George R. R. Martin has completed A Feast for Crows, the novel is now in production. Without a doubt, a great many fantasy geeks like me are rejoicing.
About an hour or two ago, I returned from the movie theater. Was I satisified? Yes. Was it as bad as I thought it would be? No, I was actually surprised, perhaps setting the expectations lower was the way to go on this particular film. Was it a perfect film? By no means, I was beginning to wonder if the film wanted to end. Of course the film in question is Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. On the whole, I left the theater feeling satisfied. Not completely, but satisfied nonetheless. Hayden Christiansen pulled of the part much better this time around and Ian McDiarmid was great and I can imagine he had quite a bit of fun.
Of course, almost no film is without flaws and there were a few glaring ones here. Padme was nothing more than a birthing chamber, she was almost a nonentity. I told Mrs. Blog o' Stuff Padme got a helluva lot dumber since the first film. There weren't enough Wookies and not enough of the planet Kashyyyk. As I said, the film's ending dragged quite a bit, much like Return of the King. It kept feeling as if it was ending, but another scene played out. I would have liked to have seen a young Han Solo somewhere in the film.
This was one of the most visually stunning films I've ever seen. By far, it was the best of the prequels, better than Return of the Jedi, and almost as good as the original Star Wars.
Monday, May 30, 2005
Sunday, May 29, 2005
Hammerjack
I posted my review of Hammerjack by Marc D. Giller. I enjoyed the novel, with mild reservations. I couldn't help but be reminded of Snow Crash, Blade Runner, Richard K. Morgan's work and The Matrix (the first film, not so much the two sequels that should have either been one movie or not made at all) as I was reading the book. Overall, very impressive and a promising debut novel.
The weekly stash consisted of Green Lantern #1, Flash #212, Batman #640, JLA #114, OMAC #2 and The Incredible Hulk #81. All solid superhero stories. The more I read of Greg Rucka, the more I like, I think I'm going to have to get my hands on some of his novels and his Queen & Country stuff from Oni Press. I also really like what Judd Winick is doing with Batman, Peter David brought his return to the Hulk to a nice close, but of course left some unanswered questions. Green Lantern was very good, even though it was a more quick read than I would have liked.
I'm hoping to see Revenge of the Sith tomorrow, and hopefully, the crowd won't be too large.
The weekly stash consisted of Green Lantern #1, Flash #212, Batman #640, JLA #114, OMAC #2 and The Incredible Hulk #81. All solid superhero stories. The more I read of Greg Rucka, the more I like, I think I'm going to have to get my hands on some of his novels and his Queen & Country stuff from Oni Press. I also really like what Judd Winick is doing with Batman, Peter David brought his return to the Hulk to a nice close, but of course left some unanswered questions. Green Lantern was very good, even though it was a more quick read than I would have liked.
I'm hoping to see Revenge of the Sith tomorrow, and hopefully, the crowd won't be too large.
Wednesday, May 25, 2005
Signings, leavings, startings, endings
Karen Traviss just signed with HarperCollins/Eos for three more books in the sequence that began with City of Pearl one of the best novels I read last year. This is great news, Traviss is writing some really exceptional novels and getting the deserved acclaim (Finalist for Locus Best First Novel and the Philip K. Dick Award). I still need to get my hands on her Star Wars Republic Commando: Hard Contact novel though.
Alan Moore has severed ties with DC Comics and is getting married - a very interesting article by Rich Johnston at Comic Book Resources.
Gabe has started up another forum.
Lastly, tonight is the 2-hour season finale of Lost, just about the best show on TV right now. The last show I was this excited to watch every week was FarScape.
Alan Moore has severed ties with DC Comics and is getting married - a very interesting article by Rich Johnston at Comic Book Resources.
Gabe has started up another forum.
Lastly, tonight is the 2-hour season finale of Lost, just about the best show on TV right now. The last show I was this excited to watch every week was FarScape.
Monday, May 23, 2005
Make up your own title
Geoff Johns is leaving as writer of The Flash in a couple of months. For the most part, I've been really enjoying his handling of the character, it was hard to top and probably daunting to fill the shoes of Mark Waid on the title, but Geoff offered a bit of a different take, but no less true to the character and legacy Wally West represented. Geoff did as good a job as sanely possible in bringing Hal Jordan back as Green Lantern, and I'm looking forward to the ongoing title now that Rebirth is finished up. But I will miss his storytelling on one of my favorite, if not very favorite comic book heroes.
Scott uses photoshop to let us know how he thinks Episode III stacks up against Episode I & II.
The below was nicked from Karen Traviss.
Scott uses photoshop to let us know how he thinks Episode III stacks up against Episode I & II.
The below was nicked from Karen Traviss.
Star Wars Horoscope for Scorpio |
 You are a powerful character. You tend to be possessive and lusty - which explains your greedy nature. You feel threatened when people try to order you around or control you. You are prone to suspicion and jealousy - but your resilience and passion get you what you want. Star wars character you are most like: Han Solo |
Tuesday, May 17, 2005
Books & Comics
There are two books, well actually probably more, but two right now that are really piquing my interest. One of the books is on the shelves in the US right now, the other will hit UK shelves in August, with a US release late '05 or early '06. The first is Elantris by Brandon Sanderson. The book is generating good buzz and some positive reviews. It is an Epic Fantasy in one volume, something relatively rare in the Epic Fantasy market nowadays. The requisite book blurbs are from writers like Orson Scott Card and David Farland, and good reviews from Publisher's Weekly and the usually anti-fantasy Kirkus. Here's a breif blurb of what the book is about:
Elantris was the capital of Arelon: gigantic, beautiful, literally radiant, filled with benevolent beings who used their powerful magical abilities for the benefit of all. Yet each of these demigods was once an ordinary person until touched by the mysterious transforming power of the Shaod. Ten years ago, without warning, the magic failed. Elantrians became wizened, leper-like, powerless creatures, and Elantris itself dark, filthy, and crumbling.
The other book is Vellum, by Hal Duncan. On his Night Shade Books Message Board he describes the book thusly:
It's 2017 and angels walk the earth, beings that were human once, now unkin, remade by the ancient machine-code language of reality itself. Now, with the very book in which reality is written lost somewhere in the Vellum - the vast realm of eternity on which our world is just a scratch - the unkin are gathering for war.
On one side there's Metatron and his Covenant of angels, out to create Heaven on Earth even if it means an apocalypse to clear the way. On the other, there's the splinter-groups of ancient gods still hungry for the power that was once theirs, bitter enough to destroy the world if they can't rule it. And caught in the middle of it all are a handful of refuseniks still young enough to remember what it's like to be human... and to want to stay that way.
