Monday, September 28, 2015

reviews 1 yr after & mad max


REVIEWS:ONE YEAR AFTER & MAD MAX

*

Please read the ammended and revised notice:

Please support Bison by buying through the Amazon ad graphics at the top of the page.  IF YOU DON’T SEE THE AD, DISABLE AD BLOCK ( go to the Ad Blocker while on my page and scroll down the menu to “disable this site” ). You can purchase anything, not just the linked item. Enter Amazon through my item link and then go to whatever other item you desire. As long as you don’t leave Amazon until after the order is placed, I get credit for your purchase.  For those that can’t get the ads because they are blocked by your software, just PayPal me occasionally or buy me something from my Amazon Wish List once a year. Or, buy the monthly magazine.  Pay your author-no one works for free.  I’m nice enough to publish for mere Book Money, so do your part.

*

We all know and love all to pieces the book “One Second After” by William R. Forstchen.  It is in the Top Ten Of All Time Bestest Post-Apocalypse Books.  Not only was it a kick ass PA book, Bill is one heck of an author so that anything he writes about is good.  I’ve read some of his stuff with, I believe, Gingrich and other stand alone books of his and I’ve never been disappointed.  The last two days, I came darn close.  “One Year After” was just released and is book two of the trilogy, started with One Second After.  Needless to say, I won’t be buying the third book.  “Year”, while just as well written as any of Bill’s other books, disappoints on the subject front.  This is NOT post-apocalypse by any stretch of the imagination.  Other than an all too brief mention of nitrous gas used in dentistry ( along with a foot powered drill ), the entire book is nothing but militia porn.  Now, I know Bill won’t be reading this review, but in case you are new to the field of survivalism, let me recount the definitions.  A post-Apocalypse world is where the old social structure and infrastructure collapses and the survivors must overcome the resource implosion die-off and adjust to a new paradigm.   A militia porn tale is about morally upright super patriots battling the evil federal government.  And 99% of the time there are little in the way of shortages.  Death by cool AR-15 mega-poodle plastic carbines rather than starvation.  Sorry, Bill, but at $17, I want my novel to be about survivalism, not civil war.

*

“Mad Max: Fury Road” was a rather kick ass action movie.  I mean, the action barely stopped.  And it was cinematically brilliant, not just some stupid Hong Kong chop suey kick boxing crap with an occasional full automatic burst followed by the obligatory naked bosom.  The world you were drawn into was compelling and believable.  An apocalypse movie?  Not so much.  Okay, the world was a bit more fleshed out than Mad Max 2 ( Road Warrior ), with more attention being given to a believable anthropologic logic.  Certainly the logistics were more solid than  Beyond Thunder dome ( which isn’t saying much, obviously ) and the cultural development more real than a bunch of kids worshiping an airplane captain.  The warrior tribe was incredible.  I enjoyed the extra thought that went into the back story.  And, despite all the fuss made about too much politically correct Fem Lib Girl Power propaganda, I never picked up that vibe.  Oh, there was an uncomfortable moment when the main gals long lost tribe reunited.  It almost felt like all the geriatric lesbians were going to pop out their dentures and start licking carpet.  But that quickly passed.  However, all that being said, the whole movie was little more than racing from point A to point B and then back to A.  Incredible race, even better than I had expected, but just a race with lots of guns and explosions.  I never picked up the feeling of this being a post-apocalypse world.  Certainly not compared to Road Warrior.  Heck, even the first Terminator had a more apocalyptic feel to it.  Enjoy the kick ass action movie, but don’t expect to add it to your PA movie collection.

END
 
Please support Bison by buying through the Amazon ad graphics at the top of the page.  IF YOU DON’T SEE THE AD, DISABLE AD BLOCK ( go to the Ad Blocker while on my page and scroll down the menu to “disable this site” ). You can purchase anything, not just the linked item. Enter Amazon through my item link and then go to whatever other item you desire. As long as you don’t leave Amazon until after the order is placed, I get credit for your purchase.  For those that can’t get the ads because they are blocked by your software, just PayPal me occasionally or buy me something from my Amazon Wish List once a year. Or, buy the monthly magazine.  Pay your author-no one works for free.  I’m nice enough to publish for mere Book Money, so do your part.
*  My monthly newsletter: search at Amazon under Kindle “Malthusian Survivalist Newsletter”.  * 
*Contact Information*  Links To Others*  Land In Elko*  Lord Bison* my bio & biblio*   my web site is www.bisonprepper.com
*My books: http://bisonprepper.blogspot.com/2015/04/my-book-links.html
* By the by, all my writing is copyrighted. For the obtuse out there
 
 

 

17 comments:

  1. "It felt like all the geriatric lesbians were going to pop out their dentures and start licking carpet". That is great writing oh Fair Haired One.

