Is hoping this is the last post from her laptop
I finished the 7th book of the Pendragon series today. One word: Depressing. It left me so depressing that I didn't even want to start on book 8 and wandered off to do something else (not that there's much to do, but still). But I have to admit that it's good, even if in a bad way (good in a bad way?! there are such things as that?), and I truly like it much better than the previous ones. If it weren't for the depressing ending I would've picked the 7th as my favorite. I don't know if the series picked up, or it's just because I read the first six in Vietnamese. The translation ain't that bad, pretty accurate actually, but maybe it's just not good enough to carry the feeling of the original into the text. It's not just a question of doing it right, but also making the readers feel what's transmitting as if they're reading in the original language. A very tough thing to do, but I expect that much from professionals :"/. Anyway, I'll never know for sure, because I'm too lazy to re-read the English version of the first six books again.
As to what exactly happened there: I had a feeling when they went to see Mr. Pop that Nevva Winter might be working for Saint Dane. I had a feeling from the very start that someone might go to the bad side, although I once guessed wrong (thought it was Spader until his father were killed D:. My guess was based on pure instinct, alright?). Still, I was on the edge of my seat especially towards the end. Everything feels so bitter, from Mark's parents' death to the changes on Second Earth to Bobby finding out he's fooled and betrayed...the list goes on. Those twists destroyed the flaw of the main character sending diaries home: You know he survived to tell the tale. But with things as they are, death is probably the least from the readers' concern.
And I've realized this before, but the author gets a pretty firm grip on human psychology. The contradictions and conflicts in Bobby's thought, the overconfidence that was portrayed in this book, or the overwhelmed joy only to be crushed moments later. I don't think that Saint Dane is truly "black" as in bad villain who just wants to destroy everything. The author pretty much spells that for us. But there's still so many confusions that I won't dare to go into it any further.
My favorite (non-recurring, and FYI, I haven't found a favorite recurring one yet) character out of the whole 7th book: Fourteen. Ffft, maybe I just have a kink for robots-who-aren't-supposed-to-have-emotions-but-actually-do. And this is ridiculous, but when I read I usually have an image in my mind of the character that resembles another character in another series (mostly manga and cartoons) for easy relations. Like how I associated Challenger Green with Hisoka from HunterxHunter, LaBerge with Redd White from Phoenix Wright, and Nevva with that assistant gal for the bad guy (fail!memory is fail) in The Incredibles, but with orange hair. Ok, maybe the appearances aren't all that accurate, but.
In short, I feel like this series should have been given more credit. The concept is simple (alright, maybe not so much after the latest revelations), but it's the execution that matters, and Pendragon's execution is great. But maybe people aren't that hooked on the first books alone, and the series is awfully long for someone to loyally follow through from beginning to end.
In other news, today marks the end of the 10-day torturous wait. However it's a Sunday so the people over there (what do you call a store that fixes computers? My dictionary is on the other computer, it's really annoying) don't work. I'll call them tomorrow and hope they'll have my monitor ready, since the phrase "at least ten days" doesn't sit well to me.
Watched 2012 yesterday, it was a birthday gift from my friend. I had mentally prepared myself for major disappointment, as what I heard people saying about the movie weren't very nice. But as it turned out, it was pretty good, especially the middle part. (Or again, I just might have a kink for tragic story with people suffering and dying left and right when you know it's just a hopeless cause). I'm utterly in love with the two old guys on the ship going for Japan (?), and the little kid who went "Hai, dare?" on Tony was cute beyond words. I'm really impressed about those scenes of destruction, especially where the ocean floods the Himalayas (I know I know, it's a piece of cake for the pros, but it's the thought of the roof of the world being flooded what awes me). I laughed out loud when I found out the saving arks are built in China, for right now Chinese products aren't really on the people's good side here in Vietnam. And there are a lot of moving moments too, but I can't recall them right now (yes, fail, I know). And Charlie? Awesome.
With the praises out of the way, now for the criticism. I don't like the ending, as it came down to one person saving the day as always. I don't really like the main characters, too bland (and too lucky for their own good too), and the person that has any personality - Gordon, dies as-a-matter-of-course to get the damsel and the hero together. The scale of the end of the world seems somehow too small, and in the end only nations in the G8 get saved - others didn't even get mentioned, maybe except for India. What's more, the end gives a all-was-well vibe when it's actually not. Pfft, if Adrian (the only reason I remember his name is that he shares the name with a certain character from Phoenix Wright) really cares about humanity, he would have been up to his neck with rehabilitation and not busy kissing some girl. And the way the governments of the world handled the whole situation has this sort of unrealistic feel, but I can't pin down to exactly why. You would think with other authorities wanting to leak out the info and dying, Charlie would be long gone to be able to see the fireworks in Yellowstone.
I would probably try to think of more to say, but seeing as it's already got longer than the praise part, I'll stop. But well, I think any the-end-of-the-world movie that lasts for 120' will probably have the same major flaws anyway, so 2012 it's good enough as it is. Anyway, while I understand why people would hate this film, I personally like it a lot. I've seen worse (like the recent SALT which was given a big hype and turned out to be mediocre, but I won't go into that).
