Chrissy's Rants

I'm Not Sure Why Leila Hasn't Posted About This

2007-02-13T11:39:00.000-05:00

But, OH MY GOD she got mentioned in School Library Journal! That's so cool! Congratulations! Is this a congratulatory thing? I have no idea, but it's really cool!

A few other folks that are familair also got mentioned so congrats to them as well, but I'm really excited for Leila, because I know her and she got mentioned in a magazine so I'm not only excited for her that she got mentioned, I'm excited that I know someone who got mentioned in a magazine. Hmmm, yeah, I'll stop babbling now.

Now I can send her the cool book I found as a "congrats gift" rather than a kind of weird "I saw this and you HAD to have it gift".

I promise I'll get to the post office soon.

Now, I'm Pissed

2007-02-10T23:47:00.000-05:00

OK, I haven't been reviewing lately. I haven't really read much that has made me stand up and go "WOW" (well, maybe one or two things) or anything that has pissed me off enough to throw it across the room...

Until now.

I've been slogging through a lot, and I mean A LOT of the paranormal chic books. You know the ones I'm talking about. The vamp bounty hunter books, the shifter books, the basically "Well Laurell K and Buffy are so popular, let's publish all these others and see if we can get rich" books. I got to the point where some one would mention on of these series and I couldn't remember if I read them or not, so I'm basically in the process of making a road map of them.

So, here I am, recovering from a migraine, reading my newest random pick, Mona Lisa Awakening by Sunny (yeah, yeah, the singular author name really should have been a clue). It got decent reviews in Romatic Times and is PLASTERED with "if you like Laurell K and Anne Bishop you'll love this". Not that this is huge praise these days. Just about every paranormal book with a female main character now is marketed as "if you like Laurell you love" but I like Anne Bishop and most folks don't pay much attention to her.

So, what do I find? A book that is based up on the concept of another race/species separate from human (I won't even get into that they're from the moon) that centers on males serving Queens. Gosh, that sounds so much like my favorite series The Black Jewels, but I'll read a bit more, and reserve judgement. Turns out, the main character is a Queen and gee, also a healer. Wow, that sounds just like the main character from Black Jewels. And we meet another Queen named Janelle, who is the chief healer of these "mooninites". Alright, Janelle is sort of a popular fantasy name, I won't call foul just yet despite the fact THAT'S THE NAME OF THE MAIN CHARACTER IN THE BLACK JEWELS. And then we meet and very random side character named Tersa. Tersa? Not a common name at all. As a matter of fact I've only seen that name one other place. AS A VERY IMPORTANT CHARACTER IN BLACK JEWELS.

OH MY FUCKING GOD I'M READING FAN FICTION.

From Mona Lisa:

"We are drawn to Queens," Amber replied. "It is our nature to desire to serve you, protect you. We require your warmth, you presence, as much as you require our strength. She is the Queen I have dreamt all my life of serving."

From various passages in The Black Jewels Trilogy:

"Just once, I'd like to serve a Queen I could respect, someone I could truly believe in. A strong Queen who wouldn't fear my strength. A Queen I could also call a friend."

"For Blood males, the First Law is to honor, cherish and protect. The second is to serve. The third is to obey."

Jaenelle is referred to often as "Dreams Made Flesh" in The Black Jewels Trilogy.

So basically, we have the same social concept (not the same world or story because Mona Lisa takes place in our modern day world and the Black Jewels takes place in its own original fantasy world) , but Bishop writes far better.

And the dedications page finally got me:

"And special thanks to Laurell K. Hamilton and Anne Bishop, whose wonderful stories inspired my Monere Children of the Moon series."

Just because you thank someone, doesn't make it OK to steal their work. Fans of Laurell and Anne will not like this because they don't want the same story they've come to love stolen and poorly rewritten (That's why so many fans of LKH have already stopped buying her work.).

I can't believe this got published. It's nothing more than concepts, names, ideas and almost full phrases cobbled together from various LKH and Bishop work to make a very poorly written attempt at semi-erotica paranormal fiction. I say semi because it's chock full of queasy sex scenes, that can't decide if they want to be graphic/raunchy or romantic-euphemized and numerous near rapes. Just what I love in my erotica.

Edited to address severe flaws:

The Monere (mooninites) have been living on earth for 4 millenia, yet they have neither integrated themselves with humans, nor seem to know anything about them. One of the 150 year olds didn't know what cheese was.
They derive no joy or pleasure from mating with humans yet there are enough Mixed Bloods running around to require Queens to keep midwives on hand to dump unwanted mixed offspring off at local orphanges. And if therey're working in the damn sex industry, birth control anyone?
The Queens are TERRIFIED at the idea of one of their males going rogue and raping them, yet they seem to encourage that behavior in their society. There is no law against raping a Mixed Blood (they keep them around as servants) and folks just stand around and watch. Also atleast two of the Queens encouraged their males to rape other woman.
Halcyon, the demon dead High Prince of Hell. HE MAKES NO DAMN SENSE IN THE CONTEXT OF THIS BOOK. He only makes sense in the context of concepts swiped from the Black Jewels books, where the demon dead were explained and made sense and the High Lord of Hell, Saetan, played a main roll. Oh, and by the way, the physcal descriptions almost match.

