Book Review

Dragonriders  of Pern
Dragonflight/ Dragonquest/ The White Dragon
Anne McCaffrey

A classic trilogy that uniquely blends science fiction and fantasy. I've never read anything quite like it and I'm wondering why Hollywood hasn't picked up on them. Well, I say that, but I suspect the real reason is that adapting original work is too hard for them anymore. Also, these books aren't structured in the way that film series have become settled on in recent years. The main character of the first book isn't the same as the main character of the third book and the primary antagonist is a scientific phenomenon that, is indicated, will never be be defeated. Yet, trilogy it remains as the story rolls and flows with the way the characters are affected by the cosmic threat in a concert of world building and the drama of the lives of the people thereon. Instead of a firm, overarching plot, it has more of a supple, overarching theme of a civilization losing valuable knowledge of their past, their struggle of reconnecting with that past without losing the progress that they've made, and balancing those dynamics to protect the future with both a firm grounding in their historical achievements and continued innovation of technology and improvement on cultural norms.
The peculiar union of scifi and fantasy could also complicate visual storytelling. The base premise is that a group of human space explorers settled on Pern. Shortly thereafter they noticed that another planet in the system would rain down deadly spores they dubbed "Thread" in predictable patterns that would destroy all organic matter. In adapting to the threat they bred native creatures, fire lizards, into large dragons that could be tactically flown during a Thread attack while the fire they breathe irradicates the spore. The fantasy aspect lies with the relationship between dragon and rider as they are telepathically linked as well as becoming physically and emotionally symbiotic. This leads to what would surely be cinematically frowned upon these days in what amounts to arranged marriages between the riders of mating dragons, as they helplessly succumb to the passions of their beasts with each other. I've seen some women refer to the romantic relationships in the books as "rapey" but these books were written by a woman so some of her own fancies and fantasies are embedded in the stories. I bet the same naysayers liked the 50 Shades trilogy. All I'm saying is that women's sensual imaginings aren't necessarily P.C. or feminist approved whether the world wants to admit it or not. But I'd still say the books lean more towards scifi because even for the dragons to breathe fire, they need to be fed a particular stones and can be used for instantaneously transporting over distances and through time. Anyway, back to the story... there will be some spoilers because it's hard to describe the books as a set without them.
The first book, Dragonflight, is the story of Lessa. Pern is coming to the end of a centuries-long interval during which there's been no threadfall due to the movements of the planets and has become akin to a civilization that's lost its faith. Most no longer believe that Thread will ever fall again and that the Dragonriders that they've been supporting financially are nothing but a useless burden on their supplies. The Dragonriders themselves have dwindled in numbers down to one weyr and have become complacent in training and vigilance, also supposing the Thread to be mostly a non-issue. All except for one Rider, F'lar, who has applied himself to studying the movement of the Red Star, the planet where Thread originates. Knowing that it will pass by again soon, he is determined to become the new leader in order to properly prepare. Leaders are determined by whose bronze dragon captures a golden queen dragon during her mating flight. So in search for a woman to bond with a newly hatched queen that his bronze, Mnementh, will one day fly, he finds a likely candidate in Lessa, who is a lowly drudge in an impoverished land hold. Her story embodies the themes of past vs. future and tradition vs. progression. She comes from an old bloodline entitled to power in her hold and she possesses the strength and drive of that line, born to lead and gifted with the rare ability to communicate with all dragon kind. After her dragon, Ramoth, is impressed on her, she bucks the latter-day traditions that have been set up in the weyr to protect the few queens and their shrinking population. She learns to fly on Ramoth even though it's not allowed. She travels "between" with her, which transports them instantaneously from place to place throughout Pern. And in doing so, it's she that discovers that dragons can travel in time as well as across distances. Only wanting to take back her own hold one day, she ends up being critical in saving the planet from the devastation of the falling spores. As hard as F'lar works over the years to prepare to fight the Thread, there's just not enough dragons or riders after all the years of neglect. Making progress with one flying, fighting queen is meaningless against such odds. So Lessa takes the daring and dangerous mission upon herself to travel back four-hundred turns (years) to when the weyrs were full and bring the Dragonriders of the past forward to help canvass the northern continent and protect the land holds from Thread. Lessa's dragon flight becomes the stuff of legends and the Master Harper is quick to set her story to song. It's a great start. And fun fact: this book is composed of two novellas that McCaffrey had published in Analog Science Fiction the year prior to its publication.
