a book and a movie

Empire of Sand, Tasha Suri. Suri is up for the Astounding; this is the first half of a duology, with the second book telling a mostly-separate story about a different protagonist. I wasn't into it; the beginning felt kind of by-the-numbers and most of the rest felt like not that much was happening. I think the central relationship was meant to be bearing a lot of story load but I just never cared. If I wanted to be generous, I would say that I thought it was shooting for some of the same kinds of story beats as you might find in the Kushiel trilogy, only without the eroticism, intrigue, action, or nifty alternate history/mythology, which now that I say it doesn't sound very generous. Well, when have I ever been known for generosity in my book commentary. :/ We only got an excerpt in the packet; I'd be happy to synopsize the rest for anyone who's curious.

Onward. Some cute gags, and nice callbacks - it's amazing how you can turn a string of disconnected moments into a coherent story by just using the same elements repeatedly in slightly different ways or contexts! Good job Pixar! Didn't love the ending, though. Spoilers: ( Read more... )