What's Entertained Me
Apr. 19th, 2004 12:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sdelmonteBooks
Marathon Man: Most people have at least heard of the film starring Dustin Hoffman and Laurence Olivier, but I suspect many don't know that Goldman wrote it as a novel first. Indeed, Goldman - who writes an introduction to the novel in this edition in his usual breezy insider voice - began as a novelist. I'm sure that he had a movie in mind as he already had his Oscar for Butch Cassidy at this point, but this stands well on it own. It is a bit hard to read the book without knowing that Dustin Hoffman and Roy Scheider, two actors I am familiar with, were in the film. Even though the character Hoffman plays is younger than Hoffman was, I hear his voice and see his mannerisms.
This is essentially vacation reading. If you are looking for a work of profound significance that explores the fate of Nazi war criminals after WWII, look elsewhere. If you are looking for a well-written potboiler, with sharply defined characters, this is the place.
Oh, and the infamous torture scene - which I have never seen in its movie form - is not that horrific to me.
Rama II: Sir Arthur C. Clarke, one of the great visionaries of the 20th century and one of my favorite SF writers, swept the major SF lit awards with his 1973 Rendezvous with Rama. I read that book some time ago, and enjoyed it, even though the details of it do not stand out nearly as well as do the details from a good number of his other novels. At Lunacon, I found Rama II, which I bought in part because for some reason Batya had bought The Garden of Rama at a library book sale. Figured I should read the second book first.
Rama II was cowritten by Sir Arthur and Gentry Lee, a JPL scientist turned novelist. This partnership is apparent in the surprising amount of character development in the book. Clarke is a great stylist, and a man whose novels are always about ideas. But his characters (especially in his later novels) rarely become more than very intelligent and talented hooks to hang those ideas on. (Perhaps this is why his short stories are so strong.) To a large degree, Lee's influence - I can't say without any real evidence that Clarke was not an equal partner in the creation of this book since his voice is quite noticeable - slows down the book at the start. Things lurch toward the soap operatic, with improbable and somewhat unwelcome affairs and with a few too many secrets.
But this sequel, while not necessarily covering any ground that the first book didn't, is a lot more enjoyable. The character play is very welcome, and it ties into the strange new world awaiting a crew of "cosmonauts" about the second mysterious Rama space vessel. Also welcome is a positive view of religion that is probably the addition of Mr. Lee, given Clarke's lifelong difficulties with organized religion. The book has a good deal of suspense, action, and even an unlikely but interesting romance.
I looked at the reader reviews of this at Amazon.com, and most were aghast that Clarke would attach his name to such a project. But I found this to be an entertaining and thoughtful page-turner. No, it's not quite the kind of thing that Sir Arthur is famous for. But it's a worthy addition to his oeuvre.
Comic book update
Two comics dropped from my list, Detective Comics and Catwoman. The former has a new writer, an unknown named Anderson Gabrych who may be a great writer some day, but who is not ready to handle the biggest name around right out of the gate. What's more, the price of 'Tec went up to $2.95, which buys not only a Batman tale but an usually poorly done backup story. This is just not worth the money.
Catwoman was DC's best comic only 18 months ago. Then things changed. The art style went from a noir look inspired by the Batman animated series to a more conventional layout with an overtly (and overly) sexy Selina Kyle. The stories shifted away from keeping Selina more a thief with a heart of gold to making her almost a full-time hero. The result is that I lost interest in Catwoman's life in record time.
At the top of my list are Fables,, Fantastic Four, Abadazad, Gotham Central and Nightwing. That last one I mention in part because no one seems to be paying attention to the current story, wherein Dick Grayson's life is being turned upside down in ways that are really intriguing to read about. Writer Devin Grayson is playing rougher with Dick than her predecessor, Chuck Dixon, ever would, and I think a lot of longtime fans are not happy with the direction this book is going. But I'm loving it. Devin Grayson is among a very small number of writers who know how to do angst well.
Oddly, a look over the forthcoming three months' schedule of comics reveals that the vast majority of what I plan to buy will be comics out in just half of the month's Wednesdays. I have always tried to spread out my buying over the month, but this may not be doable, given what I wish to buy. I may have to spend two Wednesdays in a row every month without new comics! Oh, the horror!
What's coming up? This week, fans of Greg Rucka are advised that he begins his run on Adventures of Superman. It's been a while since anyone has made Superman work well for me, so Rucka (one of my favorite comic book writers) has his work cut out. Meanwhile, it's five weeks till Joss Whedon's X-Men series debuts.
