Game And Legend

Book Review:
Last week I finished reading “Skin Game” (2014©), written by Jim Butcher.  This is the fifteenth book in the Dresden Files fantasy / horror / detective / adventure series.  The series traces the life of Harry Dresden, who is a practicing wizard, working in Chicago as a private detective / investigator.  In this volume, Harry joins up with a band of bad guys to try to steal some holy relics from a safe in Hades.
If you are not familiar with the series, it is quite formulaic:  good guy (Harry) is placed in an awkward position and must overcome a series of bad guys in order to resolve the novel’s main story, while devoting about 10% of the book to furthering the main arc of the series – Harry’s continuing process of discovering the hero in himself while fighting to overcome evil.  Like all volumes in the series, it mostly stands on its own, but will be a lot more enjoyable if you’ve read all the preceding volumes.
Obviously, as I’ve now read fifteen of them, I’m a fan of the series and the author.  Are these “great” novels?  No.  Are they (is it) well written and enjoyable reads?  Yes!  So, highly recommended…  Again, as stated in reviews of the prior volumes, while the series is intended for the “young adult” reader, it (the series and this volume) contain graphically described violence and are probably not appropriate for most young teens and definitely not pre-teens.  This series is NOT Harry Potter for slightly older children.
As an additional mention, two things I learned from reading this book are: Hades is the name for the Greek god who rules “the underworld” and it has also come to be the name used for the “underworld” and precedes the Christian term “Hell”.  (I guess I already knew these things, but they never really settled into my conscious mind.)  The second thing I learned is that the Greek god Hades is not the equivalent of the Christian devil (“Satan”).  Hades is, in fact, more closer to a final judge of souls than a promoter of “evil” on Earth.
Movie Review:
Today I had my initial viewing of the movie (on DVD) “Ip Man: The Legend Is Born“.   Dennis To stars in the title role.  The movie came out in 2010 and is the third in the series of four, although it is fourth in my viewing order simply because that’s the order I was able to purchase them.  “Series” is a bit misleading, as the movies are not really chronological or meant to be viewed in any particular order.  They’ve simply been very popular and therefore additional portions of Mr. Ip’s life have been dramatized.  The movie comes with English language translation, so you don’t have to read sub-titles.
If the movies were an actual series, this movie would be the prequel to the first movie as this covers his life from childhood through early manhood, roughly up to the Sino-Japanese War.
So, is it any good and how does it rank vis-à-vis the others in the series?  I think it is number two, after only the original (Ip Man).  The fights are energetic, well choreographed and well filmed without too much wire-work, which is popular in China, but detracts from a movie’s realism (IMHO).
All in all, I rate this movie as highly recommended both as a movie and as a pure martial arts film.
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On This Day In:
2021	What Should Be Universal Exercise
	I’m So Glad
2020	Trying To Keep On Keeping On
	Bending
2019	Ooops (Again)
2018	Two Start Up Front
2017	I Love America Because…
	An Act Of God
	And So It Came To Pass (Act Of God part 2)
2016	As Far From
2015	Rocky 7
	Just Like Politics
2014	Game And Legend
	“Scientific” Pride In Humanity
2013	Real Honor
	Catching Up
2012	Thoughts And Communications
2011	But How Does Peter Feel?
2010	Name That Regret

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“Scientific” Pride In Humanity

The well-developed, well-patterned individual human being is, in a strictly scientific sense, the highest phenomenon of which we have any knowledge;  and the variety of individual personalities is the world’s highest richness.
—    Julian Huxley
[I am not sure this was ever true and I become less convinced of it every day.    —    kmab]
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On This Day In:
2021	What Should Be Universal Exercise
	I’m So Glad
2020	Trying To Keep On Keeping On
	Bending
2019	Ooops (Again)
2018	Two Start Up Front
2017	I Love America Because…
	An Act Of God
	And So It Came To Pass (Act Of God part 2)
2016	As Far From
2015	Rocky 7
	Just Like Politics
2014	Game And Legend
	“Scientific” Pride In Humanity
2013	Real Honor
	Catching Up
2012	Thoughts And Communications
2011	But How Does Peter Feel?
2010	Name That Regret

Read Full Post »