Neal Asher Books

"The Engineer Reconditioned"
Recently, I have been on a scifi book binge. I kept seeing one called "The Engineer Reconditioned" and decided to purchase it at the local Borders based solely on the fact that I really love the sound of the book's title. Well, it sat on a self for months and I finally got to it in early December and immediately regretted not reading it earlier.
It is a series of shorts related to some of his other books. "The Engineer" (the title story) I believe to be the best of the bunch. It has many similarities to the "Alien" movie, but it is openly referenced as one of the characters mentions the movie, though not by name. The technologies of the creature and the responses of those that hear about it are completely realistic. A very interesting read.

"Gridlinked"
Mr. Asher's first novel. A wonderful begining point for his books, in part because it is his first novel, but also because it has so much in it. A plethora of interesting characters and circumstances. There is a revenge plot, an alien super being called dragon, a bunch of augmented soldiers and mercenaries, and a Golem with a unique affinity for small trinkets.
The main character Ian Cormac is a man who works for an earth central security, and has become partly detached from humanity as a result of being "Gridlinked" too long. It is a sort of mental internet connected to massive artificial intelligences, that one can access for information on most anything. He gets hired to investigate the destruction of a "Runcible"(interstellar teleportation) on a colony world, and goes off the grid to do so.
It could be a cautionary tale of being too reliant on our technology. Then again, it might just be an awesome story. A jumble of characters woven together in a way that keeps you wanting more.

"The Skinner"
The Skinner is about a planet that has an entire ecosystem that has become nearly immortal. Many characters in the story are centuries old, some through a viral fiber that infects most living things on the planet "Spatterjay", another through post-death machinations to keep his body going.
This novel offers another great mix of characters. There is a man working for a Hornet's hive mind, an undead cyborg officer, a pair of Artificial Intelligence's working for a larger AI, a whole mess of fairly indestructible "Hoopers", an alien culture that uses mentally cored out people as slaves, and the title character himself whose name is derived from his favorite past-time.
Once again, a bunch of intersecting stories woven together seamlessly coming to a very satisfying conclusion.

I don't want to ruin any of these books, but would highly recommend all three.
His main website(http://www.nealasher.com/) has been under construction for quite some time, but I found his blog today(http://theskinner.blogspot.com/) and celebrated.
This is an author I would definitely recommend for science fiction lovers.

Heroes: Cold Snap

Finally.
Heroes is beginning to turn around. I won't jump to any conclusions of permanence, but the show made a massive leap in the "right" direction.

Opening with the Puppet master tied up for Danko as a gift wrapped special from Sylar. How did Sylar catch him when he was not anywhere nearby. Did he pick up some abilities off-screen? Seriously, HOW IS HE GETTING PLACES SO DAMN FAST? (Like travelling from Pinehearst to Primatech at the end of Villains. Is he using telekinesis to fly?(when he killed Dale))
How is he finding them so fast?
I believe Danko will eventually try to kill Sylar and Sylar will make him suffer quite dearly for it. I mean Danko has already expressed a hatred for ALL specials, while they still haven't indicated why he has this disgust. Although there was a mention by Angela of Danko somehow surviving a disastrous occurance long ago. Maybe he has hidden an ability, or was wronged/related to someone with a power?
I also still think Luke or Samson may show up again. Luke possibly following Sylar, and Samson possibly to get back into the Hunter mode. For the thrill, the competition.

And where is West, Molly, and the Haitian? I really wonder where she is, as her surrogate fathers(Mohinder and Matt) are out having crazy adventures. Or the Invisible man, he has got to be keeping tabs on some of these people.

Angela is now forced into running. Not many places she can go when she relied so long on manipulating everyone. Noah warns her not to go home, and she has a small dream like a minute in advance of being ambushed, and she sneaks off. Awfully convenient to have narcoleptic tendencies when your power relies on a somnambulistic state. Peter saves her and they end up in the Statue of Liberty. Symbolic? Perhaps.

Tracy escapes and leads a team to "Rebel" who is, big surprise, Micah. His voice has changed and now links to everything with a wireless phone/PDA. Sweet deal. He is definitely becoming more interesting.
Does anybody else think Tracy is not dead? I believe she has become more of a force, or part of nature. Her eye blinked and a tear was rolling down what was left of her face.

