Was headed out of the library last week and saw a Marvel Anime of the X-Men on the shelf, so checked it out. Just finished watching it this am – and had some interesting reactions.

First, I’m not an X-Men expert by any means. I’ve seen the movies, and recently read an anthology reprint of some very old X-Men comics I read as a kid, but otherwise nada mucho. As far as the movies went, I liked the first two better than the third one, which I felt kind of squandered things to a degree character-wise into just action and mayhem (maybe due to different director, not sure). Then the X-Men First Class movie came out – which I liked more, although Kevin Bacon’s villain was fairly ridiculous (while entertaining, to be sure).

I guess one of the challenges in following any of these comic stories, characters, ‘teams’, etc. at this point is that so many of the plots, counter-plots, stories, etc. have been either done so many times or sent in one direction, then another, then another new writer steps in and takes it in a different direction (thinking of the recent Marvel Knights X-Men series I watched, in addition to the JJ Abrams ‘redo’ of Star Trek in the two recent movies, etc.) at some point you have to simply give up on a linear history of *any* character and just enjoy the story for what it is or tries to do.

So in talking about this X-Men anime – I liked the fact that they had yet another team of obscure weirdos to battle (the ‘U-Men’) and that ultimately there was another team of ‘evil’ Mutants – the Inner Circle – to deal with too. The animation is very well done, and there are obvious nods to the movies in some of the presentation and implied plot points (at least to me). However, there are also a number of times where there’s either too much mindless violence that transitions to a plot stoppage where everyone sits and ‘monologues’ too much, and at least two to three key points where characters who have certain knowledge don’t say anything, don’t act as you’d expect them to, and then the plot moves forward irrespective (this is otherwise known as a ‘plot hole’ :(). And yet again, certain X-Men seem far weaker here than otherwise implied – most notably Storm (who got her a** kicked far too many times in the movies too vs. her implied power?) – so that’s a problem. Am I reading too much into this? Probably. Another gripe (although this is anime, after all so not a complete surprise) is that nearly every woman in this thing is drawn as if she was first seen in Ghost in the Shell – and if you’ve seen that movie or series, you know what I’m talking about. It just doesn’t work here, guys.

I guess to sum up, if you like X-Men and have more nerdy knowledge about all the myriad characters and history of same, you will probably like this too. I liked it, but didn’t like it as much as I *should* have, which is disappointing. If I had to choose, I’d pick the Marvel Knights series…..

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So over the past few years I’ve seen an increasing trend (news to nobody I’m sure) of retro art inspired by previous art. That is, you have ‘fake’ movie posters or wholly new ‘ads’ for TV series re-imagined, like the book imaged below, which I saw in a Barnes & Noble recently (and was able to resist buying it, even!).

I’m sure the myriad of artists on Etsy have long been in this game, came across some cool recent examples there, too:

The Geekerie

Sci fi movie pulp covers

Star Trek: The Art of Juan Ortiz

(a few more pics)

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Finished the (currently) last Alex Verus novel, Chosen, a week or so ago. And then found out that this novel only came out this past August, which means i’m in for a wait on any future books – doh!

The book continues the saga of Alex Verus, London-based mage and diviner extraordinaire, and his growing posse of friends/apprentices, Luna, Anne, Sonder and Variam, with some of the usual nemeses, and some new/old ones to be reckoned with.

Again, no interest in spoilers here, so what I will say instead is that this seems the grittiest of the four novels so far. Alex is forced into some harder choices than seen previously and confronts several demons/skeletons in his closet along the way. And some of the mental expectations you have of the story at the start take some definite twists and turns you may or may not expect. A great continuation of the series and VERY much looking forward to the next one!

In the meantime, the next Clone book is coming out at the end of the month from Steven L. Kent; and I found The Dresden Files on DVD at the library which I can watch in the meantime, too. 🙂

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As noted previously, I am now offiically addicted to Alex Verus books – just finished the 2nd (Cursed) and 3rd (Taken) books, awaiting the fourth, Chosen. I just can’t put these things down once I start them – very entertaining and engaging!

As before, Alex Verus is a mage (wizard or warlock) who lives in London and walks a fine line between Light and Dark mages (and other occasional magical entities who pop in) while trying to keep out of ‘magic politics’ and train his apprentice and friend, Luna. The books have a good level of back-story without getting to the detail level of say, Lord of the Rings, where you then have to go into epic backstory and bog things down too much. I like the way details are revealed as needed, which if not used carefully can look too convenient (side rant – Star Trek holodeck screenwriters, I’m talking to YOU) but here Alex is portrayed as many times out of his league compared to other mages and also battling with self-esteem and confidence issues along the way.

Check out the books – you won’t be disappointed!

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Just finished Benedict Jacka‘s Fated novel today – the first in his Alex Verus series. Definitely an engaging read!

While I’m not a big fantasy person – about the closest I usually come is time-honored (but sadly still far too obscure) Clark Ashton Smith and HP Lovecraft (neither of which aren’t strictly fantasy – CAH is equally sci-fi in his weird way; HPL is much more horror-tinged than straight fantasy), this was a fast and fun read. I have read at least one Harry Dresden novel, in the same ‘modern magic’ category and liked it, but then forgot to go back to read more – my bad.

