ending that both surprises and makes perfect sense, as well as many passages of heady, imagistic writing. And for all that he's missed in the American propensity for religious fanaticism, Gaiman has exactly nailed the way we talk; some of the most savory characters are the minor ones, the helpful middle-aged ladies and surly cons who regale Shadow for a moment or two before passing out of the story, like the fellow inmate who tells Shadow: "My last girlfriend was Greek ... The shit her family ate. You would not believe. Like rice wrapped in leaves. Shit like that."

Speaking of Greeks, their gods never make an appearance here, though their presence, you'd think, wouldn't be any less plausible than that of Anubis and Thoth. Even more mystifying is the absence of the guy Mr. Jacquel calls "one lucky son of a virgin." Somehow, the fact that we're twice told that Shadow is 32 at the very beginning of the novel -- as well as a few things that happen to him later on -- seems to be a reference to that conspicuous no-show, but now I'm pointing out hidden Indians. Whatever its loftier intentions, "American Gods" is a juicily original melding of archaic myth with the slangy, gritty, melancholy voice of one of America's great cultural inventions -- the hard-boiled detective; call it Wagnerian noir. The melting pot has produced stranger cocktails, but few that are as tasty.

WRA Episode 25- Galactic Patrol

Hey y'all! New episode is up, and its awesome! This is my favourite pulp science fiction novel, Galactic Patrol!

WRA Episode 24 - Operator 5 and Death's Ragged Army

Well, it took me a week to get it read, scripted, filmed, and put together (as I literally had to change gears and use a different book than I was originally scheduled to review)...but the new episode of Warning! Readers Advisory! is finally up.

Last week we looked at a classic Doc Savage story from 1932, but now we're skipping 4 years ahead to the eve of World War II as we join Secret Service Operator #5, America's Undercover Ace, as he fights to repel the dreadful forces of the Purple Empire in America's Second War of Independence! (...no, not shitting you, that's the phrase the book uses)

So without further ado, I present for the approval of the Midnight Society:

OPERATOR 5 AND DEATH'S RAGGED ARMY!

WRA Episode 22 - Necroscope

Forgot to post this when it came out two weeks ago. Enjoy!

WRA Episode 23 - Doc Savage and the Meteor Menace

I kick off Pulp Month with a review of one of my favourite pulp novels, the third adventure of the Man of Bronze:

DOC SAVAGE AND THE METEOR MENACE!

On the Paper Trail: Persuasive Games

Welcome back boys and girls we are back on the paper trail. This time we are going to hit the text books hard with the new title called Persuasive Games: The Expressive Power of Videogames by Ian Bogost. Now as you can imagine this is a book for game designers who design video games. Whenever I read books talking about game design or game theory I tend to lose a little of myself in the process since I realize the process behind the curtain. So if you want to protect the innocence and play games for games sake do not look into these titles, however if you play games merely to study them (like myself) read on.

So this book talks about the essence of persuasion. What exactly it means to convince someone to go an either take action to do something or give an opinion on the means that the game presents itself. Now for the vast majority of the titles mentioned in this book you are going to not likely hear about in the past, since the topic of persuasion tends to go into either education, advergames, or political tones. However the core mechanics is as such that you can infer to use in other genres.

The core of the book is a discussion about how mechanics can be tweaked to the point to encourage an outcome that will make the player either do the appropriate action you want them to do (volunteer to support a local candidate), expose a fundamental flaw in the process something is using thus causing a call for action (boycotting Kinko's due to the poor practices they use) or even make social commentary that may influence people (eating healthy items is harder to do due to the food industry setting a premium on them).

The crux of the manner is simply writing the various procedures to influence the action that takes place to learn an inherent message that is not presented directly to the player, but rather inferred when analyzing the mechanics and drawing out a conclusion for it. Now as you might have guessed this can be a very powerful tool if used in the wrong hands. In all the cases the main message done took place and overall can either be a positive or negative message depending on how crafty the designers incorporate it. A great example pointed out by the book is the fact a beer company endorsed their beer to be incorporated into Tapper, a game which highlights the flaws of going out drinking.

