Play Dead by Ryan Brown was ok but not great - but that's just me and my opinion. While I like zombies, I'm not really a big fan of football, or of Texas for that matter. The whole thing was just too, too "good ol' boy", and too adolescent high schoolish for my tastes (Although I love Buffy the Vampire Slayer and always will...but somehow Joss Whedon was able to make high school so much more bearable...). Oh well, you win some, you lose some. It wasn't for me.
Magic on the Line by Devon Monk was enjoyable. It's number 7 in the Allie Beckstrom series, and now that I've read it, I remember that I've read the preceding book in the series, Magic on the Hunt. I like the whole kick-ass heroine, bucking the authority of the...well..."Authority" which is a governing body meant to keep magick and magick users under control. My kind of fun reading entertainment.
Even more fun...funner...funnest? I really liked Kitty's Big Trouble by Carrie Vaughn. I became very fond of the rebellious werewolf talkshow host named Kitty while I read this second book in the series. I wanted to adopt her, or become her BFF, or possibly to join up in her independent army being formed by her, which is meant to face off against the big bad "Roman" vampire. Who says werewolves have to be "slaves"? (Roman does). Kitty disagrees. I particularly enjoyed the whole mythical Chinese underworld/otherworld beneath the streets of San Francisco populated by various Deities and other other mythical Chinese creatures. Much, much fun! As soon as I was done gobbling up this little bowl of popcorn of a book, I was looking around ready for more Kitty. Bring her on!
So that's it for tonight, and this latest batch of books. Tomorrow I have to take them all back and get some new ones out. Hope I find some good ones.
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Sunday, April 22, 2012
Libraries, Small Bookstores, Real Books & Bookshelves
During the period of time since my last update, the local library union went on strike and all the libraries closed down, so that slowed down my library reading a bit. For someone who loves books as much as I do, it's a terrible thing to suddenly not have any access to libraries. Sounds like the union made a deal that they were happy with. I am very much against the latest economic and political trend towards library cut-backs, closings, etc. I need my library books like the body needs air so please keep those libraries open, and treat those library workers well!
A note to authors, I'm sorry if I don't buy every single book I read, but I have limited funds and have to be careful about how I choose to spend them. But, like many people who truly love books, If I honestly love a book/author that I get first from a library (enough to think I'd read it again), I am much more likely to start purchasing and collecting that author's works from the bookstore, and have it ready to hand so I can re-read it whenever I want to.
And yes, I am a bit of a dinosaur in that I like to go to my small local bookstores and buy my books there instead of ordering them online, or downloading them. I have a thing for paper and ink and the printed word, so much so that I also do my own calligraphy (maybe I was a Nun in a past life?) I like the smell of books and I like the feel of a book in my hands. I also like the security of knowing that I can still read a real book even if the power goes out or my computer dies. As I commented to someone today, when I read a book I want to tune out the rest of the world, and escape into the world of the book. While I'm in the world of the book, I don't want to be interrupted by advertising, emails, texts, facebook, or any other sort of intrusion.
I also have a thing for bookshelves. I feel I can never have enough of those, because my book collection is always growing...and my books sort of become my friends, and take on histories and personalities of their own so they need a proper home. And if my books have a proper home, that means I have a proper home. I don't feel comfortable in other people's homes when I see there are few to no books, or only coffee table books that are obviously only there for display. It's like there is something essential missing from their home space that says something about them as people and how I might/might not relate to them. Books + local places to get real books + bookshelves = one complete and satisfied me.
Latest Library Haul
It's been a while again. And, once again I've gone through a bunch of books and returned them to the library without writing anything about them. This is a shame because there were some good ones (and some not-so-good ones), and now I'll forget the titles and authors and my reactions to them because I just keep on reading, and reading, and reading (sort of like a Godzilla-reading-monster with a bottomless appetite...the more I read, the more I need to read more...) and I can't remember all the books if I don't write down the details when they are fresh in my mind. Like most people I get busy, and I also get in moods where I don't have the energy, time, or focus to sit down, think about, and write about what I've read.
Enough 'splainin' and apology. Back to the real purpose of this blog update.
Here's my most recent library roundup since the libraries re-opened.
Marie Brennan's With Fate Conspire is a well-researched Victorian/Steampunk/Fae novel set in the mortal London as well as the Fae London. What mortals do in the world above directly affects the well-being of the Fae below. Brennan makes the point that everything and everyone is interconnected: the actions of the powerful have huge consequences for those of "other" races, classes, genders, species, and worlds.
As I read along I kept thinking, what an awful lot of work it must have been for Brennan to gather up all the little historical details she did to create such a convincing setting, such convincing characters, and the fascinating and intricate set of theories that she based her story upon. When I got to the end of the story and I read her Acknowledgements, she admitted as much. She has a long list of people who helped her in the research to thank.
I was quite taken by her explanation for *how* a Fae photograph might capture the essence soul/spirit/memory. I was however a little disturbed by the world-building machine which uses the ectoplasm of ghosts. I couldn't help wondering, what if there is a very good reason for ectoplasm existing, and what if the ghosts need it for a very important purpose as yet not understood by human or fae? Was it possible that the spirits of the dead were being treated as yet another "other" to be exploited simply because they were no longer corporeal/living but had something of use to the living?
I have added her to my list of favourite novelists and will be looking for her other novels in the future.
Esperanza by Trish J. MacGregor was probably enjoyable for me primarily because of its setting in Ecuador. MacGregor's bio says she grew up in Venezuela and that her upbringing in the South American culture and geography strongly influenced her novel. I thought she did an excellent job of making me feel as if I had almost been there myself, which I haven't in real life. I also liked her concept of a large host of hungry unsettled spirits (she calls them brujas - the Spanish word for witches) organizing as an army and wanting to take over more than a few bodies to experience corporeal life again.
Patricia Briggs River Marked is the latest in the Mercy Thompson series. The series is paranormal mystery, urban fantasy, with one of my favorite kick-ass heroines. Mercy is a shape-changer with some Native American blood who own her own auto mechanic repair shop. She turns into a Coyote. She hangs out with Vampires, Fae, and Werewolves, and is married to one. She is also always getting into some kind of life-threatening trouble, and in the course of the book usually manages to save herself and others from that trouble.
What I liked most about this novel was how it dug into Mercy's Native American heritage, and her Coyote shape-changer status. This is the sixth novel in the series, so I think it was about time we got some more insight into Mercy's character background and development. I thought Briggs presented the theory of Archetypes in a way that would be accessible to most of her readership. I thoroughly enjoyed her character portrayal of the Native American Trickster deity Coyote himself.
Dark Prophecy by Anthony Zuiker and Duane Swierczynski is the first book in the Level 26 series that I have read so far. The series is based on a serial killer profiler named Steve Dark who works for a highly secret US Government agency, catching the most evil of serial killers. (Zuiker is the creator and producer of the popular CSI television series). Steve Dark's job takes its toll on him and on his loved ones, and although he tries (after it kills almost everyone he cares about), he finds that he can't give it up. It seems that he's driven to catch these killers, just as much as, if not more so than they are driven to kill.
The story explores how much his insight into these serial killers, and his drive to catch them might make him similar to them, and whether or not and under what circumstances he might cross the line into becoming a vigilante executioner. Considering the degree of bureaucratic government stupidity, selfishness and petty personal politics and power struggles hampering Dark from doing what he does best, I couldn't help but be sympathetic towards his situation.
This particular novel was most interesting to me because the serial killer (as it turns out - a team) being chased uses Tarot cards to chose the victims involved in the killing spree, and the method/styles/staging of the killings. There is an interactive website set up at Level26.com which allows the reader of the book to read the tarot reading for each of the cards that each of the murders is based on. There is actually some respectful knowledge and/or research of the Tarot in this book - which surprised and pleased me.
Thats it for now.
Next up on my list for this week are:
Magic on the Line by Devon Monk, Kitty's Big Trouble by Carrie Vaughn, Darkness Unbound by Keri Arthur (I suspect that this one may not satisfy me as it looks like it might be a supernatural romance novel, but I will see how it goes), and Play Dead by Ryan Brown.
Enough 'splainin' and apology. Back to the real purpose of this blog update.
Here's my most recent library roundup since the libraries re-opened.
Marie Brennan's With Fate Conspire is a well-researched Victorian/Steampunk/Fae novel set in the mortal London as well as the Fae London. What mortals do in the world above directly affects the well-being of the Fae below. Brennan makes the point that everything and everyone is interconnected: the actions of the powerful have huge consequences for those of "other" races, classes, genders, species, and worlds.
As I read along I kept thinking, what an awful lot of work it must have been for Brennan to gather up all the little historical details she did to create such a convincing setting, such convincing characters, and the fascinating and intricate set of theories that she based her story upon. When I got to the end of the story and I read her Acknowledgements, she admitted as much. She has a long list of people who helped her in the research to thank.
I was quite taken by her explanation for *how* a Fae photograph might capture the essence soul/spirit/memory. I was however a little disturbed by the world-building machine which uses the ectoplasm of ghosts. I couldn't help wondering, what if there is a very good reason for ectoplasm existing, and what if the ghosts need it for a very important purpose as yet not understood by human or fae? Was it possible that the spirits of the dead were being treated as yet another "other" to be exploited simply because they were no longer corporeal/living but had something of use to the living?
I have added her to my list of favourite novelists and will be looking for her other novels in the future.
Esperanza by Trish J. MacGregor was probably enjoyable for me primarily because of its setting in Ecuador. MacGregor's bio says she grew up in Venezuela and that her upbringing in the South American culture and geography strongly influenced her novel. I thought she did an excellent job of making me feel as if I had almost been there myself, which I haven't in real life. I also liked her concept of a large host of hungry unsettled spirits (she calls them brujas - the Spanish word for witches) organizing as an army and wanting to take over more than a few bodies to experience corporeal life again.
Patricia Briggs River Marked is the latest in the Mercy Thompson series. The series is paranormal mystery, urban fantasy, with one of my favorite kick-ass heroines. Mercy is a shape-changer with some Native American blood who own her own auto mechanic repair shop. She turns into a Coyote. She hangs out with Vampires, Fae, and Werewolves, and is married to one. She is also always getting into some kind of life-threatening trouble, and in the course of the book usually manages to save herself and others from that trouble.
What I liked most about this novel was how it dug into Mercy's Native American heritage, and her Coyote shape-changer status. This is the sixth novel in the series, so I think it was about time we got some more insight into Mercy's character background and development. I thought Briggs presented the theory of Archetypes in a way that would be accessible to most of her readership. I thoroughly enjoyed her character portrayal of the Native American Trickster deity Coyote himself.
Dark Prophecy by Anthony Zuiker and Duane Swierczynski is the first book in the Level 26 series that I have read so far. The series is based on a serial killer profiler named Steve Dark who works for a highly secret US Government agency, catching the most evil of serial killers. (Zuiker is the creator and producer of the popular CSI television series). Steve Dark's job takes its toll on him and on his loved ones, and although he tries (after it kills almost everyone he cares about), he finds that he can't give it up. It seems that he's driven to catch these killers, just as much as, if not more so than they are driven to kill.
The story explores how much his insight into these serial killers, and his drive to catch them might make him similar to them, and whether or not and under what circumstances he might cross the line into becoming a vigilante executioner. Considering the degree of bureaucratic government stupidity, selfishness and petty personal politics and power struggles hampering Dark from doing what he does best, I couldn't help but be sympathetic towards his situation.
