Ms. Hen reviews JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH

Ms. Hen enjoys the Earth

Journey to the Center of the Earth

Jules Verne

Translated from the French by Frederic Amadeus Malleson

1864, 2017

Ms. Hen decided to read this novel on her phone because she thought it would be ironic to read one of the classics of sci-fi on a device. She felt silly doing so, and she didn’t enjoy it as much as she would if she had read a real book. She stopped reading books on her Kindle a few years ago, but recently bought an Ipad, so she got the Kindle app, and it appeared on her phone.

She thinks reading a book on her phone or device is not really reading. She doesn’t think she gets as much out of reading a device as she does a book; she doesn’t digest the information as well as a hard copy. She wrote a blog post about this a few years ago, which you can read here: http://mshenreviewsthings.blogspot.com/2015/12/ms-hen-bids-adieu-to-her-kindle.html

Ms. Hen liked this novel, and she thought it was charming, but it’s not her cup of tea. It’s an adventure book, similar to MOBY DICK. She admires the creativity and the plot, but the situations aren’t interesting enough for her.

This novel is about Axel and his uncle, a German geologist, who find a book with a description of how to get into the earth through a volcano in Iceland. The two travel to Iceland, and find a guide to help them get to where they want to go. They go in the volcano and have an adventure.

Ms. Hen liked the descriptions of Iceland in that time. They seemed like a primitive people, and almost barbaric, but charming and quaint in their own way. Not a lot of food grows in Iceland, and the inhabitants had to scrounge for what they could. These days, they have imported food and hothouses, but back then, they did not have the knowledge or technology.

Ms. Hen read this because it is another type of novel about going down a rabbit hole, such as ALICE IN WONDERLAND. She is fascinated by this right now, and she wants to know how to write such plots. Ms. Hen does not recommend reading a book on your phone, and she didn’t love this book, but it is a taste of speculative fiction in its infancy, which Ms. Hen admires.

Ms. Hen reviews THE MINISTRY OF TIME

The Ministry of Time (El Ministerio Del Tiempo)

Netflix

2015-2017

In Spanish with subtitles

Ms. Hen does not write many TV reviews, though she does watch TV, mostly on Netflix. She doesn’t review these, because she decided not to write about absolutely everything in her life, like she did during the genesis of her blog. But she absolutely loved this Spanish show, THE MINISTRY OF TIME, about time travel in Spain.

The ministry is an office in contemporary Spain. A hallway in the basement leads to a place full of doors, which are entryways to different time periods in Spain’s history. They only lead to places in Spain, or that belonged to Spain at the time, such as South America and the Philippines. Three people are recruited at the beginning of the show, a 16^th century soldier, Alfonso, the first female university student from the 19^th century, Amelia Folch, and a modern day nurse, Julian, who works as an EMT. They are recruited to help fix history when it goes awry, which is what all the agents in the ministry do.

Amelia is the leader of the group, since she knows so much about history and everything else, and is highly intelligent. She is well versed in history up to her point, but learns quickly what she needs to know about other eras. Julian is the one who can help people who are hurt, and Alfonso is a fighter, who wins almost any battle. Alfonso is a brave warrior, but has antiquated views about women and religion.

Alfonso learns that he should obey Amelia’s command, even though he grumbles. Julian pines for his dead wife. Amelia has to go back to her time period living with her parents, and she has to deal with life as a 19^th century woman, knowing that in the future, there are more opportunities.

One of Ms. Hen’s favorite episodes is about Cervantes, in which the villians pay the author for the only copy of DON QUIXOTE, and the agents have to try to get it back. Ms. Hen loved when they brought Cervantes to the present day to show him how famous he would be in the future. Another of Ms. Hen’s favorite episodes is the one when an evil character discovers America, and Christopher Columbus does not. Some episodes were about parts of history that Ms. Hen had no knowledge of, but she learned. She had heard the name Simon Bolivar, but did not know what he did, or how he was significant. Two episodes show this man at different times of his life.

The characters change, and new ones are introduced as the show progresses. Pacino joins the team when Julian runs away. Pacino is a police officer from the 1980s, and he escaped going to jail by finding a door to the present day. Alfonso, the 16^th century soldier has to help teach Pacino about 21^st century technology, but Alfonso gets confused about simple items such as toasters. This show can be humorous at times, when characters try to explain and learn about aspects of life in other time periods.

Some things about this show amazed Ms. Hen, such as the costumes and the filters. Amelia travels from era to era and always looks different; her hair and her clothes transform, and she looks like a new person each time. Ms. Hen noticed that the filter would change for different eras, such as in the 16^th century, the light was very bright, and in the 1940s, the palette was darker. What amazed her the most was the 1970s, during which the filter changed so it looked like a photo taken from that time. This is a carefully made show, with a lot of thought to visuals and authenticity.

Ms. Hen watched this show because she is into science fiction, but she feels it goes along with the theme of the books she is reading right now, ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND, and going down the rabbit hole. This show takes the characters into different points of time to try to save history. Ms. Hen recommends this TV show to anyone who wants to be taken to many different points in the history of Spain and to be dazzled by the way the world used to be.

Ms. Hen reviews THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS

Through the Looking Glass

Lewis Carroll

Macmillan

1872

Ms. Hen is studying ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND,

since she is attempting

to write something similar.

