Reading Challenge - #8. Green Rider [A1]

Well, I think January is off to a good start! I have already finished another book in my reading challenge and it is only the 14th. Pretty proud of myself right now. Not to mention this book is a lot longer than all the other ones I have read so far.

Green Rider by Kristen Britain (1998) is an easier reading book, but is packed full of fun and adventure in the uniquely created fantasy world of Sacoridia. There are the staples of Kings, Queens, and magic - but of a different kind. There are also Green Riders, many other magically inclined beings and fantasy creatures of the author's own creation. The most interesting variant from typical fantasy, is that Britain's world has Eletians instead of elves. They're similar in ways, but also very different. Very intriguing.

The story follows Karigan G'ladheon as she finds herself accepting the mission of a dying rider on horseback to deliver an all important message to the king. This puts her smack dab in the middle of a conflict in her country that she had no idea was going on. Her mission takes her through danger, capture, combat and discovering that magic isn't so much a thing of the past as she was led to believe.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Parts of the first half had me a little on edge because I felt like Karigan wasn't making any progress, but I flew through the second half just so I could find out the ending. There is good character development and I found the world-building was effectively woven into the story. And Karigan isn't the typical protagonist. She consistently has doubts and regrets right up to the end of the book. She doesn't just accept that what happens to her is her fate. I really liked that about the book.

There is obviously more to the story after Green Rider and it is carried through into more books; Six in total so far. I eventually plan on reading all of them, but they will likely not be part of my reading challenge. In order, they are titled: Green Rider, First Rider's Call, The High King's Tomb, Blackveil, Mirror Sight, and Firebrand. The author's website says that there is no set number of books in the series and she will "leave it up to the story to determine the number".

I highly recommend Green Rider, and the whole series. I know a six book, and possibly more, series is a large commitment, but Britain's writing is entertaining, not overly complicated and enjoyable to read. The story has an overall good arch and lots of room to develop. Dig in fantasy readers.

Up next is the Book Club January pick (watch for the post about it at the beginning of February sometime), and so my reading challenge will pick up after that with The Light Between Oceans.

First Rule of Book Club: Don't Talk about Book Club.

In the fall, I gathered half a dozen of my favourite girl friends who like to read and started a book club. The idea is to read one book a month for the duration of 2018. We all started off by submitting a list of 5 books that we had on our shelves, heard was good or always wanted to read but never got around to it. I then compiled the full list - in case there were any duplicates - and that is the list of books we will choose from for the rest of the year.

A host is chosen each month, myself being January's (to start everyone off with no pressure), and that month's host is responsible for selecting the book. The first two host and books, for January and February, have been chosen and each host is then responsible for holding a meeting or gathering at the end of the month. At the meeting in January, March's host and book will be selected, and in February we will draw for April's, and so on, so that we'll always know which book is coming next.

I'm looking forward to interesting discussions and perspectives from each member, as each lady is very unique and has different likes and dislikes, backgrounds, jobs, hobbies and lives. The idea is to broaden our reading horizons. To pick up and read books we never would have imagined we ever would.

I can't wait to find out what everyone liked or didn't like about each book. Thoughts that arose, perspectives they'd never considered and ideas that expanded their minds and made them think. The books in the list are wide ranging from fantasy and science fiction, to crime and mystery, to even children's literature and dystopian. We all have different libraries of interest.

We even came up with some rules regarding our book club to keep us all accountable:

1. Don't talk about Fight Club, I mean, Book Club.
2. You don't have to finish the book by the time the gathering happens, but it would be good if you did.
3. If not finished the book, at least be prepared to talk about it and beware of SPOILERS.
4. If you don't like the book or can't get into, that's okay; you're not obligated to finish it. However, still be prepared to discuss it. What you didn't like, or why you couldn't get into.
5. Meetings will be potluck at someone's house, unless we all agree to a different format.
6. HAVE FUN! HAVE FUN! HAVE FUN! HAVE FUN! HAVE FUN! HAVE FUN!

