The Lan Mine

Imogen Heap: Ellipse is fantastic

individualist — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 23:07:04 +0000

Imogen Heap’s last album Speak for Yourself immediately lodged itself into my list of top favorites, and her new release Ellipse is headed right up there with it.

She continues to builds songs in clean layers of instruments and vocals with crisp, clear production.

Like Speak for Yourself, every track is different from another and hard to pigeonhole into a particular genre. There’s Earth- a great semi-acapella piece driven by pizzicato vocals and counterpoint and Little Bird- electronic arrpegios under building layers of vocal harmonies.

Swoon- Roll up pop goodness, with a touch of Siouxsie and a theremin thrown in for good measure.

Aha! is like what you’d get if Danny Elfman had written a track for Sarah McLachlan’s first album and “Bad Body Double” may have the catchiest chorus ever.

If you liked “Speak for yourself” you’ll like “Ellipse”… Then again, if you liked “Speak for Yourself” you’ve probably been waiting for this release anxiously. It doesn’t dissapoint.

Hmm.

individualist — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 15:03:36 +0000

According to this Readability Test:this website is just under a 6th grade level. I wonder if I should work on my writing a bit?

The Vampire Earth Series – E.E. Knight

individualist — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 14:29:29 +0000

I’ve just started The Vampire Earth series and, so far, it’s been good to me. The setting is a post-apocolyptic America that is ruled by the Kurians. The Kurians live off of a beings “living aura”, which they consume by proxy via Reapers: beings reminiscent of the traditional vampire legends of earth. You know; only come out at night, hard to kill, drink blood etc…. Given mankind’s new role as cattle: Most of the remaining population of earth is just trying to survive, some collaborate with the enemy, and some fight.

But that’s just the setting, The books themselves chronicle the adventures of one David Valentine; who jumps at the chance to join the resistance and fight against the Kurians. The focus is really on him and his battles and travels through an America that’s returned almost to a Frontier level of technology.

Part science-fiction, part war story, these novels continue to be an interesting read.

Johnny Maxwell Trilogy

individualist — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 17:46:37 +0000

Another recent read – The Johnny Maxwell Trilogy – Three small books by Terry Pratchett, of Discworld fame. These are children’s books, but entertaining nontheless.

Only You Can Save Mankind – Johnny gets a copy of the latest video game, but the aliens he’s supposed to be blasting surrender and ask for his help to save them from all the players who zap them every day.

Johnny and the Dead – Johnny discovers he can see dead people in a local Cemetery just before the cemetery is to be made the site of a new building project.

Johnny and the Bomb – My favorite – Johnny and his friends travel back in time to the blitz, where he is the only one that knows about the single WWII bombing of his hometown that is about to occur.

These are fun books. The first is the weakest but still a good read. Don’t let the fact that they’re children’s books throw you off. Pratchett doesn’t treat children readers as idiots. In fact, his “young adult” Discworld books are among some of the best in the series.

In short, recommended.

The Ender Saga

individualist — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 17:29:35 +0000

I recently finished Orson Scott Card’s “The Ender Saga”. I’d read Ender’s Game, and Speaker for the Dead, previously. C was listening to these from Audible around the house, and we started Xenocide to pass the time on a trip. When we got back I read the rest of it and the final book, Children of the Mind.

All in all, a good series. This isn’t a review, though, this is a public service announcment. Even if you never pick up any other book in the series, read “Ender’s Game”.

Treason

individualist — Fri, 01 May 2009 16:34:04 +0000

I’m thinking of Treason. And by that I mean Orson Scott Card’s “Treason”. It’s a page by page rewrite of an earlier work of his, “A Planet Called Treason”, and it’s awesome. I love the setting, the things that happen, and the general unexpectedness of every reveal.

The basic outline is that young Lanik Mueller, next in line for the throne in his region of the iron-poor planet Treason, is banished due to a genetic defect. The normal super-regenerative ability of his people to runs amok, causing him to grow extra tissue, or even limbs.

On Treason, the only way to acquire iron is to trade things with the Ambassadors; machines that transport away whatever is placed within, returning the priceless metal if the offering is deemed valuable enough.

Given a final request from his father to use his defects and banishment to find out how a neighboring region is recently getting so much iron, Lanik’s adventure begins.

Tabula Rasa

individualist — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 09:42:29 +0000

Deleted all my imported LiveJournal posts and comments. Starting fresh!