Dusting off the cobwebs...

... not only from this poorly neglected blogging project, but also from my literary career - it's almost the end of September (I know, time is flying), which means it's almost November, and almost time again for the NaNoWriMo, which I am determined to start and finish this year after years of just meaning to do it, but before November, I'm going to dedicate October to smashing out a novella to enter into the Seizure 'Viva La Novella' competition, which closes November 1 and has the theme of Origins (still no idea what I'm going to write about, and I've got less than two days to figure it out...!)

And to get me back into literary reviewing, I'm grinding through all the Harry Potter books (I gave up on Paula McLain's The Paris Wife - maybe another time). Right now I'm up to Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, so not too far off finishing the book series, and then maybe I'll run a movie marathon...

But anyway, just a quick post to update the blog - better get stuck into writing...

http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/participants/steph-bass

http://seizureonline.com/projects/viva-la-novella/

Game Review: 'Super Mario Galaxy' for Nintendo Wii

Something a little different (who says you can't play games in the library?)

Super Mario Galaxy for Nintendo Wii

Official Site

Wikipedia

The Plot: Like its predecessors in the Super Mario series, Super Mario Galaxy finds Mario on a rescue mission to save Princess Peach from Bowser's evil grasp and defeat his arch-enemy - this time, releasing trapped Power Stars along the way and stopping Bowser from creating a mega-galaxy to rule malevolently over all. Aided by Rosalina, the guardian of the skies, and her adorable Lumas, Mario (and Luigi!) roam the galaxies completing puzzles, winning races, playing chasey, and collecting coins in a bid to find all 120 stars.

The Review: I started playing this game sometime in December '11, a week or so before Christmas, and I have only now finished the entire thing, one week into February. Looks here definitely deceived me - the cover makes it seems like you're about to start on a cutesy, intergalactic sojourn in brightly-coloured levels with shiny tokens and sweet-as-pie NPCs like the Lumas and the Toad Brigade. How wrong I was (sort of)!

The design of the game is brightly-coloured and shiny and looks amazing, the spherical levels in particular which allow for almost total 3D gameplay. On some levels (called galaxies, although it would be more appropriate to call them planets), you can run all the way around the playing field, hanging upside down on planets that have their own centre of gravity - it's here at the bottom of a planet where you can find most of its secrets! The graphics are fluid too, which is helpful, especially when you're speeding around in all dimensions and the last thing you want is any kind of lag (I know consoles are good for lack of lag, but it's a big bonus with this game). But - and this perhaps the one thing that ruined the fun for me - the camera is terrible. Just at the moment when you want it right behind Mario to try and execute a difficult move, it refuses to shift, either only moving slightly to where you want it or not moving at all. It's possible to manually adjust the camera using the direction pad on the Wii Remote (as an alternative to the automatic button on the Nunchuck), but in most, if not all cases when you need it, the direction pad means there's too much stuffing around. This is, I would say, Super Mario Galaxy's biggest flaw, and can make playing some levels an extremely frustrating experience.

This building frustration in some levels ruined the fun for me, turning what should have been an afternoon's entertainment into a grudge match between me and the game. The worst level for me was 'Luigi's Purple Coins', a race around a flat platform in the shape of a jumping Luigi, made up of a combination of tiles that disappear or rotate on contact - meaning you can only go in one direction, with no back-tracking - and it's timed, too, like you need added pressure on this level. The disappearing tiles means that you only have a second or two to reorient yourself ready for a long jump across a gap in the tiles, in an attempt to collect a whole set of coins in one go. And when the camera doesn't get quite behind you as much as you'd like, and you press the button combo for a long jump, and it goes askew and you fall into the black hole for the 100th time that afternoon... talk about a time suck!

For this reason, I felt like I wasn't totally in agreement with the reviews written by mags like GameSpot and IGN, who were declaring it the best Mario game in the series. While some may see this as a challenge and a sign of a good game, there's a point where a challenge becomes a chore. On the other hand, there are some levels where you would expect some difficulty and not get any, like the Bowser boss levels - by the time you've met Bowser in-game for the second or third time, it's become all too easy, as he attacks in each level with exactly the same moves as the one before it. Even in the final Bowser battle the moves are rehashed, making the completion of the game a little anticlimactic. The real challenges are the races, especially the Cosmic Mario runs, some of which can take an entire afternoon's play to finish in first!

