TV Series: True Blood - Season Three - Episode 12

We are one episode away from the end of the third season of True Blood. Since next weekend is Labour Day weekend we will have to wait for the following Sunday for the season finale. Then it will be over for another year while we all wait for season four to be cooked up.

As a real life Wiccan, I have a particular pet peeve and that is about the character of Holly.  I was not at all impressed with her portrayal of a Wiccan ceremony last night while she cast a spell for Arlene to have a miscarriage. First of all, she drew her circle widdershins (meaning right to left or counter-clockwise). This is a huge "no no". The only time we ever move widdershins might be in banishing a circle, not in creating a circle. Second of all she used her athame to pierce Arlene's skin and draw blood. This is another serious error. The athame is never used to draw blood or to physically cut anything. In fact athames are usually blunt edged just so they cannot be used to cut anything. The only rare exception to this might be during a Handfasting if a couple wishes to cut their wedding cake. Otherwise, the athame is only ever used to direct metaphysical energy.

So for the first time in this show I had some serious concerns that I will not like it -- because of the way Wiccans and their ceremonies may be portrayed. I thought that Charlaine Harris did a fine job in her books drawing the line between bad witches and good witches as well as the fact that there is a difference between Wiccans, and Witches. Wicca is a religion with a set of morals and ethics to "Harm None" that involves magick. Meanwhile, people can be Witches (good or bad) who use magick without the religion.

One thing that is central to the show  is the role of vampire blood and how it affects everyone in the show. Vampire blood is extremely powerful and magickal. Like anything powerful, it can be used for good or evil. It can heal, lend strength, act as supernatural Viagra, grant immortality, and give you access to spiritual realms and insights. It can also drive you crazy, give you an eggplant sized and shaped penis (Priapism in the extreme - poor Jason), make you into a Junkie, subvert your morals so that you will do anything to get it, and make you an even more dangerous and monstrous supernatural (if you are a werewolf or something similar). If you are a vampire, you become very powerful, but you have the choice of how to use your power. Power can corrupt, but you can also struggle against the corruption.

So, I am quite concerned about Lafayette and his yummy new boyfriend Jesus experimenting with "V". The moment when Jesus seemed to be wearing a malevolent "devils" mask and came at Lafayette was genuinely frightening. Then there are all the dancing, talking voodoo dolls.  It seems that the two's use of "V" may have opened up some dangerous metaphysical doors that Lafayette may have some serious trouble closing. Jesus may not be as "good" as Lafayette may have thought in the beginning. Be careful "La La"!

Finally, I have to admit that there is just something about Eric which seems to have soaked into my subconscious girly parts against all my better judgement. I've always been a Team Bill girl before now, but just on the edge of falling asleep last night I had quite a sensuous and erotic encounter with Eric. I wonder if he's been slipping some of his "V" into my evening tea? I sure hope he doesn't die with Russell Edgington out in the sun. Too bad I have to wait two whole weeks just to find out. They should both be pretty crispy by then.

Novel: Elfland by Freda Warrington

I managed to read my way through most of this novel over the last couple of days. Over all it was pretty good. I can see why it was the Winner of the RT Book Reviews Reviewer's Choice Award for Best Fantasy Novel of 2009.

Unfortunately, I thought the quality of writing was a bit spotty. While parts of it were lyrically beautiful, at times I found myself impatiently skimming over paragraphs and even full pages because there were sections where the writing was just too wordy for me. I thought better editing to cut out the superfluous material would have helped keep the flow going more evenly.

If you are like me, and you prefer your Faeries with a dash of danger and darkness, you may enjoy this story. Faeries who live on this side of the "Gate to the Otherworld" and try to pass for human are called "Aetherials". There is always a Gate Keeper who guards the ways between the different realms, but of course there is something terribly wrong with the reigning one in the story. There are seasonings of "star-crossed love", agonizingly unrequited love, painful adolescent crushes, and some warm sensuality and sex, but it is all part of the plot and doesn't ruin the story. Most of the relationships are  quite complicated, and there are plenty of the common sorts of mistakes in judgement and abysmal errors in life choices that people often make. There were moments when I got irritated with a particularly stupid move and felt the urge to knock a character on the old noggin. I suppose that's all part of caring what happens in a story.

Below is an exerpt from the Aetherial creation myth.

I like it because it describes the process of creation and destruction as I imagine it probably does occur - a cycle of implosion and explosion, a spiral inwards and a spiral outwards over and over again. I've long been fascinated with Black Holes and their potential for destruction and creation. I'm also fascinated by those huge holes that people make in their ears these days with ever increasing sizes of "plugs". Staring at such a large void in someone's earlobe seems to have the same inexorable, magnetic sort of effect on me as the Accretion disk around a Black Hole has on any matter which approaches it. I feel dizzy, as if I will fall into the hole, like Alice in Wonderland and who knows what transformation will happen on the other side?

