Tag: fantasy

Book Review: Men at Arms by Terry Pratchett

~ Liam ~ 1 Comment

Author: Terry Pratchett
Title: Men at Arms
Publication Info: Victor Gollancz Ltd, 1993
Summary/Review:

The Night Watch is back, but Captain Samuel Vimes is retiring to lead a life of luxury married to Lady Sybil Ramkin. Before he departs, new recruits are brought in, including a troll, a dwarf, and a woman.  The woman is actually also a werewolf, Angua, who becomes a love interest to Carrot.  Under Carrot’s increasingly competent leadership, the Night Watch begins investigating a series of murders among the guilds of Ankh-Morpork, including the Assassin’s Guild and the Clown’s Guild.  It’s a funny and intricately plotted novel with a lot of great characters and dialogue.  And it’s no spoiler to say that Vimes doesn’t actually get to retire as he becomes commander of a suddenly more respectable City Watch.

Rating: ****

 

Discworld Reviews Master List

No. Title Published
1 The Colour of Magic 1983
2 The Light Fantastic 1986
3 Equal Rites 1987
4 Mort (radio drama)
5 Sourcery 1988
6 Wyrd Sisters (radio drama)
7 Pyramids 1989
8 Guards! Guards! (radio drama)
9 Eric (radio drama) 1990
10 Moving Pictures
11 Reaper Man 1991
12 Witches Abroad
13 Small Gods (radio drama) 1992
14 Lords and Ladies
15 Men at Arms 1993
16 Soul Music 1994
17 Interesting Times
18 Maskerade 1995
19 Feet of Clay 1996
20 Hogfather
21 Jingo 1997
22 The Last Continent 1998
23 Carpe Jugulum
24 The Fifth Elephant 1999
25 The Truth 2000
26 Thief of Time 2001
27 The Last Hero
28 The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents
29 Night Watch (radio drama) 2002
30 The Wee Free Men 2003
31 Monstrous Regiment 
32 A Hat Full of Sky 2004
33 Going Postal
34 Thud! 2005
35 Wintersmith 2006
36 Making Money 2007
37 Unseen Academicals 2009
38 I Shall Wear Midnight 2010
39 Snuff 2011
40 Raising Steam 2013
41 The Shepherd’s Crown 2015

Other books by Terry Pratchett I’ve read:

Book Review: Time Cat by Lloyd Alexander

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Author: Lloyd Alexander
Title: Time Cat:The Remarkable Journeys of Jason and Gareth
Narrator: Ron Keith
Publication Info: Recorded Books, Inc., 2019 (originally published 1963)
Summary/Review:

I love stories about cats and I love stories about time travel, and yet I made it this far in my life unaware of this book about a time traveling cat! In this story we learn that it’s incorrect to say that cats have nine lives.  Instead, cats may travel to nine different periods in world history, which is why cats seem to go missing so easily or appear in rooms they weren’t previously in.  A boy named Jason discovers that his cat Gareth can talk and joins his cat on a whirlwind of adventures to ancient Egypt, Roman Britain, 17th century Germany at the height of witchcraft hysteria, and Massachusetts at the start of the Revolution.  Somehow a lot of their adventures involve groups of kittens which just heightens the cuteness.  It’s a fun, gentle novel with some history mixed in.  It’s perfect for kids who love adventure, time travel, and cats, even if they’re in their 50s.

Recommended books:

Rating: ****

Book Review: To Ride a Rising Storm by Moniquill Blackgoose

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Author: Moniquill Blackgoose
Title: To Ride a Rising Storm
Narrator: Charley Flyte
Publication Info: Books on Tape, 2026
Summary/Review:

I greatly anticipated this second book in the Nampeshiweisit series – the follow-up to To Shape A Dragon’s Breath – and it did not disappoint.  The series is set in an alternate history of 1840s New England where, among other differences, dragons are real and bonded with individual humans. In the first book, Anequs, a teenage indigenous girl from the island community of Masquapaug, is chosen by the newly hatched dragon Kasaqua.  But the ruling Anglish colonizers insist that Anequs and Kasaqua train on the mainland at Kuipers Academy.

