Ronan Boys nonsense (now on Tumblr), reading roundup, and The Martian movie
Today is apparently International Fanwork Day? Or so AO3 informs me. Anyway, I accidentally made a fanwork anyway, sorta. So, remember my Raven Cycle poems (on AO3), which are all ikel89's fault? For a while I've been trying to figure out if there was a way to release them into the wilds of Tumblr, and that got me down the path of turning them into graphics, along the lines of aletheiafelinea's fanartfics/ficarts. And yesterday I just felt like continuing to mess around with Paint.NET after making B's rant notebook, which eventually led to this: Raven Cycle poetry hour graphics (linking to ikel89's reblog of same because tags, LOL). Also, my own theme doesn't tile the photos for some reason? Anyway...
So Gansey's is written in fountain pen ink on a Moleskine notebook (with a Mont Blanc pen); Blue's words are genuinely cut out of a scan of a copy of "How do I love thee" that I found online, complete with using only the punctuation marks found in that poem -- which is why the parenthesis are turned into dashes in the penultimate line; Noah's was the trickiest logistically because he is a [spoiler]ghost, but I started with tracing paper for the background, turned it sepia, and played around with making the text glowy and transparent until it looked sufficiently otherworldly but still legible; Adam's took for-fucking-EVER, of course, and also I discovered that both the AO3 version and the LJ version I copied the AO3 version from was originally missing one of the lines -- this is the beauty of a sestina that you can't even tell based on the scintillating content, only by counting the number of lines XP, but it is now restored in all the places) -- but anyway, Adam's is written out on an engineering pad with a pencil; of course Ronan tears pages out of his spiral notebook, and I guess he's writing in Sharpie or something. I was going to have bird poop on Ronan's, but couldn't find an image of one that would work on a white background, so had to settle for a crow feather.
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8. Saga, volume 1 (Brian K Vaughan, Fiona Staples) -- so, courtesy of sephystabbity, I actually got to read the first volume, and it's just as good as I've been promised. Also, I'm now done reading Saga middle-to-beginning, and just need to read it middle-to-end now. Spoilers!
That is some beginning, certainly! It seems like these issues always start off with a bang, but "Am I shitting" with Alana probably takes the cake XD I really enjoy the interplay between Alana and Marko here as well, the mix of funny (Marko finding the umbilical cord gristlier than he'd expected, "Unless you're secretly into that. Please don't be into that.") and poignant (Marko with tears in his eyes while Alana is in labor, telling her she's never looked more beautiful. Not just during the labor scene, either; I laughed at Marko's "Do you seriously need me to define what a secret is?") I loved them trying to agree on a name for the baby ("It's just, Pico means something kind of... filthy where I come from" and Alana refusing to consider Hope), arguing over serious matters ("Wing-bleeding isn't religious, it's... cultural" "What is cultural about mutilating an infant?"), and Alana finding out about Gwendolyn ("Honey, I'm as interested in the arcane rules of ghost-hood as you, but maybe we could stop stalling and start discussing your other wife?")
Now that I've properly met Izabel, and know how she ended up traveling with Alana and Marko, I find I like her a lot. Loved her initial exchange with Alana ("You're... you're Horrors." "Is that seriously what you guys call indigenous peoples? That's kind of racist, don't you think?" and "But clearly that's [the spiritual defenders of Cleave thing] a suck-ass evolutionary plan, since your two armies had no problem wiping our people off the map.") and giving smug baby-care advice ("Oldest of seven here. I'm guessing you were an only child?")
The Freelancers are still not doing much for me, frankly. I'd gotten the impression that The Will and The Stalk were more together than they really are, at least at this point. The Stalk is super-creepy, and I'm still not totally sold on The Will (though the panel of him eating the equivalent of Froot Loops or whatever was cute).
The robots are still really, really weird to me. I just don't really get much out of them... I think it's the lack of expression, maybe, even with the occasional projections on the screen? Or maybe I'm just too busy asking myself "BUT WHY ROBOTS" whenever they show up. IDK, possibly they would've worked better for me if I'd started with the beginning, since we get Prince Robot IV and his wife as the introduction, being fairly human (and then him on the toilet for some reason).
9. Jordan L. Hawk, Widdershins (Whyborne & Griffin #1) -- I know aome has been a fan of these for a while, and I started getting interested when I realized (after a while) that these had a paranormal element to them and were not just a m/m historical. After reading the Curse of Magpies books last year, I decided this series was worth checking out, and aome (independently, but I think due to similar logic) offered to loan me the first book (Kindle lending is great! for the few books for which it is currently an option).
