Prelude to flame

November has arrived. Some might call it the best month of the year. They'd probably be right. We are a mere day away from Guy Fawkes's attempted commentary on government. In light of our current Keystone Cops routine one might tend to wonder if he didn't have something there...

We finished off October with Lady in White and Alien. I remember watching Lady in White while growing up, but apparently retained no actual knowledge of the plot. Other than the kid being trapped in the school. It made for interesting viewing. We watched that one with the kids. I have no idea if they liked it or not. It's a curious little tale. Held up pretty well for the most part.

Alien is of course still the classic it always was. I suspect it's my favorite of the series. Actually I probably like them in the order they were released. Well except for that 4th one... It was good to see it again.

I have given up on The Passage. I was listening to the audiobook version, but it just didn't grab my attention. Mostly it was due to the author trying to do a literary fiction take on genre fiction. Badly. Instead of telling the story (which certainly had the potential to be interesting) he kept talking about the story. It was not good.

And I'm not holding out a lot of hope for The Fall either. I enjoyed The Strain, del Toro and Hogan's take on vampires, but the sequel isn't living up to the initial story for me. I'm about a third of the way through and we'll see if I finish.

I did manage to finish The Jennifer Morgue though. And the second Laundry Files novel was just as enjoyable as the first. I really like that series. This one was an amusing riff on James Bond stories. I probably missed some of the nods as I'm certainly more familiar with the films (I've not managed to read any of the books) but that's ok, it was another fun romp with Bob and the rest of the crew in the Laundry. I look forward to the third book.

I need a nap...