I'm guessing the decision was in part because Daenerys needs to be an oppressed, brutalized child with no voice of her own at the beginning of her journey. In the book, there are a lot of pages of her being brutalized and marginalized by her brother before she is wed to Drogo. The first sex scene with Drogo I always…

Does HBO have a way to subscribe to the season - say online - without having to have cable and buy HBO? I'd love to watch it without having to hunt for grainy pirate copies online, and am willing to pay, but I just don't know whether they provide the service...

Importance is a different criterion than quality. I voted for "Serenity" using the latter, but would have voted to BTTF using the former - and I didn't do so because Summer Glau is hot. BTTF is a great movie, but "Serenity" is much closer to my heart: this might be in part because it didn't get the attention it…

Soon, capitalism will function independently from human understanding and activity. Computer-operated financial markets will operate without the need for stock traders, financial analysts, and the like. Only an elite class of economist-programmers will even understand the basic principles governing the trading…

@ignisfatuus: I think his best book is still "The Scar." "The City and the City" is more sublime and its central conceit (two intertwined but segregated cities existing within the same geographical area) is the best I've seen from Mieville, but "The Scar" has more engaging characters and narrative, I think...

@Steel_wind: Awesome! I look forward to hearing books 2 and 3 (when I can get my hands on them - they're a pretty penny)...

@Adam Whitehead: Now that I look him up, I totally recognize Dotrice (from Amadeus," in particular)!

@Adam Whitehead: Thanks for that interesting tidbit. Dotrice does a fantastic job. I'm a big audiobook fan who is picky about the quality of the reader, and he's one of the best I've heard.

@Silvermirth: After hearing about the HBO series, I'm in the midst of "A Game of Thrones." I'm doing it as an audiobook (unabridged, of course). The reading is wonderful, and I have been out in the cold working in our barn with the animals more than usual because I want to hear more and more of it!

There are also films that portray evil and trauma, but which aren't straightforward horror movies. "Monster" was horrifying to me, with its depiction of rape and the desperate life that leads Aileen Wuornos to murder. Also, the third season of "The Wire" and its depiction of 'hamsterdam' - a neutral zone established…

@k4man: Or maybe they haven't completed the casting, but wanted to make an announcement as soon as the leads were cast...

@John: Isn't the necromancer Sauron, not Saruman?

I love the use of the "Vertigo" soundtrack - perfectly appropriate, given the similarity of theme between the two films!

You forgot "Nowhere Man." Thomas Vale, who we'd thought for the whole series had his life mysteriously stolen from, discovers he'd never had that life at all and is really an agent of the dark organization he'd thought was his enemy the whole time.

@Taed: The only answer I can think of is that Galadriel doesn't think of herself (or Elrond) as an inhabitant of Middle Earth so much as a visitor, and intends to be speaking about those for whom Middle Earth is a homeland. She's from the Undying Lands and is ready to return. Retcon, maybe: you make a good point...

The prologues to each of the three "Lord of the Rings" films work very well for me. One reason they do is that each contains a dramatically effective scene which *shows* you some event which is crucial for understanding the plot. In FOTR, it was the last battle of Elves and Men against Sauron; in TT, it was the…

Daria - The Complete Series!

Looks like a holodeck...

I tend to think of Burroughs as a science fiction/horror writer - one of the best. Like some works of urban fantasy and horror, his works purport to uncover a kind of shadow world which co-inhabits our own, a chaotic world that feeds on and is sustained by those parts of us which lie dormant beneath or exceed the…

@jarsy: As I understand it, the teeth would clamp down after the first thrust and withdrawal. So technically you're right, but this would stop the rape very early at least, not to mention making it much more easy to apprehend the offender.