williamjm

I went to see the film yesterday. Overall, I thought it was reasonably good despite some ludicrous moments. As in Split, I thought McAvoy was the highlight, he really seemed to be having fun playing all the different personalities. I thought Anya Taylor-Joy was good in Split as well, and she's good here again although not given as much to do. I like that they've brought back most of the original cast from Unbreakable, not just Willis and Jackson but also the actors who played David's son and Glass's mother. As a belated sequel to Unbreakable I think it worked quite well - although I think Unbreakable is the better film, it does still manage to have a different feel to normal superhero movies that's a bit more grounded than something like the Marvel films (although the pseudoscience about the Beast's abilities is silly). The finale is maybe a bit small-scale compared to most superhero film finales, but after so many films ending with huge CGI battles I think having something a bit simpler works better. I think I'd probably say it was a bit better than Split but not as good as Unbreakable.

At least she's publishing new books at a decent rate, with her latest book out next month. I just finished Ursula Le Guin's Planet of Exile. The story is based around a fairly common SF trope of people from two different civilisations having to work together to survive against a common enemy. In this case, the descendants of interstellar colonists (long cut off from their home planet) have to co-operate with the local nomadic tribes to survive the twin threats of invasion and winter. The world has a very long orbit around its sun which means winter lasts for thousands of days, nobody quite says 'Winter is Coming' but they're certainly thinking it. Overall, I liked the story but thought it wasn't as good as it could have been. Out of the three protagonists, I liked the old chief Wold and his rebellious daughter Rolery, but felt they maybe got sidelined a bit towards the end of the story in favour of Jakob, the leader of the colonists. I'm not sure I really understood some of Jakob's motivations or why the others all follow him despite him not seeming to be a good leader (he also seems confused about this). There's also an under-written romance which also didn't seem very believable. It's not a bad book, but not one of Le Guin's best. Next up is Le Guin's City of Illusion, which I think is meant to be a loose sequel to Planet of Exile.

I seem to remember she posted a bit in the 'Boarders writing a novel' thread before she was published. I think she's also been to a few BWB-related events, I met her at Titancon in 2012 just after her first book was published.

That does seem to be the perfect metaphor for Corbyn's Brexit strategy.

You know you watch too much cricket when you see the headlines about Theresa May being down by 432 to 202 and wonder whether Jeremy Corbyn is going to enforce the follow-on.

I think Labour may struggle to get a majority again until they can regain some of their old dominance in Scotland, and I don't see that happening with their current Brexit policy. Without gains in Scotland they'd need a landslide victory in English seats.

I learned to drive in the Scottish Highlands, which meant I got plenty of opportunity to demonstrate hill starts, but never had a lesson involving such exotic things as motorways or roundabouts.

I think you're probably right, although it's possible some of them might think it was in the long-term best interests of the Tory party to have an election and let Corbyn have to deal with the mess of Brexit. Another thing that probably won't happen is Rees-Mogg and his gang voting down the Government and founding their own party (let's call it NUkip) to fight the election under a manifesto about delivering the Brexit that they say they want. If they had the courage of their convictions and really believed the country backed their position then that would be a way out of this impasse, but I suspect they're not quite delusional enough to think it would work.

They have now confirmed that they will back her tomorrow, not that there was ever much doubt about that.

118 of her own MPs voted against her on the biggest possible issue, it's hard to see how she has any authority left now. I suspect they may well still regain confidence in her for a short period of time tomorrow, but beyond that I'm struggling to see how she can move forward.

There are a lot of familiar names in the list of Tory MPs who voted to ignore that Welsh Referendum result:

I wonder how many Brexiteers have also argued for abolishing the Scottish Parliament? I suspect a few of them have over the years.

I thought it was very good as well, the scenes with Kidman and her therapist were particularly intense. I'm also a bit cautious about the second season since it didn't feel like a story that necessarily needed a sequel, but I'll definitely give it a chance.

Considering how synonymous elves are with fantasy it is true that I can't think of many non-D&D books where elves are in more than just a supporting role. I suppose there are some elven major characters in Weis and Hickman's Death Gate Cycle.