More ponderings
Click to viewI doubt I'll be posting any more Watchmen footage as it's still a good 7 months before the film comes out and I'll just end up filling up on excess anticipation.
I finally finished reading Faith of the Fallen and I can understand why a lot of Goodkind's fervent followers cite it as his best book. Sadly having just finished it...it still ranks as about one of the most horrendous fantasy books I've ever come across but at least is marginally better than the last couple in the series. Had he not spent 2/3rds of the book clattering on about The Pope-ish female main character leading the most ill-thought out and unresearched military campaign ever. Even down to having the heroes lead a decisive sneak cavalry attack on the enemy camp using about 200 men against the 50,000 there and kill hundreds without a single casualty (he did this in the second novel too) but then featuring the enemy using the exact same tactics and failing utterly because..... the heroes shoot them all with arrows. (Which somehow the fiercly trained army of doom doesn't think to do)
Anyway, the final third of the book is actually quite interesting as it involves the instigation of black markets and a lot of interesting info about sculpture. Only to blow it all in a craply written action finale where every main character of note happens upon the same place at the same time.
drivel. If only he'd learn to stop trying to write about politics and war and stick to simple folk interacting he'd write a lot better.
I also saw the first few episodes of the tv adaptation of his Series Legend of the Seeker. It's based quite loosely on the first novel and the pilot episode is a slightly simplified lift from the first few chapters of the book. It's ok, although it's quite obviously made by the same folk who created Hercules and Xena as it features half the same cast and locations. (yay for New Zealand.)
It's suprisingly watchable despite being a monstor of the week type show. A fair amount of blood gets spilt and a lot of people shouting whore! and bastard! brings it above the typical kiddy-tv fantasy fare I'm used to seeing. Pity it shamefully steals the slo-motion battle sequences from 300 and if you've read the book then you already know all the twists, and be prepared for the typical moralising that was all too evident in the first few series of Xena and is inherent to most mainstream tv series desperate to secure a second seried.
However if they can make Goodkind's paper-light mary-sueistic hero worship into a half decent tv show; then it's a good omen as far as the proposed HBO version of GRRM's A Game of Thrones which deserves the Rome treatment as it's a grand and opulant epic series of novels. Still time will tell.
I also saw Ridley Scott's new movie Body of Lies last night. Lots of Geopolitics and aanti-terrorist stuff kept it from being dull, but ultimately there just wasn't enough story there. Good performances all round and beign a Ridley-movie, it looked lovely but still, what was the point? It plays like the bastard love-child of Syriana and The Kingdom. So I'd not bother personally, save your cashes for Gonzo next week and then laugh at the paons going to see Twilight.