I Love Scott Pilgrim
I admit it. I love Scott Pilgrim. He's cute, funny, and geeky - but he's got his heart set on pink-haired, rollerblading Amazon delivery-girl Ramona Flowers and even her seven evil ex-boyfriends aren't going to stop him getting his girl. So my chances are pretty slim, but at least I have an awesome comic to help the pain to fade.
Scott Pilgrim is the story of a 23-year-old guy trying to find a job and a girlfriend, and deal with all the challenges that involves - including realising your cute high school girlfriend might not be the best match but the new girl you've got your eye on is carrying a lot of baggage, and your ex-girlfriend might just be back in town and you're maybe-just-not-quite over her yet.
That, and there's video game references galore, a terrible rock band, battles with less terrible rock bands, ninjas, subspace, Canadian temperature changes and gay roommates to deal with along the way.
It's not perfect - the dialogue's a bit clunky to start out with and the style sometimes sways a bit too far towards the manga style instead of O'Malley's own style, subspace is only vaguely explained and certain plot points - particularly towards the end - are arguably not quite what we'd have hoped for.
It's a quirky, 'indie' sort of comic book with simple but simple but expressive style and characters are linked together in a way that gives them depth while keeping them interesting and relevant to the story.
Here's an animated short showing one of the scenes in the style of the comic:
The short was made to promote their newly released live action "Scott Pilgrim VS. the World Movie" movie, starring Michael Cera (who's a bit boring sometimes) and a bunch of other dolled-up teenagers looking troubled but beautiful... but it's true to the comic and I have no doubt it's going to be awesome purely because of that. The movie covers all 6 volumes of the comic.
Here's the trailer, but more importantly, the official site has previews for all of the comics.
Oh, and did I mention it's directed by the man behind Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz? Edgar Wright is awesome, guys. AWESOME. And us Brits love him.
It's just out in UK cinemas, and I'll be headed to see it this weekend!
To top it all of, there's an 8-bit style XBLA/PSN game based on the comic's style.
...And all my geeky boxes have been ticked.
Played the video game last night and it's lots of fun if you like side-scrollers, especially if you've got someone in the house to play Co-Op with. (The story's really vague if you haven't read the comic, but that doesn't affect gameplay.) I'm looking forward to unlocking the zombie survival mode!
Seriously, though - if you're into comics, support the creator and give them a read, and/or go see the movie as it's struggling in the US box office, and it's time for the Brits to show it some love.
What I’ve Been Up To
Time for another one of those posts where I go over everything that's been sucking up my time.
I haven't had much time to listen to music because I've managed to lose my beloved headphones (Sennheiser CX-300s) and I'm far too stubborn to buy new ones. I'll find them! Somewhere. Been going over some "Rise Against" tracks though, I'd forgotten that I liked them.
As for movies, I watched Breakfast At Tiffany's. It's a simple enough story, but it's an endearing 60s movies. True to the novella with a few exceptions, most noticeably the end. However, it feels over-hyped, and in this day and age the 'yellowface' make-up used to make the Caucasian actor playing Mr. Yunioshi look Japanese is irritating at best.
Also, this month I managed to not only play a video game, but complete it! I usually get frustrated or distracted before the end of anything. That game was Portal, which I already knew and loved but hadn't actually gotten round to finishing yet. I did, using the free copy from Steam's giveaway a month or so ago. It was brilliant! There's also a lot of suspense in it which had me on edge towards the end because I'm a scaredy cat.
As for books, I'm just finished The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. 
It's very slow to start, but after the first 100 pages or so it gets interesting. But very... well, explicit is the only word. There were a few scenes with the female main character Salander that made me uncomfortable. Violence towards woman is a huge theme, so be warned. There's also a lot of paragraphs spent on the protagonist getting with every woman he meets, but that's just a bit boring.
Aside from that though, it was a decent read. A few nice twists to the story, and while I wasn't much bothered about all the information on industrial reporting some of the sections describing Sweden's legal guardianship system were food for thought. I won't be rushing out to buy the other books in the trilogy. 2/5 - an okay book, but there's a lot of little nickpicks about characterization and plot that don't feel quite satisfying. Not to mention the need for a bit tighter editing, especially at the beginning. Not my kind of book, really.
