A Wicked Convergence of Circumstances

Moribito Episode Three "Fight to the Death"--Review

2012-02-10T09:00:00.000-07:00

We open this episode with a repeat of the ending of the previous one. The imperial black ops team takes off after Balsa. She directs Chagum to run into the forest and tries to hold off the black ops team. During the fight she notices that the operatives are not using their poison darts when she comments on this, the operative she's fighting flinches. The battle continues, and in the course the battle Balsa's rickety spear breaks and she is badly wounded. Balsa takes off and the operatives assume that since she's a mercenary, that she's simply run off.

The operative who flinched when Balsa mentioned poison darts directs the other operative to get the prince while he goes after Balsa. One of the operatives successfully nabs the prince, and another operative takes care of their leader. The operatives are all very surprised at Balsa's skill and in general believe that they have completely handled the situation because a mere mercenary is not going to try coming after them again after being wounded. (If you believe that last sentence, I have a beach house in Arizona I'd liked to sell you.)

We turn to Toya and Saya who are currently living in a boat. (It is not even a house boat. It's like a canoe with a tarp to keep the weather off.) Toya is extremely worried for Balsa, so he and Saya go looking for Tanda who is hopefully still in town. They discover that Tanda still has business in town so they decide to wait for him.

(Meanwhile, a storm rolls in.)

Book Review: All Men of Genius by Lev AC Rosen

2012-02-09T09:00:00.000-07:00

Tor

459 pp.

Buy on Amazon

The very basic summary of this novel’s plot is “Steampunk Twelfth Night set at a school for (mad) scientists.” Our Heroine is a young woman named Viola who desperately wants to attend Illyria, which is one of the very best schools for aspiring young scientists. Unfortunately, girls are not allowed to attend Illyria as this is the Victorian Era.

Viola however is not willing to let something like being a girl stop her from going to school. Despite the very real danger of ending up in prison or worse, Viola, her brother Ashton and their childhood friend Jack, conspire to get her into the school disguised as a boy. (She intends to reveal herself at the end of the first year. This is a very dangerous proposition whether she succeeds or fails. She is literally risking everything to pull off this stunt.)

She is able to get into the school, and has various adventures. Most of them have to do with attempting to hide her identity while being courted by Cecily, the Duke of Illyria’s ward. (Who is a scientist in her own right, though she doesn’t officially attend the school.) Then Ernest, the Duke of Illyria begins to develop feelings for Viola. And Viola is conflicted because of having sneaked into the school under false pretenses. And another student is attempting to black mail Cecily’s governess who is not as entirely proper as she first appears.

There is also the remnant of a secret society, various cases of mad science such as monsters in the basement and secret rooms, and a lot of romantic shenanigans. (In addition to the mess between Cecily and Viola and Viola and Ernest there is also an actress and one of the students, Ashton and his relationship with a (male) servant, Jack and his feelings for Cecily, and so on.)

This book’s strongest points are its character interactions and dialog. The characters are whimsical and engaging and the dialog is funny and entertaining. There are also some serious moments as Viola deals with the problems of her situation at the school. (Most of which revolve around trying to pretend to be a boy, though there are some moments where she is equally confused and frustrated about being a gir” who doesn’t really fit her culture’s standards for being one.)

I really enjoyed the book. The mad science was extremely mad and often weird, the romance was fun and entertaining, and I adored the main and supporting characters.

Reading: A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs Part One

2012-02-08T12:00:00.000-07:00

Forward and Chapter One: On the Arizona Hills

Because of the John Carter movie coming out, I decided to do a Re-read of A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Burroughs is not one of my favorite authors because of reasons. I have tried reading the original Tarzan books and have not been able to do that because Tarzan in the stories is a massively annoying tool. (I did like some of the old Tarzan movies and also the cartoon, but I hate the stories.) John Carter is also a massive tool but is somehow more readable to me than Tarzan.

First, let’s talk about planetary romance, because that’s what A Princess of Mars is. Planetary Romance is science fiction that has a focus on the setting rather than on technological developments and extrapolation. More specifically the setting is some kind of alien environment or planet. (You can have planetary romances set on Earth, but they will be in some kind of wild fantastical hidden landscape.)

Burroughs is good at the wild fantastical landscapes! He puts all of the derring in do! He buckles all the swashes! And all of his cliffs are very well hung! His manly characters are manly and his girly characters are curvy! There is a great deal of mindless fun to be had with Burroughs writing. I should warn you though, if you go to see the movie, this will totally look like you’ve seen it before, because you have.

The set up for this book is a self-insert of sorts where Our Writer claims a connection with Our Hero John Carter. Our Writer claims that this story is in part a journal or memoir written by John Carter about his adventures on Mars, known as “Barsoom” by the natives of that planet. Our Hero is a former Confederate soldier! And he also has a very mysterious past! Our Writer considers Our Hero to be extremely awesome and thinks we should think he is awesome as well. (I do not think he is awesome, for reasons which should be obvious.)

Captain John Carter of Virginia finds that he is at very loose ends at the end of the Civil War. He goes off to seek his fortune with a friend named Powell. While prospecting they find an extremely awesome amount of gold. Powell, who was an engineer, determines that they do not have the right equipment to continue working on this vein of gold. He heads off to “civilization” to purchase said equipment.

Unfortunately, going off alone is very dangerous! Because of the random Apaches who randomly kill white people for the fun of it. (And not, you know for other reasons that might have to do with white people making their lives a hassle. And also not for reasons similar to why white outlaws might attack a prospector. No, they have to be doing it for the fun of torturing people.) John Carter becomes aware that his friend is in danger, and heads off to render assistance.

He is not able to offer much in the way of assistance, as his friend has already been captured and stuck full of arrows. Our Hero is understandably upset by this, and does something very stupid, which is rush forward to retrieve the body. He gets the body and barely manages to escape the Apaches by running into the cave. Once entering the cave, he takes leave of his senses and attempts to revive someone who is very clearly dead. When he recovers, he attempts to explore the cave, but soon finds that he is too sleepy to do much of anything but take a nap.

