All Consuming: heldor

A story about "Sailor Moon"

nobody@www.allconsuming.net (heldor) — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 22:04:53 GMT

No, it wasn’t good, it was bloody terrible, but I watched it when I barely knew what anime was and it got me into watching decent stuff, so if it can do that for someone else then it’s fine by me.

A story about "Tokyo Mew Mew"

nobody@www.allconsuming.net (heldor) — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 22:04:40 GMT

Tokyo Mew Mew

A story about "Death Note"

nobody@www.allconsuming.net (heldor) — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 21:49:10 GMT

Death Note

by Tsugumi Ohba

The best anime I’ve watched to date. Visually beautiful and with a particularly interesting plot. Strong characterisation and character design makes for an anime which was a total joy to watch.

The last arc had obvious…aspects(I’m sure you can guess what (who?) I mean) missing which made me like it a little less, but the last episode more than made up for this- it’s not a real gripe, more a fangirlish whine.

I loved this anime, there need to be more like it.

A story about "Ouran High School Host Club"

nobody@www.allconsuming.net (heldor) — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 21:46:20 GMT

Ouran High School Host Club

by Bisco Hatori

Seriously my favourite anime ever. (well… this and Death Note. Eclectic, ney?)

Takes some time

nobody@www.allconsuming.net (heldor) — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 21:40:28 GMT

Sam's Town

by The Killers

I loved Hot Fuss with a passion (I bought it when they were new and unknown on a whim, so very glad I did, and fell in love) so when I heard Sam’s Town was coming, I bought it pretty much immediately.

On first listening I was incredibly disappointed, as it seemed like everything I’d liked from Hot Fuss was gone, the sharpness, the edgness was missing. It took me several months before I found myself wanting to listen to one of the songs. I ended up letting it play in the background while I was painting one day and listened to the whole album through 2 or 3 times. From there I suddenly started hearing it differently and it’s really developed into a favourite. It’s a very different sound to Hot Fuss, there are still some things which don’t quite work- it seems to me that they’re trying to sound kind of… emo in some of the tracks (think Bright Eyes or Dashboard Confessional) but on the whole it’s a more mature album, with a lot more of a studio feel, which is both good and bad.

Personal favourite tracks are probably the title track- “Sam’s Town”, the Interlude and “This river is wild” Some twiddly little lyrical moves coupled with awesome guitar (as ever) makes for some pretty sweet songs. (that whole “I still remember Grandma Dixie’s wake, I’d never really known anybody that died before/ Red White and Blue upon a birthday cake, my brother he was born on the fourth of July” line really sings out to me as pure awesome for some reason- something in Brandon’s voice is just perfect here.)

It’s a grower, but definitely work taking the effort over in my opinion.

A story about "Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch"

nobody@www.allconsuming.net (heldor) — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 21:35:25 GMT

Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch

by Neil Gaiman

It’s been so long since I read this and I really want to again. This was my first taste of Gaiman, who served as the perfect foil to Pratchett who at the time I was entirely too enamoured with. I can’t believe it took me almost 2 years to read more Gaiman and almost as long to get a little bored of Pratchett (After 2869 books he’s beginning to wear me down, I haven’t read his last like…5 novels, because to be honest they just appeared out of nowhere; I thought I’d leave one for a month or so, maybe wait till it was in paperback or something, and the next thing I knew he’d written 90876 more.)

Anyway, wonderfully tongue-in-cheek, funny and just…intriguing. Good stuff, I thought- my first foray into anything quite like this (and led me onto Robert Rankin and all the strange quirks that lie therein. Dance of the Voodoo handbag indeed.)

Anyway, give it a go- if you don’t like it you can always put it down :P

A review of "Neverwhere: A Novel"

nobody@www.allconsuming.net (heldor) — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 21:29:52 GMT

Neverwhere: A Novel

by Neil Gaiman

My favourite Gaiman so far!

A review of "American Gods"

nobody@www.allconsuming.net (heldor) — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 21:27:04 GMT

American Gods

by Neil Gaiman

True enough, very very similar to Anansi boys, but about 1000 times better. I preferred Neverwhere, but I still loved this book. Shadow and Wednesday are the perfect anti-heroes, you can’t help but love them through all of their varied and multiduninous flaws.

awesome.

nobody@www.allconsuming.net (heldor) — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 21:23:02 GMT

The Court of the Air

by Stephen Hunt

Oh, I loved this book, really I did. Probably the first piece of Steam-Punk fiction I’ve ever read. It was a total wildcard when I bought it, I just saw it on a table in the bookshop and thought it looked interesting so I bought it. I’m so glad I did- definitely, definitely worth reading.

