{"id":13236,"date":"2009-02-09T22:05:59","date_gmt":"2009-02-10T05:05:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2009\/02\/09\/four-quick-reviews.html"},"modified":"2009-02-09T22:05:59","modified_gmt":"2009-02-10T05:05:59","slug":"four_quick_reviews","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2009\/02\/09\/four_quick_reviews.html","title":{"rendered":"Four quick reviews"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Captain’s Fury<\/em><\/a> <\/em>by Jim Butcher (2008). Book 4 of the “Codex Alera” series, Butcher’s Roman-styled high fantasy, sees various secrets revealed and, by the end of the book, a bit of a clearing of the table of some of the complicated threats that had built up around Tavi and Company (while laying the groundwork for new ones). Ironically, the ostensible protagonist is the least-fleshed-out or interesting of the characters here, but it’s still solid entertainment, and a bit more accessible than Books 2-3. <\/em> <\/p>\n


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Glory Road<\/em><\/a> by Robert Heinlein (1962). I keep rereading this about every 5 years, and every 5 years I remember why I don’t care for it. Heinlein’s too analytical to enjoy fantasy, and he’s far too busy being heavy-handedly philosophical — saying, rather than showing — in this, one of his earlier “adult” SF novels. Ironically, even as he preaches open-mindedness and non-conformity, his protagonist, Oscar, is one of the most annoying provincials Heinlein ever wrote.<\/p>\n


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The Graveyard Book<\/em><\/a> by Neil Gaiman (2008). This Newberry-winning tale of a child raised in a graveyard by ghosts is full of a thousand interesting bits that turn it into a fine narrative that never really seems to have a point to it. It’s still wonderful and charming to read, and recommendable on that basis alone, but I finished it (about three hours of solid reading) feeling like there should have been more there<\/em> there.<\/p>\n


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The Incredibles<\/em><\/a> by Brad Bird (2004). This movie continues to impress me more each time I see it — wildly imaginative, yet amidst its both serious and comedic super-hero tale inserting plenty of questions about heroism, hero-worship, personal responsibility, family commitments, what it means to be special vs. conforming … oh, and lots of great stuff blowing up. Highly recommended.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Captain’s Fury by Jim Butcher (2008). Book 4 of the “Codex Alera” series, Butcher’s Roman-styled high fantasy, sees various secrets revealed and, by the end of the book, a bit of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[36,41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media-books","category-media-movies"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":11800,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/01\/30\/book_review_cursors_fury.html","url_meta":{"origin":13236,"position":0},"title":"Book Review: Cursor’s Fury","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 30-Jan-08 3:54pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Jim Butcher is better known to me as the writer of The Dresden Files, but his Codex Alera high fantasy series is also proceeding successfully.\u00a0 This is a review of...","rel":"","context":"In "Books"","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-books"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/stars4.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":33726,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/05\/13\/my-favorite-kind-of-butchery.html","url_meta":{"origin":13236,"position":1},"title":"My favorite kind of Butchery","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 13-May-13 6:55pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Neat interview with Jim Butcher (of Dresden Files and Codex Alera fame), including notes on his new series (which sounds like it's going to be nicely awesome). My Interview with Jim Butcher Last weekend at Ad Astra, a convention here in Toronto, I had the opportunity to meet and interview\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":49826,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/03\/12\/sff-novels-i-have-read.html","url_meta":{"origin":13236,"position":2},"title":"SF&F Novels I Have Read","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 12-Mar-15 10:36pm","format":false,"excerpt":"I've read 53% of the list (which put me in the top 8% of respondents). An interesting list, actually, and I liked using the book covers (even if most of them were not of the editions I'd read).And since these sorts of lists actually need to be listed ...I Have\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":22358,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/08\/25\/the-100-top-sffantasy.html","url_meta":{"origin":13236,"position":3},"title":"The 100 Top SF\/Fantasy?","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 25-Aug-11 7:16am","format":false,"excerpt":"Well, the most popular 100 SF\/Fantasy books that 60,000-odd NPR listeners chose. Which isn't, of course, the same things. And which have I read? 1. The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy, by J.R.R. Tolkien 2. The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, by Douglas Adams 3. Ender's Game, by Orson Scott\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Books"","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-books"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/science_fiction.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/science_fiction.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/science_fiction.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":137284,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2018\/10\/09\/the-dresden-files-is-returning-to-tv.html","url_meta":{"origin":13236,"position":4},"title":""The Dresden Files" is returning to TV","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 9-Oct-18 7:25am","format":false,"excerpt":"I was actually introduced to the books by the TV series, and was bitterly disappointing when the show didn't succeed (I still pull out that season disc and rewatch it now and again). In retrospect, I think it was constrained by budget and state-of-the-FX in (was it only) 2007. There\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11207,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/03\/16\/book_review_storm_front.html","url_meta":{"origin":13236,"position":5},"title":"Book Review: Storm Front","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 16-Mar-07 8:16pm","format":false,"excerpt":"When I first heard about SciFi's new series, The Dresden Files, my first thought was, \"Oh, look, someone's decided to rip off John Constantine, Hellblazer. I hope it's halfway decent.\"...","rel":"","context":"In "Books"","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-books"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/stars4.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13236\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}