I’m getting rid of a ton of comics. I have a list here.

Initially, it’s only Detective Comics but I’ll be putting the full list online. If you want them, they’re yours. If you want to make some contribution to the BigAl Self Improvement Fund in return for the comics that is appreciated, but hardly necessary. It would just be a bonus to clear some space.

If you’re local to Glasgow you can come and pick them up but if you’re further afield you’ll be responsible for the postage.

BigAl

I’ve just discovered the sad news that Terry Pratchett has been diagnosed with early onset Alzheimers. He’s been a prolific author for many years, and brought sci-fi/fantasy into the mainstream. He may have his critics, but no-one can deny his influence.

Best wishes to him and his family - I hope that he will be able to live a “normal” life for as long as possible.

mrBen

(Available on Amazon.

I discovered this book pretty much “by accident”. A conversation with a friend had led to looking on the internet at some of the different programs available in the UK and the US for men, and I came across an article by David Murrow on Pastors.com, and liked it so much that I bought the book.

Essentially the book divides into 3 broad sections - an identification of a problem, namely that there is a gender gap within the church, generally regardless of denomination, country or style. Then he attempts to explain why this problem has occurred, his main point being that the church (and it’s view of Christianity and Jesus) has become overly feminised. Finally he bring some suggestions as to how you can solve these issues practically.

I read a lot, but I’m not overly quick, but I managed to rifle through this book in a weekend. ‘Devoured’ is probably the best word. To say that this book has changed the way that I look at not only my current church, but also churches that I have been part of in the past, is a total understatement. IMHO this book is revolutionary. It’s not without it’s controversies, but I believe that most of those come from a misunderstanding of what Murrow is trying to say.

But more than a book about church, it’s also a book that helps to redefine what it is to be a Christian man. I think that many men struggle to reconcile their understanding of Christian and some of the character traits that define what it is to be “a man”. This book is extremely helpful in resolving that conflict.

I read the book back in January, then again in February, and then we had our church mens weekend away based on the book as a theme. It’s now March, and I am _still_ talking about this book, and _still_ mulling over the implications and practical realities. It’s that good.

If you’re a man, and you would describe yourself as Christian, and struggle with your church, or even to attend any church, then this will be a great book to read. But, even more importantly, if you’re a church member, man or woman, I would urge you to read this book.

David Murrow also has a website at ChurchForMen.com and there is a discussion forum at CFMBoards.com.

mrBen

Given that I’m now in the process of listening to his 3rd book (Infection) I thought it was time I put in a mention for Scott Sigler. He writes science-fiction thrillers (quite gory - you have been warned) and releases them as ‘podiobooks’, that is - audio books that are released as podcasts. He writes and performs them all himself, and the first 2, Earthcore and Ancestor, were brilliant. Infection looks like it’s going to be too, and once that’s done I should hopefully catch up with The Rookie before it finishes.

If you have a long commute (and a handy mp3 player) I thoroughly recommend you try them out. The first 2 are available at PodioBooks.com (also linked at the bottom of the sidebar) and the others can be found at http://scottsigler.podshow.com.

Oh, and there are lots of other Podiobooks at podiobooks.com, some of which I’ll be checking out, I’m sure.

mrBen

I’m just re-reading The Prometheus Deception by Robert Ludlum. At the same time I’ve been hearing some of the quotes by the home secretary, and reading many blogs of my geek friends about it.

You all need to grab a copy of this book and read it, and marvel at the foresight of this man, now sadly dead, who managed to sum up much of the policitcal fervour, and the potential downsides, in this wonderfully little thriller.

Amazon new and used start from only £0.01! Libraries are free! Do it now!

mrBen

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

Sunday’s is always a bit busy, but today has felt very varied. Church in the morning was busy as normal, plus we had to grab the PA from the church office, which always takes ages. This afternoon I’ve done a bit of painting in a friends kitchen, and now I’m checking out the latest updates to Jokosher, which is coming along really nicely. Tonight, of course, will be more ET and then 24.

On Friday the Serenity comic book arrived - it was a little shorter than I thought it was going to be, but it’s an excellent read. It plays out just like a normal episode of Firefly. The drawing is good, although every now and then the characters look a bit, well, ‘off’. But it’s not enough to take away from enjoyment of the story. I’m looking forward to when they do some more.