Mr Verus is a modern mage (wizard or warlock) that lives in London and tries to keep to himself and out of trouble, given his sordid past. But like all such anti-heroes, he gets drawn in anyway, much to the reader’s delight. I liked the mix of descriptive prose vs. action, and the pacing of the novel keeps you rolling right along until the penultimate stages, to be sure. I liked the effort to paint the Dark Mages as a mixed bag, not quite just straight evil as they could be in a simpler tale, but certainly very dangerous all the same – and the Light certainly not being what they seem either. I’m not going to reveal any more plot but there were some good twists in there too.

I guess I’ll have to go back and read more Harry Dresden now too – but first to finish the other three AV books! 🙂

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So we went camping with relatives last weekend, what a great time! And during part of that time, I finally had the chance to start reading the recent Steve Jobs bio from Walter Isaacson that I got for christmas last year. This was an interesting read, if you like biographies, but I had mixed reactions to it, for the following reasons.

1) Much of the story was already familiar to me, as I grew up with those original Macs (and Amigas, and PCs, etc.) and have used most of them along the way at some point or another (I have an older Mac Pro at present, among my other bazillion computers at home). I am not a zealous Mac fanboy by any means, they serve their purpose and definitely do it well. My notable Mac gripes are beyond the scope of this review, so I’ll leave those out. I am glad they are still around, as much to keep Micro$oft honest (because Windows still sucks for the most part) as to point out what you can really do when you push hard for design and integration in a consumer OS, even when you arguably don’t have to.

2) While reading the book, it’s obvious Isaacson has made strong efforts to be balanced, even though it’s just as clear he’s a big Jobs fanboy from the very start. So while he is happy to show many (because sadly there are many) instances of Jobs being a huge jerk, Jobs being irresponsible, Jobs lording it over everyone around him, etc. – there are just as many triumphs along the way, and those are put on equal display. Some of them I think are a little overblown or hyped in a way that I would more expect to see in a press release, but this is definitely not a book that avoids showing the bad side of Jobs, and that’s a good thing.

3) One factor here I am not sure is brought out as much as it could have been is the luck factor. Like so many successful business types, regardless of industry, to hear them tell it, you’d think they planned their ridiculous success from the minute they were born and it was simply fate that led them to the pinnacle. But anyone paying actual attention knows that LUCK plays a huge part in these stories as well.

It’s true that highly focused, smart people like Jobs and similar are often the best-equipped to take overwhelming advantage of chances that come their way – and in Jobs’ case, his ‘reality distortion field’ often permitted him in many cases (but not in the end with cancer, certainly) to push his way through obstacles to create the reality he wanted and believed in. In some ways, he was both the Immovable Object or the Irresistible Force no matter what he did, because the guy simply didn’t budge. Period. But he was also very, very lucky – you can argue both sides of many of his successes that he was the key driver – but he was also just as much riding on the success of the team(s) that supported him. And (noted in the book somewhat too) if it wasn’t for the iPod (and to a lesser degree, iTunes), the second coming of Apple might have turned out very differently (because they would have ended up as part of Oracle or Sun, most likely, and possibly not even around anymore). The iPod gave them the crazy money and breathing room to really aim for the stars again, even with the Mac OS X reboot beforehand. That would never have been enough on its own.

4) One of the more interesting aspects to me about this story is of course the contrast between Bill Gates and Jobs, which isn’t the focus of the book but certainly comes up several times. And if you’ve ever watched Pirates of Silicon Valley, you’ve seen this scenario play out – arguably not really exaggerated for effect even in the movie – where Jobs gets karma put right back in his face by Gates in a direct, undeniable way. Possibly one of the few times it really happened, when you consider the book and story as a whole. Here Gates is painted a bit more nice than Jobs – but I’d wager he was just as hard to deal with and just as ‘cornholio’ in his own way – ask the crushed and discarded Micro$oft ‘partners’ or early computer companies along the way that were run over by far worse business practices than Apple ever came up with. There’s plenty of abusive behavior to go around when these kinds of stakes are at issue, and it’s certainly not confined to the tech industry, either. Ask the banks, for example.

So do I admire Steve Jobs? I admire several of his character traits – the drive, the focus, the willingness to sacrifice so much to stick to his vision in many cases, the willingness to be the lone voice even in his NeXT years, where he literally *was* the lone voice for his beliefs. And I am glad he played a central role in bringing us Pixar, a story I knew only a little about beforehand but the book tells in great detail.

But I have seen SJ’s hyper-abusive management style at work even in my own career, and it greatly tempers my admiration for his success in the end. No one has to behave that way to be successful, and there are plenty of examples out there that prove my point. It’s truly sad that so many leaders in Corporate America believe otherwise. But as SJ found out, karma is real, guys – change your ways while you still can!

And I’m not completely convinced that designing cool consumer devices (computers or otherwise) is ‘changing the world’ the way Jobs constantly evangelizes. Because changing or enriching consumer behavior is one thing – but really changing society for the better is quite another, and I’m not convinced that (just) building cool technology is a necessary means to that end. I think that it is a uniquely *American* viewpoint to believe and centralize that perspective, but the era of ‘what’s good for GM is good for America’ is long, long since past, and the same applies for Apple.

A great read and great fodder for beer-table debate, to be sure. Especially if you have an Apple or Micro$oft (yes, somehow they too exist) fanboy in your midst. 🙂

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