#while this and the last one haver a LOT of story revealed

[carpe-mamilia]

I agree, and I think your second to last paragraph is absolutely crucial. He so rarely *says* anything about his feelings other than the petty surface ones like irritation which are FAR easier to express, whereas Thomas and Kitty, for example, never stop articulating their emotions. With the Captain it all has to be read through body language and tone, and despite his best efforts he is very easy to read. Intentionally revealing anything about himself seems to cause him a lot of pain, and no wonder. Nothing but the threat of imminent sort-of-death, of leaving people who have become his family, is going to make him give up his secrets.

I genuinely think that both (I'm counting all of the Redding Weddy flashbacks as one here) of his story scenes are extremely well done and convey a lot of information in a short space of time. While there are funny elements I can't help feeling the writing and acting are more subtle and nuanced (though no less clear for that); there are none of the big comedic choices that are present in most of the other flashbacks. There is a delicacy and emotional authenticity to them: Captain's backstory, unlike any of the others', feels like it could be a proper Merchant Ivory-style standalone drama. I'm absolutely not saying that the other stories aren't great, by the way, because they absolutely are, and all extremely in-character, but Cap's are just in a slightly different key.

From a Doylist perspective, I can see why they are so short. Extrapolating from things Ben has said in interviews it sounds like he was very concerned with being able to adequately serve the plots of all the characters in RW and CD: his storyline in RW had to somehow affect the characters in the present day even with its main purpose simply being to show a more clear-eyed view of why this man is how he is. There is nothing in his past for the other ghosts to interact with or investigate, as in Kitty, Julian, and Thomas's stories, and nobody connected with him in the present day, as with Pat's stories in Happy Death Day and Perfect Day. Even him telling his story is just one of the ways that the ghosts react to the possibility of being sucked off, and I did really like all of their little plots in this episode.

Is that a good reason for us not spending as much time with him? Ehh. I would love to have had more of his story, but what would that look like? More of a lead-up to his death? Most of that day was presumably spent travelling up from Weymouth. Him finding out that Havers was going to be at the event, and making his break for it? Maybe, but I think you're meant to start his scene in Carpe Diem thinking that he just wanted to get into the event for the same reasons the officers accuse him of, which adds even more weight to the real reason's emotional punch: "I HAD to be there" because "I had to find you". Knowing exactly why he was going beforehand might have taken away some of that moment's power: the incredible, heartwrenching revelation that he's doing this for love, the overwhelming need to be near Havers, not to try and end his military career on a high. The beautiful tragedy of his being exposed as an imposter and accused of being a liar and a glory-hound when he's doing the most honest thing of his life feels so crucial to how he is in the present day. That's a massive digression though, and I'd love to hear other people's thoughts on how we could have had more scenes with him.

Okay so. Hot take on why the Captain doesn't get a whole episode on his death.

He's ashamed of his death. He's a military man that wished he had died a heroic death. Having a heart attack in front of your former men after breaking into a mansion is not the way he wanted to go. We didn't get to see a whole episode of the events leading up to it because the Captain himself didn't want anybody to know, us (the audience) included.

But it's more than that. The Captain died trying to reach the man he loved. And even in his death, he couldn't find the words, or perhaps understood the consequences to Havers if he did say them. Beyond the internalised homophobia which seems to have now been tentatively resolved, or at least definitely worked on, the Captain still sees himself as a coward. A coward in life for not fighting, a coward in death for not telling Havers how he felt.

The Captain is ashamed of his death. That's why we only get about five minutes of it, towards the very end of the episode. Because he tells the story in a rush, he wants the memory over with as quickly as possible.

Of course, I, like most of the fandom, would have loved a whole episode dedicated to the Captain in series 5. But I think that the way his death was portrayed was true to his own feelings towards it. And in a way, I'm glad that it was only a short snippet. Because that's always how we find out anything about the Captain. He's a guarded man, only letting personal information out occasionally, and even then rushing through the moment of vulnerability to emerge out the other side.

TL;DR: The Captain's death scene is short because the Captain is ashamed of his own death and wants his retelling to be over ASAP.

[espytalks]

harry is a goshdarn idiot.

[fyeahsharonrooney]

TECH? NO: Sharon Rooney isn’t daft about smart homes after filming in one for new ITV show Finding Alice

TECHNOPHOBE actress Sharon Rooney reckons living in a smart home would be a hi-tech horror — as she doesn’t even like talking to Alexa.

The Scots star — who played Miss Atlantis in big-budget Disney flick Dumbo — was at the mercy of machines filming new show Finding Alice, which was set in a house full of futuristic technology.

She admits working on the six-part ITV drama — which kickstarts after her character’s brother is found dead at the bottom of his bannister-less stairs — made her realise she’s happy to keep it simple in her own life.

Sharon, 32, says: “When we were filming on the stairs, which don’t have a bannister, I was thinking, ‘Why would you not have a bannister? It’s just so dangerous’.

“I’m very clumsy. So the thought of not having bannisters on stairs fills me with fear.

“Also, the thing of having to talk to your house to open the curtains and so on.

"I’m bad enough with the Alexa. Sometimes I’ll say something at home and she’ll suddenly talk to me.

“And I think, ‘No, I don’t want to talk to anyone, never mind a machine’. I mean, what is she listening to? What has she heard?”

Finding Alice stars Bodyguard favourite Keeley Hawes as Alice, a mum whose life is turned upside down when her husband Harry (Jason Merrells) is found dead at the bottom of the stairs in the smart house he designed.

She can’t even find the fridge while dealing with the aftermath of the tragedy and struggles to contend with unexpected visits from Harry’s parents Minnie (Gemma Jones) and Gerry (Kenneth Cranham) as well as her own dad Roger (Nigel Havers) and mum Sarah (Joanna Lumley).

To make matters worse, other unexpected visitors make her realise that Harry’s business debt wasn’t the only secret he had.

Sharon — who starred in the early seasons of hit Scots comedy Two Doors Down — plays Harry’s younger sister Nicola who has a habit of blurting out the wrong thing at the wrong time and played second fiddle to her “golden boy” sibling.

The actress thinks the show deals with the practical side of someone passing away and hopes it gets people talking about how to deal with the death of a loved-one.

She says: “There is a lot of humour in Finding Alice. Even in the saddest of times there has to be joy.

"How do you breathe again when you’ve been through such tragedy and pain? Because you have to. Life is crazy. You have to laugh again.

“I love how Nicola always wants to remind people with stories about Harry at any opportunity.

“That’s how he lives on. With reminders of him on top of the coffin at his funeral.

"My gran always used to say to me, ‘A funeral is for the living’. That’s so true.

“There’s no cheat sheet that comes when somebody dies, to say, ‘This is what you have to do’.

“I really hope Finding Alice gets people talking. Just a quick conversation.

"No one wants to talk about death. But it is important. You have to know what to do in practical terms.

"When you’re grieving the last thing you want to think about is bank accounts and passwords.”

Sharon shares the screen with The Durrells actress Keeley and admits she loved working with one of the telly stars of the moment.

