Is S by J.J. Abrams the One Ring for nerds or is it just the biggest money grab in literature for this Christmas Season?

The book called simply "S" written by J.J. Abrams and Doug Dorst. If you've never heard of it until today,
then maybe you're a narcissist and should look beyond yourself once in a while. The world isn't always
about you, you know? :).

I have to admit, the marketing behind "S" is unabashedly cool. The book trailer is perhaps one of the finest ever produced (embedded below and with over 2 million views), which is worthy of the likes of someone who makes his living pleasing nerds with special effect laden extravaganzas featuring edgy and compelling stories. For one, "S" is only one letter. Anyone that hears it that's not in the know instantly asks..."What do you mean? Is that a book?" Why yes it is. And second, it comes in a beautiful black slipcover: a distinguishing trait usually reserved for only the most successful authors after a career of writing best sellers. But J.J. doesn't need to be known as a writer who sells books. These days, authors dream of only Hollywood. Having someone that's already conquered Hollywood turn to the arguably banal medium of print is something that the editors of the Big Houses would fall over themselves to acquire. So yeah, it received the best treatment possible.

So whether you're a fan or not, Director of Star Trek, Director of Star Wars, science-fiction front man are all titles that J.J. Abrams can lay claim to. And starting today, he can add "novelist" to his list. As writers, we should all admire J.J. Abrams for the king-sized storyteller that he really is. And even catching his eye for a moment with anything we've written might be the single greatest moment in any fiction writer's career (and that's saying a lot since your career could last forty years or more). Imagine a nod from the likes of J.J. Abrams: it would give you bragging rights for decades. As a sixty year-old you could say, "J.J. Abrams once entertained making one of my stories into a short film. Alas it fell through, but I was this close." People would still congratulate you because J.J. is that BIG of a deal.

So am I going to buy "S"?

A new book designed to look like a well-used old book. Interesting, eh?
I love the idea of the margin notes. All the interesting stuff is always in the
margins. I learned that from medieval scriveners who filled the margins of
sacred texts with all kinds of thought provoking eye candy.

I don't know. I haven't yet. But I feel a really strong compulsion to go to Barnes and Noble first thing after work and pick up a copy. And I'm not really sure why, because (other than being written by J.J. Abrams) it really is more of a conversation piece than a manifesto of all things so impossibly cool that they cannot be spoken (much like Voldemort's name). For example, I could totally see myself going to my dinner group, whipping it out, and instantly being crowned "King Nerd" by saying, "OMG HAVE YOU GUYS GOT J.J.'S NEW BOOK YET? IT'S FRICKIN' AWESOME!" and then holding it up as if we were all transported to Middle Earth, and I'd just found the One Ring. The best fun would be showing all the cool scribbles in the margins, but not letting people get too close a look because (let's face it) knowledge is power. It could even be great flipping through the pages and laughing out loud with the intent to annoy those who don't have a copy of the book. Puerile? So what. Men can be very childish. Just look at congress and you'll find a whole group of children holding their breath when they don't get their way.

So what's in this book that has a title only one letter long?

Not many people know, and that's just like J.J., is it not? That's the hook that brings you back. That's why LOST was so successful. He's a master of withholding information and frustrating people. A review posted on USA Today said it was filled with paranoia, conspiracy theory, love, and mystery. But there's also (apparently) way too much going on in the narrative (another J.J. trait).

For the bargain savvy book hunter looking for an excuse, "S" has two books in one! The reason for this is that Mr. Abrams wanted "S" to be a celebration of "the book as an object." To elaborate, here's a bit from an expose printed in The New York Times:

Inside a black slipcover stamped with the title, there’s an old library edition of a novel titled “Ship of Theseus,” published in 1949 by a certain V. M. Straka. The author and novel are the fictional creations of Mr. Abrams and Mr. Dorst, but the book’s edge-worn spine, labeled with a faded Dewey decimal sticker, is scuffed, and its corners dented. In used-book selling parlance, the condition of “Ship of Theseus” might be rated “good,” were it not for the tens of thousands of words tattooed in the margins of its yellowed pages by at least two different hands, both in pencil-lead gray and a riot of inks: black, blue, red, orange, purple and green.

Tucked among the pages, readers will find handwritten letters and notes, a college newspaper clipping, a purple mimeographed telegram, photocopied book pages, postcards, an old photograph, a map scrawled on a coffee shop napkin, and even a throwback decoder ring.

So basically, the fun of "S" is having the book itself; to physically hold it and stroke its cover saying, "My preciousss." Okay, maybe that goes a bit far, but you get the picture. I guess I have only one question: Is S by J.J. Abrams the One Ring for nerds, or is it just the biggest money grab in literature for this Christmas season? Ultimately and somewhat unfortunately, I think this is the "true" fun of "S": that it's going to make coffers overflow with coins (but they won't be your coffers). And who doesn't like the sound of a register ringing when you're the seller and not the buyer?

