Book Review: Last First Snow

Title: Last First Snow

Author: Max Gladstone

Genre: Fantasy

Page #s: 385

Publication Date: 2015

Location in Series: 4^th book in the Craft Sequence

Summary: It has been 40 years since the God Wars rocked Dresediel Lex, 40 years since the gods they had worshipped for who knows how long were broken on their own alter. The King in Red now begins an audacious plan to renovate the Skittersill, the poorest district in the city but in order for the work to be approved he must wrangle an agreement from the Skittersill’s population.

Good Points:

• Wow. WOW. Just. Fucking wow.
• Simple things first, everyone but Elayne is a character of color. Dresediel Lex is a fictitious Aztec city, everyone but Elayne is a denizen of that city.
• Badass older female character.
• While I don’t remember Three Parts Dead focusing much on Elayne’s age this one mentions several times how old she is and how old she feels.
• Badass females all around.
• Elayne, Chell, Mina, for the major ones, a ton of minor ones as well.
• Women from different walks of life all proving how badass they can be.
• Badass transmale character.
• I’m assuming here, since when it is revealed that the character’s body does not match the image they have presented there isn’t much time to talk about how they identify BUT since Full Fathom Five had a transwoman protagonist I’m going to assume that the character mentioned is trans.
• Of course, the King in Red has to be mentioned as he’s a gay sorcerous skeleton and I love him.
• Even if he was a dickweasel the entire book.
• Temoc!
• I did not go into this book expecting to like Temoc. After the events of Two Serpents Rise… well. Let’s just say when I heard this book was going to feature Temoc I was disappointed. I did not expect anything good to come of it. BUT WOW! Surprise!
• Loved his relationship with Caleb and Mina. Love how it had to change as the book went on and things went to shit. Loved it.
• Interesting, twisty plot.
• While one plot twist kind of becomes obvious the moment it happens it’s still a great twisty plot. And I loved how every character failed. Like, the whole mess couldn’t be traced directly to one person (although, fuck you Kopil) and instead each character has to shoulder the blame of the complete CLUSTERFUCK that comes around.
• Except Caleb and Mina.
• Great action scenes! Fascinating world! Great magic! Flawed characters! READ IT.

Bad Points:

• WOW was this book a fucking downer. Like. Wow. Like, it’s so good, but totally a downer!
• I’m honestly not sure how I feel about the Red King’s characterization in this book. Like, because, he’s a total DICKWEASEL the entire book and I really do remember loving him in Two Serpents Rise.
• I have to wonder if that says more about Caleb and his PoV than anything else.

Triggers:

This book is about a civil protest gone horribly wrong with a magically powered dictator who hates the religion the protestors practice.

It’s not pretty.

• Child Abuse
• Religious Persecution
• Mentions of past mind control

Rating: 5/5

Movie Review: Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation

Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation.

Let me start off by saying that I love spy-action movies. Love them. I was raised on the Jack Ryan novels and Bond movies. I love Bourne and Mission Impossible both. I enjoyed Ghost Protocol and similarly enjoyed Rogue Nation.

That being said, action-spy movies often leave a LOT to be desired on the representation front. Bondgirls die, characters of color are few and far between and I cannot, honestly cannot, bring to mind a single confirmed LGBT character.

Rogue Nation, as a popcorn munching summer flick, delivers. The plot is the same basic Mission Impossible plot (the government says ‘spies what spies NO ETHAN NO’, Ethan says ‘fuck you all I’m going to save the day’ and at the end of the film Ethan is reaffirmed as the spy world’s darling and saves the day while looking cool and blowing shit up). But the plot is solid as is the casting, old favorites reappear and a new femme fatale brushes up against the cast. The bad guy reminded me a little too much of Raoul Silva, but I’ll let it slide. Rogue Spy gone ROGUE is as good a plot as any.

The fight scenes were good and the chase scenes were way more believable than the last Fast and Furious movie.

That being said, if you have any motorcycle crash related trauma there are LOTS AND LOTS of motorcycle crashes in one of the chase scenes. Other than that, standard action movie triggers apply.

The Bechdel:

Hah. There aren’t even two named women in the whole fucking movie.

I hate girl on girl fight scenes that exist ONLY for a chance to get the girl to fight but they at least allow for the role of two women existing in the same frame. Possibly even speaking to each other. Our femme fatale keeps it real, fights the big boys, and despite wearing 4 inch heels kicks them off when necessary. She does not, however, throw down with any other ladies.

Racial Bechdel Test:

Again. There aren’t two named characters of color in the whole movie. Ving Rhames is there as Luthor Stickler, and is an important part of the crew, but at no point does he speak to anyone who isn’t a white guy.

The Mako Mori:

I’d say that Ilsa’s story arc is her own but at the same time she’s spending the movie fighting against the big bad that Hunt is trying to bring down.

The Sexy Lamp:

Nah. Ilsa might be attractive and they do show that off but I don’t think a sexy lamp can kick ass or have a showdown with the Bone Doctor like Ilsa.

The Anti-Freeze:

Surprisingly, no. At one point in the movie I was expecting her death but she gets out of every scrape intact.

The “Strength is Relative”:

I’d say a pass but it’s debatable.

The Russo: LGBT representation

Nope. Nope, nope, nope. Haha.

The Black Widow: Romantic relationship that serves the plot/is in character

While Ilsa falls for Ethan (or at least implies a romantic wish) it fits her character, runs along the plot and doesn’t derail or take anything away from the film.