Anyway, I liked it! Rather more than I'd expected to, actually, because paranormal romance (non-paranormal romance, too, but I don't tend to read that almost at all) tends to be more of a miss than hit for me on the whole, even when well-recommended. But this one actually worked, which was a very pleasant discovery! I was also surprised to learn that these books are set in America, because I'd been thinking they were another Victorian series; well, the timefram is the same (1890s), but not the location. The writing was jarring in its modernity at first, but this is not something I care about particularly, so I got used to it pretty quickly. Spoilers!
I also kept mentally comparing it to the Magpies books, because it was interesting to me to figure out why this was working better for me than those books. I think partly it's that the balance between the protagonists/couple feels less skewed, but also/mostly I think it's the first-person POV that's working better for me than Magpies' third. Because when Whyborne is thinking about how pathetic and undesirable he is and how Griffin couldn't possibly be interested in him -- which is de rigeur in romance, apparently, *sigh*, I could just ascribe it to unreliable narrator -- and, indeed, given what we see of his family plus the trauma of Lysander's death, I could totally believe Whyborne's reticence and low self-esteem and all that.
I can't say that I adore Whyborne and Griffin as a couple, but I also have no objections to them, and am happy to see them happy. I do like Whyborne, and especially his adorkable pedantry around how many languages he speaks and can read in, and his habit of cutting his food into little squares, even when it's something like a sandwich -- and also the hint of his potential for darkness, the way he is tempted by the power of the Liber Arcanorum to prove to the people who bully or mock or disregard him that he is powerful, or to make Griffin love him (when he thinks it was all a sham), but consciously backs away from that each time. And I like that they are both damaged in some ways (Griffin's fits/time in an asylum, claustrophobia, and feeling self-conscious about his orphaned kid raised by farmers roots, Whyborne's history of being bullied and self-denial), and understand that, and accept that. There are, of course, the requisite romantic misunderstandings and mutual pining and "but he couldn't possibly really like me!" and "so it was all a lie! he doesn't really love me", but, refreshingly, all of these were a lot more short-lived than I had expected. I thought it would take until the end of the book for them to get together, but it didn't, and that was really nice to see, because stretching it out that far generally tests my creduility, when people are as right for each other as the book would have you believe. And them getting together did not resolve all problems of trust, but it was also done in a fairly believable way, and I liked that after Whyborne finds Griffin's notes which lead him to believe that Griffin has been playing him, Griffin tries to explain himself, and Christine voices all the logical objections that were going through my head, and even Whyborne thinks of those things himself, he is just afraid he's talking himself into something that's not real. (Actually, the same is true of the non-romantic things as well -- while I figured out Addison and Whyborne's father were involved in the Brotherhood just ahead of Whyborne, I steeled myself for pages and pages of him not realizing that for a later dramatic reveal, but in each case he figured it out himself very soon after, and had a logical and productive reaction to the realization. Very refreshing!)
As for the sex, it was still not as good as fanfic, for my money, but also a good deal less annoying than in the Magpie books. Some of the tropes worked much better for me than others (e.g. Whyborne being turned on in public and flustered/afraid that people would notice = yes, second-guessing and overthinking throughout = also yes, because it felt so true to the character, also tiny domestic touches like Whyborne drooling on the pillow and hoping Griffin hadn't noticed; dirty talk and possessive!Griffin and "Ival" = not really for me). Although, speaking of Whyborne's names, I did like the way he tells Blackbyrne to call him Percy as a signal to Griffin that he's acting -- a signal which Griffin did not need, because he knows Whyborne too well, at this point, to think he'd seriously go over to the side of the bad guys.
Speaking of the bad guys, other than Blackbyrne himself and the horror elements with the Guardians and the murderous jelly thing, I liked that the human antagonists had their own fairly understandable reasons for what they were doing -- Addison trying to bring back the dead son he never stopped mourning, Whyborne's father hoping to restore his beloved wife's health -- and that Whyborne's father's loyalty is to his family, not to the Brotherhood's ideas ("And Blackbyrne's methods?" [...] "Aren't ones I would have chosen. But everything has a cost.") I'm curious to see how what happened on the island will play out for Whyborne's relationship with his family in general. (And speaking of family, I was happy to see that he didn't keep his newfound magical powers a secret from everyone, but showed them off to his mother specifically so he could share the wonder of it with her.)
