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Content by E. A Solinas
Commentateur n° : 2
Votes Utiles:
2915
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Reviews Written by
E. A Solinas "ea_solinas" (MD USA)
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Cerulean Sins
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de Laurell K Hamilton
Édition : Paperback |
| Price: CDN$ 14.10 |
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| Availability: Available for Pre-order |
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What a sin, Nov 25 2009
With "Narcissus in Chains," Laurell K. Hamilton switched her format from blood'n'suspense to sex, blood and endless superpowers for her self-insert, Anita Blake.
And sadly "Cerulean Sins" only continues that tradition, couching a meager plot in endless supernatural sex and increasingly purple prose. But even that might be tolerable if Hamilton's idtastic heroine did not waft through the book, expecting all males to put up with her mood-swings, molestation and manipulation. Think the worst fanfiction Mary Sue ever written by a twelve-year-old Hot Topic shopper.
Anita has just finished a zombie raising when Asher arrives with a message: Belle Morte's emissary Musette has arrived unexpectedly. It turns out that she's come there to toy with Jean-Claude and torment Asher -- and even worse, she intends to use the scarred vampire for her sadistic pleasure. If he isn't the sex partner of a more powerful person, she's free to do it.
However will Anita fix this? By stabbing Musette and hopping in the sack with Asher, of course!
While Anita deals with her deteriorating relationship with the police -- it's their fault rather than hers, of course -- she also must deal with a series of murders, and strange men following her. But the main problem is Belle Morte, who has taken a person interest in Anita -- and whose emissary is still able to cause trouble for Anita's "people." And possibly death for Asher.
Some lip service is paid to a serial killer and a gang of secret agents who, of course, want to enlist Anita's oh-so-impressive services. But that's not where Laurell K. Hamilton's interests lie -- it's pretty clear she is focusing on the endless parade of "who's on top?" vampire politics and all its courtly trappings, and in writing maybe/maybe not sex scenes.
Problem is, she's not very good at it. The supposedly courtly etiquette of the vampires is staggeringly dull, with much hilarious talk of "American sex" (your basic sex) versus "European sex" (just about any kind of physical contact). And the sex scenes require endless before-during-after talking and ridiculous angst. At least two pages are required to get Asher out of his underwear. And her attempts at compelling, intense scenes -- such as the were rescue squad or the long-distance prods of Belle Morte -- end up laughably melodramatic.
Worst of all, no sense of humor -- despite Anita's oh-so-witty barbs, the funniest line in the whole book is Asher announcing that he's known saints and priests who did not have the self-control of a nymphomaniacal narcissist. Add Hamilton's endless descriptions of anime-style flowing hair and brightly-colored eyes, and you have a recipe for tedious, slow-moving slogging.
It's pretty evident that Anita is self-absorbed and not very bright, as well as a glaring Mary Sue with contrived angst and unreal sex powers. Everyone (including the villain and the government) wants her, because she's so tough and special, and despite the fact that she's utterly abrasive and a raging narcissist. Hamilton tries to cover this with protestations that she "loves" all the guys around her, but it's never convincing.
But over the course of "Cerulean Sins" she becomes truly loathsome: emotionally manipulating the vulnerable, endlessly sniping at Richard, and refusing to let Asher leave unless he has sex with her. And while she admits that it's massively hypocritical to insist that Jean-Claude be faithful to her alone while she has sex with anything that will hold still, she insists on it anyway.
Poor Asher. He gets put through the wringer in this one. After being stabbed by an old flame, he has to deal with Anita lying and manipulating him so he'll have "European sex" with her, and apparently not caring how distraught it makes him. The poor guy deserves better.
"Cerulean Sins" is a long, tedious slog of painfully boring sex, painfully boring dialogue, and painfully boring vampire politics that exists just to be talked about. A ghastly experience.
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Blue Moon
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de Laurell K Hamilton
Édition : Paperback |
| Price: CDN$ 14.10 |
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| Availability: Available for Pre-order |
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Once in a..., Nov 25 2009
Apparently the love triangle between Richard Zeeman, Anita Blake and Jean-Claude isn't QUITE over, despite Anita dumping the werewolf to boink the French vampire. Lovely.