That said, Super Mario Galaxy is not a bad game, not in the slightest - claims that it's the best platformer created so far are not without merit. It's definitely innovative and once you get the hang of the controls it sucks you in and you're playing for hours. The basic plot is nothing new, as any fan of Mario will know, but the addition of Rosalina and the Lumas is enough to keep you interested as you go from observatory to observatory. Maybe the biggest indicator that Super Mario Galaxy was really a great game to play was the fact that, even though I said aloud that I wouldn't bother putting myself through the entire thing all over again, as soon as I'd unlocked Luigi as a playable character I was back in the fray, going over all the levels one more time (but not in exactly the same way, of course!).

Out of Five:

4 out of 5

(or should I say Lumas?)

Penguin Australia's "The Monthly Catch"

A quick break from reading and playing video games and going to footy training/the gym to share this from Penguin Books Australia - the publishing house will be accepting unsolicited manuscripts during their new "Monthly Catch" cycle (between the 1st and 7th of every month).

Definitely an incentive to get stuck back into my own project!

Read more about Penguin's "Monthly Catch" here:

http://www.penguin.com.au/getting-published

Happy writing!

Book Reviews: 'The Sun Also Rises' and 'A Farewell to Arms' by Ernest Hemingway

Both novels are on the Modern Library's '100 Best Novels' lists, but I read them for a different reason:

The Sun Also Rises and A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway

Wikipedia / Wikipedia

GoodReads / GoodReads

The Books: The Sun Also Rises follows Jake Barnes and his fellow ex-patriots as they travel from Paris to Pamplona for the bullfighting fiesta, stopping in hotels and cafes along the way, and also doing a little fishing. There is tension among friends as they drink, fight, and love their way through the post-WW1 years, encapsulating the impulsive, aimless spirit of the Lost Generation. A Farewell to Arms, a semi-autobiographical novel about an American volunteer ambulance driver tangled up in 'the war to end all wars', weaves wartime narratives with idyllic foreign romance as 'Tenente' Henry creates a new life with nurse Catherine Barkley amidst the senseless conflict on the Continent.

The Reviews: I had picked these two up from the library in anticipation of reading Paula McLain's The Paris Wife, which won the GoodReads best historical fiction award for 2011 - The Sun Also Rises was written around the time that McLain covers in her novel, and I thought it'd be a good idea to read the source material first. (A Farewell to Arms seemed like a obligatory read.) My only other experiences with Hemingway were reading The Old Man and the Sea when I was 14 and not really getting it (understandable I would hope), and watching Michael Palin's documentary not long afterward when I was on a Monty Python kick. 

I didn't mind The Sun Also Rises - it's hard to come away from a book like that (and Farewell too) and not think of it as being very romantic, experiencing a nostalgia for a life not lived, because it may not have been the intention to write something like that. Jake and his madcap friends cavort around Paris and Pamplona in such an unrestricted, carefree way, and nothing really much matters to them, and if it does it's not really a big deal and if it causes fights then a few fists are thrown and then they all get drunk and say sorry and then it's fine. Hemingway's famously understated prose promotes this laissez-faire activity to flow almost uninterrupted so that the events in the narrative just happen, much how life just passes by, only the lives of this particular group of people is so much more interesting than mine. However, that's just about the problem I had with this novel - things happens, and that's about it. I understand that the understated prose is like the notes you don't play, and at points in the novel, usually when Jake and Brett were alone and musing about their past together, the missing exposition made the exchange between them more interesting and provocative, but I don't know if there was enough of it to keep me really in the story - I wanted to know more about what Jake and Brett had in the war, and about Jake's injury, etc., but because nothing is ever revealed, nothing is ever explained or delved into, which is a little disappointing. The lack of this kind of subtextual substance in The Sun Also Rises means that it's a fun read, but like The House of Leaves (albeit in a very different way), I finished it without feeling like I'd really brought anything away from it, other than a strong urge to go back to Spain.

A Farewell to Arms was much the same in regard to the way Hemingway wrote (or didn't write) the story, but perhaps because it's a longer novel there was more to it. It feels like there is more of a complete narrative in this novel, even if it is only boy-meets-girl, soldier-meets-nurse - the focus is always on Henry and how the war and his relationship with Catherine affect him and how he views his life. Things still just seem to happen in this novel, like the previous one, but unlike The Sun Also Rises, there is a sense of completion in the sequence of events, and it's easier to follow the story (probably because there is one). I loved the descriptions of the scenery and could easily imagine wartime Italy in the absence of flowery adjectives, and I think I liked it all the more because of that absence. The dialogue tended to drag on unnecessarily, though, especially between Henry and Catherine, it just about drives you crazy how mind-numbing the lovey-dovey is between them, and how pathetic Catherine is (in the context of now, obviously, not then, although...). When the repetitive, nonsensical nature of the dialogue is between men, and moreso in the warzones, it's very Catch-22, and not so bad, but it can still drag. The ending is dreadful too, but for a different reason, although in a way I thought it was fitting for the story to end the way it did. I preferred it to The Sun Also Rises, probably because it entertained me for longer, the story was more interesting, I felt there was a sense of something happening, something building, and I was still allowed to put some pieces of the puzzle together myself, free of overbearing exposition (my favourite thing about Hemingway I think). And Switzerland is definitely on the to-do too.