Having defied the prejudiced expectations of the Academy’s professors by excelling in her first year, Anequs and Kasaqua return to Masquapaug for the summer.  But Anequs’ notoriety has brought unwanted attention to the island with the Anglish establishing a presence on the island for the first time. Amid rising Anglish control and surveillance, members of the community attempt to meet to organize resistance.

Returning for a second year of schooling, Anequs faces new challenges, including learning to ride Kasaqua now that she is large enough to carry a person. In her personal life, Anequs continues to pursue romance with Liberty, a servant at the school, and Theod, the only other indigenous student. Since Theod was an orphan raised by the Anglish he struggles with concepts like open relationships and same-sex attraction that Anequs grew up with as natural, but he does return Anequs’ affection.  Indeed, the expectations of Anglish society for a young woman are a continued hindrance to Anequs’ goals.

Bubbling under everything happening at the Academy is a rise in white supremacist violence.  By the end of the novel, Anequs and her allies find themselves in the middle of a spreading conflict, and possibly a civil war.  Like the first novel, Blackgoose uses a lot of alternate language for people, places, and concepts that makes the book a bit hard to follow.  But I really enjoy how she weaves folklore of different traditions into the narrative so that, for example, we hear stories from what we would call the African, Jewish, and Norse traditions along the way.

I once again am looking forward to the next installment in this series.

Recommended books:

Rating: ****

Book Review: Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett

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Author: Terry Pratchett
Title: Guards! Guards!
Publication Info: Gollancz, 1989
Summary/Review:

In the first installment of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch series of Discworld novels, the tall human raised by dwarfs Carrot joins as a new recruit.  Carrot is very literal and by the book, but his arrival brings a new sense of idealism to the corrupted Night Watch lead by Sam Vimes.  At this time a secret monastic order is plotting to overthrow the Patrician who governs Ankh-Morpork by summoning a dragon and then have their puppet slay the dragon and become king.  Things go awry when the dragon burns down wide swathes of the city and declares itself king instead.  In this hilarious and clever story, the Night Watch – and their tiny dragon mascot Erroll – have to summon the heroism to save the city.

Rating: ****

 

Discworld Reviews Master List

No. Title Published
1 The Colour of Magic 1983
2 The Light Fantastic 1986
3 Equal Rites 1987
4 Mort (radio drama)
5 Sourcery 1988
6 Wyrd Sisters (radio drama)
7 Pyramids 1989
8 Guards! Guards! (radio drama)
9 Eric (radio drama) 1990
10 Moving Pictures
11 Reaper Man 1991
12 Witches Abroad
13 Small Gods (radio drama) 1992
14 Lords and Ladies
15 Men at Arms 1993
16 Soul Music 1994
17 Interesting Times
18 Maskerade 1995
19 Feet of Clay 1996
20 Hogfather
21 Jingo 1997
22 The Last Continent 1998
23 Carpe Jugulum
24 The Fifth Elephant 1999
25 The Truth 2000
26 Thief of Time 2001
27 The Last Hero
28 The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents
29 Night Watch (radio drama) 2002
30 The Wee Free Men 2003
31 Monstrous Regiment 
32 A Hat Full of Sky 2004
33 Going Postal
34 Thud! 2005
35 Wintersmith 2006
36 Making Money 2007
37 Unseen Academicals 2009
38 I Shall Wear Midnight 2010
39 Snuff 2011
40 Raising Steam 2013
41 The Shepherd’s Crown 2015

Other books by Terry Pratchett I’ve read:

Movie Review: Fréwaka (2025)

~ Liam ~ 8 Comments

Title: Fréwaka
Release Date: April 25, 2025
Director: Aislinn Clarke
Production Company: Screen Ireland | Cine4 | DoubleBand Films | Wildcard Distribution
Main Cast:

  • Bríd Ní Neachtain as Peig
  • Clare Monnelly as Shoo
  • Aleksandra Bystrzhitskaya as Mila

Synopsis (via Letterboxd):

Care worker Shoo, who is haunted by a personal tragedy, is sent to a remote village to care for an agoraphobic woman, who fears both her neighbours and the Na Sídhe – sinister folkloric entities she believes abducted her decades before.

