An inbetween review: Buffy The Vampire Slayer Season 8: Last Gleaming

Author: Joss Whedon
First published in 2011
Thickness: 160 pages
Personal rating: 3 stars

In short

MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

Following the events of Twilight, Spike arrives with his crew to assist Buffy Summers' battle against Angel. He explains to her that the Twilight realm, created from Buffy and Angel's lovemaking, demands the Seed, the source of all magic found deep in the Hellmouth below the fallen Sunnydale. Angel is possessed by Twilight and tries to retrieve the Seed, while Earth is invaded by demons from other dimensions. The Scooby Gang believe the best course of action is to protect the Seed, as destroying the Seed or handing it over would return the demons to their respective dimensions but also rid the world of all magic. As Slayers from all over the world engage in a mass battle against the demon armies, Buffy and a select few reach down into the Hellmouth and encounter the Master who is guarding the Seed: a red, egg-shaped ball of energy. Willow confiscates the Seed from the Master and feels more powerful and more connected to the universe than ever; now able to destroy hordes of extra-dimensional demons above ground with ease.

Underground, Angel arrives and exchanges blows with Buffy. Observing the couple's fight from afar, Giles, realising that Buffy would never kill Angel and is allowing herself to get distracted from destroying the Seed, takes the Scythe from Faith and charges toward the Seed. Angel, seeing what Giles intends to do, snaps his neck. Horrified by the death of her mentor, Buffy grabs the Scythe and uses it to smash the Seed before collapsing to the ground in tears beside Giles, causing all magic on Earth to vanish. All of the world's witches, such as Willow, find themselves completely powerless. Warren Mears, who had been kept alive by Amy's spell, dies once again. The invading demons are returned to their own dimensions and the Twilight realm is vanquished. Angel is freed from his possession and, suddenly conscious of what he has done, turns catatonic with grief.

Four months after the battle, Buffy is living a quiet and modest lifestyle in San Francisco and is staying at Dawn and Xander's apartment while waitressing by day and vampire slaying by night. The Slayers are viewed as social pariahs, for which they blame Buffy. Simone, in particular, wishes to kill her. Like other former witches, Willow is struggling with the loss of magic, and feeling powerless, ends her relationship with Kennedy. Finally, after inheriting Giles' estate, Faith takes Angel with her to bring him back on to the righteous path.

(www.wikipedia.org)

My two cents

This comic book adaptation of Buffy The Vampire Slayer has been interesting to say the least. With being blown away by the first and second installment, the ones after that kind of took my interest, bedazzled me and left me wondering what happened. Sometimes it was a little too much and over the top and I didn't recognize a lot from the tv show. What remained was a little frayed, like coffee after using a pad one time to many. 

Pretty much like the first season of Angel, the Buffy The Vampire Slayer spin-off, had to learn and get rid of those growing pains, so did these graphic novels. 

Of course for budgetting reasons, this kind of action could never be translated onto the big screen and I don't mind them seeing it big, but there is a saying I truly believe and that's "Less is more" and I hope that for the next season Joss will be more true to the series instead of having a Bueller's Day Off.

This final installment takes the implication of having 'f*cked' an entire dimension between Angel and Buffy and reintroduces reality and what it entails. 

Angel turns for the worst, in order to set Buffy on the right path, and Spike (who doesn't love that Blondie Bear) turns up helping Buffy save the world (Again!). 

Of course things are set in motion and since this time the world saving has been noticed by a lot more people, she is up for judgment, betrayal and pretty much the usual heart ache. 

We do love our Buffster, don't we and I'm curious to what she will get into in Season 9. 

On the Road - The English Patient

This was supposed to be the review for The English Patient, but like the one before it, I just couldn't see the magic in it.
The one after it neither.
Under the Net, The English Patient and On the Road.. my hattrick for the year. Three novels I stopped reading before I finished them and don't regret doing so.

Not that they are bad novels per se, but I can't see or have read an interesting thing about it.
They have their good point, since I managed to read at least a couple of dozens pages, but since I'm neither very fond of the desert nor backpacking through the continental US, The English Patient and On the Road aren't books I care to finish. Maybe they get better in the end, who knows, but I've read better and since there are so many different novels to read I'm not sticking with one that doesn't do it for me.

But I hope that my negative attitude towards these novels doesn't hold any of you back to try a hand at them, they might be right for you.
I just give my honest opinion, however harsh it may be, but it's subjective to say the least. I could even say that maybe in a year or twenty I might enjoy novels like this, just not right now.

After having spend a considerate amount of time on classics, I have decided to move to some lighter subjects as you can see in the sidebar.
Hopefully a good romance and thriller can pull me back to my old self, because I have to admit that I've been reading a lot less because of the three novels featured in this blog post.

So a little summary..

The English Patient

With ravishing beauty and unsettling intelligence, Michael Ondaatje's Booker Prize-winning novel traces the intersection of four damaged lives in an Italian villa at the end of World War II. Hana, the exhausted nurse; the maimed thief, Caravaggio; the wary sapper, Kip: each is haunted by the riddle of the English patient, the nameless, burned man who lies in an upstairs room and whose memories of passion, betrayal,and rescue illuminates this book like flashes of heat lightening. (www.goodreads.com)

Author: Michael Ondaatje
First published in 1992
Thickness: 320 pages
Personal rating: 1 star (since I didn't finish)

On the Road

On the Road chronicles Jack Kerouac's years traveling the North American continent with his friend Neal Cassady, "a sideburned hero of the snowy West." As "Sal Paradise" and "Dean Moriarty," the two roam the country in a quest for self-knowledge and experience. Kerouac's love of America, his compassion for humanity, and his sense of language as jazz combine to make On the Road an inspirational work of lasting importance.

