Media Consumption Weekday, February 22 – March 9

[firecat]

Media Consumption Weekday, February 22 – March 9

• Karen Charlton, The Sculthorpe Murder (Detective Lavender #3) (audiobook)
  
• T Frohock, Where Oblivion Lives (Los Nefilim #1) (audiobook)
  
• Avatar: The Last Airbender (2024 live action series)
  
• Jessica Jones (TV series)
  
• Outlander (TV series)

Listening

• Karen Charlton, The Sculthorpe Murder (Detective Lavender #3)
  
  Published 2016. Narrated by Michael Page. He does a great job of overacting with some books (notably Scott Lynch’s Gentleman Bastard series), and he has a low, sexy voice. I feel he wasn’t using his talents to their fullest here. Third of a series of seven so far, “the fictional adventures of Stephen Lavender, a real-life detective with the Bow Street Police Office in London“. I was annoyed by the second book in the series so I approached this one with some trepidation, and I thought it was better. It is set in 1810 and based on a real crime that the historical Lavender worked on. The author goes to some length to preserve historical accuracy, and she uses an author’s note to put the story into context. The plot is complex, perhaps slightly too complex. The village Lavender visits to investigate the crime is a character in its own right. Lavender and his constable are fun characters, shippable; neither mysterious nor broody. One goodreads reviewer pointed out that Lavender has suspiciously modern attitudes about things like religious tolerance and women’s rights) but I prefer that in this kind of story.
  
  I started this feeling unsure whether I’d continue the series but I enjoyed it enough that I’ll probably read the next one at some point.
  
  
• T Frohock, Where Oblivion Lives (Los Nefilim #1)
  
  Published 2019, narrated by Vikas Adam. He’s a skilled narrator who is excellent with languages but unfortunately I found him hard to follow when he was pronouncing Spanish names. His command of Spanish is too good, by which I mean he pronounced the names very fast, and my hearing isn’t great any more; so much for my attempts to take notes.
  
  This is historical fantasy set in Spain, Germany, and France in the 1930s. The fantasy element is that there are factions of supernatural beings — angels, daimons, and nephilim (part angel/daimon, part human) who are contending with their complex histories and rivalries, while also having to deal with the run-up to WWII among the humans. Several of the main male characters have romantic relationships with other men, and human laws against such things are hard on them, but otherwise no big deal is made of their relationships or orientation.
  
  I really liked the worldbuilding in this story. It’s revealed a little bit at a time but I never feel like the author is playing unfair with the reader and hiding elements just to make the plot seem more interesting. The story still worked on a re-read after I knew the worldbuilding details (and there are still some details I don’t know, presumably to come out in later books). I also liked that none of the characters was 100% good or evil, but they weren’t all the same shade of gray either. The story is told from the pov of 3 different characters and they aren’t all on the same side. A big part of the story takes place in a creepy old mansion, so if you’re in the mood for something gothic-feeling, you will get your wish.
  
  I plan to read the next one in the series.

Reading

I didn’t open any ebooks this week.

Watching

• Evil; All Rise: Discussed previously
  
  
• Avatar: The Last Airbender (2024 live action series): I watched the first episode. I enjoyed the animated series a lot and my initial attitude about this was “But why, out of all the stories waiting to be made into a TV series, would someone decide to do a live-action remake of this story?” I’m still trying to figure that out. I liked some things about this — it’s pretty to look at; the look and dialogue are faithful to the original, the magic effects are well done, some of the adult characters are well acted. Unfortunately, many of the actors playing young characters are stiff and awkward. Maybe I’ll pick it up next season and see if they’ve improved, but I won’t be watching any more for now.
  
  
• Jessica Jones: I’m rewatching season 2. I’m not actually crazy about any of the story arcs in this season, although J’s origin story is kind of interesting. But this is a show I don’t feel super critical about, as long as the characters act like themselves, which they do.
  
  
• Outlander: A woman in post-war Scotland is magically sent back in time and has a whole life in the past while trying to get back to her present. I’m not sure I’ll want to continue after the first season because I’ve never warmed to this story in either novel or TV form the way everyone else in the universe has. I’m watching for the men in skirts and for Tobias Menzies — damn he’s good. With every new thing I see him in, I become a bigger fan.

Comments

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

I like Vikas Adam as a narrator when I've heard him.

[firecat]

Yeah, I like his voice a lot.

My hearing is getting worse and one ability that I’m losing faster than others is the ability to understand languages and accents I’m not used to.

[kore]

(JESSICA)

[firecat]

Yeah!

[greghousesgf]

I liked the cartoon ATLA a lot.

[snippy]

I find Outlander (both books and movies) addictive when consumed but given a week away, I forget everything I ever liked about them.

The books are now mid-US revolution and it's really hard to care about what is happening to the main characters.

[firecat]

yeah I noticed that after listening to the 32 hour audiobook of the first book. Very easy to listen to, but not really *about* much of anything. Which is weird to feel about historical fiction