I recently read The Hunger Games trilogy

The story is about a post-apocalyptic world (i.e. North America) where there are no countries anymore. There are only 12 Districts and the Capitol. There used to be a 13th District but it was completely destroyed during the last rebellion of the Districts against the Capitol.

Now the Capitol rules with an iron fist and to prove their supremacy, each year the districts have to “provide” two children between the ages 12 and 16 – one girl and one boy. Then these 24 are sent to a fighting area which only one winner will leave alive.

The protagonist of the books is Katniss Aberdeen and she fights in the 74th Hunger Games for her very survival.

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Categories: Book, Short Review
Tags: Harry Potter · The Hunger Games
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And now for something completely different: While browsing Wikipedia I stumbled upon an info I wanted to share with those of you who have children or grandchildren of your own.

When I grew up one of my favourite stories was the one of the Zauberland (Magic Land) where a little girl from Kansas has adventures with a scarecrow, a metal man and a lion.

Sounds familiar? Of course it does. It’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

In 1939 the russian author Alexander Volkov wrote what we movie fans would call a remake of that story called The Wizard of the Emerald City. There are a few story changes and the characters have different (albeit still english) names, but it’s essentially the same story.

I didn’t know that it was a remake when I grew up and I still don’t care.

What does it make different though is the fact that Volkov wrote 5 sequels where Ellie (i.e. Dorothy) returns to the Magic Land and has continued adventures.

Now why am I bringing that up? Because I discovered that these books have been released in english. They’re called “Tales of Magic Land” part 1 to 3, containing 2 of the original books each.

And I still think that it’s such a wonderful story that kids can still enjoy it today even though they might already know The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

Categories: Book
Tags: Tales of Magic Land · The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
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The time I spend reading books is getting ever shorter (which is mostly due to my extensive TV consumption). But now I’ve finally managed to read three books again:

This one I read because (surprise!) of the TV series of the same name with Richard Chamberlain in the main role.

The novel takes place at the dawn of the 17th Century in Japan. Captain-Pilot John Blackthorne has landed/stranded with his ship, the Erasmus, there and now has to find a place within the Japanese Samurai society. And the few Europeans don’t make it any easier for he is a Protestant Englishman and they are Catholic Spaniards and Portuguese…

What surprised me the most was the fact that the series stayed very close to the book – most of the time these two drift apart. Still the book was way more detailed and can provide a view that a movie/series can only to a certain extend: To give a view directly into the heads of the characters and thus a better understanding what their motivation and drive is.

The book is relatively large with its 1226 pages (in German) but since I managed to read 350 pages on Saturday before last I can assure you that it’s very readable – even though you might need a list of the different characters, otherwise you might find yourself in the position of asking yourself “Who was Kiributso-san again?”.

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Categories: Book
Tags: Babylon 5 · Batman · Shogun · Smallville · Spider-Man
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Deutsche Version | CW 05-06 | CW 08-09

LOST 6×04 The Substitute
This episode was much better. It didn’t give us many answers (if you consider the association of numbers and names an answer at all) but it’s a start and the off-island story was much more interesting (especially with seeing Katey Sagal again). It’s funny to see how they all still manage to run into each other even though they never met.
Locke and Smokey-Locke were both great and I long to find out what this is all about.

Life Unexpected 1×05 Turtle Undefeated
Ended well again. What a surprise. Since this season has only 13 episodes I’m probably going to watch it completely – one has to give a show a chance after all – but so far I still don’t think this is a show I’m going to watch for years.

Human Target 1×06 Lockdown
It was nice too see Alias’s Marshall Flinkman again – and again in a role as tech-savvy developer. I also liked it that Chance’s back story is slowly becoming a part of the show. I suspect it will be a background-arc that pops up once in a while just like Beckett’s mum’s murder in Castle. We’ll see.

Leverage 2×15 The Maltese Falcon Job
Too bad the season is already over again. I liked Jeri/Tara on the team very much but now Gina/Sophie is back and that’s good too. At least I hope she is since I have no clue how the ratings were this year and whether the show will return. I certainly hope so. But I also hope they don’t pull this trick at the end of every year – the team falling apart I mean.

