Count_Zero
This volume of the manga adapts the Operation Yashima plotline, which I'd also describe as the “First Rei Arc.” It gives the reader a baseline for who Rei is currently, so her character can develop and change over future volumes.
The story in this volume is missing some of the light humor that the anime version of this arc has (with Rei being the ultimate straight woman - particularly when Rei comes to give Shinji the briefing on Operation Yashima while he's in the hospital).
Sadamoto's art is excellent, and the problems I had tracking some of the action scenes in manga form in volume 1 are completely absent here.
This volume adapts what I'd describe as the “First Asuka Arc”, with Asuka's arrival at Tokyo 3, and the “dance fight”.
Asuka's characterization is slightly different from the anime, as she acts like much more like a bully problem child, putting on a goody-two-shoes air in front of the adults, but a much more abusive face when they're not looking. It makes for a different take on the character. Whether it's one for the better I'll have to see.
Also, all the problems with how Sadamoto draws the fights are completely gone in this volume. The dance fight is one that, in the wrong hands, could have failed horribly, but here it just works. That said, it also is lessened a little bit by the fact that we don't have the music, which would really help. That said, I mentally went with “Dance of the Hours” by Amilcare Ponchielli.
I haven't read OEL manga in a while, so I wasn't sure what to expect from Amazing Agent Luna. I enjoyed the work a lot, though I thought the high school drama elements were a bit much. The cast is almost too tight to quite work. We don't particularly see any faculty outside of the science and PE teachers and the principal. Similarly, the school seems to consist of only two cliques - the outsiders, which Luna latches on to, and the bunch of “Mean Girls” which make up the popular clique. There's no social groups around athletics or drama (or any other extra-curricular activities) to speak of.
Now, I understand that most works set in high school keep the cast tight for an economy of characters. Still, even shows like Daria and series like the Harry Potter books (and movies) have a variety of classes that we see, so we get an idea of what school and the instructors are like, before expanding on these characters and their traits as the work goes on.
SpoilerConsequently, when the science teacher position basically turns into this series “Defense Against The Dark Arts” position, the high turnover becomes even more glaring when there are only so many instructors that we know.
With 2010, Arthur C. Clarke's ability to write interesting, believable, and likable characters has improved dramatically, particularly compared to the cardboard cutouts from Rendezvous with Rama, and the similarly bland characters (with the exception of HAL) from 2001. The book also does a great job of answering the remaining questions from the novelization of 2001.
As far as the book to the movie goes, it's something of a 50/50 split. The book is better at providing the answers then the movie is, and there are some stupid decisions that the characters make in the film which aren't made in the book (like sending Max in a manned pod out to the Monolith, instead of using an unmanned pod operated by remote). Also, the book manages to be semi-prescient by having giving China a space program that would have been somewhat unimaginable when the first film came out. However, the movie manages to be more reasonable by increasing the danger to the Leonov when SpoilerJupiter becomes a star.
All in all, 2010 is one of my favorite Arthur C. Clarke novels, and is definitely a worthy companion to 2001.
This is a really well done unabridged audiobook. In particular, the reader does a great job getting the voices to sound like their related actors (with perhaps the sole notable exception of his Harrison Ford impression) - and his Grand Admiral Thrawn sounds exactly like I imagined him. Using a somewhat Hispanic voice for Talon Karrde seems a little off though.
Well, this was certainly enjoyable, but not without its faults. When your society is almost more sexist than Westeros, you've got some problems. As it is, I do like how some of the characters are written, particularly the Master Smith towards the end of the book (who acts exactly like an engineer).
I also have a bit of a gripe with how quickly the Dragon Riders manage to cope with four-dimensional thinking. It seems slightly absurd.
Another really good book. The book follows the “series of vignettes” style of the last book, but with more of a serialized tone instead of an episodic one.
There are a few things I'm wondering though, which might not be answered in future books - in particular, what City was Interstellar Master Traders supposed to be, exactly? Florence? Rome? Jerusalem? Goodness knows that last one would have some serious Unfortunate Implications if that was the case.
Also, the comments about New York's subways in the story also kind of makes me wonder - when New York lifted for the first time, was it just Manhattan Island? Did some of the other boroughs come along as well? Inquiring minds want to know?
The book definitely brings the series to a satisfying conclusion, but the denouement runs a little long (though, to be fair, getting the denouement the right length is something that lots of writers have problems with). Probably the bigger problem with the book's end is that, approaching the conclusion, it screams, “The writer got the publisher to agree to another trilogy, so he's going to lay some plot hooks for the next one!”
