#Plus as you can see in the above pages the pacing is just fucking fantastic. Look at that buildup & reveal!

[msfcatlover]

#is this me on my batman the cult agenda absolutely i think its a robin jason must read (via cecexoxo)

The Cult is a fun read, especially for Jason in it, but I'd like to point out this is not an exclusive detail to it. If you go back to the beginning, this is from the second page of the first issue with Jason as Robin (Post-Crisis):

I do highly encourage everyone to give Batman: The Cult a read, though. It has a lot of really interesting foreshadowing for Jason's death (which I'm pretty sure was unintentional...)

(Just a few from my favorite examples of accidental foreshadowing throughout Jason's Post-Crisis Robin run.)

Also on the grand scale of awful things to happen to Jason over the years, I do think we should all talk more about that time he crawled through a mass grave in a sewer.

as much as I love the angst potential of Jason choosing guns to mess w Batman's head or whatever, I think it has even better potential to know Batman was the one who taught him how to use a gun back when Jason was Robin and because of that he knows exactly how good Jason is with one

[invertedeidolon]

The Longest Library #5: The Crying Sisters by Mabel Seely

(This is a series in which I attempt to read and review all (or most of) my library of 297 books.)

Rundown: A librarian wishes for a little more excitement in her life and IMMEDIATELY regrets it. Goes to a resort with a stranger, hired to look after his kid. His kid is cute but he may or may not be a fucking literal murderer?? We don’t know!! 4/5, good suspense, great pacing, a steady read that won’t make you obsessively read for three days straight, but it will definitely overtake your lunch breaks.

This entry took me a little longer, not because it was a bad book, but because for roughly two or so weeks I got caught up in mental health shite and had to re-tweak my schedule YET AGAIN and force a half hour of reading in the mornings to make sure I actually had time to read. This book was wonderful.

I think this book marks the first actually good mystery I’ve ever read. Considering I never read mysteries, and the first one I read was catballs mcgee over here. There are some reviews that seem to be bothered by the authors occasional tendency to mention something and then go “I had no idea that would be so important at the time”. Personally, I loved it. It put me in a further state of suspense, and it had me attempting to put more things together. There’s not enough info to pin one person down, and the really obvious choice is a REALLY obvious choice, and the main heroine constantly agonizes over it, so you know the book wouldn’t do THAT, but still... what if? The very last resort my mind ended up going to in a lazy scooby doo kind of way ended up being right, but the intricacies of their place in the whole plot was still a surprise.

No, the super conservative prude witch lady had absolutely nothing to do with any of it, she was just unpleasant.

A really cool thing about this book, at least the copy that I have, is that it’s a reprint from 1944, during the war. There’s a little note in the front about book cloth shortage because of war-time rationing (you can see it in my instagram post here). So instead it was bound in a ‘sturdy paper fabric’ instead. That, plus the aging of the paper, give it a really smooth and airy feel, for a book. I love holding this thing.

Okay, onto quotes.

We already start off strong with the writer’s description of oppressive summer heat:

“In the afternoon I was a cooking waffle between two irons, the steely paving and the chromium sky; heat from below pressed up and heat from above pressed down until the juice oozed out of my bones and each eye was a separate furnace”

Hot damn that’s a HOT day.

“My imagination worked overtime a bit, but the last thing I would ever have thought was that that revolver would come into my possession”

There’s that hinting that people were talking about. But it wasn’t useless or meandering. This line appears on page seven and become EXTREMELY pertinent by the end of the story. I don’t mind hinting if it isn’t useless without giving too much away. We have no idea about the circumstances of how she gets the gun, but all we know is that she gets it, and that’s just a tiny bit exciting already. The author putting a little foreshadowing in front of us directly didn’t bother me because not only was it immediately relevant (usually within a chapter or so), but also relevant in an even more significant way by the end of the book.

“...if Cottie calls me mamma, then anyone who hears him will think I’m your wife.” “I won’t.” It was cold enough to douse me the rest of the way back to sanity. “I’m sorry, I’ve changed my mind. I‘m not going.” His answer came with the tired reasonableness of a construction boss rebuking a steel riveter who complains he is afraid of high places. “Aw, quit being a sissy pants.” Sissy pants! Before I could recover he had elbowed me aside, and was inside my car.”

What the FUCK. What a little shit! Holy fuck! This man makes me feel offended and incredulous like an amish spinster looking at capri pants! Like what the fuck!!!!

“I can see, now, how expertly he handled me, how exactly he conveyed the right amount of disinterest in me, how he goaded me into staying.”

This man is a fucking EXPERT at manipulating the heroine. Your own mind sort of starts to soften to him the further you read, because like the heroine, in the beginning there’s no reason to like or tolerate the man, but as you go on, it becomes a necessary evil if you want to figure out what the FUCK is going on. I also started to get just as curious as to who he really was and what business he had at the resort. (by the end of the book I came to understand it’s a lot like how Kain had to handle Raziel: You can’t reveal too much or you risk your plans going astray, but for fuck’s sake Kain, you could be way less of an ass about it, you know?)

“Whatever had been done in the resort tonight, for whatever reason a woman had screamed, he was staying. The cot creaked lengthily as he lay down. I tried, with an effect of pressing a lid down on a kettle that bubbled and boiled over, to suppress my expectant terror.”

Damn that’s a good description of that feeling. I used to get that way when I heard stuff at night and my (at the time) untreated, panic prone brain immediately went “IT’S A CRIMINAL, A MURDERER, A CRIMURDERER, YOU MOVE AND YOU DIE”

“Mrs. Clapshaw carried herself like a small dragoon and had a nose like a thin white claw. I thought she’d be the acid test. “A scream?” She repeated rapidly, reaching upward with the nose. “Mrs. Corbett, I’m so glad you heard it. It’s the Reds. I’ve told Mr. Loxton here. There are un-American activities going on at that Flaming Door. Nazis.” She bit at her decisive words as they went past her teeth.”

Oh my god. Thankfully we don’t really deal with this lady for long, but holy fuck. The heroine wisely doesn’t spend any more time with her on purpose.

“You can decide to treat me like a person or I leave. I don’t like being pushed over or taunted or overruled or spoken to contemptuously. I can leave here today. It’s my car.” “Sure. Why don’t you?” Why is it that being invited to make good on a threat makes you want to change your mind? As usual when I’m pushed over the edge of anger, I couldn’t find words, and stood sputtering.”

