The Odd Orchard

Crafting Update

2012-01-19T19:32:00.001-05:00

1. Sherlock - One half of a commission from Etsy. This isn't the best picture, but The Coat and the suit and the scarf are different colors.

2. Rainbow Stripe Blanket - Crocheted blanket in an attempt to do convert stash.

3. Red Amy Pong Scarf - The barest beginnings of another scarf for the store.

4. Black Alpaca Cable Scarf - Gift to myself after successfully finishing all of my planned Christmas presents before Christmas. This is the yarn that I purchased at the farmer's market in September.

5. John - If you don't recognize the approximate sweater pattern on that torso, that will be the other half of the Etsy commission, John.

6. Spools of Single Ply - Slowly spinning through the roving bought at the farmer's market in September. The two spools will be plied once I'm finished spinning the smaller spool's roving.

7. Black Socks - I think it has been a year since I cast on those socks. I intend to finish them soon.

The Last of the Christmas Gifts

2012-01-11T21:47:00.001-05:00

The Grendel's Shadow

2012-01-10T20:43:00.001-05:00

The Grendel's Shadow
by Andrew Mayne

When an unknown animal starts killing off settlers on a backwater planet run on coal and steam power, there's only person who can help stop the slaughter; T.R. Westwood. A distinguished professor of biology and the galaxy's greatest hunter, he's the man to go to when the local wildlife needs to be reminded who is the galaxy's top predator.

In a galaxy filled with millions of worlds, his specialty is evening the odds for the ones with technological restrictions. Rocks and spears or shotguns and canons, he'll use whatever is allowed to get the job done.

Another book review for a digital book by a podcaster! You may remember Andrew Mayne (co-host of the Weird Things podcast) from my review of Public Enemy Zero. The Grendel's Shadow is actually the first book I was introduced to by him. He and Justin Robert Young (another podcaster – also of the Weird Things podcast) produced a free podcast audiobook version of this story during the promotion of the publication of it. Being the podcast junkie that I am, I had to download that and plug it into my ears immediately.

The story was interesting in an audio medium and Justin Robert Young is a good narrator, but it didn't hold my attention as well as I thought it would. I relistened to parts of it while I drove around for errands on the weekend, but I just wasted compelled to sit down and read the actual published book until I had chewed my way through Public Enemy Zero.

The Grendel's Shadow is a good book. It's an adventure story in an alien frontier as one man tries to save the human settlers from a monster that has been picking them off. It mirrors Beowulf in its plot and its straightforward-ness. I know that sounds crazy after plowing through a few paragraphs of “sons of this guy and married to the daughter of that other guy” when Beowulf sets up who is doing what, but the two stories basically boil down to Dude Fights Monster That Is Crazy Monstrous And Saves The Day. And I do enjoy Dude Fighting Monster stories. It didn't “wow” me, but I had a good time with it.

The only criticism I might make would be related to focal character voice. There were times when the focus would shift from Allan, the reporter following Westwood who was completely inexperienced in the whole frontier survival thing, to Westwood, an experienced hunter and biologist burying personal tragedy in dangerous work, and I wasn't sure who was supposed to be the focus. While it did keep me on my toes, it was a little confusing when I was trying to figure out whose perspective I should be seeing the events through.

But I wouldn't consider this some huge glaring flaw. It's a fun book for an afternoon of adventure and I'd definitely recommend it if that is what you are looking for.

You can find more about this book over at andrewmaynebooks.com

Gifts Given

2012-01-02T22:10:00.000-05:00

A Dance With Dragons

2011-12-27T20:37:00.004-05:00

A Dance with Dragons
by George R. R. Martin

In the aftermath of a colossal battle, the future of the Seven Kingdoms hangs in the balance once again—beset by newly emerging threats from every direction. In the east, Daenerys Targaryen, the last scion of House Targaryen, rules with her three dragons as queen of a city built on dust and death. But Daenerys has three times three thousand enemies, and many have set out to find her. Yet, as they gather, one young man embarks upon his own quest for the queen, with an entirely different goal in mind.

To the north lies the mammoth Wall of ice and stone -- a structure only as strong as those guarding it. There, Jon Snow, 998th Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch, will face his greatest challenge yet. For he has powerful foes not only within the Watch but also beyond, in the land of the creatures of ice.

And from all corners, bitter conflicts soon reignite, intimate betrayals are perpetrated, and a grand cast of outlaws and priests, soldiers and skinchangers, nobles and slaves, will face seemingly insurmountable obstacles. Some will fail, others will grow in the strength of darkness. But in a time of rising restlessness, the tides of destiny and politics will lead inevitably to the greatest dance of all....

Holy hot damn, guys. This is the last A Song of Ice and Fire book that I will be reviewing for a while. It seems like I've been reviewing these forever. I'm not complaining about it because it's been fantastic, but it's very weird to think that it might be a couple of years before I read another book in this series. It's been a long time since I actively followed an ongoing book series. I've been reading finished book series since I gave up on the Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series, which was... six or seven years ago, if I am remembering this correctly.

So here we are at the end of the road (for now.)

Like I said in my review of A Feast For Crows, that book and this book have some overlapping time. Most of the book seems to be overlapped time, actually. So any of the characters you were missing in the last book come to the forefront in this one.

Things are happening at The Wall. Stannis Baratheon has moved most of his forces up there to defend the Wall and is now moving to bring the Watch on his side, despite their oath to loyalty only to the Watch. He leaves a force, including Mellisandre, to ensure their cooperation, which causes unnecessarily petty problems with how the Watch operates.

But things are changing with the Watch as well. Operations seem to grind to a halt as the Watch moves to elect a new Commander and Samwell (before leaving with Aemon and Gilly) plays a rather conniving role in changing the course of the Watch. And Jon Snow's destiny has become a much heavier burden.

I'm sure you can infer a hell of a lot of spoilers from that, but I'm not explicitly saying anything, so don't blame me if you figure everything out.

Our buddy Tyrion Lannister has fled the Seven Kingdoms in a rather ungainly fashion with the help of the Targaryen's old host, Illyrio. Tyrion learns that someone who was thought to be dead isn't and through a series of misadventures, teams up with the jaded and miserable Jorah Mormont and an idealistic and naïve dwarf-lady named Penny. I have to admit, Team Tyrion is a bit like Team TARDIS – I prefer it in threes. The balance of Tyrion, Mormont, and Penny is really interesting. Penny and Mormont are pretty static characters and their motives are clear to the reader, but to see Tyrion navigate between them and move them through the political mess of the world is fantastic. It's Tyrion Lannister at his best, I think, because all of the things he used to rely on have been taken away, so he becomes much more resourceful and cunning.

Of course, we also have Daenerys, who is losing control of Mereen. Conquering the city was easy enough, but she is learning that maintaining a city is much more difficult and it is looking like she is not quite up to the task. At the same time, the dragons are growing and are less controllable, but sets up the most exciting part of the entire book.

So I'm not going to talk about it because that would be spoiler-tastic. Let's just say it's the most exciting thing to happen in the series to date.

Yeah. It's crazy. And awesome.

If you've made it this far in the series, I think it's clear that you need to read this one, too. It's phenomenal. I'm incredibly impatient for the next book, but I am definitely recommending this one.

A Feast For Crows

2011-12-13T20:57:00.000-05:00

A Feast For Crows
by George R. R. Martin

It seems too good to be true. After centuries of bitter strife and fatal treachery, the seven powers dividing the land have decimated one another into an uneasy truce. Or so it appears....With the death of the monstrous King Joffrey, Cersei is ruling as regent in King’s Landing. Robb Stark’s demise has broken the back of the Northern rebels, and his siblings are scattered throughout the kingdom like seeds on barren soil. Few legitimate claims to the once desperately sought Iron Throne still exist--or they are held in hands too weak or too distant to wield them effectively. The war, which raged out of control for so long, has burned itself out.

But as in the aftermath of any climactic struggle, it is not long before the survivors, outlaws, renegades, and carrion eaters start to gather, picking over the bones of the dead and fighting for the spoils of the soon-to-be dead. Now in the Seven Kingdoms, as the human crows assemble over a banquet of ashes, daring new plots and dangerous new alliances are formed, while surprising faces--some familiar, others only just appearing--are seen emerging from an ominous twilight of past struggles and chaos to take up the challenges ahead.

It is a time when the wise and the ambitious, the deceitful and the strong will acquire the skills, the power, and the magic to survive the stark and terrible times that lie before them. It is a time for nobles and commoners, soldiers and sorcerers, assassins and sages to come together and stake their fortunes...and their lives. For at a feast for crows, many are the guests--but only a few are the survivors.

Holy hand grenades. I'm already reviewing book four? That seems crazy. I mean, there is a lot of time between when I actually finished these books and when I have the chance to sit down and write about them, but it feels like there is no way I could have written about three of these monsters already.

Things really start picking up in this one and that very well may be because of how this and the the next book are structured. The time passing in these two books is like travelling across a Venn diagram. Everyone sort of starts out at the same time at the beginning of A Feast For Crows, but then the book focuses on only some of the major characters and events. Then, the next book picks up those other characters from where they were in the time split, follows them through the time that is simultaneously happening in A Feast For Crows, and then continues on with everybody for a little bit.

Granted, I do have the advantage of reading A Feast For Crows in the first days of the release of A Dance With Dragons, so I knew that there would be this time and character focus difference between the two books. If you are not aware of that, I can see how some things might get confusing and the exclusion of certain characters towards the end of the book made me anxious.

In this book, we follow King's Landing and all the political sword fighting going on there. Not so much literal sword fighting, although there is some of that, but the Lannisters (namely Cersei) are losing hold on the city and the Tyrells seem to be maneuvering things more effectively. Knowing Cersei as we do, this cannot go well. And it doesn't. Spectacularly.

We also follow Samwell Tarly for a large portion of this book. He is tasked with taking Maester Aemon back to the Citadel, along with Gilly and Mance Raynor's son, but he is met with considerable difficulty and faces many interesting personal challenges. Samwell's growth as a character has been rather slow, considering the pace of all of the other characters and their pursuits, so it was fantastic to get some good time with him and see more of his role in this story.

Arya Stark begins her training at the House of the Black and White, which is complicated by her own stubborn nature and her increased connection with Nymeria (although, she doesn't know that's what it is yet). There were so many times that she crossed paths with other characters in Braavos and each one of them was gripping as I tried to map where she would end up. She has been one of the greatest mysteries of the series for me. Most of the characters have a basic idea of where they should be headed or why they are proceeding the way they are, but Arya seems to take off whenever she needs to without any plans or goals. She still maintains the hope of seeing Jon Snow at some point, but she's a realist and knows that this is unlikely with how her situation keeps bouncing her around. The other characters try to shape the events around them, but she keeps flowing through them and I have no idea what's going to happen with her before the series end.

Brienne of Tarth is tasked by Jaime Lannister to take one of the swords forged from the late Eddard Stark's blade Ice and keep her word to Catelyn by finding Sansa. She ends up questing through towns in the traditional sort of fantasy story way and is tagged along by Podrick Payne, Tyrion's semi-competent squire. If you've been following my reviews, you'll remember that I love analyzing Brienne's character because of the gender-expectation bending and I latched onto her role with Podrick just as quickly. Pod is fantastic because he recognizes the same sorts of things I was. He approaches Brienne as he would any man going on such a quest and is a little awkward with the seemingly surprising revelations that she is, in fact, a woman whenever she speaks directly to him, but he switches between “my lady” and “sir” nervously, as if he's waiting for Brienne to approve which titles he should be using. He's always been considered a bit of a simpleton by the Lannisters he served, but Brienne takes the time to listen to him and teach him and he repays the respect in kind.

Littlefinger becomes Lord of the Eyrie after the murder of Lysa Arryn and Sansa, disguised as his bastard daughter, has to manage Robert and the lords of the Vale whenever Littlefinger needs to use her for his gains. Sansa's growth as a character has also been slow and I have been unsure whether she would remain a weaker character or if she would grow into her role as a direwolf. It's been hard to tell because the boys have been forged by connections to their wolves and Arya has always been wild, but Sansa's wolf was killed and she's never exhibited the kind of behaviour that has reinforced Arya's survival instincts. In this book, however, we get some more glimpses of the iron forming under her skin. She's always going to remain quiet and pretty on the outside, I think, but she's learning and adapting and I think she's going to become a quietly ruthless fighter very soon. It feels like she's on the brink of it and I am eagerly awaiting the moment when she wins.

Jaime leaves King's Landing (which opens the place up for the Tyrells as mentioned above) to oversee the siege at Riverrun, which doesn't lead to very many interesting new things with him, but we see the continuation of the changes caused by his trip with Brienne. And the Iron Islands flounder for a bit after the death of Balon Greyjoy, but they call for a new king. Divisions between the clans widen a bit and ships are sent out to stage new battles, which I think will become very interesting and very important later.

And, of course, main characters are killed. There are some intriguing things happening with the undead right now, so I am suspecting that we may not see the last of some of them. The fantasy aspects of this world are becoming more prevalent and I am hooked into their development, clinging to see what's going on. As usual, I had no idea what to expect in the next book when I closed this one and it continues to enthrall me in the best possible ways.

Up next, the current final book - - A Dance With Dragons!

In Hero Years... I'm Dead

2011-12-06T20:10:00.001-05:00

In Hero Years... I’m Dead
Michael A. Stackpole

Twenty years ago someone stole him away from Capital City. Having been released from captivity he returns to find everything changed. The great heroes of his day, men who could move planets or tear apart criminal syndicates, have all retired. A new breed of hero has sprung up to deal with a perplexingly new brand of villain. It’s a world that makes no sense, and a world which, if he persists in playing the hero, will surely see him dead.

In Hero Years… I’m Dead mixes action, dark humor, satire and strong characters into a thrilling page-turner. It’s superheroes facing challenges both in costume and out, battling a cunning enemy bent on destroying all they have worked so hard to preserve.

The Deluxe Edition includes a long essay that delves into the inspiration for and the process of writing the novel. It provides a rare opportunity to look at the process of a novel coming together and seeing electronic print.

I’m sure this blog looked sad and dejected during November. National Novel Writing Month took up nearly all of my time. Book review writing just couldn’t fit its way into my brain during November, but it is December now and I am back to writing these things.

But before I get to the actual heart of the review, it’s mini-story time.

If you go back in the archives, you’ll see that I did a review of I, Jedi by Michael A. Stackpole about a year ago. If you only read the blog, you should also know that I do video versions of these reviews over at my channel on YouTube. I don’t have many subscribers over there and my videos don’t get many views, which is perfectly understandable, but I received an email from Mike Stackpole at the end of September saying that he had seen my review and wondered if I was interested in reviewing his digital work. Of course, I replied that I was and he very kindly sent me a copy of In Hero Years... I’m Dead - Deluxe Edition for my Kindle.

(Don’t worry, I wasn’t this calm about it at the time. I was freaking myself out for days with excitement over this whole idea.)

This book is fantastic. I couldn’t put it down. It does two major things that I really love in story telling –

1. It provides a puzzle.

A lot of this book deals with identity and how that shapes who people are. I mean, costumed superhero stories are identity stories naturally, but I found this one compelling because of how little you know about the narrator of this story. He used to be a superhero before his disappearance, but even then, he maintained his costumed self and multiple civilian selves so that no one could figure out who he was. He comes back to Capital City and he needs to establish who he is again, but the rules have changed and he needs to seriously evaluate how he fits into this new society.

And this is a first person narrative, so as a reader, you are limited to what this character is doing and thinking. It’s one of those books where the back-story of the character is slowly revealed because it is developing into something that will greatly impact the identity he has created for himself and have a larger impact on the city around him. And because he has this mysterious past, he has more information locked back there which makes him really the only person who can connect the dots in the larger plot. But the information is revealed to the readers only when the narrator accepts that information as part of who he is and he has been fighting that for a very long time.

Honestly, I would have been hooked on this story if it was just that, but this book also has this second storytelling element -

2. Distorting a world that you already know.

The world that Stackpole creates here is immediately familiar because it is a superhero book where other superheroes exist. You meet other characters and you think “Okay, that guy is this world’s Superman” and “That must be the Batman of Capital City” and you recognize the hero types. Once you figure that out, you know where you are. You know how things are supposed to be.

And then the world breaks those rules. Superheroes and villains have become a part of the framework of Capital City. It’s be institutionalized in such a way that it’s no longer wild and outside of the rules. Both sides are practically required to use nonlethal weapons. Villains publish where they are robbing a bank or whatever their plans may be and heroes bid on who gets to fight them. Their fights are scored and tallied into a sort of Top 40 chart, which is the primary form of entertainment in this new Capital City.

The narrator arrives in Capital City and is caught off guard by the changes he sees and you’re agreeing with him because this is unusual for you as well. You get to analyze and examine this new world with him and you can see the things that are going wrong with it when the other characters can’t because you know how a superhero world is supposed to work. I love exploring that kind of thing.

And, if you are reading the Deluxe Edition like I was, there is an essay thing at the end where the author goes through how this world and this book came about, so you can actually see the process in how this kind of distortion is achieved.

I am definitely recommending this one to you folks. If you like superheroes and playing with that kind of story, this is a book for you. If you like puzzles, this is for you. If you like self-analysis and character building in your protagonists, this book is for you. If you like mysteries and crime fighting, this is for you. It’s incredibly immersive, compelling, and

You can get it in .epub format straight from Mike Stackpole’s website over at StormWolf.com. The .epub format works with pretty much any electronic reading device, except the Kindle, but you can grab this book from the Kindle store as well, if you are interested.

More WIPs

2011-11-16T19:52:00.001-05:00

Just a few more works in progress to tease.

Works in Progress

2011-10-31T20:23:00.002-04:00

These will be gifts for friends and family, so I'm not going to give away much, but I just finished these two lovely beauties .

And I also finished this, but it's not as impressive, I'm afraid.

Forest Granny Square Blanket

2011-10-26T22:09:00.000-04:00

Hook: US H8/5.00 mm
Yarn: Sensations Sincerely in Oatmeal, Cream, Green, and Emerald Green
Pattern: I drew this one out myself. I used the same basic granny square shape as I did on my other granny square blanket.

To be honest, I was going to give this one as a gift to someone for Christmas, but it didn't turn out quite the way I had thought. There isn't enough contract between the "light" and "dark" squares and I'm not sure the color combinations worked as well as I had planned either. I mean, it's not terrible, but it wasn't up to my expectations.

So I kept it, folded it in half, and slung it over the top of my craft storage thing as a sort of table cloth. I will probably end up using it as a lap blanket while I'm sitting at the computer at some point, but it's entirely possible that this project may get frogged within the next few years.

The Dead Zone

2011-10-24T20:53:00.002-04:00

The Dead Zone

I was first introduced to the Dead Zone when I was twelve. It was on right before Farscape on Sci-Fi Fridays. I must have seen the last ten minutes of every episode for four of five seasons of that show. When I got to college and had an unusual amount of free time, this was one of the shows that I tried to watch through.

But I failed because I couldn’t find the last two seasons.

All six seasons of the show are now much more readily available for viewing, so I went ahead and started over to watch Johnny Smith’s story from his car accident, which opened up his ‘dead zone’ and gave him psychic visions, to the very last scene of the last episode.

I really like seasons one through five. I like the visions as fragments that create mysteries and twists and problem-of-the-week stories and the coming apocalypse storyline and Johnny’s functional relationship with Walt as the dad to his son and the husband to his ex-fiancé. I mean, there were snags in all of that, but it usually worked itself out and I found Johnny’s ability to function within the culture of his small town-like community really interesting in a psychological/sociological kind of way.

The last season, though, went a bit south for me. Half of the recurring characters were gone and the nature of Sara and Johnny’s relationship changed in a direction I didn’t particularly like. And JJ had a new actor which was really weird after so long with the other kid. And they didn’t look anything alike.

I mean, I think all the changes in the season were interesting from Johnny’s perspective because it took away almost all of his support ,but it turned into the same type of deal the last season of the X-files did. Interesting, yes, but not really the show I enjoyed watching.

Weird New England

2011-10-11T18:48:00.004-04:00

Mark Moran and Mark Scearman, authors of Weird U.S. present
Weird New England
Your Guide to New England’s Local Legends and Best Kept Secrets
Joseph A. Citro

Colonists, clambakes, and the coastguard. Sure, those things define New England, as do witches and whale watching. And don’t forget the Red Sox and the Patriots. But there’s more. New England us also filled to the brim with serious strangeness. And there’s no one better to chronicle the odd goings-on in our patriotic, but extremely weird, section of the country than Joe Citro, a citizen in full possession of the “weird eye.”

For years, Joe has traveled our six states with camera and notepad in hand, mosquito netting or snowshoes firmly in place, in search of the bizarre and the offbeat. And he found the everywhere. He has tracked down some unbelievable tales that have just enough truth in them to create the same uneasiness a chance meeting with Lizzie Borden’s ghost would.

So grab a bowl of clam chowder and start browsing. Visit Hell’s Half Acre, read the walls and the furniture in Rockport’s newspaper house, dally in Dino Land, learn about Leatherman, chat with Frog People, get creeped out by the Men in Black, cross Emily’s Bridge (if you dare), get rained on by rocks, climb up the Bloody Tower, spend time at America’s Stonehenge, tramp through Gungywamp, visit the grave of a vampire, size up Littlefoot, and look out for the Bennington monster. It’s all wild. It’s all weird. It’s all New England.

Weird New England proves without a doubt that the pilgrims landed in one very strange spot. So travel down our region’s highways and byways with your tour guide par excellence, and learn all the stuff about New England that our schoolmarms never taught us. We promise: It’s a journey you’ll never forget.

This was an impulse buy like you wouldn’t believe, folks. I was in Barnes & Noble looking for a stitch dictionary and I stopped to browse the Halloween table. This book stared right up at me and I needed to browse through it. I remember seeing the Weird U.S. book and a copy of Weird California somewhere, but I don’t consciously remember seeing the Weird New England book. I flipped through it, saw some things that I’ve grown up hearing about, and then hit a stretch of the book full of stuff that sparked something in my brain for this year’s NaNoWriMo.

So I bought it.

Hey, every little bit helps with novel writing, right?

Anyway, of course there were a lot of things in there I was already familiar with, even if I didn’t know specifics. I’m a born and bred Connecticutter and the Gergler side of the family settled in New England after leaving Germany way back when. It’s in my blood. I’ve even visited a couple of the places talked about in this book and have probably driven past more of them without knowing it.

The point is, I really enjoy regional history and folklore like this. I’m not a huge history fan most of the time, but this kind of stuff is fantastic. This is the kind of stuff that still has a huge impact on how we structure our lives today, even if we don’t realize it. And the fact that I can hop into my car and go to these places (the less scary ones, obviously) to learn more about them is fantastic.

I also really enjoyed learning about the stuff that I didn’t know was lurking in the woods and down the roads. Not so surprisingly, the ones that I really had no idea about were either much more remote and to the north than I have been or less than a half hour from my house.