Again, Rick Kleffel has interesting things to say about the book. Squid enthusiast and fantastic writer Jeff VanDerMeer thinks highly of the book as well. Vellum is the first of a duology, available now in the UK through PanMacmillan and sometime in the future from Del Rey.
It is the middle of the month, so as always, DC Comics lets the world know what they are offering in a few months, specifically in August and some later. CBR has the full rundown and cover images. Aside from my normal pull, here's what caught my eye:
Elantris was the capital of Arelon: gigantic, beautiful, literally radiant, filled with benevolent beings who used their powerful magical abilities for the benefit of all. Yet each of these demigods was once an ordinary person until touched by the mysterious transforming power of the Shaod. Ten years ago, without warning, the magic failed. Elantrians became wizened, leper-like, powerless creatures, and Elantris itself dark, filthy, and crumbling.
The other book is Vellum, by Hal Duncan. On his Night Shade Books Message Board he describes the book thusly:
It's 2017 and angels walk the earth, beings that were human once, now unkin, remade by the ancient machine-code language of reality itself. Now, with the very book in which reality is written lost somewhere in the Vellum - the vast realm of eternity on which our world is just a scratch - the unkin are gathering for war.
On one side there's Metatron and his Covenant of angels, out to create Heaven on Earth even if it means an apocalypse to clear the way. On the other, there's the splinter-groups of ancient gods still hungry for the power that was once theirs, bitter enough to destroy the world if they can't rule it. And caught in the middle of it all are a handful of refuseniks still young enough to remember what it's like to be human... and to want to stay that way.
Again, Rick Kleffel has interesting things to say about the book. Squid enthusiast and fantastic writer Jeff VanDerMeer thinks highly of the book as well. Vellum is the first of a duology, available now in the UK through PanMacmillan and sometime in the future from Del Rey.
It is the middle of the month, so as always, DC Comics lets the world know what they are offering in a few months, specifically in August and some later. CBR has the full rundown and cover images. Aside from my normal pull, here's what caught my eye:
- I am mildly interested in the inter-Bat crossover between Detective Comics and Batman, I liked what Andersen Gabrych was doing in Detective Comics before the War Games mess. However, this is strange since it cuts David Lapham's 12 part saga in Detective 3/4 into the story. This makes very little sense to me, and I haven't seen any kind of explanation from DC.
- DC's Greatest Imaginary Stories looks like a bunch of Silver-Age fun. I've got the original Superman Red/Superman Blue in a Superman compilation.
- At one point, I was interested in the Alex Ross/Jim Kreuger Justice mini-series, but my interest has waned. I thought their Earth X series for Marvel was OK, if overrated. Justice, on one hand, looks like Super Friends fan fiction, on the other, it could by plain old superhero fun.
- Great Ozymandius! Watchmen: The Absolute Edition ain't cheap at $75, but I'll probably still pick it up. This is actually not shipping until October
- A hardcover of V for Vendetta is also being solicited now for sale in September, with a couple of extras.
- DC Direct gives another excuse for uber-hype machine Mark Millar to espouse how great he is and how much better he could make Superman by putting out a Elseworlds/Red Son figure.
On the Marvel side of things, Peter David and Mike Wieringo really seem to get Spider-man, something that may not be said of the other people handling his comic book adventures as of late.
Last, but not least, I'm probably one of the last people to post this one, Darth Vader's Blog. I actually got caught up in the thing for too much time yesterday.
Friday, May 13, 2005
The Traveler
A review copy of The Traveler arrived yestereday, written by the unconventially named John Twelve Hawks. His breif author bio simply states: "John Twelve Hawks lives off the grid." Intriguing. This book sounds pretty cool, too. The premise, from the publisher:
Gabriel and Michael Corrigan are two young men living just beneath the glittering surface of life in Los Angeles. Since childhood, the brothers have been shaped by stories that their father was a Traveler–one of an elite group of prophets able to attain pure enlightenment. The Corrigans, who may have inherited their father’s gifts, have always lived “off the grid”—that is, invisible to the intricate surveillance networks that monitor people in our modern world.
...When Maya is summoned to Prague by her ailing father, she learns that Gabriel and Michael have just been located in California. The brothers may represent the last surviving Travelers, and are in desperate need of protection....a colossal battle looms that will reveal a secret history of our time.
This sounds almost Matrix-like, and Science Fictional with the "hidden world," but it is not being published by Random House's SF imprints (Bantam or Del Rey). Rather, Random House is publishing it under their general fiction Doubleday imprint. I'm sure there is a whole rant about that, regardless, the story of a behind the scenes faction controlling our world seems pretty cool. I'm looking forward to reading this one, the on sale date is June 28th, but as I said, I've got an advance reading copy, so I don't have to wait.
With the publisher stating "this stunningly suspenseful first novel, reminiscent of George Orwell and Philip Pullman," I've got some pretty high hopes, as 1984 is a book I consider one of the best 5 or 10 ever written (that I've read), and I absolutely loved Pullman's His Dark Materials. Doubleday is expecting some really good things, too, with a dedicated Web site www.traveler-book.com and supplemental Web sites of the characters or places in the novel:
http://www.hollismartialarts.com/
http://www.geocities.com/judithstrand/
http://judithstrand.blogspot.com
http://www.evergreen-foundation.com/
http://www.resurrectionautoparts.com/
SciFi.com now has a page of trailers for forthcoming movies. It's probably been there a while, I just realized it today, and linked there is The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, which looks to be very good.
Gabriel and Michael Corrigan are two young men living just beneath the glittering surface of life in Los Angeles. Since childhood, the brothers have been shaped by stories that their father was a Traveler–one of an elite group of prophets able to attain pure enlightenment. The Corrigans, who may have inherited their father’s gifts, have always lived “off the grid”—that is, invisible to the intricate surveillance networks that monitor people in our modern world.
...When Maya is summoned to Prague by her ailing father, she learns that Gabriel and Michael have just been located in California. The brothers may represent the last surviving Travelers, and are in desperate need of protection....a colossal battle looms that will reveal a secret history of our time.
This sounds almost Matrix-like, and Science Fictional with the "hidden world," but it is not being published by Random House's SF imprints (Bantam or Del Rey). Rather, Random House is publishing it under their general fiction Doubleday imprint. I'm sure there is a whole rant about that, regardless, the story of a behind the scenes faction controlling our world seems pretty cool. I'm looking forward to reading this one, the on sale date is June 28th, but as I said, I've got an advance reading copy, so I don't have to wait.
With the publisher stating "this stunningly suspenseful first novel, reminiscent of George Orwell and Philip Pullman," I've got some pretty high hopes, as 1984 is a book I consider one of the best 5 or 10 ever written (that I've read), and I absolutely loved Pullman's His Dark Materials. Doubleday is expecting some really good things, too, with a dedicated Web site www.traveler-book.com and supplemental Web sites of the characters or places in the novel:
http://www.hollismartialarts.com/
http://www.geocities.com/judithstrand/
http://judithstrand.blogspot.com
http://www.evergreen-foundation.com/
http://www.resurrectionautoparts.com/
SciFi.com now has a page of trailers for forthcoming movies. It's probably been there a while, I just realized it today, and linked there is The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, which looks to be very good.
