The Bad Weather Friend

tags: horror, humor, mystery, sci-fi. supernatural, suspense

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

From Goodreads

Benny is so nice they feel compelled to destroy him, but he has a friend who should scare the hell out of them.

Benny Catspaw’s perpetually sunny disposition is tested when he loses his job, his reputation, his fiancée, and his favorite chair. He’s not paranoid. Someone is out to get him. He just doesn’t know who or why.

Then Benny receives an inheritance from an uncle he’s never heard of: a giant crate and a video message. All will be well in time. How strange—though it’s a blessing, his uncle promises. Stranger yet is what’s inside the crate. He’s a seven-foot-tall self-described “bad weather friend” named Spike whose mission is to help people who are just too good for this world. Spike will take care of it. He’ll find Benny’s enemies. He’ll deal with them. This might be satisfying if Spike wasn’t such a menacing presence with terrifying techniques of intimidation.

In the company of Spike and a fascinated young waitress-cum-PI-in-training named Harper, Benny plunges into a perilous high-speed adventure, the likes of which never would have crossed the mind of a decent guy like him.

Amazon Prime First Reads for the first time ever offers one great book and possibly one good book to start the year.

Dean Koontz's The Bad Weather Friend is superb. The usual sci-fi, horror, humor, mystery, and supernatural are all present, with a little romance added to the mix. It has a fabulous happy ending and I laughed out loud at the parts where Dean Koontz poked fun at almost everything from "climate change advocate"(Greta), pronouns (he/she/it/they/them), smutty fictions (A Game of Thrones), industrial cheap home decor (Ikea), EVs, artists with no actual talent (Francis Bacon, Edvard Munch, Jackson Pollock), and so much more.

Nice Benny never gets angry and doesn't get shocked by anything. When he was a small child, his abusive and drunkard father was shot and killed in front of him. He was spared by the killer because he didn't go into hysterics nor manifested fear. He instead proudly showed the LEGO he was building, a staircase to heaven, and the killer probably thought he was a retard. 

His most horrible experience was in a private school out in the remote mountains when he was 13 years old. The demented wife of the school principal seemed like a descendant of Dr. Moreau, experimenting on unsuspecting children of wealthy parents. She was actually infected by aliens and was being used by nefarious secret government agency to study how to subdue the citizens but she had a more sinister plan which was to rule the whole universe. 

When he was a 23 year old successful realtor, he received a shipment from his weird Uncle and the box contained an 1800 year old 7 foot tall alien being called a craggle. Spike, the craggle reminds me of a golem or a jinni. He has super powers and is staying with Benny to protect him from evil people, AKA the elites, who cannot stand nice people and want to kill them all to prevent more nice people to multiply.

I like the humor, the political jabs, and Odd Thomas vibes, although I find Dean Koontz inserted too many metaphor.

I love the book and recommend it to Dean Koontz fans. (Leftists will find themselves being ridiculed in the book so avoid if you are a humorless leftist.) 😁

Adjustment Team

tags: Philip K Dick, science fiction, short story

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

From Goodreads

After getting held up on his way to work, Ed Fletcher worries about the repercussions he will face when he reaches his office. Little does he know that his late arrival will give him a glimpse behind the very fabric of human existence and put him at odds with powers he cannot comprehend.

"Adjustment Team" is a science fiction tale of Ed Fletcher, a real estate salesman who leads a normal life, until one day, when he leaves the house for work a few minutes later than he should have. A man called the Clerk approaches a talking dog, and explains in businesslike manner that "Sector T137" is scheduled for "adjustment" at 9 o'clock. He instructs the dog to bark at exactly 8:15, which the Clerk explains will summon "A Friend with a Car", which will take Ed Fletcher to work before 9, but while the Clerk is preoccupied, the dog falls asleep and as a result barks a minute too late. Inside Ed's house, while he is getting ready for work, Ed is accosted by a door-to-door insurance salesman and doesn't leave for work until 9:30. Ed arrives at his office building, but upon stepping onto the curb, finds himself in a sunless version of the world where everything and everyone is immobile, ash-grey, and crumbles at his touch. Ed is accosted by white-robed men, who talk about "de-energizing" him with a hose-like piece of equipment, but he flees outside and across the street, back to the everyday world, fearing he's had a psychotic episode.

