Hex Picks: Apocalyptic Books

May is here, and that means a new theme for Hex Dimension's weekly recommendations. This month we're going big, as we focus on books where the world gets destroyed!

That sounds like it could get pretty dark, for obvious reasons, but I think our picks this week actually show that there's another way, and that humour and joy can be found in anything - even annihilation. Or possibly it just shows that my brother and I are kinda sadistic. Either way, you can decide for yourself by clicking the pic below.

Hex Picks: Book Villains

Normal service resumes this week, as we move on from our month of TV recommendations (where I sadly missed out on a few weeks) and return to our usual cycle. This month we're looking at our favourite villainous characters from various media, and first up, as always, is books.

Actually, while I said "favourite" villains, that's not actually true. The character I've written about is not one I like or enjoy on any level - this is a truly odious and dispicable individual - and, in the novel at least, they're not actually the villain either. But they absolutely deserve to be on this list, without question. Find out why by clicking the image below.

Hex Picks: Films we want for Christmas

The Hex team continue writing our imaginary Christmas lists this week, picking movies we'd like to find in our stockings this year. And, of course, we continue ignoring and breaking the rules. We were supposed to be highlighting films that came out this year... and I totally failed to do that.

As usual, hit the link below to check out our choices.

Hex Picks: Books we want for Christmas

Since Doctor Who is well and truly over, and there's no possible way I can drag The Companion Piece out any longer than I already have, there's now a Monday-shaped gap in this blog's schedule. Starting this week, I'm going to be posting Hex Picks - our weekly collection of recommended media - on Mondays instead of Tuesdays. That, of course, opens a new scheduling gap on Tuesdays... but we'll worry about that when we come to it.

For now, please enjoy this month's book recommendations which are, of course, a list of the books we want for Christmas. Some we've read, some we haven't, and all are worth checking out. Click below to take a look!

(non-) Hex Picks: Most Recent Book

We skipped our usual first-week book recommendations this month (as I mentioned when I linked to our film picks) but I had this new background all ready to go and I never got the chance to use it. So, following Wednesday's debut of my new green background for discussions and opinions, here's my new book-related background too! I couldn't very well post it without at least mentioning a book, though, so here's the recommendation I would have written if I hadn't sucked and failed last week:


The Long Earth - Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter

Yes, I know, I've covered Pratchett twice before in these things, but the theme is my most recent book and, what can I say - I read a lot of Pratchett. What I haven't read a lot of is Stephen Baxter, who co-writes with Pratchett here. “Co-writes” is a slippery word, as it's never clear exactly who has done what - but having witnessed the deterioration of Sir Terry's prose over his last few novels, it's pretty clear that Baxter has handled most of the actual writing. I wish I'd actually read some of his other books, so that I could properly comment on whether he's purposefully emulating Pratchett's style or whether he just writes like that anyway - but either way they seem a perfect match for each other. Whoever's actually responsible, the deft worldbuilding and idiosyncratic characters feel wonderfully assured and familiar - this partnership is a strong one.

The story itself (which I'm only halfway through) deals with the sudden discovery - and universal public access to - an infinite string of parallel worlds. Our main character Joshua is, naturally, an explorer. Things get crazy quickly as he is employed by Lobsang, a supercomputer who may or may not be a reincarnated Tibetan mechanic, to head further out into these unknown Earths than anyone has ever ventured before. Interspersed with this main story (which, honestly, could be going anywhere at this point) are little vignettes depicting how various people from around the world have reacted to this new reality. I actually think these are the real meat of the book - using a “what if” concept to comment on society in the real world. The anger burning beneath Raising Steam (and Science of Discworld IV) is still here, but now it's channelled in a more hopeful direction.

All this adds up to a novel with a strong sci-fi concept hidden behind a deceptively light-hearted tone. Humour with an edge. Y'know, like a Terry Pratchett book. It feels like we got the master back, and I can't thank Stephen Baxter enough.

Hex Picks: Horror Stories

It's October - Hallowe'en approaches - and that means that our theme this month is, inevitably, Horror.

Books are up first and, although there's only a few suggestions this week, they're very very good ones. There's a bit of an unexpected theme, too, in that we all picked books where the horror elements turn out to be less scary than the mundane ones. Books where terror is found in our everyday lives rather than something supernatural (although they have that too).

There's clearly something to that - the idea that scary monsters will never be as terrifying as the things we're familiar with. Like a book. Or a webpage. So, to cower in fear at our choices, click this spooky link...

Hex Picks: Crime Comics

The theme for Semptember's recommendations is still Crime and Punishment, and this week we looked at comics. Obviously this is the most superhero-oriented week we've ever had, since superheroes are crimefighters and all. Only one comic in the entire list managed to avoid tights and capes entirely!

But, even though superheroes were the obvious choice, this is the week where I finally bent the theme as far as it could go. Whether or not it actually works as a Crime and Punishment choice at all is up for debate. Why not take a look and decide for yourself?

We're also running a competition right now, so for a chance to win Jeff VanderMeer’s new novel, click here!

Hex Picks: Crime Novels

This is my hundredth blog post! To celebrate such a momentous occasion I've decided to do something special and... um... post the same thing I post every week. I guess I thought it would be more of an occasion. Sorry.

Our recommendations this week focus on crime and punishment. Also time-machines, ghosts, and robots. Maybe one day I'll manage to actually stick to the suggested theme but, alas, not this week.

Check out our eclectic mix of book ideas here, and why not subscribe to the newly spruced up Hex newsletter, for all your geekish needs!


