Welshrogue

Various people see lights in the sky and suddenly get the urge to find a mountain. Meanwhile, an international group of scientist fly around the world examining disappeared ships and planes that begin to reappear.

The most famous UFO movie, Close Encounters was released the same year as Star Wars grabbing some of the science fiction spotlight that Star Wars was basking in. The story of increased UFO activity leading up to something is well played and sets the stage well for the main act.

The main act is carried by Richard Dreyfuss as a lineman who, after seeing lights in the sky, starts acting very strange. Melinda Dillion plays a single mother whose child, Barry, appears to have gone off with the lights in the sky. Francois Truffaut plays the head of the international group tracking the UFO’s.

The real star of the show is the special effects. While you only see the smaller craft through most of the show, at the climax, the mother ship appears. Beautifully looking, the lights almost dazzle as they twinkle. The special effects are also responsible for things such as a large ship in the middle of the Gobi desert.

Watching the movie in 2006 is a lot different to watching it back in the late 70s. The special effects that were so special back then are now just average. You probably see better effects on TV shows every day. This in a movie that relies on the special effects so much is not good.

Again, watching the movie in 2006 after many years of not seeing it is surprising, as some scenes are totally unforgettable and iconic and yet others, it feels as if you are watching them for the first time. I think this sums up the movie, which in parts is so memorable and in others, totally forgettable.

For me, any day that starts off with me singing Tom Jones at the top of my voice in the car while driving to work, is a good day. There isn’t much that can spoil the mood that sets in once Tom and I sing a duet. There is one thing that can threaten this mood though, and that is if I find myself singing along with those Swedish weapons of mass destruction, ABBA. The perfect harmonies layered on top of a rocking bass line can sneak up on you and before you know it, you are singing for a man after midnight. This can be very embarrassing if your car windows are down and you are stopped along side other cars at a red light. Luckily, I rebounded this morning by begging for some Hot Stuff along with Donna Summer.

Ah, driving to work can be such an interesting experience.

Three scientists at a base in the Arctic are killed by something biological and Dr. Jesse Hanley, a epidemiologist is sent into the middle of the Arctic winter to try to discover what killed them before it kills again. At first Hanley struggles to discover what has happened but when the bodies begin to pile up, she makes more than one shocking discovery.

The debut book by Juris Jurjevics, The Trudeau Vector is a great book, mixing a medical thriller with political and environmental while keeping the reader wrapped up in the plot. It is very intelligently written but doesn’t try to be too technical. The book starts slowly with the building of the main characters as well as setting the ground work for the plot, but once it begins to pick up the pace, it doesn’t stop. The characters are well put together and different enough from each other to stand out and remain memorable, even with a cast as large as the one in this book.

It describes the harshness of the Arctic as well as other authors who write about the cold icy confines of either the Arctic or the Antarctic. It is both beautiful and deadly and The Trudeau Vector conveys this perfectly.

This is a brilliant book for a debut and I look forward to Juris Jurjevics next book.