(no subject)
Obviously I'm avoiding the evil study by procrastinating, hence the layout tweaking and new link listing. The del.icio.us page is a bit haphazard - I haven't even started going back and loading on old recs, so it's still small. And I haven't updated FFN for a while, because the stupid system there is so clumsy.
Finished reading Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising sequence. I'm not sure what to think of it - I didn't dislike it, exactly, but I think the themes overpowered the story and the characters, and I found it hard going at times, especially in the last book. I liked Will, really liked the segments with his family, and quite liked Simon, Jane and Barney, when they had Will and Bran to bounce off. On their own, they seemed a little cliched (I was having Blyton flashbacks in book one, especially with poor Jane as the token girl). Bran was an interesting character. I'm totally unsurprised that the majority of DiR fan fiction seems to be older Will/Bran. Even I was getting some odd vibes from their friendship. They're twelve, I know, but Will was kind of strange and protective, and I swear Bran was jealous of Jane for a while there.
I couldn't stand Merriman, absolutely loathed him with the fire of a thousand suns. Ditto for the Old Ones in general - hello, condescending arrogance much? According to the text it's justified because the Old Ones are all special and wonderful, but I didn't buy it. And the good guys benignly wiping people's memories 'for their own good' always strikes me as Not a Positive Thing.
Possibly I'm reading too much into what is actually a children's series. Overanalysis - the spice of life. :p
Finished reading Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising sequence. I'm not sure what to think of it - I didn't dislike it, exactly, but I think the themes overpowered the story and the characters, and I found it hard going at times, especially in the last book. I liked Will, really liked the segments with his family, and quite liked Simon, Jane and Barney, when they had Will and Bran to bounce off. On their own, they seemed a little cliched (I was having Blyton flashbacks in book one, especially with poor Jane as the token girl). Bran was an interesting character. I'm totally unsurprised that the majority of DiR fan fiction seems to be older Will/Bran. Even I was getting some odd vibes from their friendship. They're twelve, I know, but Will was kind of strange and protective, and I swear Bran was jealous of Jane for a while there.
I couldn't stand Merriman, absolutely loathed him with the fire of a thousand suns. Ditto for the Old Ones in general - hello, condescending arrogance much? According to the text it's justified because the Old Ones are all special and wonderful, but I didn't buy it. And the good guys benignly wiping people's memories 'for their own good' always strikes me as Not a Positive Thing.
Possibly I'm reading too much into what is actually a children's series. Overanalysis - the spice of life. :p