Nollaig
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Posts posted by Nollaig
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Eeee exciting! Have a safe trip!
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Jumping back a bit but, I loved the first season of Fringe. I thought after that it just went off the wall, and I don't think I ever finished it. But the first season is still worth a watch anyway.
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Best of luck with the production role, sounds daunting but very rewarding
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I find this place has changed a lot since I first arrived, and it does go quiet once in a while, but it always picks back up.
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Really glad you enjoyed Paper Towns and The Girl on the Train! I can't wait for the Paper Towns movie - not long to go, I don't think!
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I'm reading Uprooted by Naomi Novik and so far it's very very well-written. Absolutely no idea where the story is going to go, but there's over 400 pages of it and it's definitely piqued my interest.
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I've got The Darkest Part of the Forest on my wishlist. After reading your review I need to bump it up on my list.
Hope you enjoy it!
Good reviews, Noll. I'd be interested in your take on the ending of The Quiet Earth.
I didn't understand it. Honestly,
the implication that he is stuck in some sort of loop, which is all I could possibly take from that ending, suggests to me that it's some kind of hell or purgatory where he's being forced to relive the consequences of his actions (which may or may not have actually happened in the real world). That, or he's insane and in an asylum imagining it all. Either way, it undermines the sci-fi element of the book and reduces the whole thing down to a thinly-supported philosophical musing, reminscient (for me) of the novel What Dreams May Come (another example of a film that did away with the philosophical stuff for the most part and ended up far better than the source book). But this is just imo, I don't really go in for vague stuff like this. I'm assuming the world is not actually stuck in a time loop because Hobson managed to explain everything else with his pretty vague science, but there was no mention of loops and no logical explanation for them that the reader can derive. What were your thoughts?
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Just stuck a delicious sauce-stuffed-crust bbq pizza in the oven
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It really is very good Michelle, I plan to buy a hardcopy (pretty much everything I read these days is on my tablet) when I get paid on Friday
Just in the door and put a pizza in the oven and I'm already flicking through Uprooted - such a pretty cover!! And an endorsement from Lev Grossman on the cover - I adore Lev's Magicians.
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Oh no, that sounds awful, compared to the synopsis! I was thinking more of the/a devil.
No its very much in the vein of Tithe/Valiant/Ironside, but more emphasis on the human stuff. And much better. Very good read, genuinely.
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The Darkest Part of the Forest - Holly Black
Synopsis: Hazel lives with her brother, Ben, in the strange town of Fairfold where humans and fae exist side by side. The faeries’ seemingly harmless magic attracts tourists, but Hazel knows how dangerous they can be, and she knows how to stop them. Or she did, once. At the center of it all, there is a glass coffin in the woods. In it sleeps a boy with horns on his head and ears as pointed as knives. The boy has slept there for generations, never waking. Until one day, he does… As the world turns upside down, Hazel tries to remember her years pretending to be a knight. But swept up in new love, shifting loyalties, and the fresh sting of betrayal, will it be enough?
***
Review: This one was a bit of a brave step for me, being as it is that I have qualms with Holly's other books set within a Faerieland of some sort. Having recently read White Cat - slightly removed from her more faerietale style books - and having found it to be an excellent read, I decided to give this one a go. And I loved it. Absolutely loved it. It was, in writing, in character, in creativity, all of the things I wanted from Tithe when I first read it. It is all of the things that Valiant almost achieved. In this most recent novel from Holly Black, she has finally imagined a perfect faerietale.
The novel begins with the human world and some human characters - all very normal, aside from the horned boy - and gradually introduces element after element of fantasy - a changeling main character, unfortunate tourist stories involving the Folk, the complex history of Ben and Hazel, their gifts and all their encounters with the Folk throughout their lives. Each element is introduced so perfectly as to make this not feel like a fantasy story, but a world as real as our own where the Folk are an unusual, but not impossible, fact of life. The writing is fantastic, but I've come to expect that from Holly's more recent offerings, and the story is at times brilliantly dark. Some of the descriptions of death and corpses - and one particular scene where Hazel uses an unusual method to free herself from a tree - this is the stuff I would have loved to read as a teenager.