Chapter Two: The Escape of the Dead

Our Hero wakes up, but finds that he can’t move. After a while the random Apaches find his hiding place. They look inside the cave and apparently see something that shocks and amazes them. Then there is a weird sound from deeper inside the cave. The noise is apparently so creepy that they decide to get the heck out of Dodge. Our Hero is also freaked out by the scary noise, but there is not very much he can do about it, since he seems to be paralyzed.

He hears more spooky and creepy noises, and continues to be unable to move. With an immense striving of will, Our Hero manages to have an out of body experience. (To be more specific, he managed to bilocate himself. He is physically in two bodies, and the one that can move around is not wearing any clothes.) He hears the weird noise again, and he continues to be freaked out by it, finding it immensely threatening. He heads outside at speed, not even bothering to put on some clothes or grab a weapon.

Once he gets outside the cave he sees the planet Mars. Our Hero feels a deep and spiritual connection to the planet Mars. (He also feels a strong connection to the god.) This immense spiritual connection caused Our Hero to be drawn to the red planet, and he goes flying up into the aether.

In the next installment, John Carter bounces around as if his bottom was made of springs and takes candy from strangers. (Okay, it’s actually a bracelet, but still.)

Blue Exorcist Episode Twenty Two “Demon Hunting”--Review

2012-02-07T10:30:00.000-07:00

We open with Kuro attempting to wake Rin up. Rin however is very deeply asleep. Kuro solves this problem by jumping on Rin's face. Yukio has apparently not returned from wherever he had disappeared to. Rin is understandably worried. Then he realizes that he is extremely late for class. He panics, and we go to the opening credits.

When Rin gets to school, he finds out that it's been closed. He learns that the director of the school has been blamed for the hostage situation occurring, and has been arrested. He also discovers that the new Preceptor for the school is Yukio. Then he discovers that Yukio is also the Paladin of the order, and the person who put him in charge is their grandfather. Ernst is also apparently the Pope now. He has declared an all-out war against demons and even the student exorcists are expected to fight on the front lines.

Rin of course is more worried that Yukio got to be Paladin before him.

The next scenes are a montage of exorcists (including the students) attacking various kinds of demons. The energy from the demons is absorbed by the weapons and a large grimoire. As the fighting goes on, Shiemi and a few other of the kids start becoming unhappy with what they're doing.

In addition to honestly malevolent creatures, they are also killing demons that don't actually cause harm.

The Mystic Archives of Dantalian Episode Five “The Magician’s Daughter”--Recap

2012-02-04T11:30:00.000-07:00

This was one of my least favorite episodes so far. (It's flamboyant and more than a little over the top, dramatically speaking. I can see that it is a tribute-type episode, but I am not sure of the genre.) We open with a cloaked figure who is gloating over a young woman who is waking up. There is a sort of mad scientist feel to the scene as the young woman is lying on some kind of glowing platform. The cloaked figure refers to the young woman as his daughter, and there is something definitely creepy about the way he's talking about her. He states that he has an "experiment" in mind, and we get a view of a very sinister smile. Then we go to the opening credits.

We come back from credits, where Huey is trying to put books away and Dalian is upset that he's putting away books that she is reading. There is also someone knocking on the door. The visitor is a young man named Armand who Huey served with when he was in the military. He is in a desperate situation, and begs Huey for a book that might be in his collection.

It's revealed that Armand has fallen hard for a high-priced courtesan named Viola Duplessis who has promised to marry the man who brings her a specific Phantom book. It turns out that she has quite a number of suitors, and has sent each of them after a different Phantom Book. All of these gentlemen have been visiting Huey and Dalian in hopes of getting one of these Phantom Books.

Armand is the straw the broke the bookworm's back; Huey and Dalian decide to seek her out.

Moribito Episode Two "The Hunters and the Hunted"--Review

2012-02-01T09:30:00.000-07:00

We open with the palace burning, and a scene of Balsa running down a street, dragging the prince along with her. (Apparently, she did not have time to ditch the clothes the kid was wearing.) Chagum looks completely traumatized. She eventually stops so Chagum can catch is breath, and offers some reassurance before they continue heading off into the night.

Next up is a long haired guy who is watching the palace burn from some kind of observatory. This is Shuga who is a "star reader." He was Chagum's tutor and the one who told the head star reader that Chagum was possessed by a water demon. We shift back to Balsa and Chagum who are now heading through some rough terrain. The kid is asleep on his feet and falls over. Balsa ends up having to carry him piggy back.

While this is going on, Shuga asks to speak to the head of his order. The master star reader is not happy to see him and even less happy to hear what Shuga has to say. Shuga is really not happy about this most recent attempt on Chagum's life.

He is especially not happy because Sagum, Chagum's elder brother is extremely sick and Chagum is the spare heir should anything happen to Sagum.

Book Review: Midnight Lamp by Gwyneth Jones

2012-01-31T10:30:00.000-07:00

Gollancz
326 pp.

The only bad thing about getting books by Inter-Library Loan is that if you put a loan on a series, it is guaranteed that you will get them all in the wrong order. This is the case with Midnight Lamp, which is the third book in the “Bold as Love” series, but which I have read second after the first book. Fortunately, this is not a major problem in following the plot, since the events of the second book are gone over in outline since the characters are currently recovering from said events.

Our Heroes are hiding out in Mexico after a series of extremely traumatic events that have left Fiorinda and Sage transformed, and in Fiorinda’s case, emotionally unstable. (Okay, truthfully that should be “more emotionally unstable” since she was already unstable to begin with.) As a result of the traumatic events, they are having an extended vacation. They are approached by a guy named Harry Lopez, who wants to make a movie about them. They are not really interested, but are drawn in because the U.S. President Fred Eiffrich needs their help.

Apparently, there is a group of people attempting to work “effective magic.” This group of people are apparently affiliated in part with “the Celts” an organization of pagan fascists who are the primary reason why Our Heroes are vacationing in Mexico. The method of “effective magic” being used involves human sacrifice (I was very strongly reminded of David Brin’s “Thor Meets Captain America” though in this case there are no inhuman entities masquerading as gods, just insane magic users) the situation is escalating and the President is understandably worried about an “It’s a Good Life” scenario (that is to say, an insane magic user doing horrible things with reality just because he/she/it can).

