I’m a HUGE Guillermo Del Toro fan.  He has, without a doubt, one of the most amazing visual minds of anyone working in media today.  It’s no wonder that everyone wants to work with Del Toro, from Disney to video game companies to novelist Chuck Hogan.  Del Toro has a lot of ideas when it comes to vampires, and he takes some of his concepts from Blade II, along with plenty of new ideas, and brings them to his collaboration with Chuck Hogan, The Strain Trilogy.

I wasn’t the hugest fan of the original novel in the trilogy, The Strain. (check out my review)  I felt like it was bit too much build up without enough resolution.  That being said, I was still curious enough to see where the story was going to pick up The Fall, the second novel in the trilogy.

In The Fall, the vampiric strain has debilitated New York City, and the heroes of the original are trying to figure out their next steps, not realizing that the monsters behind the vampiric outbreak are already working on their endgame.

The vampiric virus unleashed in The Strain has taken over New York City. It is spreading across the country and soon, the world. Amid the chaos, Eph Goodweather—head of the Center for Disease Control’s team—leads a small band out to stop these bloodthirsty monsters. But it may be too late. Ignited by the Master’s horrific plan, a war erupts between Old and New World vampires, each vying for total control. Caught between these warring forces, humans—powerless and vulnerable—are no longer the consumers, but the consumed. Though Eph understands the vampiric plague better than anyone, even he cannot protect those he loves from the invading evil. His ex-wife, Kelly, has been turned by the Master, and now she stalks the city, in the darkness, looking for her chance to reclaim Zack, Eph’s young son. With the future of the world in the balance, Eph and his courageous team, guided by the brilliant former professor and Holocaust survivor Abraham Setrakian and exterminator Vasiliy Fet, must combat a terror whose ultimate plan is more terrible than anyone first imagined—a fate worse than annihilation.

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Written on March 2nd, 2011 , Books

Necessity is the mother of invention.

To increase productivity, mankind needed an efficient way to illuminate the night.  So, Heinrich Goebel invented the light bulb and Thomas Edison, needing to be rich, stole that invention.  Guys like me needed to be able to sit through all three Director’s Cuts of The Lord of the Rings back-to-back without a bathroom break, so some genius made the Stadium Pal.

We are a needful people and The Klutz Book of Inventions is here to meet that need.  Perhaps you’re in need of Soundproof Underwear for instance?    The Klutz Book of Inventions is Co-written by Klutz founder John Cassidy and Brendan Boyle of IDEO, they came up with almost 200 never-before-seen contraptions that are brilliant, useful, and ridiculous all at the same time.

This book is hilarious.  The Wife snagged it from me the moment my review copy emerged from the package and was cracking up.  It’s a fun, fully illustrated volume of “162 inventions that do it all!”  Just think how useful this book would have been to Thomas Edison.  162 inventions right there in one book, ready for the stealing.

Sponsored by the good folks at Klutz, Ideology of Madness is hosting a contest to win The Klutz Book of Inventions in addition to a FLIP UltraHD Camcorder.  See details below.

The Deets:

One (1) Winner will receive:

  • Flip™ all-new slimmer UltraHD, and
  • A copy of KLUTZ BOOK OF INVENTIONS

All you gotta do is tell us about your snazzy innovative idea for an invention in the comments below.

One entry per person, please.

One winner will be chosen at random.

Items will only be shipped within the United States.  Prize support is courtesy of  Big Honcho Media.

Contest ends Friday, November 19, 2010 at 11:59 pm Central time.

Written on November 15th, 2010 , Books, Contests, Electronics Tags:

The sixth entry in the Skulduggery Pleasant series has been released?  What?  A quick glance at Amazon shows that only the first three books have been released in the United States.  You actually have to go to Amazon UK to find books 4-6 of what’s quickly becoming my favorite book series.  It’s a shame, but I wonder if the reason that the US hasn’t seen the next three books is because of sales, or because a movie hasn’t been released yet.  Movie rights for the series were snatched up before the first book was even released, yet here we are, six books in, and no movie has been released?  Maybe the US publisher is waiting until the movie gets released and book sales go up to continue releasing the series?

