strange and random happenstance

White Cat (Curse Workers Book 1) by Holly Black
Published by: Margaret K. McElderry
Publication Date: May 4th, 2010
Format: Hardcover, 320 Pages
Rating: ★★★★
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Cassel almost killed himself. He didn't mean to and he has no idea how he ended up on the roof of his dorm in the middle of the night. But this little escapade has him suspended from school pending further inquiry into his "sleepwalking." In the meantime that means he's sent back to his family. His family of Curse Workers. His mom is actually in jail because of her manipulation of a millionaire, so he is thrust on his brothers and grandfather, all of whom are using their "abilities" to help the mob run by Zacharov. Zacharov whose daughter Lila disappeared a few years earlier. But Cassel knows the truth. He killed her. He killed the girl he loved. Though not with "magic" just his own two hands, because Cassel doesn't have any powers. He has no "magic." But growing up in his family he knows how to cheat, gamble, grift and con. So he has no worries about getting himself back into school, it'll be easy. Yet nothing is easy once a white cat walks out of his dreams and into his life.

There are times in life when there's just too much shit raining down on you that you don't think anything will help. All you want to do is get lost somewhere, for me that's usually between the pages of a book. But you have your doubts that it's even possible with the weight of the world on your shoulders. I was in such a frame of mind when I picked up White Cat and I can't lie, I struggled at first to get into the book. The blending of diverse genres wasn't drawing me in and the magic system seemed too loosely defined and the outside world kept nagging at me to pay attention to it. But then that magical thing happened. All book lovers will know what I mean. All of a sudden, about sixty pages in, the book hooked me. I didn't want to stop reading, despite the late hour and the emotional day making my eyelids droop. This book isn't by any means a masterpiece, it's not a book that changed my outlook on the world. But White Cat did give me a reprieve from the world and for that I will ever be grateful.

White Cat is a bizarre combination of genres, it's like the first X-Men movie with some Harry Potter thrown in with the larger framework being Boardwalk Empire meets Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, because that is the best con artist movie of all time hands down, there's no debating that fact. All these differing genres were more at war with each other then forming a cohesive whole, making the book very disjointed. The first major hurtle was the system of "magic" or I should say "curses." You are thrown headfirst into the deep end, where it feels like Black just expects you to intuitively know how this system works. I'm not sure if this was purposeful or not. Cassel himself is half ignorant of the workings of the world he lives in, so maybe this was to make use relate more to him and learn along with him. Which, if that is the case, I guess it makes sense, but it made the book hard to get into.

The aspect of the book that just made me latch on was when the history of Curse Workers was discussed. The way Curse Work is associated with the criminal element and Australia, being a penal colony, having many Workers is fascinating to me. Plus the prohibition gangster aspects and the rise of organized crime. Also the mythic and heroic history, like the Russian Folklore that peeps in, why can't the book be all this? I keep thinking, if this was done as a period piece, like Boardwalk Empire, it might, just might, be the coolest book ever. Also people wore more gloves in olden times!

But for everything that goes right in the book, for all the originality, there is an equally strong reliance on tropes. You better be a fan of worldbuilding to enjoy this book because there aren't many surprises in store plotwise. Two big plot points are so obvious, instead of leaving breadcrumbs to hint at the truth it felt like Black was leaving baguettes. Big crunchy French baguettes probably a day old so they are a little hard and capable of beating a man to death. Luckily Black doesn't wait to the book's denouement to reveal these obvious twists, because if they had been the big finale, this book wouldn't be being written about favorably right now.

But what I took most issue with is that the little gang, the threesome of Cassel, Sam and Daneca, are just Harry, Ron and Hermione. Now I know that J.K. Rowling didn't invent this pairing, she doesn't have a claim on it, but seriously, YA authors, stop emulating it! It's old hat, it's lazy, it's played out. In simple words, stop. Black is even more obvious then most with Daneca being an exact clone of Hermione, heck she even forms her own version of S.P.E.W. called HEX, for the repressed workers! And the whole bushy brown hair swot thing too. Yes the Harry Potter books changed YA literature forever. Guess what? You're not going to write the next Harry Potter so move on. Build you own world, write your own book, don't borrow, and in the case of your friend Cassandra Clare, don't steal. This could be an awesome series if it stays on track... and if it doesn't have anymore epic cover fails. Short haired white cat! Sheesh, not long haired...

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Boardwalk Empire, Cassandra Clare, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Harry Potter, Historical Fiction, Holly Black, J.K. Rowling, Mafia, Magic, Summer Series, The Curse Workers, White Cat, X-Men

Players by Terrance Dicks
Published by: BBC Books
Publication Date: April 26th, 1999
Format: Paperback, 306 Pages
Rating: ★★
To Buy

While trying to show Peri a glamorous time after a particularly sewer based adventure, the TARDIS gets the right when not the right where and they end up smack in the middle of the Boer War. Not only in the middle of the strife in South Africa, but in the middle of an assassination attempt against a young Winston Churchill. Winston pooh-poohs the idea that the assassin was after him, but the Doctor knows how integral Churchill is to the coming century so he can't discount this theory. By eliminating Churchill the entire course of future history will be changed. What's more disconcerting is that this has happened before, in The Doctor's second incarnation, almost twenty years in Churchill's future, there was an odd assassination attempt during WWI that The Doctor thwarted. Could there be someone, or a group of someones, so invested in the death of Churchill that they would be willing to wait decades till the perfect opportunity to strike presented itself again?

