Category: Reviews

Book review: The Zona by Nathan L. Yocum

Posted on by char

Publisher’s blurb:[1. Review copy provided by Curiosity Quills Press]

It started with the Storms.

The world got too hot too fast. The weather wrecked Hell on man’s shiny, pretty civilization. With the heat and wet came bugs, with bugs came new diseases, and man’s numbers and sanity dwindled.

The survivors reformed governments like petty shadows of the world’s old empires. They sought answers and justifications, they sought redemption for what they perceived as man’s holy smiting.

Welcome to the Arizona Reformed Theocracy, otherwise called The Zona.

Here the Church rules with power absolute. The laws are simple, all sin is punished swiftly. Preachers enforce the Church’s words like old West lawmen.

But what happens when a Preacher refuses to kill? What happens when men of honor take a stand against their rulers?

As I was reading this book, the one thought that kept going through my head was, “Hey look, Ann and I kinda talked about this very setting already.”

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Book review: Zia's Path by David W. Small and Debra L. Martin

Posted on by char

Amazon blurb:[1. Review copy provided by authors]

In this novelette featuring crippled teenager, Abraham “Ham” Jones, and his tomboy partner, Zia Slate, the stakes are even higher. They have agreed to accept the memory weapons from their new guardian, Henry Lloyd, but with the power of the weapons comes the responsibility to follow “the right path.” It’s suppose to be simple: help one person at a time, but nothing in this harsh world is ever simple. It’s a dog-eat-dog world where food is scarce and gangs rule the street.

When Ham decides to go into the worst gang-ridden area of the city to save a little girl, Zia doesn’t think it’s a good idea. It’s too dangerous, but eventually she agrees and the two set off in search of the girl. When Zia goes off to scout ahead, Ham’s worst nightmare comes true. Zia is snatched by slavers. Can Ham find out where she has been taken and mount a defense to save her in two days before she is sold as a sex slave?

This was a pretty fun book. Zia’s Path is the third book in the Dark Future series, and while I’ve not read the first two books, I didn’t have much of a problem figuring out what was going on. (I may have to get the other two though, just to complete the story arc.)

The book is short, only about 50 pages or so. The length isn’t much of a detriment (though I’m sure reading the first two would’ve helped), and the story actually moves at a pretty fast clip.

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Movie review: Stonehenge Apocalypse

Posted on by char

Movie info: Stonehenge Apocalypse. Starring Misha Collins, Torri Higginson, and Hill Harper. Released by SyFy in 2011.

Disclaimer: I got a copy of this movie via Netflix–ICoS did not receive any copies of this movie for review.

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Amazon blurb:

When a disgraced scientist discovers unusual spikes in the Earth’s electromagnetic field emanating from Stonehenge, it is up to him to warn the world of a possible apocalypse. As his claims are disregarded by his peers, the ancient structure begins to move independently, build up an electromagnetic charge, and release enough energy to vaporize people within a certain radius. Can he convince the military and his peers of his findings before it is too late and all life on Earth is destroyed?

Holy fuck, you guys. This movie. THIS MOVIE. Where you following my live tweets while I was watching it? Yes? Good. No? WHY NOT? (Shameless plug alert: follow my apoc self on Twitter @ApocMom).

WARNING: SPOILERS AHOY.

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Happy Anniversary TO US.

Posted on by anninyn

This month, ICoS turns a year old. In this year, we’ve been much more successful than we thought we ever would be- we’ve even made some money ($7.16 each) from the ads! From a tiny little nerd spot, we’ve come on in leaps and bounds. GO US.

If you’ve been here from the start, you’ll have noticed the changes we’ve made. Well, more are coming. Don’t worry, we’ll never lose our focus on the trivial aspects of post apocalyptic living, nor our dark humour and irreverence. It’s who we are.

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Speech jamming gun: a step toward a dystopian society?

Posted on by char

The world may not end this year, but we might end up living in a dystopian society anyway. It looks like Big Brother is taking another step forward.

I came across this article the other day that talks about the creation of a “speech jamming gun.”

Oh sure, while I want to shut up the annoying, shrieky people (or *coughmykidsinthestorecough*) I’m not entirely sure this is a good idea.

The story behind the speech jammer is this: Japanese researchers Kazutaka Kurihara and Koji Tsukada created the SpeechJammer device based on the principles of Delayed Auditory Feedback (DAF). According to the researchers, DAF has been used successfully to treat stuttering. (Where they made the leap from “treat stuttering” to “forcefully shut people up” I’m not quite sure, but leap they did.)

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First Impressions: I Am Alive (XBLA)

Posted on by tavia.

[wpspoiler name=”First Impressions vs. Reviews” ]First Impressions are based on demos while Reviews are based on entire games.[/wpspoiler]

I Am Alive tells the story of a man who spent over a year crossing the ruins of a ravaged country to get back home to his family. He’s practical and cautious, prepared with just enough of the right tools and abilities.

Gameplay is also practical and cautious with just the right amount of badassery.

