Little Talks

The Disney live-action remake of Beauty and the Beast appeared, from the trailers, to be nothing more than a replica of the original animated movie. The details were somewhat different (obviously), but the story clearly wasn't going to change and the scenes were done exactly the same way. Beauty and the Beast has always been one of my favourite Disney movies, or at least Belle has always been my favourite princess. I was extremely happy to see that they had cast Emma Watson in the role, because she is perfect for it! But I worried that the movie might not be that interesting if nothing changed. After all, the live-action remakes began during the height of the rewritten fairy-tale trend (see Maleficent and Cinderella , also Once Upon a Time ). As disappointed as I might be with an altered storyline, I was hoping for a new angle on things. Watching this on the plane ride home over the summer, I was happily surprised to discover that the narrative was largely unchanged, but th...

Hello internet, my old friend! It's me! After months of silence I have finally returned. I look back at the past semester and wonder how I never once found the time to write a single post. And yet, the number of books that I have read and want to discuss only grew longer. I thought that the Christmas break would certainly give me more of an opportunity, and yet this is the first time I have really been able to sit down and type out what has been on my mind. So what's the issue here? Put simply, I've become an adult, and it turns out that adulthood = busyness. I should have expected as much, right? I mean, my parents have always struggled to find time to do things for themselves. It's been years since I've seen my mom read a book just for the fun of it. The problem is that I was mislead when I went abroad. I lived on my own for months, I took care of all of my own shopping, chores, and cooking, and I believed that I had finally experienced independent living and was...

Philippa Gregory has a way of making the women in history relatable and real, and in The Red Queen she manages to make Margaret Beaufort (mother of King Henry VII) into a woman characterised by her ambition and care for her son. The thing that is so unique about Gregory's female leads is that they are likeable, but they still have flaws. Margaret is consumed by the idea of fulfilling God's calling for her son's life, to the point that she continually sends him away from her to keep him safe. She thinks she is doing the right thing, and maybe she is, but she finds it hard to be a mother to the boy who barely knows her. Instead he is loyal to his uncle, the one man she has ever loved but can never be with. But, as with all of Gregory's books in this series, there are questions and doubts about what it means to be a powerful woman in a time and place dominated by rich and powerful men. The main question of this text is this: is Margaret trying to follow God's desire...

The final movie in the Harry Potter series is largely dedicated to the Battle of Hogwarts. All you really need to know about what happens in this movie is that Voldemort and his army rise and come to attack Hogwarts, while Harry, his friends, and the Order flock to the school to protect it. You might wonder at a time like this why the biggest battle in wizarding history is essentially a lot of evil lackeys and the Dark Lord versus students, teachers, and the few people who remained loyal to Dumbledore. Somehow I hardly questioned that in the book, but the movie made me question it. Then again, there is a recurring theme in the book of adults refusing to believe what is going on, but many students are convinced by Harry and the events at their school that Voldemort is alive and coming for The Boy Who Lived. Sounds an awful lot like Jesus' speech in Mark 10 when he describes the way that children are so much more willing to believe and trust than us skeptical adults. There are more b...

I had the amazing pleasure of being able to read Philippa Greggory's Counsins' War series while being in England. I even got the chance to visit York as well as tour the Tower of London, which only made this book more real to me. I am completely in love with the way that Philippa Gregory brings history to life. Not only that, but she is able to make women who lay at the margins of history to the forefront of the story in a way that makes them strong, ambitious, gentle, loving, and real. Her portrayal of Elizabeth Woodville had me amazed and inspired by a young widow who fell in love and became Queen of England. I was touched by the love she showed for her husband, her children, and her family. But I was also wary about her ambition, and at times I was downright angry with the way that she so willingly risked everything and ignored her children's wishes in order to get what she wants. She does not seem to have been a woman who was worried about making enemies. It is bo...

I've just been thinking about end of summer, my last year of university, the future, and making the most of life. I wish I had some deeper thoughts to share with you all today, but all I can say is that you shouldn't waste your time on things that you don't enjoy. Make the most of the situations you can't change, and change whatever you need to in order to live a life that makes you happy. Make time for God, find a job you love, indulge sometimes and make healthy choices when you can. That's my advice for you. Perhaps another good piece of advice, one that I've been slowly finding on my own, comes from About Time : live every day as if you've deliberately come back to that one day to enjoy it as if it were the last full day of your life. Let the small things go, and try to be present in every moment.