I also love the description of the Star Goddess Estel.

"First there was the Cauldron, the void at the beginning and end of time. As if the void brooded upon its own emptiness, a spark appeared like a thought in the blackness. That spark was the Source. For the first time or the ten millionth time -- we can never know -- the Source exploded in an outrush of the starfire."

"As the star-streams cooled they divided and took on qualities each according to its own nature: stone and wind, fire and water and ether. From those primal energies, all worlds were formed."

"On that outrush came Estel the Eternal, also called Lady of the Stars, who created herself with that first spark of thought. Her face is the night sky, her hair a milky river of stars. For eons Estel presided over the birth of the sun and planets and hidden realms. " (Freda Warrington, Elfland, p: 62).

Below is a passage describing a city in the homeland of the Aetherials that I thought was quite lovely. I wouldn't mind visiting, in fact I wonder if I have in dreams. :

"Rosie opened the diary and said, "Dad, listen to this."
I see a city of gleaming black stone that shines with jewel-colors; crimson, royal purple and blue. I see labyrinthine passages and rooms where you can lose yourself for days, months."

"Lofty pillars. Balconies onto a crystal-clear night full of stars, great sparkling white galaxies like flowers. Statues of winged men looking down with timeless eyes. I want to stand on those balconies and taste the breeze and hear the stars sing and be washed in the light of the moon. There will be ringed planets, and below -- the tops of feathery trees blowing gently. An undiscovered land full of streams, with birch trees in spring green, and oak and hazel -- and their elemental guardians, slender birch-white ladies with soft hazel brown hair -- and mossy banks folding into water. "

"And through this citadel walk graceful men and women with lovely elongated faces and calm, knowing eyes -- with a glint of mischief -- and they are perfect and know it and they are imperfect and know it. They have seen too much. They might wear robes of medieval tapestry or jeans and a shirt but you would never mistake them for human. It's so much more than beauty. Look at them once and you can't look away. These are Aetherials in their oldest city, Tyrynaia. "

"They have been building the city for thousands of years and it will never be finished. Upwards it spreads, and outwards, and down into the rock below. Their seat of power. Their home."

"They take the names of gods, on occasion.
And sometimes they are heroic and help the world.
And sometimes they are malicious and turn it upside down.
Some might be vampires. It's hard to tell.
In the deepest depths of the citadel, a ceiling of rock hangs over an underground lake and here is Persephone's chamber. She welcomes and cares for those who come, soul-sick with despair, seeking solace, rest and sleep. Here they need not speak, only sit on the black marble lip with their feet on the thick glass, and watch the lake and the luminous fish beneath, which is like a reflection of the sky far above. If you lie down in despair, Persephone will lie down with you." (Freda Warrington, Elfland p: 519)

The following is a quote from Pablo Picasso. I think it works for both the delights and the terrors that make up fantasy:

Newspaper Article: "Publishers toss Booker winners into the reject pile" from The Sunday Times

Not that the type of books I generally read for entertainment would be considered quality reading, but still it is possible to write dark fantasy and horror and do it well. Why aren't there more writers of a higher caliber in the genre? Why does so much crap get published?

Here is a revealing article on the dismal state of modern publishing:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article784051.ece

From The Sunday Times
January 1, 2006

Publishers toss Booker winners into the reject pile
Jonathan Calvert and Will Iredale

THEY can’t judge a book without its cover. Publishers and agents have rejected two Booker prize-winning novels submitted as works by aspiring authors.
One of the books considered unworthy by the publishing industry was by V S Naipaul, one of Britain’s greatest living writers, who won the Nobel prize for literature.

The exercise by The Sunday Times draws attention to concerns that the industry has become incapable of spotting genuine literary talent.

Typed manuscripts of the opening chapters of Naipaul’s In a Free State and a second novel, Holiday, by Stanley Middleton, were sent to 20 publishers and agents.

None appears to have recognised them as Booker prizewinners from the 1970s that were lauded as British novel writing at its best. Of the 21 replies, all but one were rejections.

Only Barbara Levy, a London literary agent, expressed an interest, and that was for Middleton’s novel.

She was unimpressed by Naipaul’s book. She wrote: “We . . . thought it was quite original. In the end though I’m afraid we just weren’t quite enthusiastic enough to be able to offer to take things further.”

The rejections for Middleton’s book came from major publishing houses such as Bloomsbury and Time Warner as well as well-known agents such as Christopher Little, who discovered J K Rowling.

