Day: July 17, 2009

Ice Song

icesong.jpg

Ice Song by Kirsten Imani Kasai is the most recent book I’ve finished reading.  I was drawn in by the cover at my local Barnes and Noble, and intrigued by the description on the back of the book.  I put it back on the shelft and sent myself a text so that I might remember to add it to my book wishlist for later.  Dan bought the book he had found and we headed back out to the car, where he then pulled a book out of his bag and handed it to me.  Somehow he had managed to buy me Ice Song, right under my nose with me not being any the wiser.  I loved it!  And I got to read a new book that looked really interesting.  And it was.

Ice Song follows the story of a woman named Sorykah (such a pretty name) and her travails to recover her kidnapped children.  She is unique though, because she is a Trader, someone who can switch genders.  This presents it’s own advantages and disadvantages as she travels in search of the man known as the Collector who has taken her twin babies.  Throughout her journey Sorykah and her alter-ego Soryk, meet all manner of people/creatures who have been affected by something simply known as The Change.  Mixed in with the overall plot there are twines of friendship, romance, lust, passion, jealousy, faith, and simple survival.

The world created is vivid and the characters bring the book to life.  Sometimes I feel it’s hard to find a book or a story that feels new to me, and this one stood out.  The myraid of characters were things my imagination found new and wondrous.  Their stories were all different, and usually touched with sadness.  I felt for all of them, only in different ways. Some characters I did not like at all, some I grew to understand more as their story unfolded and my opinions of them changed.  Some of the characters themselves grew and tried to be better than what they were before.  I find characters who can change, or characters who cause my opinon of them to change to be the most engaging.

Fans of fantasy should definitely check this out.  It’s not the kind of story I am typically drawn to, but it was a good read, and a very enjoyable story.  I was caught up in the life of Soryk/Sorykah, as well as the other characters involved in their epic quest to rescue the babies.


four-star

Repo!

repo.jpgRepo! The Genetic Opera

 

Okay, it’s been a while since I’ve seen this actually, but I didn’t get around to writing about it and decided I wanted to do it now.  Repo! The Genetic Opera is a story about a Repo man and his daughter, and what they go through in a futuristic world where organs are harvested so that any ill can be cured.

It is definitely a movie off of the beaten track, and it’s weird and quirky nature is why I like it.  I was intrigued by the idea of it being a musical and an out there sci-fi/horror-eqsue movie.  It also stars Anthony Stewart Head (Giles from Buffy the Vampire Slayer), which was easily enough of a reason for me to give it a try.

Overall I felt that it was a well done movie and it had several plotlines that worked together to forward the major plot and unwind the story.  The singing was also well done, and worked into the movie’s natural dialogue quite well, although some of it did bother me.  There were parts where the dialogue and singing mixed and that was a little offputting.  It just didn’t flow very well to me.

This is a very weird movie, and not one to just watch on a whim.  Or maybe it’s exactly that.  Dan and I had a hard time trying to find a night to watch this, because we just weren’t in the mood for something we knew was going to be weird and kind of wacky.  So we simply picked a night and decided that we were watching it and that was that.  I think with this kind of movie you either do like Dan and I did or you simply grab it and go for it.  It’s not a movie to wait around for the “right mood”  because I don’t think it exists.

If you like quirky offbeat musicals that also have lots of blood and guts, and organs in it, I say go for it!