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Dreamlander Review
Review: Dreamlander by K. M. Weiland
It’s not that frequent that I reach the conclusion of a book and want to slap the author for not finishing it the way I want to. When it does, though, I have to recognize that they’ve achieved one of the highest goals that any author strives for: engagement.
It took me a lot longer to read K. M. Weiland’s Dreamlander than I would normally take. Perhaps it was because it’s the first time I’ve read a novel of this length on an e-Reader; perhaps it was the personal issues that I was going through during the time I was reading or perhaps it was the time taken to connect minds with a new author – whatever it was, it took me some time to really get into the novel, but the persistence was worth it.
Dreamlander is based on an intriguing concept that I’ve found myself wondering at times also: What if our dreams are actually occurring in another world, or parallel universe and our consciousness slips back and forth between the two as we wake and sleep? This isn’t Inception in book form, this is a thought that, when I fall asleep, a completely different character wakes up in another world. When we’re born, we’re born in two places: Earth and this secondary world of Lael, connected by our spirit and witnessing what our other self does in dreams.
One thing I found myself wondering was how to make that work logistically with my sleep patterns.
Weiland adds to this by creating a hero: Every so often, one person, a “Gifted” will actually travel between the worlds. Their consciousness from Earth will wake up in Lael, allowing them to, essentially, ‘walk between the worlds.’
Enter Chris Redston: Writer, cynic, skeptic and – frankly – whiny, annoying little brat.
Seriously, this might be the other reason why I took so long to actually get through this novel, because almost every time Chris does something I want to slap him, too. Which is why I was surprised that, by the end of the novel, I was so engrossed in the tale and so passionate about seeing things wind up how I wanted them to end. To do that, you have to care about the characters, you have to love them – and somehow Chris managed to endear himself enough to me by the end of the story that I actually cared what happened to him.
This is obviously thanks to some talented writing by Weiland. It’s not easy to make an anti-hero like Chris loveable to the reader – especially when so much of his time is spent trying to convince himself that it’s not real, or that he’s not good enough, or that he can’t succeed. Instead of being the hero that we all wish we could be, Chris Redston is the hero we’d probably turn out to be: Doubtful, insecure and completely lacking in anything resembling confidence.
The story itself is one, like so many in the Fantasy and Science Fiction genres, where the fate of the world is in the balance. There are times where the setting and the ‘almost-apocalypse’ events actually get in the way of things, causing some detachment. I found myself needing to just step back from things a few times, especially throughout the climax – which seemed to go on and on. And on. And on. When you’re riding the crest of a wave for that long, the actual breaking point ends up feeling more like a reprieve than a climax, and this is pretty much what happened with me.
Again, maybe this has something to do with the e-Reader against a real book. I didn’t have the same knowledge of the end coming because with a book, you feel those pages under your right thumb getting lower and lower, whereas there’s nothing with an e-Reader, but what I found was that the last few chapters were just this cacophony of excitement. It was a little overwhelming to try and deal with so much happening, and no time for me, as the reader, to breathe.
Nonetheless, Dreamlander is a story that succeeds in what I consider to be the important aspects of writing: It engages the audience, it contains relatable (if sometimes frustrating) characters, and it makes you think beyond just the words you’re reading. At the end of the day, I enjoyed it – and that’s probably the most important thing of all.
Reviewed: Jonnday ~ One Type of Falling (Film Clip)
Some people reading this would know that after Youth Alive Tasmania brought them down to play at a rally last year, I became a bit of a fan of an Australian group called Jonnday. Their single, ‘One Type of Falling’ has been available as a free download at their website when you sign up to their mailing list.
And hey, anything free is worth it, right?
Well, maybe not anything – but this certainly is.
Anyway, today, Jonnday release the ‘One Type of Falling’ film clip, and I was fortunate enough to be granted a sneak preview ahead of schedule.
And what a privilege it was. I’ve just finished watching it a few hours ahead of the public release. This film clip stands out far above what you’d expect from a Christian band hailing from the Central Coast of New South Wales.
I don’t want to give too much away, because I’d hate to spoil the surprise for everyone else. So I’m refraining from giving away much in the way of details.
What I will say is that there is a level of surrealism to the whole clip that lends itself to something far more epic than I expected. To be honest, my expectations weren’t overly high, not out of a lack of faith or low opinion of the group by any means. I was waiting for one of these more standard ‘first effort’ clips with lots of footage from live performances, things like that.
Certainly not something that seems like it could come out of some Hollywood fantasy film.
The quality of this video is brilliant. I loved the costumes and can just imagine that Jonnday would have had a lot of fun actually making this clip. It rings reminiscent of The Secret Garden or Alice in Wonderland – in my mind, anyway.
Great work, high standard, and just so entertaining. I’m off to watch it again!
Keep an eye out later this afternoon and view the clip for yourself at Jonnday’s Youtube channel!
Review: Fast and Furious
Does anyone actually go to this movie for the plot and deep storylines?
I didn’t think so.
I certainly didn’t walk in to Fast and Furious expecting deep messages, oscar-winning performances or thought-provoking plot hooks.
This, instalment number four of the Fast and Furious franchise (hey, I can alliterate!) brings everything to the screen that fans of the previous movies want to see. It brings hot cars, hotter babes and high-octane action. What more could you really want?
As a fan of the franchise, going in to watch Fast and Furious is like a reunion. We get to see once again those favourite characters from the first movie. Dominic, Mia and Letty all show back up letting us know what they’re up to five years after they all bolted from LA at the end of the first film.
Let’s be honest with the world, though. This film isn’t about to go out and clean sweep the Oscars. In fact, come award season, it’s probably not even going to be thought about, let alone mentioned. Part of that is that the script is a Fast and Furious script – it’s shallow, unpolished and at times the characters come out with a line that would ordinarily make you groan, it’s that predictable; but that’s what a Fast and Furious script is! Does anyone remember “This ain’t no ten-second race” from Tokyo Drift? It’s what we’ve come to expect from the franchise, and because of that, the lines don’t come off nearly as bad as they would in other films.
Performance-wise, again, it’s Fast and Furious. Walker and Diesel have done what they could with what they were given. When the script only provides an actor with a shallow character, there’s only so much that can be done. They aren’t, though, the stars of the movie and really, they probably never were.
In interviews way back when, throughout the first two Fast and Furious instalments, we heard interviews telling us that the cars were the stars of these films, and that’s once more the case. There’s a reunion felt when we see all the familiar faces, but when you lay eyes on that Charger, it’s like the circle’s complete. Alongside it we see a plethora of new stars, including the latest model STI Impreza from Subaru, which suddenly doesn’t look as ugly!
That’s what we’ve come to see. We haven’t come to watch Fast and Furious for anything deep or profound. We’ve come to see Dom and Brian go head to head again and I can’t help but think that Justin Lin has managed to hit the bullseye of the Fast and Furious target.
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