So the trio decide to go to California. Unfortunately, they spend most of the time getting the run around, and occasionally insulted by slightly stupid yet well-meaning Presidents. (Fred sticks his foot in his mouth up to his knee when he fails to catch on to the fact that the Trio are in a relationship with each other.) Then Fiorinda turns up missing, and Sage and Ax have to head out and rescue her before something horrible happens.

While I did like the book, and the continuing interactions between Sage, Fiorinda and Ax, I was not very fond of the “pagans are evil at worst and flaky twits at best,” theme. There were also some attacks concerning Vodou in that they were lumped in with the “pagans” and Satanists that were committing human sacrifice. (While the writer is very fair-minded toward many other religions such as Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism, she seems to draw the line at Vodou, and pagan revivalist faiths.)

Blue Exorcist Episode Twenty One “The Secret Garden”--Review

2012-01-27T12:30:00.000-07:00

This episode begins with a view of the herb shop where Shiemi lives with her mother. We can hear a news report on the radio (about the hostage situation at the Academy) as we get a view of Shiemi at the front counter. Her mother leaves on an errand. Then there's a loud crashing noise. When Shiemi investigates, she finds an unconscious woman in her garden. Shiemi attempts to lift the woman, but the woman is too heavy. Volunteers to assist in the form of a horde of plant spirits arrive, and then we go the opening credits.

When we get back from the opening credits, Yukio is meeting with some variety of Church official. This gentleman states that he is Yukio's grandfather. (Special note: Among the many things the creator of the series may not care about, the fact that Roman Catholic priests are celibate is apparently one. This tends to be a recurring blindspot with many mangaka.) He explains that since Lord Pheles was named as the twin's guardian by their dad Fujimoto has been arrested, that he will be taking over as their guardian. Yukio is a bit ambivalent about this overture, but the old man explains that he was unable to care for the twins because he had been imprisoned after the Church executed his daughter as a witch. The church official manages to win Yukio over, and reveals to Yukio a grand scheme to protect the human world from demons.

In the next scene, Rin returns to the school from the monastery. When he learns that Mr. Noihaus is in the Great Cell being interrogated, Rin decides that he wants to sit in on the interrogation.

The scene shifts to the interrogation, where Noihaus is being extremely uncooperative. Rin walks in and has a question of his own.

Book Review: Honor’s Paradox, by P.C. Hodgell

2012-01-26T11:43:00.000-07:00

Baen
267 pp.

Buy on Amazon

In Honor’s Paradox, Jame completes her training at Tentir despite continuing attempts by other houses to get her kicked out. The general operation of the plot tends to revolve around Jame being a catalyst of sorts for correcting problems that she comes across. (This could be said to be the case for all of the books, but in this case, the beneficial results outweigh the usual negative and catastrophic ones.) Various secrets are revealed, Tori shows a lot of progress in learning to accept Shanir in general and his sister in specific, and Kindrie continues to develop a spine. (As a special bonus, Graykin also seems to be developing a sense of perspective.)

The book begins with Ashe retelling the story about how Gerridon decided to make a deal with Perimal Darkling. (This story has been told many times during the series, but it never really gets old and it underlines that the Kencyr as a culture have so many issues it is clear that they have a lifetime subscription.) Then we shift to Jame juggling her role as Earth Mother’s Favorite with her role as student at Tentir and her brother’s heir. (There are several points where she must choose one over the other; she generally chooses the former because doing otherwise makes Bad Things Happen, except for the one time the reverse is true.) As a result of this juggling of responsibilities she occasionally stumbles, which for Jame usually has epic consequences.

There were quite a few interesting character developments during the story. A lot of the book was focused on Timmon’s continuing efforts to woo Jame (and his repeatedly getting knocked for a loop by Jame’s dreamscape). This slowly progresses to a revelation about Timmon’s father that’s been waiting in the wings now since Dark of the Moon. Timmon slowly comes to the realization that his father is not the role model he’s been told, and Jame manages to keep this information from breaking the kid. (His own mistakes almost do that for him, however.) Gorbel is less of a fixture in this book, though he’s a continuing and often helpful presence, even when he’s directly ordered to go against Jame. Another recurring presence is the Dark Judge who is determined to find a reason to convict Jame (and anyone else he can get his claws on). There is also Beauty, the darkling wyrm who undergoes a final metamorphosis.

One of the scenes that I particularly enjoyed was an official presentation of the heirs of all the houses, which was occasionally interrupted by toddler. (Tori’s cousin Holly’s son and heir. It was ridiculously cute and funny and did interesting things with the more serious parts of the sequence.) We also finally discover what sort of creature Drie, Timmon’s half-brother and servant is bound to. (It was not exactly a surprise; I had guessed that it had to be something very, very unusual, and it was. How we find out is somewhat traumatic, but weirdly satisfying in the end.)

I really liked this book, and the conclusion. (I am so happy the entire Tentir arc was spread out to three novels. Seeker’s Mask and Dark of the Moon went by in the blink of an eye for me, and I really enjoyed the character interactions.)

The Mystic Archives of Dantalian Episode Four “Book of Soul Exchange”--Recap

2012-01-24T10:00:00.000-07:00

This episode is extremely reminiscent of Misery, by Stephen King. The episode opens with a man typing. We discover that he is a prisoner of some kind when a woman unlocks the door to his room and enters. The woman is clearly unhappy about something that the man wrote, but the man protests that a bargain is a bargain. This is definitely the wrong thing to say, because that is when the knife comes out. Then we go to the opening credits.

In the scene following the credits, Dalian is experiencing the most incredibly frustrating thing ever experienced by any reader: she has completed the second book of an unfinished trilogy. She is outraged, but Huey is amused. He explains that the trilogy will remain unfinished because the writer died before writing the final book. This is of course very upsetting to Dalian. During the course of the discussion we learn that the writer, Lenny Lents had attempted to contact Huey's grandfather, claiming to be held prisoner by a book. This is all Dalian needs to hear. She immediately insists that they go seek out Lenny Lents.

We next see a woman at a water pump outside of a large house in the middle nowhere. Anthony and Dalian turn up, and ask the woman some questions about Lenny Lents. The woman claims to be Paula Lents, Lenny Lents wife, and states that Lenny is not dead, he is simply being reclusive as he's working on his next book. After some more conversation, the woman agrees to let them meet with Lenny the next day. Dalian and Huey head back to the car, and Dalian reads the dedication in the book she's carrying which is made "in loving memory" to Lenny Lents wife. She notes that the wife "should not be there," but Huey says, "who else could she be?"

