Well this sucks. Robert Zemeckis is adapting Eoin Colfer’s “Airman” (the same guy who wrote Artemis Fowl) using similar motion capture technology used on “Monster House” and “Polar Express.” This really sucks becuase the book was pretty fun and now the movie will be ruined with weird creepy surreal character models.

As a promotion, Neil Gaiman (and his publishers) has made a free digital copy of his novel “Neverwhere” available for download. If you’ve not read it, give it a try. It’s not as good as “Stardust” but better than “American Gods.”

Saw on Pop Candy that the Author of “100 Things You Die” died before he was able to do all 100 things. Irony.

I slugged my way through all four of the “Fire” books over the past three months. They were written by British author by Chris d’Lacey and published in the U.S. by scholastic. Book One: “Fire Within” and even Book Two: “Ice Fire” are great. However the last two books of the series, specifically “The Fire Eternal” ruin it all.

The biggest problem is that d’Lacey gives up all sensible plot, structure, and even characterizations so that the last two books are nothing more than weird preachy-environmental propaganda. In them the “north” is at risk because of global warmning and the heroes stop fighting the bad guys and instead focus soley on saving the environment (which coinsidently is exactly the one secret thing that could beat the uber villians). If you’re looking for a child fantasy series then check “Artemis Fowl” or “Ink Heart” or go re-read “Harry Potter.” Definitely avoid the “Fire” books.

What the heck was that? “Breaking Dawn” is like some sort of weird fan fiction and from plot to characters to tone it doesn’t fit with the three previous books of the “Twilight Series.”  ((Spoilers after the break…)) (Read on …)

I know the book came out midnight on Friday, but I had a super-busy weekend. As a result, I dub today “Breaking Dawn” Day! I’m devoting all my time and energy to reading the 750+ page book. Thoughts and impressions will be up tomorrow.

I got the book in the mail on Monday and finished it early Tuesday morning. It was a great read and it’s shocking to see just how much these characters have grown over the course of six books. It’s also sad knowing that there is only one more book left in this series.

For those of you who’ve not experienced “Artemis Fowl,” it’s basically “Harry Potter” in terms of tone, but at the same time it doesn’t take itself as seriously. Also the humor is lighter, ranging from silly puns, to fart jokes, to layered jokes that only an adult would get.  And sure there is “magic” and fantastical creatures, but the stories are more spy-centric than fantasy based. So if you’ve not picked up any of the books now is the perfect time to jump on board.

Want to read the 800 word “Harry Potter” prequel that J.K. Rowling auctioned off for $49,000? Then simply click the picture above. Neil Gaiman also wrote a mini-story that was auctioned off for $2,500. It’s much better than Rowling’s and probably my favorite out of the known authors involved with the charity event.

J.K. Rowling did the Commencement speech at Harvard and I’ve posted the entire thing after the break: (Read on …)

I’m just not excited about this.

Del Toro’s moving to New Zealand for the next four years to work with Jackson and his Wingnut and WETA production teams. He’ll direct the two films back to back, with the sequel which will deal with the 60-year period between “The Hobbit” and “The Fellowship of the Ring,” the first of the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy.

Partially because I think the whole “sequel” is complete bullshit. It’s like what Warner Bros is doing to “Harry Potter.” It’s about adding an extra movie to make more money. There is no story or character driven reason to have these additional movies

J.K. Rowling is a Money Whore, which is ridiculous because she’s one of the richest women in the world. She’s currently suing a writer and his publisher for publishing a book about the Harry Potter Universe. When she testified earlier this week she said the following:

“It has really decimated the demands of my creative work for the last month,” she testified, at least once stoically holding back tears as she talked about the Potter books as if they were her children. “You lose the threads, you worry if you’ll ever be able to pick them up again.”

Really? She’s so upset about someone writing an unofficial companion to the Potter-Universe she can’t work on anything else? WTF! I call total bullshit and say she’s just about the money.

Barnes & Noble changed their return policy within the past two weeks. It used to be that if you brought in any book and it was in their system they would accept the return. The only catch was that if you didn’t have the receipt they would give you store credit. Now you HAVE to have a receipt.