This particular novel was most interesting to me because the serial killer (as it turns out - a team) being chased uses Tarot cards to chose the victims involved in the killing spree, and the method/styles/staging of the killings. There is an interactive website set up at Level26.com which allows the reader of the book to read the tarot reading for each of the cards that each of the murders is based on. There is actually some respectful knowledge and/or research of the Tarot in this book - which surprised and pleased me.
Thats it for now.
Next up on my list for this week are:
Magic on the Line by Devon Monk, Kitty's Big Trouble by Carrie Vaughn, Darkness Unbound by Keri Arthur (I suspect that this one may not satisfy me as it looks like it might be a supernatural romance novel, but I will see how it goes), and Play Dead by Ryan Brown.
Friday, March 9, 2012
Kick-Ass Women in Speculative Fiction and Movies
Last night I had a really fun chat with a facebook friend where we playfully imagined creating an all female body-guard platoon from our favourite hawt kick-ass female characters from movies and fiction.
them all! So any pointers in the right direction would be appreciated...
And really, when I finally grow up, I'd love to be creating and writing strong
kick-ass female characters like these myself - or living as, and being one of
them myself. ;-) As if that's ever going to happen in real life. Guess that's why I
read so much. Living in the imagination is the next best thing.
Some of the ones which quickly made the cut included ones I was instantly and quickly familiar with:
* Sarah Conner
* River Tam
* Buffy
* Faith
* Mila-Multi-pass-Resident Evil-Jovovich
* Kate Beckinsale
* Gina Carano (who is a real-life mixed martial artist)
* Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver)
* Trinity (Matrix)
Some that would make my personal list that did not make the cut last night
(mostly because I was tired and had to go to bed before zombies noshed on my
brains) would include:
* Anita Blake Vampire Hunter (Laurell K. Hamilton)
* Mercy the shapeshifter (Patricia Briggs)
* Rachel Morgan the witch/demon by Kim Harrison
* Ivy the living vampire (Rachel's BFF) in the same series by Kim Harrison
* Bo the succubus in the Canadian TV series Lost Girl (filmed in my own home town of Toronto)
* Pris the replicant pleasure model assassin (Darryl Hannah in Blade Runner)
* Zhora the replicant assassin (Joanna Cassidy in Blade Runner)
* Valeria Queen of Thieves (Sandahl Bergman) in Conan the Barbarian
* Elena Michaels werewolf (Kelly Armstrong)
* Hope Adams demon (Kelly Armstrong)
* Paige Winterbourne witch (Kelly Armstrong)
There are more, but one only has so much time in the day to indulge in blogging...
* Elena Michaels werewolf (Kelly Armstrong)
* Hope Adams demon (Kelly Armstrong)
* Paige Winterbourne witch (Kelly Armstrong)
There are more, but one only has so much time in the day to indulge in blogging...
Some whom my facebook friend made me aware that I obviously need to make
the acquaintance of:
* Molly Millions from Neuromancer - (I only know her as Jane from Johnny
Mnemonic)
* Mina Murray from Moore's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
* Alyx from Joanna Russ's Picnic on Paradise.
This made me realize that maybe there are lots of other hot kick-ass female
heroines that I am missing out on and that is just inexcusable! I need to find
them all! So any pointers in the right direction would be appreciated...
And really, when I finally grow up, I'd love to be creating and writing strong
kick-ass female characters like these myself - or living as, and being one of
them myself. ;-) As if that's ever going to happen in real life. Guess that's why I
read so much. Living in the imagination is the next best thing.
Modesty Blaise
Saturday, February 25, 2012
My treasures, my precious...
I don't know if every bookworm has a special shelf just for those extra precious books (yessss...my precioussss...er..um sorry about that...) that shine like powerful, enchanted gold rings in the dark, but I certainly do. There are just some books that seem to glow, and to give off their own life and light, just as they sit there humming quietly to themselves on the shelf.
I prize these stories, like something rare, irreplaceable, priceless, and unique. I suppose if I were a rich art collector, I would pursue these novels around the world and pay any price for them, then keep them in a special room with a carefully controlled atmosphere so they would not deteriorate ever. I would invite only highly privileged people into my book-treasure room. We would all stand around and savour rare vintages in tiny crystal glasses while contemplating and discussing my preciousssss collection of prized literary acquisitions.
No, wait, that is totally wrong, and not me. I'm much more the down to earth, touchy-feely, hold it in my hands, smell it, read it, casually relax and hang out with it kind of girl. I guess that is one of the reasons why I don't collect rare things that break easily (besides not being rich).
Perhaps that's just one of the reasons why the books I consider special aren't special because they are old, rare, historical, collectable, or worth a great deal of money. They are mass market genre novels and are special only because they've touched me personally in some wonderful way. They stand out from the rest because of the way they are written. They have various, perhaps indefinable qualities to them that I can't always quite pin down or describe. All I know is that I love them more than most of the other books, so they get put together on a special shelf where I can look up at their spines and see them easily, anytime, from where I am sitting reading, or working on the computer.
Right now the books on the special shelf are not many. This is for several reasons. One is because I've just recently moved and most of my books are still packed away. The other is complicated and ancient history by now.
So what are these few, very special glowing books right now?
1. Robin McKinley's _Sunshine_ (I so wish she would write another one of these...a sequel, or another comparable one to this...)
2. Susan Hubbard's Ethical Vampire Series
3. John Ajvide Lindqvist's _Let the Right One In_
If I were to write a book, I'd want it to be as good as Sunshine, to have many of the qualities in it that I am so in love with in Sunshine. Sunshine is both sensual and spiritual, earthy and ethereal, hilarious and scary, homey and alien. When I see Sunshine, I hunger for cinnamon buns AS BIG AS YOUR HEAD. The book has become my good luck charm and my talisman against all evil. How does McKinley do what she does? I want it. I want it bad.
It would also be as powerfully visual as Hubbard's literary images are. I want to move right on in and live in that silvery-turquoise coloured bedroom and I never want to encounter the creepy white faced harbinger in that van, ever.
Also, my imaginary truly awesome book that I'd write would also be as fresh and tart and tangy and startlingly cold and dark and brutal as _Let the Right One In_.
My special list of extra-treasured books is a very short one right now. These are the ones that I can't pack away or go without looking at or thinking about for very long. The present ones also all happen to be about vampires, but they are all very different from each other. None of the vampires sparkle, which I think is good.
The list changes from time to time, but there are some that stay on it. I just don't happen to have the older books with me since my used-to-be larger library is no longer in my possession, and hasn't been for over 10 years now. Obviously there are ones like TLOTR, and the complete set of The Chronicles of Narnia, but I don't own those ones right now. One I really miss from my childhood is Great Swedish Fairy Tales, illustrated by John Bauer, which I think is now out of print.
Anyway, that's my short list for now.
I prize these stories, like something rare, irreplaceable, priceless, and unique. I suppose if I were a rich art collector, I would pursue these novels around the world and pay any price for them, then keep them in a special room with a carefully controlled atmosphere so they would not deteriorate ever. I would invite only highly privileged people into my book-treasure room. We would all stand around and savour rare vintages in tiny crystal glasses while contemplating and discussing my preciousssss collection of prized literary acquisitions.
No, wait, that is totally wrong, and not me. I'm much more the down to earth, touchy-feely, hold it in my hands, smell it, read it, casually relax and hang out with it kind of girl. I guess that is one of the reasons why I don't collect rare things that break easily (besides not being rich).
Perhaps that's just one of the reasons why the books I consider special aren't special because they are old, rare, historical, collectable, or worth a great deal of money. They are mass market genre novels and are special only because they've touched me personally in some wonderful way. They stand out from the rest because of the way they are written. They have various, perhaps indefinable qualities to them that I can't always quite pin down or describe. All I know is that I love them more than most of the other books, so they get put together on a special shelf where I can look up at their spines and see them easily, anytime, from where I am sitting reading, or working on the computer.
Right now the books on the special shelf are not many. This is for several reasons. One is because I've just recently moved and most of my books are still packed away. The other is complicated and ancient history by now.
So what are these few, very special glowing books right now?
1. Robin McKinley's _Sunshine_ (I so wish she would write another one of these...a sequel, or another comparable one to this...)
2. Susan Hubbard's Ethical Vampire Series
3. John Ajvide Lindqvist's _Let the Right One In_
If I were to write a book, I'd want it to be as good as Sunshine, to have many of the qualities in it that I am so in love with in Sunshine. Sunshine is both sensual and spiritual, earthy and ethereal, hilarious and scary, homey and alien. When I see Sunshine, I hunger for cinnamon buns AS BIG AS YOUR HEAD. The book has become my good luck charm and my talisman against all evil. How does McKinley do what she does? I want it. I want it bad.
It would also be as powerfully visual as Hubbard's literary images are. I want to move right on in and live in that silvery-turquoise coloured bedroom and I never want to encounter the creepy white faced harbinger in that van, ever.
Also, my imaginary truly awesome book that I'd write would also be as fresh and tart and tangy and startlingly cold and dark and brutal as _Let the Right One In_.
My special list of extra-treasured books is a very short one right now. These are the ones that I can't pack away or go without looking at or thinking about for very long. The present ones also all happen to be about vampires, but they are all very different from each other. None of the vampires sparkle, which I think is good.
The list changes from time to time, but there are some that stay on it. I just don't happen to have the older books with me since my used-to-be larger library is no longer in my possession, and hasn't been for over 10 years now. Obviously there are ones like TLOTR, and the complete set of The Chronicles of Narnia, but I don't own those ones right now. One I really miss from my childhood is Great Swedish Fairy Tales, illustrated by John Bauer, which I think is now out of print.
Anyway, that's my short list for now.
L.A.Banks, Surrender the Dark
Ahhhh. My memory is really being jogged now that I've spent the day working on my long neglected blog and trying to remember some of the better books I've read over the last few months.
I just remembered another new author that I discovered during my recent, tumultuous and stressful move. L.A. Banks. At first I wasn't certain that I would like her novel because it appeared to be one of "those" romance novels that don't do much for me.
However, I soon found that it was much more than just a romance. I could actually identify with the heroine on a very personal level, how low of a level she had sunk in her life, how depressed and demoralized she was, how far she had to come to heal. I even found myself identifying with her taste in clothes shampoos, soaps, and scents. I could also identify with the values, morals, ethics, and interests of the main characters, including the health foods and the natural cleansing and healing process of the body, and how everything is interconnected, mind, body, and spirit. I wanted to be her. I wanted her love interest.
I was honestly surprised at how well Banks was able to make me care about her story and her characters. So I looked her up to see what else she had written, and I was terribly saddened to discover that she had recently died of cancer just this past year at the young age of 51. Her writing had made me care, not only about those she wrote about, but herself as a person. Here was someone highly intelligent, warm, loving, caring, healing, generous, and with an amazing amount of hope for humanity and a strong belief that good and love will always conquer all. Rare in these days and times. I had just discovered her, only to lose her.
L.A. Banks, whereever your spirit is (and I'm quite sure it's somewhere really wonderful!) I will be looking for the rest of your books to read. It seems you gave a great deal of your wonderful self while you were here with us.
I just remembered another new author that I discovered during my recent, tumultuous and stressful move. L.A. Banks. At first I wasn't certain that I would like her novel because it appeared to be one of "those" romance novels that don't do much for me.