And speaking of characters other than Griffin and Whybourne themselves, I think Christine Putnam, Whyborne's friend, the archeologist, who seems like an Indiana Jones type and whom he is slightly afraid of, was really fun and my favorite character in the book, as well as the one with the best quote: "I will not surrender my profession simply because men throughout history have been unduly enamored of their penises", followed in my esteem by, "And when Bradley insisted on referring to me as 'Miss Putnam,' you... well, you corrected Bradley's shoes, but I appreciated the gesture." Also, Christine telling Whyborne she's known his inclinations for ages and then asking him if gaydar is really a thing, just in case, though it hadn't sounded plausible to her. XP I hope there will be more of her in the sequels! I like her friendship with Whyborne a lot, as well as just her as a character.
Also, it seems that, in general, the magic in these books will operate based on science, or at least so Whyborne claims when he first confronts the Guardians, which is something I always enjoy, along with the scientific/learning background of Whyborne himself and his museum cohorts.
Something I noticed that I wonder if it's just coincidence or will be significant in some way: Whyborne seems to be very good at surviving situations that others do not -- living when his twin sister died at birth, living through the near-drowning though he was very sick when Lysander drowned. I was wondering if it has anything to do with his apparent potential for magic, since that seems to be something one either has or doesn't, from what Blackbyrne implies when he speaks dismissively of Philip Rice. Possibly I've just been preconditioned to think about things like this due to Chrestomanci, but it did jump out at me...
Also, totally randomly, so, Whyborne's given name is Percival and his (surviving) sister is Guinevere, but the oldest son is Stanfrod. Did Niles get to name the oldest and his wife the others? Is Stanford's middle name Arthur or Lancelot or something? Inquiring minds want to know!
Quotes:
"I'm sorry, Leander," I said. "I'm sorry I wasn't strong enough then. And I'm sorry I'm not weak enough now."
Griffin: "I'm very particular, though. This boarder will be tall, handsome, and speak precisely thirteen languages. But read more."
I also read "A Case of Spirits" (Magpies 2.5), which is a free short story in the Charm of Magpies universe, set after the two books I've read. It was actually quite nice, in that it did not contain any of the things that annoy me about Crane and Stephen as a couple, and did contain a number of my favorite secondary characters, such as Merrick and the Golds.
Quotes spoilery:
"He hadn't chosen to inflict it [that tattoo] on Stephen, and would not have volunteered to sacrifice it if he'd been consulted, but he liked to see it there all the same."
About Merrick having to decide whether to try to save his wife or child: "His face as he chose, and again, later, as it became clear that his decision had been wrong, or perhaps that it had always been meaningless."
"Crane shrugged. He did not want his own mind tampered with; other people's minds were of a great deal less value to him than Merrick's eyes."
I'm also almost done with the second Natural History of Dragons book, but have been reading my Kindle instead, delighted at its return to me. And on the Kindle, I'm 50% through a really terrible freebie book, but can't look away for some reason... XP
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Also, O and I watched the Martian. I liked it, but not as much as the book -- though I think probably in the sense of storytelling craft it may be the better work -- and O, too, said that he liked the book better. I found the movie slow in patches in a way the book never felt to me, because the book always had Mark's voice for those long stretches. Spoilers for both movie and book!
I will say that the movie did a MUCH better job with the Houston crew, in that they actually felt like people rather than cardboard cut-outs, and I perked up whenever the action shifted to Earth, which was DEFINITELY not the case in the book. I liked everyone back on Earth, but especially Tim Grimes and Rich Purnell. I'd liked them best in the book, too, but they were actually quite different in the movie -- not just visually (though that, too), but Rich was a different kind of Cloud Cuckoolander, and Grimes was a different kind of smartass, but I still liked them. I wasn't sure at first whether the guy making the quip “So…no snappy Algonquin Round Table repartee, I guess” and then reading off Mark's email to NASA: "Okay, he says, “They don’t know I’m alive? What the F-word. F-word in gerund form. F-word, again, is wrong with you?”" was Tim Grimes or someone else, but the entire 2 minutes he was on screen were pretty great. Also, I had no idea Donald Glover (as Rich Purnell) was even in this movie, so that was a pleasant surprise, 'cos I've watched enough random episodes of Community to like him. Also, of course I had to giggle at "Project Elrond", even though I knew it was coming. What I didn't know was that Teddy would say he wants his codename to be Glorfindel, which instantly endeared him to me (I love that it's Glorfindel specifically, because he was cut from the movie adaptation, so that pegs Teddy as a book fan, and also because Glorfindel is the one who rides out of Rivendell to rescue the Fellowship, so it's nice and symbolic, even). Overall, I'm not sure if I like book!Teddy or movie!Teddy... book!Teddy was just flat, while movie!Teddy was kind of smarmy (in a believable way). And the press-conference scenes worked much, much better, as I'd known they would, because they're really written as a movie scene even in the book. I admit I LOL'd at this exchange during the first one: "Can you rescue him?" "We're working on that." "Does he have enough food to survive?" "We're looking into it." "What does this say about the agency? Are you going to resign?" "No."
