newnumber6 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
newnumber6) wrote2007-09-13 09:42 am
newnumber6) wrote2007-09-13 09:42 am
Book Foo!
Finished: Stations of the Tide, by Michael Swanwick (Nebula Winner)
Started: 20th Century Ghosts, by Joe Hill
First, thoughts on Stations. Short form: Okay, a bit 'not my thing'. Not much spoilers behind the cut though.
The story follows a bureaucrat who is sent down to find someone they think has stolen advanced, proscribed technology and taken it to a planetary surface. The planet is about to be evacuated due to a regular flooding on a 100 year cycle, and the person he's looking for has a reputation as performing magic.
So yeah, it was mildly pleasant to read, and but it fell a bit too much into the 'not my thing' category. I did enjoy certain aspects of it, a lot of the AI-related stuff, and elements of the Puzzle Palace, and some elements of the ending, even if the elements of it I enjoyed seem to come out of nowhere a bit. The main plot? Not so much. Okay, but not my thing.
From what I understand it's the type of novel that have puzzles in the text, with certain things not outright stated but kind of vaguely implied and thus a bit easy to miss. That may be a factor, but I wasn't interested enough to read deeply. On the other hand, it is a short enough book and had some elements I'd probably like to read again, so rereading it somewhere down the line is not out of the question either.
Okay, now. 20th Century Ghosts, written by one of the sons of Stephen King (the book doesn't mention that anywhere, I just remember hearing about it elsewhere) is a collection of short stories. I just got it today. In the mail. For free. Yay, free book! What happened was a while back I signed up for HarperCollins (Canada)'s First Look Program, where in order to get some advance reviews of some of their books, they send a few of them out readers who sign up to their program for free. Only Canadians, of course, but other countries might have similar programs you could look into. Not a lot of their offerings had interested me so far, but this one did, so I requested it. I hadn't heard anything so I assumed they didn't choose me for it (they select who gets one of however many they send out randomly from the people who request it), but I got it in the mail today. Advanced Reader's Edition. So since I just finished a book I decided to put it next in rotation. I say again, yay for free books!
Oh, and the other day I finally watched Batman Begins for the first time. Spoilers behind the cut, even though I'm probably the last comic fan to have not seen it.
Overall, good.
I'll have to admit, I was completely surprised at the revelation of the real Ra's al-Ghul... I guess because I was expecting some element of the Lazarus Pit to play a role (even if off-panel) to explain why the person who we believed was Ra's, was somehow alive again. I might have preferred a Ra's a bit closer to the comics, but if not, a genuine surprise is better than nothing.
I liked Bale as Batman. More particularly, this was one of the very few interpretations of Batman I could buy as being genuinely _scary_ to criminals (aside from the vague 'wow there's a guy out there trying to stop us'), particularly the scene where he had the corrupt cop. Not so much because of what he did, but because he just looked batsh*t insane while he was doing it and asking for the information.
Most of the rest of the cast were well done, too, and I liked Scarecrow's role in things.
The bad:
Batman being a little too loose with his secret identity. They pay lip service to the danger of anybody putting things together by having them order the cowl elements separately, and in bulk, but he gets all his best stuff just by 'borrowing' from Waynetech, without any apparent concern that somebody might put _that_ together.
Katie Holmes. I'm not a hater, but she really didn't add a whole lot, and especially she didn't need to 'FIND OUT HIS TRUE SECRET IDENTITY BUT IT IS THE ONE THING THAT KEEPS THEM APART'. She should have just been toned down to a childhood friend who he saves in the course of his job, and who still thinks the Bruce Wayne she knew has become a self-centered jerk.
I felt the plot sort of fell apart towards the ending with Ra's final plan and the way it was stopped. I also particularly didn't like Batman's "I won't kill you, but I don't have to save you" line. Uh, sorry, but in that case, you did kill him. If Superman fires a bullet at somebody, and then says, "I won't kill you,b ut I won't catch that bullet either, even though I easily could", he's killed the man. Even if the crook was the one who brought the gun in the first place. Even if he fired it at Batman first. The train was on a collision course because of a plan Batman set into motion. If the guy dies, that's still by his hand, even if indirectly. There are ways Batman could have made that choice (though I still think that's anti-Batman a choice, it's at least less of one than "Oh, I'll kill my villains"), but the situation as it was set up there wasn't one of them. Speaking of, Batman's chase with the cops seemed a little too violent and prone to getting civilians killed. I suppose it's okay though on the grounds of 'he's new at this, in an emergency, and more reckless than he should be'.