The thing about Steve (this asshole’s name is Steve) is that he doesn’t force her to stay. He makes it quite clear in his smug little way that she always had the choice to leave at literally any time, and many times gives her orders knowing full well she can very well disobey them (and she does at times). She has a gun. Why doesn’t she shoot him? Go to the sheriff? But just. God. The man is infuriating and uncomfortably manipulative, but when immersed in the book, it becomes something mildly amusing, although the real world implications and usage of this kind of manipulation are sobering. The curiosity overrode everything else.

“I didn’t know how difficult it was going to be to keep out of Mr. Sprung’s way, or for what a long section of the chain he was going to be responsible.”

Another hint. The heroine frequently refers to the thread of the mystery as a chain (i.e: Chain of events), and it’s used fairly frequently through the book, sometimes in creative ways. There’s a moment where she realizes she’s reached the point of no return, that she’s in too deep, and goes on to describe how she can feel the chain whipping around her and binding her.

“Something would come of this night business now. I had in an instant a hundred blinding expectations -- a shot through the door, harsh angry voices calling to open, Steve Corbett rushing to attack the source of the light, men tramping in to say he was caught. My internal arrangements drew out into a rope and then tied themselves into one tight knot as I sat there with all animation suspended.”

Night noises be like that though. Man, these descriptions of the heroine’s internal reactions to things have been excellent!

“I’d heard that thin, high tone before. I’d heard it walking along a country road with telephone wires over my head and a wind in the wires. It was eerie in the wires. It was deadly in the man’s voice.”

“The boy was the man’s son, and the man loved him almost with agony. Yet last night he had walked out of the cottage into some circumstance he thought might be so dangerous he might never come back.”

“Suddenly I was shaking again, clutching Steve Corbett’s arm. He wasn’t shaking, but the muscles hardened as my fingers grasped; it was like touching a sleeve holding a warm marble arm. Had this been the arm I fought against last night?”

“The eyes above me had the same blue-metal gleam as the revolver’s mouth.”

The author does a fantastic job of making Steve Corbett seem like a very threatening potential murderer, nearly everything around him is foggy, suspicious, and mildly threatening in it’s implications, and yet there’s never enough solid evidence to truly pin anything on him. Both myself and the heroine could only stand by and watch further with a distinct sense of unease as everything unfolded both too quickly and not quickly enough.

“If tampering with the truth was illegal, the sheriff was a bit unlawful himself. “She couldn’t see, it was black as pitch,” Niddie denied weakly. “So there was something to see!” Niddie wasn’t the stuff of Hoxie Moebbels; once the sheriff had an opening wedge he weakened quickly.”

I like the sheriff a lot.

“I had hardly heard her. The corner of my eye had caught the stubby white patent-leather sandals on her feet. Caught between the heel and the instep of one sandal was a dry scrap of plantain leaf.”

So, something that annoyed me a little bit in the last mystery, was that the glimpses of suspicion raising evidence sometimes didn’t mean anything. They’re were just like ‘ooooo, suspicious!!!! It MEANS something!!!’. Here the narrator (our heroine) seems way more credible, relatable, and the events preceding it turns this into a massive clue. AND it’s later actually relevant, and NOT evidence of the heroine being (understandably) paranoid!

“If ever there was an evil-eyed harridan, I thought, she was it. I wondered what had built the immense familiarity with the worst impulses of men, that lay in her eyes, the thickness of her slow, significant voice, the turn of her hands, the slide of her thick hips.”

Another good description of yet another extremely suspicious person.

“We called hello in return, Carol prinking and smiling.”

Autocorrect can’t tell me that’s not a word.

prink /priNGk/ verb spend time making minor adjustments to one's appearance; primp. "prinking themselves in front of the mirror"

Ah, so nowadays we would more readily recognize ‘primping’ as opposed to this one. Nice! I learned a new word!

“In a white rayon bathing suit her figure was as plushly luscious as an overstuffed pink satin davenport.”

So she’s cute chubby! Nice! I assume this is roughly the era or coming from a writer from an era that was just on the edge of where being ‘too skinny’ was a REALLY bad thing.

“Look, Janet.” It was the first time he’d used my name.”

213 pages in. What a piece of work.

“Wasn’t it too bad I couldn’t be placated by an ice-cream cone, I thought grimly, as I went to obey orders.”

Me too, Janet. Me too.

“This was the sheriff to whom I held with the emotion portrayed by the girl in the old oleograph of the storm swept cross.”

If anybody knows what painting this is, that would be fantastic. I can only barely imagine it based on context, but that’s about it.

The quotes and the commentary are more sparse here at the end because I don’t want to give too much away. 

This was a book that I genuinely enjoyed, and I could easily recommend it for some casual but still absorbing reading. They still print this book in paperback now, so it shouldn’t be too hard to find, it’s just me that has the old as balls copy. 

Good shit!

[kierongillen]

Writer Notes: The Wicked + the Divine #31

Spoilers, obv.

Well, yes.

Jamie/Matt's cover

Woden's never looked more dapper, I think. I look at this, and suddenly wish I could go back in time to show it to the artists circa my X-men run, when I was trying to explain my Jack Kirby meets Jane Austen ideas for Sinister were all about. This! Like this! Tweaked slightly from the image from solicits to reposition the circuitry to the left of Woden to look less like a butt plug.

Sophie Campbell's cover

We've been trying to arrange something with Sophie since Commercial Suicide, so we're very happy to finally get her to a page. I've loved her since I first saw her work, in the early 00s Oni graph novel with Antony Johnston, Spooked. She was instantly fascinating, and seeing her work develop over all the years has been a thrill. This is one of the best Cassandra covers for me – just really stark and striking.

Page 1

Yes, we all want the leggings.

Really basic layout here – the steady angle three tired panels, which I love. It's Uber's signature panel structure, and just tries to put you in the place. In WicDiv's case, we seem to use it a long in the Underground, which seems to be about inertia.

Also think the whole space is meaning – this is a one page scene, with three panels. We get very little of Persephone in this issue, and this magnifies each of these beats. This is all important. It has to be, as otherwise why are we lingering on it?

That final panel though, right? The stillness Jamie is working with here is fantastic.