And so, another week begins….

mrBen

So, when I was in Forbidden Planet yesterday buying Infinite Crisis 5 (and tremendous it was too) I noticed the second volume of “Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files”.

Being an old 2000AD fan from way back I picked it up and had a quick look. It looks like the intention is that ALL the Dredd strips from the second issue of 2000AD onwards are being reprinted in chronological order.

Sweet!

So I picked up the first volume. And it’s great.

I have to say, though, that it looks really dated compared with today’s standards. But then these stories were originally printed in 1977 (?) and it’s great to finally see all that wealth of material seeing light of day in a decent collection.

One to keep an eye out for methinks.

JudgeAl

Way back when I was a teenager I was quite into Warhammer 40,000 and Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (amongst other Games Workshop stuff) and when I went to college/uni I moved onto other role-playing games (Call of Cthulhu, Paranoia and MechWarrior mostly) and some collectable card games (Star Wars mainly, with occasional forays elsewhere).

Nowadays I’m not much of a gamer. I still buy the Call of Cthulhu RPG and card stuff and that’s about it. If there’s a game that catches my attention then I may buy it just for the background and the game mechanics. These days I seem to be more into the structure of a good game than the playing of it.

Which leads me nicely to the Serenity RPG. What appeals to me (based on my enjoyment of the Firefly series) is the good storytelling involved. Sure, we have spaceships and fighting and exciting locations but we also have the sympathetic characters and the DAMN GOOD STORIES. For me that’s the kind of thing that draws me to a roleplaying game, storytelling rather than “bash the monsters”, although that can be good fun too.

So, after watching and enjoying both the series and the film, and on the basis of reviews like this, anyone want a game of Serenity?

BigAl

Over the last wee while I’ve been keeping my comic buying to payday (the last Thursday of the month) as going in weekly was proving to be a bit on the expensive side as I would always pick up more then was planned. Going in once a month seemed to fix this as I would get my standing order and whittle it down to a more managable amount.

Today, however, is a special day.

Infinite Crisis #5 is out!

Not that this means anything to whoever reads this…

(A brief history)

20 years ago DC Comics had several different properties which it had, over the years, acquired through buying up other publishers. To avoid any confusion the new characters existed on their own Earths and for the most part operated independently from the other properties.

Occasionally there were crossovers which, although enjoyable, were ultimatly confusing.

Then came the Crisis on Infinite Earths, a 12 part series which was meant to streamline the multiple earths into one cohesive DC Universe.

Unfortunatly, for a number of reasons, this didn’t work all that well.

In the 1995 DC released Zero Hour, another attempt at cleaning up the resulting mess. Although the five part story was good, it was a bit of a hellish crossover to keep up with.

And now, 10 years after that, we have Infinite Crisis.

The difference this time seems to be one of paying attention to detail and actually seeming to care about telling a good story.

So far it’s 3 issues away from the end and I have to admit it’s brilliant stuff.

For the first time in a long time I’m really enjoying a crossover and what it’s doing to “reset” the foundations of the DC universe.

Of course, after issue 5 it could all go horribly wrong…

CrisisOnInfiniteAls

You start listing your weekly pull list in a spreadsheet because you buy so many it’s hard to keep track.

And because you always have it worked out several months in advance… Oh dear…

(Inspired by this post)

BigAl

You’ll find out here.

Looks like I’m…

Whoo… Brilliant.

BigAl

I’m back in a writing “peak” at the moment, after a long time in a trough.

At the weekend I got a new pad from WH Smiths and I have a new story arc I’m rolling out. My confidence is a bit better right now and I’m actually enjoying the writing process for a change.

I reckon that part of that come from the joy of just getting the story on paper and to hell with the mistakes. Starting a story on the computer means I tend to get swamped with formatting and word counts and endless revising even before I finished a few hundred words.

As you might imaging that means that the passion for telling the story gets lost in the madness.

Working on paper may not seem sufficiently advanced for some but it’s good way to get ideas down in a raw, unchecked form. Revisions should always come later, preferably when the work is finished!

This is something I still wrestle with. At least I’m getting the ideas down right now. I’ll leave worrying if it’s any good until its finished.

BigAl

It seems like the new Sci-fi blockbuster The Island has more then passing similarities to Spares by Michael Marshall Smith.

I’m reading Spares at the moment and, without a doubt, it’s one of the finest SF novels I’ve read in a long time.

