The book I am reviewing in this post is Firstborn by Arthur C Clarke & Stephen Baxter which is a very good science fiction novel which I borrowed from the library. This novel is the third and final part of the Time's Odyssey series and came out in 2008. I haven't read the earlier books in the series but it's set in the near future and it's about an alien race trying to wipe out the civilisation on earth which is now called Mir so they can inhabit it. They have tried promoting solar flares on the sun rather unsuccessfully to wipe out all life. Also humans inhabit Mars & Titan, one of Saturn's moons. The humans realise to their dismay there is a huge missile heading towards Mir and they might be able to change its tragectory but can't shoot it down. If they aim it towards an asteroid it's likely to be formed too loosely and the missile will plough straight through it. The only viable option is to aim it towards Mars with a resultant loss of human life. This requires that some astronauts board it. On board this huge missile is various alien life which earthlings call the Firstborn set on colonizing Mir. On Earth they revive many people in a cryogenic state to help with the defense of Mir or Earth. Among other things their bodies have been drained of blood and their muscles have whithered away. Also the Earth has been divided up into zones meant to be inspired by the golden ages of Earth like Alexander the Great & Genghis Khan.

The film I am reviewing in this post is Disney's Lady & the Tramp which was one of their most successful animations ever. The plot is there is a dog called Lady & her owners visit China & get someone to look after her and their baby. The old lady who looks after her has 2 troublesome cats & tries to have Lady muzzled but she runs off. She meets with her friend a street dog called Tramp & they visit a zoo and get a beaver to remove the muzzle. At this time the dogwardens are also declaring war on strays & Tramp is proving particularly troublesome. When Lady is returned home she is put outside in a kennel and there is a bit of a cliffhanger where a rat sneaks into the babies room & Lady & Tramp are determined to do something about it. Of course there's a happy ending after Lady's owners come back and they end up adopting Tramp & of course he and Lady fall in love. A couple of particularly nice characters are a feisty Scotty with a scottish accent & an old Bloodhound who no longer has a sense of small. These 2 characters also live with Lady.

The book I am reviewing in this post is The Midnight Man by Simon Clark which is an excellent horror novel which I borrowed from the library. This novel is set in 1888 in London where Van Gogh lives and so does Reverend Hux. Van Gogh hears voices and has epilepsy while Hux suffers with opium addiction. The entity they both hear in their heads is The Midnight Man which is a kind of Jack the Ripper & goes around slicing women's stomachs open with a rope. Hux rescues a slave called Ndabhi who is almost gang raped by some soldiers and they live together. At one point she has to lock him in a room and leave him in there to cure his opium addiction. Van Gogh is very much attracted to Ty a prostitute and the book is made up of Ty's story & Ndabhi's story and they are destined to meet at the end like the film Traffic. There is a happy ending although further on we know Van Gogh in real life killed himself. The book is quite gruesome and I think some people will be shocked at how they treated women in them days. In one scene Van Gogh picks wild strawberries for Ty & puts them in his hat for her to eat which is quite romantic as it spoils his hat & although he's a bit mad he's quite harmless.

The book I am reviewing in this post is Caught by Harlan Coben which is an excellent thriller which I borrowed from the library. This book came out in 2010 & like a lot of Coben's recent books is a standalone taut thriller. The plot is there's an undercover tv reporter who exposes paedophiles & one of them has gone to court and slipped through the net. As a result her and her boss have lost their jobs. Anyway they decide they're going to kill the paedophile before he harms any more kids. Also soon after a child goes missing and they think it might be him that took her. Anyway what follows is a story where they question there ability to tell if someone is guilty or not. A lot of the story is kind of is he, isn't he. The reporter is very concerned someone might get to her 2 children. I won't give away the ending but there is a happy ending. I think this book is quite topical especially in Britain. I was watching the news last night and one story was that the prime minister appeared on a programme called This Morning. One of the presenters gave him a list of 6 people who have been accused on Twitter of being paedophiles. I think the 6 were celebrities he was connected to. He responded by saying if there's any evidence it should be dealt with in a law court not discussed on Twitter. I think he's right. When I ran a ning site there were a couple of instances were people had obviously fallen out so one of them accused the other of being a serial killer and would spread it around as many ning sites as possible.

The book I read to research this post was Commando by Geoff Nordass et al which is a very good book which I borrowed from the library. Geoff was a real life Royal Marine who served in The Falklands, Northern Ireland & Iraq among other places. He also trained as a RN Diver & worked as support to the SBS or Special Boat Service. This is a memoir of his life & one interesting fact is that during the Falklands campaign 16 bombs struck english ships but failed to explode due to the argentines flying too low and the fuses didn't have time to arm themselves. It has been said if just 6 of these bombs had exploded there would have been a different outcome. When he was training to be a marine he regarded the other recruits as friends and if they were doing a training run he'd sometimes help carry their kit and he'd encourage them to carry on. Some of these men could barely stand. What he didn't realise was he was doing what a marine should do as they believed you should never leave a man behind and you should work as a team. He won an award for best marine as a result. He was also a security aide to Dode & Mohammed Al Fayed and he also coordinated security on cruise ships. By then he had retired from the army. Nowadays he runs his own security firm.

