Short story and silly film

[alobear]

Watching Trees Grow is the first short story in Peter F Hamilton's new collection.  Short stories were a surprise from Hamilton, whose books usually require weight lifting proficiency.  Eighty pages was about right for a Hamilton experience for me - the story was an alternate history where certain families of humans had a much greater lifespan, and so could advance civilisation more quickly than in real life.  I initially found it confusing because all the characters had the same naming structure (first name, middle name, surname, of British origin) and similar characteristics (long-lived, top of their field, mostly scientists) so I found it difficult to tell them apart.  However, the plot of one of them pursuing an unsolved murder across several hundred years proved an excellent device for tracking society's progress over time, and the setting was well-drawn and very interesting.  I thought the ending was a little anti-climactic, but with a relatively small suspect pool, the solving of the murder was never going to be a major revelation.


The most recent version of The Three Musketeers was the biggest pile of bobbins I've seen for a long time - but not entirely without entertainment value.  It was all very pretty, and all very silly, and the inclusion of airships did result in some good action sequences.  Orlando Bloom was obviously having a fantastic time with the opportunity to twirl his evil moustache.  I could have done without the idiotic king and the annoying Planchet, but otherwise I would label this harmless fun.  It was probably a good precursor to Anonymous, which I plan to see in the next couple of weeks, just because the combination of subject and director has to be seen to be believed.