Wednesday, May 11, 2005
Music & Gods
In general, music, like many other things, is 90% crap. I tend to fluctuate with my musical preferences and degree with which I seek out new music. With the summer coming up, and the big concerts coming around, now is as good a time as any for me to "get back into" music as it were. Next month I'll be seeing Judas Priest and Queensryche and later in the summer I'm going to Ozzfest. I've never seen Priest or Queensryche, but I've been a fan of both bands for a while. I happen to think Priest's Painkiller is one of the best metal albums of the 90s, one of those rare albums without a clunker of a song. And I listened to Queensryche's Operation: Mindcrime so many times on tape, my tape wore out. Mindcrime was one of the very first CDs I purchased when I finally got a CD-player.
As for Ozzfest, even though the guys in Black Sabbath are pretty old, they are probably one of my top 5 bands, ever. Metal and Hard Rock started with Sabbath and I don't think that type of music would sound the way it does without the early music of Sabbath. I've seen Iron Maiden twice and again, an older bunch of guys, but still one of the 2 or 3 best live acts I have seen. I've been getting into Shadows Fall and I'm looking forward to seeing Jersey native Zakk Wylde and his Black Label Society. BLS's newest song, Suicide Messiah has a great riff. The other band on the first stage I like is Mudvayne. The second stage is headlined by Rob Zombie, who I saw with Ozzy a couple of years ago. Most of the other bands on the second stage I've heard once or twice and haven't really formed an opinion, positive or negative.
A band I've been hearing a few times the past week on local hard rock/metal station 89.5 WSOU is Nightwish, and I am really liking them. I think I need to acquire some of their music.
Two bands I would really like to see tour together are Shinedown and Godsmack. I've seen Godsmack twice, and I'm kicking myself for NOT seeing Shinedown this past Christmas at the Starland Ballroom.
On a non-music note, I have to say, Mrs. Blog o' Stuff is the best. She has always supported and indulged just about every hobby, fancy and form of geekery I get myself worked up about. Anyway, Monday marked, cumulatively speaking, 10 years together for us. As I've blogged before, I've been really looking forward to the PS2 game, God of War. Well, super-cool-hottie wife that she is, she got the game for me. It is absolutely amazing. It is fun, amazingly rendered and the difficulty is just about right, at least for now. All told, a very cool game.
As for Ozzfest, even though the guys in Black Sabbath are pretty old, they are probably one of my top 5 bands, ever. Metal and Hard Rock started with Sabbath and I don't think that type of music would sound the way it does without the early music of Sabbath. I've seen Iron Maiden twice and again, an older bunch of guys, but still one of the 2 or 3 best live acts I have seen. I've been getting into Shadows Fall and I'm looking forward to seeing Jersey native Zakk Wylde and his Black Label Society. BLS's newest song, Suicide Messiah has a great riff. The other band on the first stage I like is Mudvayne. The second stage is headlined by Rob Zombie, who I saw with Ozzy a couple of years ago. Most of the other bands on the second stage I've heard once or twice and haven't really formed an opinion, positive or negative.
A band I've been hearing a few times the past week on local hard rock/metal station 89.5 WSOU is Nightwish, and I am really liking them. I think I need to acquire some of their music.
Two bands I would really like to see tour together are Shinedown and Godsmack. I've seen Godsmack twice, and I'm kicking myself for NOT seeing Shinedown this past Christmas at the Starland Ballroom.
On a non-music note, I have to say, Mrs. Blog o' Stuff is the best. She has always supported and indulged just about every hobby, fancy and form of geekery I get myself worked up about. Anyway, Monday marked, cumulatively speaking, 10 years together for us. As I've blogged before, I've been really looking forward to the PS2 game, God of War. Well, super-cool-hottie wife that she is, she got the game for me. It is absolutely amazing. It is fun, amazingly rendered and the difficulty is just about right, at least for now. All told, a very cool game.
Monday, May 09, 2005
Watch out for the stairs Mrs. Lockhart!
Another great episode of Family Guy last night, what Peter changes himself into as a Wonder Twin is ...wow. After two episodes, it seems as if Seth MacFarlane and crew are picking up right where they left off with the quick and sometimes crass humor. American Dad on the other hand was forced and not really funny at all.
DC Comics has a new logo. I guess I can understand why, that whole "marketing synergy" thing.
On a good note, DC is strongly promoting the Starman series. The series ran 80 issues, with a couple of side miniseries and a crossover miniseries with Batman & Hellboy. The series finished up a few years ago, and DC finally just published the final trade in the series very recently. I have the first trade and and really enjoyed it. Writer James Robinson created one of the more enduring superheros of the 90s with this series and a lot of people feel his Starman is the only good thing to come out of Zero Hour, the sort of sequel/clean up of Crisis on Infinite Earths . I want to get the rest of the series but I'm not sure if I want the easy trade route or if I want to purchase the individual issues. The main reason for the individual issues are the fantastic covers by Tony Harris who is of course, is the artist on one of the best series on the shelves right now, Ex Machina. I've seen people selling the 80-run issue on eBay a couple of times, heck I've been outbid on at least one occasion.
The Yankees finally won a couple of games, two shutouts. What is most surprising is Kevin Brown pitched one of those games. There's talk of a possible payout to get rid of Giambi, which would make me, and any other smart Yankee fan happy. The Chicago White Sox continue to be the suprise team/story of the year. This is a good thing as one of their best pitchers, Mark Buehrle, along with Mark Mulder and Matt Morris of the Cardinals have been my best pitchers, helping me sustain 2nd place in my Fantasy Baseball league. Outside of Ichiro, I think most of my offense is performing a bit above their average, though a couple of guys like JD Drew and Mike Lowell haven't picked up their slack yet. If all continues as is, I'll be a happy owner for the better part of this season.
I finished up Walter Hunt's second Dark Wing novel over the weekend, The Dark Path and jumped right into the third, The Dark Ascent. On the whole this is entertaining, epic space opera. Hunt set the world about 300 years in the future, mankind has come into contact with a couple of alien races, most notably the Zor, a winged people who are similarly advanced. As a People, the Zor are strongly informed on living their lives by a Mythic religion. The first book was very good as it was discussed in the SFFWorld SF Book Club in June 2003 , the second, The Dark Path, picked up the ball almost a hundred years later, with the humans and Zor living with each other, some more begrudgingly than others, and ends on a bit of a cliffhanger, so I am very happy I acquired the 2nd and 3rd books at the same time. This series, after two books, leaves me wanting to find out what happens next. I like the future setting, and Hunt has created a very interesting race in the Zor. Though this has all the trappings of Space Opera/Science Fiction, there is a nice Epic feel to it as well. Good reading, all told.