Or maybe it’s because of how dark the series has gotten, something definitely evident in the newest installment, Mortal Coil. After all, this is Pauloween Horror Nights, and this book wouldn’t be included if it wasn’t perfectly full of horror! Read the rest of this entry »

Written on September 29th, 2010 , Books Tags: ,

When it was announced that popular horror filmmaker Guillermo del Toro would be co-writing a novel, lots of fans were super excited about it.  Though I don’t subscribe to the opinion that everything he touches turns to gold, I am a del Toro fan, and find all of his films imaginative, if not enjoyable.  Though The Strain came out last year (and I started it as soon as it was released), the story didn’t quite grip me initially, and I put the book down for a while, only coming back to it and finishing it this week.

The Strain is a mash up of a zombie movie and a Guillermo del Toro vampire movie (there are quite a few similarities between the vampires here and the ones in Blade II).  In it, a vampire outbreak spreads throughout New York City, while a disease expert named Eph, and ancient vampire hunter names Setrakian, and their friends work to stop it from spreading…and to stop the Master who started it in the first place. Read the rest of this entry »

Written on August 17th, 2010 , Books

This new comic book day, we’ve got something a little different for you – an interview you have to read instead of listen to!

Novelist/comic writer/awesome dude Gregg Hurwitz has been on the show before, and we talked about all manner of cool goodness, including Vengeance of the Moon Knight, his new novel Trust No One (at the time), and the TV show V.

Nowadays, Gregg is pretty busy on tour with his new book, They’re Watching (see if he’s coming to your town here), and gearing up for production on the second season of V but, awesome guy that he is,  in the first of many interviews in the coming months on Shadowland, he spent some time chatting with us about Shadowland: Moon Knight, his new novel They’re Watching, and hints at just what may be coming up for Moon Knight.  After all, Vengeance of the Moon Knight #10 (released TODAY!) is the last issue solicited…

Read after the jump for all the awesome info!

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When was the last time you saw a children’s novel that had a cover like this?

Click to see full size.

Click to see full size.

Skulduggery Pleasant: Mortal Coil is due out this September in jolly ol’ England.  If you haven’t been reading this series, read my reviews for books three and four…and just buy the damn books.  Thank me later.

Image from writer Derek Landy’s blog.

Written on May 25th, 2010 , Books Tags:

the-devil-you-know-by-mike-careyI’m not a fan of novels that flaunt their influences, particularly when I’m familiar with the influences in question. It’s like paying to see a new band and discovering only after the set begins that you’re watching a cover band. The music may be competent, but if you wanted to hear those songs, you could just listen to the original stuff.

It’s clear from The Devil You Know that Mike Carey really likes Raymond Chandler. I had that influence spotted from the first chapter; I didn’t need the name-check he provides in Chapter 22. The problem is Carey’s not as clever at dialogue or internal monologue as Chandler was. And Chandler had a lot more love for and knowledge of 1940s Los Angeles than Carey has for modern London. A tube-stop itinerary does not compelling reading make, nor does it tell you anything meaningful about London.

When he gets out of his own way, Carey is a good storyteller. When most of the Hellblazer and Raymond Chandler residue is burned off, his talent for world-building and for scripting action scenes shines through. I enjoyed the descriptions of exorcism-by-music. The fights and chases were compelling, and I turned the pages as eagerly as anyone caught up in the action. Unfortunately, a story needs more than fights and chases, and that’s where the book falls down.

There are problems in this book that a good editor should have fixed. For example, Carey makes a point of telling us how competent and worldly Felix Castor is, follows it up with a visit to Castor’s paranoid friend with the comment that said friend’s paranoia is contagious, then three pages later has Castor caught completely off-guard by a succubus. The event doesn’t ring true, and it makes me doubt that he really understands his main character.

The worst offense in the novel, however, is the reveal of the mystery. Castor spends three-quarters of the novel chasing down clues and interviewing people. The clues are intriguing even when they don’t quite connect in the expected way. I accept that I shouldn’t necessarily be able to determine exactly what happened from the clues, BUT… it shouldn’t require a twenty-page-long backstory from the guilty party to explain how all the dots connect. It ceases to be a shocking revelation and wanders dangerously close to a lecture where Carey is just reading us his working notes.

It brings me no joy to write so harshly about this book. I think that Carey’s The Unwritten is the best title currently being published under DC’s Vertigo imprint. I know that Carey is an accomplished storyteller and fully capable of bringing a modern fantasy to life, but ultimately, The Devil You Know feels like a John Constantine story that he never had the chance to tell. I suspect it might have played better as a Constantine story, rather than as a clunky first novel.

Written on May 19th, 2010 , Books, Horror Tags: ,
Dark Days is the fourth book in the Skulduggery Pleasant series.