I'm again on a Philip K. Dick binge-reading. It started when I watched The Adjustment Bureau on Netflix streaming which is based on PKD's short story, Adjustment Team.

The movie IMHO is a great adaptation of the story adding a love story to explain further the short story. I liked it very much regardless of the female lead, Emily Blunt. Matt Damon is very good with his boyish looks and natural acting. I also liked the script, mysterious and philosophical yet full of humor, just like the short story.

Back to the short story which feels dreamlike, maybe nightmarish. It has a "happy ending". It is equally funny and serious while imparting a relevant or maybe debatable message. I like PKD's simple writing style, no flowery language, just straight story telling.

Highly recommended.

JUNG_E

 

tags: Korean movie, Netflix, sci-fi

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Set in the year 2194, JUNG_E portrays a desolated Earth in the 22nd century that is no longer habitable due to climate change where humans are forced to live in a man-made shelter built for survival. Amid the chaos, an internal war breaks out in the shelter.

Victory – meaning the end of the war – now hinges on finding a way to clone the legendary mercenary Jung_E into a scalable robot.

The Korean movie shot up to #1 on Neflix in USA after just 1 day of streaming. I'm going to watch it again. I love it for the visuals specially the scary robots that can walk, skate, and leap to kill their prey. The emotional sequence between mother (JUNG_E) and daughter makes this AI movie a little different from other sci-fi movies and I like it. The ending reminds me of one of my favorite AI movies, Alex Garland's Ex Machina.

Highly recommended for sci-fi fans.

The Big Dark Sky

tags: horror, mystery, sci-fi

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

From Goodreads

A group of strangers bound by terrifying synchronicity becomes humankind’s hope of survival in an exhilarating, twist-filled novel by Dean Koontz, the #1 New York Times bestselling master of suspense.

As a girl, Joanna Chase thrived on Rustling Willows Ranch in Montana until tragedy upended her life. Now thirty-four and living in Santa Fe with only misty memories of the past, she begins to receive pleas—by phone, through her TV, in her dreams: I am in a dark place, Jojo. Please come and help me. Heeding the disturbing appeals, Joanna is compelled to return to Montana, and to a strange childhood companion she had long forgotten.

She isn’t the only one drawn to the Montana farmstead. People from all walks of life have converged at the remote ranch. They are haunted, on the run, obsessed, and seeking answers to the same omniscient danger Joanna came to confront.

All the while, on the outskirts of Rustling Willows, a madman lurks with a vision to save the future. Mass murder is the only way to see his frightening manifesto come to pass.

Through a bizarre twist of seemingly coincidental circumstances, a band of strangers now find themselves under Montana’s big dark sky. Their lives entwined, they face an encroaching horror. Unless they can defeat this threat, it will spell the end for humanity

Dean Koontz has written another satisfying novel - science fiction, mystery, fantasy, and horror. 

It has almost all the things I like in a novel - aliens, AI, resourceful good people, evil villains, and as a bonus, a hilarious young couple for comedic relief. A little romance, albeit one-sided. The 2 year-old AI falls in love with her creator, the handsome and elegant genius Ganesh Patel. No dogs in the novel but plenty of wild animals.

Highly recommended for Dean Koontz fans.

Jimmy Two Eyes

Quicksilver

tags: fantasy, horror, mystery, sci-fi, supernatural

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

From GoodReads

Quinn Quicksilver was born a mystery―abandoned at three days old on a desert highway in Arizona. Raised in an orphanage, never knowing his parents, Quinn had a happy if unexceptional life. Until the day of “strange magnetism.” It compelled him to drive out to the middle of nowhere. It helped him find a coin worth a lot of money. And it practically saved his life when two government agents showed up in the diner in pursuit of him. Now Quinn is on the run from those agents and who knows what else, fleeing for his life.

During a shoot-out at a forlorn dude ranch, he finally meets his destined companions: Bridget Rainking, a beauty as gifted in foresight as she is with firearms, and her grandpa Sparky, a romance novelist with an unusual past. Bridget knows what it’s like to be Quinn. She’s hunted, too. The only way to stay alive is to keep moving.