However, I soon found that it was much more than just a romance. I could actually identify with the heroine on a very personal level, how low of a level she had sunk in her life, how depressed and demoralized she was, how far she had to come to heal. I even found myself identifying with her taste in clothes shampoos, soaps, and scents. I could also identify with the values, morals, ethics, and interests of the main characters, including the health foods and the natural cleansing and healing process of the body, and how everything is interconnected, mind, body, and spirit. I wanted to be her. I wanted her love interest.
I was honestly surprised at how well Banks was able to make me care about her story and her characters. So I looked her up to see what else she had written, and I was terribly saddened to discover that she had recently died of cancer just this past year at the young age of 51. Her writing had made me care, not only about those she wrote about, but herself as a person. Here was someone highly intelligent, warm, loving, caring, healing, generous, and with an amazing amount of hope for humanity and a strong belief that good and love will always conquer all. Rare in these days and times. I had just discovered her, only to lose her.
L.A. Banks, whereever your spirit is (and I'm quite sure it's somewhere really wonderful!) I will be looking for the rest of your books to read. It seems you gave a great deal of your wonderful self while you were here with us.
The Desert Spear by Peter Brett
The Desert Spear by Peter Brett
Have I mentioned that I recently purchased and read the sequel to The Warded Man that I was originally so impressed with? I think that I forgot to about this in the midst of all the upheaval going on in my life lately. I was extremely pleased to discover that I was just as satisfied if not more so by the second book in the series as I was by the first. The storytelling continues to fascinate, the characters become more and more interesting, the plot increasingly compelling and intriguing, and the settings convincing enough to make me want to jump on into the pages and wriggle my way right in there myself. And, as a woman who spent a few years studying and practicing the art of Jiu Jitsu myself, I most definitely appreciate the fine martial arts aspects to the book. I can hardly wait to possess and devour the third book in this series. Hurry up Peter, bring it on!
Have I mentioned that I recently purchased and read the sequel to The Warded Man that I was originally so impressed with? I think that I forgot to about this in the midst of all the upheaval going on in my life lately. I was extremely pleased to discover that I was just as satisfied if not more so by the second book in the series as I was by the first. The storytelling continues to fascinate, the characters become more and more interesting, the plot increasingly compelling and intriguing, and the settings convincing enough to make me want to jump on into the pages and wriggle my way right in there myself. And, as a woman who spent a few years studying and practicing the art of Jiu Jitsu myself, I most definitely appreciate the fine martial arts aspects to the book. I can hardly wait to possess and devour the third book in this series. Hurry up Peter, bring it on!
Friday, February 24, 2012
Latest Reads: Simon R. Green, Drinking Midnight Wine, Nevada Barr, Burn
Enough is enough. Time to get back to seriously blogging about my reading adventures.
I've moved house. I'm about half-unpacked a month and a half later. I'm still recovering from the aftermath of being held hostage by dastardly pirate-moving-men who charged me twice what they originally estimated and tacked on all kinds of hidden fees and would not unpack my stuff until I paid them. I had to borrow money from a friend (who is now no longer a friend) to pay them.
In the moving process I also injured a disc in the neck area, leading to some pretty severe nerve pain radiating down my upper arms and hands. That gradually faded as the weeks passed. Then, while unpacking, I dropped a 10 lb dumbell weight on my right big toe and smashed it into smithereens. I will now be hobbling around in an air cast until mid-March/end of March. So my life has been just filled with adventure - but not nearly enough of the proper kind of adventure as compared to what goes on in my beloved books.
Moving has been hell. But it's time to move on from moving and get back to more meaningful things, like books, and reading, and writing. So I've read some stuff here and there in between moving and unpacking and being injured, but not much of it has made a very deep impact - at least not enough to write about it anyway.
I read like I breath. I just can't not read. So I've usually got at least one book on the go at any one time, often more than one. But unfortunately, not everything I read is truly stimulating, nutritious to the brain and illuminating of the soul. Many library books go in one eye and out the other if you will, and then get returned to the library without having left much of an impression on the old brain cells in between the eyes.
Nevada Barr's Burn is one recent exception. It's not my typical sci-fi/fantasy genre novel. The closest this novel got to anything in my beloved "woo woo" range was a few rather unremarkable Voodoo practitioners. This one was all facts: who dunnit, how, when, why, where etc, and I really enjoyed the change of pace.
The Anna Pigeon mystery/adventure/action series is one I'm going to pay attention to in the future when I need to take a walk outside of dark urban fantasy and get bored with vampires, werewolves, witches, goblins, orcs, faeries, godlings, and other worlds in other galaxies and dimensions. In this novel, Pigeon is a very down to earth park ranger who is staying in New Orleans "on leave", and runs across a child-sex-trafficking ring. The characters were extremely well drawn in this novel.
I particularly loved the cross-dressing actress mother. Settings were also very convincing. I wanted to be right there in that exact spot, drinking that exact coffee. How could I possibly resist a story that had not one but two brave, heroic women out to save a houseful of young children from the predations of rich, privileged, pedophiles? Well done!
This one stayed with me. I even had to renew it in order to keep it with me long enough until I could find the time to sit down and hold it next to me while I wrote about it here. So Nevada Barr is going to be added to my favourite author's list.
I just finished reading Simon R. Green's Drinking Midnight Wine. At first I was puzzled, thinking, how come I haven't read this author before? Then I looked him up on my blog here and discovered that I had read his Man with the Golden Torc. Ah ha! Here is proof that my blog is actually useful to me - when I bother to use it.
So, I liked the book. I can't say I disliked it. It just didn't wow me. I hate it when a book doesn't have any surprises in it for me. It's boring when it's too predictable. I know it is often said that there are no new stories, that all stories are just retold in new ways, but that is really where the art lies isn't it? A really good storyteller can retell the same basic story, but never bore the reader.
I really wasn't surprised to discover that the woman the hero fell in love with was actually the human version of Gaia (the earth's soul/consciousness). I had already been guessing that for at least a chapter or two before it was revealed, and the same was true of Luna being the Moon, and the evil Serpent in the Sun, and that the Sun raped the Moon and the Moon had a son she didn't want who became "evil"and hell bent on destroying humanity blah, blah, blah...
I just couldn't get all that involved or upset about any of it, even though Green tried hard to bring it all "down to earth" by serving up scrambled egg with toast soldier breakfasts after a night of really good sex with an Earth Mother incarnate.
I felt like I was sitting in a hard plastic chair in a hall, listening to one of those pale, weedy looking guys who love to lecture on for hours at Masonic Temples and who read endless books on High/Ceremonial Magick. Yah, Yah Kabbalah. Secret hand shakes, signs and all that. Don't get me wrong. Alchemy is interesting and so is Jung. Dion Fortune is cool too.
It's just that some of the people I've run into that take it too seriously don't seem to have much balance in their lives. They make me want to go eat a nice big green salad full of avocado, go for a walk in the sun down by the lake, stick my toes in the sand, roll around in the grass, and play with a big smelly hairy dog. Anyway. That was my reaction to this one. Kind of Ho hum I guess. There you go.
But now I have a big bag full of fat, shiny new novels to read! I will list them here in the hopes that I will guilt myself into writing about them as I read them this time.
Col Buchanan Farlander: Book One
Justine Larbalestier Magic or Madness
Kim Harrison Pale Demon (I think I skipped this one in the series and read around it so it'll be a catch up read)
Terry Goodkind The Omen Machine (I really hope I don't regret getting this one out - I was getting kind of sick of the whole Richard/Kahlan series, but it's been a few years so we'll see what happens)
Nathan Long Ulkrika The Vampire: Blood Forged
Ok. We'll see how this batch turns out...
I've moved house. I'm about half-unpacked a month and a half later. I'm still recovering from the aftermath of being held hostage by dastardly pirate-moving-men who charged me twice what they originally estimated and tacked on all kinds of hidden fees and would not unpack my stuff until I paid them. I had to borrow money from a friend (who is now no longer a friend) to pay them.
In the moving process I also injured a disc in the neck area, leading to some pretty severe nerve pain radiating down my upper arms and hands. That gradually faded as the weeks passed. Then, while unpacking, I dropped a 10 lb dumbell weight on my right big toe and smashed it into smithereens. I will now be hobbling around in an air cast until mid-March/end of March. So my life has been just filled with adventure - but not nearly enough of the proper kind of adventure as compared to what goes on in my beloved books.
Moving has been hell. But it's time to move on from moving and get back to more meaningful things, like books, and reading, and writing. So I've read some stuff here and there in between moving and unpacking and being injured, but not much of it has made a very deep impact - at least not enough to write about it anyway.
I read like I breath. I just can't not read. So I've usually got at least one book on the go at any one time, often more than one. But unfortunately, not everything I read is truly stimulating, nutritious to the brain and illuminating of the soul. Many library books go in one eye and out the other if you will, and then get returned to the library without having left much of an impression on the old brain cells in between the eyes.
Nevada Barr's Burn is one recent exception. It's not my typical sci-fi/fantasy genre novel. The closest this novel got to anything in my beloved "woo woo" range was a few rather unremarkable Voodoo practitioners. This one was all facts: who dunnit, how, when, why, where etc, and I really enjoyed the change of pace.
The Anna Pigeon mystery/adventure/action series is one I'm going to pay attention to in the future when I need to take a walk outside of dark urban fantasy and get bored with vampires, werewolves, witches, goblins, orcs, faeries, godlings, and other worlds in other galaxies and dimensions. In this novel, Pigeon is a very down to earth park ranger who is staying in New Orleans "on leave", and runs across a child-sex-trafficking ring. The characters were extremely well drawn in this novel.
I particularly loved the cross-dressing actress mother. Settings were also very convincing. I wanted to be right there in that exact spot, drinking that exact coffee. How could I possibly resist a story that had not one but two brave, heroic women out to save a houseful of young children from the predations of rich, privileged, pedophiles? Well done!
This one stayed with me. I even had to renew it in order to keep it with me long enough until I could find the time to sit down and hold it next to me while I wrote about it here. So Nevada Barr is going to be added to my favourite author's list.
I just finished reading Simon R. Green's Drinking Midnight Wine. At first I was puzzled, thinking, how come I haven't read this author before? Then I looked him up on my blog here and discovered that I had read his Man with the Golden Torc. Ah ha! Here is proof that my blog is actually useful to me - when I bother to use it.
So, I liked the book. I can't say I disliked it. It just didn't wow me. I hate it when a book doesn't have any surprises in it for me. It's boring when it's too predictable. I know it is often said that there are no new stories, that all stories are just retold in new ways, but that is really where the art lies isn't it? A really good storyteller can retell the same basic story, but never bore the reader.
I really wasn't surprised to discover that the woman the hero fell in love with was actually the human version of Gaia (the earth's soul/consciousness). I had already been guessing that for at least a chapter or two before it was revealed, and the same was true of Luna being the Moon, and the evil Serpent in the Sun, and that the Sun raped the Moon and the Moon had a son she didn't want who became "evil"and hell bent on destroying humanity blah, blah, blah...
I just couldn't get all that involved or upset about any of it, even though Green tried hard to bring it all "down to earth" by serving up scrambled egg with toast soldier breakfasts after a night of really good sex with an Earth Mother incarnate.
I felt like I was sitting in a hard plastic chair in a hall, listening to one of those pale, weedy looking guys who love to lecture on for hours at Masonic Temples and who read endless books on High/Ceremonial Magick. Yah, Yah Kabbalah. Secret hand shakes, signs and all that. Don't get me wrong. Alchemy is interesting and so is Jung. Dion Fortune is cool too.
