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Reading and watching
Jul. 4th, 2022 09:27 pmReading:
I finished reading Leviathan Wakes (The Expanse book 1). It was pretty good. I enjoyed the show, but I will say that knowing the characters survive kind of put a damper on some of the scarier predicaments.
Unfortunately I noticed something very similar about this book as I noticed (aged 11) about the first Star Wars movie: Where are all the female characters at?! We have Princess Leia, I mean Naomi, who has to do ALL the heavy lifting: smartest person in the room, our hero's conscience, general badass, oh and she has to double as the love interest because there is LITERALLY NO ONE ELSE FEMALE IN THE ENTIRE SECTOR. Then we have Aunt Beru, I mean Julie, who spends 90% of the movie/book dead. Great. Also Holden is kind of a putz. Also also, it's kind of nifty reading what the characters are experiencing in spaceflight; but the second or third time male body parts get involved, I can't really relate.
Luckily book 2 (Caliban's War) brings in Avasarala and Bobbie, so that was nice. I blasted through book 2 in about a week, which is fast for me these days. I did not get the "Caliban" reference in the title, I had to look it up.
In between those, I read We Are Satellites by Sarah Pinsker. Gosh that was good. Not quite as light and fluffy and escapist, but really satisfying. Near-future SF, tech based main plot device, a good amount of interpersonal and family slice-of-life stuff without bogging the plot down. Plus the obligatory blue-haired rebellious teenager. What's not to love?
I am currently attempting to read The Circle by Dave Eggers. Amazon recommended one of the sequels to me so I thought I should start with book 1. Unfortunately, it's a near-future techno-dystopia... written in 2013. Both the tech and the dystopia have been somewhat overtaken by events. The characters and plot (is there a plot?) are all over the place, and a lot of the dramatic tension seems to hinge on some weird interpersonal stuff that I don't quite understand. I hate to start a book and not finish it - that always feels like failure. I think this may only be the third novel I've given up on. But life is too short to read bad books.
Watching:
We finished up season 4 of Stranger Things (Netflix) and it was good. It spent a bit more time on sappy feel-good moments with the friends than I might have, but not so much that it bogged down. And you can never have too much Kate Bush.
We watched Marvel's Moon Knight (Disney Plus). That was odd, but enjoyable.
We also watched the new Doctor Strange movie (Disney Plus). It was fun but didn't make a lot of sense.
I finished reading Leviathan Wakes (The Expanse book 1). It was pretty good. I enjoyed the show, but I will say that knowing the characters survive kind of put a damper on some of the scarier predicaments.
Unfortunately I noticed something very similar about this book as I noticed (aged 11) about the first Star Wars movie: Where are all the female characters at?! We have Princess Leia, I mean Naomi, who has to do ALL the heavy lifting: smartest person in the room, our hero's conscience, general badass, oh and she has to double as the love interest because there is LITERALLY NO ONE ELSE FEMALE IN THE ENTIRE SECTOR. Then we have Aunt Beru, I mean Julie, who spends 90% of the movie/book dead. Great. Also Holden is kind of a putz. Also also, it's kind of nifty reading what the characters are experiencing in spaceflight; but the second or third time male body parts get involved, I can't really relate.
Luckily book 2 (Caliban's War) brings in Avasarala and Bobbie, so that was nice. I blasted through book 2 in about a week, which is fast for me these days. I did not get the "Caliban" reference in the title, I had to look it up.
In between those, I read We Are Satellites by Sarah Pinsker. Gosh that was good. Not quite as light and fluffy and escapist, but really satisfying. Near-future SF, tech based main plot device, a good amount of interpersonal and family slice-of-life stuff without bogging the plot down. Plus the obligatory blue-haired rebellious teenager. What's not to love?
I am currently attempting to read The Circle by Dave Eggers. Amazon recommended one of the sequels to me so I thought I should start with book 1. Unfortunately, it's a near-future techno-dystopia... written in 2013. Both the tech and the dystopia have been somewhat overtaken by events. The characters and plot (is there a plot?) are all over the place, and a lot of the dramatic tension seems to hinge on some weird interpersonal stuff that I don't quite understand. I hate to start a book and not finish it - that always feels like failure. I think this may only be the third novel I've given up on. But life is too short to read bad books.
Watching:
We finished up season 4 of Stranger Things (Netflix) and it was good. It spent a bit more time on sappy feel-good moments with the friends than I might have, but not so much that it bogged down. And you can never have too much Kate Bush.
We watched Marvel's Moon Knight (Disney Plus). That was odd, but enjoyable.
We also watched the new Doctor Strange movie (Disney Plus). It was fun but didn't make a lot of sense.