Holidays and Rain
This week I received my orders of an XL black and white ink cartridge, a massive box of 2500 sheets of printer paper and a box folder. I'd say these are simple pleasures, but they're actually quite expensive. :O With my website bills to pay that'll be my bank account running on empty for the month.
I've been quite busy! In case you haven't guessed by the geeky supplies above, writing is still going a-ok. Been getting a few opinions on the first part of the story which is providing some fun fuel for improvements and future plans.
Aside from that, the house has been noisy with the other half's DIY. Dave's gotten ahold of a drill and has been improving everything, adding new catches to every door, putting up blinds and jigsawing out the bottom of one of my desks (I have two in the same room, and love it), drilling down wood over any entrance points that might be used by spiders...the house is looking all the better for the improvements. Not to mention there's a huge mirror waiting to go in the living room which will take at least two people to lift.
He rearranged my pens and pencils when doing this, though. ... I wasn't best pleased. 
Other than that I'm just huddling up in my big rainy day fleece-lined hoodie, because it's pouring rain outside and I feel the cold too easily.
I've also been...
Reading Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, a alternative history fantasy novel set in 1800s England. This is a huge book, and I was put off from reading it for a while because it has a really slow start. I took it in to work and got started, though, and about a third of the way in the plot was unfolding at a good pace, and by the last part I was hooked and desperate to find out how it ended. An absolutely charming novel, with patriotism flowing through it and a historical and magical lore so in-depth that I found myself wondering if all the footnotes were from real novels. If you're into old-fashioned fantasy or historical writing, you'll love it.
Playing Final Fantasy 13/XIII. Another slow start, it begins with a tight hold of your hand and 20 hours later (about half-way through according to the quoted 40 hours gameplay) it's still reluctant to let go. A brilliant storyline and fantastic environments and graphics make it all worth it, though, and now that characters are becoming more likable I'm more than willing to keep hammering the 'A' button just to see more. It completely sucks you in.
Watching Doctor Who - Cold Blood, which was a bit depressing but an okay episode. The first part was a messy affair and I'm not sure the second part was good enough to save it - the overuse of voice-overs really didn't do it any favors. Those final minutes really stole the show, but they didn't exactly end on a feel-good mood.
Time can be rewritten though, right? Right?
Oh, and being extra-picky: I'm really not a fan of memory erasing plot devices like the Crack in Time. It just leaves too many plot holes - for instance, in the Weeping Angels 2-part episode, shouldn't some other Clerics have been brought along in place of the ones who were erased? The Bishop isn't going to take an empty ship. It's best not to think too hard into sci-fi in general, especially time-travel sci-fi, but still.
The rain also canceled out plans for a BBQ, so we watched The Eurovision Song Contest instead. Which is fine, really, because it allowed me to indulge my sillier music tastes and make comments about it on Twitter throughout. My favorite by far was Turkey's soft-rock band maNga, who took second place. Winners Germany were okay (the girl was adorable!) but not really to my tastes musically, Greece was dance-y and fun and so was France. Graham Norton's comments were brilliant - I'm not a huge fan of his, but his commentary was hilarious. Oh, and the UK were infuriatingly awful. I had a bad feeling when I saw Pete Waterman credited as a songwriter, and that gut feeling proved spot on. A trite mess of meaningless, optimistic-sounding lyrics.
Listening to alternative rock band Brand New's album "Daisy". I love Brand New, and I'm glad that this album is still as good as I would expect from them. It's a lot less 'catchy' than "The Devil and the God..." and "Deja Entendu", but that's mostly due to the layers in each track. They all take multiple listens to even begin to be understood (and a few Google searches for the exact lyrics), but that doesn't stop them from sounding brilliant. My favorite tracks hands-down is "Gasoline".
When the army had to hold the line
you were nowhere near the front.
Before the kids could tell the dog goodbye
you were loading up your gun.
I want to know what is the great divide
I want to know what I’ve become.
You’re think that no one else is lonesome
you think that you’re the only one.