The Hermes crew was about a wash for me, vs the book. I liked Commander Lewis (though I don't think she needed to have the final glory of catching Mark on the rendezvous, especially as that left Beck with absolutely nothing to do). I found Martinez entertaining, though not as entertaining as in the book; I totally failed to connect him to Luis from Ant-Man, though, but O recognized him. Nobody else really left much of an impression on me. Vogel was less German than I'd been expecting, but I liked him. O had been waiting for the cannibalism thing to come up, and I was wondering if they'd do it, but not surprised that they didn't. I did like the sketched-in, low-touch was they showed Beck/Johansen, although I do think maybe they should've seeded it earlier. I do think starting the movie with the scene that's actually a flashback in the books, with the storm and crew banter, was the right call, and would have liked it to be longer, actually.
Mark... well, OK, I actually don't like Matt Damon, so I wasn't sure how Mark would work for me, and... decently, I guess? I don't love him nearly as much as book!Mark, and he is also completely not my mental image of him, but he didn't interfere with my enjoyment of the movie, let's put it that way. Although none of the great Mark lines (of the ones that even made it into the film) soared for me, which was kind of a disappointment; the snark was about right, even on the lines added to the book stuff, but none of it went along with Matt Damon for me. I think my favorite was "Now, if I remember my training correctly, one of the lessons was titled “Don’t dig up the big box of plutonium, Mark.” though, or possibly In other news, there’s been a request for me to pose for a photograph on my next transmission. I’m trying to figure out whether I should go with “High School Senior” or “Coquettish Ingénue.” But I’m not really sure how that’s gonna look with my spacesuit on." We both also missed Mark actually saying first thing that it's not the crew's fault. Mitch implied it to the crew, but we didn't actually hear/see it -- unless it was in some tiny text on the screen that I couldn't read? That was one of the most powerful Mark moments for me, so I missed it. We also missed the "I'm pretty much fucked" opening, but the "Fuck." after the first long scene of Mark alone on Mars sufficed, I guess (and boy was that a long scene... so much panting!) Also, I can't believe they cut the "Look, a pair of boobs" line! although I suppose it is heavily implied.
A lot *was* cut from the plot. I actually rather missed the bit where Mark loses communication with NASA because he shorts out Pathfinder's comms with the drill. I think it makes it more dramatic that he's working on his own to prepare for the journey to Schiaparelli, and also it's pretty true to the story of engineering -- sometimes you have a minor oversight and it screws everything up -- but I did like the montage that showed Mark working on modifying the rover on Mars while the NASA team tested out the same modifications they were suggesting to him. I missed the storm on the way to Schiaparelli, too, because I thought that would be included and make it nice and dramatic, but I guess that would've taken too long; frankly, the whole second half of the movie felt too rushed. And the one thing that was outright added... I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that the hero gets to do something heroic -- actually try the Iron Man maneuver -- during the final rescue, rather than being passively retrieved. I don't mind that, I guess, narratively speaking, but I kept wondering why they were hugging rather than reeling him in as quickly as they could, since his spacesuit was breached and he was, you know, IN VACUUM.
One thing I did not miss at all were the inanimate-object-POV scene insertions from the book, which we get before the Hab airlock blows (I thought it was fine without any explanation, but missed how hard Mark had to work to recover from that setback in the book), when the Iris probe explodes (which is explained by NASA guys after, which worked much better for me), or when the Rover tips on descent into Schiaparelli crater (which also does not happen).
I thought I would really enjoy the after-the-rescue scenes, because I felt like the book was missing a back-on-earth epilogue, but I actually came away disappointed. I think I would have really liked to see the Hermes actually returning to earth, the reunion between the crew and their loved ones, and between them and the NASA team that brought them home. I mean, it's cute to see Mark lecturing, and Beck and Johansen together, but it didn't add as much as I was hoping for.
One other thing is definitely better in the movie than the book, though: disco! The gag got old not that far into the book, but the soundtrack was a lot of fun, and when the running gag surfaced explicitly in the movie rather than as background music, it also worked -- especially in the final scene where Lewis catches Mark, and he tells her, "You have terrible taste in music" and they both laugh. Also, "I Will Survive" playing over the end-credits was AWESOME. :D
Also, I was checking Wikipedia for cast lists and stuff, and it says this: "Sean Bean as Mitch Henderson, the Ares III's mission director. His priority at all times is the welfare and stability of the Ares III crew, remarkably he also survives." XD
Overall, I think the book and the movie are very complementary, actually. I wouldn't take the movie over the book, but the movie does make up for some of the book's flaws, and I think if I were to reread it, I'd enjoy the Houston scenes more because I'd see and hear the actors in my head in a way the prose in those sections did not provide.
