The Writer's Library

Owl City's "Firebird" is Incredible - Here's Why

2018-09-26T14:16:00.002-07:00

I screwed up posting this last time I tried, so.... here we go: trying again.

Owl City's latest contribution to the world of electronica/synth-pop had a lot of people saying that this new album is one of his best. And with the Cinematic tour happening as we speak, I felt that it would be nice to try to talk a bit about one of the songs on the album that I think is particularly special.

Now, I know what you're thinking: "Didn't she already review the album? Are we really going to hear the same spiel again?"

Let me reassure you: I am not regurgitating what I originally wrote on the entire album. This is my analysis of one song on the album, and why I think it demonstrates Adam at his absolute best.

There's little information on the song "Firebird" mainly because, despite Cinematic being a glimpse into Adam's life, it's also about the relationships that have affected him. According to Adam, "Firebird" is from the viewpoint his girlfriend Abby talking about her relationship with her brother Billy. Now, I honestly struggled at first to look at it this way (I kept thinking Adam was referring to his own life, only to remember that he's an only child) but the way he sings about it shows that he understands how Abby feels about her brother, and it's obvious that he completely gets what their relationship has taught them.

This song is beautifully written with the same OC style that I fell in love with. While it is a bit more straightforward and clear than anything else he's done, I still think he retains the ability to tell wonderful stories, which is one of the reasons I adore the album so much. Even if it is more straightforward, there are still things to marvel and wonder about.

"We used to talk all night and not say a word/When I would hop into your red Firebird."

This line opens the song and I just find it so profound. They would talk all night, but never say a word. Perhaps he means they were just goofing off, or not talking about anything of significant substance with not a care in the world, like kids often do. That feeling of being young and not really giving a damn is often something that a lot of adults wish they could go back to, and I like how this song kind of deals with that in the context of this relationship.

"And man alive, we would drive just to drive around town/'Cause in your car, we understood and figured out that everything changes."

The changing relationship is apparent in the recurring line in the song, "Everything changes." That sentiment is entirely true. Whether we want to or not, we're all going to grow up someday (or have already) but that doesn't mean our relationships with family dwindle and die. People in our lives come and go, but family is something that doesn't change - they'll always be your family, no matter what. And the moment in the moving car can serve as a sort of parallel for life continually changing and moving in different directions.

"Tell me why I look back and I want to cry/Sometimes I feel like we grew up too fast/You and I had the time of our younger lives/Sometimes I sigh and think about the past/But it's all right, because everything changes."

This is something that anyone faced with growing older can understand and relate to. We are all always changing, even in the smallest of ways, as time goes on and life moves along with it. Like I said earlier, the reason for this is the often-carefree attitude of many adolescents today, even as teens who can drive, because while adulthood is just around the corner, it's not exactly there yet. This helps those young people to embrace childhood one final time. That is why the speaker looks back and wants to cry. However, they admit that "it's all right" and that life is a wonderful thing to cherish in any stage.

"A basement full of boys building homemade bombs/AJ cut his finger and said, 'Go get your mom.'/I saw it all through the windshield of my white truck, Troy/Lots of ups, lots of downs, lots of growing up/'Cause everything changes/Everything changes."

This particular verse seems to look back on the innocence of childhood and the relationship between a sister and her brother's friends, with the "I saw all of it!" attitude, the affectionate sort of teasing tone as the speaker looks back on the experience with more mature eyes and meditates on the fact that it has changed as well, as they've all grown up. This can ring true for any sibling relationship, that realization that things are different with the passage of time. It is a sort of sobering experience, looking back on it all and realizing how things are so different from how they used to be. You can think of almost anything from young childhood to now, and in the right state, it is astounding to look back on, because of the unpredictable and often unnoticed effect of changes through time.

"Hey, Billy, remember when it was just us/Pretending we were Nash and Coral on the school bus/I wouldn't change a thing, 'cause everything changes."

This is perhaps one of the most heartwarming verses in the song, with the speaker going back to those childhood memories and looking back on them with affection. Despite it all, they wouldn't want it any other way. Childhood is something that is precious, and while there are some rough spots sometimes, accepting the experiences for what they are and understanding how it got you to the here and now - that shows incredible maturity.

"Life is different now and that's okay with me/I moved away and you started a family/But deep inside you and I are still the same kids/'Cause your my brother and that won't ever change/Even though everything changes."

The gentle acknowledgement of change in this passage, yet admitting that the one thing that won't ever change is the relationship, is powerful in its delivery.

"There's a new guest room in my parent's home/The carpet got replaced a couple years ago/Because it isn't my bedroom anymore/There's new photographs on the freezer door/But it's all right, 'cause everything changes."

We get a physical representation here of the change talked about in the song. Up to this point, Adam has mainly sung about the change and its effect on the people in the song, but that change can be represented through physical objects as well as humans. I was really happy to hear this verse in the song because I felt that it cemented the inevitability, not just the acceptance, of change.

"We should talk all night and not say a word/Let me hop into your red Firebird again."

And this closing verse brings the entire story to a close. The idea of, while having grown up, but wanting to reminisce about childhood, is something that is so poignant and it perfectly wraps up an amazing song.

I feel like this post is meaningless without the actual song being accessible, so I leave you with both the original and acoustic versions of "Firebird" to hear it yourself.

Credit to Owl City for posting these videos. Used for the purpose of review under the Act of Fair Use.

(Original)

(Alternate - Acoustic)

"Gravity Falls" Gets Me

2018-08-19T19:44:00.000-07:00

So I know I haven't posted in a while. Been going through something of a writer's block lately in terms of this blog. Posts I thought I'd do ended up being cancelled, and I didn't really have anything else in particular to talk about.

But that ends now.

As regular readers of this blog know, occasionally I will break form and talk about the story structure of television shows. I've talked a bit about my two main favorite shows here: Sherlock and Gravity Falls, and have greatly enjoyed doing so.

Fair warning that there will be spoilers concerning Gravity Falls from here on out. Don't read on if you haven't seen the show in its entirety.

Now, with Sherlock, I've been fairly vocal about my love for it on Facebook. With a show like Gravity Falls, however, I have been fairly quiet on certain platforms while fairly vocal on others. My followers on Twitter know I love the show, but my Facebook friends rarely see me talk about it, and that's because it is classified as a children's show... and I'm about to turn twenty-one.

See what I'm getting at?

Besides here, I haven't felt comfortable talking about it extensively online, except in certain situations.

Which brings me to this post. Recently, this Emmy-award-winning television show (yes, it is a two-time Emmy award winner) created by Alex Hirsch was released in its entirety on DVD and blu-ray. I bought a copy of the DVD as soon as I could.

But, some of you may be wondering, yes I love the show, but why do I love it? Why did I fall in love with it? Why do I talk about it at all on this blog if it's a show that is not specifically aimed at someone my age?

The answer to that is simple on the surface, but rather complex underneath. I think my main reason can be summed up in this one sentence:

It understands and encourages nerds to be who they are without shaming them for it.

See, I'm tired of being silent about the way I am. I love reading books, I enjoy a good story, I'm no longer afraid to admit that I am passionate about certain things that others may think are stupid or childish. Being a nerd is about being who you are without fear of what others may think of you.

This show first aired at a time in my life when I was struggling with some mental health issues and feeling uncertain and anxious about my own future. I remember passing it off, from the promos I saw, as "another stupid kids' cartoon." It was only when my sister asked me to watch the first three episodes with her that I saw something in the story that absolutely hooked me. Because I was afraid of being made fun of for watching the show, I would often read the plot summaries of recently-aired episodes on the internet. I started watching reaction videos and found myself even more invested in the story the longer it went on and the more I learned about it.

I loved the story Gravity Falls told. For once, it wasn't just an episodic show that only worked in a sort of fragmented manner. It had an overarching plot line that intrigued me from the very first episode to the very end. I often found myself wondering about both the mysterious background character from the first three episodes (who was eventually revealed to be Blendin Blandin, a time traveler) and who wrote the cryptic Journal 3 that the main character, Dipper Pines, found in the woods in the first episode. I didn't fully realize it at the time, but I was slowly falling in love with the show.

Originally, I only felt this way because of the mysteries on the surface of it. Over time, however, I realized that I loved the characters on the show even more.

Starting with the main protagonist, Dipper's curiosity about the supernatural ended up being infectious and I often found myself wanting to know what he wanted to know. His personality was just a welcome break from the usual nerd stereotypes that I was afraid I would be seeing. Dipper, even though he had a clear nerdy side to him, was consistently shown in a manner in which he could grow and change as a person. I liked how he often struggled with the desire to grow up so quickly, but still didn't know how to cope with normal prepubescent feelings. His crush on his teenaged friend, Wendy Corduroy, helped cement that he was still a kid who needed to give himself a chance to gradually grow up.