She reveals: “Working with Keeley was just the best. I don’t think I’ve ever laughed so much.

"I remember having a day off and thinking, ‘Can I just come in?’. And they were like, ‘No. Have a day off!’.

“There’s one part of the story where Nicola and Alice go jogging. We actually did do a lot of it.

"I’m not going to say I’ve developed a love for it. But I’ve developed a liking.

“We also filmed a night out at a bowling alley. Nicola gets a strike in the script and by sheer luck I got a strike on camera.

"I felt like I had scored the winning goal in the World Cup.”

Although filming for Finding Alice was interrupted by Covid, Sharon and the cast got back to work by following strict protocols.

Ironically, the Glasgow actress admits the best thing about working on a show about smart technology was the rules banned her from even looking at her phone.

She adds: “It’s really weird how quickly it became the new normal.

“And actually, how much better it was, in a way, not to be on your phone in the morning because you couldn’t take any personal items into make-up.

“So you could just sit and not scroll through Instagram. That was nice.”

* Finding Alice starts Sunday, January 17, STV, 9pm...'

The Scottish Sun, 14.1.21 (not linked to avoid giving them more clicks)

[apricops]

More Buffyposting

Here’s miscellaneous notes over -- yeesh, about a season and a half. I kinda put this off for a while.

Thoughts from the last 4-5 episodes of season 4:

The whole “aloof and uncaring psychologist” trope is kind of dumb but at least in Maggie Walsh’s case -- and I don’t know if this was intentional -- it actually makes sense and is thematically fitting. She wasn’t in the “help people and give them therapy” branch of psychology, she was in the “understand people in order to effectively break and control them to make more effective soldiers” school of psychology.

Superstar feels like the meta-gloves are coming off and Joss is really starting to realize how fun it is to just fuck with the audience.

No wait, that point was probably the fake Spike-and-Buffy marriage in Something Blue.

 There’s a nice thematic patter to the last third-ish of the season. Adam is, quite literally, amorally taking the “good parts” of different people/things stitched together with the chaff thrown away, and he works with everyone in order to get what he wants. Meanwhile, Buffy’s busy dealing with a treadmill of old acquaintances giving her headaches and feeling weighed down with her friends. Then the penultimate episode flips it: the holistic whole (figuratively and literally) is better than the stripped-down, “streamlined” version because of the human spirit and stuff.

And then I was like “wow, the big bad is dead and everything’s wrapped up nicely, so what the hell is the season finale going to be?” to which Joss cackled and said “what won’t it be?” because wow 45 minute dream sequence.

Season 5:

The show used to have a reliable pattern of heavy depressing episode -> light funny episode -> plot episode but that kind of goes out the window at the halfway point.

Thankfully the BuffyBot episode was basically “hey listen, shit got way real and it’s going to stay real, so here’s 45 minutes of absurd low-stakes shenanigans as a palate cleanser.”

Speaking of, my gf has to pause pretty much every time Spike comes onscreen because inevitably he’ll say something funny and I’ll start laughing too much to keep watching. It’s interesting comparing him to Angel because Spike’s had to pretty much grow a sense of morals starting from less than nothing.

Spike learning how to be a values-haver had a nice setup-and-payoff where Buffy refused to congratulate him for not drinking the blood of unconscious bystanders because he was clearly just doing it because Buffy was nearby and he wanted to put on a nice face for her. Then when he’s captured by Glory, he’s on his own, and he does the right thing at his own expense. Buffy’s “I won’t forget that” shows how she’s begrudgingly realized that Spike is growing a moral backbone without thinking it makes her need to humor his crush.

Completely obvious and planned by the writers of course but Joyce’s death being of mundane natural causes made it hit so much harder because I was fully expecting Brian to reveal himself, twirling a Snidely Whiplash mustache and going “nyehehe, I killed your mom!” and then Buffy could stab him and get catharsis but instead that didn’t happen.

Also my mom dying just 3 months ago made that episode hit a lot harder and the way it bounces back and forth between reality and false hopes is painfully accurate, your mind is just trying to be everywhere at once.

It was a bit cheeky of them to do this, but she show even sort of called attention to itself, by having the art class talk all about the use of negative space to highlight details while the episode itself was full of moments of quiet and inaction to highlight Joyce’s death.

Also, the song Giles was listening to after hearing about Joyce’s death was the same song that was playing when they poiked.

Speedrunning the show really highlights how Buffy’s been forced to grow up really fucking fast. Almost in response, Giles has a pre-serious-half midlife crisis.

I like how Giles buying a magic shop solves a lot of story shoe-leather problems (having a new base of operations, having access to important texts and resources, giving Giles something to do) while also fitting perfectly into Giles’s aforementioned mid-life crisis.

Misc:

“So, if crosses and holy water are the go-to things that repels vampires, does that mean they had pretty much free reign for most of human civilization until a couple thousand years ago, and then they still had free reign over everywhere but Europe? Or is it just a religious significance thing? Could you get the same effects with a gohei or an omkara?��� gf: “Maybe it’s a belief thing, like it’s more in their heads. No, wait, that one vampire drank holy water and exploded.” me: “does the tabletop RPG mention anything about it?” gf: “it’s literally never explained or elaborated upon.”

[oosteven-universe]

Savage Bastards #2

Savage Bastards #2 Mad Cave Studios 2020 Written by David Galiano Illustrated by Carlos Angeli Lettered by Miguel Angel Zapata     After Sam was shot while they were trying to escape town, Elliot was able to escape to Chief Running Boar's village to recover. Soon after, the Chief recommends a vision quest to help the brothers find their paths.     The first issue certainly showed promise and I am glad to see that what I thought was justified within this issue. I think after getting the initial nerves and jitters out of the way and the practice of sequential story storytelling things seem to be picking up here. Now that the introduction is out of the way we get to see the story really start. Yes I will say there are some jumping issues, as the story jumps here to there without a proper transition but it is much improved. I found myself become more and more involved and invested I the story this issue ant that's a wonderful thing to have happen. David finds a way for the reader to connect with the characters here as we explore who they are. I kind of wish this had been the first issue.     I do like the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold and how the reader learns information are presented nicely. A few more tweaks that will come with experience and if we keep seeing the improvements from issue to issue like this than watch out Mad Cave is going to haver a great creative team on it's hands. The character development that we see is nice, again a few things are left out that I wish hadn't been. Elliot's tiny moment in the dreamscape was confusing and I wish more attention had been paid to that. After all Sam's journey was a lot more detailed and the time differential could've been more even. The pacing is solid and it takes us through the pages revealing the twists and turns and introduction of the new characters extremely well.     I had high hopes for this one. I love Mad Cave Studios and they've got some incredibly good, strong and diverse books out there. They also support up and coming talent, through their talent search program which I believe is where this comes from. So it is nice to see these folks given a chance and making the most of it. So that this is growing stronger and stronger by the last issue I have a feeling they've have hit that first plateau.     The interiors here are nicely rendered as well. I was hoping to be blown away by the journey they took with that Peyote and I was impress and a tad disappointed. I think this has to do with the backgrounds and how they are underutilised and how we don't see enough variation in the weights of the linework. Trust me the talent and skill are here it just needs a little honing and some experimentation. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a marvellous eye for storytelling. I am impressed with how we see depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story. The colour work is great. I love how we see the various hues and tones within the colours utilised to bring out the shading, highlights and shadow work. Also huge shout-out for the eyes throughout the book here because their brightness and their meaning shine bright like a diamond. ​     I like where this book is going and how it is heading there. It brings me back to DC's Western Tales with the likes of Jonah Hex, Firehair and Scalphunter and trust e when I say that this is the kind of storytelling that we've unwittingly needed right now. I love Mad Cave, they are great people, do great work and go above and beyond for the industry and this is a perfect time to peruse their titles and start reading of the fastest growing company in comics.