Dark Days is the fourth book in the Skulduggery Pleasant series.

I received my copy of Skulduggery Pleasant: Dark Days in the mail on Monday.  Two days later, I’ve read the entire thing and am anxiously already awaiting book five (titled Mortal Coil, according to Wikipedia), which, as announced on the last page of Dark Days, will be out this September (overseas – thank goodness for Amazon.co.uk).

I’ve been a fan of the concept of Skulduggery Pleasant before I even read the first book – a skeleton detective who takes a young girl, Stephanie, under his wing, and together they go on adventures.  I mean, sure, it’s a middle grade book, written for the 10 and up young male set but, just like Harry Potter and its ilk, the adventures of Pleasant and Valkyrie Cain (the name Stephanie takes on) could be just as easily enjoyed by adults as kids.  In fact, in certain aspects, I almost think I enjoy them more as an adult than I would have as a child of the intended age group.

For some reason I’m not entirely sure, Skulduggery Pleasant doesn’t seem to have caught on in America as much as it has overseas, where it’s received numerous awards and acclaim.  I wonder if it’s just because Americans are tired of the middle grade fantasy, Harry Potter imitators lacking in the same quality that made Potter a hit to begin with.  I have to admit, having written a novel in that genre myself, I’ve had difficulty getting representation and publication – that market is still being flooded with people trying to be the next Harry Potter.

Though I’ve never read a Potter novel, specifically to avoid being influenced by them in my own writing, there’s no denying that any adventure in the same genre will be compared to the boy wizard.  Heck, I’ve even heard (ignorant) people refer to the Lord of the Rings movies as Potter rip-offs.  Yes, I corrected them.

Dark Days was released April 1st in the UK, with a US release date as-of-yet unannounced, and I excitedly gobbled up the entirety of its 415 pages in two sittings.  Spoilers on for those who haven’t read a Skulduggery book yet.

More after the jump.

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Written on April 22nd, 2010 , Books Tags:
Dark Days is the fourth book in the Skulduggery Pleasant series.

Dark Days is the fourth book in the Skulduggery Pleasant series.

Oh man, I’m so excited.  I’ve been talking since the site started about my love for Skulduggery Pleasant (don’t believe me, check out all the stories here).  Why do I love Skulduggery so much?  Well, he’s a SKELETON DETECTIVE.

Yes, I’ll repeat – a SKELETON DETECTIVE!

Not only that, he’s a skeleton detective who does battle with evil sorcerers to prevent an ancient race of Lovecraftian monsters from destroying our world, with the help of his ninja sidekick, Tanith Low.  I mean, sure, you could dismiss Skulduggery as a Harry Potter-esque kiddie book, but at some point, when you read the chapter where a character is being interrogated and EXPLODES, leaving oozy, chunky, blood all over the interrogation room walls, you know you’re reading something that any fans of cool fantasy and adventure will enjoy.

The fourth book of the Skulduggery Pleasant series, Dark Days, won’t be released in the United States for some time (a release date hasn’t been announced), but was released on April 1st over in England.  I’ve already ordered my copy (just like I did for the third book, The Faceless Ones), and, if you haven’t picked up any of the books in the series, you should definitely start now.  This is a fantastic series that I HIGHLY recommend to anyone who loves comic books, kung fu, magic and…SKELETON DETECTIVES!

Keep an eye out for a review for the fourth book in the series as soon as I can get my hands on it!

Written on April 9th, 2010 , Books, Comics Tags:

Win this book!

Win this book!

Death Troopers, the uber cool book that blends Star Wars with zombie fiction is now out in stores, and we recently gave you guys a chance to win it as part of our Pauloween Horror Nights month-long event!

So who won?

As it turns out it’s Not Eddie Murphey, who actually goes by the name Z0MBIE on Twitter!  Congrats Z0MBIE!  I’ll be e-mailing you soon!

In other Death Troopers news, the official Star Wars site had an interview with author Joe Schreiber, where he announced another Death Troopers novel, already completed!

The way you wrote Death Troopers lends itself to having one heck of a horrifying prequel. Any chance fans will be getting the tale of what happened on the Star Destroyer before the prison barge showed up?

Actually, I just finished the next book and sent it to Shelly Shapiro. It’s a prequel that deals with the virus and where it came from.

Awesome news! Can’t wait!

Written on October 24th, 2009 , Books, Contests, Star Wras Tags:

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