Seriously, guys. Dudleytown (in Cornwall, CT) is basically next to Goshen and it takes me a half hour to get to the Goshen Fair Grounds. Creepy.

If you’re interested in cryptocreatures, disappearances, local legends, mysterious old ruins, abandoned insane asylums, and roadside attractions, you should probably have a look at this book. It’s by no means an in-depth look into the weird stuff in New England, but it’s a fascinating sampling of what we’ve got lurking around dark corners in this part of the country.

Heart of the Fire

2011-10-08T22:17:00.002-04:00

I bought some new handspun that I am excited to work with.

I have two other skeins of other colorways by this same spinner and they are all fantastic. I have plans to make a shawl for a friend of mine with this and I eagerly anticipate how this will look knitted up.

A Storm of Swords

2011-10-04T20:13:00.000-04:00

A Storm of Swords
George R. R. Martin

Before your eyes get any further in this review, Be Warned. There are probably spoilers in this review for events in A Game of Thrones and A Clash of Kings. If you have not read those books and do not wish to be spoiled, Turn Back Now.

Of the five contenders for power, one is dead, another in disfavor, and still the wars rage as violently as ever, as alliances are made and broken. Joffrey, of House Lannister, sits on the Iron Throne, the uneasy ruler of the land of the Seven Kingdoms. His most bitter rival, Lord Stannis, stands defeated and disgraced, the victim of the jealous sorceress who holds him in her evil thrall. But young Robb, of House Stark, still rules the North from the fortress of Riverrun. Robb plots against his despised Lannister enemies, even as they hold his sister hostage at King's Landing, the seat of the Iron Throne. Meanwhile, making her way across a blood-drenched continent is the exiled queen, Daenerys, mistress of the only three dragons still left in the world ...

But as opposing forces maneuver for the final titanic showdown, an army of barbaric wildlings arrives from the outermost line of civilization. In their vanguard is a horde of mythical Others--a supernatural army of the living dead whose animated corpses are unstoppable. As the future of the land hangs in the balance, no one will rest until the Seven Kingdoms have exploded in a veritable storm of swords ...

Oh boy. Where to begin?

I suppose I'll start with Brienne of Tarth. If I am not mistaken, she was first introduced in A Clash of Kings as a part of Renly Baratheon's guard. She becomes one of the major players in this book when Catelyn Stark gives her the task of exchanging Jaime Lannister for Sansa and Arya. Brienne is a fantastic character. Because of her “unladylike” build and height and because men have found her less than appealing, she cast aside traditional female roles and adopted male roles as a sort of misfit knight. I like the gender play there. She holds onto her own female name and, at the same time, is very uncomfortable when anyone calls her by a female title. She wants to be treated like a lady of her station sometimes if she can have the same respect as other ladies and she wants to be treated as a man other times and fights for the same respect as other men. She carves out her own identity and holds herself to her own standards without compromise and I have great respect for her.

She also happens to be stuck with Jaime Lannister, which I would probably enjoy with any character but especially so with her because he is a pompous ass. It is fascinating to follow their journey because they develop this grudging respect and admiration through fighting with each other and becoming prisoners of others. It's fantastic.

Of course, we also have the unfortunate Robb Stark learning precisely why it is a bad idea to betray a Frey promise when he nullifies his betrothal and marries another young lady. And Arya escapes from where she was from, only to be passed along from one group to another as she tries to find her way to her family.

In Stannis' camp, the focus is on Davos, who managed to escape the flames at King's Landing to land in Stannis' dungeon. Melissandre's premonitions discovered Davos' hatred for her and plots against her, but her hold on Stannis weakens when Stannis makes it clear that he values Davos above his other knights.

King's Landing is in turmoil. Joffrey is betrothed to Maergery Tyrell and is wed to her, with interesting consequences. Sansa's betrothal to one Lannister is forced upon another when Tywin decides that she must marry Tyrion. Circumstances force Sansa to flee the castle with the help of Littlefinger and go into hiding, which in turn causes Tyrion to take the fall for her suspected hand in events. The Lannisters become even more splintered as patricide and paranoia shape their family.

In the North, things are getting much more complicated. Bran, Hodor, Meera, and Jojen leave the ruins of Winterfell and travel north as winter comes closer. The Watch party encamped at the Fist of the First Men are attacked by undead wights that cannot be killed. Jon Snow is forced to play turn coat among the free peoples that Mance Raynor has gathered.

And in the East, Daenerys has found her army. She purchases the whole of the Unsullied – the company of eunuch soldiers renowned all over the world for its members' obedience and prowess in battle. In a demonstration of power, she turned them on the slavers who made them and changed the landscape of the East.

Each of these books is somehow bigger than the last one with more anticipation and more intricately laid destinies for these characters. This series continues to be one of the greatest epics I have ever read.

Next: A Feast for Crows.

Doctor Who Hunters Moon

2011-09-20T20:08:00.001-04:00

Doctor Who: Hunters Moon
By Paul Finch
Narrated by Arthur Darvill

‘There's no end to the horror in this place - it's like Hell, and there are devils round every corner.’
On Leisure Platform 9 gamblers and villains mix with socialites and celebrities. It’s a place where you won’t want to win the wrong game. With Rory kidnapped by a brutal crime lord, the Doctor and Amy infiltrate a deadly contest where fugitives become the hunted. But how long before they realise the Doctor isn’t a vicious mercenary and discover what Amy is up to? It’s a game that can only end in death, and time for everyone is running out.

This Audible subscription has been good to me. All the books I have downloaded with it have been fantastic and Doctor Who: Hunters Moon is no different.
I’m not ashamed to admit that I followed the same guidelines for this as I did The Call of Cthulhu. The book already appealed to me, but I chose this particular book over others because of the narrator. In this case, it was Arthur Darvill, who plays Rory Williams in the show and Rory Williams is in my top ten favourite Doctor Who companions list.
Dear lord.

Arthur Darvill is amazingly talented. I was blown away by his ability to perform these characters as a narrator. He does loads of different accents and vocal mannerisms for the different characters and his Eleventh Doctor impression is stunningly executed. And his different voices were so different from one another, including his general narration voice, that I would forget that it was Arthur Darvill until Rory returned to the forefront of the story.

And the story was great. Sometimes the Doctor overshadows his companions or one of his companions overshadows everyone else, but this story features equal parts awesomeness for all involved. When Rory loses a bet, the TARDIS’ and his and Amy’s freedom, it is up to the Doctor to same them. But when Rory gets thrown into a game of Hunt the Human on a post-apocalyptic world with some other kidnapped humans, he holds it together and leads those who would follow to relative safety until the Doctor’s arrival. Amy is stuck as a serving slave on a mob ship, but she’s charged with rescuing the TARDIS from the hidden store rooms on the ship and does so admirably. And the Doctor, of course, binds everything together, saves the hunted humans, gets the bad guys, and in general, saves the day.

Overall, this is a brilliant story and one that I wish was an actual episode. If you’re a Who fan, I’d definitely recommend checking out this audiobook.

Coventry Farmer's Market Fiber Twist Weekend Haul

2011-09-19T19:12:00.003-04:00

Three 100 yd. skeins of sport weight black 90% alpaca/%10 merino blend from Hampden Hills Alpacas at $6.00 each.
(I'm thinking some kind of cabled scarf for myself with this. It's the perfect kind of soft.)
4 oz. green-dyed roving from Cold Goats Farm at $9.50.
(I've already started spinning a little bit on this one. I've missed spinning.)
4 oz. Hand painted merino wool roving - "Blue Eyes" - from Green Wool Fiber Works for $17.00
Drop Spindle from Burgis Brook Alpacas for $10.
4 oz, Handpainted Blue Faced Leicester roving in "Autumn" from The Painted Sheep for $15.95

WIP - Baby Sweater

2011-09-14T20:28:00.000-04:00

I have decided that I'm going to do some more informal crafty posts over here. This blog is supposed to be crafts and reviews and there has been an imbalance in the ratio of crafts to reviews.

Also, I like take pictures of crafts. And crafting supplies. And works in progress. I think this will be good for me.

I'm currently working on a baby sweater for a friend of mine who is expecting. And I am 99.98% positive that she has no idea about this blog, so I figure it's safe to posts on here. I have a finished project to post on here once I grab some more photos of it with the same yarn I'm using here.

I'm really loving how this yarn stripes. It is striping differently between the two projects because of the structure of the projects and the finished project is knitted with two strands together. The colors with two strands together are amazingly matched, but with one strand, it's fantastic.

Also, you can see some of my Lemon stitch markers in this shot. These aren't quite like the ones on my Etsy store as they were the first ones I made, but I'm pleased with them.

2011-09-13T18:56:00.000-04:00

A Clash of Kings
George R. R. Martin

Before we even get into this review, I must warn you that there are some spoilers in this review for events in both A Clash of Kings and A Game of Thrones. My A Game of Thrones review was pretty non-spoilery, but in order to talk about the events in A Clash of Kings, I may give things away that happen in that first book.
So, you know. Fair warning.

A comet the color of blood and flame cuts across the sky. Two great leaders - Lord Eddard Stark and Robert Baratheon - who hold sway over an age of enforced peace are dead, victims of royal treachery. Now, from the ancient citadel of Dragonstone to the forbidding shores of Winterfell, chaos reigns. Six factions struggle for control of a divided land and the Iron Throne of the Seven Kingdoms, preparing to stake their claims through tempest, turmoil, and war. It is a tale in which brother plots against brother and the dead rise to walk in the night. Here a princess masquerades as an orphan boy; a knight of the mind prepares a poison for a treacherous sorceress; and wild men descend from the Mountains of the Moon to ravage the countryside. Against a backdrop of incest and fratricide, alchemy and murder, victory may go to the men and women possessed of the coldest steel...and the coldest hearts. For when kings clash, the whole land trembles.

This book is called A Clash of Kings for good reason. Kings are clashing from the first page to the last. Both Renly and Stannis Baratheon have declared their kingship and have raised opposing armies. Robb Stark have been properly asserting himself with the Tullys of Riverrun. The Greyjoys in the Iron Islands have declared a kingdom and are intent on expanding that kingdom into the Westeros mainland.
King’s Landing has its own special brand of kind clashing with Joffrey on the throne, Cersei as the Queen Regent, and Tyrion as the King’s Hand are all vying for control of the kingdom while trying to make it appear as if they aren’t betraying each other.
The Night’s Watch is intent on clashing with Mance Raynor, the proclaimed King beyond the wall, and his wildling army.
And Daenerys clashes with the ruling classes and organizations in Qarth in her quest to gather enough forces to take back Westeros.
In fact, I think the only major character from A Game of Thrones that doesn’t directly clash with any kings is Arya, who starts the book travelling north to Winterfell as the orphan boy Arry and ends up heading in any direction that may result in safety as whatever identity is necessary.

I expected this book to be brilliant. How could I not after A Game of Thrones? But the moments of fun and victory are fewer in this book because of the prevalence of war. This book becomes more about the politics and how politics shape characters, whereas A Game of Thrones seemed to be more about how individuals shape politics. Usually, politics shaping characters isn’t quite my flavor of fiction, but this really grabbed my brain because I was already entrenched in this rich, fictional world with all these fantastic characters.

Next time on A Song of Ice and Fire… A Storm of Swords!

American Gods - Full Cast Audiobook

2011-09-06T21:22:00.000-04:00

American Gods
by Neil Gaiman

Preferred text, full cast audiobook

I know I’ve reviewed American Gods on here before, but the tenth anniversary of the book’s publication brought forth a new edition of the book with added material. I haven’t bought the print version of this book yet, but I had an Audible credit going spare, so I grabbed the tenth anniversary, full cast edition of the audiobook.

I loved American Gods to begin with, but this audiobook sucked me right back into the world of Shadow and Mr. Wednesday. The actors are spot on with what my brain conjured up with mannerisms and vocal quirks that just feel right to me when I’m listening to them. The narrator for the main story did a superb job of filling in the spaces between dialog with all the appropriate tones and richness and Neil Gaiman’s narration for the interludes was fantastic. Not only was it great to hear him and know that he had a role in the audiobook process (some authors don’t), but it was also a subtle way of letting the listener know that those particular sections were related to the overall concept of the novel, but had little to do with the main story arc. That’s very clear in the print book, of course, but it would be harder to recognize this immediately with only one narrator in audio.

If you’re a fan of audio entertainment, you should check this book out. The acting is amazing, the sound production is fantastic, and the book itself is one of my top favourite fantasy stories ever. Of course, if you are even remotely interested, you should have a listen to a sample or a demo of the audiobook to get a feel for it.

Buck Rogers in the 25th Century

2011-08-25T20:40:00.003-04:00

With my history of science fiction show marathoning and my penchant for cheesy storytelling from before my time, do you really think I could have possibly passed this one by?

No way. As soon as I saw that Netflix had this entire show, I threw it into my queue and let the amazingness commence.

If you are unfamiliar, the show follows Buck Rogers, an American astronaut who goes out on a mission for one of NASA’s last deep space projects in 1984. His capsule gets flung into this crazy orbit which freezes his life support and keeps him in stasis until he returns to Earth in the 25th Century. There he meets Wilma Dearing, pilot and leader of the Earth’s defense squadrons, Dr. Theopolis, a sentient portable computer responsible for much of the Earth’s scientific work, and Theo’s ambuquad Twiki, a smartass robot with unusual fortitude and loyalty. Together, they defend the Earth from the cunning conquerors, the Draconians, rescue damsels in distress, and save the day throughout the galaxy. Later, on a mission to discover the fates of the lost Earth colonies, these heroes are joined by Hawk, the last of the ancient race of hawk men, Dr. Goodfellow, an old scientist, and Chrichton, a very proud and slightly delusional robot.

I love this stuff. It goes right to the happy centers of my brain. Lessons in tolerance and equality disguised with bad make-up and spandex? Hilariously choreographed martial arts and bad reaction shots to laser weapons? Roller discos? Buck Rogers is a flood of those things and I swam through it grinning like a madman. It is feel–good-TV with stories from a time when storytellers believed in the good ol’ American hero and everything he stood for.

There were times, of course, when the lessons were heavy handed and there was a stretch of time when Twiki has a radically different voice that threw me off, but I still enjoyed every episode.

One thing that I really had fun with was Buck and Wilma’s relationship. The male lead and female lead almost always fall in love and get together, right? Well, with these two, I spent the whole series trying to figure out how they fit. At the start of the show, it certainly looked like they would hook up. The kind, chivalrous Buck Rogers had made the stony Colonel Dearing discover that she had a heart and Captain Buck Rogers, as dashing and charming as he is (which, of course, results in an endless stream of admirers), never fell for the other damsels’ charms because he knew he had Wilma waiting for him.

But they never really made any moves further than that. Buck flirted with pretty girls sometimes, but he always went back to Wilma with a laugh and one of those special between-two-close-people smiles. Wilma wasn’t ever really interested in other men, except for one or two blokes she was with in the past, but she didn’t ever really claim Buck as hers either. In fact, she was perfectly fine with, and sometimes encouraged, Buck’s interactions with his multitudes of beautiful women who inevitably fell in love with him. She only ever displayed jealousy or disapproved at all when Buck had to play along with the Draconian Princess Ardala’s flirt-and-conquer games. Buck and Wilma even acknowledge their budding romantic feelings to each other during one episode, but they never really kiss or acknowledge a courting relationship of any kind. And yet, when on board The Searcher, it looked to me like they shared quarters for a bit (I could be mistaken there) and make the kinds of jokes that long term couples make.

Anyway, I found that fascinating and I like seeing that kind of relationship in the leads. It’s something that I wish more shows would adapt now. I guess I just wasn’t expecting it in a show from the 1970s.

Also, I wasn’t expecting so many shared smoldering glances between Hawk and Buck.

Apparently, all shows I watch have some kind of queertastic subtext. Seriously, I don’t think Buck gave that many roguish grins to the combination of all the ladies he met. And there was a drop in damsels in distress falling in love with Buck after Hawk came into the picture…

It makes one wonder….

Or I’m just projecting my queerness all over the place.

The point is that I had a blast with this series and I fully intend to watch it again sometime in the future.

Public Enemy Zero

2011-08-23T19:47:00.000-04:00

Public Enemy Zero
by Andrew Mayne

The world is out to kill Mitchell Roberts. A strange virus is on the loose sending everyone he comes in contact with into a homicidal rage. From narrowly avoiding getting murdered at his ex-girlfriend’s front door, to a crowded shopping mall turned one-man zombie apocalypse, he’s got to stay a step ahead of everyone around him if he doesn’t want to get ripped apart alive. He’ll need to use every resource he has, from the advice of a paranoid late night radio host, to his Twitter account and find out why he’s become Public Enemy Zero.

This is one of two books I’ve bought from this self-published author on the Amazon Kindle store. I have been listening to an audiobook podcast of his first book, The Grendel’s Shadow, but this is the first book of his that I’ve read in print. Andrew Mayne is another podcaster (the first podcaster author I reviewed was Boiling Point by Tom Merritt) as one third of the hosts for the Weird Things podcast. From what I’ve heard by him on the podcast, and what I’ve heard from the The Grendel’s Shadow podcast, I had some high expectations for his writing, but I also had my reservations because of on the high expectations I had for Tom Merritt’s book.

Public Enemy Zero did not disappoint. First of all, Mayne’s premise for this book is one of the most interesting I’ve heard in a long time. He describes this book as a reverse zombie outbreak book. There is a virus exposed to the US population, but it only changes one man, who thinks nothing of being sick for a few days until people start madly attacking him wherever he goes.

He’s confronted with murderous mobs, running from the law, and the media frenzy created by his unusual condition. He’s faced with allegations of terrorism and government conspiracies and the ever increasing panic of not knowing how this could have happened to him. It’s a thrilling chase from start to finish that had me anxious to learn how he was going to survive this bizarre chain of events.

And I won’t spoil you, but his solution had me cheering at the end of this book. I couldn’t believe my eyes. It’s a brilliant idea and one I’ve never seen in a book before. My hat is off to Andrew Mayne.

I’d definitely recommend this one to folks who like a good thriller or near-future science fiction. My brain immediately likened this book to something between Shawn of the Dead and The Island. If that is your cup of tea, I’d definitely recommend this book.

It’s $0.99 on the Amazon Kindle store if you consume books that way, but if not and you are interested in possible reading this book, please check andrewmaynebooks.com.

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

2011-08-16T22:08:00.001-04:00

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter
by Seth Grahame-Smith
Narrated by Scott Holst

Indiana, 1818. Moonlight falls through the dense woods that surround a one-room cabin, where a nine-year-old Abraham Lincoln kneels at his suffering mother's bedside. She's been stricken with something the old-timers call "Milk Sickness."

"My baby boy..." she whispers before dying.

Only later will the grieving Abe learn that his mother's fatal affliction was actually the work of a vampire.

When the truth becomes known to young Lincoln, he writes in his journal, "henceforth my life shall be one of rigorous study and devotion. I shall become a master of mind and body. And this mastery shall have but one purpose..." Gifted with his legendary height, strength, and skill with an ax, Abe sets out on a path of vengeance that will lead him all the way to the White House.

While Abraham Lincoln is widely lauded for saving a Union and freeing millions of slaves, his valiant fight against the forces of the undead has remained in the shadows for hundreds of years. That is, until Seth Grahame-Smith stumbled upon The Secret Journal of Abraham Lincoln, and became the first living person to lay eyes on it in more than 140 years.

Using the journal as his guide and writing in the grand biographical style of Doris Kearns Goodwin and David McCullough, Seth has reconstructed the true life story of our greatest president for the first time-all while revealing the hidden history behind the Civil War and uncovering the role vampires played in the birth, growth, and near-death of our nation.

I’ve been trying to convince myself that I don’t need an Audible membership for a couple of years now, but that conviction crumbled not too long ago when I was at work and ran out of podcasts to listen to.

Click HERE and HERE if you have no idea how absurd that is.

Anyway, this gaping hole in my workday listening choices coupled with a preview of this audiobook on the Audible iOS app forced my hand. The next day at work I was ears deep in a fictional account of Abraham Lincoln’s life as a vampire hunter.

Firstly, the idea of this book is brilliant. I don’t know what it is about Lincoln that makes him an awesome time traveler or superhero or Chia pet or vampire hunter, but I’m ready and willing to consume any ridiculous adventure starring our 16th President.

Secondly, this book is such a brilliant mix of absurdity and actual fact, that I found myself questioning my own knowledge of history. I mean, I’m not the best person at remembering actual historical events, but I had a hard time remembering if Abe and Edgar Allen Poe had ever met in some kind of historically recognized way, for example.

Also, picture Abe Lincoln hucking an axe at a vampire. You know you can picture it. Something about that guy makes that image easy to picture. And that’s awesome.

Thirdly, props to this narrator for bringing everything to life. This guy acted his way through narrating from the present day, narrating from the past, Abe’s journal entries, letters of significance written to and from Abe, speeches by various famous historical figures, and the different voices of all major players in this story. Most of which are done in a variety of charming Southern accents, but all distinctive from each other. That is an impressive level of voice acting skill.

Fourthly, extra props to the producers of this audiobook whose music and background sound choices are a joy to discover on the second listen I’m working through now.

If you have not yet listened to an audiobook, get yourself a copy of this one. I’ve reviewed a few audiobooks on here before, but I don’t think I’ve ever been as excited to review and relisten to one as much as I have been with this one.

A Game of Thrones

2011-08-09T21:33:00.000-04:00

A Game of Thrones
by George R. R. Martin

In a land where summers can last decades and winters a lifetime, trouble is brewing. The cold is returning, and in the frozen wastes of the north of Winterfell, sinister and supernatural forces are massing beyond the kingdom’s protective Wall. At the center of the conflict like the Starks of Winterfell, a family as harsh and unyielding as the land they were born to. Sweeping from a land of brutal cold to a distant summertime kingdom of epicurean plenty, here is a tale of lords and ladies, soldiers and sorcerers, assassins and bastards, who come together in a time of grim omens. Amid plots and counterplots, tragedy and betrayal, victory and terror, the fate of the of the Starks, their allies, and their enemies hangs perilously in the balance, as each endeavors to win the deadliest of conflicts: the game of thrones.

First of all, I’d just like to say that it is a crime that I had held onto this book for so long without reading it. I picked it up in a used bookstore a couple of years ago for some spare change and it has just been sitting in my drawer of books to read while I’ve been off gallivanting with other novels.

A crime.

Thank god for the HBO series. I started watching it because of the enthusiasm and joy at the adaptation by various podcasters (namely Scott Johnson on The Morning Stream and Tom Merritt on Sword and Laser and Frame Rate) and it was so good that it pushed all other books out of my mind for a while.

I am thrilled that this book has exceeded my expectations. It is everything everyone has said about it and more. I’ll admit, I was leery of reading “fantasy kind of without fantasy” despite having enjoyed it on screen, but it really does work well. Take the court intrigue of pre-Camelot, pre-Arthur England with a dash of Tolkien houses, names, and basis for current day legends and a heaping helping of betrayal and bloodshed and you’ve got yourself the start of what is sure to be a brilliant series.

