Sweeney Todd (film)

i fredags var vi på sweeney todd - extrem, mörk, splattermusikal med morbid humor och lysande skådisar. lite för mycket gottande i blod och slit throats tycker jag personligen, men miljöerna och skådisarna var helsköna! skönsång...tja...helena bonham-carter - absolut, johnny depp...not so much... men han sjöng helt ok, fast inte som någon pavarotti direkt...
lite märkligt slut också, vilket också bidrar till att dra ner mitt betyg. det blir en 3:a från mig.

Nightcrawler – the Winding Way

Nightcrawler – the Winding Way ***

Alright, so I’m a sucker for pointy ears. And I prefer my heroes to not be so damn human. What else is new? So, I miss my devilish-trickster. Thus the picture.

In this sort-of-follow-up on The Devil Inside Nightcrawler again has to battle the occult forces of Hell that seem to have some sort of personal issue with the devil-looking mutant. As it turns out, they do.
Tracking his own past with the help of Wolverine (who is really worried about his friend) and nurse Palmer (who still seem intent of getting him in a shower – Kurt, that is, not Logan), Kurt seems to be always one step behind. Some unknown force of evil is going rampant on Kurts past, killing the circus people he used to live with, torturing his foster sister and really upsetting his foster mother. (Not a wise choice, that last one.) But what they really want might be buried deeper than Kurt is prepared to dig…Literally. And in the end, it all comes down to if you’re ready to deal with the Devil or not…for the sake of those you love and loved.

Not so many shower scenes (thank Gods) but an amazingly large amount of strategically torn uniforms. And even more manly angst than in tDI; even Wolverine is scooping it out in this one. The only really fun scene is when Wolvie gets possessed, and his soul gets stuck in Hell. I suppose Hell looks different to everyone.
Snigger snigger.
Following this is of course a splendid scene of Wolvie and Fuzzy Elf bashing it out in a circus mirror-room. Always knew something like that would end in this way, didn’t I? ;oP
Ah well, this was the last of the Nightcrawler albums, although with this ending there is bound to be a sequel (I hope). Now what shall I do? No more pointy blue ears, alas….Hey, maybe I can get a hold on some Gambit albums! Red demon eyes aren’t pointy ears, but in these dull days I’ll take what I can get.
Quote (Wolverine, Gods damn it…):
“You know, the only thing I hate more than light beer is ramping hordes of zombies! ..Luckily, I've got nowhere else to be.”

Orphans of Chaos

Orphans of Chaos. John.C. Wright ***( av 5)

This is one seriously strange book.
That said, I’ll try to elaborate.
In a British-type boarding school, three young boys and two young girls (Victor, Collin, Quentin and Amelia and Vanity) live and learn. But what do they learn? And how do they live? For starters, there is just the five of them as students, and about nine teachers, not counting the servants. And the boarders, especially to the south, seems to shift and take on strange proportions. The teachers are weird, to say the least, and the children get to learn things that five years as a professor wouldn’t tech you. And the kids themselves….
Victor can see the molecular matter of objects and manipulate them
Collin is a psychic, or rather an emphat – his desires charges his ability to change the world.
Quentin is a warlock.
Amelia can se in four dimensions and change objects matter/density
Vanity can find paths through space-continuum.
Truly, this school would make Hogwarts look sane.

However, this is not a superhero book. I don’t really know what to call it. An adolescence book? Well, yes, there is some love and growing-up going on. But parts of it is…disturbing in a way because its not what you would expect in an adolescence book. A theme of dominance – submission runs through the story in a slightly unnerving way.
A science book? Well it does require you to have a very firm grasp on Greek mythology (even more so than I have, I admit it), Einsteins theories of relativity (of which I have none, so I skipped those parts), astro-physics, astronomy, maths, hisoty, religion (all religions) poetry, legends from all over the world and it helps if you know a little something about the politics of Atlantis in the last thousands years or so and so on (and everyone’s new favourite Anansi does a cameo. He really seems to be the hot item of the year).
And all of this in a book barely 300 pages long.
Wow.
But in the middle, when your head is spinning in at least five dimensions, the author does tell you the trick. This is not a book about science, or growing up. This is a book about how we see the world, and how we change it merely by observing it. It is a book about how we all se the world differently and how the same event is interpreted differently because of it.
In other words, it’s a book about philosophy.
It is also a book about the war between different realities, but lets not go there right now.

