Dragonlance Trilogy

This series was a welcome comeback to high fantasy after trudging through the Farseer trilogy. The first book is pretty good even though the glaring absence of the protagonist's girlfriend is a little odd initially. Of course by the second book you realize what's coming and the planned plot twist falls rather flat.

Some tips for the authors, when you want to make a character mysterious you either narrate their actions only to the readers or you make the other characters slightly suspicious of them. You don't make the characters simply refuse to answer direct questions and accusations, that just gets on the nerves.

The magic in the books seems to be purposefully doled out like the porridge in Oliver Twist's workhouse. The wizards seem too inconsistent with their powers and sometimes it feels like the authors used a deus ex machina.

Another odd thing is the choice of story segments the authors chose to relate in summary (traveling to the location of the dragon's eggs) or in a poem (ice wall). Its strange that situations ripe for some thrilling action and suspense were relegated to a couple of pages while much more was written about the dwarf's sea sickness.

Aside from these minor irritations the series is quite good to read and recommended to everyone.

Quantum of Solace

How low can a popular action franchise like James Bond sink, if you want to know then you should definitely see this movie. This movie manages to do so many things wrong that its difficult to know where to start. I'll start with the story first - its pathetic. Instead of a story about international espionage and political intrigue we get a story about an angry boyfriend (he can't sleep because of his grief) who wants to avenge his girlfriend's death.
There's some silly background story about political instability in South America being encouraged by the CIA because they want oil while the dastardly terrorists only want to sell expensive water. But that's all it is , a backdrop for the angry hero to go around killing people while the bad guys kill off his friends and the movie can be slapped with the James Bond brand.
There are no gadgets, no car and the ending is perhaps the lamest one you'll ever see in an action movie. This one is definitely not recommended to anyone.

Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa

The movie starts off some time from where the previous one ended, the animals (just the penguins really) have managed to repair an old airplane to fly them back to New York. The movie starts of with a bang and is pretty much relentless in delivering comic scenes and lines. Of course their plans go awry and they end up in Africa instead of reaching New York.

Thankfully the movie does not suffer from the sequel syndrome, the jokes are fresh and don't feel silly or over the top (symptoms seen in many comedy sequels). Highly recommended for animation or comedy lovers.

Farseer Trilogy

The trilogy starts of rather steretypically with a bastard child of a prince being delivered to a keep and doesn't stray far from the basic fantasy formula. You have the young ignorant boy with immense potential and a wise old self-sacrificing mentor who served the boy's father.

The three books themselves pretty much have the same repetitive plot, the boy get injured then heals and does something half stupid and half heroic getting injured again in the process. There weren't any interesting plot twists to keep the reader engrossed and protagonist's idiocity really starts getting on your nerves after while. To top it all off when the author finally decides to leave the formula behind (after a much belabored climax) it is to spoil the ending. Instead of a happy ending to appease the readers after going through three novels its a rather hollow ending. I wouldn't recommend this series at all.