Well played J.J., well played.

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Please let the rumors about J.J. Abrams be true

When I read yesterday that Disney was close to securing their new director for the much anticipated seventh installment of the Star Wars series, I was intrigued. When I discovered that this mysterious person may in fact be J.J. Abrams, I had this reaction:

I can wear spandex!

OMG I wanted to say "THIS IS THE MOST AMAZEBALLS THING I"VE HEARD IN LIKE EVER!!!"

This is just the present I wanted one week after "Fringe" (the genius series by J.J. Abrams) came to an end. Everything that J.J. touches is just better. He's kind of like nutella. You can put nutella on anything and it becomes instantly better (well most things).

Just look at Star Trek. I know there are some that think that the series isn't better under J.J., but I think those people are dumb. After the Voyager returned from the Delta quadrant with all of that Borg technology, there was nothing left to do. They had quantum torpedoes and ablative hull shielding that could withstand basically anything. And Janeway destroyed the Borg Queen in one of the most spectacular and well written time-travel episodes ever. So yeah...it was too good, and really left nowhere to grow unless Star Trek wanted to go up against super villains on an every day basis which would diminish all of that amazing technology and get boring (not to mention silly and expensive).

So J.J. rebooted the series by having his own bit of time travel (which is entirely in the spirit of Star Trek). And (spoiler alert) he blew up Vulcan, thereby creating an alternate timeline in which anything can happen.

Huzzah for J.J.! You are so smart.

So what will Mr. Abrams bring to Star Wars? Well I'm thinking we won't see anymore Jar Jar Binks. What we will see are glorious lightsaber battles because J.J. understands Star Wars. He knows that every guy in the audience got wet when Darth Maul's dual lightsaber blazed to life in his hands. I think we'll see new force powers too. And maybe he'll explain where the purple lightsaber came from, eh? That would be really cool.

Thank you Disney. I trust that you will create a whole new generation of Star Wars fans. And that, my friends, is a good thing to do. :)

Have a great weekend.

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Five ways in which Fringe is one of the best science fiction series ever even as it ends

Oh J.J. Abrams...what a talent you are.

You have entertained me for five years, and our journey once again is over.

Tonight I shall be watching the Fringe series finale with millions of other loyal sci-fi viewers, and I have to say, I wish it wasn't so. When I first started following this series several years ago, I thought it was kind of an X-Files reboot with a team that dealt with a quirky monster of the week. It quickly shed itself of that legacy, however, and toward the end has become the kind of insanity where I sit back and think: are these writers crazy? I love this.

I think genius and insanity kind of go hand in hand.

Fringe took us to an alternate universe. This really isn't done enough (it's one reason why I chose to break it loose in my book). Star Trek did it well (and I don't think there's a single "alternate universe" episode that I don't like no matter what series we are talking about). But if there's a master example of multiple universes, that paragon is Fringe.

Abrams has given us a great cast. Leonard Nimoy showed up as insane Dr. William Bell who removed slices of Walter Bishop's brain because he was becoming a mad scientist (how nutso is that?). And furthermore, those slices of brain actually get put back into Walter causing his personality to shift.

Walter's own son died so he kidnapped an alternate dimension's "son of Walter" to adopt as his own.

Olivia has had just about anything you can imagine happen to her. Including being a young woman and working with her daughter (who is the same age) because the show decided to leap forward 23 years from the previous season and just start up there.

Why the hell not? Right? But it works.

And when you think of insects stuck in amber, you ain't seen Fringe yet. Whole buildings are encased in Amber. Here is a list of five ways in which Fringe is one of the best science fiction series ever even as it ends:

Being bald and wearing a suit is a sign that you have
super powers in the Fringe universe. How cool is that?
Rogaine for Men would be proud.

1) Fringe made bald guys stylish and scary with the freaky observers from another dimension. They're a cross of the Agents from the Matrix, with names borrowed from the calendar (who names their kid September?), and dared to show a race that's a total sausage hang (I've yet to see a female observer). But that wasn't enough, they also crossed into Vulcan territory, borrowing the insane logic of that race and coupled it with the Borg's "resistance is futile" mantra. Bravo Fringe Bravo.

Fringe "Frog" scene break. There were others equally as cool.

2) Fringe had the coolest scene breaks ever. You know when you are reading a book, and there's a cool scene break that looks like a butterfly or a dragon or a palm tree and you think...damn, that's kind of cool! Way better than three asterix (what my publisher uses). Well Fringe has frogs, six-fingered hands, and other cool scene breaks. If I were stoned and twenty years younger I'd say "That's so meta dude."

Left to right: Peter, Walter, Henrietta, Olivia, and Astrid (token black woman).
It's like the "Lost in Space" gang only without spaceships.

I used to watch this series on Saturday mornings. Yes, I'm that old.

