And back to fantasy...
Mar. 15th, 2008 09:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
newnumber6So, I watched Stargate: Ark of Truth. Thoughts behind cut, some spoilers.
Mostly, I liked it. It didn't feel particularly epic, more like an extra, extra-long episode, but still enjoyable for all that, with some nice character moments... particularly Teal'C talking to one of the ex-Ori warriors, and a nice moment at the end with Sam and Cam that was a callback to an earlier scene in the series.
I did have one big beef with it, though. The extra danger plot due to the IOA. I mean, really? Really? Are they _that_ stupid now? I kind of liked that in SG1 although the military sometimes had stupid or paranoid moves, it was at least balanced out by them arguably being generally right (even when they had to be proved wrong for the series to continue), and by having enough 'good' military people to make up for it. But now it seems like the IOA are _just_ constantly making the idiotic moves, and this one tops them all. I mean, if they at least had more reasonable safeguards in place it might have been workable.
There is another slight problem. The only reason the Ori can't interfere directly in the Milky Way galaxy is that the ascended ancients prevent it. They don't have any moral objection to interference. Ascended beings _can_ interfere in their galaxy, remember Oma killed a bunch of Jaffa and that was while she was trying to be subtle. So it seems odd that Adria didn't bother to interfere at all, not even to say "hey, there are people in the galaxy right here, go get 'im" or even just zap the good guys until towards the end. But I suppose that problem is hard to work around.
Still, good to see the old gang again, should be fun to see Continuum too.
In other news, I really want a Teal'C/Vala/Ronon/Teyla teamup on Earth called "Illegal Aliens". Maybe where they're the only ones who escape another Foothold type situation so the military is after them and they have to save everybody (I should totally write for Stargate!)
That wraps up most of what I watch for the next little while, until BSG starts and Doctor Who shortly after that. Lost's still ongoing for a couple more weeks. It's been better than last year, since they've decided on a course to actually finish up the series. Up and down. The Desmond ep was the best so far this year I think.
Watching Serenity on Space now.
Book Foo:
Finished: Excession, by Iain M. Banks
Started: Use of Weapons, by Iain M. Banks
Thoughts on Excession (and a quote from it) behind the cut, non-spoilery. Generally liked it.
I always kind of liked the idea for the Culture, and some of the concepts for it, but it never totally clicked for me like it should have in the few books I read. I dunno, maybe when I read Consider Phlebas I wasn't quite 'ready' for it, and I should read it again. Player of Games I liked better but it sort of felt lighter.
This one felt right, and got me into it.
I do think it kind of fell down at the end, the different plot threads not really tying together in a satisfying way towards the climax. The whole deal with the Excession itself and how and why it reacted as it did didn't entirely work either. Another minor problem is the varying ship Minds, although they had lovely amusing names, didn't for the most part manage to distinctify themselves enough that I could easily remember which one was involved in which plot, with a few exceptions. Considering how big a role they were playing behind the scenes, that made the plot a little hard to follow at times.
Still, I enjoyed most of it, and its interesting, I never really noticed before, but Banks Culture has a lot in common with my own ideal worldview. His AIs share a lot in common with some of the AIs in my writing (which is a reflection of how I think they'd be). Some of the Culture's politics are similar to mine, like their policy on AI rights. Not everything is the same, of course, but enough is that I'd probably feel pretty good about living in the Culture (even aside from the coolness of being a post-Singularity society), and reading Excession has kind of whet my appetite for some of the other Culture books, which is why I've moved on to Use of Weapons and may move on to Look to Windward after that (which I've had for a while but never read because I kept forgetting to do the research to make sure it didn't spoil any books I hadn't read yet), assuming I don't need a break.
Anyway, this quote felt appropriate to me as I read it, as part of a description of a relatively minor character who was particularly shy:
The plain fact was that he didn't like talking to people, he didn't like mixing with them and he didn't even like thinking about them individually. The best he could manage was when he was well away from people; then he could feel a not unpleasant craving for their company as a whole, a craving that quite vanished--to be replaced by stomach-churning dread--the instant it looked like being satisfied.
Sometimes I think that's me, or at least a slight exaggeration of me.
Finished: Reflex, by Steven Gould (sequel to Jumper) (reread)
Still reading: Otherland, Vol 2: River of Blue Fire by Tad Williams
Brief thoughts on Reflex behind the cut. Not really spoilery.
Since I finished another reread of Jumper, as always, it left me wanting more, so I did what I usually odn't, and started a book reading at home. Most of my reading I do while walking or at work, or sometimes while doing laundry. But once in a while I get a hankering and start reading a book while at home and have nothing else to do. These are usually rereads (except when a new book so engrosses me I can't put it down... last book to do that to me was Battle Royale, I think).
Anyway, I started rereading Reflex. Jumper is still better, but Reflex does take some interesting turns with the phenomenon, and I can sort of almost plot a third book in the sequel in my head (but since I don't think anyone on my flist has read the books, I won't bother mentioning what the elements are). Despite the fact that it's (at least somewhat) in movie-continuity I do still kind of want to pick up "Jumper: Griffin's Story" at some point, since it is written by Gould and he manages to make Jumping far cooler than the movie ever could (incidentally, another point on the movie. Isn't it odd how all the tie ins they decide to make to the movie, like the video game or the tie-in novel, involve the secondary Jumper character, rather the protagonist? That, to me, feels like a baaad sign that you know the main character in the movie is dull as hell). Anyway, I'll probably wait to pick up GS used or discount because I expect that's where it'll wind up.
Haven't been writing very much, have been trying to do some editing, but have been in a real funk lately and haven't felt much like doing _anything_. Oddly enough I've had some decent ideas for writing, just when it comes right down to it I have trouble forcing myself to. Still hoping my depression tapers off before the end of March like it often does. Oh well, keep trying, the only way to go.
