Category: Reviews

It’s been a while since I’ve blogged on a TV series. Not that I haven’t been watching them! In fact, the last few months I’ve been well nourished for drama with WEEDS, POLDARK, SUITS, HOMELAND, HOUSE OF CARDS, THE FALL and sundry other terrific shows. But much as I love Aiden Turner and have recently particularly enjoyed POLDARK, the shining jewel in the crown of TV this year — perhaps any year — has been OUTLANDER.

Ronald D. Moore has achieved a stunning adaptation of Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series. It is a well cast, well executed, lovingly (and no doubt exhaustingly) recreated glimpse into life in the Scottish Highlands during the build up to the Jacobite rebellion of the 1740s.

It shouldn’t be any surprise that Moore has pulled it off with such panache; Battlestar Galactica Re-imagined is still one of the best SF dramas to ever grace the small screen. In fact, I often re-read his original pitch for the show, which is available online.

Outlander is an epic love story across time built around the characters of Jamie Fraser, a young Scot wanted for murder, and Claire Beauchamp, a nurse transported from the 1940s to the dangerous 18th century Scottish highlands, both of who are very genuinely realised by Sam Heughan and  Caitriona Balfe. Not only is their chemistry palpable, but the dialogue they are given to deliver is intelligent, realistic, and sprinkled with moments of humour and tenderness.

The pivotal wedding episode in the first series is without question the most romantic, sensitive, delicious, sensual, engaging love scene I’ve ever seen on screen. Why? Because Moore and his writers saw fit to allow the characters time to talk to each other and build their own, and the viewers, belief in the unfolding relationship. My goodness, what a difference conversation makes! Everything similar that has come before it seems pallid and rubbery.

Graeme Virtue in The Guardian writes:  “In Moore’s deft hands, there’s an immediacy and volatility to Outlander that makes nominally similar fare such as The Musketeers feel a bit panto in comparison… The episode devoted to Claire and Jamie’s first proper Highland fling has already become a minor cause célèbre thanks to its rare acknowledgement of the female gaze. Unusually, the camera lingers over Jamie’s naked body as much as Claire’s. It’s a progressive depiction of sex on screen: a relishable but relatable mixture of nerves, desire and animal passion.”

While I agree Grame Virtue’s notion of the female gaze, it is so much more than a relishable but relatable mixture of nerves, desire and passion. The wedding scene he refers to is a delicate game of courtship, shifting emotional momentum, and the characters’ instinctive journey towards developing a deep and enduring trust. But maybe that’s just my female gaze :)

Certainly my female gaze is well and truly engaged by the fact that story is largely told through Claire’s eyes, but also by the respect that she engenders for her intellect and competency.

The supporting cast is convincing: Tobias Menzies as Black Jack Randall/Frank Randall, and Graham McTavish and Dougal MacKenzie have particular impact, though my favourite would have to be Annette Badland as Mrs Glenna Fitzgibbons.

Being in Australia, I’ve only seen series 1 part 1, and am impatiently waiting part 2 while the rest of the world waits for Series 2!

The piece de resistance, however, is the theme song. I’ve had a love affair with the Sky Boat Song since I was a child. Later on, I used to sing it to one of my sons when he was young and had trouble settling into sleep. To hear the lyrics rewritten and performed so magnificently by Bear McCreary featuring Raya Yarbrough is a spine tingling experience.

As you can see I’m running out of superlatives. I don’t think I’ve ever been quite so engaged with a television series before. If I haven’t convinced you yet then let me say it plainly…if you want your soul to be touched, sometimes wounded, and ultimately uplifted, you must watch it.

Thanks to Ronald D, Moore for his vision, and to his writers and cast for going all in. I’m reading the first novel now, and it will be an interesting experience doing this in reverse (normally I would always read the book first). I’m sure Diana Gabaldon’s version is equally, if not more, loving.

Multi-award winning author Aliette de Bodard, brings her story of the War in Heaven to Paris, igniting the City of Light in a fantasy of divine power and deep conspiracy…

In the late twentieth century, the streets of Paris are lined with haunted ruins, the aftermath of a Great War between arcane powers. The Grand Magasins have been reduced to piles of debris, Notre-Dame is a burnt-out shell, and the Seine has turned black with ashes and rubble and the remnants of the spells that tore the city apart. But those that survived still retain their irrepressible appetite for novelty and distraction, and The Great Houses still vie for dominion over France’s once grand capital.

