Two books and a movie
Apr. 12th, 2013 11:46 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lenora_roseJoJO had a cold - nothing serious, not much changed in the house. Other than that, the only change is that we're going to Pan Am twice a week for activities in the pools. Life goes on.
Cold Magic - Kate Elliott
Awesome worldbuilding, good characters, complex storyline, obvious first in a trilogy (Book three is coming out in June so don't let this put you off.)
In an alternate Europe (in which Rome didn't fall, at least not the same way, and the Manse people from the former empire of Mali make a large part of the population - as well as Cat's own Phoenician people) Cat Hassi-Barahal, along with her cousin Bee, is a student learning about the new sciences - gas lighting and airships - at her college. Bee is having odd dreams, which she records in her sketchbbook along with many other things. Cat can essentially pass unseen when she wants (The description of this, of her sinking into her environment, is quite effective, I thought). Things go along pretty normally for the pair of them until a Cold Mage comes to their house, demanding the eldest Hassi-Barahal daughter to fulfill and old contract. Cat goes with him, and - things get complicated.
Cold Mages don't work well with modern tech (Some of it is the obvious factor of their cold - fires go out around them.) An airship is destroyed. Some of the mages try to kill her, while others seem bent on preserving her life. A protest movement for the common folk and their poor working conditions is gaining momentum. Cat wanders around in the spirit world and meets a most unexpected thing - her brother. There's a lawyer from a race of small sentient dinosaurs that survived to the modern age. There's a Legate of a Roman legion who may or may not be Cat and Bee's ally. There's a Napoleon equivalent who just escaped from his Elba equivalent.
It's busy.
The first part of the book takes time to build things up, to show the alternate world and how it's formed, to show peoples' manners and habits in this weird blend of cultures; there's not as much plot, and some solemn travelling, but I didn't find it slow, as some did, because there was a lot of world-building to absorb, and a lot of very tense and conflicted interpersonal stuff, the little plots before the bigger plot kicks in. In some ways, the worldbuilding might have been easier with a wholly new world, rather than having to knock apart our assumptions when we see a map of Europe.
The second half involves a lot of running and escaping and higher paced plot. Both involve deep personal betrayals and shifting views of the world. It pauses at the end at a moment that's both a reasonable breather and book break, and an obvious jumping off point for a greater plot.
My one brief doubt in any of it was learning that the trolls (the dinosaur lawyers) come from North America - there was a moment when it looked like this might turn into a Pat Wrede - where otherwise good worldbuilding is badly marred by casually erasing the existence of a whole continent's worth of real human beings. But it's made clear that there are *also* human nations still extant in North and South America, and in fact, they, (and the Caribbean, which is the major setting for book two) are in much better shape in this world, with rather less genocide.
I think it does most everything right.
Throne of the Crescent Moon - Saladin Ahmed
Intriguing first book in a series set in a Middle-Eastern flavoured other world; stands alone as well. Solidly recommended to anyone who likes adventure.
It was mentioned that it has a little bit of an RPG campaign feel to it, and I can see that, in rather the way my brother noted that the run through the Mines of Moria in the Fellowship of the Ring *movie* (not book) had that feeling.
Adoulla is the last ghul-hunter, at least in his country and city, a devotee of his God who uses his faith to rid the world of certain kinds of pestilential evil, and his assistant and trainee is a Dervish, a master swordsman with an even more strict religious code, somewhat scandalized by his master's rather mroe casual approach to Godly matters. Their city is ruled by a khalif who'd rather squeeze his people dry then leave them alone. The Falcon Prince is a dashing hero of the people who rescues children from execution and shows up the Khalif's injustice - but is himself a pragmatic and death-dealing mercenary and thief. Zamia is a woman who can take the shape of a Lioness, a power meant to be used to protect her desert tribe -- except that now her people have been slaughtered by ghuls and she is torn between the need to revenge them, and the need to someday rebuild and re-establish the tribe.
I quite liked having an older and experienced man (chubby and fond of food and books and looking at pretty women - but no less passionately devoted to serving his God and eradicating evil for it) as the main character, with the heroic teenager who takes himself oh so seriously as more of a sidekick.
