Skip to main content

Legion II (Skin Deep)

Skin Deep (Legion, #2)Skin Deep by Brandon Sanderson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I love Brandon Sanderson's imagination. Mistborn and the world of The Rithmatist are two of my favorite places to dream about being. My expectations for Legion were, therefore, unrealistic, but that's the danger when your audience becomes acquainted with dining gourmet. A lesser meal just isn't the same.

Why was I displeased? I think it comes down to the tone. It's just too whimsical. There never feels like anything worth losing is at stake.

Also, one thing I loved about the Rithmatist is that the magic system was so well defined that you could even think about the ramifications of a line here or there. What would this do? Etc.

Not so with Legion. Stephen Leeds can solve any problem by just having a new personality join him, and I don't see the cost. If it's his madness at stake, why don't I feel more his pain?

There is no question that Legion will be popular. There is already a deal for its TV rights. It may even get better (a 3rd book is planned), so I reserve the right to change my opinion.

This is where I'm at now though. It's technically good writing (it's also well researched - I can say that because I have a background in systems and I've discussed aspects about encoding data in cells where recombinant DNA would automatically do the backup), but I want a little more dire aspects in the tone.

I liked it, but wasn't wild about it. I wanted to be wild about it.

View all my reviews

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Nwahulwana

Wazimbo's "Nwahulwana" Found this on a German site: Warum wanderst du von Bar zu Bar? (“Why do you wander from bar to bar?”) So, the first time I heard this I thought I recognized some Portuguese, but it’s illusory; the language is actually Ronga. I suppose it was just the echoes of Brazilian music. I found, though, a translation into Portuguese, which I will translate to English, but here’s the thing: this transcription of the words isn’t correct. Also, I’m almost certain I hear “vôce” which means “you” in the lyrics. First, “nwahulwana” itself is a soft expression for prostitute, hence “night bird” is the poetic meaning. I thought it was a love song. My wife thought it was a prayer (probably because of the way Wazimbo lifts his eyes to the sky when he sings “Maria”). So, it is something like this, but there are mistakes, because the lines don’t match up. Also, I wonder if he is singing “Nwahulwana” when the song starts - . It’s hard to know since I don’t

My review of The Handmaid's Tale

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood My rating: 5 of 5 stars Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale is brilliant literary science fiction. I will discuss the literary aspects of it in a moment, but first it’s important to place it squarely in the domain of science fiction. First, under Darko Suvin's definition of sci fi, the question is whether there is cognitive strangeness and nova. They are very apparent, specifically the new assignment of gender roles, along with the reason they exist. The nova introduced are ecological disasters, an enormous rise in failure to Gileadeans to sexually reproduce, and the imposition of a fundamentalist government that divides women by their function, entirely controlling them. We know (again from the lecture) that Atwood was responding to societal changes, such as the rise of the Moral Majority, which lends a spooky plausibility to the strangeness, making it not so strange and that much scarier. Delany's definition is wider. He as

Script Abbreviations in Screen Writing

SCRIPT ABBREVIATIONS  ELS extreme long shot  MLS medium long shot  LS long shot  MS medium shot  MCU medium close-up  CU close-up  ECU extreme close-up  OS over-the-shoulder shot  2-S or 3-S two-shot or three-shot  POV point of view shot  ZI or ZO zoom in or zoom out  INT interior  EXT exterior  SOT or SOF sound on tape or sound on film BG background  SFX or F/X special effects (can be either sound or visual)  VO voice-over  OSV off-screen voice  DIS dissolve  MIC microphone  VTR videotape  Q cue (as in cue talent)  ANNCR announcer  SUPER superimposition