| Home | My Account | Directories |
DVD Review - District 13
Published on 2009-09-26 11:43:00
I was pleasantly surprised to find that the plot of District 13 (original French title Banlieue 13) is a little more interesting than the average martial arts action flick. Not that its Seven Samurai or anything of that calibre, but nevertheless there is a concerted effort to touch on several resonant themes. Foremost of those is the divide between rich and poor, or perhaps more specifically, the middle-class and the underprivileged.District 13 itself is a walled off area of an alternate Paris,
DVD Review - Animalympics
Published on 2009-09-23 08:23:00
Like most people who at all rate this film, I've loved Animalympics since my childhood. It has become something of a mythical film for me because I've never found it on DVD. At least, until 2007: that year it was released in Germany (where it is called Die Dschungel-Olympiade, which translates - as you've probably guessed - to 'The Jungle Olympics'). It has both English and German audio, so for those of you who don't speak German, don't worry. ;)Probably the main three things of note are that it
Book Review - The Saga of the Renunciates
Published on 2009-05-05 11:21:00
A number of Marion Zimmer Bradley's books have been bound up into omnibus editions, one of which has been entitled The Saga of the Renunciates, consisting of three books written from 1976 up until 1984. It builds upon the rather more snappily named Sisterhood of the Sword, and given my feminist inclinations, I was looking forward to reading these.The Shattered Chain is the first book in the trilogy introduces the two central characters, Jaelle and Magda/Margali, along with some background for th
Book Review - The Left Hand of Darkness
Published on 2009-04-21 11:17:00
I picked up this book while looking through the university library a few years ago for some Fritz Leiber, and it proved well worth the read. The story is atmospheric and magnificently written, providing a discussion of sexuality and gender along with political intrigue. The structural devices used by Le Guin are also interesting, as she intersperses the main plot with short chapters featuring 'historical' accounts, myths, and even scientific treatises on the people of Winter, all adding to the b
Book Review - Shapechangers
Published on 2009-04-10 11:14:00
Roberson’s style is rather hackneyed, with the grammatical torture that can occur in fantasy when an author is trying too hard to make her characters sound authentic. The dialogue is therefore awkward in parts, and the attempts at developing an archaic mode of speech can make the distinctions between the main cast blur.Nevertheless, Roberson does manage to inject some deeper issues, as one major topic of the book is genocide, which is a point in her favour. Unfortunately, another is the very c
Book Review - Heirs of Hammerfell
Published on 2009-03-25 13:00:00
This volume has the slightly predictable premise of noble twins separated shortly after birth, who then rediscover each other years later and find themselves vying for the same inheritance. The lack of remorse for the dead is also unconvincing at times, though this is something common to much fantasy fiction, as the genre often demands great loss of life through epic battle without much time given over to length descriptions of grief (which admittedly could become painfully dull). The book in ge
Book Review - Two to Conquer
Published on 2009-03-15 12:00:00
This book makes for uncomfortable reading at first, because the main character is an unrepentant rapist. Worse still, he has the ability to force women to yield their bodies to him while mentally aware of the act, leading to extremely unpleasant descriptions of the helpless victim weeping in fear and shame but unable to resist due to the laran compulsion ('laran' is basically MZB's version of ESP). Fortunately, the rapist does pay for his many and horrible crimes, but I won't spoil it for you by
Book Review - Hawkmistress
Published on 2009-03-05 12:00:00
My mother has owned Marion Zimmer Bradley books for decades, and I previously read The Mists of Avalon during my English Lit undergraduate course in Arthurian Lit (I was thrilled to see a fantasy novel on the reading list!), but only got round to finally making my way through the Darkover series in 2005. I got through a fair few, but my PhD started that same year, which rather slowed the process down. Still, I hope to get back to them at some point, because thus far, I've enjoyed the inventive p
Book Review - Stormqueen!
Published on 2009-03-03 12:00:00
To go from Darkover Landfall to Stormqueen! is a bit of a jump-cut, missing out a great deal of history – then again, I haven’t read the short story collections of either MZB or those she edited to fill in gaps, so perhaps this occurs later on. Still, that’s only a niggle if you’re overly bothered about chronology – MZB certainly isn’t, as she repeatedly proves in her published comments on Darkover. I would definitely recommend the story of Stormqueen! itself, as it provides plenty o
Book Review - Darkover Landfall
Published on 2009-03-01 12:00:00
Though written a decade after Marion Zimmer Bradley’s first Darkover novel, Darkover Landfall is – as the title suggests – the earliest in the chronology. This book lays out the basis for what is to come, and like Anne McCaffrey’s Pern series, it too mixes sci-fi with fantasy as a crashed space ship spawns a culture which does not remember them. Names crop up that you’ll see again later in Darkover, such as MacAran, and the different factions within the crew somewhat obviously sow the