That verse in particular has a great rhythm too it, which reminds me faintly of Nine Inch Nails track "Capital G". The album's single "At the Bottom" is a bit catchier with an equally strong rhythm to it.
Anyway, I'm off to take it easy in my comfy hoodie and get some work done before bed. I'm loving the long weekend!
Ah, curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal!
Hello all! When my blogging lessens, either something's not right in my personal life, or actual work is taking up my time. Happily, right now it's the latter - I've been making very good headway with my manuscript Saint, as well as taking some time for video games and TV, which is quite a rare event when most of my time is taking up with the day job (IT Support) or the night job (writing).
Having a bit of writer's block right now though, which brings me back to blogging. But hey, it allows me to talk about all the TV I've been neglecting to mention!
He'll sort you out. But not that way.
First as always, Doctor Who. I didn't blog about the weeping angels two-parter ("The Time of Angels"/"Flesh and Stone") because I honestly had nothing worth criticising about it. I thought it was the best two episodes so far, and it finally got me liking Matt as the Doctor. Also, the fact that they'd combined the church and military in the future was brilliant, and I wish we'd seen a bit more of that world's quirks.
"The Vampires of Venice" I enjoyed as a comedy episode - if I'd expected more of a dramatic episode I'd have been dissappointed, but as a light-hearted story it worked quite well, with lots of fantastic little references (the first Doctor on the library card and what sounded like a Star Wars Kid parody with the broom). However, it was let down a bit by poor special effects on the Doctor's climb, and a cop-out death with the hand-mirror. Still, a good use of an hour.
Possible spoilers ahead! "Amy's Choice" I've just watched, and I'm on the fence about. It was perfectly enjoyable and I had a good time watching it, but a few things bothered me. Having a story based around dreams is guaranteed to make be a bit twitchy (a very writer-ish part of me goes into a blind rage at even the thought of "and then they woke up, and it was all a dream", heh), and I thought they could have done a better job at making the viewer the question which reality was real when I think everyone had a decent idea from the start which was more likely.
Aside from that, I speant a lot of the episode getting excited by an interesting original character, then wondering if it was the Master, and then feeling a little put out by the end twist. We already have the Master and the Valeyard, not sure what adding a 'Dream Lord' into the mix achieves.
On a non-Doctor Who note, I've watched some of sci-fi/western mix, the cult classic TV show Firefly - I watched the first pilot, "Serenity", and the second pilot/second episode "The Train Job". I much preferred "Serenity" for some brilliant dialogue and characterisation, but fiance Dave had the opposite opinion. He found all the characters in "Serenity" either unlikable or boring, and only started warming to them in "The Train Job". I'm not sure which I'd recommend to new viewers - I think "Serenity" appeals more to people with long attention spans or a leaning towards character-based stories, while "The Train Job" is much more of a story for standard viewers.
“We’re not gonna die. We can’t die, Bendis, and you know why? Because we are so very pretty. We are just too pretty for God to let us die. Look at that chiselled jaw!”
Last but not least, I've been getting in some video game time. I'm still loving "Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth", a light-hearted game series for the DS which I love quite ferociously. It's based around piecing together evidence to solve the 'puzzles' surrounding murder investigations, and has a huge variety of characters.
There's also an 'unlimited rentals for one month when you pay £19.99' deal going on at Blockbusters, which is proving good value for Dave, who often manages to burn through games in all-night sessions. We're both playing "Final Fantasy XIII" (the newest one, for XBOX360/PS3). It's a lot liker a very pretty, slightly interactive movie so far. I'm hoping I'll get a bit more strategy out of it when I get into using character classes and the stagger bar, so until then I'm quite happy to just stare at the pretty things. Then after that, I can pay Bayonetta and stare at more prettty things while frantically mashing buttons.
Discworld with a Sci-Fi Twist in Doctor Who, “The Beast Below”
This is the UK, a flat space colony which sits on the back of a giant star whale floating through space.
All I'm saying it, if they ever go back here the Doctor better be wearing a hat saying he's a Wizzard.
