Elves, Pandas, and Knights

I just posted my review of Gary Wassner’s latest GemQuest novel, The Revenge of the Elves. I continue to enjoy Gary’s writing and hope his audience increases with this book.

Neil Gaiman is a very cool guy and a great writer, which is why he gets to have Pandas on his lap.

Although this is probably old news by now to the folks who read this blog as well as those on my side bar, but La Gringa is back to regular blogging. This is a good thing, especially with all daily genre updates she’s been doing.

Thursday Knight is Rutgers Football Kickoff and I’ll be in attendance. I haven’t been to too many games since I graduated, so this should be fun. With the team starting out in the Top 20 (#16) and Ray Rice as a potential Heisman Trophy candidate, it looks to be a great year. I don't recall expectations ever being so high for Rutgers; it is a weird place to be for this team, though one they will hopefully be in over the next big handful of years. Just a few years ago I had trouble finding Rutgers merchandise in stores and malls. Now it is everywhere. Regardless of how well the team ever did, there was never any excuse for not being able to find RU merchandise. Especially in the malls closest to the school. Enough of that bitching for now, the forthcoming season looks like it will be a ball.

SFFWorld Stuff & a Meme

A slew of new material has been posted to SFFWorld in the past few days. Hobbit posted reviews of Cowboy Angels by Paul McAuley and Steven Paul Davies’s The Prisoner Handbook. Art posted his (as always) thoughtful review of Queen of Candescence by Karl Schroeder. We also just posted the second half of Aidan Moher’s Changing of the Guard article.

I’ve got two reviews ready to go up to the Web site, after one last read through for later this week.

I saw Stardust last week and really enjoyed it. Althought the comparison was made by many reviewers/critics, I don’t think comparing it to The Princess Bride was fair, regardless of how fun, delightful, and entertaining Stardust was. It was easily my favorite movie so far this year, at least what I’ve seen in theaters. Was it perfect? No, but very few movies are perfect. If it was cut by maybe 10 minutes it would have been perfectly paced. That said, I would have like to see more of the ghostly brothers bickering, something I recall being more prevalent in the novel.

Found these over at Wistful Writings

What are you reading right now?
Dawn of Night by Paul S. Kemp, Hurricane Moon by Alexis Latner, and the latest issue of Realms of Fantasy. Kemp is entertaining, I just cracked open Gardner’s debut and the stories I’ve read in RoF so far are good.

Do you have any idea what you'll read when you're done with that?
I usually have a pretty good idea. Since Dawn of Night is a middle book in a trilogy, I’ll logically enough move onto Midnight’s Mask straight after DoN. The books are enjoyable so I’m not complaining. Once I finish Latner, I’ll probably grab a handful of books and ask Mrs. Blog o’ Stuff to pick from the bunch.

What magazines do you have in your bathroom right now?
Realms of Fantasy and a bunch of catalogues.

What's the worst thing you were ever forced to read?
You flip the coin: Heads it’s Wuthering Heights; tails it’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.

What's the one book you always recommend to just about everyone?
One book? That’s tough, since I recommend based off the personality to whom I’m recommending. Lately though, it’s been A Game of Thrones.

Admit it, the librarians at your library know you on a first name basis, don't they?
I can’t say they do. Since I moved three years ago the only time I went to the library was for elections.

Is there a book you absolutely love, but for some reason, people never think it sounds interesting, or maybe they read it and don't like it at all?
As the saying goes, Mileage May Vary; however no one book stick out like a sore thumb more than any other.

Do you read books while you eat? While you bathe? While you watch movies or TV? While you listen to music? While you're on the computer? While you're driving?
Yes, no, TV, yes, occasionally and no.

When you were little, did other children tease you about your reading habits?
Not really, although everybody in school knew I was a big Stephen King fan.

What's the last thing you stayed up half the night reading because it was so good you couldn’t put it down? Half the night?
Maybe The Name of the Wind.

Dog Days of Summer

I haven’t felt inclined to post lately, obviously. Summer has been busy with work, work around the house and seeing friends on the weekends. For the first time in a few years, I went to Great Adventure earlier in the week. Mrs. Blog o’ Stuff and I met some family members there and had a pretty good time, despite the oppressive heat. Of course Kingda Ka was not running, but El Toro, the ginormous wooden coaster was. What an incredible ride.

All of this has left me with very little reading time over the past couple of weeks. The books I’ve been reading; however, have been good. Particularly Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn: The Final Empire, the most recent book review I posted. I saw the buzz for Elantris (which will coincidentally be the SFFWorld Book Club Fantasy book for September) two years ago and actually won a hardcover of The Final Empire in one of Pat’s contests. When an ARC of the second book, The Well of Ascension, I cracked open The Final Empire. I was thoroughly impressed and the sequel is living up to the first book.

I’m also in the middle of Gary Wassner’s forthcoming GemQuest novel, The Revenge of the Elves. I’m about halfway through and enjoying this one very much, too. I’m hoping readers will discover Gary’s books soon, they deserve a wider audience.

I caught The Simpsons Movie last weekend with a couple of friends. It was entertaining and made me laugh more often than not, even if some of the jokes were far too telegraphed. Of course the funniest part of the whole film was the Spider-Pig sequence.