Book Review: Castle in the Stars by Alex Alice

Castle in the Stars: The Space Race of 1869 by Alex Alice

What if the great drive to be the first nation in space wasn't the race between the United States and the Soviet Union in the 1950s but between France and Germany in the 1860s? That's the premise of this graphic novel. Frenchman Archibald Dulac's wife conducts an experiment to find aether, the supposed matter that exists in space between the earth's atmosphere and other celestial objects. The book assumes aether is real, though the wife has to go extremely high in a hot air balloon to find it. Her latest attempt goes awry. She does discover aether but the balloon goes out of control and explodes at 13000 meters. Her journal falls back to earth. Archibald doesn't find it but does continue his research into aether. Someone in Bavaria sends Archibald an urgent message with a train ticket, claiming they have the journal and need help. At the train station, someone tries to hijack Archibald, whose son has come along to say goodbye. Archibald and son barely escape to Bavaria. When they arrive, they discover people already working on flying machines that will enable trips to the moon and Mars. But is there a spy among the scientists?

The story is an interesting "what if" scenario with just a flavoring of steam punk aesthetic and ideas. The water color art goes well with the old time setting. Too bad the next installment is coming out next year! The story just barely got going but I enjoyed it a lot.

Recommended.

Movie Review: Crimson Peak (2015)

Crimson Peak (2015) written and directed by Guillermo del Toro

Bookish young woman Edith Cushing (Mia Wasikowska) is mostly focused on publishing her first novel in 1901 Buffalo, New York. She is distracted from her ambition by Englishman Thomas Sharpe (Tom Hiddleston). He's in town seeking financing from her father and his bank. Thomas's English estate has a special red clay that is very versatile. The only challenge is mining the clay. Thomas has a contraption that will mine efficiently but needs money to make a full-scale model. Edith's father has the goods on Thomas--Thomas has already been to London, Edinburgh, and Milan seeking financing. All with no success, so the dad does not want to finance him. Meanwhile, Thomas woes Edith. Is his motive true love or gold digging? A tragedy makes Edith travel to England as Thomas's wife, but her new home is haunted by more than doubts about Thomas's motives--there be ghosts as well.

A lot of Gothic horror tropes are in this movie. The spooky, isolated countryside estate is called Allerdale Hall. The clay seeps up from the ground, staining winter snow red, making it  the titular Crimson Peak. The house's creepy housekeeper is Thomas's sister Lucille (Jessica Chastaine) who is an excellent piano player and an icy woman. The house has a dark basement that you don't really want to visit. The house is stocked with poison, ghosts, secrets, dilapidation, and a library to die for. The steampunk element of the mining machine is an interesting addition and del Toro provides a lot of amazing visuals and atmosphere.

Then why is the movie disappointing to me? The heroine is on paper an interesting woman but she's a little too passive and subdued to be a favorite. Hiddleston's character and performance is charming and complex but his character peters out at the end. The story is a little predictable which isn't so bad but the movie had no breathtaking or heartbreaking moments. Outside of the awesome visuals and Hiddleston's performance, the film is not very remarkable.

Disappointingly average.

Gen Con 2015 Entertainment

Wandering the many halls of the Indianapolis Convention Center during Gen Con, I saw many different roving and stationary performers. I seemed to run into one group on a regular basis--Il Troubadore. They bill themselves as Indiana's "16th Century Rock Band" because they originally performed Italian Bel Canto, operatic arias, and folk music from Ireland and Scotland. They have greatly expanded their repertoire and their costumes. The first day I saw them (Friday of the convention), their outfits were mostly Star Trek. The lady was dressed like Princess Leia for some reason.

At first a trio...

...another Klingon made a quartet

The next day they had steam punk outfits.

She's more like a flapper than a steam-punker, but the goggles are quite definitively steam punk

The bassist shows up late again

I'm not sure why the bassist never stood too close to the rest of the band. I didn't smell anything weird, even when he was dressed as a Klingon. On Sunday, I saw them again with full-on Star Wars apparel. The lady wasn't there, so maybe she got her Leia on earlier in the con.

Last outfits

Plenty of other groups were providing entertainment as well-- Canyon Spells, Different Drummers Belly Dancers (who gave lessons as well as performances). Apryl Knight, Dan the Bard, Water Street Bridge, Marc Gunn, Marooned, and Damsels of Dorkington (who had improv shows which I did not see).

The entertainers made the atmosphere of the convention more fun and were a welcom break from running around like crazy. Sadly, the crowd sound drown out the singing on the videos I took with my camera! Better luck next year.

The other big musical event I attended was the Beach Party Saturday night in the Grand Ball Room of Union Station. It was your standard pop music of the past decade event, of which I know very little. I didn't recognize any songs and didn't do any dancing but did have a nice rum and coke.

Grand Ball Room, Union Station

View from half-way up the staircase

View from the top of the staircase

There's plenty of musical and comedy entertainment for attendees at Gen Con!