Miserere: An Autumn Tale by Teresa Frohock

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Original world building and action packed adventures. The world and magic system is very intricately linked with religion (no prize for guessing Ms Frohock's religion), specifically Christianity. This makes it very different from the usual high fantasy. As a non-religious person, it was surprising for me to find the system quite acceptable and that it somehow still works quite well in this series.

Interactions between the characters were well written. Miss Forhock has created distinctive and vivid characters - she does a fantastic job describing the inner worlds of characters' minds. However, some of the writing for action sequence do come across as jagged, impatient, lacking in rhythm.

My other complaint is the length of the novel. While it isn't exactly short, readers are left with a lot of unanswered questions (Can't the people have their own children? Where's the Gods of the other religions if there is only 1 heaven (Christian-centrism??)?) which could be attributed to either lack of comprehensive world-building, or this being the first book in a series.

Personally I feel the author could have provided more information about the world to draw the reader into the story. The cliff-hanger could also be more distinct to attract sustained readership.

Overall, it was still highly commendable for a debut effort.



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French Films & Gaspard Ulliel

My love affair with French films started out with the lovely and passionate La Princesse de Montpensier (The Princess of Montpensier).

Through that amazing periodic piece film, I fell headlong in love with the extraordinarily beautiful and dashing Gaspard Ulliel:

My obsession led me to a viewing spree of Gaspard Ulliel's works, and in the process discovered the astoundingly adventurous and creative French film industry. My favourites aside from La Princesse de Montpensier have been the moving Les Choristes and utterly charming A Very Long Engagement (in which Ulliel's parts were amazing but far too brief)

This fantastic scene from A Very Long Engagement played a crucial part telling the love story of Mathilde and Manech, but this image showcases mindblowing cinematography which earned the film an Oscar nomination for Best Cinematography:

Justified (Timothy Olyphant)

You bet I'm glad Mags aint gotten Raylan dead with that poison-laced moonshine cup.

After 15 hours straight of Justified (around 1.5 seasons), I am beginning to talk like one 'o those hillbillies. heh

I also see that the major attraction of the show is Timothy Olyphant, who plays the title character of 'Marshal Raylan Givens'. Now Raylan is one truly unique character. He's charismatic, has deceptively laid-back mannerisms and doesn't give one inch when it comes to doing justice.

Timothy Olyphant simply defines the character, the hallmark of a truly great actor: making a character his very own and attracts the audience's love and devotion in spite of all the character's faults. Dexter, House and Don Draper had it, and Raylan had officially joined the serial-nominated-for-emmy club this year.

(Technically this isn't true since this is the first year he's nominated, but im predicting many, many more nominations to come)

The fact is, Timothy/Raylan just grows on you. He's not the typical handsome actor, but he's got style and charisma.

Such beautiful eyes. Sculpted features framed by salt-and-pepper whiskers and side burns, the perfect example of a man in his prime.