Book Review Catch Up: Pluto

If you were ever a fan of Astro Boy you will love Pluto. The 8 volume Pluto series is based off of an Astro Boy story The Greatest Robot on Earth by manga god Osamu Tezuka.

Pluto really is a love letter to Tezuka by one of the most popular and prominant manga artists of our time Naoki Urasawa.  The art in all of the volumes is absolutely gorgeous while the story has been updated with a more adult bent.  We follow Gesicht (see picture left) in his attempts to solve the case of a string of robot and human deaths.

I loved the entire series but not because I was an Astro Boy fan but because it was such a great story with art to complement it. I'm rating this series a buy.

Is Coffee Losing it's Edge?

A recent study shows that 18-24 year olds prefer caffeinated energy drinks to coffee.  If this trend continues coffee may be dethroned as the dominate energy drink.

Book Review Catch Up: The Lost Fleet Series

The Lost Fleet is a six book series of military sci-fi written by Jack Campbell. In the first book of the series Dauntless we are introduced to Captain Black Jack Geary who has just been thawed out of suspended animation after 100 years.  Captain Geary has been elevated to near mythical levels by the Alliance as he used his command to fight a delaying action at the beginning of the war over 100 years ago. The Alliance forces find Geary on the way to attack the Syndicate home system in a bid to end the war. They see the resurrection of Geary as a good omen. However, they are about to fall in a Syndicate trap. One that only Geary can save them from.

I really liked this series a lot, reading all the books in a 3 week period.  The writer has a military background and he writes the naval battles very well using some realistic physics.  The books are not all space battles though and they offer some good characterization, albeit over a small number of main characters.

It was also very interesting to me to see the parallels between Captain Geary and King Arthur.  Arthur is supposed to return to Britain to save them in their time of greatest need and that's exactly what Geary is doing here for the Alliance.

I recommend all the books in this series as a buy.

LifeHacker's Guide to Tea

A great write up on tea from Lifehacker.com.

PSA: Talking to Your Kids....About Star Wars

Don't let your kids find out about Star Wars on their own. Have the talk for both your sake's.

Buy 1, Get 1

Starting today and running until November 21st Starbucks is offering up a buy one get one free offer on holiday drinks between the hours of 2pm and 5pm. This offer is good at stores in the US and Canada.

MMMmmm...Peppermint Hot Chocolate!

Web Comics Wednesday: Our Valued Customers

Well this isn't exactly news to anyone following comic blogs lately but I had to add my vote for Our Valued Customers as a great new web comic. Basically it is a one panel gag strip about real things over heard at a comic book shop. It is always funny and often profane so it is not exactly safe for work or kids.

Tim Hortons Closing 36 Stores....In America

Tim Hortons is closing 36 stores in New England.  I must admit when I originally read that headline on that story I was confused as I've never seen a Tim Hortons close here in Canada.

The Vorkosigan Series as Free eBooks

Amazing science fiction book publisher Baen has released almost all of the Vorkosigan series by Lois McMaster Bujold as free eBooks.  I've read all of the Vorkosigan series up until the latest novel Cryoburn and throughly enjoyed all of them.

The series follows Miles Vorkosigan on a series of adventures.  What makes things interesting with the series is that the books were not written in chronological order.  This may sound a bit confusing but it is very easy to pick up any book in the series and get a solid read without having to know anything about the other books.

I'd rate all of these books a buy if there weren't already free!