Another Kindle Owners’ Lending Library selection, and possibly my favorite so far, Rewinder is a new time-travel adventure by thriller author Brett Battles. I haven’t read any of the author’s previous works, but that is sure to change as I absolutely loved Rewinder.
The story is set in an alternate version of the present time in which the British Empire has lost none of its potency and continued to expand further across the globe. The American colonies are just that – colonies. The American Revolution never occurred in any meaningful way and our protagonist Denny Younger lives in the Shallows, a lower-class area in the western part of New Cardiff (our Los Angeles). The class system is hugely important at this time in history, enough so that Parliament has replaced traditional titles such as labor class or gentry with a numbering system. Denny is on the lower end, an Eight, and likely to remain so for the rest of his life.
But when he takes the Operational Placement Examination he is not placed in the power plant alongside his father as expected but instead flagged as a promising candidate for the Upjohn Institute. Within a day he has been elevated to a higher class and whisked off to the institute where he will learn to be a Rewinder – a time travelling researcher. Rewinders verify family lineage – firsthand. Their mission: “to observe and record. It’s not just what we do. It’s all we do”. They observe events and never interfere. At least those are the rules…
Rewinder is a fascinating and exciting book. The plot is tight and the story written by a clearly skilled hand. It moves along at a quick pace and is easy to follow. I’m sure that if I spent more time picking apart the intricacies of the time travel elements I’d find some problems – there nearly always are in stories that feature such foundations, but the novel is so enjoyable that I didn’t bother myself with looking for problems.
The dialogue is good, the characters better. It has the unique distinction of making both the original and altered histories interesting. If the author had written a tale in either timeline that didn’t involve time travel it still would have made a good setting.
It’s sometimes hard to find great books that aren’t part of a larger series. Rewinder is the sort of book that you appreciate for being a great standalone novel, but would be equally happy to see expanded into a series because the author has done such a fine job of realizing a great setting. Highly recommended.
[schema type=”book” url=”http://www.brettbattles.com/” name=”Rewinder” description=”You will never read Denny Younger’s name in any history book, will never know what he’s done. But even if you did, you’d never believe it. The world as you know it wouldn’t be the same without him. Denny was born into one of the lowest rungs of society, but his bleak fortunes abruptly change when the mysterious Upjohn Institute recruits him to be a Rewinder, a verifier of personal histories. The job at first sounds like it involves researching old books and records, but Denny soon learns it’s far from it. A Rewinder’s job is to observe history. In person. Embracing his new duties with enthusiasm, Denny witnesses things he could never even imagine before. But as exciting as the adventures into the past are, there are dangers, too. For even the smallest error can have consequences. Life-altering consequences. Time, after all, is merely a reference point.” author=”Brett Battles” publisher=”Createspace” pubdate=”2014-08-17″ isbn=”1500766941″ ebook=”yes” paperback=”yes” ]
If you read my review of Brilliance (Brilliance Saga, #1), you know that I appreciated the novel but was very interested to see what author Marcus Sakey would be able to achieve with the story once he’d got all the exposition out of the way. I’m very pleased that my hunch that the second novel would be more rewarding was correct.
A Better World examines the ramifications of former FBI agent Nick Cooper’s actions at the climax of Brilliance. Our world has been turned upside down, with the Brilliant-led terrorist group the Children of Darwin able to operate almost without impunity in the absence of the Department of Analysis and Response (DAR).
There is a lot of political intrigue in this series, but it succeeds best with its feet on the ground, up close with those dealing with the effects of the world-shaking actions in this chaotic time. The Children of Darwin are able to completely isolate 3 major American cities, starving them of supplies and aid. Mob rule & martial law vie for control, both seeming worse than the actions of the terrorists. The maxim about civilization being twenty-four hours and two meals away from barbarism is perfectly illustrated here.
The story works because of its terrifying plausibility. In fact, the Brilliants don’t really even have much to do. The real story of this novel has much less to do with superhuman abilities than it does with all too human weakness.