DC Comics has a new logo. I guess I can understand why, that whole "marketing synergy" thing.
On a good note, DC is strongly promoting the Starman series. The series ran 80 issues, with a couple of side miniseries and a crossover miniseries with Batman & Hellboy. The series finished up a few years ago, and DC finally just published the final trade in the series very recently. I have the first trade and and really enjoyed it. Writer James Robinson created one of the more enduring superheros of the 90s with this series and a lot of people feel his Starman is the only good thing to come out of Zero Hour, the sort of sequel/clean up of Crisis on Infinite Earths . I want to get the rest of the series but I'm not sure if I want the easy trade route or if I want to purchase the individual issues. The main reason for the individual issues are the fantastic covers by Tony Harris who is of course, is the artist on one of the best series on the shelves right now, Ex Machina. I've seen people selling the 80-run issue on eBay a couple of times, heck I've been outbid on at least one occasion.
The Yankees finally won a couple of games, two shutouts. What is most surprising is Kevin Brown pitched one of those games. There's talk of a possible payout to get rid of Giambi, which would make me, and any other smart Yankee fan happy. The Chicago White Sox continue to be the suprise team/story of the year. This is a good thing as one of their best pitchers, Mark Buehrle, along with Mark Mulder and Matt Morris of the Cardinals have been my best pitchers, helping me sustain 2nd place in my Fantasy Baseball league. Outside of Ichiro, I think most of my offense is performing a bit above their average, though a couple of guys like JD Drew and Mike Lowell haven't picked up their slack yet. If all continues as is, I'll be a happy owner for the better part of this season.
I finished up Walter Hunt's second Dark Wing novel over the weekend, The Dark Path and jumped right into the third, The Dark Ascent. On the whole this is entertaining, epic space opera. Hunt set the world about 300 years in the future, mankind has come into contact with a couple of alien races, most notably the Zor, a winged people who are similarly advanced. As a People, the Zor are strongly informed on living their lives by a Mythic religion. The first book was very good as it was discussed in the SFFWorld SF Book Club in June 2003 , the second, The Dark Path, picked up the ball almost a hundred years later, with the humans and Zor living with each other, some more begrudgingly than others, and ends on a bit of a cliffhanger, so I am very happy I acquired the 2nd and 3rd books at the same time. This series, after two books, leaves me wanting to find out what happens next. I like the future setting, and Hunt has created a very interesting race in the Zor. Though this has all the trappings of Space Opera/Science Fiction, there is a nice Epic feel to it as well. Good reading, all told.
Wednesday, May 04, 2005
Interview with E.E. Knight
Not much to say right now, except for posting my interview with E.E. Knight, author of The Vampire Earth novels - Way of the Wolf, Choice of the Cat, and Tale of the Thunderbolt. The fourth book, Valentine's Rising publishes at the end of the year, as does his Dragon Champion novel, first in the Age of Fire sequence.
Tuesday, May 03, 2005
Griffins & Black Gate
Family Guy Sunday night was funny. Sure some of the earlier episodes were better, and some were not as good, but overall the episode delivered and the last 10 minutes or so were the best. I liked the opening scene when Peter rattled off the laundry list of shows Fox has started and canceled since Family Guy was canned. I do take offense to Firefly and Greg the Bunny though - two shows that were just hampered by erratic scheduling and being too different. Hopefully this is an indication that Seth McFarlane hasn't lost his touch. American Dad was much better than the pilot episode, it didn't feel nearly as forced.
I've just about read through the latest issue of Black Gate magazine, Issue #7/Fall 2004 to be precise, and it is another solid issue. For me, Todd McAulty's story, Amnesty, is the stand-out. A solid, well-told story that doesn't give the reader much understanding of what is going on initially, as the characters reference the world we live in intermittently with the realm in which they are inhabiting. After a bit, (and this isn't a spoiler, really) it becomes clear these people are in Hell. McAulty does not reveal why these people are in Hell until the reader is able to make a judgement about these characters in the story. This was a great example of keeping the reader guessing, something McAulty does well throughout the story. His vision of Hell is a synthesis of what has been done before and his own vision. I really enjoyed his story There's a Hole in October in the Spring 2003 issue, too. I'm looking forward reading more stories by him. Wonder if he's got a novel in him, I'd like to see what he can do in a longer story.
As for the remaining content I read in issue #7, Judith Berman's Poison Well was an intriguing blend of fantasy and mystery, while Holly Phillips's Luck of the Gods was a nice, eerie story. I've also been following the Charles R. Tanner's classic Tumithak saga over the past couple of issues and the latest, Tumithak of the Towers of Fire is another nice, pulpy addition to the saga of a future Earth. In terms of setting, Tanner's imagined world is part HG Wells Time Machine future and Vancian Dying Earth. Supposedly Tanner's son is putting together a book containing the three known Tumithak stories plus an unpublished one. In the nonfiction Claude Lalumière provides a nice overview of Mike Mignola's Hellboy. Based on Lalumière's article and my enjoyment of Christopher Golden's Wildwood Road, I eventually hope to get my hands on Golden's Hellboy Novels.
Overall, John O'Neill puts together a great magazine whose only shortcoming is the large amount of time between issues. It is also tough to find in my area, none of the local comic shops stock it, and only once did I see an issue in any of the Borders or Barnes & Nobles in my area. Clarkesworld Books, has all the issues and I may be hitting them up for some of the older issues I missed.
I've just about read through the latest issue of Black Gate magazine, Issue #7/Fall 2004 to be precise, and it is another solid issue. For me, Todd McAulty's story, Amnesty, is the stand-out. A solid, well-told story that doesn't give the reader much understanding of what is going on initially, as the characters reference the world we live in intermittently with the realm in which they are inhabiting. After a bit, (and this isn't a spoiler, really) it becomes clear these people are in Hell. McAulty does not reveal why these people are in Hell until the reader is able to make a judgement about these characters in the story. This was a great example of keeping the reader guessing, something McAulty does well throughout the story. His vision of Hell is a synthesis of what has been done before and his own vision. I really enjoyed his story There's a Hole in October in the Spring 2003 issue, too. I'm looking forward reading more stories by him. Wonder if he's got a novel in him, I'd like to see what he can do in a longer story.