Barreling through the Sonoran Desert, the formidable trio is impelled by that same inexplicable magnetism toward the inevitable. With every deeply disturbing mile, something sinister is in the rearview―an enemy that is more than a match for Quinn. Even as he discovers within himself resources that are every bit as scary.

Another 5 star sci-fi mystery thriller with a touch of Koontz' political slant which is slightly right leaning so if you are a screaming leftist fascist democrat, you might not like the novel.

Quinn and Bridget see alien-like monsters the trio encounter and eliminate whom they dub "Screamers". The "Screamers" don't have facial features like eyes and nose. They have a large toothless maw that looks like Edvard Munch's The Scream. Reminds me so much of this screaming woman upon learning Ultra MAGA King President Trump won the 2016 presidential elections. Dean Koontz probably was thinking of this screamer when he started writing the novel.😁😁😁

The trio's first priority is getting rid of a false prophet whose victims are abducted and made into slaves to work for his organization's rich elite members. Think NXIVM, an alleged sex cult covered up as a self-help group. The "Screamers" they further encounter will have to wait after the rescue of the victims.

This is interesting:

The 3 men who found 3 day old baby Quinn Quicksilver in the middle of a highway have similar names to the Three Kings or magi who visited the newborn baby Jesus Christ - Kaspar, Melchior, and Balthazar. After finishing reading the book, I was wondering what the significance could be and if this would be a series just like Odd Thomas. Quinn, Bridget, and grandpa Sparky went to see Kaspar only; the other 2 did not appear again in the book.

The Silent Sea

The Silent Sea 

Korean drama, mystery, sci-fi series 

Complete 8 Episodes, Netflix streaming 

With Bae Doona, Gong Yoo, Lee Joon 

December 24, 2021

⭐⭐⭐⭐

The series is brilliant tackling the subject of killing hundreds to save millions. The story borrows from a few sci-fi novels and movies specially Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go. Is it ethical to create clones for experiment that kills them in order to save humanity? The illegality of owning pets is borrowed from Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?. The dialog-heavy style which many viewers find boring is similar to Danny Boyle's movie Sunshine and the Russian movie Solaris. IMHO, the story is complete and doesn't need a second season. You draw your own conclusion based on what happened.

Spoilers

The Tomorrow War

Tags: aliens, Amazon original, streaming, horror, sci-fi, time travel

⭐

from Amazon

Time travelers arrive from 2051 to deliver an urgent message: 30 years in the future mankind is losing war against a deadly alien species. The only hope for survival is for soldiers and civilians to be transported to the future and join the fight.

Just say NO to this rubbish disguised as a movie which is blah and has nothing new to offer in this genre. Dreadful in everything - acting, script, CGI. I tried to watch the whole thing but couldn't continue torturing myself. 

Amazon streaming has been coming out with original programming but I never found a single movie or series that is appealing to me. This is the first movie that made me click on it because it's Sci-Fi and Chris Pratt is on it. Chris Pratt is a lousy lousy lousy actor. He can only do Star Lord and nothing else.

IMHO foreign language Sci-Fi movies and TV series are superior to this Hollywood produced wokest movie yet and I was scratching my head thinking why Chris Pratt signed up for this. Maybe he has career suicidal tendencies or was given tons of cash. Wrong move Chris. I hope he chooses a better project next time.

Do yourself a favor - skip this nonsense and keep your IQ points as a bonus. Re-watch Edge Of Tomorrow instead. You'll thank me.

Katla

Katla streaming on Netflix

8 episodes, 40 - 50 minutes

In Icelandic with English subtitles 

tags: drama, fantasy, Iceland, mystery, science fiction, supernatural

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

from Netflix

A year after Katla's eruption, the shattered survivors are still grappling with the aftermath. Suddenly, an ash-caked woman appears on the glacier.

The drama mystery series from Iceland, although not a crime mystery, reminds me of the Welsh crime drama series Hinterland and the Russian movie How I Ended This Summer for its beautiful but bleak scenery. The mystery of the naked woman covered in ashes emerging on the glacier is captivating right from episode 1. More ash-caked people emerge. Fascinating watch.