My Thoughts:

This Irish language film explores grief and intergenerational trauma through folk horror.  The movie begins in 1973 when a bride named Peig disappears on her wedding night.  In the next scene in present day Dublin, a woman commits suicide, her decaying body found weeks afterward.  The deceased woman’s daughter, Siubhán or “Shoo,” arrives to clean out her mother’s flat with the help of Mila, her Ukrainian wife-to-be.  When given a home care worker assignment that requires an Irish language speaker in a remote village, Shoo leaves the very pregnant Mila behind to finish the clean-up.

Shoo’s client is the elderly Peig, who is resistant to anyone entering her house and follows superstitions by placing objects around the doors and windows.  Against all odds, Shoo and Peig begin to bond, and Peig reveals that she was abducted by supernatural beings she only refers to as “them.”  As the days pass, Shoo begins to believe that Peig’s fears are real.

This is not a movie that explains a lot of things and it’s ambiguity keeps one on their toes. If the movie is about Shoo encountering supernatural forces or Shoo having a mental breakdown are equally valid interpretations.  Thematically, this is a movie that is very much a story of Ireland in the present day despite its folk horror trappings.  When Peig describes the place to where she was abducted she uses imagery that hearkens to the Great Hunger, the Troubles, the Magdalene laundries, and sexual abuse in the Catholic Church.  As James Joyce’s character Stephen Dedalus stated “History is the nightmare from which I’m trying to awake,” and the true horror of this film is the weight of the trauma of Irish history, especially for women.

Rating: ****

Movie Review: Julie Taymor’s A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream (2014)

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Title: A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream
Release Date: September 8, 2014
Director: Julie Taymor
Production Company: Londinium Films | Ealing Studios Entertainment | Ealing Studios
Main Cast:

  • Kathryn Hunter – Puck
  • David Harewood – Oberon
  • Tina Benko – Titiana
  • Lilly Englert – Hermia
  • Max Casella – Nick Bottom
  • Jake Horowitz – Lysander
  • Mandi Masden – Helena
  • Zach Appelman – Snug

Synopsis (via Letterboxd):

A recording of Julie Taymor’s New York stage production of William Shakespeare’s comedy.

My Thoughts:

This pro-shot film captures a 2013 stage production of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream at Theatre for a New Audience in Brooklyn.  Director Julie Taymor is perhaps best known for her adaptation of The Lion King which is rooted in elaborate puppetry and fantastic costumery.  She uses similar stagecraft to lean into the fantasy of Shakespeare’s work.  Of particular note is a large cloth (sheet? sail?) that is frequently moved from covering the stage to high on the ceiling, while being used as a screen for projections and even carrying the actors aloft.  The health and safety supervisor for this production must be a nervous wreck. The production is on a thrust stage with largely minimal sets (apart from the large cloth) and a lot of the supporting cast performing in a style akin to Cirque du Soleil.  I don’t know what this looked like to the in-person audience but the cameras get up close and personal and follow the characters again.

Kathryn Hunter’s unsettling performance as the sprite Puck is a combination of a mime, a contortionist, and The Man from Another Place from Twin Peaks.  Mandi Masden’s Helena also stands out because while the other young lovers in this play are in a fantastical romantic comedy, Helena is in a horror movie.  The Mechanicals practicing their play are performed as modern day laboring men, with Nick Bottom being a chatty Brooklyn contractor. Overall the acting is good and the over-the-top production elements are a fascinating interpretation of Shakespeare’s work.  But I also wonder if there was a valid plot reason for having all four of the hot young actors playing the young lovers strip down to their underwear over the course of the show.  Just more visual spectacle, I guess.

Rating:  ****

365 Movies in 365 Days: Last Year’s Snow Was Falling (1983)

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This year I’m trying to watch one movie every day of the year, with the provision that the movie be no longer than 36.5 minutes long. I’ll be selecting movies randomly from this list that’s already way too long, but I still welcome suggestions for short films.