It's just that some of the people I've run into that take it too seriously don't seem to have much balance in their lives. They make me want to go eat a nice big green salad full of avocado, go for a walk in the sun down by the lake, stick my toes in the sand, roll around in the grass, and play with a big smelly hairy dog. Anyway. That was my reaction to this one. Kind of Ho hum I guess. There you go.
But now I have a big bag full of fat, shiny new novels to read! I will list them here in the hopes that I will guilt myself into writing about them as I read them this time.
Col Buchanan Farlander: Book One
Justine Larbalestier Magic or Madness
Kim Harrison Pale Demon (I think I skipped this one in the series and read around it so it'll be a catch up read)
Terry Goodkind The Omen Machine (I really hope I don't regret getting this one out - I was getting kind of sick of the whole Richard/Kahlan series, but it's been a few years so we'll see what happens)
Nathan Long Ulkrika The Vampire: Blood Forged
Ok. We'll see how this batch turns out...
Monday, January 30, 2012
Update - starting again...
I am lazy and I am bad. I keep reading books and not making any notes about them. If I made New Year's resolutions (which I don't) I would resolve to be more diligent and organized about writing about the books I read.
To put things into some perspective however, I should say that I have been extremely busy with a major move of household, some recent injuries (neck - disc - arm/hand nerve pain related, and a badly broken big toe), and basically a lot of upheaval and chaos and financial strain in my life. I haven't been reading as much as I usually read, and I definitely haven't had my head together enough to write down my reactions and impressions of what I've read.
Probably the most noteworthy and memorable book I've read since I last wrote a review here was A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness. At first I hated it, but quickly grew to love it, and by the end I was completely forlorn that it was all over and I had to wait for the sequel.
I am resolved to get back to making proper notes of my reading adventures...soon...
To put things into some perspective however, I should say that I have been extremely busy with a major move of household, some recent injuries (neck - disc - arm/hand nerve pain related, and a badly broken big toe), and basically a lot of upheaval and chaos and financial strain in my life. I haven't been reading as much as I usually read, and I definitely haven't had my head together enough to write down my reactions and impressions of what I've read.
Probably the most noteworthy and memorable book I've read since I last wrote a review here was A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness. At first I hated it, but quickly grew to love it, and by the end I was completely forlorn that it was all over and I had to wait for the sequel.
I am resolved to get back to making proper notes of my reading adventures...soon...
Monday, September 5, 2011
Latest Stack of Novels
The Fall by Guillermo Del Toro & Chuck Hogan
This creepy, spooky, disturbing novel is the sequel to The Strain. The writing sucks me right in to the story and keeps me there until it's all over - always the mark of a successful writing job for me. The Master's vampire take-over of the world is well underway now, having spread past New York into most major global cities. The vampires in this series appear to be something like extra-terrestrials except that the infection that they pass on is not simply a biological colonization of the human body, but also something which affects the mind and the "soul" or "spirit" since there is a sort of "hive-mind" at work. I continue to enjoy the band of vampire hunters: the "old man" (whose entire life has been dedicated to vampire hunting) Abraham Setrakian, Eph Goodweather ex CDC, Vasily Fet the exterminator, and Augustin Elizalde (aka Gus) ex street tough. I'm looking forward to reading the next novel in the series when it comes out.
Bullet by Laurell K. Hamilton
I don't care what the detractors say, I am a die-hard Anita Blake fan. Hamilton manages to keep producing novels in the Anita Blake series which never fail to keep my interest from start to finish. I'm always sorry when each book is done because it means I have the leave the world and imagination of my favorite bad-ass female vampire executioner/necromancer. Anita may be physically tiny, but her powerful personality is awesome. In the face of all the challenges thrown at her in each book, she keeps on growing , learning about herself and others, becoming wiser, more complex and sophisticated, more loving, and also more ruthless (as necessary). Death-dealing is never easy for her - it comes with a price that she must pay - and that others are not so willing to pay. In this latest novel in the series, The Mother of All Darkness wants to possess Anita's body, soul, and mind for her own and Anita needs everyone's co-operation to win the fight.
It says on the back jacket that Hamilton is a full-time writer. My wish of the day: when I grow up I'd like to be like her - a successful, published writer who makes a viable living doing what she loves to do most. I've started buying some how-to- write novel books. I'm taking notes every night in one of my brand new journals (I am a such a journal-nerd-girl). My goal this year is to educate myself as well as I can about how to write my first book, and then to set about doing that. I turn 45 this year. I think it's time for me to "grow up" by now...I've wanted to be a "real writer" since I was a tiny little girl.
The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness
This is the first sci-fi or speculative fiction novel in a series. It's set on a human-habitable world somewhere in the Universe where people have been infected with the ability to read each other's minds. They can't shut the power out, so it drives a lot of them crazy, and results in some awful consequences and extreme reactions (like killing off women, making classic gender-divides even worse, and so on). It's well written. I like Todd the main character. I am curious to see what happens next. Can Todd be corrupted by the other men into "falling from grace" or not?
Arcane Circle by Linda Robertson
Persephone Alcmedi aka "Seph" is a witch, and a Master vampire's Master. Her boyfriend is an uncomfirmed Domn Lupe waerewolf whose power is locked down in the mysterious tattoos all over his body. The leaders of the werewolves must challenge and confirm Johnny's powers. To save his life, Seph and Johnny must work together to solve the mystery of the tattoos all the while planning their foster daughter's 10th birthday party. A light and entertaining supernatural read.
The Hidden Goddess by M.K.Hobson
I enjoyed reading The Native Star so much that when I saw this sequel on the library shelves I grabbed it. This is a hybrid genre novel combining steam-punk and witch-craft, and set in a Reconstruction-era America. The heroine is one Miss Emily Edwards. She is a very down-to-earth, smart, independent Earth-Witch, who is willing to do whatever it takes to save the Earth and all it's peoples, and who is totally uninterested in the ego-trappings of power, wealth, and fame.
Zoo City by Lauren Beukes
This gritty urban fantasy is set in a futuristic Johannesburg, South Africa. Some humans become mysteriously "infected" or "cursed" with the dubious and mysterious gift of symbiotic animal familiars and individual shamanic magical talents. Protagonist Zinzi December is smart, tough, street-wise, and has a talent for attracting disaster and for finding missing things and people. Let the trouble begin...
The Diviner's Tale by Bradford Morrow
This book has a series of fantastic reviews by famous authors. After reading it, I understood why. It is one of those books which stands out from my stack and glows with a life all of it's own. The writing is luminous, magickal, and hypnotic. Sentences and phrases light up in the mind and float there, waiting to be explored like rooms in a mansion, or secret doors in mysterious closets that lead into alternate worlds. Cassandra Brooks is a diviner, from a family of diviners. She doesn't just find water though, she finds a lot of other things too, in the past, present and future, in her life and other people's lives, in life and in death.
My sincerest thanks to author Bradford Morrow for teaching me the meaning of Syzygy in a most meaningful manner, and for writing beautiful thought provoking passages that I felt compelled to copy down and save in my personal journal. This one is special - a real keeper.
I amend my original wish - when I "grow up" into the "real writer" I hope someday to become, I'd like to be something like a combination of Laurell K. Hamilton and Bradford Morrow. Despite the snootery certain critics heap upon best-selling authors, I don't think that there is anything wrong with making a successful living writing books that people actually buy and enjoy reading.
This creepy, spooky, disturbing novel is the sequel to The Strain. The writing sucks me right in to the story and keeps me there until it's all over - always the mark of a successful writing job for me. The Master's vampire take-over of the world is well underway now, having spread past New York into most major global cities. The vampires in this series appear to be something like extra-terrestrials except that the infection that they pass on is not simply a biological colonization of the human body, but also something which affects the mind and the "soul" or "spirit" since there is a sort of "hive-mind" at work. I continue to enjoy the band of vampire hunters: the "old man" (whose entire life has been dedicated to vampire hunting) Abraham Setrakian, Eph Goodweather ex CDC, Vasily Fet the exterminator, and Augustin Elizalde (aka Gus) ex street tough. I'm looking forward to reading the next novel in the series when it comes out.
Bullet by Laurell K. Hamilton
I don't care what the detractors say, I am a die-hard Anita Blake fan. Hamilton manages to keep producing novels in the Anita Blake series which never fail to keep my interest from start to finish. I'm always sorry when each book is done because it means I have the leave the world and imagination of my favorite bad-ass female vampire executioner/necromancer. Anita may be physically tiny, but her powerful personality is awesome. In the face of all the challenges thrown at her in each book, she keeps on growing , learning about herself and others, becoming wiser, more complex and sophisticated, more loving, and also more ruthless (as necessary). Death-dealing is never easy for her - it comes with a price that she must pay - and that others are not so willing to pay. In this latest novel in the series, The Mother of All Darkness wants to possess Anita's body, soul, and mind for her own and Anita needs everyone's co-operation to win the fight.
It says on the back jacket that Hamilton is a full-time writer. My wish of the day: when I grow up I'd like to be like her - a successful, published writer who makes a viable living doing what she loves to do most. I've started buying some how-to- write novel books. I'm taking notes every night in one of my brand new journals (I am a such a journal-nerd-girl). My goal this year is to educate myself as well as I can about how to write my first book, and then to set about doing that. I turn 45 this year. I think it's time for me to "grow up" by now...I've wanted to be a "real writer" since I was a tiny little girl.
The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness
This is the first sci-fi or speculative fiction novel in a series. It's set on a human-habitable world somewhere in the Universe where people have been infected with the ability to read each other's minds. They can't shut the power out, so it drives a lot of them crazy, and results in some awful consequences and extreme reactions (like killing off women, making classic gender-divides even worse, and so on). It's well written. I like Todd the main character. I am curious to see what happens next. Can Todd be corrupted by the other men into "falling from grace" or not?
Arcane Circle by Linda Robertson
Persephone Alcmedi aka "Seph" is a witch, and a Master vampire's Master. Her boyfriend is an uncomfirmed Domn Lupe waerewolf whose power is locked down in the mysterious tattoos all over his body. The leaders of the werewolves must challenge and confirm Johnny's powers. To save his life, Seph and Johnny must work together to solve the mystery of the tattoos all the while planning their foster daughter's 10th birthday party. A light and entertaining supernatural read.
The Hidden Goddess by M.K.Hobson
I enjoyed reading The Native Star so much that when I saw this sequel on the library shelves I grabbed it. This is a hybrid genre novel combining steam-punk and witch-craft, and set in a Reconstruction-era America. The heroine is one Miss Emily Edwards. She is a very down-to-earth, smart, independent Earth-Witch, who is willing to do whatever it takes to save the Earth and all it's peoples, and who is totally uninterested in the ego-trappings of power, wealth, and fame.
Zoo City by Lauren Beukes
This gritty urban fantasy is set in a futuristic Johannesburg, South Africa. Some humans become mysteriously "infected" or "cursed" with the dubious and mysterious gift of symbiotic animal familiars and individual shamanic magical talents. Protagonist Zinzi December is smart, tough, street-wise, and has a talent for attracting disaster and for finding missing things and people. Let the trouble begin...