[Warning: spoilers] In the first part of the final instalment, Harry and his pals have left Hogwarts before their last year so that they can search for Horcruxes and destroy Voldemort before he gets too powerful. This is the point at which it starts to become real, when sacrifices must be made. Nonetheless, the Order of the Phoenix and Dumbledore's Army hang onto hope. Hermione erases herself from her parents' lives in case she doesn't survive the final fight. Harry must be transported under the protection, and misdirection, of the Order. In the process, George is wounded and Moody is killed. Dumbledore's will is brought out, and each of our three heroes is given a gift which Dumbledore feels will help them in their search. Then Bill and Fleur have their wedding at the Burrow near the end of the summer. For that short time, everyone is happy and relationships are able to grow. Hermione and Harry being at the Burrow allows them to feel like they are part of a family du...

A while back I read Kady Cross's short story The Strange Case of Finley Jayne and I liked the way that it was written to be such a mysterious and female-centric tale inspired by Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, so I made the decision to purchase the first book in The Steampunk Chronicles series. With the prequel being my first real introduction to steampunk literature, I was excited to see where this book would take things. However, I was very aware while reading this that it had been written first, with the prequel being done as an afterthought, albeit a well-thought-out afterthought. The Girl in the Steel Corset was far more YA than I was expecting. The characters felt less developed, and a little more archetypal, and certainly more childish than I was expecting. They just seemed like young teenagers with all the problems of people who don't yet have adult responsibilities. I have to admit that I prefer my young heroines to have a certain level of maturity that these characters ...

I really don't have a lot to say today, so I apologize. I've been working a lot, it's late, and t's almost the end of the summer - I'm brain-dead.

[Warning: this post contains spoilers] This is a (long-delayed) continuation of my Harry Potter movie series. Yes, somehow I managed to watch the first five and then take a very long break before watching the last three. If you don't know the stories by now, I question where you've been living for the past couple of decades. But if you don't know, here's what the movie is about: Death Eaters are wreaking havoc on the muggle and wizarding worlds, while at Hogwarts security has been greatly increased. Snape finally gets the DADA position he's always wanted and Professor Slughorn returns from retirement to teach Potions. Harry finds an old textbook that says it is property of the "Half-Blood Prince" and is full of marginal notes. This book of course turns out to be young Snape's. Suddenly Harry is the best potions student, and becomes part of Slughorn's Slug Club, a small group of his most prized students whom he treats to parties and takes under h...

[Warning: contains some spoilers...although most of this story can be found in the Bible, so I consider it common knowledge.] Risen is the story* of Jesus Christ's crucifixion and resurrection as told by the (fictional) Roman Tribune, Clavius. While none of the Roman officials particularly care about Jesus, they have him crucified upon request from the Jewish leaders and people. Pilate basically explains that he's doing it to satisfy the Jews to keep them quiet and complacent. Clavius watches Jesus die on the cross, and all the Roman soldiers in attendance are shaken by the trembling of the earth as Christ dies (no pun intended, but happy coincidence). Clavius oversees the placement of Jesus's body in a tomb and, knowing the prophecies of the Old Testament, the Romans seal a great stone across the front of the tomb and set two guards to watch and make sure that no one will come and take the body away to perpetuate the "myth" of his resurrection. Soon word reach...

I, Iago is a retelling of Shakespeare's Othello told from the perspective of Othello's right-hand man, Iago. I have to admit that I've never read or seen Othello, but the book summary attracted me. The novel is separated into two parts: the background and introduction to the characters and then the retelling of the play. If you've never read Othello (like me) then you might like to know that Iago is the villain in Othello, but the aim of this book is to prove that he is not (entirely) at fault for the things that go wrong in the play. At the beginning, I loved Iago. He was honest to a fault, but he felt like the only real, down-to-earth person in the rich world of medieval Venice. I also loved that his wife, Emilia, fit in as little as he did. They were the kind of characters I could completely relate to because they didn't care about doing things the popular way. And they were so in love. Then there was a somewhat dramatic shift into the second half of the boo...

I decided to make this a special edition of Sunday Sayings in case some of you still hadn't seen the finale last night. I apologize in advance if you still haven't watched it, because I'm not going to hold back on anything I want to say. I am so glad to have started this show when I did. In January, when I was just settling into my apartment in England, it was often quiet and lonely. So I started watching Orphan Black when I realized that it was on UK Netflix. For years I have wanted to see the show and understand what it was all about, and I'm beyond thankful that I was able to binge watch 4 seasons in a couple of months and then come home in time to watch the final season. While I wish this show had been in my life longer, I don't regret that I could see the show from start to finish in just about seven months. There are so many things that I admire about this show: it's raw, it's real, it's full of deep character development and well-incorporated ...

