June books and movies
Bullet, Laurell K. Hamilton.
Kind of disappointed, it's back to mostly porn, and Richard is acting
out of character in a way that makes me suspect that something happened
in LKH's life to influence the character. Anita Blake is dealing with
were-cat issues as well as vampire politics, and only consults by
phone on a vampire executioner case. There's a brief mention of her
raising the dead for a living, and then she never does go in to meet
with clients. I'll admit that the upped bisexual quotient was nice to
see though. :) Jun 3/10
Black Magic Sanction, Kim Harrison.
Rachel is under a shunning from the witch council for her use of black
magic, and she's determined to get it rescinded. Her plans, as usual,
don't seem to work quite as expected, but the ride is fun. :) There's
some more details about fairies and elves and pixies in this one, and
she gets to know the ghost witch a bit better. :) Jun 4/10
Fathom, Cherie Priest. This was an odd book. I didn't
realise until I read the front flap after finishing the book that it
was set in the 1930's, so the times when women wearing pants were
noted as odd confused me a bit while reading. Two young ladies who are
cousins are thrown together on an island for the summer. One's flat
out crazy and murders her stepfather and tries to kill her farm raised
cousin, but they both get swept into the water and transformed by
ancient powers. The crazy one kills even more people while the
innocent one is transformed into a stone statue and placed back in the
garden where the first murder took place. Then a cult starts
worshiping her and the sea witch gets riled up and a creature who
creates a body from whatever bits of decaying matter are to hand stirs
up trouble. Jun 6/10
The Reckoning, Kelley Armstrong. Final book of this YA
trilogy, Chloe and company have to figure out where they can be safe,
and how to control their budding powers. Add in some teen angst,
betrayals, rival werewolves and sorcerers and witches, and there's a
lot going on. It was frustrating, though probably true to teen life,
when they had to wait on the adults to make decisions. Jun
8/10
Those who went remain there still, Cherie Priest. A
monster story (novella length) with Daniel Boone, ghosts, and feuding
families who have to work together to get a will out of a dangerous
cave. Jun 9/10
Blood Oath, Christopher Farnsworth.
I liked the short chapter headers that were often fake news reports of
horrors in America, but based on classic horror movie scenarios. I
didn't really find any of the characters, except maybe the outgoing
vampire handler, very sympathetic. A vampire was pardoned in the
1800's and has been working for the office of the American
president since then. He gets a new liason officer, and they jump
immediately into a threat from a reanimator. I was a bit sad that the
werewolves from the prologue didn't show up again, it was neat how
they were portrayed as lightening fast and ferocious. Jun
11/10
The Good Men: A Novel of Heresy, Charmaine Craig. fudjo lent me this one, I think to avoid having to pack it
before he moved. :) It's based on the history of the Inquisition in an
isolated mountain town in what's now France. The local priest is vile,
he rapes the women of his parish, seduces the mute (grand?)daughter of
his niece, and betrays people to the Inquisition. We hear a lot of the
story from his point of view, and he takes a while to fall down the
slippery slope after he breaks his vows with the chatelaine at his new
posting. The story covers a few generations, gives a pretty good
idea of what life was like in the middle ages, and emphasises just how
slowly the Church can move. There's a side mention of the multiple
Popes, and we see some of the story from the point of view of the
Inquisitor who's obsessed with discrediting and destroying the priest.
It's a rich historical fiction, but not a happy fun book. Jun
16/10.
The Squirrel Machine, Hans Richeit. A rejected book
club graphic novel selection, the story follows two brothers who have a
penchant for creating musical instruments from the corpses of animals.
Their mother paints erotic works, and their father is long dead, but
they find a secret part of their huge house that has all sorts of
parts and rooms and mysteries. A bit of a love triangle occurs over a
girl then woman in the town, but it was really extraneous to the
story. Some of the images were a bit disturbing, it's not a
comfortable book, but the drawing style was very detailed and
evocative of a sense of slight unreality and madness. Jun
19/10
The City and The City, China Mieville.
Wow, the tension in this one had my stomach in knots. A detective is
drawn into an investigation that spans the border between the city he
inhabits, and the one that's next to/on top of/interwoven with his.
It reads a lot like Budapest to me, but twisted. The rest of the world
is still there, there's a team of Canadian archaeologists at a dig
exploring the time before the cities split, but the focus is tight on
the murder investigation and the mysterious third city that may or may
not exist in the cracks between the two cities. I was never 100%
sure if the split between the cities was real or just a mass
hallucination. Jun 30/10
Movies:
Puritan. A Fantasia catch up movie, a mysterious
scarred man warns a fake psychic about a femme fatale who's going to
bring danger. A neat take on a paranormal noir movie, with a dark
and red colour palette. I could have used a bit more explanation of
the motivations of the scarred man, but the tension was good. Jun 9/10
Ink. Another dark fantasy film, revolving around a
work-a-holic business man and his precocious young daughter. She's
kidnapped by a hulking rag covered figure who wants to trade her in to
the nightmare bringing Inccubi, while the dream bringing Storytellers
fight to save her. I loved the costuming in this, and how the world
felt fully realised and we were only getting a short glimpse into it.
The women kicking ass didn't hurt either. :) Jun 15/10.
Reincarnation. Some of the landscapes reminded me of
Yakushima, probably helped along by the fact that the haunted hotel
was out in the country. A director decides to film a movie,
partially on location, about a man who killed his family and
everyone else staying at a hotel. The problem is that the ghosts of
the dead are haunting people, and some of them are the
reincarnations of the victims. Quite spooky, I liked it. Jun
16/10
End of the Line. I've wanted to see this one for a
while, as it's based in the Toronto subway system. I could follow the
route the characters took between stations (mostly, they go through a
lot of access tunnels), and I loved the self awareness of the script
(nods to horror movie tropes). It was also a bit heavy on the jump
scares, and I was screaming quite a bit when monstrous faces would
flash on the screen. The religion is bad message was too heavy handed,
but the cult members were the big baddies so it was kind of hard to
avoid. They hinted at personal choice versus being brainwashed,
madness versus reality, and left the ending a bit open. They played a
bit with time as well, we were talking about a scene that showed a
scar and if it was before/after the scene where she was cut. Jun
23/10
Toy Story 3. Finally got to see a movie in the theatre
again. :) Laughed a lot, teared up a bit, loved the animation, and
the menace of the "evil" toys. The big baby and the clown seemed
designed to creep out adults. I liked seeing the Fisher Price
phone, I used to have one as a kid, and the daughter of the day care
worker was very sweet. The story was a bit frustrating to watch, lots
of not listening, arguments, and betrayals, though there was loyalty
and sacrifice, and an awesome channeling of Antonio Banderas. :) Jun
29/10