The major literary agencies PFD, Blake Friedmann and Lucas Alexander Whitley all turned down V S Naipaul’s book, which has received only a handful of replies.

Critics say the publishing industry has become obsessed with celebrity authors and “bright marketable young things” at the expense of serious writers.

Most large publishers no longer accept unsolicited manuscripts from first-time authors, leaving the literary agencies to discover new talent.

Many of the agencies find it hard to cope with the volume of submissions. One said last week that she receives up to 50 manuscripts a day, but takes on a maximum of only six new writers a year.

Last week, leading literary figures expressed surprise that Naipaul, in particular, had not been talent spotted. Doris Lessing, the author who was once rejected by her own publishers when she submitted a novel under a pseudonym, said: “I’m astounded as Naipaul is an absolutely wonderful writer.”

Andrew Motion, the poet laureate, who teaches creative writing, said: “It is surprising that the people who read it (Naipaul’s book) didn’t recognise it. He is certainly up there as one of our greatest living writers.”

While arguing that the best books would still always find a publisher, he added: “We need to keep the publishers on their toes as good books are as rare as hens’ teeth.”

Middleton, 86, whose books have a devoted following, wasn’t surprised. “People don’t seem to know what a good novel is nowadays,” he said. Naipaul, 73, said the “world had moved on” since he wrote the novel. He added: “To see that something is well written and appetisingly written takes a lot of talent and there is not a great deal of that around.”

“With all the other forms of entertainment today there are very few people around who would understand what a good paragraph is.”

Non-fiction: The Tribes of Britain by David Miles

A friend lent me a promising non-fiction book called The Tribes of Britain  by David Miles. I have only read a bit of the first chapter so far but it appeals to the Pagan and the Anthropologist in me, as well as the fact that my genetic heritage includes "English", "Irish", and "Welsh" blood.  It also doesn't hurt that the book is well written by an author with some functioning brain cells. 

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Here is the blurb from the back cover:

"Who are the English, the Irish, the Scots and the Welsh? -- a ragbag of migrants, reflecting thousands of years of continuity and change. 

Now scientific techniques can explore this complex genetic jigsaw; ancient Britons and Saxons, Celts and Romans, Vikings and Normans, and the more recent migrations which have created these multicultural islands. 

Drawing on the most recent discoveries, this book both challenges traditional views of history and provides new insights into who we are today."

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"Massively informative and earthily evocative, it does some of the preliminary  work necessary to understand, if not cure, our current identity crisis." Sunday Times. 

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Here is the author's Bio:

David Miles was Chief Archaeologist at English Heritage from 1999 to 2004. Previously the Director of Oxford Archaeological Unit and an Associate Professor of Stanford University, he is a Research Fellow of the Institute of Archaeology, Oxford and a Fellow of Kellogg College, Oxford. As consultant to the Historic Royal Palaces Agency, he has organized excavations in the Tower of London and Hampton Court.  His principle projects at English Heritage include Stonehenge, coastal and maritime surveys, and the National Mapping Programme, using aerial photography to explore the English landscape. David Miles is the author and co-author of many books and articles on history and archaeology including [U]An Introduction to Archaeology[/U], [U]An Atlas of Archaeology[/U] and[U] The Countryside of Roman Britain[/U]. He was a columnist for the Oxford Mail and Times for ten years and frequently broadcasts on radio and television. He is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London and Scotland. 

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Sounds good so far! Now to find the time to read it! ;)

On the Toss Pile: Wright and Chance

Just checking in with an update. I've been busy this week, with not a lot of time or energy to read. A lot of the new books I took out of the library last week turned out to be very disappointing.  I could barely make it through the first chapter before pitching each of the books aside. Unfortunately, this happens all too frequently. 


Two novels which particularly irritated me were Confessions of a Demon by S.L. Wright (sex, sex, and more sex blah, blah, yawn) and Claimed by Shadow by Karen Chance. 1. The writing is mediocre, and 2) the plot centers around a geis put on the -- sexy of course -- female protagonist by a possessive vampire. Ho Hum. It was all I could do to force myself to read the first chapter. I don't think I even made it all the way through.  My attention kept wandering. Toss. 


I hope I have much better luck the next time I go fishing in the dark fantasy pool at my local library.