[eggshellsreview]

Steven Universe (Season 1) review

The now incredibly popular Cartoon Network animated show created back in 2013 has only spiked even more in popularity due to the recently released movie that caught my eye and made me decide to dive into the show first hand just to see what I've been apparently missing out on the past few years.

Unfortunately for me, Steven Universe started airing on Television before the time that I was more open minded about animated series or even just wider genres as a whole. However, since then, a lot of animation and other content has made me spread out my taste and turned me not just willing to watch more animated content, but gladly willing to watch. And I will say, that so far, Steven Universe has only reinforced that new mentality as it surprised me in great ways.

Steven Universe follows a very young, very enthusiastic protagonist of the same name in his abnormal childhood adventures, rooted to his unwilling connection to what I can only describe as sentient rock extraterrestrials. These extraterrestrials are permanently referred to as Gems in the series and are equipped with what you'd expect: Super advanced technology/intellect, superhuman abilities, and a whole lotta backstory to unpack.

For context, I spent several years with a best friend who absolutely adored the series, and even though I wasn't particularly interested in the show, I'd always let her gush to me in great detail her favorite aspect of it; the lore. Because of this I'm already familiar with a decent chunk of the backstory that surrounded the main characters and their origins so to say, but I will say, that even though hearing about the show never made me want to go running and put it on to watch, watching how the information that I know unfolded through the show in its incredible pacing was a completely different experience.

The Gems that the story follows are a small group of short and sweet personalities. Pearl, the level headed scholar. Amethyst the rowdier, messy fun haver. Garnet, the quiet neutral one who doubles as the muscle of the team. And of course, the star of the show, Steven, the 10 year old rare half-human, half-gem hybrid trying to become a full fledged member of their team; The Crystal Gems. With their sworn duty to defend Earth from mystical threats, we watch as the Gems teach Steven some basic training and lessons of what it means to be a Crystal Gem as we simultaneously learn alongside him, who the Gems are and why they're here on our planet doing what they're doing.

This is where the show excels most. The way the show feeds information to the audience is incredible. As a loose comparison of another family friendly animated series with lots of lore about non-human characters saving the planet, I'll use My Little Pony (MLP): Friendship is Magic. MLP is a show I binged entirely for its lore and characters after hearing about it from the same friend who put me onto Steven Universe. However, despite being very interesting world building and lore exploration, the delivery of all that information was almost exclusively the scholar characters giving us very lengthy discussions in between action of episodes. Steven Universe doesnt do that though. Instead we get the engaging method of the show dropping hints, clues, and tid bits of information in a chain of loosely related episodes. For a simple example, in the lore of the show, there's a cave of important value to Steven's character. However, instead of just having Pearl go "Oh, Steven, let me show you this important location and give you a 4 minute conversation about its importance", we see implications to this place's existence over the span of the first episodes. After that, we see Steven discover it through an entirely nontraditional manner and explore it alone not knowing what it is, therefore not giving us any information about what's truly going on. Finally, a bit after in the season, we get a formal introduction to the location by Pearl to wrap up what we need to know about it in a brief minute or two. What this does, is allow us as the audience to theorize the meaning of things or people for a while, then be gifted actual on screen information in a nonformal history lesson kind of way, then have suspense for when we finally get the last pieces of the puzzles. Its a much more engaging method of giving information while eventually saving time for the formal information which may not sound like much. But when the episodes are 11 minutes long, cutting down 4-5 minutes of a history lesson, to just 1 or 2 minutes leaves more room for episodes to visually show case the significance of key information in action rather than just spend half the episode talking about it.

I'd say the only thing more important than the lore of the show however, is the atmosphere. With its watercolor sort of aesthetic to help set the general feel good and innocent tone the show it usually carries, it tends to use its art style to also butter you up for some crazy emotions. Steven Universe may have simple characters, but their dynamic between one another ends up pretty deep. Whether it's something like Garnet's quietness dropping for a moment of genuine anger or hurt because of her reaction to something. Or Amethyst dropping her carefree attitude to reveal how much she cares about something happening. The context of these moments are always INCREDIBLY powerful and filled with sincere dialogue that has left me tearing up more than just a couple of times and in my opinion, are what truly made this first season of Steven Universe a phenomenal pleasure to watch.

Another reason this show manages to have extremely good portrayal of emotions is due to its now iconic music numbers. Though they're expected, the songs sung by the characters in their appropriate moments always portray just what they have to. Funness, sadness, distress. It's a real treat, and really helps characters with simple, but strong personalities express a larger array of emotions than natural dialogue could. My favorite parts are always when they sing during action scenes because admittedly, the non musical number tracks of the show arent especially stellar. They get the job done and fit the atmosphere, but there were fewer times than I wouldve liked that I actually thought, oh hey this background track is great.

All in all, Steven Universe is an incredible show so far. One that I'm immediately continuing as soon as this is posted. The show knows what it wants to be and how it plans to do it, leaving us just an objectively well paced, well written, and crazy fun ride through an original fantasy world where you constantly want to learn more and where teases leave you constantly engaged. There's so much more I could've said, and want to say, about things like side characters, character designs, Gem abilitied (especially Gem abilities), but with this season being so long, I'd like to prioritize the more key elements of the show. Though rest assured anyone who hasnt watched the show, the things I just listed are presented and written as well as everything that I was able to talk about. Ultimately, I give Steven Universe, Season 1, a 9.5/10 rating. With genuinely nearly no complaints, even though it took several years to even give the show a try, I was left not only entirely satisfied in every category, but it exceeded all expectations and had left me crying, jaw dropped, and emotional every time it wanted to. I'm a huge fan of the show right now, and I seriously think anyone who hasn't, should really give it a watch.

[manifestoonmoralmanlove]

Gormless Ch. 8 - I’d rather these ball sacks havers had haverballsacks.

A well-meaning friend gave me a book series that is hilariously bad. The first book was Souless and my riffs were entitled brainless. This second book is entitled Changless and these riff are then gormless.

I mean to say I have entitled them gormless! Not that my riffs are dumb, and the effort I spend on them stupid since I’m the only one who enjoys them. HAHA!

The story is SUPPOSED TO be about how a badass lady wearing a rad-looking carriage dress hits baddies with her umbrella and bangs her hot werewolf husband.  In reality it’s mostly poor attempts at being witty, flirty, and superior.