Okay – let's talk a little structural here. As several people have noted, this an issue which may recal issue 11, which cut between two threads (Baph/Inanna and Laura/Ananke) at the crucial, most interesting moment. Here, Imperial Phase has burned down to three threads – or three and a half threads, if you include Baphomet/Morrigan who aren't in the issue. Cutting between three threads feels too slow, with you spending too much time away from a scene to maintain interest. As such, this issue essentially treats two threads as one thread – the Persephone/Sakmet segues into the Baal/Minerva/Amaterasu thread across the issue, and we cut between it and the Norns/Woden/Dionysus at every key beat.

There is one main exception to this, but it's early on, and it's notable the pace is kept relatively low before that. It's only after that we go to the full on hard-cuts.

In other words – the page just lingers, because we're not starting to dance properly yet. The tempo needs to be kept low, as to go in too hard would break the Cass/Dio scene in a few pages time.

Er... there's a bunch of theory there. So much of what I try to write is to establish motivations and stakes, and then when they're in place, bring it all crashing down. We are very rollercoaster.

Page 2

Every time I flick through this issue, I and hit this point I find myself turning to Belle and Sebastian's I Don't Love Anyone. It's one of the bits I can hear the music in WicDiv, just that lying in bed, and the hard cut to black to the credits with B&S over.

Page 3-4

Man, I get sadder and sadder every time I see Dio with his coffee cup.

As I think I said last time, I saved the last bit of exposition about the gig for this issue because if I said it last time, I'd have to repeat it this time anyway. In short: the first page is “What is this gig actually ABOUT anyway?”

Every time I see the Norns and Woden on the same page, I just feel sorry for Clayton. That is a lot of work.

With Woden's customary green, the hologram map has a certain Emerald City vibe, I think?

The end of page 4 is A+ acting from Jamie. Comedy lives in the mid-shot, etc. I believe Jamie added a panel here of extra Woden waving and Cass' expression, which shows that I've made him get stockholm syndrome with modified-eight-panel structures.

(Joking aside, it just adds to the work. Having a little thinking time before Cass' eye wide realisation sells the moment.)

Page 5-6

These two pages would be the place where I could have cut if I was bouncing between the threads... but for all the reasons I talk about on Page 1, I don't. That's not what's happening. Yet.

8 panel grid here, which speaks to the sort of material that this scene is – very small and human, the eight panel being my go-to for autobiographical work.

(Plus, we have a lot of fish to fry here. I have to get this stuff into the space)

The “NOT YOU AS WELL!” makes me smile.

Woden's last line was originally something like “Don't worry. I am incapable of love.” which is a very Woden thing to say, but in the context of the following discussion made me suspect it may be taken as Woden saying he's aromantic. Clearly, this would be unwanted, so I wrote around it.

The Crap. Crap. Crappity. Shitfuck. Panel is Cassandra continuing to be out of context panel champion.

The Dio/Cass conversation seems to have gone down well, which does make me happy. We're writing around some delicate stuff here, on the nature of friendship. I wanted Cass and Dio to explicitly talk about this, but I also knew that Dio would never tell Cass... so it leads to Cass finding out another way. The problem then is that Cass also wouldn't want to embarrass Dio. So we end up in a conversation like this, of all too transparent hypotheticals.

I love these two.

Page 7-8

Okay, this is just a Jamie masterclass, and the sort of scene I'd only write for someone I knew could pull this shit off. As Persephone – our de facto lead – isn't in this issue much, I wanted to keep the focus on her, so we keep the frame on her and let us really see her go through the response. Right here, Baal's response doesn't matter. What's going on here with Persephone?

I'm fond of the empty-cigarettes box thrown away as a timer on how long she's procrastinated before making the call. I believe that came up in conversation rather than being in a script, in terms of doing the whole cigarette packet. I think it was just throwing away a cigarette in the first draft, which is far too short a time. We want Persephone there, a long time, just considering this.

I suspect some people would have cut page 7, but I'm much more interested in seeing someone wrestle with inertia. This hasn't been easy for Persephone.

Anyway – Page 8. Look at those faces. 2 to 3 to 4 is a story in and of itself. The cringe of 3 turning to a counter-attack.

And the start of the hard-cuts. Hit a moment of tension, pose a question, and then move the frame away.

Page 9-10-11

To something else, ideally as interesting. Page 9 is clearly something to kill Jamie. We move to Dionysus empty silhouette crowds ASAP, but the amount of inking and work in these first few panels is a considerable expenditure from our “budget.” But it's unavoidable.

9.3 – yes, that does look a lot like Lloyd.

The last panels of 9 took some conversation to make it clear what I meant was getting across. Jamie noted how Dio did it back in issue 8 was one and one contact, but I was looking for the visual. Trying to sell the idea of the effect just SPREADING across the crowd by contact, like ripples in water was the thing. No-one's gone “Wait – that isn't how Dio works” so I presume it sold it.

Love the framing in the last 3 – the use of space around Dio in panel 4 is particularly good. Matt's colouring in the last panel too.

Page 10 – first of two splash pages. For an issue that's packed, we still found a place to let this stuff breathe. In this case, selling the crowd, and the weird magic of the cerebellum above them was key. Also a page turn, onto the big image.

Page 11 is a rush of last key details – panel 2's showing how it's closed off is particularly key. This is all intensely private. Obviously panel 3 is Matt really going for it – that's just a wonderfully fun on burst f everything.

And then Woden fucks everything up. The cut is telling – where to do this is taste. You could do it after he shoots. I thought it was more interesting to cut after he pulls the gun. The “What is he doing?” is more interesting to me than the answer.

Page 12-13

Back to the other thread. This involved a quick trip to the British Museum to get some reference shots for Jamie and me, with the lovely Al Ewing in company. The roof is accurate, though a nightmare to draw. The “opening of the triangle” is artistic licence. Don't try it, kids.

All the shots here are also clearly “expensive” in terms of the time they take.

The Amy/Baal conversation has some fun elements – I wanted to do a scene where the Norns shouted at them, but it just didn't fit in the structure. That we know Cass well enough to know how it would have gone just by referring to it probably shows how much we understand the cast at this point.

Jamie's shadowed shot of Baal was a last minute choice, and works terribly well.

Page 14-15-16

Back to the other thread.

Woden talks about something to take out people's powers in terms of hunting Sakhmet, foreshadowing this. The WARPED panel was in response to the pencils, where the idea of having the left of the panel normal and the right warped – as in, effectively working as two panels, showing when Woden's effect kicks in was telling.

Change of colour as Woden takes control, from the old skool rave of Dio to the cold techno of Woden.

And, yes, this does appear to be a Radio Ga Ga riff.

