Michael Formichelli's Blog: Nero's Niche, page 11

Keltan's Gambit Cover Reveal

Coming Soon:


Art by Michael Lam 2014



Allegiances will change, battles will erupt, and the deadly nano-weapon known as Siren will be unleashed!
Coming soon in Print and for Kindle!(Get the latest news at www.cygnusorion.com)

It's Gonna Be a Geeky Christmas

It's gonna be a geeky Christmas—and it is every year at my parent's place.

Mom is a huge Doctor Who fan, and in recent years it's become a tradition for the wife and I to take the drive down to the city on Christmas day (the geeky part is coming, promise).

My mother greets us at the door, usually with the smell of whatever she's got cooking in the kitchen wafting out into the hallway (she's got an apartment in NYC). We never quite know what to expect when it comes to the food at mom's. Back when I was a kid, Christmas dinner would be Lasagna (my favorite), or sometimes turkey if she was feeling traditional. Recently, though, mom's branched out into more adventurous territory.

Two years ago she cooked us up a multi-course Indian dinner for Christmas and surprised us with it when we arrived (She was on an Indian food kick that year, and I think the multi-course part came from her attendance at my wife's family's Thanksgiving. Their dinners are the stuff of legend.) That was definitely the strangest Christmas dinner I've ever had. This year we got some forewarning and I'm told we're going to have roast beef for dinner (Mmm, yeah).

Regardless of my mother's latest cooking adventure, there is one thing at Christmas that hasn't changed in years. A while back she got into Doctor Who, and I mean really into Doctor Who. It's become a Christmas tradition for the wife and I to come in, greet mom and my sister, then get ushered to the couch where we spend the next six hours (at least) watching the Doctor Who Christmas Day Marathon on Syfy. Yup, that's right, for years my holiday has been filled with sonic screwdrivers, time-travel, and humorously strange aliens while my mouth waters at the smells coming from mom's cooking. There's one rule, DO NOT CHANGE THE CHANNEL UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES.

I don't mean to sound like I'm complaining, but I put that in caps because even though mom misses most of the marathon, she's listening from down the hall. No one gets between her and the Doctor. One year my wife and I had already seen one of the episodes, and we tried to watch something else until a fresh one started—big mistake. Mom came charging out of the kitchen, soup spoon still in hand, and instructed us in no uncertain terms that the TV was to remain on Doctor Who until we left for the night. Yes, mom! Right away, mom! Consider it done!

I'm pretty sure mom watches all of the episodes before Christmas (except, of course, for the Christmas special), but I guess every time she sees one it's like the first time for her. I get that. I used to be the same way with things like Star Wars, and there's a certain comfort in having a predictable, if strange, tradition. It's just one of those things that makes mom, and our Christmases, unique, and very geeky.

Happy Holidays and Announcements

Hi all! Happy Holidays!This post I just have a few quick announcements to make.
First off, starting tomorrow (12/24/14) the Golden Mean will be free to download from Amazon.com.


The Golden Mean is a stand-alone short story, but it links to Blood Siren (and its sequels), so if you haven't checked it out and are looking forward to the release of Keltan's Gambit (Blood Siren Book 2), then grab yourself a copy tomorrow!

Here's the official description:


Will Paradise be Lost?
Beyond the edge of civilized space, Merte Algol has led the people of New Bimini from destitution under the thumb of the Extraterrestrial Mining Corporation to wealth and prosperity. When a message from the Confederation reveals that not only have they not been forgotten, but that they will be receiving a visitor from the most powerful being in human space, it puts everything they have achieved in jeopardy.
Can Merte save the colony? Or is their fragile paradise coming to an end?
Find out in the sci-fi short story: The Golden Mean!






Time for announcement 2!

The Kindle version of Blood Siren will be discounted starting 12/24/14, and ending midnight on 12/26/14 (meaning as the date changes to 12/27).

Blood Siren is the novel that launched the series (it'll be a series in a few weeks, promise!). It's available for Kindle and in Print. Tomorrow is the perfect time to check it out if you haven't done so yet. The price for the eBook will be at its lowest, and will slowly rise back to it's full retail value by Saturday, so act now!

Here's the description:

Cylus Keltan wants nothing more than to stay out of the poisonous bed of greed and politics, but when his surrogate father throws himself from a mile-high window, he is forced back into the corrupt world he swore never to return to. With the help of Nero Graves, a cybernetic agent, he uncovers a plot to cripple the government and deploy an alien super plague with the potential to kill billions known as "Siren." Can they discover the link between his friend's death and Siren before it's too late?

And that's it for today!

Happy Holidays again, and be well everyone!

Eden's Revenge is Free!

Hi all. This week I want to bring your attention to a great sci-fi series called The Eden Paradox books. The Eden Paradox blends sci-fi with riveting suspense as it follow's humanity's desperate struggle against a vastly more advanced alien foe. It may seem like an unusual analogy, but the series can be described as a stylistic mix of George R.R. Martin and Star Trek. The characters have real depth, the story is solid space opera mixed with suspense, and no one gets out of this story unscathed.