There are a couple of promo things on YouTube which were pretty fun:
Right Stuff has psychologist interviews with the crew members, and hits the Aquaman bit that I missed from the book.
Farewell
Chem Cam (from Mars)
So Gansey's is written in fountain pen ink on a Moleskine notebook (with a Mont Blanc pen); Blue's words are genuinely cut out of a scan of a copy of "How do I love thee" that I found online, complete with using only the punctuation marks found in that poem -- which is why the parenthesis are turned into dashes in the penultimate line; Noah's was the trickiest logistically because he is a [spoiler]ghost, but I started with tracing paper for the background, turned it sepia, and played around with making the text glowy and transparent until it looked sufficiently otherworldly but still legible; Adam's took for-fucking-EVER, of course, and also I discovered that both the AO3 version and the LJ version I copied the AO3 version from was originally missing one of the lines -- this is the beauty of a sestina that you can't even tell based on the scintillating content, only by counting the number of lines XP, but it is now restored in all the places) -- but anyway, Adam's is written out on an engineering pad with a pencil; of course Ronan tears pages out of his spiral notebook, and I guess he's writing in Sharpie or something. I was going to have bird poop on Ronan's, but couldn't find an image of one that would work on a white background, so had to settle for a crow feather.
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8. Saga, volume 1 (Brian K Vaughan, Fiona Staples) -- so, courtesy of sephystabbity, I actually got to read the first volume, and it's just as good as I've been promised. Also, I'm now done reading Saga middle-to-beginning, and just need to read it middle-to-end now. Spoilers!
That is some beginning, certainly! It seems like these issues always start off with a bang, but "Am I shitting" with Alana probably takes the cake XD I really enjoy the interplay between Alana and Marko here as well, the mix of funny (Marko finding the umbilical cord gristlier than he'd expected, "Unless you're secretly into that. Please don't be into that.") and poignant (Marko with tears in his eyes while Alana is in labor, telling her she's never looked more beautiful. Not just during the labor scene, either; I laughed at Marko's "Do you seriously need me to define what a secret is?") I loved them trying to agree on a name for the baby ("It's just, Pico means something kind of... filthy where I come from" and Alana refusing to consider Hope), arguing over serious matters ("Wing-bleeding isn't religious, it's... cultural" "What is cultural about mutilating an infant?"), and Alana finding out about Gwendolyn ("Honey, I'm as interested in the arcane rules of ghost-hood as you, but maybe we could stop stalling and start discussing your other wife?")
Now that I've properly met Izabel, and know how she ended up traveling with Alana and Marko, I find I like her a lot. Loved her initial exchange with Alana ("You're... you're Horrors." "Is that seriously what you guys call indigenous peoples? That's kind of racist, don't you think?" and "But clearly that's [the spiritual defenders of Cleave thing] a suck-ass evolutionary plan, since your two armies had no problem wiping our people off the map.") and giving smug baby-care advice ("Oldest of seven here. I'm guessing you were an only child?")
The Freelancers are still not doing much for me, frankly. I'd gotten the impression that The Will and The Stalk were more together than they really are, at least at this point. The Stalk is super-creepy, and I'm still not totally sold on The Will (though the panel of him eating the equivalent of Froot Loops or whatever was cute).
The robots are still really, really weird to me. I just don't really get much out of them... I think it's the lack of expression, maybe, even with the occasional projections on the screen? Or maybe I'm just too busy asking myself "BUT WHY ROBOTS" whenever they show up. IDK, possibly they would've worked better for me if I'd started with the beginning, since we get Prince Robot IV and his wife as the introduction, being fairly human (and then him on the toilet for some reason).
9. Jordan L. Hawk, Widdershins (Whyborne & Griffin #1) -- I know aome has been a fan of these for a while, and I started getting interested when I realized (after a while) that these had a paranormal element to them and were not just a m/m historical. After reading the Curse of Magpies books last year, I decided this series was worth checking out, and aome (independently, but I think due to similar logic) offered to loan me the first book (Kindle lending is great! for the few books for which it is currently an option).
Anyway, I liked it! Rather more than I'd expected to, actually, because paranormal romance (non-paranormal romance, too, but I don't tend to read that almost at all) tends to be more of a miss than hit for me on the whole, even when well-recommended. But this one actually worked, which was a very pleasant discovery! I was also surprised to learn that these books are set in America, because I'd been thinking they were another Victorian series; well, the timefram is the same (1890s), but not the location. The writing was jarring in its modernity at first, but this is not something I care about particularly, so I got used to it pretty quickly. Spoilers!
