Review
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The Resurrectionist of Caligo by Wendy Trimboli & Alicia Zaloga
This debut novel collaboration started life as a letter-writing exercise between two friends who assumed the characters that we find in the novel and what grew out of this pastime. Roger is a struggling student of surgery being somewhat disgraced and most certainly impoverished he has turned to graverobbing to fund his surgical studies. His childhood sweetheart is Sybilla princess of the Royal family and well out of his league. The world that the authors have created feels like a romanticised Dickensian London with added magic and intrigue and as it so happens right up my alley as a reader. The kingdom has fairy magic which makes for some inventive…
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Book Club Reads: The Anubis Gates Tim Powers
This what not a great read for me. It was originally published in 1983 and I felt it hasn’t aged well. Brendan Doyle is the protagonist but I couldn’t like the character at all. A Gary Stu a male wish fulfilment character who yes had a lot of crap thrown at him but also bounces back implausibly to everything. It felt like it relied on racial stereotypes and this made me uncomfortable as a reader. I understand that this was published over 35 years ago but the portrayal of ‘gypsies’ really wasn’t great. There was a grand total of one female character of any importance and she was underserved particularly…
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Girls and Aliens
This was quite the collection, five contrasting stories that featured girls and aliens in often very dark and disturbing ways.
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Torch Song
It feels like forever since I went to see a play. I mean it isn’t, but it has felt so much longer. Torch Song has just opened at the brand new theatre space Turbine Theatre at Battersea – yes next to the power station. Torch Song is by Harvey Fierstein and it follows the life of Arnold – drag queen his adventures in love in three parts. (International Stud, A Fugue in the Nursery and Widows and Children First) We saw the cut-down version which ran for 2hr 40 minutes the original version ran for four hours. This is the first production in this new space the auditorium holds…
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Pain and Glory – review
This evening our Cineworld unlimited screening was Pedro Almodovar’s Pain and Glory. A Spanish language film starring Antonio Banderas as Salvador an ageing film director who has health issues and has seemingly given up on everything. The film moves through his life in various narrative strands the present where we learn about his health issues and why he has stopped writing and directing. His childhood which we see non-sequentially. Penelope Cruz plays his mother in the flashbacks and her performance is nuanced and exquisite. The film opens with the young Salvador watching his mother and her friends sing as they wash their laundry in the river. Grudges that…
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Seven Deadly Swords – Review
Seven Deadly Swords by Peter Sutton a non-linear fantasy novel. Partly set in the time of the Crusades and in various points in history up to 2012 tells the story of Reymond a soldier one among seven that are cursed to return to a new life again and again and fight the others. It’s a little bit Quantum Leap, a little bit Groundhog day and a little bit Highlander. I wasn’t sure what to expect, and Sutton doesn’t give anything away too early. The reader has to earn their knowledge. The main characters are Reymond, Fisher and Mari. The layered narrative is compelling with each chapter crafted to provide some…
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Hobbs and Shaw – Review
I have been chomping at the bit waiting for this to come out. Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham versus Idris Elba in the Fast and Furiousverse. I’ve never really been into F and F but I can literally watch and enjoy anything with Dwayne Johnson in and I am not sure how. Small warning this film is 2hr15 mins long and whilst there is plenty of action and it doesn’t drag I was starting to feel it. Hobbs and Shaw is your odd-couple buddy movie, where these two dislike each other but have to work together to save Vanessa Kirby’s character who plays Shaw’s sister Hattie. Something in the past…
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Secret Unlimited Screening 12 – Crawl
I’m not sure if you know the drill about what happens at a Cineworld Unlimited Secret Screening. Those of us who have unlimited passes can book screenings for unreleased films. Most of which are announced and I try and get to as many of them as possible as usually, the films are fine; there is the odd dud but its a great way to get me to see something outside of my usual milieux. The secret screenings are mostly the same. It’s just you don’t know what you will end up seeing. This can work to your advantage or not. Generally, I like the surprise – but it helps to…
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Ragged Alice Review
Gareth L Powell officially the nicest man on twitter and award winning sci fi author has turned his considerable skills to crime in this wonderful novella. Set in the small welsh town of Pontyrhudd DCI Holly Craig returns to her home town to investigate a murder. Things quickly unravel as a spate of murders threaten to ruin her career but all is not as it seems as the murderer seems to be copying a murder from decades earlier. Ragged Alice is fab. I love Holly Craig she’s a damaged-yet-brilliant detective with an ability to see someone’s soul and ascertain whether they are lying. How she came by this ability is…
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The Lion King 2019
One of my favourite Disney movies is the Lion King. I watched the original to death as a teenager and the music – all of the music – just feels wonderful. When I heard they were doing a ‘live action’ remake I was dubious. For a start its not live action its naturalistic CGI and that is not quite the same thing at all. But the casting sounded amazing, Donald Glover, Queen Bey, Jon Oliver as Zazu I was suddenly on board. The trailer when it was released pretty much gave me shivers. It was a shot for shot remake of the animated and then all worries were set aside,…