I recently had the privilege of interviewing the author about his Eden books, sci-fi influences, and the upcoming 4th and final installment in the series. That video will be available soon, but in the meantime:




Eden's Revenge is free on Amazon.com through the end of Wednesday December 17th!


What is it you ask?

Eden's Revenge is book 3 in the Eden Paradox Series by Barry Kirwan, it's also damn-good sci-fi. Now's the perfect time to get caught up before the release of the 4th and final installment.


Have a look at my review from Amazon.com:

For those of us waiting to learn the fate of humanity after Eden's Trial, the wait is finally over. Barry Kirwan returns us to the fringe of the Grid, where we rejoin humanity's struggle to survive in an unforgiving galaxy. His ability to transport the reader to alien worlds with poignant characters and complex, compelling plot lines is exemplified in Eden's Revenge. The scenes play out like a movie you can't look away from as he blends science fiction and suspense into a riveting tale. Your page-turning finger will keep clicking to the very end of this five-star space opera.

My Review of Interstellar (Largely Spoiler-Free)

Gonna do this one as text this week.

Interstellar:



This week Christopher Nolan released his sweeping sci-fi epic, Intestellar. I saw it in 70mm IMAX, which was definitely the right way to watch something this visual—that is to say see it HUGE if you can. Be amazed by how good it looks, and then be more amazed when you realize all of it was done without green-screen (as far as the sets go). That's right, Christopher Nolan actually built all that stuff old-school style. (Even the zero-gravity effects from what I understand).

So, apart for being visually stunning, does Interstellar hold up?

Well, I can't say I entirely liked it. I disagreed with a few design choices, for example, the robot designs are a bit bizarre but at least have the virtue of being somewhat unique. Also, in my opinion, the robots steal the show, but I won't get into it because many of you may not have seen the film yet. Let's just say the robots are awesome.

The science in it is mostly spot-on as far as I can tell. Christopher Nolan worked with PHD Astrophysicist Kip Thorne, which helped a ton (all of the equations on boards you see in the film are the real deal). I'm a bit of a science-book thumper when it comes to movies that are set, or appear to be set, in "our world." Overall Interstellar did pretty well, and had some shining achievements like the first real/accurate representation of a black hole with an accretion disc, and maybe of a wormhole as well—but it fell down on this point at the end. I can't talk about it and remain spoiler-free, but let's just say a few known physical phenomena get ignored towards the end and I was a bit disappointed since the rest of the movie was so spot-on.

I give it credit in its premise department as well. As scary as it is to think about, the disaster that kicks off the whole thing is a real possibility (I should know, it happens in my field of expertise). It puts a smile on my face when a movie gets things like that right, even if they are horrible to think about.

In closing I'll say this: The end did sort of wreck the overall experience for me. I just couldn't buy it and I left feeling a bit frustrated that the movie did what it did. Also, it didn't have the Alcubierre Drive, which was sad, but hey it means someone else could be the first to portray it! It's still worth the watch though because there are many moments that shine, particularly the action sequences which had me clenching my fists with tension—and that means that Interstellar did what entertainment is supposed to do: make the audience feel something.

Vlog 2: Weird Amazon Stuff

My First Vlog!

Civilization Beyond Earth Preview:



My website:

www.cygnusorion.com

A Vlog is Coming & Updates

Hello All

Just a quick note right now. I'm working on putting a video together that, if it works out, may set the stage for video posting to this blog in the future.

I'm looking for a few ideas for posts, and I'm soliciting ideas from you!

If any of you want to see me talk about anything, answer questions, and the like let me know in the comments or email your idea to mformichelli@cygnusorion.com!


Updates:

Book 2 of  Chronicles of the Orion Spur (Keltan's Gambit) is cruising along towards publication. I've got a few copies out with beta readers and that means for now, things are on track! I'm hoping to have it out by November of this year, but that might be a bit optimistic so stay tuned!

I've also started book 3, and am about 8 chapters deep into it now. I'm aiming to make it the last book in the series, but I've got a bit of ground to cover so I'll keep everyone posted if it turns into 2 books instead of one. For now though, count COS as being a trilogy. Book 3 will be out sometime next year (not sure when yet, of course!)


And that's it for now!

Don't forget to send me your questions and suggestions for my first vlog!

Be well all!

The Sims 4: A Review

As many of you may know from this blog, I'm a big video game fan, especially if the game has something to do with sci-fi—but I also have a soft spot for certain titles that don't quite fit that description. Although quite skeptical at first, I grew to like the Sims right around the time the Sims 2 was released and have played it on and off since. I loved a lot of what was done with the Sims 3, but it was plagued by bugs and problems that EA just didn't seem interested in fixing. So it was with great trepidation that I approached the Sims 4. I almost didn't buy it, and I'm still a bit on the fence about whether or not caving to my "must have a complete collection" urge was a wise move.