Mostly, I liked it. It didn't feel particularly epic, more like an extra, extra-long episode, but still enjoyable for all that, with some nice character moments... particularly Teal'C talking to one of the ex-Ori warriors, and a nice moment at the end with Sam and Cam that was a callback to an earlier scene in the series.
I did have one big beef with it, though. The extra danger plot due to the IOA. I mean, really? Really? Are they _that_ stupid now? I kind of liked that in SG1 although the military sometimes had stupid or paranoid moves, it was at least balanced out by them arguably being generally right (even when they had to be proved wrong for the series to continue), and by having enough 'good' military people to make up for it. But now it seems like the IOA are _just_ constantly making the idiotic moves, and this one tops them all. I mean, if they at least had more reasonable safeguards in place it might have been workable.
There is another slight problem. The only reason the Ori can't interfere directly in the Milky Way galaxy is that the ascended ancients prevent it. They don't have any moral objection to interference. Ascended beings _can_ interfere in their galaxy, remember Oma killed a bunch of Jaffa and that was while she was trying to be subtle. So it seems odd that Adria didn't bother to interfere at all, not even to say "hey, there are people in the galaxy right here, go get 'im" or even just zap the good guys until towards the end. But I suppose that problem is hard to work around.
Still, good to see the old gang again, should be fun to see Continuum too.
In other news, I really want a Teal'C/Vala/Ronon/Teyla teamup on Earth called "Illegal Aliens". Maybe where they're the only ones who escape another Foothold type situation so the military is after them and they have to save everybody (I should totally write for Stargate!)
That wraps up most of what I watch for the next little while, until BSG starts and Doctor Who shortly after that. Lost's still ongoing for a couple more weeks. It's been better than last year, since they've decided on a course to actually finish up the series. Up and down. The Desmond ep was the best so far this year I think.
Watching Serenity on Space now.
Book Foo:
Finished: Excession, by Iain M. Banks
Started: Use of Weapons, by Iain M. Banks
Thoughts on Excession (and a quote from it) behind the cut, non-spoilery. Generally liked it.
I always kind of liked the idea for the Culture, and some of the concepts for it, but it never totally clicked for me like it should have in the few books I read. I dunno, maybe when I read Consider Phlebas I wasn't quite 'ready' for it, and I should read it again. Player of Games I liked better but it sort of felt lighter.
This one felt right, and got me into it.
I do think it kind of fell down at the end, the different plot threads not really tying together in a satisfying way towards the climax. The whole deal with the Excession itself and how and why it reacted as it did didn't entirely work either. Another minor problem is the varying ship Minds, although they had lovely amusing names, didn't for the most part manage to distinctify themselves enough that I could easily remember which one was involved in which plot, with a few exceptions. Considering how big a role they were playing behind the scenes, that made the plot a little hard to follow at times.
Still, I enjoyed most of it, and its interesting, I never really noticed before, but Banks Culture has a lot in common with my own ideal worldview. His AIs share a lot in common with some of the AIs in my writing (which is a reflection of how I think they'd be). Some of the Culture's politics are similar to mine, like their policy on AI rights. Not everything is the same, of course, but enough is that I'd probably feel pretty good about living in the Culture (even aside from the coolness of being a post-Singularity society), and reading Excession has kind of whet my appetite for some of the other Culture books, which is why I've moved on to Use of Weapons and may move on to Look to Windward after that (which I've had for a while but never read because I kept forgetting to do the research to make sure it didn't spoil any books I hadn't read yet), assuming I don't need a break.
Anyway, this quote felt appropriate to me as I read it, as part of a description of a relatively minor character who was particularly shy:
The plain fact was that he didn't like talking to people, he didn't like mixing with them and he didn't even like thinking about them individually. The best he could manage was when he was well away from people; then he could feel a not unpleasant craving for their company as a whole, a craving that quite vanished--to be replaced by stomach-churning dread--the instant it looked like being satisfied.
Sometimes I think that's me, or at least a slight exaggeration of me.
Finished: Reflex, by Steven Gould (sequel to Jumper) (reread)
Still reading: Otherland, Vol 2: River of Blue Fire by Tad Williams
Brief thoughts on Reflex behind the cut. Not really spoilery.
Since I finished another reread of Jumper, as always, it left me wanting more, so I did what I usually odn't, and started a book reading at home. Most of my reading I do while walking or at work, or sometimes while doing laundry. But once in a while I get a hankering and start reading a book while at home and have nothing else to do. These are usually rereads (except when a new book so engrosses me I can't put it down... last book to do that to me was Battle Royale, I think).
Anyway, I started rereading Reflex. Jumper is still better, but Reflex does take some interesting turns with the phenomenon, and I can sort of almost plot a third book in the sequel in my head (but since I don't think anyone on my flist has read the books, I won't bother mentioning what the elements are). Despite the fact that it's (at least somewhat) in movie-continuity I do still kind of want to pick up "Jumper: Griffin's Story" at some point, since it is written by Gould and he manages to make Jumping far cooler than the movie ever could (incidentally, another point on the movie. Isn't it odd how all the tie ins they decide to make to the movie, like the video game or the tie-in novel, involve the secondary Jumper character, rather the protagonist? That, to me, feels like a baaad sign that you know the main character in the movie is dull as hell). Anyway, I'll probably wait to pick up GS used or discount because I expect that's where it'll wind up.
Haven't been writing very much, have been trying to do some editing, but have been in a real funk lately and haven't felt much like doing _anything_. Oddly enough I've had some decent ideas for writing, just when it comes right down to it I have trouble forcing myself to. Still hoping my depression tapers off before the end of March like it often does. Oh well, keep trying, the only way to go.
