A nice little essay on SF cinema that doesn't feel that structured. Lots of nice trivia but the author is quite taken by Star Wars to the detriment of previous SF movies. The only memorable moment is where the writer starts slagging off John Boorman's Zardoz (a film I feel is a under-rated gem). Something to give your little brother to shut him up on a very long car trip.

When I bought this book online I thought that it contains plenty of science fiction with details, but I discovered that it is full of pictures with few words in each page.... really not worth it's price!.

I was disappointed with the book.I hoped the book would describe in details, different ways to create a complete and meaningful scroll saw picture from any scene or a picture. What to include or what not to include to get desired effect with minimum lines and cuts etc.Unfortunately, there is no such discussion or guidance where one can learn and apply to create your own pictures. The 'wolf pack' picture described in the book does explain how to scroll saw the picture.The book is more of a scroll saw pattern book.

The format of this book is good as far as general information and
layout are concerned, but underlying its theme throughout is the
spirit of typically arrogant contemptuousness, best exemplified by the now exposed and infamous "Reaganist" approach of the 1980s which is known all too well. This is totally unacceptable for works of this type.

.... Much of this book focuses on J. Edgar Hoover, a man many, especially homophobes, assume to be gay...What I liked about this book is how he mention his Italian-American heritage and thus blends issues of sexual orientation with ethnicity. One reviewer said he wished the book had photos, my copy of the book did. Perhaps individuals who have jobs where they can't come out will appreciate this book a lot. It was just okay; I wasn't blown away.

Unlike weightier bigraphies like Kevin Brownlow's terrific "David Lean" or Simon Callow's 'Orson Welles-The road to Xanadu," this book feels like author Sanello didn't look much further than magazine articles and trade clips for research. According to the dust cover, he had over half a dozen interviews (7? that must have been exhausting!) with the director himself and a handful of stars (though never really truly substantiated), but it doesn't seem like he thought about interviewing parents, siblings, co-workers, crew members, etc. for any more details or elucidations about this icon of American pop culture. His obvious admiration and fawning over his subject distracts from any possible objectivity and also grows tiresome. The book offers a basic overview of the director's life and work but not much in terms of how he works, communicates, or thinks. For example, there's almost nothing about his relationship with pivotal Amblin producers Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall. Didn't they ever argue, or disagree about anything? How were projects brought in to the company and what was Kennedy and Marshall's thoughts about their boss? There is also no insight from production designers or cinematographers or writers or producers he worked with. For more than just a cursory look at this director's career (up to 1995) look elsewhere.

Take a look at the LA Times Book Review review of this book, published Sunday September 28th 1997. It provides a comprehensive critique of everything that is wrong with this book at the same time as giving you a full synopsis of the story and the controversy.

Slaughter manages to write about some of the most dramatic events in American history without ever evoking a single emotion in the reader. The characters in this book are utterly wooden -- one doesn't even care when Stonewall Jackson dies, though this should be a central point in the plot. The author rarely describes any event from a character's perspective, preferring a distant third-person voice, and thus the reader cannot engage with the events. Deserving of two stars rather than one merely for the depth of research involved, this book is not really worth the reader's time.

The Third Dragon, an international suspense thriller with a touch of Christianity to it, aims for the stars and misses.
Don't get me wrong. The action in this novel is very high-paced and thrilling. It just felt as if Simon wanted to slap some Christian angle to it to get it published on a Christian Fiction shelf.
Simon's characters are real enough. Air Force Maj. Don Stewart is our hero, a kind of fish-out-of-water hero. He and his family are moving to Tokyo, Japan, to work for the U.S. Embassy - but Stewart gets wrapped up in terrorists, nuclear bombs and culture clashes all at the same time.
It seems that Japanese extremists (led by a eerie sumo wrestler) don't like Americans in Japan. And it seems that in this story, they have an ace up their sleeve.
Way back in 1945 when the U.S. and Japan were scuffling in the last of WWII, the first atomic bomb dropped in Japan didn't go off - thus giving the terrorists 50 years later their nucleus of a plan: find the old bomb and make more bombs.
How does a Air Force major get involved?
It's a stretch - but he gets involved anyway and in the process seems to ask people about Christ at all the wrong moments.
Maybe that's what is most interesting about the book. Stewart and his family seem to be down to earth kind of characters. It's just almost too mushy how they all get along. And the Christian angle seemed to be almost an afterthought.
Simon seems to have rushed this publication. His technical details and fast-paced action are very well done, and almost pull this novel out of the fire.
Almost.
Broadman & Holman Publishers have better authors on their rolls that have given us much better Christian-friendly fiction. I hope either they or Simon can up their ante and produce better.

Memo to self: books I listen to in the car should not have

- a complex plot (because if I miss something I'm out of luck)

- a wealth of detail (because it makes the book just too slow-moving)

Unfortunately, this book has both, which drastically limited my appreciation of it. It didn't help, either, that Muller reads with a fast, low, conspiratorial tone, which is appropriate to the book but makes it very hard to hear when driving at the speed limit on I-95.

That being said, LeCarré does a great job of giving one an inside feel of the espionage trade, and he has well-drawn characters. But I think to do the book justice I'd have to read the text rather than having it read to me. Too many times I just didn't understand what was going on or else I let my mind wander as someone's facial expression was described in excruciating detail.