Not much to be said about the episode that hasn't been already said on Twitter - I thought the episode was very unsubtle in it's points and subtext, but the messages about political choice were fun nonetheless - especially "Every five years, you choose to forget."
Our Inverness girl Amy was lovely as the assistant, she really starred in this episode and currently has a good relationship going on with the Doctor that's just childishly innocent enough to nod back to how they met.
It was also great seeing Matt's take on the Doctor when his personality becomes less human and more Timelord. When the Doctor distances himself from humans is always some of my favorite parts, whether he's talking about how powerful he is, his past, what all he's done in his time, and even when he's simply giving the aliens a point of view. It's these moments that give the Doctor his flair as a unique character - he isn't human, and if he's always acting like one he loses a lot of what makes him the Doctor. In the last two episodes particularly he seems to be having trouble keeping his usual level of respect towards humans, though after this episode that will probably slacken off a bit.
Personally, though, I think Matt needs a bit more practice at conveying emotional intensity. When he spoke about what he was going to have to do to this episodes alien, the dialogue was perfect but the delivery fell a little flat. I think it's because I'm used to Nine and Ten, who could suddenly switch to serious dialogue with some big clues in their body language and tone.
Liz 10 was a fantastic character for the first half of the episode, but she lost her brilliance quickly as soon as they got into the tower. I was half-hoping the mask would mean she was half-Smiler and the mystery as to what was going on with them would deepen, but it was glossed over instead. It was fun while it lasted.
This episode is a lot more enjoyable after the Discworld connection was made, though, so thanks to Hannah for pointing it out. You can check out her blog over here.
The next episode is the one I'm really excited about though, despite it's weird and wonderful concept. Stereotypically British Daleks spouting lines that were tailor-made for me to love. I'll be counting the minutes. I hope one of them has a top-hat and monocle, c'mon Moffat!
Quickie: Doctor Who – The Eleventh Hour
I'm off to Inverness in a bit, but before I go, a quick post on my thoughts on the latest episode of Doctor Who: "The Eleventh Hour".
"I am a mad man with a box."
- Karen as Amy Pond is lovely. The "Scottish girl in an English village" thing was a nice piece of characterization. Her younger actor was brilliant as well.
- Matt Smith as the 11th Doctor doesn't create good first impressions, being a whinge about the food not being good enough and then lying about being back in five minutes. He's okay apart from that, though, but it'll probably take another episode to properly get used to him.
- The inevitable Amy/11 romance is a bit creepy, considering he started off knowing her as a wee girl.
- "Why can't you give me some decent food? You're Scottish, fry something." Way-hey. I can't believe 11 doesn't like bacon, though.
- The whole script was very quotable, Steven Moffat did brilliantly there. "Beans! Bad, bad beans."
- He did comedy brilliantly, as well. Praying to Santa!
- The 'she wrote comics about him' idea was a bit awkwardly implemented (probably because we never actually saw any of these items until the end), but a good idea in theory. It was nice to have something new.
- When I heard the TARDIS cloister bell (the chiming as the Doctor ran from Amy's to the on-fire TARDIS), my face dropped. The TARDIS is my favorite character!
- The new opening theme is awfully quiet and meek compared to the old one. It'll grow on me, I guess. The new title sequence is good, though.
- The entire episode was basically just an introduction to the story, with a whole chunk of foreshadowing in the middle.
- ...A seriously huge chunk of foreshadowing. I miss the Bad Wolf style of foreshadowing, which was very subtle in comparison.
- The snowflake ship design was quite creative.
- The alien design (the translucent thing that looked a lot like the "chestburster" from Alien) wasn't as good, it just seemed to be hanging there without anything to be hanging down from. The whole yellow glowing thing just seemed like a way to get past it's lack of logical anatomy. It's human disguises were great, though.
- The brief clips of all the Doctors made me grin.
- I get the feeling all the Shadow Proclamation actually says is "Oi, leave Earth alone."
- When the TARDIS started heading off before we got to see the redesign, I shouted at the TV.
- The redesign is actually really great. The obvious second floor adds a bit more depth, the typewriter is great, and all the various spinning things are visually very fun. I'm not sure what was going on with the oscilloscope-looking thing on the screen, though.
