Book: "A Talent For War" by Jack McDevitt (2/5 stars)

"A Talent for War" is a science fiction novel, almost, but not quite a space opera.

200 years before the events of this novel, there was a great war with an alien race colloquially known as "the mutes", and the hero, the human hero, is Christopher Sim. He's the household name, the subject of novelizations, of operas, of plays, and speculative histories. Everyone in this world knows him and the basic roll he played in the war.

McDevitt mentions more than one of these novels and operas. He goes into great detail about stories done about each and every character in the war, the lieutenants, the Benedict Arnold, the love interest, the side stories and so on. While I realize that it's necessary to show just how ingrained the roll of Christopher Sim is in this fictional society, it just isn't that interesting. The main story is, but the many, many sidelines in a novel just 300 pages long don't hold my interest. I found myself counting the pages and struggling to get back to the novel when I'd put it down. I almost gave it up a couple of times, but managed to finish.

I won't be reading any more McDevitt without a solid recommendation from someone I trust.

Movie: The Shining (4/5 stars)

The classic Jack Nicholson horror movie based on Steven King's popular novel. Believe me, I've received a few strange looks that someone as movie-philic as myself has never seen this 1980 movie until 2006. I know, I know, and everyone under the sun has probably reviewed it too, and in fact, most people reading this have probably seen it.

Anyway - that aside, I loved the movie and thought that it was well worth my time. Fresh off my novel frenzy with Nanowrimo 2006, a friend of mine thought that it would be a great movie to see on a movie night, since it's about a novelist who goes insane ("All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.")

I paid close attention to this one for bits on how to build character, how to pace, dialog, climax and so on. It's got few weaknesses. Oh... a massive bonus to this is the re-make of the trailer on youtube/ebaumsworld, where the preview is done as a family movie, with appropriate music mixed in and just the right scenes shown for just the right amount of time. It was funny before I'd even seen the movie, doubly so after I'd seen it.

If you haven't seen this, waste no time when you are next at the movie rental place, grab a copy and watch it!