Of course, I am still continuing with my current reading challenge while participating in Book Club. There will even be posts about book club books! I'm very excited for ALL THE BOOKS. (You have no idea.) I am not going to post the list of books that we came up with. Readers of this blog will just have to wait and see which books were read each month when I post!

Waiting for the (B)right Time

With the Christmas holidays done and passed, I finally have time to post about Netflix's Bright (2017). Along with many fans, I really enjoyed the movie and thought it was well done and entertaining. However, that does not seem to be the general consensus. Panned horribly by critics and constantly crossing over the "bad vs good" line with fans; Bright is receiving a lot of negative attention despite being one of Netflix's most watched movies on its debut weekend.(1) It drew in viewing numbers that rival big theatre blockbusters.(2)

Bright is set in an alternate present-day where fantasy races, such as orcs and elves, live amongst the human population. Starring Will Smith and Joel Edgerton, its sort of buddy-cop movie with fantastical elements and where magic is a thing of legend. Despite what the internet says (see all the links below), I didn't find the plot hard to follow, or the introduction of the fantasy elements that hard to digest. I found it fun, entertaining, and it made me think. I don't always enjoy movies in which every detail, plot point and character motive is spoon-fed to the audience. And with a sequel in the works I'm sure some of the "plot holes" will be answered or explained.

I think the biggest thing with the premise of Bright - mixing modern-day with fantasy - is that it is all original. There is no source material for fans to rely on to answer their questions. They literally have to develop their own theories and postulate the future of the characters and world that was built. A vast majority of the movie industry right now is adapting literature, making reboots, or building on past ideas. There isn't as much wholly original content out there as people would like to think. (Television is somewhat of an exemption to this.) Netflix has gained a reputation for original content, so Bright fits right in on the streaming service and was likely its best platform for launch.

There are various big themes that Bright deals with and most of them in a very explicit and deliberate way, and others are a little more subtle. First off, and most obviously, are the themes of race and racism and police brutality. These subjects and the way they were portrayed were very out there and definitely not hidden from the audience. You explicitly see cops beating an orc, the lynching of an orc, and the treatment of Officer Jakoby by the rest of the police force. There has been chatter on the internet that fans were not receptive to the depiction of outright racism in Bright and some celebrities were very outspoken about it.(3) The problem I see is that complaints about racism in a movie are very contradictory to what is actually happening in the real world. There are depictions of racism all over the media and the internet and yet no one makes comments about them or wants to do anything about it. Save for those few movements that are trying to put a stop to racism and injustice against minorities.

There is a small redeeming moment in regards to the hatred for Officer Jakoby in the movie though. Its that, even though the rest of the police force is going out of its way to get rid of him, Officer Ward, his partner, does not go to the same lengths of expression, even though he does not want Jakoby either. To make my point, *SPOILERS AHEAD* Ward asks for another partner, albeit not very nicely, and doesn't say very nice things to Jakoby, but when push comes to shove, he actually saves Jakoby's life when the other officers opt to kill him to get rid of him. Ward isn't always great to Jakoby as there is obviously still racism there, but he takes Jakoby's side rather than go with the masses and try to kill him. I'm not defending the rest of Ward's actions, but I wanted to point out that one part of the movie specifically.

Another big theme, but more subtly place in the movie I think is the wand, and it's representation of greed and power. Everyone in the movie wants the wand. Whether to get rich, or bring back the Dark Lord, the wand shows the very base corruption that power and greed can have on the souls of all beings. Now, based on what I gathered of the back story, magic and magic wands were not always coveted as they are. Back when magic was not a legend, I'm assuming, it was much more accepted and didn't corrupt (as much) as it does in the present time-line of the movie. The biggest example of this corruption in Bright is when other officers find Ward and Jakoby in possession of the wand. *SPOILERS* This is when they decided to kill Jakoby and Ward to have the wand to themselves to do with that they please. Corruption at its finest.

Along with the wand, and the resurgence of magic once again to the front of every race's minds, comes the the magical enforcement Feds. All they want is to capture the wand and put magic back on the "its just a legend" burner. This comes to a head when *SPOILERS* at the end of the movie the Feds make Ward and Jakoby swear that Nothing. Even. Happened. And there was no magic wand. Or evil bad guys chasing it down. Like secret creepy CIA cover-up stuff going on there.