The Doctor is disturbed by these events and decides to set himself and Peri up in London society in the 1930s. They're bound to run into Churchill, Peri will get her luxury and glamour, and The Doctor will get his answers. Not long after they arrive there is an attempt on their lives quickly followed by one on Churchill. The Doctor doesn't take any risks and hires some Pinkerton agents to see to their safety. But whomever their opponents and would-be killers are, determined and ruthless is how they operate. In the midst of the abdication crisis, could these mysterious assassins be playing some sort of game with The Doctor as their pawn and Churchill's death as a significant move?

One of the fun aspects of Doctor Who is that because he can go anywhen, well, we have the chance to run into some rather august personages, even previous versions of himself. So far in this series of books he hasn't run into anyone of note, but then again, he hasn't really been hanging around earth that much...  in the television series he has met everyone from Dickens to Da Vinci, here we have someone who has even shown up on the show, Winston Churchill. I like that this gives a little bit of context and background to The Doctor's relationship with Churchill, because when the 11th Doctor gets that phone call at the end of "The Beast Below" there is obviously a prior and congenial relationship between the two. I like to think that this book is where it all started.

Yet at the same time I couldn't help be reminded of the first Thursday Next novel by Jasper Fforde, The Eyre Affair. While I know that this book came out after Players, the fact remains that it is more well known, and I can't help but keep thinking about Thursday's father showing up again and again and asking if she knew who Churchill was. Because, quite literally, if there's one person who was a force for good in the last century, it was Churchill.

And because we are dealing with Churchill, well, we are dealing with some of my favorite time periods. Africa, England, pulling together for the empire in times of crisis... ah, this book had me hooked from page one... but then it lost me. I wanted to love it, it was a fast read in a time period I love, but it just flat lined. The problem I had was with the anachronisms. In any historical fiction, and in particular in a story dealing with time travel and the ability to accidentally change the past, butterfly wings and all that, there are acceptable anachronisms and unacceptable anachronisms. There can be things played for laughs, like in Blackadder: Back and Forth when Edmund messes up the time lines and Shakespeare ends up being known as the inventor of the ballpoint pen. And there can be serious changes, like here if Winston Churchill were eliminated before England's hour of need.

But then there are things that just get under my skin and piss me off, aka, the unacceptable anachronisms. In this book there where two that just drove me crazy. One was the fact that while playing out the abdication crisis with Wallis Simpson and Edward VIII that Wallis was going to be there for his abdication broadcast. Now the clever and acceptable anachronisms is what was going to happen because of the Players... what annoyed me was Wallis's presence. She had fled the country at this point! You can mess with history, you just can't mess with it this much. It's keeping the details intact that make a story like this work. As for the Pinkerton Dekker, who is a little too much Harrison Ford in Bladerunner, well, he was too much of an earlier era. His tommy gun wielding prohi just felt so out of place, it's like Terrance Dicks was taking Boardwalk Empire and trying to force it to breed with the new Upstairs, Downstairs. It was so wrong, not all period dramas mesh, and it didn't surprise me in the least when I learned that Dekker was in a previous Terrance Dicks novel... sometimes you just need to let your characters go. And don't get me started with the Rebbecca joke or the fact Dicks then pulled a Dashiell Hammett and decided to bring in the Continental Op... sigh, sometimes less is more and it's best to separate styles.

As for our big bad? I really loved the Players and their nebulous unexplained nature. In the previous book with the 5th Doctor, Fear of the Dark, I felt that one of the failings was taking a mysterious entity and making it have too too solid flesh. By instead having this race of immortals from who knows where or when and them just playing a game with our history just for fun... well, I like it. I also like that they will obviously return. But what I loved is that at the end they let The Doctor live, not because he wasn't a threat to them, but because they saw his potential as either a player or a very powerful pawn.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Blackadder, Bladerunner, Boardwalk Empire, Boer War, Doctor Who, Jasper Fforde, Peri, Players, Terrance Dicks, The 6th Doctor, The Eyre Affair, Upstairs Downstairs, Wallis and Edward, Winston Churchill, WWI, WWII

Bleak House
Based on the book by Charles Dickens
Release Date: October 27th, 2005 – December 16th, 2005
Starring: Anna Maxwell Martin, Denis Lawson, Carey Mulligan, Patrick Kennedy, Nataniel Parker, Gillian Anderson, Timothy West, John Lynch, Charles Dance, Burn Gorman, Phil Davis, Loo Brealey, Catherine Tate, Alun Armstrong, Pauline Collins, Johnny Vegas, Hugo Speer, Anne Reid and Ian Richardson
Rating: ★★★★
To Buy