EWW EWW EWW EWW EWW

2006-10-18T21:20:00.000-04:00

I could be blogging about books I've been reading, like I should be. I could be blogging about our upcoming move. I could even be going on and on about my level 60 troll rogue.

But no.

Instead I am writing about a sequel to THIS.

Yes! It's finding gross horrible bugs in my food Part Two!

Pizza. Three pieces in. Cockroach.

The Classics Rant

2006-08-17T10:40:00.000-04:00

This is in response to something over at Leila's blog. I just wanted a copy of it here in case I needed to find it again later.

I appreciate that you folks had good experiences and good teachers while learning the classics but I however did not, and I suspect that the article's author is speaking from an experience similiar to mine, or has a child with a similiar experience. I still have a knee-jerk reaction whenever someone tells me a book is a classic.

Tenth Grade: We had a book report due every two weeks. We had a list of classics to choose from expressly for these book reports. I remember maybe four books. That's 9 months of school, 2 books a month (vacation was not an excuse) and I remember maybe 4? We never talked about any of those selections. Also we read, as a class, 1984 and Juius Caesar. When we weren't handing in rough drafts of book reports, getting quizzed on vocab, or diagraming sentences, we were MEMORIZING passages from the classics being read as a class. That's two weeks at a time dedicated to 30 14-15 year olds getting up in front of the class and reciting Mark Antony's speech, which after the second stuttering rendition loses all meaning.

Eleventh Grade: American literature year in Shrewsbury. I remember reading Grapes of Wrath and Moby Dick. We never discussed the Great Depression or how it occured or the ramifications of it. We were quizzed. We were spoon fed that Moby Dick was a story about revenge, and were not allowed to come to any conclusions about it ourselves.

Twelfth Grade: Oh, this one was my favorite. I had one of the best teachers, by reputation, in the school. I was taking AP english. I thought we'd be reading and discussing, finally, because wouldn't that be what a college course did? I was disappointed. We had quizzes 3-4 times a week, on what we should have read the night before. Mind you this does NOT include the constant that was the Friday vocab quiz. When we were't being qizzed, we were writing timed practice AP test essays about the diction or the syntax of our classics. So when did we have time to discuss these rather thickly written books (eg. Crime and Punishment)? We didn't. It seemed to be enough that we could name the characters on the quizzes.

In summary, I went to Art School not so much becasue I wanted to be an artist, but because I was sick of "reading" classics and being forced to regurgitate names and places and essays on the successful diction. Despite my love of reading I never wanted to have to read classics ever again. My high school experience almost killed my desire to read. I can't imagine what it did to those folks who already didn't like reading. So while, yes, there are ways to teach them well, for many it is not the norm. I share the author's opinion. If you can't teach classics well, don't teach them. Teach kids to love reading. Don't teach them that some books are more worth reading than others because of a label. Just let them read.

Heavy Metal and You - Christopher Krovatin

2006-08-01T14:32:00.000-04:00

I didn't think this book was going where it went and then it did, so I was kind of disappointed.

What that all means:

Heavy Metal Kid, Sam, starts dating preppy girl, Melissa. Personality wise, these two have no business dating, but they really seem to like each other and get along. Actually Sam is truly jazzed and excited in such an adorable way (this is how I know I'm old, I think teen boy in love is adorable - in a kitten eep kind of way) that this is what made me think the plot wasn't going to be reminiscent of a John Hughes movie, two incompatable people get together and are pushed apart by their different philosphies/life circumstances/asshole friends and then find some how to be togther anyway. This isn't really where the story went, but I was still just a little dissapointed.

Now that that's out of the way, umm, I thought the book was adorable, and I'm sure the author would be thrilled to hear me describe it that way. I finally understand what ya'll are talking about when you say 'literary crush'. I loved Sam. I'm willing to forgive the Holden thing, because his mix CDs were right on target, and his story pauses and rants were great. I was so pissed at Melissa for here reaction to the club incident. I thought what he did was awesome. I was happy where the book went in the end, and how in went there, though I will admit I was worried for a while.

It was good. Read it.

Leila's review.

Which Brings Me to You - Steve Almond and Julianna Baggot

2006-08-01T13:31:00.000-04:00

I'm not sure what to do with this one. This falls into the category of something I never would have picked up on my own but since Leila suggested it, I'd give it a try. The premise sounded interesting, two sort of fringe people meet up at a wedding and in lieu of a sexual encounter in the coat closet they decide to step back, and write each other letters (real writing on paper) of personal truths. It was not going to be a courtship through correspondences, it was going to be an exercise in confessions. Ok, still with it.

So what I expected was truths: silly beliefs, philosophies, what shapes a person, and how they came to them. Instead, what I got was a catologue of failed relationships. The first teen age relationships are cute and touching and those always fail and you feel for the characters. But when these same characters are in there late 20's and the relationships are still failing because of personal sabotages, poor descisions, and general ennui with life, it goes from funny to tedious, and just a little pathetic. Was I suppose to feel this? I'm really not sure.

Now saying all that, the writing was fantastic. The authors fall away and you do believe in the reality of Jane and John. Enmeshed into the, what I felt, sad storyline were these fantastic bits of imagery or descriptions that make me want to go read more of both these authors books, as long as they have nothing to do with relationships.