Jamie took the last panel at a more neutral angle originally, but decided to rework it to be closer on Dionysus, to really stress his importance here. That Woden controls the crowd is clear in panel 2 – there's no need to reiterate in the third.

Page 17-18

Statues of Sekhmet, as last seen in issue 17.

After we started working on the Red Performance of Amaterasu, Clayton suggested that we did a lettering style change as well. Clearly the right idea. We originally tried it with pure red balloons, but they merged with the coloured art on page 18, so we added the outline.

Yes, callback to issue 1 and issue 21.

Panel 4 on 19 originally had two balloons, but C felt it was over too quick and suggested adding a third balloon to extend the moment. Works beautifully, and a good example of how you can use lettering to control panel “Length.”

Abstractly you could have cut away at the page 19, but the other thread has already reached its cliffhanger and this is not a high drama moment.

Page 19-20-21-22

Page 19 is the page which required the most on the page editorial work in the issue. Amaterasu dooms herself in a delicate way, and as it's her last moment, her mistakes – all her mistakes – need to be clear. To be fair to Amaterasu, she – like most of the cast – doesn't know much about Sakhmet's background. She doesn't exactly know what a field of landmines she's dancing across.

But still - less throwing Amaterasu under a bus, and more put her at the bottom of a mountain covered in buses and starting a bus-avalanche. You can easily imagine Amaterasu starring at the oncoming wall of public transport and going "I LOVE BUSES!"

People ask me about how much the story has changed in development. It's not exactly that simple. Some beats I know as the big structural architecture of the story – Luci in issue 5, Laura in issue 11, Ananke in issue 22 and so on. Other character's stories, while are planned in their shape, are left to be weaved into the story as they're most appropriate. Amaterasu would be one of those characters – my original suspicion would be she'd die at the end of Imperial Phase Part I, but I realised that there wasn't enough space to really delineate her misstep, so pushed it a little later. Equally, the idea that this should occur at the British Museum only came to me after issue 17, seeing how Sakhmet and Amaterasu's arcs complimented one another – and specifically how Amaterasu related to the museum.

Originally the scene was only 3 pages, but Jamie wanted to page 20 as two pages. You can see why. As well as giving more space to hit the moments, it puts the splash page of a page turn.

There's a lot to unpack in the last few pages and the last page particularly – the mix horror and the beauty of it is pointed. Me walking through it is kind of missing the point of visual information – it's resolves in complicated ways that rub up against each other.

In terms of technical elements, I'd draw your attention to how casual Jamie choses to pick things – and the pop art of Matt's choices. Extreme realism on the first panel of 20, before we go to the more impressionistic colours in the second panel. The brightness of Amy's powers, and so on and so forth. Really strong work.

Goodbye, Amaterasu.

Page 23

The line came to me late, and I was surprised that – until then - I wasn't conscious of the multiple uses of stealing throughout the issue thematically, in both story threads.

And the first new skull in a long time. I was wondering if Sergio would have forgot how to do it.

The Norns and Dionysus blurred to show their present state. We've not exactly done much of this since the first arc, but we thought it'd be useful to bring back.

This one seems to have gone down well. Back next month with 32, where things continue to escalate.

Thanks for reading.

[scrawnydutchman]

Baby Driver Movie Review

NOTE: This review contains spoilers, highlighted for readers convenience in bold letters. If you haven’t seen it but would like to know if it’s worth a look (it most certainly is) skip the bold lettered sections of this review to get the gist of how everything pans out without having the film ruined for you. Once you give it a watch, come back and read the full review to get more details on my thoughts.

Action movies. They have a real hit-and-miss reputation for the average moviegoer. Some people can’t wait for the next intense summer blockbuster, the most kickass action packed film of the year. Others just see it all as mind numbing uber violent nonsense with no substance attached, and care more for characters having a conversation then things blowing up on screen. While I personally find the latter to be pretentious and snobby most of the time, they have a point. Every genre has their blemishes filled with clichés, boring insights, and little to no identity outside of other films in their genre. For examples, go to Michael Bay’s IMDB page. But make no mistake: A good, even great action movie CAN be done, and if you want the most outrageous, thrilling, most well choreographed ride of the summer that is just oozing with personality and straight up coolness, go see Edgar Wright’s Baby Driver. This film is a miracle in the language of film making, with the story being told on screen in clever edits, great shots, great acting, and overall a very “show-don’t-tell” attitude that will always keep you guessing. Let’s tackle each element of this film one at a time.

Story

Summary: There is a young man infamous for his almost supernatural skill behind the wheel among this gang of criminals. That man is Baby (played by Ansel Elgort), the dancing, jiving, mysterious music lover who’s just trying to get by using his surreal driving skills to make some cash. He is employed by a crime boss called Doc (played by Kevin Spacey) to be the driver for a series of heists and armed robberies pulled off by an alternating motley crew of thugs, played by such credible actors as Jamie Foxx, Jon Hamm and Eiza Gonzalez. Things change though when Baby meets a new romantic interest; a diner waitress named Debora (played by Lily James). Baby decides he wants to move on from his life as a hired criminal driver. Will he be able to change his ways or will the call of Doc keep him trapped in a cycle of violence and elaborate car chases?

The way this movie pans out it’s story and introduction to it’s characters is fantastic. I would argue the way you open your movie is one of the most essential pieces of the puzzle because you are introducing your audience to the character they will be following for a 2 hour adventure, so you want to make the first impression really good. This movie gets all the essentials out in one fantastic intro. First character we see is Baby, he’s listening to some great music and dancing in his car, giving us the sense that he’s a fun loving dude, and then right after he’s shown as a monster behind the wheel. The audience is hooked into rooting for this guy immediately and we want to stick with him through this whole thing. The protagonist may very well be the strongest aspect of this film. He’s a creative, carefree but softspoken, rugid and tough but good natured soul who’s being taken advantage of. What’s not to love? The story does great in providing higher and higher stakes as the film progresses with each action scene being more intense and dramatic then the last. It keeps up the likability of the main character throughout the whole thing by including several instances of him being kind and merciful to passersby whereas the rest of his crew is ruthless and murderous. Plus the plot is VERY unpredictable. Every time you think it’s going to rely on some sort of action movie cliché it goes in a completely different direction with it, leaving you legitimately wondering just how the hell our badass hero is going to make it out alive.