Baby Parkman, the "toddler-touch-and-go", seems to have a fairly unique power. He can apparently turn things on or off. Very interesting, as he gave Hiro a portion of his old ability back. He can stop time, but no longer has the power to warp space. I wonder how this may alter other powers? (If Ando cranked up Pintsize Parkman, could he theoretically turn off powers everywhere without touching?
It is also worth a thought that Peter's current situation is also related to actually having to physically touch another person, so could Parkman Jr. return the old power?
The Haitian uses touch to subdue consciousness(knock out) and erase memory.
Ando has finally started to use his power for something more than an assist. YAY for red electricity.

Parkman is getting infinitely more powerful with his telepathy. Making a group of people appear invisible to a group of other people is a good show of growth on his part. Then he makes an entire world in Daphne's mind in an attempt to give her a fantasy ending. A good send off for her. I also believe that Parkman is slowly becoming like his father. Not completely a nightmare man, but all the crap and loss he is suffering could be pushing him into taking action. I also think he is one of the few people that could take on Sylar. On the Mental plane, he is becoming ultra powerful. Sylar may be physically able, but his mind can still be screwed with. Think of the Haitian's power, is it mental? If so Parkman may be able to access that mind, and shut Sylar down. Parkman could eliminate memories, or create false ones. Sylar needs to examine the brain, then gets the ability, and Parkman can do anything with the brain. This may be an overlooked point to think about. Many avenues of possability.

I look forward to good things for the show again.
Hopefully the Heroes team can keep it up.

Heroes: Shades of Gray: Notes and Thoughts

Keeping it simple this week.
I skipped last weeks episode notes/thoughts for 2 reasons: No internet, and Not a very interesting episode. Oh, big surprise Danko sets up Parkman. Lame. I believe it was another time waster to get to the good stuff.

In this episode Claire helps Doyle (puppet master) who seems somewhat sincere in efforts to reform. Although didn't Sylar break his neck at Primatech and leave the body to burn?
Well although he does the grin-look-back to Claire when she asks him if he "meant what he said", he does let the undercover agent live. So maybe he does want to live. Even if it means just being free. As opposed to being locking away.

Claire also tries to get a job in a comic shop. One that is certainly filled with very many creepy, teen guys. Gross.

Nathan knows Parkman didn't bomberman himself up and helps Parkman disarm the bomb. Then gets Danko booted. Danko retaliates and exposes Nathan's power. He also tries to get info out of Angela. She makes him look like an idiot, mostly because she's been messing with people's heads since probably birth. She can also dream what's coming so Danko is in an awkward position. She notes that Danko survived an "incident" while many others died. So perhaps he too has a hidden ability, but is ashamed and hateful of it.

Tracy gets a message from Rebel. Help is coming. Rebel is more than likely Micah. Helloooooooo... nearly infinite technology control.
Claire also gets another message, then Nathan saves her.

Sylar's encounter with Old man Gray. I think all his kids are evil, he did sire Lex Luthor, and now we find he also created Sylar. Wow, if ever there was a case for sterilization, this guy is it. He demonstrates the same aptitude for figuring things out, and the ability to steal powers. His two displayed powers are a whistling hypnosis, or some kind of sedation type thing, and telekinesis.
Samson then has Sylar help him kill and stuff a rabbit. Telling him about being a hunter, needing to find weaker prey. While conversing Samson tells Sylar he will either die by cancer or by his son's hand. Well, big toughie to guess that Sylar shows Samson the healing and Samson then covets the power.
He pins Sylar to a wall with arrows and uses the whistle power. Then slides a tray of knives over to him. (Why would he kneed knives, he's got the telekinesis) Sylar stops him and tells him that as a hunter, Samson should have realized he was playing possum. (Perhaps Sylar killed the Haitian-that would possibly explain the puppetmaster losing control, and the stopping of Samson) Sylar leaves him to die slowly rather than let the "friendly competition" go on, by letting his father retrieve the healing factor. He then takes the stuffed rabbit.
Another built up battle that ended up as a pitiful meeting. Think of all the powers Samson could have built up over the years. The hunter and prey idea drug out over time. Samson could track Sylar over many episodes, proving his statements of being a hunter. Taking more abilities just before Sylar could get them, thus frustrating him even more. Stalking his prey and getting places always a step ahead. Show patience as a true villain would, not just jumping into things but acting when the time is right. When all plans come to a carefully orchestrated conclusion, Samson could make his move in a final confrontation, an unbelievable battle, showcasing tons of new powers(ones unseen, ones hinted at). This could have been an epic encounter, but like the Peter vs Sylar it ended up as an immense letdown.
All foreplay with no "O".
I feel used.
This also leads me to believe Sylar's character has gotten too powerful, and the only other person to stand a chance, Peter, has been neutered. So unless Ando intervenes by amping up Peter, or if my supposition that he can repress as well as augment, blot out Sylar's power.
Or the Haitian, if he is still around, shows up again to stifle Sylar, or Baby Parkman has an amazing new power to magically make Sylar nonexistant, or, or, or...
It is going to take a hell of a group effort to beat Sylar. So Peter may wind up in the afterlife of people with empty mansacks.

