Category: Reviews

Book Reviews: Stars Above (Lunar Chronicles)

On By cherylmahoneyIn Reviews, Science FictionLeave a comment

Finishing the wonderful Lunar Chronicles Quartet late last year could have been very sad…but happily, I already had the short story collection to look forward to!  Stars Above by Marissa Meyer came out early in February, with nine short stories letting us revisit Meyer’s delightful characters.

This was very much a supplement to the novels (Cinder, Scarlet, Cress and Winter), and I think only really works if you already know and love these characters.  But from that perspective–it’s a lot of fun, especially the last several stories.

The first six stories are all set in the childhood of one of the major characters from the series: Scarlet, Cinder, Wolf, Thorne, Cress and Winter (with Jacin).  These are all well-done, and individually each is a great story.  All together, they started to feel a little repetitive to me.  Each character and his/her circumstances are totally different, but they all have that common theme of “formative years of a major character.”  And most of them expanded on anecdotes already discussed in the main series, so I didn’t feel like they actually added a whole lot.

My favorites of the group are “Glitches” about Cinder, and “The Princess and the Guard” about Winter and Jacin.  This is a little surprising, since Cinder isn’t one of my favorite characters, but these are the two stories that did the most to really fill in backstory and give me something new.  “Glitches” is about when Cinder first joined her adoptive family, and fills in the early part of the Cinderella story.  We see how the roles and relationships within her family are set–and we see her meet the wonderful Iko.  “The Princess and the Guard” recounts Winter’s entire childhood, from seven to fourteen (or thereabouts), and gave me new dimensions to her character and especially her relationship with Jacin–and both she and that relationship are amazing. Continue reading “Book Reviews: Stars Above (Lunar Chronicles)” →

Book/Play Review: The Comedy of Errors

On By cherylmahoneyIn ReviewsLeave a comment

Anticipating my Shakespeare reading goals, I hauled out my Complete Works and checked off all the plays I’ve read and/or seen, to see what was missing. I found out there were four Comedies and four Tragedies I’ve yet to encounter—and then I put the Complete Works away and requested a paperback of The Comedy of Errors from the library. Because I like footnotes and books that don’t weigh far too much!

I knew vaguely that The Comedy of Errors was Shakespeare’s twins story…and that was about all I knew. Sure enough, the story is about two sets of identical twins, each separated from his brother at birth. Antipholus of Syracuse and his servant Dromio of Syracuse arrive in Ephesus, looking for their lost brothers…and are swiftly mistaken for Antipholus of Ephesus and his servant, Dromio of Ephesus. There follows a great deal of confusion and mix-ups as all four twins keep encountering the same people but not each other.

I think this is basically Shakespeare’s slapstick comedy. Both Antipholuses keep beating on both Dromios, and the whole thing is far more farcical and far-fetched than Shakespeare’s usual fare. Though in a way, that’s impressive—that the same person wrote a play this absurd, and wrote, say, Hamlet. Continue reading “Book/Play Review: The Comedy of Errors” →

TV Review: Doctor Who – The River Song Saga

On By cherylmahoneyIn Reviews, Science Fiction2 Comments

River 4We recently finished out a wonderful season of Doctor Who with a Christmas episode featuring the delightful, mysterious and intriguing River Song.  Because of that appearance, and maybe because I didn’t quite want to walk away from the Doctor just yet, I embarked on some rewatching–specifically, of what I’m calling The River Song Saga.

For non-fans, River’s place in the Who universe requires some explanation.  She’s a recurring character who is very important to the Doctor…but frequently we (and he) are not quite sure how or, most vitally, when.  It’s time travel, and River and the Doctor are moving opposite directions through time.  So the first time the Doctor (and we) met River, she knew everything about him.  As he moves forward in time, he learns more but she knows less and less…and the same thing happens from her perspective, that he knows less about her each time they meet.

Following so far?  🙂  As the episodes aired, we moved through time from the Doctor’s perspective.  So on this re-watch, I thought it would be fun to try to watch them from River’s perspective.  This would no doubt be utterly confusing if I didn’t know the total arc, but I wanted to see what that arc looked like as River lived it.  So this post obviously will contain, as River herself would say, spoilers.  And it’s going to be a long one!

River 1

Continue reading “TV Review: Doctor Who – The River Song Saga” →

Book Review: Number the Stars by Lois Lowry

On By cherylmahoneyIn Juvenile, ReviewsLeave a comment

I decided to begin my Newbery Medal Challenge with a favorite author and a book I probably should have read years ago: Number the Stars by Lois Lowry.  This is one of those books I seem to have seen around for years–the cover feels extremely familiar–and it probably came up in oral book reports in elementary school.  But somehow I never read it, or even knew much about it.

The story turns out to be set in Copenhagen during World War II.  It follows 10-year-old Annemarie Johansen, whose family helps their friends the Rosens, including Annemarie’s best friend Ellen, to escape from Denmark when the occupying German soldiers begin rounding up the Jews.

I think I may have avoided this book because I had a vague idea it was sad.  Maybe I coupled it in my mind with The Diary of Anne Frank?  Well, if it’s not too much of a spoiler to say so, I was glad to find that this has a happier ending than Anne’s story.  Which is not to say there weren’t tense moments along the way!  There are, plenty, and the German soldiers are threatening and imposing, even without resorting to any atrocities Lowry could have included–in fact, there’s almost no violence (it is a kids book) but that doesn’t reduce the sense of danger any. Continue reading “Book Review: Number the Stars by Lois Lowry” →

Movie Review: Much Ado About Nothing (Joss Whedon version)

On By cherylmahoneyIn Reviews1 Comment

much-ado-posterI kicked off my Shakespeare reading/viewing goals this year with Joss Whedon’s production of Much Ado About Nothing.  It’s my favorite Shakespearean comedy, and so the perfect place to start–especially since I’ve been meaning to watch this one pretty much since it came out (in 2012!)

Much Ado tells the story of Beatrice and Benedick, verbal sparring partners who are tricked by their friends into falling in love.  Meanwhile Beatrice’s cousin Hero and Benedick’s friend Claudio have fallen in love and are set to wed, but nasty Don John arranges to disrupt the match with false allegations on Hero.  Because it’s a comedy, we all know it ends with a wedding, despite the un-smooth course of true love along the way.

I actually have a theory about why it took me so long to watch this movie.  Whenever I first heard about it from someone (I forget who), I think the conversation went something like, “Joss Whedon is doing Much Ado, and Nathan Fillion is in it.”  And in the next brief pause between sentences my brain went, Nathan Fillion as Benedick–I want to see that!  Before my friend concluded, “He’s playing Dogberry.”  Who has never been a character I much enjoyed.  And I just couldn’t get the same enthusiasm for the movie after that.

However!  It was a quite good version.  Continue reading “Movie Review: Much Ado About Nothing (Joss Whedon version)” →