I finished both books a couple days ago. At this point, the rifters are living in Atlantis, a secret location at the bottom of the ocean, with some corpses to ride out the chaos and death spreading due to Lenie unleashing βehemoth into the wild. However, it's clear that βehemoth isn't all what it seems, nor is it the end of genetic manipulation in an attempt to either completely destroy or save the world.

The Rifters books are fun to read, but now that I'm done with the them ... I'm not really sure what to make of it. The ending is extremely open-ended, which is fine, but it makes me wonder if this world will ever be revisited b the author. The characters are not 1-dimensional so it's not always easy to determine who you should really be rooting for, if anyone. That's not a bad thing per-se - I actually like it. But that also forced me to keep attention, and while that's not a bad thing either, sometimes the plot lines got a bit confusing and it was hard to figure out who was really who (you'll know what I mean once you start getting into "Seppuku").

Overall the series was well-worth the time to read. It's hard sci-fi to read, both in material and in character development (along with some of the storylines - some things get really brutal).

My next set of books? A trilogy of books I haven't read in 20+ years: "The Lord of the Rings".

Yes, I'm going to Mix this year (thanks Magenic!). For the past 4 months, I've been on a WPF-based app, so I've learned more about XAML, but I haven't spent a lot of time in Silverlight. I really want to change that. I feel that Silverlight as a platform has a lot of potential (especially in the near future), and I need to get my head around that. The fact that the conference is in Las Vegas is just a nice bonus (really :) ).

If you're going to Mix, I hope to see you there!

My employer, Magenic, is putting on an event called Code Mastery. The first (of what might be many) will be in Boston on Feb. 11th. I'm giving two talks, "Writing Better Code" and "What Will Pex Do?". This event is free, but you need to register soon to get in. If you're in the area and you're a .NET developer, I hope to see you there!

I finished this book last night. Basically, Lenie Clarke is on a rampage, out to get ... well, pretty much everyone. Secrets and plans are convoluted and hidden throughout the book, but basically it comes down to one thing: stop βehemoth at all costs.

I didn't like this book as much as "Starfish", but it's still a great read. The secret motivations I felt got a little out of hand, but I've noticed Watts tends to explain stuff that he throws out there later on, so hopefully more will be revealed in the final two books. The hard sci-fi aspect I really like, although some of the technology I felt was a little far-fetched. I like that Watts adds some real-world details behind the concepts and terms he uses, and where he sometimes "places a bet" on something that doesn't quite pan out the way he wanted to (e.g. Ganzfield interrogation, which is based on the quantum mind model). Overall, I had a hard time putting this book down, and while I felt "Starfish" is stronger, I already have "βehemoth: β-Max" on my nightstand.

I finished this book last night. Basically, there's a team of 5 humans who work on a station at the bottom of the ocean. They've been enhanced to withstand the extreme pressures there while they work near a fissure to harness its energy for a power-hungry world. However, these people are damaged; one was abused as a child, another is a pedophile, another is a war vet, etc. While they slowly learn to deal with the environment they live in, it becomes clear that those "above" have found out that there's something genetic at the sea floor that could literally wipe out humanity.

I found it really hard to put this book down. The writing is done well, but it's not the best prose I've ever read. Yet ... there was something to the story that kept dragging me back to the book to keep reading it. Watts does a good job handling tough human situations and mixing in a lot of science at the same time. As soon as I finished this, I moved on to "Malestrom" right away (I have all 4 books) and I plan on blazing through the series as I'm intrigued to see where things go.

I finished this book a couple of days ago. It's basically a review of all the methods we could use to send a probe to our nearest star, Alpha Centauri. Ramjets, solar sails, anti-matter, fusion - Gilster covers it all. He discusses the advantages and disadvantages of each approach .. and basically right now the disadvantages outweigh everything. We could do it, but the cost would be abhorrently high, it would take hundreds (if not thousands) of years for the probe to reach its destination, and so on.