What I think made Dipper feel so relatable to me (even though I'd probably be a little older than him if he were real) is that he always wanted to be the smart guy and the adult voice in the supernatural situations he and his friends would get involved in. I like how this presents real problems for him that he has to face in order to grow. I remember often feeling like that when I was in middle and high school, that desire to show that you're a mature person despite your young age. I liked how, instead of this being portrayed as an arrogant attitude of Dipper's, it's actually his own insecurities about himself and who he is shining through. I often, as a kid, tried to put up a more mature front as a way of coping with the fact that my social skills in relation to my age group were lacking. As a way of managing this, I often felt more at ease talking to adults on conversational levels than I did kids my own age. This ended up being a problem for me in the long run, just as trying to shoulder the stress of the adult world often tried Dipper's character. But seeing him deal with the supernatural situations spoke to me on such a personal level that it was hard not to empathize with him.

Voiced by Jason Ritter

Now, I liked his twin sister Mabel just as much, but for a different reason. I've often been told that I have a somewhat innocent personality despite my age. Mabel connected with me mainly on that front. She always tried to see only the best in people if she could. Even with her eventual frenemy, Pacifica Northwest, she first met her and was completely friendly despite Pacifica's snobby and hostile attitude. That innocence just reminded me so much of myself (although I can tell when someone is being mean or ignoring me) because Mabel's attitude through it all, on the front, showed her trying to smile in spite of the hurt. I often try to emulate that attitude, where you can smile in spite of tears. Seeing Mabel grow emotionally and learn to accept who she is no matter what others think of her resonated with me in a way that Dipper's character couldn't, and I appreciate the way she was written because of that.

Voiced by Kristen Schaal

I also want to talk a bit about the kids' guardian, their great-uncle Stan. While I can't really connect with him on a personal level, I still think he is one of the best adult characters I've ever seen in a cartoon. I don't say this lightly. He is simply one of the most intriguing, badass characters I've ever come across. At first glance, he acts kind of like the stereotypical aloof adult figure but, as early as the end of the show's very first episode hints, there's more to him than meets the eye. From there on out, it's a lot of fun to see him just be himself (despite the trouble he often got into for doing so). I love that he's a conman and is often seen trying to swindle the people in town because, most of the time, it makes for comedic gold. I've heard people call him a darker version of Mr. Krabs and I agree with that statement wholeheartedly. When the second season of the show came around was also the exact moment when Stan established himself as one of my favorite Gravity Falls characters, showing that he will do anything to protect Dipper and Mabel in the most heartwarming and, admittedly, badass manner possible. I love how he tells the kids in the season two premiere that the "clueless old man" front was all an act, and that he does indeed believe in the supernatural. It's awesome to see him take that aloof adult stereotype and decimate it all over the course of just two episodes, first revealing that he knows more to the audience with the introduction of the lab underneath the Mystery Shack and then the kids after his battle with the zombies.

Voiced by Alex Hirsch

Speaking of aloof adults, I should probably talk about the townsfolk on the show for a minute, because there's something about them that I really think is worth mentioning. As with Stan in the first season, most of the adults in Gravity Falls are portrayed in that blissfully ignorant manner. It annoyed me at first, because it felt a bit stereotypical, but where this show actually succeeded with this characteristic is showing why the entire town is like that, and the answer actually paints all the people of Gravity Falls in a tragic light, where I legitimately felt sorry for them, instead of being annoyed at their ignorance. I love how this show took what I would usually consider a crutch to good storytelling, and flipped it around by making the viewer feel bad for them while hoping they could move on and get better.

I have to mention one more member of the Pines family before I move on. As viewers who have seen the entire show know, Stan has a secret twin brother named Stanford (or Ford for short) who is the author of the journal Dipper found. I want to mention him because I feel like he's a character I can mostly relate to given where I currently am at in my life. I am rather introverted as a person and, while it hasn't helped drive a wedge between me and my family like it did for both Stan and Ford, it can be difficult for me to cope with certain social situations from time to time. I often find myself being driven back to my comfort zone, like Ford was, when I find myself in social interactions that don't feel natural to me. Like Ford, I really do long for certain social interactions. I wish it were easier to make more friends at school; I hate that I'm always so busy that I find it hard to squeeze in social things; and I have found one very close best friend and confidante in my relationship with my boyfriend, much like Ford found that one friend in his college roommate Fiddleford McGucket. That said, seeing a character like Ford learning to slowly open up to others on the show gives me hope that I will eventually learn to feel more comfortable in social scenarios, rather than immediately running back to my original comfort zone.

That's also not to mention that Ford is extremely well-executed as a character. He comes off as something of a jerk when first seen, but gradually grows to open up more through his (admittedly, very sweet and heartwarming) friendship with Dipper. It was just so nice to see him actually develop and learn to love. I know that sounds like a cliché, but that growth in his character really helped me to appreciate who he was, given that he seemed so arrogant and isolated when first introduced. That said, the show unfortunately did not have enough time to completely flesh out his character, so when the real-life version of Journal 3 came out, creator Alex Hirsch took advantage of that opportunity to flesh him out more, because it was such a simple-yet-natural way to tell his full story. And I grew to appreciate him even more through both the story in the Journal and the story on the show, seeing how they both tied together and created this incredible plot line.

Voiced by J.K. Simmons

I feel like I should also mention the show's main antagonists before moving on. The first one is Gideon Gleeful, who is kind of Stan's business rival, because he owns his own tourist trap in competition with Stan. He's mostly a comedic villain, being a child, but the jokes that surround his character are really sharp, mostly because he tries to act like an adult despite his age. I also really liked seeing how he's pretty much a foil for Dipper, basically what Dipper would be like if he consistently used magic for the wrong reasons. That said, he can't carry the entire show as the sole antagonist, so this next antagonist makes Gideon look like a playground bully!

Voiced by Thurop Van Orman

This next antagonist, Bill Cipher, is what I consider to be one of Disney's darkest villains ever. Introduced at the end of the first season, he always seemed to be one step ahead of everyone else. I liked how, after first seeing him, I thought, "Oh, he's not that scary," but come the finale of the show and I was genuinely spooked at times. This is because he went much farther than I thought Disney would permit, and as a result the stakes raised significantly during the final arc. What is so interesting about this type of character is that we're never quite sure what he's going to do. It could be masochistic or sadistic but what made him legitimately creepy was that you never knew what he was going to do next. A villain with that type of control is absolutely terrifying, and it made the show all the better for it.

Voiced by Alex Hirsch

And the plot line. I should talk about this a bit (this is The Writer's Library, after all.... *crickets chirping.* Ah, bad joke. Moving on!) because it is a good portion of what I'm talking about when I say that this show gets me. I love to be captivated and taken away by a good story, in any form. This show, in delivering a consistent story with these likable characters, made it easy for me to quickly find myself enjoying it while laughing at the jokes or deciphering the codes. As I said, I felt captivated from the very first episode. I had to give it a shot, because I had questions and I wanted answers. A good mystery makes you want the answers, and in the early days of my liking the show (before I really started to appreciate the characters) that's what I was in it for. The story itself spoke to me right away, and that's something that I'll always appreciate about it.

Now that I think about it, there is one thing that's not related to story, characters, or code-cracking that I do want to give mention to, and that's the music used in this show. As the daughter of a musician, I feel I both really should, and need to, for the purpose of this post. The score for the show was done by Brad Breeck, and he did an absolutely phenomenal job. I have a lot of his scores from the show on my "likes" list on soundcloud and I find that, even just listening to the tracks on their own, while not watching the show, brings me right back to the exact moment the song was played in. I think the entire Gravity Falls score really raises the bar for music used in television shows, animated or not. Honestly, a good portion of the scores sound more like movie soundtracks. The scores sounding like that really drives up what's actually happening in the scene matching the music, making the scenario feel more epic, tragic, or happy, depending on the song and scene being presented.

Overall, I'm really glad I gave this show a chance. It opened up this whole amazing new world to me that I love visiting when I need to cheer up or just want to enjoy a quality show.

All that said, I leave you with a...

Review: Gravity Falls: Lost Legends: 4 All-New Adventures!

2018-07-30T10:54:00.001-07:00

Gravity Falls: Lost Legends: 4 All-New Adventures! by Alex Hirsch

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Well, this was a nice little treat.... That being said, I've never reviewed a graphic novel before, so bear with me. I feel I should also make readers aware of spoilers in this review, not just from the graphic novel, but also concerning the show the stories are based on, Gravity Falls. If you haven't watched the show, I highly recommend you leave this review, watch the show in its entirety, and then come back. It will help this review to make more sense, and I won't have spoiled anything because you'll already know what I'm talking about, or at least have a basic idea.

All that said, let's get right into it.

The book opens with one of the gnomes from the series, Shmebulock, giving background for what the reader is about to encounter. He speaks intelligently, unlike in the show, due to a curse that he is kind enough to tell us about, where he can only speak intelligently every thousand years on a full moon. He also lays the foreground for the stories he will tell about the Pines family, while also reminding the reader to keep a sharp eye out for clues, much like the way the show would hide codes and messages in the background to hint at its overarching storyline and have fans work to uncover the mystery. I'll get into some of the codes in a bit.

