Star Trek: The Next Generation #2 The Peacekeepers

Mike Grist Book / Movie Reviews, Star Trek 1 Comment

The Peacekeepers is the second Next Generation book, written by Gene DeWeese, and feels much more likeĀ  a run-of-the-mill episode than the previous one Ghost Ship. We occasionally dip in and out of characters heads, but never for extended periods. Instead we are faced with a simple conundrum that must be unraveled- a high-tech but derelict space pod grabs Geordi and Data and teleports them out of sensor range, bringing them into contact with a man who reveres them as ‘The Builders’ and wants nothing more than their approval for his use of their ‘gifts’.

Burnt Down House haikyo

Mike Grist Burned, Haikyo, Residential, Saitama 5 Comments

When I went on the wedding haikyo shoot a few weeks back we stumbled upon this burnt down house. Normally I`d bypass it in favor of the target- in this case we were looking for the Hume factory, but that turned out to be demolished. We had some time to kill, so after looking into the nearby Pachinko Hall we decided to check out the house. Dom and Liduina posed a bit in front, but the light was going and none of us were really in the mood to do a proper shoot, so we just poked around inside.

Star Trek: The Next Generation #1 Ghost Ship

Mike Grist Book / Movie Reviews, Star Trek 4 Comments

They started releasing Star Trek Next Generation books almost simultaneously with the series on TV. The first book was a novelization of the pilot- `Encounter at Farpoint`. The second, listed as #1 on a roster that has now grown to over 70 books, was Ghost Ship by Diane Carey. I read several of them when I was a kid and heavily into TNG. In the last few years I rewatched the whole of the TNG series run, and enjoyed it immensely. Now it`s time to read through the books, all of them, starting at #1. Most of these books are …

The Ruins of Warcraft

Mike Grist Fantasy Ruins, Game Ruins, World Ruins 9 Comments

The online fantasy game World of Warcraft is awash with ruins. Half of the in-game quests involve pilfering buried treasure from cities razed by the Scourge, temples leveled by the Lich King, and craters where force field-encapsulated cities once lay. A large part of the joy of the game (IMHO) comes from exploring these areas and their eerily haunting graphics. The ruins of Bashal’Aran

Untitled Haikyo Book

Mike Grist Haikyo 5 Comments

Another book I’ve put together and recently sent out to select agents is my haikyo book. I have sent it out before, but then only to a limited spread of Japan-based publishers. This time I went more international. Already I got a few replies, some of them advising me on which agents I should approach. The comments I’ve got have been positive, with one main proviso- that it’s quite esoteric. It’s true, haikyo is a specific niche, but I think ruins in general appeal broadly. Hook that market, plus the Japan-loving nerd market, that’s not a bad niche. Here are …

The Dawn Cycle 1. The Rise of the Truth

Mike Grist Jabbler's Mons, Stories 2 Comments

I`ve written a book. The working title is The Rise of The Truth, and it`s the first book of The Dawn Cycle, a saga of 5 fantasy books following Dawn on his quest to take care of business. In the last couple of days I put together submission packets for literary agencies, including query letters and book-jacket `blurbs`. I sent the book out to a selection of agents by email and post. Because I`m in Japan, sending to the US and UK, the few by post cost me $100 in postage. A small price to pay for hope, SY says. …

Haikyo Pachinko Hall

Mike Grist Entertainment, Haikyo, Saitama 5 Comments

Last week`s haikyo wedding shoot at the Volcano Museum was supposed to only be the first of two locations. We scarpered out of there at double-time to make it to the Hume Cement Factory in Saitama, a place I visited only 5 months ago, along with fellow haikoyists Mike, Mike, and Lee. Liduina would don a second outfit she`d brought along, a kind of kimono, and we`d explore a whole other kind of shoot. What we found instead.

Volcano Museum 4. Haikyo Wedding

Mike Grist Gunma, Haikyo, Models, Museums 23 Comments

I`ve been thinking for a long time about shooting models in a haikyo. I bought a flash (SB-600), a flash-stand, and even took a lesson on flash, but still the thinking remained thinking and not shooting. I had no desire to go on a practise shoot that wasn`t in a haikyo, but I was too shy to take a model solo to a haikyo without any experience. Quite a quandary. In the end the answer came to me, in the form of Dom. Dom found my site and got in contact about his vision for a wedding photo shoot; him, …

Orson Scott Card’s ‘Ender in Exile’ – book review

Mike Grist Book / Movie Reviews 4 Comments

Orson Scott Card is one of the most hit-or-miss authors I know of. When he`s good, in books like Ender`s Game, Ender`s Shadow, the early Alvin Maker books, he`s truly awesome, a storyteller to be reckoned with who has great insight into what makes people tick. When he`s bad, he`s awful, with pages of banter and pages of introspection populated with passive aggressive characters who are manipulating each other to the nth degree. Ugh. So it was with great trepidation that I picked up his latest Ender book, Ender in Exile, supposed to be filling in the time right after …

Hiroshima A-bomb dome

Mike Grist Haikyo, Hiroshima, Military Installations, Nuclear, Statues / Monuments, Vaults 47 Comments

At 8:15 on August 6 1945 the first nuclear bomb in the history of warfare detonated over Hiroshima, obliterating the city within a 1.5 mile radius and killing outright some 80,000 people, with around another 70,000 dying of radiation and burns by the end of the year. Japanese pilots flying on reconnaissance missions to the city after all radio transmissions went dead said that `practically all living things, human and animal, were literally seared to death`. The A-bomb dome (genbaku dome, originally Hiroshima Trade Promotion Hall) was only 150 meters away from the blast hypocenter. It survived because of its …