Post Workout Shake

After doing some heavy weightlifting and a 5 mile run at the gym, I decided to get a Super-Duper-Mega-Ultra-Protein shake.
I ordered a Rhaspberry/Mango Shake, it having the most protein, at 40grams.
What I got was something like a tangy red-orange cup of tidal-washed beach sand.

So, with my keen detective skills and highly developed taste buds, I will provide what may very well be, the recipe for the nourishing "drink" I had.

1 powdered mango
8 powdered rhaspberries
1 packet of protein shake mix
2 cups skim milk
as much sand that you can possibly put in the cup without it overflowing

Yum.

A small post about a new blender

I just used the amazing new blender I got for my Birthday last Monday (Thanks Nick!). I was making a mega-margarita and I have reason to believe the blender may, somehow, be WAAAYYY more powerful than it should be. Almost too effective, as it pretty much vaporized the ice cubes filling it.
Oh. My. Gawd!
It was only on level 3. Of the low setting! For like only 2 seconds!
In all seriousness, I am very tempted to see what it can do to some more substantial materials. Perhaps a block of concrete or some gravel?

Heroes: An Invisible Thread

Thank GAWD! Season finale. No more outrageously long posts for Heroes after this until September.

Danko stabs Sylar in the spot, but it doesn't work because he moved the killswitch somewhere else with internally working shapeshifting. Sylar then frames Danko by shapeshifting into him and killing some officers, then turning into Taub and "catching" him. Big suprise that Sylar screwed over Danko.

Noah splits up with Claire and Angela after seeing a fake construction crew. They are being looked for. Claire and Angela head to New York, Claire to find Nathan, Angela to find Parkman. Apparently, Angela had a dream where Parkman is the only person that can save Nathan.

Claire meets up with Sylar(posing as Nathan). Sylar couldn't wake Nathan up to suck out memories, so he makes due with cuff links and Claire's necklace. But it's Claire's fault for not seeing LEGS ON THE FLOOR OF THE BATHROOM! Come on the door was open, right in front of her. Although later she does notice that Nathan isn't a lefty when Sylar signs a paper.

Hiro and Ando sneak into Building 26 and replace the special prisoners with the officers/workers from the around the building. Right before the time freeze Noah and Danko kind of make up. Noah says that he would be in exactly in Danko's position if he didn't have Claire. Danko remarks that Noah IS in exactly the same position. Captured.

Anyway, Hiro gets some more nosebleeding. Mohinder tells him that his body is rejecting the power. If he keeps using the power he could die. Nice that this is happening now. Great. Hiro is being pushed into normalcy again. Thanks for not giving Hiro a boost Ando.

Noah and Danko get out and Noah realizes Hiro is messing with time. Right after having a moment, Danko goes to inject Noah with a super sedative. Hiro stops him by freezing time then gets a bloody eye. At least he helped Noah, which in turn eventually saves most of the others(He helps with Peter making a plan to take Sylar down).

Noah calls Claire to see if everything is hunky-dory, but Sylar is pretending to be Claire and lets Noah know that Sylar is in possession of his daughter. Sylar makes a big move and proposes marriage because neither of them will die. He is also using what looks to be the puppetmaster power, but is probably just telekinesis, to make her pour wine and drink. Way to get to a girl's heart, telekinetically force her to drink with you. Smooth.

Nathan and Peter arrive at the hotel in search of Sylar. Nathan reveals that he is "one of them/us" to the security men and asks for a 5 minute head start to take Sylar down, as no normals can do it.

The Petrellis arrive at the room as Claire flys out of the suite doors, and the brothers fly in. Claire watches throught the crack of the door. Yet another battle they fail to show. What a massive let-down. When are they going to start showing this stuff? Sylar and Nathan fly out the window, and Peter now cannot fly- he has Sylar's ability(ies). Noah meets up with Peter and Claire and they head out.

