vodkafan
-
Posts
6,056 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Events
Books
Posts posted by vodkafan
-
-
Thanks for your review Claire, I think I have this one waiting on my kindle.....seems worth a look anyway.....I didn't read your spoiler.
-
The Victorian Internet 5/5
Tom Standage
Yes this little gem really hit the spot. He made the story of the development of the electric telegraph (telegraphy also includes semaphore and other optical methods which predated it you see!) really exciting. It really was an absolutely groundbreaking invention that changed the world for everyone. Standage tells us of all the winners and the losers , the heroes, inventors who went down the wrong path and those who were simply incompetent chancers. A very entertaining little book and packed with information I would not find anywhere else.
-
Wired Love- A Romance Of Dots And Dashes 3/5
Ella Cheevor Thayer
The marvelous technology of ebooks brings very obscure old books back into circulation if one takes a little trouble to search them out. This was another Victorian story that explored one of my current areas of interest and research - the Victorian telegraph. The writer was herself a telegraph operator and so the most important part of the book for me was the accurate descriptions of the jargon , the procedures followed, even the layout of the telegraph office. It made a very good companion to In The Cage .
The story itself was a very weak Victorian chick lit. Certainly Miss Thayer was no Jane Austen.. I was feeling generous to award it 3/5
There has very recently been a renewal of interest in this novel, evidenced by a few articles online, because of the phenomenon of catfishing. Catfishing is an internet term for people pretending to be someone else on line, or at least not representing themselves truthfully. This novel shows that this is nothing new, human nature was the same a hundred and fifty years ago, and deceptions through technology happened then just the same.....also they used the words on line or on the line exactly the way we now use online.
-
The Grand Budapest Hotel got middling-to-bad reviews too but viewers love it based on Rotten Tomatoes and IMDB ratings.....I would watch that film again anytime it's one for the home collection...so I say this to the critics
-
300 and Journey To The Centre Of The Earth (original 1958 version with James Mason)
-
Ok I just went to google images and saw her. Nice enough.
-
You actually get to see her? I lost interest in this series ages ago I just got bored waiting to see who the mother was. Also I just don't find the episodes that funny.
-
I would agree it's not science fiction. It's all existing technology.
-
Whilst in London Big Son and I saw The Grand Hotel Budapest. So hilarious!
-
I will look him up thanks
-
Stranger Than Fiction. Not a new film I know, but it has taken a long time for me to get around to it as I dislike Will Ferrell but actually he was OK and the film was very good.
A few days ago I started watching a Brit film which was supposed to a comedy Cashback but only got about a third into it. It was painfully voyeuristic. Maybe if I had watched it all there would have been a point to it and it might have redeemed itself but I was not in the mood and rewatched Avatar instead
-
I hope this offer is still going post-Easter 
I'm always up for trying free titles - although I agree there is a bit too much chick lit there for my taste, there are a couple I wouldn't mind on my kindle.
I've given up chocolate, crisps and sweets. Roll on Easter, I say!
Hey Alexi doesn't mean you can't buy the chocolate now you just can't eat it yet.
-
I like Linda Gillards books. I have read Emotional Geology and House Of Silence.
-
Fantastic Mr Fox .. what a brilliant film
I love what they did with Roald's story. Really off the wall but still staying true to the main plot. Very clever. Earlier on I saw The Ladykillers .. probably for the hundredth time .. love it though 
Is that the original The Ladykillers Kay? Yes Fantastic Mr Fox is great.
-
Night Of The Generals- with Peter O Toole and Omar Shariff -what a strange film!
-
I didn't watch the whole series but I did watch a couple of episodes with my sister and it seemed pretty good, the era seemed well represented, there were a few obvious references to things that were becoming popular at the time for example. I couldn't say for definite, since I only watched it a couple of times, but it seemed to be more focused on romance than anything else, which did put me off a little bit.
On the topic of Victorian series', did anybody watch Ripper Street and is that any good?
(and Vodkafan, did you watch Victorian Pharmacy? Think it was done by the same people who did Victorian Farm, it was really interesting too)
Hi Hayley, yes Victorian Pharmacy also featured Ruth Gordon who is a Social Historian. But no I haven't watched it, the DVD was too expensive on Amazon when I looked. It's on my list though. As I hardly watch telly I on discovered Victorian Farm by complete accident as I picked up the box set in a charity shop.
