January books, films and TV (so far)
Jan. 26th, 2020 03:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dolorosa_12I've been really bad at logging my reading (and other media) this year, so this post is an attempt to catch up. Being sick for a week really helped in terms of reading (just about the only benefit of being home sick with a cold).
Three of the books I felt warranted longer reviews, and you can read what I thought about them over at my reviews blog. The first is The Testaments, Margaret Atwood's sequel to The Handmaid's Tale. The review is here. (In short, I would have liked it if it wasn't a follow up to The Handmaid's Tale, or if it had been fanfic, but as a sequel I felt it was lacking, and unnecessary.) The second review is of Mary Watson's creepy, gothic YA duology The Wren Hunt and The Wicker Light, which use Irish mythology to tell a claustrophobic story of escalating cycles of violence, and the damaging weight of parental expectation. The review is here. As always with my reviews posted elsewhere, I'm very happy to discuss their content either here on Dreamwidth, or at the original posts.
At the end of last year, the first five of Ben Aaronovitch's Rivers of London series of supernatural crime novels were for sale on the Kindle at a massive discount, so Matthias bought them and I've been reading through the series during January. I've read the first four books, and I'm currently reading Foxglove Summer. I've enjoyed the series immensely: I love all the characters, but most of all I love all the weird bits of London lore and history, and the fact that it's sometimes difficult to tell real historical events from things made up by Aaronovitch. The mysteries I can take or leave: I tend to view the crime component of urban fantasies as a sort of authorial justification for their books' existence: I'm in it for the worldbuilding.
I thought from its title Ash Princess by Laura Sebastian was a Cinderella retelling, but it's actually the first in a pretty unremarkable YA fantasy trilogy about a teenage girl kept as a traumatised hostage at court by the invaders who have taken over her kingdom. It's tropey as hell (there's forbidden love, a love triangle, and plot twists that can be seen coming from a mile away), but it's got just enough of the tropes that really appeal to my id, so I'll probably read the other two books at some point.
From ash princesses to Tasha Suri's Realm of Ash, a worthy follow up to her first novel Empire of Sand. This is a fantasy series inspired by Mughal history, with a heavy focus on female characters with supernatural powers, and women acting as powers behind the throne. I really enjoyed it.
As part of the![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
in_a_peartree fest back in December, I asked for recommendations for books based on existing myth, fairytales or folktales with a focus on the women (in the vein of The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker, and The Red Tent by Anita Diamint), and someone recommended me a series of books by Jo Graham, beginning with Black Ships. The first book was not held by my local public library, but the second, Hand of Isis was, and because I assumed that each book was a loosely-linked standalone I borrowed it. Having read it, I realised that the books were not as standalone as I had thought — the main characters in each book are reincarnations of those from previous books in the series — but the point it was trying to make was simple enough that it didn't really matter. The story takes place in Ptolemaic Egypt, as seen through the eyes of Charmian, slave and half-sister of Cleopatra. There's a lot of supernatural stuff going on, but essentially it's the story of three women (another half-sister and slave, Iras, rounds out the trio) trying desperately to prop up a kingdom and retain its independence against increasingly implacable odds. I liked, but didn't love, this book — it was extraordinarily soap operatic (but then, this period of Egyptian and Roman history was pretty soap operatic), the relationship between the three sisters was well written, and the pragmatic way the characters dealt with the realities of their situation and the limits of what tools available to address it was enjoyable to read. It didn't really fill the void left by The Silence of the Girls, but it was diverting enough.
I've seen one film in the cinema this year so far: JoJo Rabbit. I go back and forth on what I think about it. All the actors are excellent, and there are some genuinely clever and haunting moments, but my immediate reaction was that it was cloyingly sentimental and simplistic in the vein of Life Is Beautiful. Is it impossible to say something new in a work of fiction about the Holocaust? When I heard about this film's existence I was dubious, but cautiously optimistic as I love Taika Waititi. Having seen the film, I still can't make up my mind.
