You have been warned.
Dead Snow
I'll admit to start with I'm not a huge fan of zombie/horror films. While I'll tolerate the occasional good one, as a general rule straight-out horror films are not of huge interest to me. To begin with, the lack of a real plot is honestly somewhat boring, and it's a very rare movie that actually scares me (which renders the point of a horror film somewhat moot). Dead Snow is a film I probably never would have watched had Jesse not been around and no other good options had presented themselves.
This background is important, I think, because when I say I actually kind of enjoyed Dead Snow it's more impressive than the phrase "kind of" would suggest. The film subverted a lot of zombie tropes (intelligent zombies, not completely useless humans, etc). and strengthened what tropes it did maintain. The plot was pretty tightly wound and the pacing was spot-on. The actors did a great job establishing their characters and being surprisingly memorable considering how long some of them live. And of course, it has Nazis zombies, which both from my academic and videogame background is highly appealing to me. Although it is far from being a perfect movie and isn't necessarily one I would watch again, I think all of the problems I have with it are ones I have with the genre in general rather than this movie in particular, and that I enjoyed it overall shows it's quite a strong film to be able to overcome my prejudice against the genre. If you are into zombie/horror films, I suspect you'd get quite a kick out of the film.
Fruits Basket
Last semester I was given a copy of the first volume of the manga "Fruits Basket" and actually enjoyed it quite a lot, and while I was unwilling to shell out the necessary cash to purchase all of the volumes, I was pleased to find that the entire anime season was available to watch on Netflix (although the English dub turned out to be pretty horrible). The series tells the story of a cursed family which turns into a zodiac animal whenever it's hugged by the opposite gender, and the young girl who's accidentally throw into their life.
Naturally this seems like a very generic type of shojo material, and to a certain extent it definitely is. With that said, it's generally tolerable and quite enjoyable in parts, although I definitely think it's overshadowed by later series to a very large degree (Ouran High School Host Club in particular springs to mind). The characters are decently varied and interesting, and although our female lead is occasionally grating overall she's more endearing that annoying, which is a good accomplishment for a shojo series. The show occasionally delves into more serious material than the otherwise normal lighthearted humor and romance, and manages a nice combination of them. The one big complaint I have is that the series takes a somewhat dramatic and surprising turn towards the end, with a out-of-the-blue tragic-ish moment that to me felt a little forced.
I wouldn't rate this series as among the best I've watched, but neither is it at all bad. Overall I'd say it's a bit above average; worth watching if you're particularly interested in this type of show, but otherwise not necessarily something to go out of your way to watch. In certain ways it feels a little dated, again especially compared to more recent works, but in another way it feels more "classic." Definitely has some reasons why it enjoys the popularity that it does, but not a fantastic series.
Sabbat Worlds (Short story anthology)
Given how detailed and large the Sabbat Worlds that Dan Abnett has created are, it's not surprising that lots of aspects have been merely mentioned and are waiting to be fleshed out. Thus I was very pleasantly surprised when I heard the announcement that various writers had written short stories set in the Sabbat Worlds, and was quite interested to see what was going on in the areas and times where the Ghosts and Gaunt weren't around. Because it's a short story collection, I feel it's worth it to talk about each story individually.
Apostle's Creed by Graham McNeill: McNeill chose to explore the world of dogfighting, apparently picking up some characters from Abnett's Double Eagle, which I have not yet had the chance to read. It tells the tale of an ace fighter in a warzone, and her experience within the elite, famous squadron. I'm actually a big fan of dogfighting series (the Star Wars X-Wing series is one of my all-time favorite sets of novels) and I had been meaning to track down a copy of Double Eagle, so this was a nice surprise. Overall it was quite enjoyable, and a very different kind of story than I usually get in the 40k universe.
The Headstone and the Hammerstone Kings by Matthew Farrer: I actually like the direction Farrer went with this story, examining the leftover remains of horrible war machines on a Imperial-controlled old battleground. The story is largely from a Chaos-perspective as they attempt to reactivate some particularly nasty pieces of equipment. However, although I like the scope and ambition of the story, it fell a little flat in places and overall felt a little vague in terms of exactly what was happening. Goot, but not great.
