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‘Alien: Romulus’ (2024)

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I somehow never got round to watching ‘Alien: Romulus’ at my local cinema (and there’s a big question over whether anyone will watch anything there ever again but that’s another story) but after a few weeks of waiting for the price, on Prime Video, to come down, ‘Romulus’ suddenly became affordable and that was my cue to grab a copy, order a pizza in and give it a watch. I’ll be honest, I’m more of a ‘Predator’ fan myself but I’ll never pass up the chance of watching an ‘Alien’ movie and the prospect of an ‘Alien’ movie directed by the same guy who directed the ‘Evil Dead’ remake was an intriguing one to me. So, slice of pizza in hand, I started watching and… While scavenging a derelict space station, a group of young colonists looking for a better life find the most terrifying life form in the universe instead. And there may well be something even more terrifying on board… As I’ve got older, I’ve found that my natural ‘movie run-time tolerance’ peters out at about an hour and half. An
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My Favourite Rule of Speculative Fiction...

Last night was a bit hectic so I never made it round to writing a blog post for today. Lets just say for now that 'Alien: Romulus' was as good as I'd hoped it would be; not brilliant but good, solid 'Xenomorph Fun'. Maybe I'll even go into a little more detail about that soon, we'll see. All of which led me to looking for an old post (from an older blog) that I could purloin. I found this quote instead, I think it's one that we can all do with remembering every now and then. 'This is the reader's book. All proper names are therefore to be pronounced in any way he chooses, except in conversation with another reader, in which case the two must settle their differences as best they can, for there is no rule.' From the 'Author's Note', 'The Well of the Unicorn' (Fletcher Pratt) Because if life is too short to be reading books that you don't enjoy, it's certainly too short for you to be tying yourself in knots over whet
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‘The Last Shield’ – Cameron Johnston (Angry Robot)

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It took me a little while to get round to reading ‘The Last Shield’ but I got there in the end and I’m really glad that I did. I know, I’d normally say something along those lines at the end of the post but sometimes, a book is just so much fun that you have to open the proceedings by saying exactly how you feel. And ‘The Last Shield’ is a hell of a lot of fun, mostly because I’m a bit of a fan of ‘Die Hard’ but there’s a lot more to it than that. Let me try and explain a little better... The ancient forest realm of Sunweald is bordered on two sides by far mightier nations – a precarious situation. At its centre, the Sunweald Palace is home to the Lord Regent and the heir to the throne, together with numerous precious and powerful artefacts. The Palace is protected by the realm's elite Shields, dedicated to guarding the royal line against all foes. A group of vicious brigands called the Wildwood Reivers have been stealing arcane artefacts and smuggling them across the borders, o
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‘Doctor Who: The Time Meddler’ – Nigel Robinson (Target)

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Page Count: 141 Pages I actually managed to get a couple of books read over the weekend, go me :o) I’m going to leave ‘The Last Shield’ a little longer, just to let it percolate in my head, but a ‘Doctor Who’ novelization is always little more straightforward so, here we are. The further back I go with the Doctor’s stories, the less experience I have of them; go right back to the first Doctor and I’ve seen/read ‘The Dalek Invasion of Earth’ and read ‘Doctor Who and the Zarbi’ & ‘Doctor Who and the Tenth Planet’. Not a lot then, considering just how many stories there are. When I saw ‘The Time Meddler’ in the shop then, I had to buy it so I could fill in that gap, just a little bit more. When the TARDIS materialises on an apparently deserted Northumbrian beach, Steven disputes the Doctor’s claim that they have travelled back to the eleventh century. The discovery of a modern wristwatch in a nearby forest merely reinforces his opinion. But it is 1066, the most important date in Engli
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'The Tower of Fear' - Glen Cook (Tor)

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I did get a little reading in yesterday, not loads but the 'Easiest TBR Pile' just got a little easier to complete ;o) I'm saving that post for sometime this coming though; for now, lets just say that 'The Last Shield' was an excellent read and you could do a lot worse than give it read. Especially if you like 'Die Hard'. What does that mean for today though (especially as my youngest daughter is coming over later and no reading will happen at all)? Well, I'm taking the opportunity to 'rescue' an old post from an old blog and let it have its time here. There is a lot more to Glen Cook's output than just 'The Black Company' or 'Garret P.I', as I found out back in 2008 (and damn I feel old just writing that)... The full review is Here but all the important stuff is below ;o) The city of Qushmarrah once shivered in terror under the despotic rule of the evil wizard Nakar, now it grumbles uneasily under the rule of its Herodian co
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‘Doctor Who and the Loch Ness Monster’ – Terrance Dicks

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Yesterday was 'one of those days' (I seem to be having too many of those at the moment but, anyway) and I'm still sixty eight pages off finishing 'The Last Shield', which is a hell of a lot of fun in case you were wondering. You'll probably see a review for that next week but for now, 'past me' very kindly pointed me in the direction of an old review of the Target novelisation of 'Doctor Who and the Loch Ness Monster' that I could use, just to get me to the weekend. That was kind of him ;o) The full review is Here , if you want it, but all the important stuff is below so you won't be missing out if you don't click... Doctor Who novelizations are almost pointless these days given that you can have a quick poke around online and just, you know, watch them on iPlayer or Disney+ (I think). If you're me, you just buy the DVDs. Having said that though, for people like me, they will always be a reminder of the days when these books were the
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Catching Up With My Watchlist

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I should have done this earlier in the week but then everything else took over and now, here we are ;o) Which reminds me, I really need to stop making rash promises about catching up with my reading over any given weekend. I want it to happen but it never does; these days, I'm not any good for much more than a Saturday afternoon in front of the telly. And I wouldn't mind so much if the films I watched were any good... Actually, it wasn't too bad last weekend, nothing amazing but nothing truly horrendous either. I'm counting that as a win ;o) Let me tell you about what I watched... 'Wishmaster' (1997) An ancient hidden opal is found by Alexandra, a gemologist. Unknowingly, she releases an evil Djinn from within, who wishes to take over the world but is restricted until his owner makes three wishes. Is 'gemologist' a real word? It doesn't feel like it should be but that's what I got when I googled 'Wishmaster' so I'm sticking with it :o
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