The characters were all likeable - its rare a book throws out two swoon-worthy fellas, but the Horned Boy and Jack have both got a lot going for them here. Hazel feels somewhat like an amalgamation of Kaye from Tithe and the title character from Valiant, but more refined and relatable than either. Even Leonie, a minor character with a small part to play, had me wishing for her safety at one point. The magic is extremely imaginative and detailed - creatures, poems, legends, monsters, twists and turns, the works. The book has it all and it all works magnificently. I'm giving it a 4.5 for now, because I felt the climactic scenes came on rather suddenly, but after its had time to settle it may move up to the full 5.Rating: 4.5/5
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The Quiet Earth - Craig Harrison
Synopsis: John Hobson, a geneticist, wakes one morning to find his watch stopped at 6.12. The streets are deserted, there are no signs of life or death anywhere, and every clock he finds has stopped: at 6.12. Is Hobson the last person left on the planet?
Inventive and suspenseful, The Quiet Earth is a confronting journey into the future, and a dark past.***
Review: I flipped back and forth on this one as I was reading it. On the one hand, it is superbly written with extremely evocative turns of phrase, and rich in prose rather than dense, so it is a pleasure to read. On the other hand, said prose is about two things. Firstly, the occurence of a freak experimental event which has apparently caused the wiping out of almost all of mankind - according to our scientist narrator who explains the science behind it quite vaguely. And secondly, the emotional resonance of a traumatic event in his personal life that led to the breakdown of his family. The two (I felt) did not gel very well, and the net result was a book that teetered between sci-fi and psychological drama without ever falling into one category or the other.
As a massive fan of the film - the reason I wanted to read the book at all - my view of the book was always going to be biased. I do try to keep an open mind when it comes to the source material for adaptations, and vice versa, and I had heard that the novel was very different, but I wasn't prepared for just how different. Fundamentally, the movie removed all of the psychological drama aspects. It went full sci-fi, and in the process produced one of the greatest Last Man sequences I've ever seen. Had the book gone entirely in either direction, as the film did, I would have liked it much more.
As per the film, I quite liked the narrator, and I hated Api (I can't put my finger on why, he was just a very unappealing character for me). As for the girl... well, the way in which she's dealt with in the book is probably one of the few superior aspects of the book, in my opinion. I really loved that aspect. All in all, I'd say the book is worth reading for the curious fans of the film who want to read the source, and probably for a lot of people who haven't seen the film. But for me, as someone who loved the film, I was already too biased in a specific direction to be able to love the undecidedness of the book's genre, even with all the beautiful writing.Rating: 3.5/5
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Finished The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black. Wobbled a little towards the end, but that's my own bias against faerie-heavy stories. Review to follow (still need to review The Quiet Earth too).
No idea what's up next, but I did just get a proof copy of Uprooted by Naomi Novik through my door this morning so I suspect it might be that!
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I would have been having a scone, but when I went to get the elevator down four floors, neither elevator worked, and I didn't fancy walking down and up 8 flights of stairs for a scone when I have do it again for lunch seemingly!
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Oh that's good to hear- I really want to read it- its on the short list for when I get home.
I'm almost halfway through now, still love it. Think it'll probably be a 4.5 star read, if it ends well.
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Sean Platt and David Wright, it came out on the May 12th, called 12.
At 6 p.m. on a Wednesday in October, a gunman will enter Goldman’s Diner and commit one of the worst massacres the small coastal town of Palm Isles, Florida has ever seen.
Twelve hours earlier: twelve lives are on borrowed time, unaware that death is coming, or that their paths will collide in one tragic moment.
TWELVE HOURS
TWELVE LIVES
WHO LIVES?
