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Nov. 3rd, 2013 01:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jtniehofThe Mirage, A Wizard Alone, Teller's War, The Bourne Identity, The Runner's Yoga Book, Some Remarks, The Commanders, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Love Lab, Sekirei: Pure Engagement, Log Horizon, Burn Notice Season 7 (and last), Iron Man 3.
The Mirage (Matt Ruff): Finishing a Matt Ruff novel requires putting it down for a few days and thinking. Then you get that distance and don't remember details! It's simplest to say The Mirage is a powerful book, well worth reading. The surface premise, of an inverted 9/11, isn't sufficient to carry the novel; nor is the plot that unfolds in this other world. But the combination, tied together by idea of the mirage itself, serves well, making the reader both uneasy and optimistic about America's place in the world. Ruff pulls off a highly effective perspective inversion without being smarmy. "Why the hell would America invade Iraq?" "Because God put a Texan in charge."
A Wizard Alone (Diane Duane): 2/3 of the way in, the series gets a little formulaic -- it does seem every book hits climax with a Journey to the Center of the Mind. I'd also like a little more direct Kit/Nita interaction after several books at arms' length. And, final complaint, the typo clouds that are the New Millennium Editions are starting to get to me. None of this undercuts what makes the series great: a pervasive understanding that good and evil are neither simple nor obvious, but still real.
Teller's War (William J. Broad): This book has the misfortune of being written too early, before the dissolution of the Soviet Union revealed what had happened behind the Iron Curtain. The state of Soviet directed-energy weapons research is critical to Broad's analysis, but he never discusses even credible guesses on the extent of that progress. As much as I dislike Teller, and like to see Livermore fall on its face, this book requires the reader to place enormous trust in the author's analysis. Still, it's a fascinatingly scary look into Star Wars and personality politics.
The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum): Better than I expected, and if not better than the movies than at least easier to follow. Despite being an "action" book there's a lot of plotting plays out far better in the novel, whereas in the movie actions just seemed arbitrary. I thought that the novel also had a much stronger sense of morality than the rather zero-sum world of the movies. Solid thriller. Don't be too thrown by the atrocious first paragraph: the writing gets a lot better.
The Runner's Yoga Book (Jean Couch): I'll have to revisit my opinion after putting this into practice, of course. From a readthrough the pose photographs are excellent and the descriptions good. I like the emphasis on building up from absolute basics like foot placement. The running connection is poorer: there is little running-specific material, and the physiology is dated at best, inaccurate at worst (e.g.: handling of static vs. dynamic stretching; condemning lactic acid as a source of fatigue.) Oh, and the expected time commitments are hilarious: start with thirty to forty minutes, six days a week...then build to spending half of your training time on yoga. Right.
Some Remarks (Neal Stephenson): Ostensibly a collection of essays-and-such, this is really 120 pages on submarine cables with other stuff thrown in to round it out. If you've never read anything besides his novels, Mother Earth, Mother Board is on Wired's site to get the flavour (and half the content). This is for completist fans, those (like me) who enjoy chewing on the ideas Stephenson likes to kick around and get great joy out of the way he throws language around ("The landscape is a stalemate between, on one hand, the devastatingly powerful erosive forces of continual tropical rainstorms and dense plant life, and, on the other hand, some really, really hard rocks.") I expect this to be one of those polarizing books, "boring" to some, but am happy to have it on my shelf.
The Commanders (Bob Woodward): Covers the invasion of Panama and the run-up to the Gulf War. Since I was of an age to be aware of the Gulf War but not of Panama I did appreciate having the two together. There are some very telling parallels and contrasts with Iraq II (which may be artifacts of Woodward's presentation). On the similar side, both Bushes are remarkably similar in their appetite for detail and emphasis on loyalty. On the difference side, there was very strong concern about keeping the Gulf War from being another Vietnam, something completely absent in 2002. I wonder if they thought "It went great last time despite our worries, so no need to worry this time"?