Things happened fast, and with energy, but not without a core of very human emotion. There were some details that I found a bit more gruesome than absolutely necessary, but the characters are dealing with ghuls, monsters that devour human hearts, and the sorcerers who create them. I was pleasantly surprised at least twice that he didn't do what I thought he would with the villain and the plot twists.
And I kept craving cardamom tea.
Jack the Giant Killer
Went to this as part of a friend's birthday celebration. It's one of those movies; everyone who went seemed to have fun watching it, but I don't think any one of us mistook it for a *good* movie. It's a B-movie, shameless about being a bit silly without falling into the excess camp that can ruin such a thing. The plot is mostly pretty predictable, at least in its broad strokes, but it had a few clever moments in the execution.
Good things:
- I liked that Jack was actually reasonably clever when not being head-in-the-clouds, and not just "we're told he's clever but..." I liked more that he really wasn't a fighter, and never pulled magic "Look, I can wield a sword I just picked up" skills - he defeats giants by thinking, and being fast on his feet. He runs away a lot.
- The horse (Not cow) Jack is trying to sell. That cart horse is probably the best horse in the kingdom.
- Isabel, the princess, sometimes did have agency. I liked those moments.
- Elmont, the Captain of the guard (or whatever his invented equivalent title was) was the more standard hero type, and a good minor character overall. AND he got to share a damsel in distress moment with the princess (actually, his part was even less dignified) without losing that sense of him being a heroic swordfighter and good manly dude type, which is awesome. Oh, wait. Ewan McGregor. That explains it.
- some of the things that have more consequences and fallout than they are often given. Ranging from the big ones, like the fact that killing a giant by dropping him off the edge of the floating land results in almost getting killed by your allies deciding to chop down the beanstalk. To a number of little ones.
- Mostly the acting was pretty good, actually.
- A number of fun lines.
- While we see exactly one farm, one city, and a bit of countryside between, there are details enough to give an idea this is more than a Disney set dressing kingdom, that people actually work and do things here in between balls (of royal dances there were thankfully none). When the king travels, he has a huge entourage. And people take advantage in the vicinity to create a makeshift market and entertainments. I get more impression of *viable* common life and daily life than I did from all of Lord of the Rings other than the Shire.
- The first glimpse of the monk; honestly, he looked like Rowan Atkinson. That would have been genius casting, even though it's a dead serious role and a really minor character.
Things that made me facepalm, but didn't ruin the movie for me:
- The "gravity doesn't work that way" beanstalk falling down and the unlikely "jumping in a crashing elevator" methods each of the characters used to survive that fall. Truly you can't imagine.
- if there's a floating land hidden in the clouds that most people don't believe in, this land has to be pretty much ALWAYS cloudy. (Then we learn it's called Albion and will eventually become England. Okay. Point covered. :P)
- Okay, if this is going to be England, how come it had a King named ERIC? I get the impression it was meant to be Eric the Red. which, no.
- several other times people should have died and didn't. Because PLOT.
- So we're not supposed to get the beans wet, ever. But Jack has them in a leather pouch while hiding in a pond, and/or inside a wooden locket while splashing about in a stream. How does this - ah, nevermind. It's not like the physics work.
- the smarmy arranged-marriage fiance. (Stanley Tucci) Well acted, and not entirely incompetent (He's beaten fair and square in a fight, after showing some decided skill at survival, not just at conniving). Just so much a stock character.
- The "But I don't love him!" argument against arranged marriage. At least this princess is given a demi-plausible reason for disagreeing with standard practice, but really.
- The "But I don't want to be a princess". Handled reasonably well; it's less that Isabel doesn't want the job - in fact, her mother did a good job of instilling in her what the responsibility and role would allow her to be - and to do for the people under her. She's mostly rebelling against her father's more stifling and different opinions what a princess should be. Still runs dangerously close to a bad trope.
- would have been nice to have more living women on screen. Elmont would have been even cooler as an Eleanore, though it would lose the whole "But... Ewan McGregor" aspect. I'm sure many people could name actresses they'd love to see battling competently with a sword in good armour. Sigh; it would have meant both women ended up damsels in distress in that one scene. Still, the only other options on screen long enough would have been the smarmy fiance or his sidekick, the giants, a character who gets their head bitten off or pushed off a cliff, or the King. Ah, the King could have been the Queen; flip the attitudes of the respective parents and kill off the father for once. I could also go with that.
