In article <%CQme.8$***@lakeread02>, JPM III <***@hotmail.com>
writes
Post by JPM IIII recently acquired my copy of _The Matrix Comics Vol 2_, and I noticed in
the bookstore today _More Matrix and Philosophy_, which comes with the
subtitle "Revolutions and Reloaded Decoded". Heh. I plan to buy it, along
with the _Star Wars and Philosophy_ and _Lord of the Rings and Philosophy_
books from the same publishing company.
Anyone got anything else worth buying? Are the MxO game guides worth buying
for story purposes? Or do they even exist? :-P
The official game guide for MxO is worth buying even if you're not
playing the game in my opinion, providing you're fairly hardcore about
the Matrix universe. There's a lot of new character information and
suchlike.
Browsing the Matrix books piled on my desk, this is my quick "I
like/don't like it" review of them:
The Matrix Revelations (Steve Crouch, ed.) Covers the trilogy. Well
written, looks at the trilogy from a Christian POV.
Taking the Red Pill (Glenn Yeffeth, ed.) is a collection of essays that
look at the Matrix from various religious and philosophical angles, is
in my top three favourites, but doesn't cover the sequels.
The Gospel Reloaded (Chris Seay/Greg Garrett) is Christian, but makes
interesting observations about the film. In my top three.
The Reality Within The Matrix (Kristenea M. Lavelle) looks and feels
like a Vanity publication. Christian POV again. Large typeface. 'Nuff
said.
The Matrix Warrior - Being The One (Jake Horsley) has no value
whatsoever IMO. I will try it again sometime, but on first read it was a
confusing piece of nonsense that couldn't decide if it wanted to be
funny, or deep, or both.
Journey To The Source (Pradheep Chhalliyl) is good in that it takes the
trilogy step by step, but English is not Mr. Chhalliyil's first
language. Top Three. The only book I have that has any real connection
to film personnel, in that Don Davis writes the intro.
The Matrix Unlocked (Paul Condon) was/is a cut and paste cash-in, which
has a 'wacky' way with indents and alignment that is only there to cover
up the low word count. Spends a lot of the book writing about things
that have only a tenuous link to the Matrix at best. Deeply rubbish.
The Matrix & Philosophy (William Irwin, ed.) Top Three... Um... Anyway,
a great compendium of essays. I also have an audio version of this,
which is good and available from audible.com.
Like A Splinter In Your Mind (Matt Lawrence) Looks great and reads well.
Covers the trilogy. Top... Five, I guess, now.
Beyond The Matrix (Stephen Faller) I enjoyed it the first time around,
but re-reading it I think he's trying too hard to become the literary
'face' of the Matrix. Entertaining, but not all that substantial.
Exploring The Matrix (Karen Haber, ed.) is fun and looks like a 1980's
cyberpunk publication. Recommended. Most of the essays use The Matrix as
a starting point to discuss related issues like violence in the media,
etc.
Jacking Into The Matrix Franchise (Matthew Kapell & William Doty) is the
one I'm reading now. It's wordy, and dense, and is more interested in
the storyline/philosophy than the title suggests.
All in all, I'd only suggest that Unlocked and Being The One are without
any merit. Unless you're particularly interested in the films
specifically from a Christian standpoint, there's no real need to own
Revelations, Gospel Reloaded and The Reality Within... If I was to pick
one, it would be Gospel.
There is one other Matrix-related book that I've seen in stores, a
really horrid 'humorous' thing called The Mate-Twix. I didn't buy that.
But I'm kind of thinking that I should. Damn.
Those who want an instance fix of cod-philosophy could always download a
typo-ridden half-complete alternative to all of the above, of course,
called The Matrix Reflections and available at vidguide.com the last
time I checked, as well as from my tiny geocities page... :)
What we really need, though, is some EXPANDED UNIVERSE novels, dammit!
--
Gavin Smith
http://www.geocities.com/gsmith_5678
http://movies.groups.yahoo.com/group/The_Matrix_Mainframe/
--