At the end it poses the ultimate question of whether or not the creation of a game that's sole purpose is to convince the player to go and take a specific action. It leaves it ambiguous due to the nature of the titles of this book being both positive and negative in their messages, however ends with the notation that, as with all other media, we should know that the medium is doing this, realize why they are doing this, and then make our own decision to follow it or not.

This book allowed my analysis eye to open up a bit and made me go and look back at some titles that I actually own, one of which being Actraiser. The whole point of the game is to give your holy help to the various towns in the world by taking away the very threats given to them in the first place. However at the end of the game, once the ultimate threat is gone no one actually praises your deeds anymore and every city moves on to have a more free thinking environment then one governed by the God who actually created them. Is the game trying to convince me that religion is nothing more then a crux society uses to call for help, and once all them are gone will we forget about it?

All of these games are trying to convince you of something when you play whether they intended to or not, however the one point can be made is that in order to ensure the message gets sent correctly designers need to ensure that they are sending it correctly and as gamers we are recognizing this and take an informed stance on the issue rather to simply agree or disagree on it solely based on what the designers intended to be. If you are a game studier pick up this book. Next time will be...a novelization of a game. Which game will it be? Stay tuned to find out.

Off the Beaten Path: Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks

The following was taken from Coldguy's side project On the Paper Trail. For more reviews like this check out the blog.

Hello everyone welcome to...well we are not on the trail per say just merely off the beaten path. This will contain books that do not have a direct interaction with gaming however can easily be tied into them. It may sound confusing right now but when I talk about Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks you will get a better idea.

This book at its core is a chronicle of a midlife crisis and one man's journey to figure out his fantasy desires in the real world. It started with a D&D obsession as a teenager, and then college came and vowed never to play it again...until he turned 40. As with many people at that age people tend to think if they chose the right decision when they were younger and through a series of events find his old D&D books. To figure out where his fantasy urges lay in the real world he sets off for an adventure to discover the fantasy side of people.

This book goes into a modern D&D game session, a reunion of old D&D players, LARPs, Dragon*Con, Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA) areas, Wizardrock (i.e Harry and the Potters), and yes even fantasy video games with the focus on WoW. Through this journey he talks about various reasons of escape as a means to cope with reality, and even going as far as trying to find a proper balance between the fantasy world and the real world.

Now if you have been following these reviews you know a title I have done earlier was Reality is Broken by Jane McGonigal and the various themes of explaining how escapism is used to deal with real world issues on a person hit home in an unscientific manner. Jane uses the escape to allow us to achieve more then what we believe we can in reality with Fantasy Freaks argues that we escape to make reality simpler to manage and easier to control.

Both people are correct for vastly different reasons, I wonder if Fantasy Freaks went ahead and read Reality is Broken if he would agree with Jane's viewpoint or stick with his own.

As for the video game point of view he does talk about being addicted to video games, even talks to a self help survivor of it. Although the addict argues that video games are evil he simply states at the end that he was really into self help tapes, thus indirectly saying that it might not be video games but the addict within a person that latches on to a particular vice and rolls with it.

In the end he came to a realization where he realizes the true meaning of imagination and dreams, it is not to simply live in a fantasy land instead of reality. We escape or use our imagination in order to create. I believe he hit the nail right on the head with this, as imagination allow us to make world or things that we know do not exist and them into a somewhat tangible reality for people to interact with, some people take it to the extreme and actually try to immerse themselves into their fantasy 24 hours a day but as Jane pointed out in her book doing it for more then 3 hours a day is unhealthy for anyone to do.

All in all a book I can highly recommend if you ever dreamed about Harry Potter, Tolkien or even the fantasy genre itself. It gives a great perspective on how to balance the adult life with your inner child and has valuable advice to anyone who has the same issue the author has in this.

WRA Episode 21- License to Kill

And we're up with the 21st episode of WRA (OMG, I'm at 21 episodes, this is so awesome!), in which I review the 16th James Bond movie, the first not to even be ostensibly based on the books...

LICENSE TO KILL

Writing for the Future

ARG: A game that takes place in reality to achieve a goal that a set of gamers agree upon to determine the winner. Jane McGonical (Author of Reality is Broken) is attempting to see if 500 gamers can achieve the impossible and write about the future. If you are in the New York area, I implore you to check this out.

