Comments | hamsterwoman: Ronan Boys nonsense (now on Tumblr), reading roundup, and The Martian movie

hamsterwoman

Ronan Boys nonsense (now on Tumblr), reading roundup, and The Martian movie

Feb 15, 2016 18:04

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 ( Read more... )

a: jordan l hawk, movie, tumblr apparently, a: andy weir, a: brian vaughan, reading, ronan boys, a: kj charles

Comments 67

spaciireth February 16 2016, 02:14:07 UTC

I think I read your Raven Cycle poems when you posted them, except I hadn't read any Raven Cycle at the time, so I sort of smiled bemusedly and left it at that. Except now I've read the first one at least (library appears to have lost its copy of The Dream Thieves, grr) and I really adore your Gansey limerick. :D

hamsterwoman February 16 2016, 02:25:42 UTC

Aww, thank you, re: the limerick! :)

That's so annoying that your library doesn't have Dream Thieves! It is my favorite of the three books currently out (and I suspect will remain my favorite overall). Partly it's that it's Ronan-centric and Ronan is my favorite of the main characters, but partly I think it's also the most coherent of the books.

orangerful February 16 2016, 02:59:06 UTC

I love Saga so much, and BKV in general. I need to catch up on his new series, my friend just told me about it and it sounds fantastic. He has a very Whedon-y tone, IMHO, which is how I ended up finding out about him in the first place.

I don't get the robots either. It wasn't until this final trade that I even started to feel anything towards them. I think the lack of a face is the issue, I have a hard time telling them apart.

But the story does the thing that i like when it comes to sci-fi, weaving in current issues into the storyline.

hamsterwoman February 16 2016, 06:53:43 UTC

I would definitely not mind reading more by BKV! So far it's just been 3 volumes of Saga and Pride of Baghdad, which was beautiful but god so sad (based on a true story, it said right in front, so I should've figured it out, I guess, but I definitely had not been expecting that ending!). You recommended Y: The Last Man the last time we were talking about Saga, so that's on the list to try at some point -- and probably anything else from him also ( ... )

orangerful February 17 2016, 02:47:15 UTC

I've got 'Pride of Baghdad' in my collection downstairs, breaks my heart but it is a beautiful book. I love 'Runaways' too, which is a great story about a group of teens that find out a terrible secret about their parents. I'm hoping that the MCU eventually gets to their storylines!

But if you have to prioritize, get Y! :)

hamsterwoman February 17 2016, 05:13:42 UTC

breaks my heart but it is a beautiful book.

It really is! When I was reading it, I was planning to share it with L, who is an even bigger animal lover than me, because the art was so beautiful and the animals really felt like animals. Then I got to the ending and was like, um, maybe not, because she gets really affected by anything sad to do with animals.

I'm curious about Runaways, too, even though superhero comics as a genre scare me with their fastness. A friend of mine was a big fan, before I knew BKV's name even, so I was intrigued, and once I learned he was behind them, even more so.

twicet February 16 2016, 03:42:15 UTC

I haven't read the book, and doubt if I will now, but I quite liked the movie Martian.

hamsterwoman February 16 2016, 05:27:01 UTC

I did like the book a lot, but if you have the story from the movie already, unless you are a big fan of first-person smartass narrators (Mark is a really fun one) or show-your-work (but in a good way!) science geekery, it probably makes sense to skip the book.

bearshorty February 16 2016, 04:12:41 UTC

I had the same reaction to The Martian - which I did just see a week ago :)
I liked the book more because it had a lot more details and explanation like how Mark did the modifications to the rover or the Hub. So I'm really glad I read the book first. But I also enjoyed the movie and I liked the Hermes crew and the disco in the movie. I also found the last rescue sequence pretty suspenseful. And I liked actually seeing what the Hub looked like, the Hermes, and the rovers (although I really missed the book sections on how Mark modified the rovers). It adds a layer to the book for me. And I agree with you on missing the communication cut with the Pathfinder.

I giggled during Project Elrond because Sean Bean was explaining it.

I like Matt Damon (he looks like my first cousin so I always have positive associations with him) so that casting choice worked for me.

Bear didn't read the book and he liked the movie.

hamsterwoman February 16 2016, 06:03:47 UTC

Oh yeah, having the visuals was great! (Both O and I remarked that we had imagined the Hub as bigger, for example.)

I agree that the movie adds a layers, but like you, I was glad I had the foundation of the book first. I definitely think that's the best way to watch the movie -- as a book fan already. (Though, obviously, it's possible to enjoy the movie just fine without reading the book; my brother also watched it without first reading and liked it a lot. But then, he's a huge Matt Damon fan, so that was probably an easy sell for him :)

I giggled during Project Elrond because Sean Bean was explaining it.

Yes! Although I knew to expect that. I liked the way absolutely everybody in the room except Annie knew it without explanation, though. And the Glorfindel line was just awesome, especially coming from Teddy, who is basically "the establishment" in this story.

qwentoozla February 16 2016, 04:29:00 UTC

I saw the movie of The Martian but haven't read the book, so it was interesting to hear what the differences were! I enjoyed the movie, but I agree that it was slow in patches. And I also don't really like Matt Damon! I think he was fine in this, but he's not really an impressive actor, or even particularly charismatic, just sort of averagely likable...

hamsterwoman February 16 2016, 06:06:26 UTC

The book has a great first-person smartass voice; the movie gives a taste of it in the voiceovers and log entries, but the book is basically all like that (except for the fairly flat sections in third person with the Hermes crew and the Houston team, which were both better in the movie).

Yeah, I think you're right and what's missing for me in Matt Damon is precisely charisma. (I mean, obviously he works just fine for a lot of people, including my brother, who considers him a favorite, maybe even the favorite, actor, but for me he is just kind of... there.)