This is fantasy when real life gets in the way. There are tales of dragons and mythical beasts and terrifying monsters, but these things are long since past and each man must fend for himself in a world where ruling houses are barely clinging to alliances made in their younger days. War is imminent, but whose war that will be remains to be seen. And while politicians and would-be knights and heads of houses fight in the south, winter is coming and something far more terrible may be at its heels with only an ancient wall and a couple dozen thieves, rapists, cast offs, and bastards to guard it.

And here’s the part where I usually talk about scenes and characters I particularly like, but I’m finding it difficult to narrow either of these down without needing substantial explanation for the events or giving away spoilers. All I can truly say is, just like life, there are some terrible things that happen and some exciting things that happen and no character is exempt from either of these things. Everyone is fair game and the character you like best could just as easily die in the next chapter as the character you hate the most. It is refreshingly fascinating, even if that means all of the characters I like die. Usually, I would find that worrying, but even when characters I like die, the circumstances of their death and the repercussions have not failed to change the events of the story in a fascinating way.

If you have not read A Game of Thrones, you should look into it. I’m not entirely confident to whom I should recommend this book, but my instinct says that anyone who enjoys fantasy, backstabbing politics, psychology, or twisting plots should take particular interest in this series.

As the first book in the A Song of Ice and Fire series, it is wildly successful in gaining my loyalty as a reader. I am now on the third book in the series.

Works In Progress

2011-08-04T19:32:00.000-04:00

A War of Gifts

2011-08-02T20:13:00.000-04:00

A War of Gifts
An Ender Story
by Orson Scott Card

The human race is at war with an insectlike race. The first battles went badly, and now Earth prepares to defend itself against the imminent threat of total destruction at the hands of an inscrutable alien enemy. All focus is on the development and training of generals who can fight such a war – and win.

The long distances of interstellar space have given hope to the defenders of Earth – they have time to train these future commanders from childhood, forging them into an irresistible force in the high-orbital facility called the Battle School.

At the Battle School, there is only one purpose, only one curriculum: the strategy and tactics of war. The children are drawn from all nations, all races, all religions. There is no room for cultural differences, no room for religious observances, and certainly no room for Santa Claus.

But the young warriors disagree. When on of them leaves a Sinterklaas Day gift in his best friend’s shoe, that quiet act of rebellion becomes the first shot in a war of wills that the staff of the Battle School never bargained for.

This isn’t so much a book as it is an individually bound short story and I think that is something the reader needs to be aware of when picking this up. It is very quick to establish a handful of main characters in the story and proceeds to the main plot without taking much time to explain what is going on and why. There is an assumption made by the author that the reader is already familiar with the story of Ender Wiggin.

I didn’t have a problem with this at all because the Ender series and the Ender’s Shadow series are some of my favourite stories and have been some of my favourites for a long time. So I knew even before opening this little book who the majority of the characters were going to be. The only character I wasn’t familiar with from the main series was Zeck Morgan, the first character to which we are introduced.

I think having one of the main boys (which also includes Dink, Flip, and Ender) in this story being a new character, or a relatively unknown character, might help a new reader get into this world. I think it also helps that the focus of this story is mostly on the relationships of a select few and doesn’t really touch upon the greater concerns seen in Ender’s Game. However, because very little of that extended world is explained, it might be a little confusing as to why they are all in this Battle School to begin with.

I do think this is interesting as a self contained short story because it makes you think about the ties between religion and secular culture and the differences in those ties in different countries, but I don’t think it establishes context very well. As an interlude during a larger story, I think it’s fantastic.

So, if you have read Ender’s Game and are interested in another Battle School story, I’d suggest picking this one up. It’s short and reads quickly and is just as thought provoking and witty as Orson Scott Card’s other work. If you haven’t read Ender’s Game, I’d suggest waiting to read this story after Ender’s Game. I think it works better with that context than without.

Doctor Who Themed Fingerless Mitts

2011-07-27T21:21:00.000-04:00

I made both of these for a friend's birthday.

Needles: US 3 double pointed needles
Yarn: Sensations Sublime Blue
Sensations Sublime White
Patons Silk Bamboo Black
Pattern: TARDIS Wristwarmers - http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/tardis-wristwarmers

Needles: US 8 double pointed needles
Yarn: Red Heart yarn and Lion Brand Wool-Ease
Pattern: Doctor Who Wrist Warmers - http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/doctor-who-wrist-warmers

The Bounty Hunter Wars (Part 1)

2011-07-12T21:31:00.000-04:00

The Bounty Hunter Wars

The Mandalorian Armor
and
Slave Ship
by K. W. Jeter

The Mandalorian Armor

He’s the most feared and successful bounty hunter in the galaxy. He is Boba Fett, and even the most hardened criminals tremble at his name. Now he faces the deadliest challenge of his infamous career – an all-out war against his most dangerous enemies.

As the Rebellion gathers force, Prince Xizor proposes a cunning plan to the Emperor and Darth Vader: smash the power of the Bounty Hunters Guild by turning its members against each other. Only the strongest and most ruthless will survive, and they can be used against the Rebellion. It’s a job for the fiercely independent Boba Fett, who jumps at the chance to destroy his rivals. But Fett soon realizes the game is rigged, as he finds himself the target of murderous factions, criminal conspiracies, and the evil at the Empire’s dark heart. Boba Fett has always finished first. And in this game, anything less is death.

Slave Ship

He’s both feared and admired, respected and despised. Boba Fett is the galaxy’s most successful bounty hunter. Now he finds himself the hunted in the oldest game of all: survival of the fittest.

The once powerful Bounty Hunter’s Guild has been shattered into warring factions. Now the posting of an enormous bounty on a renegade Imperial stormtrooper is about to start a frenzy of murderous greed. Hoping to fuel rumors of his death, Boba Fett abandons his ship, Slave I, and sets out to claim the prize. Yet his every move leads him closer to a trap set by the cunning Prince Xizor, Fett will die before becoming Xizor’s pawn in the Emperor’s war against the Rebels. And he may have to. For in order to gain his freedom, he must outwit a sentient weapon that feeds on human spirits. Then he must escape a galaxy of deadly enemies who want to make the rumors of his death a reality.

Are we sensing a theme with these reviews lately? I will review something other than Star Wars soon. I promise I will. I usually try to break up a run of similar themed books with other things when I’m reviewing them, but I don’t want to wait to review these books. So much so that I haven’t finished the trilogy of books before reviewing these.

I am finding these books to be absolutely thrilling. The back of the book blurbs above really don’t so them justice. This is a Star Wars version of Lost or a stranger, twistier version of Series 5 of Doctor Who. There is an overall story being told with dozens of individual players to focus on, but everything is divided up among them – with the bonus of having the bounty hunter characters having chapters in the present and in the past.

Just seeing that I would be getting some information about Boba Fett’s past was enough to draw me in, but there are some fantastic main players wrapped up in what may end up being a giant conspiracy. I mean, I won’t know for sure until I grab the last book, but it’s all bits and pieces that are somehow connected to Boba Fett and I do not yet know how.

We’ve got the Emperor and Darth Vader doing their Imperial thing, There’s Prince Xizor pretending to be going along with the Imperial agenda while secretly running the crime organization Black Sun. The Kuat of Kuat Drive Yards is trying to clear up a mistake that may prove deadly and remain a neutral ship manufacturer despite the Empire’s pressure to become exclusive. The bounty hunter Bossk, jealous of Boba Fett’s standing in the bounty hunter trade, is trying to get his revenge on Fett for breaking up the Bounty Hunter’s Guild and take his place as number one. Kud’ar Mab;at, a spider-like bounty broker, watches from his web and tries to pull the strings of the galaxy and make a profit while his subnode Balance Sheet slowly gains dangerous independence. Dengar is trying to leave the bounty hunter life to get married, but is drawn back into it for one more payoff when he rescues Boba Fett after the death of the Sarlacc.

And then there’s Neelah – who was a dancing girl in Jabba’s palace with no memory of her past except for the sight of Boba Fett’s helmet and the feeling in her gut that Boba Fett is the key to everything.

I can tell you right now that I have no idea what this story will look like when it is finished and I am really excited to find out. I am really enjoying the process of trying to tie all these characters and events together. The flash back chapters are doing a great job of revealing small clues without giving everything away and every clue is something interesting to fit into the puzzle.

But I think the most interesting thing I’m finding with this series is that it doesn’t really matter that it’s a Star Wars book. Yes, I am a huge fan of Star Wars and yes, I find many Star Wars books compelling because I like building that universe in my head, but I think a non-Star Wars fanboy could just as easily get into this book because its focus is on the mystery. It just happens to be in the Star Wars universe with recognizable Star Wars characters. From what I’ve seen so far, it could take place just as easily in a different setting with different people of similar character and be a compelling mystery series. It just has the bonus of being focused on a bunch of characters that I’m already interested in.

There is no doubt in my mind that fans of the original Star Wars trilogy should pick these up. The story winds in and around those three movies without ever really touching them, but it is proving to be a fascinating ride through other parts of the galaxy during that time. Plus, you really can’t go wrong with a story featuring Boba Fett like this.

Starting Place in Extended Universe Factor: High. There is very little outside of the original trilogy moves that you would want to be familiar with to get into these books. The only character you might want to Wookieepedia before humping into these is Prince Xizor who plays a major role with the Emperor and Darth Vader but only exists in the EU. There are some brief mentions and slight references to things he does in other books, but they are not major plot points at all. It just might help to be familiar. Everything else seems to be sufficiently explained in within these two books so far.

Lego Harry Potter for Xbox 360

2011-07-06T19:07:00.000-04:00

Guess what, folks? I’ve finished a video game! Which means I need to blog about it!

Well… I say finished. But we’ll get to that in a minute.

The game I’m talking about today is the Lego Harry Potter video game for the Xbox 360. I received this game as a gift from my parents for Christmas and have been steadily working through this game for a while now. I took a break for a couple of months to play another game, but I decided to finally try for the 100% on this one this past week.

I have a system when I play Lego games and I’m going to go through my impressions of the game via my system. I don’t know if anyone else plays Lego games like this, but I’m a Lego game nut and this works best for me. And there will be a little glossary at the bottom of this entry so you know what the hell I’m talking about.

I first played this game straight through the Story Mode for the first four Harry Potter stories. I had a great time going through story mode. I liked the balance and use of the different characters and True Wizard was a fun, achievable challenge. I have to admit, though, that having the Hogwarts halls and classes separate from the individual story levels confused me. I’m used to Lego Star Wars and Lego Indiana Jones where you do not have story elements outside of the levels themselves.

After story mode, I usually go through the levels again on free play to find as many of the unlockables as I can. This is the run of the mill style Lego play and a hell of a lot of fun because the randomization of characters throne into your “party” to use can make some hilarious situations and you get to learn how to use different character abilities.

Usually, when you get back to the interactive menu area (The Leaky Cauldron and Diagon Alley), there are only a few things outside of the levels to explore or unlock for gold bricks or money. However, in this game, Hogwarts is its own area to explore for unlockables. This is the part of the game that I struggled with the most. It was hard for me to navigate the castle and figure out where new unlockables were and you cannot have the choice of characters the way you do with free play. In order to use different characters for different abilities, you have to find a cauldron and make a polyjuice potion. That particular potion doesn’t run out at Hogwarts, but it’s a pain to have to go find those cauldrons when you need to switch characters.

This is also where I had a glitch. From what I’ve seen in forums and on walkthroughs, this game is pretty glitchy. Most of them are harmless or something that you can easily fix, but I managed to land one that will not go away. Beneath the second charms classroom is the last Student in Peril I needed to get the last Gold Brick that I needed to unlock Voldemort as a character to get 100% of this game, but I cannot Lumos the Devil’s Snare to get at the student. So technically I have only finished 98.2% of the game, but there is no way for me to get this last student without restarting the entire game.

So I’m a bit peeved at this game. SO CLOSE to finishing it and it decides to glitch out on me. Blarg.

But I’d still recommend the game. I imagine most folks intent on 100%-ing games aren’t Lego gamers, so I don’t think most people would have a problem with one little glitch like that. It’s still a really fun game and I really enjoyed playing the story levels, so if you’re a fan of Harry Potter, Legos, and simple video games where you can pick them up whenever and still feel like you’re connecting to the story, I’d recommend it.

True Wizard – Collecting a set amount of money studs per level. I think there’s a different amount depending on the level, but there is a status bar at the top of the screen when you’re working towards earning this.

Unlockables
Red Bricks – Once found, you can purchase special abilities or enhancements.
Characters – New characters to use during free play.
Student in Peril – Find them all and you get a gold brick.
Gold Brick – Status markers that indicate how much of the game you have finished. Typically, if you have all of the gold bricks, you have 100%-ed the game.

Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader

2011-07-05T19:31:00.000-04:00

Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader
by James Luceno

Seduces, deranged, and destroyed by the machinations of the Dark Lord Sidious, Anakin Skywalker is dead … and Darth Vader lives.

From the site of Anakin Skywalker’s last stand, where he sought to destroy his friend and former Master, Obi-Wan Kenobi, a fearsome specter in black has risen. Once the most powerful Knight ever known to the Jedi Order, he is now a disciple of the dark side, a lord of the dreaded Sith, and the avenging right hand of the galaxy’s ruthless new Emperor.

Meanwhile, on the Outer Rim world of Murkhana, Jedi Masters Roan Shryne and Bol Chatak and Padawan Olee Starstone are leading a charge on a Separatist stronghold, unaware that the tide has turned against them. Although the three narrowly elude execution, the deadliest threat still rests in the hideously swift and lethal crimson lightsaber of Darth Vader – behind whose brooding mask lies a shattered heart, a poisoned soul, and a cunning, twisted mind hell-bent on the vengeance. For the handful of scattered Jedi hunted across space, survival is imperative if the light side of the Force is to be protected and the galaxy reclaimed.

Here it is. The final book in the Revenge of the Sith trilogy I’ve been working on.

It’s a good book, but I think it falls flat in the wake of Revenge of the Sith. I wasn’t fond of Vader’s point of view; he was struggling with his new identity and that wasn’t anything I was interested in. Folks tend to get a bit mopey when they question themselves like that and mopey!Vader is just not my cup of tea. I did start to like his sections more towards the end of the book, when he was more sure of his new role and really actively started suppressing Anakin Skywalker, but I think the whole story would have been stronger without his personal thoughts.

Because the heart and strength of this book isn’t in Vader himself – it is in the idea of Vader and how the galaxy perceives him during his rise to power. The narration is strongest when Shryne and Starstone try to figure out who he is during their encounters and in the Moffs perceptions of a “civilian” of such high rank and in stormtrooper commanders trying to sort out precisely how they should be reacting to his orders. If this had been a book solely focused on how his deeds took him from a man with no rank and no addressed authority to the feared right hand man and executioner for the Emperor without stopping to check in on how he felt about it, then I would have been much more interested overall.

That being said, I did like the character of Roan Shryne as a Jedi who has been doubting his connection to the Force and has been more jaded with the universe than the other Jedi he has regular contact with. I also liked the few other Jedi who survived and how they survived, which supported some theories I had about the clone troopers and how the Jedi Temple ran missions. I thought the siege at Kashyyyk was very powerful and provided some useful set up for bits of the original trilogy and extended universe in the same era. And I liked the chapters with Bail Organa and how he was coping with the threat of the Empire overhead and the pressure from Mon Mothma to start opposing that threat as he keeps Leia safe and secret.

Again, overall, it’s a good book. I just think I was expecting more out of it. I would still recommend it to Star Wars fans if they have read Labyrinth of Evil by James Luceno and the Revenge of the Sith novelization by Matthew Stover. It does round out that story arc as a set up for the original trilogy and is a pretty good closing chapter on Anakin Skywalker.

Star Wars Galactic Phrase Book & Travel Guide

2011-06-28T19:43:00.000-04:00

Star Wars Galactic Phrase Book & Travel Guide
by Ben Burtt

Whether doing business with the Hutts of trying to get a decent haircut on Coruscant, the Galactic Phrase Book & Travel Guide is an invaluable tool for galactic travelers. Vividly illustrated by Sergio Aragonés , this handy volume covers the basics, including:

Greetings – H’chu apenkee, o’grandio lust: “Greetings, glorious host” in Huttese. It doesn’t hurt to be nice, and it might hurt you not to.
Travel arrangements – Zat x’ratch keezo bompoz ha sheep: in Bocce, “That scratch was there when I rented the ship.”
Bargaining for your life – Huwaa muaa mumwa: “Can I buy you a drink?” in Wookiee-speak. Try it. It just might work.

A must have when travelling without your protocol droid!

The Galactic Empire has collapsed and NOW is the time to travel. Hitch a ride and joy scenic Kashyyyk. Looking for happening Tatooine nightlife? Now you can travel freely throughout the galaxy without fear of verbal blunders with the new Star Wars Galactic Phrase Book & Travel Guide, which will help you navigate through more than seven languages and the most popular tourist spots in the most unlikely of places.

This book includes greetings, partings, common phrases, and even ways to avoid getting yourself killed.

In all seriousness, the travel guide and phrase book part of this book is pretty interesting. You’ll recognize some lines from both the prequels and the original trilogy and you can start to see how the languages were arranged and how they mirror real Earth languages.

But the really interesting thing for me was the second half of the book. In this half, Ben Burtt describes what it was like to be the head sound guy on all of the Star Wars movies, how he was inspired to use specific sounds in new ways, and how he turned sounds into languages. It’s really interesting from a Behind the Scenes point of view and if you’re one of those people who buys DVDs for the extra stuff, this might be something for you.

It’s a little for fun book and probably isn’t something you would necessarily go out and look for, but if you happen across it and are a Star Wars fan with a couple spare dollars, I’d say go ahead and pick this one up.

Green Circular Cloak

2011-06-21T06:18:00.001-04:00

Needle: US 8 – 5 mm circular needles
Yarn: Lion Brand Yarn Vanna’s Choice Dusty Green (approx. 2550 yds)
Pattern: Swirly Cape in Heathers by Universal Yarn - http://www.universalyarn.com/pattern.php?pattern=206
Altered to include hood

I go to about three Renaissance Faires a year, each in a different season, and sometimes it gets a bit chilly. The majority of my Ren Faire clothing is summer centric because the main Faire I go to is in the dead heat of August, so when the CT Renaissance Faire in the fall or the spring decides to be windy or cold or raining, I haven’t really managed to obtain proper covering.

I mean, I have a pirate coat that I can use in a pinch, but it’s a Halloween costume piece from years ago and it doesn’t actual have, you know… button holes to close the thing. And occasionally, I’d like to do just regular Renaissance Faire garb without a pirate theme.

And now I FINALLY have a cloak. I could never justify spending the money on the cloaks displayed at the faires and I’m not particularly fond of sewing. I know how and have made some decent costumes that was, but I wanted a big knitting project for myself. I’ve been doing various Who scarves for what seems like forever and I needed a fairly mindless marathon piece to relax with.

Of course, this would have been done in half the time if I bothered to figure out gauge and pattern stuff because my first version of this cloak was based on a triangular shawl pattern I saw, but I failed to make that work. So I found this circular cloak pattern and just added a simple hood on there.

I probably won’t wear it for months and months, but I’m excited to have that with me when a cold faire comes around.

Or… you know… around the house when the heat fails.

Battlestar Galactica

2011-06-14T20:15:00.001-04:00

Battlstar Galactica
by Glen A. Larson and Robert Thurston

Zac and Apollo are brothers – and rivals – in the ultimate adventure, as humankind’s heroic star-fighter crews battle the alien Cylon for control of the known galaxy! Battlestar Galactica is an epic multi-media event: the triumphant ABC- TV spectacular with the most expensive special effects ever produced, designed by Oscar-winning genius John Dykstra… and a powerful science fiction novel, a gripping space-war saga of interstellar adventure!

This is one of those books that you would probably never see in a normal bookstore, but is the kind of hilariously awesome find in a used bookstore. Which is precisely where I found it. A Battlestar Galactica book for two bucks? That’s a must have.

Especially for an oddball like me. I have seen both the new and classic series of Battlestar Galactica and I’m the only person I know who prefers the 1978 version. So of course I was going to grab this prize.

As you might have guessed this is a novelization of the pilot episode of the original Battlestar Galactica. The Cylons attack the twelve colonies, Apollo’s brother Zac gets killed, the survivors flee the system to seek out the Earth of old legend, and our heroes must navigate a mysterious alien plot in order to get enough fuel for their refugee ships.

This is pretty much a straight recap of the episode. There’s not much by the way of new information or new scenes for the human side of the story, but you do get some interesting storytelling from the Cylon side of the story. There’s some limited third person narration from the Cylon leader about how they think and why they are pursuing the humans, but that was the only truly new thing in this book if you have already seen the original pilot.

It’s a simple fun book. I’d recommend it if you’d like a preview of what to expect in the 1978 show or if you’d like a short, sci-fi romp to break up some more weighty books, but if you’re genuinely interested in Battlestar, you should probably just watch the show.

Babylon 5

2011-06-05T19:51:00.000-04:00

This one has been a long time coming. I don’t even remember when I started watching this series, but it’s been at least a few months. This whole working full time business isn’t lending itself well to longer term projects like this. And I wanted to include the standalone one-shot series, but Netflix did not have them for instant streaming, so that slowed me down as well.

The show started out really slowly for me. It took me a long time to get used to the general atmosphere of the station. A lot of the conflicts were political without a lot of physical action, which took a while to get used to. I think my problem in the beginning was that I wasn’t used to my science fiction having such a big cast in such a small space. This felt a bit claustrophobic because there were so many characters to keep track of in the same space and the space itself rarely changed, so I couldn’t associate certain characters with certain areas or situations.

And I think Captain what’s-his-name and Delenn were a bit stand-offish, which didn’t immediately draw me in to the show. The viewer is sort of introduced to the world of B5 via their impressions of the place, but they didn’t seem that interesting at the start. I was much more interested in Londo and Vier and G’Kar and Lenieer, but they didn’t have really big roles in the beginning.

I really got into it in the second season when Sheridan came aboard. His chemistry with the crew, especially Ivanova and Garibaldi, lent itself easily to teasing banter and self-deprecation, which almost always makes a character more likeable. And I liked relearning the station through his inexperience, which is how I think the show should have started in the first place. It’s easier to have no idea what’s going on at the station when the captain of the station also has no idea what’s going on.

Also, it makes explanatory dialogue make more sense in context.

I really liked the build in this series, as well. Up until the end of season five, the show did a great job of increasing the level of danger and looping everything into this great puzzling knot of evil and confusion. I was eager to keep watching to see what would become uncovered next. This made season 6 a bit of a let down because the greatest enemy had been defeated and we were brought back down a notch in the danger meter. It was still compelling, but not as urgent as the previous two seasons. However, it did have some good timey-wimey-ness, which I always appreciate.

