Book 56 of 2022

Just finished The Shadow Rising, book 4 of the 14-volume Wheel of Time fantasy saga by Robert Jordan.

On the downside it was a very long book, and felt like a slog at times. 1005 pages of story on my Kindle, and the longest book in the whole series.

The story does open up and also deepen in places here. New locations are introduced, and similarly new foes encountered. Though the latter sometimes suffered from being spread too thinly, without enough development or coverage in every case.

Another downside was that the story was split into too many strands, that it could become confusing, and not all would get the attention they deserved. I was also personally less interested in the storyline that I think was probably regarded by the author as the main one, and constantly wished to return to some of the others.

However it was a fun read, and in particular it further developed and deployed a marvellous fantastical storytelling element that I adore but don’t want to detail for spoiler reasons. There was one particularly surprising shock plot twist that made me go “What?!?!?” And I want to see where it all continues. But yup, a shorter read would be nice!

I dithered a long time between 3 and 4 stars in my Goodreads rating, eventually settling on 4, rounded up from what I’d probably rate as 3.75 out of 5 stars.

Current rewatching: Primeval

Thanks to Britbox adding loads of the episodes online recently I’m now rewatching Primeval in spurts late at night. I do have a DVD boxset, but streaming is so much more convenient.

I’ve watched the first two episodes again already. It’s very pacy, and I’m liking some characters more than in the first watch (eg Stephen seems better acted than I remembered!). It does feel very laboured directorially in places, e.g. the dinosaur in the school scene. I am also rather amused at the modernist university building on the outside with seemingly Cutter’s very old style office inside. Not just what he has in the office, but the walls and architecture which just doesn’t fit with outside!

But yes, pleasantly amusing. I like how at this stage it feels very open ended eg the mystery of Helen etc. I do remember feeling less enchanted as the plot re that played out. But yup, undemanding entertaining telly. And convenient to rewatch via streaming. Also most of the series are quite short in episode count, so there is very much a feeling of making progress.