Overall I liked this book ... then again I love astronomy so I'm a bit biased. This book makes you respect and appreciate the tremendous distances we need to cover just to reach our closest star outside our solar system. Barring some phenominal breakthrough in warp drive technology, we're going to have to think long, long-term missions to pull it off. Humans are out of the picture right now as well, so we'd need to have autonomous systems in place to survive the journey. There are some slow spots in the book and the writing wavers a bit here and there, but it's a nice book that keeps its feet in reality. It doesn't want you to stop dreaming of exploring space, though, and maybe ... someday ... we'll get there.

I finally got to see this movie last weekend. I've been waiting for this flick for years. I admit it - I'm a Cameron fanboy. I've pretty much loved everything he's made ("Terminator 2" really blew me away), so I already had high hopes for this one even before the massive hype machine kicked in. When the trailer came out, I was a little disappointed, but I reminded myself that this was meant for the big screen, not my laptop's screen. Still, it was hard to lower my expectations for this, so when I finally put on the 3D glasses (BTW this was the first time I've seen a 3D movie) I was a little worried that this was going to fall flat.

It didn't.

Not even close.

I was floored.

This movie sets a new standard. The storyline may not be phenominal. Some of the roles may be a little cliched. But this really raises the bar for every movie in the future. Why?

1) The 3D effect was used to enhance the movie, rather than "hey we're 3D so let's throw crap at the audience". Some of the scenes just blew me away from a "how in the hell did they do that?" perspective. It was seamless, completely believable. It will be hard to see a movie in "flat" 2D from now on. Even dramas can use 3D to add to the experience.

2) The performance capture stuff and the CG effects were utterly fantastic. There were only a couple of movements from some Na'vi that I didn't buy, but overall you just forget that a lot of the movie is just an effect. Pandora is completely believeable.

3) There's a lot of science behind the movie. I find it really odd when people accuse the movie of championing "goddess worship" or "Gaia belief systems" or stuff like that. There's a scene where Weaver makes it very clear that what the Na'vi worship is not something spiritual; it's a true, interconnected system throughout living entities on Pandora - basically a big computer brain (although that's selling the idea short). The point is, science isn't bent a lot, especially when you remember that it is a sci-fi movie, and usually movies like that bend and twist science all over the place.

I would not hesitate to see this again. There's so much to look at and experience with this movie. It won't get a nomination for Best Picture, but it will affect movie-making in the future. Of that I have no doubt.

I saw this movie last night, which is based on the book of the same title (which I read over 2 years ago). I really like the book, and I was a little hesitant to see how it would hold up on the big screen. Even with talented actors like Viggo Mortensen, I was still holding my breath a bit.

I was not let down.

This movie is one of the best I've ever seen. It follows the book's material very well. I don't remember all the details but I remembered reading the scenes I saw in the movie. They may have moved some stuff around, cut some stuff, etc, but overall the storyline is very close. It's bleak, it's depressing, it's horrific...and yet, the relationship between The Man and The Boy shines as the bright light. I was completely immersed in this film. Some truly memorable scenes were seeing The Man reading to The Boy, The Man finding a piano, The Boy "seeing" another kid (his need to find any kids to play with is very moving), The Man at the bridge, and The Man and The Boy at the beach near the end. The score was also very reflective of the movie's mood - I actually purchased the MP3s this morning, and some tracks bring scenes back very vividly in my mind.

I doubt this movie will do well financially because, well, it got released over the winter holiday season and it doesn't come across as an uplifting flick. But being a parent, I could identify with The Man's struggle to protect his son in the face of a horrific world where there aren't many "good guys" left. Not literally of course - we don't live in an apocalyptic world :). What I mean is, I could understand just how much I'd want to keep my children safe from not just the physical dangers, but the psychological ones as well. It really dug into me. Again, this movie has quickly moved on to my "favorites" list. It may not be easy to watch more than once, but it's more than worth the time and money you spend to see it once. It'll stick with you, and at the end of the day, that's a good thing.