Nathan flys into a room, and Sylar looks to be telekinetically lowering himself in. He pushes Nathan over and cuts his throat. He makes the quip that "Claire is going to be SO mad." He turns into Nathan and leaves.
Angela picks Parkman up at a bus stop, and heads over to the hotel. Once up in the room, they find Nathan's dead body, and Angela flips because Matt was supposed to save Nathan.

Sylar as Nathan meets up with the secret service guys following the president. He takes one of the main guards(Samuels? he was the guy Nathan revealed himself to) that fell back and shapeshifts into him. He then gets into the Limo with the President and tries to get his DNA by shaking hands. Something goes wrong and his shifts all over- then falls back to himself. The President then shifts into Peter and he says, "Bet you didn't think I took that one?" He then injects Sylar with the super sedative. Well Played, I really liked how that played out.

Noah sends Claire and Peter off to find Nathan. Noah, Angela and Parkman take Sylar's body and Parkman telepathically forces Sylar to forget himself and become Nathan, as Nathan is the only one who can convince the President to eliminate the Building 26 project. Angela thinks the memory-touch power will fill in the gaps. What the hell people- Matt needs to do BIGGER THINGS!(see my last post) While making one person into another takes a whole lot of power, he can do so much more.
Noah, Claire , Angela, Nathan(Sylar), Peter, Hiro, Ando, Parkman and Mohinder are at a cremation of Sylar's body. The body is the original shapeshifter guy's that was stored in Building 26. Nathan says that the President has shut down B26, and now they can start up a new project.

Volume 5 opener:

A Building 26 guard returns to his home to an overflowing sink. The water gathers together into a naked Tracy. She kills him and says that's number 4. Yay for vengeance. Perhaps she may be contained in a large glass bottle? When is the 3rd of the triplets going to show up?

Nathan(Sylar) is in his office and Angela comes in. She hasn't heard from him in weeks, he replies, "I haven't been feeling like myself." He is bothered by the clock on the shelf being like a minute and a half ahead. Already the replacement Nathan plan is NOT working. For multiple reasons: First is Sylar's "hunger". It is a naturally occurring function working subconsciously. It isn't repressable unless he knows about it. So it isn't going stopping, the hunger is an active issue that Noah and Angela overlooked. The second problem is he is a HEALER! Adam and Peter broke through memory repression through healing. On a low grade level it may take a while, especially without Parkman giving him multiple reinforcement telepathy sessions, but it is starting to show already. Nathan/Sylar fixes the clock and goes on his business. Angela looks worried.

I don't get why they went this route, besides the writers trying to keep Sylar alive. Peter now has Sylar's powers so he could both replace Nathan and/or fall prey to the hunger and become the next Sylar. Which also makes me wonder if Peter knows about ALL of Sylar's powers. Considering it was an understanding ability, could he automatically know them all, or would some lay in a state of dormancy? Forgotten like Samson Gray forgot most of his. Well, Peter can always break away from the group with some trusty memory-touch power used in conjunction with the truth-hearing.

I want to see more Samson Gray. Why can't he excise his cancer himself. He should be able to work out how the system functions and shut it off/fix it. Maybe just put it into stasis, a temporary hold, so he can find some more useful powers.

I'm done with Heroes for a while. Look for some silly news posts soon. I have a bunch of great drafts ready for everyone's amusement.

Heroes: I am Sylar

I'll get rid of non Sylar stuff first.

Hiro is being an idiot about Ando having a power. Ando's primary power is a SUPPORTIVE action. A booster shot for superhuman abilities. His secondary usage for it is offensive electricity. There is no question that if Hiro was a comics nerd, he should know that sometimes Heroes fall(both physically and emotionally), and need the assistance of others, friends that are equals, to help them back to their original standing. Hiro NEEDS Ando, if not as a partner in crime fighting, at least as a friend. His recent stupidity is jeopardizing that.
At the end of the episode he gets a nosebleed from attempting to stop time. Is it too much strain? Parkman got one from trying to read through the Haitian's power, the Haitian got one from trying to suppress Arthur Petrelli, Angela got one from resisting telepathy, and I believe Peter got one when attempting to tear off a vault door with telekinesis(he should have just walked through it with intangibility).
Or it could it be he is scarring his brain? Like when people have too much brain tampering/memory erasure.
We see Ando continue to be a good friend even now. Consoling him and giving him tissue to help with the bleeding.

