Black Sun (Between Earth and Sky #1)

Black Sun (Between Earth and Sky #1)

By:

Rebecca Roanhorse

Blurb:

The first book in the Between Earth and Sky trilogy, inspired by the civilizations of the Pre-Columbian Americas and woven into a tale of celestial prophecies, political intrigue, and forbidden magic.

A god will return
When the earth and sky converge
Under the black sun

In the holy city of Tova, the winter solstice is usually a time for celebration and renewal, but this year it coincides with a solar eclipse, a rare celestial event proscribed by the Sun Priest as an unbalancing of the world.

Meanwhile, a ship launches from a distant city bound for Tova and set to arrive on the solstice. The captain of the ship, Xiala, is a disgraced Teek whose song can calm the waters around her as easily as it can warp a man’s mind. Her ship carries one passenger. Described as harmless, the passenger, Serapio, is a young man, blind, scarred, and cloaked in destiny. As Xiala well knows, when a man is described as harmless, he usually ends up being a villain.

Review:

Reading over the blurb for Black Sun, I’m not sure why I added it to my to-read list. It’s a good blurb, but not what I usually read. It’s got a great cover, and it was on a ton of must-read lists, so maybe that was why.

I liked the characters that were followed in Black Sun. There were four, and they were each unique and complex, but they were good. I like books where I don’t hate the main characters. They were flawed and trying to work in a system that was fighting against them, but they kept on fighting.

The world created was also interesting. It was new and different. I’m still unclear on many things, but I’m hoping it’s answered in the following books.

The only thing I found frustrating was the ending. It was a major cliffhanger. I wish that I’d known that going in because the next book doesn’t come out until 2022, and that’s a long time to wait after such an ending. It would have been nice to wait until the second book was finished before starting the series.

Oh well. I enjoyed Black Sun, and I’m definitely looking forward to the next book in the series, whenever that comes out.

4/5

My Never Ending To-Read Pile

So it’s that time again. The time where I have too many books checked out from the library and I’m unable to read them fast enough. I’ve got one in transit now and the two on top are due in three days.

In my defense! I visited my family last week. It was the first time I’d seen them in fifteen months. That’s the longest I’ve ever been away from them. It was emotional and exhausting. I read one book and watched no movies.

I’m not sure how long it will take to get through Black Buck but I’m fairly certain I’ll fly through the Tristan Strong book. Hopefully I can catch up.

The Rescuers Down Under (1990)

The Great Movie Re-Watch

The Rescuers Down Under (1990)

Directors:

Hendel Butoy

Mike Gabriel

Writers:

Jim Cox

Karey Kirkpatrick

Byron Simpson

Joe Ranft

Starring:

Bob Newhart

Eva Gabor

John Candy

Tristan Rogers

Blurb:

The R.A.S. agents, Miss Bianca and Bernard, race to Australia to save a little boy and a rare golden eagle from a murderous poacher.

Thoughts:

I like Rescuers Down Under better than the previous movie. The story is mostly the same, a child is in danger, and they save it, but I like the art style better. The Rescuers still had that dirty-looking art style that I’m not a fan of, and Down Under doesn’t. It’s got a nice anti-poaching message too.

My kids actually watched this one with me, my husband too. This was his movie and one that he’s watched enough time that he can apparently quote. It was adorable.

I have no nostalgia attached to this film, no memories other than the one I just made, and so I don’t have any thoughts about it. Well, thoughts that aren’t just questions about the entire idea of mice saving kids on the other side of the world.

They can’t all be long posts.

Back to the Future Part III (1990)

The Great Movie Re-Watch

Back to the Future Part III (1990)

Director:

Robert Zemeckis

Writers:

Robert Zemeckis

Bob Gale

Starring:

Michael J. Fox

Christopher Lloyd

 Mary Steenburgen

Thomas F. Wilson

Lea Thompson

Blurb:

Stranded in 1955, Marty McFly learns about the death of Doc Brown in 1885 and must travel back in time to save him. With no fuel readily available for the DeLorean, the two must figure how to escape the Old West before Emmett is murdered.

