Future violence and past investigation
Aug. 2nd, 2016 02:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alobearLast night, I watched Dredd, and thoroughly enjoyed it. I didn't go and see it at the time because the character wasn't one I had a connection to, and I thought it might be unnecessarily violent. But it turned out to be entirely necessarily violent, and highly entertaining for it. The person who recommended it to me thought I would like it because I enjoyed John Wick so much (best film of last year, I would say), and I could see the comparison. The plot was fairly similar - hero fights his way through countless minions to a show-down with the big bad - and it had similar humour, but John Wick's violence was more balletic, and it had more in the way of peripheral plot points and world-building. I rather wished I hadn't known it was Karl Urban under Dredd's helmet, because I would have preferred not to be imagining anyone in particular, but he did a very good job with the gruff humour and determination of the character. I also enjoyed Judge Anderson's presentation and arc, since her role was not affected in any way by her gender, and she proved satisfyingly kickass. So, overall, a fun 90 minutes.
Today, I finished listening to The Curious Case of the Somnambulist and the Psychic Thief by Lisa Tuttle. As might be obvious from the title, this is a Victorian detective novel, with the USP being that the first person protagonist, and half of the detecting team, is female. Miss Lane proves an enjoyable companion for the length of the novel, and her partner, Mr Jesperson, is entertaining as the secondary character. I spent quite a large part of the latter section of the novel rather worried about Miss Lane's sudden transformation into a completely helpless damsel in distress, and I didn't feel she entirely escaped this trope, despite her protestations to the contrary, and her contribution to the eventual victory over the villain. Her lengthy imprisonment and forced removal from the main confrontation had the added consequence that rather a lot of the action happened off-page, since she wasn't there to witness it - and reporting of action rather than showing it was actually a weakness throughout. My main issue with the book, though, was that the character was initially presented as a debunker of claimed psychics, but some of the supposed powers demonstrated in the course of the story did actually turn out to be real, which rather undermined Miss Lane and Mr Jesperson's rational approach. I don't think I'll be getting any more books in this series, but it was mostly fun, despite the issues mentioned.
Today, I finished listening to The Curious Case of the Somnambulist and the Psychic Thief by Lisa Tuttle. As might be obvious from the title, this is a Victorian detective novel, with the USP being that the first person protagonist, and half of the detecting team, is female. Miss Lane proves an enjoyable companion for the length of the novel, and her partner, Mr Jesperson, is entertaining as the secondary character. I spent quite a large part of the latter section of the novel rather worried about Miss Lane's sudden transformation into a completely helpless damsel in distress, and I didn't feel she entirely escaped this trope, despite her protestations to the contrary, and her contribution to the eventual victory over the villain. Her lengthy imprisonment and forced removal from the main confrontation had the added consequence that rather a lot of the action happened off-page, since she wasn't there to witness it - and reporting of action rather than showing it was actually a weakness throughout. My main issue with the book, though, was that the character was initially presented as a debunker of claimed psychics, but some of the supposed powers demonstrated in the course of the story did actually turn out to be real, which rather undermined Miss Lane and Mr Jesperson's rational approach. I don't think I'll be getting any more books in this series, but it was mostly fun, despite the issues mentioned.