The view pulls back a bit to reveal a bucket with a knife next to the water pump.

Moribito Episode One "Balsa the Female Body Guard"--Review

2012-01-21T11:30:00.000-07:00

Moribito is about a young woman named Balsa who has sworn to save the lives of eight people. She is a mercenary who works as a body guard and has achieved a great deal of notoriety in her time. Balsa is given the responsibility of protecting a young prince who may or may not be possessed by a water demon who will (allegedly) bring about a drought if the prince isn't slain. The story is about protecting the prince and finding out what exactly is really going on, because there are a great many layers to the story.

We open with Balsa returning to the country of Yogo where she had grown up. It has been two years since she left and she is rather happy to be back. We learn that she is not a native of this country; she is originally from a country called Kanbal where apparently it is more likely you'll find women warriors. Balsa has returned to Yogo for among other reasons, in order to get her spear fixed.

While she's walking she sees a royal procession. As the procession crosses a bridge, the ox pulling the cart goes berserk and falls over and the occupant, a young boy falls into the water. Balsa goes in after him. After a very strange moment where the boy starts glowing and they're both surrounded by a bubble of light, she hauls him out of the water.

The boy's attendants are less than grateful for the rescue (because Balsa is a commoner and Touched the Royal Person) and Balsa is sent on her way.

Book Review: After the Golden Age by Carrie Vaughn

2012-01-19T09:30:00.000-07:00

Tor
304 pp.

Buy on Amazon

After the Golden Age is a novel of the “deconstruct the superhero genre” persuasion. Since I am not a very big fan of superhero comics, it took me a while to get around to reading it. Our Heroine is Celia West, the only daughter of Captain Olympus and Spark, the foremost superheroes of Commerce City. Celia has no superhero talents of her own, and is every criminal and supervillain’s idea of a good kidnap victim. For various reasons having to do with family dysfunction and a very extreme expression of teen rebellion, she is estranged from her family.

Celia is a forensic accountant and the firm she works at is involved in a major case involving a supervillain named The Destructor who also happens to be the arch-nemesis of her parents. When it’s revealed that Celia has a connection with this particular villain, she’s removed from the case. This does not of course stop her from attempting to dig into the Destructor’s background. When she discovers further connections between her family and the Destructor, things get more than a little complicated. On top of this, there is a crime wave that at first appears to be due to Destructor’s absence creating a power vacuum, but may be due to someone attempting to discredit the superheroes.

The main thing I liked about this book was the “super hero genre feel” accompanied by the very real family problems of the main protagonist. Celia is a very strong character who is attempting to overcome feelings of inadequacy and a troubled relationship with her family, and I liked the way that some of the family drama aspects of the story played out. (It was actually kind of heart-breaking the way Celia’s father just obstinately fails to see how hard Celia is trying, and how he also doesn’t see that his lack of trust and temper is why Celia is so distant.)

I also liked the romantic elements of the story, even if the setup is more or less the “one girl, two choices,” trope. This variation of the trope is less annoying because there are no overt rivalry scenes between the two guys. There is also no real “good choice” or “bad choice” between the romantic interests. (Both men have definite problems and Issues. Dr. Mentis is a telepath who does not really have a life outside of his “superhero” work. Mark Paulson has the same black and white worldview Celia’s father has, and dumps her when he finds out some things about Celia’s past that she would have preferred to keep hidden.)

This is a very fast paced book with a lot of action and suspense. I really enjoyed the book; though I kind of wish there had been more depth to the relationship between Celia and Mentis. (I also wish it were about two hundred pages longer.)

Blue Exorcist Episode Twenty “Mask”--Review

2012-01-17T10:30:00.000-07:00

This episode opens with Yukio reminiscing about when he was growing up at the monastery with Rin. Then the scene cuts to Rin and Yukio running up to the monastery which is surrounded by exorcists from the Knights of the True Cross. Inside the monastery are more exorcists and streamers of what looks like webbing. Something had apparently gotten in, and wrapped all of the monks at the monastery in webbing. There is also a note, a threat from the mysterious webslinger stating that he or she would not tolerate anyone who had any connection to Rin and Yukio. The monks were able to protect themselves somewhat, but the exorcists have an eight hour time frame in which to rescue the monks from the cocoons.

Rin of course goes rushing off, wanting to hunt down the webslinger, and Yukio takes off after him. They argue, with Yukio pointing out that Rin should not be running off half-cocked, and Rin voicing his usual complaints about his "younger brother" always bossing him around. (Rin. You and he are twins. It does not really matter that much which of you is older.) Rin breaks free and manages to get ambushed by the webslinger who is wearing a mask and a hood. The webslinger seals his sword into its scabbard and threatens him. Then Yukio arrives and the webslinger escapes. Rin takes off after the webslinger but runs into Shura who has also arrived at the scene.
Shura scolds him for not thinking, but Rin does not really care.

Reading Homestuck Part Nine: ==> Dave: You’ve left him hanging long enough!

2012-01-15T13:01:00.000-07:00

From here to here.

Once in the hallway, Dave removes a marionette from a door only to be confronted with a Mr. T puppet. The living room is also apparently Dave’s Bro’s bedroom, and is extremely messy. It’s filled with puppets and electric cords. There is one puppet in particular that Bro is particularly fond of, and who lives in it’s own chest when Bro is not taking him out on gigs.

This is Lil’ Cal.

Dave believes that his Bro has so many puppets around because he is some kind of master of satirical irony. Dave has spent a great deal of time trying to convince himself that his Bro likes puppets in a completely cool and ironic way. Dave believes (when his general hero worship of his Bro wavers) that the only reason he doesn’t get Bro’s ironic satirical humor is simply because he is not yet cool enough to understand the utter amazing cool irony of all of these freakish puppets, some of which are disturbingly naked. (Dave is actually extremely freaked by said puppets but will not admit it to anyone, not even himself.)

The next command is for Dave to find Lil’ Cal and give him a fist bump. Dave does not see Lil Cal anywhere, so the next command is for Dave to play a game on the Xbox. Of course, when he goes to do so, Lil Cal appears. (And Dave’s twitchy turn around sort of belies his earlier statements that he is not at all freaked by his brother’s cool puppets.) Dave plays a very, very silly game on the Xbox and then remembers that he forgot to give Lil Cal his fist bump.

