Tag Archives: fantasy

Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. [Spoiler Free]

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As a long time fan of Tolkien’s work I have read the main books (The Hobbit and the three volume The Lord of the Rings) several times, and in recent years also listened to the audio books.

Of course I have seen the two movie trilogies, and I agree with many saying that The LotR films are superior to the Hobbit films.

It was with some trepidation that I started watching the first season of The Rings of Power.

The first few episodes felt a bit off, but through the series I did get to appreciate what they were doing. Being well aware that this is not directly material from the books, it is an imagining of things that have been hinted at in the books.

Through the episodes there are some clues laid out, and also some misdirection. My initial guess of one particular character turned out to be correct, but one other character I missed identifying until the season finale.

As a whole I enjoyed the season, and I may re-watch it before a (possible) second season arrives.

I will rate this as 7/10 on the Lurker’s scale.

Audio Book: Terry Pratchett: Mort.

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This is my first Pratchett book. I have been recommended to read (in this case listen to) Terry Pratchett from several people. Now I got started.

Mort is a story in the Disc World series. (Audio book).

Mort, a young boy is searching for an apprenticeship, as he is at the coming-of-age stage in his life. There is a special day for that in his society. All of the day passes, and he still has not found it. Just before the end of the day, he is approached by an odd looking person. Yes, it turns out to be Death, wanting an apprentice.

Of course, not everything is as expected, Death has a daughter, and an assistant. After a while Mort is sent out to do Death’s work, and, of course his humanity is getting in the way.

In the end, he actually does get a second chance for life.

I like the quirky humour of Pratchett, it is not hilarious, making me laugh out loud, but it often gives me a chuckle.

I do want to get a bit more into Pratchett’s work, given the time to do it, and I will rate Mort at:

8/10

 

New : Watched and Read, January 2019

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I am going to try something new on the blog :

Making a few notes on what I have watched, read and/or listened to, month by month, mostly with personal ratings.

There is the possibility of making separate posts about particular seasons or books.

Here is my list of genre related activities for January, 2019 :

Finished seasons :
Chronicles of Shannara Seasons 1 and 2 (7/10)
Into The BadlandsTV (seasons 1-3) (7/10)
Riverdale S1 (7/10)
Chilling Adventures of Sabrina S1 (including xmas special) (8/10)
Titans S1 (7/10)
The Flash S4 (8/10)
Arrow S3 (re-watch) (7/10)
MarvelRunaways S1 (7/10)
ThePunisher Season 2 (7/10)
Black Lightning Season 2. I realized it continued in February, so deduct it here and I will add it to Watching in Progress

Watching in progress :
StarTrek Discovery S2 1 ep per week
Roswell New Mexico in progress one ep per week

Magicians S4 – weekly episodes

Black Lightning Season 2

Watched with friends :
Highlander S2 in progress (re-watch for me)
Jeremiah S1 in progress (re-watch for me)
Pine Gap S1 (8/10)
Berlin Station (in progress)

 

Reading :
Book 1 of the Broken Earth trilogy by N.K.Jemesin
“The Fifth Season”

 

13 seasons of TV finished, some long, some intermediate, and several short ones in one month, as well as a novel. Quite a bit, but I expect February to have a little less genre activity, due to other activities taking over.

 

Dresden Files – Books and TV series.

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A while ago I started to read the Dresden Files series of books by Jim Butcher.

At present I have read the first 3 books of the series, and enjoyed them thoroughly. I surely intend to read further in the series, and there is no lack of material. The series has, at present 16 books out, and the total series is expected to be around 25 books. Nor these books are not the massive tomes, such as the “Song of Ice and Fire” books, so reading a book at a time, mixed with other books, will be manageable. I have the first 12 books on the Kindle, so I don’t even need to buy them before I can read them 😉

Jim Butcher is the Guest of Honour at the Eastercon in Heathrow next year, and I am considering going there if time allows.

There is a TV series that ran for a single season, 12 episodes a few years ago. I found the DVD set and watched it the past week end.
Paul Blackthorne, also known from “Arrow” plays Harry Dresden, and I like his acting in this one, but I think he is better in “Arrow”.

I found the TV series quite entertaining, after a few episodes it started to find its feet. Harry Dresden is the only person in Chicago having his occupation in the phonebook stated as “Wizard”. He helps the local police out in the strangest cases that would normally have gone unsolved.
He is a rather powerful wizard, but has dabbled in black magic which was not too popular with “The Council”. He is under essentially constant surveillance and invariably accused of the worst of intentions.

The series follows him in a series of cases, the pilot episode “Storm Front” is relatively true to the first book in the series with the same title.

The TV series is “based on” the books, but after the pilot it deviates considerably from the books, so I should be relatively spoiler safe when I resume reading the book series.

I would rate the series at an enjoyable, slightly above average 7.5/10.

I rate the first 3 books a bit higher, at a solid above average 8/10

Hugo Awards 2010 Fan Art

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Finally I decided to become a “supporting member” of Worldcon2010 (Aussiecon).

This means that I have been downloading the “Hugo Voter Package” with the majority of the material nominated for the Hugo Awards. When unpacked this amounts to a whopping 700MB, including 5-6 each of Novels, Novellettes, Novellas and Short Stories, as well as a fair bit of Fan and pro magazines, fan and pro artworks.

Last year I started out with reading the novels ( the short stories had already been listened to as podcasts ) and I think that was somewhat of a mistake, since I never got to anything shorter than the novels (apart from the short stories) before the time to vote had come.

This year the plan is to go the opposite way, so I started looking at the:

Fan Artist category in the package :

Brad W. Foster,
David Howell,
Steve Stiles and
Taral Wayne

All were nominated for graphics art in different styles, except David Howell who designed the base for the 2009 Hugo award.

David Howell will be my choice of Fan Artist for the Hugo Awards 2010. I like the design a lot and I think he deserves to be recognized for the work he did.

Will I be disappointed if someone else wins ? Not at all, this just reflects my preference.