The second book, Dragonquest, is my favorite, I think. The honeymoon is soon over with the Oldtimers that Lessa brought back from the past as the book begins with the difficulties brought about by the resulting culture shock. Their arrival had its advantages. They boosted their numbers and brought invaluable experience to the generations that had never seen Thread. But society was ordered differently in their day. They begin to bully and oppress the people of the lands in their care, not taking into account that the land holds and craft halls had moved on over the centuries becoming independent of the weyrs, relaxing and freeing up the feudalistic economy a little. This book is centered on F'lar and the overwhelming task of protecting the population not just from Thread, but the outdated attitudes of the Oldtimers. To complicate matters, the Thread begins to fall in irregular, unpredictable patterns. It's at this point they start to learn how much past knowledge they've really lost. Upon discovering information and technologies belonging the ancient humans that first settled Pern, the past and present are put at odds again. Those in the present become just as resistant to changing their closed society to avoid the lack of communication that is impeding their ability to survive as the Oldtimers are to changing their traditional views of order in the land. F'lar has a full plate sorting all of this out. Also introduced in this book are the fire lizards which still exist on the southern continent, thought to be barren, that was only rediscovered and partially taken advantage of in the second half of the first book. The lizards' behaviors and impressions they make on their humans challenge coupling rituals that the weyrs had so strictly followed thus far. It's explored in the relationship of F'lar's half brother F'nor and Brekke. Their romance has a touch of the unrequited to it, which is what I like. I think F'nor is my favorite character. To be honest, both Lessa and F'lar are wound a little tight for me at times. And his brown dragon, Canth is also my favorite dragon. F'nor seems more secure with himself with no chip on his shoulder even though he doesn't have the same leadership pressures on him as F'lar. Likewise, Canth has no doubts or hesitations of his ability to out fly bronze dragons to capture Brekke's queen but not in an arrogant or boastful manner. They also show no fear when deciding that they are capable of traveling between to the Red Star itself when the tensions between the weyrs and holds reach their pique. The trust they have in one another without the need to agonize over every decision before taking action makes them a breath of fresh air. Although, I do sympathize with F'lar's obligation to exhaust all diplomatic solutions before finally fighting the leader of the Oldtimers and banishing him and all those aligned with him to the southern continent. This book brings closure to the main plot begun in the first book, confirming that Thread will always be a part of Pern and that plans would need to be made against the next extended interval to avoid losing their knowledge and forgetting the danger. The first two books actually make a pretty complete couplet.
To say that the third book, The White Dragon, is a let-down would be way too harsh. But it does seem a little disconnected from the first two. In the first book when Lessa realizes her destiny lies in the weyrs with her dragon, she cedes her claim to power in her land hold to another of the old bloodline, Jaxom, who was just born at the beginning of the story. His character is never forgotten and the beginning of his arc as a protagonist begins at the end of the second book when he impresses a dragon from an underdeveloped egg that would normally be left to die because it didn't have the strength to break its shell. Being groomed to be a Lord Holder one day, this puts him on the wrong side of everyone. But the blurb on the back cover makes his struggles sound more intense than what they actually end up being. He broke the rules by impressing the dragon but he's allowed to keep him after some good natured debate. The rest of his childhood is firmly controlled by his guardian and nurse, until he asserts his status of adulthood and he's given more freedom without much resistance. He learns about flying and going between without formal permission, but once he's caught there's no harsh repercussions for him to deal with and he's allowed to train as a dragon rider to fight Thread in a limited capacity. There's lamenting of his teenage recklessness, but usually with an underlying grin for the rascally young man. There's no problem with any of this except the most heroic thing he does at the beginning of the book - a deed that prevents an altercation between Benden Weyr and the Oldtimers in the south - is done in secret, never being officially acknowledged. And when most people figure it out, nothing is really said about it and he receives no accolades. Nor does he get much credit for important discoveries at the end of the book. To come full circle, in the same way Lessa realizes her destiny lies in the Weyr, Jaxom realizes his duty is to his land hold and finally returns to take his place as Lord. His story is fun and exciting, but also a little underwhelming. The fire lizards have more conflict to deal with than him, falling out of favor early on after the resurgence of friction from the aging Oldtimers. The fire lizards and their capability of ancestral memory is one of several other things that I loved much more than Jaxom's story that were just secondary elements in this one. I loved the Ruth, the runt, white dragon. He was deeply complex, was not useless as a dragon even though he was undersized, and had a unique relationship with the fire lizards. He always knew "when" he was when traveling between. And even though all of this is covered, it seemed incomplete and left me wanting more. Along with the latest discoveries made with the ancient's technology. They find that a grouping of stars in the sky are the ships that the original humans came in, still in orbit. And at the end, with Jaxom's impulsive and under-appreciated help, they find the location of the ancient's original settlement on the southern continent. It's such a tantalizing and frustrating tease. Will they learn everything about their ancestors? Will they travel to the ships? What other surprises lay in store? Also, will they now encourage the hatching and impression of diminutive eggs now that they've seen how special Ruth is? I'm more interested in that than the fact that Ruth had no proclivity to mate because of his size. But I suppose these threads (no pun intended) are picked up on in other installments or series; there are many entries in the Pern universe. The Harper Hall series overlaps with this one bringing in Menolly and Piemur as Jaxom's friends who assist him in his adventures. The storylines concerning the contentions between the Oldtimers and the Weyrs as well as F'lar's plans for the Dragonriders' retirement during the next long interval were wrapped up neatly in the background, spread out over the whole book since there wasn't quite enough content to fill it alone.
But overall, I have no complaints. This is a big, rich trilogy full of characters and situations that I haven't even had a chance to touch on. For as long as this review and my synopses are, there are still so many details I've had to leave out. So much great world building. Such detailed character development. So original. I can't recommend it enough for fans of dragons and light science fiction. 

