Hi!

So I’m back.

It’s been almost 5 years to the day since my last post. In that time I have done a heck of a lot of stuff – work, theatre, more work, more theatre…and being too busy to blog is probably at the top of the list explaining my absence.

But one thing is very apparent – since I stopped blogging, there has been a huge decline in my reading. I still read, but it’s what I like to think of as “lazy reading” – comic books, magazines, online fan fiction and the like. Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with that type of reading material, and I plan to continue enjoying it. But I miss books. I miss books that challenge and enlighten. I miss reading book reviews. And I miss the delightful online literary community that used to sustain my long trips offshore.

So I’m back and raring to go. I’ll mostly be posting book, film and stage reviews, but probably also some other random stuff on the strange little world I inhabit in this wonderful county of Norfolk. I may even bore you with pictures of my cats…Rosencrantz and Guildenstern who are very much alive and a lot bigger than in my last post introducing them.

I have however moved to Wordpress. So you can find me at https://infinitespace.wordpress.com/ if you are so inclined.

So here goes.

The Hollow (play) - Agatha Christie

After my brief dalliance with the acting world while volunteering as an extra during Dining with Alice, I decided to investigate the possibility of furthering my amateur theatre career. A few months ago I joined the Maddermarket Theatre Company and worked as assistant stage manager on my first production, Agatha Christie's The Hollow. The Maddermarket is a very small theatre, with about 300 seats and has been around since the 1920s, despite its Tudor appearance.

The Hollow was adapted by Christie from her novel of the same name. Allegedly, Christie was not happy with Poirot's appearance in this particular novel and thus she wrote him out of the play, replacing him instead with Scotland Yard's Inspector Colquhoun. Otherwise, the Hollow is your typical Christie murder mystery, unfolding slowly, with many characters each with their own agenda. With a single static set, the attention is directed firmly to each character, allowing the audience to examine their interactions with the other characters, and their potential motivations. What I wasn't prepared for was the humour. Quite frankly, the Hollow was very funny. Largely due to the enigmatic Lady Angkatell, but also due to the suspense building up upon watching it. Many an audience member let out a nervous laugh after a particularly surprising death scene.

My responsibilities during the play were mostly preparing the set before every rehearsal and performance, and during the interval, and coordinating the many many props used for each scene. Another somewhat fun job every show was having to fire the gun that kills the unfortunate John Cristow, a job I took to with a fair bit of relish! Since The Hollow finished, I've been catching up with sleep after a hectic schedule, helping with the lighting for a couple of nights on the next production, Guys and Dolls, and looking forward to the huge winter production of A Christmas Carol....oh and successful grading for my brown belt in karate. All in all a busy summer!

A Game of Thrones - George RR Martin

I feel this book justifies a far longer review than I am able to give, but as it has been a few months since I finished it and I have since seen several episodes of the television adaptation, this is all I am able to give.

A Game of Thrones is the first in an epic fantasy series set in a fictional world of snow and ice. Lord Eddard (Ned) Stark is a lord and warden of the North, who is forced to leave his home and wife when he is summoned to the capital, King's Landing, to be the right hand of his king and oldest friend. But King Robert Baratheon is a changed man, a lover of rich foods, wine and women, and blind to the insiduous plans of his conniving wife, Queen Cersei. And soon things go terribly terribly wrong for the Stark family, tragedy ensues and war breaks out.

A Song of Ice and Fire is very much a saga, political and dangerous, sometimes heartbreaking and horrifying. These are tales of war and treachery, tales of fear and hate. It is hate that pervades this book, and the hate that I found exhausting. In fact I was torn throughout my reading of this book, captivated to the point where I would read through until 2 or 3am, and yet desperate to put the book down, and get some respite from the horrors within. And yet there is hope within these pages, tales of love, both romantic and familial. 