But apparently the melodrama is not over yet in "Blue Moon," the eighth novel of the Anita Blake Vampire Hunter series. Laurell K. Hamilton does succeed in creating some suspense and some intriguing supporting characters with their own woes and worries, but her writing alternates between choppy and painfully florid, and her heroine rapidly ascends the ladder of Mary-Suedom -- she's allegedly smarter, sexier, stronger and more powerful than anyone else.
Anita receives a call from Richard's brother -- Richard is now in jail in Tennessee, accused of raping a local woman. So Anita heads out to Tennessee with a band of vampires and weres, including Asher, Damian and Jason. They're all intent on proving Richard's innocence, and there are only a matter of days until the "blue moon" exposes him as a werewolf.
Oh yeah, and because of Anita's charming and polite personality, the Master of the City regards their arrival as an act of war. Can't blame him, considering what a reasonable, diplomatic person she is. Uh huh.
Unfortunately Richard's frame-up is at the center of a town-wide conspiracy, and a search for an ancient artifact using illegal means. And Colin (aforementioned Master) is determined to mess with the invading group, even to infecting one of the weres with a corrosive decay, while a werewolf first-one-to-catch-Anita-gets-to-rape-her jaunt in the woods leads to a new encounter with Richard. Unfortunately, his family has gotten drawn into this mess.
"Blue Moon" is one of those novels that is overflowing with promise, but only turns out mediocre. It actually is quite strong for the first half -- obviously-untrue rape charges, a sinister town conspiracy, and brewing tensions between two groups of werewolves and vampires. You can almost overlook Hamilton's obvious contempt for women, cops, and anyone who doesn't live in a major city (according to Hamilton, Tennessee is entirely populated by misogynist racist rednecks).
Unfortunately, halfway through everything comes unravelled -- instead we get an endless stream of absurd situations that emphasize one thing: "Anita is the awesomest most powerful person ever, and everyone wants to have sex with her." Rapist werewolves, sneering at her ex-boyfriend's new woman, being possessed by sex-mad werewolf ghosts, and magically fixing everything just by being so awesome and loving. It's actually pretty nauseating to read someone so spectacularly Mary Sueish.
And Hamilton's writing isn't up to saving the story either. The more hardboiled bits are pretty passable although rather choppily written. But when she tries to wrap that hardboiled prose in lush, sensual prose the results are laughable and appallingly awkward ("The two of us knelt bathed in power. A wind trailed Damian's hair across my face, and I knew the wind was us"). And it doesn't help that Anita constantly tosses off clunky fortune-cookie witticisms ("Love sucks. Sometimes it feels good. Sometimes it's just another way to bleed") and appalling similes (a vampire sucking blood is "like a feeding thing." Well, what else would it be?).
The biggest millstone is Anita: abrasive, arrogant, absurdly hypermacho, and pulls superpowers out of her butt at least twice a day. She's also as airheaded as a ping-pong ball. She causes all the plot's problems by howling verbal abuse at the Master of the City, but it never seems to occur to her that this trouble might be her fault. And it's hard to sympathize with someone who whines about how angry it makes her that her ex-boyfriend, whom she cheated on, is having sex with someone else.
The supporting characters are far more likable -- the fragile vampire Asher manages to be far more endearing than Anita ever does, and the werewolf Jason is quite charming at times. Unfortunately most of the vampires are either there to be ego buffs to Anita (Jean-Claude) or damsels in distress (Damian).
"Blue Moon" is a solid urban fantasy riddled with cracks -- and the Grand Canyon in the middle is the alleged heroine. It's a decent light read if you can focus on the supporting cast and the creepy noir moments, and ignore everything else.
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New Moon
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| Price: CDN$ 14.99 |
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| Availability: In Stock |
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4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
Waxing moon, Oct 16 2009
The best thing you can say about any movie's soundtrack is that it can stand on its own, and that no matter what you think of the movie, the soundtrack is chock full of amazing music.
And the soundtrack to "New Moon" is one of those -- apparently the people behind it have gone completely indie in their tastes. Whether you love or hate the teen-vampire-infatuation flick, it's undeniable that the soundtrack is bursting with brilliant bands -- angular rock'n'roll and lush echoing pop, some of it well-known (Muse, Thom Yorke) and some relative obscure (Grizzly Bear, Lykke Li).