WHO DIES?
That sounds good
Must check that out myself. -
I've started The Darkest Part Of The Forest by Holly Black, and so far I'm loving it more than anything else she's done, so fingers crossed it stays good!
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Tis a landslide Yes here in Ireland for marriage equality
Haven't got the exact figures yet, but the equality minister has called it and the no side have conceded defeat. Ireland are officially the first country in the world to decide, as a nation by popular vote, to legalise gay marriage. Wahey! Very proud to be Irish today -
I really like the sound of both of them - particularly The Glass Demon. To the wishlist!
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Good luck with the referendum tomorrow, Noll! I have everything crossable crossed for Ireland! <3
Thanks!
I will be keeping them crossed as well - and can I say a big thank you on behalf of everyone who will affected by the outcome of this vote. As you know my partner of 18 years (and husband of 9 months) is going through a change from male to female, so although I am not gay, this is still a subject close to my heart. It is not from where I stand even about gay rights, but about equality across the board, so that every man, woman or in between (and there are many of them) has the right to marry the person that they choose and love, as we both did.
You're right, 'gay' has just sort of become shorthand for LGBT. (And it's quicker to say!) We actually just call it marriage equality most of the time, the Yes campaign is called Yes Equality. The no side try to claim its nothing to do with equality
The leaflet-drop was torture - I'm not physically cut out for that kind of carry on at all!
Did it anyway, and now tis done, and tis down to the good people of Ireland. The stats look good, the important thing is just actually getting all the promised yeses to the polling stations - if we did that, we'd win it no problem. But time will tell. -
Today I'm going doing a leaflet-drop with some friends advocating a Yes vote for tomorrow's referendum (amending the constitution of Ireland to include gay marriage, so it's a constitutional right like heterosexual marriage) . It's the last effort of a massive campaign here in Cork (it has other branches in other counties, Cork's one has been amazing) to inform people about the facts of constitutionalising the right to gay marriage.
I haven't canvassed for it, as that made me too nervous - this just involves drop info leaflets in doors. Still a bit nervous, but want to do my part. Then heading down to Kerry tomorrow after to work to vote!
There has been some amazing support for the Yes vote here - there's a video featuring a lot of famous Brits saying if they could vote, they'd vote yes - and it includes Stephen Fry asking the Irish people as Gaegile (in Irish) to vote yes. Very powerful stuff.
Fingers crossed for the right outcome on Saturday!
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Finding out that today week I'll get four weeks pay, not just the two I was expecting! Will make my life so much easier!
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Finished the second Internment Chronicles book by Lauren DeStefano, Burning Kingdoms. I.... kinda loved it. I still think the writing is clunky and the characters weirdly- or under-developed, but I kinda loved the story.
Also finished The Quiet Earth by Craig Harrison... not too sure about it. Strange mix of pseudo-scientific stuff interspered with utterly emotionless depictions of dramatic recollections, set against a last-man-on-earth backdrop. I didn't feel the elements gelled all that well, though the writing is terrific. Yeah, not sure. Going to rewatch the film shortly (love the film!)
Next up book-wise for me is Rise Of The Lich King.... yes, a WoW book. I've read it before, even though I don't play WoW, because a friend of mine recommended it to me (and I loved it). However, since I read it (a few years ago) I have started playing Hearthstone, which features a characters and creatures from the WoW world, and I want to read it again to give the characters I'm familiar with in Hearthstone some context.
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I personally found the second book almost as enjoyable as the first, though I seem to be in the minority! It's the third one that's rubbish.
That mostly makes me feel even more conflicted
Noll's 2015 Book Blog
in Past Book Logs
Posted
Haha no worries! Yeah, I don't really like that idea either. For me that just undermines the level of detail that went into the entire novel. But as I say, I love the movie, which is pure sci-fi, so I was always going to be biased I guess. It was a good book, but just not satisfying for me personally.