Reviews round-up
Dec. 9th, 2012 09:40 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alobearIt has been a busy, busy couple of weeks! So not much time for posting reviews.
On my recent trip to California, I watched two movies on the flight out and one on the flight back:
Rock of Ages:
Gloriously terrible, but well worth the effort for two scenes in particular, one of which was a classic case of train wreck theatre and the other of which almost had me falling out of my free upgrade business class flat bed with laughter. Say what you like about Tom Cruise, but he really knows his craft on occasion.
Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted:
Kinda okay, but again with one stand-out moment that was actually rather heart-breaking for those who have followed the franchise from the beginning. Poor out Maurice the lemur will likely never be free of King Julien. The circus was visually quite amazing, too.
Seeking a Friend for the End of the World:
Rather weird but also rather lovely. Keira Knightley on good form and sweetly attractive. A satisfyingly non-cop-out ending, and a surprisingly heart-warming romance.
Under Heaven by Guy Gavriel Kay:
This has been on my list of books to buy since it came out a while ago, but I ended up listening to it in audio format. It was quite slow in places, but generally involving - the story of a Japanese-style honour culture wracked by war, with a minor noble thrust into the limelight by an unexpected and lavish gift. It had a lot of interesting character development and a mostly intriguing plot.
The Darkness That Comes Before by R Scott Bakker:
Another attempt at staving off Game of Thrones. Odd, remote style for the prologue - lots of references to things that are not really explained. More accessible once into the story proper, though the plot is complex and many-layered, with lots of different factions and quite a lot of philosophy, study of human nature and military strategy. I read it quite contentedly for hours on end while in California, and yet I didn't feel connected to or really sympathetic towards any of the characters and I'm not planning on continuing with the series, even though this one was very definitely set-up for the actual thrust of the main story in Book Two.
Last Chance To See by Douglas Adams:
Tales of visiting endangered animals, told with Adams' usual flair and humour, but not ignoring the important messages about the environment. Some familiar tales from my Attenborough viewing - New Zealand's awesomely eccentric kakapo parrot - and some not so familiar - the rather doomed Chinese baiji dolphin. Educational, highly amusing, and both heartening (the people who dedicate themselves to saving endangered species) and depressing (the odds against their success).
World War Z by Max Brooks
Dave's been trying to get me to read this book for nearly two years, and I've been resisting him as it didn't really appeal to me. At long last, I put it in my suitcase for the flight back from California - and it turned out to be one of the best books I've read this year (and that's saying something when it's up against George R R Martin and China Mieville). Really interesting format - oral records of the war, collected ten years after the fact, allow for the exploration of all the different effects of and reactions to the war without the narrative getting distracted by the immediate action of it all taking place. Brooks comes up with some genius points about how a zombie apocalypse would actually proceed and how humanity in all its various guises would react - it's very clever and a very chilling indictment of society in some cases (though I did find the single British chapter really annoying). There are also a lot of very interesting and realistic (once you're past the initial concpet of the living dead) presentations of the practicalities and logistics of fighting zombies. Highly, highly recommended.
On my recent trip to California, I watched two movies on the flight out and one on the flight back:
Rock of Ages:
Gloriously terrible, but well worth the effort for two scenes in particular, one of which was a classic case of train wreck theatre and the other of which almost had me falling out of my free upgrade business class flat bed with laughter. Say what you like about Tom Cruise, but he really knows his craft on occasion.
Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted:
Kinda okay, but again with one stand-out moment that was actually rather heart-breaking for those who have followed the franchise from the beginning. Poor out Maurice the lemur will likely never be free of King Julien. The circus was visually quite amazing, too.
Seeking a Friend for the End of the World:
Rather weird but also rather lovely. Keira Knightley on good form and sweetly attractive. A satisfyingly non-cop-out ending, and a surprisingly heart-warming romance.
Under Heaven by Guy Gavriel Kay:
This has been on my list of books to buy since it came out a while ago, but I ended up listening to it in audio format. It was quite slow in places, but generally involving - the story of a Japanese-style honour culture wracked by war, with a minor noble thrust into the limelight by an unexpected and lavish gift. It had a lot of interesting character development and a mostly intriguing plot.
The Darkness That Comes Before by R Scott Bakker:
Another attempt at staving off Game of Thrones. Odd, remote style for the prologue - lots of references to things that are not really explained. More accessible once into the story proper, though the plot is complex and many-layered, with lots of different factions and quite a lot of philosophy, study of human nature and military strategy. I read it quite contentedly for hours on end while in California, and yet I didn't feel connected to or really sympathetic towards any of the characters and I'm not planning on continuing with the series, even though this one was very definitely set-up for the actual thrust of the main story in Book Two.
Last Chance To See by Douglas Adams:
Tales of visiting endangered animals, told with Adams' usual flair and humour, but not ignoring the important messages about the environment. Some familiar tales from my Attenborough viewing - New Zealand's awesomely eccentric kakapo parrot - and some not so familiar - the rather doomed Chinese baiji dolphin. Educational, highly amusing, and both heartening (the people who dedicate themselves to saving endangered species) and depressing (the odds against their success).
World War Z by Max Brooks
Dave's been trying to get me to read this book for nearly two years, and I've been resisting him as it didn't really appeal to me. At long last, I put it in my suitcase for the flight back from California - and it turned out to be one of the best books I've read this year (and that's saying something when it's up against George R R Martin and China Mieville). Really interesting format - oral records of the war, collected ten years after the fact, allow for the exploration of all the different effects of and reactions to the war without the narrative getting distracted by the immediate action of it all taking place. Brooks comes up with some genius points about how a zombie apocalypse would actually proceed and how humanity in all its various guises would react - it's very clever and a very chilling indictment of society in some cases (though I did find the single British chapter really annoying). There are also a lot of very interesting and realistic (once you're past the initial concpet of the living dead) presentations of the practicalities and logistics of fighting zombies. Highly, highly recommended.
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no subject
Date: 2012-12-10 09:20 pm (UTC)World War Z is rather fabulous, isn't it?
Surprisingly gripping given the lack of main characters or a plot.
They're making a film of it, I think. It'll be interesting to see how true to it they stay, though I suspect the answer to that will be 'not at all' :/
no subject
Date: 2012-12-10 10:23 pm (UTC)