On the Violent Femmes:

I became an insufferable fan. I must have listened to the first album a thousand times, those dark, catchy anthems of the yodeling unlaid, the gospel music of the anguished suburban white boy.

On self knowledge:

Sometimes I would hold onto a simple object-a salt shaker, and aspirin bottle-and I'd envy how it knew its place, its role, its function. It's unbearable now to think how impressed I could be by the pleasurable self-knowledge of a light switch.

I loved the crafting of the language and the descriptions. I just could not take the failed relationship after failed realtionship and the self-absorbed psychoanalysis of the characters throughout each one. So I don't know what to do with this one. I couldn't stand the story, but I post-noted up huge amounts of the books because I loved the language.

Dearly Devoted Dexter - Jeff Lindsay

2006-07-26T13:44:00.000-04:00

OK this is the second time I've tried to sit down and review this book. I've figured out that I can't talk about this one without talking a bit about the first one, Darkly Dreaming Dexter. and maybe I can't even do that, because what I want to discuss will contain spoilers. So, damn it I'm back where I started.

I guess then I'll try to speak in generalities. First book: Loved it. I almost never go for mysteries or mystery thrillers. I don't know why, I just have never had the patience. I do not like based-on-reality gore/violence. Reading about serial killers and how they torture a victim, so far down on my list of what is OK to read as to be invisible. But Dexter is a different kind of serial killer. He's been "squared away" and sorted out by his foster father, who understood Dexter's brokenness and pointed it in a direction. Dexter goes after other serial killers, mostly those who prey on children. He is a force of vengence, and I'm strangely comfortable with that. What Dexter does is still just as horrific, and he is just as inhuman. Much of the book revolves around Dexter's mask of humanity, his attempt to blend in, which provides for quite the humorous observations and made Dexter a very likable character. I also found it rather hilarious that much of Darkly revolved around Dexter trying to figure out if he was crazy or not (well of course he is as he concedes, but is he 'that' kind of crazy).

Second book: Like it, but did not love it. It was very 'sitcom". We see less of Dexter the predator, who I had come to love, and we see more of Dexter the trying to play at human, albeit through very legitimate plot devices. The "girlfriend finding the ring and assuming it's a proposal" scene was a little much for me. I also still take issue with how the first book ended and there being not the fall out from it that I would have expected (this is where I have to be vague to avoid major spoilers). The ending to this one was also just a little too neat wrapped up in a nice little package. Perhaps I'm being too picky. I still enjoyed the book and really hope we will see more Dexter books in the near future.

Some quotes that were just plain priceless and why these books are so fun to read. I like Dexter's voice, and I enjoy that while on the surface he tries to blend in, but in his own head he just doesn't get it and has no capacity to care that he doesn't get it.

From Darkly:

"What was sleep, after all, but the process by which we dumped our insanity into a dark subconscious pit and came out on the other side ready to eat cereal instead of the neighbor's children?"

From Dearly:

"I found that if I limited myself to one or two beers, I could relax just enough to blend in with the slipcover on the couch."

"I knew nothing at all about love and I never would. It didn't seem like such a terrible lack to me, although it does make it difficult to understand popular music."

And for more info, Leila's reviews of Darkly and Dearly.

Fallen made into a TV show

2006-07-21T20:32:00.000-04:00

The YA book series by Thomos E. Sniegoski that begins with The Fallen has been turned into a TV series on ABC Family.

Mostly just interesting. The Fallen was pretty good as supernatural thrillers based on Christian beliefs/Angel Wars go.

Yes this is random

2006-07-21T13:59:00.000-04:00

I got to the end of Lamb and read the afterword. I immediately happened to start reading Dearly Devoted Dexter by Jeff Lindsay, and caught the acknowledgments page where I made an interesting discovery. Christopher and Jeff share the same literary agent. Just thought that was cool. My and Jeremy's thanks go out to Nick Ellison for getting these authors published.

Lamb The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal - Christopher Moore

2006-07-21T13:30:00.000-04:00

I've talked about this book, I've recommended this book, this is the second time I've read it, so now it's time to comment on it.

Lamb describes Jesus' (actually Joshua in the Hebrew) life, all the missing stuff the Bible left out. It's fiction, it's humor, it's highly blasphemous, but it is also touching in a variety of ways. I read this book for the first time around the same time that Mel Gibson's The Passion came out. Lamb with its humor and completely ridiculous situations did more for my faith in the man that may have been The Christ than some horrible movie about how he was killed could ever have done. Yep, that's how I feel.

We follow Biff and Joshua as Josh tries to learn how to be the Messiah. Josh knows who and what he is, but he struggles to figure out what that means and what it means that he should do. As one can imagine it's quite the journey, both of self and across the ancient world. Biff offers not only comic relief, but also a look at the very human side The Christ.

Lamb was recommended to me by Jeremy's younger brother. This is the passage that was described to me that made me want to read it:
[scene takes place at the wedding in Cana, where Jesus turned water into wine]

Just then Joshua stumbled though the gate and crashed into us. We were able to catch ourselves and him before anyone fell. The Messiah was holding the little girl's pet bunny, hugging it to his cheek with the big back feet swinging free. He was gloriously drunk. "Know what?" Josh said. "I love bunnies. They toil not, neither do they bark. Henceforth and from now on, I decree that whenever something bad happens to me, there shall be bunnies around. So it shall be written. Go ahead Biff, write it down."

