"I'm Awake" - Review of There's Another Sky, Caprica, Episode 5

[Note to JM fans keeping track - he shows up in next weeks episode, which will also focus a bit on STO. This week's and last week's episodes in a way set up the rational behind STO or why it exists and why people are seeking it out or believing in it. STO is a reaction against the events that are occurring in the virtual world and in Graystone industries, as well as Sam Adama's world in the previous episodes. This is not a tv series that you can easily just pop into whenever you want, it is a rather complex serial story - with each episode unraveling a new layer. For that reason - I'm rather glad they have the character introductions - while they are not necessary for me, they are essential for new viewers. ]

( Caprica Review...and there be major plot spoilers beneath the cut )

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Well wrote an synopsis but it doesn't really work as one. More of a summary of the plot and what happens in the story. The good news is it is only two pages. The bad news is I don't think it sells the book.

Sigh. Back to the drawing board. Sort of. Wish I could find the one I wrote for my previous novel. That would help.

On the reading front - I read gabrielleabelle's WIP fanfiction Influence of Demons - which blew me away. (In case you haven't figured it out by now, I'm reading fanfic that has been rec'd or written by members of my flist, sort of in the same way you might read one of my metas - to see another point of view. Also, because I have an itch that must be scratched and can't find what I'm looking for amongst my many novels at home. Currently plowing my way through The World According to Garp - which is very good, but I'm not sure I'm in the right mood for it.)
( Read more... )

Also finished Unquiet Earth by Denise Gardina - which as noted earlier deserves a lengthier review, but I'm just not in the mood. The book is about a coal mining town in West Virgina and Kentucky or along that border. It takes place between 1930-1990. Describing in detail the effects that the coal mining industry have on the people of this region. The main characters are Rachel Honaker, a nurse who is in love with her first cousin, Dillion, a union organizer, and their illegitmate daughter, Jackie, a newspaper editor. Other characters include a gay Mayor of the town, named Hassel, and a priest/Vista worker, named Tom, as well as one of the heads of the coal company, Arthur Lee. Much like the story above, the author shows us how the coal mining effects these people's lives and exactly what it does to the surrounding environment. Often in graphic detail. While at the same time showing us who these people are and what motivates them. It's a layered book, with tough characters. I can't say it engrossed me, and I did not cry during it. But the final chapter did haunt me long after I finished reading it and it is not a book that I will soon forget. It also reminded me a great deal of some of the things I saw in South Wales during the 1980s as the coal mining industry was shutting down.