Interest in Orange Is The New Black seemed to dry up — at least in fannish circles — after the first season, but I'm a completionist, and always intended to finish the series, which I managed to do this month. The final season was painful to watch — as well it should have been, what with its foray into the topic of immigration detention in the US — while still retaining the compassion and surreality which was there from the beginning. I'm deeply glad a series like this exists, and was made, and was critically acclaimed, if only for the fact that it put a multiplicity of women's stories front and centre, and it allowed women to be ugly, cruel, and selfish, while possessing the empathy to give the full weight and significance to their small, quiet, sad stories.
I've mentioned before that Matthias and I watched all of The Witcher, which I found addictive in a kind of brainless way. I can't say I agree much with the takes that it's a revolutionary, female gaze kind of show: it seemed like pretty standard low budget swords and sorcery fantasy for me (with the sexposition that seems par for the course for fantasy TV these days), but I enjoyed it when I wanted to watch something fairly undemanding.
The final show I'm on the verge of finishing this month is The Trial of Christine Keeler, a stylishly made dramatisation of the Profumo affair scandal in the 1960s. It's well cast (James Norton is excellent in this, demonstrating yet again how versatile an actor he is), and the story is so twisty, surreal and bizarre that I find myself astonished that it's based on real events. It reminded me a lot of last year's A Very English Scandal (what is it with British politicians and truly bizarre, convoluted sex scandals?), although I don't think it's quite as good.
I'll close off the post with a couple of links, mainly because they've been sitting in my tabs for ages. The first is Jeannette Ng's furious essay about The Rise of Skywalker, which mirrors a lot of my thoughts on the film. I'll preface this link by saying I'm not interested in wading into a debate about the relative merits of the sequel trilogy of Star Wars films: like Jeannette, I loved The Last Jedi and hated The Rise of Skywalker, but I genuinely have no issue with people reacting in exactly the opposite manner to the two films. I would say that if you hated Jedi and enjoyed Rise I'd recommend steering clear of the essay unless you're feeling masochistic.
Finally, for nostalgic Australians, a three-part interview in The Guardian about Round the Twist. Enjoy!
Three of the books I felt warranted longer reviews, and you can read what I thought about them over at my reviews blog. The first is The Testaments, Margaret Atwood's sequel to The Handmaid's Tale. The review is here. (In short, I would have liked it if it wasn't a follow up to The Handmaid's Tale, or if it had been fanfic, but as a sequel I felt it was lacking, and unnecessary.) The second review is of Mary Watson's creepy, gothic YA duology The Wren Hunt and The Wicker Light, which use Irish mythology to tell a claustrophobic story of escalating cycles of violence, and the damaging weight of parental expectation. The review is here. As always with my reviews posted elsewhere, I'm very happy to discuss their content either here on Dreamwidth, or at the original posts.
At the end of last year, the first five of Ben Aaronovitch's Rivers of London series of supernatural crime novels were for sale on the Kindle at a massive discount, so Matthias bought them and I've been reading through the series during January. I've read the first four books, and I'm currently reading Foxglove Summer. I've enjoyed the series immensely: I love all the characters, but most of all I love all the weird bits of London lore and history, and the fact that it's sometimes difficult to tell real historical events from things made up by Aaronovitch. The mysteries I can take or leave: I tend to view the crime component of urban fantasies as a sort of authorial justification for their books' existence: I'm in it for the worldbuilding.
I thought from its title Ash Princess by Laura Sebastian was a Cinderella retelling, but it's actually the first in a pretty unremarkable YA fantasy trilogy about a teenage girl kept as a traumatised hostage at court by the invaders who have taken over her kingdom. It's tropey as hell (there's forbidden love, a love triangle, and plot twists that can be seen coming from a mile away), but it's got just enough of the tropes that really appeal to my id, so I'll probably read the other two books at some point.
From ash princesses to Tasha Suri's Realm of Ash, a worthy follow up to her first novel Empire of Sand. This is a fantasy series inspired by Mughal history, with a heavy focus on female characters with supernatural powers, and women acting as powers behind the throne. I really enjoyed it.
