Lucas Blogs About Books

Huh, I didn't realize that a book could be a libra. So, what's this book's deal? It's the conclusion to the Amberlough Dossier by Lara Elena Donnelly. We've discussed the two previous entries on this very blog. Oh, right. I'll get around to reading those one day. All, right, but we'll definitely be discussing SPOILERS  for the previous books, so don't say I didn't warn you. I will not. All right, so this book begins about five years after the end of Armistice . The One State Party (or Ospies) have been removed from power and the provisional government is preparing for the first election since the transition of power and the front runners are Opal Saeger, a populist organizer who worked within the Catwalk resistance group whose terrorist attacks helped oust the OSP, and Emmeline Frye, an industrialist with a firm understanding of policy and optics but also a clear bent towards cronyism and underhanded deal-making. Wait! What abou...

Literal peacocking. So, what's this book's deal? Well, part one of it's deal is that it's the sequel to Amberlough  by Lara Elena Donnelly. You may remember that I reviewed that book last year and that I enjoyed it. It takes place in a fictional country called Gedda with more than a few parallels to Europe in the 1920s, and centers around the lives of spies and criminals as they try to survive a coup by a fascist, authoritarian party. Thank you for filling me in, I had forgotten. You mean you still haven't read it? I'm not angry, but I am disappointed. You're not my dad! Good point. Anyway, like I said, this is the next entry in the series, so we might end up revealing a few SPOILERS   about Amberlough , consider this your warning. Does it pick up where the last book left off? Yes and no. There hasn't been a huge shift in the status quo, but it is several months later. Aristide Makricosta, former stripper and emcee at the Bee cabaret, ...

Yes, I did go to the library just to checkout a book I no longer own so that I could take this picture.  Some people like to complain about the inevitable changes that occur when a story is adapted from one medium to another. But let's be honest, sometimes, the less faithful an adaptation is, the more memorable it is. So, in this series I'll be taking a look at adaptations where creators took one look at the source material and said, "FUCK THAT NOISE!" to see how that turned out. Today's Oddaptation: Casino Royale (1953) by Ian Fleming into Casino Royale (1967) dir. Ken Hughes, John Huston, Joseph McGrath, Robert Parrish, Val Guest, and Richard Talmadge, written by Wolf Mankowitz, John Law, and Michael Sayers The more writers and directors a movie has, the better it is, right? The Original: James Bond, Agent 007 of MI6 has been tasked with the very important mission of playing baccarat in Monte Carlo. "What's baccarat?" you ask. "It...