sci-fi and TV

The Martian with Matt Damon.  I've read this book before (once for myself, and once to refresh before leading a book club discussion) any my husband finally read it this summer.  We really enjoyed the experience of watching the movie and comparing it to the book's story.  I'm glad we watched it at home instead of in the theater; we paused it constantly to discuss.  With that said, however,  I'm not sure why anyone would think this is a good movie.

What was really lacking were all the disasters that show who Watney is.  There's only so much disaster you can cram into a movie, but all those times when Mark found something new to kill him, that's when we learned about his personality, through his reactions and planning, and his abilities and fortitude, as he figured each thing out.  Without having to face all those problems, the viewer didn't get to really know Watney.  And if you don't know the character, you can't care about him.  Also without all those disasters everywhere, it made it seem like he wasn't really in that much danger.  Yeah, a couple bad things happened, but he remained in contact with NASA-- who seem a lot better able to effect change on his behalf-- and he didn't seem as likely to die.  Yeah, he got hungry, but his main enemy was loneliness.  The audience completely missed seeing him as a death-defying, intrepid problem solver.

Other complaints: (1)  Although they mention it a few times, the delay in radio contact seemed like nothing.  Being in constant contact completely changes the story.  (2)  In the book, it's very clear how Watney deals with the lesser gravity on Mars.  The movie completely ignored this.  (3)  I'm so angry about how Lewis was written.  I don't think the actress could have done anything better with what she was given.  Here's a space movie, set in the near future, with a culture we recognize, and we have a female captain.  And she turns out to be a whining, emotional disaster, constantly second-guessing and blaming herself.  We need new Janeway and we were given someone with the self-confidence of a depressed high-schooler.

I did really like the ending-- it fixed one of the main problems with the book.  All the visuals were also really great-- the detail in the space suits, the Martian landscapes.  It was very pretty.

2/5, would not recommend.

Children of time by Adrian Tchaikovsky.  I'm not sure what review I read to make me put a hold on this, as it turned out to be pretty different from my usual science-fiction fare.  I'm guessing the review leaned more heavily on the humanity's-survival part of the story, and less on the non-human, space-opera stuff.

The writing's a little space-opera genre-y but not over the top.  There are a lot of characters to keep track of, so many of them are a bit thin.  What the author did with the characters on the terraformed world, using the same names for characters down through time, following their maternal lines, was a good idea and really helped.  Not a book for every reader, or even for every sci-fi reader, but a pretty good example of a big space story-- generational ship transport, thousands of years of cryo-sleep, required questions about the status of humanity and "human" beings.

Shetland, seasons 1 and 2, with Douglas Henshall.  A friend recommended this for me to watch during my recovery (update: foot still broken).  I can see why some viewers may enjoy it, but it's not for me.  It's kind of dark and really slow.  If you like shows where each interpersonal scene is bookended by sweeping shots of forsaken coastline, this is the show for you; if you prefer shows where, ya know, stuff happens a bit more speedily, move along.  Another difficulty I had is that all the accents are so thick, I had to not only watch with subtitles on, but usually read them word for word.  I was therefore unable to knit while watching, which probably contributed to my feeling of how slow and boring the show is.  Also, all the story lines are two-parters-- two episodes per mystery.  If the format doesn't fit the content, why not do a miniseries or something? 

The islands are really beautiful; it was funny to watch my friend's face, though, as she reconsidered it as a travel destination when I pointed out that, in the middle of the afternoon in the episode set in late June, everyone was wandering around with double-layered jackets.  No wonder everyone is shown constantly drinking whiskey.

Farmer in the sky by Robert Heinlein.  When I first started stumbling around the public library, checking out random books with the sci-fi/fantasy genre stickers on their spines, there's a lot that I missed.  Although I've always been a fan, I never had anyone to introduce me to the genre in a formulaic way.  As I've come across authors who, I later learn, are founders in the genre, it's really interesting to look at what they wrote and when and see how they fit together.

The first half/two-thirds of this book is really great.  The writing's a little funny, both the not-quite-genuine-sounding speech and narration and also the physics lectures shoe-horned in, but not weird enough to stop anyone.  The main character waffles a lot on what he wants to do, which is a bit annoying but does make sense.  The situation on earth is not described hardly at all, but the trip, the colony, and the homestead are all very clear.

But then the book starts to get weird, really for no reason.  (Some spoilers, but the book's from 1950, so it's not like you haven't had time to read it.) The main character's step-sister dies, for no real reason except to move the plot along.  It's pretty out of the blue because, although she had been sick, it was downplayed and she was even getting better... until one day she died.  Then, on a survey mission, two teenager stumble across the *remains of an alien culture* which is cool, but completely out of the blue (oh, the author forgot to mention before, but shoves in here that there are also aliens who live near the human colonies on Mars AND Venus) and also, this discovery has no bearing on the remainder of the story.  It's weird, it doesn't fit, and it has no impact-- it should have been left out, or made into its own book.

Love and capes: Going to the chapel by Thomas F. Zahler.  This is volume 2 in the GN series.  I (still) like how this series is about Abby and Mark, and Mark just happens to have a secret identity as a super hero.  There are some super escapades involved in this volume's story line, but it's because that is part of Mark and Abby wants to understand it, not because it necessarily gets in the way of their relationship.  More "sci-fi" that's not really sci-fi at all.