Then Dave is directed to look around at his Bro’s “sweet gear.” He’s more or less agreeable to the suggestion, and heads over to Bro’s computer. The computer is password protected, but Dave knows the password and so has no difficulty logging on. He opens an application called “Complete Bullshit” that looks at multiple sites simultaneously, and takes a look at one of his sites, and ironically horrible web comic called Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff. (Dave and his Bro keep track of each other’s sites.) Dave is then directed to a feed that has the word “plush rump,” in it.

This is one of Bro’s sites. It involves puppet porn. The web page is extremely disturbing. Dave has to assure himself that his Bro’s irony is surely at epic levels, but he has some difficulty taking his eyes away from the horror that is plush “smuppet” rump.

Dave is directed to look for Bro’s copy of the game, but he is briefly distracted by Lil Cal. Dave is directed to give Cal another fistbump. Dave is not quite able to manage this as he is becoming overwhelmed by the overwhelming presence of the various puppets. He’s directed to pester John to settle his nerves.

Dave does so, but does not receive an answer from John He notices that Rose is online and attempts to pester her. She replies and they talk about their current situations. Rose is in the kitty mausoleum, which is somewhat closer to the forest where the fire is raging, Dave is slowly getting around to finding his brother’s copy of the game, which he will hopefully use to rescue Rose. Dave accidentally confesses to a nightmare concerning Lil Cal, and flails because he doesn’t want to be psychoanalyzed by Rose. Rose rather snarkily points out that she has bigger fish to fry at the moment. (Or should that be, wants to avoid being fried.)

The next ==> takes us seconds into the future, but not many, where Rose is drubbing John upside the head with a box, and John is still flipping out. She eventually gives up trying to get John to stop flipping out. She is then directed to “deploy the Punch Designix. This is a workbench of some sort with what looks like a keyboard dangling from some wires. Rose moves John’s piano in order to make room for the Punch Designix. She leaves him a message directing him to see how it works when he gets over his histrionics. She also tells him that his yard is now completely infested with monsters now.

John is apparently already aware of this, and is not very happy about it. The sight of the monsters in the yard has snapped him out of his tantrum he is more or less coherent, and ticked off at the imps. He fixes the hammer. Then he is directed to “confront the pogo ride.” (This seems to involve shaking his fist in a rage at the pogo ride. The next command is a [S]==>.

This is a game page. We see an imp sitting at John’s piano and banging on the keys. Another imp is riding on the pogo. The directions for this little game involve clicking on giddy up and then using the arrow keys to move things. The next direction is for Rose to drop something heavy on the imps. Rose picks up the piano and drops it on one of the imps, destroying it and the imp. What’s left behind is grist.

John is extremely unhappy about the death of his piano. Rose apologizes and directs John to go downstairs and retrieve the grist, which John is not very willing to do because of Nanna making cookies downstairs. He asks Rose if she can find a way to get the grist for him. Rose attempts to use the pogo ride to move the grist, and this works. She transfers the pogo ride (and the grist stuck to it) to John’s bathtub. She tells him to go work on the Designix while she does some work of her own. John asks her what, but the next panel involves the piano, which has been directed to “level up.”

We are informed that if the piano had not been slain in battle with the imp, it would have raked in loads and loads of “boondollars.”

The next ==> command directs Rose to build.

Book Review: Life, by Gwyneth Jones

2012-01-11T15:02:00.000-07:00

Aqueduct Press
368 pp.

Buy on Amazon

Life is a long ramble of a novel in which not a lot takes place except a lot of relationship drama. There are also a great many examples of covert and overt sexism which the focus character tries very hard not to notice. It takes place in the near future and among other things, involves social justice, genetic engineering, commercial science and a mysterious possible genetic shift that may or may not have far-reaching consequences.

The book mostly follows the life of two women.

Anna is a geneticist who ends up working for a company specializing in infertility because of a long convoluted disaster involving a fellow student who steals her work. Anna does not like to make waves, even if she ends up doing so by accident. She spends a great deal of the novel encountering sexism and condescension from male supervisors and coworkers. She has a mild obsession with a genetic anomaly referred to as “Transferred Y” and is thrust into the spotlight for a brief and extremely unpleasant period of time.

Ramone is completely indescribable. She gets into complicated and dangerous situations that other characters have to get her out of, though I really can’t figure out why they would bother since the rescuers are often people she has done vicious things to in the past. She is hostile and violent with a tendency to attack people. She seems to have some very convoluted ideas about social justice and often declares that she hates feminists and women. The narrative refers to her as “the rabid one,” and it’s pretty clear there is something very wrong with her.

I was not very fond of the book. Like most of Gwyneth Jones’ work, it’s very readable, but I could not get into any of the character’s heads. Anna lets men push her around and undermine her at every turn. Ramone is the opposite, in that she attacks everyone. Their relationship is as strange and convoluted as the book in that it starts out as a friendship and becomes a sort of horribly dysfunctional mess as time goes on. (I kind of like Anna more than I like Ramone though.)

This book is possibly my least favorite by this author. The story doesn’t go anywhere and one part in particular got on my nerves. There is a point where Anna wonders if the reason why she doesn’t understand some kinds of interactions might be because she is on the autistic spectrum. She then decides that no, of course she couldn’t be autistic, because only men were autistic. My feeling is that Anna could have gotten away with thinking that only if the book had been set in the 1940s, but it completely snapped my suspension of disbelief because this book is set in the near future, and had been published in 2004. (In other words, Anna is not ignorant enough to think something like that, or shouldn’t be, and I can’t tell if this is authorial ignorance of something easily researched or if it’s legitimately somehow character ignorance.)

While I did not like the book, it managed to be readable and more or less engaging. Some of the side characters are interesting and there are a few moments of humor. If you’re a fan of Gwyneth Jone’s writing, it’s worth taking a look at. If you have a strong aversion to extreme examples of sexism and discrimination, this is probably not the book for you.