It’s not all positive; the writing is still very screenplay-esque and the author makes the unforgivable sin of not finishing the story. It’s understood when you’re in the middle book of a trilogy that everything isn’t going to be wrapped up neatly, but there is no excuse for releasing a story that feels this unfinished. There’s an expectation on the part of the reader that each installment of a series has to feel like a complete story, even when the overall tale is not done.
My annoyance at this lapse is due in large part to my desire to find out what happens next. It just could have been much more elegantly tied off if not tied up.
I really enjoyed A Better World – a good story got much better in the second installment. Recommended – with the caveat that you may want to wait until the series is complete before starting…
[schema type=”book” url=”http://marcussakey.com/” name=”A Better World” description=”The brilliants changed everything. Since 1980, 1% of the world has been born with gifts we’d only dreamed of. The ability to sense a person’s most intimate secrets, or predict the stock market, or move virtually unseen. For thirty years the world has struggled with a growing divide between the exceptional…and the rest of us. Now a terrorist network led by brilliants has crippled three cities. Supermarket shelves stand empty. 911 calls go unanswered. Fanatics are burning people alive. Nick Cooper has always fought to make the world better for his children. As both a brilliant and an advisor to the president of the United States, he’s against everything the terrorists represent. But as America slides toward a devastating civil war, Cooper is forced to play a game he dares not lose—because his opponents have their own vision of a better world. And to reach it, they’re willing to burn this one down. From Marcus Sakey, “the master of the mindful page turner” (Gillian Flynn) and “one of our best storytellers” (Michael Connelly), Book Two of the Brilliance Saga is a relentless thrill ride that will change the way you look at your world—and the people around you.” author=”Marcus Sakey” publisher=”Thomas & Mercer” pubdate=”2014-06-17″ isbn=”1477823948″ ebook=”yes” paperback=”yes” ]
If you sat out The Clone Wars, drop your principled stand or risk missing a new series with the timeline & spirit of the Original Trilogy…
Spoiler-free Movie Review of Star Wars Rebels: Spark of Rebellion:
For all of the great things about Star Wars fans, they can be seriously stubborn. Many will not partake of anything Star Wars except the 6 feature films – and many of those would stop at the original 3. I have met serious fans who will not watch this or any other animated show, and it’s entirely their loss…
A very gifted group of individuals poured their heart and soul into creating Star Wars: The Clone Wars, a CG-animated series that ran for 5 seasons on Cartoon Network. After the purchase of Lucasfilm by Disney in 2012, all thoughts were turned toward returning to the timeline of the Original Trilogy and the planned sequels. The show was dumped to another time slot before being unceremoniously and unwisely cancelled in 2013. Fans of the show, aware (thanks to the fantastic communication of show-runner Dave Filoni) of a backlog of content already in production, wondered if any of the material would see the light of day. Filoni and his team were allowed to cobble together what they could finish with reasonable effort and expense, and fans had to wait until March 2014 for the abbreviated 13-episode 6th season (“The Lost Missions”) to be put out exclusively on Netflix.
The output of the show was 125 episodes and a feature film – that’s approximately 48 hours of new content set in the SW galaxy! That’s not counting the 25 mini episodes of the first Clone Wars 2D-animated micro-series by Genndy Tartakovsky from 2003-2005, which would bring the total to 150 episodes and 50 hours. That’s almost four times as much Star Wars content as the feature films provided – but since these weren’t the original films, some weren’t interested. That’s just very silly to me. Don’t make the same mistake by skipping Rebels.
For the kick-off of this new series, they tied what would have been the first two episodes together for a tv movie event titled Star Wars Rebels: Spark of Rebellion. Disney actually screened the movie one week early for users of it’s WATCHDisneyXD.com service prior to the television debut on Friday, October 3. I caught the show early, but due to the twin roadblocks of a regular job and a rather verbose writing style, I’m not getting my review out until the day after the official premiere. Sigh…
Interestingly, the show premiered on the same day that the Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated series debuted in the US six years earlier in 2008. Rebels has already been renewed for a second season by Disney, and it’s likely to be be a big part of the lead-up to the future films.