As for the remaining content I read in issue #7, Judith Berman's Poison Well was an intriguing blend of fantasy and mystery, while Holly Phillips's Luck of the Gods was a nice, eerie story. I've also been following the Charles R. Tanner's classic Tumithak saga over the past couple of issues and the latest, Tumithak of the Towers of Fire is another nice, pulpy addition to the saga of a future Earth. In terms of setting, Tanner's imagined world is part HG Wells Time Machine future and Vancian Dying Earth. Supposedly Tanner's son is putting together a book containing the three known Tumithak stories plus an unpublished one. In the nonfiction Claude Lalumière provides a nice overview of Mike Mignola's Hellboy. Based on Lalumière's article and my enjoyment of Christopher Golden's Wildwood Road, I eventually hope to get my hands on Golden's Hellboy Novels.
Overall, John O'Neill puts together a great magazine whose only shortcoming is the large amount of time between issues. It is also tough to find in my area, none of the local comic shops stock it, and only once did I see an issue in any of the Borders or Barnes & Nobles in my area. Clarkesworld Books, has all the issues and I may be hitting them up for some of the older issues I missed.
Friday, April 29, 2005
DAMN YOU ALL!
As a kid, I always seemed to read at least one Superman comic a month, and over the years my interest in the character has had ups and downs. The folks over at the Superman Home Page; however, have an obvious love for the character. They've just posted an amazing interview with Greg Rucka, writer of Adventures of Superman. Rucka is also, in my opinion, doing a great job on Wonder Woman. Either way, the interview covers alot of stuff about Superman, obviously, and the writer's perspective of comics. A very interesting interview, I have to say.
Funny, very funny.
Freakin' Sweet! I've been looking forward to this for a long, long time.
Funny, very funny.
Freakin' Sweet! I've been looking forward to this for a long, long time.
Wednesday, April 27, 2005
Link-a-dink
Not much today, but just a few interesting links I've come across in the past couple of days
Just realized DC Comics has a Grant Morrison mini-site. Cool.
Peter David will be writing a new Spidey title: Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, (CBR, Newsarama) with art by Mike Wieringo. This is bad and good news, I love David's writing, but Mark Waid was originally set to write this, and I would have liked to seen his take on Peter Parker. Either way, this gives me an opportunity to read, hopefully, good Spidey stories again, I droped JMS's Amazing just when it was revealed Norman Osborne buggered Gwen Stacy, not so much because JMS dishonored the memory of Gwen, but because the storytelling was just not very good.
Another sample chapter from George R.R. Martin. I'm hoping this recent flurry of teases from him is an indication the book is almost complete. It's been about 5 years since A Storm of Swords was published, so I will most likely re-read the other three books. Not that re-reading these books is a bad thing, mind you.
Terry NoGoodkind continues to come across foolishly and "distanced from the reality based community."
Rick Kleffel has a cool interview witih Pyr SF Editorial Director Lou Anders.
Just realized DC Comics has a Grant Morrison mini-site. Cool.
Peter David will be writing a new Spidey title: Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, (CBR, Newsarama) with art by Mike Wieringo. This is bad and good news, I love David's writing, but Mark Waid was originally set to write this, and I would have liked to seen his take on Peter Parker. Either way, this gives me an opportunity to read, hopefully, good Spidey stories again, I droped JMS's Amazing just when it was revealed Norman Osborne buggered Gwen Stacy, not so much because JMS dishonored the memory of Gwen, but because the storytelling was just not very good.
Another sample chapter from George R.R. Martin. I'm hoping this recent flurry of teases from him is an indication the book is almost complete. It's been about 5 years since A Storm of Swords was published, so I will most likely re-read the other three books. Not that re-reading these books is a bad thing, mind you.
Terry NoGoodkind continues to come across foolishly and "distanced from the reality based community."
Rick Kleffel has a cool interview witih Pyr SF Editorial Director Lou Anders.
Tuesday, April 26, 2005
Disease!
Sure I may be the last person in the comic book reading world to read it, but I finally got around to reading all of The Ultimates, Volume 1 by Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch. I'm not really the biggest Millar fan in the world, I liked Red Son, thought Wanted was good until the last issue and the other comics I've read by him were just kind of there. On the whole, The Ultimates was entertaining, with some great artwork by Bryan Hitch. I thought some of Millar's dialogue was a bit forced, and a lot the scenes of felt VERY derivative, but I kind of like Millar's take on Captain America. Even though I liked the art, it seemed as if there were too many pages with less than four panels of artwork, which gave the feeling of less going on in some issues. Reading the entire story in one sitting was good, and I can imagine being frustrated if I had read this as each issue published. So on the whole an entertaining story, but there was a big feeling of writing-for-the trade on this one.
Posted my review of The Thackery T. Lambshead Pocket Guide to Eccentric & Discredited Diseases, a very fun book.
Added some more links to the sidebar, more blogs and archived my SFFWorld book reviews and interviews, so I at least have one location where I can access all of them.
This gave me a chuckle, via Keyoke/Mike/Paedeur or whatever the hell he's calling himself these days: The Evil Overlord List
Posted my review of The Thackery T. Lambshead Pocket Guide to Eccentric & Discredited Diseases, a very fun book.
Added some more links to the sidebar, more blogs and archived my SFFWorld book reviews and interviews, so I at least have one location where I can access all of them.
This gave me a chuckle, via Keyoke/Mike/Paedeur or whatever the hell he's calling himself these days: The Evil Overlord List
Friday, April 22, 2005
Geekery, thy name
Star Wars fever is really getting to me, I feel like devouring as many of the SW books as possible. Aside from reading Zahn's Thrawn trilogy years ago, I was resistant to reading Star Wars novels for a while. But after writers like Matthew Stover and Greg Keyes got involved in The New Jedi Order, I warmed to reading the novels. And you know what, they are pretty good and quite entertaining. I've got the last two books of The New Jedi Order on my "to read" pile, and I would like to pick up the Sean Stewart's Yoda: Dark Rendezvous as well as James Luceno's Labyrinth of Evil. But goddamit! I've already got a "to read" pile at least 20 books thick; with one book from last Christmas (2003) I haven't read yet. Not to mention the bi-weekly stash of comics I pick up as well as the occasional graphic novel (still need to pick up the recently released deluxe edition of Batman: Year One and the Legend of GrimJack: Volume 2).
Another character/universe continually popping up in front of me is R.A. Salvatore's Dark Elf, Drizzt Do’Urden and I find myself wanting to read the novels. A handful of years ago I read The Icewind Dale Trilogy and it was a really entertaining story, with exciting action sequences. While the characters were somewhat clichéd, they were still characters I enjoyed reading about. Yes, yes another media/franchise character/world, what are you thinking Rob? Aren't you the same guy who, in the SFFWorld Forums always recommends writers like Jeffrey Ford, Gene Wolfe, Michael Moorcock, China Mieville and Steven Brust - writers who more often than not are the exact opposite of the more generic stuff like Drizzt and his Forgotten Realms pals? Yes I am. But when a writer I like Matthew Stover, whom I consider one of the 4 or 5 very best FSF writers publishing today, has said he enjoys Salvatore's work, and has written the introduction to the recently re-released Exile (book 2 of The Dark Elf Trilogy), well, I am further convinced I need to read these books. I also consider the fact that my best friend who isn't really a reader and my brother-in-law, was so captivated by Salvatore's Drizzt, I am again, further convinced I need to read these books. Good entertaining story is still good story.