Blue Exorcist Episode Nineteen "An Ordinary Day"--Review

2012-01-10T10:30:00.000-07:00

We open with Yukio, who is running some kind of test on his own blood. We see that the mysterious marks that had originally appeared on his shoulder have reached his lower arm. Then we cut to a view of the school and then the classroom, where Shima is doing horoscopes for the female students. Rin wants Shima to do his horoscope, but Shima declares he can only do horoscopes for girls. (Rin however is not willing to take no for an answer.) While Rin is being a complete dork and Ryuji is wondering how Rin could possibly be that much of one, Shiemi suddenly realizes that Izumo's birthday is coming up. Then we go to credits.

When we come back from the opening credits, Shiemi has taken the lead and has drafted the entire class into helping with preparing for a surprise party for Izumo. Ryuji however is not very interested in participating, though Shima and points out that they voted on having the party. Unfortunately, while Shiemi is good at coming with the idea of a party, she is not nearly as good at actually planning for one. (She has never really had one, before.)

The entire class begins to make plans, but get bogged down by petty arguments. Ryuji eventually gets completely annoyed with everyone and begins issuing orders and directions for who is going to go do what. He puts Shima in charge of presents, including research for what Izumo might like, and puts Konekomaru and Rin in charge of baking the cake.

Konekomaru is extremely unhappy about this assignment, both because he's still a little afraid of Rin and also because he's only made Japanese-style confections

Book Review: Second Grave on the Left by Darynda Jones

2012-01-08T10:19:00.000-07:00

St. Martin’s Press
307 pp.

In Second Grave on the Left, Our Heroine Charley continues to search for Reyes while trying to solve a missing person case complicated by a string of murders. (Reyes does not want to be found, Charley does not care.) There is also a lot of family drama, multiple threats to Charley, and a ghost in the trunk of her best friend’s car. If that wasn’t enough, something is also going on with Charley’s father, something involving a criminal who blames him for a personal tragedy.

A lot of things happen in this novel, but very little is revealed by the end of it. We do learn a little bit about Reyes and a little more about Charley’s powers but in the end, we end up with more questions than answers. (For instance, we meet another character who seems to have a past history with Charley. The past history in question involves bullying and attempted murder. The really scary part about this is that the character is now a police officer.)

As is often the case with paranormal romances, I am not precisely pleased with some of the developments in this book. Reyes is of the “intensely protective” variety of supernatural boyfriend, and this seems to lead to Reyes keeping Charley in the dark a lot of the time, to the point where he withholds information that Charley needs. (This is extremely exasperating to me on a number of levels.) What I did like was that Charley gets angry about this and other incidents where people are not forthcoming on information that she needs to protect herself, and this is a recurring theme of the book.

Another aspect of the romance angle that I could possibly do without was the implied triangle between Charley, Garrett and Reyes. I find the trope where the character has to choose between two romantic possibilities to be a little boring after millionth or so time it appears. (And, it seems to be a direction the writer is going in, since Garret seems to be stepping up the flirtation in this book.)

This book is very busy with multiple cases that Charley has to solve and situations that she has to deal with. While the book was very readable, I had some trouble keeping up with all of the plot threads. This led to a slightly cluttered, hectic feel that I found to be a little frustrating. (The book is a little short to be packed with so many plotlines, in other words.) I did like the book, though I wish the plotlines had been fewer, or the book longer.

Blue Exorcist Episode Eighteen "Friends"--Review

2012-01-04T10:30:00.000-07:00

The opening of this episode is a replay of the last few minutes of the previous episode. Rin and Izumo are attacked by a demon. The demon, which looks like some kind of bird, knocks Rin around, but Yukio arrives in time to drive it off, and then we go to opening credits.

The next scene is the rest of the class discovering Rin and Izumo cleaning up the mess left behind by the bird demon. We discover that classes have been canceled so that everyone can go find the demon and check all the barriers to find out how the thing got in. The class is assigned to checking the barriers, but Rin is held back so he can continue his training exercise.

In the next scene, we learn that Konekomaru has been missing since at least this morning. Shima is wondering if this is a sign that Konekomaru may be thinking of leaving the cram-school, but Ryuji doesn't want to believe that this could be possible.

He states that Konekomaru made a promise to become an exorcist, and doesn't believe it's possible that Konekomaru would quit.

Book Review: Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, by Ransom Riggs

2012-01-03T11:40:00.000-07:00

Quirk Books
348 pp.

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children has a lot in common with one of those writing exercises where you take a picture and write a story about it. In this case, we have a novel based on a number of old photographs involving trick photography. The story spun from the photographs is one of temporal shenanigans, people with mysterious magical abilities and tentacle monsters.

Our Hero is a young man named Jacob who has spent most of his childhood hearing fantastical tales from his grandfather about the orphanage where he grew up. As he gets older he comes to realize that these stories were obviously untrue until a monster from one of his grandfather’s stories appears. (Of course, no one believes him, because monsters are not real.) This results in a lot of therapy for the young man and an eventual quest to discover the truth behind his grandfather’s stories. The truth of course is even stranger than his grandfather’s stories, and that the monsters are very real. (One thing that I liked was the way the stories are debunked, and then reintroduced as fact.)

This book has some interesting worldbuilding that may or may not hold up under closer scrutiny. The basic idea is that there are people with astounding abilities and variation in physiology. (Several of the children in the story have unusual physiology.) Due to various plot-centric reasons, these people now confine themselves to stable time loops. Unfortunately for them, one of the side effects of these time loops is that you do not age. (As a result, most of these time loops are inhabited by children overseen by a “peculiar” with the ability to create temporal loops.) The second side effect is that if you leave the time loop after too long inside of it, you will age rapidly and die. I had some trouble with the above set up because even if the “peculiar” talents are not entirely hereditary, it seems like keeping most of your entire population as children indefinitely would result in you not having a population after a while. (The author does address this concern as well as the psychological effects of being a child for an equivalent of decades, so that was a plus.)

This is an interesting book with an engaging main character. (I am not quite as happy with most of the other characters, particularly the one that turns out to be the main villain.) It’s a very quick read and I managed to finish it in a few hours. (It was one of those time warp books where you pick it up, and suddenly three hours have passed.) The action was a little rushed toward the end however, and the ending was wide open. (This was a very, very wide open ending. This was an open ending looking out over the world’s steepest cliffhanger.) I liked the book a great deal, and I’m hoping there will be a sequel.

