Book #10

"The Drowning City (The Necromancer Chronicles #1)" by Amanda Downum

4 stars out of 5

An interesting book with many interesting characters - yet only a few of them were actually likable. The only characters I really rooted for were Zhirin, Adam and Asheris, Isyllt to a certain extent. Xinai I liked at first but after a while... I just can't root for a terrorist who has no qualms to kill a whole village or burn down a city, children and all. No, just no.

If you want to read a book where you can root for a certain party without reservation, then this one's not for you. Everybody is either a terrorist or a foreign agent hellbent on destroying the city and nobody gets a real happy ending. Also, there were so many names and titles and factions and parties and whatnot that it took me quite a while to sort them out and it was rather difficult to keep them straight, who was with whom and against whom or what...

Fortunately, the book was well written and quite fast paced, so it read rather well.

Fortysomething 101

Finally watched the first episode of Fortysomething - and my favorite scenes were the ones with Hugh Laurie and Benedict Cumberbatch.







Hugh Laurie as the nervous, spastic, totally off his rocker father and Benedict Cumberbatch as his level-headed, responsible eldest son with murderous tendencies towards his younger brothers. These two are simply hilarious together, playing off each other perfectly. And it's great to hear Hugh's British accent and Benedict's voice that was so deep and wonderful even back then.

Quotables?

Paul: What is she? Some kind of a witch?
Rory: Her voice does have a rough quality to it.

Paul (re: lesbians): Oh, God! They are everywhere!

Paul: Oh, God! God! God! God! No! My wife is in a park! With a lesbian! And ducks!

And the scene where Benedict bounced the ball off the wall! It was exactly like the scene in The Reichenbach Fall!

And it's really funny that they played father and son here and Hugh then went on to play House and Benedict ended up playing Holmes. What a coincidence!