Star Wars Rebels is set five years before the events of Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope, when the few remaining Jedi are scattered and the Empire is in full swing. It’s an awesome time in the saga, full of potential and depicts what it was like before Luke and company started wrecking the place. Knowing more about the height of the Empire is fantastic, and I suspect I wasn’t the only kid wondering what happened in the years leading up to the original movie. I’ve always considered this era the most fascinating and I can understand why Disney wanted to quit the Clone Wars and get back into the Tie Fighters.
The promise of this time still needs to be backed up with good stories, and they seem to be on the right track. The series opens by following the exploits of an orphan named Ezra who scratches out a living on the streets before running across the path of a team of semi-criminals out to steal the same cargo of the Empire. The group of malcontents make up the crew of the starship Ghost and contain a diverse set of personality traits that seem to have been picked by focus group for maximum interest. That’s not really a bad thing, just be aware that you may experience sensations of déjà vu with some of this. The parallels to Firefly and other stories are unavoidable.
It is undeniably a kids show; I’m not sure why that’s supposed to be a problem. The original films were for kids, no matter how many fanboys insist otherwise. The Clone Wars was a kids show, albeit one that covered terrorism, suicide and torture at times. Depending on your perspective, being “for kids” is either a tremendous insult or a promise. Being “for kids” can certainly imply a dumbing-down, but it also hopefully carries the suggestion that you’re in for a good time; that the work in question will be meant to be enjoyable. That’s really important.
And Rebels fulfills on that promise. Watching the premiere event was like watching a movie and a fun one at that. As much as I loved The Clone Wars series and admired the skill involved, it never really was able to completely capture the spirit of the 1st film. That’s not a criticism – it was depicting a different, more complex time and a sensibility to match. Of course the subject matter of the original films was never soft – they do have the word wars in the title after all – but the spirit of adventure made it all seem more fun and carefree than it really was.
From the moment you see Stormtroopers march on screen you can’t help but be transported to that time and feeling. I can’t overstate how enjoyable it was to see Tie Fighters streaking across the skies and hearing the familiar sounds of their cannons and the troopers blasters.
The story is good, not great, and I’m absolutely certain that the show will have a cartoonish feel at times. The previous series certainly did and so did the films – yes, even the OT. The Clone Wars series seemed to alternate at times between adult stories too dark to let my daughter watch and ridiculously silly stories too goofy for me to watch. But most of the episodes lived in the comfortable middle ground where everyone could enjoy the wonder of the this galaxy and I expect Rebels to do the same.
I really shouldn’t have to sell you on this series – the images of Stormtroopers and Star Destroyers ought to do that. If you’ve complained in the past that nothing since Return of the Jedi has made you feel like you did when you played with your Kenner figures, give this a try. Don’t sleep on Star Wars Rebels; it’s going to be very good…
[schema type=”movie” url=”http://www.starwars.com/tv-shows/star-wars-rebels” name=”Star Wars Rebels: Spark of Rebellion” description=”Star Wars Rebels, set five years before the events of Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope, tells the story of the Rebellion’s beginnings while the Empire spreads tyranny through the galaxy. Five years before the events of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, the reigning evil Empire continues to tighten its grip of power and fear throughout the cosmos. But even amidst the tyranny and oppression of these dark days, a glimmer of light emerges. Meet the ragtag crew of the starship Ghost : Twi’lek pilot Hera, street-smart pickpocket Ezra, team leader Kanan, alien enforcer Zeb, explosives expert Sabine, and Chopper, the cantankerous Droid. Together, they embark on action-packed adventures, battle ruthless villains, and ignite the very first Spark Of Rebellion against a surging tide of Stormtroopers, TIE fighters and the mysterious Inquisitor.” director=”Steward Lee” ]
Funny & visually astonishing picture. Well-realized world is quite ugly, though. Lacks visual & musical punch of Burton’s stop motion work.
Spoiler-free Movie Review of The Boxtrolls:
Based on the children’s book Here Be Monsters! by Alan Snow, The Boxtrolls is a solid, meticulously made film that I really enjoyed. Not sure of its rewatch appeal, however.