Sylar then shows up at Danko's apartment. Stuffed rabbit and all.
I believe he may try and use Danko to start collecting more powers. Danko has exhibited the knowledge and shrewdness to go covert and take matters into his own hands to achieve his own hidden agendas in the "war" that he thinks is coming. There is a good chance Sylar may use this to a very ingenious end. Especially good ideas come to mind when taking into account the new hunter type mindset.

Lastly, Hiro and Ando are back finally. They get ahold of Matt Parkman. A baby Matt Parkman, the Parkman that may or may not be his son because of his wife's infidelity. The babysitter claims that she can't handle the child, and is in quite a hurry to get away. So the child must have some kind of crazy ability. Or on a very long shot, what if another time warping ability shows up and instead of space time travel they can age or regress things. Like making someone or something super old in just a few minutes, or regressing Parkman to a little baby. Very doubtful, but an interesting thought nonetheless.

Attention readers!

I have been internet-less for quite a while. Sorry for this problem, and I hope to be able to post more. Being at work right now, they block most sites, but I found I can blog here. (ooh-boy...)
I am looking into getting a new laptop, and hope that I may soon regain access to my Facebook account! I feel so out of touch without the internet. It's like losing minor sensory receptors. Like a blind spot.

Heroes: Cold Wars

First thing I would like to get across: This episode was obviously a filler episode. Just meant to give little amounts of characters/story while buying time for the better parts of the series to be finished.(writing or special effects, etc.) The flashbacks in black and white were a nice touch though.

Matt, Peter, and Mohinder are interrogating Noah Bennett. Mohinder is arguing the unethical treatment and Matt doesn't give a damn. He wants answers, and believes it's the only way to get the answers they want.

The flashbacks give information regarding the last month of Noah's time. He speaks with Angela Petrelli, Nathan gets him a job(that also helps protect Claire), and we learn Danko has an unspoken hatred for specials. Maybe he is one, and just has that weird self loathing extending to all others. Another possibility is that he was somehow hurt by one in the past.


There are also plenty of signs that Noah is doing things to protect and hide people with abilities that are of a useful variety, and take down or contain those of a destructive nature. Part of this is becoming buddy-buddy with Danko Douche bag.


In the now- Peter gets into Noah's stash of goodies, Matt and Mohinder get into a fight, Danko gets a bullet in the arm, Mohinder gets caught and blackmailed into helping Nathan, Matt gets information of Daphne being alive, and Noah gets a buddy(sort of, in Danko-a ruse to gain trust).

Well Nathan keeps Peter from killing Danko(showing he is trying to remain somewhat of a humanitarian), because that's what Danko wants to push along his cause(kill all the specials in his "war" that is coming). Then Peter rescues Matt from Noah.

Then Noah is talking to Angela, who tells him he will have to push the envelope to gain a little more trust with Danko. He leaves the watch gift she gave him on the bench for her. By the looks of it her precognitive dreams are not being shared with many.

Then Matt is painting tons of pictures of what looks to be himself blowing up DC with sticks of glowing stuff. What if this explosion gives people powers- the sticks are glowing green stuff, maybe not to kill.
Which reminds me of the quote a couple episodes ago-"Hiro doesn't die, because I kill him." But Ando may have alternative uses for his ability. What if he can reverse his current power- instead of amplifying, what if he can subdue them. Much like the Haitian, who is still MIA.


Hopefully next week will be more interesting.
While this episode gave insight into how far some characters are willing to go to achieve their goals(Matt and Noah), it could have been done much, much better.
I want to see Poppa Gray.

Heroes: Building 26

This will be super quick.

Claire is still being an idiot. Obviously her teen trust issues need to be fixed, as HRG is trying to help.
The new person she helps escape is named Alex and can breathe under water. If I'm not mistaken they aren't too far from some kind of body of water, in which he could hide indefinitely.

Hiro and Ando crash and stop a wedding. Hiro learns what Peter already did, you can be a hero and be powerless at the same time. Then they get a message to save Parkman from Claire's text buddy "Rebel". Time in these snippets must be off because Parkman is rufi-ing HRG after this message, so... could the messages be from another person that has knowledge of future events? During the first season, for a time, I thought that maybe Linderman was a Future Peter, coming back to organize things into working away from the bomb. It would have been very interesting.