Thoughts:

What would have happened if Marty killed Mad Dog? I’m sure Doc Brown would say the universe would cease to exist, but maybe it wouldn’t. No Biff would be a positive for everyone. Would Marty’s parents still get together, though? Maybe Mad Dog already had his kid, and it didn’t matter. Perhaps the loss of Marty and his siblings is worth the loss of the Tannen line. I guess we’ll never know.

Marty continues to be stupid in this movie, but I didn’t feel like it was more than the other movies. It might have been less, actually. He did learn a lesson, in the end, taught by his ginger ancestor. It took me a second to wrap my head around his great-whatever-grandparents. Seeing his mom married to him was weird for a bit until I worked out the genetics of it all.

Many of the set pieces and story in Back to the Future Part III are callbacks to the previous movies. Some of that is using what you’ve learned about Marty to show how he could live in the old west. Too much of it, though, was lazy storytelling. I like the previous movies, and I don’t dislike the third. I just wish the story had been something different. Getting stuck back in time, again, and dealing with changing their personal history, again, along with all the other little things, was too much fan service for me.

Doc’s relationship with Clara is one of the few new things, and I thought it was sweet. She wasn’t set aside and ignored. She was a big part of the story. Another change from previous movies. Her role mattered. I liked that. Plus, Mary Steenburgen is a great actress and beautiful woman. There’s a fifteen-year difference between the actors, but at the time, she was thirty-seven, so that’s old enough not to bother me.

I’d say Back to the Future Part III is my second favorite of the franchise. I like the first movie because it set up this great franchise, but I prefer the future setting of the second one. So my order would go two, three, one.

They aren’t going to remake this series, Zemeckis has basically said over his dead body. I’m fine with that, but I wish there could be something like it made. Maybe with a minority in the lead because that would certainly make travel to the past more interesting. Also, more women, please.

How to Fail at Flirting

How to Fail at Flirting

By:

Denise Williams

Blurb :

One daring to-do list and a crash course in flirtation turn a Type A overachiever’s world upside down.

When her flailing department lands on the university’s chopping block, Professor Naya Turner’s friends convince her to shed her frumpy cardigan for an evening on the town. For one night her focus will stray from her demanding job and she’ll tackle a new kind of to-do list. When she meets a charming stranger in town on business, he presents the perfect opportunity to check off the items on her list. Let the guy buy her a drink. Check. Try something new. Check. A no-strings-attached hookup. Check…almost.

Jake makes her laugh and challenges Naya to rebuild her confidence, which was left toppled by her abusive ex-boyfriend. Soon she’s flirting with the chance at a more serious romantic relationship—except nothing can be that easy. The complicated strings around her dating Jake might destroy her career.

Naya has two options. She can protect her professional reputation and return to her old life or she can flirt with the unknown and stay with the person who makes her feel like she’s finally living again.

Review:

***Trigger Warning for Sexual Assault***

I thought this would be about Naya trying to separate herself from work, but it was mostly about her learning to live after being in an abusive relationship. There are vague mentions about what was done to her throughout the book until the end, when her abuser confronts her and shows you what he was like. It wasn’t as graphic as it could have been, this is, after all, a romance, but it was detailed enough I could see it making people uncomfortable.

Naya was a victim of abuse, and she read like it. She hadn’t pursued therapy, but she had spoken to some friends. I’m not sure how much she shared, though. In the aftermath of her bad relationship, she obviously changed and shut down, burying herself in her work. Her friends issue a challenge, they don’t expect her to follow, but after a few gins at a bar, she does. I’m really glad nothing happened with Jake at that time because they were both inhibited, though it never brought up that fact.

Jake was sweet. He was a dork and loveable. The humor between the two was amusing, with lots of puns. I like puns, so I enjoyed it. He had a job that required a lot of travel. They were a long-distance relationship. I’m never a fan of those. The couple ends up spending all of their time doing it whenever they’re together. Which is understandable, and Williams skipped over stuff after a couple of scenes, but it made their relationship a bit boring at times.

How to Fail at Flirting was an okay book, but I feel that someone needs a warning before reading it because of the content.

3/5