On the Paper Trail: Masters of Doom

This is a sample taken from Coldguy's other project The Paper Trail where he review books on Video Games.

Howdy partners welcome back to the trail, in this stop we have ourselves a geek classic here. Masters of Doom tells the tale of John Carmack and John Romero, how they once started as lowly programmers trying to push the edge of technology and somehow changed the entire culture of gaming for better or worse.

This story is madly fascinating by being brutally honest about the Johns and their rise to power. Carmack is a self motivated nerd who just wants to hammer out the code to get the job done, Romero is an experimental jackass that takes no solace in anyone else's emotions. These people are in essences uncaring pompous pricks that are really good at computers, they do the things their way and everyone hates them because of it. However at the end of the day there is still a passion that you can not deny from them.

This book is blunt, in the same manner as the Johns and pulls no punches with foul language and tells it like it was. It includes great mini biops on various people you know (American McGee and the ID Mom were among my favorites) as well as incorporate the culture at the time as well. One fact that I found hilarious was that one day after the US government forced the ESRB to come into existence Doom was released to the public via shareware.

It also tells you that both together managed a rise and fall for the glory that was Doom and Quake I, and how they were apart made Ion Storm and Id crash from its mighty perch. The various business dealings would make you head tilt upon how Eidos managed to put up with all the nonsense that Romero was cooking, or how in the world no one thought Carmack was a terrible business owner and not just a hard worker.

This book is a time capsule about early computer gaming, the excitement of having two people and a bastion of friends pushing computer hardware to the absolute maximum and creating the games that they wanted to have created and making a boat load of money using unorthodox methods. The book does not sugar coat anything it simply tells it like it was and excepts you to be mature enough to think it is awesome or just question why Microsoft would allow a Giant Vaginal door to take place with the members of Gwar hitting people with dildos (yes that actually happened).

If you grew up in the 90s this will be a blast from the past that you will love to revisit, if you are wondering where trolling started it also tells you that as well, or if you wondered how two people with no business skills managed to finance an empire based around video game it talks about that as well. A must read if you are a gamer to find the zenith into FPS that is still tried and true to this day.

Public Reading

I often get this to the point where it is not even funny anymore. When I go to read I am a cheap bastard, I go to the library, I go to a book store, hell I read a novella in a used book swap. I read in public and find that there is nothing wrong with it unless the owner of the place is a jerk and makes a rule to not allow you to read a book prior to purchasing.

Think about it, why the hell WOULDN'T you read a book prior to adding it to your collection?

If you wanted to buy a video game you want to make sure that the game is good, there is a demo where it gives you a sample of the game play and if you like it, in theory you would buy it. Unless you are shareware but that is another story in of itself. Everyone has the buyer beware gene in some form or another and wants to make sure they get a good product.

So I was at my local (surviving) Borders I checked out Zombie v Unicorn and the final result was I did not like it. I read several stories in a chair and kept to myself. However I got SEVERAL glances from various people looking at me read in public. I was even questioned about the book I was reading and WHY I was reading it and not just outright buying it.

It could be me but being a reader doesn't constitute me supporting everything blindly, I look for reviews, demos, other opinions, and any information to make an informed decision on buying things like a car, a computer, a cell phone, but why are books excluded with that?

Should I as a fan of reading blindly support an author without knowing his or her work to support the industry? If that was the case why the hell am I buying it outside of a meet and greet with the author self publishing the book themselves. Every industry from movies to music and books have the end game of the consumer wants more then they are willing to have and decisions need to determine what goes on top and what does not.

All in all, I am not afraid to say I do not buy every book I read and there should be nothing wrong with that, the fact that I am trying to get people together to encourage reading on a blogspot blog with other people should be adequate enough. I buy kick ass books only, why waste money on things you do not like and regret the purchase, buy only the good stuff and vote the your dollars on who should get more support.

WRA Episode 20- Troy

Well, three weeks late, but finally here. This week I'm digging into Troy, Wolfgang Peterson's cinematic shitstorm that dares to ask "What happens if we took the Iliad, ripped out all mythological connotations, and then completely fucked it up?"