The Diviner's Tale by Bradford Morrow
This book has a series of fantastic reviews by famous authors. After reading it, I understood why. It is one of those books which stands out from my stack and glows with a life all of it's own. The writing is luminous, magickal, and hypnotic. Sentences and phrases light up in the mind and float there, waiting to be explored like rooms in a mansion, or secret doors in mysterious closets that lead into alternate worlds. Cassandra Brooks is a diviner, from a family of diviners. She doesn't just find water though, she finds a lot of other things too, in the past, present and future, in her life and other people's lives, in life and in death.
My sincerest thanks to author Bradford Morrow for teaching me the meaning of Syzygy in a most meaningful manner, and for writing beautiful thought provoking passages that I felt compelled to copy down and save in my personal journal. This one is special - a real keeper.
I amend my original wish - when I "grow up" into the "real writer" I hope someday to become, I'd like to be something like a combination of Laurell K. Hamilton and Bradford Morrow. Despite the snootery certain critics heap upon best-selling authors, I don't think that there is anything wrong with making a successful living writing books that people actually buy and enjoy reading.
Monday, August 1, 2011
I've been lazy!
Bad me, I've been lazy.
Well, to be fair, I've been busy too and I haven't had time to write about what I've been reading most of this summer. I'm still busy, but I feel guilty now for neglecting my blog. So I will make some short notes.
Recent reads:
Night of the Vampires by Heather Graham
This novel is set in the Civil War era American south.
The female heroine is half vampire, half human. She teams up with a hunky human male from Texas. Together they set out to hunt down and eradicate an insidious vampire horde which is taking advantage of the killings on both side of the war. Heavy on the romance. I'm not really someone who enjoys the supernatural romances on the market, but I will read them when I'm short on other kinds of more interesting reading material.
This Side of the Grave by Jeaniene Frost
That said, I still continue to enjoy reading about the relationship between half-vampire Cat Crawfield and her full vampire husband Bones. They are hot, spicy and sassy! Together they get up to all sorts of fun, sex, fighting, trouble, murder, mayhem, violence, and trying to save the world over and over again. Cat's psychic/vampire abilities continue to evolve -- a bit like Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake who I also enjoy reading about -- except Cat is only having wild monkey sex with her husband. As an aside, I probably should add that unlike some people who complain about Anita Blake's sex life, I don't have a problem with polyamory and other sorts of more exotic bedroom sports as long as they are between fully responsible, consciously consenting adults.
Deadworld by J. N. Duncan
Jackie Rutledge is a tough female FBI agent who finds herself dealing with a serial killer who happens to be a vampire. In the course of her investigation she finds herself falling for a yummy PI named Nick Anderson who also happens to be a vampire. Yup, I really lucked out this time folks. Another romantic supernatural story.
Slim pickings at the library make for one desperate reader here...
Living on the Edge by Shannon K. Butcher
This one's closest claim to supernatural status is that the author's husband is Jim Butcher, author of the fabulous Harry Dresden wizard series. I guess Shannon's writing is ok as far as the romance-thriller genre goes, if you like that sort of thing. Sloane is the female heroine of this novel. She's tough and trained as a paramilitary body-guard. She falls for Lucas, a tough and handsome ex-soldier. Together they take down an evil Columbian drug lord while saving the life of one of Sloane's best friends. Lots of guns, violence, blood, and explicit sex in this one. Uh huh.
Walking Dead by Greg Rucka
Out of all the books in this group this one was the best and it wasn't even a supernatural one. The monsters in this novel were all too human and all too believably evil. In fact, this novel was so upsetting that it really affected me for days afterwards, and even kept me awake with the lights on the night that I read it.
Atticus Kodiak and his wife Alena Cizkova have retired from their former (very dangerous) professions to hide out in a tiny little town in the former USSR. All they want is to live the rest of their lives together in peace and safety. Unfortunately as long as you are human and living with other human beings, there is no where you can go to escape the evil of mankind.
Atticus and Alena are drawn into the world of human sex trafficking when the daughter of their neighbor is kidnapped and the rest of her family slaughtered. Atticus goes on a long journey around the world to track down the 14 year old girl, exposing an intricate network of ruthless human exploitation, deep suffering, violence, greed and corruption.
This is one fabulously researched and written novel about a horrifying reality and the sort of true evil that people are capable of. I will be on the look out for more novels by this author even though he does not write within my usual preferred genre.
After reading that, who needs vampires and zombies? Me. That's who.
I will be on the lookout for some new novels of my favorite genre soon.
Wish me better novel hunting luck than I had this last time!
The other thing I've learned is that if I don't make any reading notes about what I'm reading before I return the books from the library, I quickly forget what the books were about unless they were truly spectacular - such as what has happened with the last list of books I mentioned in the previous post, but did not get around to writing anything about. :-(
Lesson learned.
Well, to be fair, I've been busy too and I haven't had time to write about what I've been reading most of this summer. I'm still busy, but I feel guilty now for neglecting my blog. So I will make some short notes.
Recent reads:
Night of the Vampires by Heather Graham
This novel is set in the Civil War era American south.
The female heroine is half vampire, half human. She teams up with a hunky human male from Texas. Together they set out to hunt down and eradicate an insidious vampire horde which is taking advantage of the killings on both side of the war. Heavy on the romance. I'm not really someone who enjoys the supernatural romances on the market, but I will read them when I'm short on other kinds of more interesting reading material.
This Side of the Grave by Jeaniene Frost
That said, I still continue to enjoy reading about the relationship between half-vampire Cat Crawfield and her full vampire husband Bones. They are hot, spicy and sassy! Together they get up to all sorts of fun, sex, fighting, trouble, murder, mayhem, violence, and trying to save the world over and over again. Cat's psychic/vampire abilities continue to evolve -- a bit like Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake who I also enjoy reading about -- except Cat is only having wild monkey sex with her husband. As an aside, I probably should add that unlike some people who complain about Anita Blake's sex life, I don't have a problem with polyamory and other sorts of more exotic bedroom sports as long as they are between fully responsible, consciously consenting adults.
Deadworld by J. N. Duncan
Jackie Rutledge is a tough female FBI agent who finds herself dealing with a serial killer who happens to be a vampire. In the course of her investigation she finds herself falling for a yummy PI named Nick Anderson who also happens to be a vampire. Yup, I really lucked out this time folks. Another romantic supernatural story.
Slim pickings at the library make for one desperate reader here...
Living on the Edge by Shannon K. Butcher
This one's closest claim to supernatural status is that the author's husband is Jim Butcher, author of the fabulous Harry Dresden wizard series. I guess Shannon's writing is ok as far as the romance-thriller genre goes, if you like that sort of thing. Sloane is the female heroine of this novel. She's tough and trained as a paramilitary body-guard. She falls for Lucas, a tough and handsome ex-soldier. Together they take down an evil Columbian drug lord while saving the life of one of Sloane's best friends. Lots of guns, violence, blood, and explicit sex in this one. Uh huh.
Walking Dead by Greg Rucka
Out of all the books in this group this one was the best and it wasn't even a supernatural one. The monsters in this novel were all too human and all too believably evil. In fact, this novel was so upsetting that it really affected me for days afterwards, and even kept me awake with the lights on the night that I read it.
Atticus Kodiak and his wife Alena Cizkova have retired from their former (very dangerous) professions to hide out in a tiny little town in the former USSR. All they want is to live the rest of their lives together in peace and safety. Unfortunately as long as you are human and living with other human beings, there is no where you can go to escape the evil of mankind.
Atticus and Alena are drawn into the world of human sex trafficking when the daughter of their neighbor is kidnapped and the rest of her family slaughtered. Atticus goes on a long journey around the world to track down the 14 year old girl, exposing an intricate network of ruthless human exploitation, deep suffering, violence, greed and corruption.
This is one fabulously researched and written novel about a horrifying reality and the sort of true evil that people are capable of. I will be on the look out for more novels by this author even though he does not write within my usual preferred genre.
After reading that, who needs vampires and zombies? Me. That's who.
I will be on the lookout for some new novels of my favorite genre soon.
Wish me better novel hunting luck than I had this last time!
The other thing I've learned is that if I don't make any reading notes about what I'm reading before I return the books from the library, I quickly forget what the books were about unless they were truly spectacular - such as what has happened with the last list of books I mentioned in the previous post, but did not get around to writing anything about. :-(
Lesson learned.
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Recent Reads - quick post
Here's a list of recent reads that I haven't reviewed yet
but have to return to the library!
Dead Streets by Tim Waggoner
- An unusual sort of zombie with his own free will, soul, and consciousness fights crime in the Underworld with his half vampire lover at his sort of not completely decaying side. Talk about 'til undeath do us part...or some such forever romantic nonsense...
Dreamfever by Karen Marie Moning
- Bad FAE! Hooray! Not silly useless cherubic fairies.
I just hate it when I pick up a book, love the story and the characters but something like the third or fourth book into the series already). (More later. )
The Messenger by Jan Burke - Immortal guy who can talk to the recently dying meets female soul mate destined to share his powers and abilities and together they defeat a big bad. Nice cemetery dogs.
Ghost Ship by P.J. Alderman - Murder mystery with someone who can talk to ghosts. Ho Hum.
Flirt by Laurell K. Hamilton - Better than some recent writing. (More later. )
Karavans by Jennifer Roberson - Ok.
Witch and Wizard by James Patterson - Young Adult. Great subversiveness.
A Brush of Darkness by Allison Pang - (more later)
Must run to library now to return books before I get more fines...and get new books out to read of course.
but have to return to the library!
Dead Streets by Tim Waggoner
- An unusual sort of zombie with his own free will, soul, and consciousness fights crime in the Underworld with his half vampire lover at his sort of not completely decaying side. Talk about 'til undeath do us part...or some such forever romantic nonsense...
Dreamfever by Karen Marie Moning
- Bad FAE! Hooray! Not silly useless cherubic fairies.
I just hate it when I pick up a book, love the story and the characters but something like the third or fourth book into the series already). (More later. )
The Messenger by Jan Burke - Immortal guy who can talk to the recently dying meets female soul mate destined to share his powers and abilities and together they defeat a big bad. Nice cemetery dogs.
Ghost Ship by P.J. Alderman - Murder mystery with someone who can talk to ghosts. Ho Hum.
Flirt by Laurell K. Hamilton - Better than some recent writing. (More later. )
Karavans by Jennifer Roberson - Ok.
Witch and Wizard by James Patterson - Young Adult. Great subversiveness.
A Brush of Darkness by Allison Pang - (more later)
Must run to library now to return books before I get more fines...and get new books out to read of course.
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Multi-catch-up summary list
Once again I've read a bunch of books and fallen behind on writing about them. None of them were truly outstanding or made a very deep impression on me. Most were just mildly entertaining - which explains why two of them were books I'd already read, and forgotten that I'd read. So this will be a short form catch up post summing up the bare bones of what I've read recently.
* Unusual Suspects ed. Dana Stabelow
Mixture of supernatural/mystery short stories by various authors. Not terribly exciting for me.
* Born of Ice by Sherrilyn Kenyon
I actually liked this one. It had some shades of Joss Whedon's Firefly to it, kinda sorta.
* Death Spiral by James W. Nichol
A WW II war vet comes home with an uncanny ability to discover "who done it" and why. And somehow he seems to be at the center of all sorts of murderous activity that suddenly breaks out in the sleepy village he has come home to. Quite entertaining. Canadian too eh. ;-)
* Dragon Mage by Norton and Rabe
An adolescent's book, but nevertheless, well written, full of fun and fantasy, ancient Babylon, and Dragons.
