Recently I was asked if it’s a good idea to watch the Cloud Atlas movie first, or to read the book. I almost always read the book first, but in this case, I came across the movie before the book. But that’s alright, the movie couldn’t possibly have spoiled the experience of the book…

I watched Cloud Atlas a couple of years ago, and was thoroughly impressed. I figured this must be an exceptional example of a situation where the movie didn’t totally destroy the book. Some months after that I read the book…. Well, as good as the movie is, the rule still applies, the book is infinitely better.

The book is written in quite a unique shape, an amazing structure, with such subtleties that can never be imported into a movie. The relationship between the characters in different timelines are described in such elegant ways. And well, there are major story bits and implied meanings in the book, that make the book much deeper, much more complex and in some parts much darker than the movie.

So yes, the book wins once again…. since you have the choice, read the book first. 😉

This is probably recommended reading for anyone who wondered why I was thoroughly annoyed with what the Guardians of the Galaxy movie looked like, and what it was missing.

I guess it’s already pretty clear that Adam Warlock is my all time favourite comic character [closely followed by the Silver Surfer]. In fact most of what I’ve read of Marvel Cosmic throughout the years, has somehow been the result of following Adam Warlock’s trail… this actually includes Guardians of the Galaxy.

Since Warlock’s annihilation at the end of DnA’s Guardians a few years ago, I’ve been waiting quite impatiently to see him surface again. During the Annihilators mini series, Magus managed to come back for a very short while, and then got captured and put back into the cocoon by the Annihilators. Not that I had any interest in seeing his slimy purple face anyway. And since then there was absolutely nothing, ’till now.

Recently Marvel released Jim Starlin’s new “Thanos: Infinity Revelation”, which somehow took me a while to hear about, but I had to read it since Thanos happens to be my favourite Villain. So I got myself the digital copy… and lo and behold, here comes Adam Warlock, hitching a ride back to existence with Thanos, no cocoon needed this time. =D You can imagine my utter excitement… YAY! Finally!!

To make things even better, the book is simply brilliant. Jim Starlin is the author who made Warlock into what it is, and he’s done it again. This is basically the archetype of the story line that got me interested in Marvel Cosmic in the first place, a million years ago. And I must say I haven’t seen the like of it for quite a long time.

The plot explores a situation in which the universe is re-created in 2 versions, one based upon the mind and soul of Warlock, and the other after Thanos. The story is very abstract, it’s mostly self discovery for these two characters, and it’s more a philosophy lesson than anything else. This, is why I love Adam Warlock in the first place. Oh, and then Silver Surfer makes an appearance too. How about that? Is this the perfect book or what?

As I wrote in the beginning, this is what you should look at if you’re wondering what all the fuss was about when the Guardians of the Galaxy movie came out, disappointing many of the Cosmic fans. This is generally what we’re looking for, and this is the sort of thing Guardians  has always offered, before the movie happened. An intelligent plot, meaningful ideas and characters, and a respectable amount of food for thought.

Of course now I’m totally in love, since last week I got my hands on the hard cover version of the book [as usual thanks to KABOOOM], and it even looks fantastic!! It’s not very clear in the pictures I’ve posted here, but on the cover Thano’s head is a glossy print while the rest of the page has a matte finish, giving you the feeling that Thanos is coming right at you from the depths of the abyss. 😉

And this is not the end of it, Jim Starlin is soon to release another one of the same “series”, called “Infinity Relativity”. I’m currently dying to read that one.

If you’re living in the Zurich vicinity, you can pick up a copy of this at the KABOOOM comic book store.

And yes, if Warlock keeps looking 2 different ways to you for no apparent reason, it’s not you, it’s him.

Perfection. Everyone I love is in there!

So I read this one too, by Sean Patrick. And I really really enjoyed the cover design. Nothing else really that interesting about this book though. Turned out to be basically a motivational essay by a Tesla fan. That about sums it up.

So it’s not been a fun day. That is unless you were someone watching me and Oliv from some distance… then you might have laughed your lungs out. Or not…. I’m not sure.