So with that said...yeah I really don't have anything else to say about this thing. It speaks for itself.

On The Paper Trail: Gamers...in the Library?!

Note: this was taken by Coldguy's side project On the Paper Trail which goes and reviews book based on video games. For more up to dates notes check out On the Paper Trail.

Howdy gamers, welcome to the first stop on the trail and in this installment we are going to talk about video games and libraries. Sure you may think that these two things would not go hand in hand with one another however recently studies have shown that this can be a power house mix to attract teenagers and children to the hallowed book hall.

So the goal of this book is simple: get more people to the library and have video games to be one of those "services" that are made available to the patrons. Eli Neiburger is both a librarian and a gamer and has seen his hobby become a major success in his district and has the plan to make it a success for your own.

Now as you might imagination the core of this book is not for "gamers" but rather librarians who may or may not know about video games. Therefore several parts of this book address things like which games you should look into, what consoles you may want to get, what cabling is required to set up an event and the logistics of the event to attract people into coming.

As a facilitator it does an amazing job into breaking down the various aspects of planning of the tournament season at your library, from convincing a person who does not think video games belong in the library to using your budget to get the most bang for your buck. It breaks things done into simple terms and tells even the non technologist how to pull an event like this off and keep the gamers coming in.

As a gamer the biggest takeaway from this is the tournament system they use to ensure that no one would be bored at the event. As well as how the rules need to be both structured enough to be understood and flexible enough to change on the fly in case an issue arises. This in combination with how to set up a room for a tourney comes into play if you were wanting to set up one at a convention, your basement, or in another public space. This is a great guide to ensure you get the maximum amount of fun from the experienced player to the novice.

All in all this book was made for librarians, as it was published by the ALA directly. Yes the American Library Association has published a book on how to create video game tournaments at your local library to encourage gamers to come. If that alone does not tell you that libraries are not cool I am not sure what will. If you are an adult that wants to run a tournament to attract people to come and keep coming back to your public venue this is right up your alley.

As for a gamer this is something you may want to skip since it deals with more of an open venue management rather then the nuts and bolts on setting up ways to get the clan structure set. Plus since it is an ALA book the price point of this one is $50. Which in my opinion is way too much for you to go and purchase this title, my best suggestion is to check this out at your local library (heck my library had it on its shelves for me to go and check out) take some notes and return when finished. You can check out the book on Amazon which provides you with a nice Kindle version for those reading on the electronic device.

WRA Episode 19- Orphans of Chaos (part 2)

Warning! Readers Advisory! returns this week with a special treat for all.

The second half of the Orphans of Chaos two-parter sees the Bard facing off in a duel against the fiendish Dorian Grey (played by Reuben David), as well as digging into the madness and perversity of this book in a last ditch effort to escape the In-Between Place, the Place Which Is In-Between.

There is something about Mogworld

Hello everyone, for those who have not seen it yet, I will link you to the book club where I talked about the latest novel from Yahzee Crowshaw, Mogworld.



So after this review post posted to the masses, one can say I received a lot of hate mail. I know I was going to be in the minority when it came to this book. There are certain things that really rubbed me the wrong way with it and instead of sending dozens of messages to people about it, I will lump them here for your enjoyment.

1) They never went to the real world only to a cyber vision of the real world since the admin tools were there.

Well to be honest this was something I got wrong, however the reason I got this wrong was in part due to the author. Throughout the entire book when it came to locations and setting up areas for the characters to explore, describing the atmosphere was nothing more then an after thought.

Case in point when they went and talked to the king it was described a Salvador Dali castle. How much time were they there for? Maybe a half of a chapter before being sent to a dungeon of the castle which one would assume is the same, but was never specified. He goes from one action scene to another action scene with only a passing mention on the environment.

So yes they were actually in an office like cyber environment where the admin tools were and yes the programmers disappeared when they "logged out" however it was so awkwardly worded you could imagine why I would be confused.

2) Why did you think this was a fantasy book when it was supposed to be a sci-fi one from the start?

