Between Two Fires by Christopher Buehlman

Between two Fires is kind of a dark, fairy tale adventure. You could call it fantasy, but its magic is more of the spiritual kind. Taking place in the plague years, a rough-and-tumble brigand goes on a quest to deliver an angelic little girl to a place of sanctuary. 

The little girl turns out to be some kind of prophet, and our brigand has to become a hero of sorts because all kinds of dangerous evil stuff is around, between the fires of hell and the pyres of plague. I found it all kind of boring, but I've had my fill of the questing monomyths and chosen ones. So I guess I wasn't ready for this one. 

All Your Base Are Belong to Us: How Fifty Years of Videogames Conquered Pop Culture by Harold Goldberg

I think I found this in a list of books for Game Designers, on good old Goodreads or something. It's somewhat of an entertaining memoir on the impact of video game culture from the stationary Pong to our current state of mobility. Each chapter is dedicated to new milestones in the scene: arcades, home consoles, mmos, and such. 

As someone who's generally interested in this topic, I already knew most of the presented information from Youtube, however I didn't know that Tetris was made in a public library that allowed smoking. Yes, it was a fun read about exciting times. 

The Old Way (feat. Nicolas Cage)

The Old Way is a Classic Cage Revenge Film, with a twist or two. This time it's a western, and it's a reasonably achieved western. Like any good western, it's dark and the good guys are also pretty bad. Outlaws if you will. Colton Braggs (played by Cage) is especially famous for being the most vicious, violent, despicable of mercenary killers. With that, we get a little revenge on top of revenge, as Colton has many enemies. However, he has a very special daughter. A precociouss type of Mary Sue. A cute, smart, dutiful daughter can be the exact weakness our guy needs. We are also shown quickly that he very much adores his wife. She is very important to Colton in his later, settled-down life. Alas, the settled down life doesn't last long. It's nice to have that big theater-sounding banjo and fiddle score to fit the heavy and light moments. Again, those light moments don't last long.

Cage lets his rage out and goes a little crazy, which is an expected treat that's not always delivered. While surprises were intended for this film, no such surprises were delivered. I guess director Brett Donowho just wanted to try his hand at a western, which he did just fine. MmmmHmmm. The pacing and vibe are all there. It's a fine movie. Not Mighty Fine.

1. Raising Arizona
2. The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent
3. Leaving Las Vegas
4. Red Rock West
5. Adaptation
6. Pig
7. Birdy
8. Wild at Heart
9. Renfield
10. Joe
11. National Treasure
12. Guarding Tess
13. Snake Eyes
14. Mandy
15. Dog Eat Dog
16. Color Out of Space
17. Mom and Dad
18. World Trade Center
19. Peggy Sue Got Married
20. The Rock
21. Zandalee
22. Prisoners of the Ghostland
23. City of Angels
24. Willy's Wonderland
25. Jiu Jitsu
26. Captain Corelli's Mandolin
27. Bangkok Dangerous
28. Drive Angry
29. Army of One
30. Lord of War
31. Gone in 60 Seconds
32. Matchstick Men
33. Vampire's Kiss
34. Con Air
35. Face/Off
36. Outcast
37. Trapped in Paradise
38. The Boy in Blue
39. Honeymoon in Vegas
40. Deadfall
41. Amos and Andrew
42. Moonstruck
43. Tokarev
44. The Sorcerer's Apprentice

45. The Old Way

46. Knowing
47. Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
48. Bringing Out the Dead
49. The Family Man
50. Stolen
51. Season of the Witch
52. It Could Happen to You
53. The Wicker Man
54. Inconceivable
55. 8mm
56. The Frozen Ground
57. Left Behind
58. A Score to Settle
59. Pay the Ghost
60. Primal
61. Dying of the Light
62. Grand Isle
63. Looking Glass
64. Arsenal
65. Between Worlds
66. Ghost Rider
67. Trespass
68. The Humanity Bureau
69. Next
70. The Weather Man
71. 211
72. Fire Birds
73. The Croods

Dune Messiah by Frank Herbert

A couple years and a couple movies after I read and adored Dune by Frank Herbert, it was time to go ahead and read the sequel. While it's as touching, gripping, or magical as the original, Dune Messiah gives us more of a philosophical scifi in space opera set mainly on planet Arrakis. 

Paul sure as heck becomes the emperor, but he finds it hard to be as good of a man as he had wanted. I imagine it is hard to be a good god, with all the enemies of Good out there. Trusty Stilgar is still around, maybe more important than ever. But what about our beloved heroes who didn't make it to the end of Dune? Will any of them come back to life and make our beloved messianic family feel Weird? I guess you'll have to read it. 

Doctor Sleep by Stephen King

Taking place a good twenty or thirty years after the events of The Shining, I bet Stephen King knew this sequel was going to made into a movie. It stars Danny, the kid with the Shine, and has guest appearances from Wendy, Dick Halloran, and Tony (who may still live in Danny's mouth). 

This story focuses less on the horror aspect of things and more on the supernatural, with Shining villains and good kids to save. While a different kind of experience, I'd still suggest this to anyone who's a King fan.