Kerouac's classic novel of freedom and longing defined what it meant to be "Beat" and has inspired every generation since its initial publication more than forty years ago. (www.goodreads.com)

Author: Jack Kerouac
First published in 1957
Thickness: 307 pages
Personal rating: 1 star (since I didn't finish)

Under The Net

Author: Iris Murdoch
First published in 1954
Thickness: 256 pages
Listed on 1001 books you must read before you die
Personal rating: 1 star


In short

Iris Murdoch’s first novel is a gem – set in a part of London where struggling writers rub shoulders with successful bookies, and film starlets with frantic philosophers. Its hero, Jake Donaghue, is a likable young man who makes a living out of translation work and sponging off his friends. A meeting with Anna, an old flame, leads him into a series of fantastic adventures. (www.goodreads.com)

My two cents 

As I haven't finished this novel, I haven't got much to say about it. 
The reason I quit reading it after about 50-60 pages, is because I found it to be dull, longwinding and it didn't ignite any spark. 
Under the Net might have been a wonderful novel back in its day, or for those who like this kind of romantic novels, but it surely wasn't my thing. 

Not that the writing was bad, or the characters not believable, nothing like that at all. It  just wasn't my cup of tea. 

Review of Rabbit, Run

Author: John Updike
First published in 1960
Thickness: 272 pages
Personal rating: 3 stars

In short

Harry Angstrom was a star basketball player in high school and that was the best time of his life. Now in his mid-20s, his work is unfulfilling, his marriage is moribund, and he tries to find happiness with another woman. But happiness is more elusive than a medal, and Harry must continue to run—from his wife, his life, and from himself, until he reaches the end of the road and has to turn back.... (www.goodreads.com)

My two cents 

I'm not sure how to classify Rabbit Run. Clearly written from the perspective of the selfish 'Rabbit' Angstrom, it points out flaws in his character which I couldn't place in this time anymore.
But since it has been written in the early 60's, a time where women were inclined to follow a man's lead more than in this day and age, I could see this being a very realistic view of marriage in that time.

Of course, Harry is an extreme model of this outdated model of life between man and woman, him being selfishly involved with someone else, abandoning his wife who is expecting their second child. I see in that a reluctance to accept that he isn't the star basket ball player he used to be. He wants to be the best, and he isn't that being a husband and a father.

The part in which they lose their daughter, I shivered, expecting myself and it would be the worst thing that could ever happen to me.
But it seemed like neither he or his wife truly realised what had happened, and just used the circumstances to find pity and compassion.

Clearly the novel invokes a strong reaction, either positive or negative, although I don't see it being positive in many cases, at least not with female readers.
Even in being dreadfully longwinded at times, I couldn't put it down, wanting to know if he would make the right decision in the end, and when the end came he surprised me in a way I couldn't have forseen.
Being so damnfully seflish, throughout his youth and carrying that on in adulthood, Harry Angstrom is a man caught in the glory years of his highshool basketball years, dreaming of a girl that has moved on while he was away, and he got himself caught with a women he doesn't love or care about in the least.

This century, 50 years after the novel published, we've got a lot of those men walking around, but I think that the women of our day and age are more capable to put it to a stop. We aren't the pavements we used to be, we don't take it when some try to walk all over us.
This novel is just a horrific view into the past, and makes me feel proud that for most of us, it is definitely a thing in the past.

Review of The Long Walk

Author: Stephen King
First published in 1979
Thickness: 370 pages
Personal rating: 5 stars
Read in Dutch

In short

100 young boys run a marathon. The prize of winning being having all you ask for, the prize of losing being your life.
Set in a dystopian society, we follow Ray Garraty, one of the contestants, while he runs for his life and in the meantime learns the true meaning of friendship, death and love.

My two cents

The long walk is one of my most cherished novels of Stephen King. It isn't his greatest work of fiction, written before Carrie (his first novel) was published, at the age of 19, but it strikes a chord in me. It feels real to me, like something that might happen in this crazy world we live in today, where we all want to be entertained no matter the cost.
Of course such dystopian tales have been told before, we all have heard of Battle Royal, The Hunger Games, The Running Man,... 
But what makes this a novel you should have read at least once, is that it's written from a very personal point of view. We actually tail Ray Garraty, in his personal glories and defeats. How does one cope with the fact that you living, means 99 others have to die and the only way to live is to keep on running, hoping your body and mind don't fail you.

As they begin to run, Ray quickly becomes friends with a few of his fellow runners, and they do watch each others backs up until a point where they all know that saving another means possible death for themselves. You follow them as they all figure that out in their own way, and cope with it.
It's a story full of grim possibilities, and if you are like me, you'll read it in less than three days. It's a novel I could read in one sitting if I could find the time.
Also a novel that my husband read and liked and he isn't much of a Stephen King reader to begin with.

I give my full blessing :)