Review: Stardust

I have been following Stardust for a long time, ever since Neil Gaiman began posting news from production on his website about a year ago. I never managed to make it to the theater to see the film, but I planned all along to pick it up on DVD. Well, I don’t have a DVD yet, but I’ll certainly be buying a copy soon. Thanks to the new iTunes movie rental service, I watched Stardust last night and it is fantastic.

The plot is simple, but immensely entertaining:
In  Victorian England there is a small village called Wall. Running along the border of the villiage there is a low stone wall, which nobody is ever supposed to cross. One night a young man crosses the wall and finds himself in a magical marketplace, where he spends a single night with a beautiful, lonely slave girl. He returns to Wall and nine months later a son is delivered to him in a basket.

Years later, that son (Tristan) finds himself on the other side of the wall, seeking a fallen star. He has promised his love, a stuck-up town beauty, that he will bring her the star to prove his love. Imagine his surprise when he discovers that the star is nothing less than a beautiful woman names Yvaine, who has been knocked from her heavenly home by a flying ruby, thrown by the dying king of Stormhold.

That ruby sets up a darkly comedic subplot, in which the four (very quickly three) princes of Stormhold search for the ruby and try to kill one another, cheered on the while by the ghosts of the three (four, five…) princes who have already been killed. Because the Yvaine is in possession of the ruby, she (and Tristan) become the object of the murderous princes’ quest.

Added to this already entertaining setup are three withered old hags who hope to attain beauty and immortality by murdering the star and eating her heart. One of them sets out to find and kill Yvaine, while the other two stay at home tearing through the entrails of various animals in hopes of divining clues to the star’s location.

Pursued by three (two, one) murderous princes and a vicious witch, Tristan and Yvaine attempt to make their way back to Wall, where Tristan has promised to help Yvaine get back to the sky after she helps him win the heart of his love. Of course, they begin to fall in love along the way, as Tristan realizes how vain his girl back in Wall is, and Yvaine begins to admire Tristan’s selfless devotion. The two of them are helped along their journey by a crew of lightning farmers, who sail through storms in a fantastical airship. I will not spoil the surprise of Captain Shakespeare’s true personality, except to say that Robert Deniro has rarely been so fearsome, nor so kind, in a single brief appearance.

So there you have it: murderous brothers, ruthless witches, boisterous sky sailors, and a young man finding true love with a star. All strung together by witty banter and comedic irony in a steampunk fantasy kingdom. Stardust may not be the deepest of films, but for pure fun and sweet romance, it is one of my favorites of the year.

Ms. Bean’s first post: a new musical obsession que se llama Ely Guerra

Hello all!

This is my first contribution of hopefully many more to come, and of course, it’s about music. Those who know me know how much I am into music, and I am always discovering new music through friends and the Internet. Of all my latest musical discoveries, I am especially eager to share this one: a Mexican rock singer named Ely Guerra. Most anglophones have probably not heard of her before (hell, I hadn’t heard of her until a few months ago, being more into French than Spanish music), so read on for more!

“You’d really like Ely Guerra.”

That was what my friend Annie told me a few months ago as we were discussing our favorite music artists. I like all kinds of music in any language, even if I don’t necessarily speak it, but Spanish music had left a bad taste in my mouth. Most of it reminded me too much of my awful, messy suitemate from junior year who always played treacly Spanish ballads at all hours of the day, even late at night. *shudders* But I will give anything an honest try. I even gave Ys, Joanna Newsom’s latest, a try before finally throwing in the towel. I thought, “why not?”

Fortunately, Ely does NOT do treacly pop ballads. Oh no, far from it. First of all, Ely is part of the Mexican alternative rock scene, and she likes to do her own thing in the music world. She’s known not only for her beautifully written lyrics but also for her sensual voice and guitar skills. Word has it that her record company wanted her to be like Shakira and Ely flat out refused, even shaving her head in protest. I say, you go! Why be like everyone else anyway?

Ely playing live, one of my favorite pictures of her

And that makes Ely’s music even better. She already has the voice, which can range from a sensual whisper to an angry roar depending on the song and desired emotion, and she definitely has the songs, which are rich in influences from straight rock to drum ‘n’ bass. The first album I got of hers was Lotofire from iTunes, her third album, but her first released in the US in 2002, 3 years after its release in her native Mexico.