One minor criticism I have with the plot of this film is that sometimes characters motivations are pretty bare bones. Like Baby’s love interest Debora for instance. She’s just a regular waitress who’s basically thrown into this high speed gun towing car chase with some random guy she decided to flirt with and she never really bats an eye at the whole thing. No matter what she’s completely compliant with Baby even when a real life girlfriend would logically be really upset. She gets seemingly stood up one night but never brings that up, she never tries to talk Baby out of his life of crime, she doesn’t even get upset with him for turning himself in to the cops after ALL that the two have been through together. Like . . . I like Baby a lot and everything, but I feel like if I were her I’d be a LITTLE pissed at him for just throwing my life into chaos with him after barely knowing him. I guess this is better then her just being whiny and taking away from the epicness of what’s going on but she’s a little too oddly compliant about the whole thing, to the point where it makes me think “does she have parents wondering about her or something”? Plus there’s a point in the movie where Doc just randomly decides to help Baby and Debora escape and even sacrifices his life for them despite Baby basically fucking everything up for him and sinking his entire operation. He says he’s doing it because “he was in love once’, but we never get any more reason beyond that, he basically just turns on Baby’s side right the hell out of nowhere despite the fact that he was so obviously using him up to that point.

Another interesting thing to point out about this film is that almost every kind deed Baby does comes back to aid him in some way, shape or form. You’ll see what I mean when you watch it.

Action & Editing

Usually action choreography isn’t given much analysis by the more snobby film goer as they always state character and story is more important, and while I don’t necessarily disagree with that I resent the idea that action is just any old thing any person can do. Good action needs great beats. It needs good frame composition, good dynamic pacing, good stunt choreography, raising stakes as the fight builds. For all intents and purposes it has to be the most dramatic and expressive part in the movie with the least amount of words. Sure action has been done very lazily with dumb gimmicks like shaky cam, no point in focus and an abundance of lens flare (because apparently good action means not being able to see what the hell is going on) but there’s Transformers action and then there’s Mad Max: Fury Road action. Baby Driver is Mad Max territory. The chase scenes are dynamic and creative, the stunts are absolutely mind blowing, the shootouts are meticulously timed to intense music as Edgar Wright films usually are. Much like the story the action takes you a little bit of everywhere; you can never predict how a scenario is going to go really. That’s because this film is great with seemingly setting up cliché moments and then going a completely different direction with them.

Also, the soundtrack is good. I mean really good. Like, oh my God, I got the soundtrack on Spotify moments after seeing the movie. Just needed to go on that tangent real quick.

Characters & Actor Performance

Every character in this film is either a delightfully upright person or is a low, selfish murderous scumbag. There is no in-between in this movie. Both are equally likable in how well executed they are though. Every thug in this movie is legitimately intimidating and equally hilarious, especially when their egos are colliding with each other. Kevin Spacey does what he always does well: the conniving and intimidating crime boss who doesn’t take shit from anybody and immediately obtains command of the room. Plus he has some of the funniest lines in the movie. Pretty much what you would expect from the best Lex Luthor ever to be on screen.

Be that as it may, once again the main character Baby is the best character. He’s cool, confident, soft spoken, tough, ernest, and Ansel Elgort executes all of this perfectly. What’s interesting about him is that his character is more demonstrated through subjectivity; putting the viewer in his shoes as he experiences everything around him without really adding any particular commentary on it. This is great because it makes him more accessible then if he just relentlessly monologued about everything and it lets the film do what all great films should do: show don’t tell. We learn everything we need to know about Baby through flashbacks, mannerisms, and how everyone around him treats him. It speaks volumes more then if he were to narrate the movie or something like that.

Like I mentioned before, this movie is great at playing with expectations, and one of the examples in which this happens is who the final bad guy ends up being. You’d think because of the consistent relationship between Baby and him that the Doc would be the guy Baby has his final face off with right? Nope. It actually ends up being Buddy, wanting vengeance after his lover Darling got killed in a shootout with the police all because of a job Baby sabotaged. He may not have had as much interaction with Baby as the Doc but man was he a ruthless villain. Holding Debora hostage, murdering Doc in what is simultaneously the most gruesome and hilarious scene in the whole movie, and shooting right by Baby’s ears in an attempt to take away one of the few things that matters to Baby; his ability to hear music. Damn. This is yet another great subversion of expectations as in an earlier scene it seems like Buddy is the only thug being actually nice to Baby and sharing his love for music. I love a movie that keeps you guessing.

Conclusion

Baby Driver is a thrilling, spectacular ride that is multiple levels above your average action flick. It’s got great heart and style, spectacular choreography, a wonderfully likable hero, is hilarious and will keep you on the edge of your seat wondering what will happen next. At times it feels like it's playing with more themes and characters it really has time for but that is a very minor nitpick. It’s worth price of admission and more. Edgar Wright does it again.

I give it 5 stars out of 5.

[flowerfan2]

Tangerine Trees

Stucky, 2350 words, A03

Steve and Bucky have a bad trip, but they come out okay.  No thanks to Thor.

TW:  drug use, imagined blood/injury.

*****

Bucky waves his hands above his head, watching the orange and red swirls that trail from his fingertips. Soon there are two more hands waving, twisting around his own, blue and purple joining and creating a rainbow of shining color.

There’s a laugh, sunshine yellow, and Bucky turns to see Steve gazing at him. Steve is shining, glowing golden and pure.  Bucky laughs too, letting the sound flow over his body.

He feels good, he realizes, light.  There’s no pain in his shoulder or his chest.  No ache behind his eyes.  He tells Steve how good he feels, and then he has to show him, standing up and stretching to touch the sky.  

Steve follows, running his hands down Bucky’s body, up again along his arms.  They’re pressed together, dancing in the rainbow, sparks flying between them.  Steve grabs him by his metal hand and spins him, not noticing the difference between his metal hand and his flesh one, not pausing to ask if it’s okay, and it’s good, it’s perfect.  Bucky leans in to kiss him, heat exploding where their lips touch, and Steve grins wide, then spins him out again.

Bucky’s full of energy, electricity sparking through him.  He wants to move, wants to soar.  “I want to fly, Steve.”  Steve picks him up, hoists him over his shoulder and launches him across the room.

 It’s amazing.  He’s a bird, weightless and free, and then he lands with a crash into the couch, bouncing and rolling on to the floor. He’s up in a flash.  “Again!”

 Steve does it again, propelling him to the other side of the room, and it’s just as fantastic.  But the next time his landing isn’t as soft, the couch isn’t there.  He’s climbing up from under a broken pile of… something… and then there’s a bad sound, a keening, terrible sound.