But overall, this was a series that I really liked watching. During the process of watching it, I also managed to get my youngest brother hooked on it as well. So I suppose that could also speak to its awesomeness. I’d recommend it, if you need a sci-fi series to sink your teeth into.

Boiling Point

2011-05-31T21:15:00.002-04:00

Boiling Point
by Tom Merritt

When the US goes broke, the states break loose and people across the country get caught in the chaos. The Lakota rise up in the north and Texas breaks free in the south. Meanwhile, Steve just wants to get back to Illinois with his love life intact. Mack, an Ozark militia member doesn't want his friend to sign up but knows they can't succeed without him. And a Texas Congressman struggles with his conscience and a manipulative Governor. Can the country stay together? Can the people?

Tom Merritt is a podcaster well known in the TwiT and Frogpants circles and it was on Fourcast, a podcast about predictions for the future, that I heard about his book. I liked the idea when Tom described it on the episode, so I picked up the $5.00 copy for Kindle.

I’m not sure what I was expecting for this book. It isn’t the sort of book that I normally read and I think that caught me a little off guard. I liked it, but it didn’t hold impress me.

I think part of that was the format in which it was written. The US is splitting up into different geo-cultural chunks, so Merritt writes short first person sections from characters in the different areas. I found it difficult to follow at first because I couldn’t always keep the characters straight. Most of them have very similar narrative voices during the first third of the book. I eventually figured it out, but it definitely slowed me down when I was getting into the story.

Also I think I struggled with this book a bit because the book takes place primarily down South and out West. The whole point of the story is that these areas no longer feel united as one nation and decide to form smaller nations with similar economic and cultural communities, but it was hard for me to relate to these areas. I’m a born and raised Connecticutter, so I didn’t feel like I had the kind of cultural background to relate to the Texas cessation or the KenTen alliance or the Ozark militia. The northeast, especially New England, wasn’t featured in this book much at all and I feel like if there was some more inclusion with how they were trying to adapt to the situation, I would have been able to connect to the stories more.

I’m not saying Northeast folk won’t like this book or anything. It just felt weirdly alien and disconnected from me.

Overall, I liked it. It’s a little choppy and some of the writing felt a little off to me, but it wasn’t bad. If you like speculation fiction about the future in the US, I’d recommend at least having a look. There was some interesting insight into how people behave in stressful situations and if that appeals to you, you might be interested.

Revenge of the Sith

2011-05-24T21:03:00.000-04:00

Revenge of the Sith
by Matthew Stover

After years of civil war, the Separatists gave battered the already faltering Republic nearly to the point of collapse. On Coruscant, the Senate watches anxiously as Supreme Chancellor Palpatine aggressively strips away more and more constitutional liberties in the name of safeguarding the Republic, Yoda, Mace Windu, and their fellow Masters grapple with the Chancellor’s disturbing move to assume control of the Jedi Council. And Anakin Skywalker, the prophesied Chosen One destined to bring balance to the Force, is increasingly consumed by his fear that his secret love, Senator Padmé Amidala, will die.

As the combat escalates across the galaxy, the stage is set for an explosive endgame: Obi-Wan undertakes a perilous mission to destroy the dreaded Separatist military leader, General Grievous; Palpatine, eager to secure even greater control, subtly influences public opinion to turn against the Jedi; and a conflicted Anakin – tormented by unspeakable visions – edges dangerously closer to the brink of the galaxy-shaping decision. It remains only for Darth Sidious, whose shadow looms ever larger, to strike the final staggering blow against the Republic… and to ordain a fearsome new Sith Lord: Darth Vader.

Based on the screenplay of the eagerly anticipated final film in George Lucas’ epic sagam bestselling Star Wars author Matthew Stover’s novel crackles with action, captures the iconic characters in all their complexity, and brings a space opera masterpiece full circle in stunning style.

When I told my YouTube viewers that I was going to be reading Labyrinth of Evil by James Luceno, one of them told me that I must read the Revenge of the Sith novelization immediately afterwards. I’ve had a copy of this book since the movie came out, but I have never actually read it. so I decided to take this commenter’s advice.

I don’t think I have the words to properly express how much I enjoyed this book. It was compelling and rich and held my attention in a way that few other Star Wars books have. I mean, I love a good Star Wars book, but they are usually just an interesting romp through the extended universe. I’m comfortable taking my time with them if I need to. I was absolutely enthralled with this book.

It was everything that the movie should have been. It was definitely everything that I had wanted the movie to be. You get to see the camaraderie between Obi-Wan and Anakin that I don’t think was clearly outlined in the movie. You get to see how the Jedi Council tried to function despite their impairment from the Dark Side. You get to see why people made the decisions that they did and how the first stirrings of the Rebel Alliance really came to be. You get to see why the hell the Separatist factions did the things that they did, which was something that I never really understood when I watched the Prequels. And, most importantly, you could actually see Anakin gradually giving in to the darkness and fear inside of him instead of the odd burst of evil that the movies showed us.

Let’s be honest. The movie , as a complete story, pretty much failed. There were certainly pieces of it that I walked away with liking, but it wasn’t a cohesive narrative. This book took that chapter of the Star Wars mythos from being my least favourite story up to my top ten at the very least.

If you are a Star Wars fan, you have to read this book. I couldn’t believe how good it was. It has renewed my obsessive interest in the movies and extended universe and games and pretty much everything I can get my hands on. It’s the story you where expecting when you walked into the movie theater and it is wonderful.

Labyrinth of Evil

2011-05-10T19:31:00.000-04:00

Labyrinth of Evil
by James Luceno

On the planet Neimoidia, Jedi Knights Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker set out to capture a treacherous ally of the Sith. Though they come up empty, their daring efforts yield an unexpected prize: intelligence capable of leading the Republic forces to their ultimate quarry, the ever elusive Darth Sidious, whom they suspect has been manipulating every aspect of the Separatist rebellion. In the escalating galaxy-wide chess game of sabotage and retaliations, Sidious stays one move ahead. Then the trail takes a shocking turn. For Sidious and his minions have set in motion a ruthlessly orchestrated campaign to divide and overwhelm the Jedi forces – and bring the Republic to its knees.

I am always surprised by how much I like books that take place during the Star Wars prequels. I mean, I’m a huge Star Wars nerd. Star Wars is my thing. But the majority of the prequel movies were not my cup of tea. (And by the majority, I mean about one-third of The Phantom Menace and pretty much all of the next two movies.)

The thing that immediately struck me with this book is that it was information that the audience should have known going in to the Revenge of the Sith. Labyrinth of Evil takes place immediately before that movie and sets up most of the situations that are crucial to the main plot. It’s all the politics and war and behind the scenes stuff that make the events in Revenge of the Sith interesting and meaningful.

It explains things that you might not have even known you were wondering about. You get to learn who Grievous is and why he becomes such a ruthless killing machine. You get to learn Dooku’s background and what tempted him to become an apprentice of Sidious’. There’s information about the battle tactics of both sides of the war and how the trap for the Jedi was laid out over the course of many years across the galaxies. And I think the most interesting thing is that you get to know other Jedi members like Mace Windu and Shaak Ti better, so they become characters you actually care about when Revenge of the Sith rolls around.

I’ll admit it. Reading this book made me want to watch the prequels again to gain some perspective on what was going on exactly and the culminating moment of Revenge of the Sith made so much more sense and meant so much more with this book behind it. You really get to see how exhausted and frustrated the Jedi Knights are and how clouded everyone’s judgment is by the influence of the Sith on the events taking place. You get to see exactly how close some characters came finding out the truth.

After reading this book, I can honestly say that I don’t know how I managed to get through the Return of the Sith movie before. I definitely recommend it if you are a Star Wars fan. It’s compelling and intriguing and fills in a lot of the holes in the last prequel movie. I have a new appreciation for the story being told there.

And I’m still excited about having read this book because it’s meant to be the first book in a trilogy along with the Revenge of the Sith novelization and Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader. I will be reading and reviewing both of those books as well, so we shall see if these prequel supplements continue to amaze me.

Imprisoned by the Pharaohs

2011-05-03T20:13:00.001-04:00

Imprisoned by the Pharaohs and Other Stories
By HP Lovecraft
Narrated by Staten Elliot and Gareth David-Lloyd

This is another early Audible grab for me when I was playing around with podcast promo codes and discovering audio books a couple years back. Like The Call of Cthulhu, I picked this one up mainly because Gareth David-Lloyd narrates one of the stories and I tend to be an obsessive fanboy, but I did enjoy the audio book on its own merits.

Like The Call of Cthulhu, this audio book contains three stories. The first story is called Imprisoned with the Pharoahs and it’s narrated by Staten Elliot. I really liked this story. It’s probably my favourite of the bunch. It’s about a magician tourist whose boasting and arrogant sense of adventure get the better of him when he vacations in Egypt and realizes that the old magic has not yet died. It’s great look into how folks of Lovecraft’s time sort of both thought themselves above and revered the ancient secrets of Egypt and it’s delightfully creepy.

The second story The Nameless City is narrated by Gareth David-Lloyd and I don’t think I’ll ever have anything negative to say about his performances. His voice work on this story is really well done. I don’t think that this story has the same kind of chilling eeriness that the Call of Cthulhu, or even Imprisoned with the Pharaohs, has, but it is still an interesting horror story that outlines a history before history which gives power to the Egyptian mythos and is well worth a listen.

The third story, The Alchemist, narrated once more by Staten Elliot is a story I really enjoyed. It has taken me a while to really sink my teeth into it because it is unlike the other two stories and seems a little bit out of place. It’s more like a Poe story, all cursed legacies and grim halls, but with the fantastical flavour that Lovecraft excels at. It’s a brilliant story, of course, but it’s a bit jarring because it isn’t really an Egypt tale like the other two.

All in all, a good buy. It doesn’t absolutely blow my mind, but it’s an audio book that I have listened to more than once, so it’s worth having. If you like H.P. Lovecraft, horror stories, Egyptian myth, or either of the narrators’ voice work, I’d definitely recommend it. I suggest finding a preview or demo on Audible or iTunes or somewhere if you’re thinking about this one.

The Call of Cthulhu and Other Stories

2011-04-19T18:51:00.000-04:00

The Call Of Cthulhu and Other Stories
by H.P. Lovecraft
Narrated by Gareth David-Lloyd and Iain Fairbairn

This is an audiobook that I’ve had for over a year now. I don’t quite remember, but it might very well be the first audiobook that I ever downloaded. Audible sponsors a handful of the podcasts I listen to and, after hearing the many praises of the Audible services, I decided to try out one of the promo codes.

Lovecraft is one of those authors whose work I am familiar with, but never sat down and read. I had wanted to for a while, but hadn’t quite managed it. And I had found out that Gareth David-Lloyd - of Torchwood fame - read one of the stories for this audiobook, so it seemed to be the only logical choice.

The book starts out with “The Hound” narrated by Iain Fairbairn. While I enjoyed the story, I was distracted by the narrator’s voice. There were times when he slurred noticeably and he mispronounced “Necrinomocon.” His narration was also kind of… flat. There is great potential with this story to get worked up into a kind of frenzy or to start out in a kind of frenzy and slowly give up hope as the story unfolds, but he did neither. It pretty much stayed the same throughout. It isn’t bad – certainly not the worst reading I’ve ever heard – but it’s not the greatest, which makes it a little disappointing.

In contrast, Gareth David-Lloyd’s reading of the title story, “The Call of Cthulhu,” is phenomenal. When the narrator is talking about sure things – about his uncle and the Louisiana inspector and all aspects of the story not about the Old Ones – his voice is calm and even and strong. Once the narrator delves into the deep, he begins reading very softly and despairingly. From what I’ve seen of his acting, Gareth is a very deliberate actor – he’s one of those people who is always doing something in the scene, even if he is not the main focus of the shot. He uses his voice in the same way with those ups and downs in his reading. But the best thing about his voice work is how he uses silence. That’s where the horror is and it’s magnificently dark and satisfying.

Especially if you listen to this wearing headphones. In a room full of people. I listened to it at work. It was chilling.

This audiobook is worth it just for that story.

But that’s not the last story. Iain Fairbairn returns for “The Festival.” I had the same problems with this story that I did with “The Hound,” so it seems that I’m not a fan of Iain Fairbairn’s reading. However, I do think that he did a more effective job of narrating the tone of this story.

So, overall, I recommend this to you all. If you are a fan of HP Lovecraft or of good old fashioned monster horror, definitely check this out. Listen to a demo of Gareth David-Lloyd’s reading if you are unsure, but his story makes this one of my most played audiobooks.

Photo Blog

2011-04-14T21:33:00.001-04:00

Photo blog time!

I did have something to blog about today, but I'm trying to get a million things done this week so that I don't fall behind next week when I go to Anime Boston and spend next week doing a bunch of work at home so that I don't lose the eight hours of work I'll be missing Friday. Yeah.

So, we're going to have a look at some photos laying around in my To Post folders.

Let's start with the oldest, shall we?

I've had these photos hanging out since March last year. While I was on my Spring Break, Shannon, the Gabbers, and I went off on a walk down one of the trails down the road. And here's some of the things I shot:

And then I snapped off a couple of pictures from a couple of weeks ago when the snow started melting and it was raining like crazy. Our basement flooded and among the things in the basement that got waterlogged was a box of old photographs from my Grandpa's Navy days. Here are some of those photos drying out on our dining room table:

And I crocheted a grocery bag thing out of hemp. It's not that good, but I'm going to do more with hemp in the future.

Half Sized Doctor Who Scarf

2011-04-07T20:16:00.000-04:00

Hook: US 5 - 3 3/4 mm

Yarn: Red Heart Super Saver for the grey, tan, brown, and red. (I know, I know. Terrible. XD)
Lion Brand Wool-Ease for the purple, green, and yellow.

Pattern: I made this one up. Sort of. Just kind of... halved the pattern at the Witty Little Knitter site.

As of this evening, this scarf is up for sale over at my Etsy shop, if you're interested.

So huzzah for that!

I always feel so relieved when I finish these.

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The Lost Gate

2011-03-29T20:18:00.001-04:00

The Lost Gate
Orson Scott Card

Danny North knew from early childhood that his family was different and that he was different from them. While his cousins were learning how to create the things that commoners called fairies, ghosts, golems, trolls, werewolves, and other such miracles that were the heritage of the North family. Danny worried that he would never show a talent, never form an outself..

He grew up in the rambling old house, filled with dozens of cousins and aunts and uncles, all ruled by his father. Their home was isolated in the mountains of western Virginia, far from town, far from schools, far from other people.

There are many secrets in the house and many rules that Danny must follow. There is a secret library with only a few dozen books, none of them in English – but Danny and his cousins are expected to become fluent in the language of the books. While Danny’s cousins are free to create magic whenever they like, they must never do it where outsiders might see.

Unfortunately, there are some secrets kept from Danny, as well. And that will lead to disaster for the North family.

Orson Scott Card creates an astounding urban fantasy about a clan of mages in exile in our world, living in uneasy truce with other clans until Dan’s birth brings the flames of open war back to life. For Dan North is a gatemage, the first in a thousand years, and he can open the locks that keep the North clan, and their enemies, away from their homeland of Westil.

You should all know before I get into the reviewing bit of this post that Ender’s Game, also by Orson Scott Card, is arguably my favourite book of all time. It differs on what I’ve been reading lately, of course, but Card’s Ender series is one that I fall back on whenever I need a book to reread. So I was incredibly biased before even opening the cover.

But I think even if Card didn’t write one of my favourite books ever, I would love this book. It’s somewhere in the midst of an unruly cross between Tithe by Holly Black and American Gods by Neil Gaiman. You’ve got the main character, Danny North, who doesn’t know what he is and there’s this whole other world that he’s a part of unknown to common humanity, like in Tithe, but it’s the same kind of jaded, fallen deities still fighting to keep their godhood in a world that no longer supports it that can be seen in American Gods. I love the depth and care that goes into building worlds like this and Card does not disappoint.

There’s also another story in this book. It’s not as prevalent as Danny North’s because he is the main character, but this other story is related to Danny’s path and that is the story of Wad, a young man with old eyes born from a tree and secreted into the kitchens of a palace in kingdom on a world that was once tied to this one. For the most part, he doesn’t remember who he was before, but he has abilities far beyond those of the people around him and he has ghosts in his head that he can feel sometimes.

Again, he’s not as prevalent in this book as Danny, so it took me longer than it probably should have to figure out his role in all of this. Towards the beginning of the book, I found that his chapters were slowing me down in my understanding of how the story fit together, but once I figured out the connection, I was actually looking forward to his chapters more than Danny’s. This didn’t detract from my enjoyment of the book at all, but you should be aware that the beginning might be a bit slow going with Wad in the mix until you figure it out.

If you are a fan of mythological fiction, you should check this book out. If you are a fan of self-discovery stories featuring teenaged folk in fantastical settings, you should check this book out. It was a great read and has encouraged me to seek out works by Card beyond the Ender series.

Crochet Hanging Basket

2011-03-27T14:39:00.001-04:00

Hook: US G

Yarn: It’s no longer labeled, I’m afraid. Just some spare stash yarn.

Pattern:

Ch 2, sc 6 in 1st st – 6 sts.
Sc 2 in each sc – 12 sts.
1 sc, sc 2 in sc, repeat – 18 sts.
2 sc, sc 2 in sc, repeat – 24 sts.
3 sc, sc 2 in sc, repeat – 30 sts.
4 sc, sc 2 in sc, repeat – 36 sts.
5 sc, sc 2 in sc, repeat – 42 sts.
6 sc, sc 2 in sc, repeat – 48 sts.
7 sc, sc 2 in sc, repeat – 54 sts.
8 sc, sc 2 in sc, repeat – 60 sts.
[ch 2, dc in same stitch, ch 2, dc in 3rd sc, repeat until end of row, end with a sl st in the first ch 2] – Do this for 6 rows.
Sc row 3 times.
Bind off.

Join yarn to where you want the handles to start. Sc 5.
Ch 1, sc 5, turn.
Repeat for 50 rows.
Join to the opposite side.
Bind off.

Weave in all ends.

And now you have a thing.

I have a bit of a trail mix addiction and instead of recycling all of the tubs, I’ve started saving a couple to organize things. I found that started sock in the bottom of my sock yarn storage bag thing, so I opted to toss all that into the tub so I wouldn’t loose any of it. And it will be handy for when I get back to working on that sock so that yarn doesn’t roll all over my floor for the cat to play with. And I don’t have to put the yarn in a plastic bag that my cat with also play with.

If he plays with this bucket thing, at least it’ll be stable enough to withstand the claws.

Speaking of my cat, here he is hanging out with a hanging thinger I made out of some hemp.

Sherlock Holmes: The Rediscovered Railway Mysteries and Other Stories

2011-03-22T19:10:00.001-04:00

Sherlock Holmes: The Rediscovered Railway Mysteries and Other Stories
By John Taylor
Narrated by Benedict Cumberbatch

In a drawer in his bureau, Dr Watson keeps a locked cedar wood chest - a ‘box of secrets’. It contains an archive of notes referring to some of Holmes’ cases that, for one reason or another, never saw the light of day. Now, for the first time, Watson has decided to reveal the truth to the world... In these four thrilling stories, Holmes experiments with the science of ballistics, locates some missing gold bullion, investigates the theft of a large amount of money and solves the baffling mystery of the Stovey murder.

I had an accidental Audible credit (because I’m an idiot and forgot to cancel my membership after the free trial), so I figured that I might as well spend it on a Sherlock Holmes story. I’ve been on a Holmes kick for the past couple of months. I swear, the fact that Benedict Cumberbatch narrated this was just icing on the cake. I didn’t get this one just because I’m obsessed with him. I swear.

The weird thing about these stories is that I feel like I’ve read them before. I don’t know how that can be. The only non-Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Holmes stories I’ve read that I can remember are The Holmes-Dracula File and A Study in Emerald, so I don’t know where I think I know these stories from, but they seemed incredibly familiar. It didn’t lessen my enjoyment at all. In fact, I enjoyed these a lot. But it was one of those things that stayed in the back of my head.

Benedict Cumberbatch, as always, knocks it out of the park with his narration. He has a different voice for every character, which is fantastic, and he manages to hit on those specific traits of Watson and Holmes with only the use of his voice. It’s amazing. His Watson voice is how you imagine Watson’s narration voice and his Holmes voice is, oddly enough, Brett-like. He makes Holmes sound so much like Brett!Holmes. It pleases me fanboy soul.

I definitely recommend this one for Holmes fans. These are stories that are well written and brilliant Holmesian mysteries and Benedict Cumberbatch is a phenomenal narrator. It’s definitely worth having a listen to.

Geektastic: Stories From the Nerd Herd

2011-03-15T19:28:00.001-04:00

Geektastic: Stories from the Nerd Herd
edited by Holly Black and Cecil Castellucci

Geektastic celebrates all things geeky, from Klingons and Jedi Knights to fan fiction, theater geeks, and cosplayers. Whether you’re a former, current, or future geek, or if you just want to get in touch with your inner geek, Geektastic has something for everyone. Get your geek on!

Let me tell you how this book came about. The Editor’s Note, of course, will tell you this in much more eloquent way, but I think you all need to understand just how awesome this book is.

San Diego Comic-Con 2007. Authors Holly Black and Cecil Castellucci are hanging out, doing their geeky authory thing and talking about Klingon panels and cosplay and they both come to the conclusion that there needs to be a story about a Jedi and a Klingon hooking up and the repercussions thereof. Starcrossed lovers? Disaster in the making? Do they need to keep their tryst a secret because of the social standards of their prospective groups?

So they decided to write that story and ask a bunch of their geeky friends to write geeky stories for the anthology they would need to have in order to publish that story.

That story, which happens to be the first one in this anthology, is possibly the best work of short fiction I’ve ever read. Members of opposing hardcore cosplay groups party hard and wake up together? So. Brilliant.

This whole book is brilliant. I enjoyed every story. Reading these is like hanging out with your geeky friends. You recognize all of the characters as soon as you’re introduced to them, even if you’re not that particular brand of geek. It’s a fantastic celebration of all the things geeks love.

Like the blurb says, if you are a geek or were a geek or want to be a geek or know a geek, you should pick this one up. It’s amazing.

New Eighth Doctor Adventures Series 01

2011-03-14T20:28:00.000-04:00

I’ve had this series of Doctor Who audio dramas for a while now, but I don’t think I really knew how to write about them before. I also don’t think I really knew how to listen to them before because I picked them up again this past week at work and there was a lot of story that I didn’t remember at all. In fact, there are full episodes of this series that I didn’t remember at all and they are all pretty fantastic.

So I feel compelled to post a blog review thing about them.

Blood of the Daleks

This is the first story of this series and it is a hard hitting one. It takes place on a planet in the throws of an impact winter after the catastrophic collision of an asteroid. Its people are desperate – suffering disease and hunger and unable to effect any sort of relief – and its leaders are willing to do anything, including turning to Daleks for help. But desperation can take many forms, including a desire to embrace forced evolution into something inhuman. And the Doctor has to try to make all parties see reason and dissuade them from their disastrous fates.