What works:

The graphics are good, the interface is even better.
I like what they did with organizing and modifying the skills and skill building. I like the way the game looks and how the camera angles work quite a bit. The controls, although not new, have a fresh feel to it that I enjoy.

I like the new objects and their interactions.
House building and furnishing is streamlined and much easier to use. I love that you can position objects almost anywhere on a wall now (and the same with windows). You can even adjust the ceiling height.

The create a Sim feature is really where they put their time and energy.
It's obvious since it is much more flexible, especially with the ability to sculpt your Sim's features as though they were clay.

There's a rocket ship.
Yeah, I know, I'm a sucker for this (sci-fi tie-in!). There's also a new Rocket Science skill and a whole Astronaut career from the get go. It's cool.


What doesn't work:

The game has an incomplete feeling.
There aren't many careers or neighborhoods, and the ability to move around has been curtailed. It really seems like EA rushed yet another game out the door before it was really ready. Although not the disaster that Sim City was (it remains one of the few games in recent memory I got so fed up with I just uninstalled it before playing through all of its content. The first week of mayhem with its launch alone made me hate myself for spending money on it), it still seems like a lot more time should have been put in. Life stages available in previous Sims titles are missing, as are pools, vehicles, and a lot of functionality.

It gets sort of boring sort of quickly.
With not that much to do, and a lot of it frustrating in that one has to relearn how to do certain activities because EA changed how it works (for not entirely obvious reasons), I found it was easy to put this game down after about 2-3 days of binge playing. That's not very long for me, as I've been known to play a new game obsessively for 2-3 weeks when it first catches my attention (although, I'll note, my lack of obsessive interest was good for my writing this week as I was able to return to it faster). It's not that I don't go back to the game periodically, but it just doesn't have that grab you and hold you factor.

There are still bugs.
It's an EA title, after all, but the number of glitches is annoying. Objects vanish and require you to repurchase them, tools get stuck in your Sims' hands, and conversation bars get frozen on Sims even though you're no longer having a conversation. I wish I could say I had faith that EA will clean these issues up as time moves on, but they've got a record of not doing so that is a bit discouraging.

So, the overall verdict?
It's okay. Is it worth the money? Right now? Meh. But if you're a fan of the series you'll definitely find some charm to the new game (and go a bit mad trying to figure out the new emotion system). I guess we'll have to see if it improves as the new expansions come out.

Sunshine: One of the Worst Sci-Fi Movies I Have Ever Seen

I watched this film to give it a chance. I thought maybe that it was one of those movies that was just "okay" and had been overlooked. I watch bad sci-fi movies on purpose sometimes. There's usually at least one or two good ideas in them that get me thinking.

Unfortunately, one or two good ideas in Sunshine are about all there are.

The movie, as the trailer says, is about the efforts to "restart" our sun after it is found to be dying (somehow, billions of years ahead of schedule). There is no reason offered for why the sun is dying this early death, or why such a tiny little ship could possibly restart it. It's probably because the writers couldn't think of a good reason for either to work, so they just let it sit there like a giant gorilla in the room.

The premise is pretty absurd if you know anything about why the sun (or any star) does what it does. I sort of knew that going into this movie, and was prepared to deal with the tremors having such a bad premise with no explanation what-so-ever would do to my poor brain. It actually gets worse from there. Really. I almost turned it off at several points but I really wanted to get a blog post out this week so I persevered.

Part of the problem, I think, is the movie tried to be Event Horizon—which is actually a pretty good movie right up until the last 30% of it (it flew off the rails spectacularly, but it was a good sci-fi movie right up to that point). This film did replicate several moments in Event Horizon, but did it pretty poorly such that there was no "wow" factor or anything like that. It might have been a better movie if it had tried to be its own thing, but instead it wound up being pretty boring and painful.

Well, before I make this a completely negative blog post, let me try and say a few good things about the film:

1. Having an organic oxygen production/recycling facility on a long term mission is good, realistic, and something NASA is actually looking at. This is about the only good idea in this movie, but at least they got this right.

2. If you had a shot of vodka every time a character says something that is blatantly or egregiously against the laws of physics (basic ones, nothing complicated) or is contrary to what we know is the case about the universe though many many verifying experiments, you'd be falling-down drunk by the end of the movie. This is not really a good thing, but I can see how alcohol would vastly improve this film. If you're playing this particular drinking game, this movie is good for it.

3. There were a lot of good actors in the film doing their best with a bad script. (I can only assume they needed rent money that month).

4. It was, to my surprise, internally consistent. It violated physics and biology pretty regularly and in the same ways over and over again.

5. The movie ended. This was a very good thing.

Make of this what you will but if you are going to see the movie, definitely play the drinking game. (I didn't, and now I have to live with that).