HRG has family troubles, gets the boot, and ends up in a bar. I thought it would be funny if he ended up like Parkman from season 1, and well, that's pretty much what happens. Although Parkman could have worked his brain from elsewhere, they drug him and take him away.

Nate and the Hunter get into a fight, the Hunter(Danko) saves the program from a disbelieving Abby Collins at the expense of another person's life.

Sylar and Luke are found in a restaurant by Danko's team. Why did Luke need to distract the gunman? Sylar could have telekinetically held his finger from the trigger. And the rest of them as well.(remember the doors and blinds all being slammed at Claire's house?) Well, Sylar busts out, leaves Luke to be captured, then comes back to get info, and releases Luke from custody.

I do have a possible thought about Sylar's daddy- Martin Gray is a clockmaker, and Samson Gray is a taxidermist right? Well they are both jobs based on a highly complex systems, both need a high level of intricacy, fine details and such. One mechanical, one biological, they are very similar jobs(anyone think that maybe there could be a reference to the "Great Watchmaker"? Especially because of the early episodes all having Biblical references, including names and Sylar's apartment walls covered in repentant writings) Could Sylar's pops have made him with this specialty knowledge? Like a designer child? Perhaps all the Gray males have an inherent ability of decoding how systems work.

I'll just have to wait and see.

Heroes: Trust and Blood

New storytelling method in this episode. Nathan is telling it through flashbacks of a sort.
So...
After the crash, everyone is running, apparently only in a small area.
Hiro and Mohinder follow a white-eyed Parkman to a trailer, where he breaks in to get drawing materials. I think maybe he is reaching mind powers of others, like instead of only painting like Usutu or Isaac, maybe he'll reach a point of clairvoyance without needing to paint. Kind of like a mental room where all these precognitives (including Angela Petrelli- through dreaming) can access in different manners, Matt may be able to eventually control how he gets into the "zone". Like a state of control and awareness on an entire mental plane.

Hiro doesn't want to give his powerless self up, as a hero's journey has some low points. He feels it's his duty to help save the world.

Anyway, they head back to the crash site to try and save Daphne from the Parkman sketched fate.

Ando and Daphne arrive, Daphne retrieves Claire from a tent, then gets shot while near Parkman. (can she heal at an accelerated rate? none of the shots hit any vital areas) Parkman then makes one of the soldier's shoot the others, and the "Hunter" shoots that soldier. Why doesn't Parkman get inside the Hunter's head and scramble it. Think about this, Parkman could get access and make him believe they disappeared, or make him relive horrible memories, or perhaps even mentally torture him. Then with Ando amplifying, Matt could easily wipe the minds of everyone in the area, possibly the world. Like a mass hypnosis to make everyone think that the group (Matt, Claire, Mohinder, Hiro, etc) are all dead. Which wouyld effectively make them invisible to the world.

Then Ando could also theoretically crank up Peter's power to the point of absorbing ALL the abilities in the world. Could Peter possibly be able to sift through them, like snag Sylar's from afar, then start to pick up all the rest in a systematic fashion. Specifically getting Molly's power and finding out where the hell the Haitian disappeared to. (could he be the one that text messages Claire to "Rebel"? Or what happened to the invisible man??? Or West?)
It makes me wonder if Peter amped up could actually take the powers away like his father.

Noah gets to Peter and Claire, brings Claire in and lets Peter go. He also let's him go later as a sort of favor to Nathan later. It also gets me that Peter can only hold a single power at a time. So Sylar is now the most powerful, because he can retain seemingly limitless amounts of ability through both understanding and empathetic means.

Nathan is up to general no good. Collecting various people that are fairly harmless, Claire berates him for kidnapping Hiro "of all people". Then ends up lying and capturing Tracy again. Although Peter gets away, again. He ends up asking his mother for assistance, but she won't because of his choice of help (the Hunter, his file shows murder).

Peter meets up with Ando, Hiro, Matt and Mohinder. They plan to fight under all circumstances.

Sylar time. He tortures the soldier, and takes a couple hostages to persuade the man to talk. He ends up finding that Luke has an ability, and a kinship of a crappy mother. Wow, that links them to most of the males in the world.
Sylar sees the power and let's him live, I suppose it is just another unnecessary power, not useful. Well, they end up on the road to finding some Sylar-daddy information together. A new era for Sylar, the buddy-comedy misadventures of super powered murderers? Maybe. Maybe not.

