John and I just got back from seeing the new Star Trek movie. It was fun. It showed, once again, that J.J. Abrams is not a particularly deep person.
****SPOILER ALERT*****
The worst of it was realizing, when John pointed it out as we talked after the movie, that Abrams killed billions of people in the story just to get one person to break down. Right and wrong? Sure, they exist. But feelings, now those are fascinating. Please, if I'm ever so flippant with my worlds or characters, someone point it out to me, while I'm still in the editing stage!
Fun movie, though. I enjoyed it.
Friday, May 29, 2009
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Poe's Dupin Stories
"The Murders in the Rue Morgue", "The Mystery of Marie Roget", and "The Purloined Letter", from Complete Stories and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe
by Edgar Allan Poe
Read: 4/2/09-4/3/09
LibraryThing tags: Short Stories, Poetry, Classics, Mystery, MBC
These were cool. I hadn't realized that Poe invented the mystery genre. Reading Sherlock Holmes after this, it was extremely obvious that Doyle stole a couple things from Poe. The "MBC" tag, by the way, refers to the Mystery Book Club I've been going to when I can.
For inventing a genre, these stories aren't bad. But just as stories judged on their own merits, I liked Sherlock Holmes a heck of a lot better. Which is understandable; I mean, Sherlock Holmes. Come on. These ones... they seemed a little more like case summaries taken from a book of logic puzzles than actual stories. Even as far as atmosphere, something Poe is normally the master of.... they were only so-so, I thought. Not the best Poe. Maybe if I hadn't been so distracted by case details conveniently published in the newspaper in systematic fashion. You know, just in case the newspaper's readers want to try their hands at solving the crime. Or police letting them snoop around once they saw their "credentials," which would have been what exactly, on their first case? Meh. The subsequent stories did improve somewhat. I thank him for inventing the genre, and for a bit of entertainment and some good lines.
“‘That is another of your odd notions,’ said the Prefect, who had a fashion of calling every thing ‘odd’ that was beyond his comprehension, and thus lived amid an absolute legion of ‘oddities.’”
“‘Be a little more explicit,’ I said.
by Edgar Allan PoeRead: 4/2/09-4/3/09
LibraryThing tags: Short Stories, Poetry, Classics, Mystery, MBC
These were cool. I hadn't realized that Poe invented the mystery genre. Reading Sherlock Holmes after this, it was extremely obvious that Doyle stole a couple things from Poe. The "MBC" tag, by the way, refers to the Mystery Book Club I've been going to when I can.
For inventing a genre, these stories aren't bad. But just as stories judged on their own merits, I liked Sherlock Holmes a heck of a lot better. Which is understandable; I mean, Sherlock Holmes. Come on. These ones... they seemed a little more like case summaries taken from a book of logic puzzles than actual stories. Even as far as atmosphere, something Poe is normally the master of.... they were only so-so, I thought. Not the best Poe. Maybe if I hadn't been so distracted by case details conveniently published in the newspaper in systematic fashion. You know, just in case the newspaper's readers want to try their hands at solving the crime. Or police letting them snoop around once they saw their "credentials," which would have been what exactly, on their first case? Meh. The subsequent stories did improve somewhat. I thank him for inventing the genre, and for a bit of entertainment and some good lines.
“‘That is another of your odd notions,’ said the Prefect, who had a fashion of calling every thing ‘odd’ that was beyond his comprehension, and thus lived amid an absolute legion of ‘oddities.’”
“‘Be a little more explicit,’ I said.
‘Well, I may venture so far as to say that the paper gives its holder a certain power in a certain quarter where such power is immensely valuable.’ The Prefect was fond of the cant of diplomacy.”
Friday, May 15, 2009
Heir to Sevenwaters
Heir to Sevenwaters
(The Sevenwaters Trilogy #4 -- okay, okay, not exactly, but it amuses me, and it almost is) by Juliet Marillier
Read: 1/17/09-1/18/09
LibraryThing tags: Fantasy, Romance, Historical Fiction, Ireland, Medieval, Irish Mythology, Mythology
Beautiful book. I'm so glad she came back to Sevenwaters, although as far as I've heard everything she writes is wonderful. Plot-wise, it definitely is distinct from the original trilogy, and there's a lot of promise for the two books to follow. I hope she is able to finish them. The romance was fairly obvious, but it often is in romance, and it was still good; well developed, actually romantic, all of that. And the fairy tale elements! It wasn't a fairy tale retold, but the elements of a fairy tale were definitely all there. Kind of like Fruits Basket. Only different. Um, with Irish mythology instead of the Chinese zodiac. Yeah. It's not so much a new take on the existing mythology (as fairy tales retold sometimes are) as... an addition to them, I suppose. Recommended.
(The Sevenwaters Trilogy #4 -- okay, okay, not exactly, but it amuses me, and it almost is) by Juliet MarillierRead: 1/17/09-1/18/09
LibraryThing tags: Fantasy, Romance, Historical Fiction, Ireland, Medieval, Irish Mythology, Mythology
Beautiful book. I'm so glad she came back to Sevenwaters, although as far as I've heard everything she writes is wonderful. Plot-wise, it definitely is distinct from the original trilogy, and there's a lot of promise for the two books to follow. I hope she is able to finish them. The romance was fairly obvious, but it often is in romance, and it was still good; well developed, actually romantic, all of that. And the fairy tale elements! It wasn't a fairy tale retold, but the elements of a fairy tale were definitely all there. Kind of like Fruits Basket. Only different. Um, with Irish mythology instead of the Chinese zodiac. Yeah. It's not so much a new take on the existing mythology (as fairy tales retold sometimes are) as... an addition to them, I suppose. Recommended.
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