As an antidote to the Olympics, I thought I'd revive this thread, plus I have things to say about stuff I've read and watched, I guess.

So, I finally finished reading A Darkling Plain, by Philip Reeve, the final book of the Mortal Engines/Hungry Cities cycle (the internet can't decide). A little thing called NationStates (ahem) has kinda been responsible for me reading at a snails pace for the last few months. I've tried to rectify that recently and the result has been actually finishing a book (Huzzah!) Anyway, this was a fine YA yarn and a fitting conclusion to the series, with a rather sombre, but appropriate ending.

I also went to see Finding Dory today. We've been looking forward to this for a while, mainly because we all love Finding Nemo, especially my daughter, and we thought this would be a great opportunity to introduce her to the cinema. As such, it was a reasonable success. She was very good, didn't shout out, only started wriggling about and getting fussy towards the end, and even then settled down to watch the last great (and rather amusing) action sequence. She did get upset by the emotional tone a few times (she's rather sensitive to such things, it seems, and I was tearing up a bit in a few places anyway), but overall she reports back that she enjoyed it.

My own review of the film? It's not as good as Finding Nemo, not least because it's actually very similar, but then I never expected it to be. What it is is a good exploration of a few new ideas in an existing, working formula and, most importantly, perhaps, a significantly deeper look at Finding Nemo's best character, Dory.

Whilst Finding Nemo was, first and foremost, Marlin's story, Finding Dory is Dory's tale from start to finish and this exploration of a character with a severe disability is actually fairly unique in children's animation. The message from it is very clear - our handicaps may cause us difficulties, but that does not mean they cannot be overcome - a positive message I'm fairly happy with, actually and certainly a big improvement over so many competing animations' 'just be yourself and everything will turn out fine regardless of what you actually do' lines. Dory does get by though being herself, but only because she is actually a strong, positive character who works hard to overcome her weakness.

Anyway, the other great thing about the film is Hank the octoseptapus (and, to a lesser extent, the other major new characters, Destiny the Whale Shark and Bailey the Beluga Whale), whose antics, whilst part of the film's tendency to be rather sillier than it's predecessor are also pretty hilarious and, at times, ingenious.

If you liked Finding Nemo, then there's a good chance you'll like Finding Dory too, just not as much.

I also finished watching season one of The Magicians, which I enjoyed very much, although I had a few issues with it here and there.

Finally, I'm now reading Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson. I just love the worldbuilding in these Stormlight Archive books...

So, come on, update me on your recent reads, watches, plays, whatevers...