The brain's a funny thing. I understand objectively that the spider pictured above is just a machine. I also understand that it's not even a machine, it's just a picture of a machine. I also understand that said machine is half a globe away from me. And yet, the second I saw the thing, a jolt of adrenaline shot…

It may just be coincidentally similar in linguistic terms, but the Battletech tabletop games had "JagerMechs," which also translates as "HunterMech" (from the German). Maybe Del Toro was a Battletech fan.

The death of Fahey's character really surprised me, too. There are only a smattering of actors in the show I recognized from other projects, so killing one of them off so early, let alone someone seemingly established as a primary character, really worked well to let the audience know that no one was safe. It…

This was my first thought, too.

Kabuki (Ukiko). Technically not a samurai or ninja, but certainly a deadly assassin that had ninja-like qualities. Plus, David Mack's comics are just plain great.

He really only needed two cards for this:

Tatiana Maslany must be the most exhausted woman in the entertainment industry (with the person in charge of her hair and makeup coming in a close second). She's in just about every scene of every episode, constantly juggling personalities and accents, frequently having conversations with different versions of herself.

The first thing I thought when I saw the picture from "Epic":

That was my thought, too. I think it's so appealing because, while we all may have read about space stations and colonies, the Citadel is one of the few we could actually walk around in. Combine that with the fact that it was so fully fleshed out in the first game, and it's difficult to surpass.

Annalee, I'm sure you're going to have very little downtime during the tour, but if you find an extra hour between planes in Seattle, you should hop over to "Twice Sold Tales" in Capitol Hill. It's a used bookstore about 5 miles from where you'll be, and it's a real treasure here. It's been in Seattle longer than I…