These themes are not so much a thing of the past as the overall population would like to believe. A lot of this stuff is still happening today. There is still a race war going on, whether it be towards African Americans or people from the Middle-East. There is still police brutality going both ways; police on people or people on police. There is still greed over money and fame (doubt this one will go away), and corruption in companies, government, politics and basically all over if you choose to see it. This movie shines a very poignant light on what is going on in the real world still.

Bright has a critic rating of the "Worst movie of 2017"(4) that I think is a little unfounded. I don't think they're looking at it in the right context. And lets face it, the internet thinks the "Worst movie of 2017" is The Last Jedi, to which I have a whole other argument as to why it also is not. I hope Netflix does the sequel justice and that a sequel will allow the collective body to pull their heads out their asses and realize that Bright is a good movie. I don't expect a realization of great, but at least good would be nice.

Its a smart movie. It makes you think and hopefully face some truths. And considering the internet and critics think its "SO" bad, causes there to be a lot of talk about it online and that will just get more people to watch it if they haven't already. In turn that will give it more publicity. I hope because of all of this it ends up becoming some sort of cult classic like The Room (2003). So bad, its actually good.

#endrant

(1) http://www.nme.com/news/film/netflix-confirm-bright-sequel-2204510
(2) http://fortune.com/2017/12/28/netflix-film-bright-nielsen-audience/
(3) http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/chance-the-rapper-bright-netflix-racism-metaphor-orcs-will-smith-joel-edgerton-cast-budget-plot-a8131021.html
(4) http://www.complex.com/pop-culture/2017/12/critics-are-calling-netflix-bright-worst-movie-of-2017

Reading Challenge: Status Update!

Since four months have passed after starting my Reading Challenge, and is it now officially 2018, I thought I would give a little status update on where I'm at.

First off, I'm a little disappointed with myself that I've only crossed 7 books off my list. On the plus side though, I'm SUPER happy I got back into reading more again. Its so nice to get lost in a book sometimes. Out of the books I have read so far, Me Before You by Jojo Moyes has been my favourite one to read. I wonder which book will take over that with the ones that are left on my list. I've also received mixed feedback from people when I said I didn't know how I felt about Animal Farm, so that has been interesting to reflect on.

I hope to get more than seven books read between January and April from this list. I really want to do better than seven. And even though I have bought more books in the past few months, many of which can be added to this list, I am still only going to work from the original list. That way I am not getting ahead of myself.

You can see the full list below. Those I've read are crossed out and each is linked to the review post.

1. The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
2. Vanity Fair by William Thackery
3. The Horse Whisperer by Nicholas Evans
4. Transcendental by James Gunn
5. Quintessence by David Walton
6. The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling
7. Moth and Spark by Anne Leonard
8. The Waking Engine by David Edison
9. The Green Rider Series by Kristin Britain **Note: 6 books in total**
10. The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
11. Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein
12. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
13. My Friend Flicka by Mary O'Hara
14. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
15. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
16. Animal Farm by George Orwell
17. The Chrysalids by John Wyndham
18. The Time Machine by H.G. Wells
19. 1984 by George Orwell
20. Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
21. The Marriage of Heaven and Hell by William Blake
22. The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman
23. Me Before You by Jojo Moyes
24. The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle
25. One Day by David Nicholls
26. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
27. I Am Legend by Richard Matheson
28. The Last Ship by William Brinkley
29. The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides
30. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
31. What's Eating Gilbert Grape? by Peter Hedges
32. Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh
33. T2 (Trainspotting 2) by Irvine Welsh
34. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce
35. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
36. The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
37. Hemlock Grove by Brian McGreevy
38. The Secret Book of the Werewolf by Victor Pelevin
39. The Once and Future King by T.H. White 

A lot of the remaining books on the list are fairly long; so who knows if I'll meet my goal of doing better than seven by April. However, I am also not working on any cross-stitches until March, so that might help me along a bit more. Guess now that I have a bit more time I should get started on Green Rider. The holidays and family-time have delayed my start on this one.