Stuff I've been consuming

[got_quiet]

I haven't been reading as much this year as last. My concentration has been hard to wrangle for a while. And it was not particularly well wrangled before. But I did finish a decent Sci-Fi book recently.

 

Suzanne Palmer - Finder

It reads like a classic Sci fi space opera. The main character, Fergus, arrives at a backwater mining community to steal back and high tech space ship. He immediately runs into serious trouble and then spends the rest of the book trying to figure out how to perform a repo while navigating a burgeoning civil war. There are a handful of twists and turns, a decent collection of supporting characters, and a lot of the sort of problem solving and trickery that I like from adventure books. Fergus as a character has a lot of baggage but it basically exists as a sort of undercoat for the emotional beats of the book. He struggles with the idea of being responsible for other people and thinks staying aloof will prevent catching feelings or feeling guilt when things go sideways. But he's ultimately a good guy with a good heart who picks up allies naturally by being a decent person.

The worldbuilding in this book was engaging and well integrated into the plot. There were little details that would come up as as flavor early on and would circle around to being important later. The science part of sci-fi was relatively strong. People are worried about air and gravity at least.

This was a nice one shot read with classic adventure vibes. I recommend.

I'm currently reading The Eyre Affair

I've spent most of my time reading this book trying to decide if I liked it or not. I kept stepping over the line in one direction or the other, and at the moment I'm in the don't like it side. It's just not my sort of humor. There are a lot of references to English literature. That's kind of the whole gimmick I guess, that this whacky world cares a lot about English lit in a way that has significant effects on everyday life. Shakespeare's true identity is a question that can lead to riots for example. So there are jokes I guess that are mostly references too, which also is kind of boring to me. I've never been a big fan of referential comedy unless it's doing something else in the meantime.

My biggest gripe is that this is kind of sort of a mystery, or a caper in which two forces are theoretically scheming against each other, but because there are no rules of the game, and anything can be interrupted by nonsense, it's not like you can really follow the score. There's time travel, physically entering and exiting works of literature, someone who can just be invisible to all forms of recording, etc. The title of the story is because the Villain wants to hold Jane Eyre hostage, literally. So I sort of just have to take each scene as it comes.

That said the character driven parts of the story are decent. The villain is a nothing burger. He's the most absurd part of the book and is therefore sort of non-human, but the everyone else is kind of interesting. A lot of the story is about the MC kind of managing her personal life while trying to stop a literary terrorist, which is done relatively well and makes for an ok contrast with the absurd elements. The tone reminds me a little of Douglas Adams, and he is in fact in the book blurb as a lure, along with Monty Python, Harry Potter (???), Stephen Hawking, and Buffy. TBH the blurb almost made me ditch the book before opening it...

I don't dislike this so much I want to stop reading, which is a good sign, but I'm not sure how I'm going to be satisfied with the ending.

I've also watched a couple things.

Pacific Rim

I only watched one movie on my flight to and from Japan. I had never seen Pacific Rim and figured, why not, I've heard good things about it. It's not a bad movie. It feels kind of on the level of Independence Day. Cheesy, not meant to be squinted at in any way, but with some exciting action moments and personable characters. I didn't end up imprinting on it or anything, but I did like how the main guy was just immediately into Mako being his copilot and becoming her cheerleader for the operation. IIRC fandom was all about shipping the two scientists, which I understand, but if I cared enough I'd be into the DILF duo, the Australian guy and the boss man. And no I don't remember anyone's name but Mako's apparently.

 

Bang Brave Bang Braven

I fucking loved this dumbass show. It's very short, which is great. It just tells its story and leaves. It's a mecha anime, kind of taking a piss at mecha anime, but is also extremely earnest. I watched the whole thing in Japanese so I can't say I have the strongest grip on what was going on. For example, the whole time I thought the enemies were called Testdrives, not Deathdrives. Whoops. I'll probably find a copy with English Subs and watch again at one point, because it was good enough and short enough for a rewatch. Smith's unhinged affection for Isami was great. Isami being like hoooooly shit fuck this was great. Lulu's absolute shrieking was somehow so hilarious to me every time. Like that VA absolutely committed to the bit. Because I didn't catch everything I hesitate to call the plot unhinged nonsense, but it at the very least decides to just do whatever the fuck it wants.

Also, the show is extremely gay. It's hard to argue that it's not just text when you've got one character shouting out "SUKI DAAA" and throwing himself at the other character. There is no heterosexual explanation.

Other fans have already done think pieces on the meaning of the whole show, and there are some interesting themes and through-lines about the will to live, and the typical shonen stuff about fighting for yourself and others. But first and foremost it's a really entertaining romp.

Music:

Honkai Star Rail had their first anniversary concert yesterday, and it was awesome like so many game music concerts are. HSR music is one of the highlights of an already very polished game. Also there was a whole song for Sampo which I heard was actually a whole ass fan production, which was both extremely impressive for the fan and awesome that it was included in the official concert!

And here's a band I just found: Elephant Revival. Their original music is not entirely my usual fare, maybe a little more folky than I tend to go for, but I really like the vocals and the mood still, and their covers are really something else. Here's TOOL's Schism.

 

 

 

Comments

[shadowbliss]

Cool stuff

[rogueslayer452]

Pacific Rim was such a fantastic movie, a great homage to the classic kaiju movies such as Godzilla. It's definitely an entertaining film, the action, the special effects, the colors, everything felt lived in and vibrant and that there was a built-in world with everything going on. It also got many people hooked on the "drift compatible" term for a while there, which is quite fitting for any kind of deep connection one has with another. Truly, a great film. Guillermo del Toro never misses.

[tinkaton]

I looove Pacific Rim so much I've got a del Toro quote about the movie in my sidebar on my journal sjhdfkjdf I'm glad you watched it! I miss the era of tumblr when PacRim first came out and every fandom had a hundred crossovers imagining the characters in a PacRim mecha copilot situation lmao. Herc/Stacker (the Australian dad and boss man) were my fave ship so +1 for good taste, though I did like Mako/Raleigh too. I should do a rewatch sometime soon, it definitely ended up as one of my comfort movies.

I've seen some people talking about Braven, it seems up my alley since, obviously, I like silly mecha stuff lmao. I'll have to put it on my to watch list!

I also read The Eyre Affair aaaages ago and I remember liking it I think? But I'm pretty sure never continued the series. I don't remember a thing about it in detail but hopefully the ending isn't too disappointing for you!