In the first book, Altered Carbon, Kovacs is on earth, some time in the future, when we have colonized the nearby solar systems. He is investigating a murder, and you have your classical private detective story in a curious futuristic and pretty bleak setting. Added to this is Richard Morgan’s rough touch. His characters and settings are pretty hardcore. Violence and sex is frequent, yet suits the story very well.

In the second book, Broken Angels, Kovacs is investigating an alien planet where a corporation is trying to secure an alien portal in the middle of a war zone. The aliens, the Martians as they’re referred to, is an alien race that once inhabited Mars and a number of other planets about a million years ago. They left technology and ruins, and a lot of mysteries. The interest of this portal causes violent fights between corporations, and our “hero” is in the middle of it.

In this third and last book, Woken Furies, we meet Kovacs back on the planet where he once were born. In this version of our future, the human consciousness is stored in a chip implanted in your spine, so you are able to change body if you should die or just want an upgrade. Also, as a means of punishment, you may be put in storage for decades or even centuries. Kovacs reappear after being in storage for a long time, finding a planet not much like the one he grew up on. This book is about politics and is centred around a revolutionary character from the early days of the settlement of the planet. Old revolutionaries which have spent the better part of the last couple of centuries in a small surfer town, is called to arms and the revolution is back on. This is yet another fascinating and imaginative book that keeps you interested from page one. Maybe the best one of the three in my opinion. Yet I wouldn’t want to miss any of them.

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There are much similar between Battlestar Galactica and Caprica. They are both Sci-Fi/Drama, but Caprica is less about politics and religion although these are of course in the background. Caprica is more of a family drama, and it works well in this futuristic and slightly alien setting without becoming to remote from the world we live in. Much is familiar, the main difference is a few levels up in technology, though this is not overplayed as they do in more traditional Sci-Fi like Star Trek. A lot like Battlestar Galactica really, except Caprica takes place on the ground and not in space. The Cylon side of the story greatly reminds me of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, which also was an excellent show I might add.

Caprica is a show well worth watching if you like Sci-Fi and Drama alike. Especially if you enjoyed Battlestar Galactica in its first seasons. I’ll be looking forward to the second half of season one which unfortunately isn’t scheduled to start until January 2011.

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Finally got around to see it. It has been out for a while, and you still need to prebook seats to get a good spot. Anyway, saw it in 3D, and the glasses worked really well. I knew not to try and focus on stuff that weren’t supposed to be in focus. That’s what hurts the eyes. The 3D became very realistic at times, I almost waved the dust away when the big tree fell!

The story was good, though maybe not original. However I don’t necessarily mind that. Many stories are good for a reason. Good character development, but very predictable. Very textbook I think. All that aside, what really sells the movie is the amazing beautiful planet and very creative plant and animal life they created with their CGI. Great attention to detail. Now that is a very important point. The animated details are amazing. Also all that treehugger-mumbojumbo was framed in a plausible setup that didn’t make my sciency side cringe.

The movie has a definite wow-factor to it, very similar to what I felt when I saw Jurassic Park the first time at the cinemas (was the most expensive CGI movie of its time back 17 years ago).

This movie may very well deserve a place on my best movies list, and definitely the best one of 2009 (and I’ve seen a lot of movies in 2009). I think it beats Inglorious Basterds and Public Enemies, though they don’t really compare as they’re in a different class.

This is a definite must see, and it must be seen in cinemas. I’ll be getting the BluRay when it comes out. 1080p is the only way to go for this one!

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The setting of the book is brilliant, but this time I think Reynolds got a bit lost in his storylines. I felt too much time was spent on less significant tracks, and too little on the conclusion. The end of the book comes really fast and while magnificent, a bit hasty. Still a very good book.

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I have to say I enjoyed this book the most of the 3 Revelation Space books involving the same characters. The characters in this book are even more colourful than the previous, and the story is entertaining and involving in every substory and side tracks. Reynolds description of futuristic technology is more imaginative than ever, and his attention to details is as great as always.

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(May contain spoilers!)

I sat down yesterday and watched the first double episode of Stargate Universe. I have to say they made a pretty good first episode there. I also liked the first episode of Atlantis, but this one was much better told. They used the familiar story device of jumping between present and recent past in the introduction phase of the story (probably the whole first episode of the two, didn’t pay attention to when the story became linear). Although the self sacrifice scene towards the end was very very clishé, most of the story was quite well done. I also loved the scene where they were looking at the map and the path the ship had travelled over the millennia.  They did a decent attempt to tie the show into the existing Stargate universe, and O’Neil’s “we’re gonna beam you up to our spaceship” comment at the start was hilarious

Basically the story takes place on an ancient space ship that were sent from earth a few thousand years ago, and is travelling through the universe by itself. The first episode explains how these people ends up on the ship after discovering a specially designed stargate that leads there. I do dislike the whole ancient ascension bit. (“The Anscients” is the name of an old race who lived on earth, for those unfamiliar with the Stargate universe.) Too religious-ish for my taste, and it made the reason why the ship was abandoned in the first place a little cheesy. I like the concept of an ancient race who made all this technology, but I prefer the way the Asgard-race disappeared over the way the ancients did. However that’s a rant for another time.

