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mdid-thething · 7 years ago

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Mr Warren's Profession by Sebastian Nothwell My rating: 5 of 5 stars I do apologize for the delay with this review, I've had it knocking around since February. If you are a fan of historical fiction, this book is for you. If you are a fan of historical romance, this book is for you. If you have been on the lookout for same sex romantic stories in particular, this book is the book for you. I could end the review here. It’d be pretty easy to keep on with shouting and exaltations of exactly how good I believe this book is and leave it at that. But, of course, the purpose of a review is to show exactly why the reviewer believes that the item they are examining is good or bad. One of the core pillars that helps make “Mr. Warren’s Profession” such a good read is the amount of research that has been packed into the book. You can even see it within the first five chapters. There’s information on how a cloth mill works and the machinery that it needs to work including such things like the self-acting mule and the Jacquard loom. There’s what books would be published around the time that the story takes place. There’s information about the demands of women workers’ unions. All of these are presented in such a way that it feels effortless and natural for the characters to reference the information, rather than info dumping it in a giant block of text or by explaining things in a way that makes you feel that the characters or narration are forced to go over concepts that are basic to the characters. Another is how the script is flipped on common plot tropes that pop up in novels that have a main-or sub plot about relationships. Of particular note are misunderstandings driving the plot, the slow burn, and angsting over sexuality. The misunderstandings are handled by the characters actually talking to each other about things. More often than not, the misunderstandings are cleared up within the scene where they were brought up. If a misunderstanding is realized while the characters aren’t together, then it is cleared up in the next scene where they see each other. This applies not only for the main couple, but for several of their friends and family as well. Slow burn stories are often set up with sexual intercourse as the payoff for the pining and consternation that the intended couple have gone through. In "Mr. Warren’s Profession", they have sex rather early on in their relationship, but because they have much to work out emotionally between them, it still qualifies as a slow burn because it takes a while for the emotional payoff. The angst over sexuality trope, a staple of queer fiction for decades, and especially queer historical fiction, just doesn’t happen. Instead it is a realization that allows the character’s world to suddenly make sense, and he continues on with his plans to win over his intended beau. Finally, a third major joy of this book is the number of female characters who are included and are relevant to the plot of the book, ranging from Lady Rowena Althorp, a noble woman and sister to one of the main characters, to Miss Brewster, a unionizing mill girl. Even if their role in the plot is small, none of them could be replaced with a sexy lamp and have the plot go in the same direction. It is a great relief to read, especially since there are plenty of books and other media out there where women hold little to no presence. In moving to what is specifically a delight about "Mr. Warren’s Profession" it comes down to character. Aubrey and Lindsey hit me right in my sweet spot for my love of fictional pairings: characters who are very different, but have a hidden amount of commonalities to connect them. Aubrey is a workhorse, has been his whole life, with a dark past that cast him from any sense of shelter from an early age. Lindsey was born to inherit a title, has done little work in his life, and has been sheltered by all of his family and friends. Under normal circumstances, these two men would not meet, until the circumstances of the book happen and the result is heartwarming and delightful. I adore Aubrey’s tension and his dreams for his own future. I’m charmed by Lindsey’s sheer earnestness of character. I was constantly warmed by how their connection to each other allowed them to grow beyond the circumstances of their lives that held them back, dragging out the ugly and the beautiful into the light. Both are well formed, flawed and delightful. I could only wish in the drafts of things I have that I would be able to write characters that touch readers half as well as these two do. I’ve recommended it to my friends, and am trying to broach how to recommend it to my mother. I also recommend it to you, reader of this review. So go off an read this marvelous book, right now. View all my reviews

#Review #goodreads review #M did the thing #mr warren's profession #Sebastian Nothwell

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mdid-thething · 8 years ago

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Netflix’s Castlevania

The last few days I have been seeing gif sets and a few text posts about Netflix’s relatively new animated series Castlevania, based on the Konami videogame series of the same name. I rather like the series because of the side scrolling map exploration with vampire themes, so I told myself that I should give the show a try. I am rather glad that I did. The first four episodes are enjoyable and have given me enough to anticipate the future episodes. Then you realize that the “first four episodes” are actually the entire season. Ellis, please look at Leverage to see how to write season finales when you don’t know if there’s going to be a follow up season.

