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David McK (3649 KP) rated Troy in Books

Nov 30, 2020

Troy

Stephen Fry | 2020 | Education

8.0

(2 Ratings)

Book Rating

Stephen Fry's straight retelling (as much as is possible) of the Siege of Troy, following on from his earlier works 'Mythos' and 'Heroes'.

As such, we cover all the familiar ground: Helen of Troy, Paris, the Gods involvement, Agamemnon, Menaleus, Achilles, Odysseus, that giant wooden horse ...

I have to say, however, for such a well know story this is probably the first time I've ever seen (or heard) a straight retelling of it: we normally get either the Gods left out entirely (see the early 2000s film 'Troy'), a slow and plodding retelling that leaves it up to you to decide whether they were involved or not (BBCs 'Troy'), or a reworking/reimagining where the wooden horse is reworked into a metaphor for something completely different (I'm most familiar with those by David Gemmell, such as in his trilogy beginning 'Lord of the Silver Bow').

Having said that, this also has a bit of an abrupt ending, leaving it - I feel - open for a retelling of The Odyssey to come next!

Kudos

Erika (17789 KP) rated The Mandalorian - Season 2 in TV

Dec 19, 2020

Better than the first season (1 more)

Less filler episodes

This season was considerably better than the first. I decided to do a spoiler - free review. There were introductions of a lot of Clone Wars/Rebels characters, all of which I really liked. There was also the return of an original trilogy character that was teased in the first season. They've also included some EU content, which is now canon, and referred to Operation Cinder.
We've also finally gotten the Child's name, so that ridiculousness of 'Baby Yoda' can go away now, please.

I had issues with how they presented a very well-known, central character, introduced into the series. I think that they should have used the voice of the original character and cast someone who is younger and looks extremely similar to the elder actor. I hope that if they continue showing this central character, that they consider casting the actor (cough cough, he's already got a Disney contract) to play the correctly-aged character, rather than a slightly-shoddy digital version over some rando actor.