It's the arts.
Nov. 27th, 2008 12:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gridloreAnd now the history of the nude in my bed. Been a while since I updated on what I've been watching and reading.
Movies
We've gotten back into the Netflix habit.
First was Downfall, the story of the last days of Hitler's life. This film is brilliant. I barely noticed the subtitles after a while. The acting is incredible, and you get caught up in the lives of these people. This is a war movie with very little war. Instead, it is a study of characters who know they are doomed, in many cases are coming to understand that they followed monsters, but are bound by duty to fight on. See this film. Move it to the top of your list. Five penguins.
Next up? The Big Sleep. Bogey, Bacall, script by William Faulkner and direct by Howard Hawkes. What more do you want in a film? This is classic Noir. The plot is complex, the characters are all drawn in shades of gray, and there are enough twists to satisfy any mystery fan. This film has withstood the test of time. Five penguins.
Right now, I have my queue set up to give me a MST3K disk between each serious film. We had Mitchell. Currently waiting to be watched, The Crawling Hand
Next up: Cube. Because Kirsten hasn't seen it.
Books
Spin State by Chris Moriarty
A real disappointment. Some of the basic ideas were cool (FTL travel causes memory loss, so frequent travelers have hard drive back ups for their minds, there is an interstellar communications network operating at incredible bandwidth made possible by a unique material mined on one world.) But then things fall apart quickly. There are some many plots slammed into this novel you (and the author) lose track. Things are unresolved, left hanging, and some things are declared to be important for no apparent reason. There is a farcical break in of a secret installation, a lot of angst, and I honestly only finished the book to see if there was actually an ending possible. No, not really. One penguin.
Spindrift by Allen Steele
Allen Steele really reminds me of Heinlein's earlier works. Stories about people on frontiers, dealing with repressive governments, and all very easy to read. Spindrift is set in the "Coyote" timeline, and is interesting since we start the book knowing what happens. At the end of Coyote Frontier a shuttle from the long-lost Galileo lands and introduces aliens to the shocked residents of Coyote. (This isn't much of a spoiler, since it is almost an afterthought to the story.) Spindrift starts with the return of the Galileo crew to Earth and then tells the story of the discovery of an artifact codenamed Spindrift, the expedition to explore it, and the resulting disaster. Steele writes good, light SF. I tear through his books with great pleasure. He is consistently entertaining. Four penguins, but read the Coyote trilogy first.
1634: The Baltic War by David Weber and Eric Flint
The whole Ring of Fire series is fun, and this book is one of the best so far. I won't even try to explain the plot, but we have ironclads, intrigues, romance, a London prison break that gets a little wild, a very plausible industrial disaster, and sex in a wooden submarine. Oh, and pity the man who has to explain to a mob of outraged German townsfolk that their town is now named "Narnia." Not perfect, but a good page turner. Four penguins.
Next up Scalzi's The Last Colony
So, what have y'all been reading or watching recently?
Movies
We've gotten back into the Netflix habit.
First was Downfall, the story of the last days of Hitler's life. This film is brilliant. I barely noticed the subtitles after a while. The acting is incredible, and you get caught up in the lives of these people. This is a war movie with very little war. Instead, it is a study of characters who know they are doomed, in many cases are coming to understand that they followed monsters, but are bound by duty to fight on. See this film. Move it to the top of your list. Five penguins.
Next up? The Big Sleep. Bogey, Bacall, script by William Faulkner and direct by Howard Hawkes. What more do you want in a film? This is classic Noir. The plot is complex, the characters are all drawn in shades of gray, and there are enough twists to satisfy any mystery fan. This film has withstood the test of time. Five penguins.
Right now, I have my queue set up to give me a MST3K disk between each serious film. We had Mitchell. Currently waiting to be watched, The Crawling Hand
Next up: Cube. Because Kirsten hasn't seen it.
Books
Spin State by Chris Moriarty
A real disappointment. Some of the basic ideas were cool (FTL travel causes memory loss, so frequent travelers have hard drive back ups for their minds, there is an interstellar communications network operating at incredible bandwidth made possible by a unique material mined on one world.) But then things fall apart quickly. There are some many plots slammed into this novel you (and the author) lose track. Things are unresolved, left hanging, and some things are declared to be important for no apparent reason. There is a farcical break in of a secret installation, a lot of angst, and I honestly only finished the book to see if there was actually an ending possible. No, not really. One penguin.
Spindrift by Allen Steele
Allen Steele really reminds me of Heinlein's earlier works. Stories about people on frontiers, dealing with repressive governments, and all very easy to read. Spindrift is set in the "Coyote" timeline, and is interesting since we start the book knowing what happens. At the end of Coyote Frontier a shuttle from the long-lost Galileo lands and introduces aliens to the shocked residents of Coyote. (This isn't much of a spoiler, since it is almost an afterthought to the story.) Spindrift starts with the return of the Galileo crew to Earth and then tells the story of the discovery of an artifact codenamed Spindrift, the expedition to explore it, and the resulting disaster. Steele writes good, light SF. I tear through his books with great pleasure. He is consistently entertaining. Four penguins, but read the Coyote trilogy first.
1634: The Baltic War by David Weber and Eric Flint
The whole Ring of Fire series is fun, and this book is one of the best so far. I won't even try to explain the plot, but we have ironclads, intrigues, romance, a London prison break that gets a little wild, a very plausible industrial disaster, and sex in a wooden submarine. Oh, and pity the man who has to explain to a mob of outraged German townsfolk that their town is now named "Narnia." Not perfect, but a good page turner. Four penguins.
Next up Scalzi's The Last Colony
So, what have y'all been reading or watching recently?
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no subject
Date: 27 Nov 2008 22:04 (UTC)OTOH, I read Scalzi's Zoe's Tale, and I heartily recommend you go read that while The Last Colony is fresh in your mind.
no subject
Date: 27 Nov 2008 22:46 (UTC)no subject
Date: 28 Nov 2008 00:05 (UTC)Filmwise, I just watched The Blind Swordsman- Zatoichi. If you like Japanese action films I highly recommend it. Not a thick plot but the sword fights are pretty cool. (Though the CGI bloodspatter is sometimes distracting.)
I also just watched Big Fish, a neat film about a son trying to cope with his dying father's incredible tall tales. I found it very touching.