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea: The movie that launched the TV series, but I watched for the ridiculous premise of the Van Allen belts catching on fire. Best line: "It's theoretically possible." Oh, good, I was skeptical but now that some character claims it's fine...NO IT ISN'T AAAAUGH. More damaging, there's a product-of-its-era problem: this is a forerunner of the ever-popular sub-captain-vs-XO genre (Crimson Tide, Last Resort), but everybody is so gosh-darn polite and everything so shiny and well-lit that the arguments seem weightless, more like deciding on pizza toppings. When the bodies start dropping it all feels rather incongruous. As a piece of cinema Voyage is rather immature: there's nothing in the way of lighting cues or choice of camera framing, and little in the way of musical cues, to help trigger the emotional response. In the end, not very gripping, for a thriller.
Love Lab: Fulfilled the high-school-girl-bizarre-comedy hole left by Yuru Yuri. Often on the edge of being dropped; although not constantly funny it was pretty darn hilarious when it hit.
Sekirei: Pure Engagement: Despite the promise of the first season, this didn't do much for the main "plot". A lot of recycling the same gags. Clearly they expected a third season, down to the "To Be Continued", but that seems unlikely now. The landlady's still awesome but otherwise this season was rather forgettable.
Log Horizon: Dropped after first eyecatch. Too derivative and cliche to start out (Kotaku labelled the genre as "Sword Art Online", I guess because everybody's forgotten .hack) and characters too annoying (2D cutout lecherous "hero"!) to care about.
Burn Notice Season 7: It's over, and I'm a little disappointed. This season's "bad guys" had a lot more promise than many before. (Alona Tal being highly attractive helped make her character more sympathetic....). But Michael's final choices went too far in one direction and some sacrifices felt downright glib; even rote. It's difficult to say whether the whole ride was worth it: I don't regret it in hindsight, but I wouldn't necessarily recommend someone start from the beginning. I am amused that everybody got to say their opening tagline as part of the episode.
Iron Man 3: These films lose something on small screen, given that they're partly just spectacle. I was still hoping for some character and plot and that didn't quite pan out. Maybe it was partly an artifact of cramming too many comic threads into one movie? Tony's personal journey (of which the director made much) seemed to have a beginning and an end but no middle. So it was an entertaining diversion for an evening but I couldn't give a reason to watch.
The Mirage (Matt Ruff): Finishing a Matt Ruff novel requires putting it down for a few days and thinking. Then you get that distance and don't remember details! It's simplest to say The Mirage is a powerful book, well worth reading. The surface premise, of an inverted 9/11, isn't sufficient to carry the novel; nor is the plot that unfolds in this other world. But the combination, tied together by idea of the mirage itself, serves well, making the reader both uneasy and optimistic about America's place in the world. Ruff pulls off a highly effective perspective inversion without being smarmy. "Why the hell would America invade Iraq?" "Because God put a Texan in charge."
A Wizard Alone (Diane Duane): 2/3 of the way in, the series gets a little formulaic -- it does seem every book hits climax with a Journey to the Center of the Mind. I'd also like a little more direct Kit/Nita interaction after several books at arms' length. And, final complaint, the typo clouds that are the New Millennium Editions are starting to get to me. None of this undercuts what makes the series great: a pervasive understanding that good and evil are neither simple nor obvious, but still real.
Teller's War (William J. Broad): This book has the misfortune of being written too early, before the dissolution of the Soviet Union revealed what had happened behind the Iron Curtain. The state of Soviet directed-energy weapons research is critical to Broad's analysis, but he never discusses even credible guesses on the extent of that progress. As much as I dislike Teller, and like to see Livermore fall on its face, this book requires the reader to place enormous trust in the author's analysis. Still, it's a fascinatingly scary look into Star Wars and personality politics.
The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum): Better than I expected, and if not better than the movies than at least easier to follow. Despite being an "action" book there's a lot of plotting plays out far better in the novel, whereas in the movie actions just seemed arbitrary. I thought that the novel also had a much stronger sense of morality than the rather zero-sum world of the movies. Solid thriller. Don't be too thrown by the atrocious first paragraph: the writing gets a lot better.