Book Review

Rush on the Radio, James Golden a.k.a. Bo Snerdly

After Rush passed, Snerdly… I’m sorry, James Golden (who will always be “Snerdly” to people who listened) put together a twelve part pod cast series interviewing family, friends, and co-workers of Rush as a wonderful memorial tribute. The first quarter of this book was a summation of that series with excerpts from the interviews and biopics. I’d listened to the pod cast in real time so there was nothing new here for me, but then Golden went into details about his own life and career as it weaved in and out with Rush’s emphasizing the influence Rush left on him and the legacy he leaves behind with a call to other conservatives to help pick up the mantle. So, it’s only a partial biography of Rush Limbaugh. I imagine his brother will write a more complete biography one day. What you do learn in this book is an account of Rush as witnessed by people who were very close to him as an adult from his staff, to the guest hosts, to president Trump, to even James Carville whose wife, Mary Matalin, was a former guest host and long time friend to Rush. You learn of his humor, generosity, and what a great boss he was. There are also many, many excerpts of Rush’s monologues explaining conservative philosophy. If you’ve never heard it explained before, he taught an ongoing Master Class in it for 30 years, and the few bits and pieces chosen for this book are a good start if you’re curious to learn about it. Then you learn from Golden his personal journey from a former Black Panther evolved into a black Conservative. A vegetarian, black Conservative that doesn’t celebrate the 4th of July and has a healthy pride in his race. Healthy because, and it never really dawned on me until I was reading his viewpoints, how liberalism has poisoned the genuine and pure form of racial pride with identity politics. Reading about his life and how his attitudes changed is quite illuminating. And a large portion of the book is Snerdly’s commentary focusing on the pain it caused him to see Rush continually lied about in the media. He considered Rush to be his best friend. Naturally he wants to bring the truth to light about a man he loved like a brother. You would too if someone you knew was being judged unfairly. This is another attempt to set the record right that, sadly, many will not read. Not just liberals, but those who have believed the media’s portrait of him over the years and are afraid to investigate themselves. But those of us who listened know the truth. He also highlights his own contributions to the show over the years. His experiences with callers. The ups and downs of Rush’s last year. And he talks about how he’s carrying on Rush’s crusade in his own career. It’s a great book. Please, put aside your prejudices and read it. You’ll get a different perspective, if nothing else.

Book Review

Bunnicula, A Rabbit-Tale of Mystery, Deborah and James Howe

A children's book from 1979, it was right in my wheelhouse, yet somehow I'd never heard of it. I put it on my list of things to check out one day and then it was fortuitously gifted to me earlier this year. It's the first of a series that follows a human family from the first person pov of the family's dog named, Harold. Some children's books have the complexities that you can reexamine into adulthood like the Narnia series, and others just make for wonderfully light reading with a sophistication that adults can appreciate. This is one of the latter and it's adorable and generally funny in ways that smaller kids won't pick up on at first such as sarcasm and the duality of the the pets both having personalities and also still being just a cat and a dog with natural instincts and reactions to the activity.
The family brings home a new pet bunny after attending a Dracula movie, and Harold observes as the other main character, Chester the cat, works out the mystery of this rabbit. Chester is also the antagonist as he becomes obsessed with proving that Bunnicula is a vampire and a danger to everyone, even though the only threat the unusual rabbit poses is to the vegetables in the fridge. He does traumatize the little thing in his pursuit, but he's constantly foiled by the absurdity of how his behavior is perceived by the family who see him as acting out and jealous of the new pet. Harold helps Chester at first but ultimately rescues Bunnicula from Chester's irrational scheme. And the problem of the rabbit being a veggie-vampire works itself out in the end thanks to the family's response to Chester's interference.
It's not perfect story crafting. The animals are limited to their animal nature except when the refrigerator needs to be opened or a book needs to be retrieved and read. But rules like that are rightfully relaxed when making a story for young kids. It's imaginative and creative fun for fun's sake, and that's the real takeaway. My copy has the first chapter for the second book at the end, and it looks like it'll be the continuing adventures of Harold and Chester. I liked it. It's a clever, quick read, and a nice change of pace. 

Top 10 Obscure Movies

 I've moved from doing a lot of these ranking lists on my blog to just doing it in Facebook since I have no real viewership of my blog. But, back in August, my Facebook account was hacked and deleted, so I have several years worth of lists and things that I put some effort into writing about that are just gone now. I probably won't transfer every little list idea into the blog but I like this one a lot so I'm going to transfer it over.

Top Ten Obscure Movies

Obscure movies. Hidden gems. Movies that got lost in the shuffle of pop culture. Movies that it's seems nobody has seen but you. This is a list of 10 obscure movies that have reached you in your own little world and very few or none of the other people in your circle.

Day 1

The Sting

I'm starting with a movie that isn't actually "obscure." It won 7 Oscars. So why has nobody I've come into contact with since leaving home seen it? A lot of people say they may have heard of it or vaguely remember it. But this movie appears to be my own private party. It's such a unique crime adventure. A lower class grifter teams up with a washed out con artist to pull a big con on a well off crime boss. But it's not as dark as it sounds. It's quick, smart, and energetic with a lot great misdirection and feints that leave the audience glued to their seats. I love this movie so much but when you mention Redford and Newman, the first thing people think of is Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid which, to me, was uneven and over-hyped. No, this is the superior movie and so worth a watch. 

 

 

Day 2

Watership Down

I'll get this one out of the way early too. It's not well known but it turns up in video articles about cartoon violence so more people may, at least, be aware of it. But if that's the only way many know of it, it's supremely unfair. It was made in the 70s before adult animation was a viable market and it follows as truly to the book as I've seen a movie try. And the book is centered on themes of societal structure and war with an honest portrayal of rabbit behavior in the way they fight each other and the damage done to them by man and other natural predators. The animation is done realistically apart from the opening sequence that depicts the primary story of the rabbits' religion. Even though the author said it was for his daughters and it was marketed to kids, I'd say it's much more suited to adults or at least more mature children (which probably don't exist anymore.) I wasn't damaged by it and it's one of the movies that I loved all through my childhood and continued to get more out of it as an adult and after reading the book. This is a real hidden treasure in my opinion.

