Review Anathem

Overview

OK, so now I've read Anathem. I enjoyed it very much. It was a lot easier to get into than the Baroque Cycle, I basically read lots and lots over the weekend, never feeling the need to put the book down for a few days to recover, though I feel a little exhausted now I've finished.

It is indeed very reminiscent of Name of the Rose, although Rose probably evokes the feel of its world a lot better. I love the academic mosastic style of every conversation, several of which were utterly hilarious. And I'm fond of the characters, although I suspect when I view the book with more distance, they may not actually be as unique as they could be. We'll have to wait and see to discover how much I love it in retrospect.

( Spoilers. Really, really. )

Kung Fu Panda

Kung Fu Panda was very good. It didn't ascend to greatness, it was sometimes too obvious, but fortunately not painfully so. The characters were lovely, all of them, as were the depictions of magic kung fu. (How do you show a tortoise kung fu master? Yet he's shown with great majesty.) I feel I want the premise expanded into an epic by a good author :)

It's something like a cross between the Ninja Turtles film and Forbidden Kingdom film. It probably says something that it gets its style from the second, but also its lack of depth :)