Couple of books, couple of films...
Jun. 5th, 2011 08:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alobearBeyond The Shadows by Brent Weeks:
This concludes the Night Angel trilogy and is the longest book of the three. Oddly, it's a bit less gripping than the other two, as there's no clear over-arching antagonist until very near the end. The familiar characters are all split up in different areas, facing different challenges, all of which are interesting but none of which are obviously connected. There's no sense of progression towards an impending climax for most of the book, so the tension seems diminished and plot fragmented. About a hundred pages from the end, though, everything suddenly comes together really abruptly and rather too neatly. The tone also changes completely from the rest of the trilogy. There are a couple of chapters where all the main characters come together that are actually really funny, which is somewhat odd after the previous grimness. Then, the actual conclusion involves such a strong message of love and faith conquering all that it all seems incredibly saccharine and totally out of keeping with the previous 1500 pages. While I'm all for a happy ending (and it's not exactly happy for everyone involved), the contrast was too much for me, and I felt the ending was weak, which was a shame.
Restless by William Boyd:
This book initially took me by surprise, as the gender of the author and the immediate context of the opening pages led me to assume the narrator was a little boy. When she turned out to be a single mother in her early thirties, I had to completely readjust my perceptions of the story, which was a bit odd. However, once I'd settled back into it, I really enjoyed this book. Boyd is an excellent writer and presents his story strongly, both in content and structure. There are two strands to the plot - one set in the 1970s, following the narrator as she leads her everyday life and tries to deal with her increasingly eccentric mother, and one set just before and during the second world war, detailing the memoir of the narrator's mother, who worked as a spy for British Intelligence. I was actually most drawn to the 70s storyline, as I loved the narrative five-year-old son, and revelled in the detailed descriptions of Oxford, where they lived. Both plot strands were strong, though, which is always important in a split narrative, and the way they eventually came together was masterfully done.
The Painted Man by Peter V Brett:
I listened to the audio version of this, which impacted more on my enjoyment than usual, as I wasn't overly keen on the narrator. He over-emphasised everything, making even the most mundane sentence into a melodramatic event, and his range of accents was so wide for characters living within a very small area (Northern English, Southern English, South West English, Welsh, Southern American, Northern American) that I was somewhat bewildered. However, the story itself was really good - a well-rounded world, likeable characters, lots of intrigue and excitement. The narrative did keep skipping years, which was a bit disconcerting and rather annoying - I was enjoying the story enough that I would have been happy for the book to have been half as long again and to have followed all the characters closely throughout the entire span. The ending had a very good set-up for Book Two, as well, so I shall look forward to that - though I haven't yet decided whether to persevere with the audio versions or actually buy the printed book.
Morning Glory:
This week's DVD rental was Morning Glory, which turned out to be a bit of a damp squib in my opinion. There wasn't really much to it, but I guess it was entertaining enough to fill an evening.
Thor:
This was pretty terrible - I kept persevering, hoping it would get better, but it didn't. The whole premise was utterly ridiculous (which I knew beforehand, but I was hoping they'd come up with some way to make it credible), much of it didn't make any sense, and writing was fairly poor. Natalie Portman and Chris Hemsworth did their level best, and managed to make their characters quite likeable, but I think that was more to the credit of their acting abilities than the quality of the film. Film versions of Marvel comics continue largely to be a disappointment.
This concludes the Night Angel trilogy and is the longest book of the three. Oddly, it's a bit less gripping than the other two, as there's no clear over-arching antagonist until very near the end. The familiar characters are all split up in different areas, facing different challenges, all of which are interesting but none of which are obviously connected. There's no sense of progression towards an impending climax for most of the book, so the tension seems diminished and plot fragmented. About a hundred pages from the end, though, everything suddenly comes together really abruptly and rather too neatly. The tone also changes completely from the rest of the trilogy. There are a couple of chapters where all the main characters come together that are actually really funny, which is somewhat odd after the previous grimness. Then, the actual conclusion involves such a strong message of love and faith conquering all that it all seems incredibly saccharine and totally out of keeping with the previous 1500 pages. While I'm all for a happy ending (and it's not exactly happy for everyone involved), the contrast was too much for me, and I felt the ending was weak, which was a shame.
Restless by William Boyd:
This book initially took me by surprise, as the gender of the author and the immediate context of the opening pages led me to assume the narrator was a little boy. When she turned out to be a single mother in her early thirties, I had to completely readjust my perceptions of the story, which was a bit odd. However, once I'd settled back into it, I really enjoyed this book. Boyd is an excellent writer and presents his story strongly, both in content and structure. There are two strands to the plot - one set in the 1970s, following the narrator as she leads her everyday life and tries to deal with her increasingly eccentric mother, and one set just before and during the second world war, detailing the memoir of the narrator's mother, who worked as a spy for British Intelligence. I was actually most drawn to the 70s storyline, as I loved the narrative five-year-old son, and revelled in the detailed descriptions of Oxford, where they lived. Both plot strands were strong, though, which is always important in a split narrative, and the way they eventually came together was masterfully done.
The Painted Man by Peter V Brett:
I listened to the audio version of this, which impacted more on my enjoyment than usual, as I wasn't overly keen on the narrator. He over-emphasised everything, making even the most mundane sentence into a melodramatic event, and his range of accents was so wide for characters living within a very small area (Northern English, Southern English, South West English, Welsh, Southern American, Northern American) that I was somewhat bewildered. However, the story itself was really good - a well-rounded world, likeable characters, lots of intrigue and excitement. The narrative did keep skipping years, which was a bit disconcerting and rather annoying - I was enjoying the story enough that I would have been happy for the book to have been half as long again and to have followed all the characters closely throughout the entire span. The ending had a very good set-up for Book Two, as well, so I shall look forward to that - though I haven't yet decided whether to persevere with the audio versions or actually buy the printed book.
Morning Glory:
This week's DVD rental was Morning Glory, which turned out to be a bit of a damp squib in my opinion. There wasn't really much to it, but I guess it was entertaining enough to fill an evening.
Thor:
This was pretty terrible - I kept persevering, hoping it would get better, but it didn't. The whole premise was utterly ridiculous (which I knew beforehand, but I was hoping they'd come up with some way to make it credible), much of it didn't make any sense, and writing was fairly poor. Natalie Portman and Chris Hemsworth did their level best, and managed to make their characters quite likeable, but I think that was more to the credit of their acting abilities than the quality of the film. Film versions of Marvel comics continue largely to be a disappointment.
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no subject
Date: 2011-06-05 08:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-05 08:34 pm (UTC)I haven't seen the new X-Men film yet, and have heard conflicting reports, so I'm remaining cautiously optimistic about that one.
no subject
Date: 2011-06-05 08:37 pm (UTC)