The first story Shmebulock tells is a story called "Face It."

When Stanford goes off to hunt the Mothman, he leaves his research in Dipper's care. Once Ford leaves, Pacifica Northwest shows up at the door, asking Dipper to help her get rid of a wrinkle on her face by using magic in time for a family photo shoot. When Dipper refuses to allow her access to the Journals, Pacifica asks to use their powder room, and sneaks up to the attic to peek in the Journals for help. She ends up summoning a monster that moves to steal her face, but Dipper and Mabel run upstairs when Dipper sees a glowing door. They distract the monster, resulting in him accidentally taking Mabel's face instead, leaving just her body. Dipper and Pacifica then leave the body and chase after the monster to get Mabel's face back, coming across an underground magic black market, where Pacifica reveals that she's not sure who she really is without her looks and that she is under tremendous pressure from her parents to maintain her image. They find the face monster at the market, who takes Dipper's face and tempts Pacifica with beauty, threatening to make her ugly if she fights him. Pacifica manages to get past him and get both Dipper and Mabel back, and they make a run for it, eventually being cornered in an outhouse. Luckily, Mabel's body manages to lead Ford to the outhouse, and he freezes the monster before the kids can be harmed. Mabel's face is put back, while Pacifica accepts that, while she may not be perfect, she's still herself. The story ends with Pacifica posing proudly, all dirtied and bruised from the adventure, for the photo shoot with her parents.

I really enjoyed this story. I've had something of a soft spot for Pacifica since her family situation was revealed on the show, and I like how, underneath the supposed shallowness of her character, there is a genuinely good person who just wants to understand who she is as a person. A lot of adolescents struggle with issues involving identity and self-image and, given her background, it was nice to see Pacifica overcome her demons and learn to be herself. Not to mention that the story was really funny. I particularly enjoyed this little joke at the end where Pacifica sees Ford for the first time and, not realizing that he's not the Stan she knows, really gets a good look at him.

Needless to say, I had a pretty good laugh at that one. Well played, Hirsch. Well played.

The next story is called “Comix Up.” It opens with the Mystery Shack handyman, Soos Ramirez, coming to the shack to show Dipper and Mabel his comic book collection. Mabel has fun using white-out to edit the dialogue of the comics to make the story her own when Stan comes in and sees the comics. He gets angry and locks them away in a special chest in Ford’s room. The next day, Stan notices that there is a dialogue box narrating him. Annoyed and angry at the narrator of the story, Stan goes to Ford for help, only for Ford to remember that the chest his brother locked the comics in was cursed. They go in to find that the chest wants to punish Stan for “insulting the medium of the graphic novel” and pulls him into one of the graphic novels he locked in the chest. Ford gets Wendy, Soos, and the kids together to go rescue Stan, and they use magic to enter the book. They end up traveling through all different kinds of stories of different styles and plots, until finally they enter the superhero comic Mabel used the white-out on earlier. A fight breaks out, ending when one of the opposing side uses a grenade to blast the Pines out of the story. Soos ends up being blown into the margins of the comic and hears Stan crying nearby. Climbing over the margin, he finds Stan in a comic called “Lil’ Stanley,” where Stan is selling copies of the story they’re in as punishment for his earlier actions. He admits that he used to love comics and reveals that he tried to sell his “Lil’ Stanley” comic only for it to be rejected. His bad luck with comics, as well as a fistfight he had with Stan Lee in 1973, cements his animosity toward the graphic novel. That confession made, Stan yells out to the narrator that he loves comics, but the narrator won’t let him go until he calls it a “graphic novel.” Stan refuses, and the comic narrator threatens both him and Soos with a “graphic” death. Wendy rips at the paper with her axe before this can happen, though, saving them. Enraged, the narrator threatens to keep them trapped forever, only for Mabel to use her white-out to end the narration. They return to the real world where Stan sells his childhood comic, and a kid picks it up, allowing Stan to fully embrace the medium again.

While not my favorite story in the book, I still found “Comix Up” really hysterical. “Gravity Falls” really only broke the fourth wall in one situation in the main series, so seeing a story like this was really fresh. I loved how the characters interacted with their setting in the first comic, such as Dipper stealing his hat from the frame below him and his character in that frame going, “Hey!” as Dipper realizes he’s holding two hats. I also found Ford’s jokes (what few there were, as he tends to be more of the straight man) to be really funny, such as how he described Stanley: “Looks like me if I gave up on life”! I also liked how, after the later fight and Soos got blown out of the margins, how he commented on the Disney logo, resulting in one of the funniest fourth wall breaks I’ve ever seen. I like how the story ends with Stan successfully selling his comic and the kid buying it is interested because it has swearing in it while being for kids. It’s such a funny jab at Stan’s character that it’s actually satisfying to see the kid buy it, helping to restore his confidence in his comics.

The next story is one of my favorites in the collection. “Don’t Dimension It” opens with the Pines family walking in the forest, just after the events of Weirdmageddon, looking for dimensional rips left over from the rift to patch with adhesive. When Mabel brings her pet pig Waddles along, he escapes his carrier and she runs after him, only to be pulled into another dimension after doing so. She ends up in a dimension called Mab-3l, where there is every possible version of herself, when she meets one that she thinks is “Anti-Label Mabel” (because the double won’t let the dimensional beings name her). When the clone traps Mabel in an outhouse, however, Mabel realizes that the clone is the anti-version of herself and is therefore evil. Mabel watches as Stan and Ford come in and rescue the clone by mistake. Mabel escapes and manages to get the other Mabels to help her stop the evil twin. Back on the ship Stan and Ford are on, Ford realizes that the Mabel they took was not the real one. Before he can kill her, however, the evil clone traps them in glass tubes. Mabel breaks in with every clone from Mab-3l, and a battle breaks out. As Mabel and her evil twin square off, the Stan twins are freed from their prison by a friendly clone named Three-bel. When Mabel manages to expose the evil twin as a fake, Stan and Ford trap her in the tube, and Mabel hits the eject button. Mabel returns to Gravity Falls with her uncles and apologizes to Dipper for being selfish over the summer, and the story ends with the family walking home.

Why do I feel like Hirsch wrote this story because he saw the “Mabel is Terrible” video that was posted online? Regardless of whether he did or didn’t, I still really enjoyed this story. I liked how, in the opening, Stan and Ford are arguing over who’s the more responsible caretaker. It's a really good joke, and their expressions really help to cement the comedic impact. I honestly couldn’t stop laughing at the interaction, because I thought Stan had known Dipper's name. The fact that Dipper has grown to trust Ford enough to tell him something like that, but not tell Stan, surprised me, but it also made for comedic gold.

Moving on to Mab-3l, seeing all the different versions of Mabel was cute (with the exception of Stanbel, which was honestly just disturbing, but it is a Gravity Falls story, so there’s bound to be some disturbing things, I guess). I also need to give mention to the fact that, given how Stan thought his brother didn't know anything about Mabel, Ford is the one to catch on to the fact that something's not right. I particularly enjoyed that he played it cool in front of her, but you can see that he's reaching for his gun as he's talking to her! And I thought I couldn't love Ford as a character any more than I already did!

There’s one more little joke I want to give mention to before I move on. It’s funny because it reveals once and for all that Ford and Stan really aren’t so different after all. They hailed a bus/ship to go after Mabel, but the driver recognizes Ford as a criminal. Stan’s reaction to this, as well as what he and the driver decide to do with him, is hysterical in every sense of the word. Ford's face throughout the whole thing completely sold it, too.

The final story in the book is “Pines Bros Mystery: The Jersey Devil's in the Details.” This story centers around the Stan twins in their childhood. Stan and Ford are out on the beach in their hometown of Glass Shard Beach, New Jersey, playing and talking about hunting down the mysterious Jersey devil, when their father Filbrick screams out in anger from the house. When the kids go in, they learn that their father’s gold chain had been stolen, and he suspects that Stanley did it. When Ford covers for his brother, Filbrick orders that they go out and find it, and if they can’t, they’re both grounded indoors for the rest of the summer. The twins believe that the Jersey Devil got ahold of Filbrick’s chain, and they set off to find it. Just as they’re getting started, they run into “The Sibling Brothers” who are on the same case after finding Filbrick’s poster. Stan also introduces Ford to his pet “Shanklin the stab possum” (a possum with a knife tied to its back) that he thinks can help them find the devil. The kids are up against the rival set of twins to find the devil, who ultimately beat them to solving the case, since they have photographers all over town who get them the answers to the cases they set out to solve. But when they find out that Stanley is the one who stole the gold chain and are chased out of the cave they’re in by the real Jersey devil, the Sibling Brothers trap it and give Ford a choice: if he hands over the proof of his brother’s guilt, they’ll let him take credit for discovering the paranormal beast – if not, the boys will frame both Stan and Ford for the theft. Ford, deciding to stand with Stanley, lets Shanklin loose, who sets the Jersey devil free from its trap, causing the Sibling Brothers to fall into a dunking pool. Stan and Ford escape to safety, ultimately being grounded for the rest of the summer after Stan confesses to taking Filbrick’s chain.

