Sunday, January 11, 2009

Harriet is Star Struck (Sorta)

Harriet seems to be gob smacked with Hollywood and celebrities like most people toiling away in Georgia. Thus, when she knows the author is a screen writer she invariably says that what has been written should be produced. She has an affaire de plume with Lee Goldberg that you can understand more fully only by reading her 10 reviews of his books. At the end of the one book that has not been filmed (the rest are adaptations of TV shows), our Queen writes

"The Walk is an exciting action packed thriller that would make a fantastic movie because it focuses on the protagonist who undergoes a metamorphosis from an uncaring selfish man to a heroic figure. The trials and tribulations he undergoes allows the real Marty Slack to shine as he proves he is no slacker. Lee Goldberg always entertains his audience with a gripping drama and The Walk is certainly that."

Another book, Debatable Space, perhaps the worst piece of trash I have ever had the misfortune to read, and which gave me my introduction to Her Highness, was also penned by a screenwriter. So Harriet stroked him by observing

"Philip Palmer writes a terrific space opera and DEBATABLE SPACE would make a great marquee movie in the tradition of Star Wars. Alien races co-exist with humanity and the aliens are major characters so readers feel as if they actually exist. Readers ride an orbital roller coaster that takes us to various planets in the galaxy, making the audience realize how enslaved the human race is if they don't live on Earth."

If the writer is a screenwriter Harriet will probably nominate his book for celluloid (or videotape).

1 comment:

Malleus said...

I think this might be just another cliche, shtick, something to mention thus increasing the amount of text, which has got to be a major concern here, because with her reviewing method she really doesn't have much to talk about, so anything that can be tossed into the bucket as it were, in addition to the usual plot recap (two paragraphs) and a formulaic gushing conclusion/prophecy that the readers of the subgenre will love it/exhortation to buy (one paragraph, the last one) -- anything she could gibber about in addition to that she must find very useful. I think it's part of her "technology". Especially since it's probably correct sometimes (like a broken watch).

As far as "because it focuses on the protagonist who undergoes a metamorphosis", this is like saying nothing. One of the distinguishing features of the novel is character development, so this can be said about any novel, while not every novel will necessarily make a fantastic movie -- although, actually, maybe, if the novel is good, maybe it will.

Anyway, as usual she's not saying anything here, just wasting space because she needs something to attach her five stars to. If Amazon allowed posting stars with no text, I bet she'd do that.