Now, come on. Have you ever heard a better reason of why there are bunnies related to Easter, the resurection of Christ?

Freaks Alive, on the Inside - Annette Curtis Klause

2006-07-18T13:19:00.000-04:00

Off the top of my head, I can give atleast 6 reasons why this book will get banned. Of course, that's only if anyone bothers to actually read it.

It was pretty OK. I liked Klause's other books better. I keep having the feeling like this book is written for a younger audience, though what is making me feel that way given the 'bannable content' in it I have no idea. At it's heart it is Historical Fiction, taking place in 1899, but unlike many YA books in this genre, it doesn't read like a history lesson at all. It's rather fantastic in this respect. The main character belongs to a family/troupe of performing 'freaks', human oddities in other words, though he himself has no such oddities about him. Given that set up there is a lot about predujice and judgment of folks based on appearance, but again not of the frying pan variety. Our hero runs away to find his fortune and finds a great deal of adventure in the process. There is also the supernatural romance, which just gives the story an extra kick. It was very much in the style of a fairy tale.

Lots of action kept me pretty glued to the book. To me this is a very 'boy' book and I would not hesitate to recommend it as such. But be aware, there is swearing, vague sexual content, allusions to masturbation, murder, violence, but come one, the main character is a teenage boy, so all this stuff fits in with the story just fine. There is also great and accurate info about circus/side show life of this time period. It's what we've come to expect from Klause's work, good solid story, original characters and setting, good read. And a happy ending, which I was not expecting given the other books. Maybe that is what is making me feel like it's meant for younger readers. Huh, interesting thought, that.

Stuff I've been reading

2006-07-14T14:56:00.000-04:00

I promise I will document what has been going on, but not yet, I'm not ready to. I'm still having nightmares.

But, just to prove I haven't been completely slacking, though I kind of have, here's a list of stuff I've read/been reading in no particular order.

Jim Butcher

Storm Front
Fool Moon
Grave Peril

I only got through book 3 of the Dresden files. I have book 4, but really haven't been interested enough to read it. I really like the world Butcher creates, but truthfully, I can't stand Harry Dresden. He comes of as arrogant and yet too stupid to live. It's seriously impressive. I would love these books if Harry would just die. The folklore system is original and I love all the dumb geek pop culture references and I love Bob. Harry just gets in the way to me, and it's just sad. Saying that though, I have no prolem recommending these to folks who are fans of the paranormal mystery genre becasue I'm pretty sure my issues with Harry are just me.

Simon R. Green

Something From The Nightside

I was casting about for another series of paranormal mysteries (seems a popular trend these days) and this series came up. It's perfectly servicable, but I should NOT have read the Amazon reviews. On reviewer complained that the author constantly used the phrase "in the Nightside". He does. I may not have been as bothered if I hadn't been somewhat looking for it, but as it was it became glaring and almost comical how often that phrase was used. If you can get past that though, this is a very original look at a dark para-dimension that we in the normal world can sometimes slip into. My other issue however is it is EXTREMELY unclear what the series order is. It is not marked ANYWHERE on the books. That alone was enough for me to not bother reading further than the first book.

Lilith Saintcrow

Working for the Devil

Sound like a made up pen name? Yeah, does to me too. I ran across this title in my grandmother's copy of Romantic Times Book Club Magazine. I don't care what anyone says, this is one of the best review magazines for genre fiction I have ever read. Obviously, they center on romance and books with romantic subplots, but still. They are extremely thorough and TRUTHFUL. If a books sucks, they tell you and then explain why. They are not like Publisher's Weekly who seem to give every popular book a good review.
As far as this book is concerned, it was pretty OK. I'd probably read more by this author or about this character. It is a paranormal mystery. The Devil is in it. The main character is a Necromancer. There is a romantic subplot. It does not take place in our world. I had some problems with the other world thing at the begining, there were some sci-fi tendencies that were bugging me, but those issues eventually faded as the story got moving.

Edward Lee

City Infernal

This book was describe in some review, I have no idea where now, as an X-rated Neverwhere. I really still have no idea what that means. CI was very, very grusome. It is about a teen who, for various reasons, goes to Hell to find her twin sister who commited suicide. This is not a pretty or romantic vision of Hell. It is about as horrific as one can imagine. Rather well done I think too. The writing is certainly nothing to rave about, but the story was interesting and kept me reading. Despite the severe, and I do mean severe, content, I could see handing this book to older male teens. You know, those ones who end up with a bizzare fascination with serial killers for reasons I will never understand. It's like the teen version of the trucks or dinosaur phase.

Susan Sizemore

I Burn for You
I Thirst for You
I Hunger for You
Master of Darkness

If you couldn't already tell, these are romance books. Cheesy covers and all. I really have no excuse for these other than my grandmother told me to check them out. They are vampire books. But they are also very standard formula romance books. I admit, the vampire lore in these is very original and well constructed, we just don't see whole lot of it. I will pick up the next one comingout this month. They are very good vampire candy, if that's all you expect from them.