Regicide by Aaron Dembski-Bowden: This is one of my favorite stories from the set, and tells of the battle of Balhaut and the personal bodyguard of Warmaster Slaydo. It's an event and a person alluded to a lot in the Gaunt's Ghosts books, but we don't get a lot of specifics and they're all from Gaunt's personal point of view. Dembski-Bowden does a great job of conveying that titanic battle and last moment of glory for the aging Warmaster, while setting the telling of the tale in an interesting lens with a surprising twist. He does a great job creating a perfect atmosphere and uses compelling language, and does everything that a good short story should do, and furthermore does exactly what I wanted stories in that anthology to do: fill in gaps. Great story.
The Iron Star by Dan Abnett: I had read this previously, and is a reprint of a short story given out at some convention or something. It's kind of a filler piece in that it describes events that happen between two of the Gaunt's Ghosts books. Standalone I don't think it's be very compelling, but it's a neat little read if you've read the novels it bridges.
Cell by Nik Vincent: Vincent explores the area of being on a Chaos-controlled former Imperial world, and in doing so manages to very strongly capture the atmosphere of desolation, desperation, and overall horror that such a setting demands. Although he seems a capable writer, I think the biggest problem is that I wasn't a huge fan of the plot (I see what he was trying for, I just don't think he was wholly successful) and none of the characters seemed particularly sympathetic (which may have been intentional). Overall I enjoyed it as it was, again, different from usual 40k fare and served as a neat companion piece to Traitor General by Abnett, but it definitely has some flaws.
Blueblood by Nick Kyme: Kyme deals with a regiment from the early Ghost novels, one that's essentially an "enemy" IG regiment. He deals with this very well, painting the Bluebloods not in a particularly favorable light but managing to make them not totally unsympathetic, which given their background seems perfect. Like "Cell," the plot felt a little loose and not perfect, but it still told a fun story and had some excellent moments. In addition, it picked up a little bit on the theme of the Beati reincarnated, which is a thread that I'm sad hasn't reoccurred in the Ghost novels. A good addition to the Sabbat Worlds canon.
A Good Man by Sandy Mitchell: Although mostly absent of the humor found in the Ciaphas Cain novels, Mitchell proves he's not limited to such works and delivers a solid short story. I liked the writing style a lot as well, since unlike the Cain books "A Good Man" uses a past-tense limited third-person perspective as someone tries to tell the tale of what happened to the title character. We get to watch an otherwise normal Ministorum clerk step outside of his comfort zone and confront the harsh realities of the 40k universe, and it's a quite believable and interesting story. Although not quite what I was expecting when I saw "Sandy Mitchell," a solid story nonetheless.
Of Their Lives in the Ruins of Their City by Dan Abnett: This short story deals with the very early period in between what happens in the first Ghost novel and the destruction of Tanith. I actually didn't realize Abnett had two short stories in this collection, so it was a nice surprise. However, this is probably my least favorite of the Ghost short stories (of which there are like 3 or 4). It's not bad, per se, it's just overall somewhat unmemorable. Because you know all of the main characters can't die or anything, a lot of the tension usually found in the Ghost novels is gone, and although it was interesting to revisit a lot of now-dead characters, because it's so early in their chronology a lot of them aren't as interesting or as likable as they later become. Seeing Gaunt, for instance, still bitter and adjusting to his command was interesting but not entirely enjoyable. I think I would have enjoyed the story more had I read it in the correct timeline, but after reading a novel that takes place in-universe almost 15 years later, the short story just felt a little underwhelming.
Overall, Sabbat Worlds is an excellent set of short stories that didn't disappoint. Although I'm not sure how well they stand alone without knowing the context of the Ghost novels, as an addition to the canon already established it's a great selection, and I'm quite happy to have read them. Like any short story collection, they vary in quality, but even the "worst' one was still worth reading.