Parkman is going through too many flips. He loves Daphne and wants revenge. He is over that fairly quick, maybe he just used his power on himself and to himself he is over Daphne. Then he wants his wife back now that he knows he has a son. Now he wants to go stop Danko. Make up your DAMN MIND Parkman!

It looked like in the preview he meets up with Hiro, Ando, and Mohinder to assumably take on Danko at "Building 26". I hope Parkman gets cranked to the max by Ando and jacks all the prisoners minds into Danko's. That way every one of them can have a little revenge. Imagine it as Danko's mind is broken into a bunch of little shards, and in each shard a super powered prisoner can torture Danko all they want without any repercussions to themselves. So he would be essentially experiencing many modes of separate hell all at one time.

In addition Parkman could set up a "Nightmare Man" scenario with Danko in his own worst nightmare, on constant repeat. Possibly having to do with the time Angela Petrelli referenced to him in the diner episodes back, where Danko mysteriously survives a time when no one else does.

This could be the point where he makes a choice that ends up with him on the path to his "5 Years Gone" self.

Which also makes me wonder about Parkman as a father... it hasn't worked with his adoptive daughter Molly, who has not even been mentioned by himself or Mohinder at all. Yeah, that's great parenting.

Is Toddler-Touch-and-Go going to be a key in the coming war with Sylar? Perhaps Parkman can work something up to where he can get in close and shut Sylar down with baby Matt. Specially if TTandG gets supercharged by Ando. Maybe Parkman can use his mind to direct amped baby Matt's ability towards Sylar and flip the off switch from afar? Can a baby Matt do his thing without touching when boosted? Or can daddy Parkman do it THROUGH baby Matt's mind? I don't doubt that Sylar is balancing on an edge, and just a nudge from Parkman's telepathy could send him over to Crazytown.

Angela, Noah, Claire and Mohinder all look to be captured by soldiers. How could they know where everyone was. Was it the aforementioned MIA Molly? Has she decided that after losing her parents and being abandoned by her adoptive parents she now is out for herself? Perhaps a young new villain?

I also believe that Angela and Noah have bigger plans that are not being stated. It should be thought that Angela can dream the future, and humans have roughly 8 hours of sleep night, so she probably has many more dreams than she has been letting on.

Danko now has Nathan Petrelli in custody, saving him from Sylar's hand. He also showed a small bit of humanity by attempting to help Sylar with his identity crisis. He even has an "anchor" to his multiple lives that is a pocket watch. Was this a fake, for surely he must know Sylar's past. Why the change in character?

Micah the Rebel. He is let go by Sylar, avoiding capture by Danko's men. He says he knows who Sylar is(on a higher level? meaning more than just a name) and what his problem is. Sylar is losing himself, forgotten who he is. Can Micah read the electrical impulses in the brain? Brains are complex machines, so one might think that is a possibility. Micah catches Sylar talking to himself(as his mother). Very awkward. Like walking in on your parents.

