Welcome to Smugglivus 2013! Throughout this month, we will have daily guests – authors and bloggers alike – looking back at their favorite reads of 2013, and looking forward to events and upcoming books in 2014. Who: Kate Elliott, prolific author of science fiction and fantasy. Kate’s work includes 2013’s Cold Steel, the conclusion (?!) to the Cold Magic trilogy, a series Thea enjoyed very much indeed. Give a warm welcome to Kate, folks! Pacific Rim was my favorite film seen in the theater this year. The actors worked for me. The jaegers versus kaiju action worked for me because of the dynamic filming. The visuals hugely worked for me (read this excellent article at Storming The Ivory Tower about the “visual intelligence” of Pacific Rim). I adored the level of background detail, particularly those elements in which tiny bits and pieces of daily life and ordinary struggle are illuminated. For example, in one of the scenes where Raleigh is involved in the work on the wall, there’s a glimpse of three microwaves, most likely for workers to heat their lunches; that detail is great enough on its own, but the microwaves are bolted down, perhaps to suggest that the […]