Lotofire is probably her most beautiful and multi-layered collection of songs: very introspective. This album is much more chill-out than what I thought it would be, but don’t let that deter you. Chill-out does not equal boring in this case. Instead, listen closely to each song and you’ll hear the diversity of Latin and Brazilian rhythms and melodies that Ely uses in each song, which I think is enough to hold anyone’s interest, especially if you don’t speak Spanish, like me. For instance, the appropriately chilly Tengo Frio (meaning I’m Cold in English) contains an almost bossa nova bassline percolating through the song, with sparse arrangements to describe the loneliness felt by the singer. There’s also a drum and bass rhythm (Yo No) and then atmospheric rock in De La Calle, a truly haunting song used in the Mexican film of the same name. Though I immediately fell in love with her second album Pa’ Morirse de Amor, which I will review in a moment, Lotofire’s songs show off her voice a lot more, particularly on the guitar only songs like El Tiempo [a song about the environment] and El Mar, where her beautiful voice floats above her strummed guitar like a spring haze.

And this one is her second album, Pa’ Morirse de Amor, which came out in 1997 but was reissued in 2002 with an extra disc of remixes. This album has a different sound than Lotofire: much more straight ahead rock but with a Latin feel in the rhythm and instruments. Where Lotofire was introspective, Pa Morirse is more upbeat sounding. I’ve been listening to this album almost every day since I bought it, and each time I listen I love it even more. I don’t understand a lot of what she’s saying, since whatever Spanish I do know comes from knowing French and Italian. However, I don’t think that even matters.

First of all, the melodies and rhythms are catchy and interesting enough to hold your interest, especially in the stand-out track Angel de Fuego, the South American-modern rock hybrid Por que tendria que llorar por ti, and the moody sounding title track. Even in Que Mas Da, Ely is backed by nothing but sparse percussion and flutes, giving the song a traditional sounding vibe that doesn’t often happen in modern music. Second of all, a range of emotions come across in her voice, so even if you don’t speak Spanish, you can still understand the emotions that Ely brings to her songs. Her instrument can glide from her standard sensual whisper (Lagrimas de Agua Salada) to an angry roar (No quiero hablar [I don't want to talk], a bitter song to an ex-boyfriend). It’s just a shame that this album isn’t widely available, not even on iTunes. Looks like it’s only been released in Mexico so far as I know. In fact, I had to get mine from an Ebay seller in California; go figure.

So expand your horizons and visit Latin America in a non-traditional way. All you’ll need is an open mind.

For more Ely, here are some videos from YouTube:

The music video for the aforementioned De La Calle

A fan-made video using Ely’s “Por que tendria que llorar por ti” with scenes from The L-Word. At least you can listen to the song, a favorite of mine from Ely

Spook Country -William Gibson

Most certainly, this is a book that I will have to read again. Not because I loved it, but because I was so immensely disappointed that I can’t but think that I am wrong.

I have loved the work of William Gibson since I first encountered it in Neuromancer. From the opening lines, he had me: “The sky above the port was the color of a television, tuned to a dead channel. ‘It’s not like I’m using’ Case heard someone say, as he shouldered his way through the crowd around the door of the Chat. ‘It’s like my body has developed this massive drug deficit.’ It was a Sprawl voice and a Sprawl joke.’ Something about his descriptions, his characters, and the sheer madness of his settings captured me. I devoured everything I could find at the local library. The Bridge Trilogy utterly captivated me with its image an America and Japan brought to the brink of self-destruction by viral infections, natural disasters, failed government experiments, crime, and lawyers, only to be rescued and reformed through the emergence of sentient nanotechnology.

Later. Pattern Recognition was a brilliant, hypnotic depiction of the new world in which we find ourselves. A world where where Gibson’s cyberspace matrix has been rendered obsolete before it even existed. A post-9/11 universe deeply affected by the media and advertising, online video, blogs, and viral marketing (and all of this written before YouTube or the like even existed).

So you can understand why I would have high expectations for Gibson’s latest novel, Spook Country. All the more because I followed its writing closely on Gibson’s blog, where he posted brief excerpts over the course of the year leading up to publication.

The reason that I must read Spook Country again, after an appropriate interlude, is that the characters are certainly compelling and the story is interesting enough that I feel there must be something I am missing. The story follows three main characters (Hollis Henry, Tito, and Milgrim) as their lives twist through the worlds of locative art, international intrigue, and private revenge until everything collides on one eerily silent, radioactive night.

