Really, what can I say about this much anticipated, well-liked (according to Rotten Tomatoes) film? I know there are lots of people out there who really like X-men, who like anything to do with the comics. I could add that my mother really enjoyed the film. Or that my brother didn’t hate it. In fact, it was me who had the strongest negative reaction to this terrible addition to the X-men world.

My first and largest complaint is that the story essentially negates the first two X-men movies (X-men and X-men 2). I really enjoyed their stories and the characters and while both had their flaws, the resulting product was well executed. Days of Future Past (DFP) manages to reboot the franchise and thus rewrite history – even the really good stuff. This was disappointing.

The plot was ridiculous. Starting with the over-exaggerated grim future where a war against mutants and the humans who stand beside them are ruthlessly killed. The landscape is burnt black and there is no evidence of the winners of this terrible apocalyptic future. Seriously, if humans have managed to effectively cleanse the planet of the dangerous mutant threat, then where are they hiding? Why are they not running happily through the streets? Why is everything so impossibly grim?

So the magical sentinel robots manage to fight (with graphic brutality) and kill the mutants. They are able to target the mutant gene (I would love to know how) and amazingly they can target humans whose grandchildren will be born with this gene. First, in order to have this many different mutations, it is not one gene that is being affected. Second, exactly how do you screen for individuals whose distant relations will spontaneously develop a genetic modification. Please, someone glance at a biology textbook. Of course the super-duper robots are also able to adapt by copying the genetics of one super-special mutant. Really? I thought every mutant was its own special, unique individual – hence the variation in traits.

While the film was filled with cameos, it also heavily relied on the audience knowing most of the characters. At least it didn’t feel compelled to introduce many of the mutant extras – particularly those in the future. This may have had more to do with the fact those in the future spent the entire movie being torturously destroyed, violently ripped apart, etc. However, as my brother so neatly pointed out, there was no blood so that made the decapitations and subsequent skull smashing OK for a younger audience.

Ah, having now alluded to the future, I will divulge the twist, the main crux of the film takes place in the past. While time travel is stupid, the writers didn’t even bother to explain how this one happens. Further, their timeline, dates and technology do not mesh in the slightest. As the film is theoretically set about fifty years from today to create the Future, the main plot occurs in 1973 – for unknown reasons. It is amazing the robotic technology the super-genius villain is able to create using the most primitive computers. The sentinels of 1973 are more advanced than any technology we have now (40 years later). The age progression of characters seemed awkward because of this time travel plot.

Then there was the super cheesy characters and dialogue. Why is Wolverine the one to go back in time? Look people, he is kind of cool for his rapid healing, but there are lots of other really interesting characters in the X-men universe. Also, why does Eric have to be Evil all the time? Why did he supposedly kill JFK, only then confess he was trying to save the president? Why did Charles just accept this explanation so easily when he apparently spent the previous 10 years drowning his life and sorrows in drugs and alcohol? Why did this movie have to destroy the cannon set up in the first two films (the only two of worth)?

Most importantly, why am I even bothering to write about a film this bad? As my irritatingly observant brother noted, the writers, directors and general creators clearly didn’t care that much about the product they were creating. They didn’t bother to explain anything: the time travel, the magically amazing robots, the super-fabulous alloy that was not metallic, the room sunk beneath the pentagon that was accessed through locked doors but apparently not constructed of metal, the fact that whenever Raven/Mystique shifts she loses clothing when becoming herself but gains clothing when becoming someone else.

Movie Poster found on the internet.

The visuals were nothing special, the acting was, the fight scenes were largely predictable (expect the use of portals – which was pretty cool) and the final product was boring. It was long, tedious and didn’t make any sense. But it was not nearly as bad as Last Stand, so I guess that is something.

According to the author the concept for the Winner’s Curse comes from a discussion about economics. In particular the idea that those at an auction who outbid everyone else have also been foolish enough to pay way more for something that the rest of the company thinks is worth considerably less. It is an interesting idea.

The book jacket designed by Elizabeth H. Clark.

However, that was not discussed or mentioned in the book jacket. The brief synopsis, like so many of its kind, misleads the potential reader. Or perhaps the attempt to simplify an entire story inevitably must distill down to something only vaguely connected to the actual plot. I know from the few lines I read before requesting the book from my local library, I had certain expectations about what I was going to read. I knew the main characters were young adults, that the main female, Kestrel, was going to purchase a slave, Arin, and that incident was going to change her life. I suppose that is in fact vague enough that anything could happen. However, as is the case I started to supplement the limited information with probable scenarios. It is something I am wont to do on a regular basis. In the past this has led to disappointment. However, I was pleasantly surprised by the Winner’s Curse. It was both well written and unpredictable.

I particularly enjoyed the manner in which the author dealt with slavery and conquering by foreign peoples. There was just the right balance justification so the reader could appreciate how both of the main countries involved in this relationship would see its rise and fall differently. It was power in the way it was subtle. There was not long-winded preaching paragraph about how slavery was bad, how war was bad or how being invaded and conquered was bad. Or even how rebelling was bad. There were atrocities committed on both sides, though happily not in graphic detail. Characters challenged preconceived ideas in realistic manners.