Things that made me go argh in a bad way
- the damsel in distress moments.
- Everyone is exactly what they appear to be when first presented to the movie watcher, if not to the other characters. Especially the smarmy arranged-marriage fiance. I'd have liked it if this once, the smarmy fiance and his snickering sidekick turned out to be decent guys, not the orchestrator of evil plots. (Although that would probably have necessitated turning Elmont, as well as the monk, into the secret plotting villain. Which would have made me sad but been also kind of satisfying as an unexpected twist.)
- The giants' hair. No, really. Dark, coarse and in some cases explicitly crinkly/nappy. There was even one especially obvious afro. The giants were already dirty and misshapen human eating villains. Did we have to add something that has strong racial coding? Just no. (Doubt the racial coding? Then name me a story where the sign of evil is that disgusting thin pale hair that just drips straight down the back even when it's clean, unlike real, good, decent hair which of course is dark and crinkly and grows thickly upward).
The crowning moment:
There's already some spoilers above. But this is about the climax of the movie, so skip if you want no spoilers.
One of the key points is that the ancient King Eric's crown controls the giants. One of the leaders of the giants has it at the end, and of course, Jack kills him when he and the princess are alone, and gets the crown. So, with the Heir to the kingdom beside him, and the actual King only part of the castle away on the front lines ... Jack puts on the crown. And walks out in front of the king thus bedecked.
The princess being beside him and apparently approving seems to be a reasonable explanation why he's not shot for treason on the spot, but I would have thought that being told, "Good, the giants are gone, now HAND OVER THE ROYAL TREASURE OR DIE." would have been the obvious aftermath. People's hero isn't enough when you're holding the most priceless artifact around and the people who have a right to it are standing right there.
My theory, aired immediately after the movie, was that he went to give it to the princess, and *she* said "Dude. Put it on. The one way they'll let us get married is if you're too big a hero for them to ignore. I'll back you, trust me." A friend pointed out one more bit of support for this theory, which was that he'd obviously brushed his hair before he put it on. Jack wouldn't think of that. Isabel might.
Sounds like a minor plot hole, and there were others as egregious, but it caused the most discussion of the whole movie when it was over (Even more than the "gravity doesn't work like that" falling beanstalk).
Cold Magic - Kate Elliott
Awesome worldbuilding, good characters, complex storyline, obvious first in a trilogy (Book three is coming out in June so don't let this put you off.)
In an alternate Europe (in which Rome didn't fall, at least not the same way, and the Manse people from the former empire of Mali make a large part of the population - as well as Cat's own Phoenician people) Cat Hassi-Barahal, along with her cousin Bee, is a student learning about the new sciences - gas lighting and airships - at her college. Bee is having odd dreams, which she records in her sketchbbook along with many other things. Cat can essentially pass unseen when she wants (The description of this, of her sinking into her environment, is quite effective, I thought). Things go along pretty normally for the pair of them until a Cold Mage comes to their house, demanding the eldest Hassi-Barahal daughter to fulfill and old contract. Cat goes with him, and - things get complicated.
Cold Mages don't work well with modern tech (Some of it is the obvious factor of their cold - fires go out around them.) An airship is destroyed. Some of the mages try to kill her, while others seem bent on preserving her life. A protest movement for the common folk and their poor working conditions is gaining momentum. Cat wanders around in the spirit world and meets a most unexpected thing - her brother. There's a lawyer from a race of small sentient dinosaurs that survived to the modern age. There's a Legate of a Roman legion who may or may not be Cat and Bee's ally. There's a Napoleon equivalent who just escaped from his Elba equivalent.
It's busy.
The first part of the book takes time to build things up, to show the alternate world and how it's formed, to show peoples' manners and habits in this weird blend of cultures; there's not as much plot, and some solemn travelling, but I didn't find it slow, as some did, because there was a lot of world-building to absorb, and a lot of very tense and conflicted interpersonal stuff, the little plots before the bigger plot kicks in. In some ways, the worldbuilding might have been easier with a wholly new world, rather than having to knock apart our assumptions when we see a map of Europe.
The second half involves a lot of running and escaping and higher paced plot. Both involve deep personal betrayals and shifting views of the world. It pauses at the end at a moment that's both a reasonable breather and book break, and an obvious jumping off point for a greater plot.