Highly recommended.

On Episode 5, the little boy who died 3 years earlier appears as one of the ash-caked creatures but his father knows he is not his real son. The mother runs away with him and on the road realizes he is not who he is so she abandons him in the middle of the road. On Episode 6, he is shown looking at a downed small airplane. With his outfit -blue coat over light colored sweater and pajama pants, and his boots - he looks like the Little Prince. Then he starts talking to the dying sheep. Definitely an allusion to The Little Prince novel and maybe a clue as to his origin. 

Spoilers

Project Hail Mary

tags: mystery, science fiction, thriller

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

from GoodReads

Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission--and if he fails, humanity and the earth itself will perish.

Except that right now, he doesn't know that. He can't even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it.

All he knows is that he's been asleep for a very, very long time. And he's just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company.

His crewmates dead, his memories fuzzily returning, he realizes that an impossible task now confronts him. Alone on this tiny ship that's been cobbled together by every government and space agency on the planet and hurled into the depths of space, it's up to him to conquer an extinction-level threat to our species.

And thanks to an unexpected ally, he just might have a chance.

Part scientific mystery, part dazzling interstellar journey, Project Hail Mary is a tale of discovery, speculation, and survival to rival The Martian--while taking us to places it never dreamed of going.

I loved Andrew Weir's The Martian but his second novel Artemis failed to entertain me. Project Hail Mary has redeemed him in my eyes. He is back in this fascinating science fiction adventure with a lovable and admirable character who is enthusiastic, witty, and has a great sense of humor, to finish his job regardless of his current situation. 

Ryland Grace is forced chosen to go on a space trip mission to save the sun, earth, and humankind. The sun is losing power because of tiny organisms sucking up its energy. [Nope, not by crazy creepy Bill Gates who wants to shield the sun to stop bogus climate change.] Ryland is alone in a small spaceship with his memory gone but slowly regaining them. He becomes a friend/ally with a non-earthling during this desperate suicide Hail Mary mission and the two of them work together for the same goal - to save their planets. Ryland calls the space alien Rocky who is the very definition of adorable. Rocky reminds me of Baby Groot from Guardians of the Galaxy because he/it acts like a cute genius child. There are loads of math and science stuff going on but they are interesting instead of boring, just like The Martian. The ending is a little bittersweet because EE can't phone home.   

Highly recommended for science fiction fans.

**********************************************************************************

From Wiki

Hail Mary refers to the Hail Mary pass, a very long forward pass in American football, typically made in desperation, with great difficulty of achieving a completion. Due to the small chance of success, it makes reference to the Catholic Hail Mary prayer for help.

Oxygen

tags: mystery, Netflix streaming, science fiction

from Netflix

A young woman wakes up in a medical cryo unit. She doesn’t remember who she is or how she ended up sequestered in a box no larger than a coffin. As she’s running out of oxygen, she must rebuild her memory to find a way out of her nightmare.

I was bored to death watching this French science fiction dreck but I finished it hoping the ending will be mind blowing like Oblivion and Vanilla Sky. Unfortunately, it isn't. I had to friggin' endure 91 minutes of mediocre script, acting, and movie set. The actress constantly licking and biting her lips is so irritating. 😒

The reason why she is in a small box with oxygen running out doesn't become clear until almost at the very end. This has been done before but with better story, writing, deeper meaning, more suspense, and obviously better actress. Is there any point to this movie? None that I can think of. It is pure garbage IMHO. Goose egg.

Avoid. It's Ugly.

Space Sweepers

Coming to Netflix streaming February 5, 2021. Sci-fi movie from South Korea. 2 hours 16 minutes.

Chasing after space debris and faraway dreams in year 2092, four misfits unearth explosive secrets during the attempted trade of a wide-eyed humanoid.

Can't wait to see Song Joong-ki, nae sarang. 💘 

The Call

tags, fantasy, horror, Korean movie, Netflix streaming, thriller

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

form AsianWiki

Two women live in different times. Seo-yeon (Park Shin-hye) lives in the present day and Young-sook (Jun Jong-seo) lives in the past. They connect with one phone call.