Blue Exorcist Episode Seventeen "Temptation"--Review

2011-12-30T09:30:00.000-07:00

This episode opens with the swordsmith attempting to repair Rin's sword. The scene then cuts to Rin who has been imprisoned inside some kind of crystal. It does not look like he's going to be able to defend himself at his own hearing. Though he's unconscious, he twitches slightly, which causes some alarm from the council members, who demand that Mephisto do something. Mephisto however states that he can't, since he is simply a defendant in this case. His big plan for dealing with this case seems to be centered on the council giving him permission to go ahead with his plans. The council is tempted, but other parties object strongly to the proposal.

Meanwhile, various members of the Order are fighting Amaimon's forces. Shura and Arthur Angel try to hold him off, but he eventually manages to make it to the courtroom where Rin is being tried. Amaimon attacks the barrier, which destroys the crystal holding Rin. Mephisto is of course completely calm and tells the council that the "polls will be closing soon." Angel is not happy about this development and tries to argue against letting Mephisto have his way. A council member however overrules him, telling Mephisto to do whatever it takes to get rid of Amaimon.

Just as Mephisto gets ready to wake Rin up, Ryuji turns up with the sword, and yells at Rin for being asleep at a time like this. Amaimon makes a grab for Ryuji and the sword, but Ryuji is able to toss the sword to Shima who in turn tosses it to Izumo.

She is not happy about having been included in this game of keep-away, but tosses the sword to Yukio who is able to get the sword to Rin, and wake him up.

Book Review: A Conspiracy of Kings, by Megan Whalen Turner

2011-12-29T11:30:00.000-07:00

Greenwillow

316 pp.

Buy on Amazon

In The King of Attolia, we learned that Eugenides friend Sophos, the heir to the kingdom of Sounis had been kidnapped by rebels and then had disappeared. In A Conspiracy of Kings we find out what happened to him. (Essentially, he manages to jump directly from the frying pan, into the fire, yet manages not to get burned too badly.)

A Conspiracy of Kings opens with Sophos and the magus managing to make contact with Eugenides in Attolia. Sophos expects a greeting more friendly than he gets when he reveals that he is now (technically) the king of Sounis. (It had not occurred to him that announcing this means Political Ramifications and Eugenides is going to have to do what’s best for his kingdom first.) Sophos has to learn how to navigate a friendship that has to change to conform to his and Eugenides new positions.

The narrative switches between second and third person, which takes some getting used to. (I am generally not very practiced with reading second person. It is a rare format, and I tend not to like it because of the rarity and because I find it a little jarring.) A lot of the story is told as a flashback to the main action. We learn that Sophos had been kidnapped as part of a plot to make him a puppet of the rebel forces which have sided with the Mede Empire. The empire in question is trying to get a foothold in Sounis since they were not very successful with trying to take Attolia. (The region occupied by the kingdoms of Sounis, Eddis and Attolia are a stepping stone of sorts to other countries on the continent.)

Due to various lucky and unlucky occurrences, Sophos ends up working on the estate of one of the rebel barons as a more or less anonymous slave. (Sophos turns out to be nearly as good at surviving by his wits as Eugenides.) This puts him into a good position to rescue his father from the baron’s treachery. Of course, he then ends up having to run away again because his father is also dealing with the Medes. (Being a puppet king for the Medes is not an acceptable occupation.)

In addition to political intrigue, we also have a romance (which is then complicated by even more political intrigue). Sophos and Helen, the Queen of Eddis begin to have a relationship together. (They were already fairly fond of each other, though Sophos uncle and parents did not necessarily approve of the connection.) This is a somewhat difficult situation for both of them, since Eugenides wants Sophos’ pledge of loyalty in exchange for helping Sophos get on the throne officially. (Watching the complex personal and politically relationships take form is one of the best parts of the book.)

This is another great book with lots of twists and turns. I enjoyed the interactions of the characters and the way everything eventually comes together. There’s a lot of sly, subtle humor in this book, and I enjoyed Eugenides being clever and oblique while Sophos flounders awkwardly until he figures out what to do. This was a thoroughly enjoyable book that I liked a great deal.

Book Review: First Grave on the Right by Darynda Jones

2011-12-27T08:04:00.000-07:00

St. Martin’s Press

310 pp.

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First Grave on the Right is a urban fantasy/paranormal romance with a thin candy coating of mystery. Our Heroine is a private investigator named Charley Davidson who sees dead people. Or rather, they see her, because she is apparently “the light” you’re supposed to go toward when you die. She is the Grim Reaper, and she is largely responsible for helping first her father and then her uncle become police detectives. (It is super easy to solve murders if you can talk to the victim!)

Our Heroine is awakened by a dead man who is hoping she can solve his murder. Then she gets a call from her uncle for a triple homicide. (The dead man is one of three lawyers, the partners of a small legal firm.) Charley is drawn into the case which involves human trafficking, while she attempts to settle the business of a few of the various ghosts in her life with limited success.

If that were not trouble enough, Charley has been getting visitations from a mysterious figure who has been appearing in her dreams (extremely explicit dreams). This entity may or may not be dead and may or may not be human. She spends a great deal of time obsessing over him in between dodging skeptics and talking to dead people. She spends a great deal of time trying to find out what or who he is, much more time in fact than she actually spends on the case she’s actually getting paid for. (I am deeply unhappy when someone who is supposed to be a professional spends more time with her romantic life than with her career.)

Our Heroine eventually learns that her mysterious dream-visitor and a much scarier visitation that has haunted her since the day she was born may be connected, but this does not stop her from pursuing him. She is one determined lady, but it’s really too bad she can’t seem to put all that determination into her actual job. (This is illustrated very clearly throughout the book in painful detail.)

This book is a very light, fast read. It does manage to be engaging and the main character is not quite as incompetent as she sometimes appears. (I blame this on the writer occasionally trying to make things that are not actually funny into jokes.) The worldbuilding is somewhat shaky, but that can possibly be attributed to unreliable narrator, since Our Heroine does not really know very much about the supernatural aspects of her world, despite being a supernatural being herself. While the story does have its good moments and it did keep me interested in finding out what happens next.

