beccaelizabeth's dreamwidth journal

GDL reads audiobooks well.

This is such a weird balance of really cute moments with Jack and Ianto and silly gadgets, being all upbeat after the thing with the Daleks, and a really awful alien doing really awful things to people.
( Read more... )
I like the story a lot but it's doing the feelings rollercoaster where all the good bits are about to whip around into another horror bit over and over.

So, very Torchwood.

This audio book was good because it took a simple premise and let it roll until ordinary world turned into horror world. The sort of thing Torchwood is for imho. The alien bit interacting with people until drama happens. It was also good because the ending could be simple too. Sure the story just stops when they won, but this time it makes sense that it would.

It was kind of an action movie through most of the middle, and the opportunity to learn more about Jack whooshed straight by without useful effect, even when the Thing of the story is people start telling all their secrets. If it was fanfic they'd do soooo much more with that bit, but, boring instead.

And the most disappointing bit was Tosh and Ianto got left at base to do a lot of nothing much. And have the correct idea to save the day with, but, not very appearing in this story.

I think Big Finish has spoiled me, I keep expecting character in these stories. Instead, action action action.

Still, did what it set out to do, and nicely read.



Have to say, so far not enjoying the audio book experience. Could be words on a page. Could be an audio adventure. But no, someone is reading me a story and I have to go at their speed all the way through. Not awesome at that.

Today's reading: a River Song adventure by Alex Kingston, wherein the author gets to meet her character for a team up.
The author being River Song and the character being Melody Malone.

I liked it very well. It did an odd unusual thing but it did it well and with style. Also there's little cameos from other characters you're glad to see doing okay. It's clever and twisty and also has heart. Nice.

I've mostly been listening to my fiction lately, especially Doctor Who, but that just means I can hear River in my head real well.
Fun :-)

Yesterday sleep failed so the day was Long.

I finished the book series I nearly ground to a halt on.
It was like 99% battle and fight scenes, followed by a wedding, between two characters that had been together for the whole book series already.
I was so bored.

Also the dude invented a magic system with possibilities, primarily the summoner thing where you need to be cool to your magic partners in order to level up, and then like, ignored that, and had everyone treat them like spells. Boring boring.
Also he made his magic look cool by having them forget about technology, and then made the new era look cool by having them reinvent some, specifically artillery. *big sigh*
What is magic even for dude? Really big explosions? Oh, that's the limit of your imagination?

I mean he made the Big Bad be Not Like Other (evil race he invented) by giving her feelings, but only so she could be defeated by making her really angry. And he repeatedly emphasised how young she actually was, and yet we're supposed to cheer her getting annihilated. It's gross.



Also! So many fantasy stories are into political systems where Everyone Has To Listen To Me, ie monarchy, but then the new era is heralded by some limited democracy, possibly because then the author gets to feel like a good person.

I mean science fiction is not without sin on this one, goodness knows, it's a wrong author not wrong genre problem, but it's so frustrating when the 'happy' ending of their dreams is like
what if the good old days, but slightly nearer us
but not all the way up to us because clearly nobody could manage being polite to women if they didnt have like computers and stuff.

What if making friends with all the neighbours
by recruiting them into one big army.

*shudders*


So. Yeah. Considering if I need to keep those. Not sure what the good bits were by the end. Can see how the setup was interesting but the payoff was like... no.




So after that I read
Seanan McGuire, Lost in the Moment and Found Again
which was a strong story but I was really glad of the reassurance in the front of the story because that's some tough topic.
The fantasy elements fit together real well with the topics.
People were very people.
I can see why that story ends there but now I want the next story also.

So, good book.


Then I was going to read the latest Murderbot but realised I didnt remember all the details of Murderbot so I read a short story from the Tor website and then
I got the whole set from my shelf (requires some digging, Wells being on the last alphabetical shelf at the bottom, gets behind, like, anything I put on the floor in the living room)
and now I have re read the first in the series.

Still very good, but annoyingly, the casting spoiler kept interfering with my mental images, even though I super disagree with it.
Boo.

Good to read though.


Pretty good day :-)

Third and last novella in Penric's Labors.
When I realised this one was about a new disease I did a little internal inventory on how I felt about that, then decided I could read it today.
I still had trouble keeping my attention on it for long and let it wander off several times to wonder what Owen Harper would do on Golarion instead, sort of as a safety valve.

