BasedOnBooks: Death Comes to Pemberley

One thing that I love doing is to watch period dramas. Preferably those that are based on Jane Austen novels and one that stands out for me is "Death Comes to Pemberley" by P.D. James.

The drama begins six years after the events in Pride and Prejudice which we all know resulted in the marriage of Mr. Darcy and Ms. Bennet.  The couple are preparing a bal and are in wait for all the guests to arrive when all of a sudden a very unexpected guest arrives screaming "Murder! Murder! MURDER!" Thus the mystery begins...

The ensemble cast is lovely and the acting is superb. My favourite couple, aside from Darcy and Elizabeth, is Georgina and Henry. Some have complained that Elizabeth wasn't portrayed as they has imagined her, but to her defence a decade has almost passed, who wouldn't look a little worn out?

A Thousand Nights by E.K Johnston

I'm a sucker for beautiful books and I'm ashamed to admit that I do really judge books by their cover. Just take a good look at the one above, the pages, the lining and most of all the illustrations. So amazingly beautiful! But if I stop being shallow and start examing the content, it is as lovely on the inside as it is on the outside. So what is it about?

Well, it is inspired by A Thousand and One Nights. A king kills his wives and his most recent one is trying to stay alive by telling him stories. But that's where the inspiration ends and a new story unfolds.

Lo-Melkhiin killed three hundred girls before he came to her village, looking for a wife. When she sees the dust cloud on the horizon, she knows he has arrived. She knows he will want the loveliest girl: her sister. She vows she will not let her be next.

And so she is taken in her sister’s place, and she believes death will soon follow. Lo-Melkhiin’s court is a dangerous palace filled with pretty things: intricate statues with wretched eyes, exquisite threads to weave the most beautiful garments. She sees everything as if for the last time. But the first sun rises and sets, and she is not dead. Night after night, Lo-Melkhiin comes to her and listens to the stories she tells, and day after day she is awoken by the sunrise. Exploring the palace, she begins to unlock years of fear that have tormented and silenced a kingdom. Lo-Melkhiin was not always a cruel ruler. Something went wrong.

Far away, in their village, her sister is mourning. Through her pain, she calls upon the desert winds, conjuring a subtle unseen magic, and something besides death stirs the air.

Back at the palace, the words she speaks to Lo-Melkhiin every night are given a strange life of their own. Little things, at first: a dress from home, a vision of her sister. With each tale she spins, her power grows. Soon she dreams of bigger, more terrible magic: power enough to save a king, if she can put an end to the rule of a monster.

Quotes: Mr. Darcy

Based On Books: The Shannara Chronicles

The Shannara Chronicles is an American fantasy drama television series. It is an adaptation of The Sword of Shannara Trilogy books by Terry Brooks.

The first four episodes out of ten have already been aired. I've only seen the first two episodes and I can say that it looks really promising, the story is the perfect fantasy adventure and Manu Bennett as the druid Allanon is spot on. 

Some have claimed that The Shannara Chronicles is the young adult version of Game of Thrones. I don't think it needs that comparison since it has a story that can stand firmly on its own without latching on to the success of another show.

Spin-Offs: Me and Mr. Darcy

The story: Emily Albright is the manager of a cute little bookstore in New York and she decides she’s had it with modern-day love and would much rather curl up with Pride and Prejudice and spend her time with Mr. Darcy. So when her best friend suggests a wild week of margaritas and men in Mexico with the girls, Emily abruptly flees to England on a guided tour of Jane Austen country instead.

Far from inspiring romance, the company aboard the bus consists of a gaggle of little old ladies and one single man, Spike Hargreaves, a ill-tempered journalist who is writing an article on why the fictional Mr. Darcy has earned the title of Man Most Women Would Love to Date.

Opinion: The moment of surprise in the story is that Emily finds herself face to face with none other than Mr Darcy himself. That’s the last thing she expects to find on her excursion, a brooding handsome man striding across a field, his damp shirt clinging to his chest. Suddenly, every woman’s fantasy becomes one woman’s reality.

The fact that Mr. Darcy would even be remotely interested in Emily, who for most of the time is either drunk or accidentally high, is hilarious. He is after all a proper english gentleman and she is Emily from the block. If he didn’t approve of Elizabeth who was a well mannered young woman then there is no way that he would even consider taking a woman with no connections and an unknown background from New York as his wife. I don’t see Jane Austen’s Mr Darcy in Alexandra Potter’s version at all. Maybe that’s an unfair comparison since one author is famous for her pen and the other for banking on the other’s ideas.

But it serves its purpose as a spin-off. It has a hint of the original main characters and a twist in the story.

Quotes: Captain Wentworth

Captain Wentworth😍

Ett foto publicerat av Ms Bookspert 📚 (@msbookspert) Jan 4, 2016 kl. 4:00 PST

Did I mention that I'm a great admirer of Jane Austen? No? Well then...brace yourself for many Austen quotes to come...

Based On Books: The Man In The High Castle

Netflix needs to worry because Amazon is on the rise when it comes to developing TV series. It is to soon to give any real verdict but they have hit a home-run with The Man In The High Castle. The casting is excellent, the cinematography is beautiful (even if the special effects could use a little more tweaking) and the story is intriguing. 

So what is it about? Well imagine how the world would look like if the Axis had won the World War instead of the Allies and then you'll have a good idea about the show's premise. It is based on Philip Dick's novel and illustrates a dystopian world where the United States is under the control of the Nazis and the Japanese.

The new map of the United States after the Axis had won WWII.

The main characters are Juliana Crain, Frank Frink, Joe Blake, John Smith and Nobusuke Tagomi. Juliana gets entangled with a resistance group that her sister was a member of up until her murder. Juliana is tasked with delivering a film that her sister was ordered to bring to the Rocky Mountain States ( a neutral zone between the Japanese and the Nazis) and that is where she crosses paths with Joe Blake. Joe really isn't who he claims to be...he is a double agent working for the Nazis...but I'm secretly hoping that Juliana will be able to turn him over to the good side.