Veltigar

I have hit a bit of a dry spell in terms of TV/Film watching. There is just not a lot that manages to keep my interest. There are like three TV-shows I have started, but which I haven't finished yet, and with the exception of The Creator it has been a while since something decent came out in the theatre. The Creator I saw this week and I really liked it. Visually it was outstanding, as I have come to expect from Edwards. He's one of the most striking film makers active today in that regard. I also though the acting was pretty solid. I'm still not entirely convinced of Denzel's son, but he showed some promise here, unlike in Tenet. What I differ from with most reviewers is in my perception of the story. It's true that you can watch this film and see it as a sort of Frankenstein's monster, cobbled together from clearly identifiable parts of other films, and it's quite fun to spot them. My friends and I saw at least the following links: But I also thought there were quite a few interesting things about the story, which I'll list in the spoilers below and for which I think this film doesn't get enough credit for: s

Amongst the three different covers that I have for his books (3 and 4 are in the same style), it's the only one I kind of like. It's still not great, but it has a sort of classic flair to it which I can appreciate. It also cracks me up, since the one thing I find hilariously awful about the books are the constant mentions of Caine's generic leather outfit (which is such a blatantly stupid fantasy trope, and the books just lean into it like crazy); and my cover of the first book depicts the outfit in all of its glorious stupidity. I hope I'll feel the same way after I'm done reading the series. I'll finish up my other book first and then hopefully I'll have time for book 3.

I put on Atomic Blonde with Charlize Theron yesterday. Had always intended to watch it, but just never got around to it since the reviews were quite damming back when it came out. I needed some mindless action, so I decided that I wouldn't be perturbed. All in all it was okay. Theron was good in it, but apart from the action, there is not much to recommend here. Better than some of the director's other work (he directed Hobbs & Shaw and the abominable Bullet Train), but it's definitely not good enough to form the basis for a 'Jane Wick' like franchise. In other words, it's okay on its own, but the missed opportunity makes me a tad sad.

The bolded makes it sound like you are watching it in prison :p I wouldn't call the Mandalorian very watchable, so I guess I'm skipping this one. Too bad. I saw one of those Charlie Hopkinson videos about Ashoka and I was mildly intrigued by the imagery of As a visual motif that was rather good, but if all the rest is mediocre I'll just not bother with it.

So, I have staved off on watching Ashoka for now, but what is the consensus so far? Good to watch or better to skip it?

That's not even the best acting performance of that year in my opinion. Mads Mikkelsen in Jagten would earn that distinction. Such a devastating performance in an utterly devastating film.

Well, Sisu rips off Wonder Woman and Tarantino's aesthetic more so than John Wick. That might soften the blow a bit, but I'd still place my money on you not liking it. Yeah, the opening is the only thing that is really enjoyable, so perhaps if it was a short film that ended with the first fight it would be better.

My paper copy of Blade of Tyshalle finallt arrived. I'm considering selling it, quitting my job, and retiring early

You and me both buddy. Have you seen the John Wick knock-off Nobody with Bob Odenkirk? I didn't like that one either, but it was better than Sisu. Perhaps that might help you adjust your hype levels a little. Or another one, this film reminds me more of the first Wonder Woman film than of John Wick.

I watched a Finnish film called Sisu last night. Had been waiting for this for quite a while. I read it was a rather straight-up John Wick knock-off, set during the Lapland War of 1944, and that the violence committed against the Nazi villains was comically over the top. Comedy however, was scarcely to be seen. Not because this turned out to be some amazing drama, but because it was a shockingly bad film. The film mercifully lasted only 90 minutes, but it sure did feel much longer than that. The dialogue was absolutely cringeworthy, as if the English text was written by a particularly annoying 10-year old high on Red Bull. The violence was uninspired and there were just so many unforced errors in this film that I just gave up after a while. Definitely do not recommend this one. Don't go see it. Finland has proven in the past that it can do better than this.

