Carrie : A Tale of a Lonely High school Student In a Bland World

Carrie By Stephen King Smoothie review

Okay. Where did the book came from? I’m not sure. I just kind of found it. It had yellow pages and a battered paper back cover that made me wonder about it’s origins, but the mystery does not spark any interest enough to pursue why and how it ended up in my house. I just read the darn thing. The book is a very old copy of Carrie with a photo of Sissy Spacek on the cover covered with blood. The title had big drippy front and another bold message saying “Soon to be a motion picture.”

So in case you know absolutely nothing about the literacy world, Carrie is suppose to be a literacy horror “classic” by Stephen King. The film is also considered to be a sort of a cult classic too. I never saw it. So the book held all the surprises for me. The story of the book focuses on a teenager named Carrie. A girl who has been tormented and picked on by those around her, class mates usually and is obedient to her abusive psychotic overly religious mother. Carrie takes torment from everyone, that is until one day she discovers that she had telekinetic abilities. Meanwhile after treating Carrie badly, a girl named Sue, wants to make it up to her. But it was not like Carrie will take a apology. She had be abused and pranked too long. So she lines her boyfriend up to take Carrie to prom. She wanted to at least give the girl one night where she is not the butt of some joke but someone special.

Also during this Christine, a girl who hates Carrie because she lost her prom tickets for torturing the girl, wants to get revenge. She and her boyfriend intend to ruin her night unaware of the new power Carrie can now fight back with.

So the good? It is a interesting promise. The general story contain concepts and imagination that is wonderful. The potential is great. Also the layout of the story it self is that of third person and news reporters, scientific essays, and interviews with survivors after the fact. This is something I found a bit intriguing.

The bad? Well there wasn’t anything real bad. It was just overall bland. Given that Carrie is a neglected, abused teenager and the world hates, I was so surprised at how shallow of character she was. Most authors would try to make the reader understand the character. Show the humanity of her so you can feel pity. But it was so hard to feel sorry for a girl when the only emotion king decides to reveal for Carrie is rage. I wanted to know more about Carrie. I wanted to see a human being not a cardboard cut out, King created. The other characters were just as shallow with the exception for Carrie’s mother. Which brings another issue. Why is it that King’s novels there is always a psychotic evil Christian at work? I’m not religious, so I’m taking offence, but it is cliché that is very old. Also I felt the climax is a bit over the top. At the midway point of the book Carrie can barely levitate a hair brush, but just a couple days later at the Prom, she has powers that are godlike. Though this is ridiculous story not based on facts, it still stands the author put a little effort into logical reasoning behind this evolution so the reader will not be pulled out of the tale. The power is described as a muscle, but you can’t work a muscle up to do that much in two or three days. I felt it was too much to be taken seriously. Also interviews and news reports scattered through out the story foreshadowed things to come. They sometimes foreshadowed way too much. Such as who will live and who will die. It took away the shock value of any deaths. Also in her rampage, Carrie is evil, which was out place as she was portrayed as victim until that point.

Overall, the story wasn’t bad. It wasn’t good. It was just meh. Maybe with stronger and more developed characters I might have enjoyed it more. It’s something to pass up and skip reading. I only suggest this your one of those Stephen King fans.

Overall Ratting: A Tale of a Lonely High School Student In a Bland World.

2 smoothies out of four.

P.S. If you like books then check out my book and ebook website Lelue’s Realm. Google it or go directly to http://www.freewebs.com/lelue/

Playground For Evil : A Retro Revamp Of A Classic That Keeps Its Charm

Playground for Evil By Broken Sea Productions

When I was really really little, I remember digging through my father’s old VHS tapes and ran across something called Kolchak: The Night Stalker. The dusty ancient tape, despite of its condition actually still played. And I found out it was this fantastic show about a investigative journalist who encounters monsters from the early seventies. And as old and dated as it was, it was a extremely fun show, that can still stand up to television today. But sadly it was something that lasted twelve episodes. But it was the show the set the mold for shows today such as X files, Miracles, Supernatural and Fringe. Nearly forty years later, I also found it has been brought back in a audio format. It’s a now a radio show, or audio book or audio drama. Take your pick. Call it what you will.

And yes. I know smoothie reviews typically are book reviews. But when I find myself on the computer for hours, editing, doing research or working on my website, it’s not all that different than a audio book is it? It’s a review on these audio stories or reviews on my favorite songs from my classic rock albums, which I think would be a big waste of your time to read. So like I said, this is a review on the audio drama on Kolchak: The Night Stalker- A Playground For Evil

Like I said before, the story centers on Carl Kolchak, a investigative journalist at the IBC newspaper who runs into monsters and such, as he gathers his story and Carl shows he is the somewhat self centered and charismatic character. He annoys those around him with his methods so much that people don’t want to even be associated with him. But he encounters a vampire in this story, that is killing people. And oh yeah. This tales place in the 1970’s.

So the good? It is such a tribute to the original show. The writing, the music and characters are fantastic. They didn’t have any of the original actors do the voice. But Monique, Mrs. Emily and his boss are as close as they could get it. And the guy who played the part of Carl Kolchak was close. Though he did not sound like Darren McGraven who originally in the TV show, he carried the character just as good as Darren did. The story is fun. Is it cheesy? Yes. In fact the whole story is dipped in cheese. But let’s admit it, the original had hints of the Scooby Doo cheesiness as well. But it will also make you crack a smile here and there as you hear one of the many jokes littered through out the witty writing. It is also a new story that is not part of the TV show.