Burn Notice 3×14 Partners in Crime
It was nice to see the gang reconcile after the events from last week. It was also interesting because I can’t remember the last time Michael actually “lost” a client.
While Fi played her role as kidnapped girlfriend very good it was nothing against Sam’s “CSI: Caruso” impersonation and one-liners.

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Categories: Comic, TV Season 2009/10 Diary
Tags: Alias · Angel · Burn Notice · Castle · CSI: Miami · Human Target · Leverage · Life Unexpected · LOST · Smallville · Spartacus: Blood and Sand
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Synopsis: Stardate 64333.4 (2384). Federation ambassador Spock has been living on Romulus for 40 years now when he discovers a terrible threat to the planet and the entire galaxy: A star is about to become an uncontrollable supernova that will eat itself through the universe. But the romulan senate cannot be convinced and so Spock and the young mining captain Nero travel to Vulcan. They want to get the technology to stop the catastrophe from happening. But Spock isn’t welcome on Vulcan anymore but he has friends in high places: Federation ambassador Picard and Captain Data from the Enterprise. Can they prevent the catastrophe?

My Opinion: The comic is an easy read and is generally satisfactory. The characters are believable and that Data’s data was transferred into B-4’s body is acceptable. Nero’s hate towards everyone who signed the death sentence of his family is plausible. he was portrayed as a very emotional character from the start and he shows no mercy with the romulan Pretor, too.
Only the price of €14.80 is a bit steep if you consider that one can read the 100 pages in less than an hour.

Tomorrow I will go watch the movie in the theatre…

Categories: Book, Comic
Tags: Star Trek
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Deutsche Version

Synopsis: Rambo is a young man who wanders aimlessly over the land. He is a “drifter”. Rambo was in Vietnam, he enlisted to get to a better unit than he would have if he had been drafted. For his services over there he got the Congressional Medal of Honor.
Teasle is an older man who lives a quite life in his jerkwater town Madison, Kentucky. He is the Sheriff there. Teasle was in Korea. For his services over there he got the Distinguished Service Medal.
The Problem is: When these two clash into each other, neither will back down and a war starts in the heart of America.

My Opinion: The general story is known from the movie First Blood but the book (on which the movie is based – not vice versa) contains some important differences. For example: The story in the books takes place relatively shortly after John’s return from Nam. And in opposition to the movie Teasle isn’t the redneck, but both are very stubborn people who are embossed by their life’s experiences. The book always switches the perspective from Rambo to Teasle and again to Rambo und one isn’t as biased towards Rambo as one is in the movie. That also due to the fact that Rambo wreaks havoc in the book – none of the people who follow John to the ravine will return home alive.
The book is easy to read and it’s always clear what is happening and where it is happening. I liked it.
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Categories: Book
Tags: Rambo
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I’ve been reading the Buffy and Angel comics that represent the eighth / sixth season for a while now. And I have read good critics about the works of Frank Miller – he wrote the graphic novels Sin City and 300 which were made into movies and Christian Bale’s Batman is also based on his interpretation of the hero.

So I decided to order a batch of new stuff.

These are the Buffy / Angel comics that I already have:

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Long Way Home

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: No Future For You

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Wolves at the Gate

Angel: After the Fall

Angel: After the Fall: First Night
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Categories: Book, Comic
Tags: 300 · Angel · Batman · Buffy the Vampire Slayer · Heroes · Sin City · Star Trek
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Deutsche Version

Battlestar Galactica
by Jeffrey A. Carver

Synopsis: Adama is about to retire. The Galactica is about to be decommissioned. The Cylons are about to return. The Twelve Colonies of Kobol are about to destroyed. Mankind is about to be wiped out. Fortunately only two of those “about to”s will come true. Unfortunately those two will decimate mankind down to 50,000 people – and that’s it.

My Opinion: It’s the novelization of the mini series and it follows the script very closely, including the jumps between the several plot locations (Galactica, Caprica, Colonial One, …). I’ve read better and worse novelizations, a better one would be Babylon 5: In the Beginning and worse ones would be the original Star Wars trilogy.
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Categories: Book, Misc
Tags: Babylon 5 · Battlestar Galactica · Star Trek · Star Wars
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