Book Review: Aliens: Earth Hive

Title: Aliens: Earth Hive
Author: Steve Perry
Genre: Military Sci-Fi, Horror
Trep's Rating: 3 Stars

I've loved the Aliens franchise forever. I don't know just what it is about them, but at least for the first two movies, I just can't get enough of them. Unfortunately, (or maybe fortunately, judging from the way the last two movies in that franchise went) they aren't making anymore movies that follow that storyline.

Which is why I love books. Book one in this series is pretty much what I expected it to be. A nitty-gritty Alien adventure.

Earth Hive starts years after the incidents in the first two movies. It follows two characters, a colonial marine named Wilks and a young woman named Billie. Wilks managed to survive and escape an Alien infestation on one of the outlying colonies, and Billie, then a little girl, was the only one he managed to save.

He gets assigned to be part of a top-secret mission to go and collect intelligence about this threat. The government thinks that they have found the Alien home world. (It was at this point I started getting excited)

They take off, intent on quickly completing their mission. Until a mercenary attacks them and takes them prisoner. See, the government isn't the only ones who know about the aliens, and some groups are willing to pay a lot of money for samples. The mercenary plans to use the marines as bait. Once on the alien world, he will wait until the marines have been "facehugged" and implanted with baby aliens. Then he will haul them up using androids, put them in cryo, and head back to earth.

Another group enters the story. A religious cult intent on worshiping the aliens xenomorphs. To them, being facehugged is the same a becoming one with their god. They are intent on getting a facehugger loose and breeding them on earth.

All in all, this is a fun ride. It's short, moves quickly, and is just a good story. Content Warning: Lot's of profanity, space boinking, and sci-fi violence.

Over The Weekend

Over the weekend I got a black eye. This is the story of how I got it.

I was driving in Salt Lake on Friday morning in my vehicle, a customized 2000 Jeep Wrangler known as the "Zodmobile." (Kneel). Everything was pretty mellow. I was wearing jeans and an Old Navy t-shirt, the kind with the American flag on it. I was going to meet up with my friends to play some baseball.

Suddenly there was a huge traffic accident as I passed the courthouse. I narrowly avoided becoming part of the collision by wrenching the wheel and coming to stop on the sidewalk.

It was clear immediately what had caused the accident. Some vampire had just walked out of the courthouse and into the sun, sparkling so brightly that the cars nearest him never had a chance. (Vampires. Man, they're cold-blooded)

I started to make my way towards the scene of the crash, intent on helping in whatever way I could. Right about then I heard the most chilling sound, a howl that descended on us in a horrible cacophony of grunts, shrieks and screams. My eyes shot towards the source of the terrible noise which was coming from just around the corner.

The accident had drawn a horde of zombies, most likely one of the gangs that runs this area. I had to move fast. The zombies moved towards the scene of the accident, like sharks drawn towards blood.

I ran to the first car and tried to help them. I had grabbed my baseball bat, just in case, but I was hoping I wouldn't have to use it. It's not really my weapon of choice when it comes to battling zombies. The zombies were picking up speed. They would be on us any minute. Finally I turned to fight, unable to open the twisted metal door of the car.

And that's when I heard another sound.

"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR!"

The noise was quickly joined by the scraping sound of swords being drawn from scabbards. The zombies stopped, confused for a moment, then charged the new source of disturbance. Facing off to them was a mob of pirates, bellowing for blood.

This was my chance. I turned back to the door, redoubled my efforts and pulled. The door wrenched free and the woman inside thanked me as I helped her out. We moved from car to car then, helping the victims of the crashes out, practicing basic first aid, and most importantly, moving them to the relative safety of the courthouse.

I heard a woman scream. She was across the street, fighting with two zombies that had broken off from the main herd.

I ran towards her, convinced it was too late. Still, I had to try.

I raised the bat over my head in defiance and gave an angry battle cry.

Which is about when Superman showed up.

I suppose it is technically possible that he confused my intentions. (Unlikely, but possible) He hit me and the force threw me all the way back to the "Zodmobile." I reached up and tenderly touched where he had hit me. My eye. I could already feel it swelling. That jerk.

And then it made sense. I looked down through my good eye at my shirt. The American flag. I suddenly remembered reading somewhere where Superman had disavowed his US citizenship(making him the first illegal ever to do so). He was afraid that his actions might be misconstrued as US policy.

I looked up at him and he just smirked. And to think I ever liked you. I rolled back over to my Jeep, which, as noted earlier, is a customized vehicle known as the "Zodmobile." Luckily one of the new features I had installed on the "Zodmobile" was a pair of Kryptonian-DNA-seeking Kryptonite missiles. I hit the launch button and hit the ground.

The pair of them tore out of the launcher. Superman, apparently not expecting any sort of retaliation, was caught off-guard. He was lifted in the air and hurled ten blocks away. A bright green explosion marked where he landed.

The bright light attracted the attention of the zombies and pirates, and both groups moved off to investigate. This allowed the paramedics to finally arrive and treat those with injuries. As for me, they gave me an ibuprofen and told me to beat it. (It's nice to be appreciated)

And that is the story of how I got my black eye. And no, it most certainly did not occur because of anything so trivial as my two year old daughter rocking her head back into me while sitting on my lap. That's the story. Epic battle of survival. Not epic battle with two year old.

Besides, which story would you rather believe?

Movie Review: The Charge of the Light Brigade

Title: The Charge of the Light Brigade
Year Produced: 1936
Notable Actors/Actresses: Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland
Trep's Rating: 5 Stars

This is, in my opinion, simply one of the best movies ever made.

The story begins in India. Geoffrey Vickers is assigned to escort a diplomat from Her Majesty the Queen of England to the leader of the Suristani tribes. Though the two peoples have lived in an uneasy alliance for some time, the treaties that held them together are about to expire.