The plot of Castlevania centers on Trevor Belmont and his fight against Dracula’s horde of demons that is ravaging the country of Wallachia in the 1470’s. He allies with Sypha, a scholar and magician, and Adrian Alucard Tepes, the half-human son of Dracula, and they take the fight to Dracula himself. If you’ve played the Castlevania games and/or are familiar with the early entries of the series, you’re probably thinking that this sounds incredibly similar to Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse. You’d be right. The Netflix series is an adaptation of that game, but takes stylistic cues from later games such as Castlevania: Symphony of Night.

The rest of the review is below the cut for length and potential spoilers, though I do have to wonder if events that happen in episode one count as spoilers…

Even if I had no previous knowledge of the writer on this series, I would have known the moment Trevor Belmont started speaking that Warren Ellis was the head writer. I like Warren Ellis, I really do. However, he only really knows how to write one sort of hero: a down on their luck person who strides the line between hero and anti-hero and deals with the temptation to be much, much worse, but overcomes the darkness inside them to act on their better natures. You could trade Trevor for Excalibur’s Pete Wisdom, for Planetary’s Elijah Snow, for pretty much any character in his run on The Authority. Yes, yes, yes, you can tell me all day about the differences between all of these characters, but their core personalities are the same “Ellis hero” model. I don’t note this as a bad thing, but as a stylistic thing that is emblematic to all of Ellis’ work that I have encountered.

Unfortunately, what has happened between when Ellis broke out Pete Wisdom back in the 90’s and now is that there has been a deluge of characters that have been built in the same anti-heroic trope, but without adding nuance or criticism to that trope. There is a point where you go “this person is just mean” because the “anti” part of the character so eclipses the “hero” side to make the title “anti-hero” meaningless. As such, I found Trevor, forgive the phrasing, whip smart, very funny (“God shits in my dinner once again” I think I woke the neighbors with my cackle), and boring. I am tired of seeing yet another mean/sarcastic anti-hero forced into the role of a hero against his very best efforts.

Perhaps a thing that Ellis could delve into in future seasons is building up how Trevor and Dracula are foils of each other. Trevor’s back-story is told in bits and pieces when he explains at various times how his family was excommunicated by the Church, exiled from Wallachia, and his home burned to the ground, implying that the rest of his family burned with it. The clearest telling of it is in a few seconds of the opening credits in episode one. He deals with his grief by becoming self destructive, and claiming that the injustice done to his family could be done because good people didn’t stand up for them when they could and should have. This sounds very similar to Dracula, who lost what he loved most because of the Church, and claimed that there should have been people to protest the death of an innocent woman. The difference is that Dracula’s grief and rage are directed in outward destruction.

In terms of female characters in general, Sypha is a breath of fresh air. Her design very clearly places her in the world and as a member of her people, the Speakers, rather than going the lazy route of putting her in a sexualized costume. In personality, she is a headstrong woman who has been given a lot of leeway because of her great magical ability. I have some trepidation about her place in the overall plot in the episodes to come, should Castlevania get a second season, because her personality and appearance are very similar to Lisa Tepes of Lupo, and that might mean that there’s a kidnapping plot for her in the future. Or, at least, that Dracula will have some sort of conversation with her about how similar she looks to his late wife and considers sparing her because of that.

As cool as she is, and as eager as I am to see more of her, it is a bit bothersome that Sypha shows off her best magical work when she is doing so at Trevor’s direction. When she was on her own, there’s nothing to show for her magical abilities, as seen when Trevor rescued her after being turned to stone. This is especially noticeable when we see her using her magic, and she needs little more than a gesture to control and create fire, ice, and wind.