So read this, and join me in boycotting this film.

Sometimes you have to make a stand, no matter how big or small the issue.

BigAl

As with the Musical Baton, this was passed to me by Aq, but will probably be a lot easier for me to complete

Books Owned
Hundreds - today they’re all in boxes or on their way to a charity shop, in preparation for the move.

Last Book Purchased
Linux Desktop Hacks, by Jono Bacon, along with a load of free O’Reilly books that I won at LUGRadio Live.

Books reading just now
The Testament, by John Grisham. One of my favourite Grisham books. Tim O’Reilly in a Nutshell and Linux Desktop Hacks also take up some reading space at the moment.

Books that mean a lot to me
Microserfs, by Douglas Coupland. A classic book from DC, who is almost always readable - one of those books that makes you feel sad when it finishes, as if you’re saying goodbye to the characters.
The Prometheus Deception, by Robert Ludlum. I’m a huge Ludlum fan, and this is one of my favourites.
There’s probably more, but my mind is elsewhere…..

And the baton passes to…..
All the ‘Moose family, of course, and davee too.

mrBen

I’ve been a less obvious about my browsing today (as we are being watched) and as a result I’ve had to be a bit more choosy about my browsing subjects. This afternoon, as I’m working through the Elric series, I have been reading up on Michael Moorcock. He’s writted a shed load of SF, fantasy and ‘mainstream’ fiction including the Elric and Jerry Cornelius novels.

Ans in my browsing I happened upon this article.

If you’re a fan of fantasy (or just Lord of the Rings) then check it out.

BigAl

For a while I’ve been struggling with all aspect of my novel, from outlines to character development to struggling with the scale of it all.

But on friday I made a breakthrough.

Ruth found a wee program called YWriter which is designed to help map the chapters and scenes (and so much more) of a novel. What’s even better is that it helps split up the chapters into the individual scenes so that I can just concentrate on what need to be done.

My word count is not significantly up on before but now I’ve got a firmer chapter plan for the next 6 chapters and some more concrete ideas for the six beyond that.

If anything it’s a definate encouragement and now I believe I might actually finish this!

BigAl

Or David: The Shepards Song, Battle Pope and The Walking Dead. The highlights of the Al’s comic book world for this weekend.

Well, except for JSA #75 which was just so good that it was on a completely different level of excellence.

Saturday saw a brief trip to FP to pick up a few must haves and in the evening Edgy lent me his three Walking Dead graphic novels.

David was a great first issue dealing with the story of David from the Old Testament. The art is cracking and the storytelling shows potential.

Battle Pope is blasphemous in the same way that Dogma is. Or maybe a bit more.
And it’s brilliantly funny.

The Walking Dead is a zombie story in the same vein as Dawn of the Dead. This kind of zombie tale is more about people dealing with survival more than the typical zombie nonsense. But that’s good too.

As usual full reviews will be done sometime in the next few days/months/years…

BigAl

On my daily browsing, because it’s the only way I stay sane in this job, I regularly check out a site called Newsarama.

They’re great for helping me stay up to date with what’s happening in the comic book world. There’s a new title beginning in July which I just HAVE to get…

Battle Pope!

Check out the preview, but be warned that some of the content is a touch on the “adult” side. Now that you have been warned, the preview is here.

That aside, Battle Pope looks like a whole lot of fun and is going to have to be bought next month.

BigAl

I’ve just finished Storm Warriors by Brian Craig, which is part of the Orfeo Trilogy (Games Workshop’s Warhammer setting). Like the first two, and so many more, the review is in progress.

What I’ve started at the moment proves that I’m too far down the path of Geekdom to ever turn back.

What I’m reading at the moment is:

Introduction To BattleTech

leading on to

The BattleTech Rulebook

and then

BattleTech Master Rules.

Wow. What a geek.

So, at lunch today, I’ll be reading Introduction To Battletech, proudly procaiming to the world at large that I am a geek.

What surprises me though, is the reactions of the others in the office when they see me reading this stuff.

So far I’ve worked through a JavaScript HowTo guide, The Day of the Beast Call of Cthulhu campaign book, numerous graphic novels and comics (all with bags and backing boards) and never a comment was made or eyebrow raised.

But bring in the rulebook for a tabletop gaming system and they all start looking at me like I’m not from round here. (Folks from round here ain’t from round here… never mind…)

BigAl