The novel ends with Shmebulock hinting at a secret message in the graphic novel just before the sun rises and he returns to his prison of silence.

I have to admit, this last story brought a tear to my eye. Not because it ended on an entirely sentimental note, but rather because we move on to see the Stan twins having adventures on the Stan O’ War II together. Hirsch sure knows how to wrap things up. The story itself was really rather adorable. It was so nice to see Stan and Ford as kids again and get a glimpse of their early life together, as brief as that glimpse was. I liked how, even as children, their polar-opposite personalities really shone through in the story. Hirsch was meticulous in making sure these characters acted like themselves, even though the show ended over two years ago. I think what’s so wonderful about this particular story is that it communicates a pretty simple, yet tremendously powerful, message about standing up for what you think is right, no matter what other people think of you for doing so. A touching final story to wrap up this little gem of a graphic novel.

And, come on. I can't be the only one who thinks that the Stan twins were absolutely adorable as kids. Just look at those innocent little faces!

Before I wrap up this review, I want to talk a little bit about some of the codes scattered throughout the book. Anyone who knows Gravity Falls knows that these codes can often be hidden in the background... or they can be right in front of you. I had to scour the pages for some of them, but it was fun doing it. There were quite a lot of them, so I'll just focus on a few that I found.... interesting, to say the least.

The biggest ones concern the axolotl, which any fan of Gravity Falls knows is the creature Bill calls out to as he's dying. The first one I found translates to "WHERE'S YOUR AXOLOTL NOW?" in Bill's symbol substitution cipher. I mention it because I was fairly shocked once I had decoded it. Could Bill be mocking Dipper or Ford from the grave? Might he not actually be in a grave? Did he somehow escape his ultimate fate? What are you trying to tell us, Hirsch?

It gets better. Two codes that I found on the bus Stan and Ford take in the third story translate to "I DIDN'T VOTE FOR BILL" and "THE AXOLOTL IS MY COPILOT." Could this bus driver know what really happened to Bill? And what's all this about voting? Is Hirsch making a reference to the 2016 election or something? I know the man hates the current president. Could he be comparing Bill to Donald Trump?

I just want to give a quick mention to the code on the side of the "Table of Contents" page before I wrap this up. I didn't translate it, but I did find the translations online. I will say that the decoded messages are nice little Easter eggs from both the Complete Series DVD set and the graphic novel. Special thanks to the Gravity Falls community on Twitter for bringing this matter to light.

All in all, I really think this book is an absolute must-have for any Gravity Falls fan who is aching for more about the Pines family. It's fun, it's creative, and it really can get you thinking over all the little hints scattered throughout the book, resulting in a really enjoyable experience trying to solve the mysteries it contains. Well done, Hirsch.

I swear, no one in this family uses the front door!

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Review: The Wise Man's Fear

2018-07-06T13:56:00.001-07:00

The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

"Kvothe nodded. 'Teccam said the same thing: no man is brave that has never walked a hundred miles. If you want to know the truth of who you are, walk until not a person knows your name. Travel is the great leveler, the great teacher, bitter as medicine, crueler than mirror-glass. A long stretch of road will teach you more about yourself than a hundred years of quiet introspection.'"

Okay, I have to admit this: as good as it was, it will not be a favorite for me. Let's start with a summary before we get into the details.

The book opens up to literally where The Name of the Wind left off. It is the morning after Chronicler first arrived at the Waystone Inn, and after some opening exposition with a visitor in the bar, we get right back into Kvothe's story.

It opens at the University, where Kvothe is dealing with admissions at the start of the new term. When his old rival Ambrose poisons him with a plum-like drug, Kvothe has to ditch his original admissions slot until the drug is out of his system. It is during this time that we really start to see the trauma of losing his family really start to affect him. It is brief, but worthy of note, as shortly afterward he runs into the little girl who knew of the Chandrian in the last book. She gives him information about the characters that make up the Chandrian, which helps him to do research on them at the University. When he is brought to trial for calling the name of the wind against Ambrose's hired thugs in the previous book, Elxa Dal, one of the masters, urges him to take time off from his studies until the incident blows over.

Following the master's advice, Kvothe goes to work for a nobleman in the hopes of gaining a patron for his music. When his superior, Maer Alveron, asks him to lead an expedition to find a group of bandits that stole tax money from him, Kvothe learns a new language from one of his comrades, Tempi, and defeats the bandits by calling the name of the wind once again. He also meets the faerie Felurian on this trip, and is given a cloak of protection from her. After promising to return, he goes with Tempi to his city, Adem, in hopes of learning the language Ademic in full. It is here that he is given his own sword and he learns to fight. On his way back to the Maer's estate, he saves two innocent young women from a group masquerading as a faction of his old troupe, Edema Ruh, killing the entire group and returning the girls home. When he returns to the Maer, he is given clearance to go back to the university with a letter of credit from the noble.

Rothfuss sets up an interlude right after Kvothe leaves the girls to their families, and during this Bast leaves to attend a funeral for a departed community member. While Kvothe is preparing dinner for Chronicler, two thugs come in and try to rob the inn. Kvothe puts up a fight, but he doesn't come away unscathed. Bast returns and immediately tends to him, demanding the rest of the story.

Finally, back at the university, Kvothe's heroic deeds start to circulate around the school, and he ends the story in better shape than ever before, with the stories of his actions giving his reputation more notoriety. The story over, Kvothe and Chronicler turn in for the night, and Bast tells Chronicler that he has something important to do. Bast goes out and meets up with two men that had attacked Kvothe in the bar earlier, revealing that he is working with them. Bast recites an incantation over their fire, and the story ends, once again, on a cliffhanger.

*Sigh.* Rothfuss sure knows how to make you hungry for more....

So, this was good, although it didn't blow me away like the first book had. This doesn't mean I didn't like it, but that it paled a little in comparison to its predecessor. And I can't say that I'm surprised by that. I've often found that when you absolutely adore the first book of a series, the second book, more often than not, will not give you the exact same experience. This is because of a number of things, from the time the second book is written compared to the first (in this case the prequel being written in 2007 and this book being written in 2011), to the author trying to set up their story properly, and to the book ending without giving away all the answers. Rothfuss' work definitely falls into the first two reasons for it not being as good as the first.

All that said, I really did enjoy the story the book told, although it took me longer than usual to finish. I like how Rothfuss continued to build the legendary heroic figure Kvothe would become, how we continue to see that. I really enjoyed seeing him struggle with the tragedy of losing his parents in the previous book, despite it only taking up one chapter. I like how Rothfuss gives Kvothe the time to actually learn a bit more about the Chandrian as well.

"I unrolled the paper further. There was a second man, or rather the shape of a man in a great hooded robe. Inside the cowl of the robe was nothing but blackness. Over his head were three moons, a full moon, a half moon, and one that was just a crescent. Next to him were two candles. One was yellow with a bright orange flame. The other candle sat underneath his outstretched hand; it was grey with a black flame, and the space around it was smudged and darkened.

'That's supposed to be shadow, I think,' Nina said, pointing to the area under his hand. 'It was more obvious on the pot. I had to use charcoal for that. I couldn't get it right with paint.'

I nodded again. This was Haliax. The leader of the Chandrian. When I'd seen him he had been surrounded by an unnatural shadow. The fires around him had been strangely dimmed, and the cowl of his cloak had been black as the bottom of a well."

Where I think the story suffered a bit, however, was that I don't feel like the title tied into the actual story to be as impactful as it was in the first book. I think that's my main issue with it, that while we see Kvothe grow, learn, and change, it didn't feel like his mission in this book was as clear as the first book. I don't know if that's to be expected because of the "life story" format this novel has taken, but it bothered me a little bit. I hope Rothfuss is working to improve upon that, because I can see how that weakness can be turned into a strength. It's clear to me that he is building up to something - he just needed a more solid baseline to work off of. Giving Kvothe another impactful goal for the duration of the story (i.e. maybe he searches for a magical artifact hidden somewhere) would help to give the story more of a focus. But, as I said, I can see that he is setting something up here, and I can't entirely fault him for that. On top of it, Kvothe at this point has already learned the name of the wind, and I don't know what other big goal (besides finding the Chandrian) could possibly be set up here, given the story's structure.

Moving on, I do want to cover some of the story's characters, starting with Auri.

One of the most impactful moments of the story, for me, involves her. Kvothe was mourning the loss of his parents and she was there to help him through it. I have to admit that the moment was so touching that I actually did cry a little during the scene, because Kvothe's grief was not only palpable, but Auri helping him through it was one of the nicest things I think anyone has done for him. While I do imagine Auri as a little girl, it was nice to see her be there for Kvothe, because it shows me that they really care for one another. I had to put the book down for a little while to let my emotions out before I was able to pick it back up again. Very beautiful moment.