"Meet me on the equinox/Meet me halfway/The sun is perched at its highest peak/In the middle of the day... " Ben Gibbard sings distantly as the gentle guitars swirl around him. A storm of drums builds up every time he laments that "everything, everything ends," as his pronouncements about an unknown lover become eerier and more surreal ("A window/An open tomb/The sun crawls across your bedroom/A halo/A waning moon/Your last breath moving through you").
There's a pretty good showing of solid rock'n'roll following Death Cab For Cutie's memorable introduction -- Band of Skulls provides the buzzing, blunt-edged rocker "Friends," Hurricane Bells erupts in a buzzing storm of fuzzy bass and sharp beats with "Monsters," and Sea Wolf's "The Violet Hour" is a swirling little pop-rocker that seems to trickle down the reverberating guitar.
Then there's Thom Yorke, whose buzzy-edged electronic "Hearing Damage" is a furtive, dark little rush of sinister beauty. And of course, Muse is included in the stomping, mournful rocker "I Belong To You (New Moon Remix)."
Some of these bands are also going unexpectedly low-key to suit the mood, even if they're usually much louder. The Killers turn out the dramatic layered lament of "A White Demon Love Song," while Black Rebel Motorcycle unfurl a twangy lo-fi ballad "Done All Wrong." OK GO abandon their usual sound in favor of the trippy psychedelic-edged "Shooting The Moon," and the Editors dip into a dramatic, hauntingly sad piano-rock sound with "No Sound But The Wind" ("Help me to carry the fire/it will light our way forever..."
But some brilliant indie pop also makes the cut. Lykke Li's "Possibility" is a shimmering, icy little melody, while Anya Marina sticks to acoustic guitar riddled with organ in the whispery "Satellite Heart." The absolute highlights of the album: Bon Iver and St. Vincent collaborate on the otherworldly, hymnlike "Roslyn," and Grizzly Bear's exquisite "Slow Life" is a slow haunting build to a celestial climax.
For the record, I'm not a fan of "New Moon" or Stephenie Meyers' Twilight series in general. But I felt a prickle go down my spine when I saw the songs listed for the soundtrack -- they've crammed it with one brilliant band after another, ranging from hard rock'n'roll to soft, sweet ballads. In fact, the only one that failed to move me was Alexandre Desplat's outro -- frankly, it was four minutes of boredom for me.
Otherwise, the playlist sets a wonderful mood -- think a mingling of bittersweet romanticism and outright melancholy, with lots of slowly winding piano, buzzing guitar, acoustics and ghostly veils of electronica and organ. The singers' voices range from dramatic laments (Matt Bellamy) to quirky murmurs (Anya Marina), and their lyrics tend to reflect two themes: loss ("How much pain has cracked your soul?/How much love would make you whole?") and love ("Even though you're only one I see/I've got to set you free...").
Even those who are not (and probably never will be) fans of the Twilight phenomenon should immerse themselves in the "New Moon Soundtrack." Taken on its own merits, it's still a haunting string of beautiful songs.
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Hunting Ground
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de Patricia Briggs
Édition : Mass Market Paperback |
| Price: CDN$ 9.99 |
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| Availability: In Stock |
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
The wolf and the man, Aug 25 2009
Imagine if the werewolves were considering coming out of the fur coat closet, and held a conference to debate it.
It's a rather boring-sounding idea. But since Patricia Briggs is a truly brilliant urban-fantasy author, she is somehow able to spin straw into gold in the second full-length novel about the Omega werewolf Anna and her Alpha mate Charles. "Hunting Ground" is a solid little bundle of subplots and warring supernaturals.
Sent to the Seattle conference, Charles and Anna encounter lycanthropes from across Europe -- Russians, Italians, the British lord Arthur, and he savage Beast of Gévaudan, Jean Chastel. Warring opinions and old grudges (plus Chastel's general savagery) cause plenty of tension between the various groups, and Charles finds that while Anna's Omeganess eases some of the conflict, she's freaked out by all the dominant males.
But Anna is attacked while shopping with her new friend Moira -- by a gang of vampires using werewolf magic and tactics. And then Arthur's wife is brutally killed by the same gang, and someone murders Chastel. Now the fragile peace between alphas starts to unravel and fae magic starts to manipulate them -- and to save his beloved Anna, Charles must uncover who is mad enough to do all this.