While the titular characters are unique and interesting, the story is neither. In a grubby world, a shady and deceitful pest exterminator is using a manufactured crisis to make people fear Boxtrolls and gain power. If the story is familiar, reach for Grimm’s Fairy Tales on your bookshelf and look under Pied Piper. Better still, read Terry Pratchett’s Carnegie Medal winning The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents, which sends up the fairy tale to better effect and is strikingly similar enough to this picture that I’d probably lawyer up.
That’s not to say that the story isn’t entertaining, it’s just not horribly original. The enjoyment of the picture comes almost completely from the Boxtrolls. The human characters are so cookie-cutter and archetypical that they provide few laughs. (With the exception of the troll-catcher assistants Mr. Trout & Mr. Pickles, voiced by Nick Frost and Richard Ayoade, respectively. Tracy Morgan also voices a third, Mr. Gristle, but he’s not all that enjoyable.)
The film is only 97 minutes, but frankly overlong at that. There are far too many characters and they really just spend a lot of time reinforcing the characterization that was immediately evident at their introduction. I mean that the characters are well-defined right at the start, so more time with them should be spent on developing them further – but that doesn’t happen. The bad guy is bad right away – he doesn’t get more bad or less bad. But he has a TON of dialogue and scenes. The whole power conceit involves this idea that the people in charge of the town wear white hats and sit around eating cheese. They are led by Lord Portley-Rind (Jared Harris), father to a girl named Winnie (Elle Fanning). He is pompous self-obsessed and non-involved in his daughter’s life. She is upset that he ignores her. They do this dance through the whole picture – it never develops. Neither seems to realize that there is a Mrs. Portley-Rind. According to the credits by the wonderful Toni Collette, but if she spoke in the entire movie I missed it.
The reason that I quite enjoyed this movie despite the aforementioned shortcomings is the trolls – they are wonderful, possessing all of the depth and character development that the humans lack. The entire picture in a way revolves around these creatures. Not simply the story, but the look of the film. The Boxtrolls look wonderful and set the tone – unfortunately this leads to a production design that is in a word ugly. It really just looks unpleasant, while at the same time being wonderfully realized. I haven’t seen Laika’s other films, Coraline & ParaNorman, but from the footage I’ve seen they share a design sensibility so I guess that’s the studio’s look. It doesn’t work for me.
But while the aesthetic leaves something to be desired, too much praise can not be heaped on the animation. I have always been amazed at the dedication, patience and hard work of stop-motion filmmakers and marveled at the incredible results produced but this effort is really something else. Absolutely breathtaking stop motion – head of the class.
The voice talent is predictably top shelf and I very much appreciate the fact that it is equally populated by professional voice actors and “name” talent.
This review has turned out a bit more negative than I intended and that’s too bad, because I really did enjoy The Boxtrolls. The creatures themselves absolutely make this movie – and make it fun. I wish that the humans were a bit more developed and the story could use a bit more complexity, but it’s a good picture and recommended.
[schema type=”movie” url=”http://www.theboxtrolls.com/” name=”The Boxtrolls” description=”A young orphaned boy raised by underground cave-dwelling trash collectors tries to save his friends from an evil exterminator. Based on the children’s novel ‘Here Be Monsters’ by Alan Snow.” director_1=”Graham Annable” director_2=”Anthony Stacchi” actor_1=”Ben Kingsley” actor_2=”Isaac Hempstead-Wright” actor_3=”Elle Fanning” actor_4=”Toni Collette”]
A young orphaned boy raised by underground cave-dwelling trash collectors tries to save his friends from an evil exterminator. Based on the children’s novel ‘Here Be Monsters’ by Alan Snow.
Poster
Runtime
97
Tagline
Heroes come in all shapes and sizes…even rectangles.
Like the 1st, only less so. If you liked the first film, you’ll enjoy this as well, but it’s a less significant picture in most respects…
Spoiler-free Movie Review of Dolphin Tale 2:
This review is going to feel like déjà vu all over again, which is fitting, since so does the film.
The first Dolphin Tale was a huge financial and (mostly) critical success, but a sequel wouldn’t seem to make any sense were it not for a most unlikely – but true – series of events. As in the case of the original picture, the dramatized recreations of the true story were more interesting than the fictionalized extra story material. Unlike in the first film, the extra story material is weak and undeserving of so much screen time.
