Author: cherylmahoney

I'm a book review blogger and writer. I have published four novels, The Wanderers; The Storyteller and Her Sisters; and The People the Fairies Forget; and The Lioness and the Spellspinners. All can be found on Amazon as an ebook and paperback. In my day job, I'm a Marketing Specialist. Find me on Twitter (@MarvelousTales) and GoodReads (MarvelousTales).

TGKA: Star Trek Into Darkness

On By cherylmahoneyIn Reviews, Science Fiction5 Comments

star-trek-into-darkness-benedict-cumberbatch-posterFor the past couple months for the Sci Fi Experience, I’ve been following the story of Khan Noonien Singh through books and television.  My main goal for The Great Khan Adventure was to follow the original arc, but just for fun I decided to wind up with a rewatch of Star Trek Into Darkness.

The story centers around a hunt for a fugitive terrorist.  When the Enterprise successfully captures him (sort of) on the Klingon homeworld of Kronos (which used to be Qo’noS…), they learn that he’s a genetic superman from the 20th century who has been in cryogenic sleep.  Khan is dangerously charismatic, with an alarming story about corruption in Starfleet.

I enjoyed this movie the first time around, with reservations—and I enjoyed it the second time around, with bigger reservations.  On this go-around, I found myself very focused specifically on Kirk (Christopher Pine) and Khan (Benedict Cumberbatch), probably because this viewing followed directly on all that other reading and watching I’ve been doing.

Remember how in Wrath of Khan I had to fight the urge to feel too sympathetic towards Khan?  Well…this Khan was a lot darker and a lot more violent and I was pretty clear that I don’t like him at all—but he was still a MUCH more compelling character than Kirk.

My big issue with the movie, really, was Kirk.  It may in part be because, without question and unequivocally, TOS Kirk (William Shatner) is my favorite Star Trek captain.  He always had a streak of arrogance, but I love him because he really is as good as he thinks he is.  Reboot Kirk, on the other hand, seems to be far more arrogant and far less competent.

I was trying, really, to figure out what exactly Reboot Kirk did that was good in the movie.  (Spoilers ahoy!)  He starts out by breaking the Prime Directive (saving Spock and an intelligent species, true) which bothers me less than that he failed to get away with it, because TOS Kirk always knows exactly how to bend the rules in just the way to pull it off.  Reboot Kirk then sets out to capture Khan, nearly gets his landing party killed by Klingons (I’m pretty sure TOS Kirk would have talked them around, or maybe challenged the Klingon Captain to single combat), and only catches Khan because Khan chose to surrender.  Reboot Kirk goes on to bring Khan over to the Vengeance, and then lets him take control of it.  Khan neutralizes (with questionable means) the threat of Admiral Marcus, is taken out by Spock, and still nearly destroys the Enterprise.  Kirk successfully saves the ship, but meanwhile Khan crash-lands into San Francisco (a major population center!), to then be caught by Spock.

About the only accomplishment from Kirk was rescuing the Enterprise, which happened at the same time that the villain was taking out San Francisco and presumably killing thousands of people.  On the whole…not a very impressive track-record for the hero of the movie.  Especially for a man who runs rough-shod over good advice from virtually every other character, and is quite confident that he knows all, understands all, can achieve all, and is a marvelous gift to Starfleet and the galaxy.  Ahem.

Meanwhile, Reboot Khan is pretty far removed from TOS Khan (Ricardo Montalban), but in a way that worked much better than the changes to Kirk.  Reboot Khan’s history is thoroughly glossed over and he definitely doesn’t resemble the Sikh prince of Cox’s trilogy…  But he does carry the strong sense of superiority, the loyalty to his crew, and the conviction that he’s meant to rule over the lesser beings of the galaxy.  I missed Marla in this incarnation, as well as the sense of the benevolent (yet ruthless) leader he was trying to be in Cox’s trilogy.  What we did get was a sense that Khan really is smarter, faster and stronger than anyone else.  Not necessarily wiser, but in some ways he seems more like a genuine superman than the TOS version.  In fact, he’s arrogant—but he really is as good as he thinks he is.  The problem isn’t the arrogance so much as the contempt he feels for everyone else.