Snuff
Terry Pratchett's Discworld series is probably my favorite fantasy series (although it's a very close call with a couple other things) and in some ways is possibly my favorite series, period. Pratchett is a great author, and although books vary in quality a bit, almost all of the recent ones have been fantastic. Out of all of the sub-genres of the Discworld series (University, Witches, etc), the City Watch books are easily my favorite, and Sam Vimes is one of my absolute favorite characters in any series ever. Nightwatch, a book featuring Vimes apart from all of the usual other characters, is one my favorite books (again, series/genre neutral).
You can understand then that I was leery of Snuff. On the one hand, it was my favorite character by one of my favorite authors! On the other hand... I was worried whether it could even come close to approaching Nightwatch (the other more recent Watch book, Thud!, was great but not Nightwatch-great). To cut to the point, Snuff was still good, but unfortunately did not live up to either Nightwatch or Thud.
One of the problems is I felt like the book retreaded a lot of the same ground. I felt like a couple of the observations/jokes may have been partially made in previous book, and nothing overwhelming "new" seemed to be added. Additionally, the Willikins/Vimes relationship seemed different than had been established before, and took me a while to get over. And while I liked that Vimes was outside of his usual element, I just feel like it didn't work nearly as well as the previous jaunts outside of Ankh-Morpork (Thud!, The Fifth Element, Jingo). Perhaps it's a small element of Pratchett running out of things for Vimes or something like that, but overall it just didn't quite grab me as previous works had.
With that said, there's still a number of excellent moments, and the story overall is quite enjoyable. Independent of the series' history, it's a fantastic, totally enjoyable novel. For me, though, it's impossible not to compare it to previous works. There's a small chance I'l enjoy it a lot more upon second reading (as has been the case for a couple Discworld novels, Monstrous Regiment in particular) but I'm sure it will never approach Nightwatch levels of excellence for me. So it goes.'
Kiki's Delivery Service
In my finest tradition to getting to something way later than I should have, I finally got around to seeing the classic movie "Kiki's Delivery Service." I honestly feel like I don't have a lot of say given how well-establishe the film is: it was very enjoyable, and I can definitely see why it enjoys the reputation that it does. The animation was a bit dated but not hard to watch, the main character was fun and I enjoyed the snarky cat, and the story was light-harded while still being interesting. While I don't think it approaches the same level of excellence as found in Spirited Away or Howl's Moving Castle, it's still a very fun film that deserves to be watched if you're a fan of either of the afore-mentioned moves.
Macross Frontier: The Wings of Goodbye
Ahh... and here we have the film I feel SO MANY emotions about. Readers of the blog will recall I have previously reviewed both the series itself and the first movie at some length, so I was excited to finally sit down and watch the conclusion of the two-part re-telling of one of my favorite anime series of all time.
As promised by indications in the first film, The Wings of Goodbye strayed surprisingly far from its source material. It still kept the breathtakingly beautiful animation, musical quality, and voice acting of the first film and the main series, and added a story different enough to hold my interest. It also ramped up a number of factors, most notably the action; while I overall thought it was a good move considering how much material they were compressing into two hours, I could understand how some people were less than pleased about the extremeness of the new content. Overall, for the first 3/4 of the movie I was incredibly pleased and enjoying myself.
However... we have the ending. To try and avoid spoilers (although it's perhaps not necessary) the movie managed to genuinely shock me with the ending, to the point where I was hoping for something else to happen and literally yelled when the credits came around. It genuinely took me some time to process the new development and come to grips with it.
Trying to be objective, the movie series is a fantastic companion piece to the main series. It retells the basics of the series while adding a lot of unexpected twists, amps up the already impressive quality, and manages to tell a 9-hours story well in 4 hours. I imagine it would be just as enjoyable to someone unfamiliar with the series as someone who's watched the show multiple times. However, I'm firmly (for my sanity) placing the films as an "alternate universe" version of the main series canon. The movies are great, but I firmly would hold that if you had to choose between watching the two, that you watch the series first despite it's longer run-time. As good as the movies are, they aren't a match for the development and emotional content that can be brought about over the course of an entire series; I think precisely the reason I reacted so strongly to the film is because I had developed such an attachment to the characters from watching the series, and I doubt I would have had such a reaction had I only watched the films.
End, for now
That about covers it! Till next time.
-HTMC
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