For the last book check out the brainless tag.

If you want the TL;DR version but want to read these new riffs anyway?

This story is set in supernatural Victorian steampunk England.  Alexia is our NOT LIKE OTHER GIRLS protag.  She is a soulless, which means she’s able to negate the abilities of vampires and werewolves by touching them. She’s recently married a big oaf, named Lord Connel Maccon.  He’s the manchild in charge of the supernatural police with a zillion dollars and he’s totes super hot too ok.  Their relationship is mostly arguments about how Maccon can’t tell her fucking anything.  Alexia has also recently become head of ~Soulless affairs~ in Queen Victoria’s government.  She has a dumb friend named Ivy, a gay vampire friend named Akeldama, a family who’s evil because they do the same shit as her but while being blonde, and most importantly Alexia is better than everyone cause…cause.

Last time on Gormless:

There’s some mysterious force that’s turning the Vampires and werewolves into humans. Alexia is in charge of figuring out that deal, and she is doing a bad job at it.  Her husband is in charge of the Supernatrual Police (BUR) so he’s going to Scotland about it.

Alexia is also going north to help her husband with a crew crafted for a comedy. and oh boy I can’ts wait.

Chapter 8 – I’d rather these ball sacks havers had haverballsacks.

             The next day they touch-down on Scottish soil and immediately Maccon is there.  He was on his way, smelled her…what near 2,000 feet in the sky and just followed the dirigible until it landed. Yeah okay sure suspension of disbelief or whatever. You know what I’m not going to suspend my disbelief for? The fact that apparently all werewolves, including Maccon travel in wolf form and only bring a basic cloak to hide their nudity with when they transform.  Apparently all places just have outfits, for every conceivable body type and size, set aside in case they have werewolf visitors.  I guess they’ll all just have to never bring any food, weapons, paperwork, books, toothbrushes, gifts, or literally anything else when they travel. That seems highly practical. 

He could just hold a bag in their mouth or give him a doggy back-pack.  Hell, since this is a fantasy, I might suspend my disbelief if you told me that these ball sack havers had haverballsacks which were just infinity scrotums that they can literally pull whatever they felt like out.  I KNOW THIS IS A DUMB STICKING POINT BUT SHE PURPOSEFULLY MADE IT SUPER UNPRACTICAL AND FOR NO FUCKING REASON RRRRRRRRRRGH!!!!!

So back to reality, Ivy officially rejects Tunstell.  Tunstell then starts flirting back with Felicity and being mean to Ivy.  Okay sure. LeFoux convinces the crew she should go with because the pack they’re going to see (Kingair) has a broken aethographor she says she’ll fix.   By broken aethographor she means women, and by fix she means fuck.

I don’t believe I said it in full yet, but the spanker ship I mentioned earlier was housing the Kingair clan of werewolves.  The humanization seems to follow these werewolves who can’t change shape, and it seems to have started when there Alpha mysteriously died. Maccon used to be Alpha of this pack but mysteriously moved over to his current pack by killing the leader there. So off to the center of the mystery everyone!

When they get to the big old dingy castle, there is a huge middle aged tough-ass Scottish woman telling them to piss off.  Maccon says he’s there for BUR (the supernatural police) and not cause he used to be the Alpha there.  She seems cool with this, despite having obvious animosity to him personally.  Her name is Sidheag.  Alexia instantly endears herself to everyone by remarking very loudly that the castle is filthy.  When Sidheag threatens to throw her in the rain again, Alexia says if Sidheag would mind if she would do some dusting.  This ~endears~ her to Sidheag.  I suppose anybody else would think she’s a rude spoiled little shit but its protags the best day here in shitty self-insert novel #84zillion.

Half the people in the clan seem to hate Maccon, while the other half like him. Also a weird moment where Maccon introduces his whole merry band but totally leaves out Angelique…and I’m pretty sure the only reason is that the author forgot.  She’s the slave of the group anyway HAHA!

We also learn that Sidheag is apparently Maccon’s great-great-great granddaughter.  Alexia is not happy that Maccon was previously married before he was a werewolf and had living descendants that she doesn’t know about.  4 things about this:

1.)    I couldn’t be less surprised. Maccon literally says nothing to Alexia besides, “You’re unbearable, let’s have sex woman.”   We’ve all known he’s a fucking sack of dogshit.

2.)    None of these relations attended Maccon’s wedding? Do they ALL hate him? That bodes well, and also isn’t surprising because I believe we have established he is a pile of puppy poop.

3.)    I can forgive it, but it’s irritating to me that Alexia had never got sexual tingles, or kissed another boy before they got married. However Maccon? 100s of lovers and his spawn litter the Scottish country-side. I don’t think it was the author’s intent to wave that huge double standard around but it just bugs me.

4.)    The reveal about how Sidheag is related to Maccon would have been a MUCH BETTER CLIFF-HANGER AND ENCOUNTER!

Imagine, if you will, the crew goes to the castle looking for Maccon, they run into a hostile Sidheag, Alexia introduces herself as Lady Maccon and it instantly sets off Sidheag.  Perhaps calling Alexia a trollop, and says that Maccon is HER last name as well.

DUN DUN DUN! GOOD CLIFFHANGER!

We open up the next chapter with an Alexia/Sidhaeg scuffle, Alexia perhaps assuming that Sidheag is Maccon’s ex-wife or maybe even a current wife. That TRASHMAN!  AREN’T THESE BOOKS SUPPOSED TO BE FUN? MORE ACTION PLZ!  However before anybody is seriously injured Maccon intervenes after he heard a gun go off and settles the dispute with the truth.

So back to this sad reality. Maccon goes to talk with the Beta of the pack and the rest of the crew settle into their rooms.  Alexia overhears Felicity asking Tunstell if she’s ~safe~ since they have rooms next to each other.

*YUCK BARF*

Tunstell does probably what I would have done, GET THE FUCK OUTTA THERE!

Alexia has the brilliant idea of hiding her bag (which was attempted to be broken in before) in Ivy’s room.  She convinces Ivy this is a good course of action by saying that she’s hiding a gift she got for Maccon in the bag. Socks, like really good socks that she needs to check on every now and again.  That’s dumb but fine.  

Alexia goes back to her room to get dressed for dinner. (God that sounds so annoying, why do people like this time period again?)  Maccon shows up and fails to seduce her.  They then have one of their OH SO DELIGHTFUL back and forths. Where basically Alexia tries to ask Maccon about why he leaves without telling her anything? (but tells Lyall) What is going on with the Kingair clan? What’s his history with the Kingair clan? Why he didn’t tell her he used to be married? Why he didn’t think it appropriate to tell her he has great-great-great grandchildren running around? And if he has other great-great-great grandchildren running around?

These are all great questions, and I wish the writer wasn’t such a hack that answering any of them would spoil this or future books.  So the most we get out of Maccon is, “I didn’t tell you because you didn’t ask and you were supposed to have children before you turned into a werewolf.  Also the person who is Beta wolf now, wasn’t Beta under me.”

