Moving Pictures (Discworld #10) 3.5Stars

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: Moving Pictures
Series: Discworld #10
Author: Terry Pratchett
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 267
Words: 97K

When I read this back in ‘07, I really didn’t like it. I gave it 3stars back then, but it was one of my least favorite Discworld reads to date.

This time around, I thoroughly enjoyed this, mainly because Pratchett just skewers Hollywood and movies and it totally aligns with my absolute disgust with movies and the people who make movies and tv their hobby. Brainless, gormless, garbage. While Pratchett and I didn’t see eye to eye on many, many things, I am man enough to admit that he got at least one thing right. Hollywood is evil and does so much damage that it is incalculable.

With that, I just HAD to bump this up a coveted half star. I know Pratchett is wriggling in his grave with pleasure. He should be.

★★★✬☆☆

From Wikipedia.org

The novel begins with the death of Deccan Ribobe, the last member of an ancient order tasked with 'remembering' Holy Wood through ceremonial chanting, and the escape of an influence from Holy Wood Hill. Several months later, the alchemists of the Discworld have invented moving pictures. Many hopefuls are drawn by the siren call of Holy Wood, home of the fledgling "clicks" industry – among them Victor Tugelbend, a dropout from Ankh-Morpork's Unseen University and Theda "Ginger" Withel, a girl "from a little town you never ever heard of", and the Discworld's most infamous salesman, Cut-Me-Own-Throat Dibbler, who introduces commerce to the equation and becomes a successful producer. The business of making movies grows rapidly, and eventually Victor and Ginger become real stars, thanks to the help of Gaspode the sentient dog (who also develops a manager-client relationship with Laddie, who everybody considers to be the real Wonder Dog, although in fact is very simple-minded). Holy Wood for a while becomes an effervescent place full of humans, dwarfs, alchemists, demons (which essentially constitute the main technological device to make movies), and trolls (among whom is Detritus) all living in harmony.

Meanwhile, it gradually becomes clear that the production of movies is having a deleterious effect on the structure of reality. After Victor discovers the body of Deccan and the ancient order's record, Ginger is possessed by an unspecified entity and she and Victor find an ancient, hidden cinema, complete with a portal to the Dungeon Dimensions. Back in Ankh-Morpork, during the first screening of Blown Away (a parody of Gone with the Wind) which the senior wizards of the Unseen University are also attending, a creature from the Dungeon Dimensions breaks through. Victor fights it (in what eventually becomes a parody of the movie King Kong also featuring the Librarian of the Unseen University), having discovered that he could exploit Holy Wood magic and the narrative conventions of the clicks if he had a camera pointing at him. However, after the creature is defeated, Victor and the Librarian realise that the creatures will still try to get through from the Dungeon Dimensions and that Ginger in her possessed state was not trying to summon them but trying to keep them from coming through (possibly as a result of being descended from the High Priestess of Holy Wood). Returning to the ancient cinema at Holy Wood, Victor and Ginger witness a golden statue of a warrior (reminiscent of an Oscar) come to life and travel through the screen to defeat the creatures.

In the end most things return to normal (also because the Patrician and the wizards make it clear that they will not allow any more movies to be produced ever again), although dwarfs find themselves inexplicably singing "Hihohiho" while mining. Victor and Ginger have a last dialogue over the meaning of Holy Wood and being famous, and Gaspode and the other animals under the influence of Holy Wood lose their ability to reason and speak. The ending lines depict a poetic scene about the fragility of Holy Wood dreams.

• Moving Pictures (2007 Review)

• All of My “Discworld” Reviews

• All of My “Discworld: Rincewind” Reviews

• All of My “Discworld: Witches” Reviews

• All of My “Discworld: Death” Reviews

• All of My “Discworld: The Watch” Reviews

Transitions (Demon Slayer #13) 2Stars

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: Transitions
Series: Demon Slayer #13
Author: Koyoharu Gotouge
Rating: 2 of 5 Stars
Genre: Manga
Pages: 190
Words: 9K

I realized that while I really like Tanjiro and his two friends, I simply don’t care for any other of the side characters. And this volume is chockful of other characters.

I definitely struggled to get through this. I sure hope volume 14 works better for me.

Bookstooge out...