    The action was ok but the ending was awkward. With out spoilers it was like the filming ended on a friday at 5pm and it was 430 on the set and the had no time to finish. Those that have seen it know what I'm talking about. At least I watched it for free.



    ReplyDelete
  2. If you haven't found it yet , the PA novel " Gray" by Lou Cadle is a believable scenario for the most part. It is a three part story tho the third episode has yet to come out. I'll be getting it when it comes out. BTW it is Kindle unlimited.

    Thanks for the heads up on "Year"

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Added Gray to the wish list. He also has two other disaster books out, on KU. If you want a little something different, a break from PA. check out Via Serica by Tom Rogneby. Roman soldiers on a road trip. Very well written, 1/3 the way through.

      Delete
  3. “Incredible race, even better than I had expected, but just a race with lots of guns and explosions.”

    Minion that vowed never to see the movie here Jim. That plot has a hole in it bigger than the one in Madonna's crotch, and no one seems to have picked up on this? Where did all these guns and ammo for these extensive gunfights (I saw the previews) come from, when in the previous stories they were using pneumatic weapons and friggin crossbows!

    It was the same with the newer Star Wars remakes. Only one problem? Why did people in the past have seemingly better technology than those in the future?

    Another movie franchise gone to remake hell...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. There was mention made of a place that sold gas ( one assumes a pump/refinery combo ) and one that sold ammo ( one assumes a working civilization amidst the ruins where ore is processed and nitrates and chemistry and etc function ). It is just like the Beyond Thunderdome movie where pigs were somehow fed IN THE DESERT to get pigcrap for methane. To me, the same plot holes now as then. Except for Road Warrior. You can conceivably pump and refine with old equipment, assuming a shallow high pressure oil well, but the ammo cannot be manufactured, so that made sense. So, to recap, Mad Max 1 was pre-apocalypse, 2 was one of the best kick ass PA movies ever, 3 was crap that was fantasy grade entertainment, ands 4 was the same but with a much better budget.

      Delete
    2. Mad Max 1 was during the collapse. Mad Max 2 was total Post Apocalypse, Mad Max 3 was - what new civilizations might come up aka flight of fantasy.
      I very much doubt any now alive will do more than lay the ground work for the next civilizations to come. So to us Collapse and Post Apocalyptic (aka post collapse + disaster in some combo) are easier to envision and prep for or deal with. An eye to our great grandkids making a civilization is why I collect works on basic philosophy, ethics, governance, law, scientific method, history, etc. along with classic works of literature and fiction.
      Western Euro civilization is on its death bed, but there is much good that can be gleaned from its inheritance if we don't burn it all in disgust from its sins and excesses.

      Delete
    3. I had no problem with Beyond Thunderdome fantasy, but with its logistical improbability

      Delete
    4. IIRC there wasn't as much vehicles running in 3 as there was in the first one. The pigs were obviously fed the people that the dome had in excess.
      The analogy to bread and circuses at the thunder dome was quite clear - and hidden behind the scenes the systemic cannibalism that would have spelled its doom even without the tribe of children's interference.
      But it has been quite a while since I saw the show so I could be wrong.

      Delete
    5. WOW! I can NOT believe I didn't pick up on the pig food source! Embarrasssssing.

      Delete
    6. Why it was pigs, not goats or sheep or cows. Pigs are omnivorous, and can turn protein you cant eat into protein you can.

      Delete
    7. pigs eating humans seems to be widespread in film. I wonder if Beyond Thunderdome started that? I'll have to watch the movie again. I've watched it twice but decades ago. Watched Road Warrior half dozen to ten times by now.

      Delete
    8. You would think the banker hired an underling/enforcer. If we are going by the stereotype, they don't do much manual labor.

      Delete
  4. I really enjoyed Fury Road- as an Aussie, there is a bit of a sense of ownership of the franchise, plus I vaguely know one of the vehicle builders for the movie.
    If you want a good PA novel, try The Death of Grass by John Christopher, a 1956 novel set in England, where a plant virus kills all grains and grasses, plunging the world into full collapse. Excellent showing of how a bug out can go wrong, and the increasingly grey moral choices that are made. Well worth a read- not so much the movie, No Blade of Grass, from 1970, which leaned more toward the planet rebelling against all the pollution by creating the virus as a defence.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Grass is, in my not so humble opinion, one of the top half dozen best PA books, ever. Everyone should own a copy. Look for Death Of Grass, it is a more recent published edition so cheaper. No Blade is expensive and old. Do not upon pain of death watch the movie, horrid and befouled in every way.

      Delete

COMMENTS HAVE BEEN CLOSED