Harry's Blog

What on earth has happened to television in recent years? Yes I know we've always had plenty of guff on TV such as Mind Your Language and Allo Allo, but looking at the current TV schedules I can't remember a time when there was so much utter rubbish on the television. Even the established genres are going down the pan.

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Best Book - Judas Unchained - Peter F. Hamilton
The second and concluding par tin Hamilton's latest grand science fiction tale was the best book I read this year, despite losing that quality towards the end. I'll deal with the negative aspects first. I believe that Hamilton made a critical error in moving the focus of the threat to humanity from MorningLightMountain to the StarFlyer. The former felt dangerous the second did not. If I'd have written the book, MorningLightMountain would have remained the greatest threat the heroes had to face rather than being written out via a cheap dues-ex-machina. The StarFlyer plot would have remained the same, there just wouldn't have been such a strong focus on it for the end sequence of the book. Perhaps it should have been the middle of the work before the war turned to the alien threat the StarFlyer had unleashed against the human race.

That criticism aside, the book ripped along at great pace with some fantastic set pieces and interesting characters and situations. I particularly liked the detective work, Paula Myo was my favourite character in the story. Ozzie was great fun, but I'm at a loss to see what his adventures were for. So in the end I loved the book despite the flaws and look forward to Hamilton's next book.

Runners up: Command of the Ocean by N.A.M. Rodger, Trafalgar by Roy Adkins

Worst Book - Not read any bad books this year

Best Movie - Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Thjs may have been different if I'd managed to see King Kong yet, but as it stands, I really enjoyed the latest Harry Potter movie. The most impressive thing, for me, was how the movie continued the look of the last episode, where Hogwarts looks like a real place surrounded by beautiful countryside, rather than a creation inside a computer. It makes the film seem broader and less studio-bound.

I enjoyed the plot and particularly the subplots about our heroes growing up and taking more notice of the opposite sex. Everything surrounding the ball was great fun, especially the way Ron and Hermione were behaving towards each other. The acting across the board was good and the effects much better than the first two movies. It's good to see these movies growing up, I just hope the studio has the good sense to stick with the same cast throughout.

Runners up: War of the Worlds, Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, Kingdom of Heaven

Worst Movie - The Phantom of the Opera
Take a cheap and nasty sub-MTV video from 1985, add a splash of awful acting (most notably from Mini Driver) and throw in a plot about some masked-pervert grooming a girl until she's old enough for him and you have the worst movie I've seen since Batman & Robin, only worse.

Runners up: Nothing comes remotely close to Phantom