Reviews backlog

[alobear]

I've been having a lot of trouble with books lately.  In fact, I haven't really got into a book since I finished the last in the Hunger Games trilogy at the start of April.  In the two months since, I have finished but not really enjoyed (and in several cases mercilessly skimmed) six books, and abandoned another three part way through.  I've been spending more time on my daily commute playing Dominion and Triple Town on my phone, or listening to my current audiobook, rather than reading - which is very weird for me.  I guess there's no point getting morose about it - if I'd rather do other things than read, does that really matter?  It's just so far outside the norm, that it's kinda freaking me out...



The latest in the skimmers is Uglies by Scott Westerfeld, which was recommended to me in the vein of "if you liked The Hunger Games, you may also like..."  It has certain similarities - not very convincing future society, female protagonist who rebels against societal authority, the makings of a typical teenage love triangle, etc, etc.  The heroine wasn't particularly sympathetic, though, and the action didn't really hold my interest.  I finished it, but I didn't pay much attention in the second half.  I looked up the plot synopses of the rest of the series on Wikipedia this morning, and was glad I'd already decided not to carry on with it, as it seems like it devolves into even more ridiculous situations as time goes on.

One form of book media that's still going really well is the audiobooks I'm listening to.  The second in the Serrano Legacy by Elizabeth Moon - Sporting Chance - was as entertaining as the first one, and I shall happily spend another ten books' worth of time in that universe, if the quality is maintained.  The actors doing the voices are all very good, and having different people voicing each one makes them even more relatable than when there's only one narrator.  The plot was pretty silly, but I like the world and I like the characters.

The Fire Rose by Mercedes Lackey is the first in the Elemental Masters series, which somehow never appealed to me when they first came out, so I never got round to reading them.  I'm now rectifying that in audio form, and this first one was very enjoyable.  It was a retelling of Beauty and the Beast with an interesting magical twist, a very likeable and capable heroine, and an exciting plot. There was one annoying moment towards the end where the heroine had an internal monologue where she did the whole "if I was the heroine in a book, I would probably react in this way" thing, which is always ridiculous, because she *is* the heroine in a book. But still, this was a minor flaw in an otherwise highly entertaining story.

I've also watched a fair few films lately, with mixed success.  The Kids Are All Right, which I never got round to seeing in the cinema turned out to be quite dreary and annoyingly unresolved.  The adult characters did stupid things and upset each other quite a lot, and there didn't seem to be much of a message.  It just kind of drifted along, and then petered out.

I'd heard a lot of good things about Drive, and I do have a thing for Ryan Gosling, so I decided to watch that last night, and really wished I hadn't.  The first fifteen minutes were truly excellent, and a film all about *that* character doing *that* kind of thing would have been awesome.  Sadly, it immediately changed into a leisurely romance that had some promise but was then derailed in the second half with incredible unpleasantness and ick.

My Neighbour Totoro, on the other hand, which I watched on a tiny netbook over room service in a lovely hotel up in the North East on Thursday night, was a delight from start to finish.  I particularly liked the portrayal of the younger sister, which was incredibly true to life without being annoying.  When she was following her sister round the new house, looking for the stairs, she insisted on looking through all the doors and declaring the lack of stairs herself, even though her sister had literally just done the same thing, which struck me as very realistic, and quite sweet.  Totoro himself was fabulous, and had me grinning like a lunatic every time he was on screen.  The best bit was his reaction to using the umbrella at the bus stop.  The whole thing was lovely - a true Studio Gibli gem.

And, after the Drive failure of last night, I decided to stay up late and watch something else to wipe it from my brain - and Mission Impossible 4: Ghost Protocol proved to be exactly the thing to do it.  I didn't really rate 2 and 3 in the series, as they started to take themselves too seriously - but the Simon Pegg character, and direction by Brad Bird of all people, transformed this one with brilliant humour.  It was utterly ridiculous, but also clever, exciting, and very, very funny.  Plus, there was the added bonus of Jeremy Renner, who really caught my eye in Avengers Assemble, and did a good job of being both attractive and quite funny in this.  I'm probably going to watch this again tonight, since I want to share it with Dave, and I'm looking forward to seeing it again, even after less than 24 hours since my first viewing.