I think these are all symptoms of my biblioholica - an addiction to books.
On to the world of comics, the Brian Azzarello/Jim Lee 12-issue storyline finally wrapped this week. I didn't pick it up, but skimmed through it in the store. I dropped the storyline about 8 issues in due to the WTF factor and it doesn't look like I missed much, other than more WTF-ness. I do have to say the guy coming aboard as the new writer, Mark Verheiden, looks like he has some interesting things coming along with Ed Benes. Just from the few preview pages, it looks like Verheidn has a good handle on what can be cool about Superman. Only time will tell, but between this and Morrison/Quietly's All Star Superman, Big Blue could be having some interesting adventures in the near future.
Another character/universe continually popping up in front of me is R.A. Salvatore's Dark Elf, Drizzt Do’Urden and I find myself wanting to read the novels. A handful of years ago I read The Icewind Dale Trilogy and it was a really entertaining story, with exciting action sequences. While the characters were somewhat clichéd, they were still characters I enjoyed reading about. Yes, yes another media/franchise character/world, what are you thinking Rob? Aren't you the same guy who, in the SFFWorld Forums always recommends writers like Jeffrey Ford, Gene Wolfe, Michael Moorcock, China Mieville and Steven Brust - writers who more often than not are the exact opposite of the more generic stuff like Drizzt and his Forgotten Realms pals? Yes I am. But when a writer I like Matthew Stover, whom I consider one of the 4 or 5 very best FSF writers publishing today, has said he enjoys Salvatore's work, and has written the introduction to the recently re-released Exile (book 2 of The Dark Elf Trilogy), well, I am further convinced I need to read these books. I also consider the fact that my best friend who isn't really a reader and my brother-in-law, was so captivated by Salvatore's Drizzt, I am again, further convinced I need to read these books. Good entertaining story is still good story.
I think these are all symptoms of my biblioholica - an addiction to books.
On to the world of comics, the Brian Azzarello/Jim Lee 12-issue storyline finally wrapped this week. I didn't pick it up, but skimmed through it in the store. I dropped the storyline about 8 issues in due to the WTF factor and it doesn't look like I missed much, other than more WTF-ness. I do have to say the guy coming aboard as the new writer, Mark Verheiden, looks like he has some interesting things coming along with Ed Benes. Just from the few preview pages, it looks like Verheidn has a good handle on what can be cool about Superman. Only time will tell, but between this and Morrison/Quietly's All Star Superman, Big Blue could be having some interesting adventures in the near future.
Thursday, April 21, 2005
Ugh
Disney's official Narnia Web site
I read all of the books a couple of years ago and considering a number of the people who helped to create the Lord of the Rings films are aboard for this one, I'm expecting good things. I assume Disney is as well, since this could be the beginning of a very lucrative film franchise.
These last few weeks have been extremely hectic, with me saying to myself by about Tuesday or Wednesday, I can't wait until this week is over. Then the weekend flies by and I'm back in the same rut the following week. The consequences of all that are less writing, reading, and blogging than I would like.
The best thing this week, though, was going to the Yankees game on Monday night. Friends had four free tickets right ON TOP OF THE YANKEES DUGOUT! I could have shaken Jeter or Mattingly's hand I was so close. It was one of the few wins the Yanks have had so far this year, and it was just a great time all around.
I will hopefully have more to reading, writing and posting time soon.
I read all of the books a couple of years ago and considering a number of the people who helped to create the Lord of the Rings films are aboard for this one, I'm expecting good things. I assume Disney is as well, since this could be the beginning of a very lucrative film franchise.
These last few weeks have been extremely hectic, with me saying to myself by about Tuesday or Wednesday, I can't wait until this week is over. Then the weekend flies by and I'm back in the same rut the following week. The consequences of all that are less writing, reading, and blogging than I would like.
The best thing this week, though, was going to the Yankees game on Monday night. Friends had four free tickets right ON TOP OF THE YANKEES DUGOUT! I could have shaken Jeter or Mattingly's hand I was so close. It was one of the few wins the Yanks have had so far this year, and it was just a great time all around.
I will hopefully have more to reading, writing and posting time soon.
Friday, April 15, 2005
Rise Lord Vader
I just posted my review of Mathew Stover’s amazing Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith novel. Here’s a snippet:
As a fan of the Star Wars universe, Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith was as perfect a novel as one could ask. More importantly, as a fan of great storytelling, Stover succeeded supremely, balancing the characters, storyline, internal/external struggles and maintaining the pace and dramatic tension throughout the entirety of the novel. In addition to the success of this novel on a storytelling level, Stover also succeed in adding perhaps the strongest addition to the literary canon of Star Wars. This novel may be considered a companion to the film, but after reading it, I would consider it required reading. Fans of Star Wars, or simply great, entertaining storytelling that questions our assumptions, should read this book. I can’t see how anybody would be disappointed.
George R.R. Martin posted another sample chapter from A Feast for Crows
http://www.postsecret.blogspot.com/ via Mastadge
Monday, April 11, 2005
Give in...to the Dark Side
Thinking up titles for these blog entries is often the most annoying thing about blogging. More often than not, they are pretty cheesy, and I fully admit this fact.
Life has been more than hectic, just when you think you can get a breather, you get pulled under for just a little bit more. Such was last week’s case, a very busy work week with two strong deadline oriented projects flavoring the whole week. Thankfully, things were completed on time and I enjoyed the beautiful weather here in New Jersey over the past weekend.
My wife and I are in the process of house hunting, a very frustrating thing indeed. Anybody who has been in the market knows what it is like. My wife and I bought/opened up a mortgage on our townhouse just before getting married and we both shudder at the thought of what it would have been like five years ago if the prices were as outrageous as they are now. Suffice it to say, we probably would have been living in cardboard boxes.
Over the weekend picked up the novelization of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith by Matthew Stover and I’m 1/3 into it already. If the novelization is any indication, Revenge of the Sith will be an action-packed film and will be at least as good as Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, my personal favorite Star Wars movie. I also picked up the third Vampire Earth novel by E.E. Knight – Tale of the Thunderbolt. Knight's books are highly entertaining.
After one week, my fantasy baseball team is of course, going through some ups and downs, I’m in the middle of the pack right now, and that’s with two starters on the DL. I may not continue in this league next year, but we shall see.
Not much else to blog about right now.
