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Apr. 12th, 2015 10:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatUgh, The Good Wife...was hard to watch tonight. Spent most of it wanting to castrate various male characters.
It is a good sharp satire, concentrating on power plays. And at it's best hilarious.
But lately, it's been a bit too over-the-top or too something, and I've found it aggravating. I know at least one viewer on lj who gave up watching it.
I won't. Because the writing is still better than most television series. But this year has admittedly been a painful one for viewers. And, weirdly? I miss Will Gardner. A lot.
I also miss the dueling firm dynamic.
Once Upon a Time was a bit confusing to start with - because they jumped backwards in time in two - actually make that three worlds, in order to explain a rather complicated back story and plot twist. The Twist however did resolve a plot loop-hole from the previous season, so it worked.
At any rate, while frustrating, I enjoyed it more than the Good Wife.
Regarding Puppygate or Hugo-gate - someone finally clarified which books were nominated for Best Novel by the right-wing conservatives (aka the Rabid Puppies, (Seriously who came up with this name??) ), explaining why Skin Game by Jim Butcher was nominated. I'd wondered. Now, as you probably already know, I actually do enjoy Jim Butcher's Dresden novels - they are snarky entertaining reads, well for the most part. But hardly memorable, and not something I want to think too deeply about - a sort of mix between Raymond Chandler and Harry Potter, yet not quite as well written or imaginative. Of the books he's written, Skin Game was my least favorite. I barely made it through it. It was slow, meandering, and a bit cliche in places. Butcher seemed to lose track of the plot and the characters. It reminded me a little of reading a video game. In my opinion, the writer needs to move on and is getting burned out on Dresden. Then I saw that it had been nominated for a Hugo, and I thought, whoa...the Hugo nominations are sliding rapidly down hill...aren't they? I mean nominating Butcher's Skin Game for a Hugo is a bit like nominating James Patterson for an Edgar Award. (He may have won one...the Edgar's went down hill a while ago. So maybe a Booker Prize?)
I am however curious about The Goblin Emperor (also nominated, albeit not by the Puppies) - which is sort of off the beaten track. And I'd been flirting with.
Now, if I were a voting member of the Hugos...I'd have nominated Neil Gaiman's Ocean at the End of The Lane (although not sure it qualifies, maybe that was last year?). Haven't read enough good sci-fantasy of late to really nominate anything. I did however think Illona Andrews Kate Daniels series was better written than Skin Game. I would have nominated Magic Breaks over Skin Game -- much better book, and far more innovative. (Although I don't think either is worthy of an award. I'm certain there are better books out there. At the very least, I've seen a few better reviewed books. Granted it's all subjective, so probably doesn't matter.)
Also, the discovery that Butcher was nominated by the right-wing fascist contingent makes me wonder if I should stop reading Butcher, just on principal? Like I said, his last book was not that great. So it's not hard to do. Although, it did lean a bit too closely to cliche Christian mythology (sigh), it wasn't offensive. Just terribly cliche.
As an aside...it strikes me that a lot of so-called "Christians" don't seem to understand that Christianity is about kindness, tolerance towards others, healing, caring, and helping others. Not racism, fascism, sexism, misogyny, power, and torture. I know, it can be difficult to figure this out with all the mayhem in the Bible, but it's NOT that hard. And you are giving Christianity a bad name. Stop it! Jesus loved women and minorities and people who are struggling, he had issues with the rich and privileged actually. I hate to say this - but the Sad Puppies have more in common with the Romans who killed Jesus than his followers.
It is a good sharp satire, concentrating on power plays. And at it's best hilarious.
But lately, it's been a bit too over-the-top or too something, and I've found it aggravating. I know at least one viewer on lj who gave up watching it.
I won't. Because the writing is still better than most television series. But this year has admittedly been a painful one for viewers. And, weirdly? I miss Will Gardner. A lot.
I also miss the dueling firm dynamic.
Once Upon a Time was a bit confusing to start with - because they jumped backwards in time in two - actually make that three worlds, in order to explain a rather complicated back story and plot twist. The Twist however did resolve a plot loop-hole from the previous season, so it worked.
At any rate, while frustrating, I enjoyed it more than the Good Wife.
Regarding Puppygate or Hugo-gate - someone finally clarified which books were nominated for Best Novel by the right-wing conservatives (aka the Rabid Puppies, (Seriously who came up with this name??) ), explaining why Skin Game by Jim Butcher was nominated. I'd wondered. Now, as you probably already know, I actually do enjoy Jim Butcher's Dresden novels - they are snarky entertaining reads, well for the most part. But hardly memorable, and not something I want to think too deeply about - a sort of mix between Raymond Chandler and Harry Potter, yet not quite as well written or imaginative. Of the books he's written, Skin Game was my least favorite. I barely made it through it. It was slow, meandering, and a bit cliche in places. Butcher seemed to lose track of the plot and the characters. It reminded me a little of reading a video game. In my opinion, the writer needs to move on and is getting burned out on Dresden. Then I saw that it had been nominated for a Hugo, and I thought, whoa...the Hugo nominations are sliding rapidly down hill...aren't they? I mean nominating Butcher's Skin Game for a Hugo is a bit like nominating James Patterson for an Edgar Award. (He may have won one...the Edgar's went down hill a while ago. So maybe a Booker Prize?)
