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Audio, Text, Film and TV
Jul. 30th, 2019 08:15 pmLots of completed entertainment this week!
Lock-In by John Scalzi (read in the audio version by the delectable Wil Wheaton) is about a near future where millions of people suffer from Locked-In Syndrome after an outbreak of a virus. They can either use android bodies to move around and interact with people, or share the brain of an 'integrator', controlling their body for a set period of time under contract. It's a well-thought-out concept, applied in an interesting way to the murder mystery format. Protagonist Chris Shane is locked-in but has just started work for the FBI and gets pulled into a shadowy conspiracy after the death of an integrator. I liked the characters, I liked the world-building, I liked where the story led, and I loved having Wil Wheaton in my ears again. I've just discovered there's a standalone follow-up set in the same world, so I've added that to my audio library.
Another unexpected sequel discovery was The Other Half of Happiness by Ayisha Malik. I thought the ending of Sofia Khan is Not Obliged was a bit abrupt and really wanted to know what happened next - so the sequel was a pleasant surprise. I'm not sure I liked where this one went - though following the characters through another book after a romantic happy-ever-after ending to the first one wasn't likely to be all sunshine and rainbows. I enjoyed spending more time with the characters, but I felt the first person POV left some of them without enough page-time to fully explore their motivations. There also didn't seem to be quite enough plot to stretch out over another book, and yet the ending felt really abrupt again. So, while I enjoyed it overall, it was still a bit disappointing.
My trip to the cinema yesterday was to see The Current War, charting the competition between Edison and Westinghouse to corner the market in electric light. Tesla turned out to be the key, and one of the more interesting characters. I did enjoy the film, though for a story about electricity, it wasn't very dynamic (see what I did there?). The music in particular tried to lay on masses of tension when there wasn't really anything exciting going on, which was weird. Lovely to see Tom Holland in a role other than Spider-Man, though, and the rest of the cast were also good.
And today I watched the last ever episode of Orange Is The New Black. I won't spoil anything, but it was pretty good overall, though what really made me cry were the farewell videos from the cast that played over the credits. I think this has been one of the best TV shows in recent years, and an emotional rollercoaster every season. Fantastic characters, brutal storytelling, great acting, wonderful ensemble - if you haven't ever seen it, I envy you the first-time experience, but I would advise spreading it out as much as you can.
Lock-In by John Scalzi (read in the audio version by the delectable Wil Wheaton) is about a near future where millions of people suffer from Locked-In Syndrome after an outbreak of a virus. They can either use android bodies to move around and interact with people, or share the brain of an 'integrator', controlling their body for a set period of time under contract. It's a well-thought-out concept, applied in an interesting way to the murder mystery format. Protagonist Chris Shane is locked-in but has just started work for the FBI and gets pulled into a shadowy conspiracy after the death of an integrator. I liked the characters, I liked the world-building, I liked where the story led, and I loved having Wil Wheaton in my ears again. I've just discovered there's a standalone follow-up set in the same world, so I've added that to my audio library.
Another unexpected sequel discovery was The Other Half of Happiness by Ayisha Malik. I thought the ending of Sofia Khan is Not Obliged was a bit abrupt and really wanted to know what happened next - so the sequel was a pleasant surprise. I'm not sure I liked where this one went - though following the characters through another book after a romantic happy-ever-after ending to the first one wasn't likely to be all sunshine and rainbows. I enjoyed spending more time with the characters, but I felt the first person POV left some of them without enough page-time to fully explore their motivations. There also didn't seem to be quite enough plot to stretch out over another book, and yet the ending felt really abrupt again. So, while I enjoyed it overall, it was still a bit disappointing.
My trip to the cinema yesterday was to see The Current War, charting the competition between Edison and Westinghouse to corner the market in electric light. Tesla turned out to be the key, and one of the more interesting characters. I did enjoy the film, though for a story about electricity, it wasn't very dynamic (see what I did there?). The music in particular tried to lay on masses of tension when there wasn't really anything exciting going on, which was weird. Lovely to see Tom Holland in a role other than Spider-Man, though, and the rest of the cast were also good.
And today I watched the last ever episode of Orange Is The New Black. I won't spoil anything, but it was pretty good overall, though what really made me cry were the farewell videos from the cast that played over the credits. I think this has been one of the best TV shows in recent years, and an emotional rollercoaster every season. Fantastic characters, brutal storytelling, great acting, wonderful ensemble - if you haven't ever seen it, I envy you the first-time experience, but I would advise spreading it out as much as you can.
