I’ve been aware of the Southern Vampire Mysteries for a while now…  But I hadn’t read any of them until very recently.

I heard decent things about them from other people.  Saw vaguely interesting information on the web.  I was aware that HBO was doing a television series.  But I just wasn’t that interested.

I’d enjoyed Anne Rice’s vampire books…  And I usually enjoy vampires in general…  I generally enjoy supernatural stories, and thrillers, and mysteries…  But I had a suspicion that there was something wrong with the series if so many people liked it.  Especially since it seemed to be caught up in the same swirling miasma of supernatural romance that Twilight was.

But Dead Until Dark was on sale on B&N recently, and I picked it up.  And I’ve just recently finished reading it.  And I’m impressed.

I feel vaguely wrong saying that…  It feels like I’ve just admitted to liking Twilight…  Largely because there are some superficial similarities…

But it really was a decent book.  Decent enough that I’m eager to read another one in the series.

I was genuinely impressed with the handling of the vampires.  They aren’t some kind of sparkly, harmless things like we see in Twilight.  They’re genuinely powerful, frightening creatures.  And unlike most of Anne Rice’s vampires, these guys seem to be genuinely dangerous.

Anne Rice wrote her books from the vampire’s perspective.  They generally had enough self control not to go on killing sprees…  But even if they did, humans weren’t given a whole lot of attention in her books.  They were just blood-filled forms moving through the background.  Convenient snacks for the main characters.

Charlaine Harris writes her books from a human perspective.  Humans are weak, frail, mortal things.  Vampires are supernaturally strong, fast, and vicious.  There’s a genuine sense of danger when they’re around.  There’s a real question of just how much self control they have.

It’s very interesting to see a vampire that isn’t portrayed as something human, and yet is still a love interest.  It’s kind of like watching somebody fall in love with a rusty bear trap.

Last night, Princess of Mars was on SyFy.  PZ Myers sums up my reaction quite well:

I had to watch a few minutes to discover that it was a heretical abomination which must be burned and its television creators hunted down and punished. I saw enough to notice that:

• The green Martians were made up with some cheesy lumpy appliance over their heads; their tusks wobbled like rubber every time they talked.
• The green Martians had only two arms. Two! They were also runts, far short of 12 feet tall. I tuned out before I could see how amputated the banths or calots were.
• Dejah Thoris was not naked. Nor red. And she was played by Traci Lords, who looked exhausted beyond her years.

It was bad. Really, really bad.

I kind of figured the acting would be a bit cheezy, since it was obviously a low-budget film.  And the dialogue would be corny, since the book was a bit on the corny side too.  But I really hoped for a reasonably accurate translation of the book.

Instead we got tiny little green martians with only two arms…  And more gunfights than swordfights…  And two Earthlings on Mars, instead of just the one…  But it wasn’t really Mars…  And there were no calots…  Nor white apes…  But there were “spiderlings”…  And no planet-shaking love between John Carter and Dejah Thoris…

They took the first third of the book, butchered it up, and then stretched it out into a movie.  They left out at least half the content of the book.  Big, important, climactic elements were just plain gone.

I was really disappointed.  I thoroughly enjoyed the book and have been raving about it to my wife for a good couple of months.  I hoped the movie would interest her enough to go read the story…  Now I’ll be lucky if I can ever convince her to check it out.

Then, today, we went to see Splice.

It looked like a decent movie…  Some kind of sci-fi thing about splicing human genes with an animals, and things going horribly awry.  The trailers reminded me a bit of Species.  And it was directed by the same guy who did Cube and Nothing – both of which I thoroughly enjoyed.  So I figured it ought to be relatively decent.

It wasn’t.

Sure, the acting and special effects were good.  They definitely made good use of their budget.  But the movie itself just wasn’t terribly enjoyable.

The story itself reminds me more of Frankenstein than Species.  It wasn’t about aliens using our curiosity to invade…  Or even science gone wrong.  It was about humans crossing lines that shouldn’t be crossed and paying the penalty for it.

Having blurred the lines between good and evil when they blurred the lines between human and animal, morality goes right out the window.

We see Elsa start making some very questionable decisions.  She shifts from treating the experiment like a pet, to a child, and back to a pet again.  Her relationship with Clive starts to crumble.  Their jobs are suddenly in jeopardy.  Her sanity seems to be eroding.

Then we have Clive engaging in some kind of bestiality/incest thing with Dren…  And then Dren winds up raping Elsa…  And Elsa sells her child…

It seems as if the movie is some kind of roughly-crafted morality play.  Some kind of warning that if we play god there’ll be hell to pay.  And there’s really nothing wrong with a morality play, but it comes across as very heavy-handed and awkward.

So, instead of a swashbuckling sci-fi romance, I got a horrifying bad adaptation of one of my favorite books.  And instead of a scary sci-fi thriller, I got an overbearing lesson on morality.

What I need now is a stiff drink and a good zombie apocalypse to scrub my brain clean.

I can’t say too much about Heart Shaped Box, as my wife hasn’t finished reading it yet…

Suffice to say that it was easily one of the best books I’ve read in a while.  Certainly the best horror story in a good couple of years.

I’m definitely going to have to keep an eye on Joe Hill…

Unbound | Version 1.3 Available Now!

Included in NOOK Version 1.3 software (available now) is the breakthrough Read In Store (Beta) experience where you can browse complete eBooks (and soon periodicals) in your local Barnes & Noble store at no cost! NOOK automatically connects to the fast and free Wi-Fi® and you’re free to read any parts of any available eBook for up to an hour per day! You’ll find lots of great titles, from the current bestsellers to classics, as we have more content available from more than 200 publishers including all the major publishing houses.

We’ve also enhanced Wi-Fi® connectivity so you connect to even more hotspots and rolled out a basic Web browser (Beta).

Plus, we’ve added some fun and challenging games — our first android apps. Sudoku anyone? Or, how about chess — pit your knight, queen, or rook against NOOK!

We’ve also made additional reading and device performance enhancements including improved page turn speed, faster access to previously opened eBooks, enhanced color touch screen navigation and more.

Some nice changes, but I still want to see some way to better organize my books.  Some tags, or folders, or shelves, or something.

I can’t say I care too much about the games…  But enhanced WiFi connectivity will be nice, as will the web browser.

Can’t wait to load it up and see how it all works.

Earlier this week, the Unbound blog announced that we’d be seeing an update for the Nook…  But things have been awfully quiet since then.

No patch notes, no details, no dates…  Which has lead to an awful lot of speculation.

Personally, I’d like to see some way to better organize my ebooks.  Tags, or shelves, or folders, or something.  It’s annoying to wade through 150+ books in an alphabetical list every time I want to find something new to read.