Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in alobear's LiveJournal:

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Saturday, May 26th, 2012
8:55 am	Ready Player One I listened to the audio version of Ready Player One by Ernest Cline this week - read by Wil Wheaton, which is always fun. I had an interesting, conflicted reaction to it.  Objectively, I thought it was very adolescent, incredibly unsubtle wish fulfilment, and very contrived (piling four minorities onto one character to satisfy the diversity aspect - really??).  However, having said that, I spent the entire week listening to the book in every free moment (instead of actually reading on the train, for example), so I obviously enjoyed the story and really wanted to find out what happened next. It was over the top, but fun. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, May 22nd, 2012
9:20 pm	RAAAAAASMUUUUUUUS!!!!! Yes, well. The Rasmus were in town last night - for the first time in three years - so, of course, I was *right there*.  I don't go to many gigs, but my all-time favourite Finnish emo band I just won't miss. The crowd was more eclectic than I had anticipated - ie it wasn't just me, a load of fourteen-year-olds and their mums.  The youngest contingent actually seemed to be late teens to early twenties, but then I guess they've all grown up a bit in the last three years, so that kinda makes sense. Doors opened at 7pm and I really wasn't sure what time to get there.  There was no mention of a support band anywhere I could find, and I really didn't want to risk missing any of the main event, but when I turn up to gigs on time, my feet tend to hurt by the time the headline act appear, and my knees aren't too keen on me standing for long periods.  Still, this was The Rasmus, so I dutifully shuffled into the O2 Islington at 7:30pm and stood around for half an hour, soaking up the anticipation. The support band went on at 8pm for half an hour, and were actually really good, so I was glad I caught them.  They were called Mallory Knox and I will definitely be keeping an eye out for them in the future. Then there was the obligatory half hour of standing around again, before The Rasmus themselves finally appeared at 9pm.  They did a full 90 minutes, which was *excellent* value for money, and I can guarantee nobody left in any way disappointed.  However, the first few minutes were marred somewhat by the fact that all I could see were phones raised high to record the opening song - why can't people just enjoy the moment any more? Lauri, the lead singer, was wearing his trademark crow feathers in his hair, along with a thin black long-sleeved t-shirt, black leather trousers and - yellow wellington boots.  Don't ask me...  I don't know if it was the lights, the fact that it was the last gig of the tour, or if the picture in his attic has finally started to fail, but he didn't look well, and his voice was a little off, at least to begin with.  He's always been very thin, but his face looked really hollow, though he sounded chirpy enough in the talky bits, and certainly gave it his all for the whole set. I was a little worried during the build up that I'd ended up too far into the crowd (I usually like to hang out at the back of the bit where it really starts to get crowded, but last night I was right in the middle), but I had forgotten - emo kids don't mosh.  They make hearts with their fingers and weep as they sing along (okay, maybe that's an exaggeration, but the finger-hearts is true).  There were about three people in the crowd who got really over-excited and were jumping up and down - aaaaaand, one of them was me... My left knee is very unhappy with me today, as I knew it would be - but I just didn't care at the time, and it was most definitely worth it. I was impressed by the security guards, who made regular patrols along the front, handing out free cups of water, not something I've seen at gigs before. Overall, it was *all kinds of awesome* and I just wish it was the kind of thing I could go to three times in a row (a la Avengers) rather than having to wait until the next time they grace London with their presence. (8 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, May 20th, 2012
7:49 pm	Reviews ahoy! A Single Man: Good performances, well directed - but the ending just didn't do it for me.  I understand what the point was supposed to be, but I don't agree with it. King Rat: Went back to China Mieville's first novel, and it's like it was written by a different person altogether!  I don't see how he could possibly have gone from this to Perdido Street Station in two year.  Either the total change in tone and depth was deliberate, or this was written a looooong time before it was published.  I actually couldn't get through it. Echoes of Betrayal: Turns out Elizabeth Moon's new series isn't a trilogy - I was expecting a conclusion from this third instalment and didn't get one, which is good, because I like the series a lot.  It took me a little while to get into this one, but then it ramped up into quite a tale of intrigue and excitement.  