The case of Jardyce verses Jardyce has spent many years in chancery and destroyed many lives. There are too many wills and no definitive final version. Ada Clare and Richard Carstone have just found out they are at the heart of this case. Having spent years in schools and sheltered, they never knew of their stake in this historic case. But now one of the other possible benefactors, John Jardyce, has taken in these two wards of Jardyce, and hired a companion for Ada, the sweet Esther Summerson. While the case continues to play out in the courts of chancery, Esther and Ada try to come to terms with this new life they have been given, while poor Richard can't detach himself from the fortune he might have if the case where to be settled in his and Ada's favor. Though there are many people who could be effected from the outcome of the case. Lady Deadlock has some stake, though how much is not made clear. Yet it is Lady Deadlock's secret, and the ruthlessness of her husband's lawyer, Mr. Tulkinghorn, that in the end could have a far greater effect on Esther than any court verdict. From a scribe called Nemo to a street boy named Joe, a "childlike" man with more guile that you could imagine, to an odd hoarder who spontaneously combusts, it is the little people, the odd characters that are touched by this case that make the beautiful tapestry that is Bleak House.

The first time I watched Bleak House was when it aired on PBS and I did not enjoy the experience. Yes, I know this is blasphemy and my fellow Anglophiles have derided me for this, just so you know you aren't along in the shock they felt. I just felt it was too drawn out, having to wait weeks for each installment, when what I really wanted to do was marathon it. Also the fact that many things that where scandalous and taboo in Victorian times are rather the norm today. There was also the fact that I didn't really care for the actress who plated Esther. At this time I had only seen Anna Maxwell Martin in North and South. She was good in that and then she died. I just felt she didn't have the strength to carry this show on her shoulders and I kept hoping for her death. I mean, I can't stand her and she's picking up all these people in thrall to her, why exactly? More on that later. But the main problem besides my hatred of Anna (which I have somewhat resolved, either she has become a better actress over time or I've just gotten used to her) was the drastic jump at the end. There is a mood and a feeling throughout the miniseries that jumped in the last scene. Everything is dark and sensibly bleak and then all of a sudden it's happy and jovial and every one's dancing and the music is upbeat and not fitting the tone. Icky jumping the sharkness. Even the music in the end credits is all happy happy joy joy and I think, more than anything, that left me scratching my head and dissatisfied. Now, when I watch, which I have done several times since, I am prepared for this jump and therefore, though I don't like it, I know it's coming and can brace for the impact.

There are other things that just irk me, most are directed more at Dickens than at the production. I'm sorry but John Jardyce is so awesome he deserved a happier ending, stupid Esther and your stupid Doctor. I still hate Richard, weak willed annoying cry baby... which has become a hatred of this actor because of his role in this. Recently he showed up on Boardwalk Empire and I was all, icky, no, can we kill him here too? Guppy to me is fascinating and perfectly played by Burn Gorman. Yet, I want to understand Guppy's motives more. He's totally entertaining, but does he love Esther for her or for her expectations? Because he's obviously one of the smartest characters in the story being able to easily unravel the central mystery of Esther's parentage... but is it this secret that makes him "love" Esther... and yes, I know I need to read the book and maybe this will answer my questions, but still, more closure or explanation was needed with this. And really, what was the draw of Esther. She picks up all these people who have an unwavering devotion to her, but why? What has Esther ever done than be just a boring dull person who never hurt or harmed anyone and shows just a little kindness and young girls and boys are willing to risk their lives for her? Really? If that's true, then a stronger actress was truly needed, see rant above. Also, Esther's stupid Doctor, I've never liked him and just couldn't put my finger on why he was bothering me even more on this re watching and I realized he was on Lark Rise to Candleford as the supposed match for Dorcas in the end, which I totally don't buy. Dorcas deserved so much better.

Yet, the things I love have started to overcome those that bother me. See, repeat viewings are good. Also, I think that Trollope was correct in his attack of this book in that it's the secondary characters that you love while the primary characters are weak and unlikable. I mean, who hasn't watched this miniseries and had a strange urge to yell at people "Shake me up Judy"? Also, I would never have been one to think that Johnny Vegas was suited towards period drama, yet it seems as if the self immolating Krook was written just for him. Then there's just little cameos like Richard Cant as the slightly drunk butler Mercury, that entertain me to no end, oh, and I want to be the mooching cop Bucket when I grow up. I guess I'm just saying, in a round about manner, that yes, I'm sorry I was quick to judge this series originally, but I can still see why I hated it, but have now come to find things that I greatly appreciate that make me overlook the flows, *cough* Esther *cough*.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 1 comments  

Labels: Anna Maxwell Martin, Bleak House, Boardwalk Empire, Chancery, Charles Dickens, Esther Summerson, Johnny Vegas, Lady Deadlock, Lark Rise to Candleford, North and South, PBS, Richard Cant, Shake Me Up Judy