Clicks and Clatters

This last week I had the joy of heading out to Disney World for an Anniversary trip with my Dear Husband.  I love this trip as we escape the cold of the winter for a few days and bask in the Florida sun, and this year the Florida sun was even warm…last year not so much.  One of the best parts of away, besides the warm, is that the trip is a lovely time to read…and read…and read some more.  Both DH and I brought a stack of books and we had to buy more in the airport for the trip home, which is a sign of a good vacation to me.

One of the books I picked up in the airport bookstore was Ghost Country by Patrick Lee.  I’ve been curious about this one since reading a few blurbs about it over on Janet Reid’s blog and in a couple other places.  I’m happy to say that it was totally worth my 8 bucks and I’m going to go get the prequel.  I didn’t realize this was the second book in this set, though it’s not a problem at all to start with this book.  There were a couple things that felt like the author was assuming information I didn’t have, but they were few and far between and I really only realized The Breach was the first book about Travis Chase when I got to the last page of the book and saw an advertisement for it.

Ghost Country is the story of Travis Chase and Paige Campbell, lovers parted by unanswered questions and their own past.  Paige works in a place called Boarder Town which is the guardian of an alien phenomenon called The Breach.  Various machines referred to as ‘entities’ come through the Breach and the scientists in Boarder Town work to determine what they are and if they can be safely used by human beings.  Ghost Country picks up when an entity gives proof of a future where life as we know it is over and Paige is taking the information to the President.  Unfortunately she finds out that the President already knows what’s going on and has no intentions of stopping it…in fact he and other highly positioned people are helping it along.  A thirty second phone call involves Travis, pulling him out of a self imposed retirement to come to Paige’s aid and to work with her and another young scientist, Bethany, to unravel what is happening to the world and how they can stop the bleak future from becoming a reality.

I can’t really get into too many more plot details without spoiling the book, but it was a fun fast read.  The writing is engaging and the action keeps moving, but it’s obvious the author has thought his technology through and is a fascinating view at what happens in the minds of people when they give up on making things better.  There’s a romance angle through the book, but it’s very gentle and added to the story without the narrative stopping to let Paige and Travis deal with their issues.  They have to deal on the trot and in the end…well…they’re still dealing.

Definitely worth the read!

Genre:  Science Fiction Thriller

Age: Late teens and up

Content:  Violence, language, very mild sexuality (there’s one kiss)

The last few weeks have been velly busy, so I missed the opening weekend for this flick, but managed to get out with the dear hubby last night.

My first impression would be that it was a fun film.  The visual effects and kabooms and fights were pretty much what I expected.  Fun, fierce and abundant.  There were some moments where the shaky cam high in the sky view made it hard to tell exactly WHAT was happening save for much butt kicking, mostly for goodness.  Generally though, it worked.  The nods to the fans come a little thick, but that's kinda to be expected.

For me the plotting also worked, though there were places I would have liked to see a tighter edit.  Tony Stark continues to be what my husband refers to as the ADHD super hero.  It's always about bigger, faster, shiny object of the moment, whether he's looking for cars or new secretaries or something to hit.  This has a certain charm, but sometimes he makes me tired and I find him hard to believe.  This becomes a problem in the moments where we're really supposed to buy into his character's relationships with others.  Does he really love Pepper?  Is he really reconciled with the memory of his dad?  It's hard to tell because he's so flippant about everything.  I want to believe him, but there is always some hint of doubt.

The villains of the film worked for me and I was glad to see them tied together and then to Stark in a way that made sense.  Everyone had reasons for what they were doing, even if the responses were a bit over the top.  Can you really be a good superhero villain if you aren't over the top?  At points Ivan was a little hard to understand, but in the not understanding I'm not sure I missed much.

Now to my biggest complaint about the movie...  Every woman in the film served the same purpose.  Eye candy.  None of the female characters were well developed or convincingly played.  I kept waiting for a moment where one of them would really connect and be powerful, but it didn't happen.  Pepper got to gripe and fret.  Natalie got to look sexay and one combat sequence which was ruined by the distort effect which was applied to show how fast and scary she was.  Outside of the stereotype neither of them had depth or character or something which set them apart and it plagued the other characters as well.  On a surface level they all did the job they were there for, but I wanted the sense of more.

I know it's a superhero movie.  I know there are tropes of the genre, but where is the depth?  Yes, I had fun.  No, I don't regret going, but at the end of the day would I want to see it again or own the movie?  Meh.

"I am Iron Man."

~J (cross posted to Reality By Pass Books)