Interestingly, the character of Paksenarrion (who starred in the previous trilogy and has had a supporting role in this series) didn't actually appear at all, which gave a lot more focus to some of the other characters. Summon the Keeper: A recommendation from etceteracat - first in a series by Tanya Huff, whose name I'd heard before but never encountered.  This was rather a silly book, with Hell as a character that argued with itself in the basement of a B&B.  Hell was definitely my favourite character - quite hilarious in places, and the sarcastic cat was pretty cool, too.  I wasn't so keen on the Keeper herself, though, and it didn't have enough to it to make me want to read further.  I'm not sure this was the book's fault, though - I've been really struggling on the reading front lately (a little worrying) and have given up on or not really enjoyed six books in a row. (Comment on this)
Monday, April 30th, 2012
12:54 pm	Many reviews... ( Cut for length ) (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, April 13th, 2012
9:26 am	Graphic, Text, Audio Just a few catch-up reviews before I go on holiday for a week - yay! Tamara Drewe - graphic novel by Posy Simmonds: I wasn't quite sure what to make of this.  It was well produced, with good art and an interesting combination of text and pictures - but the story was just really dreary.  Real life setting, characters in various degrees of pathetic/annoying/unpleasant, themes of deceit and betrayal leading to untimely death.  All round depressing, really. Throne of Jade - second Temeraire novel by Naomi Novik: I didn't enjoy this as much as the first in the series - but I think it suffered a bit from the fact that I really wanted to be reading The Hunger Games trilogy again, so it didn't really catch my interest.  The first two thirds was basically voyage, with not much in the way of intrigue, just a couple of storms and a sea monster attack.  Once they got to China, it picked up a bit, and I thought the discussion of dragon rights (juxtaposed with Temeraire's discovery of human slavery) was well done and interesting.  It certainly set up a good idea for book three, so I will be carrying on with the series to see what happens.  Temeraire himself seemed less likeable in this book, though - he came up with some odd notions and seemed resistant to rational discussion, which turned me off him a bit. The Bishop's Heir - second Deryni series by Katherine Kurtz: The narrator was different to the one for the first series, and all the voices were very wrong, so it took me a while to get into this.  It was a good story, though, and I liked the characters, especially the newly introduced Dougal.  But it ended on such a downer!  I suppose I shouldn't have expected the wedding at the end of the first book in a trilogy to go well - but I was hoping for development of the relationship and political intrigue surrounding its succession implications, rather than awful violence and incredible despair.  Still, I expect I shall persevere in the hopes that things get better, as I really can't leave poor Kelson where he ended up in this one! (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, April 8th, 2012
10:21 pm	Meme questions Questions from lareinemisere: ( Once I got round to it, it ended up being quite long! ) (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, April 6th, 2012
1:11 pm	Second and third Hunger Games books reviews Suzanne Collins impressed me more and more as I read Catching Fire and Mockingjay, the sequels to The Hunger Games, both of which I finished in the space of four days. I shall do the careful, (hopefully) non-spoilery review first, then delve into more detail behind a cut. In both cases, the books have a strong opening, that isn't quite borne out by the second half - I'm much more interested in the politics and wider-world presentation than I am in the action sequences - but overall I thought they were really good.  The first half of the third book, in particular, is superlative in its presentation of various complex and challenging themes. The teenage angst aspect does rear its ugly head in places, but mostly not in an annoying way.  I actually really respect Collins for her approach to the consequences of the violence and trauma suffered and committed by the characters - she doesn't ignore them as I have found in some young adult books/TV shows; in fact, you could almost say she revels in them.  Katniss completely falls apart on more than one occasion, and her physical and emotional responses to everything that happens to her are never far from the narrative.  These books are pretty dark, and get more so as the story unfolds, and the narrative doesn't shy away from that at all. The ambiguity of the rebellion is also very well handled - there are no clean hands in this story, and it's that as much as anything that causes Katniss' dilemmas throughout. I also thought it was really interesting that a lot of important action takes place without Katniss' involvement or even knowledge in both books.  This avoids the ridiculous "teenage protagonist saves the world single-handed" situation that you often get in these types of things, and is also quite a brave choice, considering the first person narrative - but it works. The relationships are also handled well - it only very rarely devolves into wet lettuce hand-wringing, and is mostly explored in interesting directions that I wasn't expecting. If the other two films are as far above the books in quality as the first one, I'm *really* looking forward to seeing them, and there's plenty of stuff in these two books that I'm fascinated to know what they're going to do with. ( LOOK AWAY NOW - MAJOR SPOILERS!! ) (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Sunday, April 1st, 2012