 

 

 

Day 3

Near Dark

Ah, now here's an underrated little movie that may have a cult following among horror enthusiasts, but is mostly unknown. Before zombies became all the rage, vampires had a good, long run as the most popular supernatural creatures in cinema and even television. I always liked them better than zombies. What makes this a remarkable movie is that it was useful in molding vampire lore. At this point, the vampire bite had to be lethal to make another person a vampire while a partial bite caused enslavement and madness. This one changed that rule and made an incomplete bite the way a person would be turned into a vampire which makes more sense anyway if you follow the other way out to its natural conclusion. It also examines a gang of modern day vampires and how they interact with normals when not hunting, inventing ways for them to travel in the daytime if necessary, and employing the blood transfusion method of turning someone back into a normal person which had been toyed with since Dark Shadows and is still a standard cure in most stories today. Admittedly it's a B movie with lots of blood and gore, but the strong and charismatic supporting cast of Lance Henrickson, Bill Paxton, and Jenette Goldstein gives it a lot credibility and A movie quality in that respect. Very much a lost gem in my opinion.

 

 

 

Day 4

Midnight Madness

What should I group this comedy with ... College humor? That's pretty accurate. It appeals to the same compartmentalizing that attracts me to classic anime as well as the obstacle course/puzzle solving pacing that I'm naturally drawn to. The set up is that a weirdo genius kind of guy - not really sure what his purpose is on the campus is... prof? student? no idea, and no one likes him - anyway he sets up a game called The Great All Nighter, an all night scavenger hunt following the clues that he's arranged around the town at various locations ending at a final destination. I can't remember what the prize was.. probably money. But mostly bragging rights because he pits groups of college stereotypes against each other. The nice, fair-play kids. The lazy, bullying, cheating types. The meat-headed jocks. The ambitious sorority women. And the nerds. Grouped by color! ... I'm a dork.. It's a fun movie that can employ adult humor without being as bawdy as, say, "Porky's" because of that game element which makes for some damn clever riddling along the way. There's also a heart element with the screen debut of Michael J. Fox as the kid brother of the main good guy character (who was also the Dr Pepper kid in those old commercials that nobody seems to remember but me.) And seeing how the game master keeps track of everyone is also a fascinating tech point for 1980. Naturally the fair-play kids win, but everyone is accepted at the party at the end except the bullies who get their comeuppance. It's a feel good obscure flick.

 

 

Day 5

Runaway

This one is buried so deep I had to look it up because it's been a long time since I've seen it. All I remembered clearly was the robotic spiders. But I discovered why I liked this movie so much as a kid - it's the work of Michael Crichton. I wasn't as aware of him in 1984 but since I've discovered him, I'm not at all surprised that I was drawn to his fantastical style of science fiction. It's a future where robots are a common household tool. If they get loose they become pests and a division of the police is dedicated to dispatching them. They're not taken seriously until a robot commits murder. But it's not about machines coming to life. It's about the bad guy played by Gene Simmons from KISS (which, I confess, is why I first watched) weaponizing the robots which is kind of an obvious consequence in this scenario. But his ambitions aren't just local. He wants to get defence contracts and such. Perhaps the plot was overly complex and it clashed with the aforementioned spider type robots which, admittedly cheesy, would be more suited to suspense/thriller plots rather than governmental arms systems. But State of Fear was the same way so it has my willing suspension of belief. Like I said, it's been years since I've seen it, so there are gaps. Unfortunately, as good as I remember it being and starring the likes of Tom Selleck and Kirstie Alley, it came out in a golden year of box office smashes and ended up being smashed into obscurity itself and it's kind of a shame because it really was a cool little movie.

 

Day 6

The Last Unicorn

Second and final animated entry. Second of the triad of animated movies that I watched with rapt attention growing up. The third, The Secret of NIMH, is a little more well known. But from what I understand it was vastly different from the book it was taken from, which I haven't read yet. The Last Unicorn, on the other hand, was another extremely good adaptation of the book. It's like the less known it is, the harder the filmmakers try. At least back in the day. This is a fairy tale, but not a cutsie, musical Disney type (although there two short songs which were awful because they let the voice actors sing them.) Songs notwithstanding, it's more adult, along the lines of Grimm, though not overly dark. A lone unicorn sets out on a quest to free all the other unicorns from the sea prison of a mad king (my first introduction to the voice of Christopher Lee.) Along the way she's forced to become human to disguise herself and nearly loses her identity as she begins to fall in love with the prince. But in the end she is returned to her true form and saves her kindred. It's definitely a movie for girls with the two female characters being the strongest presence, driving the narrative. I liked the songs that the band America recorded for the theme and background "traveling" music. It enhanced the beautiful sadness that coupled with a happy, but bittersweet ending. I know there are at least a couple of people in my friends list that know this movie, but that doesn't make it well known. It just means I have some kindred spirits with this one.

 

 

 

Day 7

The Cat From Outer Space

First of two family movies. This is a a Disney movie. They cranked out a ton of high budget blockbusters that have enjoyed world wide acclaim. They also turned out a ton of cheaper productions that were put out in the meantime. Kind of like the B sides of records. The Misadventures of Merlin Jones, The Ugly Dachshund, That Darn Cat, etc. Probably enough to fill their own list. But my pick is this wonderful movie I haven't seen in light years. The Cat From Outer Space is about a spaceship making an emergency landing and being taken by the government. Since the alien is a cat, he's not noticed. He finds an employee to help him fix his ship, able to talk to him with a special glowing collar. They need gold to fix the ship. Since the collar makes him telekinetic too, they try manipulating different gambling ventures to raise the money to get the gold. Jake ends up staying and getting American citizenship. And I named my first cat after him. There's lots of conflict and dicey situations and Jake is as helpless as a regular cat without his collar. I wish I could remember more, but it's been a long, long time. And the quality was really great for being on the low end of the scale and not getting much reach. I really need to find this movie and watch it again. It was always one of my very favorite children's movies.

