Recent books and films
May. 31st, 2016 04:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jackGood Dinosaur, Pixar Film
An alternate history where dinosaurs became farmers and ranchers and mammals mostly didn't. Arlo, a young apatosaurus is separated from his family farm, and journeys to find it again.
It was really beautiful. The water animation was amazing, it looked really wet. And the characters were very evocative, especially the little boy Spot.
I didn't really fall in love with it the way I have with most Pixar films. I'm not sure if that's because it's aimed at slightly younger people (though some bits are pretty scary), or because there's less to the overall story, or because I've got more jaded. Liv and the Osos enjoyed it.
It was very strange to see the humans apparently lacking language. The visual communication was really good, especially with Spot, but also with the other humans, and other dinosaur characters. But it's very strange to see a child portrayed like a dog, even a very beloved dog.
Tropic of Serpents, book by Marie Brenan
Sequel to Natural History of Dragons.
The future lady Trent this time journeys to alternate-world Africa (I think?) to study swamp dragons. In several ways, I enjoyed it more than the first one. With Isabella already established with a patron and a vocation to study dragons, we move straight to the difficulties of arranging the voyage and what happens there, with less agonising over whether she will do that at all.
Writing about colonial powers, even in an alternate world, is a very risky choice. The book does a good job of characterising the people she meets as people: the Moulish, sparsely populated in their deadly swamp, nestled between the newly expansionist Ikwunde, and Bayembe, forced to flirt between accepting alt-British help and joining the rapidly congealing Talu union. And not just presenting them as interchangeable non-English background. But none of the characters of any nationality have very memorable personality, her patron is almost the only character I can imagine vividly. And I can't pretend to know how the book would be received by someone who'd actually lived in a country visited by colonialism.
This is a mild spoiler, but I really expect everyone to know or not be going to read it by not, and I think in many ways it's as or more interesting if you haven't read the books. One aspect of the alternate world is the dominant European religion is variants on Judaism rather than Christianity. Without the most obvious superficial details, I _completely_ failed to notice in the first book -- I could tell it was an alternate religion, and the details were lifted directly from Judaism, but not the things that are most obvious from the outside. I didn't realise till Liv pointed it out. It's a fascinating choice, and not one I've seen talked about at all.
An alternate history where dinosaurs became farmers and ranchers and mammals mostly didn't. Arlo, a young apatosaurus is separated from his family farm, and journeys to find it again.
It was really beautiful. The water animation was amazing, it looked really wet. And the characters were very evocative, especially the little boy Spot.
I didn't really fall in love with it the way I have with most Pixar films. I'm not sure if that's because it's aimed at slightly younger people (though some bits are pretty scary), or because there's less to the overall story, or because I've got more jaded. Liv and the Osos enjoyed it.
It was very strange to see the humans apparently lacking language. The visual communication was really good, especially with Spot, but also with the other humans, and other dinosaur characters. But it's very strange to see a child portrayed like a dog, even a very beloved dog.
Tropic of Serpents, book by Marie Brenan
Sequel to Natural History of Dragons.
The future lady Trent this time journeys to alternate-world Africa (I think?) to study swamp dragons. In several ways, I enjoyed it more than the first one. With Isabella already established with a patron and a vocation to study dragons, we move straight to the difficulties of arranging the voyage and what happens there, with less agonising over whether she will do that at all.
Writing about colonial powers, even in an alternate world, is a very risky choice. The book does a good job of characterising the people she meets as people: the Moulish, sparsely populated in their deadly swamp, nestled between the newly expansionist Ikwunde, and Bayembe, forced to flirt between accepting alt-British help and joining the rapidly congealing Talu union. And not just presenting them as interchangeable non-English background. But none of the characters of any nationality have very memorable personality, her patron is almost the only character I can imagine vividly. And I can't pretend to know how the book would be received by someone who'd actually lived in a country visited by colonialism.
This is a mild spoiler, but I really expect everyone to know or not be going to read it by not, and I think in many ways it's as or more interesting if you haven't read the books. One aspect of the alternate world is the dominant European religion is variants on Judaism rather than Christianity. Without the most obvious superficial details, I _completely_ failed to notice in the first book -- I could tell it was an alternate religion, and the details were lifted directly from Judaism, but not the things that are most obvious from the outside. I didn't realise till Liv pointed it out. It's a fascinating choice, and not one I've seen talked about at all.