8:57 pm	The Desert Spear (audio) and The Hunger Games (film) reviews The Desert Spear is the second in the Painted Man series by Peter V Brett.  I listened to the first on in audio format a while ago, and decided to give the second one a try.  It's interesting to begin with, because it takes a character who is essentially the bad guy and tells his whole back story before rejoining the heroes from the first book and following their story further.  Having that depth of insight into the antagonist makes everything that much more ambiguous, and also makes his eventual direct contact with the heroes much more layered and intriguing.  It was a bold move, but very effective.  Unfortunately, a different aspect of the book really started putting me off by the end - the treatment and presentation of women.  I won't go into details but there's one particular female character who suffers a lot of abuse during the book, and her reaction to it just didn't ring true.  The narrator is a bit overly melodramatic in his tone of voice, too, which got a bit wearing in places. On Friday night, I went to the cinema to see The Hunger Games film.  After reading the book, and enjoying it to a certain extent, I really just wanted to see how they could make a film of it that got a 12A rating.  To my surprise, it turned out to be excellent, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  There were obviously some changes from the book, but mostly I thought they were improvements, and the film also contained something I felt was very lacking in the book - the wider perspective.  The book is entirely from Katniss' point of view, so you only get to see, hear and know what she does.  The film, on the other hand, had much greater scope, and was much more affecting because of it - the scenes of the gamesmakers manipulating the arena were very chilling, there was fantastic political intrigue between the President and the head Gamesmaker (whose beard was awesome), the presentation of the games from the outside (with the commentators and audience reactions) made it that much more horrifying, and the views of the reactions in the outer districts added extra pathos.  The casting was superb (especially Stanley Tucci and, of course, Jennifer Lawrence), the pacing was good, and it had oodles of depth to it.  The only drawback for me was the shaky camera style in the action sequences (understandably used to blur the violence), which always makes me feel seasick, but it didn't detract too much from what was a really good film.  I'd actually quite like to see it again! (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, March 25th, 2012
1:35 pm	White Crow review White Crow by Mary Gentle gathers together all the White Crow stories into quite a hefty book.  I read the first three. They're quite odd, with very little in the way of explanation of anything.  The characters have esoteric skills and knowledge, and there is obviously a deeply ingrained magic system, but nothing is ever spelled out clearly.  You just have to tag along for the ride and see what happens - and even by the end of the story, it's often still not clear what's going on. A bit too vague for my tastes, though I liked the dynamic between the two main characters, but not enough to forge my way through several hundred more pages. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
1:31 pm	The Iron Council review Back to China Mieville - hurrah! The Iron Council is good, but it's not as good as the previous two in the sequence.  The scope felt smaller, some of the plot points seemed rather familiar, and some of the sections dragged a bit.  In terms of plot arc, there really isn't that much to it, either, and like The Scar, it turns out to be about something *not* happening, which is a bold move, flirting with anticlimax.  The ending does work, though, and it's still Mieville, which makes it better than a lot of books I've read recently!  It does pick up in the last third, building to an exciting and intriguing climax, which is all about the importance of symbols and the power of hope. I'm definitely still going to work my way through the rest of Mieville's back catalogue, but perhaps won't be approaching the books with quite such anticipation as before, which is probably a good thing. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Sunday, March 11th, 2012
11:05 am	Reviews and book fails Reviews seem to be more of a weekly run-down kind of a thing, rather than an as-I-finish-stuff kind of a thing these days. Plus, I realised I'm skewing my statistics by not reviewing the books I've given up on part way through - which is a worryingly large percentage so far this year. ( So, stuff I have and haven't finished... ) (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Sunday, February 26th, 2012