Anne Bishop

Sebastian

First book in a new series. Doesn't hold a candle to the Black Jewels trilogy, but and interesting new world from Bishop. I will be checking out the rest of the series when it comes out. Yes, the main character is a half-Incubus.

Jeff Lindsay

Darkly Dreaming Dexter

I loved it. This was fantastic and I have been telling everyone I know to read it.

It must be nice

2006-07-14T14:30:00.000-04:00

This little thought of mine is vaguely related to the discussion of The Giving Tree over on Leila's blog.

While working at The Monkey I could help but think how nice it must be to have your favorite book as a child, the book that you always will remember with fondness, still be in print. To have it be so popular that it will never disappear.

For whatever reason these are my 2 favorite books from childhood:

The Great Green Turkey Creek Monster by Jim Flora - 1976

In the Peanut Butter Colony by Louis Ross and Margot Apple - 1979

Books under scrutiny

2006-03-16T14:41:00.000-05:00

In the wake of James Frey's memoir turning out to be fiction, it seems that more and more books are being poked at to see if they stand up to the pressure.

Now, Dan Brown has been accused of plagiarism but for the most part has been denying any possiblility of such a act. Atleast until I read this article.

I'm not sure I care. I have no interest in Dan Brown's works. I'm more interested in the book industry trend. Maybe editors will actually have to start to work again. Who knows?

Not really excited about this

2006-03-10T11:34:00.000-05:00

LKH's Anita Blake books are being made into a monthly comic books series.

I really liked the books. I was with her up until about Narcissus in Chains. I even was intrigued by plot developements in Incubus Dreams. But I just no longer have faith that these plots wont just be dropped, like so many others have in her books. I won't even buy the latest book, I just don't care anymore. And I especially don't care about the character featured in the latest novelette (hate that term).

I'm really sad that the series didn't hold up as it grew.

I feel I owe an explanation

2006-02-27T13:52:00.000-05:00

Why have I been so absent from posting for about 4 months? Well, I could blame it on World of Warcraft, but, really that's only a coping (or hiding) mechanism. I admit, I haven't been reading, and I know that's a bad sign, but I've been choosing to ignore it. It's been hard to find joy in anything these days. My grandmother's dying. It's pretty official at this point.

I've been bouncing over to New York as much as possible to spend as much time as I can with her. Needless to say I was very pissed that I got two very bad colds, one during Christmas that prevented me form spending almost anytime with her then.

The short of it is, the breast cancer she beat about 8 years ago came back. It moved into her bones, lungs, pancreas and ovaries. It's not responding to radiation and chemo. At all.

Somehow, I've been designated the strong one in this situation. My mother completely can't deal. She's not only losing her step-mother, but also her best friend. They (used to) shop together, trade shopping bags full of books back and forth, gossip about the family. Yet, I'm the one the used booksellers, the libray volunteers are quietly approaching and asking "What did the doctor's say?" and "How's she doing?" The only answer to these questions being "It's not good." I get to watch them try to hold back the tears same as I've been trying to do.

She has decided to stop with the chemo meds. They are making her sick and too tired. She is the kind of lady who would get up at 5 a.m. and paint the garage, wash the car, do the laundry, work in the garden and read 2-3 books all by 10 a.m. so the loss of energy has been devastating to her. Her doctors keep telling her there are about a dozen more chemos they could try, but they can't prove that any will actually help. She doesn't want to be a guinea pig, as she says. She is choosing quality of life over time.

She is buying hardcovers because she doesn't have time to wait for the paperbacks.

She is pissed that she won't get to read the last Harry Potter book.

She is leaving me her car, and wonders why I don't seem excited about it.

Leila, I wish you could meet her, but there is no way she'd let me bring someone new to meet her, because she is too embarrassed by how she looks right now. All her hair is gone and she's lost a huge amount of weight.

That's about all I have to say.

Vanyel, the last Herald-Mage part 2

2006-02-27T12:57:00.000-05:00

Since I started reviewing and keeping track of juvenile and YA books (which started in earnest when working for the Monkey) I have not been able to read ANYTHING with out evaluating it. Whether this is good or bad, it's true. So, there is one more thing about this series, and about this author that I want to bring up. Vanyel is gay. The hero of this semi-epic fantasy story is gay.

I really couldn't figure out how to fit that bit of info into the review, mainly because his being gay has no bearing to me on whether or not I liked the series/story. But, it occurs to me when faced with a customer/patron who would like to read books about gay characters this and other books by Mercedes Lackey would be good picks. In several of her books, especially her Valdemar books, there are gay and lesbian main and supporting characters. They're there living their lives, saving the country and it's just normal. Yes, there are still conflicts. In Vanyel's case his family had a very difficult time accepting that he was gay, he was first-born male to a landholder and was supposed to get married, have heirs and take over the land. But his becoming a Herald-Mage was also difficult for his family to deal with, but in a different way. Vanyel spent a great deal of time trying to figure out who he was in relationship to those around him because he was gay, but even more because he was the most powerful Mage in history.

The other reason I wanted to bring this up is I can't think of any other high fantasy books where the main characters are gay. It seems to be somewhat common in sci-fi, but seriously, I can't think of any other high fantasy. It's just part of my internal list making and databasing I would like fleshed out. Can anyone help me out here?

