Book Review: Touched by an Alien by Gini Koch

I know what you are thinking, but no I didn't pick this book up because of the name. I got it because of the cover art. About a month ago I was trying to find bootleg of a graphic novel I want. I couldn't find it or at least wasn't giving a full effort but what I did find was the cover art for this book. It is done by the same person that does the cover art for the Mercy Thompson series which I love dearly. It seems odd but I saw the cover art and pretty much said yay I'm reading this. There are aliens and guns and fire and fighter jets and an areosmith t-shirt and men in suits. Its sorta like dangling sour gummy worms in front of me, I am going to go for them.

Not to mention that it just gets better as it goes. We start out with Katherine "Kitty" Katt coming out of a court house. (Her name alone told me there was going to be giggles.) There she encounters a "superbeing" that attacks and strats killing civilians, she reacts by stabbing it with a pen. Then a bunch of guys in Armani suits show up and ask her to join them. So it turns out that there are these alien parasites trying to get to earth and turn people into evil superbeings, and the guys in suits are trying to stop them. But the guys in suits are also aliens from the planet closets to us that has life, um Alpha Centurian or something like that.

I would explain more but I kind of want my friend Britt to read this book so I am not going to give away too much because I know that she reads this. The point is that the story is actually rather well done Just when I thought that I had things figured out something else was revealed and it made more sense. I mean at first look the plot seems surface deep but each chapter reveals more interesting information.

Not to mention that there was a giant slug killed with salt water and jokes about some one finding a giant mongoose for a reenactment of Rikki-tikki-tavi when the giant snake showed up, which just tickled me because that movie scared the living begious out of me as a kid. I mean I liked the movie but when you live in a third world country watching a movie about snakes in a third world country it tends to freak out out a bit more than some one who lives in Chicago.

Back to the point, there is a running joke about the main character's purse that made me smile. Because my mom had a purse like that.

"Actually, you woke up before I could find your wallet," Martini admitted. "I don't know how you found that pen; your purse is like a black hole."
"I prefer to think of it as Mary Poppins' carpetbag."

Also hair spray and alcohol are used as deadly weapons in this book. Also comic book references left and right. And sex, that happened too.

Basically read this. Yeah. Do it now.

Movie Review: Paul

This might come as a shock but I am a bit of a nerd. I know, you were so surprised. Anyway I remember back when news of this movie was coming out but no pictures because they really wanted to keep the movie secretive. Which at the time threw me because this was Simon Pegg we are talking about, I didn't thin he did secretive.

Another thing we are currently in the middle of the dead period for movies. This is when the odd movies come out. The big one come out in the summer or a month or two before. Paul is right before that point. But it was light out today until almost seven so maybe is in the cut off.

I really liked this movie. The alien jokes were great and I love the cast. This was literally a who's who of the funny people that are in movies these days. Kristen Wigg as the overly religious woman pretty much made my day. This movie is funny, and a bit funnier if you know anything about science fiction. The only down side is there are several references to science fiction pop culture that was before my time. I can tell that is probably for the 30 something crowd a bit more.

If you like science fiction or silly movies this is for you. If you are overly religious or don't know a single thing about aliens or science fiction pop culture then don't go see this.

Now if you don't mind I have to go climb a mountain the look for some ashes that my cure my love interest's uncle. I am so close to getting to the really hard parts in Dragon Age. Also I got Alistair to sleep with me, so go team! I am currently working on making everyone in my party love me as much as possible. I play that game with the wiki page open next to me. I would use the guide but sadly it is in another state in a storage unit because my mom doesn't understand that I might have needed that.

Book Review: Ecstasy In Darkness by Gena Showalter

Its interesting how reading a series out of order can show the growth of a writer. The Alien Huntress series was one of the first ones that Showalter put out there, but this book was published this past year. She has been slowly taking her time juggling several series and her growth shows.

The last book I didn't feel the characters. Neither of them seemed that real to me. This book has a huge jump in the interest. Every character has more character too them. The dialogue has a more natural feel and sound more like stuff I would say to my friends. Also the plot is way more interesting, I am much more intrigued by a race of disease ridden aliens trying to wipe us out. Well wipe out everyone, because they have to spread the disease to live. Which really seems like an interesting idea. I desperately want to know more about this but Showalter is making me work for it.

The main male for this book is Victor McKell who was a bad-ass vampire in the last book. After the vampire king found out he didn't kill Bride he got kicked out of the underground world. Seeing as this series goes with the whole alien thing, vampires are really aliens that made it to earth a long time before the other aliens came knocking.  Remember the disease aliens? Well they found out that Bride's blood stops the disease so they want to talk to McKell. So the alien investigation forces send Ava and Noelle to bring him in, and these two pretty much are the coolest girls ever. Ava is the lead in this book.

So Ava and McKell get the hots for each other and in the mean time they are trying to a) figure out more about vampires that live above ground and b) stop the queen of the disease aliens from destroying everything c) deal with the mating bond thing d) figure out what these magical door ways that follow McKell are about. The answers are the following. A) there are lots and they have to drain a human dry to go out in the sunlight. B) McKell's daddy has some neat stuff that kinda makes the mystery  less epic. C) They like it but Ava doesn't want to be a vampire just yet, well maybe. D) McKell's daddy comes from an alternate reality and has magic doorways.

Yeah that last bit comes in at the eleventh hour and just sorta ends the tension. I was horribly worried there for a while about the disease aliens and what was going to happen. I mean I was on the edge of my seat, and then daddy is like "Calm down, I got this!" and there goes the tension. The big bad evil woman is not so scary when the time traveling vampire just sends her away because he doesn't like that its pissing his son off.

On the other hand Ava and Noelle make me crazy happy. They have that trash talk to your best friend thing down. I loved it. Best friend trash talk is the best kind. They make it very realistic, although they take it a little too far at times. They suffer from serious ADD in a couple scenes. It sounds so much like my friends and I when we get in rants. I loves me some silly rants.

This book has convinced me that I need to go back and read the rest of the series.

Book Review: Enslave Me Sweetly by Gena Showalter

The interesting thing about this book was the single character point of view. That might sound like a weird thing to say because books have different points of view. But the simple fact is that most romance novels alternate between the points of view of both lead characters. This style works best in romances because it gives the reader both sides of the story. I was also thrown off because I know that in the same series Showalter does you the alternating point of view. Anyway the point is it threw me off.

This book is part of the Alien Huntress series. In this series it is the future, there are lots of aliens on planet earth, and there were some wars. I am not clear because this is only the second full length book I have read from the series. Eden the main lead for this book is an alien. She is a Raka which have golden hair, skin and eyes. I mean really their skin looks like gold. Playing opposite of her is Agent Lucius. (I am really getting annoyed with that name btw.)

They are trying to spot an interplanetary sex slave ring. I sorta forget the rest. I am not saying its bad. But it kind of didn't make an impact on me. Also I am trying to work out recently and my ability to read is going down a bit. I just wasn't moved by either character. They weren't bland but they just weren't developed enough for me to have an opinion. By the climax I was still mostly unattached to either character.

I do really like the cover. So there is that.

Quote of the day

The Letter M: What's wrong with you? All you talk about is aliens and ghosts and seeing Bigfoot in your garage!

Dib: He was using the belt sander...

 Invader Zim