The Outlander series and its offshoot, the Lord John chronicles couldn't be much further from the Mission: Impossible series, but both have given me a satisfying start to the new year.
I took in Ghost Protocol, the latest in the Mission Impossible franchise, on New Year's Eve, walking with two dear friends to and from the cinemas in Collingwood and a little disappointed in my friend who has quit smoking. Who will I go to now at her parties for the cigarettes I sneak once the bar has been open for a perfect amount of time? Tom Cruise did not disappoint. I can't remember his character's name and I don't really care, since the stunts were spectacular, the story almost plausible, the gadgets amazing and the story fast-paced and fun. It was exactly what you'd hope for in the ongoing series. And it was completely forgettable. It's not like one ponders the deeper meaning behind these films. They're candy. Very good candy.
Just hours before hanging out with Ethan Hawke (remembered his name!), I finished the latest in the Lord John spinoff to the Outlander series. In case you have somehow missed it, Outlander is a huge bestselling saga, now at eight books telling the tale of woman on vacation in Scotland at the end of the second world war who becomes an accidental time traveller. She meets and is forced to marry a Scottish Laird and outlaw. Much love and mayhem ensues, including pitched battles, heartbreak, travel to the New World and some back and forthing with the future. Or the past, depending on how you look at it.
If you can get past the rape scenes toward the end of the first book, the series is magnificent.
While the tales in each of these series are vastly different (spy ring involved in international high tech battles with crazed adversaries versus Jacobite attempted revolution by men in kilts), the aim in these latest editions of the two series is very much the same: another helping of the same, an update on characters readers and viewers have come to care about.
In each case, it was done with skill and panache, and I can honestly say I'm well pleased with my entertainment so far this year.
I'm a bit ashamed to tell you about what else I've been reading, but I'll get to that another day. Even the dog doesn't approve, apparently.
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