12:49 pm	Reviews backlog There seem to be a lot of reviews backlogs around here lately!  This one has spoilers for The Hunger Games and The Invisible Man. ( Spoilery ) (Comment on this)
Sunday, February 12th, 2012
1:43 pm	Limitless and The Boy James I admit that I wasn't really paying much attention for the second half of Limitless, and I probably missed some vital plot points that would have made it make sense.  But, the reason I wasn't paying attention to the second half was because the first half wasn't very good.  It was over-narrated - the voiceover was rarely absent and really not necessary and made the whole thing feel very heavy-handed.  For a film that was supposed to be about mental capacity, it wasn't very clever and had far too much running around and random violence in it.  And they somehow managed to make Bradley Cooper unattractive, which is quite impressive.  Perhaps it would have been better if I'd watched it properly, instead of doing something else at the same time, but the engagement just wasn't there. The Boy James was an interesting experience, to say the least.  We were greeted at the door by the protagonist and invited into his home, where we listened to an audience member reading a poem, and then played quite an entertaining game of wink murder.  Our host was incredibly engaging, and he successfully drew us into the fabric of the play.  However, this made the middle section even more disturbing than it would have been otherwise - since we had already been asked to assist and participate earlier on, it made me wonder if we were supposed to intervene when things started to go wrong.  The whole play was about the loss of childhood innocence and the putting away of childish things - but it didn't make the more adult passtimes of alcohol and sex seem remotely attractive, and I'm certain that a progression into adulthood that leaves your childhood self bereft and broken on the floor is not an inevitable part of life.  I thought two out of the three actors were very good, and the start and end of the play were well done, but I could have done without the middle bit, and I prefer to believe that setting aside childish things is not something that is necessary. (Comment on this)
Sunday, February 5th, 2012
9:46 am	Lackey and Weber Two good instalments in book series I really like. Changes by Mercedes Lackey The third in the Collegium Chronicles, which turns out not to be a trilogy after all, since there are still questions to be answered at the end of the book.  This was an audiobook, and quite a short one, but thoroughly enjoyable, with a good narrator and interesting progress to the tale of Mags the heraldic trainee, who gets caught up in a plot to assassinate the king and must work to identify the assassins before they can reach their target.  Valdemar is always a great place to visit - and, while I was initially disappointed not to find out the secret behind the mystery of Mags' true identity this time around, at least it means there's at least one more Collegium novel to look forward to! How Firm a Foundation by David Weber Trilogies are for wimps!  This is book five in a series with no end in sight.  In fact, each book has only covered about a year in the progress of the main plot, which could run for centuries, so I'm not expecting a conclusion any time soon.  This is a good thing, though since the Safehold series is excellent, and I could happily spend a lot more time there.  There's been quite a gap between me reading books four and five, but I got back into the story very quickly, and it was great to be visiting with familiar and loved characters again.  There were some quite shocking developments in this one, but I suppose it make sense to shake things up a bit on occasion - otherwise it runs the risk of becoming dull.  I have huge admiration for Weber - though he sometimes goes a bit overboard on the technical detail of certain things, he has an amazing ability to keep track of vast casts of characters and incredible amounts of plot detail, making little progress in terms of chronological time, but never losing the reader's interest. (Comment on this)
Sunday, January 15th, 2012
5:22 pm	Artist, Scarlet, Bluebear The Artist: Possibly not quite as good as I had been led to believe by enthusiastic reviews, The Artist was still beautifully made and highly enjoyable.  The silent format was carried off brilliantly, with excellent performances all round (particularly from the very charismatic Jean Dujardin, the always watchable James Cromwell, and the very appealing dog), strong characters that were easy to relate to, and an engaging storyline.  The plot wasn't exactly original or complex, but it went well with the format and was satisfying in its structure.  There were some cleverly orchestrated and staged moments, a few light laughs, some pathos, and a likeable central pair - definitely recommended for a couple of hours of enjoyment. Scarlet by Stephen Lawhead: This was the sequel to Hood, which I listened to not so long ago.  