HAHA GREAT!  Meanwhile Alexia off-handidly mentions she took a tumble (in a really forced way) so Maccon can get mad in turn for her not sharing everything with him.  Alexia does this really annoying thing of pretending to be demure and sweet in order to avoid telling him. Which like,

1.)    Ew

2.)    Maccon is clearly not into the wilting flower business I have no idea why you think acting all coy is going to make him forgive you or whatever.

3.)    Why are you hiding this from him anyway?  She puts herself in danger all the time and Maccon acts like it’s, at best an annoyance. He is shown to have gotten way more upset when she does stuff like ‘Not sit with him at dinner’ and ‘Want to know anything about him.’

But in the end Alexia tells him that she fell off the dirigible but is fine. You know the reason why Alexia tries to hide the ~tumble~ from him by acting like a ninny? It’s to make their two situations seem equivalent when they’re super not.

On one hand we have a woman who didn’t immediately tell her husband about a dangerous situation she was in, even though it only happened the day before, and she wasn’t injured.  She, when pressed, tells him about it.

On the other hand Maccon leaves her totally in the dark about a lot of relevant information about his past, present, and the current situation they’re in. Also Maccon doesn’t properly answer any of her questions. He just dodges it and shirks responsibility the entire time. Yet we’re made to believe that they are equals in the relationship with matching baggage. BULLSHIT! Like in all these dumb fuck titles, the man has vastly more power and we feign female empowerment because the woman pouts at this injustice even if nothing fucking changes. This is summed up best with the last lines of this chapter.

“Are you going to tell me the real reason you came back to Scotland Do not think you have thrown me off the scent so easily.”

“I never doubted you, my sweet demure little Alexia.”

Lady Maccon gave him her best, most fierce, battle-ax expression, and they went down to dinner.

THAT’S HOW THE CHAPTER ENDS!  He just doesn’t answer and the author just moves the plot forward on clumsy legs regardless.

Say something nice Faps:

Sidheag is cool. I hope she’s not ruined.

Castles are cool.

The sock back and forth between Alexia and Ivy was actually kinda cute and funny. Even if it was dumb as hell.

[knittingdreams]

Fireheart - Characters

I thought I’ll get a sort of “guide” to all the characters from my fic! n_n

I’ve made avatars for all of them, and if you want to know how I envisioned them, here they are!

All characters belong to Sarah J. Maas, and the ones that didn’t have last names on the saga, are invented by moi! 

Warning: There are a LOOOT of characters in this story xD And you might get spoiled by knowing who’s on it, up to you if you keep scrolling or not! :D

[Picrew links at the end]

-MAIN CHARACTERS-

Celaena Sardothien: 

Main character in this story, the plot is centered around her and her struggles to find out who killed her parents while she clearly sidetracks and ends up doing anything but xD

Sam Cortland:

My baby sidekick! Sam’s got his own POV, and he plays a really important role in this story!

Aedion Ashryver:

He’s the cool rich jock dating the hot cheerleader, cliche, right? Well, maybe he’s not all that meets the eye.

Lysandra Caraverre:

Queen of the bees, Lys is the leader of the cheerleader at Adarlan Elite High, and you will see a lot of her!

Nehemia Yger:

Transfer student that makes friends with Celaena in her first day at school. Spoiler alert, she might be hiding a secret :O

Rowan Whitethorn:

Oh, boy, our dear Rowan is a security guard at the Fossa, the place where Celaena does her clandestine fighting at night. He might have a huge story to tell. 

Fenrys Moonbeam:

This wholesome beam is another security guard at the Fossa, and I won’t say anything else, if not, I’ll spoil the fun! Trust me, you’ll love him!

Connall Moonbeam:

Fenrys’ brother might not have much to say, but he cooks some mean breakfast!

Dorian Havilliard:

Richest kid in school who’s father own a Hotel Empire. He’s also a pretty funny dude when he wants to, and he will get his moment in the spotlight.

Chaol Westfall:

Who could have pictured Chaol as the perfect school boy? Well, me. Chaol is the perfect student, and also -no one knows how- Dorian’s best friend.

-FOOTBALL GANG-

Ben Carhian:

This junior is part of the team, and one of Aedion’s best friends. They will be a fun bunch to have around!

Ress Brulleman:

This cute senior hides some not-so-secrets secrets that will be revealed half way through the story and make you completely fall in love with him. 

Ren Allsbrook:

Ren’s the principal’s son, but that doesn’t mean he stays away from trouble. He will make some hilarious jokes, and always try to be in the middle of the action.

Nox Owen:

Nox’s a pretty chill background character, he’s also a senior, and he certainly enjoys his party time.

Ilias Mesterson:

He’s a mystery every girl would love to decipher -and I’m sure some boys too!-. Always quietly chilling in the corner, Ilias will bring his good looks to the team xD

-CHEERLEADING BEES-

Thea Dertien:

Thea has no shame. She’s a cute cuddly bean, always spending time with her girlfriend and cheerleader buddy, Kaya. She’s a senior, and a flyer.

Kaya Hamahiru:

Kaya is Thea’s base, in more than one sense. She’s a junior, but sometimes, it sounds like she’s more mature than her girlfriend. Kaya is bi, but hasn’t thought about boys since being with Thea as she’s got everything she could’ve haver ever wished for.

Ansel Briarcliff:

This girl is a burning fire! Full of energy, always in the middle of the dance floor, dancing her life away with a glass of vodka in one hand. She’s a junior, and a flyer.

Briar Tredici:

This sophmore might be young, but she knows what she wants. (Maybe) She dyed her hair black, tired of people calling her a dumb blond. She’s also a flyer, and a pretty good one.

Imogen Metala:

Another shopmore that entered the team together with Briar. She’s a quiet girl, and sometimes, that drives Lysandra nuts.

-OTHER CHARACTERS-

Elide Lochan:

Bookworm, president of the book club, and obviously part of the student council. Elide is a junior, and when she was a kid, she used to live in Terrasen, and have a really good friend called Aelin, who sadly passed away in an accident.

Lorcan Salvaterre: 

Bad boy, always sitting in the back of the class, head down, living in his own bubble... Well, unless Elide is around. He’s a senior and shared a few classes with Celaena.

Arobynn Hammel:

Son of a ******. I mean, Arobynn found Celaena almost dead, and saved her life, which is probably the only good thing he did in his whole life. He runs the guild, and makes kid fight in clandestine dungeon-like basements.

Manon Blackbeack:

Impossible to introduce this girl without spoilers, so I’m going to let you find out in your own time. She shows up halfway through the story :)

Asterin Blackbeack:

I don’t want to spoil much, but this girl has a double life, and in both cases, her fingers move really fast as she works :O

Sorrel blackbeack:

Same, I don’t want to spoil a thing, so I’m just going to say that she smokes like a chimney, and she likes her clothes better if they’re black/dark like her soul.

Hope you enjoyed getting to see them!! :D

All this have made with Picrew!

For the girls: USE THIS LINK

For the boys: USE THIS ONE!