For the Speakers as a group, it is really cool to see that they are based off of the Roma, being an oppressed, distrusted, minority group who typically travel in caravan trains. Additionally, it’s great to see that there are background characters who are not white or white passing. But that leads us into a problem. The Elder and Sypha, who are the audience’s main representatives for the Speakers, are pale, leading to an unsettling implication of pale = good. I know that there are white-passing Roma, but the majority of people who are of Roma descent have dark hair and skin. Sypha would be equally as beautiful, headstrong, and intelligent if she had dark hair and skin as she does in her current design.

The writing for Castlevania, overall, is enjoyable and engaging, but this review wouldn’t have much more to talk about if I just left it at that. Despite how I summarized the plot of Castlevania earlier, the series doesn’t introduce Trevor until the final two minutes of the first episode after a far too long joke segment about goat fucking and the consequences there of. Episode one is dedicated to the back-story of Dracula and his human wife, Lisa Tepes of Lupo. In general, it is a good episode. It establishes Dracula’s motivations and makes a great setting piece for this fictionalized version of Wallachia.

There are several things that can be taken issue with, however. Such as that this back-story is the content of the first episode. Granted, given that the season only has four episodes, it does make sense why this choice was made. However, it still feels like something that should have been aired much later in the series, such as after the protagonists meet Dracula face to face for the first time or as part of an episode where Adrian explains the origins of himself and the demonic horde. At that later time, the series could capitalize on lines such as “No one has ever seen Dracula before” and on how Trevor and Dracula are foils of each other. The current early placement of the episode makes it seem like Dracula should have been the primary protagonist who was pushed over the edge, with a plot of his resistant, clawing path back from that fall. But that is not the series that we have.

The second issue is Lisa Tepes of Lupo. Take her out of the context of the series, and she is a great character. She is a scientist who wishes to help people using the most cutting edge medical knowledge and technology she can get her hands on. She is brave, convincing Dracula to teach her his science and correcting his bad manners to his face. She is forgiving and compassionate, even while being executed, pleading that her husband not take revenge on the people that found her guilty of witchcraft and burned her at the stake. She deserved so much more screen time than she got, and I desperately want to know more about her.

Now lets put her back in context. Lisa is a classic example of the Women in Refrigerators trope. Her purpose in the plot is to die. Dracula then feels sad and takes his feelings out on the whole of humanity. I am so goddamned tired of female characters who are created only so her death can motivate a man.

The series’ third writing issue is the afore mentioned goat fucking joke. It goes on too long and is distasteful. You just wish for it to be over so the plot can move on its merry bloodstained way, because the only thing you’re gaining from the exchange is a dick and shovel joke. Given that they only had four twenty-three minute episodes in the entire season, they should have economized the time they had to focus on the main plot.

The final episode contains the last two major writing issues. One is the duel that wasn’t. I don’t know if I actually like it. On the one hand, it is similar to the scene in Raiders of the Lost Arc where Indiana Jones shoots his opponent after the he goes though an impressive display of dexterity and sword skill. It’s an unexpected conclusion to that scene, but remains enclosed with the two people that it is focusing on. In Castlevania, it’s Trevor who is giving the impressive build up, but an outsider jumps the gun and kills the priest. The tension is broken in an awkward unresolved way, even as the scene itself was resolved. It’s an odd unsatisfied feeling, though I think Ellis was trying to go for black comedy.

The final issue is the death of the Bishop. I’m not arguing with his fate. He absolutely deserved to be disemboweled by demons for what he did. What I don’t like is that he dies without Dracula or Adrian being able to have a direct hand in it. It feels like Ellis completed that arc too early. Both Dracula and Adrian have their emotional arcs, as tied to Lisa, left uncompleted because they do not know that it was this bishop that was the driving force behind her death. And really how shitty is it that Adrian was sleeping for a year right under the man that had a direct hand in the murder of his mother?

In short, I recommend that people do watch Netflix’s Castlevania series. Its witty and engaging, and they really ought to have more episodes to it’s name because the four given are not enough. While I have issues with some of the writing choices and what I think and hope are going to be future choices, they aren’t going to stop me from watching more.

#tv show review #Castlevania #netflix's castlevania #Trevor Belmont #sypha belnades #Alucard #adrian alucard tepes #spoilers #ink in a bottle

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