( Rings of Power 2.07 )

Two novels, a duology though they can be read independently, I suppose, about Cecily Neville, mother to Edward IV, Richard III and Margaret of Burgundy. Cecily shows up in Wars of the Roses fiction usually as a supporting character - she's the very sympathetic and admirable matriarch in Sharon Penman's Sunne in Splendour and the priggish harridan ( Read more... )

Robert Harris: Precipe. A novel set shortly before the outbreak of WWI and during its first year, focused on the unlikely yet historical love affair between British Prime Minister H.H. Asquith and the decades younger Venitia Stanley, whom he wrote up to three letters a day. Reading this novel was weird for me because I had encountered this story ( Read more... )

Rings of Power 2.05 and 2.06: In which things go really bad for dwarves and (some) Numenorians, but really well for Sauron.

( Spoilers really want to surpass Feanor )

Aka the pictorial results of my latest time in the British capital. Despite the occasional rain, it was mostly sunny - and fun. I did return with the unfun sort of cold, though, but never mind, it happens, especially in autumn. Now, photos!


( Read more... )

I was in London mostly for work reasons this last week, but I did get some sightseeing and friends meeting done as well, not to mention some book shopping and theatre going, and I'll post a pic spam as soon as I am able. But first, have some reviews:

Plays:

Antony and Cleopatra: staged at the Globe, with Nadia Nadarajah and John Hollingworth in ( Read more... )

In which a previously unfilmed LotR character makes his screen debut, and lives get saved in practically every storyline.

( Not all those who wander are lost )

In which the show is back and continues to please me. No doubt this is partly because it's been decades since I read the books, and while I liked them, I was never passionate about them. (Meanwhile: behold my childhood love for Michael Ende's The Never-Ending Story and the corresponding grrr-arggh feeling towards the movie (the first one, I never ( Read more... )

Darth Real Life continues to breathe down my neck, but I managed to marathon the second sason of AMC's Interview with the Vampire, aka the tv version of the second half (or, well, last third) of the titular novel. (I reviewed season 1 here.) It continues to be a fascinating take on and argument with Rice's story, andn while as with the first season ( Read more... )

Which is in the same continuity as "Rise.." "Dawn..." and "War..." respectively, set ca. 300 years after the Caesar trilogy, which I think was a very wise decision. I'm always wary when a story that feels complete gets an addendum because it was a success, which is why, for example, I never watched any of the "Pirates of the Carribean" movies ( Read more... )