It’s really remarkable that they could make a sequel to a true story, following it up with another true story, and the tale (heh heh) is almost too perfect to believe. At a wrap party for the first film, volunteers and staff from the Clearwater Marine Aquarium were called away from the event to care for a young female bottlenose dolphin who had been rescued. This dolphin would be named Hope and is the film’s raison d’être.
The film opens with the rescue of a bottlenose dolphin in a sequence narrated by Sawyer (Nathan Gamble), the protagonist of the first picture. It’s been three years and he’s now thriving as an essential staff member at the aquarium. Business has been booming at the facility, which has now expanded and is more of a tourist attraction, which raises the pressures on the team when something goes wrong – which of course it does.
Because part of my mission is to look at these films from a family-friendly perspective, I must tell you that the first act contains the heartbreaking death of Panama, the bottlenose tankmate of Winter. (This isn’t a spoiler – it’s the story catalyst.) It’s done very respectfully but it’s still quite upsetting, so prep your young ones.
With the death of Panama, Winter is now alone in the tank – a regulatory violation – and has become depressed. The Clearwater team will need hope if they are going to be able to keep Winter from being sent to another aquarium.
Story-wise, though, so far, so good. But it’s the whole other story that is tedious. In the first picture screenwriters Karen Janszen & Noam Dromi crafted an interesting allegorical story about humans coping with loss and change much like Winter. Director Charles Martin Smith handled writing duties for this film and is not as successful. It’s basically a coming of age / “should I stay or should I go” story mixed in with a “keep the aquarium going” storyline that’s a retread of the first film. It is appropriately shorter than the first film, but considering how much story there isn’t, it could have been shorter still.
Nearly all of the primary characters have their roles severely reduced, with the exception of Sawyer. Morgan Freeman, Ashley Judd & Kris Kristofferson probably could have filmed all of their scenes in an afternoon. I’m not even sure they bothered to check in with the costume department – I think they just walked on to the set in their street clothes. Freeman in particular seems operating on autopilot – he could have (and may have) done this in his sleep.
One character that doesn’t lose any screen time is Rufus the pelican, following the Louis Tully rule of sequels. That’s fine – he’s funny and most of his scenes are with new character Mavis, a rescued sea turtle – and I love sea turtles!
So am I saying to give this film a miss? Not at all. It’s still sweet and cute and fun and the animals are always spellbinding. It’s just the human stuff is a little more pedestrian in this film and I don’t think it’s quite as inspirational of a story. But it is an entertaining film and I could watch these dolphins for hours. The child audience in the theater loved it, including the one I brought, and the rest of us seemed to find it an enjoyable and solid enough movie.
[schema type=”movie” url=”http://www.dolphintale2.com/” name=”Dolphin Tale 2″ description=”It has been several years since young Sawyer Nelson (Gamble) and the dedicated team at the Clearwater Marine Hospital, headed by Dr. Clay Haskett (Connick, Jr.), rescued Winter. With the help of Dr. Cameron McCarthy (Freeman), who developed a unique prosthetic tail for the injured dolphin, they were able to save her life. Yet their fight is not over. Winter’s surrogate mother, the very elderly dolphin Panama, has passed away, leaving Winter without the only poolmate she has ever known. However, the loss of Panama may have even greater repercussions for Winter, who, according to USDA regulations, cannot be housed alone, as dolphins’ social behavior requires them to be paired with other dolphins. Time is running out to find a companion for her before the team at Clearwater loses their beloved Winter to another aquarium.” director=”Charles Martin Smith” actor_1=”Harry Connick Jr.” actor_2=”Morgan Freeman” actor_3=”Ashley Judd” actor_4=”Nathan Gamble” actor_5=”Cozi Zuehlsdorff” actor_6=”Bethany Hamilton” ]
The team of people who saved Winter’s life reassemble in the wake of her surrogate mother’s passing in order to find her a companion so she can remain at the Clearwater Marine Hospital.