A Bloody Storm   is the dramatic conclusion to the trilogy of Castle books featuring Derrick Storm once he's been brought out of hiding. This one felt far less like a film noir or classic spy thriller, and much more like a CIA/military kind of action story, although still full of deceitful spies. In this book the Russians have been dealt with, but it is clear that the gold is still being kept in an undisclosed location, and Storm's handler believes that there is a mole in his operation, so he sends four ex-operatives to find the gold (which, by the way, they were only able to locate because of Storm and April). Storm is also desperate to get April back after she was kidnapped from the hospital in London. So, of course, there is some romance element to the whole thing. Somehow this book felt more like modern shows and less like the cheesy novels that the previous two were, although it wasn't much different. The change of setting and mission in each book makes them all quite...

Following the story that started in A Brewing Storm , this sequel finds Derrick Storm and his female FBI partner/counterpart April Showers (yes, he names his characters as badly as Ian Fleming - but I think that's on purpose), but this time they are investigating the death of a senator who seems to have had some connections to Russian communists and some hidden gold. They go to London to meet with a communist figure who had been in contact with the senator through some secret dealings. Derrick's swagger and confidence fade a little when he feels that he can't completely trust anyone involved in the case, but it allows him to open up a little bit more with April. The tension between them increases, but it seems that she's mostly just leading him on. She is powerful and ambitious and fiercely independent in this book, which I enjoyed. She breaks from the stereotypical mold that was cast for her in the first book. Dare I suggest that the ghost writer for this book might a...

[Warning: mild spoilers] Yes, I watched a few 30s films this year. It was for school - unfortunately, that's probably the only thing that will ever make me watch some of these old classics. It's not that their badly made, but their very typical of interwar attitudes and British films, like the ones I watched, were shaped by the censorship of the age. On the bright side I feel more educated and cultured now that I've seen and analysed some of these films. If you haven't heard of The 39 Steps (has anyone in my generation actually heard of it?) you might be interested to know that it's a Hitchcock film. Considering that his name was attached to this I wasn't expecting it to be so...bland. It's black and white - that's fine with me. It's your classic old romance film - I can deal with that. And it was a spy thriller - apparently. Yes, the storyline is a spy story. The soldier at the heart of the movie meets a mysterious woman at a music hall and when ...

Before I start: no, this is not going to be a post in which I preach at you. This is simply a review of a book I have read, as so many of my posts are. I just want to give people ideas about these books, and to open discussions about them (should anyone wish to have a discussion). This book, in my opinion, handles it's topic very well. Kevin DeYoung not only has gay and lesbian friends, but he is a pastor and is therefore very careful to say only what he can support with scripture. And he is aware that the world is complicated. He makes it quite clear from the start that homosexuality is not a choice any more than heterosexuality. And for this reason, the thoughts and desires associated with homosexuality are no more sinful. Yes, lust is a sin, but it is a sin no matter your sexuality. The problem with these thoughts occurs when we choose to act on them. Therefore, Kevin DeYoung's argument in this book is that the acts associated with homosexuality are sinful. And he explain...

Starting in a new positions at my job, I have to admit that I've been feeling pretty co rodent about it. It seemed simple enough. And then I hit an unexpected snag. I can across some problems that I didn't know how to solve because I've never experienced them before. And I admit that when I saw the first problem I started to panic a bit. But I reached out to my friend, and when he told me what to do I realized that it's okay if things don't always go as they should. After all, I'm human, so I'm going to make mistakes. Plus I'm still very new at this job, so no one will be expecting me to be perfect yet. If the fault is mine, they'll tell me what I've done wrong and hopefully I won't do it again. But I choose to see this as a learning experience, a small wave on an otherwise calm sea that has already passed me by. It won't stop me from enjoying life if I just let it go. This doesn't affect any of the important things in life.

