Reviews backlog
Feb. 26th, 2012 12:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alobearThere seem to be a lot of reviews backlogs around here lately! This one has spoilers for The Hunger Games and The Invisible Man.
Kings of the North by Elizabeth Moon:
Number two in the Legend of Paksenarrion series and a new narrator for the audio version - it took me a while to get into it, because the new narrator wasn't as good and pronounced the character and place names differently, but it was still a good book. The only drawback was that several times things would happen, then people would travel to different places and tell other people about what had happened. Usually, a writer will use a phrase like, "And then she told him all about the thing that had happened. When she had finished, he reacted like this." In this book, though, the retelling was generally actual retold as dialogue, which got a bit repetitive, since the narrative had previously described the thing as it happened in the first place. Still, an exciting story, likeable characters, and enough intrigue to make me want to listen to the next one when it comes out.
Gormenghast by Mervyn Peake:
More than a handful of years after reading Titus Groan, I finally got round to reading Gormenghast. I had forgotten how exquisite Peake's language is - fantastic imagery abounds:
"The colourless voice was raised, and the young man's eyes made a tremendous effort to flash; but either the tinder was wet or the updraught insufficient, for they remained peculiarly sparkless."
"The walls of Gormenghast were like the walls of paradise or the walls of an inferno. The colours were devilish or angelical according to the colour of the mind that watched them. They swam, those walls, with the hues of hell, with the tints of Zion. The breasts of the plumaged seraphim; the scales of Satan."
The characters and the setting, however, are less appealing than the language. It all holds a kind of horrid fascination as to how it will unfold, though. About half way through, the perfect adjective sprang to mind - grotesque. Quite a lot actually happens, which surprised me, after remembering not much in the way of plot in the first one. Like the first one, though, the ending was quite satisfying. I've been told not to bother with Titus Alone - but it's only 200 pages, so I might give it a go in a couple of months.
A new discovery of mine is Librivox.org, where people volunteer to create audio versions of books in the public domain. If I can figure out the technical aspects of doing the recordings, I'm thinking about volunteering myself - in the meantime, I have recently enjoyed two of their offerings - the narration isn't as good as the best of the professional ones I listen to, but it's more than adequate to enjoy the story.
A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett:
I remember watching the TV adaptation of this a very long time ago, but I don't think I've ever read the book before. It was pretty good, with the heroine just managing to escape being too nice, the evil mistress just managing to escape being too villainous, but the resolution of the plot not remotely managing to escape being too unbelievable. However, as fairy tales go, it's engaging enough, and it was fun to revisit a story from my childhood in a different format.
The Invisible Man by H G Wells:
This was my first experience of H G Wells, and I was left feeling it was all a bit pointless in the end. The invisible man doesn't do anything with his powers, except run around naked, stealing things and killing people. I suppose that actually is the point - that his supposedly awesome power isn't really very useful at all, and that his flawed nature leads him into violence and a sticky end because he plans to abuse that power for personal gain. Still, not much really happened, and the prose style was a bit laboured - though the occasionally excellent turn of phrase and some surprising humour stopped it being too arduous a listen.
Megamind:
Not the best film in the world, but generally quite fun, with some very amusing moments and some clever manipulation of superhero tropes. I loved Minion, the fish with the robot body, the female reporter's reaction to being repeatedly kidnapped was pretty funny, and Megamind's habitual mispronunciation of the name of the city - Metrocity to rhyme with atrocity - made me laugh every time. He made an appealing anti-hero, and overall I enjoyed it.
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins:
I was intrigued by the trailer for the upcoming film adaptation of this book, and decided to read it first to see whether or not I wanted to see the film. It's fast-paced and suspenseful, with a mostly likeable protagonist, and an opening section that sets the scene well before leaping into the main action. There isn't much depth in terms of narrative style and descriptive content - I was definitely reading it to find out what happened rather than to appreciate the writing, which made it hard not to skim in places. It's quite sanitised in terms of the violence - but I really don't see how it would be possible to make it into a 12-rated film, which is the main reason why I do plan to go and see it in the cinema.
My main problem with the book was the restrictive nature of the first person, present tense narrative. The world and its history were quite interesting and I wanted to know much more than 16 year-old Katniss would be able to tell me. I would have liked different points of view - to see what was shown of the Games to the populace and how they reacted to it, particularly her friends and family back home. I would have liked a lot more detail about the history of the revolution and the people now running the show. I would even have liked more information about how the technology worked (odd for me, but the terraforming and manipulation of the arena interested me, plus the omniscient cameras and audio receivers seemed implausible). Bascially, this book would have appealed to me much more if it had been written on more of a Game of Thrones scale! Probably wouldn't have done so well in the teenage market, though!
I'm not sure where the next in the series is going to go - the only thing I do know about it is that it's going to involve a very annoying teenage love triangle, which I find quite disappointing, though I guess it was inevitable. I will be reading on - but only because I already know there are only three books and they conclude the story, so it won't take me long to find out how it all turns out.
