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sweetprinceIn one of my fits of procrastination (when I should have been writing one of the two papers I have due next week), I finally went out and bought Cassandra Clare's first published work City of Bones out of sheer curiousity now that it's finally hit paperback.
It wasn't bad. I was a little peeved about her whole Nephilim thing, (maybe because I just wrote my own entirely unpublished forever-languishing-in-the-dust story on a similar topic), because it was kind of lame. Hardcore fifteen-year-olds? No it doesn't impress me. I'm past my Sailor Moon phase. It would've been better if they were only slightly older.
The twists were good, there was a lot of cute banter, and I wasn't ever bored. I guess I just expected more--a little less of the mold or something. I have no idea why given who the author is.
Not to mention, it appears that both Clare and her editor are unclear as to what the definition of fascism is, which considered how often it's bandied about in the book, you'd feel like someone would stop and say wait, wait, here is the dictionary, look it up.
So, uh, I haven't read the next one, so I don't know where she's going to go with this, but um? Sibling incest? Oh yes. There's making out, and daydreaming, and midnight picnics, and honestly, given the way it was going I'm not sure if the relationship has been shut down, now that they know they're related. Also, there's a gay pairing that's been hinted at, I'll be curious to see how that develops.
I did think it was hilarious that she referenced The Very Secret Diaries like she hadn't freakin' wrote them herself. It was the pinnacle of arrogance, but I suppose a lot of the girls who are drawn to the books probably won't be fangirls, and we'll only just laugh at the obvious webgeek culture reference.
And then, because everything last night was terrible and I had to make myself feel better some how, I rented The Seeker which was the Hollywood adaptation of Susan Cooper's The Dark Is Rising and all I can say is I'm so glad I didn't spend $10 at the movie theater.
I should start with the obvious. The kid they chose to play Will, while a good child actor, was not Will. For one, Will was supposed to be so ordinary looking he was out of the ordinary, and this kid had every sign of one day being abso-fucking-lutely gorgeous, and was utterly unbelievable as the dork they were purporting him to be in the movie, if you could see how this kid grinned at people, you would understand, because there is no way that all the prepubescent girls weren't killing themselves to sit next to him in math class.
Second, I don't understand why they had to make the family an American transplant in the UK, that was just bizarre, and they got rid of all the Arthurian legend, and instead started going on about the physics of dark and light, and I, a self-confessed science retard, had to shudder and tear my hair out.
They totally destroyed everybody's character, they weren't even remotely the same. Merriman was a gruff brusque old fashioned kind of guy, who was so incredibly unfeeling that Will wound up setting fire to half the village and crying in the snow. I wanted to beat the scriptwriter over the head and say "YOU DO REALIZE THIS GUY WAS MERLIN ONCE UPON A TIME, RIGHT?"
Will is kind of a loser, he spends so much time going, "I can't do this," and playing about with his powers that it's thoroughly tiring. It should be noted that the script writers never read The Green Witch because when Will asks if he can fly, The Lady (who is not actually The Lady in this iteration), replies "No, I don't think you can."
And finally, my favorite, Will's mysterious disappearing twin Tom. I'm not sure why his place as oldest son of the Stanton family (if he had survived) had to be usurped and made into a twin, possibly so that we could have that ridiculous ending where the "twin" who has been missing for 14 years is greeted back into the family like he took a stroll in the garden and got lost for a few hours rather than vanishing from his crib at the ripe old age of two weeks.
Well that wasn't all, they got rid of all the daughters aside from Gwen, completely fucked with ages, made both Max and James complete and utter assholes, not to mention that Max was a college drop out. It's just disappointing, because the Stanton family was so immensly talented despite their humble origin. *deep sigh*
However, there were some good things. Christopher Eccleston made an amazing Black Rider, and you have to give both the art director, the DP, and the special effects guy some major credit. If nothing else, The Seeker was beautiful to watch. The way the rooks were handled, the hall, the snow, the water--somebody was doing some definite overtime to make the magic really shine, and it far outstripped The Spiderwick Chronicles and I would say, even the The Golden Compass in that regard.
I guess I can say that if they continue the series, and keep the actor who played Will, he'll really knock the socks off of Bran, and maybe fangirls we'll get interested in that pairing again.
I guess now I descend into the utter madness that is this paper pretending all along that Nozick and Rawls were having paper airplane battles over whose theories were better. In my heart of hearts, Rawls always wins, but that isn't really likely given the nature of the two. You know Nozick was a vicious son of a bitch who went to Harvard's physics department and made them fold his airplanes for him.