He’s far too violent for me to feel much sympathy for him, but he’s still an extremely fascinating character, with a lot of the charisma that was sadly lacking from Reboot Kirk.  I’d quite like to see more stories with this character, especially if he could be less violent but still just as brilliant, arrogant and eminently capable.

Oh wait, that’s the BBC’s Sherlock…

So much for comments on the hero and the villain–and perhaps I’ll just leave it at that.  For a fuller discussion, check my original review.  I still stand by it, although the lack of professionalism bothered me less (that’s not acceptance, just resignation) and I noticed a few more plot holes (exactly how do you blow up a starship in orbit of Earth and expect to get away with it?)  I definitely still feel there wasn’t enough McCoy.

And so ends The Great Khan Adventure.  It was a fun and very geeky ride, and as I believe the Vulcans like to say, I found that the whole was greater than the sum of the parts.  Cox’s books were inspired by the TV show and movie, and the books in turn brought more depth to the shows and the movie.  Now how about the adventure continues in the next movie, with a return of Khan and maybe an introduction of Marla McGivers?  I’d be excited. 🙂

Buy it here: Star Trek Into Darkness

Favorites Friday: Stories in Paintings (d’Orsay Edition)

On By cherylmahoneyIn Favorites Friday4 Comments

A couple of years ago I did a Favorites Friday centered around paintings, and I thought it would be fun to revisit the theme.  I’m a slightly compulsive museum visitor, in that I like to write down the names of the paintings I like best.  I have a long list of paintings that resonated with me when I visited the Musee d’Orsay in Paris, and I thought I’d share a few today.

As may not surprise you, I tend to like paintings best when I can find a story in them…

611px-Degas_-_Tänzerinnen_in_blauDanseuses Bleues by Edgar Degas – This is a nice little moment backstage among the dancers of the Opera Garnier, and I think we know I have a particular interest in that area, yes? 🙂  I do love how Degas captures human moments of the dancers, yet with that ethereal style too.

501px-Pierre-Auguste_Renoir_099Julie Manet with Cat by Auguste Renoir – I’ve felt attached to Julie Manet ever since I became fascinated by a different painting of her, Julie Dreaming, painted by her mother, Berthe Morisot.  In fact, the heroine of The Wanderers is named after her.  Considering that and the fact that The Wanderers also features a talking cat, you may see why this painting appeals to me–and Renoir is one of my favorite painters besides.

466px-Vincent_Willem_van_Gogh_034The Church at Auvers by Vincent Van Gogh – I have no high-brow reason for liking this painting (though I always liked Van Gogh).  You see, one of my very favorite episodes of Doctor Who centers around this painting.  When I was standing in front of it at the d’Orsay, I looked around at the other people gathered, and I so wanted to say, “Doctor Who fan?  Anyone?” but alas, I didn’t quite dare.  I did check for a monster in the window (there isn’t one).

526px-Louiswelden_HawkinsThe Sphinx and the Chimera by Louis Weldon Hawkins – I haven’t the slightest idea what’s going on in this painting, but wouldn’t it make a wonderful cover for a science fiction novel?  Maybe fantasy, but somehow I get a sci fi vibe from it.

It’s a very long list of paintings from the d’Orsay, but I think that will do for today. 🙂

Cursed by Frogginess

On By cherylmahoneyIn Fantasy, Juvenile, Reviews1 Comment

FroggedFew things are more disappointing than a premise I love in a book that just didn’t work for me.  It’s very rare that you get a second chance at that original brilliant premise.  I was disappointed by The Frog Princess by E.D. Baker, even though I loved the idea of the princess turning into a frog when she kisses the enchanted prince–so I was thrilled to hear about Frogged by Vivian Vande Velde, a story about a princess turning into a frog, from an author I’ve greatly enjoyed in the past.