I think I should talk about Denna next. She and Kvothe had a pretty bad argument in this book, because she wrote a song that painted Lanre (the man who orchestrated the attack on Kvothe's troupe and family) as a tragic hero. Rothfuss makes this argument create something of a wedge between them, so that even after they make up, Kvothe still feels awkward around her. This is something that I don't really want to comment on until I know where he's going to take it next, but I will say this about Denna: she is worth more than she believes herself to be. I hate that we have to learn the truth about her patron which, while I had my suspicions that he was abusive, still absolutely breaks my heart for her. I'm kind of glad we didn't see her too often in the story - I think I would have started screaming at the book, telling her to get a new patron!

Now, I want to talk about Tempi, one of the people Kvothe meets when he goes on that chase for the bandits that stole Alveron's money. I really liked Tempi, once we got to know him. He and Kvothe had a really unique friendship that I enjoyed seeing. I liked how he tried to teach Kvothe the Ademic language and culture, even if he did get in trouble for doing so. I liked that Kvothe also taught him some of the Aturan language, even though the language barrier made doing so somewhat difficult. And I have to admit, once Kvothe got to Adem, I didn't think he'd be allowed to see Tempi again, but I liked seeing Tempi give his friend advice before he was about to fight someone to prove that he could be part of Ademic society. Tempi hadn't known Kvothe all that long, yet he was still genuinely worried for his safety.

"Tempi caught my eye first and held it the longest, as he was the first Adem mercenary I'd ever met. Far from being the imposing, hard-eyed killer I'd expected, Tempi was rather nondescript, neither particularly tall nor heavily built. He was fair-skinned with light hair and pale grey eyes. His expression was blank as fresh paper. Strangely blank. Studiously blank."

Before I start to cover some other people from Tempi's village, I have to mention someone Kvothe met after they had all defeated the bandits. He leaves the group at one point because they see a faerie named Felurian, who puts him under a spell. Felurian is sort of a storybook character in this world, but Kvothe actually meeting her and eventually leaving (because the book tells us outright that that's close to impossible, given her influence over the men she meets) was pretty amazing, and he didn't leave her on a bad note, either. He actually managed to feel sympathy for this faerie, despite her luring and capturing him. Case and point: he is eventually given an opportunity to kill her (after calling the name of the wind once again) and he can't do it - he can't kill her, because he can understand why she is the way she is, and he can't fault her for acting according to her nature. After he lets her free, he spends some time with her, with her teaching him about sensual love and Kvothe playing music for her and entertaining her. I really like that, after he meets a being in the forest that tells him about what is happening to Denna and also reminds him of what happened to his parents and who killed them, she lets him have a cry and comforts him, rather than scolding him for getting involved with the creature.

Now I should talk a bit about a character in Adem - Kvothe's teacher Vashet. I have to admit, I liked her. In the beginning when she meets Kvothe, she is rude to him to see if he'll run off, rather than stay and learn under her. When he confronts her and tells her that it'll take more to drive him away, I was in awe. From there, it was great to see her genuinely try to teach him, even if he didn't do so well with some of the things she was teaching him. I thought it was funny that he asked to fight someone of his skill and Vashet brought in a ten year old - who proceeded to kick his ass more than once! And even then, the little girl was always nice to him, and we do see him improve while fighting with her, eventually going on to actually win one of their bouts.

I also have to admit that I liked how the Ademic people in general were not shy about sex or states of undress. The best example I think I have of this is (I'll do my best to be as subtle as I can here) when Vashet and Kvothe are working, and he reacts while looking at her because she's beautiful. She then asks him - with no shame at all, I might add - if she can help him alleviate that amorous feeling. I think you can guess what happened next.

Once Kvothe is on his way back to the Maer's estate, he runs into that troupe I mentioned. I have to admit, he caught on to what they were up to very quickly, but given the situation he was in, it wasn't that surprising. I liked how, as soon as the kidnapped girls were brought out, he knew immediately what his Edema Ruh roots required him to do. Seeing Kvothe kill the entire group with his sword, while gruesome and terrifying, was also somewhat satisfying once we know who the group members really are. I especially liked how Rothfuss didn't have Kvothe just shrug off his actions. Even though they were bad people, Kvothe is haunted by his actions of killing everyone in the "troupe." He has repeated nightmares on his way back to Maer Alveron's estate, which is an essential touch to creating a dark and somewhat tragic scenario.

"But even when I forced thoughts of Alleg from my mind, I had other demons to fight. I remembered bits and pieces of that night, the things the false troupers had said as I cut them down. The sounds my sword had made as it dug into them. The smell of their skin as I had branded them. I had killed two women. What would Vashet think of my actions? What would anyone think?"

Now, I want to put in a word about Maer Alveron. I actually kind of like his relationship with Kvothe, given that he saved his life. After that, the Maer was really good to him, treating him as a trusted assistant. I thought it was nice of him to give Kvothe a letter of credit for the university, and offer to pay his tuition. Although, after all Kvothe did for him, I was happy to see Alveron treat him well.

Finally, I want to talk about Bast again. At the end of the story, as I said, it was revealed that the two thugs that robbed Kvothe were working with him. And just the same as last time, I really can't wait to see where the story goes next! Rothfuss has admitted that The Kingkiller Chronicles are a prologue to a much bigger story he's setting up, and I can't help but wonder how Bast will play into it. How will his actions impact Kvothe? What is he up to? I found that with the end of this book, I no longer trust him. That said, I'll wait to see where the story takes us before forming any further judgements on the matter. But, all that said, I did enjoy the outer frame of the story just as much as I did in the prequel.

"The innkeeper nodded. 'Right. So if you were Kvothe, and terrible clever, as you say, and suddenly your head is worth a thousand royals and a duchy to whoever cut it off, what would you do?'

The smith's prentice shook his head and shrugged, plainly at a loss.

'Well, if I were Kvothe,' the innkeeper said, 'I'd fake my death, change my name, and find some little town in the middle of nowhere. Then I'd open an inn and do my best to disappear.' He looked at the young man. 'That's what I'd do.'"

All in all, while it will not come close to the impact The Name of the Wind had on me, it was a pretty good sequel for the series. I'm excited to see how Rothfuss continues the story.

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Review: The Name of the Wind

2018-06-20T08:47:00.001-07:00

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

"I have stolen princesses back from sleeping barrow kings. I burned down the town of Trebon. I have spent the night with Felurian and left with both my sanity and my life. I was expelled from the University at a younger age than most people are allowed in. I tread paths by moonlight that others fear to speak of during day. I have talked to Gods, loved women, and written songs that make the minstrels weep.

You may have heard of me."

Wow. I have to admit, I liked it much more than I expected. That said, this is going to be hard to summarize, but I'll do my best. Fasten your seatbelts - this review may be a long one. Let's get to it.

The story opens at a bar called the Waystone Inn, run by a man known as Kote and his student Bast. The first couple of chapters are to get a feel for the world that Rothfuss has created and during this time we start to learn of a legendary figure known as Taborlin the Great. This is to get a feel for the real story that we will be told, not of Taborlin, but a legendary figure named Kvothe. When a man known as Chronicler comes to the inn, we learn that the innkeeper is actually Kvothe himself, and Chronicler wants to know his story, which ends up being what the novel is really about.

Kvothe's story begins with how he was brought up, traveling with a troupe of actors and musicians that put on plays for willing spectators. Kvothe's father meets a man named Abenthy, who teaches Kvothe all sorts of things, and one of the things he learns is the basics of a magic known as sympathy, where you draw heat from an abstract source to light a candle or a lamp, or even to harm an assailant. When Kvothe's entire troupe is murdered by something known as the Chandrian, Kvothe wanders the earth for a while, eventually ending up in a city known as Tarbean, where he lives in poverty as a beggar. It is during this time that he hears a story about a man named Lanre, who became the evil force that would become the Chandrian. This inspires Kvothe to finally make the move to attend the university despite his poor status.

When he finally gets into the school, he immediately makes two enemies, one of them being a teacher, or master, as the students call them, and the other being a noble heir named Ambrose. This is also when rumors start circulating about him as he performs heroic deeds: he rescues a student from a fire in the school and he stops two of Ambrose's thugs from killing him. The last part of the story deals with how he went to a town, Trebon, because the Chandrian had terrorized a wedding there. He finds his friend Denna there and they piece together what happened while also fighting off a dragon, which Kvothe manages to actually kill on his own. He returns to school after this where he has one final confrontation with Ambrose, during which he finally calls the name of the wind. By the time the tale is over, he had laid the foundation for the legendary Kingkiller he is known as in the bar, even though the everyday patrons don't know it.

