Books Received in January 2016

Since I won't be accepting much in the way of review books this year, this column will likely not be a monthly feature.  The list today has 1 title, which I actually got in December but forgot to add to my list then.  

Traveler by Arwen Elys Dayton - This is the second book of the Seeker trilogy, and I've already reviewed it.  This is a fun YA series and I'm looking forward to the third book.

Quin Kincaid is a Seeker. Her legacy is an honor, an ancient role passed down for generations. But what she learned on her Oath night changed her world forever.

Quin pledged her life to deception. Her legacy as a Seeker is not noble but savage. Her father, a killer. Her uncle, a liar. Her mother, a casualty. And the boy she once loved is out for vengeance, with her family in his sights.

Yet Quin is not alone. Shinobu, her oldest companion, might now be the only person she can trust. The only one who wants answers as desperately as she does.

But the deeper they dig into the past, the darker things become. There are long-vanished Seeker families, shadowy alliances, and something else: a sinister plan begun generations ago, with the power to destroy them all.

The past is close. And it will destroy them all.

Movie Review: Time Lapse

Directed by: Bradley King, 2014

IMDb listing

Pros: makes you think, good acting, some tense moments, establishes and follows internal logic/time travel rules  

Cons: takes a while to get going, no science

Three housemates: a painter with no inspiration, an aspiring writer, and guy who’s hoping to win big on dog races, discover a machine in their neighbours house that takes photos 24 hours in the future.

The premise of the film is fairly simple, though it takes a while to get going as they have to find the machine and then figure out what it does.  But once they do, and realize they can use it to further their ambitions, things start to get tense.

The acting is great, which is important as the film really demands a lot of its protagonists.  I wasn’t that keen on Jasper’s character (played by George Finn) and wasn’t surprised that his greed and idiocy caused some of their problems.

There’s an internal logic to how the machine works and thereby how time travel works in the film that the film doesn’t deviate from.  Which is great.  Having said that, I felt that the characters should have asked more questions about how the machine worked.  The film gives no science or explanations at all about how this is possible.  

The ending made me think about the film in new ways, going over the events to puzzle out what happened and why things happened in those ways.  

It’s a well done film, that’s worth seeing.  

Shout-Out: Nova by Margaret Fortune

*36:00:00*

The clock activates so suddenly in my mind, my head involuntarily jerks a bit to the side. The fog vanishes, dissipated in an instant as though it never was. Memories come slotting into place, their edges sharp enough to leave furrows, and suddenly I know. I know exactly who I am.

My name is Lia Johansen, and I was named for a prisoner of war. She lived in the Tiersten Internment Colony for two years, and when they negotiated the return of the prisoners, I was given her memories and sent back in her place.

And I am a genetically engineered human bomb.

Lia Johansen was created for only one purpose: to slip onto the strategically placed New Sol Space Station and explode. But her mission goes to hell when her clock malfunctions, freezing her countdown with just two minutes to go. With no Plan B, no memories of her past, and no identity besides a name stolen from a dead POW, Lia has no idea what to do next. Her life gets even more complicated when she meets Michael Sorenson, the realLia’s childhood best friend.

Drawn to Michael and his family against her better judgment, Lia starts learning what it means to live and love, and to be human. It is only when her countdown clock begins sporadically losing time that she realizes even duds can still blow up. If she wants any chance at a future, she must find a way to unlock the secrets of her past and stop her clock. But as Lia digs into her origins, she begins to suspect there’s far more to her mission and to this war, than meets the eye. With the fate of not just a space station but an entire empire hanging in the balance, Lia races to find the truth before her time—literally—runs out.

Video: Animation vs Minecraft

This is a really cute video by Alan Becker.  He's done several Animator vs Animation videos, but here, the animations discover the Minecraft app on the computer and start creating things.

