Sunday, July 31, 2011

July Books Update


Here are the books I got in July. This first batch I almost thought about making it's own little post since they are from the same series. I still might have to do a special posting on this series sometime. Anyway on with what I've gotten during the month of July.

These first four books are from the series of sci-fi books based on the early 1980s television series "V" which fans know is about a race of reptilian aliens who disguise themselves as being more humanoid. They pretended to come in peace but really wanted to conquer and take all our water and resources. I didn't know it at the time but after about a year or so the series of books switched from being published by Pinnacle Books (the same US publishers who published a 10 book series of Doctor Who Novels from televised stories) for the first 11 books to being published by TOR Books (the folks who published the popular Fantasy series Gor by John Norman) for the final 5 books + the new novelization of the original story (of the original mini-series and "Final Battle" mini-series in one book) re-edited to tie into the "Second Generation" which is the novelization setting up the reboot television series. With the change in publisher I noticed a slight change in the cover designs. The Original Pinnacle books have the book title and author's name at the bottom, while the TOR books have the author's name and book title at the top of the cover.

 

The Crivit Experiment by Allen Wold. When I first saw the author's name I thought it was weird (my contacts were not focused right) that someone would use the pen name Alien World. Silly me.


Path To Conquest by Howard Weinstein. Mr. Weinstein might be more well known for his involvement of Star Trek novels and Trek Conventions.


Below The Threshold by Allen Wold. There is that Alien World guy again.


Symphony Of Terror by Somtow Sucharitkul. This is this author's second V series book the first one I already have (but haven't read) was called The Alien Swordmaster. From the synopsis on the back of this one it looks like the author is once again pulling from his Thia heritage since there is a Ninja in this one.

I found a nice cover gallery on a website for these books plus the UK versions of the books which I think I will try to pursue sometime. www.tonystrading.co.uk V Books Gallery The only thing they don't show is the very original green cover to the book "The Pursuit of Diana" I think that was only a hardback version. They even have the "Annuals" that were published in the UK (they do that thing over there). I have the 1986 one.

Switch to another genre completely.


I got another installment from the MLB Insiders Club Book Library. The series that is like those Time-Life series that have 20-30 books or more and you get one book every 6 weeks or so for about $20-$30 or whatever they charge. This latest book is "Inside The All-Star Game". I get a little frustrated with these books and the occasional DVDs the MLBIC sends me because they are never in any database of known books or DVDs in the collection tracking sites I use. So sorry there is no picture of the books cover. I don't think I'll get a chance to scan mine in before I post this at the end of the month.

Next up to Bat:

Safe At Home: Confessions of a Baseball Fanatic by Alyssa Milano.This is sort of an autobiography mixed in with a fangirl's ravings of her fave team and the sport that she learned to love because of her father.

Friday, July 01, 2011

June DVD Update


OK Time for the DVD stuff I got in June Starting with some Doctor Who DVDs I hinted at in the May report that I technically ordered and paid for via Paypal on 30 May. They came in on Thursday 02 June, but I couldn't pick them up from the post office til Saturday 04 June.

Doctor Who: Dreamland

Doctor Who: Dreamland This is the second Animated Doctor Who DVD that I know about and have. (The first one is Doctor Who: The Infinite Quest with Martha Jones as the companion) Both animated adventures were shown on TV in the UK but not here in the States. This adventure though has two new companions not in the television series, they are one time companions or "one-offs" I suppose (I still prefer to say "one-of"). I have watched this one and it is a fun watch. The animation is computer generated and is a little choppy and jumpy in some spots but once I got into the story I hardly noticed the problems with using computer animation. This DVD has a bonus disc that contains the 2009 mini-series Doctor Who Greatest Moments. I'm not sure if this has been shown on US television or not. BBCAmerica has shown the occasional Doctor Who Mini-Series or inserts the interview clips from these things (Doctor Who Confidential - the extra bits they put on some of the DVDs) so often I can't keep track of which have been shown.

Doctor Who: A Christmas Carol

Doctor Who: A Christmas Carol This is the 2010 Doctor Who Christmas Special. Yes it is based on the Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" story. It is not bad, it is very enjoyable even if a little predictable.The producers of Doctor Who probably at the fan's requests have wanted to do a Doctor Who Christmas Carol for many years.

Doctor Who: The Complete Specials (The Next Doctor / Planet of the Dead / The Waters of Mars / The End of Time Parts 1 and 2)

Doctor Who: The Complete Specials This is what should have been Series 5 (Season 5 for Americans who get confused by the use of the word series) of the Doctor Who reboot series. It is the final DW "series" for actor David Tennant as The Doctor (he makes a cameo in the next DVD I got).

The Sarah Jane Adventures: The Complete Third Season

The Sarah Jane Adventures: The Complete Third Season As I hinted at above for the specials DVD this DVD has The Doctor show up to help out Sarah Jane Smith.

Doctor Who: The Complete Fifth Series 

Doctor Who: The Complete Fifth Series Season 5 of Doctor Who the first season with Matt Smith in the title role will Karen Gillan as his traveling companion Amy Pond.

Star Trek The Animated Series - The Animated Adventures of Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek

Star Trek: The Animated Series Before there was The Next Generation and a few years before The Motion Picture there was an animated series of Star Trek with the Classic Original Crew (TOS - The Original Series). The cartoon series lasted 2 seasons "finishing" the original five year mission of the USS Enterprise.

Highlander the Source : Widescreen Edition

Highlander: The Source I haven't yet watched this movie so I forget if it is a prequel or series ending sequel for The Highlander Franchise.

Highlander: The Complete Animated Series

Highlander: The Complete Animated Series I vaguely recall seeing an episode or two of this series on afternoon television. I don't recall if it was a weekday when I was off of work or on a Saturday afternoon. It might have been a Saturday morning.

On an outing to Target I picked up a couple of animated (well one of them is live-action with CGI animation) discs.

Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel (Single-Disc Version)

Alvin And The Chipmunks: The Squeakquel I've got the first one might as well get the second one. Need to watch them.

Hey There, It's Yogi Bear

Hey There, It's Yogi Bear! Hard to believe that this was the First full length movie for Hanna-Barbera. I haven't seen this in it's entirety for ages. I've seen a few clips here and there but not the full thing.

Well that is if for the June DVD's close to my biggest month of 13 DVDs August of 2009.