Sylar:
In this episode he displays a few odd things that seem odd for his character. The first is that he wakes up shapeshifted as Agent Taub. He also has generated an extra tooth. (the tooth thing makes me wonder how much extra substance can he create, extra organs, limbs, bodies?) He seems to be losing his grasp on himself, and Danko tells him he needs to find an anchor to keep his self grounded. Something to remind him of himself. Danko's is a watch that Sylar immediately listens to and diagnoses as being off by some amount.
Later Sylar spares Micah because he's just a kid. Micah tells Sylar that all the specials are connected and Sylar in particular can save them all. This seems to tie in nicely with what Future Peter told Present- Peter that the key to saving the world is Sylar's ability. Is it that with his power of understanding systems he may be able to pinpoint specific things to change, in an attempt to bring harmony to the whole(saving everyone). Finding the problems on a massive scale- Sylar has yet to turn his power on himself, which would put his pretend selves into perspective. People forget he was a watch-MAKER, a creator of systems. One watch he spent years working on. Focusing on and perfecting it. Micah tells him he should turn into someone to do good, someone with authority. He needs to turn the "Hunger" for knowledge into a useful urge. Looking at more than just stockpiling powers, looking at the world as a whole. Maybe a solution resides in that, Sylar going outside the bounds of personal growth towards global growth.
Notes on Sylar's Intuitive Aptitude, the power of inherently knowing systems- he knew how Knox's worked after witnessing it, he got Elle's originally without lopping off her skull, and the Shapeshifter's power was retrieved in this fashion as well. Is he listening to their brains like when he listens to watches? If so, his understanding doesn't necessitate brain-diving induced murder. Why does he need to keep killing everyone?

Also I want to know how he is breaking through other people's powers. He broke through Hiro's time-stop in season 1, the puppetmaster's control from chapter 3, and most recently he came out of his Samson's, sedation-whistle. Is the understanding by witnessing it possibly giving him a knowledge of how to thwart others' abilities? Or did he pick up something unnamed?

Is anyone even still reading this??? Blah blah blah, wordy-word-words...

Random Thoughts/Predictions:

• Will Sylar kill Nathan and Parkman moosh Nathan's mind into Sylar's body and create Gabri-than Gray-trelli?
• Will Sylar Atomize, or snap-shatter someone? That is hard to come back from, even with a jug of Claire's blood.
• The finale's title is "An Invisible Thread"- is Claude going to be hanging around? Or Monica, Luke, Alice, West, Fish-guy, Samson, or the third Nikki/Tracy woman(Barbra I think)
• Is Arthur for sure dead?
• Can Parkman override Sylar's Lie-detector power?
• Will Sylar forget powers like Samson did(he mentioned forgeting most of the ones he took)(Sylar still has the Gold power and the Sonic Scream). And after Samson ridiculed Sylar for hunting prey that was too easy, will Samson return to kick some ass?
• Will Claire be set on the path to Dark Future Claire? Or how about Future Ando shocking Hiro?
• I have a strange notion/idea that baby Matt activiates a dormant power in Noah and de-ages him to a little boy, so the potential Future Sylar's child wasn't Sylar+Elle's child, or Sylar+Claire's child, but an accidentally youthful Mr. Bennett.
• Parkman's turtle and Mr. Muggles are still behind it all.
• I know Nathan was born powerless, but did Simone have a secret power? Her dad was Mr. Deveaux(telepathic).
• Will we get to see the Body Swapping power that Future Peter used on present Peter, placing him in Sonic scream man's body.(Jesse)

Quick pre-Heroes post

Just some thoughts before tonight's episode:

Jokingly I thought to myself how funny it would be if Parkman was holding Baby Matt, and had to change him, then handed him off to Sylar saying, "Here hold this!"
As soon as Baby Matt got into Sylar's hands, toddler touch-and-go would start crying and power Sylar off. Then Sylar would be like, "Ewwwwww..."
End of my stupid mental daydream episode.

But, in all actuality, I want to see Parkman cranked to the max by Ando. He could get to Sylar, in theory, anywhere on planet, by finding his thoughts. Once inside Sylar's head he could have Sylar use telekinesis to excise that microscopic part of his brain that enables healing and kill him from afar. Or use the power to torture him, from WAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYY over there. Or even shut down Sylar's powers considering they reside in the brain/mind.
I was also thinking he can't just mind wipe him because Sylar could heal it like Adam(Kensei) and Peter did.
But... What if Parkman swapped his own mind with Sylar's, then killed Sylar in his old body before he could get used to the new mind powers? Then Parkman would have all Sylar's abilities(he could even look like himself with the shapeshifting), and Sylar would be no more.

