Christopher Farnsworth's Blog, page 28

Home Field Advantage

Boise Weekly, the first place that ever gave me a regular paycheck to write, reviews Blood Oath.

Blood Oath is rife with intrigue, suspense and even a bit of horror. Cade and Barrows must deal with secret government organizations that even the CIA and FBI are unaware of, a traitor inside the White House and a scientist who has found the secret to eternal youth and who is creating the ultimate human fighting weapon. It all culminates in a taut political, action-packed page-turner.

Kind of a...

Charlie Huston's Sleepless

I've been an insomniac since I was born; one of the stories my mother tells is how I stayed awake for almost three days after she brought me home from the hospital. So perhaps I'm sympathetic to the idea of the end of civilization caused by sleeplessness.

That's the scenario envisioned by Charlie Huston in his new novel Sleepless. A new prion has emerged that's killing 10 percent of the population, but not quickly. First, they lose the ability to sleep, and the rest of the world unravels...

Christopher Chance, v. 4.0

Like this review says, I'd watch almost anything based on a comic book. At least the first half-hour. So it's safe to say I'm pretty much the demo (Cripes, I almost wrote "target demo") for Fox's new show, "Human Target."

The premise: a guy named Christopher Chance protects people in high-risk situations. And yeah, I really liked it. Mark Valley is nearly perfectly cast in a role that plays to his strengths (he looks like most guys think they look, which is to say ridiculously handsome...

How "Lost" Will End (Possible Spoilers)

I've got about a thousand other things I should be doing, but when I had trouble sleeping in the early morning hours, this is what came into my head: a list of possible endings for "Lost."

The "Newhart" ending: Charlie Salinger wakes up in his bedroom, next to his wife, Kirsten, who tells him that Bailey's been drinking again and Julia was out all night with Griffin and Claudia's freaking out about violin try-outs… And he says to her, "Man, I just had the weirdest dream. I was trapped on this...

Happy 2010

This will be our year.

My Favorite Movies: Love, Actually

As someone who was not really fond of the holiday season for years — long story with familiar elements: divorce, family tension, bills, et cetera — I'm sort of surprised how many of my favorite movies are Christmas-themed. It starts with Die Hard, which is still one of the great action flicks of all time, where John McClane hands out whupass from a seemingly bottomless Santa bag in some of the best set pieces leavened with humor ever done.

Then there's The Sure Thing, an underrated and...

Compare and Contrast:

More than ten percent of Americans rely on food stamps. "Unemployed and on disability benefits, Contraeras, 45, has custody of her grandchildren, ages 2 and 3. She has resorted to circling the first of the month on her calendar so that when her grandchildren are hungry, she can count down the days until they can return to the grocery store.

'I have to make a game out of it for the kids,' she said." (Via The Awl.)

with:

Condolences to Wall Street's finest. The...

Blood Oath Makes USA Today

USA Today's Carol Memmott was kind enough to do a quick preview of Blood Oath in the paper today. You can read it online here, if you can't bring yourself to haul your carcass to a newspaper box and plunk down 50 cents.

Also, Diana McCabe, who had to put up with me when we both worked together at the Orange County Register, has a short post about the book on her blog, Paranormal Romance. No spoilers. It's way too early for that.

Urban Decay

Photos of dead malls and other abandoned retailers by Brian Ulrich. It's both haunting and strange how fast some of these places have turned into remnants of what looks like a long-dead civilization.

50 Cent Is Making Sense

There are too many entrepreneurs. We need the worker to make the process function properly.

More here.