It will take me some time. I'm reading some non-fiction in between before I'll move on to book 3

Absolutely. He reminds me of Bernard Cromwell in some ways. I kept on reading the latter's Uthred books, even though they became repetitive and I couldn't really be bothered to remember any of the details of the books that came before, just because his battles and duels remained exciting throughout. Never read the analogy for the fourth one, but I'm enjoying how everyone is indeed doing their best to describe without spoiling

Ah nice to hear, I guess I'll find out in a week or two

Opinions are divided is misrepresenting things a bit no. At least around here, Rings of Power apologists are kind of like climate crisis deniers in real-life

I finished Blade of Tyshalle, which took me longer than expected due to three reasons: Real-life has been busy as hell lately, so I sadly do not have as much time to read as I would like. Reading the novel in eBook format was a pain in the ass. I cannot express how infinitely superior reading on paper is for me. With the exception of extended holidays, where the weight of several books might be a hindrance, I just don't see a use case at all for me. I didn't feel this book as much as the first one. Caine was... very emo throughout the book, which is not a quality that endears a character to me. I also found the level of plotting subpar in comparison to book 1, and neither the enemies, nor the stakes were very interesting to me. If I were to seek for an explanation for the different landing of book 1 versus book 2, I would say that Heroes Die struck me as a fantasy novel with ambition, while Blade of Tyshalle was an ambitious book with fantasy in it. As a result, Heroes Die was fast-paced, with a lot of exhilarating sections. It was good in the way a top-tier action movie can be. Blade of Tyshalle on the other hand, felt like it was far more interested in both the metaphysics of this fictional universe and espousing a lot of lazy critiques against capitalism. Unfortunately, given the small sample size I currently have, I would say that Stover's talents lie more with the fantasy aspect. I didn't dislike Blade of Tyshalle, but I also do not really feel like I'll reread it any time soon. I have novel 3 and 4 ready to go, but I'm going to have to read a pallet cleanser in between I think.

It's different because GRRM wants it to be different. As the creator of the world, he clearly feels like he wants to slay the beast himself. That's a fair thing to want as a creative person and given how atrociously the show seemingly ended, you can appreciate why he doesn't want anyone else involved anymore. Furthermore, I would say that GRRM has never lied about his work already being finished and has always been honest about the difficulties he's facing, so none of us can really question his decision there on moral grounds (let alone legal, since he holds the IP after all). I wish entitled fans hadn't badgered him so much, for I would appreciate more updates on the writing progress, but on the other hand I'm grateful for what we got out of his world already. I'd like to see a finished series, but if ADWD is as far we get, than I'll move on. Rothfuss is in another situation altogether though. His books are enjoyable, but the constant lies and deception are a bit much. I'll be totally honest and say that I would really appreciate an ending to the trilogy, but I have also reached a point where I would do my best not to support Rothfuss financially if that were to happen. So, where I would pre-order GRRM's TWOW immediately and perhaps even take holidays to read it, I wouldn't be surprised if I waited to buy tDoS second-hand. The bolded sounds rather analogous to "wise women would learn not to be alone in a room with Harvey Weinstein" in other words, victim blaming. I didn't pitch in since I expected something fishy to occur given the patterns in Rothfuss' behaviour, but there is no doubt that the people he scammed are not too blame. Furthermore, you have no idea what his victims were going to do with their money initially . Perhaps a lot of them wanted to donate first to another charity, which would have used the money more productively? Not to mention that given Rothfuss' erratic behaviour and patterns of deceit, I wouldn't trust that charity he's associated with to be efficiently run.

I bought the eBook version of Blade of Tyshalle in anticipation of the paper copy. A very busy week both on the work and social fronts, so I have not been able to put as much time in it as I would have liked. That being said, I already really like the beginning. Without spoilers, it's great to see consequences in a fantasy book for a change: One thing I didn't get so far

On the subject of Stover, I read his Wikipedia page and I'm stunned that he hasn't published anything since 2012. For a man with such a gift, who devoted so many years of his life to writing, you wonder what he's doing today. Does anyone know whether he's active on social media or still visits cons and the like?