The bad? Not much to say, other than I wish this was translated to television. I mean it was a great show and I miss it. It made me want to buy the complete series on DVD now. That and beyond the major four characters, the voice acting gets kind of flat, sounding nothing like the characters out of the original. But then again I think the listener cares for about the employees of IBC more than the chief of police or some doctor.

But overall if you loved Kolchak, you’ll love this. It had a lot of action, it’s fun, exciting, maybe a bit cheesy bit it’s something that doesn’t like itself seriously. And that’s what holds it together. It takes you along for the ride and says have fun.

Four smoothies out of 4

Overall rating : A retro revamp of a classic that keeps its charm

Find the audio drama at http://brokensea.com/kolchak/2009/09/30/episode-1/

P.S. Check out my book and ebook website Lelue’s Realm. Google it or go directly to http://www.freewebs.com/lelue/

Atlantis Found: Only Meant For A Audience Who Like Things That Go Boom

Atlantis Found By Clive Cussler Smoothie Review

Overall Rating: Only Meant For A Audience Who Like Things That Go Boom

Clive Cussler. I really don’t know much about this author other than he tends to write these Indiana Jones like adventures. A friend in high school was a real book worm. (Bigger than I am, if you can believe that) said I might like him since I like Crichton and Ludlum. So she gave me three books. She gave me Vahalla Rising, Sahara and Atlantis Found. I read Sahara way back when and found I didn’t like it and gave Vahalla Rising to another friend because she loves those “Dirk Pitt” novels. And Atlantis Found was lost until spring cleaning came along. When I found this book, I was like “Maybe I’ll give Clive Cussler a second chance.” All I knew, it was a Dirk Pitt novel. Sahara was one too, but seriously the book is erased from my mind for some reason. Now I felt I should have accepted that as a warning and not read it at all. But here’s the review.

The book starts out with a couple archaeologists who arrive to Pandora mines, where the owner had found a secret ancient shrine. It is a circular room where ancient writings are all over the walls and great black skull is in the center of the room. In the investigation the mine entrance collapses and it begins flooding. But to the rescue comes a man named Dirk Pitt who seems to amazingly pop out of no where to save them all. When escaping the mine, the one neatly killed by a group mysterious men who want them dead but they manage to make it out alive. And then after that, but Dirk always has a plan in the works as they study the skulls. Soon after Dirk and his cliché side kick Al Giordino investigate, they find that these are the remains of the possible Atlanteans who are predicting the end of the world and the people who want to hide this information is a crazy neo Nazi family who even altered their own genetics with Hitler’s DNA. Yes. I’m not lying. This is too stupid to make up. The Atlanteans predicted that a comet is going to hit the earth to flood it, so the Nazis want to keep it secret and are building four great ships so certain people will survive. And they attack Pitt and Giordino as much as they can along the way. The style of the book is written at a fast place, a “let’s have fun” format that clearly isn’t trying to be realistic. It has about the same vibe as a James Bond or Indiana Jones movie. Clearly Cussler likes excitement, fast cars and pretty women because it reflects greatly here.

So let’s start with the bad. I said earlier it’s unrealistic. That is an understatement. Dirk Pitt is Mr. Perfect in this novel. Every choice he makes, plan he has, or every gun fight he’s in comes out smelling like a rose. A whole deck is gunned down and everyone is injured and he doesn’t have a scratch. There isn’t anything this man does wrong. He has all the right moves, snappy comebacks and all the women love him. I mean, this character is so unreal where I know he is invincible. So during all the action scenes, I was asking, “Why should I care whether he is going to make it or not, if I already know he’s going come out with a scratch every time?” It really sucked the excitement out. Then there was the stuff that happened which was impossible. Such as a car chase between two muscle cars in a busy city, yet amazingly during the chase there is no mention of cars on the road. So I’m assuming they all magically disappeared. Then there’s the magical robot computer that is smarter than Einstein himself. There’s shoot outs where a squad is losing against a thousand Nazis but when Pitt shows up, the Nazis lose. How does that work? And then toward the end, when I thought the silliness is over, they have one last impossible scene between an aircraft having a shoot out with SUVs in the busy streets Of Washing DC. Then the plot is entirely laughable. The idea that this shares the same plot as the 2012 film is laughable. But get’s worse. Spoiler ahead.

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Spoiler Alert
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Through out the book we’re under the belief that the Nazis were trying to kill them because they found these shrines and prophecy was true. We spend four hundred pages on these shrines and then on page four hundred one, it turns out that the Atlanteans were wrong and it really means nothing. What the hell? The story then jumps to the Nazis making a massive machine to destroy the world. So we just spent four hundred pages on the topic and to throw it out the window.
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Spoiler Alert
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Then after everything, the author actually inserts himself into this as a cameo. Is he actually proud of this pile of BS? I mean after four hundred pages I wanted to reach into the book and strangle the man.

And get this, Atlantis is found. But there only is one line. Seriously Dirk walks into the city and then describes the walls of the buildings. Then the author must have gone “Who cares about Atlantis? Let’s blow some stuff up.” I’m serious, Atlantis is basically non existent in this book.

The good? Yeah, there was actually one line. It stated “The End.” Seriously because of Mr. Perfect, I can even say that the action wasn’t good. Unless you’re a guy who likes books that resemble movies such as 2012, The Expendables and Transporter, it isn’t any good.

So overall, unless you just like things that go boom, such as explosion and gun shots and never care for any sort of story, this is for you. For the rest of us, we can do with out.

½ smoothies out of four.

P.S. Check out my book and ebook website at Lelue’s Realm. Google it or go directly to http://www.lelue.webs.com/