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Christopher Nolan & Zac Snyder have figured out the secret to making a comic book superhero movie: Don't. Make another movie instead. Watchman was true to the comic book, as I recall (I read the comic once or twice before they made the film) but fairly inaccessible to normal people, and fell short of satisfying the source material's fans. 300 was a stylized war movie. Nolan was more successful with the Dark Knight trilogy, which was devoid of super powers and instead was an allegory about freedom, power and society. And "Man of Steel" succeeds in similar fashion as a straight-up science fiction movie with some familiar names. Change the Superman-specific names in this film, and switch around his famous powers, and it would still work, I think.

The first act is a brief political story in an alien setting - sort of like a Game of Thrones episode with laser guns and better creature effects. It does a much better job than the Richard Donner movies of giving depth and background to Krypton. Then we cut to a second act of a guy-with-powers, struggling to fit in in the world and grappling with what makes him different.

Rather than ...

Every once in a while, one comes across a book of history, or other non-fiction, that makes for as gripping a read as any novel. Sometimes this comes at a price in the shape of diminished depth, or detail, or a polemic tone that, while not necessarily a bad thing in itself, threatens the objectivity and reliability of the work. But sometimes, quite rarely, you get historians who manage to write such a gripping work, while still adhering rigidly to the highest standards of accuracy and objectivity. Robert Kee's monumental "The Green Flag: A History of Irish Nationalism" (published ...

The Fourteenth Book of the Dresden Files is a definite improvement on its predecessor, Ghost Story, which was more of a transitional book as the situation of the character has undergone a radical alteration of his setting and status. It is possible that upon retroactive consideration, this volume also improves GS by proving to have consummated issues and details brought forth in that one.

Anyway, while I am not qualified to discuss the literary merits ...