![]() ![]() He is a martial arts expert known to be a dragon among men and she is known as the blood demon's daughter.The Bai Yue Sect is a poison to mankind and the source of disaster in the pugilistic world. There are jobs you take because you might find them fulfilling, or they're a stepping stone to a career you see for yourself.A story that follows the master of Listening Snow Tower and the woman that he loves. The new book, Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands, is about the latter.Īnd then there are jobs you take for the money. It's from Kate Beaton, author of the popular webcomic Hark! A Vagrant, as well as a number of children's books. But while her comic is known for its funny and exuberant takes on historical figures, with Ducks, Beaton uses her talents to examine her own life. ![]() Specifically the years she spent working at the oil sands of Fort McMurray, in Alberta, Canada. "I didn't have a good time there," said Beaton. ![]() "I lived in the camps, and that was hard. The book starts over on the east coast, on Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia, where Beaton is from. It's a beautiful place that's long been economically disadvantaged. For a while it was home to various industries – steel, coal, fishing. So the island started sending its people out to wherever jobs were. This idea – that you have to leave home to make a life for yourself – ingrained itself into the culture of Cape Breton. And the book opens with Beaton talking us through how.īut Beaton depicts small moments of tenderness too, from people looking out for her in their own ways. And there are the people who populate the city and are simply putting their heads down and providing for their families, just trying to get by.Ĭhris Turner, author of the book The Patch: The People, Pipelines, and Politics of the Oil Sands said the book avoids caricaturizing the town. That took a lot of courage, Turner said, "given that a lot of these guys, if you wanted to be damning about it, were enabling some of the culture she ran into." Where other depictions at the time portrayed Fort McMurray as a lawless Wild West, Beaton's treats the workers with care and grace. Throughout Ducks, Beaton draws these huge landscapes. There'll be a big beautiful sky juxtaposed with seemingly equally huge and (and just as imposing) machinery on the ground. It's a stark reminder of what the oil industry is doing to the land. Land that was previously occupied by someone else. Kholood Eid for NPR Beaton's new book follows her journey as she deals with her own sense of isolation, while having to put up with constant sexism and misogyny. There's a scene late in the book when an increasingly tired Beaton watches this interview with Celina Harpe. a Cree elder talking about the impacts the oil companies have had on their community. "Everything's ruined, our lives around our lands are ruined, our water, the air, everything," Harpe says. "At the cost of our lives - as long as they get their money. They don't care how many of us they kill off. The moment coalesces the books themes of complicity and complicity and agency and power. Beaton said when the companies first came in to the area, the First Nations people in the area weren't given much say. And now they are tangled up economically in these industries that are polluting their land, and leaving them with higher rates of cancer. ![]() "But what choice did they have but to be involved, or be completely crushed?" said Beaton.Dysfunctional doesn't even begin to describe this story. Almost every plot thread stemmed from some sort of dysfunction. And *everyone* was in love with someone who was in love with someone else. Personally, I found it both ridiculous and interesting, but it worked, in a weird way. This is not the type of romance where you know they're going to get together and live happily ever after once they overcome a few trials. There was some serious tragedy and angst in here.ġ. Lots of long hair, pretty headpieces (some really freaking weird ones too), beautiful, draping clothes, stunning sets, intense martial arts, etc.Ģ. The male lead really did a phenomenal job in his role. That was a hard role to play and he did outstanding.ģ. Things didn't go the way I thought they would.ġ. Pretty much every female character, most especially the female lead.Ģ. While there were moments that were romantic, overall, it wasn't terribly romantic.ģ. There was *a lot* of talking and a lot of scenes repeated over and over. STORY: There is a *huge* cast and I got really lost at first trying to learn who everyone was. There were some scenes at the beginning that didn't come into play until near the end and then they flashed back to them. I feel they should have just flashed back rather than confuse me at the beginning. ![]()
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