Here's my vote on Wright and Chance:

Some thoughts on Laurell K. Hamilton's novels

I really enjoyed Hamilton's character Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter in the early novels. In the beginning the writing and the plots were good enough to draw me in and keep my interest. Anita was an admirably strong female character, tough, brave, intelligent, and skilled - perhaps a grown up, hard-boiled, Buffy the Vampire Slayer squared.  I didn't mind some of the graphic sex scenes as long as they were integral to the larger plots, weren't in every other chapter, and didn't seem to be the raison d'etre for the books. It was intriguing when Anita first started developing some extra talents in addition to her abilities as a necromancer and vampire hunter.  I also enjoyed the tension between Anita's two suitors: Jean-Claude the Master Vampire of the city of St. Louis, and Richard Zeeman the Ulfric (leader) of the local Werewolf pack. (And no, Stephanie Meyer, author of the saccharine sweet, insipid, teeny Twilight series most definitely did not invent the Vampire vs. Werewolf competition over the female love-interest!)

However, I was very disappointed when Hamilton began to cross the line between what was believable and interesting to what was eye-rollingly unbelievable and even boring. Anita began to develop just far too many supernatural and cross-species qualities for me to take them seriously anymore. It's one thing to "push the envelope". It's another thing to stuff the envelope so full that the envelope explodes and everything that was once thrilling, risque and exotic becomes commonplace.

I'm not against polyamory (or anything else as long as it's safe, sane, consensual and between adults), but I think that there have to be some limits somewhere, and Anita's endlessly proliferating octo-entourage of were-animal and vampire boy-toys eventually became, well, just plain old multiple partner, cross species, boundary-less pornography. (Actually her only boundaries seem to be that she stays Heterosexual and Christian -- two boundaries which make absolutely no sense to me whatsoever). The later novels began to make me think of a three ring circus of interspecies sex. Anything else outside of sex which might have held the plots together has long since been lost. Speaking of circuses, it just might have been around Circus of the Damned and after, that the novels began to deteriorate.

Finally, the novels became shorter and shorter, the writing and plots of poorer quality, and much less satisfying to read. Perhaps Hamilton was put under too much financial pressure to quickly produce mass quantity instead of quality. Whatever the reason, it's a terrible shame, and I'm very sorry to say that I stopped buying Laurell K. Hamilton's novels (both her Anita Blake vampire hunter novels and her Meredith Gentry fae novels) just over half way through the series. I've been so disappointed by the loss of quality that I can't be bothered to even take the newest ones out of the library anymore. I truly mourn the devolution of what started out to be a very entertaining, exciting and promising novel series.

Still, if you are interested, it wouldn't hurt to try out the first few novels before the writing quality began to take such a steep nose dive.

Here is a link to her website: http://www.laurellkhamilton.org/

Novel: Skinwalker by Faith Hunter

Last week I brought home another of my typical stacks of dark fantasy books. One was so good that I gobbled it up all at once. I started reading it around 4 pm and was done before midnight. It was called Skinwalker by an author known as Faith Hunter (I suspect this might be a pseudonym but I don't know for sure). 

The protagonist is a Cherokee woman who is a shape-changer.  Jane Yellowrock can take on the shape of nearly anything that is approximately close to her own body weight. Any excess mass she temporarily stores in rocks. She rides a Harley, practices "dirty" martial arts, knows her way around all sorts of guns and knives, is 6 feet tall with 4 foot long black hair, knows how to belly dance, eats massive mountains of bloody steaks (shape-changing is hungry work!) and drinks gallons of gourmet teas from around the world. (I have a particular soft spot for anyone who appreciates fine tea.) She is hired by a consortium of New Orleans vampires to come to Louisiana and hunt down a rogue vampire that is killing both vampires and humans alike and attracting far too much negative attention. 

One of the things I particularly liked about Hunter's writing was how she was able to switch the internal running dialogue of Jane's thoughts between her normal human thoughts, and the thoughts of her inner "Beast". Jane's thoughts are pretty typical of any woman's thoughts (as long as she is a tough vampire hunting chick). "Beast's" thoughts are truncated, cutting out anything superfluous, and focused upon the heightened senses of an animal. Hunter does an excellent job of describing the world through smell, taste, touch, sound and sight. She also is able to make really clear what are the important things for a predatory animal such as survival, the hunt, dominance, territory and possession, and mating. And, both Jane and the Beast have their own senses of dark humor. 

Just the way I like them, the monsters are most definitely monsters - albeit complex monsters. Humans are monstrous in their own ways just as the supernaturals are. Relationships are complicated and fraught with tension, uncertainty, deception and risk. There is sex, but the book doesn't start, end and revolve around it. This is not vampire "lite" Harlequin Romance shlock. Fights are dangerous, bloody, and believable. Characters really get hurt and die. There is great suspense, and many twists and turns that keep me guessing. I truly had no idea who the "Big Bad" was until the very end. 


Here is a link to Faith Hunter's website: http://www.faithhunter.net/wp/


I can hardly wait to read the second Faith Hunter book in the series which is called Blood Cross. The third book comes out in January 2011 and is called Mercy Blade. Until then...