 

 

 Day 8
The Adventures of the Wilderness Family (trilogy)

To quote an online reviwer: "A couple of hippies living in Los Angeles who were forced to grow up and get jobs when they had kids, decide they've had enough of the smoggy city and pack up their family to move to the Rocky Mountains." He was poking fun at it a little because there were a lot of" back to nature" kids films in that era. (1975) But this movie was one of the the very best. They went completely off the grid, as we would now say it, and the movie explores their challenges like building their home from scratch, homeschooling the kids, and teaching survival. But it also adds an element of danger with the large grizzly bear the wife and kids are left to defend their new home against while the daughter is gravely ill and the dad is off getting medicine. Lots of melodrama and some corn, but also so much real heart, good acting, and a memorable soundtrack. I put trilogy in parenthesis because there were two others but they almost aren't necessary. The second is basically the same as the first only it's winter, they're facing wolves, and the mom is sick. In the third one the government is the enemy, trying to get them off the land. I can't remember much about that one because the plot was too heavy for me as a child. Though I'd like to see it again and judge it with adult eyes. But I always loved them, especially the first one and there are a lot worse movies to impress upon young children. 

 

 

Day 9

Blind Fury

I saved the best two for last. A pair of Rutger Hauer movies. I was on a Rutger Hauer bender trying to find everything he ever made and much of it is obscure. This is one of the best, in my opinion. A Vietnam vet, Nick, who was blinded in the war goes to visit an old friend, Frank, who happens to be in trouble, blackmailed into cooking designer drugs for a high level crime boss. It was Frank who had abandoned Nick in the battle that left him blind. However he's is not a helpless disabled person. He mastered the samurai sword from villagers that rescued him and he's not returning for revenge but closure. After Frank's ex-wife is killed Nick promises to take his son to him and so the adventure begins. An American take on a samurai swordsman story as he rescues his friend, kills the bad people he's fallen in with, and reuniting father and son. His friend even gets to redeem himself for his cowardice back in the war. Instead of a mystical ancient Japanese setting, it modern day Reno, Nevada. None of this is legally plausible, of course, but that was the beauty of the 80's. Real life scenarios were optional. It's a fun adventure film and Hauer plays the character Nick as gentle, calm, and charming. A really low-key kind of badassery that makes it unique. It's just good popcorn fun in the same vein as They Live, only it never acquired the same cult status. Probably because it wasn't a typical story with a clearly defined motive like revenge or saving the world. But I enjoy things that are different and if you do too, you should give this one a watch.

 

 

 

 

Day 10

Ladyhawke

I'm not sure how obscure this one is. It has some big names, but it didn't recover its budget at the box office. If not obscure, it's certainly forgotten. And I don't see how.... This is a fine piece of fantasy. It's a fairy tale of sorts, as well. An evil bishop desires the lady Isabeau but her heart belongs to his captain of the guard, Etienne Navarre, so he curses them. She can only exist in the day time as a hawk and he can only exist at night as a wolf, so even though they're always together, they're eternally apart. Ah, my heart! I'm an abject sucker for unrequited love stories! Plot twist: killing the bishop won't break the curse, which complicates things. But with the help of an escape thief they work out the riddle of how to break the curse during a solar eclipse and it comes down to the nail biting final moments. This is a great movie. Rutger Hauer, again, as Navarre and Michelle Pfeifer as Isabeau are so believably, beautifully tragic that the audience's hearts can't help but break for them. It's almost a shame that Hauer's best known work is as the heavy from Blade Runner. I kind of wasn't happy with Matthew Broderick as the thief, but it wasn't enough ruin the vibe of the movie. I know I have some overlap with my list partner on this one. Has anyone else seen this hidden gem of a movie? 

 

 

Book Review

His Dark Materials trilogy: The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, The Amber Spyglass, by Phillip Pullman 

If I had a dollar for every time the Christian "establishment" has declared something in pop culture to be of or from the devil, from Elvis Presley to Harry Potter, I'd be rich. And I don't mean that derisively. Anything of mass popularity has the potential to draw people from God so, in a generalized way, almost everything is of the devil. That's why I've never joined in with group-think even within the social communities that I belong to and identify with because more times than not, the group-think messaging ends up being ill informed panic spreading. However, in the case of these books, they actually got it right. They are almost literally of the devil. The atheist's answer to Narnia, God is merely a sentient and malevolent scientific phenomenon and, in a bid to have it both ways, the way to defeat this authority hinges on the writer's misguided idea of original sin as being the virtue that must be repeated in order to save the world(s). (There's so much misguided ignorance and a perpetuation of every depressing notion that caters to people who want to believe in the evils of Christianity.) Yes, it's as weird as it sounds. That's all the detail I'll go into about it though. I'd rather not dive into philosophical discussions unless it's with others who have read the books since there's some denominational specificity to the underlying narrative. 

