You’ve got to be joking.
I have finally finished Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol. And it was a chore.
I liked the Da Vinci Code as much as the next person. I really enjoyed Angels and Demons. Deception Point was a fun read. And I found Digital Fortress intriguing. So, I assumed that The Lost Symbol would be in the same vain as the rest of his books. I was sorely mistaken. It was so boring I had to force myself to keep reading in the hopes that something interesting happens. Oh, don’t worry. If you manage to make it to page 300, something resembling action starts to take place.
Obviously reading The Lost Symbol straight after The Five Greatest Warriors was a mistake. T5GW was non-stop action, running all over the world, solving mysteries I had heard a little about and fighting against really evil (and somewhat unpredictable & scary) enemies. TLS is Robert Langon running around Washington DC in his tweed jacket and loafers with (yet another) attractive woman, trying to rescue some random who I cared little about, being chased by the government and solving ‘mysteries’ that I had never heard of before and, therefore, cared little about. It’s da Vinci Code & Angels and Demons set in America with a somewhat obscure mystery and a non-threatening villain. I wasn’t impressed.
Please. If you haven’t wasted your time reading this already, don’t. It’s not worth it.
~ Bats ♥
I have a crush on Jack West Jr.
I honestly do. I’m torn between wanting him for a lover and wanting him for a father. But… not both. That’s just gross.
Jack, or the Huntsman, is the protagonist of Matthew Reilly’s series of books, starting with Seven Ancient Wonders, continuing with The Six Sacred Stones and concluding (at least, for now) in The Five Greatest Warriors. Apart from being Australian (and everyone knows that Aussie blokes are HOT (my opinion, take it or leave it); eg Hugh Jackman, Heath Ledger, Eric Bana etc), Mr Reilly gives us this description of him in 6SS: “Of medium height, with blue eyes and tousled dark hair, he was handsome in a rugged kind of way. Once upon a time, he had been ranked the fourth-best special forces soldier in the world, a lone Australian on a list dominated by Americans.”
*BAM* Instant crush.
But, can you blame me? Blue eyes, “tousled” dark hair, awesome soldier (he can take care of you, an obvious benefit), Australian. Plus, he’s got a kick-ass titanium arm (incident with a volcano), a pet peregrine falcon named Horus and a love of history.
Anyway, I just finished reading the latest instalment of Jack West Jr’s adventures in The Five Greatest Warriors. And I loved it.
*Spoiler Alert – Read on and discover spoilers.*
The book starts with the end of The Six Sacred Stones; Jack falling into an abyss with a suicidal Japanese soldier bent on revenge. It doesn’t even take him 20 pages to escape from his predicament. That’s what I like about Matthew Reilly; it’s *BAM* straight into the action. I personally didn’t like The Six Sacred Stones as much as I liked Seven Ancient Wonders; I found it kinda slow. But The Five Greatest Warriors takes it all back, promising a non-stop roller coaster and delivering on every front. After all, it took me about 14 hours to read it, an unprecedented time considering how many interruptions I faced during those 14 hours. And I don’t know how many times I actually yelled out “NO!” or smiled and muttered “awwww…” It actually got me laughing more than a couple of times and the Scottish twins, Julius and Lachlan Adamson, had me grinning inanely for pretty much every one of their scenes. I can’t begin to explain how excited I got when Pooh Bear finally showed his brother up (his brother deserved it too, he was an arse) or how betrayed I felt when several characters who I had begun to like turned out to be enemies. But one event got absolutely no reaction from me.
Let me just explain now; no character is safe in a Matthew Reilly book.
This was proved to me in his book Scarecrow when my favourite character, Fox, was executed by guillotine. It was again pointed out during Seven Ancient Wonders when Big Ears, another one of my favourite characters, was mercilessly shot and killed. And again when The Six Sacred Stones ended with Jack West Jr tumbling into an abyss. No character is safe. So, when Wizard is killed, forgive me for saying that I wasn’t that shocked. A friend of mine was outraged, coming up to me, ranting and raving, a couple of weeks ago, declaring that Matthew Reilly can’t kill him off. (She knew I hadn’t read the book so she didn’t reveal who had died, just that she was very upset about it.) Me? I just metaphorically shrugged it off, of course feeling sad for the characters but being secretly relieved that Jack’s love interest wasn’t killed. (Alright, she’s described looking a little bit like me. A girl can dream.)