It told the story of King Raven's continuing battle against the oppressive Normans in a rural area of Wales, this time mostly from the point of view of Will Scarlet, a recent addition to Bran's band of outlaws, who narrated the tale to a monk scribe whilst languishing in a prison cell, awaiting execution.  The plot was exciting and well told, the good guys eminently likeable, and the bad guys suitably despicable.  Yet, once again, the narrators accent was very off-putting - more so this time, since the narrative was first person from the point of view of an Englishman.  In general, some words jarred with their odd pronunciation, but in particular place names were horribly mangled, and the sections of Latin and French really execrable.  Still, I'm going to forge on with the last in the trilogy because I want to find out what happens next, and the mispronunciations can't possible get worse than the outlaws sailing down the Taymes to see the Earls of Lychester and War-wick. The Thirteen and a Half Lives of Captain Bluebear by Walter Moers: I spotted this on a shelf in Edinburgh at New Year and immediately snaffled it - I'd been keen to read it ever since finishing The City of Dreaming Books by the same author.  It opened with an awesome fake quote - "Life is too precious to be left to chance," attributed to Deus X. Machina - genius!  However, unfortunately, the rest of the book didn't live up to expectations. Moers obviously has an incredible imagination, and has come up with tons of interesting creatures and places with which to populate his fantasy world of Zamonia.  He doesn't have much skill in the way of coherent plots, though.  The book is essentially just a series of bizarre explorations, discoveries and encounters that the title character experiences in his totally arbitrary travels.  What makes it all the more arbitrary is that Bluebear is rarely an active participant in his lives, at least for more than the first half - he just meanders about and things happen to him, propelling him from one life to the next with little or no input from him.  He does decide upon an actual course of action in the second half, which made me think there might be some plot after all, but my hopes were raised for naught.  When he actually arrives at his desired destination (admittedly through actually orchestrating some transitions between lives), instead of plot we get a list of 34 different creatures that inhabit the city, followed by several more pages of different aspects of the city - transportation, monetary system, government, etc. The title of the book is a bit of misnomer, as well.  Bluebear is never actually the captain of anything, and his so-called thirteen and a half lives are not really different lives at all, just different stages of one life - the transition to the next on occurs every time he changes geographical location.  He says at the beginning that every bluebear has 27 lives, but that he will only relate 13.5 of them - which begs the question, if he's still alive to be writing the book, and he "starts a new life" every time he moves to a different place, how can he know how many lives he will have? I'm afraid I really lost interest towards the end, and mostly skimmed the last 250 pages. (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, January 8th, 2012
7:58 pm	The Business of Strangers review Another film where I have no idea what prompted me to put it on my DVD rental list.  I have a sneaking suspicion the The Business of Strangers only peaked my interest because it has Julia Stiles in it, and she excellent, as is Stockard Channing in pretty much the only other major part in the film.  It's almost entirely limited to an airport hotel, and it's a three-hander (Frederick Weller, whom I know and love from In Plain Sight takes the third part), which makes it feel more like a play than a film, and it's an odd little tale of chance encounters leading to abnormal behaviour over the course of one night. The motivations of Julia Stiles' character are left pretty ambiguous - it's fairly clear that she doesn't tell much of the truth throughout the film, but it's not made clear why, and I was left wondering what the point was supposed to be.  However, good performances and a decent script mostly make up for the lack of a coherent plot, and it's very short! (Comment on this)
11:56 am	First reviews of 2012 Happy 2012 everyone!! The Scar by China Mieville Oh, the consummate skill!  The scope, the depth, the intrigue, the wordplay!  The confidence to spend upwards of 250 pages just on build up before the main plot is even really introduced!  I love it, but I hate it, because I'll never be able to write like this. I particularly love the cleverness of how it all gradually fits together and is revealed to answer most questions satisfactorily.  However, I also like the fact that some things are left a mystery - there's one character, the depth of whose involvement in the orchestration of events is never fully explained, and I like the ambiguity.  It's all so awesomely well done, and continually surprising. I'm not totally blinded by awe, though.  I can see what he's trying to do with the frequent tense changes, but I don't think it wholly works, and I find it really annoying.  