The story over, Kote allows Chronicler to stay at the inn for the night. When Chronicler goes up to his room, Bast walks in and reveals that he lured Chronicler to the inn and threatens him, saying that he owns him and will do literally anything to make sure his master is happy. Finally, we switch over to Kvothe's point of view, who is waiting to fall asleep.

~~~~~

This was really good. The way the story was structured (I would call this a frame story) reminded me a lot of The Canterbury Tales and I really like that setup. The setting of the story that came before Kvothe's tale really helped to give a feel for what this world is like. There are demons, monsters, people in the night who could be dangerous because they're possessed, magic being used but not realized by the so-called ordinary people... it was a fully realized world. Even though we only get hints of it because of its frame story structure, I really feel like I want to know more about it, because there's a lot Rothfuss could do with a setting like this. That being said, the main story the book tells is incredible, too, to the point where, when there was a pretty long interlude, I was thinking, "No! Get back to the main story!" which is why I say that there's a lot that can be done with this type of setting, a lot we can learn from it. I liked how Rothfuss balanced both worlds out, giving each the attention to detail and care it needed. Although it is Kvothe's story overall, this world could be its own story easily, and I love that feeling. Maybe we could learn more about Chronicler, or where Bast came from, or the demons that plague this world in the time the outer frame of the story is set. There is mention of a war and how the roads are bad, which Kvothe says is his fault. I'd love to know more about this. Maybe it will be connected to the next book and we'll learn more then, but I really am enjoying speculating on all this. The world is so well-built that I feel like the possibilities are endless, and I really can't wait to see what Rothfuss does next with it.

"Outside the Waystone Inn the air lay still and heavy on the empty dirt road that ran through the center of town. The sky was a featureless grey sheet of cloud that looked as if it wanted to rain but couldn't quite work up the energy.

Kote walked across the street to the open front of the smithy. The smith wore his hair cropped short and his beard thick and bushy. As Kote watched, he carefully drove a pair of nails through a scythe blade's collar, fixing it firmly onto a curved wooden handle."

Moving on to characters, another reason that I gave this story as high a rating as I did is because I enjoyed all the characters that played a role in the story. Chronicler, despite having little character of his own, was fun to read about. I particularly liked how he was robbed on the way to the inn, but it was a very civil affair. I was laughing pretty hard at that one. I like how he stood by Kvothe and tried to help him in the later bar fight, pulling a sword on the intruder and striving to be brave despite his fear.

In Kvothe's story, I liked Denna particularly well. Despite the fact that she's something of a wanderer, her friendship with Kvothe was very sweet. I really liked that, despite the fact that Kvothe had feelings for her, he wasn't willing to risk his friendship with her by telling her. She was different and kind of a mystery, but I tend to like characters like that because they keep you on your toes. She always stood by him and him by her. One of the best moments I think they have together is when they're in Trebon and she accidentally swallows poison. Kvothe nurses her back to health while they are fending off a dragon. When he leaves to stop the dragon from terrorizing Trebon, she leaves where they had originally been. This frustrated me a little (as it did Kvothe) but again, she is something of a wanderer so I wasn't completely surprised by it. She was never mean to him and they always stayed true to one another, which I appreciate more than anything else about their relationship.

Now, I should mention Ambrose, and why I really hated him as a character and why it had to be that way. A good portion of the time at the university, Kvothe has to deal with the noble heir bullying him and making his life miserable. He gets Kvothe banned from the section of the university library where he would have learned anything about the Chandrian, he eventually breaks Kvothe's lute, and as I said in the summary, he tried to have Kvothe killed. There is no redeeming quality about him, which I think was done on purpose. Giving Kvothe this type of enemy made the time at the university particularly tense and engaging, and it complicated his overall goal of learning more about the Chandrian. Their rivalry was a little annoying at times, but I did like that it created a legitimate challenge for Kvothe while he was at the university.

I should also mention the elephant in the room here. The Chandrian were interesting as the main force Kvothe is struggling against. I don't really know what they are, what their motives are, and this creates a great sense of mystery for the story. We know that the leader of them, Haliax, is Lanre, a warlord from a story, but what about the others, and why are they doing all of this? I hope Rothfuss will eventually start to give answers to this, because again, there's a lot that can be done with it. The only reason we have for the killing of Kvothe's troupe is that "someone's parents have been singing entirely the wrong sort of songs." While that in itself could be the reason, we haven't learned the significance of this. Maybe it has to do with their power or the way they're feared, but Rothfuss has set something up that I really want to see expanded upon.

"'When the hearthfire turns to blue
What to do? What to do?
Run outside. Run and hide.

When your bright sword turns to rust?
Who to trust? Who to trust?
Standing alone. Standing stone.'

Denna grew paler as she realized what I was implying. She nodded and chanted the chorus softly to herself:

'See a woman pale as snow?
Silent come and silent go.
What's their plan? What's their plan?
Chandrian. Chandrian.'"

Finally, I want to jump back to the first frame of this story and talk about Bast. When we are introduced to him, he seems inconsequential, maybe even a little innocent. We see him a lot in the inn, which lays the groundwork for who he is as a character, such as when he gets angry at his master for leaving an over-the-top and worrying note. He is definitely loyal to Kvothe and it is established that he is a student that could do better, but is overall a good friend. All of this works to set up exactly the opposite of what he is shown to be at the end of the story. The reveal at the end that he's not as innocent as he'd seemed threw me off guard, but it is a major reason why I want to know more about the world outside Kvothe's story. What is driving Bast's actions? Does he really want Kvothe to be happy? We got an early hint that he was more dangerous than first seen, but again, this is why it would be great of Rothfuss to further expand upon this world in later books. The way he treated Chronicler was completely out of nowhere given what we'd seen, but it makes me want to learn as much as possible about the world of the outer frame of the story and how it ties into Kvothe's story.

"Bast leaned forward, bringing his face close to Chronicler's. The scribe panicked and tried to scrabble sideways out of the bed, but Bast took hold of his shoulder and held him fast. 'Hear my words, manling,' he hissed. 'Do not mistake me for my mask. You see light dappling on the water and forget the deep, cold dark beneath.' The tendons in Bast's hand creaked as he tightened his grip on the circle of iron. 'Listen. You cannot hurt me. You cannot run or hide. In this I will not be defied.'"

Finally, let's talk about Kvothe. I liked his character quite a bit. His story was interesting enough that I actually enjoyed learning about him and what motivated him. That said, I've seen him accused of Gary Stuism and, honestly, I don't see why. While I do think that a lot happened to him, I can also see how the choices he made affected the story overall. For example, listening to Ambrose and taking an open flame into the Archives got him banned. He didn't have to trust him, and he was upset by what followed. Or saving Trebon from the dragon that he accidentally led there. He wasn't always perfect - I think it's just that the mistakes that he did make were small ones. A gifted character like this can sometimes fall into that boring mold, but I personally like how Rothfuss handled him. I don't think he was too perfect, and he was still badass enough to be the intriguing legendary figure that the story sets him up to be. That said, he did have a meaner side, but that was usually an act that he picked up from the troupe, and he only used it when he really felt he needed to, so it didn't become a habit.

"Chronicler found himself thinking of a story he had heard. One of the many. The story told of how Kvothe had gone looking for his heart's desire. He had to trick a demon to get it. But once it rested in his hand, he was forced to fight an angel to keep it. I believe it, Chronicler found himself thinking. Before it was just a story, but now I can believe it. This is the face of a man who has killed an angel."

As I said earlier, I'd really like to see Rothfuss expand on all of this. I know that the next book is the next chapter of Kvothe's story, but I also think it would be great if we can see more of how it ties into the world they live in now. Rothfuss has a great setup for something like that, and I'm excited to see where the story will go next.

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Owl City is Back in "Cinematic"!

2018-06-02T13:28:00.002-07:00

So, on this beautiful summer day, I figured I'd review Owl City's new album Cinematic. I've been waiting eight months for this thing, and I have a lot to say about it.

I've been waiting for this thing for about eight months. I looked up some reviews of the album, and some of them were fairly negative, but this is because they were written after one song had been released. This song divided a lot of people. Personally, I thought it was good, although far from my favorite song by Adam. He was just trying something new, and I commend him for not being afraid to do that.

But that's just the song "All My Friends." What about the rest of the album?

Well, when the previews were released, it made me feel genuinely excited for certain songs, while others I enjoyed, but not on the same scale. One song that I will say pleasantly surprised me based on the previews was "Be Brave." The preview did not do the song justice at all. I think it is one of the best songs he's ever done, period. I remember listening to the preview and not feeling impressed that much, then the song for the first time, and I honestly felt like crying, because it was an incredible story. The one thing that I've always loved about Adam is his way with words, how beautiful he can make the simplest idea sound, and "Be Brave" is a gorgeous example of that, and he didn't show it with the preview, so I was pleasantly surprised.