[Warning: contains some spoilers] This short little ebook is the first in a trilogy of books based on those written by the title character of ABC's Castle  (one of my favourite shows). I decided to give this little series a go because I wanted to shake things up, read a different genre than my usual go-to. Plus I wanted something light and fun. And this is certainly both of those things. The Storm books are certainly cheesy - pulp fiction, some might say. They feel like the kind of mystery books you could pick up at a convenience store in a train station or an airport. But I enjoyed it! There was a film noir-esque narration style, and it was very typical for a spy thriller. There's a macho, dark male lead who has a thing for pretty women, especially the feisty and powerful ones, but he's running from his past. He had to fake his own death, and he's afraid to face the woman he left behind when their CIA boss calls him back for a new mission (luckily he doesn't have t...

This piece of British imperial film from the 1930s would never have been my first choice for a weekend movie, but I had to watch it in a class on popular culture in interwar Britain. The imperial attitude of the interwar years comes out quite clearly in this film. Full of stereotypes, blackface, and "othering", this movie is probably better as a piece of popular culture to be used for study than as an accurate representation of colonialism. I'm not sure that I could bear to watch it purely for entertainment purposes. And I'm not saying this because the movie is awful, but because it just feels...offensive. Having been written by the British as a way of promoting and justifying their colonial activity, the soldiers are portrayed as heroes and the native peoples of the fictional Middle Eastern country are either naïve, savage, or evil. Plus several of them are played by white men in blackface, which just felt wrong. The story is fairly simple (and quite a common narrat...

I came to the realization yesterday that a lot of my recent loves in film and TV are feminist pieces. This is not intentional, I swear, but I am drawn to female-driven programs like Orphan Black and The White Princess . Perhaps this is a more subconscious factor in my choice of show. When I read an interview for The White Princess this week, I discovered that the show is intentionally very female-driven. There was actually a discussion about the way that the male characters are almost entirely passive, at the mercy of the women around them. It's very much a reversal of the way the history is traditionally written, and I think that the variations from text to screen are a result of making the show more female-driven. The men in the show function as love interests and pawns more than anything else. The women manipulate them, lie to them, cause them fear or attempt to comfort them when they're afraid, etc. And I realize that this is not all that far off from what happens in Orp...

[Warning: contains mild spoilers] I first read this book when I was eleven. I remember being really fascinated by it, but having to return the copy to school at the end of the year even though I wasn't done reading it. So I took it out of the library, but by then I was unsure what part I had reached and I frankly don't remember finishing it...maybe that's because I never did. Nonetheless when I thought about trying to get back into really good, classic fantasy, this book came to mind and I knew I needed to read it again. What makes this book so great isn't the writing or even the setting, although those definitely add to the overall atmosphere. The thing that  stands out most about this book is that it's not an archetypal fantasy story of good versus evil. Instead, it is a story that uses magic to discuss the darker side of humanity and a young man's internal struggle with the darkest parts of himself. There are no major battles in the story, and magic is ge...

You know those instances when God just continually sends you the same message? The past two days have been like that. God has been helping me to understand what it is that is keeping me from having a close relationship with him, and the main reasons are pride and fear. It's hard to admit to pride, especially for people who don't like to boast...but pride can be subtle and quiet. Pride is thinking you're better than people, or that you can do things on your own. It's a hard thing to spot in your life, and harder to fix. Fortunately, God doesn't ask us to change on our own - He's here to help.

[Warning: contains spoilers] This movie is set about three years after the last one, and Kirk is getting bored of all the exploration and peace missions. Luckily for Kirk this is a movie, so we know something big is going to happen. Kirk is also upset because his birthday is coming up, which makes him think of his father and what it means to live up to that legacy as well as make his own. Uhura and Spock are going through a rough breakup, so our main characters aren't in the best place emotionally. When they stop in Yorktown, Kirk asks to be promoted to a council job on base and to have Spock take his place as captain. Finally, our conflict begins. The Federation receives a distress signal from an alien whose ship has apparently malfunctioned, stranding her crew on the far side of the nebula, and the Enterprise is sent on a rescue mission. As they approach the planet, the crew is attacked by a small army of ships, the Enterprise is destroyed and the crew is scattered. Scotty mee...

I feel that I should start this post by letting you know that I have not always been a fan of short stories. In fact, I still find that I'm quite picky about how interesting and symbolic they are. (Seriously, if you've ever read Canadian short stories, you'd probably get bored. I did. Even the symbolism can't make the prairies that interesting.) That being said, it seems odd that I would choose to read this, right? A little. But I found it on sale; plus the idea of rewritten and new fairy-tales has intrigued me since the day I started watching Once Upon a Time . I figured it was worth checking out. However, I have to say that this was not quite what I was expecting. Many of these were completely new stories, but maybe I was too picky because I felt like there were elements lacking from some of them. Many of the stories also felt very YA which, if you know me, was a little off-putting. There was a real mix of fantasy and real-world settings, mythology and magic, gods ...