I did have some problems with the romantic development between Our Heroine and romantic interest. My problem with the romantic development is that it is kind of nonexistent. There is no relationship here, there is just steamy dreams and an occasional ghostly presence and Charley’s obsession with finding out who the guy is.

Blue Exorcist Episode Sixteen "The Wager"--Review

2011-12-25T09:30:00.000-07:00

The episode opens with a recap of the last few minutes of the previous episode before going to credits. The next scene after the opening we see the kids, Yukio and Shura getting out of Dodge. The kids are pretty confused about what's going on, and are in general pretty horrified by the blue conflagration going on behind them.

The scene shifts to Rin and Amaimon, who is beginning to look a little scared. Rin is completely out of control and basically trying to maul him. Mephisto however still seems pretty calm about Rin's berserk fury. He is just hanging around in a floating wingback chair watching Rin try to tear everything apart. During the flailing around Rin somehow gets knocked back to where the kids, Yukio and Shura are, flopped flat on his back.

Shiemi of course, immediately runs out to him. Yukio and Shura try to stop her, because it looks like Rin is to out of his mind to tell friend from foe. Shiemi however is pretty heedless, she rushes forward and embraces Rin, telling him everything is going to be all right. (Except for the part where he is a dead kid walking because his Secret is Revealed.)

Rin immediately calms down, and begins to collapse, prompting Yukio to rush forward to catch him.

Blue Exorcist Episode Fifteen “Act of Kindness”--Review

2011-12-22T09:00:00.000-07:00

We open with a recap of the terms of this particular field exercise and an overview of the previous episode. After the recap, we see a Mothra-sized moth demon leap up out of the bog and grab onto Rin. Rin tries to get everyone to leave him, but Ryuji is deeply annoyed and offended by this. He declares that he and the rest of the group are going to help Rin. He managed to do something that makes the moth monster drop Rin, and everyone takes off running. (Since Ryuji apparently did not have the inherent fire power to dispose of the monster.)

The next scene after the opening credits is the kids, taking rest break after hopefully out-running the moth demon. There's a Tough Guy conversation between Rin and Ryuji where Ryuji claims that he was only settling a debt between them. Of course, after this Tough Guy Exchange, Ryuji yells at Rin for his habit of trying to handle things on his own, instead of letting his friends help him. Rin is gobsmacked, because he's never really had a friend before.

They return to camp to find that Izumo, and the kid with the rabbit puppet, a boy named Takara have managed to make it back on their own. (Izumo apparently made her familiars haul the lantern, we don't immediately know how Takara managed to feat.)

Shura is puzzled that all the kids are present and accounted for, because at least one of them should have set off the demon repelling firecracker.

Reading Homestuck Part Eight: ==> John, you do not say no to cookies!

2011-12-20T09:30:00.000-07:00

From here to here.

After a brief explanation from Nanna about the game-cosmology, it turns out that John has jumped to the wrong conclusion. While John is correct in the general concept of this stage of the game in which he must build his house high enough to reach the first gate and from there hopefully rescue his father, he’s dead wrong about later stages of play. He is jittering around rather enthusiastically because he believes that that next stage of the game is to solve the ultimate riddle mentioned earlier and save the earth from destruction. Nannasprite however informs him that this is not in fact the purpose of the game.

Poor John just kind of deflates at that, and he does not cheer up when Nannasprite tells him that the stakes are actually much higher than his “silly old planet.” (The unseen director appears to agree with Nanna.) She does not actually state what the actual goal is. Instead, she tells him that he’s a good boy, and that he deserves a treat. Then she goes through the wall, telling him she is going to bake him some cookies. The next prompt from the director tells him to follow his grandmother. (Okay, he refers to her as the hag, but still.)

John does not like baked goods, and does not want to follow this direction. The director however believes that one should never say no to cookies, and demands that John follow his Nanna to the kitchen. John abjures the idea of cookies with such vehemence John does not realize that Rose is pestering him. The next ==> command is to Rose, instructing her to hit John with a box to get his attention.

Rose complies with this instruction, but John is so vehement in his protests that he fails to react to the drubbing. Rose decides to take a break from John-clobbering to continue her walkthrough of the game. She’s a little surprised to realize how much she’s written so far, even with all the scrambling around she’s been doing.

Meanwhile, the unseen director is attempting to get John to go downstairs for the cookies, commanding in all caps. John however refuses. This leads to more all-caps shouting. John however is adamant and continues to pitch his cookie hating fit. The director is reduced to name-calling. Extremely childish name-calling. John however, is too busy pitching his fit all over the place.

The next link informs us that we’re going many years in the future...but not many. We are finally going to meet the person who has been directing John. We see him tapping away at the keyboard, issuing the command to go get the cookies. He is interrupted by some cans of food and a book of etiquette dropping out of a nearby cabinet. He is overwhelmed.

The next ==> takes us to Rose’s walkthrough of the game, where she discusses prototyping, and she confirms that the purpose of the kernelsprite is to provide the player with information about the game. We learn that the key to getting a useful kernelsprite that can talk (though in a cryptic and circular manner) you need to prototype it with something sentient and/or roughly humanoid, living or dead. This walk through is a work in progress, and we see that Rose has been hit by the editing bug. The next prompt suggest that we take a trip months in the past, but not many.

Rose is talking to gardenGnostic about a birthday present that she’s just received from John. (Apparently, he sent her yarn and knitting needles.) Rose chooses to believe that this is a subtle dig at her tendency to psychoanalyze her friends. gardenGnostic points out that not everything is fraught with meaning, at least where John is concerned. They talk some more and gardenGnostic reveals that she has been working on a present for John for years. Rose is not certain whether or not gardenGnostic is joking or engaging in humorous exaggeration. They talk some more, and gardenGnostic appears to have some knowledge of the game, though this is well before Rose has even heard of the game.

The next prompt takes us to Dave. He is being directed to get his katana. He gets his katana and gets ready to retrieve his brother’s copy of the game. But then he is directed to retrieve the dead bird. There is an [S] included. We see an animation that pulls back to reveal that the bird is several floors down and that Dave’s apartment is in a large building. The scene pulls back even further to reveal more buildings, a luridly brilliant sunset...and falling meteors. (The sounds are mostly of cars and police sirens. Dave is not inclined to retrieve the bird because it is too far down, and the weather is extremely hot.

The next command is for Dave to go into the living room.