Tragi-epic, and fluff...and, uh, soil

Galaxy in Flames, by Ben Counter. Yet another book in one of the bestest series ever written, The Horus Heresy. This is the last of the initial trilogy, apparently to be followed by several, more focused interim novels, and eventually concluded with another hugely epic trilogy. I enjoyed this one in particular, in that though it didn't go as far with character development, it really didn't need to - it's the conclusion for several characters, in fact; it rather, then, concentrated on using the 40k setting to its potential-of-science fiction craziest, and creating great action scenes. How? By limiting the perspective in any given battle to one character, the reader gets a helmet-cam view, which thus makes the writing wonderfully cinematic. Great stuff!

Accepted, with Justin Long, a cute redhead, a cute blonde, and John Travolta and John Cusack's sisters. Yeah. Didn't realize those last two. I wonder if one could write about this movie, engaging in terms of the theme of attempting to create a utopia of sorts. In literary terms, interestingly, that would place it under the meta-category of science fiction. Anyway, all that babble aside, it's a pretty funny movie, not going deeper than what most people who'd identify with the main character would daydream for themselves, and in that, it does perfectly well. And it has that interesting nod towards ideas about utopia and education.

addendum: ah ha! I just remembered where I'd heard the name Bartleby before - a really creepy story about a man named Bartleby who is depressed to the point of becoming almost supernatural, by Herman Melville. I bet the movie writers just wanted a funny name, though.

terra preta - intriguing