Within the House, three very different people must come together: a naive but powerful Fallen angel; an alchemist with a self-destructive addiction; and a resentful young man wielding spells of unknown origin. They may be Silverspires’ salvation—or the architects of its last, irreversible fall. And if Silverspires falls, so may the city itself.

EDITION Hardcover ISBN 9780451477385 PRICE $26.95 (USD)

The story opens up with a fallen angel being dissected by scavengers. The land is in ruins as a result of the great war, and angel essence is a much sought after drug. Selene, the head of House Silverspires, saves Isabelle and one of the scavengers, Phillipe. Selene can tell there is something different about Phillipe and intends to keep a close eye on him.

Since the war, the houses have never been too friendly, and when events bring the houses to a conference at House of Silverspires, all hell breaks loose. There is a shadow figure on the loose who has been killing people. Betrayals, secrets, revenge and abusive of powers all eventually become part of the storyline, as everybody’s lives, especially those of the House, are in danger.

There is never a dull moment in the story, and the world building was amazingly detailed and hauntingly post-apocalyptic. Phillipe becomes the focus of the story as Selene tries to figure out who he is, and he tries to figure out a way to become unbound from her powers. Isabelle and Phillipe have a tie to each other and that comes into play throughout the story. The one character that has really stuck with me after reading this book, however, is Madeleine, the alchemist of House Silverspires, formerly of House Hawthorn, who is addicted to angel essence. Everything about her was hauntingly honest and true; the growth of her character throughout the story really stood out to me.

There was nothing that I did not like about this story. Everything comes together with perfect timing and intensity. If you enjoy stories about war, politics, fallen angels, high fantasy magic, this is a must read!

A book that I would highly recommend with a great ensemble of characters and story lines. It’s pretty epic.

Once in an age a novel comes around that stirs up such excitement that even before it reaches a publishing house the author grows a following that many writers can only dream of. A Crucible of Souls by Mitchell Hogan is one of these astounding novels.

Originally self published by Hogan in 2013, A Crucible of Souls quickly attracted followers drawn to his enthralling storytelling style and complex characters. With more than thirty thousand ebook sales under his belt Hogan was approached by the speculative fiction arm of HarperCollins, Harper Voyager, and now this great series has a new home between physical covers. And as many bibliophiles will attest, it isn’t Sword and Sorcery unless you get to feel the pages beneath your fingers as you read.

And Sword and Sorcery this series is, but it’s thankfully far removed from the classical epic styles and with plenty of twists to provide distinction from the old tropes that usually permeate the genre.

A Crucible of Souls follows the complex and event plagued life of Caldan, a young man orphaned in his youth under mysterious circumstances and raised by sorcerer monks in a monastery that is part refuge, part school for the wealthy and magically gifted. After an incident in the monastery results in Caldan’s exile from everything he knows, he is quickly thrown into the real world with little more than a collection of half-trained skills, a pair of enigmatic rings, and a burning need to find out what happened to his family.

What follows is both far and familiar to readers of the Fantasy genre. This is still a tale of magic and swordplay in a pre-industrial revolution setting, and there are the classic themes of heroism and epic struggle redolent since the golden age of Fantasy, where Hogan differs from most authors is how he crafts his characters. For when a writer creates a world, it’s the characters that define what it becomes.

Hogan’s characters are some of the most human to be found on paper in many years. Deep and flawed, ambivalent, conflicted between self-interest and doing the right thing, every character in A Crucible of Souls is sculpted from raw emotion into something real and shocking enough that even though many only last a few pages the reader nevertheless is drawn to every story they might have to tell.

And it’s not just the characters that work so hard to make this novel a success. Hogan has built a world unique in its treatment of the subject of sorcery, of the desperation of mankind, of the atrocities committed in the name of “doing good”. And while this is primarily Caldan’s tale, Hogan does not shy away from giving brief glimpses into the minds of other characters that make this novel such an enthralling experience.

Any fan of the Fantasy genre will love this novel, as will anyone who enjoys epic storytelling, complex characters, or just getting the chance to read something that stands far above the norm.