Books and movies
Spent Tuesday at the Reading Vue, a multiplex in need of some care and attention; a broken escalator, signs warning of the air con being out of order, that sort of thing. Caught up with
The Hurt Locker (intense, but a film of two halves; there's an attempt at some sort of plot about halfway through which doesn't pay off ~ better I think to have stuck to the quasi-documentary style all the way through.)
District 9 is tremendous gory fun; if you only see one socially aware shanty-town set SF thriller this year (or this decade) then this is the one. Plot holes in it that you could send a mothership through (e.g. the oppressed aliens happen to have super-powerful bio-weapons which they never use? Why?).
Caught up with the proof I've been saving for the holiday, Michael Connelly's
9 Dragons. Just a tremendous, exciting read, with Harry Bosch cast adrift in Kowloon searching for his kidnapped daughter, out of his depth and making bad judgement calls. The best in this series I think for at least three or four years.
Finished reading Martin Cruz Smith's Arkady Renko novel
Wolves Eat Dogs, which has been on my to-read pile for three years; the background setting (Chernobyl) is drawn so vividly that the foreground detective story gets a bit lost. The writing and characterisation is superb though -- here's a taste:
"The samogon had its effect; Eva looked more dangerous, Vanko more dignified, Roman's ears went red and Maria glistened. There was a solemn dipping of food while Roman poured another round. Arkady found the pickles crisp and sour, with perhaps a hint of strontium."
The Hurt Locker (intense, but a film of two halves; there's an attempt at some sort of plot about halfway through which doesn't pay off ~ better I think to have stuck to the quasi-documentary style all the way through.)
District 9 is tremendous gory fun; if you only see one socially aware shanty-town set SF thriller this year (or this decade) then this is the one. Plot holes in it that you could send a mothership through (e.g. the oppressed aliens happen to have super-powerful bio-weapons which they never use? Why?).
Caught up with the proof I've been saving for the holiday, Michael Connelly's
9 Dragons. Just a tremendous, exciting read, with Harry Bosch cast adrift in Kowloon searching for his kidnapped daughter, out of his depth and making bad judgement calls. The best in this series I think for at least three or four years.
Finished reading Martin Cruz Smith's Arkady Renko novel
Wolves Eat Dogs, which has been on my to-read pile for three years; the background setting (Chernobyl) is drawn so vividly that the foreground detective story gets a bit lost. The writing and characterisation is superb though -- here's a taste:
"The samogon had its effect; Eva looked more dangerous, Vanko more dignified, Roman's ears went red and Maria glistened. There was a solemn dipping of food while Roman poured another round. Arkady found the pickles crisp and sour, with perhaps a hint of strontium."