Ragtag Giggagon

Lauren and Jessica are the ex-wife and wife of a cad who becomes a cadaver in what appears to be an accidental death. With Brian’s dealings a shade or two murkier than most people realised, it could be murder. The pair are thrust into the heroics of this novel when business colleagues from the criminal underworlds of gambling and arms-dealing come looking for money, missing since Brian’s death. The novel is very plot-driven and a different beast to previous work by the author. It’s probably the most commercial novel to date from this scribe too, whose work (often in the horror genre, but this one is more mainstream thriller) has a literary quality. Informative when it comes to the law and money laundering elements, this book’s also pacey and exciting. Well worth a read. Get it  here .

MILD SPOILER ALERT Jeffrey Wright, a black Brit, plays American CIA agent Felix Leiter opposite Daniel Craig’s Bond. Here, Martin Freeman, a white Brit, plays a CIA agent opposite Chadwick Boseman. The photo-positive – because you turn the colour up – nods to Bond continue in a casino sequence. The entire movie subverts that franchise’s purported misogyny. The strength of the female characters is awesome, and there isn’t a bad performance among them. Angela Bassett as a matriarch is a presence of stability. Danai Gurira leads the Dora Milaje, a group of women comprising the royal guard, in a role where she places civic responsibility over the personal. There’s a cultural richness to the Africa-set film that the continent itself shares, and it’s a movie aimed at everyone, and speaks to everyone. It pokes fun at racism in numerous ways. It shows how vested interests might win out temporarily – illustrating it in a hilarious fashion – but ultimately, humanity is all on the

This movie-musical has had a critically mixed reception. I have not read the reviews. For good and bad, the music is of the “musical” variety with (from what I can discern) a fine awareness of current chart trends. Hugh Jackman does what he’s best at (and what he’s probably known least for) and he does a great job. His marching band uniform shares an aesthetic with Michael Jackson’s more militaristic stage costumes, and the performances are on a similar par throughout. What’s the movie all about? Artistic endeavour of all kinds is sophistry. Whether we’re watching computer-generated lions, or we’re reading fiction that actually happened, it’s the creator’s vocation to convince us of the truth (or fact) of the creation, to persuade the audience. The film certainly succeeds, on a level, through PT Barnum’s belief in this same artistic tendency. Alongside his love for family, Barnum’s a huckster and a showman, happy to ride on the coattails of the critically lauded and to promote tho

Claire Buss  is a science fiction writer whose first book The Gaia Effect won a publication prize. Her sequel,  The Gaia Project , continues the story of Jed, Kira, and the array of characters in a world set two centuries into the future. You have a husband and wife as main characters. Tell us a little about them? Jed was a Force Detective but at the beginning of book 2 he is promoted to Captain of City 42 Guard and gets sent on a diplomatic mission to City 15. Kira is an Archivist. From what I remember, themes include genetic engineering, right?  Do you continue in that vein or is there focus on other stuff in the sequel? No, not really – it’s more about hope in a dystopian setting. Man has screwed up but there’s still a little light at the end of the tunnel. The Gaia Project though is my Empire (Star Wars) in the trilogy – it’s when the bad guys fight back! So do you have a chief villain running through the trilogy? Tell me about the bad guys. In book 1 we knew them

Is it any less painful to watch a villain – made fallible due to his warped petard of principles – make an Abrahamic sacrifice? The Marvel heroes (the Guardians crew, Iron Man, Hulk, the Cap, Spiderman, Thor, Black Panther, Dr. Strange and more) unite against Thanos to bring an end to his stone-collecting ambitions, through which we see his trading of a soul for a soul. There are similar exchanges made or offered in this movie by the heroes. Thanos’s population culls will be ameliorated by the acquisition of the infinity stones to empower him to commit his sustainability-inspired genocides at a fingersnap rather than by the bullet. With more than one stone still to acquire, it allows for a lot of spinning plates in this movie, kept up through humour and character-driven action. (At least) four narrative strands – involving Thor, the Guardians of the Galaxy, Iron Man and Spiderman, and the earth-centred Captain America, Vision, Black Panther et al, are woven around the battle again

Inspired by the wonderful Kim Chance and her  How to Write Fight Scenes video , and I humbly disagree with just one point [BARK! BARK!]. Lots of great tips here. I LOVE the idea of a battle or fight revealing something about character – fight scenes (probably) need a solid narrative purpose. There are other solid tips among the ones she gives. However, the one which I find a problem is Kim’s suggestion to use emotion rather than getting into the nitty-gritty of a fight scene – don’t do a play-by-play of each footfall of the combatant. Issue 1 I take issue with Tolkien vs Peter Jackson. Yes, Jackson’s a different medium, but wouldn’t you want to have read Tolkien’s description of Legolas bringing down an oliphaunt? That’s  action . Don’t you want to read Gimli say afterwards: “That only counts as one” (or whatever the line was relating to the gruesome body-count contest in which the two warriors are partaking against the orcs)? Issue 2 Show don’t tell. Isn’t that what the