18 posts tagged “fantasy”
This morning while waiting for the plumber, I finished The Amber Spyglass, the third book in the "His Dark Materials" trilogy, by Philip Pullman, the series which started with The Golden Compass.
I was, unfortunately, mildly disappointed with this ending to the imaginitive series about multiple worlds and an eternal struggle between control and freedom. This book was imaginitive and did tie up the loose ends, but somehow dissatisfying. It is perhaps because after much anticipation, some of the solutions seemed a little too easy, a little too pat, and a little too much like Pullman was tired of his own material.
That also seems evident in how scattered this book was, running in different directions and not really sticking to the central story.
Still, overall I enjoyed the series and would recommend it to anyone who likes fantasy or science fiction.
And now back to our regularly scheduled programming...
Yes, I've been out for a few days, and I blew my Blog365 in the first month. It was a combination of winter depression, a new computer game to play, and a complete lack of anything interesting to say. You can only do so many VoxHunt's and QotD's in a row before they all start to sound the same... or just as lame as they really are. Anyway, back into it.
This is the second book in the "His Dark Materials" trilogy by Philip Pullman, the first of which is The Golden Compass. It's in this book that we start to undertand the theme of the series, which is why if I had to guess the first book is the only one that will be made into a movie anytime soon. But, I don't have to guess... according to IMDB, The Subtle Knife is being made into a movie. It will be interesting to see how much they dumb down the anti-religious themes to actually get it into the theaters.
The Subtle Knife takes place in three separate realities, now intertwined by the hole opened between the worlds by Lyra's father, Lord Asriel. A new character named Will, a little boy from our own reality, plays a major role, becoming the wielder of a knife so sharp that it actually has the ability to cut through the fabric of space and create openings between the parallel universes.
While ostensibly a book for the YA market, this book has some dark, brutal scenes in it. It's much more of the fantasy genre than the children's genre, though it happens to star children as the main characters.
This book would be enjoyed by anyone who likes reading fantasy and isn't offended by anti-religious themes.
The Golden Compass is the first of the Philip Pullman series, and I've just finished. Having already seen the movie, I found that the book was different in many details from the movie, but similar in feel and themes and the overall arc of the story.
Most notably, the last three chapters of the book didn't make it into the movie. I can't say more without providing spoilers, but it will be interesting to see if the next movie starts with those three chapters, or if the story on screen will continue to diverge from the book even further.
Anyone who likes fantasy, talking bears, and villains in ecclesiastical robes will like this book.
This morning, we braved some slick highway to Albuquerque to see Mom to the airport on her way back to Missouri. Since it was early in the day, and since the theaters are much nicer in Albuquerque than they are in Farmington, we decided to take in Beowulf before heading back.
We paid an extra $2.50 each for a pair of glasses that made me look like a wannabe Buddy Holly lookalike, and in a short while we were in the theater.
The movie is excellent. Whether it qualifies as a live-action movie or a CGI cartoon, I'll leave up to people with more interest in those distinctions. At first, the animation seemed somewhat cartoonish, but as the movie progressed, it became smoother and more realistic, until by the end of the movie there were parts (especially the parts with Angeline Jolie) where it was very difficult to determine if we were watching CGI or filmed action.
3D has definitely come a long way since the days of the red and blue pieces of plastic, now being done, I understand, with polarized lenses that don't distort the color. Where in the theater you sit seems to make a slight difference, as the images on the edge of the screen weren't as clear as images nearer the center. Still, it was eyepopping.
Okay, so the story... didn't make a whole hell of a lot of sense. I don't know, not having read even a translation of the original, how closely it followed the text, but as a story the plot didn't really flow. As a myth, however, it was fine, and watching it in that context it was enjoyable.
However, if I had to hear the Ray Winstone bellow, "I am Beowulf!" one more time, I was going to stand up and scream, "Yes, we know! We heard you the first dozen times!"
The moral of the story seems to be this: No man can resist the beautiful Angelina Jolie, no matter how... disreputable she is.
This is the third in the Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher, starring who I like to refer to as "The Other Wizard Named Harry," Harry Coperfield Blackstone Dresden, the only openly practicing wizard in the City of Chicago. He's in the phone book; look him up.
Book Three shows a departure from the first two in the series. For one thing, it starts with some backstory having occurred between the two books. This is one of the things I like about Butcher's writing style - he makes it clear that the universe he's created is much larger than what is actually on the page. In Grave Peril, a new character, Michael Carpenter, is introduced, who is basically a modern Knight Templar, a paladin, using his faith as a sort of magic which complements the purer magic that Harry uses.
