plodding onward

[rose_griffes]

Getting closer to the end of the semester, and I AM SO TIRED. Particularly tired of grading papers, but also just generally tired.

Anyway. Aside from the problems of having one character named Jennifer and another character named Jessica (why?! they're too similar and I get confused!), I enjoyed the romance novel Beard Science by Penny Reid. Too many sex scenes near the end, but then again I'm the type of reader who often skims sex scenes anyway. I very much enjoyed the character growth in the heroine and hero, and the humor usually worked for me. So consider this a moderately enthusiastic recommendation. (I bought it because it was one of the deals of the day. So my recommendation includes not having paid full price.)

I watched a short series of character trailers for The Witcher; its first season is available December 20 on Netflix. It looks like a fairly standard fantasy epic set in fantasy Europe: the people are pretty and mostly white. I am curious enough to give the first episode a try during Winter break. After the grading... and grading... and grading...

Season four of The Expanse is now on Amazon, but I'm still rewatching season two. I think that's what I'll continue to do, at least until Winter break. I probably won't rewatch all of season three; just the first half.

Comments

[shadowkat]

Regarding the Witcher? It's probably worth noting that it is adapted from a series of books written by a Polish writer in the 1980s. (I found this out from two people on my correspondence list who'd read the books in Russian before they got translated to English.) So, it's sort of an update from the 1980s sensibilities, and I'll be extremely surprised if there's any POC in this series. They'll be mostly if not all white, and most likely look North Eastern European (Polish, Russian, Ukranian, etc.)

Thanks for the link though -- it got me interested -- it appears to have some really strong female characters in there. Yennifer looks particularly interesting.

[rose_griffes]

I knew about the Polish origins, but not the time period when it was written. So yeah... we'll see. Netflix has been moderately good about trying to make its adaptation shows more diverse, but with something that has been both a well-liked book series and video game, maybe they played it safer.

Yennifer interests me as well; it was having two women featured as leads in the same video as Geralt that made me change my mind from "Eh, whatever" to "What the heck, I'll give it a shot." (It's probably what I'll try watching next weekend when a) it comes out, and b) Star Wars does too, but it's not getting my money opening weekend. If I don't like The Witcher, I'll continue with The Expanse and/or Unforgotten on Prime.)

[shadowkat]

Yeah, feel the same way.

I'm not really a fan of traditional Northern European fantasy tropes. Also Henry Cavil doesn't do a lot for me, one way or the other -- he's pretty, but...not enough for me to watch a television show, and characters like Geralt tend to annoy me.

But. The female lead characters look really interesting. So, I'll probably try sometime in January -- but with low expectations. I thought it was starting this week -- but apparently it's next week? And I'm leaving town next Friday.

Also, it's not like I have a shortage of television shows to watch.

[rose_griffes]

I wasn't really feeling any kind of way about Cavill as Geralt, but that character intro video made me shift slightly toward a more positive reaction. Maybe because he's not always so fantastically pretty all the time in the role.

But yes: low expectations, still gonna give it a try. And there really are SO MANY other things to watch if it's a no-go.

[yourlibrarian]

Mike finally finished grading last night and even though he still needs to enter grades today we both did a happy dance. I think regardless of work type, everyone ends up cramming stuff to get done by the end of the year. We went to the dentist on Wednesday and they told us that they were getting people wanting appointments in these last few weeks in order to make use of their dental insurance. Needless to say, the office was completely booked and with standbys.

[rose_griffes]

Ooh, useful reminder. I was going to get my annual eye checkup, but I'll wait until January. (Since our insurance goes from the beginning of September to the end of August.)