Speaking of Peter, what the hell? Once a heavy hitter and now he is brought low, and now he is a nobody. Although, he could touch Sylar and empathetically absorb all the stolen abilities. Thus be back to awesome level. But, he is Peter... So that probably won't happen.
I do wonder how the Petrelli Mafia start up will go. Considering the last 2 companies went under, the difference is this is a "family", not a company. Lame.

Still wondering where all the missing Heroes went??? Molly? Claude? West? The Fish-boy? Rebel(Micah)? The Haitian?

Heroes: 1961

I believe this to be another filler episode.

Angela, Peter, Nathan, Claire, Mohinder and Noah all meet up in Coyote Sands. Peter, Nathan and Claire all dig constantly to find bodies, while Angela neglects to help.
She is to busy reminiscing about the past. Falling into daydreams/memories taking place in 1961, she arrives at a camp for special people with her family. They get to stay a while and get tested, it shows more of her dream ability and using the recall to make it appear like she can read the Zener cards(the name is a nice tidbit of info i retained from years ago). She questions Chandra Suresh about the testing because she doesn't trust him. A good thing because she can dream the future. I also would like to note the creepy guys filming in the background. No wonder it seemed so strange.

Chandra is collecting data on all these specials and would explain his knowledge of abilities and there specific locations in season 1. But why would he have only supposed it in the book, and not just brought forth all the previous data, of which someone had to have copies somewhere.

Well Angela ends up meeting future partners of "The Company" Mr. Bishop(Elle's Dad), Mr. Linderman, and Mr. Deveaux(Simone's dad, Peter's patient from season 1). We finally get to see him use an ability in an obvious way. He displays what appears to be a fairly high level of telepathy-making many others ignore that he and Angela are dancing in a racist diner. This may also explain how he knew when Future/Ghostly Peter was watching him in season 1. Could it also be how Arthur got the power? Maybe not taking all of it from him?

Angela learns her sister(Alice) can control the weather, and later her father displays a power that seems similar to Havok from X-men.

Angela sneaks out with Deveaux, Linderman, and Bishop to go to a Diner and talk about the going ons in the camp. While they are out Dr. Suresh tests Alice and she becomes extremely frightened by his GIANT 1960's syringe filled with what may be assumed to be all manner of strange chemicals. She freaks out and starts shifting the weather into ultra windy sandstorm with lightning. The soldiers start freaking out and shooting, many deaths ensue.

In the present Nathan and Peter work on fraternal bonding. So while Mama Petrelli is in LALA land they are attempting to forgive each other and reconcile differences for the greater good. By the greater good, I mean becoming a family again. Albeit a very disorganized, loosely knit family.

Angela finds her possibly mentally deficient sister has been living in an abandoned bunker for 50 years. Stealing to survive when necessary, very like season 1 Angela. Alice listened to Angela when she said she had a dream, and she'll be "safe here"(a lie). So, unlike any sane person, she took it to the most outrageous end- Stay here always means safe ALWAYS, instead of LEAVING and finding Angela when the dust settled(both literally and figuratively). Which of course would have been approximately the next day when all the action calmed.

Angela lets her in on the little secret that she lied and Alice wanders up out of the bunker and disappears. Wow. I feel so fulfilled with that family reunion. Hey, I have a crazy living sister, and... (ten minutes later)... now she's gone. Again.

Noah and Mohinder and Claire come to realize that good things may be done while under the guise of wrong. Chandra may not have been doing bad things even though evidence may be to the contrary. Much like Noah working for Primatech. As ever, looks can be deceiving, and good or evil is very much blurred in a gray world.

Gray world? Yes, I made a stupid joke to segway into this portion of the blog. Gabriel Gray, aka Sylar's world. I said it a bunch before, and I'll keep saying it, Sylar is heading towards his "5 Years Gone" self. The end of the episode of course confirmed this, as he was posing as Nathan on the television. Was it just me or did Angela have a creepy ass smile during it? Maybe her age-defying tricks have permanently forced her face into that atrocious smirk. That could be why she never helps to do any work(digging), it's because she's afraid of splitting at the seams and letting all the dust out.