For Vickers, a Major in the British Army, he knows how serious war would be with the mountain fighters of the Suristan people. But neither he nor the British Army realize how far the leader, Surat Khan, will go.

Something happens at this point in the movie that sets the rest of the events in motion. The movie culminates with the "Charge of the Light Brigade," made famous by Alfred Lord Tennyson in his poem.

This is a great movie for anyone. Though it was made in 1936, it still holds up well today. By the way, the charge is by far one of the most visually impressive charge scenes ever filmed, if not the most, made all the more so by the fact that they are really doing the stunts. No computer effects here.

Great movie, great story. Enjoy.

Book Review: Hero of Ages

Title: The Hero of Ages
Author: Brandon Sanderson
Genre: High Epic Fantasy
Trep's Rating: 5 Stars

This one has been a long time coming. I don't know why it took me so long to get around to reading the third book in this series, but it's done now. I have repented. And I'm glad I did.

Hero of Ages was a fitting end to a story of this scope and then some. For those of you who have not read this series, it's about group of thieves who plot to rob and overthrow their Emperor/God. He has ruled with an iron fist for a thousand years, enslaving an entire race of people and generally just being what one might expect from a megalomaniac dictator who is immortal.

A much bigger story unfolds in book two and then again in Hero of Ages. This gang of thieves will have to pull together and do something they never thought they'd have to do: save the Final Empire. This is high fantasy at its best with a decidedly apocalyptic tinge to the third book. It has a fantastic magic system and a sweeping story that really allows you to get pulled in.

On a side note about this series. I don't know if this was intentional, though I suspect some of it was, this series manages to capture all the best things about Les Miserables, The Count of Monte Cristo, and The Scarlett Pimpernel. I know that on his blog Brandon Sanderson did mention that his inspiration for one of the characters was Marius from Les Miserables. I picked up on that and many other things that gave this epic fantasy a certain flavor, one that reminded me very much of all three of these classic works.

This is a great story. And, I've just recently found out, it's not over. Alloy of Law is due out in November of this year, and I can't wait.

Read these books. You won't be disappointed.

Durango And SIlverton

Last year my family and I went to Durango Colorado (which in itself is not all that exciting, but hey, it was a vacation). If you ever get the chance, go there and take a ride on one of the last steam train lines in the United States. The scenery is spectacular, and the train ride itself is pretty fun.

Here's some of the photos I managed to take during the ride:

This is probably the most visually stunning part of the trip. At a section of rail known as the Highline there is a cut across a cliff for the rail. You can look out the side of the car and see four hundred feet straight down to the river below.

Like I said, it can be a fun experience and one that if you have the time and money you shouldn't pass up.

Making Good Ideas Great

One thing that gets asked at every writer's conference I've ever attended has something to do with how to get ideas. It seems that many people are convinced that if they could just get a great idea and go with it, the New York Times Bestseller list is only a matter of time. Maybe they're right. Who knows?

What I've found personally however, is that the idea for a book is hardly ever the problem. I've got tons of ideas. But ideas alone don't make a book. It takes work. Lots and lots of hard work.

True, it's not like working in a coal mine or catching fish on a trawler out of Gloucester or anything like that, but it is work, nonetheless. I know, I know. This goes against what many believe about art, that it is organic, that it should just be allowed to happen. Yeah. The truth is that all art takes work. It takes artists a long time to develop the skills to work a masterpiece.

Writing is no different.

So, ideas aren't everything. But they do have their place. So how do you turn good ideas into great ideas and make them work for you?

Mix them with other ideas.

It sounds simple, but it really works. That's what writing is all about after all. It is about taking something familiar and adding in something new, something we haven't experienced before. Fiction can take us to places that literally only our imagination can carry us to.

The other thing that I've learned is that when you're working on a book, don't hold back. If there are two many ideas floating around in your book, you can always cut them back as needed later. But when you are putting your story together don't hold out some of your best ideas for other books. Especially if you are writing a series. That's fine if you have a bunch of ideas that will make a killer ending to your trilogy. But if there isn't enough going on in the first two books, if the reader has to wait until book 3, well, then you've failed. Besides. Ideas are infectious. One leads to another and so on. And if your reading as much as anyone hoping to become a published author should be, then ideas will always abound.

For a writing exercise, try this: Take two ideas, make them as different as possible. Trivial things, you name it. Just make them very different. Now combine them. That will give you a basis for your story. Then take another idea. This will be added in to raise the stakes, exacerbating the conflict. Now, finally, take a fourth idea and find a way to work a solution from it. Have some fun with it and see what you come up with.

Naming Names

Over the weekend I had a disagreement with my wife. We're expecting a baby in November, we don't know what it will be yet, but we're trying to decide on a name that we both like.(Actually two names, one boy, one girl,)

So. I'm reading the names off that I like out of a baby name book. I think every one of them was met with "no, no, are you serious," and the like.(In my wife's defense I was joking about some of them)

And then I found it. Pure gold in the world of naming. Raiden. Meaning: Japanese god of Thunder and Lightning.(I should probably preface this next part by explaining that my wife has never played Mortal Kombat) I excitedly told her that this had to be our choice if it was a boy. I mean, come on, right? Her reply was, "do you want him to get beat up?"

I stared back at her, incredulous. "You think he'll get beat up? Don't you know who Raiden is?"

"No."

I pulled up a picture of him on the computer. "This is Raiden. You don't #%$%& with Raiden. You get zapped!"

Unfortunately, she wasn't impressed. And so the search for a name continues, much to my dismay. It could have been so perfect, but alas, it's not meant to be.

Do you think she'd go for Sub-Zero or Scorpion?