At the same time, another character that was extremely important in the first two books, Detective Murphy, is hardly present.
In Grave Peril, something is causing the ghosts of Chicago to become stronger and more restless, and before you can say, "Who Do You Call," Harry is on the case, trying to find out what, or who is stirring them up, and why.
Without giving out spoilers, vampires play heavily in this book, which is fitting since we actually listened to this book in audio, read by James Marsters. Normally, I prefer to read my books to listening to them, but Marsters does a superb job, for which I must give him credit even if Strix thinks he's really hot. Or she thinks he's cool. I guess he's all-temperature.
Beware Captain Peroxide
Anyway, anyone who likes detective novels, hard-boiled mystery, fantasy, ghost stories, vampire stories, or dressing up like Harry Dresden would like this book.
Originally posted on my old blog on April 27, 2006:
We watched Robots last night. Although Christina and I do not have children, we have always enjoyed movies that most people would consider "kid movies," particularly those movies in the Pixar canon: Toy Story, Toy Story 2, The Incredibles, Finding Nemo, etc. Robots isn't Pixar, but you can tell that they have watched and learned from those great movies, and added their own frenetic style. The pace of the visual gags reminds me a little of the show Family Guy, otherwise a completely different kind of humor, but the pace of the humor is as rapid-fire as the animators could make it.
I watched Something Wicked This Way Comes as a kid, and loved it, but not everything I loved in my youth stands the test of time when I watch it as an adult. Strix and I recently listened to the audio book of Ray Bradbury's original story, and she really liked it, so I decided we needed to watch the movie.
The screenplay is also written by Ray Bradbury, which is a good sign. Despite this, the movie is very different than the book, and in fact Bradbury took the opportunity to expand on his themes and flesh out some of the characters, which is a switch for most movie adaptations.
Some of the acting by the side characters is over the top, and the movie has the feel of an 80's Disney flick (which it is). It was made in '83, and the special effects are poor by modern standards. Despite these problems, if you've never seen this movie you ought to check it out. Grand Master Bradbury should not be ignored.
Special kudos to Jonathan Pryce as Mr. Dark. No one could have played this role better.
Sunday morning, we went to a session called "Zooming to the Silver Screen: When Books Become Movies." Panel participants were Melinda Snodgrass (moderator), Doug Beason, Steven Gould, William Stout, and Carrie Vaughn. The focus of the panel was to discuss movies that were actually better than the books that they were made from, which is rare, but does happen. One of the common themes at the conference was authors lamenting the fact that editors rarely edit, anymore, particularly when the author is successful, much to the detriment of the literature. I think one of the reasons movies are sometimes better than the books upon which they are based is that the act of making it a movie sometimes forces the screenwriter to cut out the deadwood.
Other times, the ideas behind the story are good, but the writing itself is boring or just too unbelievable to follow. Pretty much anything by Philip K. Dick falls in this category. The ideas are compelling, but given half a chance the movie has to be better than what the author actually wrote. Unfortunately, that's not saying much, and many times movies based on Dick's ideas are still pretty aweful (Total Recall, Minority Report) with the occasional near-gem (Bladerunner).
Immediately after this was the Guest of Honor Presentation, in which the Toastmistress Jane Lindskold grilled Vernor Vinge for an hour and a half about where he comes up with his ideas, how he writes, etc. One of the many things discussed was the fact that Vinge (pronounced Vin-gee) had introduced the concept of a "technological singularity" to describe the idea that the predictable extrapolation of artificial intelligence is that someday machines (or humans enhanced by machines) will become so intellectually advanced that present-day humans would not even be able to comprehend their culture or world. The term singularity, here, is borrowed from astrophysics, in which it describes the central point of a black hole, which is both infinite and immeasurable. In the same way, the advance of intelligence in machines is increasing at an exponential rate, and as with any exponential curve that curve must eventually become too steep for unaided humans to keep up.
How does this relate to science fiction? It means that if you are writing about humans in the very far in the future at all, you have to come up with some reason why humans haven't all become replaced by machines. It turns out that science fiction writers have been doing this for some time. In Isaac Asimov's Foundation books, for instance, artificial intelligence is considered somewhat taboo, and robots are shunned. Planets that do use robots become stagnant and eventually die out because they rely on the robots too much, so they don't advance artificial intelligence any further. In the Dune series, by Frank Herbert, artificial intelligence is somewhat of a religious taboo.