TV
Down to only three weekly series. Angel plugs away as it heads to its premature end. I'm still enjoying a lot about this season, but I have to say that maybe it's for the best that it ends now, while it's still impressing us. Then again, it's also clear that there is much left in the creative tank.
Smallville has not been so hot for a while. While the season stared out very strong, some story arcs went nowhere, and even the return of Chris Reeve as the mysterious Dr. Swann did little to resolve a muddle of plots involving both Lionel and Lex Luthor, Jonathan Kent, the caves under Smallville, and Jor-El. We can hope that the season finale makes sense of it all, but I think that this series is running out of steam. I would not be surprised if it ends next year with Clark Kent's graduation from high school.
The third show is Tru Calling. As its first (and possibly only?) season goes along, it's gotten better. It's not anywhere near as good as something like Buffy, lacking any sort of subtext or metaphor, but the writers are making progress in keeping the stories original and gripping. The acting is uniformly strong, and to my surprise, the addition of Jason Priestly to the cast, playing a rather creepy morgue assistant, as worked very well. I'm not sure that new viewers could join in at this point, with only three new episodes left, but i would recommend it on the off chance that Fox renews it and shows summer reruns.
Marathon Man: Most people have at least heard of the film starring Dustin Hoffman and Laurence Olivier, but I suspect many don't know that Goldman wrote it as a novel first. Indeed, Goldman - who writes an introduction to the novel in this edition in his usual breezy insider voice - began as a novelist. I'm sure that he had a movie in mind as he already had his Oscar for Butch Cassidy at this point, but this stands well on it own. It is a bit hard to read the book without knowing that Dustin Hoffman and Roy Scheider, two actors I am familiar with, were in the film. Even though the character Hoffman plays is younger than Hoffman was, I hear his voice and see his mannerisms.
This is essentially vacation reading. If you are looking for a work of profound significance that explores the fate of Nazi war criminals after WWII, look elsewhere. If you are looking for a well-written potboiler, with sharply defined characters, this is the place.
Oh, and the infamous torture scene - which I have never seen in its movie form - is not that horrific to me.
Rama II: Sir Arthur C. Clarke, one of the great visionaries of the 20th century and one of my favorite SF writers, swept the major SF lit awards with his 1973 Rendezvous with Rama. I read that book some time ago, and enjoyed it, even though the details of it do not stand out nearly as well as do the details from a good number of his other novels. At Lunacon, I found Rama II, which I bought in part because for some reason Batya had bought The Garden of Rama at a library book sale. Figured I should read the second book first.
Rama II was cowritten by Sir Arthur and Gentry Lee, a JPL scientist turned novelist. This partnership is apparent in the surprising amount of character development in the book. Clarke is a great stylist, and a man whose novels are always about ideas. But his characters (especially in his later novels) rarely become more than very intelligent and talented hooks to hang those ideas on. (Perhaps this is why his short stories are so strong.) To a large degree, Lee's influence - I can't say without any real evidence that Clarke was not an equal partner in the creation of this book since his voice is quite noticeable - slows down the book at the start. Things lurch toward the soap operatic, with improbable and somewhat unwelcome affairs and with a few too many secrets.
But this sequel, while not necessarily covering any ground that the first book didn't, is a lot more enjoyable. The character play is very welcome, and it ties into the strange new world awaiting a crew of "cosmonauts" about the second mysterious Rama space vessel. Also welcome is a positive view of religion that is probably the addition of Mr. Lee, given Clarke's lifelong difficulties with organized religion. The book has a good deal of suspense, action, and even an unlikely but interesting romance.
I looked at the reader reviews of this at Amazon.com, and most were aghast that Clarke would attach his name to such a project. But I found this to be an entertaining and thoughtful page-turner. No, it's not quite the kind of thing that Sir Arthur is famous for. But it's a worthy addition to his oeuvre.
Comic book update
Two comics dropped from my list, Detective Comics and Catwoman. The former has a new writer, an unknown named Anderson Gabrych who may be a great writer some day, but who is not ready to handle the biggest name around right out of the gate. What's more, the price of 'Tec went up to $2.95, which buys not only a Batman tale but an usually poorly done backup story. This is just not worth the money.