A story about "The Book of Dave: A Novel"

nobody@www.allconsuming.net (heldor) — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 21:20:42 GMT

The Book of Dave: A Novel

by Will Self

I bought this book last year at the Cheltenham Literature festival after hearing Will give a lecture/reading- he was an absolutely amazing speaker, and I think pretty much everyone in the audience felt a desperate need to buy his book afterwards (he was actually one of the speakers I had no particular opinion on and ended up being the best of the weekend, sadly the person I most looked forward to (Vic Reeves) was incredibly dry and very, very dull- shows that we should always try new things, even if we’re not sure we’ll like them, eh?)

Afterwards I went up to get my book signed and had a gloriously long chat with Will and he signed my book with this great big long personal epithet, an entire paragraph which still makes me feel all swimmy when I read it.

Unfortunately, almost exactly a year later I’ve still only read the first 50/100 pages. Sad, really- I can still hear the voices he used for all the characters when he was reading (honestly, it was awesome, his voice for Runty at the beginning- pure gold.), but I just never got into it. I still intend to read it, and I will, someday, there’s been many a day when, gazing over my bookshelf for something I HAVEN’T read a thousand times, my eyes graze the cover of this book, but I think it’s something I’m just going to need to feel a stab of inspiration to read.

I’ll probably end up packing it in a suitcase one day when I know I’m going on a particularly lazy holiday, which is shockingly bad behaviour towards any book, but perhaps the only way I will be able to get into it. (and I do want to.)

Consuming "The Book of Dave: A Novel"

Tue, 23 Oct 2007 21:14:09 GMT

The Book of Dave: A Novel

by Will Self

A review of "The End of Mr Y"

nobody@www.allconsuming.net (heldor) — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 21:13:26 GMT

The End of Mr Y

by Scarlett Thomas

Firstly- was anyone else tempted to try the recipe? I know I was, ludicrously so, despite the apparent risks.

Anyway…Absolutely excellent until the very end, when it becomes absolutely terrible. Last chapter excluded, a very good book, ruined by a bad ending which was unsatisfying, cliche’d and generally eye-rolling, no offence to any religious people but why did she have to get God involved in a book which centred around logical, scientific thought, it was just… boom. let down. Could have had the same ending written better to be less terrible, but I suppose you win some you lose some.

I thought it started out good, a little shaky, got very good, got a little bad, stayed shaky and then ended terribly- very disappointing for a book which I felt I had invested so much in. Still, at least it only took a couple of days to read.

Consumed "The End of Mr Y"

Tue, 23 Oct 2007 21:09:23 GMT

The End of Mr Y

by Scarlett Thomas

WORTH IT!

Compared to the Miyazaki Film...

nobody@www.allconsuming.net (heldor) — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 21:08:55 GMT

Howl's Moving Castle

by Diana Wynne Jones

I have to say I prefered the film, it was a lot more cohesive and had a better flow and sense of magic. To me, the book felt a lot like a dream which had been written into book form, which isn’t a particularly good thing- A lot of stuff didn’t feel like it had any real purpose or place, felt like it was just “there” The whole Wales thing, for instance, was not missed when left out of the film. I have to say that definitely, had I read the book first I would not have watched the anime, which would have been a waste as it’s one of my favourite movies ever.

Like a previous reviewer, I found it hard to keep track of which “she/he” referred to which “she/he” in conversations and often found myself actually having to count backward through the remarks until I found a name. Plus the ending was slightly ridiculous (SPOILER) the whole “everyone laughs and holds hands” thing was ridiculous, there was no sense of a building romance until suddenly at the end they’re all “LET’S GET MARRIED OMG!” the movie handled this much better.(END OF SPOILERS)

While I’m happy this book spawned such an awesome film (and apparently inspired Neil Gaiman for Stardust, another plus), I doubt I’ll read anything else by her- sorry, it was just ok.

Why it's taking me forever to finish consuming "The Illuminatus! Trilogy: The Eye in the Pyramid, The Golden Apple, Leviathan"

nobody@www.allconsuming.net (heldor) — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 21:02:33 GMT

The Illuminatus! Trilogy: The Eye in the Pyramid, The Golden Apple, Leviathan

by Robert Shea

Oh, man, several of my really good friends keep teling me how good this is, I’m like… a fifth of the way in and it’s such hard going. Is the beginning the worst? Does it get better? These guys are 2 of my best friends, we’re very similar and usually like the same sort of things, but all the memo’s are driving me crazy, I just want to get into some plot, so far it all feels like waffle.

I WANT to consume this, I really do, but I just don’t know if I’ve got it in me to complete it.

Consuming "The Illuminatus! Trilogy: The Eye in the Pyramid, The Golden Apple, Leviathan"

Tue, 23 Oct 2007 21:00:26 GMT

The Illuminatus! Trilogy: The Eye in the Pyramid, The Golden Apple, Leviathan

by Robert Shea

Consumed "The Court of the Air"

Tue, 23 Oct 2007 20:59:18 GMT

The Court of the Air

by Stephen Hunt

WORTH IT!