So guys, I know I’ve not written much lately, but I feel compelled to write given my strong reaction to Season 8 of Game of Thrones. Full disclosure; this post is being written after the first five episodes have aired but before the series finale. It’s no secret that the audience reaction to this final season has been less than positive to say the least. Many of the writing choices made by the showrunners have come under heavy fire with the main criticism being that they have sacrificed character development for spectacle. Unfortunately, I can’t say I disagree with popular opinion. It’s a shame as the source material is excellent and the production values of the show are outstanding. Each and every person involved in the show has given their all to it, but that doesn’t balance some serious errors of judgment in writing. All that being said, I have given a lot of thought about changes I would make to the season to improve it. My goal here is to make as few changes as possible while better serving the overall narrative and character development. The most significant cause of criticism and for me the biggest writing error…
Thank you so much to HarperCollins Canada and Raymond E. Feist for the eArc of King of Ashes. I’m SOOOOO excited to read this. I credit Mr. Feist with reawakening my love of reading; after studying literature at university I couldn’t stand to read anything more involved than a Cosmo magazine. Then a friend put a copy of Shadow of a Dark Queen into my hands and I’ve not stopped reading since. He is a master storyteller. It’s always “have to read one more page, one more chapter.” then before you know it, it’s 6am and you have to get ready to go to work… The Riftwar Saga was also the first books I migrated to ebook format when I got my very first Kindle, so you can understand the place Mr. Feist holds in my heart. You can certainly expect a review of King of Ashes once I have finished it.
Hello, as a Doctor Who fan who has just watched the Twelfth Doctor regenerate into the character’s first female incarnation, I thought it would be a good time to rank them in my estimation. My rankings are purely personal, and are based on a mixture of the storylines, the performances and the whole caboodle. 14 Sixth Doctor to Seventh Doctor, Time and the Rani 1987 (Colin Baker to Sylvester McCoy)Cause of regeneration: fatally injured in a TARDIS crash caused by the Rani Coming in at the bottom spot, we have the regeneration from Six to Seven. This really is pretty bad as a regeneration story. Due to conflict between Baker and the BBC, he did not come back to film his regeneration scene or even tie up his era. Instead we were given McCoy in a blond wig. Awful In addition, because of this, the regeneration story was very underwhelming. No build up, no farewell to the outgoing Doctor. A poor showing all round. 13 Third Doctor to Fourth Doctor, Planet of the Spiders 1974 (Jon Pertwee to Tom Baker)Cause of regeneration: fatally poisoned by radiation I have no strong feelings on this particular storyline. 12 Fourth Doctor to Fifth Doctor,…
Hello, now that summer is drawing to a close, we’re coming into prime book release time. As usual, I have a metric tonne of books about whose release I am super excited. Some of these are continuations of series in which I am already invested, some are new series from authors I love and some are reissues of old favourites. So, let’s get into it, shall we? To kick off, I was really excited by the recent news that Raymond E.Feist has managed to resolve the ebook rights issue for North America. While most of his newer works have been released in ebook, his earlier novels have so far been unavailable in my preferred format. This will all change on August 22nd when his Riftwar saga as well as his Empire trilogy with Janny Wurts will be released as ebooks. I understand audiobook format will follow later this year. Although I have read all of these, I am very happy to add them to my collection. I consider Feist a true master storyteller and if you are not familiar with his work, this is a great opportunity to get started. Be aware, though,that the series does have a somewhat slow…
Congratulations Jodie Whittaker, our 13th Doctor. Here’s the video of the announcement. As a Brit, Doctor Who is part of my cultural DNA, and the casting of a new Doctor is a national event. I am so, so excited about this. I was so happy when I saw the hand taking the TARDIS key and knew we had a woman! First, I’m just really happy it’s not Kris Marshall. No disrespect to Kris – I’m sure he’s a very fine and talented comedic actor, but I don’t think he was at all the right person to fill Capaldi’s shoes. Now I’m even more excited for the Christmas special with the First Doctor. Regeneration is bound to be a major theme given that both Doctors are within hours of their respective regenerations. As an older gentleman product of the Sixties, the First Doctor is very patriarchal. I really hope we get to see his horror at the prospect of turning into a woman! I’m not familiar with Jodie Whittaker’s work personally, but I understand she’s handled some really tough storylines on Broadchurch so I’m satisfied. I don’t think Who has ever miscast the Doctor. Even poor Colin Baker only played the…
As some of you who have been following my blog may know, the last couple of weeks I’ve been obsessed with the new film Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. This is the latest from Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling and follows the adventures of Newt Scamander, a British magizoologist (student of magical creatures) who encounters some issues when visiting 1920s New York. As well as following Newt’s attempts to recapture his fantastic beasts, the movie also explores the challenges facing the American wizarding community of that era. As well as seeing the film on release day, I also purchased the screenplay (available on Amazon) and the LEGO Dimensions story pack for Fantastic Beasts. As well a six levels of gameplay taking you through the entire movie, the pack gives you LEGO bricks to build the MACUSA building. For those who have not yet seen the movie, I’ll continue after the cut as I will be discussing spoilers. Warning; complete nerdout follows.
