Invading Your Dinner Time Television

LOST - Season 4 - Ep 09

I think I know why I haven't been liking LOST this season that much:
1) You basically know what's going to happen since the season opener, and you were waiting for this showdown the whole time. All the in-between episodes just felt like they were killing time and prolonging the real story progression towards the REAL showdown. (Yes, I'm aware LOST is infamous for killing time and prolonging one subplot four times the length it should be, but it seems oh so more evident this season since nothing much is happening.)
Now that this showdown is finally over, I want to watch where it's going from here, because I really have no idea.
2) The mystery element has been lessened over time so you basically have an overview idea of who is good, who is bad, and what they want. This makes the filler even more unbearable since you're not looking for as many clues.

But that being said, I think tonight's episode was the best of the season by far. By the end of the episode, it really puts the whole show in kind of an epic story arc that is finally being revealed. And, it actually backed up this guy's crazy theory I read last month which now seems totally true. I could link to it, but I won't.

Short Stories of Isaac Asimov

(The guy who made the book called "I robot" which was turned into a less-than-deep science fiction movie)

The Last Question
Two scientists ask the megalopolis-sized computer named Multivac the most important question of all time: 'Can entropy ever be reversed?', that is, can we ever stop the universe from dying down and ending all life as we know it? Millions of years pass while humanity sprawls across the known universe, yet Multivac still cannot answer this question. The scientists of each generation become increasingly worried by the prospect that the trillion/zillions of humans will eventually die if we don't answer this question. Can they find an answer?
Worth Reading? Yes.

Jokester
This story also contains Multivac, but it really has nothing to do with the other story. In this story, a scientist loves to tell jokes, because that's the only way he finds himself socially acceptable among his peers. When doing this, he becomes interested in the nature of humor and all jokes since the dawn of time. It is through this that he realizes that he has never heard anyone create a genuinely unique joke. All the jokes people come up with are either bad puns or retellings of old jokes in new settings. He asks Multivac who made up the original jokes, that is, where did the first jokes come from? Once again, you have to read it to find the answer out.
Worth Reading? Probably.

Nightfall
In a world where there is no night, humans on a planet orbited by five suns finally come to a technological advance in astronomy to predict a day where all five suns will finally be eclipsed by a moon that was never previously visible during the day. During this day, mythical objects called 'stars' are prophesied to appear which will steal the souls of all men and cause civilization to become mad. Since nobody has ever seen a star, and night has never fallen on this planet in over two millenniums, most of the citizens are skeptical. So, the entire story revolves around the final sunset of the last sun to see if there really is such a thing as total darkness, and if these stars truly exist.
Worth Reading? Yes, probably.

The Ugly Little Boy
In the near future on Earth, a special company develops the power to create bubbles in time in which they may extract certain objects, items, or people out of different eras and bring them back to the current time in an enclosed environment. However, if the object attempts to leave its special bubble it is enclosed in, this may cause a massive power fluctuation which could knock out the power for miles around.
After the company successfully retrieves inanimate objects from past eras, they proceed to extract a three year old Neanderthal boy from the past and keep him in the present. It works, and they assign a young nurse to take care of him. She teaches him how to behave and slowly shapes him into a boy of society.
Trouble comes however when the company needs new space for new acquisitions (such as a knight from the crusades!), so they announce to the nurse that the boy must be sent back. She protests and things get woeful.
Worth Reading? The ending is predictable.

I Am Legend (Book)

I Am Legend is a compelling novel to me for two reasons: it is the story of one man's struggle to live in isolation with no hope, and it is the exploration of a dangerous and interesting world where vampires rule the night and whatever is left of humanity rules the day.

The world created in I Am Legend is thoroughly explored throughout the book. The main character must hide in his house (in a suburb of Los Angeles) by night, and by day he must go out and kill the vampires to dwindle their numbers--for they have no power during the day and try to hide--while also building up his own supplies and fortifying his position. The book chronicles these events and the effects they have on the main character, turning his life into a monotonous chore with seemingly no end and no hope in sight.
An interesting thing to note about the story is that it is by no true means a supernatural one. The main character is just as incredulous about his situation as the reader, and his search to find logical and scientific rules for why the 'vampires' act as they do is very interesting to see unfold. By the time it's over, an extremely convincing scientific case of why vampires behave as they do is presented.

As stated earlier, the second main conflict in this book is that of the main character's conflict with himself. He is essentially the last man alive on Earth for one reason or another and spends the remainder of his days in depression, uncertainty, and alcoholism. When hope finally comes to him in one form or another, it is moving for the both the character and the reader.

To get into the plot any more would be to spoil it, something which I have already done to a lesser extent, so I won't say any more. Also, this is a short book weighing in at about 170 pages, so that is a huge plus in my book.

I Am Legend
8.9/10