It wasn't bad. I was a little peeved about her whole Nephilim thing, (maybe because I just wrote my own entirely unpublished forever-languishing-in-the-dust story on a similar topic), because it was kind of lame. Hardcore fifteen-year-olds? No it doesn't impress me. I'm past my Sailor Moon phase. It would've been better if they were only slightly older.
The twists were good, there was a lot of cute banter, and I wasn't ever bored. I guess I just expected more--a little less of the mold or something. I have no idea why given who the author is.
Not to mention, it appears that both Clare and her editor are unclear as to what the definition of fascism is, which considered how often it's bandied about in the book, you'd feel like someone would stop and say wait, wait, here is the dictionary, look it up.
So, uh, I haven't read the next one, so I don't know where she's going to go with this, but um? Sibling incest? Oh yes. There's making out, and daydreaming, and midnight picnics, and honestly, given the way it was going I'm not sure if the relationship has been shut down, now that they know they're related. Also, there's a gay pairing that's been hinted at, I'll be curious to see how that develops.
I did think it was hilarious that she referenced The Very Secret Diaries like she hadn't freakin' wrote them herself. It was the pinnacle of arrogance, but I suppose a lot of the girls who are drawn to the books probably won't be fangirls, and we'll only just laugh at the obvious webgeek culture reference.
And then, because everything last night was terrible and I had to make myself feel better some how, I rented The Seeker which was the Hollywood adaptation of Susan Cooper's The Dark Is Rising and all I can say is I'm so glad I didn't spend $10 at the movie theater.
I should start with the obvious. The kid they chose to play Will, while a good child actor, was not Will. For one, Will was supposed to be so ordinary looking he was out of the ordinary, and this kid had every sign of one day being abso-fucking-lutely gorgeous, and was utterly unbelievable as the dork they were purporting him to be in the movie, if you could see how this kid grinned at people, you would understand, because there is no way that all the prepubescent girls weren't killing themselves to sit next to him in math class.
Second, I don't understand why they had to make the family an American transplant in the UK, that was just bizarre, and they got rid of all the Arthurian legend, and instead started going on about the physics of dark and light, and I, a self-confessed science retard, had to shudder and tear my hair out.
They totally destroyed everybody's character, they weren't even remotely the same. Merriman was a gruff brusque old fashioned kind of guy, who was so incredibly unfeeling that Will wound up setting fire to half the village and crying in the snow. I wanted to beat the scriptwriter over the head and say "YOU DO REALIZE THIS GUY WAS MERLIN ONCE UPON A TIME, RIGHT?"
Will is kind of a loser, he spends so much time going, "I can't do this," and playing about with his powers that it's thoroughly tiring. It should be noted that the script writers never read The Green Witch because when Will asks if he can fly, The Lady (who is not actually The Lady in this iteration), replies "No, I don't think you can."
And finally, my favorite, Will's mysterious disappearing twin Tom. I'm not sure why his place as oldest son of the Stanton family (if he had survived) had to be usurped and made into a twin, possibly so that we could have that ridiculous ending where the "twin" who has been missing for 14 years is greeted back into the family like he took a stroll in the garden and got lost for a few hours rather than vanishing from his crib at the ripe old age of two weeks.
Well that wasn't all, they got rid of all the daughters aside from Gwen, completely fucked with ages, made both Max and James complete and utter assholes, not to mention that Max was a college drop out. It's just disappointing, because the Stanton family was so immensly talented despite their humble origin. *deep sigh*
However, there were some good things. Christopher Eccleston made an amazing Black Rider, and you have to give both the art director, the DP, and the special effects guy some major credit. If nothing else, The Seeker was beautiful to watch. The way the rooks were handled, the hall, the snow, the water--somebody was doing some definite overtime to make the magic really shine, and it far outstripped The Spiderwick Chronicles and I would say, even the The Golden Compass in that regard.
I guess I can say that if they continue the series, and keep the actor who played Will, he'll really knock the socks off of Bran, and maybe fangirls we'll get interested in that pairing again.
I guess now I descend into the utter madness that is this paper pretending all along that Nozick and Rawls were having paper airplane battles over whose theories were better. In my heart of hearts, Rawls always wins, but that isn't really likely given the nature of the two. You know Nozick was a vicious son of a bitch who went to Harvard's physics department and made them fold his airplanes for him.
no subject
Date: 2008-04-06 08:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-06 08:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-06 08:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-06 09:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-06 09:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-06 10:08 pm (UTC)Glad to hear I was justified in my skepticism *g*
no subject
Date: 2008-04-07 12:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-07 02:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-07 05:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-07 02:03 pm (UTC)I take it I should read the books first? =D
no subject
Date: 2008-04-07 05:46 pm (UTC)