3) Fringe dared to give us a family. We haven't seen that kind of sci-fi mom and pop stuff since Lost in Space! Fringe has Walter Bishop, son Peter Bishop, wife Olivia, and even a daughter in the fifth season that's integral in everything even after she gets smoked. Oh and there's Astrid. She's the token black woman. But I like Astrid because everything that falls through the cracks, she catches.

4) Fringe gave us consistent urban science fiction without vampires and werewolves. That in itself should win an award because urban fantasy as a genre is replete with vamps, werewolves, witches, and angels. I'm not saying that's bad, I'm just saying it's not particularly original.

So much weird...so much cool

5) Fringe totally owned quantum mechanics (and quantum weirdness in general). It took the most ground-breaking concepts from the world's leading physicists like Stephen Hawking, and turned stuff like quantum entanglement, wormholes, and the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, and made them into episodes that BLEW MY MIND!

Goodbye Fringe. I laughed, I cried, you became a part of me. The two-hour series finale airs this evening beginning with an episode called "Liberty" and ending with "An Enemy of Fate."

Today is the second-to-last stop in my book tour. You can find me at the blog of super science fiction writer M.PAX HERE. Please stop by to say hi if you have the time. If not, no worries. See you Monday when I get to do a cover reveal for Julie Flanders. Enter giveaway...you know you want to...

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The Pros and Cons of Revolution's Pilot episode

Revolution hits next Monday on NBC, but you can watch the whole Pilot right here, right now (embedded in this post). I'm going to talk about the pilot episode, so here's your spoiler warning. :)

PRO and quite possible CON: I'm divided on how I feel about the "miracle exemption" employed for this series. I know, that sounds bizarre considering that I have no problem with the miracle exemption of Superman (that being that all of his powers emerge from being on a planet with a yellow sun). However, in the end, I think I liked that J.J. Abrams is taking a risk with a "Miracle Exemption" so strong, it can only be described as "physics has gone crazy." Once you swallow the fact that electricity doesn't work (nevermind the fact that electrical impulses fire constantly through the human brain and nervous system) then the world-building can begin.

THIS is the protagonist of the story. Her name is Charlie Matheson played
by Tracy Spiridakos. You don't meet her until 12 minutes into the pilot.

CON: It takes us a while to figure out who to root for. This pilot doesn't start out with a dream sequence per se, but it does introduce us to a scientifically-minded man named Matheson who has some inkling of what's about to happen in the world short of the blackout. Then the pilot advances 15 years to a post-apocalyptic world and this guy is still around, still healthy, and well respected. Okay...he must be the one I root for. Nope, they shoot him dead shortly after that. This smacks a little of a dream sequence in the "I just wasted 15 minutes of your life and now I'm introducing you to the real protagonist."

PRO: Bows. Taking a page from the Hunger Games, there are lots of fit young people shooting bows with deadly accuracy. It looks cool, and adds an athleticism that you just don't get with a pistol. However, in a country like the United States so overloaded with guns that you could probably stack them from the ground to the moon, you kind of have to wonder where all the guns went.

CON: Rape is how you find out who the bad men are. They wake up the girls in the middle of the night, try to rape them, and then get killed in a gruesome manner. I think "rape" is an overused theme in fiction and writers could stretch themselves a bit to find other more creative ways to show "I am an evil person."

Giancarlo Esposito, definitely one of my favorite actors today.

PRO: Giancarlo Esposito. This actor played "Gus" in "Breaking Bad" and boy did he ever do a great job. He's also the genie of the lamp in the show "Once Upon A Time" and I think the "Magic Mirror" as well. So aside from his career just exploding with fantastic jobs (as it should because the guy is one of the best actors around), he gives a chilling performance as the leader of the militia. Very non-stereotypical but definitely evil. And it doesn't involve even the hint of "rape". Rather, his most telling moment is when he admits to being a former insurance salesman. I always knew those guys were the devil.

PRO: The post-apocalyptic scenery. The ruins of Chicago are magnificent. The countryside is outstanding and completely overgrown. And the planes falling out of the sky and exploding before the title sequence will send shivers down your spine.

These guys think they have what it takes to bring in one guy who tends
bar. Think again, you guys are all toast.

PRO: Miles Matheson, the dead Matheson's brother, is a frickin' ninja. When you meet him, he's just some forty year-old dude tending bar. But the militia comes for him with guns, bows and arrows, knives, and about twenty incredibly fit men. This forty year old former marine KILLS THEM ALL. I'm not kidding. It's a blood bath. He leaves bodies strewn about like a Tony Jaa film. I was like...holy crap, this guy is a complete BADASS.

Miles Matheson killing everyone that came to "take him in." The
choreography in this fight was pretty incredible for a t.v. show.

So with more pros and cons, I think that J.J. Abrams may have a winner to replace "Fringe" which is signing off the air in the spring of 2013. If you've watched the pilot, what do you think? And do you intend to watch Revolution?

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