Things to increase your geek points

Here is what I've been up to in the last month in terms of entertainment. I'm not sure where I stand with geek/nerd/dork points, but I'm pretty sure I am "up there."

This book, edited by Stephen Jones, is about a zombie apocalypse that erupts in England during a fictional "New Festival of Britain." The plague, as usual, spreads beyond the great island and readers are taken from Britain to the US, Mexico and more. The plot unwinds through a collection of emails, diary entries, Tweets, blogs, documents and video transcripts. As with most zombie tales, there is a lot of underlying political commentary. For instance, the Festival of New Britain is seen by several characters as a way to distract the citizens from all the major social and economic issues at hand. Granted, this book was published before the Royal Wedding was announced but I do see some parallels.

Each major section was written by a different author so you get different writing styles. It makes the book more believable at times but also can mess up your reading rhythm. I agree with other readers that this is no World War Z but it is a fun read. I didn't think it was boring but just a different take on the same zombie story. Plus it was interesting to see how current social media outlets were woven in the book to propel the story along.

Also, I watched Intruder, aka The Night Crew on Netflix. This 1989 movie was directed by Scott Spiegel, who also co-wrote Evil Dead 2. The premise is a creepy guy is stalking a grocery clerk who is working overnight at the supermarket with the crew while they do inventory. There is big hair, high-waisted pants, bad music and people suffer gory, nasty deaths. Although Bruce Campbell is given top billing for the movie, he's only in the last few minutes. (False advertising!) What's kind of interesting and fun about this movie (other then how cheesy it is) is that Sam Raimi works in front of the camera as an actor. Ted Raimi is in it too and his character is dorky and lovable as always. If you are a B movie junkie, I recommend watching it at least once.



Finally, we just beat Dead Space 2 in easy mode. The protagonist, Issac Clarke, has a personality in this game, whereas the first game he did not have a voice; he was static. There are a lot more scenes of what Isaac sees in his visions, conversations he has with other characters, etc. I liked that there was more plot development. You get plopped into a huge space station and instead of the inhabitants being dead when the game starts, you get to witness the horror of the necromorphs taking over. The visuals are great, the pacing is better and the settings change enough to keep it interesting. I felt like the chapters went too quickly, but again, we played in easy mode.

I'm looking for more zombie books to check out from the library. I haven't read all Max Brooks' works yet and I'd like to check out Joe McKinney too. Suggestions are welcome!

So until next time...Tschus!