Now, with the rest of the songs, I have to admit that there are ones that I like more than others, while some I love just because they're damned catchy. Now, that in itself is not a bad thing, but I do admit that the catchier ones sometimes lack certain substance that other songs on the album have for me. I think I feel this way because I love the instrumental work in certain songs (i.e. "Madeline Island") while others I enjoyed, but wasn't blown away by (i.e. "New York City"). This is a completely subjective view on my part, and it just shows how different all our tastes can be.

This is also not entirely true for other songs, which are both catchy, and have substance for me. This is illustrated in the songs "Cinematic" and "Firebird" and the "Firebird Alternate version." Personally, I love "Firebird," but I find the alternate version easier to listen to, for some reason. Both versions share the same message, though, so I can't hate the original and adore the other version, but the acoustic version is just more accessible to me.

Now, with a song like "Montana" I have the opposite problem. I actually prefer the original version over the acoustic, but again, I can't hate the acoustic because it's the same thing - the delivery just doesn't stick with me in the way the original does. And, as I said, this is entirely subjective and, to me, it shows the album's overall variety and what Adam was going for, in that there's something for everyone. There's fun songs (i.e. "New York City" "Lucid Dream" "All My Friends") while there's also the emotional side (i.e. "Montana" "Firebird" "Be Brave").

One thing I can say about this album that is entirely new with Adam's work is the personal nature of the overall album. Up until now, he has outright admitted that he has never done something like this. I was afraid this would mean that the lyrics would be more generic and lack the Owl City writing that I love so much, but I was pleasantly surprised, because he does not lose that storytelling beauty that his old albums captured so perfectly. You can tell that his imagination is still at work with this album, and I adore that about it.

Overall, OC fans do not want to miss out on this. It's a fantastic album that is executed almost flawlessly, and Adam retains what I think most fans love about him: his ability to tell captivating stories.

New Territory: Fan fiction

2018-05-25T20:02:00.002-07:00

I posted this on the Facebook page for the blog, but it didn't feel right not having an official post on it, so here we are. Now that summer's here, I've started my own fan fiction based on the show Gravity Falls. I got the idea a couple of days ago, and besides a pretty bad writer's block I'm going through right now, I do like where it's headed. The issue is that it starts in medias res (in the middle of the action) so I have to work around quite a few things. Right now, that's what's giving me the most trouble, but I know where I want the story to go in the long run, and it being in the middle of the original show arc is vital to the plot.

The issue that I'm having is working around the show's original events while also putting my own unique twist on them so they fit the story I want to tell. Because of this, I'm trying to touch as little of the original story as possible, but it's not easy. I have read fanfics that have done this, so I have ideas, it's just getting them out on paper that's difficult.

Spoilers for the show to follow, so don't read on if you don't want to know, but I need to explain it this way to clarify the issue I'm having. I start out the story before the end of season one, but after all the major events of season one are over (for example, Gideon is behind bars and Dipper and Mabel still don't know that their great-uncle Stan believes in the paranormal happenings of Gravity Falls). So, the kids don't know who wrote the Journals seen on the show and the dream demon Bill is starting to really cause trouble for the family. This allows me to make Bill a major threat and this is somehow going to lead to Stan and the kids actually going into the inter-dimensional gateway hidden under the Mystery Shack. The problem is, the kids don't have all the Journals and Stan hasn't told them what he knows just yet. (He'd probably fire me from writing this story if he were real.)

The reason this is a problem is because I'm hesitant to write out Stan's awesome fight scene with the zombies, or cut it in favor of him giving an explanation to the kids. I don't want to recap, but I also don't want to take away the moment that shows the reason why I love his character as much as I do. I have also seen fan fictions that would put their own personal twists on the events of the original story, but I just don't know.

As I'm writing this out, I feel like I have ideas floating around - it's just a matter of putting them to paper. This is mostly a family-centered story, but I am trying to give characters like Soos, Wendy, and Gideon roles of some kind to propel the plot forward. Doing it with Gideon was fairly easy, but putting Soos in there organically is presenting its own problems as well as the story's timeline. And I still don't know when and where the Author will come into play yet.

I obviously need to work around these issues. I know that fan fiction can be a hit-or-miss territory in terms of quality, but I really want it to be a good, clear, logical story (or, as logical as it can be in a story that heavily relies on paranormal myths and magic).

I just need to get over the season 2 premiere hurdle (i.e. not mess with the episode's events too much) and hopefully it'll turn out better than I'm expecting. Not that it will all be smooth sailing from there, but maybe my writer's block won't be as bad because I'll have an idea where I want the story to go next.

Hm.... Maybe I'll post a little sneak peek of the story sometime soon....

Review: Lolita

2018-05-08T10:04:00.001-07:00

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

"Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta.

She was Lo, plain Lo, in the morning, standing four feet ten in one sock. She was Lola in slacks. She was Dolly at school. She was Dolores on the dotted line. But in my arms she was always Lolita."

Damn it, Nabokov. I should hate you right now for daring to pen this story. But here's the thing: I can't. Why, you ask?

Before I let my emotions take over, it's time to give a summary.

Humbert Humbert is a romantic who falls head over heels for a twelve-year-old girl at a young age. Unfortunately for him, she dies a few months into their relationship. He grows up enthralled by the innocence and beauty of young "nymphets" as a result, when he takes up lodgings with a Charlotte Haze and her twelve-year-old daughter, Lolita. From there, he falls completely in love with the child and marries Charlotte in order to get close to her. He documents his feelings for the girl in a private journal, admitting to his sexual desire for her. Charlotte discovers this diary and leaves to call the police, only to be run over by a car just as she gets outside.

To stall for time and finally get to be with the girl without interference, Humbert takes Lolita on a cross-country trip, fulfilling his lustful desire for her along the way. When Lolita falls ill and is taken to the hospital, Humbert goes to pick her up, only to realize that her "uncle" Quilty had already done so. Enraged, Humbert tracks her down for two years before finally finding her with a husband and pregnant. However, she did not marry the man who took her from the hospital, and tells Humbert that Quilty wanted her for child pornography, but she got away. Humbert tracks the pedophile down and shoots the man dead, after which he is arrested. Soon after, Lolita dies in childbirth, with Humbert dying of heart failure while awaiting trial shortly afterward.

If you were to look in my status updates on Goodreads, you'd find one update with a comment. I rarely write comments in there unless something really impacts me to the point where I don't mind it being posted publicly.

The comment was simply this: Humbert is a piece of shit.

There. I said it, and I'm not taking it back because he really is a despicable human being and the words fit him perfectly. That said, I couldn't stop reading his story because, as disgusting as it is, it is so brilliantly written! Nabokov has created this terrible, bottom-of-the-barrel human being that, for some godforsaken reason, has such a way with words that I was both disgusted and in awe at the same time. I just had to know what happened next.

"As greater authors than I have put it: 'Let readers imagine' etc. On second thought, I may as well give those imaginations a kick in the pants. I knew I had fallen in love with Lolita forever; but I also knew she would not be forever Lolita. She would be thirteen on January 1. In two years or so she would cease being a nymphet and would turn into a 'young girl,' and then, into a 'college girl' - that horror of horrors. The word 'forever' referred only to my own passion, to the eternal Lolita as reflected in my blood."

He is both disgusting and fascinating. Learning where his messed-up desire for "nymphets" came from really made him more sympathetic. (He's still a piece of shit, but tragically so.) Because the trauma of losing someone at a mere twelve years old is terrible enough for anyone of any age, and his wounds show through throughout the entire story by his obsession over young female children. Eventually seeing Humbert receive his due comeuppance for his crimes by losing Lolita and spiraling down into despair, and him finally seeing that he had wronged her, is easily my favorite part of the entire story. This meditation on how lust swallowed him up to the point of committing rape (multiple times!) against her is so on-point that I was, again, in awe of this complex, interesting character Nabokov has created.

"I leaf again through these miserable memories, and keep asking myself, was it then, in the glitter of the remote summer, that the rift in my life began; or was my excessive desire for that child only the first evidence of an inherent singularity? When I try to analyze my own cravings, motives, actions and so forth, I surrender to a sort of retrospective imagination which feeds the analytic faculty with boundless alternatives and which causes each visualized route to fork and re-fork without end in the maddeningly complex prospect of my past. I am convinced, however, that in a certain magic and fateful way Lolita began with Annabel."

Moving on, I think I should talk about Lolita next.

In the beginning we actually don't see much of her (it's merely Humbert fantasizing about her), but we do get one main interaction between Lolita and her stepfather in that time. ~~And I thought he was raping her during that one interaction.~~

Once Charlotte dies, Humbert takes the girl on a cross-country trip to be alone with her. Of course, he actually does rape her on this excursion. The trip is beautifully detailed, but it doesn't take away from the depravity of Humbert's actions.

"'In plainer words, if we two are found out, you will be analyzed and institutionalized, my pet, c'est tout. You will dwell, my Lolita will dwell (come here, my brown flower) with thirty-nine other dopes in a dirty dormitory (no, allow me, please) under the supervision of hideous matrons. This is the situation, this is the choice. Don't you think that under the circumstances Dolores Haze had better stick to her old man?'"

