The Time Machine

                I did not like The Time Machine at all. It’s written in 1895 which already makes it hard to understand, and then you add science to it and it’s nonsense. The entire book is just him describing the year he has entered, and it is very boring. I did see the movie in middle school, and I don’t remember it being that bad. I could barely get through the book though, and I even skipped paragraphs at a time because it was so dry.

               

I think it would have been better if there were more characters or more things going on. Yeah, he talked about the Morlocks and Eloi and their problems, but it was done in poor fashion. I think it should have been more intense or something. Even when The Time Traveler would get taken or was in trouble or whatever, it didn’t seem very exciting, and I didn’t relate to him at all. I feel bad that I’m trashing this book, but I honestly don’t have anything positive to say about it. Also, the Eloi started to annoy me, especially Weena. I get that they’re childlike and have de-progressed, but it just got on my nerves. So yeah, not a good book for me.

Battle: Los Angeles

                The second movie my group watched was Battle: Los Angeles. It’s about the US army fighting against these machine things that are trying to destroy them. It was originally thought that the machine things were meteorites that could only be seen when they entered the atmosphere, but they figured out they were machines (I don’t know their name) that were sent from an enemy in space.

Basically the entire movie was just the army fighting them…nothing else happened. I don’t even know what to write for this because nothing happened in the movie! It was two hours of battle scenes –boring scenes, at that. The men would have a certain time limit to escape before a huge hit would come, and they run into a bunch of problems, obviously. Towards the end, they decide to fight the aliens. They do good, and the alien troops retreat and word is sent how to destroy them. Oh, and it’s centered in California on the coast which is why the title is called Los Angeles. At the end the soldiers fight to get LA back.

                That’s really all I can say about the movie. I don’t recommend it because it was bad and boring. I daydreamed through half of it. So yeah, don’t watch it.

War of the Worlds

War of the Worlds is a film directed by Steven Spielberg that shows the end of humanity. In the movie, these massive machine tripod-things come out of the Earth and start destroying everything -people, buildings, houses, etc. When the first tripod came out of the Earth, it had these lasers on its arms that vaporized whatever it touched immediately. After it was gone, people assumed it was the only one and were a little relieved until they saw the news that showed the machines everywhere. The movie follows a family of a dad and his son and daughter and how they make their way to Boston where the mom is. Through the journey, we see how dangerous these things really are and how they survive. The pick up mass amounts of people and feed on them and then spray blood everywhere. It’s gross.

    It is known that these machine were put into the Earth before humans walked it, as told by the crazy guy in the cellar. Since these machines are very advanced and almost invincible, it makes you wonder how they were built such a long time ago. Aliens is the answer, but it is still crazy. I liked this film, but I felt it dragged on a tad in certain parts. It ended on a bit of a cliffhanger, but I think there is a sequel to it. I probably won’t watch it, though.

Ender's Game

The book is really picking up quickly. The teachers are throwing more and more unfair advantages at Ender that would seem impossible for him to beat, but he does. A little after page two hundred we see more about how these unfair advantages are affecting him. In his last battle he has to fight off two armies while they are protected by stars and he is not. Despite this, he wins. After this battle Ender decides he can’t take it anymore and won’t fight any longer. I like how despite how cold and standoffish Ender has seemed as of late, he stills feels emotions.

I was really surprised how at the beginning of one of the chapters, two people were talking about a death in the battle school. We find out that Ender somehow does kill Bonzo but is not told about it. We also find out that he killed Stilson as well. The teachers are basically manipulating every single part of his life to achieve their desired results which is bugging me. I’m looking forward to how Ender will react when he finds all this out…and I do think he will find out.

Ender's Game

I really like Ender’s Game so far. It’s a pretty easy and quick read, but there is still a lot of depth in it. I like how the author mixed the plot up a bit by not only making Ender the best in the group, but also struggling with his fears of turning into his brother, Peter. He has both a light and dark side that stems from wanting to do whatever it takes to both save the world from Buggers and saving himself. There is a lot to Ender that still hasn’t been mentioned, and I look forward to delving deeper into his character.

I also really liked how the point of view switched briefly to Peter and Valentine. It’s been two years since Ender was gone, but they still remember him. The duel storyline is an interesting point in the book. Both Ender and his siblings are trying to save the world but in different ways. Ender is using physical force and war, while Peter and Valentine are using words. I am excited to see how the two will cross, and I’m sure they will. I really want to read how the siblings meet back up again; I think it will be very interesting –especially between Peter and Ender

Sandkings

I am beginning to see a trend in these Sci Fi stories. There is always an idiot. Always. In this story, it is Kress (a.k.a the Sandking god). Basically he buys these intelligent insects and breeds them by being “god” and bending them to his will. Obviously this goes wrong and they rebel against him. Kress, being a coward, ignores how he is told to care for him, and ends up killing everyone who shows up at his house. It isn’t until the last couple pages that he calls Wo (the woman he bought the insects from) to ask for help.

I really liked the ending of this story. Well it was awful, no doubt, but I liked how we found out what happened to the orange Sandkings. The ending kind of made it an underdog story because the oranges were weak and small but then they ended up taking down their so called god. It was pretty ironic how the orange children had his own face as well. Kress tried to be all-mighty and on top but then he creates these monstrous beings that basically mock him with his own image. It was a fitting end, I believe.  

Psychics

I’m reading this book about psychic abilities. This group of men in the military volunteered to enhance their mental abilities so they could become a shadow team that could move undetected. There are stories all over about psychic people, but people usually don’t believe in them; they think they’re frauds. I think it is definitely a topic scientists can explore –just with extreme caution considering the brain is very fragile. This is like the designer genes that I was talking about. The same arguments would be applied here because it goes against nature, etc.

In the book, the men have abilities like speaking to animals, dream walking, telekinesis, telepathy, mind control, etc. Some of these abilities no doubt would be beneficial in the army and other serious situations; however, the cause, in the book at least, many problems. The men in the book had to go through severe headaches (described as knives slicing their brains), seizures, brain bleeds, and insanity. These abilities would definitely be cool to have, but I think the consequences outweigh the benefits –there is just too much that can go wrong. Though I do think it would be interesting to explore, nonetheless to understand more about our minds.