I've been waiting for this movie since the start of the year and was surprised to see it on Netflix this morning available for streaming. It's another satisfying thriller from South Korea and starring one of my favorite actresses, Park Shin-hye. 

2 women from different time lines connect via a land line phone call. The woman from 1999, Young-sook pleaded to Seo-yeon, the woman from 2020, to save her from her stepmother who tries to exorcise her by flogging. The 2 women became friends over the phone and Young-sook changed the past by saving Seo-yeon's father from dying by a fire accident in their house. Changing the past is never a good idea because it unleashed a serial killer, and the evil past of one of the women.

The almost 2 hour movie never lets you relax for even more than 2 minutes as you don't know who's going to die a bloody death next. Park Shin-hye and Jun Jong-seo (Burning) are both very good in the movie.

Highly recommended for Korean movie fans 

Elsewhere

tags: parallel multiverse, mystery, sci-fi, thriller

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

from GoodReads

The fate of the world is in the hands of a father and daughter in an epic novel of wonder and terror by Dean Koontz, the #1 New York Times bestselling master of suspense.

Since his wife, Michelle, left seven years ago, Jeffy Coltrane has worked to maintain a normal life for himself and his eleven-year-old daughter, Amity, in Suavidad Beach. It’s a quiet life, until a local eccentric known as Spooky Ed shows up on their doorstep.

Ed entrusts Jeffy with hiding a strange and dangerous object—something he calls “the key to everything”—and tells Jeffy that he must never use the device. But after a visit from a group of ominous men, Jeffy and Amity find themselves accidentally activating the key and discovering an extraordinary truth. The device allows them to jump between parallel planes at once familiar and bizarre, wondrous and terrifying. And Jeffy and Amity can’t help but wonder, could Michelle be just a click away?

Jeffy and Amity aren’t the only ones interested in the device. A man with a dark purpose is in pursuit, determined to use its grand potential for profound evil. Unless Amity and Jeffy can outwit him, the place they call home may never be safe again.

Dean Koontz does it again. The highly entertaining yet scary novel is a short sci-fi thriller with some horrific people and machines alike. Father, daughter, and a new friend face danger while travelling in parallel universes. Dean Koontz is clever by subtly reminding free people what antifa fascists are up to and to be vigilant. Amity's pet domesticated mouse accidentally activates the "key to everything" and travels with Jeffy and Amity to a parallel city. It's cute and a welcome change to Dean Koontz favorite golden retriever.

Highly recommended for Dean Koontz fans.

Laplace's Witch

tags: Japanese, murder mystery, sci-fi, thriller, Takashi Miike

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

from Asianwiki

Two people are poisoned to death by hydrogen sulfide at hot springs located in different regions. The police ask Aoe Shusuke, a geochemistry professor, to determine whether the deaths were caused by freak accidents or were murders. While investigating the cases, Aoe Shusuke comes across a young woman, Uhara Madoka who guesses correctly that a natural phenomenon will take place. The police begin to suspect Uhara Madoka might be related to the deaths.

Takashi Miike directing a murder mystery movie based on a novel by Keigo Higashino - how can I not love it. It's a 2-hour movie full of twists and turns, and a lot of intelligent dialog. It's hard to guess the who and why and my early assumptions are all proven wrong. As in Higashino's previous novels, the story uses mathematics and science, hence the title Laplace's Witch, from the writing by French scholar and polymath Pierre-Simon Laplace, Laplace's Demon. 2 young people who underwent procedures to have precognitive abilities as described in Laplace's Demon help in solving the murders.

Highly recommended. 

The School Nurse Files

tags: action, comedy, fantasy, ghosts, mystery, Netflix streaming, Kdrama

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

from Netflix

Eun-young is an ordinary school nurse with an extraordinary secret: she sees strange and beautiful jelly creatures that no one else can see. She’s not particularly fond of this gift, but when the school comes under attack, it’s up to her and fellow teacher In-pyo to save the day. Question is, does she feel like saving the world today?