Can we please just take a minute to appreciate how amazing Sing Street  is? I just watched it again, and I think it is the best movie ever! It is so heartfelt, funny, weird, sad, and wonderful. The music is downright amazing! The characters just capture your heart. I could watch it on repeat. I always feel so inspired by the brotherly love, and the idea of chasing your dreams and being an artist.  There are so many great lines in that movie, but following that thought I have chosen this one: Isn't it so fulfilling to create? Makes me want to spend every day writing my books and coming up with new ideas. Never give up on your dreams, my friends! Use the gifts God has given you; follow the Creator's example and create!

The third of John Carney's musical masterpieces (the others being Once and Begin Again ), Sing Street is a coming-of-age story set in 1980s Ireland. The great thing about Carney's musicals is that the music and singing don't just come out of nowhere; instead, the main characters are musicians and most (if not all) of the music that is heard throughout the movie is the music that the characters write and perform. In Sing Street Conor, the youngest of three, is forced to go to a new public school when his family can no longer afford to send him to a private school. Conor struggles to adapt to his new school, especially as he continually chooses to push back against the overly strict principal of Synge Street CBS. He makes a friend, but he also makes an enemy of the school bully. Meanwhile, tension grows at home as his parents fight and his drop-out brother adds to the family conflict by living at home and depending on his struggling parents. Walking home from school, Con...

[Warning: contains some spoilers] I've seen some horror movies in my time, but I always thought that the Saw movies were slasher flicks. And I guess they are, but the first one is not at all what I expected. The killer is an absolute psycho - there's no denying that! Yet I was surprised by how cheesy, freaky, and unpredictable this movie was. There is not a ton of suspense, which I suppose makes the movie less frightening, but I think that suspense can be the best element to use in making a horror film if it is done right. But what Saw lacks in suspense it makes up for in violence. Jigsaw is a serial killer who traps people in situations that are impossible to escape. He always provides a potential escape, usually in the form of a puzzle or a physical obstacle, but attempts to escape inevitably hasten the victim's death. I feel like the victims are a little stupid in these situations, though. Rather than attempt a risky escape, why do they not try to bide their time in ...

So I half-heartedly published this Sunday Sayings yesterday. I barely knew what to say, but for some reason I wrote it anyways. And then I noticed this morning that I published it instead of saving it for today. Oops! But after watching Orphan Black last night, I've decided to make a new post. Can you believe how close we're getting to the end of this amazing series? I'm both excited and sad to see the end of this show. But I like where it's going! Just wish it wasn't moving so slowly.

[Warning: spoilers ahead] La La Land was not what I was expecting. It is a story about the desire to make it big in Hollywood. The plot is simple enough; an actress and a musician, both hoping to get their big breaks, repeatedly cross paths. At first they don't get along, but eventually (somewhat suddenly) they start a relationship. They slowly find more successful jobs, although they don't necessarily get what they want. Mia is doing what she wants, but barely getting by. Sebastian finds fame and success, but he is basically just a sell-out. One day their career paths take them in different directions. Jumping ahead several years, we see that Mia is now a very successful actress, and Sebastian owns the jazz club he always hoped to have. However, they are no longer together. And then, painfully, we are forced to watch them imagine what their lives would have been like if they'd never split up. The most upsetting part of this is that their lives are basically the same, exc...

[Warning: contains spoilers] I came across this book in a newsletter, I believe. As a child who was obsessed with Narnia, and an adult who is fascinated by the consequences of Wonderland on Alice's reality (though I have, admittedly, never read the book), the idea of this book intrigued me immensely. What I was not expecting from this book was a murder mystery. Nonetheless, it was well-incorporated into the theme of interworld travel. The thing is that the tone of the book was not at all what I expected. I was really interested in reading a short story about the psychological consequences of interworld travel, and possibly a debate about the validity of alternate realities. However, the story makes it quite clear that the alternate realities are, in fact, real. And while the kids are taught to accept the fact that they will probably never get to go back to the worlds they've left behind, there is still a hope instilled in each of them that they can one day go back to where t...