Okay, since this has gotten too long and I've just been given the scare of my life because this current tab suddenly closed for absolutely no reason, thank god for automatically saved LJ drafts, I'll end it here. Hopefully tomorrow I'll reunite with my dearest comp-chan *sighs*. The to-do-list is already long enough as it is....In the meanwhile, I'll occupy myself with Pendragon 8th book then.
As to what exactly happened there: I had a feeling when they went to see Mr. Pop that Nevva Winter might be working for Saint Dane. I had a feeling from the very start that someone might go to the bad side, although I once guessed wrong (thought it was Spader until his father were killed D:. My guess was based on pure instinct, alright?). Still, I was on the edge of my seat especially towards the end. Everything feels so bitter, from Mark's parents' death to the changes on Second Earth to Bobby finding out he's fooled and betrayed...the list goes on. Those twists destroyed the flaw of the main character sending diaries home: You know he survived to tell the tale. But with things as they are, death is probably the least from the readers' concern.
And I've realized this before, but the author gets a pretty firm grip on human psychology. The contradictions and conflicts in Bobby's thought, the overconfidence that was portrayed in this book, or the overwhelmed joy only to be crushed moments later. I don't think that Saint Dane is truly "black" as in bad villain who just wants to destroy everything. The author pretty much spells that for us. But there's still so many confusions that I won't dare to go into it any further.
My favorite (non-recurring, and FYI, I haven't found a favorite recurring one yet) character out of the whole 7th book: Fourteen. Ffft, maybe I just have a kink for robots-who-aren't-supposed-to-have-emotions-but-actually-do. And this is ridiculous, but when I read I usually have an image in my mind of the character that resembles another character in another series (mostly manga and cartoons) for easy relations. Like how I associated Challenger Green with Hisoka from HunterxHunter, LaBerge with Redd White from Phoenix Wright, and Nevva with that assistant gal for the bad guy (fail!memory is fail) in The Incredibles, but with orange hair. Ok, maybe the appearances aren't all that accurate, but.
In short, I feel like this series should have been given more credit. The concept is simple (alright, maybe not so much after the latest revelations), but it's the execution that matters, and Pendragon's execution is great. But maybe people aren't that hooked on the first books alone, and the series is awfully long for someone to loyally follow through from beginning to end.
In other news, today marks the end of the 10-day torturous wait. However it's a Sunday so the people over there (what do you call a store that fixes computers? My dictionary is on the other computer, it's really annoying) don't work. I'll call them tomorrow and hope they'll have my monitor ready, since the phrase "at least ten days" doesn't sit well to me.
Watched 2012 yesterday, it was a birthday gift from my friend. I had mentally prepared myself for major disappointment, as what I heard people saying about the movie weren't very nice. But as it turned out, it was pretty good, especially the middle part. (Or again, I just might have a kink for tragic story with people suffering and dying left and right when you know it's just a hopeless cause). I'm utterly in love with the two old guys on the ship going for Japan (?), and the little kid who went "Hai, dare?" on Tony was cute beyond words. I'm really impressed about those scenes of destruction, especially where the ocean floods the Himalayas (I know I know, it's a piece of cake for the pros, but it's the thought of the roof of the world being flooded what awes me). I laughed out loud when I found out the saving arks are built in China, for right now Chinese products aren't really on the people's good side here in Vietnam. And there are a lot of moving moments too, but I can't recall them right now (yes, fail, I know). And Charlie? Awesome.
With the praises out of the way, now for the criticism. I don't like the ending, as it came down to one person saving the day as always. I don't really like the main characters, too bland (and too lucky for their own good too), and the person that has any personality - Gordon, dies as-a-matter-of-course to get the damsel and the hero together. The scale of the end of the world seems somehow too small, and in the end only nations in the G8 get saved - others didn't even get mentioned, maybe except for India. What's more, the end gives a all-was-well vibe when it's actually not. Pfft, if Adrian (the only reason I remember his name is that he shares the name with a certain character from Phoenix Wright) really cares about humanity, he would have been up to his neck with rehabilitation and not busy kissing some girl. And the way the governments of the world handled the whole situation has this sort of unrealistic feel, but I can't pin down to exactly why. You would think with other authorities wanting to leak out the info and dying, Charlie would be long gone to be able to see the fireworks in Yellowstone.
I would probably try to think of more to say, but seeing as it's already got longer than the praise part, I'll stop. But well, I think any the-end-of-the-world movie that lasts for 120' will probably have the same major flaws anyway, so 2012 it's good enough as it is. Anyway, while I understand why people would hate this film, I personally like it a lot. I've seen worse (like the recent SALT which was given a big hype and turned out to be mediocre, but I won't go into that).
Okay, since this has gotten too long and I've just been given the scare of my life because this current tab suddenly closed for absolutely no reason, thank god for automatically saved LJ drafts, I'll end it here. Hopefully tomorrow I'll reunite with my dearest comp-chan *sighs*. The to-do-list is already long enough as it is....In the meanwhile, I'll occupy myself with Pendragon 8th book then.