justine larbalestier's magic or madness
this is a sort of YA fantasy novel; the main character has been raised on tales of her evil witch grandmother, but when her mother goes nuts, she's sent to live with the supposed witch. magic adventures ensue, and there's a mysterious ending that seems to indicate a sequel is in the works.
speaking of endings leading up to sequels, i saw pirates of the caribbean 2 today and it's totally the empire strikes back of the series. more curses, swashbuckling, truly terrifying teeth, and a little romance make for an entertaining enough movie, but seriously, total cliffhanger ending.
but all is not lost! my favorite hour of summer television is tongiht--entourage followed by the venture brothers!
plus, i have been listening to the white whale album nonstop for the past couple of weeks, and i am totally excited to see them in august. can you believe i haven't been to a show ALL SUMMER????
Empire is routinely referred to as the best of the trilogy -- would you award Pirates 2 this honor (so far) as well? I've heard very mixed reviews so far... I won't be seeing the movie in the theatre, I'm pretty sure, but I see skyscrapers plastered with Captain Jack's image every day...
ReplyDelete(MIke)
oh, god no. this falls pretty squarely into the shoddily-written-sequel camp.
ReplyDeletehere's a good review (with spoilers) indicating some of the major problems with the movie (mainly shoddy writing, as noted above): http://pwbeat.publishersweekly.com/blog/2006/07/09/potc-ii-the-death-of-hollywood/
ReplyDeleteer, let's try that again: review here.
ReplyDeleteI haven't read said review but I will say that I really liked the movie (I liked both). I wasn't as swept away by it, but I was not let down, and am very much looking forward to the next move. I love those pirates.
ReplyDeletethat review disliked the movie more than i did--i didn't dislike it, i just thought it wasn;t as good as the first. i am psyched for the third one, mainly b/c keith richards is in it. :)
ReplyDelete