In Vinge's own books, Fire Upon the Deep and A Deepness in the Sky, quantum mechanics operates differently near the center of a very large gravitational object, like a galaxy, than it does at a distance from that center. Phenomenon like quantum tunneling, etc., are more noticeable on planets closer to the galactic core than out on the rim, meaning that computers are harder to build and won't work as efficiently near the core, but will work great out near the rim. The result is that computers of immense power, even beyond the ability of humans to understand, are capable in the dark places between galaxies, but impossible to build near the galactic core.
I was highly impressed with Mr. Vinge, particularly with the fact that he has done all of his writing while having a whole "day-career." Many authors have day jobs, but he has had a full-time career, and still managed to become a published and well-regarded fiction writer. It gives me hope.
After lunch (which I will write about later), we came back for "Slime Creatures from Outer Space: Creating Aliens." Panel participants included Yvonne Coats (moderator), Doug Beason, Mark Ferrari, Jane Lindskold, Laura J. Mixon, and David Thomas. This was a panel about how to create believable aliens in your fiction. The consensus seemed to be that no matter what we do as writers, it won't equal the strangeness that an alien species is likely to possess. Aliens in science fiction tend to be humans altered in ways that are metaphorically useful, not nearly as odd as real aliens would likely to be.
I actually don't have a problem with this; as fiction writers, we have to keep our characters, whether human or alien, sympathetic and identifiable for the reader. Making our characters so bizarre an incomprehensible that the readers couldn't possibly care about them is not conducive to good fiction. Furthermore, I don't really subscribe to the notion that intelligent life would be totally inscrutible to humans. If they (the alien species) are similar enough to us to develop technology, then they would have to have a lot of traits in common with humans, even if they came to have those traits by a completely different evolutionary path.
Following the "Slime Creatures" panel, appropriately enough, were the "Green Slime" awards, in which books, movies, and other commercial science fiction ventures are given awards for being particularly bad science fiction. I don't remember who all won, but I remember that the Sci-Fi Channel was mentioned several times.
Then, it was the closing ceremonies, and the conference was over.
There was a post-conference party in the Con Hospitality Suite which we attended. This party is called the "Dead Dog Party," and we didn't stay long. Most of the people there seemed nice enough, but like a typical Mensa meeting there were one or two blow-hards that seem intent on showing everyone that they are smarter than the other smart people, nerdier than the other nerds, and generally just more of a fan than you. They also really don't like being corrected when they talk off the top of their head and get facts wrong.
It's late now. 'Night.
Oh my God, do I have too many neighbors. I'm out of town for four days, and it takes forever to catch up my reading.
I have spent the weekend down in Albuquerque (or "I'll be quirky," as I like to call it) at Bubonicon, Albuquerque's own annual science fiction and fantasy convention. It was held at the Wyndham near the airport. That hotel, incidentally, has a fairly nice restaurant with somewhat spotty service called the Rojo Grill. Go for the food, or go because you're staying in the hotel anyway.
There are a lot of different science fiction conferences. Since I don't care for dressing up like a Klingon or a Storm Trooper, I am glad that this one is oriented to written science fiction, rather than movies or TV, though there is enough of that going on at this Con to keep the Trekkies and the Star Wars freaks entertained.
The first session we went to was called "The Outsiders: Mainstream Authors Who Dabble in the Genre," with discussions of a number of mainstream authors, like Walter Mosley, who made their names in more "respectable" genres, then decided to dable in science fiction or fantasy. Panel members included John Maddox Roberts (moderator), Daniel Abraham, S.C. Butler, Suzy M. Charnas, and Pati Nagle. A common theme in this session is that mainstream authors that "slum" in science fiction are generally abysmal at it. Having read Walter Mosley's Blue Light, I can sympathize with this point of view. There are notable exceptions, however, like Audrey Niffeneggar's incredible novel, The Time Traveler's Wife.
After this was the Opening Ceremony, where Guest of Honor Vernor Vinge was introduced, and then we went to a a different room, missing "New Mexico Alien Fauna" for a reading by prolific (and very, very funny) author Connie Willis.
After this, we took the rest of the evening off from the sessions to visit the art show and the dealer room.