I don’t know what to think of this book. I was disturbed by the dominance – submission theme, because even if these ‘kids’ are super-beings as old as time they still think and look like, well, kids. I was slightly bored at the endless ranting of philosophy – physics which I could barely even begin to understand. I was intrigued by the old Gods theme, but haven’t we all read a lot of that this last year? It has been done better.
But I did like the questions about what reality is, and how it changes depending on who’s looking at it.
All in all, a strange book. I’ll leave it at that.

Book quote: You do not have the energy relationship in the moral direction a person devoted to God normally manifests. You relationship structures are extensional rather than intentional, and form nodes going in two time-directions, but not toward eternity. This type of atrophy is typical of atheists and agnostics.

Nightrunners

Luck in the Shadows, Stalking Darkness, Traitor’s Moon – The Nightrunner series Lynn Flewelling ***

Is there anything worse in the world than the bitter disappointment in a book?
Well, yes, of course there is lots of worse things. But right now, let me tell you, it’s hard to imagine more than one or two.
It’s not that Luck in the Shadows a poor book. It’s just...just...just not all I imagined it would be. I feel like I did when I first saw the casting of Legolas in PJ’s LotR. What was supposed to be one of the greatest moments of my life just fell flat on the ground and left med with a horrendous disappointment and a growing rage. At least this time I will not howl threats about cliffs, manacles and wrists in the general direction of the perpetrator.
Will not.
Will not.
Ah, what the hell just once more...(You’re gone live to regret this, Peter Jackson! I’ll hang you from a cliff by your hand until someone finds an eagle huge enough to carry you down, fat boy!)

Back on track....
Nightrunners is what you would get if you took Eddings character Silk and gave him his own story. Great premises, right? A lot of cloak-and-daggers, intrigues and witty remarks. Alas, no. This story is as straightforward as anything, and anyway the super-spy Seregil lays mad, wounded and/or unconscious most of the time. Wasn’t he supposed to be good at his job?

Alec is a young boy, accidentally mistaken for a spy, who get rescued by this strange man
(? yeah, you get pretty quickly what he is, pointy ears or not...) called Seregil. Having apparently nothing better to do with his life, he decides to follow this supposed clever, suspicious, charming and dangerous man, who seems thinks it’s a great idea to pull a farm boy who’s showing some talent with a bow into his life.
Or is that really the meat–and-bone of their relationship?
Something is growing between the two of them, something more than pure friendship, and it’s complicating Seregils relationship to his pupil to no end as the story moves on through the usual “evil whatnot found and must be destroyed through horrendous suffering” plot. Alecs more and more bemused reactions to his teachers desperate attempts not to show his growing love are somewhat amusing, but not as much as you would think.
This is a shameless fantasy, with no intention of pretending to reality or even realism (people who have just been tortured for a couple of days just shake that of and walk away once they’re freed). But I can live with that, no problem. Unfortunately the plot is really drab and uninteresting. The bad guys are really bad – they’re necromancers, so of course they’re evil. (Wouldn’t it be nice with a necromancer hero? After all, it must be a lot better using already dead bodies in war than fresh and living ones, right? Right? Then again, Abhorrsen is a good necromancer... And I suppose there are ‘good’ necromancers in the Death Gate cycle as well...fine! The idea was as fresh as a week old corpse.) Good guys are really good - or at least their burglary and thieving is explained away; it can’t be bad since their on the good side, right? and the only new fresh and exciting part is the ‘Brokeback Fantasy’ theme (nothing explicit, don’t worry ;o) and even that is barely enough to keep up interest. After all, slash has been done before and oh so much better in, for example, Poppy. Z. Brites novels, or Ann Rice, or Robin Hobb or indeed Steven Erikson.
All in all, a nice little read on a rainy autumn evening but not much more.
And yes, I can spot the innuendo in the title “Luck in the shadows” as well as anyone, thank you, but a lady does not speak of such matters.

Book quote: I’ve seen him go through fire, swordfights, magic and two feet worth of shit without complaining, but deny him a hot bath at the end of it, and he fusses like a kept whore.

The Scar

The Scar – China Mieville ***(av 5)

Vad är det med brittiska författare? Har de allihop gått i samma skola – en skola där passion för ord, ordlekar och en vackert formulerad mening bankas in i ryggmärgen på dem?
I så fall vill jag också gärna gå där.