 “Bucky, Bucky no…” he hears.

 Steve is hunched over, arms out, reaching for something.  His eyes are wild.

 Bucky tries to get to him, but he can’t move quickly enough.  His legs are heavy.  The ground is soft, sucking his feet down with every step.  Mud, quicksand, holding him in place.

 “Bucky, don’t fall, grab my hand,” Steve moans.  “Don’t fall, please, Bucky, no…”

 The world is gray and black, now, and Bucky hurts, hurts all over, and he can’t get to Steve.  He wants to yell out to him, tell him he’s coming, but he can’t make a sound.  Steve keeps calling for him, and Bucky concentrates on moving his feet, moving his legs, until suddenly there’s a bridge and he runs across it, finding Steve on the other side.

 “Steve, I’m here, I’m here,” Bucky says.  He cups his hands around Steve’s face and tries to get him to see him, but Steve flails away.  Bucky tackles him to the floor, knees on either side of his chest, arms pinned, but Steve twists and shoves Bucky off.

 Bucky leaps and grabs Steve again.  Then they’re rolling, slamming against furniture and walls and Steve is still crying out for Bucky, as if he wasn’t there at all.  

 Bucky slams Steve back down on to the floor and flips him over, and Steve’s face is covered in blood. Bucky flinches back, horrified, and wraps his arms around himself.  His own arms are bleeding, there’s blood everywhere, it’s soaked through his shirt and pooling on the floor.   Steve crawls towards him, his face a broken mess.  Bucky curls in on himself in shame.

 *****

 “Don’t go in there, they’re high as supersoldier kites.  They don’t know what they’re doing.  They’ll smash you like a tiny, tiny spider – pun intended.”

 “They must have taken that crap Thor brought last night.  We’ve got to do something.”

 “I’m aware.  JARVIS, get Banner, he’s in the lab.  Fast.”

 *****

 Steve is crawling closer, reaching out to pull Bucky’s hands away from his face.  Bucky tries to get away, but there’s a wall at his back and suddenly Steve is there, arms wrapped around him, holding him tight.  Bucky shivers and shakes but he lets Steve hold him. If he’s dying, if he’s going to bleed out and die right now, at least Steve is here.  

 Steve is petting his head and he can hear him speaking, now, words of comfort and assurance, and Bucky’s shaking calms.  He looks down, expecting to see the blood over them both, but it’s gone.  All gone.  

 Bucky slides away from Steve and rips at his clothes, revealing his metal arm, and his flesh one, both unharmed.  “Steve, what the hell is going on?”  he breathes out, blinking hard as the blood disappears from Steve’s face as well.  “I thought…”

 Steve looks confused, but runs his hand down Bucky’s arms, shaking his head.  “Your metal arm can’t bleed,” Steve says, as if he was reading Bucky’s mind.  Maybe he is. Maybe this is all a dream.  Or maybe he’s finally lost his mind, gone completely insane.  Maybe he’s back in cryo, mind-wiped and blank and alone-

 “No, Bucky, no.” Steve has him by the arms, shaking him. “You’re here with me.  Not in cryo.  With me.  This isn’t a dream.  This is real.”

 “Then what the fuck is going on?”

 “I don’t know, I-” Steve lets go of Bucky, spinning around. There’s someone else in the room now, a figure coming towards them.  Steve shifts to put himself between Bucky and the intruder.  He’s tall, with tentacles waving from his back, and a terrifying mouth full of sharp teeth.  He’s also carrying a spear.  

 Bucky surges with adrenalin and he flies towards the monster, knocking the weapon out of his hands.

 The monster stays down and Steve grabs Bucky, pulls him into a small, enclosed space.  It’s a bunker, dark and damp and lined with concrete. “HYDRA,” Steve breathes out. “We’ll be safe here.”

 The bunker is lined with clothes, but they shove them out of the way and put their backs to the door and brace themselves for the inevitable explosion.  HYDRA likes to blow things up.  

 “It’s okay, Stevie,” Bucky mumbles, grabbing Steve’s hand as they ready for impact.  “We can take it.  We’ll face it together.  ‘Til the end of the line.”

 *****

 “Nice try, Banner.” Tony takes the syringe from Bruce and hands him an ice pack for his face.  “Good job not hulking out, though.  A plus for effort.”

 “Told you this wouldn’t work.  They’re not going to let someone stick needles in them.”  Natasha paces around the conference room they’ve gathered in while they unsuccessfully try to figure out how to help Steve and Bucky.

 “Told you I should have gone in with the suit,” Tony says.

 “They’d just get hurt fighting you.  Plus, I don’t think they’d react all that well to Iron Man confronting them again,” Bruce says, collapsing into a chair and pressing the ice pack to his lip.

 “Yeah, no, probably not.” Tony admits.  “What if we just try talking to them?  JARVIS could sing them a lullaby, or something.  Hum a happy tune.  Turn their trip around.”

 “Right now they’re hiding in a closet.  They think HYDRA is after them.  I don’t think a sing-along is going to help.”

 Bruce looks up. “They’re in a closet?”  He opens up a screen in front of them and starts paging through diagrams.  “JARVIS, show me the air vents in their apartment.  I’ve got an idea.”

 *****

Bucky wakes up with a heavy weight on his chest, and panics only for a moment before he realizes it’s just Steve.  Steve, who has apparently decided that the most comfortable way to sleep off whatever the hell just happened to them is by starfishing himself over Bucky’s entire body.

 He turns his head as much as he can and looks around.  They’re still in their bedroom closet, which apparently seemed to be a bunker at some point during the night.  Clothes have been pulled off hangers, boxes opened and dumped out, as if someone decided to ransack the place.  But the closet door is now open, and there’s an envelope on the floor just out of his reach.

 “Steve, wake up.”  Bucky pushes weakly at Steve’s broad shoulder. “You weigh a ton, buddy.  Budge over.”

 Steve groans and digs his pointy chin into Bucky’s chest.  “Don’t wanna.”

 “Steve, come on,” Bucky says softly, running his metal fingers through Steve’s hair.  He smells awful – they both do – in fact, the whole room smells like a locker room which has been cleaned with toxic chemicals.

 “Bucky…” Steve lifts his head and blinks his blue eyes at him.  “What happened?”

 Bucky can’t shrug with Steve still laying on him.  “Not sure.”