The art show at Bubonicon is worth the price of admission, which is ironic since you don't have to register for the conference to visit the art show. It's a silent auction, so you can buy the art you see there, and much of it is very, very good. One of my favorite was a saintly portrait of a nude blonde, entitled "St. Labia, patron saint of pornography." For some reason, Strix wouldn't let me bid on that one.
The dealer room, or "Huckster's Room" as it's traditionally known, is full of used books, action figures still in the packaging (if you're into that sort of thing), art, and asundry other nerd merchandise.
Saturday morning, after breakfast, we went to a writing workshop by author Sage Walker. It was mostly about how to brainstorm and come up with ideas, and most of the techniques she went through were a little too silly for me. Anyway, my problem isn't coming up with ideas - it's about sitting my butt down in the chair and writing... something other than my blog, that is.
The next session we went to was another panel, "Culture-Building: Strategies for Organizing Imaginary Worlds." Jane Lindskold was the moderator, with Jan Howard Finder, Sally Gwylan, Warren Hammond, John Miller,and Vernor Vinge. As someone who is a fan of "universe building" in science fiction, I found this session extremely interesting.
After this, Strix went out to the dealer room to hunt for books, while I stayed and watched a slide show from the Artist Guest of Honor, William Stout, an incredible artist who has done everything from comics to movie posters to album covers to movie production design to huge, wall-sized murals. I highly recommend visiting his site.
The next thing we did after this was go to the media room, also known as the Zero-G Lounge, where fans of various TV shows, cartoons, and movies can sit around and watch their guilty pleasures with other fans. We went at a specific time because we saw in the program that they were going to be playing musical episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, "Once More with Feeling," so we went and sang along with the songs with the other geeks.
After the closing curtain on Buffy, we went down for the costume contest. This is the second year we've attended Bubonicon, but the first that I participated in the costume contest. I don't normally get into such things, but I have been reading the Harry Dresden series from Jim Butcher, and absolutely love it. Harry is the only openly practicing wizard in the city of Chicago, and dispite being in this urban locale, he is described as wearing a black duster, a black Stetson, and otherwise wearing all black. When he's going into battle, he wears a silver pentacle and carries a staff, which he uses to direct his magical energy. While reading the books, I realized that I already had the duster, the hat, and the black clothes, including black boots. All I needed was the pentacle, which I bought online, and the staff, which I found at the Mancos Ren Faire. Although the sleave of my duster covered for the most part, I also had a silver bracelet that I had bought Friday morning before leaving Farmington that was supposed to simulate the magical shield bracelet that Harry wears when going into dangerous situations. This is the result. I didn't win any of the costume categories, and I didn't really expect to, since my costume was so simple, but I did get a number of compliments on my costume, particularly from female attendees. Of course, to really be Harry Dresden, I'd have to be about a foot taller, but no one's perfect, particularly me.
Directly after the costume contest was an "Intergalactic Spelling Bee," in which contestant-volunteers spelled names and words from science fiction and fantasy. Then, though tired, we went to boogy the night away at "Darth Maul's Dance Hall and Sith Lounge," which was really just mostly-eighties dance hits. It was fun, but Strix had studying to do now that the semester has started, so we went back to the room.
Enough for now... catch you later.
So, being a fan, I did do the midnight book release thing. Strix read it first, since she's a faster reader than I, and now I've finished it.
[Spoilers! If you haven't read it, yet, run away! Okay, you've been warned.]
It's a good end to the series, and Rowling has kept up with her reputation. There were some rough spots:
- Harry, Hermione, and Ron spend an inordinate amount of time hiding out in the woods, trying to figure out what to do next. I can't help but wonder if the author was the one who was really trying to figure out what to do next during the scenes.
- I have a problem with the "good guys" using the Unforgiveable Curses so frequently. These are supposed to be the good guys, right?
- The Deathly Hallows were as much a distraction to the reader as they were to Harry. Horcruxes, Harry! It's all about the Horcruxes!
I was also very sad to see so many of my favorite characters die, but I understand why she did it. While this is ostensibly a children's series, it is also a story about tyranny, bigotry, fascism, and the act of fighting against such forces. In the real world, when we fight against fascism, people die. Rowling didn't want to gloss over this fact, and as a result, this cap in the series is full of death.
Who else would like this book: children, teenagers, adults, the very old, ghosts, animated portraits, trolls (provided they can read), half-giants, centaurs, house elves, goblins, werewolves, merepeople.