This is aggravated by the fact that I'm reading the book's first printing, and right after th end of the story we get this little bombshell.
Here ends The Sapphire Rose, thus concluding the tale of The Elenium – but not the adventures of Sparhawk and his companions. Watch for further danger and magic in The Tamuli, a new series from David Eddings, forthcoming from Del Rey Books.
Whenever I've had a rough day, and I feel like I can't remember the last time I laughed, one of the manga or anime I turn to, in order to lighten my spirits is Hayate the Combat Butler. The blend of oddball comedy and reverentially referential humor, along with a willingness to just chip away at that fourth wall blends together well to make an enjoyable comic, and the fact that the characters are incredibly likable really helps to keep me coming back in a way that TV shows like Family Guy, which also relies on referential humor, fails to do.
This volume in particular, with Nagi's attempts to help around the house, and your annual Valentine's Day hijinks are particularly enjoyable. The fact that this volume not only features stories with Isumi, as well as Nagi's cousin Sakuya, and Wataru also helps. The only real point against it is a small sub-plot featuring the ghost of the “priest” from the “Butler's Tiger Pit” storyline, with the premise that the ghost is haunting Hayate and only he can hear and see him, which picks up at the start of the volume and is dropped with very little fanfare partway through.
On the one hand, the end of the plot is somewhat abrupt, and I'm kind of confused over why it was included in the first place. On the other hand, I'm not a fan of the character, and he doesn't particularly work well in the context of his main story, so I'm not particularly upset that he's gone. I just wish his departure had been handled better (like with an exorcism by Isumi or something).
Other than that, this is a great volume, and a good continuation of the series. I look forward to reading volume 8.
This book is something that I would consider a seminal work of film criticism, and in its own way shows how the internet and home video have changed film and film criticism.
Because of the internet, and the ability to take films home with us, the obscure films, the flops and the bombs have a chance to get legs, find their audiences later on, and get the fan base and success that they have so richly deserved, as with Joe Vs. The Volcano & The Rocketeer. Alternately, they preserve failure and the bizarre cinematic decisions that lead to those failures for all time, as is the case with films like Mame and Pennies from Heaven.
Honestly, if you want consider yourself a big fan of film, I'd definitely consider this book worth reading.
I really like this story. Generally, with cosmic SF stories, I prefer it when they really give the universe a sense of scope, as opposed to putting more of the focus on the heroes and letting the ancillary characters fade to the background - this is one of the things that has really worked with Green Lantern ever since Dave Gibbons run on the books.
This volume is causing the series to risk becoming cluttered, from a plot standpoint. Coming into this volume, the plot had the main driving conflict of “How do these characters, which are almost all infected with a disease that could kill them, survive in this post-apocalyptic world with massive thorny plants that have consumed everything, and also freaking dinosaurs?”
There was also the question of “How did we go from the world that these characters were in when they went into cryo, into the world with the aforementioned plants and dinosaurs?”
This volume, unfortunately, does nothing to answer these questions, and instead Iwahara decides to add a third plot thread to the mix, related to some sort of conspiracy theory about the virus - which at present does nothing to explain any of the earlier questions.
I'm going to keep reading this series, but I do hope that Iwahara learned something from the X-Files and Lost, that too many questions without a hint that there are answers coming doesn't keep your audience hooked - it burns them out.
This is kind of a slow-paced manga. This volume does a lot of world-building with regards to Terran society and Mu society, as well as our two leads views of their respective societies, Jomy Marcus Shin for the Mu, and Keith Anyan for the Terrans.
(This part may sound spoiler-ish, but it really isn't).
That said, thus far the story does a pretty good job of making the Terran society oppressive enough that you understand why the Mu rebelled, while also making the Terrans sympathetic - their society is oppressive, but it's a society that chose to become oppressive for a specific reason - to make a society that could remain cohesive in spite of humanity's diaspora to the stars, and could also remain united and focused on the task of restoring and repairing the damaged ecosystem of Earth - and would be in agreement on how to prevent it from being despoiled once again, after the planet had been rebuilt. Their greatest sin isn't practicing eugenics, or having a non-traditional family unit (though their attempts to eliminate emotions from society is definitely something I'd consider a bad thing), as much as their greatest sin is treating the Mu, because they're ESPers, and are therefore different, as freaks to be (essentially) dissected and studied, rather than as being human beings like everyone else, and putting humans over their order.
So, I'm definitely interested in reading future books, and seeing how this conflict goes down. This is definitely a situation where both sides are shades of grey, rather than the situation being black-and-white, and I look fore-ward to seeing this play out.