I'm more bothered by the difficulty of obtaining the books themselves. Unless you hoard copies like a dragon or @IlyaP, it's just too expensive/difficult to convince most people to give them a shot. I am going to recommend it to a couple of friends of mine though. At least two of them are weirdos who usually read eBooks, so they wouldn't be bothered by the difficulties facing people who like to enjoy a book in the old-fashioned way. I don't know. It's very exciting certainly, but the concept would be hard to translate to the screen I think. Not impossible of course, but you'd need a lot of money and a lot of skill to do this right. While I'd root for an adaptation in this case to give the books more exposure and Stover a payday, I'd be pretty sure that some stupid Hollywood studio would turn this into a generic fantasy film along the lines of Jason Statham's D&D film from the early 2000S (for those who still remember that one, it's okay to go to therapy to repress that memory). Interesting. Do you still feel that behind these four different books, there is one overarching vision (which would be good) or do they feel like four different books because Stover emulated other writer's each time? (which would be less appealing)

So, I don't want to bust in on whatever sexism discussion is being had, but I did manage to finish the book the day before yesterday and thought it would be a good time to share my impression. Let me begin by saying that I found the novel absolutely spectacular. It's one of the most exhilarating reads I have had in a long time and it's a good reminder of just how enjoyable speculative fiction can be when it's done right. If I have to give one point of criticism, than it's that I think the denouement of the novel is not on the same level as the set up. Stover's plotting is quite intricate, but he manages to inject so much speed into the narrative that you are swept away by the flow of the story, in the way that the best action films manage to do. He's able to maintain that narrative flow almost to the end, but then it falters a bit. Specifically (so spoilers for the first novel), For the rest, I feel like Stover has tried to address many of the criticisms I myself have with a lot of mainstream fantasy, in the sense that a lot of fantasy is inherently conservative (it's "always" a hidden prince returning to restore the mythical just version of feudalism/absolutism). Here, you can see a mature version with a rather realistic focus on the people who usually end up leading a rebellion, without shying away from just how terrible most fantasy contexts in reality would be to live in as a commoner. He's also a master at creating evil characters, as has been stated above. With the exception of Count Berne (and even he was more rounded and humanized than most antagonists elsewhere in mainstream fantasy), I felt some sympathy for each of them, despite the fact that I'd happily lock each and every character away in a cell after which I'd jettison the key if they were living in real life. I have a busy week ahead, but I'm tempted to buy the audio or e-book to already get started on book 2 before the paper copy arrives.

I have been reading Heroes Die by Matt Stover for the first time, so that has soaked up most of the spare time I have left from work. I did manage to shanghai a friend into watching Mean Girls with me. His girlfriend and I basically had to force him to give it a chance, but he ended up loving it. It's incredible how funny that movie is and still remains even though it's almost twenty years old... I could probably write several paragraphs praising all the actors (it's an incredibly stacked cast) and how great it is to see a film that really places its female cast members front and centre, but I guess that has been done already many, many times before by others here (including me). Watching it did contrast nicely with Brick a while back. I think we came to the conclusion then that Brick is a far better film noir than a high-school film, because it never seems to resemble a real high-school experience in any way, shape or form. Mean Girls on the other hand, well, it's a marvellous comedy. One of the best ever, but it is also a great high-school film. A lot of the high-school high jinks the characters pull in this film are instantly recognizable, although of course dialled up to eleven. I think that contributes a great deal to its status as a classic.

Yeah, the covers of book 2, 3 and 4 were awful. It's as if someone took a time machine and asked Dall-E to create as generic a fantasy cover as possible. A shame that Del Rey screwed him over.