For Nehemia: I USED THIS ONE HERE

[valamerys]

I really enjoy your blog so is it okay if I ask you top 10 pet peeves in novels? It can be tropes or even a niche moment in a particular book. I like writing myself and would appreciate the help.

hmmMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM sure, I can come up with some things! bear in mind I read almost exclusively fantasy, and mostly “low” ie not game of thrones fantasy at that, including a loooot of YA, so my items will reflect that.

Top (YA, Fantasy) Fiction Pet Peeves:

1) Unnecessary post-apocalyptic setting  WHY THE FUCK. DO PEOPLE KEEP DOING THIS. WHAT DOES THIS GAIN ANYONE. WHAT IS THE POINT. Red Queen, The Selection, The Queen of the Tearling, and that weird TV show The Shanarananaharahahananaaa Chronicles all do this. It’s, frankly, a cheap-ass bid for Dark and Gritty points, and also an excuse to set things in America But Fantasy, and it’s always bad and awkward. This isn’t planet of the apes, just make your damn fantasy world; you don’t have to try to make it more ~realistic~ by putting the ruins of the statue of liberty in the background. That’s stupid and you’re stupid.

2) One-note characters  Mostly present via The Bitch or The Bully stereotype, but also seen in The Bratty Brother, The Sweet Sister, The Spacey DGAF Parent, and the Eccentric Wise Elder. I get that there’s not time to flesh out every single person your protagonist comes into contact with, but certain archetypes are so fucking boring and done to death that I tune out immediately. It’s not 2004 anymore. The game has evolved. We can do better. We can be more interesting.

Related to the sweet sister trope, I’d like to bring up this text post from my other blog:

3) When the protagonists’ actions/ choices do not affect the plot  Alright, this one isn’t even a pet peeve, it’s basic narrative construction. Your story is supposed to be about your protagonist (or your two or three protagonists, in a multi-pov story, but for simplicity’s sake we’ll talk about one) and their arc, how they change and grow. a) If their actions never have consequences, how the fuck do they, like, learn things? and b) if their actions have no bearing on the climax of the story, how the fuck does the story demonstrate that they’ve changed, or come to a meaningful conclusion that’s related to that? Sure there’s weird literary exceptions, and certainly some fantasy in particular is more plot than character driven, but if your character is honestly never proactive, particularly through the ending of the book, uh, i have a major problem and so should you.

4) The Mandatory Feminism Stuff  we should all know these by now. “Not Like Other Girls” is bad. Hating on corsets and other femme paraphernalia is bad (and moreover i personally resent it because I love corsets). A book with a female protagonist and no other important female characters (or only evil female characters) is bad. A high fantasy series that builds its worldbuilding on a raging patriarchy for the purpose of elevating a few specific women into positions of power for superficial RAH RAH FEMINISM points while not addressing systematic oppression is really, really bad. Defining female empowerment as only one thing (IE picking up a sword and Proving Yourself just as badass as all those scoffing men!!!) is bad. I’m very tired and I want to read about women-- different kinds of women, with different moral alignments and interests and abilities and ethnic backgrounds and ages and sexualities and beliefs-- helping each other and being forces in the world and in each others’ lives. That’s it. That’s all I want. I have no clue why that’s so elusive.

5) Characters being flippant to the point of stupidity because........ that’s cool, i guess?  Homygod, I am so sick to my teeth of characters who would get their asses kicked IRL for being obnoxious and overly glib be appraised with “wow, you’ve really got some nerve! I like you, kid!” or some variation therof. Mouthing off to superiors/ royalty? Charging into a fight on a stray heroic impulse despite everyone with a brain and their mom telling you you’re going to die because you just picked up swordfighting on tuesday? flagrantly and thoughtlessly disregarding engrained cultural things because they don’t align with your conveniently 2017 sense of social justice despite you living in an analogue-medieval world? Not cute. It will get you fucking killed. If your character doesn’t seem to grasp that, I’m going to think they’re a dumbshit, and if the book rewards rather than punishes that, I’m not going to take it very seriously. (obviously there are exceptions to this, particularly if your world doesn’t take itself very seriously, but if you expect to instill a real sense of danger in day-to-day life, your protagonist doesn’t get to be exempt from that because they’re hot and witty.)

6) Also, characters being stubborn. This goes with my last point, because it’s another trait people seem to think is like cool, or something? That stubborn people are stubborn because they’re Strong? that it’s a flaw but it’s actually a Cool Flaw, like in job interviews when they ask your weakness and you say “i’m just TOO hard of a worker, ha ha ha”? U see this a lot in female characters written by people who are uncomfortable writing female characters, i think because, again, it mistakenly reads as Strength on some really superficial level, and because the banter and petty conflict that arises from it temporarily distracts from weak overall characterization. If you’re going to write a character being stubborn, that’s great! But understand that a) it’s a real flaw that can genuinely blind them to good ideas and cause unnecessary friction that shouldn’t be treated as endearing, b) it’s not a replacement for other elements of characterization!! and c) it’s the flipside of being assertive, which is a good thing: no trait is only a flaw or a strength, and so any trait a character possess in abundance should both help and hinder them at different times, with maturity level tempering the bad, to a degree. stubbornness is no different.

7) Sexual assault (or the threat of it) all over the fucking place. Do i have to explain this one? Of course ownvoices books about sexual assault survivors are good and necessary but we are all sick to death of "fun” fantasy worlds where the female characters exist under the constant and unending threat of rape, where sexual assault is common as window dressing and the love interests are Super Special Feminist Snowflakes for being so revolutionary as to take consent into account. fuck that. that should be the bare fucking minimum. i am so tired.

8) The Six-Pack Sex Appeal Golem  Honestly, I am not here to hate on love triangles, because I am ALL ABOUT the romance and the more the merrier. But what i do really, really loathe is the incredibly narrow parameters that have come to exist for male love interests, to the point where they all tend to feel like the same guy in need of anger management: a little broody, smart, serious, jealous and protective to a fault, if we get his POV we get real creepy sexual thoughts out of nowhere while he acts vaguely standoffish and probably a little patronizing to a woman whose Attitude gives him a boner. This man does not experience emotions that can’t be interpreted as darkly sexual, or possibly A Little Bit Vulnerable, just for that one scene of mandatory backstory reveal. I recently reviewed a real bad romance novel and described the hero as “a barely-consistent golem of toxic masculine ideals” and that’s what I’m talking about here. MAKE YOUR LOVE INTERESTS WELL-ROUNDED AND UNIQUE CHARACTERS LIKE ALL YOUR OTHER CHARACTERS. Forget what’s “sexy,” I wanna see the male love interests be Soft and Weird and cry in an unattractive way. For further reading/ a great case study of the Masculine Golem, please just read this article about how abysmal the romance in ROAR is. (For what it’s worth, I actually think SJM manages to avoid this in the ACOTAR series. Rhys and Tamlin suck but they are still mostly consistent characters, not just shells inhabited by the spirit of heterosexuality. your mileage may vary, though.)

