Monday, April 5, 2010

Week at a Glance: April 5 to April 11

Greetings Science Fiction fans,

Now that the water, power, and cable have stabilized, the rugs are drying on the lawn, and the nephews are back under some semblance of control, we can get back into the important job of running the Blog!  Hoorah!  Seriously, though, last week was pretty monstrous, but thankfully, we survived, and the holiday went off without a hitch.  Now, on to looking at the week ahead...

In the SFSNNJ...
Tuesday Chris Hasselkus leads That's Science Fiction! at the Hillsdale library for a viewing of Hayao Miyazaki's Kiki's Delivery Service from 7p to 9p, with a post event meal to be determined after the meeting.  On Saturday April 10th, Face the Fiction welcome author Jeff Somers for what promises to be a very memorable night.  Having recently read The Electric Church, I have to say that I am looking forward to Mr. Somers' presentation with baited breath.  Look for a review of The Electric Church on Wednesday during our normal Book Review date.

In the Movies...
Clash of the Titans exploded onto the screen last week, rising to the top of the box office in the midst of lackluster reviews, while the highly acclaimed How to Train Your Dragon slipped down to third, narrowly edged out by Why Did I Get Married Too.  There are really no genre films coming out this week, but keep your eyes peeled for more on Kick Ass, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and The Losers in the upcoming weeks.

On DVD & Blu-Ray...
The Academy Award winning film series The Lord of the Rings smashes its way into the realm of Blu-Ray this week, treating audiences to amazing vistas and epic battles in even clearer picture and sound.  Yup, now you can count all the warts on the Orcs and see the individual hairs on Frodo's feet!  Two classics also make their way to Blu-Ray this week: A Nightmare on Elm Street and Cocoon.  This is interesting as the remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street is due out at the end of this month.  The Studio obviously is not afraid of comparisons if they are releasing this classic in Blu-Ray with more than enough time for folks to buy and watch the classic and contrast the performances, scripts, etc.  Time will tell if this is a good move on the part of New Line Cinemas.

On TV...
V and Flash Forward continue to shine in spite of lagging audience numbers this week, but the big news is the return of Fringe to FOX.  Amazingly, in spite of the fact that it is basically a reset of Strange World, Fringe is a good catch for FOX, finally filling the hole that has been missing since X-Files departed to fight the future (as well as fighting fan expectations).  Stargate Universe and Merlin find Friday nights a godsend with little competition to draw away their respective audiences, and may start to show more chops in the ratings.

In Video Games...
It is kind of a slow week for Video Game releases, with little in the way of new games emerging until next week's high powered hitters whack us upside the head.  Look for the Borderlands Add on Pack and Lead & Gold: Tales of the Old West titles on the shelves, for now, but hoard your dollars, because next week sees a glut of Grand Theft Auto titles, as well as cornucopia of other games.

In Books...
This is an exciting week for books, as major new releases in several NY Times Bestselling series set publishers up for major paydays.  Jim Butcher's next Harry Dresden novel, Changes, David Weber's newest Safehold book, A Mighty Fortress, former SFSNNJ Guest Charlaine Harris brings us a new Sookie Stackhouse story in Dead in the Family will be greedily sucking up our dollars at local bookstores.  In addition to all of these great titles, look for new Star Wars books, a glut of horror and paranormal romance titles, and more!

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