But he’s also dealing with his own problems, including the spontaneous appearance of Lucie Miller, a brash young woman from Blackpool, England in 2006, in his TARDIS.

It’s a brilliant story and I think one of the best examples of how the Doctor deals with the morals of his position. And I also like how the Doctor and Lucie are instantaneously combative and compatible. Their banter is fantastic and falls immediately into place as Doctor and companion. It’s similar to the Tenth Doctor and Donna, but these two are verbal sparring champions. From this introduction alone, Lucie is one of my favourite companions.

Horror of Glam Rock

This story is worth listening to solely for the Doctor calling David Bowie “one of my favourites.” My personal feelings with the Doctor and David Bowie can be seen in these two posts. Because I’m a nutjob. And I believe that David Bowie once traveled with the Doctor. And I really think it might have been the Eighth.

In this story, there are aliens intent on feasting on glam rock fans by trying to break into our dimension through an up-and-coming star’s stylophone. This story’s also a bit timey-wimey because it takes place in the 1970s and Lucie meets her aunt when she was passionate about being a rock drummer.

I find this one to be really interesting because of the things that it says about music and the music industry and the dedication of fans to music idols. It’s really interesting to hear this kind of thing from the Doctor because he has such an alien and encompassing view of it. And because I love glam rock.

Also, there’s fun haphazard junk gadgets and sonic screwdrivering galore.

Immortal Beloved

The Doctor and Lucie land on a planet and find two young lovers about to kill themselves in a Romeo and Juliet-like fashion. They both, of course, leap in to save the lovers and are taken back to their village, where the leaders of the settlement have taken on the identities of Greek gods and goddesses to establish power over the people. The Doctor and Lucie find out that the two lovers are not the offspring of the village’s leaders, but their clones, and when the leaders cannot maintain their old bodies any more, they will be transferring their minds over to the younger clones, thus erasing the people that originally inhabited those cloned bodies.

Listening to Lucie struggle with this is one of those companion moments that stick with you. The Doctor is always opposed to the domination of others and believes that clones should have the right to their own existence, but he’s very matter of fact and emotionally detached to it. Lucie has never encountered something like this, being from a time before commonplace human cloning, and she’s very admirably adamant about personal rights. Lucie in this story is what I’ve seen Rose fans write about Rose. I could never really see it about Rose, but I think Lucie captures that same thing that Rose fans all talk about in this episode.

Phobos

Extreme sports park on one of the moons of Mars? Mystery monsters that no one can spot? An impossible tunnel with impossible gravity? Brilliant. Bring it on.

This is a classic Doctor Who story. There are monsters and mysteries and running around. I didn’t find that this one was as commentary-ish or deep as the other stories, but it’s fun and science fictiony in that cheesey kind of way. And I think there is a really great moment towards the end where Lucie realizes that she really doesn’t know much about the Doctor at all and it’s one of those times when it hits her that he’s really not human. Like a splash of cold water. And it scares her enough to be cautious, but it doesn’t frighten her away. Brilliant.

No More Lies

This is a story that is ripe with timey-wimey talk. There are vortex problems and time loops and giant time eating dinosaurs. Those things aren’t really the focus of the story – which is more about a man who tried to kill the Doctor and Lucie and then was separated from them by a couple million years in a time loop so he eventually became a different person and fell in love and personal struggles and all that – but it’s still some cool Doctor Who-isms to enjoy.

I don’t have much to say about it, unfortunately, but I would say that it’s similar to the New Who Family of Blood episodes, only with the villain being the one who has fallen in love. It’s not exactly the same, obviously, but it has a similar feel.

Human Resources

This is a story I really, really like. In this story, you find out about an alien organization picking up office workers from Earth to run their giant battle robots without their knowledge and subversive Timelord groups like the CIA and why Lucie had appeared in the TARDIS at the start of the series. You also get to learn about the Headhunter, who you catch glimpses of throughout the series in an intriguing, cliffhangery sort of way. It ties together all those little moments that you tend to gloss over when they don’t make sense within the individual stories in the same way that Series 5 tied everything together in the finale.

And this episode says a lot about destiny and human choice and the sort of stuff that the Doctor clings to when he hovers around the human race. And there are Cybermen with some classic Who Cybermen lore thrown in. It’s fantastic.

So, overall? Well worth having a listen if you’re a fan of Who. And I’m particularly thrilled with this because these types of stories are what I was expecting for Paul McGann’s Doctor when I found a copy of his movie adventure. I wasn’t really a fan of the movie as anything good – just all the hilarious terrible things – and it felt unfair that I didn’t have stories about the Eighth Doctor that I genuinely liked. These audio dramas actually make him one of my favourite Doctors.

Charitable Getting

2011-03-08T20:17:00.002-05:00

Charitable Getting
by Sam Starbuck

Charity in the twenty-first century is a game. The players are artists, salesmen, and idealists, all working together to get something for nothing. The goal is to raise the money; the trick is to keep it coming.

At the center of the game stands Bo Sparks, charismatic CEO of SparkVISION Consulting, which runs campaigns and offers support for the charities under its care. Surrounded by the wealthy and the desperate, Sparks just wants to do a little good in the world.

Journalist Tanya Montray has a different goal. She’s certain that SparkVISION employs Non Prophet, a popular and controversial blogger. She’s determined to uncover him, but if he’s an employee of SparkVISION there could be trouble ahead.

And then there’s Trent Byron, head of the oldest charity in Chicago, who has some issues with the way Bo Sparks does business and isn’t afraid to play hardball.

Sex scandals, embezzlement, gossip, clandestine love affairs, and one misplaced cake: it’s all in a day’s work for SparkVISION.

I feel like I don’t need to say any more that that. What more could you ask for in a book?

I couldn’t put this one down either. After finishing Nameless, I was ridiculously excited to pick this one up. It’s the one that folks at Sam Starbuck’s blog reference often because of Sam’s actual life as a receptionist in Chicago and the oddities he encounters in his day to day life.

This book was even better than I expected it to be. I’m not sure whether that was because I could see Sam’s blogged life weaved into this story or what, but like Nameless, I was just absolutely drawn into the world he shows us. I couldn’t put this down.

Definite recommendation from me on this one. Pick this one up.

Digital Copy
Physical Copy

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Car Blanket

2011-03-02T20:45:00.002-05:00

Needles: US 10 – 6 mm circular needles

Yarn: Whatever I had lying around.

Pattern: http://www.lionbrand.com/patterns/L0165AD.html?noImages=&r=1

If you’ve been hibernating or live in warmer climes, it’s been snowing and icing a lot this winter, which has been lovely, but there’s been a lot of people getting their cars stranded on the highway. So I figured I could use a blanket in the car. So I made one. Huzzah!

The Wings of Merlin

2011-03-01T19:13:00.000-05:00

The Wings of Merlin
by T.A. Barron

The evil warlord Rhita Gawr is preparing to wage war against the island of Fincayra. To halt this invasion, Merlin must perform his most difficult miracle yet. He must unite the bickering factions of the magical isle – dwarves, canyon eagles, walking trees, and more – to stand together against the dire threat.

But first Merlin must fight an even greater battle – one that rages within him – before he can unify the Fincayrans, and regain the long lost wings that will enable all his people to choose their true destiny…

I’m sure that no one will be surprised when I say I loved this book. I’ve loved the whole series so far. Why wouldn’t I love this one?

That being said, I was a little bit disappointed. While I loved the added lore of Fincayra and learning about the myth behind their lost wings, this is one of those books where I wish it wasn’t a book aimed at kids. I wanted so much more depth and exploration for so many parts of this book. I wanted to dig into Merlin’s feelings about what happened to Dinatius and I wanted to see Rhia’s journey as she searched for the walking trees and I wanted to see Hallia’s journey to find Gwynnia and the canyon eagles.

I don’t know. Maybe I wanted more of a Lord of the Rings type experience during this book than I did with the others. There were just so many things that had to come together at the end and you only get to see Merlin’s part in it. It’s important, of course, but not the whole picture.

But it was a really good book and I’m glad that everything wrapped up in a way that set the Arthur legends into motion.

Definitely pick up this one up if you’ve been considering it. It’s a lovely ending and worth reading to finish up the series.

The Mirror of Merlin

2011-02-28T18:47:00.000-05:00

The Mirror of Merlin
by T.A. Barron

There is something wicked in the swamplands on the magical isle of Fincayra – an encroaching evil intent on destroying the land – and only young Merlin possesses the power to stop it.

Together with Hallia, the deer-woman Merlin has fallen in love with, he must embark on a journey through the haunted land that will test his knowledge and his courage to find his stolen sword.

But then Merlin discovers a magic mirror capable of altering a person’s destiny – and the visage he finds within the glass is someone he never imagined he’d see…

I had completely forgotten what happened in this book when I picked it up to reread it. I’m kind of glad that I did because this book is a whopper.

Throughout the books, you get these little ties to the Merlin that we all know and love from the Arthur legends. Just little things. Like being turned into a fish and finding it educational. But you don’t really get any big, solid connections that ties legend!Merlin to this Merlin.

This book has those ties. We get to meet angry Nimue from the future, who has already imprisoned Merlin, and young Arthur who eagerly does as he is bid from a much older Merlin. There are magic mirrors and crystal caves and time travel and independent shadows that like to be ridiculous. For a good chunk of the book, you feel like you’ve been plonked down in some Merlin-centric sections of The Sword and the Stone. It’s amazing.

I also like how this book deals with Merlin and Hallia’s growing attraction for one another. It’s steady and slow and amicable without getting in the way of the things that need doing for the good of Fincayra. It doesn’t feel forced or alien in the midst of the storytelling, which is something that I am very grateful for.

Naturally, I’m recommending this if you’ve followed the other recommendations I’ve made for this series.

Podcast Extravaganza

2011-02-25T21:17:00.001-05:00

I don’t think I’ve blogged about podcasts yet. Odd. Because much to everyone’s chagrin, I’m addicted to podcasts.

Specifically Frogpants Studios podcasts, but you’ll see that soon enough.

Anyway, I thought I’d present you folks with a summary of the podcasts I listen to regularly. I might start reviewing new podcasts I pick up. I’m not sure yet. But I’m always glad to pimp out what I’m enjoying.

AppSlappy – A Frogpants podcast hosted by Scott Johnson, Eric van Skyhawk, and Eileen Rivera about iOS device apps. iPods, iPhones, iPads. You know. I’m not a fan of Apple products most of the time, but I do have an iPod Touch and this podcast got me into the whole app side of it.

The Audiorant – A rambly podcast that was regularly published by Commissioned’s own Obsidian. He started this podcast a while back to vent about things that annoy him. It’s been on hiatus for a while, but O has said on his site that he intends to start it back up again when he has a chance.

Celtic Myth Podshow – This one’s a bit self-explanatory. Hosted by Gary and Ruth, this is a podcast about Celtic myths and mythic storytelling from the UK and Ireland. This one has also been on a bit of a hiatus due to Gary’s health, but new episodes pop up now and again, especially around holidays.

The Cheese Cast – Hosted by Hello With Cheese’s Dern and Obsidian, this podcasts features web comic artists talking about whatever they feel like. Sometimes even comics. Because they both work on Hello With Cheese.

Comics Coast to Coast – A Frogpants podcast hosted by Brian Dunaway, Justin Thompson, and John Stamford. This is an interview show where you can get some inside looks into the world of comic publishing, both online and in print.

Coverville: The Cover Music Podcast – A Frogpants podcast hosted by Brian Ibbot all about song covers and song cover trivia.

Coverville: Musically Challenged – A spin-off of Frogpants’ Coverville hosted by Brian Ibbot. This one’s a sort of podcast gameshow based on music trivia. I subscribed by accident when I was resubscribing to Coverville. The last episode was in August 2010. I don’t know if this one will be updating again any time soon.

The Creep – A Frogpants podcast hosted by Scott Johnson and Brian Hough about Starcraft II. No, I don’t actually play Starcraft at all, but I like hearing about the vidja games.

Current Geek – A Frogpants podcast hosted by Scott Johnson and Tom Merritt, who bring you the geekiest stories of the web three times a week. This is a much shorter podcast that the others, averaging at about ten minutes long. They used to also do an hour long show on Fridays, but that seems to have stopped for now.

Diary of a Cartoonist – This is a sporadic Frogpants podcast put together by Scott Johnson. These are looks into his personal life, his thoughts, chats with his kids, etc. It’s a very informal and unscheduled podcast. More like a personal audio blog than a podcast.

Drunk Tank Podcast – A podcast put on by the folks at Rooster Teeth talking about current events, behind the scenes on projects, and whatever else they feel like. Crazy antics ensue.

East Meets West – I just subscribed to this one, so I’m not too familiar with it. Tom Merritt and Roger Chang host and they discuss current events and culture and whatever comes to mind, I suppose. Another Frogpants podcast.

Film Sack – Possibly the most brilliant Frogpants podcast. Hosted by Scott Johnson, Brian Ibbot, Brian Dunaway, and Randy Jordan, these fellows watch a film dug up from Netflix streaming (especially old or bad films) and present their hilarious impressions of the film. I have hurt myself trying not to laugh out loud at work while listening to this podcast.

The Final Score – A Frogpants podcast hosted by Scott Johnson, Brian Dunaway, and Nicole Spag. This one’s about the vidja games. Updates on what’s in video game news, what the hosts are playing, revisiting old games. Good times.

FourCast – A Frogpants podcast hosted by Scott Johnson and Tom Merritt wherein they invite two guests to make predictions about the future.

Frame Rate – A podcast on the TWiT network hosted by Brian Brushwood and Tom Merritt about movies and television.

Hypothetical Help – A Frogpants podcast hosted by Scott Johnson and Mark “The Turpster” Turpin. They try to give advice and answer questions from listeners of the show. Of course, they are not in anyway therapists of any kind so any advice is purely hypothetical.

The Instance – Another video game Frogpants podcast hosted by Scott Johnson, with new cohosts Dills and Turpster (previously cohosted by Randy Jordan, but he’s landed a new job that puts the podcast into conflict with his work). This is a World of Warcraft podcast. And no, I don’t play WoW either. I just like hearing about it.

The Morning Stream – The official Frogpants morning show! Hosted by Scott Johnson and Brian Ibbot, this podcast airs Monday through Thursday and covers news, celebrity nonsense, and other morning show type segments. This is the newest Frogpants podcast.

The Movielicious – This is one that I just started recently. It’s a Frogpants podcast hosted by Patrick from France, Turpster, and Nicole Spag about current(-ish) movies.

The Muppet Cast – Self explanatory again! A podcast! About the Muppets! Hosted by Steve Swanson. News, reviews, rumours, meetups, interviews… everything you could want to do with Muppets.

Say Something in Welsh – This is a podcast I pick up now and again to learn some conversational Welsh. Why Welsh? Because I’m crazy.

The Shakespeare Sound – Hosted by Reggie and Dana, this is a podcast that teaches you how to read and interpret Shakespeare. Specifically, his sonnets.

The Sword and Laser Podcast – This is a Frogpants podcast science fiction and fantasy book club hosted by Tom Merritt and Veronica Belmont. Books news, books to read along with, book discussions. You can also find them at Goodreads.

And I’ve got two more listed in there, but they are completely dead, as far as I’m aware. One of them might be reinvented for another purpose some day in the future, but I leave them subscribed just in case.

I likes me some podcasts. Clearly.

I blame Tumblr.

2011-02-20T18:29:00.001-05:00

Yesterday afternoon, as told in photographs.

Sometimes I am astounded by my own domesticity.

Nameless

2011-02-15T20:56:00.000-05:00

Nameless
by Sam Starbuck

Christopher, the only bookseller in the small farm town of Low Ferry, lives an uneventful life -- until one day he encounters a shy newcomer named Lucas, and accidentally sells him the wrong book. What follows is a journey for both men, in vastly different ways, set against the strange, ritualistic, magic backdrop of a midwestern winter. A tale about the masks people wear and a meditation on the power of magic, Nameless revels in the simple pleasure of storytelling.

It seems ridiculous that I waited until now to pick this up. I mean, I’ve been obsessively reading and rereading Sam’s fanfiction for a few years now. Why didn’t I buy this immediately?

I have no idea. But I can tell you this- I remembered last weekend that Sam allows for free digital downloads of his books and that the .pdfs can be read on my Kindle, so I downloaded Nameless.

I could not put it down. In fact, I set aside the last book in The Lost Years of Merlin – the book I reread a whole series for – to finish Nameless. As I finished reading the last sentence, I was getting up to buy physical copies of both this book and Charitable Getting. My order was in before my Kindle even switched itself off.

I don’t know why I went into this with the unreasonable expectation that I wouldn’t enjoy Sam’s original fiction as much as his fanfiction. It was irrational and nonsense and I’m ashamed of that tiny bit of my brain that had reservations about picking this up. And I’m so glad that little part of my brain was wrong.

Nameless is an amazing book. It builds the world in Low Ferry so subtly that by the time you realize that it’s drawing you in, it’s too late. You’re already trapped and so invested in what’s happening that you resent every moment you have to spend away from the story. It becomes a compulsion follow the tale to its end.

It’s been a very long time since I last felt so compelled by a book. I’m in awe at Sam’s talent.

So, yes, I definitely recommend this book. Vehemently. If you’re even the slightest unsure, click the link below for the .pdf version of it, but I urge you to buy the physical copy to support Sam. This will be a book to hold on to and reread repeatedly and Sam deserves whatever profit these book sales can give him.

Download

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The Fires of Merlin

2011-02-12T22:29:00.000-05:00

The Fires of Merlin
by T.A. Barron

The dragon called Wings of Fire has awakened from his enchanted slumber. Prophecy dictates that only the descendant of the wizard who first defeated the dragon possesses the power to stop him. Before Merlin can go to battle, he must conquer his own fears by confronting the sorceress who has stolen his magical talisman – a talisman needed to stop Wings of Fire.

But according to prophecy, the one who destroys the dragon, must also die…

This may very well be my favourite of the Lost Years of Merlin books. I can’t say for absolutely certain because I don’t remember what happens in the next book and I have never read the last, but I have a pretty strong bias for this one.

Dragons. This one has dragons and I love dragons with my soul. I love that this book starts out as a stereotypical “dragon is burning down everything in revenge” stories and morphs into something deeper than that as Merlin discovers the truth. I love the little dragon with the wonky ear and the respect Merlin has for Wings of Fire and Merlin’s desire to save everyone, including the dragon trying to kill him. It’s wonderful.

I also love the introduction of the deer people. I don’t consciously remember them from the last time I read this book, but I suspect that they influenced my creation of The Weaver, which is a half deer fae I favour in my faerie stories.

And it’s clear in this book that, while still foolish and young and eager, Merlin is learning. Really learning. He’s applying the souls of things that he found in the last book and he accomplishes much more on his own in this book than either of the previous too. You can see the greatness forming.

Again, I’d definitely recommend this for fans of Merlin and Arthurian legend and, now, dragons.

The Seven Songs of Merlin

2011-02-11T22:26:00.001-05:00

The Seven Songs of Merlin
by T.A. Barron

To save his ailing mother, Merlin must master the Seven Songs of Wisdom passed down from his grandfather, a legendary wizard. Only then can he journey to the spiritual Otherworld to obtain the elixir he needs. But the quest involves a task Merlin must perform – defeating a vile ogre whose merest glance means death. And eve more difficult for the young wizard, he must discover the secret of seeing not with his eyes but with his heart…

Book Two of the Lost Years of Merlin series!

Which, of course, naturally means that I loved this book. I love Merlin revisiting characters he first met in Book One and exploring more of Fincayra than he could have done before.

But this is one of those instances where I wished this book wasn’t intended for such a young audience. There are seven tasks he must complete in this story and, as a child, I had no trouble believing the difficulty of achieving these. However, after having spent many years away from this world and reading many other long quest books, the tasks seem quite simple and short now.

Also, I feel that this book lacks the sting of consequences that were so keenly felt in the first book. Perhaps I will see the consequences I expected to see in this book in another book later on, but it seemed like more terrible things should have happened as a result of Merlin’s arrogance.

But, to balance that all out, DRAGON. I love dragons. I love tasks involving dragons. I love the thought of Merlin with dragons. It simply makes everything better.

I stand by my initial recommendation. If you like Arthurian legend based stories or even just stories about Merlin or fantasy stories in general, you should pick up this series.

The Secret History of Giants

2011-02-08T20:03:00.000-05:00

The Secret History of Giants
by Prof. Ari Berk

For thousands of years we, the Order of the Golden Quills, have chronicled and collected knowledge and wisdom of the Secret Folk, those races spoken of in legend but little known in our time.

Here we present to you our work on one such race of Secret Folk – the mighty Giants. Explore their secrets, discover their lore, and learn where you might seek out the noble Great Folk… for they might be nearer than you think.

This was a funny little book. It’s like one of those books that you see on a table as you leave the fantasy section of a book store. You know, the ones with the shiny covers with titles like DRAGONS and WIZARDS that are more pictures and pull out bits to interact with than actually information or story. The kind of book that’s like a sneak peak anthology.

This book is kind of like that. There is no overlying story or any sort of in-depth information on giants and giant lore. It gives you little snippets of many different giant stories and origins without going into too much detail about any of them, which is a shame because I’ve really enjoyed Ari Berk’s work with Brian Froud with more detailed writing. But it was a pleasant enough distraction for an afternoon.

So I’d recommend it if you are only looking for a pleasant distraction. The illustrations are lovely and different textures and papers meant to be interacted with are interesting, but I was disappointed in the lack of detail and narrative. But I suppose it makes a nice little supplemental volume to go with my Faerie library.

The Lost Years of Merlin

2011-02-07T20:55:00.000-05:00

The Lost Years of Merlin
TA Barron

Orphaned by the raging sea upon the ancient shorts of Wales, a boy is forced to confront the riddle of his own mysterious existence. Who is he? What is his name? What is his destiny?

The boy makes his escape to the enchanted isle of Fincayra, convinced that there - in the mist-shrouded land between heaven and the shy – he will find the answers to his quest, but the mystery of his identity deepens.

His quest – and Fincayra’s fate – are inexplicable entwined, and his voyage of discovery has begun…

Revisiting this book has been an absolute joy for me. I can’t remember the last time I read it, or when I first picked it up, but it’s one of those books that you read when you’re very young and little snippets of it cling in your brain and it inspires your for the rest of your life. It’s so ingrained in my personal view of the world that it seems impossible that I ever existed before not reading it.

I may be overhyping it just a bit, but if you haven’t read this version of Merlin’s boyhood, I highly recommend it. This is the first in a series of five- all of which I will be reviewing here – and it’s one of the books that really cemented my love of Arthurian tales, in particular, and my fascination with myth in general.