Ned's wife Catelyn is particularly intriguing, strong and wise, yet bound to her love for her family, for her children. Catelyn's children: Robb, brave yet out of his depth; Bran, crippled but full of surprises; Sansa, beautiful yet foolish; Arya, fiery but young; and Rickon, tiny and innocent. Then there is Ned's bastard son, Jon Snow, destined for great things, yet never truly part of the family he loves. And the Lannisters, brutal, wicked and calculating. So cruel in fact that they could almost be ridiculous, yet Martin gives them depth. The dwarf, Tyrion, intelligent and unpredictable; the kingkiller, Jamie, incestuous and brutal; the Queen, Cersei, single-minded and devoted to her son; and the father, Tywin, sinister and merciless. Yet the Lannisters stick together, blood with blood. And let's not forget Daenerys Targaryen, Princess of Dragonstone, and daughter of the usurped and murdered king, building herself an army of horse lords across the sea, to take back her throne.

Characters are what keep this tale enticing, and mystery. And the wolves, raised from cubs by the children and tied so completely to their future. Perhaps the greatest mystery, hinted at and alluded to throughout this tale, is what lies beyond the wall, the darkness looming over the North. As the Stark house motto says, Winter is Coming.

One thing George RR Martin is not, is afraid to kill off his characters. He has this terrible habit of drawing you in, letting you care about his characters, only to rip them away, cruelly and painfully. These books are dark and brutal. Be prepared.

R.I.P.VI Challenge

(Image credit: Sanctuary, by Melissa Nucera)

It seems I have returned from my brief sojourn from blogging in time to yet again participate in one of my favourite reading challenges, R.I.P. VI, hosted by the ever wonderful Carl of Stainless Steel Droppings.

The challenge as always is to get people together to enjoy and share tales of horror, mystery, suspense, thriller, dark fantasy, gothic and the supernatural, leading up to October 31st.

I will be participating in Peril the Second, and will endeavour to read two books of any length that fit within the challenge categories. My pool of potential reads includes Dracula, which I have always intended to read! Let the haunting begin!

Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro

"I keep thinking about this river somewhere, with the water moving really fast. And these two people in the water, trying to hold onto each other, holding on as fast as they can, but in the end it's just too much. The current's too strong. They've got to let go, drift apart. That's how I think it is with us. It's a shame, Kath, because we've loved each other all our lives. But in the end, we can't stay together forever."

I like this cover. It's vague and mysterious and doesn't really mean anything until you've read the book, but I like it. Annoyingly I read the film tie-in copy of the book, with Keira Knightley's face plastered all over the front of it (sorry, I am not a fan), but it was a gift, so I can't complain! But seeing this cover, after I have read the book, has brought back all kinds of memories of my time reading it and the feelings it evoked.

Kazuo Ishiguro's award-winning novel Never Let Me Go is the tale of Kathy, Ruth and Tommy, and the friendship between them as they grow up together at the quiet and idyllic Hailsham School. As many bloggers will tell you, there is a twist to this particular tale, which I will not spoil for you, despite the fact that I had it ruined for me in the trailer of the recent film (frustrating!) and it is not particularly hard to guess once you read the first couple of chapters.

As with all of Ishiguro's work, this is very much a character-driven piece, focusing very much on the three main characters as they move from childhood, to adolescence, and ultimately discovering themselves as adults. The novel is narrated by Kathy, the passive observer of the three, watching life unfold around her in the school and the romance that blossoms between Ruth and Tommy. Kathy is heartbreaking to listen to. What appears at first as disinterest, becomes painfully obvious as a lack of social awareness. She cannot understand or interpret her feelings and how they relate to the people around her. Ruth is the extrovert, desperate for attention and affection from those around, but is more vulnerable than she appears to be. Meanwhile Tommy, sweet sweet Tommy, is the child of the three. Despite obviously caring for Kathy who watches out after him at school, Tommy embarks on a romantic and sexual relationship with Ruth, becoming sucked into a somewhat destructive emotional rollercoaster that he often finds hard to comprehend. As the three move from school to the quiet countryside of Norfolk, they find it hard to accept their new-found independence and struggle to understand the world they have been born into. The reasons for this slowly come to light, helping us to understand more about the school life that originally shaped them.

Never Let Me Go is a story of friendship and love, but above all, it is a story of silence, of restraint, and ultimately, of regret. Events unfold slowly, as the characters come to terms with the events from their childhood and their feelings towards each other. Ironically the pervasive silence and lack of action that caused so many of my friends to find the novel boring, are exactly what I enjoyed most about it.

