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The Edible City: A Year of Wild Food

John Rensten

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"The foodie book of the year" The Spectator "An inspiring book for city dwellers who pine for the...

Lenard (726 KP) rated Voyagers (2021) in Movies

Apr 18, 2021

Voyagers (2021)

2021 | Adventure, Sci-Fi, Thriller

5.7

(3 Ratings)

Movie Rating

Voyagers is the story of an 86-year voyage to a life sustaining planet in another galaxy. How did they stock the ship for the crew? When the 1st generation crew dies, who is going to train the next generation? Will the next generation listen since they are the first crew's children? Next question: you are going to bred a crew from intellectual superior Earthlings and keep them isolated in a facility so they will not miss the Sun or anything on Earth. How will these children develop a circadian rhythm since human circadian rhythms are based on the Sun? How do you settle upon 30 crew members? Could you have 60 crew members and give each a different circadian rhythm so you would have 3 shifts of 20 and someone would always be monitoring the vessel? Would that be more efficient and safer than all 30 being on the same cycle? These are just the science-y questions for this story.
Now, the actual film. The writer decides to quickly dispatch the lone "adult" in this cast of YAs. Slowly the crew descends into Lord of the Flies. At one point, I was wondering which one is the Piggy. Hint: brown and male. There is a little twist where one of the crew turns paranoia into a weapon and launches a leadership campaign. I enjoyed the concept of an alien that was not there, but could attack anyone. It never went far as the movie turned into a battle of arms rather than wits. I prefer not to critique films based on what should have been done. But shouldn't the crew have learned at some point that the pressure outside in outer space on a metal tin can travelling at interstellar speeds creates friction which reverbs inside. Then the film could have focused on a more politically tinted parable.
One scene disturbed me. The acting of Lily-Rose and Fionn is so bad that I thought a porn scene had been edited into the space opera.

Kudos

ClareR (5784 KP) rated Space Hopper in Books

Feb 9, 2021

Space Hopper

Helen Fisher | 2021 | Contemporary, Fiction & Poetry, Science Fiction/Fantasy

8.0

(1 Ratings)

Book Rating

Space Hopper is a wonderful story about the love of mothers and daughters, loss, reconnection and time travel. Quite a mix there, and that’s exactly what drew me to this book.
Who, in Faye’s position, wouldn’t take the opportunity to visit someone they had loved and lost? What makes it all the more intriguing is the fact that this person is Faye’s mother. Although Faye is happily married with two young children, she feels a gap in her life - and the person she wants to fill that gap is her mother. But she died when Faye was 8 years old. When she accidentally steps inside the Space Hopper box that she has kept since childhood, that strength of feeling transports her back to the 1970’s and her childhood home.
This isn’t a book that you can rationalise, so it’s best not to, after all, it’s the strength of Faye’s feelings, I think, that take her back in time. It’s a very sad book at times, and if I was faced with Faye’s decision - to stay with my family or to see my mum after not seeing her for 30 years - I would be hard pressed to make the right choice. After all, what IS the right choice?
It does seem a little selfish of Faye to choose to go somewhere where she might not be able to return from, but there’s no doubting Faye’s love for her husband and children. But to be able to speak to her mum as an adult after so long - you can imagine how compelling that must have been for Faye.
I really enjoyed this, and I have so many thoughts about it that I could go on and on about it! It would make such a good book club book - there’s so much to discuss.
The writing is quite beautiful, and I cried at the end - I think that says it all, really.
Many thanks to The Pigeonhole for serialising this thought-provoking book.