I also kept mentally comparing it to the Magpies books, because it was interesting to me to figure out why this was working better for me than those books. I think partly it's that the balance between the protagonists/couple feels less skewed, but also/mostly I think it's the first-person POV that's working better for me than Magpies' third. Because when Whyborne is thinking about how pathetic and undesirable he is and how Griffin couldn't possibly be interested in him -- which is de rigeur in romance, apparently, *sigh*, I could just ascribe it to unreliable narrator -- and, indeed, given what we see of his family plus the trauma of Lysander's death, I could totally believe Whyborne's reticence and low self-esteem and all that.
I can't say that I adore Whyborne and Griffin as a couple, but I also have no objections to them, and am happy to see them happy. I do like Whyborne, and especially his adorkable pedantry around how many languages he speaks and can read in, and his habit of cutting his food into little squares, even when it's something like a sandwich -- and also the hint of his potential for darkness, the way he is tempted by the power of the Liber Arcanorum to prove to the people who bully or mock or disregard him that he is powerful, or to make Griffin love him (when he thinks it was all a sham), but consciously backs away from that each time. And I like that they are both damaged in some ways (Griffin's fits/time in an asylum, claustrophobia, and feeling self-conscious about his orphaned kid raised by farmers roots, Whyborne's history of being bullied and self-denial), and understand that, and accept that. There are, of course, the requisite romantic misunderstandings and mutual pining and "but he couldn't possibly really like me!" and "so it was all a lie! he doesn't really love me", but, refreshingly, all of these were a lot more short-lived than I had expected. I thought it would take until the end of the book for them to get together, but it didn't, and that was really nice to see, because stretching it out that far generally tests my creduility, when people are as right for each other as the book would have you believe. And them getting together did not resolve all problems of trust, but it was also done in a fairly believable way, and I liked that after Whyborne finds Griffin's notes which lead him to believe that Griffin has been playing him, Griffin tries to explain himself, and Christine voices all the logical objections that were going through my head, and even Whyborne thinks of those things himself, he is just afraid he's talking himself into something that's not real. (Actually, the same is true of the non-romantic things as well -- while I figured out Addison and Whyborne's father were involved in the Brotherhood just ahead of Whyborne, I steeled myself for pages and pages of him not realizing that for a later dramatic reveal, but in each case he figured it out himself very soon after, and had a logical and productive reaction to the realization. Very refreshing!)
As for the sex, it was still not as good as fanfic, for my money, but also a good deal less annoying than in the Magpie books. Some of the tropes worked much better for me than others (e.g. Whyborne being turned on in public and flustered/afraid that people would notice = yes, second-guessing and overthinking throughout = also yes, because it felt so true to the character, also tiny domestic touches like Whyborne drooling on the pillow and hoping Griffin hadn't noticed; dirty talk and possessive!Griffin and "Ival" = not really for me). Although, speaking of Whyborne's names, I did like the way he tells Blackbyrne to call him Percy as a signal to Griffin that he's acting -- a signal which Griffin did not need, because he knows Whyborne too well, at this point, to think he'd seriously go over to the side of the bad guys.
Speaking of the bad guys, other than Blackbyrne himself and the horror elements with the Guardians and the murderous jelly thing, I liked that the human antagonists had their own fairly understandable reasons for what they were doing -- Addison trying to bring back the dead son he never stopped mourning, Whyborne's father hoping to restore his beloved wife's health -- and that Whyborne's father's loyalty is to his family, not to the Brotherhood's ideas ("And Blackbyrne's methods?" [...] "Aren't ones I would have chosen. But everything has a cost.") I'm curious to see how what happened on the island will play out for Whyborne's relationship with his family in general. (And speaking of family, I was happy to see that he didn't keep his newfound magical powers a secret from everyone, but showed them off to his mother specifically so he could share the wonder of it with her.)
And speaking of characters other than Griffin and Whybourne themselves, I think Christine Putnam, Whyborne's friend, the archeologist, who seems like an Indiana Jones type and whom he is slightly afraid of, was really fun and my favorite character in the book, as well as the one with the best quote: "I will not surrender my profession simply because men throughout history have been unduly enamored of their penises", followed in my esteem by, "And when Bradley insisted on referring to me as 'Miss Putnam,' you... well, you corrected Bradley's shoes, but I appreciated the gesture." Also, Christine telling Whyborne she's known his inclinations for ages and then asking him if gaydar is really a thing, just in case, though it hadn't sounded plausible to her. XP I hope there will be more of her in the sequels! I like her friendship with Whyborne a lot, as well as just her as a character.