Don't blink...
From the 'Coming Soon' end clip:
- The upcoming wedding story feels a bit too similar to Donna's.
- I'm confused about the Star Wars lookalike clips from the future episodes. Obvious homage, maybe?
- The TARDIS seems to have some sort of space-proof bubble around it (From the 'coming soon' clips: Amy being dangled by her converse, the woman diving from a space ship to the TARDIS)
So all in all, a very fun episode.
Off I go! Have a good night, everyone.
Best of 2009 – Part 1
I've finally started piecing together my highlights of 2009. I'll be splitting this up into at least 2 blog posts - this one includes best album, movie and book. The next post will include best game, live event, TV Show and webcomic.
Obviously this isn't an expert link - it's restricted to only what I've seen, heard, read or played and to my own personal tastes. Your milage is going to vary, so leave a comment with your own "Best Of"s, suggestions for what I've missed out on, or a link to your own blog posts about it. You no longer have to be a registered site member to comment which should make things easier.
Best Album Of 2009
Biffy Clyro's "Only Revolutions"
I love Biffy Clyro. A lot. They're Scottish, they've got strong catchy melodies and beautiful lyrics, and since they broke out in the music scene with "Puzzle" they haven't set a foot wrong. "Only Revolutions" takes things up a notch without compromise, and without losing the style that got them where they are.
Runners Up: Muse "The Resistance", Placebo "Battle for the Sun". Brand New's "Daisy" could also be worth a place here once I give it a good play-through.
Best Movie Of 2009
"Up"
There were a lot of great movies this year, but when it comes to a balance of story-line, style, characters and soundtrack "Up" has to be my choice this year. A heart-string tugging return to brilliance for Pixar.
Runners Up: "Coraline" was a brilliant comeback for traditional claymation, and though "Avatar"s story gets a lot of slack it's beauty, special effects and skilled use of what's normally a gimmick have made it a game-changer for movies to come. "District 9" was another close one.
Best Book Of 2009
This wasn't my best year for reading. I've been short of time to get through my own tastes, or any of the critically acclaimed newcomers like "Wolf Hall". Instead it's been a stream of stories forced into following the "Twilight" formula.
Not the best quality genre to pick from, but I have to restrict my choices to what I've read.
"Hush, Hush"
My favourite new YA of 2009, "Hush, Hush" a smart plot backed up with solid mythology, relatable characters and absolutely brilliant dialogue with sharp innuendo throughout. When other YA books are sticking to the formula Fitzpatrick unashamedly breaks out of the mold with her strong-willed protagonist and far from perfect love interest.
No book is perfect and it does suffer a bit from sledgehammer hints (inserting the words 'angel' in at every opportunity while the protagonist spends far too long figuring it out) it doesn't stop the story from being completely gripping from start to finish. I can't wait for the sequel.
"Fallen" Book Review
"Fallen" by Lauren Kate
Release Date: 8th December 2009 (US), 17th December 2009 (UK)
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Publisher: Doubleday (Random House Children's Books)
If you’re going to judge a book by it’s cover, then "Fallen" is great – a black-haired, pale girl in a black dress stands against a blue-lit forest. Aiming straight for the gothic-at-heart, the large curving font for the title makes it look a lot like an Evanescence cover. That's not a bad thing - it's eyes catching.
Then there's the back cover blurb. If you've just finished that guilt-ridden-but-enjoyable binge of every recent vampire book within reach, searching for a way to fill the hole left by the end of the "Twilight" series, it'll be all you need to read before taking the book to the counter and continuing your paranormal romance spree. The endorsement by P.C. Cast - author of the "House of Night" series - doesn't hurt either.
SOME ANGELS ARE DESTINED TO FALL.
Instant. Intense. Weirdly familiar . . .
The moment Luce looks at Daniel she knows she has never felt like this before. Except that she can’t shake the feeling that she has. And with him – a boy she doesn’t ever remember setting eyes on.
Will her attempt to find out why enlighten her – or destroy her?
Dangerously exciting and darkly romantic, FALLEN is a thrilling story about forbidden love.