For years now, I have heard all sorts of positive things about Matt Stover's science fantasy series The Acts of Caine. I never got around to reading them, mainly because the first book had a long delivery time and there was always something more readily available to take Stover's slot in my reading budget/schedule. I thus forgot about the series, but recently I visited the literature subforum and was reminded again of the existence of this series. I thus finally ordered Heroes Die (the first novel) and promptly forgot about it since it would take over 1 month to be delivered to my doorstep. I got it yesterday and am 160 pages in, and I find the novel exhilarating. If it keeps on going like this, I will happily join the chorus with all the other reviewers who rave about these books. Given how long it took to get the first book delivered to me, it seemed prudent to order the other novels as well. That turned out to be difficult. The place I live has plenty of web shops (all the big ones, plus local equivalents). Normally that gives me an embarrassment of choices in editions, bindings and delivery times. For The Acts of Caine however, it appears almost as if I live on the surface of the moon. None of the local web shops, book stores or local affiliates of the big (American) web shop had anything on offer. I ended up buying all three novels second-hand at quite a big expense. Had to check two different platforms to find all three of them. For my carbon footprint, acquiring this book series will also be a nightmare, since the four books are sourced from three different retailers, in three different countries on two continents. I know I could have easily avoided this with eBooks or Audiobooks, but my personal preference lies in owning an actual physical copy of books I really like. Why I am sharing this however, is because the ordeal of finding these books seems very strange to me. Not only because that is something we are not used to anymore (everything nowadays is always available), but also because this book series seems so popular and Stover is quite a well-known author. So, I appeal to the collective memory of the board, to see whether anyone knows why there aren't dozens of reprints of this series? Or why there aren't film adaptations of the work. I'm curious to see whether there are like IP disputes or something that keep this series out of print and thus out of reach for new generations of readers? ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Of course, also feel free to say something about the content of the books themselves, but please keep it spoiler free since I'm still catching up

I know it's easy to be cynical and make the comparison with the climate crisis. If you pause to think about it however, you will realize that the climate crisis and the infertility crisis in Children of Men are incomparable: The climate crisis has been building up to our current predicament for decades now, while the infertility crisis depicted in the film struck pretty much immediately everywhere. While both are crucial to our survival, only one of them is truly urgent measured in the span of a normal human life time (at least as long as we do not reach a tipping point and turn this place into hell). Human beings are biased towards the urgent, not towards the crucial. The climate crisis suffers from a collective action problem and is far more complex to handle. Combatting it requires certain vested interests to give up power and wealth, while certain underprivileged groups have a good argument to make that they should be exempted from hard measures. With the infertility crisis as depicted in Children of Men, everyone is affected. Random schmuck 61, 62 and 63 in Rwanda, the US or China cannot conceive, but neither can the great potentates of the world do so. Where the climate crisis has so far disproportionally affected the poor, the crisis in Children of Men will also destroy the plans of the rich. That's always a good way to get the ball rolling. Not to mention that the infertility crisis as depicted in the film is going to be much more difficult to deny Long story short, the infertility crisis as depicted in the film would be more comparable to tackling Ozone depletion, which we did very effectively with the Montreal Protocol What happened to the world's ozone hole? - BBC Future No, I have not Yeah, powerful stuff

I finally bit the bullet and rewatched Children of Men. This has been on my to-do list for years, mainly because I kept on reading on this very board just how much the film is loved. When I watched it the first time many years ago, it didn't really struck a chord with me. Its director is not someone whose work I feel connected to usually, and I barely remembered a thing about it. Having watched it again, I find I was half-wrong in my earlier assessment. The majority of the film still does nothing for me. I'm not convinced by the starting premise of the film (if a similar situation would occur in reality, I think nothing on earth would stop the whole world working together to solve the infertility crisis), nor am I specifically enamoured by any of the characters/performances. Furthermore, the technical achievements of the film (the tracking shots) feel a bit gimmicky to me. I'd probably forget all about this film again, if it wasn't for one magical scene That scene makes the entire film worth a watch on an emotional level. It's also rather satisfying on an intellectual level when you realize later on that Thanks for sharing, I'm curious how shocking I will find them. It seems to me that we have a consensus here that the film shouldn't work but does somehow. Curious really.