Life has been more than hectic, just when you think you can get a breather, you get pulled under for just a little bit more. Such was last week’s case, a very busy work week with two strong deadline oriented projects flavoring the whole week. Thankfully, things were completed on time and I enjoyed the beautiful weather here in New Jersey over the past weekend.
My wife and I are in the process of house hunting, a very frustrating thing indeed. Anybody who has been in the market knows what it is like. My wife and I bought/opened up a mortgage on our townhouse just before getting married and we both shudder at the thought of what it would have been like five years ago if the prices were as outrageous as they are now. Suffice it to say, we probably would have been living in cardboard boxes.
Over the weekend picked up the novelization of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith by Matthew Stover and I’m 1/3 into it already. If the novelization is any indication, Revenge of the Sith will be an action-packed film and will be at least as good as Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, my personal favorite Star Wars movie. I also picked up the third Vampire Earth novel by E.E. Knight – Tale of the Thunderbolt. Knight's books are highly entertaining.
After one week, my fantasy baseball team is of course, going through some ups and downs, I’m in the middle of the pack right now, and that’s with two starters on the DL. I may not continue in this league next year, but we shall see.
Not much else to blog about right now.
Monday, April 04, 2005
PS2, Baseball & Books
I beat Champions of Norrath yesterday. Well, at least the beginner level. There are two more levels I can play, Advanced and Courageous. The game is a lot of fun and the advanced levels make it well worth the money, and give you a lot of playing time. I will hold off on replaying for a while, though. I've still got a nice handful of games to play and hopefully beat, not the least of which is Lord of the Rings: The Third Age. Though I have to admit, the lure of three or four games I want to buy is very strong: EA MVP 2005 Baseball, Prince of Persia 2, Shadow of Rome and most of all, God of War.
The Baseball season is officially underway, an impressive win last night for the Yankees. Many sports writers and sports reporters are picking Hideki Matsui to win the MVP. I will be surprised if one Yankee distinguishes himself enough to win the MVP this year, the argument always being the Yankees would likely be in the same position without the player. I think this is one of the reasons Albert Pujols didn't win the NL MVP award last year.
I'm in the midst of reading two very good books right now The Risen Empire by Scott Westerfeld and Gemquest: The Awakening by Gary Wassner. More often than not, I only read one book at a time, but I wanted to try and read multiple books at the same time. Its proving interesting, trying to determine which book to grab, fortunately, they are both very entertaining, but I think I'm giving the edge to Gemquest: The Awakening.
The Baseball season is officially underway, an impressive win last night for the Yankees. Many sports writers and sports reporters are picking Hideki Matsui to win the MVP. I will be surprised if one Yankee distinguishes himself enough to win the MVP this year, the argument always being the Yankees would likely be in the same position without the player. I think this is one of the reasons Albert Pujols didn't win the NL MVP award last year.
I'm in the midst of reading two very good books right now The Risen Empire by Scott Westerfeld and Gemquest: The Awakening by Gary Wassner. More often than not, I only read one book at a time, but I wanted to try and read multiple books at the same time. Its proving interesting, trying to determine which book to grab, fortunately, they are both very entertaining, but I think I'm giving the edge to Gemquest: The Awakening.
Thursday, March 31, 2005
GemQuest & Clarkesworld
Finished up Gary Wassner's first novel Gemequest: The Twins the other day. I honestly wasn't sure what to expect and I entered reading the book with some trepidation, Gary and I are forum moderators at SFFWorld and I'd consider him a friend based upon that alone. I wanted to enjoy the book, but I also didn't want to like it just because Gary is a friend. His publisher, Windstorm Creative is a small relatively new publisher, or at least one I'm not to familiar with. All that said, by book's end, Gary had me hooked into his story and the world he created.
While I enjoyed the book, it isn't without it's faults. Some occaisionally repeated words and phrases cropped up, and times, some passages in general were a overly wordy. Gary's style is almost lyrical, and as I became more entrenched in the world he created, things either became less wordy and evened out, or I simply became more acustomed to the style. The occasional wordiness is perhaps the only negative about the book, so I figured I'd get that out of the way first.
The blurb/TV Guide version of the book is this: The Lalas, sentient trees who have acted as protectors to the land and the people, are dying. The dark wizard Colton wants to hasten the death of all the Lalas, which will further him towards his goal of disollution. In order to see his goal, Colton must kill the prophesized saviour, the heir to the kingdom which he destroys in the beginning of the novel. While this is a familiar formula to most fantasy readers, its in what Gary does with this theme, adding different flavors and his own voice that make the story work. I think writers, fantasy writers in particular, walk a pretty fine line between dumping too much information about the world they created and balancing that with providing a truly immersive reading experience. One good way Gary showed his world was through the characters and their reactions and feelings about the world. By the end of The Twins I felt I knew the world pretty well, but there were still more things I wanted to discover. The world of GemQuest is both familiar and fresh, that's why I like Epic Fantasy so much, I think. I enjoy some of the familiar trappings of the genre and style, but I also like seeing a new flavor thrown in, a new twist on things - something Gary has been able to do.
Though the early parts were a bit slow, about halfway through, things really picked up for me and I became wrapped up in the plight of these people and fully immersed in the world. Gary did some really interesting things in the book, some things I haven't come across in reading alot of the fantasy I've read. One of the greater strengths of the story is how Gary managed to craft a story in the tradition of the genre, specifically the quest and struggle against Dark Lord, that both honors the tradition and forges something fresh and entertaining. I think he did a nice job with the characters and found it particularly interesting that by novel's end, one of the titular Twins, while on stage for many scenes, was still unconcious. Some characters come across more genuinely than others. Tomas is quite intriguing and I'm looking forward to being the fly on the wall when he meets his twin, Davmiran. While Baladar fits the Gandalf role in some respects, I like that he doesn't quite have all the answers. Baladar is trying to bring all these people together, but he certainly doesn't know everything and is playing within rules he doesn't completely know. I think Cairn fits the Gandalf role in some respects, too, but I think he is much more than that, as well. I'm getting good sense of how important Tomas may be through Cairn's eyes. Thus far, Colton seems like the typical almost faceless, Dark Overlord, I'm hoping more is revealed about Colton in later volumes. Gary conveyed a good sense of connectivity between the people and the trees and the importance of the trees to the land itself.
Despite a bit of deus ex machina towards the ending of The Twins, the price the defenders of Pardatha was quite high. At one point, I was almost expecting Gary to somehow return the characters to the status quo, a lesser writer may have indulged in the happier ending. I think Gary took the proper fork in the road there, not that writers should indulge in shaking up the status quo just for hell of it. If it serves the story, then fine. Here it did.
To sum it all up, while a bit flawed as most debut novels are, GemQuest: The Twins was an enjoyable reading experience and I'm looking forward to reading more about these characters and the world they inhabit.