Heroes: A Clear and Present Danger: notes and thoughts

Back to fairly frequent posting, if only for Heroes.

This episode starts out with Tracy on the phone listening to the television. Nice overlap with the TV talking and her conversation. She is caught by a hunter of some sort. This hunter has information and preventative measures to take down special people.
He seems quite well at organizing take downs, with a couple exceptions(Sylar and Mohinder). There also may be some kind of super power with him-after being hit with a car door he is pretty unfazed.

Hiro sets up a homebase for Ando, complete with costume. It is good to see that Hiro, like Peter, is still trying to good, even without powers. Ando doesn't really care because his power is useless without other powered individuals around. Anyways Hiro is abducted, and Ando uses the Hiro computer set to track him.

Nathan and Angela are still up to there douschebaggery. Not much else there. Wasn't Nathan going to be a religious zealot just a short time ago?

Claire is still a dumbass, but attempting to live in accordance with her morals. Warning Peter and Matt, although not quite in time to help Matt. (who should have been able to read her mind when the knock came)

Matt wants to lead a normal life, while Daphne wished to use her speed to free up time to do stuff. I believe Matt may be heading in a direction like Peter/Sylar. As Sylar inspects the brains to get more abilities, and Parkman can do anything the mind/brain can, does that mean he can absorb mental powers-> and thus Usutu's power, and maybe the shade of Usutu as well?
I'll have to ponder this, I suspected it earlier, but I was thinking it would be a channeling of powers based on the mind-(no strength or speed types), although in time he has the potential to touch the minds of everyone, to control or influence them. He could become the next nightmare man if not careful. With a few exceptions(Peter, Haitian, Sylar), he could be a hell of a force to deal with.

Mohinder runs into Peter and both now have jobs again. Yay, they are more like normal people! Well after a short conversation, Peter leaves, and the hunter guy gets in his cab. They end up in a parking garage, Mohinder puts up a struggle and runs. Noah Bennett picks him up, gets some information and tasers him.
HRG(Noah) is back to bad things. Why would he be helping the hunter and Nathan when he knows that some of the super people are harmless or helpful?

Nathan talks to Peter to see if he'll be on his side, Peter refuses. Stating his will to fight against this injustice, Nathan wants a hug, and then Peter gets tased by Noah. Peter was double dousched. Man, that's gotta suck bigtime.

Sylar time. Sylar visits the father that abandoned him and his mother. He uses the truth power to get answers, and finds that he was actually the son of Samson Gray. Another biblical name. Well, Samson is a taxidermist, nice, and it may be true that this is his father, but the premise is also a trap. Nice that they taser the shit out of him and try to rope him up with snares.
It doesn't work, he takes them all down with general ease. A decent use of multiple abilities.
He then starts torturing one of the soldiers to get answers.

Well time for the end, the prisoners are led onto a plane being co-piloted by Noah. Claire is sent away by Nathan, she escapes and boards the plane.
She then starts unmasking and de-drug-tubing the captives. She gets Peter loose. Which brings me to a question, he could fly directly after injecting himself at Pinehearst, but now has to touch people to absorb powers. What the hell?
Well he gets Mohinder's strength and Tracy's freezing. Do they still have the powers also, or did Peter upgrade to Arthur's method of power sapping? Completely taking them.
Back to the escape-> Peter accidentally freezes the side of the plane, and causes the plane to begin to crash.
It ends with Peter possibly being sucked out the hull hole (hehehe, hull hole, I am such a dork), but why would he care, he can FLY.
So the guards and one masked prisoner have been sucked out. I wonder if there are any newbies? Or if the captive sucked out was one of the main cast? Doubt it.

I can't be sure, but did the screen Ando checked for Hiro's location read "Africa"?

First day of Obama as President...

... Or as I like to think of it:
George W. Bush's first day as an unemployed American!

Ah-hah, he made his American bed, now he has to sleep in it. W having to slum it after 8 years of pretending to run the country. Well, all right, maybe he isn't going to be hurting for money, but I can dream.
Oh yes, I can dream.

It's good to see Obama has begun to limit lobbyist powers, working on better ethics and openness, and is has sought McCain's advice. It is a good sign to have the President actually working with the other party's candidate while also attempting to get the entire nation off to an amazing start.

Heroes Toys

I was informed via email today that the Future Hiro Nakamura action figure I ordered was shipped.
It was shipped at 11:41:01 today, so why isn't it here yet?
I was hoping for it to have arrived 3 days ago, but apparently I expected too much. I guess we have to wait for time travel to expand it's abilities into postal services... and action figures.
Disappointment? Only a little.