Fallen's main girl is Lucinda Price, a mouthful of a name thankfully shortened to simply Luce. A boy mysterious burned to death while with her, so she's been packed off to the fantastically gothic Sword & Cross reform school, complete with ever-present CCTV, barbed wire, overgrown vegetation, a full Olympic swimming pool inside a church and a military graveyard where you get to spend detention cleaning up old marble statues. It's set in the marsh covered side of Savannah, Georgia, but the city itself is never really explored because reform school pupils aren't supposed to just nip to the shops.
Luce focuses her attention on the gorgeous and alluring Daniel Grigori, but as soon as they make eye contact he flips her off. Charming. There to pick up the gauntlet, however, is the smooth-talking and charming Cam.
They are some of the first of "Fallen"'s large cast, including the 'wacky' and rebellious Arriane, a blunt girl with horrible scars across the back of her neck; the much moodier will-break-your-face-with-her-New-Rocks punk kid Molly; chubby Penn, who always wears multiple layers and has access to everyone's confidential files and dreadlocked smuggler Roland who handles getting contraband items into the school.
The teachers are a little bit more negatively portrayed - the kind-hearted, motherly librarian (who classes are so boring); the history teacher who's not too bad a bloke when not lecturing his (bored) class; the manly female teacher and 'warden' Randy and a strict and cold gym teacher.
The first half of the story revolves around Luce adapting to this school and its pupils, having a bad-run in with Molly and feeling inexplicably attracted to Daniel even though his words to her mostly consist of lines like "Go away", "Don't talk to me" and "You are not my friend". Luce's obsession doesn't go away, though, and in typical teenage girl fashion she proceeds to stalk him and have Penn go through his files while she tries to explain to them that she knows she's seen him somewhere before. Wait, did I say typical teenage girl fashion? I meant typical teenage girl in a school full of unstable reform kids behavior. At least nobody's been horribly burnt to death yet.
While my tongue is firmly in-cheek there, despite the slightly creepiness of it, Fallen's target audience knows what it is to be head-over-heels with a guy so Luce's longing will be alien to none of them. For older readers, she's difficult to relate to with her single-minded focus on that one hot guy but as "Twilight" has already shown us, teenage girls just get it. At least she's not climbing in his window to watch him sleep, right?
While she's obsessing over Daniel, Cam is desperately trying to get in Luce's pants and what was once charming and sweet is quickly getting creepy and desperate. As Daniel begins to soften and meet Luce off-campus, still trying to convince her she's being silly and delusional because they've never met, Cam's forced advances become a quick-trigger for a fist-fight.
There's a dramatic rescue that rings true to "Twilight"'s 'saved from death by being crushed by a large object' scene, replacing the car with something a bit more symbolic. There's also another big fire where someone is horribly burnt to death, but they were too undeveloped for me to care very much.
Aside from those above scenes, though, the first half of the book is in need of some editing. Lauren Kate's prose is clean and easy-to-read, but without enough action and conflict the endless repetition of stalking Daniel, being rejected by him, leading Cam on despite being a bit repulsed by him, and then crawling back to Daniel afterwards gets tiring. The long, eventless build-up didn't work in Stephenie Meyer's work and it doesn't work here. As this is an advanced copy I was reading, with a bit of luck the editor will take a harsh hand with it before final release.
Lauren's character development is also flawed - while Arriane, Penn and Cam are both varied and exciting characters, Lucinda and Daniel fall flat. Daniel's constantly mean for no good reason, and despite Luce's swooning over his looks and her mysterious attraction most girls would write him off as an ass and move on.
Luce isn't much better - while she starts off promising with her past as a possible-arsonist-and-manslaughterer, her single-minded fixation on Daniel over any of her friends and cruel leading on of Cam makes her difficult to like. She's better than Bella Swan, but still too passive. At one point she's facing her own death and just lies back and thinks about how pretty Daniel is instead of trying to avoid it.