★★☆☆☆

From Wikipedia

"In the Way"

"Thank You, Tokito"

"Won't Die"

"Sneaking Around"

"Pretentious Artist"

"Transitions"

"Bright Red Blade"

"Wanted: Respect"

"To Be a Hashira"

Hantengu and Gyokko attack the Swordsman Village and Tanjiro fights them, with help from Muichirō Tokitō, the Mist Hashira, Mitsuri Kanroji, the Love Hashira and Genya Shinazugawa, the younger brother of Sanemi, the Wind Hashira, who is eager to be acknowledged by his older brother.

Gloom - MTG 4E

 

Ahhh, good old specific enemy colored cards. It gave each color much more character and separated them from each other. Not subtly, but with sledgehammers. Magic was raw and untamed then. I miss those days.

Star’s End (Starfishers #3) 2.5Stars

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: Star’s End
Series: Starfishers #3
Author: Glen Cook
Rating: 2.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 247
Words: 75K

It is a good thing this was the final book in this trilogy. It was empty. Every character was a morass of neuroses and hangups and was so internally focused that they couldn’t and wouldn’t care about anyone else, no matter who they were. That is a revolting mindset to be in.

I have determined that I really don’t like Cook’s science fiction. As such, I’m going to stop exploring his stuff that I haven’t read (not really much by this time to be honest) and concentrate on re-reading his Black Company books, which I really enjoyed the first time around. When the best thing you can say about a book or even a trilogy is that it makes you want to re-read something else by the author, well, that’s just pathetic. That’s probably a good way to end this review. Pathetic...

★★✬☆☆

From the Publisher

At the edge of the galaxy lies the fortress known as Stars’ End, a mysterious planet bristling with deadly automated weapons systems, programmed to slaughter anyone fool enough to come within range. But who built this strange planet of death, placing it within view of the Milky Way’s great lens… and tantalizingly close to the hydrogen-filled feeding grounds of the interstellar dragons known as Starfish and the priceless ambergris they create?
Should the harvestships of the High Seiners, known as Starfishers, gain control of that arsenal, they need never fear the Confederation’s navy nor the armies of the human-like Sangaree again. But intelligent life everywhere now needs the might of Stars’ End—and the expertise of agents Mouse Storm and Moyshe benRabi. For in the midst of the Sangaree wars, a far more sinister enemy approaches, coming from the depths of the galaxy, in hordes larger than a solar system.

Book Recommendations VII (The Final Edition)

 

Please read the Intro Post if you haven’t already. It explains pretty much everything (except how to use your microwave. Nobody can explain that!) Given how many responses I got from the Get-Go, my plans to collect responses over several months fell by the wayside. I was able to start right away. That brings us to this point, the end.

This has been a VERY fun series for me to do. Serious to silly, I've enjoyed the interactions with you all. The biggest problem is that it was TOO successful. My Calibre TBR now stands at over 270 and I've got over 100 on my ereader, which if you do the math, adds up to almost 400 books. That's almost 3 years worth of books. So I am going to stop these posts before I get up to 500. There's no need for that.

Without further ado, here are the final recommendations and my reactions to them!

Recommendations & Responses

Firewater suggested A Simple Plan by Scott Smith. After glancing at the last sentence of the wiki entry, which was depressing as all get out, I'm going with a "No" on this one.

Joelendil recommended Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett. One of those 1920's hardboiled detective novels. You can tell it is grim and gritty by the guy's mouth on the cover. Going to go with a big fat "No" on this one too.

Brian recommended Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell. Sadly, Brian faded from view before I got this post up, so I'm going to go with another "no" here.

Swords&Spectres recommended The Thursday Murder Club series by Richard Osman. He had reviewed one or two of them and they sounded very interesting. I'm going with "yes" on this.

Fraggle suggested High Vaultage by Chris and Jen Sugden. I read the synopsis and a review by another blogger and decided to go for "yes" on this as well. You can see why my tbr is growing with these posts!

My cousin Darren suggested The Deeds of Paksenarrion by Elizabeth Moon. I've read one other book by Moon and it was the typical woman writer blathering on about feelings and ignoring a good story that was passing the reader by. So I'm not going to tempt fate and subject myself to that again. No.