The Last Herald-Mage series - Mercedes Lackey

2006-02-23T16:56:00.000-05:00

So, this is what I recently chose for comfort reading, so, heck, I'll review it. Someone may find this useful.

I dig Mercedes Lackey. A lot of hardcore fantasy readers would disagree with me, but screw them, this is my blog. I dig her because the worlds she creates are interesting and original, her characters are pretty well developed and you care for them, her magic systems feel original but are still very familiar and graspable (sure, that's a word).

Reasons why folks have complained to me about her included he need to pair her characters up romatically, just about everyone gets a significant other at some point in her books. But that's cool, there's nothing wrong with romance. Also, good and evil in her books are very black and white. Good is always very noble and self sacrificing, evil is always, well, evil, and usually pretty one dimentional (and ocasionally somewhat faceless). There is no grey in her stories. Not a huge problem either, just something to be aware of and prepared for. If you want a deep thoughtful evil, these aren't the books for you.

This particular triolgy is somewhat ancient history of a bigger collection of works, her Valdemar series. It's the story of a hero. As it's called the *Last* Herald-Mage, we also know that it going to be a tragedy. So, yes, I spent 3 days on my couch reading these sobbing. It was good.

-more later-

Grand & Humble - Brent Hartinger

2006-02-23T16:48:00.000-05:00

I can't review this book. In order to review I would have to tell you what it's about. If I tell you what it's about I ruin it.

So, here's the solution. Go read it. Don't argue with me. Go buy a copy of it and read it. Seriously. Brent hasn't written a bad book. Go read it.

When everyone's read it, we'll discuss.

Go read it.

OK, Fine

2005-11-16T13:19:00.000-05:00

Subtitile: Why I think Lelia's should spend her limited reading time on more worthy books (like The Garden) than the Charlaine Harris Vamp series.

Now, I read this like 3 years ago, and I didn't finish it because I thought it sucked, so this review is probably going to be a bit lacking. My apologies.

So, it started off well enough. The main character is some flavor of psychic, in that she can hear other folks thoughts. Ok, cool. This 'talent' of her's makes her pretty skittish about being around other people, it's noise, noise, noise all the time. Strangely enough though, she's a waitress in a bar. I don't remember how the author justified this decision. She also lives with her grandmother, the only cool character in the book.

For various reasons, she rescues a vampire from blood harvesters. Vamp blood in this world has healing properties, and people trap and drain vampires and sell the blood on the black market. Vamps are legal people, but viewed with extreme predjudice. Still, basically interesting premises, and holding my attention. It turns out that the vamp is completly silent to her, she can't remotely hear his thoughts, and she finds this comforting, and the unlikely romance between the two begins. We enter dangerous territory in a vamp book as far as I'm concerned. When the author decides if this is still an horror/mystery, or if the book is going to be a supernatural romance. (bear with me, there are cetain 'formulas' of romance that I abhor, that completely turn me off of books, no matter what else is going on in them)

There is some conflict between Sookie and her family over land ownership (I think, possibly inheritance, can't remember) that leads to a very strained relationship between her and her brother(?, possibly a cousin). Basically extremely obvious murder set up stuff. This is where the details are really fuzzy, as I don't remember the timeline of the events. The grandmother is killed. The GRANDMOTHER. The only character that I liked! And quite honestly, it seemed really unecessary. It felt so much like purely a plot device to rope Sookie in the main plot of the book. There were already other murders happening. It seriously pissed me off. Of course, it looks like a vamp kill, etc., etc.

Other stuff that put me off:

We meet a group of "evil" vamps. We know they're evil because they hang out in a bar/club and wear SPANDEX. Why the hell do authors think 1) Spandex says evil?; 2) Spandex is acceptable club wear anymore?; 3) Spandex is 'fetish' wear (yeah, if you have an 80's fetish)? 4) Spandex is sexy? Apparently the undead have no taste, and that's why they're evil, inflicting spandex upon the world. I say this like I've seen this device before? Well, I have. Too many times.

This is one of those romance formulas that I was talking about earlier that will make me run screaming from a book, so I admit this is a personal taste thing:

Sookie is a virgin. Not a teen virgin. An adult virgin. Her thought hearing is so severe that she could never be intimate with anyone. OK.....kind of with you, sort of. So, she sleeps with her new vamp buddy, because he's so quiet, in one of those ridiculous romance scenes of "I'm a virgin please be gentle with me I've never been with anyone before, but you're so different" CRAP that I HATE. And this amazingly touching sex scene of Sookie losing her vriginity and finally being able to lose herself in another person LASTS FOR A PAGE AND A HALF. This incredibly important and life altering moment in Sookie's life is given a page and a half. I really don't like the "I'm a virgin and so this sex is more justified and meaningful" romance world crap. I don't find anything romantic about virginity. But the fact that the author was so disrepectful of this moment to give it only a page and a half was offensive. And before you ask, no, it wasn't and off camera sex scene. I would have been fine with an off camera sex scene. If you are not confident enough as an author to write a good sex scene (whether in just the details of it, or fearing backlash from your audience), you should move it off camera and give your characters some respect in doing so.

It was an interesting world, despite the characters. It was really too bad it lost me in the details. Unfortunatly, this is the most highly recommended other series for fans of the Anita Blake books. I don't agree with this at all.