It's a good clever story with a set of medical detective work driving the urgency, and it's also about Penric working himself so hard he hurts himself.
But by the end they're all as okay as they can be after a big medical event like that, though I did end up wanting to pick him up by the scruff and make him sit down and eat and worry about himself for a change, but he ends up back with his family who will do that very well.
I like that he's supported as well as can be, but also running himself right down, it's realistic without being depressing.
And I like that they solved it, and that publishing about it was also part of the triumph.

I doubt I'll want to reread it much though, this is a trying topic.

Bujold's Outroduction makes clear the story was started in 2019, but it's not like the topic ever gets old.

Story was good though.

Today I read the first novella in
Penric's Labors, by Lois McMaster Bujold

It was very pleasing, and showed you around a new place while making the plot go and introducing the characters *and* fitting in a happy ending.

Penric was not as swift as the reader, but Penric does not know he is in a novella, so everything is going to fit together and the clues have to happen quite quickly.



I have had this book on the To Read pile since it was new in hardback, but I haven't been reading as much lately. Being novellas makes it easier, I can finish a bit and do something else.




Also today mum brought me a new present
https://jeremyshomestore.co.uk/jellycat/bashful-red-dragon-by-jellycat/
Bashful the red dragon
(possibly his particular name will not be Bashful but that is on his label, so.)

He is pleasing with a good texture and I like how he moves and that his horns go in different directions. So I have been holding him since he arrived and we read a book together. New soft friend!



also today we had to do stressful admin so it is a good day for a new soft friend.


I forget sometimes that simple things continue to work even when you are a grown up.


Bashful red dragon is sitting with Awesome the unicorn and Rainbow Heart Bear. He is smaller than both of them but they are pleasing sizes for different things. Very good all of them.


Pretty good day
:-D

Today I reread Torchwood The Twilight Streets.
I had forgotten it, and that turns out to be because it was boring and pointless.
No one was in character for most of the book, and that turns out to be because ( Read more... )

Messy mythology, boring 'motivations', makes me annoyed I spent the time rereading it.



I think at this point I should just remember to search up my own earlier opinions.
... aaaand my earlier opinions were unalloyed approval... wtf earlier self?
https://beccaelizabeth.dreamwidth.org/1359866.html

Okay, you know what, I can see why it is interesting if you take it as a near miss of possibly in character bits, but, on this reread I... don't.



Oh, also, there's a paragraph Ianto says that even Gwen on the page blames on mysterious outside influences, but it's just so biphobic I don't understand why anyone thinks it belongs in a story.
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/1017820-oh-come-on-smile-lisa-jack-being-bisexual-is-hardly
It doesnt even make sense.

... it might have vaguely pissed me off for the rest of the book actually.



Okay, my opinion on this book changed quite a lot.

Onwards to something else to do.

Another Torchwood book, this time one I haven't read before.
ETA after searching my journal: https://beccaelizabeth.dreamwidth.org/2956277.html
I had in fact read it before, so, you know, that tells you what an impact it made. I just didnt buy it then. /ETA


It is set after CoE and after Jack leaves, which seemed to me likely to be just a bit sad.
Also Gwen is not my favourite, mostly for the times she is the show's favourite.

But, this was quite good.
Depressing of course, Torchwood being Torchwood, but quite good.
It's mostly set after Gwen's baby arrives, with Rhys and Gwen at the end of their tether as new parents, and it's like the author stirred up a cocktail of worry about screwing up your kids and or losing yourself when the baby arrives and suddenly you realise you've left all your old life behind, but then added Torchwood.

( Read more... )

So many layers of failure to parent.

The ending was striking but also really depressing.

Torchwood turns a mirror on the world from a very particular angle, but now I'm going to feel a bit grim until I find something entirely unlike this to read.

So, effective Torchwood story.

The thing with this reread is, I know I read these when they first came out, but I appear to have retained almost nothing, so it is all once again a surprise. I found this plot to be twisty. Which is either vaguely embarrassing, or neat.

Also it had me *cackling* with laughter at random lines.

It bounced along proper briskly, the new character was interesting and distinctive, Jack, Gwen and Rhys got plenty to do, Ianto got plenty of homophobic insults tossed at him in a vaguely Victorian idiom while being mistaken for the tea boy again.

... Ianto could have been used better.

Almost every scene Ianto is in is part of a running joke where he may make excellent coffee but he makes terrible tea. But in the end ( Read more... )



The thing that comes through the rift is a properly mounstrous big scary. It wrecks the Skypoint tower, which is a very unlucky building in Torchwood world.

Also there's a student thinking how a year ago when she moved to Cardiff she couldnt afford a flat anywhere, and now they'd probably even rent the Skypoint apartments to her, because recession, and, like Skypoint mentioned, so many flats had gone up so quickly already with no one thinking who wanted them.