Also, it seems that, in general, the magic in these books will operate based on science, or at least so Whyborne claims when he first confronts the Guardians, which is something I always enjoy, along with the scientific/learning background of Whyborne himself and his museum cohorts.
Something I noticed that I wonder if it's just coincidence or will be significant in some way: Whyborne seems to be very good at surviving situations that others do not -- living when his twin sister died at birth, living through the near-drowning though he was very sick when Lysander drowned. I was wondering if it has anything to do with his apparent potential for magic, since that seems to be something one either has or doesn't, from what Blackbyrne implies when he speaks dismissively of Philip Rice. Possibly I've just been preconditioned to think about things like this due to Chrestomanci, but it did jump out at me...
Also, totally randomly, so, Whyborne's given name is Percival and his (surviving) sister is Guinevere, but the oldest son is Stanfrod. Did Niles get to name the oldest and his wife the others? Is Stanford's middle name Arthur or Lancelot or something? Inquiring minds want to know!
Quotes:
"I'm sorry, Leander," I said. "I'm sorry I wasn't strong enough then. And I'm sorry I'm not weak enough now."
Griffin: "I'm very particular, though. This boarder will be tall, handsome, and speak precisely thirteen languages. But read more."
I also read "A Case of Spirits" (Magpies 2.5), which is a free short story in the Charm of Magpies universe, set after the two books I've read. It was actually quite nice, in that it did not contain any of the things that annoy me about Crane and Stephen as a couple, and did contain a number of my favorite secondary characters, such as Merrick and the Golds.
Quotes spoilery:
"He hadn't chosen to inflict it [that tattoo] on Stephen, and would not have volunteered to sacrifice it if he'd been consulted, but he liked to see it there all the same."
About Merrick having to decide whether to try to save his wife or child: "His face as he chose, and again, later, as it became clear that his decision had been wrong, or perhaps that it had always been meaningless."
"Crane shrugged. He did not want his own mind tampered with; other people's minds were of a great deal less value to him than Merrick's eyes."
I'm also almost done with the second Natural History of Dragons book, but have been reading my Kindle instead, delighted at its return to me. And on the Kindle, I'm 50% through a really terrible freebie book, but can't look away for some reason... XP
*
Also, O and I watched the Martian. I liked it, but not as much as the book -- though I think probably in the sense of storytelling craft it may be the better work -- and O, too, said that he liked the book better. I found the movie slow in patches in a way the book never felt to me, because the book always had Mark's voice for those long stretches. Spoilers for both movie and book!
I will say that the movie did a MUCH better job with the Houston crew, in that they actually felt like people rather than cardboard cut-outs, and I perked up whenever the action shifted to Earth, which was DEFINITELY not the case in the book. I liked everyone back on Earth, but especially Tim Grimes and Rich Purnell. I'd liked them best in the book, too, but they were actually quite different in the movie -- not just visually (though that, too), but Rich was a different kind of Cloud Cuckoolander, and Grimes was a different kind of smartass, but I still liked them. I wasn't sure at first whether the guy making the quip “So…no snappy Algonquin Round Table repartee, I guess” and then reading off Mark's email to NASA: "Okay, he says, “They don’t know I’m alive? What the F-word. F-word in gerund form. F-word, again, is wrong with you?”" was Tim Grimes or someone else, but the entire 2 minutes he was on screen were pretty great. Also, I had no idea Donald Glover (as Rich Purnell) was even in this movie, so that was a pleasant surprise, 'cos I've watched enough random episodes of Community to like him. Also, of course I had to giggle at "Project Elrond", even though I knew it was coming. What I didn't know was that Teddy would say he wants his codename to be Glorfindel, which instantly endeared him to me (I love that it's Glorfindel specifically, because he was cut from the movie adaptation, so that pegs Teddy as a book fan, and also because Glorfindel is the one who rides out of Rivendell to rescue the Fellowship, so it's nice and symbolic, even). Overall, I'm not sure if I like book!Teddy or movie!Teddy... book!Teddy was just flat, while movie!Teddy was kind of smarmy (in a believable way). And the press-conference scenes worked much, much better, as I'd known they would, because they're really written as a movie scene even in the book. I admit I LOL'd at this exchange during the first one: "Can you rescue him?" "We're working on that." "Does he have enough food to survive?" "We're looking into it." "What does this say about the agency? Are you going to resign?" "No."