Good morning. This week I’m going to do something different. Quite honestly, none of the books I’ve read over the last couple of weeks has inspired me enough to write a full book review for a post, so I’m going to do the Olympics book tag. Thanks to RiverMoose Books for bringing it to my attention. Ancient Greece: the book that started it all for you. As a child I was always reading. Like many British kids I grew up with Enid Blyton – I loved the Famous Five, the Secret Seven and the St Clare’s boarding school series. I’m not sure how well known they are in North America. I can also remember at school on Friday afternoons it was story time and the teacher used to read the Three Investigators stories. I loved those and read a lot more of them on my own. The first book that I can remember being totally and utterly sucked into though was the classic Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien. I was around eleven at that time and I just couldn’t put that one down. This has led to a lifelong love of fantasy literature. Opening Ceremony: a series that…
As I mentioned in a recent blog post, I spent a couple of days in hospital being treated for a skin infection. I’m back at home now, and although I have not been doing a great deal of reading, what I have been doing is watching a whole lot of movies. Chariots of Fire. I’m not certain if I had seen this before, but I had a real hankering to watch the Oscar winning movie about two very different British Olympian hopefuls in the 1924 Paris Olympics. This film was sheer perfection, from the casting to the script to the cinematography to the music. I loved every moment of it, from the opening scene with the runners running along the beach to Vangelis’ stirring musical theme to the heart lifting final race. I definitely have visions like Mr Bean at the 2012 London Olympics of running down that beach with the athletes. Go watch this movie. Now. A Walk in the Woods. The second movie I watched was A Walk in the Woods, an adaptation of Bill Bryson’s travelogue about hiking the Appalachian trail, starring Robert Redford and Nick Nolte. This got pretty mixed reviews in the cinema, so…
Good morning. First of all, apologies to my regular book review readers. This blog post is somewhat off topic, but I felt I wanted to write about it. Feel free to skip it or pass on to someone who may find it interesting. I will recommence regular book reviews shortly, I promise! I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned it on this blog or not, but I have a condition called lymphedema which means that my lymphatic system isn’t great about moving the lymph fluid around my body. This means that without management, it collects in my lower extremities leading to swollen, uncomfortable feet and legs. Normally this is well managed by my compression stockings. The other issue with lymphedema is the risk of cellulitis infection. The lymph fluid is extremely protein rich, so it is basically an all you can eat buffet for bacteria. If one gets in, it invites all its friends and the infection can go very bad very quickly. That is what happened to me after my vacation. I got an infection that sent me to the hospital for a couple of days for IV antibiotics. Fortunately, I reacted quickly this time and was able to get…
Every summer a large, Broadway style musical comes to Montreal – read about my Wicked obsession from a couple of years ago. Generally it’s in English and plays at the huge Salle Wilfred Pelletier. This year, as the flagstone show of the Juste Pour Rire festival a Quebecois it was decided to stage a French language version of hit show Mary Poppins. It was considered quite a risk, given the size of the production, but judging from the bottoms on seats and reviews it one which has paid off in spades. Yesterday I took myself off to see it at the Theatre St Denis and had a wonderful afternoon. In terms of production values, the show was superb. The sets are gorgeous, the cast is talented and well prepared, the magic tricks/stunts like when Mary Poppins enters or exits by flying high above the audience or the Banks disaster of a kitchen suddenly fixes itself are breathtaking. Add to that the incredible Sherman Brothers’ songs and astounding choreography and you have a wonderful spectacle. It produced one of the few mid show standing ovations I’ve experienced in North America. The cause of that was the showstopping dance number Step…