Also, I doubt this show is going to turn into a BSG (Battlestar Galactica, i.e. a space soap) ripoff as some accuse it of. I didn’t really see much in this episode that reminded me of BSG besides a few details. The power struggle may be a part of the story, but in no way like in BSG I hope. This is more like the Atlantis power struggle that popped up now and then. In Stargate such story devices are short lived. Also, I doubt this show is going to be about on-board drama either (I truly hope not). I see people criticizing the show for its characters too, but character development is very important for a good show, and can be done without ending up as a soap like BSG tended to. Babylon 5 had a brilliant balance between character development and action.  In any case, Stargate is traditionally (after 15 season we can use the word traditional) a “us vs. evil alien villains” kinda show, and I doubt they’ll deviate from that path. They’ve already set the scene when introducing the secondary usage of the on-board stargate for resource gathering. I bet this will be a much used plot device. This will make it more a Voyager-like show than a BSG-like show. That is not necessarily bad, it is hard to invent a plot from scratch without using anything that has been used before. Atlantis did remarkably well in that respect though I think, so the creators certainly have the skill needed.

Looking forward to the next episode, and the eventual DVD releases!

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Summary: The story revolves around the crew on the mining vessel Rockhopper who’s job it is to mine comets for resources. On a mission their orders are changed. One of the moons of Saturn, Janus, has broken off and is accelerating away into interstellar space! Rockhopper takes up the pursuit in an attempt to find out what or who is doing this, and it soon becomes apparent that Janus is not a moon after all. At least not one made of rock. The is an intriguing collection of interpersonal conflicts, the birth of a new society, strange alien encounters and a struggle to grasp the relativistic effects like time dilation. What has happened to humanity while they were on their way?

This book was very hard to put down. It is the first of Reynolds books I’ve read (the other two are on my iPod). It’s the kind of story where you just have to read the next chapter. In the end I felt that the story was a bit rushed towards a conclusion. Although the prologue and epilogue are a brilliant wrapping of the story that I personally greatly enjoyed. I see a potential book just from what’s outlined there. I also understand that there are plans for a follow-up of this book too, which may account for the somewhat sudden end to this one. I look forward to it.

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The Revelation Space universe is a fascinating one. Human nature is still much the same, but humanity has split into different branches depending on how much technology they put into their bodies. Regardless, they all have the capability to regenerate and thus live for centuries while also backing up their consciousness into so-called alpha, beta and gamma simulations depending on how advanced and similar to the original they are. Humans have also discovered many ancient alien ruins on other planets, but no aliens. Something has systematically been keeping intelligent life from becoming too advanced. In the first book you will discover the disturbing reason why there is no intelligent life to be found in our galaxy besides ourselves.

I have so far read the first book and also the third book which deal with this pruning force of the universe. I am currently reading the fifth book, “The Prefect”, and have the second one , “Chasm City”, next on my list. (No, they’re not chronological in that sense, except from one and three.) If you enjoy Sci-Fi, you cannot afford to miss out on these books. They’re about as good as Sci-Fi gets. Reynolds himself has bagged a book deal recently, and will continue to produce books for the coming years. I’ll be looking forward to every single one of them!

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In Morgan’s universe human consciousness is stored in a small chip at the back of the scull. Your body is just a piece of meat you can replace. This leads to a society where human life has little value and torture has an entire new dimension. The main character of the series, Takeshi Kovacs, is a hired gun who in the first book investigates what looks like a rich man’s suicide. In the course of his investigation he runs into many of the aspects of futuristic human life. Little details like how advertisers impose advertisements directly into your brain and also the awkward issues following people changing body are things that pop up regularly to make the story more entertaining and humorous. But the story also leads us into the dark side of the human nature. The wealthy can now practically live forever and gain wealth and influence indefinitely, while the poor is limited to mere one or two lifetimes of existence. If you’re put in storage, the punishment for serious crime, someone else may very well buy your body and run off with it. One such case is the body the main character possesses in the first book, the body of a convicted police officer.

I’m now greatly enjoying the second book on my iPod while on my daily subway rides. I have to warn you though. Many of the descriptions in the book are quite violent and detailed, but if you don’t mind that, they greatly enhance the story.

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My rating: 8/10

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