Catwoman was DC's best comic only 18 months ago. Then things changed. The art style went from a noir look inspired by the Batman animated series to a more conventional layout with an overtly (and overly) sexy Selina Kyle. The stories shifted away from keeping Selina more a thief with a heart of gold to making her almost a full-time hero. The result is that I lost interest in Catwoman's life in record time.
At the top of my list are Fables,, Fantastic Four, Abadazad, Gotham Central and Nightwing. That last one I mention in part because no one seems to be paying attention to the current story, wherein Dick Grayson's life is being turned upside down in ways that are really intriguing to read about. Writer Devin Grayson is playing rougher with Dick than her predecessor, Chuck Dixon, ever would, and I think a lot of longtime fans are not happy with the direction this book is going. But I'm loving it. Devin Grayson is among a very small number of writers who know how to do angst well.
Oddly, a look over the forthcoming three months' schedule of comics reveals that the vast majority of what I plan to buy will be comics out in just half of the month's Wednesdays. I have always tried to spread out my buying over the month, but this may not be doable, given what I wish to buy. I may have to spend two Wednesdays in a row every month without new comics! Oh, the horror!
What's coming up? This week, fans of Greg Rucka are advised that he begins his run on Adventures of Superman. It's been a while since anyone has made Superman work well for me, so Rucka (one of my favorite comic book writers) has his work cut out. Meanwhile, it's five weeks till Joss Whedon's X-Men series debuts.
TV
Down to only three weekly series. Angel plugs away as it heads to its premature end. I'm still enjoying a lot about this season, but I have to say that maybe it's for the best that it ends now, while it's still impressing us. Then again, it's also clear that there is much left in the creative tank.
Smallville has not been so hot for a while. While the season stared out very strong, some story arcs went nowhere, and even the return of Chris Reeve as the mysterious Dr. Swann did little to resolve a muddle of plots involving both Lionel and Lex Luthor, Jonathan Kent, the caves under Smallville, and Jor-El. We can hope that the season finale makes sense of it all, but I think that this series is running out of steam. I would not be surprised if it ends next year with Clark Kent's graduation from high school.
The third show is Tru Calling. As its first (and possibly only?) season goes along, it's gotten better. It's not anywhere near as good as something like Buffy, lacking any sort of subtext or metaphor, but the writers are making progress in keeping the stories original and gripping. The acting is uniformly strong, and to my surprise, the addition of Jason Priestly to the cast, playing a rather creepy morgue assistant, as worked very well. I'm not sure that new viewers could join in at this point, with only three new episodes left, but i would recommend it on the off chance that Fox renews it and shows summer reruns.
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(no subject)
Date: Apr. 20th, 2004 11:14 am (UTC)However, I would like to send a memo to DC Comics editorial that says Dear Editorial, please stop using this excellent book as a testing ground for mediocre artists and let Leonardi do it every month. Thank you.
Other than that, happy.
TV--I'm down to just two that I must.Watch.Each.Week.Or.Perish--The West Wing (which after a very dull start to this season suddenly woke up) and Angel (which has lost me again but it has some neat ideas and is almost over & I want to see where it's all going). Joan of Arcadia in my fickleness I became bored with, but I am recording the episodes to watch later. Same with Alias (3 weeks behind now). Alias is still a perfectly good show but somehow they lost me and I am bored.
I seem to be having a TV/boredom problem lately. Books don't bore me, most comic books don't bore me, music doesn't bore me. But perfectly nice shows I used to adore bore me.
(no subject)
Date: Apr. 23rd, 2004 07:16 am (UTC)TV boredom: I know what you mean. I think that all too often series TV gets caught in a rut. At some point, the acting gets tired or the directing flails about or the writers get bored too. Unless a series either keeps shfting the status quo - like Buffy, later episodes of DS9, Farscape - or tries new things all the time - such as The Practice coming up with really cool and unusual lawsuits to handle for five years - it will eventually get dull.
That said, a lot of great sitcoms like Mary Tyler Moore, The Simpsons and MASH took a very long time to get stale. I suspect that sitcoms, being less about a central premise and more about the joke, actually have more room to mix things up. As long as the reset button is pushed after the show, anyway.
This doesn't explain, however, why a comic book about a former kid sidekick who fights against an oversized crimelord in a corrupt city doesn't get dull. Perhaps there is just enough change, or illusion of change, to keep things fresh. Or maybe it helps that Dick Grayson never, ever phones in a performance, not being an actor.