This morning we had a vet appointment for the cat. We put the cat in his basket and since the vet’s office is about 2 minutes by foot from our building, we just put the basket in a shopping cart and headed there. We had an informative conversation with the vet, got the cat checked out, and headed back our building. The cat, as usual, didn’t like being in the basket or in the street. Cars generally scare him, and so does just about everything else. He was screaming, so we had to stop every few steps, open the top, pet him and try to calm him down… and since we had to keep doing that, we didn’t properly latch the top.

Well… halfway to the building, in a completely uncharacteristic move, Mr. Zorbas decided to jump out of the basket, and run straight into the tight tangle of trees and bushes leading to the forest area!!

Well. For the next I don’t know exactly how many hours Oliv and I ran around trying to find him, while my heart was stuck in my throat. The area he had jumped into was filled with thorny bushes and tangled branches, but fortunately eventually Oliv managed to spot him. He was hiding in the most knotted part of that messy tangle, and it took some serious acrobatics, but we got him out ok and eventually returned home.

Oliv’s arms are covered with scratches. My legs are covered with cuts and scratches. We both have half a jungle in our hair. I had a terrible shock, I was half sure that we had lost him forever, and I feel like all my energy has left me. And the cat is now sitting there comfortably licking his paws…. hmmmm….. yup.

Recently [while I’ve not been doing any blogging] I’ve been doing a lot of re-reading. One of the books I recently re-read – ok, not exactly re-read but more like re-skimmed, just because I find it quite entertaining somehow – is Ross King’s book on “Brunelleschi’s Dome”.

Long story short, I now know that Ross King is probably one of my favourite history / art authors. This was the first book I read from him, as per the recommendation of a historian friend, and really had fun with it.

I think what I most enjoyed about the book is that it doesn’t feel like your classical history textbook. You’re not bombarded by a bunch of what most academics might consider important facts. Instead there’s attention to some personal and rather entertaining details in regards to the people and events involved. You get a good picture of why a certain character behaved a certain way or what was going on inside their head.

Now I’m just going to have to figure out which of his books I’m going to read next. Any suggestions?

I recently picked up a copy of “The Art of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe” from my favourite comic book store [Kabooom, Zurich], and I must say I am thoroughly impressed. [And not just because Dolph Lundgren happens to have a picture with this. =D]

The book is a collection/documentation of, well, just about everything that there ever was to do with the He-Man universe.

The collection of illustrations in there, coming from all eras of He-Man, is just amazing.

All the maps are in there. There’s maps of Eternia in various eras, a map of Preternia, a map of Subternia, and a map of their part of the universe.

Now this is really cool, there’s a filmation cel in there with He-Man and Skeletor. =D [Yes, the actual cel is in a little pocket inside the book!]

And there’s a ton of preliminary art work and sketches in there, including concepts that were never used. There’s also a list of all the produced and unproduced toys, ideas for characters that were eventually dismissed [some of whom are actually quite interesting], and every bit of information there is to know about the creation and the evolution of this whole universe.

So yes, I really really love this. If you live in Zurich you can pick up a copy at the KABOOOM Comic Shop. Don’t miss out! =)

So I was just wondering, is there a book? Because if there is then I definitely want it. =P

Good sci-fi is currently quite rare, and I have just been pleasantly surprised by how good this product of the current era turned out to be. Cheers to Christopher Nolan!

P.S: Yes thanks a lot, it turns out that is a novelization. And also a book related to the science of the whole thing. I’ll check them out.

Happy Norooz to everyone who celebrates it, and everyone who would like to celebrate it. =)

A friend of mine just asked me if I finally read Drexler’s “Radical Abundance“, which reminded me that I didn’t write anything about it… or anything else I’ve been reading recently. =P Yes, I read it, and I re-read it, and finished doing so a while back. And I’m a big fan!

K. Eric Drexler, who is for all intents and purposes the father of nanotechnology, is probably the most qualified person to explain what we’ve already accomplished in the field, what’s to be expected, the obstacles, the misunderstandings, and why we’re not where we could be yet. In this book he also does an amazing job in describing in a very straightforward and “none-fiction” way, what the future could look like if we did in fact realize the potentials of the field.

I’ll probably read this again soon enough… huuuuuuge fan!