The film I am reviewing is Alex Cross which those of you who are James Patterson fans will know is a character from his books. His character is a black policeman who is a criminal profiler. A profiler is someone who tells the police the characteristics of the person they are looking for so they can narrow down the search. I don't think this film is based on a particular book. Actually some years ago Along Came a Spider was made into a film starring Morgan Freeman. Anyway it stars Tyler Perry as Alex Cross, Cicely Tyson as his partner & Matthew Fox as a psychopath. Fox puts a $10,000 bet on himself in a cage fighting contest and wins against a really big tough man. He breaks the man's arm for luck to. Anyway he's a serial killer but he's also a hitman. In the latter capacity he's hired to kill Cross & his wife. His wife has to go in hiding after a near miss. He's also hired to kill a visiting statesman which he does quite effectively. It's a brilliant performance by Fox & I think he probably enjoyed playing the part. There's a brilliant sequence where he robs a hotel and they are frantically trying to stop him. There's a great chase at the end to and there's a happy ending. All in all it's a good film.

From time to time I may do reviews of TV Series DVD Boxsets. Today I'm doing The Walking Dead Season 2 starring Andrew Lincoln and it's based on a graphic novel. I think it's a bit like Night of the Living Dead albet with a well crafted storyline & where as the George A Romero one started to run out of steam when the sequels came out, there's no sign of that happening to the Walking Dead. All the dead except those with head or spinal injuries have turned into flesh eating zombies. Lincoln and his group are trying to survive and find a family where the head of the house is a veterinarian which comes in handy if anyone is injured. Anyway they have a remote house which for the time being is relatively safe from zombies. They decide the vet is the leader of his group and Andy likewise is leader of his group. They discover zombies caged up in the barn which doesn't go down too well. Seems some people almost see zombies as ill humans. On top of that another hostile group is trying to find their settlement and they capture one of them alive. They know the best solution is to kill him but nobody can bring their selves to do it. The last episode is particularly good with loads of zombies coming out of the woodwork. They have to leave their settlement and have nowhere to go. I think Season 2 is every bit as good as Season 1 which was fantastic. Not for those with a nervous disposition but if you have a strong stomach well worth watching.

This film stars Denzel Washington, Rosario Dawson & Chris Pine & was directed by Tony Scott in what I think is his best film. The plot is a train driver leaves his train in gear at a level crossing & falls over whilst trying to get back on. We then have a runaway train that appears to defy almost all attempts. Not to mention Rosario's boss who is surely the boss from hell. This is a true story & apparently now Rosario's character is doing her bosses job. At first they won't derail the train because it will cost the company a lot of money then they want to derail it in a built up area. This is a freight train laden with caustic chemicals. It defies belief. Luckily Rosario's character knows what she's doing & in the end 2 train drivers, Washington & Pine save the day. If I said this was edge of the seat stuff it would be an understatement. I have watched it 3 times and still love it and could quite easily watch it again. Amazingly Denzel's character was about to be made redundant as the train company were bringing in younger drivers. This film makes a very good point that there's no substitute for experience. I am a bit of a train fan and something I like about this film is there is lots of delicious details like that a derailler won't work if a train is going too fast and is too heavy. This film is a bit of a classic.

This film stars Denzel Washington, Rosario Dawson & Chris Pine & was directed by Tony Scott in what I think is his best film. The plot is a train driver leaves his train in gear at a level crossing & falls over whilst trying to get back on. We then have a runaway train that appears to defy almost all attempts. Not to mention Rosario's boss who is surely the boss from hell. This is a true story & apparently now Rosario's character is doing her bosses job. At first they won't derail the train because it will cost the company a lot of money then they want to derail it in a built up area. This is a freight train laden with caustic chemicals. It defies belief. Luckily Rosario's character knows what she's doing & in the end 2 train drivers, Washington & Pine save the day. If I said this was edge of the seat stuff it would be an understatement. I have watched it 3 times and still love it and could quite easily watch it again. Amazingly Denzel's character was about to be made redundant as the train company were bringing in younger drivers. This film makes a very good point that there's no substitute for experience. I am a bit of a train fan and something I like about this film is there is lots of delicious details like that a derailler won't work if a train is going too fast and is too heavy. This film is a bit of a classic.

This is the latest and last at least for the time being instalment of the batman series. There are people who think these films follow a formula that is past its sell by date. This isn't the best of the batman series but I personally think it's pretty good. There's a number of the regular actors like Michael Caine & Christian Bale and also it features, Marion Cotillard, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman, Anne Hathaway & Tom Hardy. I have to admit the acting is top notch. There's also some brilliant set pieces especially the opening scene which features the most amazing plane hijack you will ever see. The plot is basically Bruce Wayne has apparently made some dodgy decisions for his company and is removed from the board. The main baddies are Bane who looks a bit like Hannibal Lecter & Catwoman. Catwoman lifts Bruce Waynes fingerprints and sells them to someone who then betrays her. Meanwhile Batman is wanted for murder. Bane takes a load of people including Wayne Enterprises Board of Directors & I think most of the policeforce hostage and threatens to blow them up with an atom bomb. In the end Batman saves the day and Catwoman surprisingly helps him but he appears to die. There's a happy ending. There's not much of a plot but it's worth seeing just for the action and it's edge of the seat stuff.