9) Secret Superpower/ She Was The Missing Princess/ Queen All Along  I think this is a trend that’s slowly but surely passing from YA, but for a while you couldn’t throw a rock in a bookstore without hitting a trilogy where a long-lost missing princess was established in chapter 1 and you spent the whole fucking first book knowing the orphaned heroine with a murky past was gonna turn out to be the princess and you were always right. Queens are also a huge fucking thing right now, although they don’t tend to follow that exact formula. See also the character’s discovery of a superpower catapulting them into a new exciting life-- basically any discovery of a Cool Sexy birthright as a catalyst for a plot is kind of played out and boring, at this point in time? This ties into my earlier point about wanting characters’ choices to shape the plot; it’s so much easier to have them reacting to external forces, especially dramatic, aesthetic ones, i get that, but you’ll get a more original and interesting story the more you resist that urge. And everyone is fucking tired of secret princesses and can spot them a mile away, y’all.

10) OMG magic is outlawed!!! BUT WAIT THE PROTAGONIST HAS SECRET MAGIC! CAN SHE RISE ABOVE PERSECUTION AND HER PROBABLE ROMANCE WITH THE PRINCE OF THIS POORLY-THOUGHT-OUT TOTALITARIAN REGIME TO LEAD ALL MAGIC-HAVERS TO FREEDOM AND ACCEPTANCE???? If you do this i’m going to come to your house and pour a cup of soda on your head. This is dumb and I can’t believe I’ve seen it multiple times. I’m not even explaining this it should be obvious.

Honorable mentions go to: Excessive mentions/ descriptions of eye color, really tired ways of describing kissing, elemental magic is super fucking overdone, instalove, and Training Montages

[alisemartinez91]

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[recentanimenews]

Random Reads #1

All hail the debut of a new recurring column of sorts, collecting reasonably short reviews of disparate books.

A Banquet of Consequences by Elizabeth George While A Banquet of Consequences is not the best Lynley and Havers mystery I have read, it’s still great heaping loads better than the last one (Just One Evil Act). In fact, in my review of the latter, I wrote “I wanted a book with Havers triumphant. A Havers showing that, despite her problems with professionalism and authority, she really has something amazing to offer.” And that’s pretty much what we did get this time around.

When Claire Abbott, respected feminist author, is found dead in a hotel room while on a book tour, her death is first ruled a heart attack. After her persistent friend and editor insists on a second opinion, a more thorough toxicology screening reveals the presence of poison. Having met the author and her truly odious personal assistant (and chief suspect), Caroline Goldacre, Havers begs Lynley to pull strings for her so that she can investigate, which doesn’t go over very well with Superintendent Ardery. Happily, Havers does do a competent job, though this doesn’t go very far in improving Ardery’s opinion of her.

Mystery-wise, there were elements that I guessed, but I did still enjoy the element of ambiguity that remained at the end. Too, I liked that in the next volume, the Italian detective from Just One Evil Act (probably the best thing about that dreadful book) is going to be visiting England. He was quite sweet on Havers, as I recall! My one real complaint is that Lynley had hardly anything to do, except intercede on Havers’ behalf, contemplate his relationship with Deidre, and look after an admittedly adorable dog.

Still, it’s good to have my faith in this series somewhat restored!

The End of Everything by Megan Abbott Lizzie Hood and Evie Verver are thirteen years old and have been BFFs and next-door neighbors for as long as they can remember. Lately, though, Lizzie has begun to realize that Evie is no longer the open book she once was. (“I know her so well that I know when I no longer know everything.”) When Evie goes missing, Lizzie does all that she can to help bring her home, while being forced to acknowledge that maybe there had always been a darkness hidden within her dearest friend that she had never noticed.

In addition to the mystery of what’s happened to Evie, this book deals a lot with Lizzie’s burgeoning sexual feelings. Though she has some contact with boys near her age, she’s really smitten with Evie’s gregarious father. She longs to be close to him, to provide clues that give him hope, to take his mind off what’s happening. She exults in her ability to affect him. In the process, she somewhat usurps the place that his eldest daughter, Dusty, has filled. What I actually liked best about the book is that Abbott leaves it up to the reader to decide—is Mr. Verver’s relationship with these girls crossing a line? Perhaps his intentions are utterly pure (and, indeed, it seems like he might be crushed to hear someone thought otherwise), but there are some things he does and says that just seem so inappropriate.

Ultimately, I liked this book quite a lot (though I feel I should warn others that some parts are disturbing). Abbott offers several intriguing parallels between relationships to consider, and I think it’s a story I will ruminate over for a long time to come.

The Ex by Alafair Burke Twenty years ago, Olivia Randall sabotaged her relationship with her fiancé, Jack Harris. Now he’s the chief suspect in a triple homicide and Olivia, a defense attorney, is hired by his teenage daughter to represent him. Initially, Olivia has absolute faith in Jack’s innocence (and feels like she owes him because of how she treated him) but mounting evidence eventually makes her doubt whether she ever really knew him at all.

In synopsis form, The Ex sounds pretty interesting, but the reality is something different. Olivia herself is not particularly likeable. Setting aside how she treated Jack in the past, in the present she drinks too much and is having a casual relationship with a married man. I think we’re supposed to come away believing that this whole experience enables her to grow past some parental issues inhibiting her ability to find real love, but it’s glossed over in just about the most cursory way imaginable. And because the narration is in the first person, other characters who might have been interesting—namely a couple of other employees of the defense firm helping with the case—are exceedingly undeveloped.

The mystery plot itself is average. The final twist wasn’t something I predicted from the outset, but once a certain piece of evidence was revealed, it turned out to be very similar to another mystery I’d just read so it was a bit of a slow slog to the inevitable conclusion. The writing is also repetitive, with the significance of various clues being reiterated over and over. One genuinely unique aspect of the book is that because Olivia is a defense attorney and not law enforcement, she wasn’t overly concerned with actually solving the case, so much as finding plausible alternate suspects to establish reasonable doubt. Perhaps that is why some things the culprit did were left unexplained and some evidence unaccounted for, though it could have just been sloppy writing.

I don’t think I shall be reading anything else by this author.

Girl in the Dark by Marion Pauw Set in The Netherlands, Girl in the Dark is told in alternating first-person chapters between Ray, a man with autism who has spent eight years in jail for the murders of his neighbor and her daughter, and Iris, a lawyer and single mother who discovers by chance that Ray is the elder brother she never knew she had. She is convinced of his innocence, despite evidence that he is capable of destructive rage, and begins investigating the case and pursuing an appeal, while trying to get her icy mother to talk about her past.

Although the book is advertised as a thriller, most of the time I was more infuriated than thrilled. Leaving aside the question of Ray’s guilt or innocence, the way he was/is treated by others—including Rosita, the opportunistic neighbor who used and then rejected him, as well as one of the employees of the institution he’s been transferred to, who seemingly frames Ray for smuggling drugs into the facility (there’s no resolution to this minor plot point)—generates a great deal of empathy. In particular, there is an especially cruel scene near the end of the book that made me literally exclaim, “Jesus Christ!” Although he occasionally exhibits frustrated fury, Ray is also shown to be sweet and thoughtful, at one time a skilled baker (thriving in an environment that prioritized both routine and precision) and obsessed with the welfare of his tropical fish (currently in his mother’s care).