Peter and the gang(sans Mohinder, who is off doing some soul searching) decide there needs to be a new company. A new way to hide from the world the fact some people may have extraordinary abilities. This time they want to do it in a good way. A family type of way.
Even though it didn't work in the past, this time will be different.(that last part was said with 25% hopefulness, 25% excitement, and 50% sarcasm)
How cool would it be if Peter became the next Arthur? Highly doubtful, but it could be neat, IF he regained his old power. If not he will probably die very shortly.
With Sylar now so powerful there needs to be a group attack on multiple levels-find him via Molly, Parkman(amped by Ando) on the mental plain, he could even be in another city(Ala the "Nightmare Man"), while a possibly Ando-ed up Peter siphoning his power on the physical level. Of course the Haitian would need to be around as a precautionary measure.
Yeah, the Haitian. You know, that guy that vanished way back when.

Whatever. I'm done for now.

Heroes: Turn and Face the Strange

Super quick post-

Mohinder and Parkman split up- Parkman wants vengence, Mohinder wants solutions to problems that don't involve more trouble. They part ways, and Molly is still nowhere to be found. They are amazing surrogate fathers.

Mohinder goes to his old place and learns of a stash of information his dad left in storage.

Parkman finds a way to hurt Danko nonphysically by ruining a relationship with someone he loves. Matt forces Danko to admit his heinous ways to the woman, and she hates him for it.

Hiro and Ando attempt to reunite the Matt Parkmans and succeed.

Sylar starts destroying Noah's life. Not killing him, but just making him seem crazy in the eyes of all his peers. Systematic disassembling of his life, great use of your power Mr. Gray.

Angela, Peter, Claire, Nathan, an Noah meet up then dig some bodies out of the ground in an abandoned desert place called Coyote Sands. Yay for family reunions and the buried skeletons that come up with them!

Heroes: Into Asylum

Nathan and Claire hide out in Mexico because Danko's reach hasn't extended the US borders. Claire pawns a piece of jewelry to earn some money, and Nathan bets it in a drinking contest. Of course things go wrong, Claire uses her power to out drink a college-type and win it all.

Nathan gets Claire's hopes p with some drunken promises, and true to politician archetype, reconsiders in the morning. Then slightly later re-reconsiders. They head for America, on foot.

Angela and Peter wind up at a cathedral looking for answers. She needs sleep to dream, and it is ever evasive. The dreaming sleep she needs must be earned. No drugs, no cheating to get things. It eventually comes and she points to an angel picture and says something about needing to bring the family together and then finding her sister.
Some agents show up and Angela and Peter hide in the confessional. Noah gives the all-clear and saves their asses. I find it somewhat hilarious that Noah is playing a saving role in the great rains, a biblical reference anyone?

Sylar and Danko. Sylar teams up with him so they both will get what they want: Danko=death of specials, and Sylar=more power.
I am really getting disturbed by Danko's unexplained past and current hatred. I find some interest in Sylar's comment that Danko is a shapeshifter. Nothing that says anything about him in his apartment. It's also worth a note that he is deliberately hiding his own past. An avoidance of something?
Well, the two work together to find an actual shapeshifter who is hungry for power. At least in an effort to get girls. They go to a club and track him down while he is disguised as Danko. They catch him and Danko lets Sylar have him, but he wants him to do it without lopping off the skull. Which shows Sylar doesn't have to cut them open. It's been previously shown he can empathetically take powers, but can he now leave specials alive while also groping around their brain pans?
Sylar has a shapeshifting ability and is one step closer to his "Five Years Gone" self. Could this be a return to that kind of future? It also renders Danko unnecessary. Sylar could just watch him for a while, learn his mannerisms, some important facts and then just assume his identity.

Anyway, Noah shows up and is sort of flabbergasted that Danko "got Sylar". Noah seems to know something is amiss, like it was too easy. No struggle means something is not right. It appears that he will gear up for some precautionary measures to take on Danko(and Sylar), with some very careful observations. Watching very, very closely.

Oooooohhhh... exciting times coming in the Heroes universe.

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.