Started: 20th Century Ghosts, by Joe Hill
First, thoughts on Stations. Short form: Okay, a bit 'not my thing'. Not much spoilers behind the cut though.
The story follows a bureaucrat who is sent down to find someone they think has stolen advanced, proscribed technology and taken it to a planetary surface. The planet is about to be evacuated due to a regular flooding on a 100 year cycle, and the person he's looking for has a reputation as performing magic.
So yeah, it was mildly pleasant to read, and but it fell a bit too much into the 'not my thing' category. I did enjoy certain aspects of it, a lot of the AI-related stuff, and elements of the Puzzle Palace, and some elements of the ending, even if the elements of it I enjoyed seem to come out of nowhere a bit. The main plot? Not so much. Okay, but not my thing.
From what I understand it's the type of novel that have puzzles in the text, with certain things not outright stated but kind of vaguely implied and thus a bit easy to miss. That may be a factor, but I wasn't interested enough to read deeply. On the other hand, it is a short enough book and had some elements I'd probably like to read again, so rereading it somewhere down the line is not out of the question either.
Okay, now. 20th Century Ghosts, written by one of the sons of Stephen King (the book doesn't mention that anywhere, I just remember hearing about it elsewhere) is a collection of short stories. I just got it today. In the mail. For free. Yay, free book! What happened was a while back I signed up for HarperCollins (Canada)'s First Look Program, where in order to get some advance reviews of some of their books, they send a few of them out readers who sign up to their program for free. Only Canadians, of course, but other countries might have similar programs you could look into. Not a lot of their offerings had interested me so far, but this one did, so I requested it. I hadn't heard anything so I assumed they didn't choose me for it (they select who gets one of however many they send out randomly from the people who request it), but I got it in the mail today. Advanced Reader's Edition. So since I just finished a book I decided to put it next in rotation. I say again, yay for free books!
Oh, and the other day I finally watched Batman Begins for the first time. Spoilers behind the cut, even though I'm probably the last comic fan to have not seen it.
Overall, good.
I'll have to admit, I was completely surprised at the revelation of the real Ra's al-Ghul... I guess because I was expecting some element of the Lazarus Pit to play a role (even if off-panel) to explain why the person who we believed was Ra's, was somehow alive again. I might have preferred a Ra's a bit closer to the comics, but if not, a genuine surprise is better than nothing.
I liked Bale as Batman. More particularly, this was one of the very few interpretations of Batman I could buy as being genuinely _scary_ to criminals (aside from the vague 'wow there's a guy out there trying to stop us'), particularly the scene where he had the corrupt cop. Not so much because of what he did, but because he just looked batsh*t insane while he was doing it and asking for the information.
Most of the rest of the cast were well done, too, and I liked Scarecrow's role in things.
The bad:
Batman being a little too loose with his secret identity. They pay lip service to the danger of anybody putting things together by having them order the cowl elements separately, and in bulk, but he gets all his best stuff just by 'borrowing' from Waynetech, without any apparent concern that somebody might put _that_ together.
Katie Holmes. I'm not a hater, but she really didn't add a whole lot, and especially she didn't need to 'FIND OUT HIS TRUE SECRET IDENTITY BUT IT IS THE ONE THING THAT KEEPS THEM APART'. She should have just been toned down to a childhood friend who he saves in the course of his job, and who still thinks the Bruce Wayne she knew has become a self-centered jerk.
I felt the plot sort of fell apart towards the ending with Ra's final plan and the way it was stopped. I also particularly didn't like Batman's "I won't kill you, but I don't have to save you" line. Uh, sorry, but in that case, you did kill him. If Superman fires a bullet at somebody, and then says, "I won't kill you,b ut I won't catch that bullet either, even though I easily could", he's killed the man. Even if the crook was the one who brought the gun in the first place. Even if he fired it at Batman first. The train was on a collision course because of a plan Batman set into motion. If the guy dies, that's still by his hand, even if indirectly. There are ways Batman could have made that choice (though I still think that's anti-Batman a choice, it's at least less of one than "Oh, I'll kill my villains"), but the situation as it was set up there wasn't one of them. Speaking of, Batman's chase with the cops seemed a little too violent and prone to getting civilians killed. I suppose it's okay though on the grounds of 'he's new at this, in an emergency, and more reckless than he should be'.