Goddamned is South Park fast. Last night's entertaining episode managed to bring the newly released PSP, Lord of the Rings, and the Schiavo case together into one story. Of course it was irreverent, but like many of their more politically flavored episodes, it was pretty good and showed important issues in a different light.
Because my local Barnes & Noble sucks, I figured I'd place an order at Clarkesworld Books, which happens to be in my state of residence, the order arrived yesterda: The Risen Empire & The Killing of Worlds (together they make up a whole novel: Succession) by Scott Westerfeld, published by Tor. Over at SFFWorld, The Risen Empire is our Science Fiction Book Club selection for April. Westerfeld's two books are actually one book split into two, something Tor is on is doing with more frequency. Jacqueline Carey, Gene Wolfe, Charles Stross and John C. Wright are four authors who's books have been split in the same manner by Tor. This isn't an old rant by any means and in his Agony Column, Rick Kleffel covered this trend much more concisely in one of his recent posts.
I also received Black Gate magazine. Subtitled Adventures in Fantasy Literature, publisher John O'Neill puts together a good looking magazine, packed with good stories. I've been very happy with the two issues I have (5 & 6), and I may even pick up some back issues. Problem is, I always have a tough time finding the magazine at any of the 10 Barnes and Nobles & Borders near my home or work. The magazine has a rather erratic publishing schedule, too. I will probably pick up some back issues through Clarkesworld Books, which I'm learning is a great store.
Newsarama's got a decent interview up with Scott Allie, Dark Horse Comics editor for Conan. Also on Newsarama is a press release about Devil's Due plans to produce comic adaptation of R.A. Salvatore's Dark Elf Trilogy the Forgotton Realms story which tells of Drizzt Do’Urden's origins and how he left the Underdark. The only Drizzt story I've read was The Icewind Dale Trilogy, which I enjoyed.
While I enjoyed the book, it isn't without it's faults. Some occaisionally repeated words and phrases cropped up, and times, some passages in general were a overly wordy. Gary's style is almost lyrical, and as I became more entrenched in the world he created, things either became less wordy and evened out, or I simply became more acustomed to the style. The occasional wordiness is perhaps the only negative about the book, so I figured I'd get that out of the way first.
The blurb/TV Guide version of the book is this: The Lalas, sentient trees who have acted as protectors to the land and the people, are dying. The dark wizard Colton wants to hasten the death of all the Lalas, which will further him towards his goal of disollution. In order to see his goal, Colton must kill the prophesized saviour, the heir to the kingdom which he destroys in the beginning of the novel. While this is a familiar formula to most fantasy readers, its in what Gary does with this theme, adding different flavors and his own voice that make the story work. I think writers, fantasy writers in particular, walk a pretty fine line between dumping too much information about the world they created and balancing that with providing a truly immersive reading experience. One good way Gary showed his world was through the characters and their reactions and feelings about the world. By the end of The Twins I felt I knew the world pretty well, but there were still more things I wanted to discover. The world of GemQuest is both familiar and fresh, that's why I like Epic Fantasy so much, I think. I enjoy some of the familiar trappings of the genre and style, but I also like seeing a new flavor thrown in, a new twist on things - something Gary has been able to do.
Though the early parts were a bit slow, about halfway through, things really picked up for me and I became wrapped up in the plight of these people and fully immersed in the world. Gary did some really interesting things in the book, some things I haven't come across in reading alot of the fantasy I've read. One of the greater strengths of the story is how Gary managed to craft a story in the tradition of the genre, specifically the quest and struggle against Dark Lord, that both honors the tradition and forges something fresh and entertaining. I think he did a nice job with the characters and found it particularly interesting that by novel's end, one of the titular Twins, while on stage for many scenes, was still unconcious. Some characters come across more genuinely than others. Tomas is quite intriguing and I'm looking forward to being the fly on the wall when he meets his twin, Davmiran. While Baladar fits the Gandalf role in some respects, I like that he doesn't quite have all the answers. Baladar is trying to bring all these people together, but he certainly doesn't know everything and is playing within rules he doesn't completely know. I think Cairn fits the Gandalf role in some respects, too, but I think he is much more than that, as well. I'm getting good sense of how important Tomas may be through Cairn's eyes. Thus far, Colton seems like the typical almost faceless, Dark Overlord, I'm hoping more is revealed about Colton in later volumes. Gary conveyed a good sense of connectivity between the people and the trees and the importance of the trees to the land itself.
Despite a bit of deus ex machina towards the ending of The Twins, the price the defenders of Pardatha was quite high. At one point, I was almost expecting Gary to somehow return the characters to the status quo, a lesser writer may have indulged in the happier ending. I think Gary took the proper fork in the road there, not that writers should indulge in shaking up the status quo just for hell of it. If it serves the story, then fine. Here it did.
To sum it all up, while a bit flawed as most debut novels are, GemQuest: The Twins was an enjoyable reading experience and I'm looking forward to reading more about these characters and the world they inhabit.
Goddamned is South Park fast. Last night's entertaining episode managed to bring the newly released PSP, Lord of the Rings, and the Schiavo case together into one story. Of course it was irreverent, but like many of their more politically flavored episodes, it was pretty good and showed important issues in a different light.
Because my local Barnes & Noble sucks, I figured I'd place an order at Clarkesworld Books, which happens to be in my state of residence, the order arrived yesterda: The Risen Empire & The Killing of Worlds (together they make up a whole novel: Succession) by Scott Westerfeld, published by Tor. Over at SFFWorld, The Risen Empire is our Science Fiction Book Club selection for April. Westerfeld's two books are actually one book split into two, something Tor is on is doing with more frequency. Jacqueline Carey, Gene Wolfe, Charles Stross and John C. Wright are four authors who's books have been split in the same manner by Tor. This isn't an old rant by any means and in his Agony Column, Rick Kleffel covered this trend much more concisely in one of his recent posts.
I also received Black Gate magazine. Subtitled Adventures in Fantasy Literature, publisher John O'Neill puts together a good looking magazine, packed with good stories. I've been very happy with the two issues I have (5 & 6), and I may even pick up some back issues. Problem is, I always have a tough time finding the magazine at any of the 10 Barnes and Nobles & Borders near my home or work. The magazine has a rather erratic publishing schedule, too. I will probably pick up some back issues through Clarkesworld Books, which I'm learning is a great store.
Newsarama's got a decent interview up with Scott Allie, Dark Horse Comics editor for Conan. Also on Newsarama is a press release about Devil's Due plans to produce comic adaptation of R.A. Salvatore's Dark Elf Trilogy the Forgotton Realms story which tells of Drizzt Do’Urden's origins and how he left the Underdark. The only Drizzt story I've read was The Icewind Dale Trilogy, which I enjoyed.
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