Media recently consumed

[rahirah]

Been watching the first seasons of Fringe and Lost Girl. The latter is good cheesy fun, though Bo the Succubus is... really incredibly naive-bordering-on-dumb-as-a-rock. Still, nice to see a show where the female main character isn't punished for having sex. Really, really liking Fringe; I'd ignored it for a while because I thought it was just

Comments

[masqthephlsphr]

How exactly is Bo dumb? She seems competent enough to me, given the knee-deep shallowness and repetitive plot lines of the show.

Also like: them not making her and her ex's new girlfriend into enemies. Very cool.

[rahirah]

Well, we just watched the S1 finale, and for instance, when she goes to her mother with that earnest "If you turn yourself in, I'll ask the Ash to be nice to you!" speech. Granted, you really don't want to believe that your mother is a murdering psycho, but she'd had more than enough evidence at that point that Aife was a psycho, and it just seemed gratuitously dumb of Bo to expect Aife to meekly turn herself in.

(I should say I don't think she's any dumber than numerous male leads of similar genre shows.)

[harmonyfb]

Death Comes to Pemberly was best when James forgot she was writing Pride and Prejudice fanfic and just was herself.

Have you read Jo Walton's Among Others? It was fantabulous - I can't recommend it highly enough.

[rahirah]

No, I'll have to check it out.

I think the thing that most annoyed me about DCTB was all the "As you know, Darcy..." segments where the author proceeded to explain how the court system worked in Regency England or whatever to the clueless modern reader. It was so blatantly stuff that these characters would never actually say to one another as to feel mildly insulting.

[readerjane]

I finished the Ivan book recently, too.

At first I thought, "Huh? Ivan should be a little over 40..." and then I realized Bujold had actually stepped back in time which she usually doesn't do. And then I thought, "Yay, Aral's still alive!" And then there was no Aral.

I like the idea that Bujold might go back into her timeline and explore other characters and situations. The problem is, Ivan is so pale compared to Miles. Ivan doesn't seem to want anything very badly. He just wants to avoid major responsibility and get laid on a regular basis. So it's hard to get too excited about what happens.

The stuff about ImpSec HQ, and Simon's reaction to it, did have me hooting out loud. And I liked lady ghem Estif's revenge. And the interplay between individual-authority-based justice and rule-of-law-based justice and contractual-based justice, watching Gregor and the Arquas navigate that, was fascinating.

But Ivan was the center of the book, and the center was just... vanilla.

Y'know what it reminded me of? Heinlein's short story,

[rahirah]

It's a pity, too, because I don't think Ivan had to be vanilla. He could have had Depths.

[shipperx]

I find Fringe quite enjoyable. When it first came on I also thought it was an X-Files rip-off and tuned out, but then I caught up later. It has an interesting mytharc of its own that's not at all like X-Files. And it treats its ship differently as well.

And I can't remember whether or not you've read 'The Hunger Games,' but if you haven't it's worth the read.

Other enjoyable reads: 'Ready Player One,' 'The Fault in Our Stars,' and 'Redshirts.'

[rahirah]

I've sort of been avoiding Hunger Games because of all the hype. No matter how good it is, it's been built up so high I'm bound to be disappointed.

[shipperx]

Probably true, because the hype has become HUGE.

And, despite the hype and the praise, there are problems with it (the first half of the second book is quite slow and the third book seems rushed all over. Still, it's a page turner and Katniss is a great heroine).

Of course it's always about "what are you in the mood for?" when reading because you'd have to be in a very different mood/head space for reading "The Fault in Our Stars" (Which is about a 16 year old girl with terminal cancer. But she's snarky enough that it's not depressing) than when reading "Ready Player One" (which though it's set in a dystopian future is really all about a fun easter egg hunt through 80s pop culture trivia. Very action-y and fun).

Each are a very different head space and it's really about what sort of mood you're in for the moment.

[cornerofmadness]

I have much the same reaction to Lost Girl.

that is too bad about Death Comes to Pemberly. I guess I can remove it from the TBR pile

[rahirah]

I think it may be a case of the writer liking the characters too well, and not wanting them to be too upset. *g*

[cornerofmadness]

ah that makes sense. she's well known as an Austen scholar (I believe)