My one brief doubt in any of it was learning that the trolls (the dinosaur lawyers) come from North America - there was a moment when it looked like this might turn into a Pat Wrede - where otherwise good worldbuilding is badly marred by casually erasing the existence of a whole continent's worth of real human beings. But it's made clear that there are *also* human nations still extant in North and South America, and in fact, they, (and the Caribbean, which is the major setting for book two) are in much better shape in this world, with rather less genocide.
I think it does most everything right.
Throne of the Crescent Moon - Saladin Ahmed
Intriguing first book in a series set in a Middle-Eastern flavoured other world; stands alone as well. Solidly recommended to anyone who likes adventure.
It was mentioned that it has a little bit of an RPG campaign feel to it, and I can see that, in rather the way my brother noted that the run through the Mines of Moria in the Fellowship of the Ring *movie* (not book) had that feeling.
Adoulla is the last ghul-hunter, at least in his country and city, a devotee of his God who uses his faith to rid the world of certain kinds of pestilential evil, and his assistant and trainee is a Dervish, a master swordsman with an even more strict religious code, somewhat scandalized by his master's rather mroe casual approach to Godly matters. Their city is ruled by a khalif who'd rather squeeze his people dry then leave them alone. The Falcon Prince is a dashing hero of the people who rescues children from execution and shows up the Khalif's injustice - but is himself a pragmatic and death-dealing mercenary and thief. Zamia is a woman who can take the shape of a Lioness, a power meant to be used to protect her desert tribe -- except that now her people have been slaughtered by ghuls and she is torn between the need to revenge them, and the need to someday rebuild and re-establish the tribe.
I quite liked having an older and experienced man (chubby and fond of food and books and looking at pretty women - but no less passionately devoted to serving his God and eradicating evil for it) as the main character, with the heroic teenager who takes himself oh so seriously as more of a sidekick.
Things happened fast, and with energy, but not without a core of very human emotion. There were some details that I found a bit more gruesome than absolutely necessary, but the characters are dealing with ghuls, monsters that devour human hearts, and the sorcerers who create them. I was pleasantly surprised at least twice that he didn't do what I thought he would with the villain and the plot twists.
And I kept craving cardamom tea.
Jack the Giant Killer
Went to this as part of a friend's birthday celebration. It's one of those movies; everyone who went seemed to have fun watching it, but I don't think any one of us mistook it for a *good* movie. It's a B-movie, shameless about being a bit silly without falling into the excess camp that can ruin such a thing. The plot is mostly pretty predictable, at least in its broad strokes, but it had a few clever moments in the execution.
Good things:
- I liked that Jack was actually reasonably clever when not being head-in-the-clouds, and not just "we're told he's clever but..." I liked more that he really wasn't a fighter, and never pulled magic "Look, I can wield a sword I just picked up" skills - he defeats giants by thinking, and being fast on his feet. He runs away a lot.
- The horse (Not cow) Jack is trying to sell. That cart horse is probably the best horse in the kingdom.
- Isabel, the princess, sometimes did have agency. I liked those moments.
- Elmont, the Captain of the guard (or whatever his invented equivalent title was) was the more standard hero type, and a good minor character overall. AND he got to share a damsel in distress moment with the princess (actually, his part was even less dignified) without losing that sense of him being a heroic swordfighter and good manly dude type, which is awesome. Oh, wait. Ewan McGregor. That explains it.
- some of the things that have more consequences and fallout than they are often given. Ranging from the big ones, like the fact that killing a giant by dropping him off the edge of the floating land results in almost getting killed by your allies deciding to chop down the beanstalk. To a number of little ones.
- Mostly the acting was pretty good, actually.
- A number of fun lines.
- While we see exactly one farm, one city, and a bit of countryside between, there are details enough to give an idea this is more than a Disney set dressing kingdom, that people actually work and do things here in between balls (of royal dances there were thankfully none). When the king travels, he has a huge entourage. And people take advantage in the vicinity to create a makeshift market and entertainments. I get more impression of *viable* common life and daily life than I did from all of Lord of the Rings other than the Shire.
- The first glimpse of the monk; honestly, he looked like Rowan Atkinson. That would have been genius casting, even though it's a dead serious role and a really minor character.
