Books and Movies

God's War by Kameron Hurley - Hurley is a fine writer but the book leaves something to be desired. Looking into her philosophy explains some of it. She doesn't like what's referred to as "infodump". In simplest terms it means explaining the world in which your story takes place. As a consequence you spend the book not understanding who the bel dames are, what sen is or how the world is fueled by bugs. And the bugs are a vitally important part of this world.  They power the world, the are major parts of the technology and they are the center of the magic of this world.  Yet not a word of explanation.  Bugs make your car go.  Deal with it. Because I'm a collector of trivia I knew that a "bakkie" was a light truck. The term is used in South Africa. Hurley acknowledges that the world she's created is involved in the "genocide of a gender" but never explains why or how they got to that point. The list goes on and on. An author always has the right to tell their story as they see fit. For me Hurley's approach of "figure it out yourself" strikes me as disrespectful of her reader and just lazy story telling. Consequently while the story moves along quite briskly it's left as a shallow tale, hollow and without any inner life. It might be argued that the story telling style matches the main character of Nyx. In the end I'm left with the same reaction to both. It occurred to me that a lot of this may be familiar to some from some other universe (gamers etc)with which I'm simply not familiar. Unless you are content to keep your readership to the circle of the elect this is just more bad story telling. There were other small nagging details that bothered me. A gross and obvious mistake in language that none of her readers or editors managed to catch ("Whose bakkie?" became "Who's bakkie?" which given the lack of explanation of the term might just confuse the hell out of the reader) and a really silly piece of boxing action. Why you would follow a left uppercut with a left cross escapes me. A left upper cut sets the body perfectly for a RIGHT cross. But that's a tiny little thing that most people wouldn't catch. After a while however when the author makes you work so hard the little things become bigger. Why should I care? It is highly unlikely that I'll venture to read another of Miss Hurley's books. The book is written to make her happy as a reader. What she isn't interested in she simply heaves over the side. What's left is a tantalizing taste of what could have been a much bolder, grander and more satisfying experience for the reader. Instead she chooses only to satisfy herself.  (available as ebook and paperback)

Bone Rattler by Eliot Pattison - This one got off to a slow start but got better in short order.  The story isn't told in a simple linear fashion and I'm sure that will put some people off.  My recommendation is to hang on and keep reading.  The story tracks a small group of Highland Scots who have been convicted and sent to America to serve their sentence.  Along the way Duncan McCallum finds himself surround by murder, suicide, mystery and the demands of suddenly becoming the head of his clan.  Set against the background of the French and Indian War Pattison does a great job of weaving a complex mystery into his carefully researched historical fiction.  Like I said the first 100 pages or so may be tough sledding to wrap you head around (things are pretty confused from McCallum's point of view and he's trying to figure out what the heck is going on just like you.)  I was interested to see that the author has extended the story into a second novel and is calling it the Bone Rattler series.  So there's probably more where this came from.  And that's not a bad thing. (available in print and ebook)

Currently working on Christopher Morley's The Haunted Bookshop.  Which is strange and interesting at the same time.  We'll see who wins.  Thinking of setting aside the Nook and grabbing a print book just to shake things up.

On the movie side -

Repo - The Genetic Opera (2008) - This was one of those movies that my daughter says "Ooh, let's watch this, I love this movie".  Very dangerous territory for Daddy.

Sigh.

Based on a graphic novel which was turned into an opera this is a dystopian future where a company can replace your failing internal organs.  The catch is that they own them forever and if you fall behind on your payments they send a repo man out to reclaim them.  From your living (though not for long), breathing body.  Produced by the folks who brought you the Saw series, it's an interesting experiment.

What did they do well?  Graphic novels are incredibly visual and so can translate to the screen pretty well.  Given the small budget (less than $9 million apparently) I thought it was visually quite impressive.  The story line was also interesting and the cast was actually pretty impressive (how did the land Paul Sorvino?  Plus Anthony Head, Sarah Brightman and Paris Hilton - who didn't suck and was apparently a joy on the set.  Go figure)

On the other hand the lyrics were largely unimaginative and even idiotic at times.  The music was trying for Andrew Lloyd Webber (love him or hate him he has a certain catchy standard) and came up short.  Got all the bombast of ALW but none of the hook.  There's not a character I really felt connected to, Blind Mag (Brightman) and the heroine Shilo Wallace (Alexa Vega) came close but there's not much to either of the characters.  Mag is basically about the voice (and what a voice) and her high tech eyes, and Shilo is the standard weak female lead being buffeted on all sides.  The villains are SO repulsive that they become comic.  Which given the vile things they do is rather uncomfortable.  Add in the standard "women as meat" approach to any other female in the movie and I was left with lots of bad taste in my mouth.

Graphic novels seem like such an obvious idea to move to the big screen.  Incredibly visual they play to the medium's strength.  The problem is that they retain a great deal of their comic book roots.  Consequently what looks great in print looks awkward and weird "in real life" and the dialogue style just comes off as strange and artificial.

I think this could have been pretty good.  Better music and lyrics, lose a large dose of the self conscious "aren't-we-clever"-ness and you might have had something.  Instead we're left with something that revels in its grimness, bogged down by the inferior music.

She's going to stop inviting me to watch her movies.  Sigh.

License to Wed ( 2007) - There are basically two kinds of Robin Williams movies.  Astoundingly wonderful and wretchedly awful.  In the wonderful category you'll find Mrs Doubtfire, Dead Poets Society, and The Birdcage .  On the other side you'll find Death to Smoochy, RV, and this movie.

The movie has a useful if cliche plot.  Two attractive young people fall in love and decide to get married.  There's the usual family/cultural issues to get over.  Sadie's a bit of ditz (played by Mandy Moore) and Ben's a bit of a pushover (played by John Krasinski)  But before they can be wed in the church that means so much to Sadie's family (a herd of cardboard cut out stereotypes) they have to go through Reverend Frank's pre-marital course.  Normally it takes three months but they're in a hurry so it's all crammed into three weeks.

(Side note - no mention of what denomination "Reverend Frank" is from.  He wears a Roman collar all the time, and largely acts like a movie RC priest.  His church is clearly a protestant denomination (pulpit dead center).  Just annoying and strange.  At least for those of us who worry about such things)

The course is asinine and designed to exploit every crack in their relationship.  Apparently the "real" relationships survive the fire and come out the other side stronger.  In fact it's an appalling example of pastoral abuse.  What Ben needs to do is stand up and pop the good reverend right in his nose.  I mean the man puts an audio bug in their bed room to make sure they don't have sex before the wedding.  That's the #1 No No on ole Reverend Frank's list for folks who want him to marry them.  He seems to have forgotten that the deal is between the bride, the groom and God, not him.  And for any young folks out there a word of wisdom from one who has been married for many years.  Your relationship at the time you get married isn't perfect.  You have some amazing challenges still in front of you.  That's normal.  Hang on to the essential fact that you love one another and you'll do just fine.  The idea that you should everything all ironed out before you get married is unrealistic and idiotic.

They try and salvage this turkey with an ooey-gooey happy ending where it was just the Reverend helping them realize they really love each other all the time.  What an enormous load of bovine by product.  Williams gets that look on his face, the one that seems to say "Can you believe I'm taking money for delivering this crap?"  Just wretched.

Want to see a Robin Williams movie that you may never have caught?  Try Moscow on the Hudson.  Or watch Repo - The Genetic Opera.  Just don't watch this movie.