After watching this new Netflix 6-part series from South Korea, I felt as though I have just walked into Haruki Murakami/David Mitchell/Takashi Miike universe. It is fantastically weird full of weird people competing for the most weird one. Eun-Young, the school nurse has a gift of seeing jellyfish-like creatures which are visible to her only. She uses her plastic toys, a retractable sword and a gun to kill the jellies. She is a ghostbuster protecting the school kids from evil spirits roaming the school. When a swarm of bugs appeared, again only visible to the nurse, a female high school student appears out of nowhere. She was never born to human parents and has lived many lives as a male and for the first time is living as a female enrolled as a new student in the school. She is a bug eater which is beneficial to humans much like green lacewings and ladybugs eating harmful insects to protect plants. This character dies every 20 years and is reborn as a high school teen so she or he never ages. The series is absolutely entertaining.

I just wished the male lead is older. Nam Joo-Hyuk is 26 years old, 12 years younger than the female lead actress. I like both of them, just don't do a romance story line later if there is a second season. I wish McKenzie has more screen time because he's a very interesting character. Or maybe it's just me because the actor playing him, Yoo Teo, is good in all the shows I've seen him in specially as Ragaseu in Arthdal Chronicle and as Kwon Min-Seong in Chocolate, both streaming on Netflix. All 6 episodes are streaming on Netflix and now I can't wait for the second season. I have to re-watch.

Piranesi

tags: fantasy, mystery, science fiction

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

from GoodReads

Piranesi lives in the House.
Perhaps he always has.

In his notebooks, day after day, he makes a clear and careful record of its wonders: the labyrinth of halls, the thousands upon thousands of statues, the tides that thunder up staircases, the clouds that move in slow procession through the upper halls.

On Tuesdays and Fridays Piranesi sees his friend, the Other. At other times he brings tributes of food and waterlilies to the Dead. But mostly, he is alone.

Messages begin to appear, scratched out in chalk on the pavements. There is someone new in the House. But who are they and what do they want? Are they a friend or do they bring destruction and madness as the Other claims?

Lost texts must be found; secrets must be uncovered. The world that Piranesi thought he knew is becoming strange and dangerous.

The Beauty of the House is immeasurable; its Kindness infinite.

Wow! I love it. Enough said. 💗💗💗

A Princess Of Mars

tags, classics, Martians, sci-fi

from goodreads

A Princess of Mars is the first of eleven thrilling novels that comprise Edgar Rice Burroughs' most exciting saga, known as The Martian Series. It's the beginning of an incredible odyssey in which John Carter, a gentleman from Virginia and a Civil War veteran, unexpectedly finds himself on the red planet, scene of continuing combat among rival tribes. Captured by a band of six-limbed, green-skinned savage giants called Tharks, Carter soon is accorded all the honor of a chieftain after it's discovered that his muscles, accustomed to Earth's greater gravity, now give him a decided advantage in strength. And when his captors take as prisoner Dejah Thoris, the lovely human-looking princess of the city of Helium, Carter must call upon every ounce of strength, courage, and ingenuity to rescue her before she becomes the slave of the depraved Thark leader, Tal Hajus!

Excerpt:
Her oval face was beautiful in the extreme, her every feature finely chiseled and exquisite, her eyes large and lustrous, and her head surmounted by a mass of coal black, waving hair, caught loosely into a strange yet becoming coiffure. Similar in face and figure to women of Earth, she was nevertheless a true Martian--and prisoner of the fierce green giants who held me captive, as well!

Most new fiction books are mediocre IMHO, usually peppered with obscenity and annoyingly "politically correct". I am now reading classic sci-fi and mystery novels that I never read before. The ebooks are free to borrow either from the county library or Amazon Prime. 

I've never read any Edgar Rice Burroughs books and I'm surprised I like this first book in the Mars series. It is well written, interesting, and hard to put down. I think Star Wars copied the jedi term from this series - jed, jedakk, etc. to mean leader, emperor, and so on. I suspect the princess, Dejah Thoris, is the model for Princess Leia when she became the prisoner of Jabba the Hutt. Dejah is scantilly clad because they don't wear clothes in Mars apparently. Princess Dejah was captured by enemies twice and had to be rescued by John Carter. She's no damsel in distress, though. She's tough and highly intelligent but to keep the peace in Mars she is willing to marry the ugly enemies of her family.