And, oddly enough, it isn’t Merlin himself that does this for me. It is his mother, who spent her days surrounding herself with books and stories when she was young. For the majority of the book, Merlin has no memory of his life before eight years of age and does not believe that his mother is who she says she is because he can tell she is lying to him, but he still holds her in great affection for the stories she raises him on. She has no loyalty to one religion or cultural history, but blends them together in the very same sort of balancing act I started adopting in high school. Merlin learns to treasure the stories of the ancient Greeks and Celts and the budding Christianity in that part of the world equally and they all become part of him through her teaching. I identified with this young, eager Merlin (still calling himself Emrys then), naturally, but more than that I could imagine myself right there with him in that little hut in the cold spring of Wales listening to self-named Branwen tell us stories about everything in the earth and heavens and in-between places.

And this all takes place within the first few chapters of this first book, if you can believe it. The words in this book are powerful and I am astounded by how much my belief in the world followed the path of “Branwen’s” words in those early chapters.

Of course, I would also recommend this book on the quality of its young Merlin storytelling, as well. I adore that this book makes Merlin both eager to use his powers, but also deals harsh consequences for foolishness. These consequences, in fact, blind him in the early chapters of the book and this added element to young Merlin’s struggles fascinates me in ways that I don’t think I could ever properly explain.

I could probably write about this book all day. Sufficed to say, if you have any interest in Arthurian stories (the parallels between Merlin’s young life and his time with Wart makes me chuckle) or Merlin stories or even fantastical adventure stories, you should read this book.

Cabin Pressure

2011-02-03T21:07:00.000-05:00

Cabin Pressure

Okay. I had decided to do a review of the BBC 4 radio series Cabin Pressure, but I didn’t know how to start it without sounding like a brainwashed media reporter, so I’m starting it like this.

I honestly didn’t expect to like this series so much. I mean, I got it simply because Benedict Cumberbatch is in it and I’ve been on a radio program kick for the last year. I didn’t really expect to like it so much.

BUT DEAR LORD, I DO. Best decision I’ve made in a long time.

Good enough that I have, in fact, sought out Cabin Pressure fanfiction. Oh yes indeed. That’s how you know that I really, really enjoy something.

The characters are fantastic. Caroline is so disgruntled and snarky and Douglas is so deadpan hilarious and a tricksy bastard and Martin is so endearingly earnest and unlucky and Arthur’s a complete idiot. The combination of these folks would invariably produce hilarious misadventures in a small charter airline company.

The dialog is spot on, the jokes are funny enough that it takes everything in my power not to laugh out loud at work when I listen to these, and MJN has quickly become my favourite charter airline company ever.

I don’t know what else to say about this other than I listen to my favourite episodes ALL THE TIME. I’m not exaggerating. I listen to at least one episode at least three times a week while I’m working. They cheer me up when I’m anxious about having to call people and they make the time pass quickly when the day drags along. I love it.

Definite recommendation here. Go listen to it now. It’s brilliant.

Casanova - Audio

2011-02-01T19:37:00.000-05:00

Casanova
By Giacomo Casanova
Narrated by Benedict Cumberbatch
Abridged

I’ll be completely honest with you here. I have never had any desire to read Casanova. I still don’t. It’s just not something I’m interested it.

Why did I listen to the abridged audiobook, then?

Because it’s narrated by Benedict Cumberbatch.

I know, I know. Hear me out, though. I downloaded this very very shortly after watching Sherlock for the first time. It was the first time I’d ever seen Cumberbatch and his acting in the role of Sherlock astounded me. I’m sure some of you have already heard that bit.

But I was incredibly impressed by his voice and how he used it when he was acting. Doubly so when he was acting as Sherlock acting.

And if you follow me on twitter, you will have seen that I finally pinned his voice down as something in the range of Alan Rickman (who we all know has a distinctive, wonderful voice) and Jack Davenport (most well known to me as Commodore James Norrington from Pirates of the Caribbean – rewatch those and listen to him speak). I remarked one day that Benedict Cumberbatch would be a perfect candidate for reading audiobooks.

A few people immediately rose to the occasion and pointed me in the direction of Casanova. I was helpless to my love of voice work and bought it immediately.

I don’t have much to say about the book itself, to be honest. It was an abridged version, as I said before, so it isn’t the entire book and I don’t even know what parts have been cut. I don’t particularly care either. I mean, it was interesting in the same way that documentaries you watch because there’s nothing else on are interesting and I was a bit excited at the prospect of the queerness of relations with the castrati who was actually female, but it turned out that she was sort of forced into the role and didn’t actually identify with it at all.

But I’ve listened to it more than once because Benedict Cumberbatch’s voice and storytelling capabilities are amazing. I was blown away by how much his voice compelled me to listen to a story I was hardly interested in. If you haven’t listened to it, I’d suggest heading over to Audible.com or iTunes or somewhere and listening to the preview.

I won’t recommend this based on the story itself, unless you enjoy this kind of story, but I definitely recommend Benedict Cumberbatch’s voice.

Tron: Legacy

2011-01-31T21:24:00.000-05:00

Well, I’m finally typing this out, am I? I saw this on the… second? January 2nd?

I think so.

Anyway, TRON.

First things first, I was not a kid raised on Tron. Somehow, I managed to miss it completely. Thanks to the wonderful powers of absorbing things around me without realizing it, I knew the look of it and the general idea of Tron, but I never really got a look at it until Kingdom Hearts II.

Yeah, yeah, I know. Shut up.

So I played through the Tron levels of that game and it was AWESOME, so I resolved to watch the actual movie. And I did. Once I got Netflix.

To be honest, I don’t remember much of it and what I do remember are the parts that I played in Kingdom Hearts. But I remember enjoying myself and feeling all victorious when the MCP was defeated and that whole thing.

That’s not how I felt coming out of Tron: Legacy. I mean, it was a good movie and I liked it, but I don’t think it met my expectations at all. I wanted everything to be faster and sharper. I wanted the updated light cycles to blow my mind and they didn’t. I wanted more fighting. I wanted more of the programs to act like programs instead of people inside of a computer. I wanted less existentialism. I wanted more of the games.

And I sure as hell wanted more Tron. Poor bloke’s barely even in this movie and even when he is in the movie he isn’t properly Tron due to plot-ish reasons.

I’ll admit, I’m fond of Clu and his story with Kevin Flynn. That was good. And I wanted more of that with Flynn and mini-Flynn, who seemed to just forgive an entire lifetime of abandonment very quickly. I didn’t really like the ISOs storyline.

It was nice to see it in theaters and my brothers and I had a good time with it, but all in all, Tron: Legacy needed more Bruce Boxleitner. Basically. Is what that comes down to.

True Grit

2011-01-31T21:22:00.000-05:00

I need to make time to watch the original John Wayne movie. And read the book that it’s apparently based on. I’d like to be able to do a comparison of these.

Because I loved this remake.

It’s dirty and rough and immoral in all the different shades of grey. Mattie Ross is the most frighteningly capable girl I’ve ever seen in a movie and I love that she’s so stubborn about what she knows is right even when everything around her has gone out of her comfort zone. I mean, she basically hires the most ‘round the law marshal that’s ever existed to hunt down the man who killed her father and spends almost the entire movie being shocked at things he does.

And Rooster Cogburn is so reluctantly amused by her and unwillingly fond of her as they travel together. I like that he keeps the hardass loner act up throughout the whole movie, even as he’s teaching Maddie to survive out in the wild lands, and he almost defiantly clings to his drinking and smoking and killing ways all the way up until needs to save Mattie’s life. Like saving her will make up for all the shit he’s done in his life.

Not that he was looking for it, of course, but he’s a man who takes advantage of his situation and if he has the chance to do the right thing and not let down this girl who elbowed her way into his life, he’s going to damn well take it and damn the consequences.

If you’ve been thinking about going to go see this one, do it. There are some gross violent bits (well, one that comes to mind but it made me flinch so I have to mention it) and there are extended periods of riding horses and doing nothing more than talking, so some parts might seem long, but it’s a great movie and definitely worth watching if you’re a fan of Westerns.

Cabled Fingerless Gloves

2011-01-26T21:58:00.001-05:00

Needles: 4.5 mm (I think. I don’t actually remember, but that’s what the pattern calls for)

Yarn: The Merry Little Lamb – Sage/Iron

Pattern: http://www.orangellous.com/cdn/files/patterns/vancouver_fog.pdf

Just a little something I made for myself.

I wanted to make a better pair of fingerless gloves for myself because I wasn’t too fond of how plain the ones I made at college were and I had already dismantled them because I never wore them and I had bought this lovely yarn at the CT Renaissance Faire because I love the Merry Little Lamb and this was absolutely perfect. I wear these all the time.

The Once and Future King

2011-01-25T21:10:00.001-05:00

The Once and Future King
By TH White
Narrated by Neville Jason

The Sword in the Stone
The Queen of Air and Darkness
The Ill-Made Knight
The Candle in the Wind
The Book of Merlyn

I was kind of surprised with myself when I realized that I hadn’t yet read The Once and Future King by TH White. It seems like the sort of thing that I really should have read before. I love Arthurian legend.

It came to my attention when I started listening to the podcast Sword and Lazer. It’s a science fiction and fantasy book podcast which acts as a sort of book club and I started listening just as they were picking a new book to start reading. They chose The Once and Future King, which is quite an endeavor for a book club because it’s quite long. I wanted to participate, but I started listening in November, during NaNoWriMo, so there was no way I would be able to actually read a print copy of the book in time for the discussions, but I did want to follow along with the story because it is really something I should have picked up by now.

Tom Merritt, one of the show’s cohosts, mentioned that the audiobook was quite interesting. He was reading a copy and listening to the audiobook at more or less the same time for a while and he noticed that the audiobook had a handful of chapters that his copy of the print book didn’t. There have been so many editions of this book that some of the long, tedious chapters that have little to do with the story have been removed when the separate books started being combined. I was interested in these “extra” chapters and because Sword and Lazer is sponsored by Audible.com, I was eligible for one free audiobook through their promotions.

The unabridged version of this book is split up into the different books, so I did end up paying some money for it, but I figured the review would work better with the book as a whole. And I wanted to listen to the whole thing.

It took me a long time to listen to it because, like I said before, it is a long book and I will admit that there were parts, especially in later books, where I really didn’t care what White was writing about, but I did enjoy the book overall. I loved the Sword in the Stone, which is one of the most familiar stories. I really liked discovering things that I didn’t know about young Arthur as a boy and his tutelage under Merlin. I also really enjoyed The Ill-Made Knight, which was mostly about Lancelot, because there were a lot of things about Lancelot that I hadn’t known from this story.

To be honest, I can’t really remember specifics for much of the other books because TH White does tend to go off on long tangents and, because I had all the copies of the book to play straight through, some of those tangents blended together. And the ending was a bit of a weird non-ending because White assumes that you are already familiar with Arthurian legend and that you have your own ending that you like, which would probably be fine if I were reading this in print, but was a little disappointing to listen to.

One thing that I did notice that was rather interesting was the cyclical nature of listening to the book. I don’t know if I would have noticed it if I were reading it in print, but Arthur starts this whole tale as a naïve boy trying to figure out how things should be in the world and the last book of the series has him turned into a boy when he is an old man as he tries to figure out how things should be in the world now that he’s changed it. Traditionally oral stories have this same sort of cyclical telling, which is why I think this story really works well as an audiobook.

Also, Neville Jason is an amazing narrator. He’s one of those readers who does all the voices and really puts himself into the different characters. Sometimes I would forget that the whole story was being read by one man because he has a different, unique voice for each character.

I do intend to read a print copy of this series one of these days, but I would definitely recommend this audiobook.

David's Scarf

2011-01-22T11:12:00.001-05:00

Needles: US 11 – 8mm

Yarn: Country Loom in Rich Granite

Pattern: Not really a pattern so much as something I read about once. It’s just knit row, k1p1 rib row, repeat.

What do you make the new husband of your childhood friend for Christmas who you don’t really know that well but is close enough that you actually sometimes see him more than your friend?

(Seriously. I run into him when the parents send me out to buy milk. Small town.)

A scarf. Naturally. I am a knitter. This is what I do.

But in all honesty, I had no idea what to make him and scarves are safe and a good indicator if he will be receptive to homemade knitwear in the future. I mean, if you appreciate a hand knit scarf, you will generally appreciate anything you can use that’s been handmade.

Also, I figure he probably doesn’t think too much about winter wear and Brandy probably frets over it endlessly because she’s a Floridian and still isn’t used to winter in Connecticut. And if he doesn’t end up using it, she will.

So… someone will end up wearing it, I’m sure.

Unseen Academicals

2011-01-18T18:07:00.000-05:00

Unseen Academicals
by Terry Pratchett

The wizards at Ankh-Morpork’s Unseen University are renowned for many things – wisdom, magic, their love of teatime – but athletics is most assuredly not on the list. So when Lord Vetinari, the city’s benevolent tyrant, strongly suggests to Archchancellor Mustrum Ridcully that the university put forth a football team composed of faculty, students, and staff – or lose the funding that pays for their nine daily meals – the more-than-usually-at-sea UU wizards find themselves in a quandary. To begin with, they have to figure out just what it is that makes this sport of foot-the-ball so popular with Ankh-Morpork of all ages and social strata. Then they have to learn how to play it. Oh, and on top of that, they must somehow win a football match without using magic.

And the thing about football – the most important thing about football – is that is is never just football.

Terry Pratchett is a master of turning ordinary things into satirical commentary on the state of society. I have read a fair number of his Discworld series books and they never fail to make me laugh and make me think. I asked for this book for Christmas knowing nothing about it other than the fact that it was Pratchett and that, from the cover, it was about sports.

I don’t even like sports. I never really got into playing them – with the exception, of course, of No Rules Band Class Soccer – and I have never been interested in watching them.

I loved this book. Even for a sports-outsider like me, this book turned the world of competitive football on its head and I loved it. Pratchett literally takes apart the game and boils it down to its base components and by the end of the process you discover that it isn’t even about the game at all in that fantastic mockingly respectful way that Pratchett writes. He makes the sport on even ground and I was rooting for the Academicals along with everyone else by the time this book concluded.

I also really enjoyed Nutt’s self-discovery story as well and how seamlessly it attached itself to the football story. It was a very real and raw story with real trauma there that was poorly handled by Nutt by brilliantly handled by Glenda, who has very definitive ideas about how people should and should not be treated, even if they are something you didn’t expect.

I’d like to point out that Glenda is, perhaps, one of my favourite Discworld characters to date. I believe this is her, as yet, only appearance in the series and she’s wonderful. She’s the head of the Night Kitchen at the University and is a descendant of a brilliant line of pie makers. She herself makes fantastically renowned pies - renowned enough that when she got it into her head to march into the chambers of Lord Vetinari (which is never done if you expect to continue living) and berate him for his Ideas about football, she was actually admitted because she brought a pie with her. She’s wonderfully stubborn and no-nonsense and so real world ordinary that she comes right around to the other side of fantastic.

I’d definitely recommend this to anyone – sports fans, non-sports fans, people who like books who make them think, people who like books that make them laugh… Pratchett’s got something for everyone, I think, and this is just another brilliant addition.

Brandy's Hat and Mittens

2011-01-16T21:52:00.001-05:00

Forgive terrible pictures again. Another Christmas rush shoot for these.

Yarn: Bernat Softee Chunky in Denim Ragg

Needles: Double pointed needles US8 5mm

Pattern: http://www.pickles.no/hello-new-york-winter-access/2009/8/29/hello-new-york-mittens.html

Hook: US H8

Pattern: http://cats-rockin-crochet.blogspot.com/2009/04/beret-with-simple-cable-stitch-free.html

I had met up with my good friend Brandy at her place of employment in a sort of nearby mall the weekend before Christmas and she outright refused to tell me what she wanted for Christmas because she didn’t want me to spend money on her. Which is ridiculous because the whole point of Christmas is to do something nice for the people in your life and just because she didn’t answer didn’t mean I wasn’t going to gift her with something.

So I opted to make her some mittens and a hat because Brandy never buys things for herself (David has taken to giving money to Shannon and making Shannon force Brandy to buy herself nice things every once in a while) and even though she’s a native Floridian and is freezing all the time, she probably hasn’t bought herself a new pair of gloves or a new hat or anything in all the years that I’ve known her.

The mittens look a little janky and oddly pointy, but I hadn’t planned out enough time to properly gauge everything and sort out what needles would work best with this yarn and just kind of went for it. And I had to improve the size because the pattern called for hand measurements and Brandy’s hands are smaller than everyone’s hands. But they fit when Brandy put them on, so I lucked out there.

If that hat looks familiar, it’s because I used the same pattern for a hat for Shannon over the summer.

.

Shannon's Finger Knit Scarf

2011-01-13T22:21:00.002-05:00

Needle: My fingers

Yarn: Deborah Norville Collection Everyday Soft Worsted in Pine Green

Pattern: It wasn’t so much a pattern as a refresher via WikiHow.

I honestly never expected to make a finger knit scarf again. I had made three when I first encountered the process and they were up in my Etsy shop for about a year before I concluded that they were never going to sell and I should make something else with the yarn.

But then when I asked Shannon what she wanted for Christmas, she said she wanted a finger knit scarf. In green. With poofy fat tassles.

Voila!

A finger knit scarf in green with poof fat tassels.

One advantage this scarf has over the craptacular finger knit scarves I made before is that this yarn is very soft in that shiny and smooth kind of way and I quadrupled the yarnage. I completely undid two skeins of this and folded each in half so that I was using for strands together to make the knit thick and full and as warm as a finger knit scarf could possibly get.

I don’t remember how long it is exactly, but I’d hazard a guess at 11 feet. It touches the ground when I have it looped once around my neck (I’m 5’ 6”) and my 5’ 1” mother got hopelessly tangled in it when she decided that she needed to see how long this thing was and there was an awful lot of it on the ground when she finally managed it.

But it’s meant to be looped multiple times and Shannon’s tall, so I figured it’s okay.

BONUS:

I stopped by the local Jo-Ann's for some craft stuff, and I picked up a new case for a fistful of crochet hooks that I have.

I know. It's purple. I was disappointed, too. The box it was in had a picture of a green one. An ugly green, mind you, but the kind of green that you're used to seeing among the plastic or fake leather possessions of a grandmother.

And considering the fact that the hooks that needed a home used to belong to my maternal grandmother, it seemed appropriate. I vaguely remember her having plastic kitchen chairs in that ugly green.

But it was cheap and a far cry better than this-

-which is old and dirty and IMPOSSIBLE to get tiny crochet hooks out of, so I suppose the purple isn't a deal breaker here.

And it's nice to see all the hooks in one place.

Well, nearly. One of her hooks and a yarn needle didn't fit into the spaces.

And, of course, I have two more sets of crochet hooks of my own kept in other receptacles, but these do look nice and now I can SEE them instead of fiddling about with the roll up case to try and find out what size they are.

The Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns, and Fairies

2011-01-11T21:07:00.000-05:00

The Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns, and Fairies
By Robert Kirk

In the late seventeenth century, a Scottish minister went looking for supernatural creatures of “a middle nature betwixt man and angel.” Robert Kirk roamed the Highlands, talking to his parishioners and other country folk about their encounters with fairies, wraiths, elves, doppelgangers, and other agents of the spirit world. Magic was a part of everyday life for Kirk and his fellow Highlanders, and this remarkable book offers rare glimpses into their enchanted realm.

Left in manuscript form upon the author’s death in 1692, this volume was first published in 1815 at the behest of Sir Walter Scott. In 1893, the distinguished folklorist Andrew Lang re-edited the work. Land’s introduction to Kirk’s extraordinary blend of science, religion, and superstition is included in this edition. For many years, The Secret Commonwealth was hard to find – available, if at all, only in scholarly editions. Academicians as well as lovers of myths and legends will prize this authoritative but inexpensive edition.

And prize it, I do.

I was fascinated by this read. Granted, I am usually fascinated by any portrayal of Faerie, but this volume is something quite unlike my usual reading. Firstly, this is an essay designed to convince its readers of the nature of the subterranean hill dwellers of the Scottish Highlands and provide proof by way of retelling personal accounts combined with citation of other sources, including the Bible. Most of what I read tends to be deliberate fiction or collections of myth. The closest I’ve ever gotten to this kind of academia was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Coming of the Fairies. It was very interesting approach for me.

Secondly, the age of this work fascinates me. I’m American and I think, as such, I forget that history happened before the late 1700s. I mean, the indigenous people of what would become the US were not building great temples or structures and what they did build has, more or less, been lost to history. Their legacy is in stories and myths and, while I do appreciate and enjoy those things, they do not have the same impact as physical reminders of the past. It was one of the things I loved when I spent some time in Spain. Great swathes of cities were older than even the earliest European settlements on my home continent.

So, when I try to wrap my brain around this essay being written in 1691, it boggles me a little bit. And amazes me. As the back of the book mentions, Kirk was a minister- a man of the Church. But he took his own faith and the old, traditional faiths of his parishioners and managed to blend them into a seamless understanding of the unseen forces of his world in a way that is quite close to my own.

In any case, this book is a necessary addition to the library of any faerie scholars out there. I’d also recommend it to anyone intrigued by the ties between myth and religion. I’ll admit, it is a bit of a dry read and the language is a bit antiquated, so that may put a damper on progress in the reading of this work, but it is rather short, so it is an easy delay to overcome.

Mr. Tumnus Scarf

2011-01-09T11:52:00.002-05:00

Needle: US 13 9.00 mm
Yarn: Lion Brand Yarn Jiffy True Red
Pattern: None. I used a suggested reinforced stockinette stitch talked about in a Narnia knitting community. That's it.

This was a nice simple project that I sped through in a couple of afternoons. I’m quite pleased with it. I shall be doing more of these between my more complicated undertakings.

Psychogeist

2011-01-04T18:39:00.000-05:00

Psychogeist

I don’t have a back of the book blurb for you all for this book. The copy I own is a black hardcover copy with no dust jacket to have a blurb on and I cannot find anything resembling the usual blurb type summary, so I shall be attempting to summarize this book myself.

Psychogeist is the story about a man whose fevered consciousness splits in two. One half stayed in his body and the other jumped to the body of a recently deceased hitchhiker. The jumped consciousness believes itself to be the character of an old science fiction comic book series with knowledge of sciences far beyond those of the small country town and it is up to new city doctor in town to solve this mystery.

I’m sure that is an inadequate summary, as the book delves into the complicated non-understanding of the human consciousness and the powers of the mind, but I found it to be an incredibly interesting story. I was especially fascinated by the beginning of the story when things are first being revealed to both the reader and the doctor.

It’s a short book and an easy read. It’s quite easy to get through and compelling enough that, even if you don’t understand exactly what’s going on in the story, it doesn’t drag on at all.

It’s apparently a bit of a difficult book to get a hold of, though. There are few copies to buy online, although you can find them quite cheaply there. I bought my copy at a used book sale at my local library. So, if you do find a copy of this book, I would suggest picking it up and having a look, particularly if you enjoy psychological science fiction.