The previous "Alpha and Omega" stories have been about the world of werewolves almost exclusively, and "Hunting Ground" expands its focus -- we've got the cruel fae Dana, and a cruel gang of vampires. But the focus is still mainly on werewolves -- their subculture, their leaders, and the place of the Omegas when surrounded by a bunch of grumpy Alphas.
The biggest flaw is that the book is a loosely woven affair without much central plot until the last few chapters. But Briggs smoothly juggles the various subplots that run through the book, with vivid, powerful prose ("A creek full of fat trout trickled under a thin layer of misty ice") and slightly tongue-in-cheek dialogue ("Way to kill a defenseless net"). Not to mention some unique quirks, like a werewolf who genuinely believes he is King Arthur reborn.
And she strikes a solid balance between the darkness and violence (bloody killings, werewolf hunts, and some brutal human killings) and the more quiet, soothing moments that Anna brings. One particularly lovely scene has her soothing frazzled alphas through a mellow piano performance, and Briggs' smooth writing carries the effect through to the reader.
Anna and Charles may be mates and spouses now, but they're clearly still getting used to each other. Anna is now strong enough to stand up to the Beast and recovered enough to show her love for her new hubby, but Charles is struggling with his tough-guy image and his "Brother Wolf." And there are plenty of other interesting characters -- the unassuming Angus, the bloodthirsty psychopathic Jean, a cute Austrian Omega, and the charming, loopy Arthur. There's even a pair from one of Briggs' short stories: the werewolf Tom and his blind witch mate Moira.
"Hunting Ground" has a rather loosely woven plot, but Patricia Briggs' lovely writing and vivid characters keep it from losings its way. Definitely one of the better werewolfcentic urban fantasies.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Coming home, Aug 25 2009
Every time I turn around, another fantasy series is being adapted into graphic novel form. Some good, some bad, and some that just aren't ugly enough.
The newest addition to this genre: "Mercy Thompson: Homecoming," a prequel that explores what happened upon Mercy's arrival in the Tri-Cities area. It's a tightly-written, fast-moving little graphic novel a likably feisty heroine, solid character introductions and some intriguing twists and turns, although the ever-shifting art is a bit offputting.
As the story opens, Mercy is going out for a run, when she is attacked by a pack of werewolves. Just in the nick of time, ANOTHER pack comes to save her, but her car is wrecked in the fight. After a disastrous job interview ("It's more important that a history teacher can coach track than explain the Bill of Rights!"), Mercy heads to the local garage to get her car fixed -- and it turns out the person running the place is is a nine-year-old boy with a fae daddy -- and he quickly runs afoul of a vampire's human "sheep."
Mercy intervenes and offers to help fix it, since she knows how to replace a clutch. The kid even offers her a job, which Mercy finds herself seriously considering. But in the meantime, the savage rogue werewolves are still hunting Mercy, intending to force her to help them. While a friendly local vampire named Stefan helps her a few times, it's only a matter of time before she becomes entangled in a bloody pack war.
Patricia Briggs is something of a rarity in urban fantasy, since her Mercy Thompson series focuses on a small rural town full of "ordinary" (read: nonglamorous) vampires, fae and werecreatures, and its heroine is a shapeshifting mechanic.
So "Mercy Thompson: Homecoming" is not written to be glamorous or sexy, which is part of its rough-hewn appeal -- especially since Briggs dodges many of the cliches. She and David Lawrence spin up a solid little story explaining how the scrappy "walker" came to the town, how she met the vampire Stefan (who looks an awful lot like Vincent Valentine), her boss Zee, and how she got her job.
After the confusing introduction, the taut, quiet plot smooths out into a stream of snappy dialogue ("Adel... bert... smiter? So you smite Adelberts?"), blood-spraying action, and I-need-a-job stress (Mercy's brief stint in a fast food restaurant). In fact, it adds to the supernatural goings-on that Mercy's personal woes are so down-to-earth, though black-and-white flashbacks show her experiences as the Marrok's ward.
And Mercy is a likable heroine -- she's strong enough to stand up for herself, while still being vulnerable enough to stumble. And despite being quickly established as a coyote walker, she seems very much like an "ordinary" woman -- she needs a job, needs an apartment, hopes to be a teacher, and can rearrange the internal parts of a car with no stress.
