![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
This is the fourth instalment in the Invisible Library series, centred on junior librarian, Irene, and her student, Kai, who happens to be a dragon in human form. The Library steers a delicate line of neutrality between the dragons and the fae, careful to take neither one side nor the other in their rivalries and confrontations (not quite all out war) but it seems that there's a problem. If, as suspected, a librarian is helping a dragon to fulfil a quest for a certain book, the fae are not going to like it, and that could endanger every librarian in the multiverse. Irene and Kae are sent to track the miscreant, or, at least, find out what's going on and stop it. Their destination is a version of 1920s America with its gangsters, speakeasys, and cops. It takes Irene and Kai a while to find their feet, find their librarian (Evariste) and try and lose the cops who believe Irene to be a high level gangster from England. There are twists and turns, successes and setbacks and a double climax as Irene and Kai try to prevent two dragons from destroying that world. The characters are well drawn, the action twisty and intriguing and Irene has to do some quick thinking to preserve the Library's neutrality without getting herself, Evariste and Kai killed in the final showdown. Tightly written and exciting. Highly recommended.Feb. 26th, 2019
This is the fourth instalment in the Invisible Library series, centred on junior librarian, Irene, and her student, Kai, who happens to be a dragon in human form. The Library steers a delicate line of neutrality between the dragons and the fae, careful to take neither one side nor the other in their rivalries and confrontations (not quite all out war) but it seems that there's a problem. If, as suspected, a librarian is helping a dragon to fulfil a quest for a certain book, the fae are not going to like it, and that could endanger every librarian in the multiverse. Irene and Kae are sent to track the miscreant, or, at least, find out what's going on and stop it. Their destination is a version of 1920s America with its gangsters, speakeasys, and cops. It takes Irene and Kai a while to find their feet, find their librarian (Evariste) and try and lose the cops who believe Irene to be a high level gangster from England. There are twists and turns, successes and setbacks and a double climax as Irene and Kai try to prevent two dragons from destroying that world. The characters are well drawn, the action twisty and intriguing and Irene has to do some quick thinking to preserve the Library's neutrality without getting herself, Evariste and Kai killed in the final showdown. Tightly written and exciting. Highly recommended.
Movie of the Week: Alita, Battle Angel
Feb. 26th, 2019 01:32 am
I'm not sure what to say about this movie. Did I enjoy it? Yes. Would I like to watch it again? Not particularly. Don't get me wrong the visuals are stunningly good, though I'm not that fond of manga. The future setting has a floating city above and a dog-eat-dog world down below.
When a prosthetics/robotics specialist finds a deactivated cyborg in a massive junk dump he takes her home, gets her working and treats her as his daughter, even giving her his daughter's name. Alita wakes with no knowledge of her past life. Christoph Waltz is the 'dad' and Rosa Salazar is the cyborg, digitally enhanced to give her enormous eyes. It's very manga, but also a bit uncanny valley.
The storyline is Alita finding out who she is and what she's capable of and then kicking ass. There's a lot of chasing about without an enormous amount of character development. The CGI is brilliant, though, as you would expect from James Cameron and Weta Workshop