Den tämligen osympatiska Bellis Coldwine flyr från sitt hem för att starta ett nytt liv, men på vägen överfalls hennes skepp av pirater och hon och de övriga passagerarna samt besättningen och slavarna förs till Armada, ett enormt konglomerat av skepp som fastbundna vid varandra bildar en stad. Armada styrs av the Lovers, men det finns andra fraktioner som är intresserade av makten och snart inser Bellis att hennes språktalang gör henne till en viktigt bricka i ett spel hon knappt kan förstå. I sin kamp att fly Armada dras hon allt djupare in i spelet. Men vad är det för bisarr plan the Lovers strävar efter?

Detta är den andra boken av Mielville jag läser, och den är klart bättre än hans debut King Rat, åtminstone rent språkligt. The Scar är skriven som en blandning av Niel Gaimans verk och J.K Rowlings (ett tag underhöll jag mig med att fundera på om China Mieville var en pseudonym för Rowlings försök att slå sig in på vuxenmarknaden). Varelser med namn som gringylow, Remade och cactae har samma självklara enkelhet och precision som varelserna i Potter böckerna. Å andra sidan skulle the anipholii (myggmänniskor) kunnat komma direkt från Sandman.
Men jag klagar inte. Språket är vackert, inte överarbetat. Varelserna är fascinerande. Huvudpersonerna är om inte sympatiska så väldigt mänskliga.
Synd bara på historien.
Jag tror jag lyckades lista ut intrigen efter ca 500 sidor (av 800) och satt sedan och blev mer och mer irriterad när jag hade rätt. Boken blev aldrig tråkig – den är för välskriven för det och fylld med äventyr och spänning, men jag satt hela tiden och tänkte ”Kom igen! Överraska mig! Vänd allt på ända nu.” Jag blev besviken.
Men trots allt en ok bok med annorlunda settings och huvudkaraktärer. Om han bara kommit på en bättre historia till den kunde den fått fem stjärnor.
(En liten binotering...det finns en rolig och potentiellt dödlig lek som kallas Ring-tequila. Den går ut på att man tittar på LotR och tar en tequila varje gång någon säger ordet ’ring’. Ingen har klarat mer än en halv film och överlevt att skryta om det än så länge. Det slog mig att samma lek skulle kunna använda ordet ’puissant’ i the Scar och uppnå samma effekt :o)

Book quote: Scars are not injuries, Tanner Sack. A scar is healing. After injury a scar is what makes you whole.

The Pillars of the World

Av Anne Bishop

Jag är besviken – inte ett sexhjälpmedel så långt ögat når – i hela boken! Och detta trots idoga varningar om författaren från både susanna & rebecka. Klart sex finns med i historien, men inget frossande i detaljer...

Man kan lätt se var författaren har hittat sin inspiration; gammal folktro från både norden och kelterna, häxprocesserna, mm. Resultatet blir en rätt intressant historia som är svår att lägga ifrån sig även om man egentligen vet hur den kommer att sluta efter bara några kapitel...

Boken har två parallella historier, den ena om the Fae (the fair ones, bishops alver eller älvor), vars värld börjar försvinna bit för bit. Faes härskare jobbar mot klockan när de försöker hitta orsaken och straffa vederbörande. Hårt. Spåren leder så klart till människornas värld... (doh!) Samtidigt i...japp...människornas värld... The witche’s hammer – storinkvisitorn själv åker land och rike runt för att utrota de onda häxorna från jordens yta. Maken till ond man har man väl sällan skådat i en historia... Men känn inte bara hat emot honom...det är inte hans fel...han blev slagen av sin mamma som liten... *öh*

Wolverine

Wolverine ***(av 5)

I am aghast. Appalled. Ashamed over myself. I figured reading a Wolverine comic would be a bit like reading a comic about the World Wrestling Federation. You know, a lot of huge, sweating men slugging it out.
It still sort of is.
It’s just that I...kind of liked it.
My Gods, but I feel so dirty.

Maybe it’s the fact that he did have a character, and that it was at least moderately cute. Like, when he goes from calling Nightcrawler ‘misfit’ to ‘elf’ to the positively affectionate ‘fuzzy elf’. Those two actually seem to be good friends (!) Or when he screws up his relationship with every woman he ever meets. Including the one with his adopted Japanese daughter. Still, he makes me kind of queasy with his “bad- boy- if- it- moves- kill- it” moral, and his really annoying “cooler-than-thou” attitude.No, I haven’t fallen yet. But for a while there, I was stumbling very close to the edge.