Francis Tsai's artwork is quite good, albeit kind of uneven -- a shadowy, murky experience filled with grimy walls, blue Washington nights, glitzy fae bars, big hairy werewolves and pallid befanged vampires. Mercy is rather harshly and exaggeratedly drawn initially, but Tsai's lines become more delicate and less cartoony by the midpoint. And with the arrival of the good-guy weres, the color palette shifts from the rainy night colors to burnt lighter ones.
"Mercy Thompson: Homecoming" sets up this prequel nicely, and will leave readers wanting to see more of Mercy's move into this small town.
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Ellipse
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| Price: CDN$ 9.99 |
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| Availability: In Stock |
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
Echo game, Aug 25 2009
Imogen Heap doesn't need any introduction anymore -- she's the vocal half of Frou Frou, and the pop genius behind "Speak For Yourself." And her third album "Ellipse" demonstrates why she's a permanent presence on my "must-buy" list -- Heap still has a strong husky voice, a knack for writing brilliant pop music ("Dead in the stare of a thousand miles"), and lush and quirky instrumentation.
"Bodies disengaged, our mouths are fleshing over/Is this an echo game?" Heap murmurs over a bed of gentle beats, subtle guitar and shimmering keyboard. The song swells into a sweet, slightly desperate melody, lamenting that "I want to run in fields, paint the kitchen, and love someone/And I can't do any of that here, can I?" and her desperation to take the "first train home."
Then Heap smoothly slides into the dreamlike softness of "Wait It Out," with its brief blazes of electric guitar, and the playfully angular warmth of "Earth" ("Act like you own the place/when really you've only just arrived"). Among the songs that follow: soft electronica-tinged ballads, flickering piano pop, mournful xylophone pop, and funky and/or angular electronica with a sly edge.
The highlight is "Aha!", which is also the most sinisterly pretty song on the album -- lotsa cascading crystalline pop and swathes of dark strings. And Heap gets downright weird in a couple of the songs -- "2-1" is a weirdly uneven, clattery epic that sweeps through empty musical space, while the loopy rambling style of "Bad Body Double" is both engaging and bizarre.
"Ellipse" is the sound of an artist who has found her unique musical niche, and is now polishing it to gemlike brilliance -- it has much the same sound as "Speak For Yourself," but it's a little darker and more wistful. The music washes you away like the nighttime sea, as the lyrics sow stories of melancholy and love in your brain.
Heap's instrumentation has definitely become more polished with time -- she relies a lot on her piano and the satiny violin solos; but there are little shreds of harp, xylophone, and flickers of electric guitar here and there. And the whole album is draped in synth -- her synth is usually smooth and swirling, but sometimes it becomes spiky, tinkly or dancy. All together, it's nothing short of exquisite.
The downsides of this album? "The Fire" feels like so much tinkly filler, and I can't quite make up my mind whether "2-1" is a brilliantly daring ant atmospheric song, or an uneven mess.
But Heap's vocals haven't lost any of their beauty -- husky, strong and powerful -- and she uses more vocorder to add extra drama to her songs. And her songs have become more oblique in their writing ("The gardens wearing haute couture" -- really?), but she can still infuse simple sentiments with power ("The more you lose the less you see/so close your eyes and start to breathe/Oh you said yourself/ this wasn't easy...").
"Ellipse" is an album full of different shapes, different sounds, and different feelings -- and it shows the further evolution of Imogen Heap's exquisite music. If you don't hear this, you'll regret it.
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The Law of Nines
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de Terry Goodkind
Édition : Hardcover |
| Price: CDN$ 22.65 |
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| Availability: In Stock |
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22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
From another world, Aug 20 2009
"The Law of Nines" looks and sounds like a suspenseful thriller. In fact, it's a set-in-the-future sequel to Terry Goodkind's doorstopper "Sword of Truth" series -- and sadly it's anything but thrilling. Instead this fantasy/thriller is more like an endless and repetitive stretch of chases and fight scenes (how many times do we hear about throats being cut?), with a bland hero and a mustache-twirling villain.
On Alexander Rahl's twenty-seventh birthday, he almost gets run over saving a hot woman, a strange man buys and defaces a bunch of his paintings, and he inherits a vast expanse of virgin land in Maine.
The woman he rescued, whose name is Jax, adds to the weirdness by claiming to be from another world -- and unsurprisingly Alexander doesn't believe her, although he wants to. But then an ex-girlfriend of his appears one night with a couple of thugs, and Jax barely manages to save him. She reveals that the ex-girlfriend is only one of many enemies who has come from her other dimension. World. Thingy.