Kings of the North by Elizabeth Moon:
Number two in the Legend of Paksenarrion series and a new narrator for the audio version - it took me a while to get into it, because the new narrator wasn't as good and pronounced the character and place names differently, but it was still a good book. The only drawback was that several times things would happen, then people would travel to different places and tell other people about what had happened. Usually, a writer will use a phrase like, "And then she told him all about the thing that had happened. When she had finished, he reacted like this." In this book, though, the retelling was generally actual retold as dialogue, which got a bit repetitive, since the narrative had previously described the thing as it happened in the first place. Still, an exciting story, likeable characters, and enough intrigue to make me want to listen to the next one when it comes out.
Gormenghast by Mervyn Peake:
More than a handful of years after reading Titus Groan, I finally got round to reading Gormenghast. I had forgotten how exquisite Peake's language is - fantastic imagery abounds:
"The colourless voice was raised, and the young man's eyes made a tremendous effort to flash; but either the tinder was wet or the updraught insufficient, for they remained peculiarly sparkless."
"The walls of Gormenghast were like the walls of paradise or the walls of an inferno. The colours were devilish or angelical according to the colour of the mind that watched them. They swam, those walls, with the hues of hell, with the tints of Zion. The breasts of the plumaged seraphim; the scales of Satan."
The characters and the setting, however, are less appealing than the language. It all holds a kind of horrid fascination as to how it will unfold, though. About half way through, the perfect adjective sprang to mind - grotesque. Quite a lot actually happens, which surprised me, after remembering not much in the way of plot in the first one. Like the first one, though, the ending was quite satisfying. I've been told not to bother with Titus Alone - but it's only 200 pages, so I might give it a go in a couple of months.
A new discovery of mine is Librivox.org, where people volunteer to create audio versions of books in the public domain. If I can figure out the technical aspects of doing the recordings, I'm thinking about volunteering myself - in the meantime, I have recently enjoyed two of their offerings - the narration isn't as good as the best of the professional ones I listen to, but it's more than adequate to enjoy the story.
A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett:
I remember watching the TV adaptation of this a very long time ago, but I don't think I've ever read the book before. It was pretty good, with the heroine just managing to escape being too nice, the evil mistress just managing to escape being too villainous, but the resolution of the plot not remotely managing to escape being too unbelievable. However, as fairy tales go, it's engaging enough, and it was fun to revisit a story from my childhood in a different format.
The Invisible Man by H G Wells:
This was my first experience of H G Wells, and I was left feeling it was all a bit pointless in the end. The invisible man doesn't do anything with his powers, except run around naked, stealing things and killing people. I suppose that actually is the point - that his supposedly awesome power isn't really very useful at all, and that his flawed nature leads him into violence and a sticky end because he plans to abuse that power for personal gain. Still, not much really happened, and the prose style was a bit laboured - though the occasionally excellent turn of phrase and some surprising humour stopped it being too arduous a listen.
Megamind:
Not the best film in the world, but generally quite fun, with some very amusing moments and some clever manipulation of superhero tropes. I loved Minion, the fish with the robot body, the female reporter's reaction to being repeatedly kidnapped was pretty funny, and Megamind's habitual mispronunciation of the name of the city - Metrocity to rhyme with atrocity - made me laugh every time. He made an appealing anti-hero, and overall I enjoyed it.
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins:
I was intrigued by the trailer for the upcoming film adaptation of this book, and decided to read it first to see whether or not I wanted to see the film. It's fast-paced and suspenseful, with a mostly likeable protagonist, and an opening section that sets the scene well before leaping into the main action. There isn't much depth in terms of narrative style and descriptive content - I was definitely reading it to find out what happened rather than to appreciate the writing, which made it hard not to skim in places. It's quite sanitised in terms of the violence - but I really don't see how it would be possible to make it into a 12-rated film, which is the main reason why I do plan to go and see it in the cinema.
My main problem with the book was the restrictive nature of the first person, present tense narrative. The world and its history were quite interesting and I wanted to know much more than 16 year-old Katniss would be able to tell me. I would have liked different points of view - to see what was shown of the Games to the populace and how they reacted to it, particularly her friends and family back home. I would have liked a lot more detail about the history of the revolution and the people now running the show. I would even have liked more information about how the technology worked (odd for me, but the terraforming and manipulation of the arena interested me, plus the omniscient cameras and audio receivers seemed implausible). Bascially, this book would have appealed to me much more if it had been written on more of a Game of Thrones scale! Probably wouldn't have done so well in the teenage market, though!
I'm not sure where the next in the series is going to go - the only thing I do know about it is that it's going to involve a very annoying teenage love triangle, which I find quite disappointing, though I guess it was inevitable. I will be reading on - but only because I already know there are only three books and they conclude the story, so it won't take me long to find out how it all turns out.
