Jig the goblin is back, and having more of those dangerous adventures he’d rather not have. I wasn’t sure how (or how well) he’d pull off a sequel, but he did it well enough that I’m still loooking forward to the third (and presumably final) Jig book, Goblin War. If you’re looking for light, entertaining reading, this is good stuff. (Now my idle brain is wondering how Jig would get along in Discworld. Silly brain.)
May 2007
Monthly Archive
Thu 31 May 2007
Wed 30 May 2007
I may not be smart enough for this book, but I still enjoyed it. A lot. I like to think of it as the demon spawn of Neil Gaiman and Tim Powers, with a little help from Iain Banks. And what a beautiful baby it is, for the appropriate values of baby. I already have the follow up, Ink, sitting in my to-read pile.
Fri 25 May 2007
Psychedelic alien felines fleeing through hyperspace, stopping off to borrow a cup of (or all of) the moon. Juxtaposed with vignettes of people in wildly different places trying to cope with the tides and earthquakes that result when a massive new body joins the moon in orbit. Overlaid on a sixties-style love triangle involving an astronaut stranded on the pilfered, pulverized moon. There are way too many characters, and not nearly enough interaction with the aliens. But the flights of speculative fiction fancy are impressive, and the work as a whole feels quite dated.
Thu 24 May 2007
It’s attack of the gay graphic novels! But there’s no need to panic. The title is strange. The cover art was not inspiring, but some decent reviews prodded me to try this one. I wasn’t unhappy at all. A young white boy comes of age and comes out in the deep south during the civil rights era, all told in flashback by the older version of the young man. There’s nothing in particular about this book to draw me to it, but it’s engaging and entertaining, and thoughtful. And that’s what I like in a book.
Sat 19 May 2007
From the same folks who brought you Shaun of the Dead. Sly, witty, clever, teasing, funny. Lots of familiar faces doing a wonderful job. (Timothy Dalton as a greasily suspicious character is wonderful casting.) Clues to solve the mystery are left waving under your nose several times before the over-the-top reveal, but it’s so much fun following along with the references and in-jokes that it’s easy to miss them. Great fun.
Sat 19 May 2007
I wasn’t at all sure about this one when I started it. Two kids growing up in very different lives in Brooklyn and a magic superhero ring. But the kids in the story were born just a few years before me, so the pop culture references sing out, even though I’ve never done more than a quick drive along the edge of Brooklyn in my life and have never lived in a seriously urban area. There are a few rough spots along the way in the story telling, but the swept on by as I got swept up in the prose being read.
Mon 14 May 2007
Triumph of the little guys! And cricket! And singing! More Bollywood, but with no weddings and no helicopters. A group of Indan villagers protest an increase in their taxes. Evil British Captain Russell offers them the chance to play a game of cricket against him and his men. If the villagers won, they’d not have to pay their taxes for three years. If they lost, they’d have to pay triple taxes. Proceed to the stage of collecting a misbegotten set of hopeless, would-be cricket players. Insert betrayals, redemptions, and intermittent bouts of rising above it all. You don’t need to know much of anything about cricket to enjoy the movie, but don’t expect to be an expert at the end of it either. Still, the suspense is handled well. The only disappointment was in how few musical numbers there were. (Although they weren’t the greatest musical numbers either, so having fewer of them might not have been so bad.)
And one final bit of trivia. The evil Captain Russell is played by Paul Blackthorne. My mind kept insisting that it was Billy Bob Thornton (silly brain). Instead it’s the same actor who plays Harry Dresden on The Dresden Files. Small world. Decent movie. (But long.)
Thu 10 May 2007
A film about Japanese high school girls earning cash by going on “paid dates” and tangling with the yakuza (in the form of Koji Yakusho) could be an awful, exploitative film. Instead it’s a thoughtful film examining the factors that went into creating the situation. No one comes off entirely clean, but nearly everyone is presented as human and flawed. (And you can tell it’s not a Hollywood film because none of the girls dies.) This film is not about sex. It’s about making you squirm in your seat and think while being entertained.
Mon 7 May 2007
At the time this was first being published, I heard over and over again that this comic was worthwhile. Yep. Just read it, especially now that you can get it in one volume for not that much money. What a memorable cast of characters! And if you like it, do hunt down both Rose and Out of Boneville. Good stuff.
Thu 3 May 2007
After two weeks of crap fencing, things started turning around a little Monday night and last night. A little. And – quite unlooked for – I got a lesson from our Maestro again. It was good. I had it hammered into me that, despite what I think on the strip, I’ve not been using anywhere near my full extension. By the end of it I felt like I’d been put on a one-armed rack, but I had a better understanding of some of my current weaknesses. And then I got told in no uncertain terms that Maestro was unsatisfied with my competition results lately because I know much more about fencing than is shown in those results. He was nice about it. He knows I can do better and, at least for the next few weeks, he has some time to help figure out how to fix it. I guess that means it’s time to put my head on straight again and enjoy the process mindfully.