She also reveals that the bad guys are led by an evil overlord, Cain, who is eradicating magic from her world, and that somehow his plans involve Alex -- the last member of the House of Rahl. The two of them set out on a frantic search to discover what it is that Cain want, only to become enmeshed in an ancient conspiracy to reopen a gateway between two different worlds.
"The Law of Nines" is a book that sounds a lot more exciting than it is -- a Ludlumesque fantasy-thriller about the lost scion of a magical house. Even more so if it's the sequel to a bestselling fantasy series.
Too bad the actual plot is a seemingly endless series of very repetitive fights and chases, in which random people turn out to be evil minions of the bad guy (cue a staggeringly boring stint at a mental hospital). Even Goodkind seems to eventually realize that this is teeth-grindingly boring, so he throws in some random plot twists -- a contrived secret society, the evil overlord's secret hobby, and the most boring terrorist attack in the world.
And while Goodkind lavishes plenty of detail and foreshadowing in the first chapters, his style deteriorates quickly. His dialogue is plain at best and silly at worst ("It should have a taste to wake it from its long sleep to its purpose"), and Jax and Alex frequently launch into long, dull monologues about evil magic Communists, the wonders of technology (magic glue!) and the "Sword of Truth" world. Eventually you just want them to shut up.
Perhaps the biggest flaw in this book is that it feels like only half a story. Most of the important stuff is going on in the "Sword of Truth" world, but Goodkind never SHOWS readers any of this. All we get is Jax throwing out hints and half-sketched stories.
Even worse, Alex is a pretty boring hero who doesn't seem to feel anything other than spurts of rage, even when his ex-girlfriend tries to rape him. Jax is a more intriguing character (a butt-kicking woman stranded in a strange world) but Alex seems more interested in her sex appeal than her actual problems. As for Cain, he's a 2-D villain who wants to rule the world. Yawn.
"The Law of Nines" tries to mingle fantasy with "Bourne Identity"-style suspense, but the whole thing ends up being boring, repetitive and feeling like only half a story.
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The Winds of Dune
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de Brian Herbert
Édition : Hardcover |
| Price: CDN$ 22.67 |
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| Availability: In Stock |
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11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
Hot air of Dune, Aug 5 2009
Apparently Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson aren't finished milking Frank Herbert's cash cow. First prequels, then sequels, and now a midquel.
In this case, "The Winds of Dune" explores the months after the blinded, grief-stricken Paul Atreides aka Muad'Dib wandered off into the desert. While Anderson and Herbert conjure some touching moments as the people in Paul's life deal with his loss, they don't manage to make the story come alive -- the prose and beloved characters are flat.
On Caladan, Jessica is shocked by the news of her son's apparent death, Chani's tragic loss, and the birth of her twin grandchildren. She rushes to Arrakis to assist Alia, now appointed Regent, and discovers that Dune has changed in many ways -- Paul's loss has only increased fanatical devotion (and equally fanatical division), and the ruthless Alia is determined to cement Paul's legacy.
Cue a novella-sized flashback about Paul's childhood, and how he and his friend Bronso of Ix ran away to join the circus... er, the Facedancer Jongleurs. No, seriously.
Unfortunately, Bronso of Ix has since become a sort of idealistic terrorist, disrupting Paul's "funeral" and spreading heretical pamphlets which seek to reveal Paul's flaws and atrocities. Jessica attempts to soften Alia's increasingly ruthless reign as her daughter prepares to marry Duncan Idaho -- but Bronso's determination to kill the legend of Muad'Dib leads to some very big new problems. But is all this Muad'Dib's will?
"The Winds of Dune" is one of those novels that might have been a decent sci-fi read if it had been based on its own universe. But as a Dune story, it seems like glorified fanfiction with a cool cover -- an attempt to fill in various plot points between "Dune Messiah" and "Children of Dune," such as Alia's marriage to the ghola Duncan Idaho and the water ceremonies.
There isn't actually much plot in "Winds of Dune" except for Alia's increasingly tyrannical actions, and Jessica's attempts to moderate her loopy attempts to deify Paul. There's a spattering of assassination plots, ceremonies (both official and Fremen), Bene Gesserit evilness, and lots of political wheeling and dealing. But without a pair of hefty flashbacks -- about a Bene Gesserit rebellion and running away to the circus -- it would be a very skinny book.