The Tales of Beedle the Bard is yet another amazing addition to the Potterverse that really helps to bring the wizarding world to life. I love that the book is written as though Rowling is a muggle who was allowed to copy the version of the text which was once owned by Dumbledore and Hermione and has published it for all the rest of us muggles to enjoy. It even has added commentary from Dumbledore and Rowling, explaining the meanings of the stories and clarifying certain wizarding concepts. For a while now I've wondered how hard it must be to create a new fairy-tale, but Rowling has clearly succeeded in making not one, but five. They feel like the kind of nursery rhymes or fairy-tales that you've heard all your life, but they fit right into the wizarding world that Rowling has created. These stories were easy to read and very enjoyable. I can just imagine reading these to my children someday, along with the classic fairy-tales and Disney stories. Not only are the tales clev...

So Canada officially turns 150 this weekend! It's nice to be home for the celebrations. After being in so many countries with histories running back hundreds of years since their political foundations, it's crazy to think that Canada is still such a young country with the potential to shape itself. Of course, even Canada has some negative parts of its past that we'd like to forget, but I'm hopeful for the future.

The Casual Vacancy  is the first (and only) non-Harry Potter book I've read by J. K. Rowling. And it was a really interesting read. I tend to read fantasy/SF or historical fiction...fiction in a day-in-the-life sort of style is not something I've ever found myself drawn to. But I enjoyed this book. The time-span covered by the book is not long, there is not one major crisis event at the centre of the story; instead it is a deep exploration of a handful of characters in a small English village as they deal with the sudden and unexpected death of a well-known and important figure in the village. The constantly shifting narration was confusing at moments, but the characters were extremely interesting. No one is straightforward. Every character has vices and flaws, dreams and ambitions, and they all experience hurt and insecurity. There were moments when I hated most of them, and felt bad for almost all of them. You never consider how one man's death could tear a village a...

You may have noticed that I haven't posted a Sunday Saying in a few weeks. I've been a little busier than I expected to be this month, now that I am home. Yup, I flew into Canada a couple of weeks ago. Now I have to get back into routines here at home. (And think about what I'm doing with my life after school, but we won't talk about that). It's nice to be home, but I did like England.

[Warning: This post may contain spoilers - read at your own risk.] The Fantastic Beasts movie franchise is a clear cash-grab, right? We all know it, but that doesn't stop us fans from flocking to the theatres to see the latest addition to the Potterverse. After all, I think we're all a little curious to witness the creative genius that is J. K. Rowling. The fact that she has all of this extra material about the wizarding world that hasn't been used is amazing, and it keeps the fans hanging on. It's a win-win; we get the continual release of new materials, and Rowling gets crazy rich and famous for all of the work that she put into this series. I was particularly excited for this movie when I saw that Eddie Redmayne was cast as Newt Scamander. I also loved the idea that this movie featured a Hufflepuff as the main character. Nice to see my house represented! And, on top of all of that, the movie is set in 1920s New York, which is just amazing! The city is wonderful, a...

[Warning: mild spoilers] Many people may be unaware that Les Misérables  was originally a novel by Victor Hugo, the man who wrote The Hunchback of Notre Dame . And just like his other novel, Les Mis is extremely long. The book tells the story of Jean Valjean's redemption after getting out of prison and the way that he tries to do whatever he can to assist others, until the day when Inspector Javert realizes who he is and he is forced to spend the rest of his days running and hiding from the officer who is bent on revenge. The one thing that continues to push Jean Valjean to run is a girl named Cosette. He adopted the girl when her mother, who had worked for him, passed away. The girl was in the care of a selfish couple whom the mother had paid to raise the little girl. It's very much a Cinderella story, with Cosette being treated more like a servant than a part of the family. Jean thus dedicates his life to caring for the young girl, but the Thenardier family repeatedly co...

Arkady and Boris Strugatsky's Roadside Picnic is unlike any book I've ever read. It tells the story of a sort of post-apocalyptic world in which aliens landed on Earth and left very shortly afterwards. No one saw the aliens or knows what they were doing and why they did it, but they left behind zones which have remnants of their presence: objects left behind, forces and earthly things which have been altered, etc. Certain risk-takers sneak into the zones in hopes of collecting objects to sell (for collection or scientific exploration). Scientists also hire some of these men to guide them through the zones to study them. Red is one of these men, and the novel's main story concerns the way that the zone affects Red and his family. He marries the woman of his dreams, but he puts himself in danger, their daughter devolves and his father is brought back to life (in a zombified state). There are some insightful speeches about things like religion, politics, humanity, and scien...