EDIT:
It turns out this is only NerdTech's ninety-ninth post, so it's even more of a let down than I thought!

Hex Picks: Romantic Novels

This month is romance month on Hex Dimension! It was a joke at first, but the theme stuck and we're doing our best to run with it. Unfortunately, because we're a bunch of massive nerds, every book we picked turned out to be our usual selection of fantasy and sci-fi - but with added mushiness.

So, if you want to read our thoughts on what makes a good romance - which in my case turns out to involve quite a lot of snot - check out our picks here, and remember to check back every week for even more unashamed slush!

x x x

Hex Picks: Sci-Fi Month

It's recommendation time again! This month, Hex Dimension tried something new and had a constant theme running through all our picks. The theme for July was science-fiction (we are a geek website, after all) and it resulted in a bunch of great suggestions, ranging from hardcore cyberpunk to whacky space-fantasy.

As always, we started with books, moved on to films, then games, and wrapped up this week with comics. Hopefully you'll check them all out and discover some hidden sci-fi gems! Unfortunately, I missed the deadline for that final post (by a mere half-hour, I swear) and my recommended comic didn't make the cut. I do still want to share it with you, though, so I've decided to post it here on NerdTech instead:


Girl Genius - Phil and Kaja Foglio

All this month, for our sci-fi recommendations, I've been trying to pick examples of real, hard sci-fi rather than that namby-pamby soft stuff. But I've been racking my brains for a similarly hardcore comic and, shamefully, I don't think I've read any! So today I'm going completely the other way.

Kaja and Phil Foglio's ongoing webcomic Girl Genius is about as soft and unrealistic as it's possible for sci-fi to be. Because this is not a comic about science; it's a comic about MAD science. Girl Genius takes the age-old idea of the mad scientist and spins it in a unique direction: what if all scientists were mad? What if the use and understanding of science required (and also caused) a certain level of insanity? What would that world be like?

The answer, of course, is "very very silly". This is a world of giant clockwork men, steampunk spider-tanks, airship cities, unstable time-machines, frankinsteinian abominations, and an alarming number of death-rays. But that's all just texture - this sci-fi nonsense is fun, but the substance lies in some great characters and relationships, and there's some pretty complex political intrigue too.

The art can be a little messy and confusing at times, and the story often throws things rapidly and haphazardly together, possibly just to see what works - but the chaos actually suits Girl Genius perfectly. It's a mad experiment performed by crazy people, and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. But hey, that's SCIENCE!

Hex Picks: Movie Adaptations

It's that time again! This week the team took a look at films adapted from comics or novels. There's quite a varied and interesting selection, and I absolutely agree with every choice on the list. Take a look and let us know what you think!

Later this week I'll be reviewing Edge of Tomorrow, in which Tom Cruise dies a lot, so keep your eyes peeled for that too.

Hex Picks: Favourite X-Men and Supernatural Novels

Another quick update to plug the two latest weekly recommendations at Hex Dimension.

Up first is a look at our favourite X-Men, to celebrate the release of the new film (which I'm finally seeing tonight). Contains spoilers for the comics, but not the film.

Up second - and freshly posted today - we took a look at supernatural fiction. It's not a topic I thought I'd have anything to say about, but it turns out I did. And, in true supernatural fashion, I spookily wrote almost the exact same thing as my brother...

That's it for now but, following Friday's finale, my long-gestating piece on Agents of SHIELD is finally done. It's due to hit the website on Thursday, so I'll see you then!

Hex Demented

So, it finally happened. After managing to write a couple of normal, reasoned pieces for the Hex Dimension, I've slipped back into my old ways and written a couple of preposterous rambling essays too. It barely took a month!

The first of these is a review of Sanctum 2 - but it's also a comment on the Wii-U and asymmetric gaming - but it's also a treatise on gaming as an aspect of marriage! It sounds pretty stupid and it probably is, but it's still less rediculous than my second piece, which is a review of a film that doesn't even exist. It's basically Spider-Man fan-fiction. You should read it!

In slightly less demented news, we're continuing our weekly recommendations. Here's some of our favourite comics and books and, if you want to see me completely embarass myself, you can also read my defense of Michael Bay in this week's action movie picks.

Thats it I'm afraid. Just realised this is the first post in a month. I'll try to be more thorough from now on and link to every Hex piece when it goes up, rather than three weeks later. Next up is a piece on Agents of SHIELD and, as always, you can subscribe for more.

A Few Minor Updates

Hello everyone, I'm back!
Just wanted to throw a quick update out there before I get properly back into things. Hex Dimension have got a lot of cool stuff going on at the moment, and I wanted to highlight some of it.

First up is our new recommendation features. Every week the team get together and each write something about the stuff we've been watching, reading or playing. For me, with my notoriously low writing-speed and tendancy to go on a bit, these bitesized recommendations are a godsend, and I'm having a lot of fun with them.
You can check out the first three posts here: dealing with books, films and games respectively. I've written stuff for two of those, but I'm not gonna tell you which.

The other thing I wanted to talk about is the new Hex Dimension newsletter. Now you can keep up-to-date with all the site's best content in one handy weekly email! There really is some awesome stuff on this site, and I hope you'll check it out.
For your regular helping of deep-fried geek, you can sign up right here.

That's it for Hex-related stuff, but I'm sure there's something else I wanted to mention. What was it? Hmm. I think it was something pretty major...

Oh well, I'm sure it'll come back to me.