 Steve sighs out a long, sour breath, and slides off Bucky, still keeping his arm draped over Bucky’s bare chest.  “I feel like crap.”

 “Me too.”

 They lie there in silence for a few minutes, and then Steve raises up on an elbow, frowning.  “Wait, do you remember-”

 “I really don’t feel like playing that game right now,” Bucky says, and Steve pokes him with a finger.

 “Not like that, jerk. Do you remember the party last night? Clint was making cocktails for everyone?”

 Bucky thinks back through the haze.  “He was making them in colors to match our superhero costumes, uh, uniforms.”

 “And you were sad because yours was black.”

 Bucky laughs, although it comes out more like a croak given how dry his throat is.  “I was sad because it wasn’t going to get me drunk, not because it was black.”

 Steve’s concerned face relaxes.  “Oh, that’s good.”  

 “But it couldn’t have been the cocktails.  You didn’t even drink yours.”

 Steve’s eyes widen, as if he’s just coming back to the story.  “No, it wasn’t the cocktails.  It was Thor. Remember?  He said he had something that would make us happy, even if Midgardian alcohol wouldn’t do the trick.”

 “Fuck, he did.”  Bucky pushes himself upright, ignoring for now the pounding in his head.  “Were we actually stupid enough to take drugs from a stranger?”

 “Thor’s not a stranger, he’s-”

 “Yeah I know, it’s a saying, it’s still stupid.”

 Steve huffs and sits up too, leaning his shoulder against Bucky’s.  “Guess you didn’t take all the stupid with you.  Must have left some for me.”  Steve sees the envelope on the floor, and stretches out his leg to pull it closer with a bare toe.

 “What’s this?”

 “Don’t know.”

 Steve opens it, and pulls out a note.  “Dear Steve and Bucky,” he reads.  “Sorry we had to flood your suite with the antidote.  The smell should clear out in a few hours.  JARVIS says to drink some water and get some rest.  Brunch is at noon and your attendance is required. Natasha promises not to play any videos of your shenanigans until you get there.”

 Steve looks at Bucky, face drawn.  “I actually doubt that any videos of us from last night would be very entertaining,” he says quietly.  “It really wasn’t a good time, was it?”

 “No, it really wasn’t.” Bucky stands up, groaning a little, and holds a hand out to Steve.  “Come on, let’s go get some rest.  In our bed.”

 They hobble over to the bed, stripping down to their boxers and climbing under the covers.

 “I think we may have broken some of the furniture,” Steve says.

 “Furniture can be replaced,” Bucky says.  He presses a soft kiss to Steve’s lips, and then tucks himself tightly against Steve’s side.  “We’re okay, right?”

 Steve rubs a hand up and down Bucky’s back, and shuffles them even closer together.  “’Course we’re okay.  It wasn’t real.”

 “It felt real,” Bucky says softly.  “It felt awful.”

 Steve nods against his forehead.  “Yeah.” He tugs the blanket over them both, then goes back to stroking Bucky’s back.  “Hey, did I throw you across the room?”

 Bucky chuckles.  “You did.  Multiple times.  It was actually really fun.”

 “Bet we could get Tony to build some kind of net in the gym, and do it again.  Or he could make you wings, like Sam’s.”

 “Maybe just to try out. Wouldn’t want to step on Sam’s toes.”

 “Fair enough.”  

 Bucky closes his eyes and tries to sleep, but he keeps seeing images from his hallucinations the night before – Steve’s bloody face, the monster with the spear.  From the way Steve keeps resettling himself underneath him, he thinks he’s having the same problem.

 “Hey, Steve?”

 “Hmm?”

 “I think we smell too bad to fall asleep.”

 Steve pushes back from Bucky, his eyes alight with amusement.  “I couldn’t agree more.  Shower?”

 Bucky whips the blankets off of them and holds out his hand to Steve.  “Shower.”

 Later, after they’ve let hot water clean away the remains of their nightmares, and Bucky’s favorite coconut lime body wash has been liberally applied, they climb into the fresh sheets of the bed in their second, hardly used bedroom.  They’re wearing clean pajama pants, soft and comfortable, and Bucky’s got on one of Steve’s stretched out t-shirts.  He buries his face in the crook of Steve’s neck and lets himself relax.

 “I know you said you’d follow me anywhere,” Steve says, brushing a wet strand of hair off Bucky’s cheek and tucking it behind his ear.  “But next time, maybe we should ask where we’re going first.”

 Bucky laughs.  “Good advice.”  Wherever it might be, though, Bucky knows he’ll be safe as long as he’s with Steve, bad trip or not.  He inches closer, inhales the smell of him, and suddenly isn’t very sleepy anymore.

 Deliberately, Bucky drags his lips up Steve’s jawline, then presses a firm kiss to his lips.  

 Steve kisses him back, mouth falling open, and Bucky can tell he’s trying to decide whether these are particularly nice about-to-go-sleep-kisses or the start of something more involved. Bucky slides his fingertips under the waistband of Steve’s pajama pants and pauses.  Steve hums in approval, and turns to press a leg between Bucky’s thighs.

 “I’m pretty sure I know where this is going,” Bucky whispers in Steve’s ear, just before he nips at his earlobe, earning a low whine from Steve.  “And I like it a lot.”

 “Me too, Buck.  Me too.”

 *****

End note:  Title from the Beatles’ Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.

[cloudybookash-blog]

Book Review: The Broken Eye by Brent Weeks.

Genre: High-Fantasy (supposedly ‘pre- industrial’)

Goodreads rating: **** (4 stars).

Read: 13/02/2017 – 19/02/2017.

The Review:

Are you a big fan of the Lightbringer series? So am I. Which is why, it saddens me to have to say, I think the third instalment of this series is suffering something akin to ‘second-book-it is’.

Warning: There could be spoiler for the previous books (The Black Prism/ The Blinding Knife) beyond this point. There will be no spoilers for this particular book though.

Synopsis: With Gavin lost and presumed dead the Chromeria faces a new prism elect. The political throws of the Chromeria rear their ugly heads and the sinister lost Order of the Broken Eye take advantage of the chaos to infiltrate places of power.

Obviously, as a book suffering ‘second-book-it is’ there was a lack of action and movement; lots of filler in the disguise of irrelevant world building; and character development that (I feel) should’ve happened sooner in the series. And to top it all off – as someone sensitive to such topics and forms of exclusive writing styles, a blatantly weakened female presence.

