Tony Calder Tony’s Comments (group member since Dec 19, 2018)


Tony’s comments from the Sci-fi and Heroic Fantasy group.

Showing 1,021-1,040 of 1,069

Jul 13, 2019 06:24PM

45059 RJ wrote: "I really enjoyed the first film. I thought they nailed it, even down to the dwarves singing in Bilbo's home prior to leaving on their quest."

That's fair. The first film was certainly the best of them. The second was terrible for the changes it made to soul of the book. The third was not great, but the Battle of the Five Armies was well done.
Jul 10, 2019 09:06PM

45059 Journey to the Centre of the Earth and Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea are, IMO, his best works. I found From the Earth to the Moon and 'round the Moon to be very slow. He certainly tries to put more science into his stories than H.G. Wells, but is not as good a storyteller. Around the World in Eighty Days and The Mysterious Island are straight adventure stories, not SFF. Around the World is a good story, but Mysterious Island I also found to be very slow - although if you ever find yourself shipwrecked on a deserted island, it's got a lot of useful survival tips :)
Jul 10, 2019 06:20PM

45059 I have started on The Distant Suns, the third book in Sailing to Utopia. Although listed as volume 5 in the Tale of the Eternal Champion, neither of the first two books in this compilation had anything to do with the Eternal Champion - for this volume, at least, it was all marketing.
Jul 10, 2019 06:13PM

45059 There is a LOT more in the books than was in the films. I am a huge Tolkien fan and I remember at the time of initial release a lot of people like me found a lot to criticise about the films. For me, however, I thought the films were great - I understand that you can't adapt books of that complexity into 2 or 3 hour films without making some sacrifices. Following the success of GoT, I wonder if Amazon Prime is considering re-adapting the books into 3 seasons of TV?

As for the film adaptations of The Hobbit - well, I think I'll just leave it as disappointing and not get into it :)
Jul 08, 2019 04:10AM

45059 While still deciding what to start on next, I finished off the anthology I have been reading for over a year, The Mammoth Book of Steampunk Adventures. The biggest problem with it, and the reason I kept putting it aside, is that far too many of the stories in here aren't steampunk - adding a few automata, or some steam-powered gadgets doesn't make a story steampunk.
Jul 06, 2019 07:08AM

45059 Finished Red Energy, the final book in the first Alex Cave trilogy. I had been planning to go straight on to Gravity, the next book in the Alex Cave series, but Red Energy was relatively disappointing, so I'm going to give it some thought.
Jul 05, 2019 08:14AM

45059 I finished off Cold Energy and have now started Red Energy, the final book in the first trilogy of the The Alex Cave Series.
Jun 30, 2019 12:54AM

45059 I finished Dead Energy, which reads more like a geopolitical thriller than a science fiction novel. I'm about to start Cold Energy, which is the second book in The Alex Cave Series
Jun 27, 2019 06:59AM

45059 Started on Dead Energy, the first book in The Alex Cave Series
Jun 23, 2019 05:36AM

45059 I finished The Black Corridor, which was surprisingly dark. I have started Brian Lumley's book of Cthulhu Mythos novellas - The Taint and Other Novellas: Best Mythos Tales No. 1
Jun 20, 2019 07:13AM

45059 I finished Where the Hell is Tesla?, which I enjoyed - it is lightweight, but funny. If you enjoy the Bill and Ted movies, you'll probably like this. I have started The Black Corridor
Jun 15, 2019 11:38PM

45059 I finished The Ice Schooner by Michael Moorcock - ok,but not one of his best. I have now started Where the Hell is Tesla?
Jun 09, 2019 07:45PM

45059 I've started The Ice Schooner by Michael Moorcock. Even when writing what is supposed to be science fiction, it reads more like fantasy.
45059 The Last Starfighter is, IMO, a great film and well deserving of its cult status. Iron Eagle is the opposite (although I don't know of anyone who considers Iron Eagle a cult film).
Jun 06, 2019 07:56PM

45059 I finished Oceanworlds, which definitely classes as hard sci-fi, and I've read another couple of stories in the anthology The Mammoth Book of Steampunk Adventures. I'm still deciding on what to read next.
May 23, 2019 09:42PM

45059 I have finished Path of the Bold: Superhero Anthology, which was a fun read. I have now started Oceanworlds
May 21, 2019 02:26PM

45059 Kivrin wrote: "Is it bad that when I saw the title of the book that I thought it was about Oak Island? I'm addicted to that stupid show."

Hehe, I hadn't ever heard of Oak Island (or the show) until I looked it up after seeing your comment :)
45059 For a superhero series, I think the Wildcards series edited by George RR Martin is pretty good. Certainly the first dozen books maintain a reasonable quality - I haven't read past that and I think it's up to 22 or 23 books now.
May 15, 2019 05:55PM

45059 I finished The Templars' Secret Island which, to my complete and utter lack of astonishment, didn't really shed any light on the Templars' secret treasure :) I have started Path of the Bold: Superhero Anthology, which I expect to be a pretty light read.
May 13, 2019 06:51PM

45059 Yeah, the tech levels demonstrated on Discovery are a bit of a problem, and I really, really don't know why they decided to redesign Klingons. And if they had the tech to build fleets of drone fighters - which is completely understandable, we have that tech now - where were they against the Borg or the Dominion?