* Trick of the Light by Rob Thurman
I had forgotten that I had read this book a few years ago. I liked the main female protagonist, a kickass supernatural Trickster character slash bar owner, but I wasn't bored or desperate enough for entertainment to read it again so I guess I didn't like it *that* much. However, if I found another one of her books with the same character in it but a different story, I'd probably read it for fun.
* Seventh Witch by Shirley Damsgaard
Another book I had already read a few years ago. This one is almost a "cosy" supernatural mystery. It's ok. I definitely didn't like it enough to read it again once I'd realized I'd already read it.
* The Road by Cormac McCarthy
This is a post-apocalyptic novel following the struggles of a father and son to survive when civilization is destroyed. It's very dark, and it certainly suits my mood and outlook on the dismal future of the human race and our ongoing destruction of the planet at the moment.
* Unusual Suspects ed. Dana Stabelow
Mixture of supernatural/mystery short stories by various authors. Not terribly exciting for me.
* Born of Ice by Sherrilyn Kenyon
I actually liked this one. It had some shades of Joss Whedon's Firefly to it, kinda sorta.
* Death Spiral by James W. Nichol
A WW II war vet comes home with an uncanny ability to discover "who done it" and why. And somehow he seems to be at the center of all sorts of murderous activity that suddenly breaks out in the sleepy village he has come home to. Quite entertaining. Canadian too eh. ;-)
* Dragon Mage by Norton and Rabe
An adolescent's book, but nevertheless, well written, full of fun and fantasy, ancient Babylon, and Dragons.
* Trick of the Light by Rob Thurman
I had forgotten that I had read this book a few years ago. I liked the main female protagonist, a kickass supernatural Trickster character slash bar owner, but I wasn't bored or desperate enough for entertainment to read it again so I guess I didn't like it *that* much. However, if I found another one of her books with the same character in it but a different story, I'd probably read it for fun.
* Seventh Witch by Shirley Damsgaard
Another book I had already read a few years ago. This one is almost a "cosy" supernatural mystery. It's ok. I definitely didn't like it enough to read it again once I'd realized I'd already read it.
* The Road by Cormac McCarthy
This is a post-apocalyptic novel following the struggles of a father and son to survive when civilization is destroyed. It's very dark, and it certainly suits my mood and outlook on the dismal future of the human race and our ongoing destruction of the planet at the moment.
Friday, April 8, 2011
Ghost Shadow by Heather Graham
This story is barely worth a mention in my opinion. It's typical American surface writing - New York Times bestselling fare, a completely predictable formulaic murder mystery with a love interest, and a woman with a gift for seeing ghosts who help her solve the crime/s. Ho hum, dee dum. Toss.
The Shape-Changer's Wife by Sharon Shinn
This is a lovely little gem of a story about a young wizard in training.
Aubrey is the pure of heart hero who is tested by darkness and corruption.
His most dangerous adversary is also his teacher - the Shape-Changer.
His forbidden love is his teacher's wife - who is not quite human, although she appears to be on the surface.
At stake is the choice to become a person of power, and to choose what to do with that power. Will Aubrey choose to emulate his teacher and become the type of wizard who lusts for power and control at the price of the suffering and oppression of those he has under his control, or will Aubrey use his power to to restore balance and freedom to those he could have power over?
As I said, it's a delightful little gem for an evening's worth of reading.
Aubrey is the pure of heart hero who is tested by darkness and corruption.
His most dangerous adversary is also his teacher - the Shape-Changer.
His forbidden love is his teacher's wife - who is not quite human, although she appears to be on the surface.
At stake is the choice to become a person of power, and to choose what to do with that power. Will Aubrey choose to emulate his teacher and become the type of wizard who lusts for power and control at the price of the suffering and oppression of those he has under his control, or will Aubrey use his power to to restore balance and freedom to those he could have power over?
As I said, it's a delightful little gem for an evening's worth of reading.
Chalice by Robin McKinley - and a reflection on modern society
I loved the world that Robin McKinley creates in this book. It is a world where the land and all creatures are intimately linked to the human beings who live upon it and vice versa. The humans are literally the caretakers of the elements, the woods, the animals, the bees and so on. The land is divided up into smaller parcels called demesne, and everyone has a place and a role to play in keeping the balance. Everything and everyone is interconnected in a delicate yet strong living web of life. When the balance is upset by some human flaw in character and behavior this has dire consequences on the environment and all of it's inhabitants.
Enter a woman who had humble beginnings as a woodskeeper and a beekeeper. The landsense choses her as the new "Chalice" which is one of the most powerful positions a woman can hold in a demesne. She has had no training or apprenticeship and comes to the job in a demesne which has been neglected and abused by it's former Master who died suddenly in a fire. The land is suffering. The people are suffering. The former Master's brother who was apprenticed to become a priest of the Fire element is brought back to take up the role of Master, but he is poorly suited to the job (at first), being almost completely changed into a fire elemental himself. Then in their weakness, they must face a threat from the arrogant and power hungry Overlord and a pet outsider he proposes to replace the blood related Master with.
The story of how these two people must go through huge transformations and trials in order to save their demesne and people is a fascinating one, which drew my imagination and empathy in and caught me fast. And, I couldn't help wishing that our world was more like this one - where the priority and responsibility of keeping a healthy balance in all elements, land, resources, and living creatures was held higher than anything else.
If only humans had the "land-sense" - an awareness of, and sensitivity to the land and it's creatures that they lived upon, maybe we wouldn't be in the horrible trouble that we are in right now. Instead we have the Japanese dumping millions of tons of nuclear contaminated water into the oceans over who knows long a period of time? The radiation that has travelled in the air streams across the globe has so far reached from the West to the East coast of North America. Even where I live, I know that radiation contaminated rain has already fallen. It may be "low" levels at the moment, but radiation is radiation, and there is no end in sight to the poisonous emissions issuing from the devastated Fukushima Nuclear site. Over time it will accumulate. Over time, different kinds of radiation, with different half-lives and potencies will emerge from the site and gradually and inexorably pollute the earth, air and water for generations to come.
We depend upon the Sun for our lives, for the growth of plants and so on. But if the Sun itself were to suddenly visit the Earth, it would kill all of us, and everything on the planet. Balance. Proper time and place. Life is a delicate thing. Most humans are so arrogant, (like the Overlord and his outlander usurper wanting to supplant the ones who have the natural land sense and care for the land.) we think we can continue to rape, pillage, plunder the earth and all of it's denizens, and live our artificial lives which are in complete disharmony and imbalance with everything else, including ourselves with no consequence. But, like in Chalice, everything really is interconnected, earth, air, fire, water, and spirit. What happens on one corner of the Earth will eventually affect the other areas of the Earth.
It's not just the radiation which is worrying me. There are so many other things that worry me which human beings in power are responsible for. There are Genetically Modified crops and other organisms. There are cloned animals. There is the over dependence upon fossil fuels. The latest thing seems to be silver nanoparticles which are destroying essential microbes and plants and who knows what else as they've just started to study their effects... There is Big Science, Big Pharma and a powerful Western dominated mono-medical industry that I simply do not trust or respect, which in turn does not respect or acknowledge alternative or more natural forms of health management. Big bloated and falsely inflated Money. Big Government. Big Military and War. Poverty. Human Trafficking and Slavery. Exploitation and Abuse of all kinds. I could go on and on...but the point is, the direction in which we are headed is, I fear the wrong direction, and I find it hard to live my brief little life as a human being on this planet and feel any sense of peace or harmony or purpose in relation to the human societies I see around me. I'm very troubled by all of this. My heart feels heavy. My spirit is saddened. I'm ashamed of my fellow human beings. I do the best that I can with my little life. I exercise and try to make healthy environmentally conscious food choices. I live a very modest life with the smallest carbon footprint I can make. But, I know that this little bit that I do is not enough. I think that ultimately the human race is going to kill itself and everything around it will suffer and be destroyed along with us.
Over the last couple of weeks since Fukushima, I kept thinking about the "Resident Evil" movie series. The Umbrella Corporation is the source of a powerful biohazard virus which either turns people into flesh devouring mindless zombies, or causes unpredictable, usually horrifying mutations in living creatures. Alice is the one rarest of all exception - she bonds with the T-virus and gains super-powers which the Umbrella Corporation lusts to own and control and use for its own power and profit.
For the first time I began to think of zombies as more than the mindless, disgusting, ravening creatures of horror film I have always seen them as. I began to see them as metaphors for the large majority of humans who mindlessly and selfishly consume everything advertised to them as desirable, as they scramble just to exist (and be "successful") within the artificial structures and machinery of society created for (and by) them. And, the world in Resident Evil which dries up and becomes mostly dead from the effects of the T-virus is the dead and destroyed world which I see in our future.
No wonder I escape into the type of books that I do. They offer alternative realities in which all of these issues can be explored and examined and experimented with. When bad things happen in each of my dark dystopian books it is a small catharsis for me to mourn the pain, the violence and bloodshed, the myriad of evils, corruptions and injustices, the losses, disasters, and horrors I see happening all around me every day. Sometimes "good" and balance wins. Sometimes, just like in life, "bad" and imbalance wins.
Enter a woman who had humble beginnings as a woodskeeper and a beekeeper. The landsense choses her as the new "Chalice" which is one of the most powerful positions a woman can hold in a demesne. She has had no training or apprenticeship and comes to the job in a demesne which has been neglected and abused by it's former Master who died suddenly in a fire. The land is suffering. The people are suffering. The former Master's brother who was apprenticed to become a priest of the Fire element is brought back to take up the role of Master, but he is poorly suited to the job (at first), being almost completely changed into a fire elemental himself. Then in their weakness, they must face a threat from the arrogant and power hungry Overlord and a pet outsider he proposes to replace the blood related Master with.
The story of how these two people must go through huge transformations and trials in order to save their demesne and people is a fascinating one, which drew my imagination and empathy in and caught me fast. And, I couldn't help wishing that our world was more like this one - where the priority and responsibility of keeping a healthy balance in all elements, land, resources, and living creatures was held higher than anything else.
If only humans had the "land-sense" - an awareness of, and sensitivity to the land and it's creatures that they lived upon, maybe we wouldn't be in the horrible trouble that we are in right now. Instead we have the Japanese dumping millions of tons of nuclear contaminated water into the oceans over who knows long a period of time? The radiation that has travelled in the air streams across the globe has so far reached from the West to the East coast of North America. Even where I live, I know that radiation contaminated rain has already fallen. It may be "low" levels at the moment, but radiation is radiation, and there is no end in sight to the poisonous emissions issuing from the devastated Fukushima Nuclear site. Over time it will accumulate. Over time, different kinds of radiation, with different half-lives and potencies will emerge from the site and gradually and inexorably pollute the earth, air and water for generations to come.
We depend upon the Sun for our lives, for the growth of plants and so on. But if the Sun itself were to suddenly visit the Earth, it would kill all of us, and everything on the planet. Balance. Proper time and place. Life is a delicate thing. Most humans are so arrogant, (like the Overlord and his outlander usurper wanting to supplant the ones who have the natural land sense and care for the land.) we think we can continue to rape, pillage, plunder the earth and all of it's denizens, and live our artificial lives which are in complete disharmony and imbalance with everything else, including ourselves with no consequence. But, like in Chalice, everything really is interconnected, earth, air, fire, water, and spirit. What happens on one corner of the Earth will eventually affect the other areas of the Earth.