As part of the
in_a_peartree fest back in December, I asked for recommendations for books based on existing myth, fairytales or folktales with a focus on the women (in the vein of The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker, and The Red Tent by Anita Diamint), and someone recommended me a series of books by Jo Graham, beginning with Black Ships. The first book was not held by my local public library, but the second, Hand of Isis was, and because I assumed that each book was a loosely-linked standalone I borrowed it. Having read it, I realised that the books were not as standalone as I had thought — the main characters in each book are reincarnations of those from previous books in the series — but the point it was trying to make was simple enough that it didn't really matter. The story takes place in Ptolemaic Egypt, as seen through the eyes of Charmian, slave and half-sister of Cleopatra. There's a lot of supernatural stuff going on, but essentially it's the story of three women (another half-sister and slave, Iras, rounds out the trio) trying desperately to prop up a kingdom and retain its independence against increasingly implacable odds. I liked, but didn't love, this book — it was extraordinarily soap operatic (but then, this period of Egyptian and Roman history was pretty soap operatic), the relationship between the three sisters was well written, and the pragmatic way the characters dealt with the realities of their situation and the limits of what tools available to address it was enjoyable to read. It didn't really fill the void left by The Silence of the Girls, but it was diverting enough.I've seen one film in the cinema this year so far: JoJo Rabbit. I go back and forth on what I think about it. All the actors are excellent, and there are some genuinely clever and haunting moments, but my immediate reaction was that it was cloyingly sentimental and simplistic in the vein of Life Is Beautiful. Is it impossible to say something new in a work of fiction about the Holocaust? When I heard about this film's existence I was dubious, but cautiously optimistic as I love Taika Waititi. Having seen the film, I still can't make up my mind.
Interest in Orange Is The New Black seemed to dry up — at least in fannish circles — after the first season, but I'm a completionist, and always intended to finish the series, which I managed to do this month. The final season was painful to watch — as well it should have been, what with its foray into the topic of immigration detention in the US — while still retaining the compassion and surreality which was there from the beginning. I'm deeply glad a series like this exists, and was made, and was critically acclaimed, if only for the fact that it put a multiplicity of women's stories front and centre, and it allowed women to be ugly, cruel, and selfish, while possessing the empathy to give the full weight and significance to their small, quiet, sad stories.
I've mentioned before that Matthias and I watched all of The Witcher, which I found addictive in a kind of brainless way. I can't say I agree much with the takes that it's a revolutionary, female gaze kind of show: it seemed like pretty standard low budget swords and sorcery fantasy for me (with the sexposition that seems par for the course for fantasy TV these days), but I enjoyed it when I wanted to watch something fairly undemanding.
The final show I'm on the verge of finishing this month is The Trial of Christine Keeler, a stylishly made dramatisation of the Profumo affair scandal in the 1960s. It's well cast (James Norton is excellent in this, demonstrating yet again how versatile an actor he is), and the story is so twisty, surreal and bizarre that I find myself astonished that it's based on real events. It reminded me a lot of last year's A Very English Scandal (what is it with British politicians and truly bizarre, convoluted sex scandals?), although I don't think it's quite as good.
I'll close off the post with a couple of links, mainly because they've been sitting in my tabs for ages. The first is Jeannette Ng's furious essay about The Rise of Skywalker, which mirrors a lot of my thoughts on the film. I'll preface this link by saying I'm not interested in wading into a debate about the relative merits of the sequel trilogy of Star Wars films: like Jeannette, I loved The Last Jedi and hated The Rise of Skywalker, but I genuinely have no issue with people reacting in exactly the opposite manner to the two films. I would say that if you hated Jedi and enjoyed Rise I'd recommend steering clear of the essay unless you're feeling masochistic.
Finally, for nostalgic Australians, a three-part interview in The Guardian about Round the Twist. Enjoy!
no subject
Date: 2020-01-26 07:42 pm (UTC)I agree. I enjoy these books a lot, but the crime mystery isn't the biggest draw. Apparently it's going to be a TV series. I hope it will be good.
no subject
Date: 2020-01-27 07:14 am (UTC)Rivers of London is a fun series.
no subject
Date: 2020-01-27 07:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-01-27 07:40 pm (UTC)Rivers of London is great fun. I'm been enjoying it a lot.
no subject
Date: 2020-01-27 11:20 pm (UTC)I wouldn't say I hated Jedi so much as I was agressively bored by Kylo Ren in it, but I really enjoyed that essay, thank you for linking it!
no subject
Date: 2020-01-30 06:05 pm (UTC)