Again, when I go and pick up books I tend to not read the back covers nor the amazon description which SPOILED PART OF THE BOOK. I knew that it takes place in an MMO environment, but to have it LITERALLY in an MMO was something I did not see coming. Once that hits you so abruptly it makes everything that was built up including the motivation of the NPC moot and then makes further actions a confusing mess since we already know the twist of the book about a quarter of the way into the book. Plus I checked again the genre it is listed under is indeed a graphic novel, when there is no graphics in this novel.

3) You are so stupid the characters were SUPPOSED to be assholes.

Really? You are going to say that since I do not care for people who were willing to not bond with each other to the point that they would often get on their nerves that makes them good characters? I am sorry they are assholes, and characters that I clearly would not give a shit about and get pissed when character motivation change on the drop of a hat negating EVERY action they did prior.

4) You suck for not liking the book

That's fine, I am not saying that the book is terrible all I said was that after the first act it took such a nose dive to bad that I was pissed off that he could not keep the same level of writing through the entire story. Plus I do not like books that others do, I am a reader of many books you can enjoy it, I just didn't.

5) Yahzee was a competent writer you asshole

Ok I see where your frustration is at meaning I think he did bad overall. My competent argument was referring to having a story start in one tone and end it in another. It was like if he gave up on character development, conflict resolution, and well plot elements went from really well done to very lazily hasted. In a word it was the disappointment factor, to simply downgrade your writing the further you went in a book is something which I can not call competent, it is more lazy then anything else.

6) Yahzee is the shit how dare you say bad things about him

This is where my famous writer line was supposed to save me, when I read a book I take no consideration on who actually wrote the book. Sure a famous celebrity may have written it but the name on the cover does not a good book make (see Steven King). I hold the merit of the book based upon the story in which it presents to me, not on the writer personally. You can have someone that has written bad books suddenly turn out an awesome story, again it is the do not judge a book by its cover principle.

As for my views of Yahzee; I think he is ok. Not my cup of tea, but can understand the appeal of watching his reviews. Something things turn me off about him like the constant use of dick jokes and the mentioning of Peter Molyneux (seriously he is a used car salesman the less you listen to him the better you will actually see the faults of the used car). I do know people that have met the guy and they told me he is a cool dude. I was not attacking the person, I was attacking the writing.

7) Why did you spoil the book I didn't read it yet

Have you ever seen a prior episode? Heck have you ever been to a book club before? Yes it assumes that you have read the entire book and already know the ending of it. Plus it took me over an hour to spoil the ending, and I placed 2 spoiler warnings (and midrolls) to warn you about this.

8) Sadpanda is going to htee you forever now

He may htae me, but I will still loe him.

9) Why so seriously critical when you go and read a book?

Why do people point out inconstancies in the background of a movie when it does not effect the overall scene? Critics need to be nit picky, some do it better then others.

I hope that answers most of your questions please feel free to post a comment if you feel there is something I left out. Take care.

WRA Episode 18- Orphans of Chaos (part 1)

Warning! Readers Advisory! returns once again, giving you the first episode of a two parter. John C. Wright's Orphans of Chaos is a morass of fetishism and bugfuck diatribes on the nature of reality. So crazy, it took two parts!

Enjoy.

WRA Episode 17- The Scent of Shadows

Warning! Readers Advisory! is back with a review of Vicki Pettersson's The Scent of Shadows.

Generally, I like to say something a little witty about a book first. But...oh god, this book is just made of fail.

My thoughts on PC Reading

Hello everyone this is your pal Coldguy and wanted to go and say that yes we are still looking for people to welcome this happy site with numerous written, video, audio book reviews feel free to send me a message with your work to get the ball rolling.

Now I wanted to talk about something interesting today and that is reading on the PC.  I have stated that I plan on getting a Kindle in the near future I am just waiting for the funds to be available or a good sale hits the device before swinging it up.  However since I like to read in advance for podcast I needed to go and pick up a book to read, one of the titles that looked interesting was available for the kindle, cost half the price, and would ship to me 2 weeks faster then if I received a physical copy.  So I took the plunge and decided to read this book off of my computer.

