29/04/09
Hey and welcome to the second edition of THE BOOK REPORT. I’m your host, EuGeNeRoCkS, and once again I’ll be bringing you everything you need to catch up with the book world.

BOOK NEWS
Australian Fantasy writer Garth Nix has two more books announced for the wildly popular THE OLD KINDOM trilogy (or should that now be series?) The first of the new books is titled Clariel: The Lost Abhorsen and is expected in 2010. The second currently has no announced title and is expected in 2011. Just to keep you up to date, the final book in The Keys To The Kingdom series is expected at July the earliest and September the latest.

A sketch of The House for Garth Nix’s latest series: The Keys To The Kingdom. Is should be noted though that according to Garth Nix “It's not a very satisfactory sketch in many ways, because the House is actually more complex and I'd need some sort of three-dimensional projection to show this.”

In even more Twilight news, a release date for the third Twilight movie, Eclipse, has been set for June, 30, 2010. Won’t it be hilarious if the second one bombs?

The cover for Guinness World Records 2010 has been released. It bears the subtitle THE BOOK OF THE DECADE suggesting it’s going to be something big.

BOOK INTERVIEWS
Interviews with Garth Nix are at http://vanderworld.blogspot.com/2005/09/garth-nix.html and http://vanderworld.blogspot.com/2005/09/garth-nix.html. They’re both terribly out of date (The first one about two years and the second one about seven) but they’re still interesting reads nonetheless.

BOOK REVIEW
Title: Mortal Engines
Author: Philip Reeve
Genre: Sci-Fi
Age Recommendation: Ages 12 and up (does contain quite a lot of violence and depressing themes. Not particularly hard to read, but not very easy ever. A fairly long book.)

Mortal Engines is a depressing book, no denying that. If you’re looking for a light hearted read that will make you sing and dance, then look elsewhere. I mean, the book is set in a post apocalyptic wasteland after a fabled sixty minute war, where nearly the entire of human civilisation was wiped out in an hour. And the girl that the main character falls in love with is on an assassination attempt, and also has a sword cut running right along her face. That too.

The books main character is Tom, your normal everyday boy who dreams of adventures, until he encounters Hester. Then he doesn’t have dreams about adventures. He has nightmares about adventures.

This book is genius. Pure genius. And after I’ve said that I might as well give Mortal Engines a rating and end this review. But this is The Book Report your reading, and that’s not how we do business.

People should be warned before reading it that it’s kind of a long book, but for people like me, that’s no bad thing. But really, the story just takes so many twists and turns and churns out one ingenious plot device, one brilliant character, and one awesome setting after the other that you never want it to end. Indeed, if there is one complaint that I have with this book, it is that it ends just as the relationship between Tom and Hester gets interesting. But that’s what sequels are for!!!

I don’t know about other editions, but the edition I read was small, but the words were just big enough to my liking, which I guess is a major plus when you’re trying to immerse yourself in the author’s world.

And on a final note I would like to add that this is actual proper Sci-Fi that kids and adults can read!!!! None of that overly simply stuff that people say is good for all ages but is actually a piece of @#$@. No, this is proper Sci-Fi for young adults, and that’s something that is much too much of a rarity in this genre nowadays.
Rating: 9.4

See Ya!!!!
EuGeNeRoCkS

Email me at eugenericks11@gmail.com

29/04/09

24/4/09

Hello and welcome to the first BOOK REPORT. I’m you’re host EuGeNeRoCkS, and I’ll be bringing you the latest and hottest book news.

Yu can expect author interviews, said news, and whatever I feel like writing about.

BOOK NEWS

A script has already been started for the sequel to the movie TWILIGHT, based on the novel by Stephenie Meyer. The release is planned for November 20 2009.

The third book in the Skulduggery Pleasant series called THE FACELESS ONES. This book has hit bookstores AHEAD of schedule, so fans should emptying their pockets, smashing their piggy banks, and opening their vaults.


Comic book publisher Marvel Comics has adapted The Wizard of OZ for comic book
form!!! The series has already finished but expect a collected edition soon.

BOOK INTERVIEWS

Derek Landy, author of Skulduggery Pleasant has an interview posted on his website. Listen to it here at http://www.skulduggerypleasant.com/us/author/audio.htm

A new Eoin Colfer interview has recently appeared up on Artemis Fowl fan site Artemis Fowl Confidential. Read it here: http://www.artemis-fowl.com/author_interviews/afc_5.php WARNING: CONTAINS MASSIVE SPOILERS FOR PEOPLE WHO HAVE NOT READ ALL ARTEMIS FOWL BOOKS. READ AT OWN RISK.

Author R.L Stine talks about his first Goosebumps series in eight years: Goosebumps HorrorLand in this interview. It’s at http://www.kidsreads.com/authors/au-stine-rl.asp

A BOOK ISSUE

Books are facing increasing competition. Video Games, movies, even the internet are all facing of against books for domination of the media landscape. While books are still undoubtedly the biggest industry, Movies are catching up and the internet is growing at an incredible speed. Are the days of print outnumbered?

Video games are maturing. There’s no way around that. Adult games are becoming a serious industry, with games such as Half-Life 2 and Portal. Any parent that is 100% against video games is frowned down upon, which is a big change since twenty years ago. And companies like Nintendo are pushing the games industry forward, making games that anyone can play, whether you are 5 or 105, and that’s why their currently leading the market. But will video games ever pose a real threat to books? NO. Everybody thought that screens would beat print in the 1990s and everybody’s been proven wrong. While they’re never going to destroy books by themselves, they will certainly contribute if books collapse.

PORTAL is one of the best puzzle games ever. The core idea might seem simple: go through one portal, come out the other. But add things like gravity and killer robots (pictured) into the mix and you got yourself a deal.

Movies where the first real competitor to books and at the moment they are stronger then ever. I mean sure, the overall quality might not be as good as it once was, but big advances in technology like true 3-D are helping movies advance, while books have nowhere left to go tech wise. But will movies ever pose a threat to books? YES. In a way. Hollywood practically lives of book adaptions for goodness sake. If books go down then they’re taking quite a bit of movie revenue with them.

TWILIGHT, the latest in a long line book to film adaptions.

The Internet is by far the fastest growing form of media ever. But first let me get this out of the way: will the Internet ever pose a threat to the written word? ALMOST CERTAINTLY. In fact it already is.

Think about it like this. Because of the Internet, books might never cease to exist, but physical print will. Different services let you download books and read them for a price, and when there’s downloading involved can piracy be too far behind? For now people like to have something physical, but that might all change when publishers start backing downloadable books and it’s presented as a cheaper alternative.

The Internet is by far books biggest competitor.

So the future is not looking too bright for books at the moment is it? But I don’t think we will ever see in our lifetime the annihilation of the physical book, and hopefully the written world shall endure forever.

And so that’s it for the first edition of THE BOOK REPORT. Remember, I’m you’re host EuGeNeRoCkS, and I'll be getting you up the speed in the world of books as much as I can.

EuGeNeRoCkS

24/4/09