It is these characters that make the story worth reading, and will pull me back for another read.

I can’t think of much else to say about this book right now. I am simply too confused. Too disappointed in either the story, or my own lack of appreciation for it…

A War of Gifts -Orson Scott Card

NOTE: This review contains spoilers if you have not yet read Ender’s Game. If you are such a person, stop reading right now and go get a copy of Ender’s Game. Read it. Twice if you have time.

I admit: Ender Wiggen is one of my favorite characters in modern literature. What other character “saves” the world as a child and goes on to explain to all of humanity that the world didn’t actually need saving, and does such a complete job of it that future generations regard him as a villain. And then, after revealing the truth of the Formic War to humanity, he goes on to spend much of his life seeking the truth behind people’s actions and reconciling broken families and societies. Oh, and along the way his actions form the basis for a compassionate, humanist philosophy. And that brief summary hardly does him justice.

What I am getting at here is that I have every reason to either love or hate A War of Gifts, because if it is even acceptable I will eat it up, and if it is bad I will detest it as only a fanboy can.
It is a good story.

Now, I say story because A War of Gifts is hardly a book. Indeed, if I were to use formal literary terminology, I would have to call it a novella. The hardback edition that I read checks in at 126 pages, divided into 10 chapters.

The setting is Battle School (except for a brief introduction on Earth). Card introduces us to a new character named Zeck, a self-righteous little brat raised by an anti-technology Puritan minister with a mean streak. Like all the children at Battle School, Zeck is special. He has an eidetic memory and strong observational skills. Unlike the other children, Zeck refuses to fight. He won’t even participate in Battle Room exercises.  By his inaction, Zeck hopes to be deemed useless and returned home.  His teachers, of course, have different plans.

On the night of December 5th, Zeck witnesses two Dutch students observing Sinterklaas Day. Embittered by his self-imposed exile from the other students, and remember his father’s many sermons on the evils of Santa Clause, Zeck reports the boys to Colonel Graff. In response, the children of Battle School begin a campaign to spread good will and Christmas spirit.

On one hand, A War of Gifts is a Christmas story set in the Ender universe. Similar books come out every year, featuring popular detectives, sci-fi characters, and such.

That said, it is a very good little Christmas story.

Card gives his usual attention to detail and full, if over-psychological, character development. We even get a scene of young Ender helping to heal a wounded soul, which will be of interest to any fan who longed to know more of Ender’s emotional development during Battle School.

If you have never read the Ender books, or were only mildly entertained by them, this is probably not a book for you.  If, however, you find the Enderverse as deep and fascinating as I, you will not be disappointed.

Mainspring -Jay Lake

Look upon this body as a machine made by the hands of God, which is incomparably better arranged, and adequate to movements more admirable, than is any machine of human invention.
-Descartes

Many people have used the analogy of a clock to describe the universe. For some this is an argument in favor of a loving God, intimately involved in the creation of this complex universe in which we live. For others the clockwork precision of physics argues against any such spiritual elements. In Mainspring, Jay Lake makes the analogy inarguably real and physical. From his first description of the majestic brass curve of earth’s track curving upwards into the morning sky, to the terrible precision of the twenty mile wide gears, milled to incalculable precision by God’s own hand, which grind intractably along their way, bearing the earth along its orbit, there is no doubt that Lake has reinvented our word in a radical way. Even the angel Gabriel is wrought of clockwork metals, from his finely scaled brass limbs to the razor edged feathers of his wings.

Mainspring tells the story of Hethor, to whom the brass angel Gabriel has given the task of saving the world. The mainspring in the heart of the planet is winding down and someone, some human, must find the Key Perilous and journey to the south axis of the world to re-wind the stalling planet. Of course, as a 16 year old apprentice clockmaker, Hethor has no idea how he will reach his destination, let alone find a clockwork-Christian relic that everyone he asks considers to be little more than a legend. Undaunted (and given a jump-start by being kicked out of his master’s house), Hethor sets out on his quest. Along the way he will encounter fantastic creatures, majestic palaces, noble savages, and more than his fair share of treachery.