I didn’t come away with as vivid a sense of Iris as I did Ray. The scenes involving her job and clients were, in a way, mental palate cleansers from the stress of Ray’s situation, largely bland and unmemorable. When she finally gets her hands on Ray’s case files, her end of the story improves, but there are aspects of the final resolution that are kind of ridiculous. That said, I thought the ultimate ending was satisfying and I doubt I’ll forget the book any time soon.

Mr. Kiss and Tell by Rob Thomas and Jennifer Graham Mr. Kiss and Tell came out in January 2015. I had pre-ordered it the previous May, but when it arrived I just couldn’t get into it, despite a few attempts. A couple of months later, iZombie debuted. It had all the hallmarks of a Rob Thomas show and, lo, I love it. So much so, in fact, that I started to feel like I’d be okay without further adventures in Veronica’s world. Mr. Kiss and Tell spent the next two years occupying various spots in my living room. Then, finally, I read it. And I remembered how deeply I love these characters and now I am totally sad that there aren’t any more books beyond this one. Yet.

I was somewhat disappointed that the first Veronica book, The Thousand-Dollar Tan Line, did not follow up on the movie storyline about police corruption ion Neptune. Happily, that plotline gets some attention in this book. Weevil is acquitted of the charges against him, but his reputation and business has taken a hit, so he agrees to a civil suit against the county. Keith works to find others who’ll testify about evidence-planting, and meanwhile a candidate enters the race against Lamb, who’d been running for reelection unopposed. There’s some closure on this by the end of the book, but still plenty of room for more going forward.

Veronica, meanwhile, is hired by the Neptune Grand to investigate a rape that took place in their hotel. The case has quite a few twists and turns, although it surprised me some by not twisting as much as I expected. (So is that, therefore, a twist?) By far, however, the best parts of the book are the conversations between the characters. Veronica and Logan, Veronica and Keith, Veronica and Weevil… I could vividly imagine each being performed by the cast, which is almost as good as not having to imagine. I especially liked that things still aren’t 100% perfect in Veronica’s world, and Logan is only home for a few months before the accidental death of one of his friends means that his shipmates are a man down. Veronica struggles to understand why he feels so strongly that he must return early, leading to my favorite scene, in which Logan reveals what his life was like in the years she was gone, and how he ended up in Officer Candidate School. It’s a bit implausible that they hadn’t had this conversation before, but it’s riveting nonetheless.

In fact, my only quibble is a bit of timeline fluffery near the beginning. On the whole, this was immensely satisfying and I will continue to hope for more books in the future. After all, never giving up hope has worked out for Veronica Mars fans in the past!

The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie This was a reread for me, but one I hadn’t yet reviewed, since I read it shortly before creating this blog. (I did review Christie’s second and third books before getting sidetracked. This time I shall persevere and read them all!)

A soldier named Hastings, invalided home from the front, runs into John Cavendish, an acquaintance who invites him to recuperate at Styles Court, where Hastings had often visited as a boy. It is Hastings who narrates the story of what happens there. In brief, instead of John inheriting Styles Court upon the death of his father, the property was bequeathed to his stepmother, Emily, upon whom he is presently dependent for funds. When Emily is poisoned, suspicion initially turns to her strange (and substantially younger) new husband, Alfred Inglethorp, and then ultimately onto John himself. The cast of suspects is rounded out by siblings, spouses, friends, and servants. Hastings suggests bringing his old friend Hercule Poirot in to investigate.

I did remember “whodunit,” along with the explanation for one perplexing aspect of the case, but otherwise, most of this felt new to me. In fact, I think I enjoyed it even more than the first time. Oh, I still find Hastings annoying, but Christie’s depiction of Poirot’s appearance and mannerisms struck me as especially vivid this time around, and I was left with a more distinct impression of him than I’d held previously. (I had somehow acquired a mental picture of Poirot that had him looking like Alfred Hitchcock!) Although some of the clues are a bit convoluted and/or improbable, the overall solution is satisfying and makes sense. What’s more, my enthusiasm for tackling the rest of Christie’s oeuvre has been rekindled!

The Outpost by Mike Resnick In an effort to broaden my horizons and read more science fiction, I went looking for books that might appeal to fans of Firefly. In the course of that search, I came across The Outpost. The notion of a bunch of space-faring outlaw types gathering at a bar on the edge of the galaxy, swapping stories, then banding together to fight off some aliens sounded appealing. Don’t be fooled like I was.

While it is indeed true that a bunch of space-facing outlaw types do gather to swap their stories, these recitations are actually highly embellished tall tales, and they seem to go on for an interminable amount of time. Finally, during a brief middle section of the book, the bar’s patrons go off and fight some aliens, and getting a glimpse of reality, including several pointless and unheroic deaths, was the best part of the novel. All too soon, they’re back at the Outpost, telling their war adventures with varying degrees of embellishment. It’s at this point that several very boring arguments on the ethics of “improving” history ensue.

It’s true that sometimes, I did smile or laugh at something, but on the whole this book just riled me up. None of the characters has any depth whatsoever, and several are positively odious. Many of the stories told by the guys involve busty and lusty women, and it’s fine if the characters themselves are sexist (to be fair, one of the female characters does call them out on this eventually), but most of the female characters created by Resnick are also vampy vixens whose stories are sex-oriented and bodily proportions repeatedly emphasized.

I listened to the unabridged audio version read by Bob Dunsworth, and I cannot recommend it. He frequently misreads and mispronounces words, so that at one point someone is wearing “flowering” robes instead of “flowing” ones, “defenestrating” loses a syllable, “etiquette” gets a “kw” sound, et cetera. Making it through the book was a tremendous slog, and more than once I cursed my completist nature.

These Vicious Masks by Tarun Shanker and Kelly Zekas I can’t for the life of me remember how I heard about this book. I immediately put in a materials request with my library, but when it arrived I didn’t remember it at all. It does have hallmarks of something that would appeal to me, though: a setting of England in 1882, superpowers, romance, one of the authors mentioning Buffy in the dedication… It boded well.

I found it a bit disappointing at first, however, despite an independent and snarky heroine (Evelyn Wyndham, and is that a Buffy/Angel reference?) and dialogue that made me snicker right from the start. It just seemed so like “Pride and Prejudice with superpowers” that I began to wonder who was meant to be who. (“That charming fellow Mr. Kent, set up as a romantic rival to surly and brooding Sebastian Braddock, must be the Wickham surrogate!”) Too, the constant bickering between Evelyn and Sebastian, as they work together to rescue her sister the healer from a scientist who wants to experiment on her, did grate after a while.

However, in the end the book surprised me. Not just by deviating from the Pride and Prejudice mold or by imbuing people with unsuspected powers, but by taking the plot in a direction that absolutely made sense and which I absolutely did not see coming. A sequel (These Ruthless Deeds) has just been released and verily, I shall read it.

By: Michelle Smith