It's not just the radiation which is worrying me. There are so many other things that worry me which human beings in power are responsible for. There are Genetically Modified crops and other organisms. There are cloned animals. There is the over dependence upon fossil fuels. The latest thing seems to be silver nanoparticles which are destroying essential microbes and plants and who knows what else as they've just started to study their effects... There is Big Science, Big Pharma and a powerful Western dominated mono-medical industry that I simply do not trust or respect, which in turn does not respect or acknowledge alternative or more natural forms of health management. Big bloated and falsely inflated Money. Big Government. Big Military and War. Poverty. Human Trafficking and Slavery. Exploitation and Abuse of all kinds. I could go on and on...but the point is, the direction in which we are headed is, I fear the wrong direction, and I find it hard to live my brief little life as a human being on this planet and feel any sense of peace or harmony or purpose in relation to the human societies I see around me. I'm very troubled by all of this. My heart feels heavy. My spirit is saddened. I'm ashamed of my fellow human beings. I do the best that I can with my little life. I exercise and try to make healthy environmentally conscious food choices. I live a very modest life with the smallest carbon footprint I can make. But, I know that this little bit that I do is not enough. I think that ultimately the human race is going to kill itself and everything around it will suffer and be destroyed along with us.
Over the last couple of weeks since Fukushima, I kept thinking about the "Resident Evil" movie series. The Umbrella Corporation is the source of a powerful biohazard virus which either turns people into flesh devouring mindless zombies, or causes unpredictable, usually horrifying mutations in living creatures. Alice is the one rarest of all exception - she bonds with the T-virus and gains super-powers which the Umbrella Corporation lusts to own and control and use for its own power and profit.
For the first time I began to think of zombies as more than the mindless, disgusting, ravening creatures of horror film I have always seen them as. I began to see them as metaphors for the large majority of humans who mindlessly and selfishly consume everything advertised to them as desirable, as they scramble just to exist (and be "successful") within the artificial structures and machinery of society created for (and by) them. And, the world in Resident Evil which dries up and becomes mostly dead from the effects of the T-virus is the dead and destroyed world which I see in our future.
No wonder I escape into the type of books that I do. They offer alternative realities in which all of these issues can be explored and examined and experimented with. When bad things happen in each of my dark dystopian books it is a small catharsis for me to mourn the pain, the violence and bloodshed, the myriad of evils, corruptions and injustices, the losses, disasters, and horrors I see happening all around me every day. Sometimes "good" and balance wins. Sometimes, just like in life, "bad" and imbalance wins.
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Neil Gaiman's Blog about Diana Wynne Jones
http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2011/03/being-alive.html
I love Neil Gaiman's work.
I just read his blog about Diana Wynne Jones dying of cancer and it made me cry. It's a lovely tribute to her.
Jeepers I've been in a dark mood lately.
I love Neil Gaiman's work.
I just read his blog about Diana Wynne Jones dying of cancer and it made me cry. It's a lovely tribute to her.
Jeepers I've been in a dark mood lately.
Saturday, March 19, 2011
The Man With The Golden Torc by Simon R. Green
So it's the Super Moon - the closest Full Moon we've had to the earth in 20 years. It's nearly the Spring Equinox, a time of year which is supposed to herald the return of new life, and the beginning of a new year of growth and goodness. However, we have recently had the horrific Tsunami, Earthquake, and resultant Nuclear Meltdown disaster in Japan, and war, violence, death, and destruction going on all over the world. We are all so in need of a hero and some hope right now. I don't feel full of optimism at the moment. In fact I am feeling downright dark at the moment and this story suits my mood and nature perfectly right now.
The Man With the Golden Torc, is about a heroic guy who is born into a famous and powerful family (The Droods aka Druids) of what he believes to be heroes, people who supposedly fight for the "right". He himself has always been a bit of a loner, and a bit of a rebel, but one with a good heart, not one who is easily seduced into doing "wrong".
His cover name in the outside world is "Shaman Bond". I love this name of his because it's a nod to both the magickal aspects to the story, and a nod to the every day spy-technical aspects to the story.
Not far into the story our hero cum rebel begins to discover that not all is as it seems, even for himself - a man of the "Twilight", a person living not quite in and not quite outside of either the supernatural or the every day worlds, and someone who is not completely inside nor outside of the Drood family as well.
Can I ever relate to his liminal status! I love this character. He could be my male twin.
Another character which I love in this story is Girl Flower. Girl Flower is a nod to the Welsh myth of Bloddeuwedd . As anyone who knows me, and has kept up with my blog is aware, I have a particular fondness for owls. Bloddeuwedd" is Welsh for "owl".
The hero of the Welsh tale Lleu Llaw Gyffes is cursed by his mother to never marry a human wife. Well this doesn't seem fair does it? Every man has to have a woman all his very own right? Hmmmm... Oh that wicked driving human need to own and possess and control...
To circumvent this seemingly unreasonable curse two magicians Math and Gwydion take the flowers of the oak, broom, and meadowsweet to create the most beautiful maiden ever known to be Lleu Llaw Gyffes' wife. However, while he is away, she has an affair with the anti-hero Gronw Pebr and the two create a plan to murder Lleu.
Lleu is another one of these twilight persons. He cannot be killed as long as he is fully in one or another place or time or situation. He can only be killed when he is somewhere/somewhen inbetween. (e.g. he can only be killed at dusk, wrapped in a net with one foot on a cauldron and one on a goat and with a spear forged for a year during the hours when everyone is at mass.)
His wife shares this information with her lover and he tries to kill Lleu. The murder is not quite successful, and when Lleu returns, he transforms his unfaithful wife into an owl and curses her:
I've always thought this was a grossly unfair story to burden owls with. I think owls are lovely birds. However, it is true that they are mistrusted and feared in many cultures, being associated with death, darkness, ghosts, curses, and ye wicked old witchcraft. Le Sigh. Poor things.
Anyhow back to our deliciously Jungian story. For some mysterious reason our hero, Shaman Bond is driven out of the Drood Family by the Matriarch and the entire world is given license to hunt him down.
He has to take refuge in the underbelly of British civilization, with all the criminals, and he even has to go delving into the stinking city sewers for help and answers. Along the way, having to enlist help from the "dark side", he attracts a small band of helpers including Mr. Stab (Jack the Ripper), Molly Metcalf the wild witch, and Girl Flower (who is described as an elemental who can manifest as either a beautiful girl made of lovely flowers or a wickedly violent and murderous female made of owls talons).
Underground in the sewers Girl Flower takes a decimated rat's body and drops it into her bodice.
"Poor little ratty."
"Oh ick." said Molly.
"I am flowers darling." Girl Flower said stubbornly." And all dead things are as compost to my pretty petals." She slipped the rat carcass inside the front of her dress, and it immediately disappeared.
Molly looked at me. "Think about that the next time she invites you to unbutton her blouse."
I looked determinedly in another direction. "If she starts coughing up owl pellets, she's going back."
(Green p. 171)
(I'm liking this Girl more and more all the time by the way. )
Probably one of my most favorite parts of the story involves Mr. Stab revealing one of his underground super secret stashes of mutilated dead women's bodies posed around a Victorian table. Girl Flower examines the scene and she...
"floated prettily around the room, bending over withered shoulders to stare into corrupt faces, humming a happy song to herself. "You shouldn't have let this get to you darlings. All living things have their roots in dead things. It's the way of the world." She slipped a hand inside her dress and frowned prettily for a moment, and when she brought her hand out again it was piled high with seeds. She walked up and down both sides of the long table dropping a few seeds into the gaping mouths and empty eye sockets of every corpse. "Let new life bloom," she said. "It's nature's way."
Mr. Stab looked at her, and Girl Flower smiled happily back at him, entirely unafraid. And the man who was once called Jack by a whole horrified city nodded slowly.
"Perhaps I'll come back, in some future time," he said. "To see what strange new life has blossomed here."
I didn't kill him. As an agent in the field, you learn that sometimes you have to settle for little victories.
(Green p 174)
So. The novel is basically about the ambiguity of human nature and it's overwhelming selfish drive for power and control. Right and wrong, day and night, good and evil, life and death...things are not always so...black and white. Sometimes they are more grey, inbetweenish, and twilighty...and I have always identified myself as existing in that place so the novel suits me just fine.
I'm distinctly unhappy with the human race tonight. More-so than usual. I've never been happy with the way it runs its affairs. I don't trust any politicians or power systems in the world. I despise the way humanity rapes and pillages, plunders and exploits, destroys and poisons the world, and tramples pettily upon pretty much anything beautiful, valuable, vulnerable and natural that it cannot patent, possess, control, and make money off of.
As a Pagan, as a Witch. as a Woman, I'm supposed to be celebrating the Full Moon tonight. I'm supposed to be celebrating the Spring Equinox in a few days. How am I supposed to do that when I look around me and the whole world is in major upheaval: War, Corruption, Oppression, Pollution, Global Warming, Earthquakes, Tsunamis, Nuclear Meltdown...and political lie after lie after lie...
How long will we last to safely breath the air, drink the water, eat from the earth, and turn our faces to the sun after all that we have done, and when we reap what we have sown? What blooms will bloom this Spring and what fruits will ripen this Summer? What harvest will we see this coming Fall? And what will our Nuclear Winter be like?
"Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the center cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
-- William Butler Yeats, January 1919"
My feeling tonight is incredibly dark, dismal and dim -- dark enough to
quote a famous biblical phrase which is terribly unlike me.
I feel that ultimately we shall "Reap the Whirlwind" and that we will have deserved it.
"They that sow the wind, shall reap the whirlwind"
This quote comes from the Book of Hosea in the Hebrew Bible.
It was used by Bomber Harris in response to the Blitz of 1940.
I know human beings are constantly predicting doom and gloom, apocalypse
and so on, but really, how often do we have to @#$% things up before we don't
get any more second and third chances? How far do we have to go before we've
gone past the point of no return? We never learn from history. We are all so bloody
arrogant and selfish.
Forgive me or not, I really don't care, but I'm distinctly identifying with the view points of Mr. Stab and Girl Flower right now.
Ah well. That truly is Mother Nature isn't it. That which is meant to die and decay will. That which is meant to live will be born out of death.
Runa (aka Bloddeuwedd) gives Four Talons to Simon R. Green and The Man With the Golden Torc.
Sleep well little earth. I'm a pissed off witch tonight. So I'm letting go, and going with the flow. I'm thinking about Black Holes and imploding and exploding galaxies right now. Stars being born and stars dying. We are dust on the feet of the dancing Universe. Lord Shiva is dancing with the Goddess Kali.
The Man With the Golden Torc, is about a heroic guy who is born into a famous and powerful family (The Droods aka Druids) of what he believes to be heroes, people who supposedly fight for the "right". He himself has always been a bit of a loner, and a bit of a rebel, but one with a good heart, not one who is easily seduced into doing "wrong".
His cover name in the outside world is "Shaman Bond". I love this name of his because it's a nod to both the magickal aspects to the story, and a nod to the every day spy-technical aspects to the story.
Not far into the story our hero cum rebel begins to discover that not all is as it seems, even for himself - a man of the "Twilight", a person living not quite in and not quite outside of either the supernatural or the every day worlds, and someone who is not completely inside nor outside of the Drood family as well.
Can I ever relate to his liminal status! I love this character. He could be my male twin.
Another character which I love in this story is Girl Flower. Girl Flower is a nod to the Welsh myth of Bloddeuwedd . As anyone who knows me, and has kept up with my blog is aware, I have a particular fondness for owls. Bloddeuwedd" is Welsh for "owl".