I'm not even sure of how much popularity it actually had. I'd never heard of it until they adapted the first book, The Golden Compass, and the controversy may have thrown more attention on it than what it generated on its own. It's just such a shame because after reading them, I found that I genuinely couldn't help but like these books. They are so well written with creative scifi/fantasy world building elements that have little or nothing to do with the religious, or rather, anti religious overtones. There's a multiverse and a specially made knife that enables people to travel between alternate worlds. One world is our own, but the main world is Lyra's steampunk world in which people's souls are physically represented by animals that they have to keep safe with them, as well as talking bears and witches when more magic is needed than science. Then there's another that is peopled only with societies of intelligent, non Terran like beasts that have very different skeletal structures and means of mobility. So there's a lot of imaginative variety. The characters are three dimensional and are easy to become fully and quickly invested in. They grow, mature, and even change alignments. Even if the growth seems to be in the wrong direction from a believer's perspective, the point is that they're not written stagnantly as vapid vehicles to push the religion of atheism. The tensions and motivations aren't saturated with the agenda either. Pullman is so blunt and honest about his beliefs that he doesn't need to keep beating away at them with endless hints, allegory, and preachy dialog. 

Of course all of this adds to the temptation to see it as the right way to believe. Devilishly clever? 😂 It's a kid's series but I would absolutely not recommend it be shown to any children unless you're an atheist who wants to hand down your faith to your child. I can't deny though that I recommend it to adult lovers of science fiction and fantasy who are secure enough in whatever their beliefs are to remain disconnected from the sad affront to religion, especially Christianity. Isn't it strange that Christianity is the only religion that offends so deeply that people feel compelled to attack it so vehemently? That only solidifies my belief in it even more strongly.

Book Review

The Desolation of Devil's Acre, Ransom Riggs 

A fitting end to an entertaining sextet of books. The first trilogy ended so well that the second trilogy wasn't even needed, but it ended up enhancing the original idea and then bringing it full circle to where it started. It demonstrated as it unpacked the world that had been built in the first series that there only a limited way in which the characters could realistically exist within. But it's not a let down or a commentary on any lack of talent on the part of the author. It was an exploration of the material, stretching of it slightly, but not breaking it. Not casting aside what works in attempt to improve it. It was a successful exercise in depth and enrichment. I only would have liked to have seen a little follow up at the end. After the reset the two main characters could definitely have lived, at least partially, as normals and there were others that could have too. I think an epilogue of how some of their lives proceeded would have given a better sense of closure since it's clear that no more, or very little more, can be done with this concept. 

It had some flaws. It had a couple of holes left unplugged; teasers that was went nowhere. In particular, the insinuation that those seeking revenge on Jacob's grandfather may have had valid reasons for doing so. But it's a thread that was lost in the creation of tensions between the American and European peculiars. Also, the movement of dissenters in the Acre against the ymbryns didn't cause as many problems as it was positioned to. But that's probably for the best. It could have gotten too complicated. 

On the whole it was a neat little series of books. I don't know if I have a favorite since they all run together so closely. I guess my favorite part will always be the photographs. They give the story an extra dimension and were what I'd always looked forward to when buying the next book. This last book has an abundance of them in it. Probably as many as the first book of the first trilogy, so I was pleased at that since the other books had been slightly lacking. It's not for everyone but I recommend it to anyone who enjoys creative writing because it still feels like a long experiment of creative writing to me. And I enjoyed it.

Book Review

The Conference of the Birds, Ransom Riggs

Such a great little series. I'm always surprised every time I get one that I end up liking it. Riggs really made a creative and unique world in a genre that has seen it all. He's a talented story teller and knows how to keep the reader's attention and the pages turning. All of the books lead into directly into the sequels with no break in the action, even when transitioning from the first to the second trilogy. I'm glad the movie that was made a few years back opted not to follow the book series. It would be hard to keep up the pace that makes them such an interesting read. Also, the old photos within are such a big part of the descriptions and its hard to translate that into film.
There wasn't much to say about the plot of A Map of Days since the transitioning from England to America and a broader examination of how the paculiar world is governed ate up the bulk of the text. But towards the end it began the overarching story in earnest with the mention of a prophecy (and who doesn't love a good prophecy in fantasy?) along with introducing one of the characters that the prophecy is centered around. Jacob wants to follow in his grandfather's footsteps of being a protector of persecuted paculiars and gets to start doing it even sooner than he thinks. Certainly sooner than he's ready to, even with his experience of guiding Miss Peregrine's peculiars around WWII London under his belt. Many mistakes are made along with some progress. Being the middle of the series it has to end on a downer. But even as they're walking into what is obviously a trap at the end, it's not the type of trap I initially expected. Riggs is very masterful at cliffhangers.
It also gives me a greater appreciation for the first person pov. Third person limited is still my favorite, but when the teenage protagonist makes the inevitable bone head mistakes, this story does a better job than most of conveying his reasoning and is more honest about his naivity. After all, these five books all take place over the course of a few months without any time for him to digest all that's happened or to let the lessons learned settle in and become more guarded. Rushing from ond dire circumstance to the next. Even during the lag in action at the beginning of the last book, he was still getting new information about his grandfather's life in America to process. Not getting all of it at once, naturally, it keeps him moving from one stressful thing to think about to another so that the pacing never slowed down even while time was devoted to setting up the new background for this trilogy.
There's still an element of predictability that all the books have. And there's still some sneering at America in this one, but it's very low key and only visible to the trained mind. But it's just a good fun story which I still recommend and I had to buy the final book without waiting until next Christmas. 