Torchwood takes time to add local flavor to its alien invasions that way. It's distinctive. I like it.




Anyway, I have the kind of headache where I just caught myself knocking on my forehead to make it go away, so I think I'll stop trying to wring out any clever thoughts and just say I rather liked this one, on balance, but the books are still not doing the deep emotional stuff the audios can get into, even with the team down to three.

... time for a paracetamol and a lie down.

Today ish I reread Pack Animals and relistened Rhys and Ianto's Excellent Barbecue.
https://www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/torchwood-rhys-and-ianto-s-excellent-barbecue-2146

The book was quite good, did an adventure, had fun doing bigger fx and more kinds of monsters than an episode has a budget for, used each character in a distinctive way that connects to a particular moment in their story. Owen has triuble with physical aspects of his job because of his newly changed undead status. Toshiko is very competent when she has to deal with attacks that get really close, and how the story resolves kind of shows her channeling her fear into her work and using it to win. I like the Gwen and Rhys banter, it manages to sound very normal couple in the middle of the abnormal things. And Jack and Ianto go on a date.

... it is not a fun date. too much Torchwood. messy and painful.
Ianto does spend quite a lot of the book naked, but for plot reasons, which isn't the most interesting.



The thing is though the contrast between the style of the books, bouncing along flipping between so many characters having adventures full of messy death and never giving people time to truly connect, and the style of the audios, where you get just a couple of characters and it builds up to some emotional moment... I really do like the audios better for specific reasons. Character focused emotional moments are what I miss when the other sources try and do something bigger.


This one with the barbecue, trigger warning for discussion of suicide in the audio, but dealing with the grief after. So ( Read more... )

It's just got a lot of clever and emotional layers on, plus, it's Rhys and Ianto trying to get along at a party that Ianto had not precisely been invited to when Ianto doesn't know that. So it's relatable, then funny, then Torchwood, and sad, and touching, and if it doesn't make you cry at some point you're just not a crying at stories person.



With two main characters and another on the phone, and a whole disc to do a story, you can focus in real tight on the emotions.

And the books just aren't doing the same sort of thing.



I end up liking the audios much better.


Torchwood deals with some real difficult stuff, but it's not just shoving the story in the dark and leaving it there, it's showing people getting through it.

Together.


It's good stuff.

I finished reading (and imaginary playing) Return of the Runelords today.

There's some really nifty stuff in there.
Settings that can open up the whole story in new ways.
And I don't think it's too much of a spoiler to say ( Read more... )

It's really difficult to imagine a fight at 20th level though. Everyone would be making different specific choices and getting good at them all along. I am... not good at them.

I think the campaign traits did interesting enough things even at the last adventure though, the story was neat.

And I did like defeating the big bad, but also wanted to know what happened next for everyone.

... their adventure continues assumptions are slightly more merciful than mine though. Don't know how that's going to work going forwards.

But I only have 1e adventure paths so far, so this one is from very nearly the end.

I think it gives an excellent meta excuse for 2e, but now I want to read the last 1e adventure and see what happens... though I also don't, cause I know some of what happens... and I have a lot of adventures to read before I've caught up with 1e paths anyway.



At some point I still in theory would like to Actually Play, but, long time no progress on attempting that.

I think my new year resolution should be about Actually Go Outside Sometimes, but, also, people are still getting ill of going outside, and inside remains nicer.

Ah well.


Paper and cardboard adventure awaits...

The last few days I have been mostly reading short stories, mostly by Seanan McGuire.
The apple books on my phone can sell me things I couldnt figure out how to get on paper, so I have read Many short things.
They are all good, because Seanan, but also read so many in a row and I feel like either she is having The Most Fun or needs The Most Hugs, somehow socially distanced. She has themes and while it is neat she makes me understand why anyone would be in a demon raising cult (kickstarter the eternal Halloween!) it is not conventionally comfortable. ... I was going to write it is not comforting, but you know, it actually kind of is, for Autumn people. So.

But if you neither want to be turned into disquieting things nor want to Show Them All with world ending Science!... less comfortable.

Probably all possible in one of those humans get really good at genetic engineering futures the SF books are fond of. That future is going to be fully weird, because mermaids like Seanan's are actually plausible, and once they're possible people will definitely get changed into them, and then you realise that goes for all number of things. Like, humans think up the full Bestiary, all the volumes thereof, but also, they think of being them.

... I don't think I want the water. I always play a human, because I'm allowed. But... so many ways to be awesome...




So, that's my last few days.

Imagining disquieting teeth.