So despite the two lead female characters being horrendously embarrassing ditzes and the glamourisation of the dangerously high consumption of alcohol in both novels being the two big problems, along with the lack of a decent narrative in The Sun Also Rises, I come away from reading Hemingway's first two major works on the 'like' side of the fence. I look forward to getting stuck into The Paris Wife - hopefully she's not as airheaded as Catherine Barkley.

Out of Five:

The Sun Also Rises

2 out of 5

A Farewell to Arms

4 out of 5

Film Review: 'Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows'

Gosh I haven't done a film review for so long. Why not start with one I liked!

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

Official Website

Wikipedia

The Plot: Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson team up once again in Holmes' biggest case yet - they must stop Oxford don and criminal mastermind Moriarty from setting nation against nation and stopping the world from going to war. Bombings on the Continent, opium traders overdosing, high profile businessmen and politicians assassinated - all part of Moriarty's schemes to hold the market share over everything ever needed in such a world war: "from bombs to bandages". (Sounds like a James Bond plot-line? I thought so too.) Joined by Sizma and her band of gypsy henchmen, Sherlock Holmes comes face-to-face with his arch-nemesis in an elaborate game of strategy, cunning, and of course, deduction.

The Review: We went to see this at the cinemas and I think it's probably the best way to see it, even though we had to put up with a group of people behind us talking all the way through it  - don't wait until it comes out on DVD, unless you have a great sound-system and huge TV, because the cinematography is fantastic (although nothing new). Like the first film in this series, the major fight scenes are choreographed in Holmes' head and then played out again, usually a lot faster, which is great because a lot of close-combat scenes in action films go to quickly, I feel most times that all the effort put into the moves is lost on the screen when the director wants a fast fight. The kind of detail that Holmes takes in is also emphasised in the way the film's edited - it's very CSI, with quick zooms into a speck of dust or a drop of blood somewhere, followed by a re-enactment of how that speck or that drop got there. It's all very sleek and magnificent and very fun to watch, a great action-adventure film. Robert Downey Jnr. and Jude Law are great as Holmes and Watson (but I won't say how good, because I am in no way a Conan Doyle scholar and wouldn't like to attempt a guess). I might have come away with a small crush on RDJ too.

There aren't many things going wrong with SH: A Game of Shadows - there are a few movie goofs that I spotted, one of them being in the train scene, where Holmes appears in drag as his disguise (shaven for authenticity), and at the end of that scene he appears with a three-day growth (that's a bit sloppy). And unfortunately, Stephen Fry appears as Stephen Fry as Sherlock's brother Mycroft, calling him 'Shirley' as Stephen Fry is probably wont to do. I say unfortunately because it would be nice if Stephen Fry could play someone other than himself for a change; it's as though he's wandered onto the set, oblivious to the fact that there's a fictional film happening around him, and gone about fitting himself in somewhere. And he's naked too in one scene, that's not pleasant. I share Roger Ebert's lament that the atmosphere of Conan Doyle's novels is lost to this film, in favour of a more modern action film style, but I think the dank, smoggy London of the books would be ill-placed in Guy Ritchie's mini-franchise. He notes the lack of reference to opiates, but if I remember rightly, there's a cocaine ring in the first film (although it isn't obvious). My biggest disappointment was the fact that the filmmakers chose to bring Moriarty in so early in the franchise - if he's Holmes' big meanie, wouldn't it make sense for them to save him for later?

In the end, SH: A Game of Shadows is a fun detective thriller-romp, a visual treat and has enough of a plot to keep one interested, although like many films of its ilk doesn't always connect the dots up coherently. Its fidelity to the Holmes canon is questionable but it's an aspect of the film that can be put to one side while you watch it. There are plenty of laughs and a few literally breath-taking moments (any time you know a bomb's about to blow up). There's even a pony in it!

Out of Five:

3 out of 5 

Book Review: 'House of Leaves' by Mark Z. Danielewski

My friend Brent lent me this one to read, thanks Brent!