Book Review retcon

I got the sequel to this one over Christmas but it's been a couple of years so a re-read was in order. It's the first of a second trilogy in the Peculiar series. I remember being kind of hard on this book when I first read it. I was still reeling from the emotional rollercoaster ride of the series I'd finished prior to reading it, so it just wasn't sitting right with me. It's crazy how books can effect you like that.. 😄. But after reading it again I can see how well planned it was this time around. There are still a couple of tedious moments of America bashing for a plot point. (A plot point with holes because sometimes it's more important to prove you're cool by being lazy than to make sense... so tiresome...) But overall it's not the copy of other hidden world fantasies that I remember it being. It's not over dramatic...  that was my own emotional state, lol. And and all of the elements that built up to the end were not as slow as I recalled either. The world needed to be tweaked, reconstructed and expanded in more detail in order to move forward from the original premise. I'd also completely forgotten the ending so I would've been lost if I'd just started the sequel. 

Lesson here: there's always an advantage to re-reading.

Book Review

The Man In The Iron Mask, Alexander Dumas

Disappointing, but probably not in the way most people would be disappointed. I get it, that this is the swan song of the Musketeers. I wasn't even bothered by Porthos and Athos deaths. Porthos' death was actually pretty magnificent and heroic and just how one would expect it. Athos' was very sad and tragic, but it made sense. But D'Artagnan's death just seemed mean on the part of Dumas. Why do him that way? He's the protagonist and the only one with any sense. I actually expected all of them to die so I was even a little disappointed that Aramis lived.

But what bothers me about this is what bothered me about The Three Musketeers. I don't understand how the respect is won by the characters who were clearly the antagonists throughout the book. Richelieu in the Musketeers, and the king and Colbert in particular in this one. I chalked it up to my ignorance of French history since the narrative is tangled with real historical figures like the royalty. But twice in a row? Maybe it's just that the characters are all too damned honorable for their own good. Especially Fouqet.

Then there's the matter of loose ends. No follow up on Phillipe, who was pushed into the coup to begin with. I felt bad for him and he becomes a throwaway character after the first almost third of the book is devoted to becoming invested in him and his life story. And we never find out Madame de la Valliere's reasons for becoming the royal consort when she loved Raoul. Reasons that would have made her a more sympathic figure presumably. Or maybe I was expecting something that Dumas never intended to give. Rather that she was predicting that she would fall out of favor one day and that's why she'd be pitied. I don't know. 

Anyway, what a bummer. I'll just stick with the first book. At least it was fun even when it didn't make sense. The writing is spectacular though. Hard to put down. Loved the old characters while they lasted.

Book Review

Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë

One of my knee jerk reactions to this one is, Oh my goodness, everyone in this book has serious mental problems...lol. I think on the whole I liked Jane Eyre better, but that's not to say I didn't like this at all. It's a revenge tale after all, and I love revenge. 

I think it would have been a more satisfying revenge if Heathcliff's beloved Catherine was around to see the damage he inflicted on all her remaining family. I think I just didn't see the driving obsession after she was gone. I would've liked to have seen his descent into madness more closely documented but it wasn't possible with the pov used. I did enjoy the pov though. What a creative way to tell the story. Not just second, but third hand. All juicy gossip. Very clever. Ellen Dean was the observer character and the only one with any common sense. If I was her I'd have washed my hands of the whole family after the patriarch died. But if she had we wouldn't have the story. She and all the other characters seemed to suffer from a obstinate kind of tunnel vision that kept them set on their paths for years. It left little room for growth with the exception of Hareton and Catherine the younger. Consequently, Heathcliff's sudden disinterest in torturing everyone around him came as a surprise. It all had to do with his mind deteriorating from his madness and hallucinations of his Catherine and I was very interested in seeing this fleshed out. But from a second hand account all that can be conveyed is a mysterious tease. 

Still I don't have many complaints. The classics are still the best and this should be on everyone's classic reading list. If I had to rate it, I'd do 4 of 5 stars.

Book Review

The ABC Murders, Agatha Christie

*Kind of a big spoiler warning. I try to avoid them but I couldn't this time. *
I really loved this little mystery. The classics are still the best for mystery. I haven't read a lot of Poirot yet. In fact the only other one I have read was Orient Express in which he was traveling alone. So I didn't realize the similarities it shared with the Sherlock Holmes formula. He had his own "Watson" in the form of Captain Hastings and a relationship with local law enforcement like the the great Holmes. But these Poirot novels are unique and and different enough that they aren't really a rip off of Doyle. This one even takes a friendly jab at the Holmesian style of crime solving. It smirks at the standard clue hunting and takes a more psychological approach.
The perpetrator in this book, as indicated in the title, commits his murders alphabetically, not just by name but by town as well. Obviously. And a really creepy guy with a name to match the crimes is likely responsible. So obvious. Too obvious. And I fell for it hook, line, and sinker. I'm usually better at solving the mystery than that.  In fact, a remark made by Hastings at a pivotal part of the story that touched off Poirot's final deduction was my first thought as well, so my instincts were correct. But then it took a twist I never suspected. I think now that I should have expected it considering the unconventional ending of Orient Express. Being longer than most Holmes mysteries the pace can be slower and the misdirection can come from every character. Not everything Poirot notes is necessarily significant. It's a good trick.
And I'll keep it in mind because I do believe I'm hooked on the Poirot specific novels. I'll be checking more out and if anyone who has read more of them has any suggestions, I can't wait to hear them. 