And sadly Herbert and Anderson don't bring much life to the narrative. There are some touching moments -- such as Stilgar's mystical moment with a sandworm -- but mostly it's an unexciting, flatly-written stretch, filled with weird plot twists that rarely work (guess what: Paul was adored because he used Jongleur hypnosis on EVERYBODY!). Seriously, how did they make explosive assassination attempts and hardcore spice hallucinations into half-page-long, emotionless borefests?
The characters are similarly undeveloped -- while the flashbacks temporarily resurrect beloved characters like Chani, Yueh and Duke Leto, none of them have much personality. Alia is suddenly a two-dimensional, crazy, fanatical brat, and gets engaged to Duncan with little evidence of actual romance. It's like, "Hey Mommy, I'm marrying Duncan! Surprise!"
Jessica is the one major exception, as we see her struggle with her losses, and try to keep the truth about Paul's virtues and flaws alive. Same with some minor supporting characters like the torn Stilgar and grieving Gurney Halleck (whose attraction to Jessica begins to flower).
"The Winds of Dune" is basically an official fanfiction, attempting to add plot in between Frank Herbert's original works -- babies, weddings, and collectible Muad'Dib souvenirs. It simply doesn't work.
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Lungs
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| Price: CDN$ 9.99 |
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| Availability: In Stock |
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Run fast for your mother, run fast for your father, Jul 27 2009
"Happiness hit her like a train on a track/Coming towards her stuck still no turning back/She hid around corners and she hid under beds/She killed it with kisses and from it she fled..."
Florence and the Machine is one of those little bands that seeps in under the pop radar, and becomes a sensation based on pure talent. And Florence Welch and Co. produce a solid debut, "Lungs," that blends delicate polished instrumentals and different genres -- there's little splatters of pop, punk and soul woven together, and cemented in place by Welch's lovely voice.
It kicks off with the plucked intro of "Dog Days Are Over," with Welch's sweet voice singing about "Happiness hit her like a bullet in the head/Struck from a great height by someone who should know better than that." While it starts off as soft, ethereal pop, the melody is swathed in eruptions of orchestral pop-rock -- it gets loud'n'catchy, with Welch yelling, "The doooog days are OVER-ER/the dooooog days are ALL DONE!"
She continues the high note with "Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)," a scintillatingly colorful melody that sounds like a thunderstorm in a flower garden. After that she unleashes a bunch of other great songs: the soulful "I'm Not Calling You A Liar," the urgent piano-pop of "Howl," the wandering twangy "Girl With One Eye," the bouncy wistful "Between Two Lungs," and the sweetly macabre "My Boy Builds Coffins." An especially fun one is "Kiss With A Fist," a blazing punky tune that celebrates rough'n'passionate relationships ("You hit me once, I hit you back/you gave a kick, I gave a slap/you crashed a plate over my head/and I set fire to our bed!").
But Welch and her revolving-door band really shine when the music overflows into a steady river of fiery rock'n'roll, wrapped in twisting gossamer synth and soaring rich vocals. "Howl," the hymnlike "Drumming" and the bleak "Hurricane Drunk" all fit into this category -- and these are absolutely stunning songs, if not as immediately accessible as the catchier tunes.
Florence and the Machine has a pretty unique sound -- there's a lot of punky rock'n'roll, a spattering of pop's catchiness, and some jazzy overtones woven into a few of the songs. As debut albums go, this is a pretty spectacular one, with a distinctive flavour that sounds like little else in modern music -- the closest comparison that comes to mind would be if Joanna Newsom formed a punk-rock band and went for pop stardom.
In particular, Welch has a very pretty voice -- it's a little wavery and girlish, but she sculpts it into a flickering, roaring presence in the louder songs. And she has a knack for dark, evocative lyrics ("Louder than sirens, louder than bells/sweeter than heaven and hotter than hell!") with a quirky edge ("He's made [a coffin] for himself/One for me too/One of these days he'll make one for you"). There are a few lines that need some smoothing out, but not badly enough to distract.
And the instrumentation from The Machine is a gorgeous accompaniment -- lots of rich, swirling instrumentals and straight-ahead rock'n'roll, usually depending on Robert Ackroyd's strong electric guitar and Christopher Lloyd Hayden's solid drumming. Isabella Summers wraps the album in gossamer-soft synth, and Tom Monger adds to the ethereal edge with a harp -- it also helps give it a more classical sound, rather than straight rock-pop.