The Hermes crew was about a wash for me, vs the book. I liked Commander Lewis (though I don't think she needed to have the final glory of catching Mark on the rendezvous, especially as that left Beck with absolutely nothing to do). I found Martinez entertaining, though not as entertaining as in the book; I totally failed to connect him to Luis from Ant-Man, though, but O recognized him. Nobody else really left much of an impression on me. Vogel was less German than I'd been expecting, but I liked him. O had been waiting for the cannibalism thing to come up, and I was wondering if they'd do it, but not surprised that they didn't. I did like the sketched-in, low-touch was they showed Beck/Johansen, although I do think maybe they should've seeded it earlier. I do think starting the movie with the scene that's actually a flashback in the books, with the storm and crew banter, was the right call, and would have liked it to be longer, actually.
Mark... well, OK, I actually don't like Matt Damon, so I wasn't sure how Mark would work for me, and... decently, I guess? I don't love him nearly as much as book!Mark, and he is also completely not my mental image of him, but he didn't interfere with my enjoyment of the movie, let's put it that way. Although none of the great Mark lines (of the ones that even made it into the film) soared for me, which was kind of a disappointment; the snark was about right, even on the lines added to the book stuff, but none of it went along with Matt Damon for me. I think my favorite was "Now, if I remember my training correctly, one of the lessons was titled “Don’t dig up the big box of plutonium, Mark.” though, or possibly In other news, there’s been a request for me to pose for a photograph on my next transmission. I’m trying to figure out whether I should go with “High School Senior” or “Coquettish Ingénue.” But I’m not really sure how that’s gonna look with my spacesuit on." We both also missed Mark actually saying first thing that it's not the crew's fault. Mitch implied it to the crew, but we didn't actually hear/see it -- unless it was in some tiny text on the screen that I couldn't read? That was one of the most powerful Mark moments for me, so I missed it. We also missed the "I'm pretty much fucked" opening, but the "Fuck." after the first long scene of Mark alone on Mars sufficed, I guess (and boy was that a long scene... so much panting!) Also, I can't believe they cut the "Look, a pair of boobs" line! although I suppose it is heavily implied.
A lot *was* cut from the plot. I actually rather missed the bit where Mark loses communication with NASA because he shorts out Pathfinder's comms with the drill. I think it makes it more dramatic that he's working on his own to prepare for the journey to Schiaparelli, and also it's pretty true to the story of engineering -- sometimes you have a minor oversight and it screws everything up -- but I did like the montage that showed Mark working on modifying the rover on Mars while the NASA team tested out the same modifications they were suggesting to him. I missed the storm on the way to Schiaparelli, too, because I thought that would be included and make it nice and dramatic, but I guess that would've taken too long; frankly, the whole second half of the movie felt too rushed. And the one thing that was outright added... I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that the hero gets to do something heroic -- actually try the Iron Man maneuver -- during the final rescue, rather than being passively retrieved. I don't mind that, I guess, narratively speaking, but I kept wondering why they were hugging rather than reeling him in as quickly as they could, since his spacesuit was breached and he was, you know, IN VACUUM.
One thing I did not miss at all were the inanimate-object-POV scene insertions from the book, which we get before the Hab airlock blows (I thought it was fine without any explanation, but missed how hard Mark had to work to recover from that setback in the book), when the Iris probe explodes (which is explained by NASA guys after, which worked much better for me), or when the Rover tips on descent into Schiaparelli crater (which also does not happen).
I thought I would really enjoy the after-the-rescue scenes, because I felt like the book was missing a back-on-earth epilogue, but I actually came away disappointed. I think I would have really liked to see the Hermes actually returning to earth, the reunion between the crew and their loved ones, and between them and the NASA team that brought them home. I mean, it's cute to see Mark lecturing, and Beck and Johansen together, but it didn't add as much as I was hoping for.
One other thing is definitely better in the movie than the book, though: disco! The gag got old not that far into the book, but the soundtrack was a lot of fun, and when the running gag surfaced explicitly in the movie rather than as background music, it also worked -- especially in the final scene where Lewis catches Mark, and he tells her, "You have terrible taste in music" and they both laugh. Also, "I Will Survive" playing over the end-credits was AWESOME. :D
Also, I was checking Wikipedia for cast lists and stuff, and it says this: "Sean Bean as Mitch Henderson, the Ares III's mission director. His priority at all times is the welfare and stability of the Ares III crew, remarkably he also survives." XD
Overall, I think the book and the movie are very complementary, actually. I wouldn't take the movie over the book, but the movie does make up for some of the book's flaws, and I think if I were to reread it, I'd enjoy the Houston scenes more because I'd see and hear the actors in my head in a way the prose in those sections did not provide.
There are a couple of promo things on YouTube which were pretty fun:
Right Stuff has psychologist interviews with the crew members, and hits the Aquaman bit that I missed from the book.
Farewell
Chem Cam (from Mars)