Book Review: The Bands of Mourning by Brandon Sanderson

Pros: variety of action, new settings, character development 

Cons: Wayne started to grate on my nerves, some predictable events

Waxilliam Ladrian and Steris Harms’ wedding day has finally arrived, but things don’t go as planned.  Against his desires, he’s roped into helping the kandra recover one of their fellows’ missing spikes.  He’s also given the whereabouts of his kidnapped sister. 

This book changes location several times, and the plot shifts from one connected goal to another, so while my synopsis may not sound that interesting, the book itself has quite a good number of twists and turns.

I loved the growing relationship between Wax and Steris, which again felt realistic.  I also liked how several characters developed, questioning themselves and coming to know themselves better.

Wayne started to grate on my nerves, especially at the beginning of the book.  His dislike of Steris annoyed me, both because I like her as a character and because he disregarded the growing attraction between Steris and Wax.  Towards the end he felt more like the loveable rogue from the previous books.

There are some plot twists that I found predictable, but others that changed the direction of the book in unexpected ways.  But even the predictable moments were fun, as they didn’t stay predictable for long.

From what I’ve been reading there’s an upcoming 4th book, which is good, because the ending wasn’t as neatly tied as I was expecting.  

This is a great series with a unique magic system and interesting characters that are so much fun to read about.  Can’t wait to see what comes next.

Shout-Out: The Sea is Ours: Tales from Steampunk Southeast Asia Edited by Jaymee Goh and Joyce Chng

The stories in this collection merge technological wonder with the everyday. Children upgrade their fighting spiders with armor, and toymakers create punchcard-driven marionettes. Large fish lumber across the skies, while boat people find a new home on the edge of a different dimension. Technology and tradition meld as the people adapt to the changing forces of their world. The Sea Is Ours is an exciting new anthology that features stories infused with the spirits of Southeast Asia’s diverse peoples, legends, and geography.

Contents: 

"On The Consequence of Sound" - Timothy Dimacali"Chasing Volcanoes" - Marilag Angway"Ordained" - L. L. Hill"The Last Aswang" - Alessa Hinlo"Life Under Glass" - Nghi Vo"Between Severed Souls" - Paolo Chikiamco"The Unmaking of the Cuadro Amoroso" - Kate Osias"Working Woman" - Olivia Ho"Spider Here" - Robert Liow"The Chamber of Souls" - zm quỳnh"Petrified" - Ivanna Mendels"The Insects and Women Sing Together" - Pear Nuallak

Book Review: The Medieval Kitchen: A Social History With Recipes by Hannele Klemettila

Pros: comprehensive, lots of great sidebars with extra information, mentions numerous sources, lots of illustrations, recipes to try

Cons: text is dry 

This is a well organized book on what people in the (predominantly later) Middle Ages ate.  The author presents information from a number of sources, including cookbooks, archaeological finds, artwork, health guides, and manner guides.  Chapters detail bread, vegetables, meat, fish, spices, milk/egg/cheese dishes, desserts (including fruits and berries), and drinks.  She’s careful to remind readers of foods that were unavailable at the time as well as mentioning where certain foods and spices originated (when they were obtained through trade - like the fact that peach trees originated in Persia).  The author also points out differences in menu and preference between regions - due to what’s able to be produced there, costs involved in importing goods, and other factors.  

While I found the text somewhat dry, the information was interesting.  The side bars, where a lot of the social information was relayed, were particularly interesting (with segments on food in fantasy literature, candles, ergotism, vegetarianism, etc.).  I also found the segment on medieval drinks interesting (and I think it’s cool that the book has recipes for making hippocras, claret and mead).

While I haven’t tried any of the recipes - yet - some of the over 60 recipes sound very appealing while others… less so.  It’s very true that tastes have changed.  Some ingredients will be harder to acquire than others, especially depending on your geographical location.  

The book is beautifully illustrated with over 100 images from manuscripts, paintings and illustrations.

If you’re interested in medieval food, this is a great reference guide, with a good variety of information and recipes to try your hand at.