Sherlock

2011-01-03T20:59:00.000-05:00

(Apologies for bad photos. Terrible lighting and haste made them... not good.)

Hook: US F5, for the most part. I believe I switched to a US H8 for the coat.

Yarn: Whatever I had on hand. Luckily, I had precisely every color I needed. How does this happen? Crazy relatives who like to clean their houses- that's how.

Pattern: http://snuffykin.livejournal.com/39857.html This is actually the pattern for a Tenth Doctor doll that thetinytauntaun linked me, but it served its purpose as a template.

DEAR GOD THIS IS THE BEST THING I’VE EVER MADE.

It’s the only project I’ve ever intentionally shown someone when it was in progress. I mean, I’ll show what I’m working on when people ask about it, but I would finish sewing the legs on the torso and fling myself from my chair to show Pickleface and Stovetop and my mother and anyone else within range. I was just so thrilled the whole time.

Oddly enough, the details in this were the most fun. Usually I get fed up by the time I get to the finer details on crocheted things, but I was so excited about it.

At the base is Sherlock in his usual black suit with his purple shirt. His curly hair was time consuming and boring to sew in there, but incredibly magical to watch it take shape. I don’t think I’ve ever made such a magical little creature before.

Then his customary blue scarf which infuriates me to no end because it is not, in fact, knitted. I cannot make a replica of this scarf without some serious fabric hunting. And I don’t think scarves are properly scarves unless they are knitted. They’re something else that’s not quite scarf-like.

And then, of course, his glorious coat. It was actually the easiest piece to make. The yarn I had was really easy to work with and I used a larger hook so that he could actually wear it and I tugged the sleeves on him and used his body shape to sew the body to the coat and sleeves.

Also, I had the correct red for the button hole. In a much lighter weight yarn so it does look a bit like thread. My good fortune! It shall never happen again. XD

And the crowning achievement! The shock blanket!

I made this Sherlock for thetinytauntaun for Christmas because she demanded I make one for her as soon as she watched the first episode of Sherlock, so she persuaded me to watch the show and I immediately agreed that this must happen.

Two weeks before Christmas, she held a Sherlock watching party and she told me that Sherlock must have a shock blanket. I replied with a “I don’t even know if I have any orange” because, if you have seen the colorful granny square blanket of doom, you know that I have used up a LOT of orange in the past year. She, quite correctly, pointed out that I might still have some orange that she had given me years before for a couple of projects.

LO AND BEHOLD, I still had a small ball of it in the bottom of my Spiderman bucket of tiny yarn bits. This is, literally, THE LAST OF THE ORANGE. Just enough for a shock blanket.

And his beady little eyes. I made them blue.

I’m still astounded that this project actually happened. By all rights, I should still be working on it now because it should have taken me ages to find the right blue for the coat and the scarf and the shirt and the shock blanket, but…

Yeah.

I feel really good about this.

:D

Amy Pond Scarf

2010-12-29T19:42:00.002-05:00

Well, hello there. A craft post!

Needles: US 5 – 3.75 mm
Yarn: Lion Brand Micro Spun Cherry Red
Pattern: http://www.classiceliteyarns.com/pdf/SALLaceScarf.pdf

I’m quite pleased with how this turned out. I wasn’t entirely sure how this was going to look when I started, but I like how the pattern turned out. I may have to try and do this with a lighter weight yarn to include more repeats of the pattern, but I do like this one.

Also, this is the first scarf I’ve knitted where I’ve done a crocheted border. I initially did it to try and keep this from curling as much as it did, but I really like the neatness of the edges with it. I think I’m going to do this for scarves without fringe from now on.

Also also, I've seen stills from the new season with a new scarf for Amy. Stay tuned for Amy Pond Scarf Part 2 when series 6 starts up.

Also also also, this scarf will be available in my Etsy shop in the coming new year. Huzzah!

In related news, I needed to reorganize my yarn piles, so I took a picture of the stash.

This is all the yarn I had this past weekend, with the exception of the blue and white yarn used for Brandy's Christmas present. And I bought a new skein yesterday. And some roving to go with the roving I got for Christmas, so I'm sure there will be more yarn by next week.

The strangest thing is that I didn't even buy the majority of this. My family just keeps giving all of their yarn to me. XD

Doctor Who: A Christmas Carol

2010-12-27T21:08:00.000-05:00

There shall be spoilers ahead, so turn back now if ye'd like to be surprised.

I should start keeping a notebook of my thoughts while I watch things because I remember having lots of things that I thought were interesting or good or awkward or whatever during this year's Christmas special, but I'm not certain that I remember any of the good ones.

Ah, well. Such is life.

I suppose I must first say that the lack of Rory in this episode is disappointing. I was honestly hoping that the three of them would play the roles of the three ghosts. The Doctor would be the past, but only because I knew he had a line saying he was from the preview, Amy would be the present because she's so vibrant and in the now and all that character stuff, and Rory would be forced into the role of the future and he would be delightfully awkward about the whole thing until he got really serious and we would get to see some of the 2000 Centurian!Rory there with his experiences of having already died. This is what I thought would happen, but alas! Rory and Amy were trapped aboard a crashing honeymoon cruise thing. Sadness.

(Although, ideally, Rory would be the past in my brains because we've seen that he's really attached to places and people and ideas from before and doesn't always adjust to new ones (like in the Dream Lord episode) and also, dressed as a Roman soldier. And there would be Christmassy quips about the Romans crucifying Jesus and Rory would be all- "Yeah. Well. No one's perfect." And then we'd have serious face Doctor for the future. Yep.)

The premise of the episode - the Doctor changing Scrooge!Dumbledore's life around to try and change time - is an interesting one. Interesting in that it's a rookie move for the Doctor to make because he knows that some things cannot be changed, even if you go back and try to change them deliberately, and also because it's quite full of childish arrogance. He's doesn't flaunt his ability like I imagine Ten would have done, but he doesn't seem to realize that you shouldn't actually change people like that, even if it is to make him a better person.

But then, it also felt like something the First Doctor would do and he is commonly held by his own future selves to be the wisest of the lot. He was very cleverly manipulative, often sending his companions to make friends with useful people so that they could take advantage of skill or position in order to get what he wanted.

Child!Scrooge!Dumbledore and the Doctor were fantastic, though. Love them together. With the fish and the shark sleigh and Christmassy Christmasness. Brilliant. Matt Smith should always act with children.

I love the image of a beautiful blonde woman in a white dress singing to a shark in a creepy freezer filled chamber. Possibly my favourite moment of the episode.

Also, that shark lived a damn long time with that chunk o' screwdriver in its gut. Well done.

I enjoyed the episode. It was silly and cheerful and proper Christmassy feeling and childlike, which seems odd because it didn't feel like the characters were in any danger at all except for the bit with the shark in the bedroom. Usually the specials maintain a bit of urgency and danger throughout the story (or absolute misery, like last year), but this one didn't. I don't know if I like that aspect or not, but if I don't, it didn't detract from my viewing of it all that much.

All in all, lovely.

.

How to Train Your Dragon

2010-12-21T19:13:00.000-05:00

How to Train Your Dragon Book 1

Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III is a truly extraordinary Viking hero know throughout Vikingdom as “the Dragon Whisperer”… but it wasn’t always so. Travel back to the days when the mighty warrior was just a boy, the quiet and thoughtful son of the Chief of the Hairy Hooligans. Can Hiccup capture a dragon and train it without being torn limb from limb? Join the adventure as the small boy finds a better way to train his dragon and becomes a hero!

To be honest, I didn’t know there was a book when the movie How to Train Your Dragon came out. Unusual, for me, but I was quite pleased to hear that there was book. Being a dragon obsessed freak show, I picked it up.

The first thing I need to say is that the movie is very different from the book. Almost everything about it is different. So if you’re picking this book up, you need to be aware of this. They’re almost completely different stories.

I mean, Hiccup is pretty much the same kid. He’s still the little wimpy Viking who has to use his brain because he can’t use his brawn. And he has got a dragon named Toothless that sometimes doesn’t have any teeth. And he is the son of Stoic, who is the chief of the clan.

That’s about where the similarity ends.

But I did really enjoy this book. The Vikings are silly and ridiculous, the dragons are amusingly narcissistic and ornery, and the adventure is a wonderful story. It’s fantastic.

I definitely recommend it. It may not be as good a fit for adults as some of the other children’s books I have reviewed, but it’s definitely a book that kids will enjoy if they’re looking for a fun fantasy story.

I Jedi

2010-12-14T19:39:00.000-05:00

I, Jedi

Corran Horn has distinguished himself as one of the best and brightest of Rogue Squadron’s elite fighting force. Then his wife, Mirax, vanishes on a covert mission for the New Republic, and Corran vows to find her. To do so, he knows he must develop the latent force powers inherited from his grandfather, a legendary Jedi hero. He joins Luke Skywalker’s famed Jedi academy to begin training, only to quit in frustration of Skywalker’s methods. Now Corran in on his own. Using his Corellian undercover experience, he must infiltrate, sabotage,m and destroy a ruthless organization in order to find his wife. But to succeed, Corran will have to come to terms with his Jedi heritage – and make a terrible choice: surrender to the dark side… or die.

I, Jedi is one of the classic books in the Star Wars extended universe. It’s definitely one of the titles that people recognize immediately. It takes place after the classic Star Wars trilogy when Luke is starting up his Jedi Academy on Yavin IV. I’m actually really glad that I picked this one up because it provided a piece of the Star Wars chronology that I was missing. I had a gap between Luke deciding to start the Jedi Academy and the Academy going full swing. It was interesting to see Luke screwing up and trying to figure everything out.

I found it a bit odd at first that this book was in first person, but I am quite thrilled with Corran Horn as a character. I was fascinated with his thought process and how he adjusted to his Jedi training when it seemed to contradict his CorSec training. And I liked that we got to explore a character who is more or less ordinary. He grew up, had a family, got married, and was completely unremarkable except that he was good at his job until his wife went missing and Luke decided to bring him in to the Academy.

Also, more culture and history for Corellia. I enjoy culture and history for other planets. Nerd.

If you’re a fan of Star Wars and you haven’t read this book, you should. It’s a wonderful book and really explores the Star Wars universe after the Empire has been disbanded. I’m going to start recommending this one to people who want to get into the extended universe but don’t know where to start.

Ugly Loster

2010-12-09T21:20:00.000-05:00

Needle Size: US 3 (I think)
Yarn: Recovered sweater yarn
Pattern: Toy Lobster

Another ugly creature made from old sweater yarn! Huzzah!

This one’s really not as ugly as the mouse and I haven’t been able to figure out why. Maybe it’s because actual lobsters are a bit funny and grayish anyway.

Faeries: Deluxe Collector's Edition

2010-12-07T20:53:00.001-05:00

Faeries: Deluxe Collector's Edition

Over thirty-three years after its initial publication, and with well over a million copies in print worldwide, Brian Froud and Alan Lee’s Faeries has defined the world of Faerie for generations. Now, Froud and Lee return to their most enduring and beloved work with this deluxe collector’s edition. The ultimate must-have for any Faeries fan, the edition includes eight frameable prints, as well as a large, foldout poster of the iconic cover image. Previously unpublished art by both Froud and Lee is featured alongside the classic pencil drawings and watercolors of the mythical creatures – faeries, sprites, goblins, pixies, bogies, leprechauns, trolls, and dwarves – that inspired a global faerie renaissance.

More than just a reissue, this revised and updated edition also contains new essays from both Froud and Lee on the continuing influence of Faeries, and a foreword by bestselling author Jane Yolen. This remarkable package is sure to delight the millions of fans of the original Faeries, as well as readers discovering the book for the first time.

I have to admit that I haven’t read the first Faeries book. I know that seems absurd with how many Froud books I’ve talked about in these reviews, but I haven’t. So, I don’t know how much content has been added to the book for this edition.

But the amount of information and art in this one book is astounding.

Let’s talk about the art first. You all know how I feel about Froud. His sketches and paintings are my favourite pieces and I’m constantly on the look out for new work from him. If there is such thing as a collective human consciousness that we are all privy to subconsciously, his art encapsulates lost history in that consciousness. It’s amazing.

Add to that Alan Lee. Alan Lee, for those of you who don’t know, is a fantastic fantasy artist famous for his vistas and landscapes and incredibly detailed creature sketches. He’s one of the defining illustrators for Tolkien’s books. I’m amazed by what he can create with a simple set of pencils.

The imagery in this book is astonishing.

But the book isn’t all images like some of the Froud reviews I’ve done before. I will use this book for years to come as a reference book because it includes loads of information, description, and anecdotes about the residents of Faerie. It even includes abridged versions of some of the Welsh faerie tales I’ve been reading.

I loved it. It was everything I could possibly hope for in a Froud and Lee book. If you only ever buy one Froud or Lee book - which is entirely justified because they can be very expensive – this is the book that you should buy. It’s amazing.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1

2010-11-20T12:35:00.000-05:00

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1

I feel I must preface this by saying that I hated the Deathly Hallows as a book. I've only read it the once and quickly at that so that I didn't have to endure the degradation of writing quality that I perceived there to be. I didn't like all these new rules with wands that didn't make sense to me given what I had read in the previous books and I didn't much care about Dumbledore after he was dead and his life kept popping up everywhere. I don't like Ginny and Harry as a couple and I don't particularly care for Hermione at all, so her relationship with Ron didn't appeal to me at all. I didn't like how Snape suddenly became the single most lame character I had ever read and I didn't like how Rowling suddenly dropped all the potential she had with the Malfoys.

So I went into this movie ready to not like it at all. I mean, I loved the first four books and I really enjoyed those movies, depite their faults and changes, and I didn't like the last three books, with the exception of the Snape and Malfoy bits in Half Blood Prince, and I didn't enjoy the previous two movies at all. It only made sense that I wouldn't like this one.

To be honest, I think I enjoyed Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 more than any of the other movies on the first viewing. I think I went in there with such low expectations and such a limited recollection of the book because I hated it so much that I walked out of there pleased at actually having enjoyed myself.

From what my mother and my sister say, this movie followed the events of the books very closely, if that's something you are worried about. Given that I thought the book read like a movie rather than a book (which doesn't work for me personally), I'd have to agree and it makes a rather brilliant movie.

One thing that stuck out to me with this movie was the cinematography, which makes this movie worth seeing alone. I don't know why, but the imagery and the framing of scenes and the transitions of the scenes and the general look and feel of the images was incredibly picturesque and striking. This film is a goldmine of still images. I was astonished. No other Harry Potter movie has looked that good. I will probably end up seeing this one again just to have another look at the scenes.

Overall, well worth seeing. If you are already a fan of Harry Potter, either the books or the movies, this is a must see. You will be amazed by it.

Procrastination

2010-11-06T15:56:00.001-04:00

This thing about NaNoWriMo is that it allows you to find new and interesting ways to procrastinate. This is especially true on the weekends when you know that you have the entire day to write in and your brain is convinced that hours are longer than they actual are.

And as this is the first weekend of this year's NaNoWriMo, I'd like to show you exactly what my brain decides is the proper distraction from my novel.

Yes. Apparently, my subconscious felt that this granny square blanket that I made months ago needed a border TODAY. RIGHT THIS MINUTE. So urgent, in fact, that I needed to use the skein of maroon in my sister's stash rather than take the time to sort through my own stash and find an alternative color.

Don't worry. I did ask permission and she said it was okay, so long as I put back what's left. Which was a lot more than I thought would be, so that's nice.

I'm telling you this because not five minutes ago, I took a look at my curtains and wondered how hard it would be to knit myself some new curtains for the winter so that my bedroom is better insulated.

Knitted curtains? Does anyone even do that? I do not know.

This may still happen at some point, but you all need to stop me if I even hint at starting a bigger project like that right now. This is absurd.

Beyond the Spiderwick Chronicles

2010-10-26T20:26:00.000-04:00

Beyond the Spiderwick Chronicles

Just when it seemed the book had closed on the Spiderwick Chronicles, a new chapter begins far from the old-fashioned charm of New England. Under the hot Florida sun, Nick Vargas and his annoying new stepsister, Laurie, stumble upon the faerie world. A nixie asks for their help to save her sisters and before they know it, Nick and Laurie are outrunning giants, negotiating with mermaids, and battling a monster that’s bigger than they’d ever imagined! Along with Nick’s brother, Jules, and some familiar faces, the kids find themselves in a race to save not only themselves, but all of Florida!

My excitement for these books cannot be contained. I absolutely adored the Spiderwick Chronicles with almost obsessive abandon and I had completely forgot about there being a set of sequels until Amazon so helpfully stalked my information and told me this set was half off.

Oh Amazon. You know exactly how to get my money.

Because there was no way I wasn’t buying this set.

These books are just as magical and unique as the first ones. While they exist within the same world, we’re now privy to all sorts of new Fair Folk and a whole new danger. The new characters – Nick, his older brother Jules, and their new stepsister Laurie – are all fantastically new to the world of Faerie. It’s always exciting when you get to see new characters open their eyes to their world.

To be honest, it’s everything I want in modern kids’ faerie stories. It’s complicated and intricate and draws you right in to the story so that you’ve read an entire book before you notice that any time has passed by.

Seriously. I read all three in one night. I couldn’t sleep with the story unfinished. It was that compelling.

If you have the means to pick this one up – library, bookstore, whatever – pick it up. I recommend it to everyone. It’s amazing.

Xena: The Game for Playstation

2010-10-24T20:54:00.000-04:00

Xena: Warrior Princess

This has been a review long time coming. I've had this game for ages now. Since last Anime Boston? 2009?

And I've been playing the game since then. I truly am a pathetic gamer. But that's alright and I DID finish the game without glitching it out too badly and that's got to count for something.

This game was more fun than it probably should have been. Original Playstation, terrible graphics, and weirdly wonky directional controls- I'm pretty sure most hardcore gamers would find this game tedious and old. The plot is pretty nonexistent (rescue Gabrielle and fight monsters- that’s it) and none of the levels are impossibly difficult if you have any sort of skill.

I mean, I don't. I did resort to the invincibility cheat by the lava level, but it was in the last quarter of the game so I don't feel bad about it. Plus, I still fell off a lot of things and died that way. I didn't exactly coast through this.

But the appeal of this game from the moment I picked it up at the used game stand until the last of the credits is that this is XENA. There's kicking and flipping and throwing the chakram around in ridiculous ways. It's a fun game because you're playing as Xena.

So, for Xena fans who don't mind the datedness of the game, find yourself a copy. It'll probably be cheap, which is always a plus. I'm not sure anyone else will enjoy this game quite as much, but it's always worth a try, methinks.

On the Many Deaths of Amanda Palmer...

2010-10-19T20:00:00.002-04:00

On The Many Deaths of Amanda Palmer: And the Many Crimes of Tobias James

Praise for On the Many Deaths of Amanda Palmer

“Through a fascinating series of essays, stories, fairy tales, poems, introductions, and appendices Kriwaczek explores issues of authorship, celebrity, popular culture, marketing strategies, and the culminating steady corruption of art in contemporary culture, all in a wildly exuberant, imaginative, and entertaining manner. Another surefire winner from the author of An Incomplete History of the Art of Funerary Violin.”

-The Guild of Funerary Violinists Quarterly Newsletter

I’ve said before that I’m fascinated with the Who Killed Amanda Palmer? project and this is an excellent example of the type of work Amanda Palmer inspires- something twisted up in reality, experience, and fantasy. The book is a series of lies that manage to convey a remarkable and truthful insight into how we view death and how we canonize celebrities and how we often confuse presentation with fact.

One thing that I love about this book is how it’s put together. The introductions define a fictitious form of online eulogy called the Palmeresque, states that this volume is a collection of such works for the dearly departed Amanda, and then proceeds to include a series of works that the Amanda Palmer Trust members chose to put in this collection. Admittedly, none of them actually fit the standard definition of a palmeresque.

With the exception of Text Number Nine, which so closely described the actual death of Miss Palmer that it was blacked out from the text by the police.

It’s an intriguing and mysterious book, to be sure. It’s also a bit of a puzzle, given that the second half of the book talks around the subject of Text Number Nine but can’t actually address it without being blacked out.

If you like mind games and intrigue, I’d recommend this book. Also, if you’re a fan of Amanda Palmer (who is not dead, if you were wondering), I’d recommend this. It fits neatly into the world created by the album, the series of music videos, and the photo book without directly contradicting them or giving anything away about the tragic demise of Miss Palmer.

Mini Totoro

2010-10-14T21:47:00.002-04:00

Dragons of the Dwarven Depths

2010-10-12T20:12:00.001-04:00

Dragons of the Dwarven Depths

Much to no one’s surprise, I am here today to review a Dragonlance book. Well, long time readers (if there are any) will remember that I used to review these guys all the time. And now I’ve finally gotten to the volume lingering in my To Read pile.

I really should have begun this review with the title, yes? Ah well. Bettter late than never. This book is Dragon of the Dwarven Depths by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman.

Tanis and Flint seek out a haven in the dwarved kingdom of Thorbardin while Raistlin is strangely drawn to the haunted fortress known as Skullcap. Sturm seeks the legendary Hammer of Kharas, and Tika embarks on a perilous journey to rescue those she loves from certain death.

But it is the dwarf, Flint Fireforge, who faces the most crucial test. The heroes race against time to save the lives of those dependent on them and Flint is forced to make a difficult choice, one on which the future of mankind may rest.

For those of you who are unaware, the Dragonlance books are based on classic fantasy role-playing games, so the many characters up there are most of the main “party” of characters. For those of you who are aware, bear with me for the next paragraph or so while I get these other guys caught up.

Tanis is the basic leader of the group- half elf, half human and constantly fighting his destiny and all that. Sturm is from an old family of knights who have been disgraced and it is his life’s mission to return honor to his family. Naturally, he’s a bit stuffy and stubborn and tends to be the one that they have to convince to go along with their mad plans. Twin brothers Raistlin and Caramon are the natural opposites of the group- Raistlin is thin and sickly and a red mage, while Caramon is big and strong and the simple warrior. And then, of course, there’s Flint, the surly hill dwarf who thinks the group’s all a bit mad to be doing what they’re doing, and Tasslehoff, the mischievous and unwitting thief. But kender are like that.

So there. Caught up? Good.

The first thing I really liked about this book is that there was a pretty equal balance of page time. There are some books where Tanis is the main focus or Raistlin is the main focus. In those books, you can sometimes forget about the other characters when you get focused like that. I like these books so much because of the party characters and the more focused books sometimes feel like they’re missing something. This book balanced out character background and development, so it felt like a complete story for me.

I also really liked that the title isn’t obvious. I won’t give it away, but the dragons of the dwarven depths weren’t the obvious choice, like the other “Dragons of” books. Those books tend to just indicate that there are, in fact, dragons hanging out. But this title refers to a specific moment in the plot of the book and I really enjoyed that particular reveal.