Rock On Pennsylvania!

2005-11-09T12:39:00.000-05:00

Dover voters oust intelligent design supporters.

The Plucker - Brom

2005-11-08T16:02:00.000-05:00

Once in a great while a book gets published that is so different, so beautiful, so completely perfect that aquiring it and reading it just makes everthing OK again. The Plucker was this kind of book for me.

I love fairy tales. I love stories about the dark side of childhood. I love stories that are original, yet tap that deep well of beliefs and superstitions inside of us and make us feel this is somehow familiar so must be true on some level and we start watching the shadows a little more closely.

The Plucker is an illustrated book for adults. Not a graphic novel. It is a picture book. It is a fairy tale, but a dark, dark one, so not so appropriate for the younglings. It is a horror story, evil comes, evil kills and destroys, and evil perverts what it touches. It is a fairy tales, so evil is defeated, but with a high cost. The toys will never be the same.

I'm not going give a summary, or get into what the story is about, you can read for yourself on the website. The book is beautiful. I don't know who will like it besides me. I know I have dark tastes, but this book it worth being aware of, and certainly worth a read if you're ready for it.

Perfect - Natasha Friend

2005-11-08T14:46:00.000-05:00

I read this book just before we moved. I'm not sure why I wanted to read it at the time, other than I had yet to read a YA novel that dealt with eating disorders. I've learned a lesson here. Do not pick a book at random purely based on topic.

The gist of the story: Main character is discovered throwing up by her little sister and in the way of little sisters informs mother. Mother "makes a deal" with main character. Main character is forced to go to an eating disorders group. Seems pretty good as a start. Main character meets 'the most popular girl in school' in said support group and learns that even folks who seem perfect have problems. Ok, still with you Ms. Friend, even if this is a little heavy handed. We have several, rather graphic, passages describing the binging and purging motions both girls go through, supporting each other as they become closer friends, and even new ways to do it and ways to hide it from others. Graphic is good with a subject matter like this. It puts the reader right there, so kudos Ms. Friend.

So, what my issue? You all know me well enough to realize that this is leading up to a "what the hell". Well, remember that they're in a support *group*, which implies that there are other girls dealing with these issues? All we get of those girls is a name tag at the beginning of the story, and rather demeaning descriptions (the Skeleton, the Whale). We never find anything else about those other girls, they are simply wallpaper. Also, for a book about eating disordes there is very little talk about body image. There are a hand full of "oh, I hate my body"'s, but it's more as if the author is paying lip service to the disorder rather than bothering to delve into the psychology of it. We have instead a plot line in which we find out that Isabelle's dad has died, and her mother is refusing to deal with the death, and therefore not allowing the girls to deal. Binging and purging is Isabelle's way of "dealing", it's something she can control. Fine. Bullemia is a disorder that has roots in trying to control things that are out of one's control. But to suggest, as this books does, that that all it's about is irresponsible. Isabelle confronts her mother, they bleed the old wound, and finally deal with the death, and Isabelle GETS ALL BETTER. She stops "feeling the need" to vomit. It is implied that if her "perfect" friend would just deal with her home situation, she will get better too. But she's just not ready yet, and so continues the behavior. There is no mention of the bonecrushing self esteem issues that can cause girls (and boys) to have eating disorders. It's as if the author herself was in denial that self image plays a huge role in eating disorders, and I found that rather disturbing.

I would not recommend this book. I might recommend using it as a supplement to something that discussed body image, because the 2 messages together make up a whole. But Perfect by itself feels like it missed the point, or was simply too afraid to go there. It was strange.

Looking For Jake - China Miéville (Guest Blog)

2005-11-06T22:09:00.000-05:00

Hiya! This is a "special edition" guest blog from Chrissy's husband, Jeremy. I've just read Looking for Jake, which Chrissy said she was sadly not going to have time to review, but wanted a review for it.

There were a couple surprises waiting for me to discover:

This is a book of short stories that I actually enjoyed. No, really.
The author, China Mieville, is a guy. That was only semi-related to the name - I didn't discover the gender bit until the very end, when I read the 'about the author'.

The collection is 14 short stories, for some reason labeled as science fiction, likely due to the fact that, well, they're really weird.

How weird?

I won the lottery!
I mean, I didn't win the lottery. But I was one of a bunch of runners-up, and it was a peach of a prize. An invitation to a special, licenced Christmas™ party in the centre of London, run by YuleCo itself.
When I read the letter I was shaking. This was YuleCo, so it would be the real deal. There'd be Santa™, and Rudolph™, and Mistletoe™, and Mince Pies™, and a Christmas Tree™, with presents underneath it.

- from 'Tis the Season

Some of them I was a bit indifferent to (including the title piece), because they started a bit interesting, but would then either fizzle or go somewhere stupid. Even those, however, had some neat ideas (also including the title piece).

But, boy, the ones that are good, are GOOD.

"Reports of Certain Events in London" details the events that follow after our lead receives incorrectly addressed mail from the 'Brotherhood of Watchers of the Viae Ferae', a secret society that tracks roaming feral streets and the battles between them.

"Entry Taken From a Medical Encyclopedia" details "Buscard's Murrain", a curious literary disease, also mentioned in The Thackery T. Lambshead Pocket Guide to Eccentric and Discredited Diseases.