House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski

Wikipedia

GoodReads

The Book: Tipped off by his friend Lude, Johnny Truant discovers a bunch of old papers and fragments which make up what looks like a dissertation by a man named Zampano, on 'The Navidson Record', a documentary about Will Navidson, his wife Karen, their kids and their house on Ash Tree Lane, which is bigger on the inside than it is on the outside. Through Zampano's laborious work we learn that the hallway in the middle of the house is a dark, cold, no-man's land, almost like an Escherian black hole, which sucks the occupants and their friends in with its mysterious shapeshifting and impossible physics. The house, the documentary, and Zampano's bits and pieces get to Johnny in a severe way, as he becomes claustrophobic and agoraphobic, delusional, panicky and violent, among other things. (And this is about where the synopsis ends.)
 

The big thing about this book is its format - Johnny starts us off with an introduction of sorts, then Zampano's dissertation begins, complete with (often fictional) footnotes, academic turns of phrase, chunks of deconstruction of theories on just about anything (physics, philosophy, cinematography, etc.), interspersed with rambling anecdotes from Johnny about what kind of day he's having (usually tripped out on something, whether it be drugs or his own mind, bar-hopping with Lude and picking up women). Further down the rabbithole, text-boxes appear, footnotes loop around each other, some bits are written backwards, there are lists and lists and lists of irrelevant material, some bits are written in the corners of the page, some are upside down, etc. Johnny's bits and Zampano's bits become more and more tangled together, dissolving eventually into nonsense. There are appendices and an index (which apparently links back to incorrect pages), and letters from Johnny's mother in a mental institution. Through these interweaving narratives, the dichotomy of fiction and non-fiction is blurred; academic credulity is undermined; what happens to Johnny and how it happens is never fully discovered. Mark Z. Danielewski's book is much about the act and the process of reading as much as it is a book to read, and of course, whenever the word 'house' appears, it's written in blue.

The Review: House of Leaves is one of those novels that you either really dislike or really love reading. Unfortunately I thought it a bit of a chore to get through, and felt like I wasn't rewarded for reaching the end of it. Some people really love the genre-bending visual delight of this book because it's new and innovative, and I respect that - MZD obviously spend a long, long time writing and setting it all out the way he has - but I couldn't help but feel like it was a waste of time, as it all got in the way of a pretty neat story idea. The idea behind 'The Navidson Record', the idea of the shapeshifting house and how it affects whoever goes in there (or who doesn't in some cases), would have made a great gothic or magical realist novel in its own right, but everything that MZD has done to the format of the novel just gets in the way of that story. Johnny's story is difficult to decipher (if there even is one - if there is, I can't say I'm too keen to go back and look for it, as he's a pretty hopeless and dislikable character). The other thing that really bothered me was the verbosity of the whole novel, hauntings of Kerouac's spontaneous bop prosody in Johnny's almost-constant word vomit but without the Beat appeal. MZD sums it up for me at the very beginning: "With a little luck, you'll dismiss this labor, react as Zampano had hoped, call it needlessly complicated, pointlessly obtuse, prolix - your word - ridiculously conceived..." (p. xxii). Johnny goes on to warn that although you've dismissed it, it will ultimately change your life - not now, but later on down the track, months, years or decades from now. I doubt it.

Some reviewers on GoodReads have made the point that the layout and the styles of prose are part of the story overall, and it is, but in the end, the effort I put in to try and get something out of House of Leaves ended up being, I think, for naught. To quote another GoodReads reviewer: "The book is bigger on the outside than it is on the inside". I appreciate the author trying his hand out on something different, a bit quirky, etc., but for me the experience wasn't enjoyable (or scary or unsettling or whatever other emotions or reactions others have to this book).

Out of Five:

1 out of 5

Australian Women Writers: 2012 Challenge

Here's another nifty project to look forward to in the new year: the Australian Women Writers 2012 Challenge, in anticipation of the inaugural Stella Prize which celebrates Australian women's literature. I'm starting with the Stella challenge level - read 3 and review at least 2 books - but we'll see how the year goes and I might be able to bump it up!

Find out more and sign up with me at Australian Women Writers!

Welcome to My Library

Hello and welcome to my little library! Unlike most libraries, talking is allowed here and even encouraged - please feel free to drop a comment on a post if you like!

For the rest of 2011 and 2012 to come, I will attempt to read all the books listed on the Modern Library's "100 Best Novels" lists (one picked by the ML Board, the other picked by the readers). Click here to see the lists!

Here are some other literary things I am into:

NaNoWriMo

Goodreads

The SA Writer's Centre

First Tuesday Book Club (ABC) 

National Year of Reading 2012 

ABC Radio National - The Book Show 

Happy reading!