Mockingbird is the follow up to author Chuck Wendig’s Blackbirds
Media Decay
Mockingbird is the follow up to author Chuck Wendig’s Blackbirds
Ready Player One takes place in the near future. Earth has been mostly destroyed by various things and basically corporations rule. But there’s one safe-haven: The Oasis. Oasis is a virtual reality game that ultimately became a place where people lived out their whole lives. In game currency is worth more than real countries, and you can do everything from shop to go to school in it. Anything you could previously do in the real world, plus more is available in the Oasis, which is free to use. When the creator of The Oasis dies, he leaves a video will behind that is automatically sent to all players. This 80′s obsessed, Steve Jobs-esque character says that he has hidden an easter egg in the game and the first person to find it gets control over the company, his own personal fortune, and everything that comes with it. So now people known as “gunters” spend their time analyzing every detail of his life and searching the game and 80′s pop culture to find clues to where the keys and gates may be. And after 5 years of no progress, Wade Watts, a teenager and our hero finds the first puzzle.
Strindberg’s Star is the first book from Swedish author Jan Wallentin. It’s been an international bestseller and now comes to the US in a translation by Rachel Wilson-Broyles. The plot centers on an expert of religious symbols and Nazi history, and also ex-psychologist and current prescription pill addict, Don Titelman who is asked by a cave diver to come out to his remote cabin to examine some odd things he found in a dive where a dead body was also found. Upon his arrival he finds the diver dead. From there the plot has Don and his lawyer Eva exploring the world on the run from a secret society and uncovering long hidden secrets of history including norse mythology and Nazi’s. The book is very Dan Brown-ish with some shades of Girl With The Dragon Tattoo thrown in.
The Thing is a prequel/remake of John Carpenter’s classic horror film of the same name about a group of scientists trapped in Antarctica with an alien that can shapeshift into the form of other animals, including humans. In this prequel, an alien ship is discovered by a team of Norwegian scientists and American grad student Kate Lloyd (Winstead; Scott Pilgrim) is brought along for her expertise. They find a seemingly dead alien creature frozen in the ice not far from the ship and excavate it but things quickly go bad when the creature wakes up and starts wreaking havoc.
Alcatraz is a mysterious show that proposes the truth behind the closing of Alcatraz prison is that in 1963 all the prisoners and guards just vanished one night. Now in modern day San Francisco these people are re-appearing just as mysteriously, not having aged a day. Detective Rebecca Madsen (Jones; Sons of Anarchy) and Alcatraz expert Diego Soto (Garcia; LOST) stumble upon the happenings and a secret task force run by the equally mysterious Emerson Hauser (Sam Neill; Jurassic Park) and are enlisted to help capture some of the worst criminals of their day. The story of the events on 1960′s Alcatraz are told alongside the modern day story as well.
The Dispatcher is about a police dispatcher who’s young daughter is abducted from her bedroom while she sleeps. Many years later after being presumed dead, while on shift he gets a call from a girl claiming to be her. He sets off on a new investigation to find her.
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is about recently disgraced investigative journalist, Mikael Blomkvist (Craig; Casino Royale, Cowboys & Aliens) who is hired by an Swedish industrialist (Plummer; Beginners, The Insider) to solve the 40 year old mystery of the disappearance of his niece. He’s assisted by a young, anti-social computer hacker named Lisbeth Salander (Mara; The Social Network, A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)). It’s based on the best-selling novel of the same name by Stieg Larsson.
Shark Night (aka Shark Night 3D) is a horror movie about 7 college students who set off on a weekend vacation at one of their lake houses on the Louisiana Gulf. This particular house is only accessible by boat and is totally surrounded by water. But this water has become filled with all types of vicious sharks and soon the college kids are fighting to survive.
Homeland is about a marine, Sgt. Nicholas Brody (Damian Lewis; Life, Band of Brothers) who has been MIA for 8 years in Iraq who is discovered in a terrorist’s hideout in Afghanistan randomly. He’s brought home and touted as a hero, but CIA agent Carrie Anderson (Claire Danes; My So-Called Life) suspects he may have been turned by a high ranking terrorist during his capture and is the key to an upcoming attack.
Limitless is about a struggling down and out writer (Cooper; The Hangover) who’s just lost the last good thing in his life, his girlfriend (Cornish, Sucker Punch) when he runs into his ex-wife’s brother who gives him a sample of a new drug supposedly being developed by a pharmaceutical company that allows your whole brain to be used, not just the small percentage that human beings ordinarily use. This gives him extraordinary abilities. It also allows him to become the man he wishes he could be but some bad people are looking for this drug and he gets caught in a fight for his life. It’s based on a book of the same name