*End of Spoilers – I told you they were there.*
Anyway, I actually did love reading The Five Greatest Warriors. In my opinion, it was a lot better than The Six Sacred Stones, although it can’t compare to Seven Ancient Wonders. It’s not a piece of literary genius, but it is a rip-roaring adventure that takes you from England to China and everywhere in between. And Jack & Lily’s relationship had me awwwww-ing on a whole new level. It makes me really want Jack West Jr as a father.
~ Bats ♥
Nice try Mr King, but I’m still not scared
I love Stephen King’s writing. The way he writes, the manner in which his sentences are constructed, almost lovingly put together, they inspire pictures in such vivid clarity they could almost be real photographs.
But he’s not scary.
To me, at least. The Shining has now been added to the list of Stephen King novels/short stories that I have devoured and, like all of them, I relished the vivid imagery, the poetic beauty of his phrases, the depth to his characters but, I don’t think my heart started to race at any point during the novel. Hey, maybe it’s just me being part of the fearless, hard-to-scare Generation Y. But nope. It almost couldn’t scare me.
I’m not trying to bash his work. After all, I love it. But, I wish it would scare me, just a little. I guess it might have something to do with the medium. After all, you can stop reading a book if it gets a little too much. (You can do what Joey from Friends does and put the book in the freezer if you so desire.) And, while the same is basically true of a movie, people don’t really tend to stop or leave scary movies. They are content to continue watching, peering through their fingers. Maybe it was because I read the book over several days, giving myself ample breaks in order to help preserve my eyesight. In doing so, I unwittingly gave myself ample time to digest what was happening, reflect on what had already happened and speculate on what was going to happen next. You don’t get that luxury when you’re watching a movie. You’re thrown into that world and you can’t easily escape. So maybe, just maybe, if I hadn’t stopped, I would have found it scary, instead of just a magnificent piece of writing.
Eh. At the end of the day, I know I’ll always remember the first time Danny goes into Room 217. I didn’t think it was that scary but… wow.
~ Bats ♥
Arkham Has Moved
So, just in case you didn’t guess from the name of this blog, I am an avid Batman fangirl. Not to the point where I beat people up for bashing it but I’m still pretty passionate. Hence, a lot of these posts will have something to do with Batman and/or any actor who has graced the Batman universe.
So, naturally, I got Batman: Arkham Asylum almost immediately after it came out. I haven’t finished it yet though. (Unpleasantness with a new computer, a dog mistaking the CD for a chew toy and impending school work may have had something to do with it, but that’s another story.) Anyway, from the small portion I got to play before my CD was destroyed (I play on PC & it wasn’t under warranty when it got attacked. Woe is me.) I was left with a HUGE love for the game. If I ever get a new CD and ever finish the game, I’ll let y’all have a full review/rant, but now is not the time, nor the place.
Anyway, I could not control the fangirl squealing that came from my lips when I was sent this link. http://www.arkhamhasmoved.com/ Yes, that’s right. It’s the sequel. Being the fangirl I am, I’ve already registered for updates and watched the trailer half a dozen times. Despite the fact that I haven’t finished the first one, I am so looking forwards to this release. Up to the point where I’ve already begun debating with myself whether or not I should spend my Christmas money this year on a PS3 & a copy of B:AA, so I don’t have to worry about computer issues. But, we’ll see.
~ Bats ♥
Howdy ~ an introduction
Personally, I think I’m kidding myself if I think anyone is ever going to look at this but, what the heck, I’m going to write a blog anyway. It’s just what my generation does.
Anyway, this blog is really a form of closure. My final say, if you will. For, you see, your humble narrator reads, watches and plays far too much for her own good. And, more often than not, she is unable to find anyone to rant to about her adventures in the literary, theatrical and gaming worlds. That’s where this blog comes in.
Here I intend to pen my thoughts upon the completion of a game, my opinions on a work of fiction (or non-fiction, if the mood strikes me) and my reactions to certain movies, plays and/or musicals. In addition to this, there may or may not be: a bit of Mary-Sue bashing, rants about my own writing, drooling over certain very good looking actors and lists of pet peeves when it comes to certain fandoms and their respective fangirls. But I don’t know. I don’t know if I will keep up with this blog or not. But we’ll see, won’t we?
~ Bats ♥