Last year's film adaptation is surprisingly good. The quicker pace of the film drives the story along, compensating for the lack of pace in the book, and allows the audience to become quick attached to Kathy and her feelings for Ruth and Tommy, as they begin to understand their place in the world and what that means for their relationships. Despite really not being a fan of Keira Knightley, I enjoyed her performance as Ruth, perhaps because we are not really destined to like Ruth's character as she manipulates those around her in an attempt to get what she wants, and ultimately to find happiness. However, Carey Mulligan and Andrew Garfield really stole the show as Kathy and Tommy, and I found myself quite moved by the end of the film, even shedding a tear or two that did not surface during my reading of the book. Perhaps that's the power of cinema...

Never Let Me Go is a gorgeous example of prolonged innocence. While intricately composed and wickedly clever as it develops into a dystopian novel, Ishiguro's expert hand has also brought us a gentle and touching story, full of quiet country lanes and long wistful gazes that mask the brutal complexity of hidden emotion and tumultuous relationships that pervade our brief glimpse into the characters life. Great stuff.

The Name of the Wind - Patrick Rothfuss

"I have stolen princesses back from sleeping barrow kings. I burned down the town of Trebon. I have spent the night with Felurian and left with both my sanity and my life. I was expelled from the University at a younger age than most people are allowed in. I tread paths by moonlight that others fear to speak of during day. I have talked to Gods, loved women, and written songs that make the minstrels weep."

Well that's a summary and a half right?! Despite the somewhat cheesy cover, this is a book that grabbed my attention from the shelf on numerous occasions. I didn't finally get around to reading it until a close friend had read and recommended it, and kindly lent me his copy. As you might imagine from the summary, this was a book that one can get sucked into very quickly and very easily.

The Name of the Wind is Book 1 of the Kingkiller Chronicles, a proposed trilogy, Book 2 of which, Wise Man's Fears, has just been published. This is Kvothe's story, as dictated to a scribe by the man himself, while he lives in hiding in a small backwater town with his assistant and friend, Bast, who has a story of his own. The arrival of the scribe prompts Kvothe to recount his life from childhood, as a record of his experiences - the truths, not the legends.

The story then takes us to Kvothe's childhood, recounting his life as he tells it, from happy memories as a child with his family, to shocking tragedy and finally to Kvothe's experiences at the famous University. Kvothe recounts these events, allowing the reader to become completely immersed in his life and the characters he meets along his journey, following his trials and tribulations as he attempts to survive the University and uncover the truth of his childhood tragedy. Kvothe's story is entirely gripping, as he makes both friends and enemies, finds romance, and narrowly escapes death on more than one occasion.

The success of this book for me was that although there were enough characters to keep the story interesting and drive the narrative along, I never felt overwhelmed or confused by the number of names and personalities introduced during the story, unlike others I have read recently. Kvothe is an intriguing character, both passionate and reckless, while struggling with his own ambition and desires, yet always seeking answers to his past. Definitely a character you can root for, though also be frustrated with when he makes a rash decision. I was also particularly taken by the mysterious, powerful yet somewhat odd Master Namer Elodin, and his riddles and strange sense of humour, and Kvothe's loyal yet mysterious assistant Bast. I look forward to unravelling their stories in the next instalment of the trilogy.

Although this tale had elements of your usual fantasy series, with its magics and musics, at no point did the tale feel clichéd or overly familiar. A truly excellent début Mr Rothfuss!

The Complete Plays of Shakespeare - Eric Kim

A gift from Rhinoa following her visit to the New York comic-con, this collection of very brief summaries of Shakespeare's plays is a pure delight! Definitely a book for fans.

Each play is covered in only two sides, with the most magical, witty, often risqué, and downright hilarious drawings. Kim's style is very short and to the point, focusing on one of the most important or amusing aspects of each play, but his sketches imbue each summary with humour, while honouring the spirit of Shakespeare's work.

Here are two examples...

Rhinoa kindly purchased this for me, knowing my love for the Bard, and the book comes with a wonderful dedication from the author, and of course centred on my favourite play, that continually makes me smile!