Leverage 1x01-1x02, 1x07

ETA: I didn't realize the episodes were aired out of order, so this review is for The Nigerian Job, The Homecoming Job, and The Two Horse Job.

ranalore recently got hooked on this, and when she introduced it as a caper show with weekly heists, complete with a computer/sf geek black guy and an antisocial woman in the ensemble. Sadly, neither Hardison (aforementioned geek) nor Parker (aforementioned antisocialite) are the leads of the team—the lead, of course, is a white guy—but they are still awesome.

Nathan Ford used to be an investigator for an insurance company, but he quit after his company denied payment for his son's medical treatment and subsequently sank into despair and alcohol. One day, he's given the chance to help someone out while sticking it to his old company, and he takes the offer and heads a team of people he used to try to catch. They consist of Hardison, who does the tech; Parker, who crawls through air ducts, hangs upside down, and blows stuff up; Sophie, who is a bad actress on stage but a great one in scams; and Elliott, who beats people up and is played by Christian Kane.

So far, I am pleased that the muscle is played by the white guy while (eta: see comments re: Christian Kane) the geek role is played by the black guy; that despite being a geek, Hardison is probably among the most well-adjusted of the crew; and that the amoral, money-loving, completely emotionally opaque one is played by the tiny blond woman. Sophie is more the standard femme fatale role, but the show seems to be setting her up with Nathan, and I like that they emphasize that her femininity is a cover and a scam and that they manage to do so without making the camera ogle at her and without putting her in horrible, revealing outfits.

This is probably not going to be the deepest of shows, but it's awesome brain candy. It's relaxing and funny and doesn't require me to keep my brain on for too much, and it does so without being horribly offensive! I realize the last bit sounds like damning with faint praise, but given the state of almost all TV I see, it seems to be much more difficult to achieve than one would think.

Also: capers!

Bishop, Anne - Tangled Webs and The Shadow Queen

I have a not-so-secret fondness for the Black Jewels books, having glommed onto them back in high school.

Tangled Webs is a story about a writer trapping Surreal and other people in a haunted house, while The Shadow Queen is more substantial. The latter is about Dena Nehele after the events of the trilogy and how Theran Grayhaven is trying to find a new, good Queen for the land. He ends up with Cassidy, a light-jeweled Queen from Kaeleer whose entire court abandoned her because she was not flashy and gorgeous. Sadly, Theran doesn't think much of her either, and the book is about Cassidy and Theran and Theran's cousin Gray and trying to rebuild Dena Nehele.

Both books suffer from too much of Jaenelle and the boys; I was more okay with it in Tangled Webs, given how insubstantial the story was, but they really are too much in The Shadow Queen. Both books deal with how Daemon, Saetan, and Lucivar are still recovering from centuries of abuse, and although I'm always happy to see old characters again, the SaDiablo storyline in The Shadow Queen has nothing to do with the main plot, feels inorganic to the characters, and comes and goes too quickly for what it tries to do.

On the other hand, I do like that Lucivar gets more to do in these books; I feel he's often overshadowed by his brother and father.

Anyway. Tangled Webs is skippable. I found the focus on the writer to be indulgent and boring, and the message about part-Blood characters trying to learn about their heritage felt insulting, especially given the power differential between the Blood and the landen. Surreal is in the book, but I feel she is never as scary and as dangerous as we are told she is, which makes me sad.

The Shadow Queen is more interesting, and although it does the whole women-connected-to-earth thing, I like that it is about aftereffects and healing and piecing societies back together after the big war. I also like that it focuses on less powerful Queens and Warlord Princes and that it gives a look at non-SaDiablo people in the world.

I find I'm still drawn to the world in the Black Jewels books, although I think it frequently fails in execution; the idea of a world with Queens as the most powerful and most fearsome people is still attractive to me. But that may also be high-school me talking!

Collins, Suzanne - The Hunger Games

And once again, I pick up a book that is the first of a trilogy, although it is never mentioned on the cover. Argh!

The really sad thing is that I am fairly certain people online made note of this, so I made note of it in my head, but it took so long for me to get my hands on the book that I forgot. My memory = sieve.

It's sometime in the future, and the United States (the book says North America, but there is no mention of Canada and Mexico, boo) has torn itself apart and reformed itself as Panem. There's the Capitol and twelve Districts, and when the then thirteen Districts once rebelled, the Capitol put them down, eradicted District Thirteen, and instituted the Hunger Games. Each District must send 2 teenagers, one boy and one girl, to the Games, in which they battle each other to death in several weeks, all televised. Katniss Everdeen is from District Twelve, the poorest District located in what once was Appalachia. When her twelve-year-old sister is picked, Katniss volunteers in her place.

I haven't read other books in the genre of teenagers-battle-to-death-while-televised, especially Battle Royale, so I can't compare this to any of them. That said, I'm not wowed by the social critique of dictatorship or conquering people via media, but that is because I have seen enough of the use of TV in dictators' hands. Still, I very much like the portrayal of political oppression in the book, particularly how Katniss and her friend Gale as so much more aware of some forms of oppression than her slightly-better-off teammate Peeta from District 12, simply because Peeta is the son of a baker and has a few more resources to draw on. My favorite thing about the book is Katniss, who is strong and brave and cunning and the exact opposite of spunky. I love that she will do nearly anything to survive, that she coldly calculates how to manipulate the viewers' emotions, and I very much like how the love story in the book ended up going.

The weaknesses of the book lie largely in the plot or how characters must act because of the plot. The other contestants in the Games are not fleshed out very well, and I was particularly bored by the final battle. I thought Collins was going to go a different route, but she settled on a more familiar and standard resolution instead. That said, the unresolved bits of story make me really anticipate the next two books.

( Spoilers )

This can be read without having the next books in hand; a few things are left hanging, but the book comes to a very satisfactory conclusion by itself.

Definitely recommended. How is Battle Royale, especially in terms of heroines? I may look it up once my nerves recover from this book. (I spent the day I was reading it convinced I was living in a media dystopia where everyone was going to kill me. Not particularly comfortable, but it says something about the power of the book!)

Links:
- buymeaclue's review