Friday, September 28, 2018

Week Thirty Nine: A Talent For Murder


Well it seemed like a good idea, and it started out like one but quickly became disappointing. While we may never know what happened during Agatha Christie's missing 10 days, I have to hope it was nothing like the 'fictionalised' version in this book.

Far from celebrating the authour's genius and talent, the writer has instead diluted her brand entirely. She appears weak and manipulated by the most cartoonish of villains and the most ridiculous of plots. The Villain stinks of foul breath, the policeman is fat and stupid, and at every turn the plot shoehorns in a 'fact' from the time to validate each decision as far fetched and silly as it may seem.

It was readable and gripping but instead of putting Ms Christie's undoubted genius int he forefront, she is batted about by plot and machinations of everyone else and is merely along for the ride.

It also annoys me when writers retconn credit for other peoples ideas into their stories, like a time traveler suggesting some of Shakespeare's best lines and him going 'I might use that!' it dilutes the power of the character and the person. Might be funny in a comic setting (like the awesome Upstart Crow) but not when played 'seriously' like this.

Wednesday, September 19, 2018

Week Thirty Eight: Six Wakes


Surprisingly good if you can get past the first 100 pages or so, a rollicking good read once you realize what's really going on.

For once the "save the surprise" would have been probably better to know at the start, because then people being and acting the way they do would be less of an initial problem, and the surprise would have been 'why would you' and 'what do they do about it'.

But once I got over that hurdle the remaining 200 pages flew by and I was engrossed.

Good little sci-fi one-off novel, good beach read.

Saturday, September 15, 2018

Week Thirty Seven: Buffy Season 11 Vol 1 & Vol 2




Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Season N continues on where the TV show left off. This was in two 160-ish page volumes from the local library and made for a good bus read, but also made me happy that the TV show ended where and when it did.

Apparently instead of being freed from the constraints of time and budget, the cracks are amplified not covered over.

Still a competent enough read, it just felt more like a cover band than the original.

Sunday, September 9, 2018

Week Thirty Six: I Love Dick


Nope, I haven't been hacked.

This is supposedly a feminist and 'important' book but mostly it was a chore and an irritant.

What I took away from this was that the massively self-indulgent and deluded 'struggling' artist of the narrator was a female version of Lolita, where the obsession and constant justification for stalking was as invalid and as abusive as I found Humbert Humbert to be.

Not feminist, not much use, not much to take away from the rants about places of people in the 'art' world as it's far removed from reality.


In My Opinion, obv. 

Saturday, September 1, 2018

Week Thirty Five: Believe Me: A Memoir of Love, Death and Jazz Chickens


Funny, touching and surprisingly educational about being different and how to be OK and just move forward with it.

Third biography in a row for me and fairly similar to the first, and vastly different from the second. Love Eddie Izzard and have seen him live, so the cadence of his peculiar voice is a familiar thing to read.

BUT

So much better as an audiobook. I tried it in parts of the Audio and Ebook variety, and with the tangents, footnotes and chaotic nature of his threads, it is so much better read out, by the author.