But then, I'm generally a traditionalist when it comes to narrative, so I don't tend to appreciate writers mucking about with it too much.  The ending is also somewhat of an anti-climax, in that things *don't* happen rather than things happening - but that's actually quite clever in and of itself. The linking themes are really good, too - it took me a why to put it all together, but it's about scars and manipulation, and particularly the manipulation of scars, on several different levels (geographic, physical and emotional). Overall, I just rejoicing in the fact that there are eight more of his books that I haven't read yet! Across The Nightingale Floor by Lian Hearn: I was really intrigued by this book, since I listened to the prequel last year, which ends exactly as this book begins, and contains so much intricate back story that I couldn't see how this could work as the start of a trilogy without providing all the information from the prequel. It was obvious on starting the book that it was written much earlier than the prequel - it was quite simplistic, with events happening very rapidly and with little embellishment or descriptive detail.  The prequel was much more involved and more confident in its style and execution.  I think I would have found this book quite mystifying if I hadn't already read the prequel - characters kept turning up with clearly long and involved histories of interaction that were never really explained here - though it's impossible for me to tell if it would have made sense without all the background knowledge. For the most part, the story was very predictable, with a very overdone 'love at first sight' aspect that left me rather cold.  Then, the climax brought many horrific surprises that sealed the fate of my favourite prequel characters in a most unpleasant way.  Since they were quite peripheral in this story, I suppose what happened to them wouldn't have been as traumatic if I'd come to this book fresh, but having involved myself very deeply in their histories in the prequel, I was very upset by the conclusion to this book, and I won't be continuing with the series. Confucius: This is a game that was given to my brother for Christmas, and which we played between Christmas and New Year.  It had a Chinese theme and the aim is to gain points by establishing influence in different government departments (though bribery or placing family members in high positions), exploring new lands, waging war with neighbouring countries, and forcing other players to support you through a complex system of gift giving.  It took us a little while to get the hang of it, and I think we would all benefit from playing it more to develop better understanding of its intricacies, but I quite enjoyed it.  I won, which was a big surprise, and more down to luck than strategy, I think. Betrayal at House on the Hill: I played this at New Year in Edinburgh.  It's kind of Cthulhu-esque, in that you have a character with attributes of Speed, Strength, Knowledge and Sanity, which are affected by things that happen to you in the game.  It starts off collaborative, with all the players exploring an old house and discovering various types of rooms and experiencing events.  At a particular point, though, one of the players is revealed as a traitor and the rest of the game is spent with that player trying to achieve their goal while the others try to stop them.  It's well designed, in that the layout of the house is different every time, and there are many scenarios for the betrayal, so it's likely to be a very different game every time you play, at least until you've exhausted all the scenarios.  However, I think the timing of the betrayal doesn't work all that well - we only had three turns of exploring the house before it happened, and then I got killed before I even got to have another turn, so it was a pretty short game for me.  I guess I could still have involved myself in plotting with the others against the traitor, but it did seem a bit harsh that players could get knocked out well before the game was over. 7 Wonders: Another game I played for the first time at New Year, and another game I think I would benefit from playing several more times before I really get the hang of it.  I like the mechanics, though it took me a while to get my head around the use of the cards, since the collection and expenditure of resources is so different to any other game I've played.  I also like the way the range of things you can do is affected by what your immediate neighbours on each side do.  However, with seven players, it felt a bit disconnected, because I didn't pay any attention to what the other four players were doing - as far as interaction and game play were concerned, they might as well not have been playing at all.  That made adding up the scores a bit odd, since one of them won both times and I had no idea how, since I hadn't been tracking what they were doing at all.  I like the game, though, and would like to play it again. (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, December 24th, 2011