Title: Last Year’s Snow Was Falling 
Release Date: December 31, 1983
Director: Aleksandr Tatarskiy
Production Company: Ekran
Main Cast:

  • Stanislav Sadalskiy – Narrator

Synopsis (via Letterboxd):

Funny adventures of the clumsy fellow whom his wife dispatched to the forest to bring home a New Year tree…

My Thoughts:

With my 365 Movies in 365 Days Project coming to an end, I can breathe a sigh of relief that this will be the final highly-regarded (by everyone but me) Soviet-era animation I will be watching.  The movie breaks the the fourth wall with the narrator interacting with the main character and commenting on the story as a film, but does so long past the point of it being clever.  The main story involves the “funny” pratfalls of a foolish man looking to cut down a tree.  “The End” appears on the screen about halfway through this short, and I was so disappointed it was a “joke” and not the actual end of the film.

Rating: **

365 Movies in 365 Days: The Snowman (1982)

~ Liam ~ 2 Comments

This year I’m trying to watch one movie every day of the year, with the provision that the movie be no longer than 36.5 minutes long. I’ll be selecting movies randomly from this list that’s already way too long, but I still welcome suggestions for short films.

Title: The Snowman 
Release Date: December 27, 1982
Director: Dianne Jackson
Production Company: TVC London | Snowman Enterprises
Main Cast:

  • Raymond Briggs – Narrator

Synopsis (via Letterboxd):

A young boy makes a snowman one Christmas Eve, which comes to life at midnight and takes him on a magical adventure to the North Pole to meet Santa Claus

My Thoughts:

The Snowman was released right at the age when I would’ve thought I was “too grown up” for this kind of story, so although I was familiar with it, I’d never watched it before.  It’s with a little regret because I’d like to know what it’s like to see through a child’s imaginative eyes, even a jaded preteen.  The story is pretty simple, and a little bit strange.  A boy creates a snowman and at night it comes to life and they go on adventures together.  The snowman can even fly which is not something I expected snow people to do, but then again it’s not that big a stretch from a snowman walking and talking.

Rating: ****

Book Review: Dealing with Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede

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Author: Patricia C. Wrede
Title: Dealing with Dragons
Narrator: Full cast of Words Take Wing Repertory Company
Publication Info: Books On Tape, 2003 (originally published 1990)
Summary/Review:

Princess Cimorene is prevented by her parents from learning fencing, magic, or even Latin because it’s deemed “improper” for a princess.  When she learns she’s to be married to a loathsome prince, it’s the final straw and Cimorene runs away and volunteers to be a captive princess for a dragon named Kazul.  In the dragons’ caves, Cimerone comes into her own not only by making meals for Kazul and her guests, but navigating diplomacy among dragons and contending with an evil plot by the Wizards.  It’s a wonderfully funny novel that plays with fantasy tropes.  And it was published in 1990 so it was in the vanguard of upending the princess narrative.

Recommended books:

Rating: ****

Book Review: Devils Like Us by L.T. Thompson

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Author: L.T. Thompson
Title: Devils Like Us
Narrator: Stephanie Cannon
Publication Info: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2025
Summary/Review:

Three young adults in a fictional Massachusetts town find themselves in adventure involving pirates, supernatural powers, and an evil society called the Order of Lazarus. Cas Sterling lives with visions of the gruesome deaths of people in the community.  One of these deaths is the father of friend Remy DeWindt, but Remy breaks off the friendship when she learns of Cas’ vision.

They are reunited when Remy’s father goes missing, and Remy’s research leads her to believe that he’s been abducted by the Order of Lazarus and taken to their compound on Mount Desert Island in Maine.  Cas’ brother Henry has also been taken by the order.  They are joined by Irish immigrant friend Finn Robinson as they stowaway on ship crewed by pirates. While the pirates may prove to be unexpected allies, shipboard life also exposes Cas, Remy, and Finn to greater women’s equality, racial diversity, sexuality, and gender expression than they’ve ever though possible in their white, Christian town.  The novel works as a coming-of-age story – and a coming out story – within a supernatural adventure tale!

Recommended books:

Rating: ****