Setting his story in an alternate history of America (and lands to the south) in 1900, Lake constructes a world where Queen Victoria rules over all of North America by the might of her fleets of majestic airships and through the administration of horology obsessed politicians and clerics. All technology, and even life itself, is ultimately based on clockworks, steam, and “electricks.” Even the wild, unfallen peoples of the south (who have never seen a clock in their lives) speak in a rhythmic language that echoes the ticks, clicks, and whirs of God’s gear-driven earth. The combination of curiously modern, old-fashioned technology and breathless descriptions of wonders is strongly reminiscent of a well translated Jules Verne novel.

Many of the most compelling passages in Mainspring consist of brief descriptions of clockwork-infused technology and history. Cory Doctrow called the book a “thoroughly engaging blasphemy” in his back cover blurb. Blasphemy? I wouldn’t go that far. Certainly the story touches upon the supernatural, and reworks history and Christian teachings to reflect its horological absolute, but there is nothing more blasphemous here than a vague conclusion, which affirms the God’s role in creation while leaving unanswered the question of his continued interest in his cosmic wind-up toys.

That ending, and indeed the concluding four or so chapters of the book, are the only flaws in an otherwise fantastic story. Perhaps I am missing the point, but I was quite disappointed when the story took a turn for the magical. It was not all bad, indeed the final 10 pages more than made up for any flaws in the preceding chapters, but some scenes had me scratching my head in puzzlement. The most notable of these are the re-appearance of the voiceless winged “savages” and the entire visit to the misty city of nightmares (seriously Lake, that felt like a bloodied-up trip to The Island Where Dreams Come True, not a steampunk adventure). And while I think it is sweet and all having Hethor fall in love with a hairy Pygmy woman in an Edenic land (indeed, their love turns out to be key in the conclusion) the page or so of sexual awakening felt perfunctory and did little to advance the story or characters.

Complaints aside, I certainly enjoyed reading Mainspring. Lake has created a truly interesting world, one that blends history, fantasy, and philosophy personified into a single, smoothly ticking literary machine.

Of Fire and Night -Kevin J. Anderson

Of Fire and Night is the fifth book in Kevin J. Anderson’s monumental Saga of the Seven Suns. After four equally dense volumes, one might expect Anderson’s imagination to wain, his plot to trip over its own entanglements, but that it not the case. In fact, Of Fire and Night is the best book since the series started in Hidden Empire.

I dare not give away too much of the plot, since following the twists and turns of galactic politics and warfare, and discovering the fates of numerous characters, remains one of the most compelling aspects of the story. On earth, King Peter and Queen Estarra continue to struggle against Chairman Basil Wenceslas. The Chairman is growing desperate, and perhaps psychologically unstable, in his efforts to maintain control of the Hansiatic League. Readers who have awaited Peter’s grasp for real power will not be disappointed. The roamers begin to recover from EDF attacks by setting up an blackmarket trade network on abandoned Hansa colonies. Mage-Imperator Jora’h of the Ildirans struggles to repair his empire after the Hyrillkan rebellion and outwit the hydrogues, who have demanded that the Ildirans aid in destroying humanity. We also learn much more about the ancient relationships (and origins) of all four elemental races, as well as some tantalizing (and downright terrifying) tidbits about the Klikiss and their traitorous robots.

Of Fire and Night is not perfect. While not as disorienting as, say, Horizon Storms or Scattered Suns, the timeline in Of Fire and Night moves rapidly and can be difficult to grasp (I was surprised to learn that the Rob Brindle and the other human prisoners in the hydrogue city sphere had been heal captive for three years and that at least a year has passed since the hydrogues ravaged Theroc). Anderson is a gifted writer with a talent for portraying the plights of individuals and nations, but he somehow fails in describing a key battle between fifty elite silver berets and thousands of rampaging solder compies. The scene is set up well, but when it comes right down to the action I can paraphrase it as “the scientists walked into the factory with fifty soldiers. Forty-seven of the soldiers dies on the way to the control room” without removing much of Anderson’s prose.

But to complain about this book requires nit-picking. With Of Fire and Night, Anderson succeeds in creating yet another brilliant novel which blends the best of sci-fi and fantasy. He even succeeds in trouncing one enemy to humanity (and the Ildirans), while introducing several others in a believable manner. And never, in all the previous books, have an old woman and a compy been such effective harbingers of doom as they are on the last page of this volume.