Things and things again

Haven't touched Meyer's Eclipse. Apparently she ruined Jacob. Dang.

This is really funny. Russell Brand ("he sounds like Steve Irwin!" says Ms Yeo, albeit a cocky Steve Irwin on drugs) cut Robert Pattison off before Teh Sparkly Vampire had his turn to introduce Paramore. Went to Youtube to search, and them Twilight fans were all out in full force. OMG CHAGRIN!!!!! I KENNOT HAZ RPATTZ! You eejits, you want to hear his "velvet/golden/husky/shmexy" voice, go watch The Goblet of Fire.

Watched Speak on Youtube, with Kristen Stewart as the lead. Based on the book by Laurie Halse Anderson. Am interested to know how Stewart would handle the role of Bella - would she make her look better? She was so mature in this film at 13.

Laughed when I read this poem here. Hee.

Finished Colfer's The Wish List yesterday. Review!

The Wish List

Synopsis

Meg Finn, a 14-year-old girl living with an abusive stepfather, meets an untimely death while accompanying the resident juvenile delinquent on a burglary. When she enters the afterlife, she finds that her merit/demerit account is balanced, meaning that both Heaven and Hell have claims on her. So she's sent back to Earth to help the man she was supposed to rob from, Lowrie McCall, in order to earn brownie points and move on to Heaven. Lowrie, knowing that he has only months to live, agrees to Meg's help to complete his Wish List. However, Satan has his eye on Meg's soul, and decides to send a Soul Man to wreck her plans...

Verdict

This is Colfer at his best. The Wish List was published in 2000, before Artemis Fowl and fame came along. Everything I liked about Colfer's writing was here - the humour, punchy one-liners, absurdity, thoughtful moments, satire...get this book, seriously, if you liked Arty.

I really did like the characters too - both Meg and Lowrie get along so well together. Was laughing over their conversations, even though they talk about serious stuff like life and death. And Beelzebub cracked the hell out of me :P as well as the mysterious hologram, Elph. Even the Soul Man was weird...darkly funny.

The interesting bit

Some of the characters here reminded me of the people in Artemis Fowl. Maybe I was looking out for it, maybe I wasn't. Anyway, Meg somehow reminded me of Holly, and Elph was definitely a precursor to Foaly. Myishi - the scientist in Hades - sounded a wee bit like Artemis, minus the morals (and that's saying something, innit?) Funny thing, Artemis also sounded like the bully Brendan Ball, especially when you first meet Arty at 12. Lowrie...can't place him properly, but he, like the fairies' influence on Artemis, changes Meg for the better.

Plus, there were these random allusions to fairies and elves sprinkled throughout the book. Maybe Colfer already had his ideas about Fowl while writing this?

The funny bits

For some reason, nearly every time I saw the word "Satan", my brain read it as "Stan". Interesting. Subconscious much?

'But, Master,' protested Beelzebub. 'A lawyers' convention bus goes over the Grand Canyon this afternoon. We're expecting a bit of a glut.'

Beelzebub barrelled down the pulsating corridor, vaporizing drone souls indiscriminately with his trident. (I saw this line when I picked up the book - "Yes! GET THIS!")

***
'A perfect day...' [Lowrie]

'But?' [Meg]

'But I made a hames of it. As usual.'

'How? It sounds as though all you had to do was walk her [Lowrie's then girlfriend] home, give her a kiss goodnight and...'

'I never kissed her.'

'You eejit.'
***

Satan was crouched in the corner of his office, playing a Gameboy. 'Die, alien scum,' he was saying feverishly, wiggling horny thumbs.

***
'Just say: That's fine by me, Sir.' [Brendan Ball]

Stupidly, I [Lowrie] chose that moment to speak. 'There's no need for you to call me Sir, Brendan.' [Ehm, is it me, or did this joke appear in HBP - and was the only funneh part in the book?]

The Lord of Darkness wears a pinstriped suit, by the way. And sweatshirts and Air Satans. Beelzebub wears a kaftan and carries the latest handphone. Saint Peter has a computer to keep his records of souls, because, as Colfer puts it: "A programmer had actually made it to the Pearlies."

0.0 Firefox just shut down on me. "We're sorry, but Firefox has crashed." Now it's back up and running. Looks like it's not invincible.

And just because - another Artemis Fowl fanfic rec! Set after Book 6, so you'd better read the series before reading this.

Artemis would be pretty upset to find out about the 'Big Bang' experiment, methinks. Unless he was part of the team? Hmm.