Frogged is about Princess Imogene, twelve-almost-thirteen, and worried that she’s not a very good princess.  When she meets a talking frog, she tries to help by kissing him, and ends up trading places–he’s restored to being a boy, and she becomes a frog.  Since he quite rudely refuses to help, Imogene sets off herself in search of the witch who cast the spell.  Along the way, she meets new enemies, secures unexpected allies, becomes a star attraction in a terrible theatre company, and learns something about herself and the people around her.

This is not the same story as The Frog Princess, although the parallels are inescapable.  Happily, I liked this one much better.  It’s a simple story and the target age is young (perhaps 8-10), and there isn’t a huge amount of depth or complexity…but the voice was strong, there was a nice amount of humor, and the story was reliably entertaining.

An ordinary, possibly clumsy, not-stereotypical-beautiful princess has becomes something of a stereotype itself (I can think of five others without even trying), but Imogene has her own unique points.  I like that she very much feels 12-almost-13, and most of her problems are chalked up to being a difficult age more than anything else.  Some “ordinary princesses” are almost overpowering in their identity as “ordinary,” and become unusual by swinging so far that direction.

I also particularly liked an arc of learning Imogene goes through about changing how she sees others.  She’s always good-hearted, but she comes to realize that some people she thinks she understands have unexpected depths (for good and ill), and also that people don’t always perceive her the way she expects.

My favorite character apart from Imogene is the witch, who is gloriously untroubled by anyone else’s problems.  She’s not a wicked witch, exactly, and feels quite comfortable in her own mind that her actions have been reasonable (and she makes a convincing case).  She’s also not a Glinda-type, who wants the heroine to solve her problems herself so that she can learn the true lesson.  She’s simply practical, unsentimental and takes it for granted that everyone should take responsibility for handling their own lives.  She might drive me crazy in real life, but she’s remarkably refreshing in this kind of story.

Actually, a lot of the twists on traditional fairy tales are refreshing in here.  But I do tend to like that kind of thing. 🙂

Author’s Site: http://www.vivianvandevelde.com/

Other reviews:
Charlotte’s Library
Ms. Tami Reads
Kid Lit Geek
Anyone else?

Buy it here: Frogged

TGKA: Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan

On By cherylmahoneyIn Reviews, Science FictionLeave a comment

khan-posterThis year for the Sci Fi Experience, I’m off on The Great Khan Adventure, tracing the story of Khan Noonien Singh through books and movies. So far I’ve watched a few episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series, and read Greg Cox’s Khan trilogy (Eugenics Wars: Volume One  and Volume Two, and To Reign in Hell).  Getting down to the end of the Adventure, I spent New Year’s Eve watching The Wrath of Khan, The Search for Spock and The Voyage Home.

To Reign in Hell ends almost precisely where The Wrath of Khan begins.  Chekov and his new captain, Terrell, beam down to Ceti Alpha V (thinking it’s Ceti Alpha VI–DON’T ask) looking for a test planet for the Genesis Project.  There they encounter Khan and his followers, who, with the help of mind-twisting eels, take over their starship and set out to pursue Khan’s quest for revenge against Kirk.  Meanwhile, Kirk and friends are aboard the Enterprise with a crew of trainee cadets.  They rush to investigate when an urgent call comes in from Carol Marcus, reporting that someone is trying to steal Genesis, a device to “create life from lifelessness.”

It was fascinating (to coin a phrase) watching this movie directly after reading To Reign in Hell.  There’s so much more room in books than in movies for details and background and character expansion.  Don’t get me wrong, The Wrath of Khan is a great movie, full-stop, period.  However–To Reign in Hell, despite some flaws, provides so much context and insight and character details.