"Details" is creepy. Really really creepy. I'm now trying to avoid ever staring at anything for too long:

     "I opened my eyes fully, for the first time.
     "I had chosen an old wall. I was looking for the answer to some question that I told you I can't even remember now, but the question wasn't the main thing. That was the opening of my eyes.
     "I stared at the whole mass of the bricks. I took another glance, relaxed my sight. At first I couldn't stop seeing the bricks as bricks, the divisions as layers of cement, but after a time they became pure vision. And as the whole broke down into down into lines and shapes and shades, I held my breath as I began to see.
     "Alternatives appeared to me. Messages written in the pockmarks. Insinuations in the forms. Secrets unraveling. It was bliss.
     "And then without warning my heart went tight, as I saw something. I made sense of the pattern.
     "It was a mess of cracks and lines and crumbling cement, and as I looked at it, I saw a pattern in the wall.
     "I saw a clutch of lines that looked just like something... terrible - something old and predatory and utterly terrible - staring right back at me.
     "And then I saw it move."

But the best, the one that's kinda stickin' with me when I look out into the dark or catch a reflection, is The Tain. This won the Locus Award for Best Novella. Good. It's a story about post-apocalyptic London that has been overrun by Imagos, bringing about what could be the end of humankind.

The only technical bit of the story, but it's so deliciously complex, I had to look up some references after reading it:

     There is something called the Phong Model, Sholl said. It's a graph. It's a model to show how light moves. The shinier the surface, the more precise and bright the reflected light, the narrower the range in which it can be seen. The model used to describe how light bounced off concrete and paper and metal and class, its angle of specular reflection narrowing, approximating the angle of incidence, its bright sport brightening, as the surfaces became more mirrored.
     But something happened, and now Phong describes a turning key.
     It used to be a sliding scale. Asymptotic. An endless approximation to infinity or zero. It's become a threshold. As the reflected brightness grows more precise, as its angle of exit narrows to more closely mimic its entry, it's approaching an edge, it is becoming a change of state, he said. Until a critical moment is reached: until light meets the sheen of a gloss surface, and everything alters, and the light unlocks a door, and what was a mirror becomes a gate.
     Mirrors became gates, and something came through.

It bounces between two different characters: the human, 'Sholl', who is trying to make sense and survive, but has a plan; an unnamed Imago who gives us insight (and history, but the quote's insight):

I have seen my people debased. Entities more powerful than your moon made to smear scarlet wax and fat on peeling lips, lick it off lumpy teeth, made to preen with you. Bulked into spasming fibrous meat and mutely raising and lowering iron bars, without complaint, unable to complain, as you stared at yourselves, at them, made to wear your sweat-wet clothes and jostle mindlessly from machine to machine as you worked to change you shapes. You have put mirrors by your beds, or over them, and trapped my people in your clammy fuck-embraces. You made us fuck each other, stare at the eyes of our siblings with shared hatred and apology as the bodies you made us wear did the corporeal things you did.
For six thousand years, and forever, you have held us down. Each of us alive and watching, and waiting, and waiting, undying all that time. You didn't know, but not knowing is no excuse. And you have taken our freedom away in slow increments, until in a sudden flurry of three centuries you sped it all up, and took away our last escapes, and made our world yours.
One day, we whispered. We had whispered it forever.
When it came, the time was not one day but many, stretched out over months, a luxuriant, languorous release, in pieces, in parts and parcels, and the more infuriating but ultimately the more wonderful, liberatory, for that.

So, all in all a good read, but definitely dark. A strange uplifting dark. Read it, but prepare for it to leave a strangely pleasurable melancholy taste.

So, yeah, I took a little break

2005-10-31T10:45:00.000-05:00

I needed it.

The move was horrendous. Three days of scheduled movers and three days of them not showing up or not showing up on time. Three flights of stairs, 29 boxes of books - that's why we hired movers. Even when Jeremy and I were moving the smaller stuff in my legs gave out going up the stairs to the new place. That point where you are 4 steps from the tops and your thighs just won't take weight anymore.

I quit my job at the library. The "you're not suppose to talk to the patrons" comment was really the final straw. The "please don't schedule me for weekday afternoons" and then working an entire month of weekday afternoons was just the nails in the coffin.

This past October 13th I turned 30. I did not deal well with this. My mom took me clothes shopping shortly there after, and I found myslef thinking "I can't shop in the juniors section anymore, I'm 30." So I proceeded to shop in the grown up section and was reminded why I shop in the juniors section. Frock-coat style cardigan in grown up section: $85; frock-coat style cardigan in juniors section: $25; having to buy large and extra-large junior sizes because my boobs are too big (is this supposed to button?): priceless. [For those who did not know me before I met Jeremy and got healthy, I used to wear juniors sizes small and 0. Often those sizes were too big.]

I've been mostly comfort reading, so it's stuff I'm not going to review. I've got a small To Be Read pile built up, which I will probably start on this week sometime. I've also gone back to playing World of Warcraft, which is still addictive, but more under control than it was last year.

Oh, one last thing. My GYN doctor has officially told me that getting pregnant will probably be helpful to my chronic girly issues. He's encouraging us to hurry up and get moving on that front. -.-