She had read that book years before, but she had never

read the sequel, THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS, so she went to the Internet

and purchased it with aplomb, waiting anxiously for the parcel to arrive in the mail.

When it came, she read it when she was ready, and she dove into the fantastical

world of Alice falling into in her mirror.

These books are strange to Ms. Hen, and she is trying to figure out

what they are about; there is a myth they’re about

drugs, but she found out that’s not true, they’re just meant to entertain.

In this version of Alice’s tale she meets a Red Queen and a White Queen,

has an encounter with Humpty Dumpty, and the absurdity continues

with poetry and strange characters,

through the glass, similar to when she fell down the rabbit hole.

Ms. Hen thinks that the myriad of versions of these tales are about nothing but

children’s fanciful whimsical dreams, they are simply

tall tales told to spark the imagination,

to make us see the world in a precious way,

to help us hold onto childhood.

Ms. Hen thinks that people should not lose their sense of wonder,

even if they don’t like spending time around children,

they should hold onto the seed of what was once there,

but gets eaten away by the real world, the miserable, everyday, ordinary world

that kills us slowly and surely

by grinding us down to a pulp.

By reading about Alice, adults can try to remember what it’s like to have

a mind that’s free from clutter and drudgery.

We can become Alice and be like a bird hopping, preparing

for flight, ready to forget everything

and dance

like a rabid sea rabbit.

Ms. Hen reviews THE BEGINNING PLACE

The Beginning Place

Ursula K. Le Guin

Harper & Row

1980

Ms. Hen decided to read this novel because she is currently interested in science fiction, particularly stories similar to ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND. She found this novel on a list of books that are similar to that one, and she has read another book by Ms. Le Guin in the past, and she admired her as a person, so she decided to pick this up. She was not disappointed.

After her deep dislike of NEUROMANCER last week, THE BEGINNING PLACE was a refreshing respite. This book takes place in a future time, the twenty-first century, or an imagined one that was written around the late seventies. Not a lot of technology exists in this novel, for example, Ms. Hen was surprised the characters did not own a microwave, but that was the small thing wrong with this book. Nobody can see the future, and the proliferation of things like microwaves and computers and the Internet would be difficult to imagine forty years ago.

This is a novel about a young man, Hugh, who works in a supermarket, and gets upset with his life, and runs into a forest that he does not realize at first is a different land. He thinks the place is beautiful and returns and finds a young woman there named Irena. She does not like that he’s in the place, too. People live in a village beyond the mountain, and Irena has been going there for a long time and speaks their language. The people cannot leave their village because of a magical force, and are losing food, so Irena and Hugh offer to help them. They go on an adventure and are not the same afterwards.

This novel is similar to ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND, because it is about going to a different country where things and people are strange and operate in an unusual way. It is also reminiscent of THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE, THE LORD OF THE RINGS, THE WIZARD OF OZ, and many other stories in which someone goes on an adventure, and discovers a new, magical world. The difference is that this novel takes place in the future, where not everything in the characters’ lives is peaceful and calm. Hugh works at a supermarket and his mother is miserable. Irena’s family is dysfunctional and has a hard time with her roommates, an unmarried couple who fight all the time. They go past the river and find peace, or at least attempt to do so. Nothing in life is perfect, but we have to do our best.

Ms Hen understands that this is usually a book for young people; which makes sense to her, because it is simply written and it is not violent or graphic. She would have liked to read this when she was young, but she didn’t, but she is glad she just read it, because it makes her feel young, with positive feelings for the future. Being young is not always the best time of life, as Ms. Hen knows, but she thinks that people can be hopeful at any age. Ms. Hen loved this book.

Ms. Hen reviews NEUROMANCER

Neuromancer

William Gibson

The Berkley Publishing Group

1984

Ms. Hen decided to read this novel because she thought it would relate to what she is writing now. It does, but it’s very different. The only similarity is that it’s science fiction about a similar subject. Ms. Hen honestly didn't like this book, however.

This is an action adventure novel that takes place in the future, in which a man, Case, chases his fortune across the world. It’s what Ms. Hen would call a Man Book, one of those novels full of sex, drugs and rock n roll, which is not usually Ms. Hen’s cup of tea. Ms. Hen likes science fiction, but the kind that is comprehensible.

This book is painful to read. Ms. Hen likes to live by the idea that a writer should not make a reader work to enjoy the story. This novel makes the reader work TOO HARD. There are all types of words that are made-up, and Ms. Hen didn’t like having to constantly trying to figure out what was going on. She thinks that if a person read this book constantly and did nothing else, maybe that person would get the lingo, but she has other things she has to do with her life, like work, and eat meals, and do her own writing.

Ms. Hen read reviews of this novel, and she can’t believe that people RAVED about this and said it was the best science fiction novel they had ever read. She wants to know what’s wrong with these people! Are they sick? Or do they love it because they think it’s so cool that they can’t understand what’s going on? Ms. Hen thinks it may be a case of the emperor’s new clothes – jumping on the bandwagon and saying it’s great because everyone else does too, and fooling themselves because everyone else is, too.

Ms. Hen doesn’t know how she got through this book, but she did. She was glad when it was over. She can’t believe that it’s a series and doesn’t know why anyone who finished this book would want to read more like this. All feathers down.