First off the program overall is a nice program, the kindle on PC does the job of reading books very well and does not add much fluff into the fold.  Your opening screen requires you to sign into amazon for obvious reason, and then you are on a blue screen with book covers.  You are given 3 free books (hurray) all of which have been free on the public domain (boo).  The titles are Aesop's Fables, Pride and Prejudice (with no zombies), and Treasure Island.  If you have not read them before at least 2 of them are going to be enjoyable to glance at.

Next you goal is to go and select the cover of the book you want to pick up, once done then poof book opens and you are reading it.  Now a nice feature is that the font adjusts to the size of the program, so if you are multitasking you can have it to the side of the window and glance at the book as you use your computer or simply have it take the full screen and have it large enough for the person behind you to go and read it as well.  You can either use the arrow keys to move pages or the mouse, it also auto saves your last position on the book in case you need to come back to the program and the images are nice enough to stand out and capture what it was meant to do on paper.

Now the only major issue I have with this program is...the color of the paper.  Sounds trivial I know however it caused my eyes to go insane when attempt a long term reading session.  The color is white, as white as the text box you are reading in right now.  Now here is the thing with white, yes it does provide a nice contrasting color, but it also requires the majority of eye muscles to actually look at it (black being the total opposite).  When you read a book the paper is not white, it is an off white color that uses less strain in your eyes to read the text.

Now when reading something online that is short you are not going to get a strain since you are moving on to another article, story, or website.  You are not going to experience the pain I felt when reading for an hour in front of a computer screen, so my suggestion have a variety of font and paper colors and allow us to change it to something that the reader enjoys.

Now the biggest issue is simply, you are on a computer reading.  The back-lit screen is not paper and the amount that you can read is going to slow down as well.  A book that would normally take me an afternoon or two took me a week and a half to complete.  It was not the fault of the book but the fault of the presentation of the book.  I work 8 hours a day in front of a computer monitor so your mileage may very but went I need to concentrate on reading I like to be away from a lit screen and distractions that could take me away from me reading the book itself.

Often times I would get an email, a direct message, or a notification for me to check something else on the computer that would pull me away from the story and would often go and distract me from the actual book I was trying to read.  Which is why I think ultimately reading a book on a computer or a cell phone is nice but not ideal.  There is too much to pull you out of the story that unless it grips you closely by it will be very hard to keep yourself focused.

Warning! Readers Advisory! (episode 16)

Greetings, BiblioManiacs!

For those not familiar, my name is Derek the Bard. I run a little show called Warning! Readers Advisory! wherein I review books (and occasionally delve into library issues). I'm just finishing up my Masters of Information (what the Masters of Library Science transformed into), and coupled with a love of literature I put together this show back in October.

See...everyone knows what books they love. They know good books. But...what about all the bad, odd, and just plain weird books out there? Well, this is the show for them! From the terrors of Stephanie Meyer's Twilight to the just plain weirdness of Warren Ellis' Crooked Little Vein, WRA covers them all.

In this, the 16th episode, I tackle the reason why being a great actor doesn't necessarily make you a great author. This is Amber Benson's Death's Daughter. Enjoy.

A call to arms

Hello boys and girls, this is Coldguy from Spine Breakers and TGWTG.com and I will to tell you all that I want you to join up.  For over a year now I have been reviewing books and producing a podcast with so many wonderful people that I somehow carved a bunch of people that enjoy what I do.  I do not consider myself a celebrity, but others disagree with me and tell me that they enjoy going to my book clubs and watching my podcasts, and to thank I want to thank you.

However now I am here to return the favor to you.

I know there are many people out there that love to read as much as I do and share your thoughts on the books on a blog or a podcast or even a video and I want to use my minor Internet fame to make you more famous.  All you need to be is a person that loves to read and wants to share your opinion, if you can do that I will do my best to support you in whatever way I can hence why I made a little blog here.

Let's create a collective of people who want to go and celebrate reading and expressing our love to as many readers out there, if you want to be featured here, post a comment on where I can read your stuff and I will look at it, if it is awesome then I will reply to you and ask if you want to join to the cause.  Sure there isn't much at the moment, but I got some interesting things up my sleeve and willing to go and work to make this grow.

So please let me know if you want in and let the Bibliomanics unite.

What is this?

This could be the beginning of something very interesting, stay tuned to find out.