I find this annoying because people always buy me books, but 9 out of 10 it’s a book I already own. So now I can’t take them to B&N for store credit. Guess I’ll be going to Borders for now on.

I’m a boy. So when in elementary and middle school I was busy reading “Lord of The Rings,” “Dragon Lance,” “Belgariad,” and just about every other fantasy series out there. So although I’ve read “Freckle Juice” and a few other of Blume’s books I had never ventured into the world of “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.” (Read on …)

Did you see the second cover to Neil Gaiman’s “The Graveyard Book?” I personally like this one better then the one Dave McKean did.

The “Gossip Girl” books have several gay and bi-sexual characters (google wikipedia if you don’t believe me). So it shouldn’t be too much of a surprise that one of the males on “Gossip Girl” will soon be coming out (though it may or may not be one of the guys pictured above).

Above is the newly released screenshot from “Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.”

Also, and this is really gross, Daniel Radcliffe is now being called “Harry Puffer” by the cast and crew of the movie. Seems he got addicted to nicotine from having to smoke in the play “Equus” and as a result he constantly smokes while on the set of the new film. Apparently he’s up to 20 cigarettes a day.

Neil Gaiman posted cover mock-ups for his new novel “The Graveyard Book” that were putt together by Dave McKean (the second one from the left is going to be the book’s actual cover).

Arthur C. Clarke died earlier this morning at the age of 90.

Robin Hobb is a well known fantasy writer who has been writing for decades. I’ve read all her books and have been a fan of her work, but was offended when she recently posted a massive rant about how writers should write and not blog.

Ah, my writer friend. It is harsh but it must be said. Compared to the studied seduction of the novel, blogging is literary pole dancing. Anyone can stand naked in the window of the public’s eye, anyone can twitch and writhe and emote over the package that was not delivered, the dinner that burned, the friend who forgot your birthday. That is not fiction. That is life, and we all have one. Blogging condemns us to live everyone else’s tedious day as well as our own.

If you read the full rant, she basically says that blogging is a seductive distraction that keeps writers busy and away from actually writing. But what the woman fails to mention is that if you are good with time management it isn’t an issue. Blogging is no more distracting than TV, video games, reading a comic, or reading a novel.

I posted about this way back in December but it was finally announced last week that “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” will be broken into two films. The studio says its so that they can do justice to the source material and really spend the appropriate time wrapping up all the storylines, but we all know they are just double dipping trying to make more money by having an extra Potter film. 

Stay away from this DVD. This is possibly the worse adaptation I’ve seen of anything… EVER and the problems aren’t how close or unclose it stayed to the source material. The problem is that it physically hurts to watch the movie.

Before we get to other things let me first mention that this is a very gratuitous film. Fanboys will be in cleavage heaven. Now don’t get me wrong, I like boobies, but the cartoon took it too far for something marketed to kids. There’s one scene where a character is introduced and her boobs jiggle and a guy spends a few seconds staring at them. Then the rest of the movie is just filled with breast. I mean in the pic above, that woman with the torn shirt, she just has it torn for no reason. She wasn’t attacked or tripped or anything. (Read on …)

The trailer for the animated version of Neil Gaiman’s “Coraline” has been posted online. If you want to see a higher quality version then go here and watch it. Man this looks so pretty.

Did you see that clip of “Where The Wild Things Are” that leaked onto the web at the end of last week? It’s hard to find now because the studio is quickly hunting it down. It was an early test and legitimate footage. However the studio is very unhappy with the current cut of the movie and rumor has it that they may be doing a complete reshoot.

Neil Gaiman’s newest book “Graveyard” will be released on September 30^th (here in the U.S.).

There will actually be a “One Day Laydown” in the US, which means that the book won’t just wander into the shops over a couple of weeks. Instead there will be one day when it goes on sale everywhere. Probably bookshops doing on-sale-at-midnight, graveyard-themed, kick-off-Hallowe’en-month parties. All that sort of stuff.

For the past few months he’s been posting about the novel on his blog and it’s been interesting to read his thoughts and reactions during the writing process.