TED Gem

February 25, 2010 at 10:26 pm (The World Around Me)

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So Absurd You Can’t Stop

February 22, 2010 at 10:47 pm (Books)

Say that you want to read the Left Behind series, but you just don’t have time to work through all 14 (or 20, or whatever they’re up to now). Did you think that what it really needed was a heavy dose of Scientology?
Have you ever gone to a Michael Bay movie (Transformers, Armeggedon, you know, big on boom not so much on plot) and thought, ‘I wonder what the book would’ve been like…’
Do you like Dan Brown books but wish it was a bit more obvious what was factual basis for the fictional story and what was twisted manifestations of the the author’s imagination?

Well then. I’ve got just the books for you.

At Meg’s graduation Matt gave me a book he had read and thought I would enjoy. It was In His Image by James BeauSeigneur, the first book of The Christ Clone Trilogy.

No, seriously.

The premise is that when the scientific team took samples from the Shroud of Turin, they found skins cells that were still alive. Really. Yet instead of telli g the rest of the team the scientist took it home and used it to clone Jesus. Really. He then thought it proper to name the clone in the spirit of discovery and exploration so he named him Chris. As in Christopher Columbus, not Chris-t.

I’m really not making this up. Seriously.

Honest.

The subsequent events in the books, the Rapture, several World Wars, plagues, aliens, Armaggedon, giant killer Asteroids and even the occasional red herring take it so far off a cliff that not only does the base premise seem downright plausible but it goes so far off the edge of reason that even the lemmings turned back.

I loved it. I read all three. They were so bizarely absurd that I couldn’t put them down. No matter how bad they got I couldn’t put them down. Right now I’m thinking about seeing 2012 for a dose of reality.

Hyperbole aside, no, wait, that’s right in line with them. I did stick it out for the 14 book run of Left Behind (at least until the second coming which came maybe halfway through the last book, i was still teying to figure out how they stretched it that far when they started adding more books. I quit then. Seriously guys, it was a great 7 book series, know when to let it go) and I’ve gotta say this somehow got more death and destruction (it is the end of the world you know) into three books then LB did in 14. Yet it still managed to be just as overly drawn out in the final book. That, my friends, is skill.

I must admit there was one moment, one turn of a character arc that I did truly emotionally enjoy (I’ll leave it to you to find). But by the end I was so totally fed up with either side that even though I could clearly see where the author was pointing I just couldn’t bring myself ’round.

A totally enjoyable romp but total, complete trash. You should check it out.

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And you thought the Glass Ghillie was strange…

February 11, 2010 at 10:50 am (Books, Movies)

I don’t know if it’s entertaining or makes any sort of sense or is an equally bewildering if you watch it from the beginning.  However, if you’re randomly flipping through channels and come across it in the last 5 minutes, you may well be stuck watching it to the end in a desperate attempt to make some sense of the images rolling past your screen.

Oddly enough, I’m not talking about the made for tv version of a Seth Grahame-Smith novel.  Such might be of far greater quality.  Still, this is in his vein.  When the credits rolled and we were shook out of our daze I quickly consulted the guide to see what bit of witchcraft had just released us from it’s spell.  The title didn’t help. Especially with the lack of a SGS link.

Jane Austen’s Mafia!  (no, really)

And I thought Scientology laced armageddon trilogies were strange (more on this later)

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Let it… plow?

February 6, 2010 at 12:30 pm (The World Around Me)

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