Let’s start with the action – there is none. Oh yes, lots of political movement, spying and the odd ‘Specials’ class for the Blackguard inductees. But, for the most part the only well-paced, pertinent action happens within the last 100 pages of this 800-page book.

I assume all the political tip toeing is set up for the next book – The Blood Mirror. Heaven forbid none of it ties in with The Blood Mirror, I’ll fucking riot. And, I’m all one for political exploration in books, just not in such bulks without anything in-between.

Don’t get me wrong, this book starts off strong. Our Blinding Knife has transformed into a weapon unrecognisable to what it had once been with a threatening promise to the world as we know it. Gavin is being spoken to by his god, but like all good anti-heroes – refuses to listen. Karris is put in charge of an international spy ring. Teia is being inducted into the Order of the Broken Eye. And Kip is on some island going insane in the best way possible.

But all this potential is ripped down by the fact that we have like five chapters from Gavin’s POV. Possible two os which focus the minimal amount of attention one can to the Blinding Knife. I know a lot of people have issues with Gavin becoming a prisoner to circumstance in this book. My issue lies in him not thinking anymore. His once brilliant mind can hardly focus on anything other than –

“Gavin’s every day had a similar rhythm. Pull. Twist. Push. Twist. Pull. Up, down, life circumscribed in ovals of work and rest and transition from one to the other”

Or –

And now, though he could call up their colour and stories and sins and attitudes if he tried, he saw each one of the drafters differently, he pushed them back, away. They became only a name and a sin to be shrived.

Illi Alexander. Gossip.

Loida Moss. Poisoner.

Tinsin. Rebellious.

Tahlia. Envy.

Bell Sparrow. Seductress.

Li-Li Solaens. Wight.

Xenia Delaen. Wight.

Myla Loros. Wight.

Pelagia Breeze. Spy.

Meghida Talor. Hatred.

Tahrith Khan. Greed.

Edna Wood. Sloth.”

And so on and so forth - 42 TIMES. Such blatant filler. Tossing in names and one worded stories of irrelevant people that will never come back up in the story. Few select names were expanded on (not counted in the 42), but only one had any insight into Gavin as a character. The fact that he isn’t whirling around in his head trying to figure out the Blinding Knife just seems so out of character, to me.

Then karris, once mighty Watch Captain White Oak – one of the greatest archers of the Blackguard. Now stripped to Lady Guile – made to wear rich dresses, powders and her hair in lavish styles. All of which hinders her at some point in the story. And, she develops maternal desires while she pines for her lost husband. Don’t misunderstand me here, I like a good female character who personifies femininity – just not when said character spent two books being expressed as the polar opposite. Plus, a strong female character should thrive in said femininity instead of being constantly thwarted by her own fucking dress. Especially seeing as Karris was trained in the most prestigious, elite fighting force in this world.

The thing that pissed me off most about Karris in this book is the act of excusing her rape. I’m not going to quote it because I’m lazy af and it just isn’t fucking worth repeating. But the book spent a chapter with Karris excusing her rape for something she ‘needed’ or something that was the ‘best’ alternative. Obviously, rape is such a sensitive topic and to have a character as strong as Karris raped was a star in the night. A role model for other victims. But having her preform a 180 degree turn, expressing that her rape was ‘deserved’ in some form is an absolute blotch in this book.

The we have Teia, the Blackguard inductee – former slave whose previous status has always been concerning. Trained by previous owners to be violent, sneaky and simply put – morally grey. Teia falls apart at the slightest challenge. She’s too busy thinking of the suddenly thin so therefore more attractive Kip. Or being used and abused by powers above her. Both Karris and Teia – the strongest and only female characters in this series are belittled to nothing but pawns and love interests.

Finally, Kip. He showed the most promise and, if I’m being honest he’s the only characters I feel stood up to his potential. There were a few set-backs, I won’t lie –

“He [Kip] wanted her [Teia] to be free, but he’d still wanter her to owe him, to be eternally grateful, to be somehow therefore subordinate. He wanted her to be free, but he wanted to decide for her how she should use her freedom.”

I know. -Vomits-. The only issues I have with his character is his association with females. He can’t even look at one without falling in love with them and subsequently reverting back to his patterns of self-hatred. On one hand, it’s endearing, to see him struggle with his own image, on the other hand – this struggle is undermined by every character and their mother gushing over his sudden weight-loss/ muscle gain.

There’s points in this book where you learn about the way a city or satrapy used to be 16 years (or more) ago. Zero relevance to the story. Or watch a member of the Order carrying out a routine assassination that again, has zero relevance to the story-line. Chapters with one-off POVs that bring no new information. Character simply talking for talking’s sake or worse – creating tension for tensions sake. All of which could’ve been summed up in a five-sentence paragraph so the story could focus on better stuff. Or, you know, move on with it!

So why not give it a one star rating, you ask? Well, if Blood Mirror disappoints I will be. But, first reason – Kip.

From our weak willed, sheepish boy from Rekton. To a young man stading up to Andross Guile in front of the whole Spectrum. His words become more assured, his lies come quicker; easier. And he develops his resourcefulness to creating and thinking up new ways to incorporate luxin. His own POV carries the type of thought processes I’d expect, and have seen, from Gavin.

“He was hitting the damned thing as hard as he could.

No, he was hitting as hard as he could muscularly. Magically, he should be able to hit harder.

[…] He remembered the wights in Garriston, leapfrogging from roof to roof, shooting luxin downward as they jumped, using the kick to extend their jump. It was the same concept that worked for Gavin’s skimmers and sea chariots. But bother of those interacted more externally. They didn’t have to, did they.

[…] Here goes nothing. He stood with his right foot back, twisted, snapped, and as his right foot came up, he shot green luxin out of it.”

Safe to say, Kip’s developing some of Gavin’s magically focused experimental yearnings. Throughout the book, he talks well beyond his years, offering advice and orders, talking strategy.

The only saving grace for the female characters – both Karris and Teia, is that they at least lock into challenging positions of power by the end of the book. Hopefully that means their futures promise badassery and strength.

The last one hundred pages are the greatest. Full of musket firing, experimental luxin, escapes, deaths, sabotage, hexed, and plot twists. The last one hundred pages feel more like the first two books. Quick paced and constantly moving. The characters don’t rot their personalities like they did during the books idle inaction. Information and developments in those last pages promise a fantastic story in Bloor Mirror.

I go forth excited, but wary.