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Reviews Catch-Up
Feb. 22nd, 2016 07:35 pmSo many awesome things taking up my time and energy at the moment, that there's not much left over for media consumption.
Still, I have managed to complete a few things that warrant reviews!
Personal by Lee Child has Reacher travelling to Paris and London, which has its own entertainment value. Reacher wandering around Hyde Park and Romford is somehow even more ridiculous than usual, and highly enjoyable. The narrator did his best with the accents, but his East End gangsters were a bit of a caricature. Still, there was plenty of fisticuffs and sniper-ing, and Reacher being annoying by refusing to tell anyone the things he'd worked out about the case. I was way ahead of him on this one - the pivotal point was incredibly obvious to me the first time it was mentioned, though I have to admit I didn't work out the full significance of it until much later on. What was shocking was that there were two female agents, both of whom Reacher very much appreciating gazing upon - and he didn't sleep with either of them! He must be getting old...
On hearing that I was reading the Alex Rider books, one of Dave's colleagues suggested I also try CHERUB by Robert Muchamore, so I downloaded the first one - The Recruit - and gave it a listen. In a very similar way to Harry Potter, I didn't like the opening at all, as the stuff with the protagonists family and original school seemed very over the top. However, once he got recruited by CHERUB, it really picked up (basically Harry Potter but with spies instead of wizards) and tripped along at a brisk pace. It's all very silly, if you think about it too hard, but highly entertaining if you just go along with it. I like a lot of the characters, and the story was exciting and interesting to the end. My only criticism was that it was really short! I shall definitely be listening to more of these.
On Thursday, Dave and I went to the very impressive Emmanuel Centre for a talk by Margaret MacMillan about her new book: "History's People: Tyrants, Heroes, Rebels and Dreamers". She picked a selection of the people profiled in the book and told us a bit about them and the way their personalities may or may not have shaped history. It was a little picaresque, and might have benefited from a more cohesive theme, but I found it really interesting. It sparked a really good conversation on the way home, as well, about the forces vs personality debate in history, which made for quite a simulating evening.
Still, I have managed to complete a few things that warrant reviews!
Personal by Lee Child has Reacher travelling to Paris and London, which has its own entertainment value. Reacher wandering around Hyde Park and Romford is somehow even more ridiculous than usual, and highly enjoyable. The narrator did his best with the accents, but his East End gangsters were a bit of a caricature. Still, there was plenty of fisticuffs and sniper-ing, and Reacher being annoying by refusing to tell anyone the things he'd worked out about the case. I was way ahead of him on this one - the pivotal point was incredibly obvious to me the first time it was mentioned, though I have to admit I didn't work out the full significance of it until much later on. What was shocking was that there were two female agents, both of whom Reacher very much appreciating gazing upon - and he didn't sleep with either of them! He must be getting old...
On hearing that I was reading the Alex Rider books, one of Dave's colleagues suggested I also try CHERUB by Robert Muchamore, so I downloaded the first one - The Recruit - and gave it a listen. In a very similar way to Harry Potter, I didn't like the opening at all, as the stuff with the protagonists family and original school seemed very over the top. However, once he got recruited by CHERUB, it really picked up (basically Harry Potter but with spies instead of wizards) and tripped along at a brisk pace. It's all very silly, if you think about it too hard, but highly entertaining if you just go along with it. I like a lot of the characters, and the story was exciting and interesting to the end. My only criticism was that it was really short! I shall definitely be listening to more of these.
On Thursday, Dave and I went to the very impressive Emmanuel Centre for a talk by Margaret MacMillan about her new book: "History's People: Tyrants, Heroes, Rebels and Dreamers". She picked a selection of the people profiled in the book and told us a bit about them and the way their personalities may or may not have shaped history. It was a little picaresque, and might have benefited from a more cohesive theme, but I found it really interesting. It sparked a really good conversation on the way home, as well, about the forces vs personality debate in history, which made for quite a simulating evening.