I think Lauren Kate knows she's far from perfect though - possibly acting as her mouthpiece, one character says about Luce: “you’re nothing more than you appear to be: a stupid, selfish, ignorant, spoiled little girl who thinks the world lives or dies on whether she gets to go out with some good-looking boy at school”
Author Lauren Kate
The truth if, whether the distinguished readers among us like it or not, most teenage girls are exactly like that. They are going to love it.
The first book in a four book series, the story ends with some cliffhanger set-up for the second book "Torment", due out September 2010. While its pacing is flawed and it's main character difficult to love, Lauren Kate shows a lot of promise with world-building and her beautiful settings, along with memorable and likeable side-characters. With some work on developing Luce, and an increase in pace now that introductions are over, the series has a definite potential to progress into something very good.
Until then, young girls are going to love it anyway.
Rating: 3/5 - As a stand-alone work I'd give this as 2, but as the start of a series this dark romance has potential.
Other Books By This Author: The Betrayal of Natalie Hargrove.
For Fans of: Stephenie Meyer's "Twilight", P.C. Cast's "The House of Night", Becca Fitzpatrick's "Hush, Hush",
An advance copy was provided for this review by Random House. The work may change before final print.
Life & Sci-Fi
Hi again! Used-Goods is now back online after a nasty attack earlier this month that took faaar too much work to fix, as well as to get security upped again afterwards.
Website work is a hobby for me, done out of both interest in the subject and necessity - the site my last publisher set up for me was poorly done and probably expensive, and I wanted to 1-up it. So I learnt basic coding, then design, and while my sites have always had good security I'm still learning the more advanced tricks.
Nairn has been busy lately - a new Nickel & Dime store has put some life into the labouring high-street, and stirred up public and commercial spirit. The river has tried to flood us all at least once since my last post, but it's settled down to a low flow lately.
As Doctor Who warned us last night: Water is patient. Water waits.
I've been reading Neuromancer, which managed to entirely confuse me as I tried to read it on and off in the quiet moments and lost my place in the plot entirely. I'm onto the climatic scenes, now, and enjoying it much more now that the plot is up in my face refusing to be ignored.
After struggling with too much writers block lately, I picked up a notebook at Nairn's new store and have started using it to write away from the draining powers of the blank screen. It's been working well, though finding the time to give it due attention is as difficult as ever.
Needless to say, given my lack of time this month I'm glad I didn't enter NaNoWriMo - and a little jealous of the fantastic few who are managing to keep up with it.
Just One Drop...
Speaking of Doctor Who - 'The Waters Of Mars' was something else on Sunday night. The first half was very slow, and frustrating in that the Doctor did so little it felt almost like a cameo appearance.
However, it really kicked into high gear for the second half. It was smarter and darker, echoing both Stephen Moffat and Russel T Davies at their best. I admit to getting a bit teary-eyed in the more emotional moments.
The Tenth Doctor had a big character change throughout the episode - from uncharacteristically conflicted and hesitant to a confident, daredevil attitude that was definitely 'The Timelord Victorious'. Then it switched to something much darker and far less likeable - a mood that, as much as I hated it, I hope to see continued into the Christmas special because it really summed up a lot about the Doctor's dangerous personality without a companion to tell him when to stop.
All in all, I'm really looking forward to the Christmas special, especially now they're bringing together my three favourite characters - the Tenth Doctor, Donna and John Simm's Master. =D
I also finally got round to seeing the 2009 Star Trek movie. First impressions weren't so great - all the cast have suddenly become beautifully groomed, pretty men and women. I like pretty as much as the next girl, but a pretty Spock? That's a bit weird.
Once you get settled into that uncanny valley, though, you're treated to a stunning display of expert cinematography, great acting, and memorable audio effects.
Not only does it have the eery silence of space, but the Vulcan mind meld has some effective dialogue distortion that adds a lot to the scene. Examples of good cinematography are everywhere as well - the film is loaded with expensive special effects.
The plot can seem a bit like well-written fanfiction - an alternative universe where a young, good-looking Captain Kirk and Spock are enemies? Really?
Yes, really - and it works.
It's a good year for science fiction.