For instance: we get a story on why Khan’s wearing that glove all movie, not to mention why he’s wearing a Starfleet emblem.  Joachim becomes a fully-fleshed character in the book; in the movie, you know him as Khan’s lieutenant, and the only one in Khan’s crew being paid for dialogue.  His name doesn’t come up until the very end of the movie, but I figured all along that he had to be Joachim, based on the book.  In the movie Khan references his wife twice but never actually says her name; presumably he means Marla (and I see no reason to think otherwise) but by comparison, the book makes her a major character and explores their romance.

Of course, the order of creation is a little odd in that Cox watched the movie and then wrote the backstory–but I think that worked, because I felt like I got more from the movie when I was keeping Cox’s backstory in mind.  Strangely enough, I’m not sure it would have worked the other way.  Reading the book, I occasionally thought I might be getting more from it if I had watched the movie recently–but after watching it, I think that might have made the book feel more forced.  Since the movie was fuzzy in my head, I didn’t get every single reference in the book, which, based on how many I noticed when I did watch the movie, might have become a bit much while reading…

Stranger yet, all this backstory and Khan-focus made me feel, well, strangely sympathetic towards him as a character.  Don’t get me wrong, I know he’s a terrible person, and I dearly love Kirk, Spock and McCoy…but Kirk did strand him on Ceti Alpha V and poor Marla got killed and it was all really, really awful and you can see how a person could lose it a bit at that point…even if Khan’s reaction is rather beyond the stretch of justification.

Ah well, a purely reprehensible villain wouldn’t be very interesting.

It also felt rather strange when the events of The Wrath of Khan set up the next two movies–and yet Khan never gets mentioned again.  Granted, Kirk has other things on his mind, but still.  Khan seems to have loomed bigger in the audience’s mind than in the characters’.

Another interesting sidenote: I’ve been complaining ever since Star Trek Into Darkness came out that these people are not qualified to be crewing a starship, and I find Wrath of Khan justifies the complaint.  Imagine if, at the end of the movie, Saavik was made captain and the trainee cadets were handed officer positions and told to go exploring.  That’s basically what happens at the end of the 2009 movie!!  Mumble mumble implausibility grumble…

On that subject, after watching the three classic movies and Khan-a-la-Ricardo-Montalban, I plan to finish up the adventure with a rewatch of Into Darkness and Khan-a-la-Benedict-Cumberbatch…which ought to be interesting directly after Wrath of Khan.  Stay tuned!

Buy it here: Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

Saturday Snapshot: Knitting the Doctor’s Scarf

On By cherylmahoneyIn Saturday Snapshot10 Comments

A few weeks ago I shared a recent knitting project and alluded to my next one…a very large project involving seven colors of yarn.  As some of you guessed, I am in the midst of knitting the Doctor’s Scarf!

For the non-Doctor Who fans, the 4th Doctor, Tom Baker, is probably best-known as “the one with the really long scarf.”  I started watching some old Who, got psyched up on the 50th Anniversary Special just as I was finishing my last knitting project, and decided to attempt the Doctor’s Scarf.  Here’s the work in progress:

Doctor Who Scarf 2Oh, but that’s probably not quite what you wanted to see, is it?  🙂 Here’s the unrolled work in progress…

Doctor Who ScarfThe scarf is currently about eleven feet long.  See that red stripe with blue stripes on either side, on the righthand pillow?  That’s roughly the midpoint, so I figure the complete scarf will be around 20 feet.  There will be much looping when it is worn.

You may wonder about the design…there are certain websites where people take the Doctor’s Scarf very seriously.  I’m using a pattern from wittylittleknitter.com, a site I highly recommend if you plan to attempt this yourself.  I’m doing some variations on the pattern–I changed a few stripes due to complicated reasons involving what yarn I have, and mine isn’t as wide as the pattern recommends.  More significantly, while I’m following the color pattern, I chose my own shades of green, red, etc., because I don’t actually like the Doctor’s colors!  So I’m doing a pastel version of the Doctor’s Scarf–or as one friend suggested, it’s a Romana Scarf.

Visit West Metro Mommy for more Saturday Snapshots, and have a great weekend!  I’ll be knitting for at least part of the time… 🙂