Bunch of book reviews
Book Reviews:
The Blair Witch - Comic
Nothing here which hadn't already been told in the first movie and the much better done 'Blair Witch Dossier' book. Supposedly a young man got lost in the same forest where the movie happens and when he emerges he has basically gone crazy. While institutionalized he draws a series of bizarre pictures and stories which are the basis of this comic book. At least it was short and a quick read.
Star Wars: Golden Age of the Sith
Pretty disappointing. Didn't capture the Star Wars feel at all. And for a series entitled the Golden Age of the Sith we really didn't get to see much of the Sith's supposed glory. In fact, the most interesting part of this entire series was a short history of the Sith in the first pages which explained where the Sith came from (which is really what I wanted to know). Apparently long before even this story (which is supposed to be 5000 years before Star Wars: A New Hope) there was a long conflict between Jedi. The defeated Dark Jedi fled across the galaxy to a primitive planet populated by a people known as the Sith. These Sith revered the Dark Jedi as gods and were cross bred with them. So that's where the 'Sith' came from. The actual story in this series is about a brother and sister who inadvertently stumble across the Sith empire and are tricked into showing them the way to the Old Republic, and then it ends. Really this series is nothing more than a lead-in to the next series which I'll review later.
The Messianic Legacy - Baigent, Leigh and Lincoln
Weak follow up to 'Holy Blood and the Holy Grail.' This one focuses more on the Priore de Sion organization as it is today. However, the number of false documents and child-like behaviour on the PS's side lead me to believe the current incarnation is nothing but a hoax.
Old Tales of Japan - Yuri Yasuda
Much like the original Grimm Brothers' stories, these were far scarier than I would have thought kids' stories should be. Some of the 'cuter' moments include: a sparrow's tongue being cut with scissors; a badger killing an old woman then cutting her up, putting her into a soup and eating her; a dog being bludgeoned to death with a shovel. These stories seemed to have been Disneyized lately though because when I mentioned these things to my Japanese friends they didn't know all the horrible details.
The Riemann Hypthesis: The Greatest Unsolved Problem in Mathematics - Karl Sabbagh
And I thought I was a nerd, these guys take the cake, then divide it by the inverse square root of the sum of 3 imaginary acute angles. While the equations were very dense, and there were quite a few of them, the stories about the various mathematicians working on this problem were fascinating. It's amazing to consider that so many brilliant people are devoting so much time to a problem that may be unsolveable.
The Simpsons and Philosophy - William Irwin
Heavy on philosophy, light on Simpsons. While it was very well written I found that the essays based on philosophers I was more familiar with weren't very interesting. The essay on Bart and Nietzche was excellent though. However, I'm very interested in Nietzche but haven't read that many of his works so that may explain it. More geared for readers looking for an introduction to general philosophy than Simpsons fans looking for a laugh.
The Blair Witch - Comic
Nothing here which hadn't already been told in the first movie and the much better done 'Blair Witch Dossier' book. Supposedly a young man got lost in the same forest where the movie happens and when he emerges he has basically gone crazy. While institutionalized he draws a series of bizarre pictures and stories which are the basis of this comic book. At least it was short and a quick read.
Star Wars: Golden Age of the Sith
Pretty disappointing. Didn't capture the Star Wars feel at all. And for a series entitled the Golden Age of the Sith we really didn't get to see much of the Sith's supposed glory. In fact, the most interesting part of this entire series was a short history of the Sith in the first pages which explained where the Sith came from (which is really what I wanted to know). Apparently long before even this story (which is supposed to be 5000 years before Star Wars: A New Hope) there was a long conflict between Jedi. The defeated Dark Jedi fled across the galaxy to a primitive planet populated by a people known as the Sith. These Sith revered the Dark Jedi as gods and were cross bred with them. So that's where the 'Sith' came from. The actual story in this series is about a brother and sister who inadvertently stumble across the Sith empire and are tricked into showing them the way to the Old Republic, and then it ends. Really this series is nothing more than a lead-in to the next series which I'll review later.
The Messianic Legacy - Baigent, Leigh and Lincoln
Weak follow up to 'Holy Blood and the Holy Grail.' This one focuses more on the Priore de Sion organization as it is today. However, the number of false documents and child-like behaviour on the PS's side lead me to believe the current incarnation is nothing but a hoax.
Old Tales of Japan - Yuri Yasuda
Much like the original Grimm Brothers' stories, these were far scarier than I would have thought kids' stories should be. Some of the 'cuter' moments include: a sparrow's tongue being cut with scissors; a badger killing an old woman then cutting her up, putting her into a soup and eating her; a dog being bludgeoned to death with a shovel. These stories seemed to have been Disneyized lately though because when I mentioned these things to my Japanese friends they didn't know all the horrible details.
The Riemann Hypthesis: The Greatest Unsolved Problem in Mathematics - Karl Sabbagh
And I thought I was a nerd, these guys take the cake, then divide it by the inverse square root of the sum of 3 imaginary acute angles. While the equations were very dense, and there were quite a few of them, the stories about the various mathematicians working on this problem were fascinating. It's amazing to consider that so many brilliant people are devoting so much time to a problem that may be unsolveable.
The Simpsons and Philosophy - William Irwin
Heavy on philosophy, light on Simpsons. While it was very well written I found that the essays based on philosophers I was more familiar with weren't very interesting. The essay on Bart and Nietzche was excellent though. However, I'm very interested in Nietzche but haven't read that many of his works so that may explain it. More geared for readers looking for an introduction to general philosophy than Simpsons fans looking for a laugh.
posted by Jason at 11:46 PM
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