E.Maree
xoxo
Book Review: Stephen King's "Cujo"
I’m a fairly recent convert to the world of horror writer Stephen King – I picked up “Carrie” about two years ago and loved it absolutely, then picked up “On Writing” and found it fascinating and inspirational. Since then, I’ve come across his books regularly in charity shops, as well as some nice deals in Tescos – all of which have lead to a growing collection.
After “Carrie” and “On Writing”, I read and enjoyed “Misery”. Now was the turn of “Cujo”, the horror story of a beloved family dog that turns rabid and starts terrorising the area, drawing in around a family that have just moved into the area.
Vic Trenton is an advertising designer, and he and his wife Donna move with their four-year-old son Tad from New York to Maine. In Maine, the Camber family – abusive husband Joe, his wife and their son – own a big Saint Bernard named Cujo. Joe Camber has a reputation as a fair-priced and skilled mechanic, and when the Trenton's car breaks down the two families meet briefly.
Shortly after, Cujo falls into a bolt-hole filled with rabid bats and is bitten. He hasn't been vaccinated, and his sickness (aided by the suggested possession of the ghost of a murderer who once lived in the town) because a “vortex that draws in everything around it”. Suddenly too smart and far,far too strong, the St.Bernard is now not only easily capable of killing, but driven to do so until nothing is left alive.
This story has a lot of Stephen King staples: being set in Maine (in King’s fictional town ‘Castle Rock’), use of weird and wonderful local accents, a ‘big bad’ evil lurking behind the scenes, characters trapped in a deadly situation, and a very tightly-timed sequence of events that sync up in the run towards the finish.
It also has his enviable skill with characterisation shown in full. Throughout the course of the novel he creates an alcoholic, a scared child, a beaten wife, an adulterer, an animal and more, and each role s played perfectly. one of his tricks for this is to slip into first-person narrative during times of strong emotion. Which would be a bit like if I was just writing as normal, getting on with my review and OH GOD A SPIDER WHAT TO DO WHAT TO DO WHERE IS THE NEAREST MALE AHHHH.
In “On Writing”," Cujo" was mentioned as the story King “barely remembers writing at all” as he was drinking constantly at the time. Which is an interesting tactic. I wonder if this implies that drunk texts from King are, instead of the usual garbled and emotional mess of most people, the beginnings of epic novellas? I don't think this method would work for most of us, but if you try it, be sure to leave a comment to let us know - and you get bonus points if you're still drunk while doing so.
Despite its polished and professional charms, "Cujo" is not without its flaws. Horror stories involve some suspension of disbelief, and when you have a sequence of tightly-timed 'coincidences' leading up to your finale, this suspension becomes even more important.
You're wife's cheating on you, your business is going down the tubes, and your car has broken down. That's tough luck, but it happens. Your wifes choice in flings in a psychotic author that trashes your house into a conveniently crime-scene like mess? These things happen, I guess. The garage where you repair your car is not only void of all humanity, but inhabited by a rabid dog and your wife and kid are stuck out there? They're out of gas? It's the hottest day of the summer? You've called them a dozen times but think you might leave it a few more hours just in case she's out and besides, if you did call the police they'd be kind of incompetent anyway and take their sweet time about figuring out what's going in?
Plot-writing involves a good amount of convenient coincidences - that's an old cliche and a true one. However, writing is also all about sneaking in hints and little events that subtly manipulate the characters and story in the right direction, without giving away to the reader how it's all going to end.
"Cujo" doesn't quite have this pegged, and it leaves a lot of the book full of frustratingly unrealistic mistakes by characters, as well as choking up their pacing. The characters are stuck in a inescapable situation, and after the first attempts to save the day fail it just gets boring sitting back and tracking how many times people will mess up until King feels it's time to wrap the story up.
If you're looking for a quick-moving read, there are worse books to pick up. Other King novels tackle the flaws in"Cujo" more skillfully, but plenty of other writers come up with much worse. Most importantly, new readers will probably be too distracted by King's skilled prose to notice its flaws.
"Cujo" is recommended as a decent introduction to Stephen King's work, as well as a fun look into good characterisation and narration for budding writers. If you've been reading King's stories for a while, however, it's unlikely to be one of your favorites. 3/5.