Week at a Glance: March 29 to April 5

Well, here we are in a new week, and what do we see?  Well a whole mess of new stuff cascading across our consciousness!  Let's take a look at some of the most interesting stuff I can dig up...

In the SFSNNJ:
While there are no events in the group this week, there is still a whole lot going on at our Yahoo Group open forum.  Check out the link to the right and catch up on the conversations.

In the Movies:
Last week's big new movie release, How to Train Your Dragon, toppled Alice In Wonderland from its perch at the top of the box office, but can it hold out against this week's up and comers?  The only truly genre film coming out this week is Clash of the Titans, but this one looks like it could be a hugely profitable juggernaut!  On the family side, Furry Vengeance is looking to take the market share from How to Train Your Dragon, but somehow, given the pre-release lack of hype, I doubt it will gain any traction.

On DVD & Blu-Ray:
From the ridiculous to the sublime, look for a bunch of new releases this week at your local video stores and libraries.  Sherlock Holmes comes home, but can the venerable detective hold his own against the Alvin and the Chipmunks Squeakquel in DVD sales?  Also, look for The Baader Meinhof Complex, which, while not SF or genre, is a taught and fantastic historical piece from 2008 exploring the crazy Germans of the 1960-1970 revolutionary organization.  IMAX Under the Sea hits the shelves, giving those with an interest in the oceans of the Earth a wonderfully beautiful look at the splendor of the deeps, without the tedious and semi-intelligible gabble of a Jacques Cousteau narrative.  Finally, I Sell The Dead explores a creepy horror scene of ghouls and corpse eaters, right in the luxury of your living room.

On TV:
Although Caprica is now going on hiatus until summer, weep not for Stargate: Universe returns to SyFy!  The second half of season one promises to be full of adventure and excitement, with action around every corner as the cast of survivors tries to cope with life stranded on the Ancient starship Destiny.  I look forward to Friday, when I can watch the new episode, Space.

In Video Games:
Well, this week sees a plethora of games plastered around the stores.  The most important release of the week is, of course, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II: Stimulus Package, which hits stores on the 30th for all major platforms.  PC Gamers can look for the first expansion to the popular Mount and Blade series with the release of Mount & Blade: Warband, as well as titles like Commando Complete, Heroes of Gaia, Icebreakers, Tank Ace, Three Kingdoms, and Bittos e.  Mortal Online joins the crowded ranks of the MMORPG world this week, though given the massive and sweeping presence of the MMO market, it likely will not hold its own for long.  Looking for some new games on the PS3, well here comes Bomberman Live: Battlefest and the latest Grand Theft Auto: The Lost and the Damned game.  XBox 360 sees a lot of action this week with games like Battle for Atlantis, Starhammer Tactics, Zeno Clash Ultimate Edition, and the much anticipated return of the little blue cyborg who could with MegaMan 10.

In Books:
Ian McEwan's Solar debuts this week, and it looks like this one will be the big splash in the book world.  In other book news, keep your eyes peeled for the latest Patricia Briggs novel, Silver Borne, the fifth book in her Mercy Thompson series.  A new series hitting bookshelves this week, Changless (The Parasol Protectorate) by Gail Carriger, shows us the upside of young, proper, lycanthropes, while The Earth We Live In by Susan Beth Pfeffer takes us into the realm of post-apocalyptic survival one more time.