October 11, 2013

Stuff and Things 10/11/13

By the time you read this, I will be at New York Comic Con. *Movie Magic* Either hobnobbing with geeky celebrities, or-- more likely-- trying not to drool on myself as I talk stalker photos of Felicia Day and John Barrowman and Patrick Stewart. Good times.

Life As I Know It
Nothing really to report on this front. NYCC happenings, obvi, but that hasn't happened yet (as I type this), so I've got nothing to say about it. Yet. I've also been training a temp at work who--get this-- I had regional choir with back when I was twelve. Small freaking world.

I was a mezzo-soprano, in case you were wondering. He was an alto. He was also eleven, so that's probably changed. I didn't really ask.

Oh, I have a plot for NaNoWriMo. Ish. A friend told me I should write a Cheese Man sequel, and then as I was haunting the Adopt-a-Plot threads on the forums, I found one that works perfectly. But I'm not sure where exactly I'm going with it. I also don't have a title, and that makes me sad. I can't get cover art without a title.

Books- Here there be spoilers
Send me book recommendations on GoodReads! The weirder the better.
Divergent and Insurgent by Veronica Roth. I read both books in two days, so you get a two-for-one special on these guys, since I don't think I could extricate the details of each to do a separate review.

First of all, I'm a fan of dystopian fantasy. I know I seem all sunshine and sparkles on the blog, but my tastes in books have always leaned towards the morbid and macabre. I'm also a fan of swords, dragons, and robots, but that's something for another time.

The thing I liked about Divergent was that there wasn't a huge amount of exposition. I hate the books that are like, well, since we've created a whole new world with complex rules and societal structure, the first three chapters will be a massive info-dump. I don't learn that way. Divergent didn't really do that (although, there were instances-- like the Choosing ceremony-- specifically crafted for that purpose). You learned about Dauntless alongside Tris, the narrator, and that opened you up to learning about the other factions. And it was a really enjoyable read. Like I said, both books in two days; I couldn't put it down.

That being said, Divergent had troubles with pacing (most of the book was really slow, then you hit climax and everything's happening all at once. It was pretty jarring), and I still don't know why being divergent is so dangerous that the Erudite faction had to wage war in order to exterminate them. I mean, I get that being uncontrollable is dangerous, but frankly the simulation thingy they were using was mostly untested in the first place, so the Erudites should have expected some outliers. And people who react differently to the same stimulus gives you more and better data, so I don't know what their problem is (*nerd alert*).

And if curiosity is a trait that's engendered by the Erudite, why did none of them ever wonder what's outside the fence? That would be my first question if I was Erudite. If I was Dauntless, I'd try to climb it. If I was Abnegation, I'd be like, but what if there are people out there that need my help? Candor should want to know the truth as a matter of course. The only ones who shouldn't care would be the stoned out hippies in Amity. I don't get why no one is asking these questions. I feel like I have to wait for the third book now to really understand what's going on, and that frustrates me a little. It really shouldn't have been separated into different books.

I also felt like the romance between Tris and Four was a little unnecessary. It didn't add much to the plot, and it was kind of sudden. I knew the author was heading that way, but it was like, "Tris thinks Four is cute," "Four thinks he can trust Tris with his deepest, darkest secrets with no basis for that belief," "They're in the kind of love that surpasses mind control!"

For all it's flaws though, it was an excellent story. I liked Tris, and I liked that she was flawed. I liked that there were times I didn't like her, because it made her more human. I like that even though she'd been put through hell in order to join Dauntless, the war and it's casualties still had a firm and lasting effect on her. She wasn't automatically a seasoned veteran. I just don't like that I feel like even though I read two books, I don't have any answers.

TV
Castle- I would have preferred if Beckett had consciously made the decision to leave the Attorney General's office. Or even if they'd made it clear that if she got caught, she'd have gotten fired. The way the episode ended felt a bit like a cop-out. I really wanted to see her punch someone.

And finally Castle realizes that he can write from anywhere. That's exactly what I said when he threw his little tantrum last season. Beckett should have been saying that from the beginning, or at least after they got engaged. You know, "Hey, since I've got this great job in DC, and you can write from anywhere, and Alexis is in college, why not think about moving down to DC? And since you're really rich, you could probably still maintain your current place or sublet it to your mother." Like, really? And if they wanted to keep him in New York for the time being, they could have just thrown out a line like, he wants to spend time with Alexis before she goes back to school. Not hard.

Once Upon A Time- I don't know. I think I might be over this show. This Pan storyline isn't doing anything for me, and I feel like Emma didn't really have to "accept" the fact that she was an orphan, since she's clearly having trouble accepting Snow and Charming are her parents, and for 28 years she didn't have parents.

Supernatural- Pretty sure Ezekiel's evil, you guys. And I would never have given up Agent Ballard as a host. :P (I'm starting to wonder if Supernatural is trying to inch its way into the Whedonverse)

Agents of SHIELD- Blah, blah, blah, Skye's not an agent, she's not trained, we're going to doubt her even though we really wanted her on out team. *Gasp* She's got skilllz. Blah, blah, blah, Skye and Ward make gooey eyes at each other. Blah, blah, blah, evil is defeated by the underdog once again. And everyone's really shiny and pretty. Gah, I'm still holding out hope for this show.

I just want Sherlock back, you guys. Now they're saying 2014. Whyyyyyyyyyyyy? T-T

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