Florence and the Machine's debut "Lungs" really shows why this band has been getting so much attention across the pond -- it's passionate, eclectic and a lovely piece of work. And it sounds like they'll only get better.
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14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
One must be worthy of survival, Jul 11 2009
Fifty years ago, humanity's robotic servant Cylons suddenly turned on their masters. After a nasty war, the Cylons retreated into far space and a tense truce was maintained.
But of course the story doesn't stop -- and it turned out to be a rare case of a remake becoming spectacularly better than the source material. "Battlestar Galactica - The Complete Series" is a grimy, dark, violent and ultimately hopeful sci-fi adventure saga that isn't afraid to dip into philosophical and theological matters. And while it has its ups and downs like any series, it's a brilliant and powerful piece of work.
Forty years after the war's end, the Cylons unexpectedly return to the Twelve Colonies and start wiping out ships and cities. The Battlestar Galactica (an aging warship about to be turned into a museum) is forced to flee the world of Caprica with a collection of refugee-crammed ships, under the command of Commander William Adama (Edward James Olmos) and Secretary of Education-turned-President Laura Roslin (Mary McDonnell).
Now the people of the Twelve Colonies must find a new home -- and their new goal is Earth, a legendary planet with other humans on it. Unfortunately, they have been infiltrated by the treacherous scientist Gaius Baltar (James Callis), and a group of Cylons who are almost indistinguishable from human beings -- they even have emotions and can interbreed with humans.
But the journey is the real test: sabotage, assassination attempts, betrayals, shortages of water, food and fuel, the introduction of cruel martial law, religious conflict, the discovery of another surviving Battlestar called the Pegasus, and the overhanging fear of infiltration by the humanoid Cylons. And though they find a habitable (but miserable) planet, soon the ragtag fleet is forced to flee again -- and eventually discover that their goal is not what they hoped...
Anyone expecting "Battlestar Galactica" to be a copy of its predecessor is going to be horribly disappointed. This is sci-fi at its most compelling and transcendent -- a gritty, bleak, dark story of war and desperate escapes, and there are plenty of moral dilemmas (Roslin ordering the death of a baby Cylon/human hybrid). And it explores the truly compelling questions about what it is to be human and alive -- and to deserve to be.
And the writers brilliantly wrap together hard SF with threads of mystical science fiction, and undertones of religion and philosophy. The writing is solid and snappy ("Old gods die hard") and even manages to pull off dramatic and powerful dialogue without being cheesy ("She chose me. Chose me over all men. Chosen to be seduced. Taken by the hand. Guided between the Light and the Dark").
And each character is given an intricate and complex journey to follow, filled with pain, death, sorrow and slowly moving beyond their own personal problems. Friendships are pulled apart, alliances are formed, and lots of horrible and morally questionable choices are made. Some of these people are redeemed, some are destroyed, and some discover that they are not even human.
Olmos and McDonnell are the powerful leaders in this story, and both actors do a brilliant job -- especially Mcdonnell with Roslin's breast cancer, and Olmos with his tragic past. Other standouts: Callis as the ever-changing Baltar, Michael Hogan as the unlikeable Saul Tigh, and Grace Park as a humanoid Cylon whose love changes her goals.
But the true standouts here are Katee Sackhoff as Kara Thrace (aka "Starbuck") and Tricia Helfer as the ethereal humanoid-Cylon Number Six. Both women's fates are intertwined with the search for Earth, and it's fascinating to see how they shape the show. Sackhoff's character in particular comes across as annoyingly more-macho-than-thou at first, but the slow evolution into "harbinger of death" and destiny makes her the most compelling of all.
The complete box set is going to apparently include relatively few extras -- it obviously has all the seasons included along with assorted extended episodes, promotional stuff for the prequel spinoff "Caprica," deleted scenes, behind-the-scenes stuff, interviews, and so on and so forth. It also includes the "Razor" spinoff and webisodes, and obviously the original miniseries. Basically don't bother if you already own the seasons -- and until the price drops, it isn't terribly economical.
"Battlestar Galactica: The Complete Series" is a stunning and powerful story that transcends the sci-fi label, and deserves to be praised to the skies. Definitely a must-see.
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