10:25 am	Final Stats for 2011 I know it's a bit early for a stats round-up, but considering I'm now away until 2nd January and will probably be too busy to do this then, I figured I'd use the time I have now to do the figures.  Plus, I started an 800 page book last night, and I'm not likely to go to the cinema again this year, so I don't think there will be anything else to review before January! ( Statistics ) (Comment on this)
9:55 am	Final reviews of 2011 A few more reviews! Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows Suitably silly, and nothing to actively dislike, but for some reason Guy Ritchie's Holmes just doesn't do much for me.  The interplay between Holmes and Watson is fun, the action is fast-paced, there are some funny bits and some clever bits, but there just seems to be something lacking (either in the films or in me) that prevents me from really getting into it.  Still, a fun outing with good friends is never to be sniffed at. Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson: This started out as an excellent "first colonists on Mars" story, with the requisite long space journey (where alliances were forged and broken) followed by the initial setting up of a society in a hostile environment (interesting use of technology and continuing interactions of a small group of people trapped together in confined quarters).  Somehow, though, it started to lose my interest as it went along.  I think it was because the chapters started jumping multiple years and switching focus between characters, so there wasn't much in the way of continuity.  It all expanded out too quickly for me - I would have preferred sticking with the original hundred colonists a bit longer before jumping ahead to when thousands of people were already there and the politics was suddenly much broader. Oath of Fealty by Elizabeth Moon: Excellent audiobook by one of my favourite narrators, plus the start of a new trilogy in a world I really like.  This followed on almost directly from the end of The Deed of Paksenarrion trilogy, though the focus shifted away from Paks and onto some of the other characters, which was refreshing and provided an interesting new perspective. Children of a Lesser God: A film that's been on my DVD rental list for a very long time - glad I finally got to watch it, as it was pretty good. (Comment on this)
Thursday, December 22nd, 2011
10:41 am	Another reviews backlog This is getting silly - far too many fun things, and not nearly enough time to review them properly! Hood by Stephen Lawhead: This was an interesting audiobook - a retelling of the Robin Hood legend, only set in 11th century Wales, with a hero named Bran leading a rebellion against the Normans.  It was a fun story, with several familiar characters crowbarred in, but the narrator's accent was rather offputting.  I think he was an American trying to do RP and failing miserably. The Silver Locomotive Mystery by Edward Marston: It's been a long time since I've read a Railway Detective book, but the familiar tropes were all in place - lots of unnecessary exposition by characters who should already know it, Sergeant Leeming complaining about having to travel and then being hit over the head during the course of the investigation, inexplicable lack of progress in Colbeck's relationship with Maddie, etc, etc.  It was still fun, and a very light, fast read - plus the very end provided something I've been waiting for through several previous books - although it was done in such an abrupt and tacked-on way that it wasn't as satisfying as I'd hoped.  Still, it makes me look forward to the next in the series a bit more, to see how things might change. The Wonderful World of Captain Beaky: This was an odd ensemble piece at the Royal Albert Hall, with various celebrities reciting poems from the Captain Beaky collection to orchestral music, with interpretative dance accompaniment.  It was a bit patchy, and the best one by far was Captain Beaky himself, which they unfortunately did first.  Still, it was a fun night out, and very nostalgic. One Man, Two Guvnors: I have a less than brilliant relationship with comedy as a general rule, but I do like the Restoration variety.  However, this 60s set adaptation seemed to lose the funny in translation, and Dave and I left in the interval. Olympia: Always a highlight of the year - as ever, the Shetland Pony Grand National was worth the ticket price alone, and the company was as much of a draw as the actual event. Three Days In May: I didn't do this excellent play justice, since I very nearly fell asleep in the first half.  Considering it was pretty much confined to one room, with five men essentially debating whether or not to try and make a peace deal with Hitler, it was impressively dynamic and engaging, also provoking much discussion of history and politics afterwards. The Ladykillers: I don't remember enjoying the film that much, but this was an ingenious production - the stage revolved, there were clever tricks with windows and furniture, and a silly sequence involving toy cars driving up and down the outside of the house.  I think I enjoyed the staging more than the actual play, but all the performances were excellent, and it had several very amusing bits. (Comment on this)