Save the Cat Goes To The Movies

If you are looking to learn more screenwriting in this book, think again. It is a collection of pitches followed by a synopsis of the movie. He lays out the beats for you as he tells the tale. Most of these movies are kinda recent. 

It is a damn interesting read for almost anybody.

Writers will learn by osmosis how to write the dreaded short and long synopsis editors and publishers are looking for. They wanna see the big picture. Your story telling skills will be analyzed at a later date. 

I'm not a scriptwriter, but I heard that if you have all three of these books, you'll have a complete screenwriting course in your hands. Not sure if that's true. 

Not having read the original, let's me rate this book as a stand alone. 

   

It's a little this review. Mainly because, even though I don't write scripts, many people will get value from this as I did. 

The United States of Japan

 

This is the first Peter Tieryas book. The title grabbed me at first, then the cover followed. I stumbled upon this book and decided to buy the audio version. 

I had no idea what this book was about when I purchased it apart from the blurb on the back. I didn't read any reviews. I try to avoid them when I plan to review these books. I like to go in cold.

So, this book is a mystery. At it's heart, this is a mystery set in an alternative history where Japan sent a Gundam mecha to the US and the president concedes. And a game called The USA. 

From the cover I felt that this book would be filled with robots and battles galore. But it fails on that end. There are battles, killing and The George Washington's -- a US terrorist group (they kill easily) fill the pages with the action, but everything seems to happen to our heroes and not because of our heroes. 

Our heroes, Ben and Akiko (a loyal member of the Taiko -- think secret police), are chasing a renegade officer called Mutsuraga across a Japanese influenced US. We have Imperial overlords, giant bots, newly designed viruses used as torture weapons. We have a high tech world with holograms of the emperor and everyone must bow. Plus 'normals' bow to imperial soldiers.

The ending wasn't great for me and other parts of the ending were expected. 

This book may not be for everyone. If you are expecting Mecha Anime, you may be disappointed.