Also, this book is pretty easy to pick up and get into. The chronology of this series is confusing and twisty. Some of the Dragonlance books require knowledge or previous events, but this one does a good job of referencing events without making them absolutely necessary to understand the main story.

If you like Dragonlance, you’ll like this one. If you like fantasy, this one is worth trying out. It may not necessarily be the absolute best place to start in the series, but out of all the books I’ve read, it’s pretty good.

Monty Python's Flying Circus

2010-09-30T20:32:00.001-04:00

This definitely falls into the Things I Should Have Watched By Now. Seriously. Monty Python? How did I even manage that?

Don't get me wrong. I'm not completely ignorant here. I had seen all of the famous sketches and Holy Grail and The Life of Brian. I did have background in Monty Python. I just hadn't managed to sit down and watch the episodes.

I first sat down and watch them during my internship this past spring. I didn't always have enough work to do and the work I did have was spectacularly dull and I had my own office. It was only sensible to start secretly watching Monty Python's Flying Circus.

But I stopped watching it in the madness of graduating and didn't pick it up again until after I finish the epic Stargate run. And that was stupid. I should have picked it up much sooner. Monty Python is still one of the funniest shows I've seen and I'm not sure anything will ever be able to compete. They pushed boundaries and crossed lines and changed TV as we know it today.

I mean, I'm a 22 year old American. I don't always get the references and I wasn't even alive when this was airing to have any cultural context for this show. Sometimes I think I'm missing out because of that, but EVEN STILL. Amazingly hilarious. Obviously. And if you haven’t sat down and watched these, do it.

The Welsh Fairy Book

2010-09-28T20:13:00.000-04:00

The Welsh Fairy Book

Definitive treasury of more than 80 traditional Welsh tales includes such favorites as "Elidyr’s Sojourn in Fairy-Land," "Pergrin and the Mermaiden," "The Cave of the Young Men of Snowdonia," "Goronwy Tudor and the Witches of Llanddona," "A Strange Otter," "Nansi Llwyd and the Dog of Darkness," "The Bride from the Red Lake," "Lowri Dafydd Earns a Purse of Gold," and many more, sure to delight fairy tale lovers of all ages.

Does what it says on the tin, really. Which is why I picked it up on the App Store for my iPod about a year ago.¹

This review may very well end up a mash-up of my reviews of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Tales from Wales. You have been warned.

Of course, I enjoyed this book because I love old stories and myths, I have an obsession with faeries, and this book was formatted in such a way that it was easy to pull it out of my pocket and read a story or two when I was waiting in line for something or on my fifteen minute break at work. The stories themselves were all sorts of fun with ridiculous violence, tricks, riddles, and general fae silliness. And we got to see some of those stories that end by announcing their ending or by stating that there was no point to the story so it’s going to stop, which is always fun. Some of the stories did seem to repeat themselves after a bit, but there were over eighty stories in there, so all is forgiven.

The digital format was alright. It wasn’t set up to turn pages like the Sherlock Holmes book. This was more like traditional digital media where you have to scroll up or down as you read. Most of the time, I didn’t have a problem with this, but in some of the long stories it made it difficult to find my place again after a few weeks of not reading from it. Also, the screen rotates with the tilt of the device, which I didn’t notice much, but occasionally it did rotate while I was reading because I leaned a little too far and it was a bit annoying to have to fix it.

There was another problem with this book, but it was one that I found amusing rather than a nuisance. Something funny must have happened with the copying of the text because, occasionally, there are question marks instead of letters. Usually vowels, but sometimes consonants or spaces. I don’t know how this happens, but I laughed every time I ran into someone d?ncing merrily along or who found a c?ve in the bushes.

If that sort of thing annoys you, I wouldn’t recommend the app format of this book. However, if you would like to read this book, it is available in print form or for free online. Either of those should be free of stray question marks.

And I’d definitely recommend it if you like faerie stories.

¹Don’t judge. It’s 99 cents at the time. You can’t beat that kind of price.

Genji: Dawn of the Samurai

2010-09-26T18:36:00.002-04:00

I have finally finished this game! Huzzah!

I bought this one from GameStop’s used game section for only a couple of dollars two years ago. It was one of four games and, while I was very excited at the time and started every game I obtained that day, my game play eventually slowed down and drifted on to other games that I borrowed from friends and family. So, after finished Jak and Daxter, I moved on to Genji and picked that back up.

This Japanese game follows the story of Minamoto Yoshitsune, a great Samurai of his clan. He is tasked with the quest of defeating the Taira clan, thereby avenging his father, and obtaining the lost Amahagane, which give their owners special powers. He does this with the help of a fellow warrior named Benkei and a few stragglers who oppose the tyranny of the Taira clan.

This is a third person, hack and slash type game, which is my favourite type of game. It follows the usual stereotype for this kind of game where Yoshitsune is quick and agile and Benkei is slower and stronger. I tend to stick with Yoshitsune through story game play, but the different locations have different rewards for playing each character, so Benkei didn’t get left behind in the leveling. Also, some levels required playing both characters for the story, so that was also nice.

All in all, this was a fun game. The story wasn’t especially interesting, but it was compelling enough to keep on playing the game and overcoming the new challenges, and while the leveling up could be tedious, some of the map locations adapted to what level you were so you weren’t beating the same baddies you were cutting down twelve levels before.

This is definitely a game I’d recommend if you want to break out your old PS2 for some fun. You can find this game for cheap, like I did, and have a great time with it. The graphics hold up well, the bosses are challenging enough to be difficult but still be beatable, and it’s easy to pick up after not playing it for a while. The only thing that might turn some people away is that the game is in Japanese with English subtitles, but it’s something I barely noticed when playing.

Ugly Mouse

2010-09-25T18:10:00.001-04:00

Needle Size: US 3 (I don’t remember what I used, but that’s what the pattern calls for)
Yarn: Recovered sweater yarn
Pattern: Marisol Mouse

Isn’t this the ugliest thing you’ve ever seen?

It is. You don’t have to lie. The mouse in the actual pattern looks much better, but I used this jaunty old yarn from a sweater that doesn’t really fall into any sort of pattern.

I like how ugly it is, though. Not sure why. It’s just… funny looking. In an old-timey sort of way.

Splinter of the Mind's Eye

2010-09-21T20:33:00.001-04:00

Splinter of the Mind's Eye (Star Wars)

Luke Skywalker expected trouble when he volunteered to follow Princess Leia on her mission to Cicarpous to enlist their Rebel underground in the battle against the Empire. But the farm boy from Tatooine hadn’t counted on an unscheduled landing in the swamplands of Mimban… hadn’t counted on any of the things they would find on that strange planet.

Hidden on this planet was the Kalibur crystal, a mysterious gem that would give the one who possessed it such powers over the Force that he would be all but invincible. In the wrong hands, the crystal could be deadly. So Luke had to find this treasure and find it fast.

Accompanied by Artoo-Detoo and See-Threepio – his two faithful droids – Luke and Leia set out for the Temple of Pomojema… and a confrontation deep beneath the surface of an alien world with the most fearsome villain in the galaxy!

When I picked this book up off the discard shelf at the library and paid the whopping fifty cents for it, I didn’t know exactly what I was buying. It said Star Wars on the cover and it was going to cost me pocket change. Of course I was going to buy it.

What I didn’t know when I bought this was that Splinter of the Mind’s Eye by Alan Dean Foster was the first ever extended universe book for Star Wars. The only Star Wars book published before this one was the novelization of the first Star Wars movie. This is a big deal. There are hundreds of works in the extended universe, including books, comics, video games, and whatever else you can tell a story through. In addition to that, this book is apparently based on an early script that would be dropped in favour of the finalized Empire Strikes Back.

And, to be honest, with good reason, I think. While the plot was straightforward and moved along nicely, it’s clear that the backgrounds and relationships between these characters hadn’t really been decided. Star Wars would have been a very different story if any of these suppositions had been used.

For example, if you are uncomfortable with Luke and Leia’s incestuous kiss in Empire, you may want to shy away from this book. It was written before the reveal that they are, in fact, brother and sister and Luke’s infatuation with Leia is quite prevalent throughout the novel. At the time of publication, this probably would have been alright, but I’m 22 – I’ve lived my whole life knowing that they are related and some of the descriptions of Luke’s feelings in this book were a bit much. Hindsight colors this book into a whole new realm of awkward because Leia reciprocates that awkward crush, which isn’t something that I picked up on the movie.

Also, Vader seemed unnecessarily cruel in this book. Granted, he is a Sith Lord and quite a terrible force in the universe once Grand Moff Tarkin is out of the way, but it never seemed to me that he was cruel for the sake of being cruel. There was always some purpose to his actions beyond his own enjoyment, even if it wasn’t immediately evident to the viewer. Perhaps I’m being nitpicky and fanboyish, but it was something that irked me in this book.

And any other inconsistencies (like Luke’s skill as a Jedi) were pretty much brushed under the carpet because the extended universe is so varied and written over so many years. Inconsistencies are pretty abundant. You kind of get used to them.

That being said, I actually enjoyed most of it. Halla amused me and I thought Hin and Kee were excellent characters. The world of Mimban was well populated with interesting indigenous folk and interesting history. All of that was amazing.

I recommend this book to Star Wars fans, but with slight reservation. If anything I said above sounds like something you would rather not read, don’t try to find this one. There were times when I didn’t want to read parts of this book because I didn’t want to deal with Luke and Leia’s awkward relationship and the complete lack of Han and Chewie was keenly felt in the character dynamics.

Stargate Atlantis

2010-09-16T21:59:00.001-04:00

I’ll bet you never saw this one coming.

…

Yeah. We all knew I would pick this up after I finished SG-1, if only because I have full access to all five seasons of this show on DVD. And we all know what a sucker I am for spin-offs. I’m a completionist.

Atlantis was fantastic. To be honest, I fully expected this show to be exactly like SG-1. Just… you know… in the Pegasus Galaxy instead of the Milky Way. While there are clear similarities – the core team, half of the villains, the self-mockery and sci-fi action goodness – Atlantis is inarguably its own show.

A show I really, really liked, in fact. The international cast of characters was amusing from the start (and Zalenka’s cursing in Czech is one of my favourite things) and having their base of operations in an alien city/spacecraft opens up a whole new set of challenges to the usual sci-fi mix. There was a sense of discovery in this show that wasn’t in SG-1, which I really liked. Earth is rarely featured as the setting of an episode and the baddies aren’t based on our own mythology, so there’s no frame of reference there. Everything is new. I mean, I love the mythology in SG-1, but having something new after ten seasons of mythology is nice.

Radek Zelenka

And there are new team dynamics! Which are my favourite thing ever, as you know. SG-1’s team sort of became a stereotype. Not a bad one, mind you, but each position on that team was defined by a specific set of expertise and character traits and it didn’t change when the team members did. Jonas filled the exact same place as Daniel. Cameron filled the exact same place as Jack. The main Atlantis team, at first glance, seems to follow those same positions, but it becomes very clear very early on that they aren’t the same people. I mean, naturally, John Sheppard and Rodney McKay are supposed to be the Jack O’Neill and Daniel Jackson of the show with the same tensions and banter, but the circumstances and personalities of the Atlantis pair are very different from the SG-1 guys. In fact, they tend to agree about things more often than not- they’re just argumentative and more neurotic than they’re willing to admit.

John and Rodney

Thankfully, Teyla and Ronin are very different from Sam and Teal’c, as well. This team could have gone very wrong if the writers tried to force the same character archetypes into this show. Teyla needs to be the voice of compassion and hope and common sense in the ways that Sam couldn’t. Sam was an officer in the military and was often limited by that position and, while Teyla was similar in the fact that she was a leader, she was closer to the problems facing Atlantis and it made those problems real and personal for the Atlantis expedition. And Ronin needs to be bitter and angry and jaded with the universe because Teal’c wasn’t. Ronin had nothing left to lose- he couldn’t have that same hope for his people or family or own self because there was nothing to have hope for. The audience knows that Teal’c is loyal to the SGC- there needed to be more risk there with Ronin because there wouldn’t be the same consequences for him.

Bros

Spin-offs need to have this kind of range. Photocopies don’t really work so well.

And while I love all that stuff I just rambled on about, I’m going to have to say that my favourite part about Stargate Atlantis is the Wraith.

Yep. The Wraith.

SG-1 had Goa’uld and Replicators and Ourai, and all those were all well and good for the bad guy department, but the Wraith are the coolest baddies I’ve seen in a long time. They’re actually frightening when they first reveal themselves. They’re not threatened by these new humans. In fact, their appearance is beneficial to them because they feed on human life. Like life vampires.

And they look like vampires. Real vampires. I like to call them punk rock Nosferatu. White-ish and green-ish sickly looking skin, long greasy white hair, facial tattoos, scary teeth, and a hell of a lot of black leather. Fantastic. Seriously.

Plus they have semi-sentient, semi-biological hive ships because they’ve evolved from insects and telepathically communicate across space and freak out their human prey with hallucinations. It’s pretty spectacular.

And I can’t talk about the Wraith without talking about my favourite character of the series. Todd.

Todd

We first meet Todd in a prison where Shepherd has been captured and held for ransom. He’d been imprisoned for some unknown but crazily long period of time and was starved so that his need to feed could be used as a method of torture and coercion. Despite being fed upon, Shepherd suggests they work together to escape before either of them gets too weak to get out.

“There is a lot about Wraith you don’t know, Shepherd.”

This is the first time we ever see Wraith portrayed as anything other than vindictive eating machines and, while I love Wraith who are completely evil all the time, I love ambiguous characters even more. Todd has a sense of honor and drive to prove that he isn’t some mindless animal that immediately drew me to him and I remember thinking that if we didn’t see him again in the show, I would be very disappointed.

Luckily I wasn’t and Todd became Todd (Sheppard has this habit of naming Wraith they encounter multiple times) and made hilariously inappropriate jokes for diplomatic situations and stole a dining table from some humans he fed on to decorate his ship and did some good things for the folks on Atlantis, but was mostly just a bad ass who did whatever he wanted. Seriously. I rewatch his episodes all the time. Sometimes just to hear his voice, which is one of the best character specific voices I’ve ever heard. He’s my desktop background. I’m obsessed.

Now that I’m done rambling on forever, the point is that this show is awesome and you should watch it. You know it’s awesome because I’ve dissolved into fanboyish rambling and pic spam.

Yeah.

And now I don’t know how to end this.

…

Stargate SG-1

2010-09-12T20:05:00.004-04:00

I’ve been meaning to post this for weeks because I finished this series ages ago, but I somehow managed to not do it. I don’t know how this happens all the time. It’s just one of those things, I suppose.

I should point out here that if you’re interesting in what I’m currently watching in real time, you should follow me on Twitter.

I’m not sure if this should be counted towards my regular series write-ups or whether it should be classified as a Things I Really Should Have Watched By Now post. God knows I’ve watched enough reruns of this show; I really should have watched the whole thing by now. Unfortunately, due to some personal prejudice from way back in the Sci-Fi Friday days when Stargate took the prime spot over Farscape, I was unwilling to devote the time needed to watch the show.

I mean, it is ten seasons and three movies, after all.

But given my unemployment this summer and the unrestricted access to my mother’s Stargate DVD collection, I thought it was about time I buckle down and actually watch the show.

It was worth it for episode 200 alone.

This is a great series and, with the exception of the occasional spectacularly awkward situation that I had to mute¹, I enjoyed every minute of it. Seriously. The rate at which I plowed through this show was faster than my epic marathoning of Xena. That’s impressive.

The team dynamics drive the show and team dynamics are a particular weakness of mine. I love analyzing the power hierarchies and personality interaction and this show gives me plenty to work with. Mostly because it seems that no one is ever really in charge from one moment to the next. I mean, the dynamics between Jack and Daniel alone could make for an extremely long and detailed analysis. Add in Sam and Teal’c and you’ve got a hell of a power fluctuation as different situations call for different expertise.

The series also uses another weakness of mine – the integration of mythology. This show takes themes and entities from our own history and reworks them into new stories. Egyptian myths are manifested in the form of the Gao’uld and Norse myths manifest in an alien race calling themselves the Asgard. Hell, even Arthurian legend played a prominent role in the final season. The perfect combination of my favourite things. Aliens and ancient myths. Awesome.

It was especially awesome to finally see these episodes in context. The show’s writers did an exceptional job in writing episodes that were understandable as independent stories, which is how I’ve seen most of them in the past, but I really like having context. It’s why I have to start a show from the beginning. And why I like spin offs so much. And sometimes why I watch spin offs before the mother show.

This one is definitely worth watching. I know I’m late to the game, but it was well worth it. It’s full of adventure and excitement and self-mockery, which is something lacking in most sci-fi shows still on the air. Definitely awesome times.

Next on Things I Really Should Have Watched By Now is Stargate: Atlantis. Surprise, surprise. Which should be sometime this week because I finished it weeks ago. I’m just behind on posting these write-ups.

¹ Oh, my inability to watch certain awkwardness. You make television so difficult sometimes.

Totoro

2010-09-07T21:29:00.001-04:00

Hook Size: Unknown – I’m guessing D, but this is a hook originally owned by my grandmother and she used it often enough to wear off the label.

Yarn: Caron Simply Soft Eco (Silver) and Red Heart Super Saver

Pattern: Heaven’s Hellcat’s Totoro Pattern

Oh, Totoro. I’m going to try and rework this pattern to make a smaller version. I’ll be selling this at a con booth next summer and it will be one of the items in the new and improved Freakish Lemon Etsy store when it reopens.

Purple Crossed Blanket

2010-09-06T12:20:00.001-04:00

Needle Size: US10
Yarn: Red Heart Super Saver
Pattern: Caron’s Sage Throw

Another purple blanket has been finished! This one is too small to be really used by an adult, so I’ve decided that I will be donating this blanket and the last purple blanket to Project Linus.

The Princess Bride

2010-08-31T20:59:00.000-04:00

Everyone should be familiar with The Princess Bride. If you are not familiar with the Princess Bride, you should close this window and go find yourself a copy of the movie. It should be pretty easy. It’s one of the most beloved fairy tale stories ever.

No seriously. Go.

Back?

Okay.

As you are aware, The Princess Bride is a great story. The cast of characters includes the beautiful Princess Buttercup, the resourceful farm boy Westley, the clever Sicilian Vizzini, the sword master (or wizard- this is explained in the book) Inigo Montoya, the giant Fezzik, the Dread Pirate Roberts, the haughty Prince Humperdinck, and the evil Count Rugen. This book has everything you could ever want in a fantasy adventure story. I could give you a summary of the story, but I think the Grandfather in the movie does it best.

The Grandson: A book?

Grandpa: That's right. When I was your age, television was called books. And this is a special book. It was the book my father used to read to me when I was sick, and I used to read it to your father. And today I'm gonna read it to you.

The Grandson: Has it got any sports in it?

Grandpa: Are you kidding? Fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, giants, monsters, chases, escapes, true love, miracles...

I naturally reside in the The-Books-Are-Better-Than-The-Movies camp, so I was pleased that this book did not break that tradition. The story itself is just as wonderful and the book has the added layer of bring a fictional abridged version of the story by Simon Morgenstern.

William Goldman has used S. Morgenstern as a pseudonym in the past and this time uses him as a sort of historian for the fictional country of Florin. The book is full of little asides by Goldman as he summarizes pieces of the story he’s cut out for time. He also tells this elaborate fiction in the introductions about being read the story as a child (his father reading “only the good parts”) and trying to find a copy of S. Morgenstern’s book for his own son. It’s wonderfully woven in to the story and is an intriguing alteration to straightforward storytelling.

I’d definitely recommend this book to anyone. There is something for everyone in its pages, especially if you are already a fan of fantasy and fairy tales.

Bitch Slap

2010-08-29T20:00:00.003-04:00

Most of the time, I’m glad that I’m subscribed to Netflix, but there are some days when I’m really glad I’m subscribed to Netflix. While recent, big name releases may be delayed for the complicated politics of movie renting and streaming, there are plenty of lesser known gems to be discovered.

Bitch Slap is one of those gems.

This is the description from Netflix itself.

”Three naughty girls - - leggy stripper Trixie (Julia Voth), homicidal drug runner Camero (America Olivo), and high-powered businesswoman Hel (Erin Cummings) - - team up to rip off a crime kingpin, but surprise betrayals quickly spin out of control. Guns, hand-to-hand combat, scantily clad women, and plenty of tongue-in-cheek humor populate this guilty-pleasure throwback to 1960s and ‘70s exploitation films.”

Yeah. Awesome, right?

Guns, boobs, and exaggerated humor to the point of ridiculousness were all I expected to get out of this movie. I was mistaken. The actual plot and storytelling devices of this movie are intriguing and keep your eyes glued to the screen. There are actually two plotlines – one telling the story of these three women looking for treasure in the desert and the other telling each woman’s personal stories via flashbacks. It’s like smashing a stereotypical low-brow action movie with Momento. I would never have been able to guess the final character reveal and it’s worth watching this movie for that alone.

And, for a huge nerd like me, this movie is hilarious for its cameos. Michael Hurst (Iolas from Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess) plays the crime boss, which hilarious in and of itself, but he is joined by Kevin Sorbo (Hercules), Lucy Lawless (Xena), and Renee O’Conner (Gabrielle) in cameo roles. I actually found out about this movie via their IMDB profiles and I’m really glad I did.

I would definitely recommend this one. It’s got action and hot girls kissing and explosions, as well as an interesting and stimulating plot. I don’t know where you might find this movie outside of Netflix, but it is worth looking for.

ETA: Scratch that. If you click on the title or movie poster above, it'll take you to where you can buy it on Amazon, if you feel so inclined.

The Glamour Chase

2010-08-24T20:28:00.000-04:00

Doctor Who: The Glamour Chase

Doctor Who: The Glamour Chase by Gary Russell is one of the newest books on the market to supplement the latest series of Doctor Who. In this story, the Doctor, Amy Pond, and Rory Williams land in a remote English village and, unsurprisingly, something funny is going on. The village has been deserted and those left are acting oddly. No one seems to want to talk about Nathaniel Porter’s first wife, who mysteriously disappeared, but our time travelers suspect that it has something to do with the unusual archaeological dig in the school field, the strange gardener Old John, and Oliver Marks, the sole survivor of a traumatic alien attack.

I really enjoyed this book, but that comes as no surprise. As I said in my previous Doctor Who book review, I am a huge fan of Doctor Who. Not only did I love the mystery of this story, I love the depth of characters. Every character has a background and a story that is worked seamlessly into the larger narrative.

This book also features some of my favourite peripheral Doctor Who aliens yet. You should all know I’m a crafter. I knit and crochet. So, how could I not love a story featuring sentient yarn? Well, not sentient yarn exactly, but it’s close enough.

I would definitely recommend this to Doctor Who fans. While the story is complicated and mysterious, I’m not sure non-Doctor Who fans would appreciate the goofy moments and… well… sentient yarn. It’s a very Doctor Who thing to write about. But if you are a fan of Doctor Who - especially the goofy parts of Doctor Who - this is a great book for you.