I am however curious about The Goblin Emperor (also nominated, albeit not by the Puppies) - which is sort of off the beaten track. And I'd been flirting with.
Now, if I were a voting member of the Hugos...I'd have nominated Neil Gaiman's Ocean at the End of The Lane (although not sure it qualifies, maybe that was last year?). Haven't read enough good sci-fantasy of late to really nominate anything. I did however think Illona Andrews Kate Daniels series was better written than Skin Game. I would have nominated Magic Breaks over Skin Game -- much better book, and far more innovative. (Although I don't think either is worthy of an award. I'm certain there are better books out there. At the very least, I've seen a few better reviewed books. Granted it's all subjective, so probably doesn't matter.)
Also, the discovery that Butcher was nominated by the right-wing fascist contingent makes me wonder if I should stop reading Butcher, just on principal? Like I said, his last book was not that great. So it's not hard to do. Although, it did lean a bit too closely to cliche Christian mythology (sigh), it wasn't offensive. Just terribly cliche.
As an aside...it strikes me that a lot of so-called "Christians" don't seem to understand that Christianity is about kindness, tolerance towards others, healing, caring, and helping others. Not racism, fascism, sexism, misogyny, power, and torture. I know, it can be difficult to figure this out with all the mayhem in the Bible, but it's NOT that hard. And you are giving Christianity a bad name. Stop it! Jesus loved women and minorities and people who are struggling, he had issues with the rich and privileged actually. I hate to say this - but the Sad Puppies have more in common with the Romans who killed Jesus than his followers.
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Date: 2015-04-14 01:46 am (UTC)Having exactly the same response. It's okay, I'll finish it. But I'm plodding through. (I've fallen into a bit of a book rut, this is the second book I've found to be less than compelling. Although at least it's shorter.)
A reviewer on Good Reads said that it read like a video game. (It does. So too did Skin Game - which is why, when I found out that it was nominated for a Hugo by a bunch of Tea Party Video-Gamers...I thought, okay, that makes sense.)
And I'm not sure the vignettes hold together well...I keep losing track of the story.
I don't find Johannes all that interesting so far (actually find his brother more interesting to this point) but I also can't help thinking there's an Odd Thomas mislead going on. I figure there's something more than a drop to Cabal's brother saying that Johannes went nuts (even though Johannes doesn't appear to think so).
Agreed. The best thing about the book so far is the relationship between the two brothers. Also, I'm intrigued as to why Johannas got obsessed with bringing back the dead. Apparently there's something there. Also...the story seems to be about finding anything redeemable in Johannas..does he care about anyone but himself?
Johannas remembers hating his brother for being more charismatic and better at everything - and it seems Horst is the older of the two.
It's oddly written book, uneven in places. For instance - we jump into a couple (Ted and Rachel) point of view for a sort of Twilight Zone style horror story, then out again. Or the vignette about the ghost solider - which seems out of place somehow.
Now? He's trapped in a pocket dimension, after fighting with a bunch of insane HP Lovecraft Wizards.
Odd book. Not quite gripping me, but interesting enough to keep me plugging along, mainly because I want to find out three things:
1. How he wins the game/quest
2. Why he wants to bring the dead back
3. Does he care about anyone outside of himself
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Date: 2015-04-14 02:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-04-14 02:31 am (UTC)And I had exactly the same reaction (except I don't think I've read Odd Thomas -although it is a popular trope and sounds incredibly familiar.). I've been thinking it for a while...that he lost someone, either a sister, a parent, a girlfriend...someone, and he went crazy. (Very Constantine - Constantine became a warlock in order to bring back his mom in order to talk to her.)
Since we're both thinking the same thing? I think we may be right...there's certainly a lot of anvils. (Solider killing himself because everyone he loved was dead - and that's why Johannas takes pity on his ghost, because the ghost just wants to see Katy again. And then there's the couple, Rachel and Ted -and Ted needing the doll.) This writer lacks subtlety.
Wth? Where did that come from. It doesn't seem all that connected to the plot. That's what I mean by ''wanders' .
Agreed. It reminds me a little bit of Ready Player One and Skin Game - which did the same thing. It's like the writer strings together a series of adventures under one heading...which I suppose can work. Although I think it worked a lot better in "The Night Circus" - where the writer was more deliberate about it.