Nic suggested Wives and Daughters, an unfinished novel by Elizabeth Gaskell. I'd actually read it back in '13, based on the idea that Gaskell was similar to Austen. Not. Even. Close. I'll never try another Gaskell book again.

Chartreuse Flag Hall of Shame

Lashaan suggested Count Zero by William Gibson, a sequel to The Book That Shall Not Be Named. This gets him a Chartreuse Flag without even trying. That book was the worst book ever and left me in a reading funk for over a month, a MONTH! So I'd rather cut off my head then read a sequel to it.

Wrap Up

This series of 7 posts have been a lot of fun, I must admit. Thank you all who have participated. I'd like to also give a big shout-out to Nic for getting the ball rolling last year. I never would have thought of doing something like this on my own and I'm glad she pointed out the idea.

The only downside is now I have to be "creative" again and think of a new series of posts to write about once a month. Anyone have any ideas?

• Book Recommendations I
• Book Recommendations II
• Book Recommendations III
• Book Recommendations IV
• Book Recommendations V
• Book Recommendations VI

[Art] Maiden of Spring

 

Yesterday was the Spring Equinox. I didn't believe it. But that's why I asked Miss Ross to do a Spring drawing. I needed to see to believe. So here we go. Thank goodness for the sunshine rays in the background.

Conan, Lord of the Black River (Conan the Barbarian #23) 3Stars

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: Conan, Lord of the Black River
Series: Conan the Barbarian #23
Author: Leonard Carpenter
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 230
Words: 79K

This was slightly better than the previous Conan book by Leonard Carpenter, but it really feels like Carpenter is missing some essential ingredient to really make this feel like a Conan novel. Whatever.

I hadn’t realized that Carpenter has written eleven of these pastiches and did so from 1986 to 1996. As such, it does matter which order you read them. This one, Lord of the Black River, was the last to be written. It makes reference to previous characters (of whom I had no idea who they were) and situations, but it was all surface level stuff so it didn’t REALLY matter.

Unfortunately, this was exactly the same in tone as Conan the Hero. Why TOR allowed Carpenter to write so many Conan novels is beyond me. Maybe because he could churn out one a year for eleven years in a row? I have nine of the eleven on my tbr (including this and the previous one) and I have a feeling that I’m going to end up sounding like a recording for each one. These are adequate hyborean age sword fantasy stories, but they are not Conan stories.

Excitement, that is what is missing! In one scene, Conan and the crews of the ships he is commanding are sailing down a big river. They encounter a gigantic electric eel (this scene is the basis for the cover) and eventually kill it. But the entire scene lacked excitement. It should have been scary, tense, thrilling. Instead, it was very lackadaisical and pedestrian. It was like reading about a group of tourists crossing the street in New York City. And even I can imagine ways to make that exciting. A boring Conan story is anathema to me, so we’ll see how many more I get through before trying another author. (already being in the mindset of quitting is not a good place to be)

★★★☆☆

From Wikipedia

After successfully fulfilling his commission to overthrow a tyrannical baron in Koth, Conan travels into Baalur, a city-state in Shem. The queen of Baalur, Rufia, needs his aid. Baalur is suffering from a plague cast upon it by Zeriti, an old enemy of his previously believed dead. Zeriti seeks to settle a score dating from Conan's previous encounter with the two women, told in the story "Hawks Over Shem", and her curse is transforming Rufia's subjects into hideous zombies.

With an army of Baalurian soldiers, Conan begins his journey to retrieve a white lotus, the primary antidote for removing Zeriti's cruse, said to only bloom near the source of the Styx, the infamous black river. His army marches across the city-state of Nedrezzar before reaching the port city of Asgalun, where they set sail for the Styx, which serves as a boundary between Shem and the ancient kingdom of Stygia. The crew follow the river down a vast tributary to the east and travel south as it flows into the Black Kingdoms. The expedition encounter many dangers along the way, including pirates, hostile local rulers, religious cults, and cannibals before reaching the Styx's headwaters.

At the source of the Styx, they face their worst and final challenge, Zeriti's bloodthirsty undead lover. However, the white lotus is finally secured and Conan's crewmembers return down the river. After a final encounter with Zeriti in Asgalun, they return to Baalur and cure the city's inhabitants.

• The “Essential Conan” Trilogy

• All of My “Conan” Reviews