Kestrel and Arin were both strong characters with distinct points of view and ideas that shifted slightly over time. They worked well together, and the romantic in me kept trying to write a happy ending to their story. The final was not precisely sad, but it was a touch melancholy. In many ways it made the book. A more weak-willed author would have concluded with something light, fluffy and ultimately unrealistic. Rutkoski concluded the Winner’s Curse in a manner that was both satisfying and hopeful and yet, sacrifices had to be made. Neither character got everything they wanted. That was same sentiment was shared by the reader (at least it was for me). I wanted them to ‘win’, completely. To outsmart the rest of the world and pull of something that only works in books. Still, I cannot complain because this ending, the fast pacing of the rest of the book and the engaging characters kept me reading. In fact, had the book ended the way I wanted it too, then it would have been more like so many poorly written pieces out there – predictable.

In short, I thought the Winner’s Curse was surprisingly well written, fun to read and nothing like the book jacket suggested. I would recommend this for those interested in young adult reads.

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Well, I just was reading the fine print and discovered this is actually book one of a triology. I have to say this does indeed lower my opinion of the book. As a stand-alone, I thought it was great, as a trilogy…. Well, I haven’t read the second or third book yet, but I am not feeling it.

First, I am going to start my saying that while I have several New Year’s Goals, none of them are to improve my Blog Posting Regularity. Perhaps it should be, but it isn’t. Instead I am resolved to rewite second drafts on two different stories; write a short story for competition submission and finish Left 4 Dead 2. Anyway, all that is completely unrelated to my post.

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It was supposed to be so good. It was supposed to be an adventure in the west, a story filled with cowboys, steampunk, and magic.

For some inexplicable reason I was convinced I just needed to read this book. I had to have it! No other story would satisfy this craving. By the end I was desperate.

A book, written by a reasonably popular author should not be that difficult to procure. However the acquisition was a trial in and of itself. The book in question was not to be found in any local book stores. There was no copy held in the library. And my request for the library to order this book went unheeded. Finally, in desperation I broke down and purchased the novel and had it shipped to the nearest book store. For two weeks I waited in anxious anticipation until finally it arrived. Until finally this weekend I could read my book. Until my dreams ended abruptly with ridiculously dumb vampires and a story that didn’t go anywhere.

The Damnation Affair by Lilith Saint Crow is the third book in the same world as the Clare and Bannon Series. The Clare & Bannon Series is set in an alternate Victoria world swirling with magic and mechanisms. An increasingly popular subgenera of steampunk fantasy which I have read of lately. The Clare and Bannon novels have a distinctly Sherlock Holmes vibe and Dr. Watson to them. I liked the first book well enough to read the second in the series. They were fine. A little too much magic – which seemed more than a bit silly. Oh and the mentath’s – the supposed antithesis of magic as these individuals were all about logic – were simply ridiculous. The conclusions a mentath made was based on such little information it was wildly improbable. Ultimately, the mentaths were mental mages instead of traditional magic weilding sorcerers.

But that is a small aside, as the mentaths do not appear in the third book – The Damnation Affair. And the sorcerors magic apparently works different on the new continenet – for ‘reasons’.  This was a cowboy-zombie book taking place in the Wild West of the New World. It could have been good. It should have been brilliant, after all the writing had all the flavour of the times. Flavour is important to the writing a great story. A historical piece is quickly ruined by the use of modern language. If I could point to one good thing about this book, it was the use of a western drawl by the citizens of Damnation. But in the end the language was not enough to save me from an otherwise disappointing story.

I knew the story had zombies, which are regularly a turn off. However I was willing to overlook this little hiccup for the rest of the world. I craved that New World feel, the rough and tumble of frontier living, the struggle to overcome the land and all the varied obstacles. I was even anticipating a twist on technology, the creative use of mechanicals in a land not constrained by thousands of generations of Society.

What I had was a nod to the walking dead, a town with potential – yet poorly described or explored, a romance between two orphaned characters (and yes, that is sad) and all that topped off with a demon in the hills capable of creating vampires. Really where did the vampires come from? And WHY?

There were so many other things the author could have done. Granted every idea that sprang to mind from her pages was already a well-used cliché, but this was a mess. A rather slow to build mess with threads hanging loose at every turn.  The Chinese were tossed in without regard to purpose. The magic was convoluted. The rage of some characters against the secret order of something was left completely unexplained. The feisty female doesn’t really do anything (a striking injustice to the character). Even the argument that she brings civilization from the East loses weight when one considers that the conflicts she faces just sort of fade into the background like hazy mirages. The battle of the undead lacked the big punch one would expect from the set up. And the Sheriff tosses aside every belief he has ever held for a pair of brown eyes that don’t appear to lose their luster from being buried in the dirt.

What you don’t see is the dozen of streets hidden behind the unprepossessing façade of this ‘main street’.

The town which is described as a single street with some half dozen buildings lining the two sides, blossoms suddenly in the second half of the book into a place big enough to house an unwanted portion of the populace in a completely different section. Really, where did these side-streets spring from?

One of the characters introduced as a villain in the first half of the book, is turned into another deputy by the end of the story for one random deed. Incidently, they never explain the shady dealings with that character. Just suddenly we are to accept him as one of the good guys – as much as the men in this town of Danmanation, plagued by the walking dead can be considered good.

I wanted to love this book. I read it with care I rarely afford my novels. I read it is slowly (for me) talking a solid 24 hours to finish. But the vampires were one straw too many and now I am left with two hundred pages of broken dreams and crushed hopes.

I desperately hope this is not foreshadowing of this year’s releases. Please, let the next book I read be better. Please…