Naval battles and fields of green
Apr. 11th, 2010 08:16 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alobearA couple of days ago, I finished reading Off Armageddon Reef, by David Weber, which was lent to me by Simon H after a discussion about it revealed a very similar premise to a series by Sharon Shinn. Whilst the premise *is* almost identical, the execution is about as different as you can get. While Shinn leaves the reader mostly in the dark as to the colony's origins until book three, Weber starts with a lengthy prologue charting his colony's history. While Shinn's story uses a couple of hundred pages and less than a year of plot time to lay out a complicated romance, with some political and societal detail to add depth, Weber's tale spans 800 pages and nearly a millenium (though only two years of central plot time) to follow the schemings of six different political powers in their attempt to destroy another kingdom, with the protagonist orchestrating a paradigm shift in that kingdom as a precursor to eventually preparing the entire planet to take on potential alien invaders.
I loved both, and am very much looking forward to reading the rest in the Weber series, as well as re-reading the other Shinn books.
Yesterday afternoon, I went to see Wicked! after an extremely pleasant lunch with family. Having read the book some time ago, and forgotten the plot almost entirely, I had no idea what to expect from the stage show. What I got was a powerful and entertaining story, with some great songs and a lot of humour. It's a show that's evidently cultivated quite a devoted following, as there were many groups in the audience who had obviously been before, and more than once. Not all the cast were top-notch, but the central two characters were excellent and they certainly weren't without any decent support. The staging was effective and seamless, the costumes were good and the script was very clever, twisting the details of the familiar Wizard of Oz story to put a completely different spin on it. When I got home, I looked up the book on Wikipedia and reminded myself of its details - the bare bones are the same, but the show has changed quite a lot to make its story less grim, a change which I thought was mostly a good idea, given the altered format.
Definitely recommended.
I loved both, and am very much looking forward to reading the rest in the Weber series, as well as re-reading the other Shinn books.
Yesterday afternoon, I went to see Wicked! after an extremely pleasant lunch with family. Having read the book some time ago, and forgotten the plot almost entirely, I had no idea what to expect from the stage show. What I got was a powerful and entertaining story, with some great songs and a lot of humour. It's a show that's evidently cultivated quite a devoted following, as there were many groups in the audience who had obviously been before, and more than once. Not all the cast were top-notch, but the central two characters were excellent and they certainly weren't without any decent support. The staging was effective and seamless, the costumes were good and the script was very clever, twisting the details of the familiar Wizard of Oz story to put a completely different spin on it. When I got home, I looked up the book on Wikipedia and reminded myself of its details - the bare bones are the same, but the show has changed quite a lot to make its story less grim, a change which I thought was mostly a good idea, given the altered format.
Definitely recommended.
