I’m currently working on Children of Ash and Elm by Neil Price, an indepth dive on Vikings covering history, archeology, mythology, and so on. It’s decently well reviewed and at least seems really comprehensive but I have to admit I’m having trouble getting into it and I’m mostly just grinding out 10-20 page chunks at a time before I end up dropping it to do something else.
That was the last book I finished, and it was solid. The “getting the gang back together” part was fun, and the latter half just picked up from there. Without getting too spoilery I think the last character from her past showing up, and the more fantastical shift from there on, really added a lot to the enjoyment factor.
I think that was close to inevitable when they got bought out, though it is a huge shame. Even with an incredibly strong internal cutlure, they are under Disney’s corporate leadership and the fact they aren’t completely independent in terms of leadership, picking projects, and internal promotions means they’d tend to converge and be absorbed for all intents and purposes.
The Great on Hulu is shockingly entertaining. My wife started watching it because she enjoys that mildly anachronistic and gorgeous/well produced trend lately and it sucked me in way more than I’d have expected.
I wish I could find the specific article about it, but it’s like a decade+ old and google isn’t cooperating. If I recall right though, Brave was the first film idea that Pixar put out which had entirely been conceived without the original core team at Pixar’s input. All the other stuff, even if it hadn’t come out when those people left yet, had been brainstormed by that group and their lack of involvement is why from that point on it all feels so much lesser than Pixar’s golden age.
Not saying I feel one way or the other, but complaining someone doesn’t dislike one group enough because they dislike another group more is sort of a weird argument. “I bet you’d feel differently if we were talking about something else entirely, you hypocrit.” doesn’t really hold up.