Before I go on to the meat of todays post, I must make a passing mention to the Liverpool derby, which I had the great fortune to watch yesterday - it was a cracking match (despite Gerrard getting sent off) with some fantastic goals. Really got the heart going 
Anyway - thought I would do a couple of book reviews for a change:
Serenity - the novelisation by Keith R. A. Decandido. I borrowed this one from the library, and was very curious to read it, having heard a couple of interviews with krad, and seen him on the message forums. He’s done a few novelisations, including the 2 Resident Evil movies, so I had relatively high hopes. For the most part it is an entertaining read - he has novelised from the original screenplay, so there are some extra scenes that aren’t in the final cut of the movie. Additionally, he decided to throw in some of the background material from the series. Generally it’s a well rounded novel, but I didn’t like some of his characterisations (in particular I felt he over-demonised the Tam parents), and some of the descriptions were a little off, IMO.
Overall, if you’re a Firefly fan, then it’s worth having, but it’s not a patch on the Visual Companion, which also contains the entire shooting script.
Scarecrow by Matthew Reilly. I actually won this book in a competition in the Metro, so I came to it without any real knowledge of the author or his style. I’ve not finished it yet, so I can’t comment on the conclusion, but so far this has got to be one of the most fast-paced books I have read - it drags you along on the edge of your seat for page after page after page, sucking you into the action continuously. Some of the action is a little over done, in the style of a big budget action film (I would love to see the stunt where the main character manages to roll his car sideways over the roof of another car played out visually…..), but so far this books has been worth every penny, and then some 
mrBen