Ubisoft makes such a wide variety of games from Farcry to Rayman so depending on how you’ve personally interacted with Ubisoft, this gritty, post-apocalyptic, personal journey might be something to add to the deck of awesome or something very unexpected but still very awesome. Continue reading “First Impressions: I Am Alive (XBLA)”

Book Review: This Perfect Day by Ira Levin

Posted on by anninyn

[1.Provided for review by Open Road]

Considered one of the great dystopian novels-alongside Anthony Burgess’s A Clockwork Orange and Aldous Huxley’s A Brave New World-Ira Levin’s frightening glimpse into the future continues to fascinate readers even forty years after publication.

The story is set in a seemingly perfect global society. Uniformity is the defining feature; there is only one language and all ethnic groups have been eugenically merged into one race called “The Family.” The world is ruled by a central computer called UniComp that has been programmed to keep every single human on the surface of the earth in check. People are continually drugged by means of regular injections so that they will remain satisfied and cooperative. They are told where to live, when to eat, whom to marry, when to reproduce. Even the basic facts of nature are subject to the UniComp’s will-men do not grow facial hair, women do not develop breasts, and it only rains at night.

With a vision as frightening as any in the history of the science fiction genre, This Perfect Day is one of Ira Levin’s most haunting novels.

Grade: DNF

The trouble with classics and parents of a genre is that they often use tropes that are very common to the modern reader, or tropes that are outright nauseating due to values dissonance. Even if these things were acceptable and new when the book was written, a modern audience may struggle.

I struggled with this book. It’s not that I’m a girl with no love for the classics and no ability to look beyond the demands or the era in which a book was written- I’m probably one of the few people who reads classic literature for fun.

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I just… really stuggled with this one.

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Comic Review: 30 Days of Night #1

Posted on by tavia.

30 Days of Night #1 (of 3)

Part 1 of 3. The story of an isolated Alaskan town that is plunged into darkness for a month each year when the sun sinks below the horizon.

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As the last rays of light fade, the town is attacked by a bloodthirsty gang of vampires bent on an uninterrupted orgy of destruction. Only the small town’s husband-and-wife Sheriff team stand between the survivors and certain destruction

At first I didn’t like the look of 30 days of Night. It was dark and smudgey like it had been drawn in a hurry and someone was trying to hide something.

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Then, like a Monet, I found the ambiguity beautiful. It was a part of the story, the setting, and the feeling imparted by not knowing exactly what that thing might be. Continue reading “Comic Review: 30 Days of Night #1”

Fiction Review: Wormwood, by D.H. Nevins

Posted on by anninyn

[1. Wormwood was provided for review by Black Wraith Books]

In the post-apocalyptic paranormal thriller, Wormwood by D. H. Nevins, the Earth has been decimated by a legion of half-angels. But while most of these creatures are bent on sending all humans to their final resting place, one, Tiamat, is tormented by the tasks he is called upon to do. When he rescues a woman named Kali, both their lives change forever. Kept alive by the grace of Tiamat, Kali defies him by trying to save as many of the human survivors as she can. The attraction between them is irresistible, but can Kali trust one of the half-angels who has sworn to destroy her world and everyone in it? And can Tiamat justify helping one of the very people he is meant to kill? The more he tries to keep Kali safe, the more his own life is in danger. As Kali struggles to find a way to survive in the Earth’s vast, devastated landscape, she finds herself plagued by the half-angels hell bent on her destruction. Forced to trust Tiamat, the one being who could prove to be her greatest enemy, she walks a thin line between life and death.

 

Grade: B-

Wormwood is a curious book. I enjoyed it a great deal, but a few unignorable flaws stopped it from being an A grade for me.

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Book review: The Last Condo Board of the Apocalypse by Nina Post

Posted on by char

Publisher’s blurb:[1. Review copy provided by Curiosity Quills Press]

Kelly Driscoll tracks down monsters for a living, but the job isn’t what it used to be.

Vampire hunters are the new big thing, but Kelly doesn’t swing that way. When a reclusive client hires her to locate a rival angel, Kelly’s search takes her to a downtown highrise that has become home to hundreds of fallen angels and dimension-hopping monsters.

As the fallen angels take over the condo board, argue over who’s handling pizza delivery, and begin planning for a little shindig otherwise known as the apocalypse, Kelly must team up with an unlikely group of allies to find her target and keep the fallen angels at bay. In the process, she befriends a reluctant Angel of Destruction, gets tips from a persistent ferret, uncovers the mysteries behind Pothole City’s hottest snack food empire, and tries to prevent the end of the world.

The Last Condo Board of the Apocalypse is a light-hearted urban fantasy novel, combining angels, monsters and other supernatural elements with realistic characters and a comedic tone.

I…am not quite sure what to say about this one. I had a really hard time writing this review, because I want to say why it didn’t work for me, but I don’t want to give away huge chunks of the plot. Especially since the WTFery goes into overdrive in the last half of this thing, and from my experience most people don’t like it when I give away huge chunks of the end of a book.

But. I will try my best to explain why this left me in an ambivalent state of dazed confusion without giving away the ending. I will TRY. But be warned: this review may end up with a boatload of spoilers in it anyway. So if you’re planning to read this book and don’t want to know what happens, then read this review AFTER you’ve read the book. If you don’t care either way, then by all means, read on.

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