I can’t keep up with it all. I’ve got a stack of books next to the bed, and piles of movies and games in front of the TV. Sure, there are worse problems in the world. But do you ever feel overwhelmed by it all? It’s blasphemy, I know.

My problem? If only I didn’t want to check out everything. There ya go, I admitted it. I’m an entertainment addict.

What about you?

Novelist’s Essential Guide to Crafting Scenes is pretty good if you’re looking for something scene-centric.

The book is a great refresher, and it’s nice to read something focused around the building blocks of stories.

Gasoline on the fire!

Books

Old Man’s War

A bunch of geriatrics trade in their old bodies for new ones from the military, the catch being that they can never return to Earth and have to go fight in the Colonial wars. Interesting and humorous, I’m starting to see why this won the Hugo.

Ender’s Game

Ender Wiggin is recognized as being special from a very young age. He is recruited by the government to go to battle school, where his intelligence and aptitude are proven in mock battles with other boys his age.

It soon becomes apparent that nobody can beat Ender, and the military advances Ender to become the youngest military commander ever. But young Ender is still a child, and often laments over the fact he is not allowed to enjoy his childhood. He soon grows to despise his military benefactors.

Can Ender ever escape the hero’s burden placed upon him? How can he, when mankind needs him to save the universe from the evil Bugger threat?

Don’t forget, you can always find out what I’m reading in the Quantum Reading section.

 
XBOX 360 Games

Call of Juarez

Wild West shooters don’t usually do too well among the 18 – 35 demographic. Which is too bad because this one is quite fun. Play alternates between two main characters Billy Candle and Reverend Ray. Ray mistakenly views Billy as responsible for the deaths of Billy’s parents, and you spend a majority of the game alternating between Billy escaping the wrath of the Reverend, and playing as the Reverend chasing down Billy.

You often get to see levels from these two different perspectives which makes progress through the game interesting. How is the gameplay? Quite fun. Firing dual six-shooters in slow motion while playing as Ray is very rewarding, if not reminiscent of Max Payne. While playing as Billy you get to use the whip for some Indiana Jones navigation across hazardous terrain. Given there aren’t many games to play this summer, this one will keep you busy for a while.

Far Cry Instincts Predator

I had played the original Far Cry on the PC, and with a little bit of spit and shine it could have given Half-Life a run for its money. I’m playing the 360 versions for gamer points, and again because game publishers seem to hate the summer.

Speaking which, there are a ton of games coming out this fall like BioShock, Assassin’s Creed, Army of Two, and Grand Theft Auto IV. I fear I won’t have time to play all of those, and some of them will have to wait til the cold months of winter. Silly publishers and their Xmas deadlines. If they’d only spread some out in the summer they could make just as much if not more money for filling the dead space.

Hollywood learned this many years ago, as movie primetime used to be during the holiday season, and now we live in the era of the summer blockbuster. The game industry needs to wake up and follow suit.

As long as we’re on the topic of the 360, for those of you who are also gamers you may find me on Xbox Live as Redchurch77. All I ask is that if you request to have me add you to the friends list, that you send me a message letting me know who you are. There’s nothing more confusing than getting a friend request from some random nickname you’re not familiar with.

 
Movies

The Untouchables

While I wait for crowds and my busy weekends to die down a bit so I can go see Die Hard 4, I’ve been enjoying the steady release of HD DVDs on my Xbox 360 add-on HD DVD player. One must-have release for July is The Untouchables. There’s nothing like seeing Robert DeNiro as Al Capone smack someone in the head with a baseball bat in full HD glory.

Later this month HD DVD will see the release of The Bourne Identity. This is how I know.

What’s in your queue this summer? Got any entertainment plans?

One of the strongest techniques in the book is using the reverse cause-effect to breakdown your acts, sequences, and scenes into clearly established plot points. The process is not unlike the TV story development advice to write your act-outs first, although Jeff Kitchen’s method is a bit more comprehensive. The book has many different techniques with examples, and at times functions much like a workbook to help you develop stories quickly and save time by avoiding unnecessary rewrites.

I can say with confidence it is safe to drop other screenwriting books and pick this one up. You won’t regret it.

After nuclear devastation across the globe, the remaining human survivors have congregated in Australia to spend their last months figuring out what to do before radiation poisoning sets in.

The best parts of the story for me were submarine missions a few of the characters embark upon, exploring radiated coastlines for signs of life and investigating the sources of mysterious radio signals in areas that are unfit for life. These were the only elements to truly capitalize on the strength of the post-apocalyptic setting, as the rest of the story involves the mundane everyday lives of the survivors in Australia.

As a whole I found the story entirely disappointing. The characters behave unrealistically and in ways which do not establish heroic qualities. When confronted with the possibility that everyone will die in a few months, one family sets about planting a garden they could never live to enjoy. Another fixes up cars and races them. The characters suffer from a collective denial of their fate. But instead of exploring their options and fighting for survival, they resign themselves to their fate and continue planting gardens, racing cars, etc.

This lack of action, and initiative, completely destroys the conflict in the story. How can you have conflict if the characters ignore the conflict? And the conflict is, I might add, one of the natural resources of the post-apocalyptic genre; Humans in conflict with their environment.

On The Beach may make a beautiful tragedy, and a work of art in that regard. But as a post-apocalyptic genre story, and a piece of fictive entertainment, it completely fails for having no heroes and no conflict.

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

A father and son travel south to avoid cold temperatures brought on by a cataclysm which has destroyed the planet and left humanity on the brink of extinction. They follow a main road south, along the way searching for food and avoiding roving bands of cannibals.

I found it to be a really good story, and played the survival elements very well in ways that On The Beach didn’t. The father and son are at many times on the verge of starving, and their search of abandoned houses or destroyed towns often turns up little, and sometimes exposes them to the danger of cannibals. This is a natural conflict brought on by the post-apocalyptic setting, and Cormac McCarthy uses the setting to full effect.

As far as weaknesses, I would agree with Crawford Killian’s review. It’s a bit odd that there isn’t more social organization, and that the world, as far as the story is concerned, is boiled down to cannibals and lone surviving individuals. You would think that somebody, somewhere, is working together and although this is briefly mentioned a few times in the story, the reader is never given a glimpse of that aspect of McCarthy’s world.

The interaction of father and child is not only an interesting from a character standpoint, but is expertly used by McCarthy as a writer’s trick to consistently explain the state of the world and its inhabitants within the story.

The road itself, in addition to being the title of the story and almost another character in the plot, also serves as excellent symbolism of life journey and the paths we must all choose to face.

The Road is a great story of perseverence, and a prime example of masterful storytelling.