The Runner's Yoga Book (Jean Couch): I'll have to revisit my opinion after putting this into practice, of course. From a readthrough the pose photographs are excellent and the descriptions good. I like the emphasis on building up from absolute basics like foot placement. The running connection is poorer: there is little running-specific material, and the physiology is dated at best, inaccurate at worst (e.g.: handling of static vs. dynamic stretching; condemning lactic acid as a source of fatigue.) Oh, and the expected time commitments are hilarious: start with thirty to forty minutes, six days a week...then build to spending half of your training time on yoga. Right.
Some Remarks (Neal Stephenson): Ostensibly a collection of essays-and-such, this is really 120 pages on submarine cables with other stuff thrown in to round it out. If you've never read anything besides his novels, Mother Earth, Mother Board is on Wired's site to get the flavour (and half the content). This is for completist fans, those (like me) who enjoy chewing on the ideas Stephenson likes to kick around and get great joy out of the way he throws language around ("The landscape is a stalemate between, on one hand, the devastatingly powerful erosive forces of continual tropical rainstorms and dense plant life, and, on the other hand, some really, really hard rocks.") I expect this to be one of those polarizing books, "boring" to some, but am happy to have it on my shelf.
The Commanders (Bob Woodward): Covers the invasion of Panama and the run-up to the Gulf War. Since I was of an age to be aware of the Gulf War but not of Panama I did appreciate having the two together. There are some very telling parallels and contrasts with Iraq II (which may be artifacts of Woodward's presentation). On the similar side, both Bushes are remarkably similar in their appetite for detail and emphasis on loyalty. On the difference side, there was very strong concern about keeping the Gulf War from being another Vietnam, something completely absent in 2002. I wonder if they thought "It went great last time despite our worries, so no need to worry this time"?
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea: The movie that launched the TV series, but I watched for the ridiculous premise of the Van Allen belts catching on fire. Best line: "It's theoretically possible." Oh, good, I was skeptical but now that some character claims it's fine...NO IT ISN'T AAAAUGH. More damaging, there's a product-of-its-era problem: this is a forerunner of the ever-popular sub-captain-vs-XO genre (Crimson Tide, Last Resort), but everybody is so gosh-darn polite and everything so shiny and well-lit that the arguments seem weightless, more like deciding on pizza toppings. When the bodies start dropping it all feels rather incongruous. As a piece of cinema Voyage is rather immature: there's nothing in the way of lighting cues or choice of camera framing, and little in the way of musical cues, to help trigger the emotional response. In the end, not very gripping, for a thriller.
Love Lab: Fulfilled the high-school-girl-bizarre-comedy hole left by Yuru Yuri. Often on the edge of being dropped; although not constantly funny it was pretty darn hilarious when it hit.
Sekirei: Pure Engagement: Despite the promise of the first season, this didn't do much for the main "plot". A lot of recycling the same gags. Clearly they expected a third season, down to the "To Be Continued", but that seems unlikely now. The landlady's still awesome but otherwise this season was rather forgettable.
Log Horizon: Dropped after first eyecatch. Too derivative and cliche to start out (Kotaku labelled the genre as "Sword Art Online", I guess because everybody's forgotten .hack) and characters too annoying (2D cutout lecherous "hero"!) to care about.
Burn Notice Season 7: It's over, and I'm a little disappointed. This season's "bad guys" had a lot more promise than many before. (Alona Tal being highly attractive helped make her character more sympathetic....). But Michael's final choices went too far in one direction and some sacrifices felt downright glib; even rote. It's difficult to say whether the whole ride was worth it: I don't regret it in hindsight, but I wouldn't necessarily recommend someone start from the beginning. I am amused that everybody got to say their opening tagline as part of the episode.
Iron Man 3: These films lose something on small screen, given that they're partly just spectacle. I was still hoping for some character and plot and that didn't quite pan out. Maybe it was partly an artifact of cramming too many comic threads into one movie? Tony's personal journey (of which the director made much) seemed to have a beginning and an end but no middle. So it was an entertaining diversion for an evening but I couldn't give a reason to watch.