Ripper Street was enjoyable, some of the episodes a little far fetched to me and viewed the era through a prism of our own current attitudes ...but then what series does not? Even remakes of Jane Austen classics change things the same way.
-
Clockwork Orange
-
I will buy the DVD series 1 and 2 box set second hand from amazon.....it's not as cheap as I would like! But I am starved of something Victorian to watch at home......you can only watch Victorian Farm so many times....I have seen those sheep being born over and over....
-
Bless you! Don't worry you will fit right right on this forum. In my opinion the best stand alone Jack Vance is The Blue World. It has excitement, danger, romance, an intrepid hero, a mean villain and a giant sea monster. What else could you want?
-
So.....I have heard that there is this Victorian drama/soap series that they sneakily put out there without telling me.....it's got Elaine Cassidy in it who was very good in Fingersmith. She does emotions on her face really well and looks good in a Victorian dress so that will be me hooked already really.....but is the series any good? Has anybody seen it and can tell me anything before I splash out buying the DVD?
-
# 15
The Dispossessed by Ursula Le Guin
1974 - Gollancz paperback - 318 pages
From Amazon:
The Principle of Simultaneity is a scientific breakthrough which will revolutionize interstellar civilization by making possible instantaneous communication. It is the life work of Shevek, a brilliant physicist from the arid anarchist world of Anarres. But Shevek's work is being stifled by jealous colleagues, so he travels to Anarres's sister-planet Urras, hoping to find more liberty and tolerance there. But he soon finds himself being used as a pawn in a deadly political game.
Thoughts:
Kind of difficult to know what to say about this one. I remember someone saying, somewhere, that the best science fiction holds up a mirror to our own world. This is a book that definitely does that. Shevek, the young physicist who is the main protagonist, is a descendant of anarchists called Odonians who were effectively exiled from the planet Urras to its arid 'moon', Anarres. Anarres has no government, no laws, no money. Its people work together for the common good. They have no possessions - to make profit is considered abhorrent. When Shevek decides - feeling that he is being controlled by those around him - to travel to Urras to visit the scientists there with whom he has been communicating, he is called a traitor. Urras, by contrast, is very much a capitalist society, full of inequality, where the rich get richer and ignore those in poverty.
It's very much an allegory, and obvious in its message(s). Le Guin's writing is very good in many ways, and has a flow that propels the story forward. There are actually two stories going on, and they weave together quite satisfactorily. Unfortunately, it is very heavy on the philosophy, which I found quite tedious at times. It essentially lays all its cards on the table very early on, and then restates or demonstrates those cards repeatedly for the remainder of its course. At times, it's like attending a lecture. At several points Shevek talks about ideas with his uni mates and it comes over very much like a class discussion.
Also, Le Guin's style in this book is almost completely tell don't show, which is a style that I don't really like all that much. It means that the characters are rather flat and uninteresting. Shevek, unfortunately, is as dull a character as I've come across in a long time. I found I couldn't engage with his story because it was impossible to warm to him. He's a completely unsympathetic character placed in a situation that is so obviously meant to evoke issues in our own world. It all felt a little preachy to me.
Ultimately, I guess what I'm trying to say is that some might say the best science fiction holds a mirror up to our own world, but I'd rather have a good story with good characters than a book like this. It's not awful at all, but it wasn't particularly my cup of tea.
6/10
Sounds very much like the style of Left Hand Of Darkness. I remember the main character there also being very unengaging almost just an observer , set against a similar moral dilemma
-
Some good books there Dex. You have pretty well covered PKD , well done! I want to read some of those myself now.
-
Ah I couldn't get this to load at work it crashed the PC. It sounds interesting..
-
Sounds good. Well done for starting a book blog now you will be hooked! Are you perchance planning to review your January/February books? I haven't read any of those although a couple are on my TBR pile
The last film you saw - 2014
in Music / TV / Films
Posted
Very hard to watch that film. The horror of it. Surprised you found it a propaganda film though. It's very anti-war. I find films like Black Hawk Down and We Were Soldiers to be just pure propaganda.