Things that made me facepalm, but didn't ruin the movie for me:
- The "gravity doesn't work that way" beanstalk falling down and the unlikely "jumping in a crashing elevator" methods each of the characters used to survive that fall. Truly you can't imagine.
- if there's a floating land hidden in the clouds that most people don't believe in, this land has to be pretty much ALWAYS cloudy. (Then we learn it's called Albion and will eventually become England. Okay. Point covered. :P)
- Okay, if this is going to be England, how come it had a King named ERIC? I get the impression it was meant to be Eric the Red. which, no.
- several other times people should have died and didn't. Because PLOT.
- So we're not supposed to get the beans wet, ever. But Jack has them in a leather pouch while hiding in a pond, and/or inside a wooden locket while splashing about in a stream. How does this - ah, nevermind. It's not like the physics work.
- the smarmy arranged-marriage fiance. (Stanley Tucci) Well acted, and not entirely incompetent (He's beaten fair and square in a fight, after showing some decided skill at survival, not just at conniving). Just so much a stock character.
- The "But I don't love him!" argument against arranged marriage. At least this princess is given a demi-plausible reason for disagreeing with standard practice, but really.
- The "But I don't want to be a princess". Handled reasonably well; it's less that Isabel doesn't want the job - in fact, her mother did a good job of instilling in her what the responsibility and role would allow her to be - and to do for the people under her. She's mostly rebelling against her father's more stifling and different opinions what a princess should be. Still runs dangerously close to a bad trope.
- would have been nice to have more living women on screen. Elmont would have been even cooler as an Eleanore, though it would lose the whole "But... Ewan McGregor" aspect. I'm sure many people could name actresses they'd love to see battling competently with a sword in good armour. Sigh; it would have meant both women ended up damsels in distress in that one scene. Still, the only other options on screen long enough would have been the smarmy fiance or his sidekick, the giants, a character who gets their head bitten off or pushed off a cliff, or the King. Ah, the King could have been the Queen; flip the attitudes of the respective parents and kill off the father for once. I could also go with that.
Things that made me go argh in a bad way
- the damsel in distress moments.
- Everyone is exactly what they appear to be when first presented to the movie watcher, if not to the other characters. Especially the smarmy arranged-marriage fiance. I'd have liked it if this once, the smarmy fiance and his snickering sidekick turned out to be decent guys, not the orchestrator of evil plots. (Although that would probably have necessitated turning Elmont, as well as the monk, into the secret plotting villain. Which would have made me sad but been also kind of satisfying as an unexpected twist.)
- The giants' hair. No, really. Dark, coarse and in some cases explicitly crinkly/nappy. There was even one especially obvious afro. The giants were already dirty and misshapen human eating villains. Did we have to add something that has strong racial coding? Just no. (Doubt the racial coding? Then name me a story where the sign of evil is that disgusting thin pale hair that just drips straight down the back even when it's clean, unlike real, good, decent hair which of course is dark and crinkly and grows thickly upward).
The crowning moment:
There's already some spoilers above. But this is about the climax of the movie, so skip if you want no spoilers.
One of the key points is that the ancient King Eric's crown controls the giants. One of the leaders of the giants has it at the end, and of course, Jack kills him when he and the princess are alone, and gets the crown. So, with the Heir to the kingdom beside him, and the actual King only part of the castle away on the front lines ... Jack puts on the crown. And walks out in front of the king thus bedecked.
The princess being beside him and apparently approving seems to be a reasonable explanation why he's not shot for treason on the spot, but I would have thought that being told, "Good, the giants are gone, now HAND OVER THE ROYAL TREASURE OR DIE." would have been the obvious aftermath. People's hero isn't enough when you're holding the most priceless artifact around and the people who have a right to it are standing right there.
My theory, aired immediately after the movie, was that he went to give it to the princess, and *she* said "Dude. Put it on. The one way they'll let us get married is if you're too big a hero for them to ignore. I'll back you, trust me." A friend pointed out one more bit of support for this theory, which was that he'd obviously brushed his hair before he put it on. Jack wouldn't think of that. Isabel might.
Sounds like a minor plot hole, and there were others as egregious, but it caused the most discussion of the whole movie when it was over (Even more than the "gravity doesn't work like that" falling beanstalk).
