HollyKing's Journal

I had high hopes for Harper's Island. A murder mystery show with only one season so there was no need to worry about cliff hangers and dragging things along to keep people interested in a second season. They could have really stepped out of the TV mold and made something interesting and compelling. I keep seeing the show compared to Twin Peaks, which I find offensive for Twin Peaks. I've watched the two episodes that have been broadcast and I'm struggling to care enough to watch anymore of them.

The big problem the show follows the standard formula. Poor boy who worked summers cleaning boats on an island off of Seattle ends up engaged to the girl of the wealthy snob who owns the boats. They come back to the island for a week long wedding ceremony where people start dying. Oh, and don't forget that some years earlier 6 people were killed and hung from a tree from a madman who is buried in the bush because the island folk wouldn't bury him in consecrated ground. The father of the bride doesn't want his little girl marrying the poor chump so he secretly brings in her ex boyfriend and helps him to try and "save" his daughter. The brother of the groom is the bad sheep. How do we know? His hair is black and he has tattoos. On and on its so cliche it's not even funny.

Oh well... I had hoped for a unique story and some good television. I got a stupid soap opera where they can't kill the cast fast enough for my taste.

Last night I finished reading Escapement by jaylake. I enjoyed Escapement more than Mainspring, the first book in the series. The writing was more consistent and I found the story more compelling. There were a couple of things I didn’t like though. The book just kind of ended and I wasn’t satisfied with the conclusion. Also there was a character I really liked who was just dropped in the middle of the book and I wonder what happened to him. I hope Jay Lake writes another book in this series. There is still the mysteries south of The Wall that can be explored.

Next up is A Fine and Private Place by Peter S. Beagle. I really like The Last Unicorn, so I decided I needed to read more of Peter’s books.

I just received this note in my LibraryThing profile. Sweet!

Congratulations. You’ve snagged an Early Reviewers copy of The Charlemagne Pursuit by Steve Berry. You should get your copy in the mail shortly. The publishers ship the books directly – some are speedier than others, so please be patient!

Last week I took $little to see The Spiderwick Chronicles (2008) because I had enjoyed the first book and he liked the idea of goblins and ogres. We enjoyed the film and had a great time together. The receptionist here at work and I have been talking about books for a few months and she mentioned she had all of the books in the series. So I borrowed them and finished reading the 5th one at lunch today.

I wish I had never read them. Seriously. I’m sad now that I know there are such wonderful parts of the story that aren’t in the movie. blackholly and Tony DiTerlizzi created an amazing story that I enjoyed a lot. I’m going to have to look for other books they’ve made.

I’m torn about what I should read next. It’s a choice between naominovik’s Empire of Ivory and yuki_onna’s The Labyrinth. Choices, choices…

I had really been enjoying Jim Butcher's book Furies of Calderon. However, around page 250 the story has two serious problems and I'm not sure if I can finish the book.

At lunch today I finished Ice Hunt by James Rollins. Unlike the other Rollins books I’ve read this one is a self-contained novel so it wasn’t a problem to read them out of order. In fact the first five novels stand on their own.

I have to give high marks to Ice Hunt. Of course I really enjoy the action/thriller genre and Rollins writes some of the best I’ve read. I think one of the things I enjoy the most is the women in the stories aren’t just love interests or victims. There are some very strong women who take an active role in the plot.

Last night hollyqueen and I went to catch a late showing of Happy Feet. I figured a little bit of light entertainment with singing and dancing penguins would be a good way to break my mood. Whoa! That movie is not what I was expecting from the trailers. Sure there was singing and dancing penguins for part of the movie but there was a lot more than just that. I wasn't expecting to get beat over the head with the message that we are evil aliens who are destroying the world around us.

Another main problem with the film was the ending. It seemed like someone said, "Shit! This is 80 minutes long! Quick we have to wrap it up in 5 minutes to be sure and have a run time of 90 minutes or less and don't forget the 5 minutes of credits we have to tack on the end!" Because of the snap finish all the emotional impact they had been building up was lost.

I do have to say the visuals and animation was pretty stunning. I'm not sure if some of the scenes were real or animated. I would say they were real films of the Antartic but other parts I know were animated are done so well that it could all be animated. I'll have to rent this when it comes out to capture some of the scenes as backgrounds.

Another highlight was the music. I really enjoyed the classic songs covered by other artists. There were also a few interesting mash-ups.

There are parts of Happy Feet I would not hesitate to highly recommend. Sadly there isn't enough to really recommend the movie. If you do go see it stay through the credits for extra bits that are added at the end.