The hero of the Welsh tale Lleu Llaw Gyffes is cursed by his mother to never marry a human wife. Well this doesn't seem fair does it? Every man has to have a woman all his very own right? Hmmmm... Oh that wicked driving human need to own and possess and control...
To circumvent this seemingly unreasonable curse two magicians Math and Gwydion take the flowers of the oak, broom, and meadowsweet to create the most beautiful maiden ever known to be Lleu Llaw Gyffes' wife. However, while he is away, she has an affair with the anti-hero Gronw Pebr and the two create a plan to murder Lleu.
Lleu is another one of these twilight persons. He cannot be killed as long as he is fully in one or another place or time or situation. He can only be killed when he is somewhere/somewhen inbetween. (e.g. he can only be killed at dusk, wrapped in a net with one foot on a cauldron and one on a goat and with a spear forged for a year during the hours when everyone is at mass.)
His wife shares this information with her lover and he tries to kill Lleu. The murder is not quite successful, and when Lleu returns, he transforms his unfaithful wife into an owl and curses her:
| “ | You will not dare to show your face ever again in the light of day ever again, and that will be because of enmity between you and all other birds. It will be in their nature to harass you and despise you wherever they find you. And you will not lose your name - that will always be "Bloddeuwedd (Flower-face)."[1] | ” |
I've always thought this was a grossly unfair story to burden owls with. I think owls are lovely birds. However, it is true that they are mistrusted and feared in many cultures, being associated with death, darkness, ghosts, curses, and ye wicked old witchcraft. Le Sigh. Poor things.
Anyhow back to our deliciously Jungian story. For some mysterious reason our hero, Shaman Bond is driven out of the Drood Family by the Matriarch and the entire world is given license to hunt him down.
He has to take refuge in the underbelly of British civilization, with all the criminals, and he even has to go delving into the stinking city sewers for help and answers. Along the way, having to enlist help from the "dark side", he attracts a small band of helpers including Mr. Stab (Jack the Ripper), Molly Metcalf the wild witch, and Girl Flower (who is described as an elemental who can manifest as either a beautiful girl made of lovely flowers or a wickedly violent and murderous female made of owls talons).
Underground in the sewers Girl Flower takes a decimated rat's body and drops it into her bodice.
"Poor little ratty."
"Oh ick." said Molly.
"I am flowers darling." Girl Flower said stubbornly." And all dead things are as compost to my pretty petals." She slipped the rat carcass inside the front of her dress, and it immediately disappeared.
Molly looked at me. "Think about that the next time she invites you to unbutton her blouse."
I looked determinedly in another direction. "If she starts coughing up owl pellets, she's going back."
(Green p. 171)
(I'm liking this Girl more and more all the time by the way. )
Probably one of my most favorite parts of the story involves Mr. Stab revealing one of his underground super secret stashes of mutilated dead women's bodies posed around a Victorian table. Girl Flower examines the scene and she...
"floated prettily around the room, bending over withered shoulders to stare into corrupt faces, humming a happy song to herself. "You shouldn't have let this get to you darlings. All living things have their roots in dead things. It's the way of the world." She slipped a hand inside her dress and frowned prettily for a moment, and when she brought her hand out again it was piled high with seeds. She walked up and down both sides of the long table dropping a few seeds into the gaping mouths and empty eye sockets of every corpse. "Let new life bloom," she said. "It's nature's way."
Mr. Stab looked at her, and Girl Flower smiled happily back at him, entirely unafraid. And the man who was once called Jack by a whole horrified city nodded slowly.
"Perhaps I'll come back, in some future time," he said. "To see what strange new life has blossomed here."
I didn't kill him. As an agent in the field, you learn that sometimes you have to settle for little victories.
(Green p 174)
So. The novel is basically about the ambiguity of human nature and it's overwhelming selfish drive for power and control. Right and wrong, day and night, good and evil, life and death...things are not always so...black and white. Sometimes they are more grey, inbetweenish, and twilighty...and I have always identified myself as existing in that place so the novel suits me just fine.
I'm distinctly unhappy with the human race tonight. More-so than usual. I've never been happy with the way it runs its affairs. I don't trust any politicians or power systems in the world. I despise the way humanity rapes and pillages, plunders and exploits, destroys and poisons the world, and tramples pettily upon pretty much anything beautiful, valuable, vulnerable and natural that it cannot patent, possess, control, and make money off of.
As a Pagan, as a Witch. as a Woman, I'm supposed to be celebrating the Full Moon tonight. I'm supposed to be celebrating the Spring Equinox in a few days. How am I supposed to do that when I look around me and the whole world is in major upheaval: War, Corruption, Oppression, Pollution, Global Warming, Earthquakes, Tsunamis, Nuclear Meltdown...and political lie after lie after lie...
How long will we last to safely breath the air, drink the water, eat from the earth, and turn our faces to the sun after all that we have done, and when we reap what we have sown? What blooms will bloom this Spring and what fruits will ripen this Summer? What harvest will we see this coming Fall? And what will our Nuclear Winter be like?
"Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the center cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
-- William Butler Yeats, January 1919"
My feeling tonight is incredibly dark, dismal and dim -- dark enough to
quote a famous biblical phrase which is terribly unlike me.
I feel that ultimately we shall "Reap the Whirlwind" and that we will have deserved it.
"They that sow the wind, shall reap the whirlwind"
This quote comes from the Book of Hosea in the Hebrew Bible.
It was used by Bomber Harris in response to the Blitz of 1940.
I know human beings are constantly predicting doom and gloom, apocalypse
and so on, but really, how often do we have to @#$% things up before we don't
get any more second and third chances? How far do we have to go before we've
gone past the point of no return? We never learn from history. We are all so bloody
arrogant and selfish.
Forgive me or not, I really don't care, but I'm distinctly identifying with the view points of Mr. Stab and Girl Flower right now.
Ah well. That truly is Mother Nature isn't it. That which is meant to die and decay will. That which is meant to live will be born out of death.
Runa (aka Bloddeuwedd) gives Four Talons to Simon R. Green and The Man With the Golden Torc.
Sleep well little earth. I'm a pissed off witch tonight. So I'm letting go, and going with the flow. I'm thinking about Black Holes and imploding and exploding galaxies right now. Stars being born and stars dying. We are dust on the feet of the dancing Universe. Lord Shiva is dancing with the Goddess Kali.
Saturday, March 5, 2011
Waking The Witch by Kelley Armstrong
I'm rather fond of this Canadian author partially because she lives in Ontario (my home province), and she writes decent quality supernatural thriller/detective novels with convincing kick a$$ strong female leads. I am always confident that when I pick up a book by her, I am going to be entertained and so far, I have not been disappointed.
This particular Otherworld novel features young Savannah Levine as the main female character. At 21, little Savannah is growing up into a proper good-bad witch/sorceress! And she's ready to take on the detecting tradition of her guardians Paige and Lucas herself - with just a little back up from a couple of friends of course.
I have to admit that this one really kept me guessing right to the very end, although I did start suspecting just one of the many bad "guys" sprinkled into the plot a little earlier on.
Overall it was a fun read for an non-stop rainy day. Just WHEN *is* it going to stop raining anyway? I am just going to have to start reading another library book to while away the evening hours...
Eeny meeny miny mo, which book is the next to go?
This particular Otherworld novel features young Savannah Levine as the main female character. At 21, little Savannah is growing up into a proper good-bad witch/sorceress! And she's ready to take on the detecting tradition of her guardians Paige and Lucas herself - with just a little back up from a couple of friends of course.
I have to admit that this one really kept me guessing right to the very end, although I did start suspecting just one of the many bad "guys" sprinkled into the plot a little earlier on.
Overall it was a fun read for an non-stop rainy day. Just WHEN *is* it going to stop raining anyway? I am just going to have to start reading another library book to while away the evening hours...
Eeny meeny miny mo, which book is the next to go?
Friday, March 4, 2011
A Bad, Bad Girl
I've been a bad, bad girl. I've been reading, but neglecting to write up any reviews. As a result I've totally lost track of how many books I've read and liked (or not liked) since my last entry. :-(
Right now I've just got two already read books left out of my latest stack of novels that I haven't returned to the library yet. They are:
Indigo Springs by A.M. Dellamonica
Blood and Ice by Robert Masello
I also have a stack of brand new library books which I haven't read yet.
They are:
Waking the Witch by Kelley Armstrong
The Great Tree of Avalon by T.A. Barron
The Man with the Golden Torc by Simon R. Green
Ghost Shadow by Heather Graham
Chalice by Robin McKinley
The Shape Changer's Wife by Sharon Shinn
-------------------------------------------------------
Blood and Ice was a vampire story. Basically two British vampire lovers get chained together and thrown overboard by a hostile nautical crew near the South Pole in the last century and are frozen solid until modern day South Pole researchers find them, bring them up, thaw them, and then have to deal with the consequences. An interesting setting, full of fascinating tidbits about what the flora and fauna of the South Pole is like, and historical data as well. Obviously a lot of research work was done to write this book.
Indigo Springs was a dark fantasy story filled with magickal forces, magickal creatures, magickal transformations, and the eternal battle between human good and evil. There were some interesting character developments in this novel. I particularly liked the main female character Astrid who is quite complex and conflicted in many ways and on many levels, including her bisexuality. Very imaginative and creative. Not just your average night of simple entertainment novel. I would read more of her work if I could get my hands on it. A.M. Dellamonica's (who by the way is a Canadian gal living in B.C. with her wife Kelly Robson) next novel in progress is called The Wintergirls. I will be keeping an eye out for it.
Ok. "It is a dark and stormy night". Environment Canada has just issued a heavy rain warning. Sounds like the perfect night to dig my head deep into a nice juicy book. Waking The Witch is my first choice of course!
Right now I've just got two already read books left out of my latest stack of novels that I haven't returned to the library yet. They are:
Indigo Springs by A.M. Dellamonica
Blood and Ice by Robert Masello
I also have a stack of brand new library books which I haven't read yet.
They are:
Waking the Witch by Kelley Armstrong
The Great Tree of Avalon by T.A. Barron
The Man with the Golden Torc by Simon R. Green
Ghost Shadow by Heather Graham
Chalice by Robin McKinley
The Shape Changer's Wife by Sharon Shinn
-------------------------------------------------------
Blood and Ice was a vampire story. Basically two British vampire lovers get chained together and thrown overboard by a hostile nautical crew near the South Pole in the last century and are frozen solid until modern day South Pole researchers find them, bring them up, thaw them, and then have to deal with the consequences. An interesting setting, full of fascinating tidbits about what the flora and fauna of the South Pole is like, and historical data as well. Obviously a lot of research work was done to write this book.
Indigo Springs was a dark fantasy story filled with magickal forces, magickal creatures, magickal transformations, and the eternal battle between human good and evil. There were some interesting character developments in this novel. I particularly liked the main female character Astrid who is quite complex and conflicted in many ways and on many levels, including her bisexuality. Very imaginative and creative. Not just your average night of simple entertainment novel. I would read more of her work if I could get my hands on it. A.M. Dellamonica's (who by the way is a Canadian gal living in B.C. with her wife Kelly Robson) next novel in progress is called The Wintergirls. I will be keeping an eye out for it.
Ok. "It is a dark and stormy night". Environment Canada has just issued a heavy rain warning. Sounds like the perfect night to dig my head deep into a nice juicy book. Waking The Witch is my first choice of course!
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