Book Review

 

The Glass Menagerie, Tennessee Williams

This one was a reading assignment in high school that I naturally ditched and completely ignored. But I've been on a mission since leaving high school to give some of these books a second chance. Books? Yeah, I thought this was a book. I was genuinely surprised to learn that this was a play and that Williams wasn't even a novelist but a playwright. Man, I really didn't pay attention in school...

But no worries. Like Eden, I was happily surprised that I liked this, making my adventures with American authors this year two for two. It's an extremely short, one-act play, which is why I've finished it within a few days of the last book so I decided to give my opinion of both today.

Another tragedy, I'm starting to notice a pattern among American classics. They're given to much metaphor. I noticed it when reading Bradbury a few years ago too. This seems like the simple story of an overbearing mother who is somewhat detached from reality and her two grown, miserable children as she tries to steer their lives in ideal directions and fails. But, again, the characters are caricatures of broader personalities, in this case because there is no time for development. The overarching themes are what a reader is meant to take in and process. Tom's frustration over an incomplete and unsatisfying lifestyle. Laura's fragility from crippling insecurities. Amanda's general fear of a lack of security. All appear to speak towards a fear of living life. Of course, because I'm me, I usually notice different aspects than most people do and I wonder if anyone else notices that the advice given by Jim, the gentleman caller, is actually sound in spite of the fact that he's kind of a cad in his behavior towards delicate Laura. All of them could've benefited from what he was saying if they'd tried it instead of being slaves to their emotions. But I suspect that this has become as popular as it has because of the feels and the bemoaning of Laura's broken heart. It's actually a lot deeper and more interesting than that. There's a lot of discussion material in there. I sincerely enjoyed the way it motivates a person to think, if it does. Another five stars for sure.

Book Review

East of Eden, John Steinbeck

I'd been feeling a little guilty because my classic literary interests usually lean towards European authors, so I decided to give the American authors another chance this last Christmas. I put this at the top of my to-read pile because I expected to like it the least. But I was happily wrong. It reminds me of why I decided to start reading classics to begin with.

It has a great hook - two families in California play out the stories of the Fall of Man and Cain and Abel. I'm still not sure how the fall of man works into this unless you're of the belief that it had something to do with sex. But the drama and dynamic of Cain and Abel was picked apart twice over the course of a couple of generations of characters. I really enjoyed watching the soap opera unfold throughout the lives of Charles and Adam, and Adam's sons, Caleb and Aron. Steinbeck's writing style is very absorbing. His descriptions of Salinas Valley at the turn of the 20th century are fascinating and he chose to make it partially autobiographical so he could speak to the reader as if telling them the story from personal acquaintance with the events. He is a close descendant of the Hamilton family whose patriarch is the grounding element of the story. Sam Hamilton and Adam's servant Lee provide the analysis and wisdom concerning the events of Adam's life.

I'm a little surprised that it was okay to publish it in 1952 since it tends toward the vulgar when discussing sexuality so openly and coarsely. And it appears to be a little uneven at times. I'm not certain why the devilish element of Cathy Ames Trask was followed so closely throughout the narrative. But I also don't really care because the psychology of the characters what really interested me the most. Most of them I would say are spot on. They're also extreme to the point of caricature since each character seems to be representative of a larger group of people altogether. They provide a setting for reflection and contemplation of your own personality and those of the people you know. So watching Cathy's growth, or lack thereof, was just as captivating as the close examination of the lives of the men. And it was ultimately necessary to keep her in the background as Caleb and Aron's mother and as the catalyst of so much tragedy.

It is a tragedy, seeming to build up from one sad event to another; one death to another. But it's a well written tragedy with touching moments of light and joy and humor thrown in to help balance it out. At first I thought that two suicides of characters was a little bit of an overkill but after having a week to ponder it, I've noticed that each death was a different vehicle for probing the psychological makeup of the characters and a commentary on how the death of certain types of people affect us.

Anyway I really enjoyed this book and highly recommend it to those seeking classic fiction to read.

Book Review

Letters From Father Christmas, J.R.R. Tolkien

This is a wonderful coffee table book that every Tolkien fan must own! It's just another display of his creativity and storytelling skills.

Beginning in 1926 and continuing through the childhood years of his four children, Tolkien would write letters to his children from Father Christmas . It's a unique little idea and I'm honestly surprised that more parents in general don't do the same sort of thing. You don't have to be a professional author to turn a letter to Santa into a back-and-forth, personal correspondence to extend the joy and excitement of the fairy tale. This book is a compilation of the letters he sent to his kids. Santa (Father Christmas in Britain obviously) would tell the children all about his adventures at the North Pole with his friends, most notably the North Polar Bear who assisted him in his workshop. There were elves too of course and he eventually worked in a named secretary elf that he relied on as much as the North Polar Bear.
Naturally, being Tolkien, Father Christmas and company were subject to goblin attacks and he gives comical accounts of how they had to bravely fight them off. Sometimes he was serious when explaining why Father Christmas couldn't get them exactly what they wanted during the years of WWII. It's a light hearted and heart warming tale spun over about 20 years that, I'm sure, made his children feel very special during the years they believed.
Included in the book is a photocopy of each letter next to the text. He had different handwriting for each character... Santa's being squiggly, Polar Bear's being blocky and the elf's being spidery. He also drew many pictures depicting the adventures being related and, again because it's Tolkien, a sample or two of elvish script. We'd expect nothing less.

This is one of the coolest things to have around to make you feel good any time of the year. You must buy it.