It makes me pity Lolita all the more, because she cannot escape the situation and has nowhere to run. She is stuck with the man who she knows will rape her without question, and I found it to be incredibly tragic, and I hated Humbert for it. And, to make it even worse, we don't even learn that much about her. Because we spend the entire narrative in Humbert's despicable mind, we never learn anything about her, besides a few small, trivial facts.

After her time in the hospital, things just get even worse. When I found out that that sick "doctor" wanted her for child pornography, I felt like throwing up. It seemed everywhere this poor little girl turned there was someone looking to take advantage of her. Her dying in childbirth really put the nail in the coffin for me, but I do understand and accept why the story ended the way it did.

"There was the day, during our first trip - our first circle of paradise - when in order to enjoy my phantasms in peace I finally decided to ignore what I could not help perceiving, the fact that I was to her not a boy friend, not a glamour man, not a pal, not even a person at all, but just two eyes and a foot of engorged brawn - to mention only mentionable matters. There was the day when having withdrawn the functional promise I had made her on the eve (whatever she had set her funny little heart on - a roller rink with some special plastic floor or a movie matinee to which she wanted to go alone), I happened to glimpse from the bathroom, through a chance combination of mirror aslant and door ajar, a look on her face ... that look that I cannot exactly describe ... an expression of helplessness so perfect that it seemed to grade into one of rather comfortable inanity just because this was the very limit of injustice and frustration - and every limit presupposes something beyond it - hence the neutral illumination."

And, finally, I need to put in a word about Quilty.

He was played off to be such a minor character in the beginning. It was only during the road trip that Humbert takes with Lolita that I really started feeling the man's presence, in the form of Humbert's "brother" Trapp. At that point, I was thinking that Humbert was just losing his mind (like he already hadn't!) and would end up shooting somebody at some point. That is how well Nabokov shoved the man into the background, always saying exactly what was needed to keep the tension and never giving too much away. This creates tension that is really perfect for the situation. If I were to criticize anything, I wish we had been reminded that Quilty existed a little more often, because it made it a bit difficult to decipher who "Trapp" really was. Granted, I could have just missed it and a reread could fix that, so it's not a huge deal at all. To sum up, I have to admit that I don't know who's worse, Humbert or Quilty, and it's unsettling to me that I am still pondering this. That's genius writing right there!

And now let's move on to structure. The story is written in such a way that, as I said, it is gripping. Nabokov has this way with words that makes it so hard to put down. If I were to criticize anything, again, it would be that Nabokov really needed to put annotations for the French terms in the edition I have. ~~Now I have to decipher everything on Google Translate!~~

In the end, though, I am really glad I decided to pick this up. Nabokov has created a modern classic that I am sure will be enjoyed for years to come.

And I think this is where I'll end off. Sherlock?

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Mystery and Thriller Week

2018-04-08T09:39:00.000-07:00

So according to goodreads.com it's "Mystery and Thriller Week." I'll be honest, thrillers have never really been my cup of tea personally, but I do love a good mystery. As the loyal followers of my blog probably know by now, Sherlock Holmes is one of my favorite literary characters of all time. There is something endlessly fascinating about the character's deductive reasoning, despite being something of an enigma, he observes the most minute details about someone and is able to make accurate judgements about the person or situation he's in. That is fascinating to me.

On the thriller side, I have to admit that I don't know much about them. That said, I did read The Third Man by Graham Greene and I did enjoy it. It's more of a mystery/thriller, but it's still a great book. And the film adaptation of the story is considered one of the most classic examples of film noir around. While I do admit that Greene cannot come close to the genius of Sherlock Holmes, he doesn't really have to, because it's a story that knows what it is and doesn't try to be anything else. And that is the bottom line.

A great mystery and thriller does well in execution when the author makes the story its own, and doesn't try too hard. Often, when an author tries too hard, it doesn't end well unless the author really knows what they are doing. I'm sure Sir Arthur Conan Doyle never expected Sherlock Holmes to be as popular as he is (let's face it, the man hated his own creation and didn't understand the genius he had shown through him). When authors just write what they want to write, and don't lose sight of what they want or try too hard, that's what makes their story memorable in a good way.

Mystery and thriller both are easy genres to try too hard in, in my opinion, but that doesn't make them impossible to get a hold on. So, here's to the great mystery and thriller writers. Graham Greene, Sir Author Conan Doyle, (and any others that I can't think of right now). If you know a great mystery or thriller story, take today to appreciate them. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go reread some of my favorite mystery stories.

Review: A Wrinkle in Time

2018-03-27T13:39:00.001-07:00

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

"They left the great granite plain and flew over a garden even more beautiful than anything in a dream. In it were gathered many of the creatures like the one Mrs. Whatsit had become, some lying among the flowers, some swimming in a broad, crystal river that flowed through the garden, some flying in what Meg was sure must be a kind of dance, moving in and out above the trees. They were making music, music that came not only from their throats but from the movement of their great wings as well."

Oh, eh.... wrong media format. Whoops.

Well, it's about time I got to this one. I remember seeing it in the children's section of the book store as a kid and I just never thought to pick it up. I honestly don't know why - this book is wonderful!

~~Summary~~ Story time!

Meg Murry lives a normal life with her family: her mother, her little brother Charles Wallace, and her other brothers, the twins Sandy and Dennys. When a stranger, Mrs. Whatsit, visits her home one dark night, Meg doesn't trust her, nor does she realize what this kind stranger is. When Mrs. Whatsit mentions a tesseract, their mother reacts in such a way that Meg and Charles Wallace know that something is going on. Charles Wallace, being surprisingly mature at only five years old, asks Meg to accompany him to visit Mrs. Whatsit and her friends, Mrs. Which and Mrs. Who, to find out more about what Mrs. Whatsit was talking about and its significance. It is around this time that we learn that Meg's father left on a work trip some time ago, but never returned. Meg, Charles Wallace, and Meg's classmate Calvin go home that night, only to learn from Charles Wallace that Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who, and Mrs. Which are going to help them find their father. The three ladies take them on a journey across the galaxies, exploring some beautiful planets while teaching the children what they need to know to succeed in their task. It is during this time that Meg learns that there is a black Thing fighting to swallow up the earth, and it is this entity that her father is fighting.

Finally, they arrive on a planet called Camazotz, where the three guides can no longer help them, but give the children gifts to help them make it out okay. However, while on the planet, Charles Wallace succumbs to IT (a sort of mind-controlling center that rules the entire place) and leads Meg and Calvin to Meg's father, who had been trapped there for a long time. They free him, and he gets them off the planet, but at the expense of leaving Charles Wallace. Arriving on another planet, Meg is determined to free Charles from IT before they go home. Receiving help from a group of kindly beasts and the three Mrs. W's, Meg, Calvin, and Mr. Murry discuss what to do next, eventually deciding that Meg should be the one to go and free Charles Wallace from his imprisonment. She arrives on Camazotz, where her brother tries to stop her from resisting IT. Meg, realizing that love is the gift she has that can help her brother, frees him from his prison, and they flee the planet. The book ends with the entire group returning to Meg's home, and the entire family is finally reunited.

I think it's worth mentioning that I've seen fantasy stories with this setup (finding a lost parent, usually the father) many times now. Actually, one of my favorite series as a kid had this exact plot line. That said, this did not in any way take away from my enjoyment of the story, and I really think that L'Engle did a great job with what the exact goals of the main characters were. Once Mr. Murry was found, there was still more to do, and I liked seeing that the story depended on more than just that one plot point. I also liked how it was, in the end, a story about family, and how important family is and how wonderful it is to care for someone and be cared about.

"He said to go ahead and be afraid. And Mrs Who said - I don't understand what she said but I think it was meant to make me not hate being only me, and me being the way I am. And Mrs Whatsit said to remember that she loves me. That's what I have to think about. Not about being afraid. Or not as smart as IT. Mrs Whatsit loves me. That's quite something, to be loved by someone like Mrs Whatsit."

I think, since the characters caring about each other is a major thing in the story, and the reader caring about them is even more so, we should discuss those characters in a little more depth. Let's start with Meg.

In the beginning, she came off as a bit rough around the edges to me. But she was strong-willed and smart and willing to work to achieve her goals. Is she my favorite character? Not even close, but I like how the characters around her work to bring out the best in her, even if they don't realize it. I thought it was a nice touch that L'Engle mentioned that she has beautiful eyes at one point, but her glasses distract from that. I say this because I think it's a sort of "beauty comes from within" message, or something very near it. Deep down, Meg has a beautiful soul, even if her rough exterior hid it in the beginning. She just wants to be able to love herself, and I feel like her journey took her a few steps closer to that than she was in the beginning.

"Her shivering grew uncontrollable.

-You asked to have the attic bedroom, she told herself savagely. -Mother let you have it because you're the oldest. It's a privilege, not a punishment.

'Not during a hurricane, it isn't a privilege,' she said aloud. She tossed the quilt down on the foot of the bed, and stood up. The kitten stretched luxuriously, and looked up at her with huge, innocent eyes.

'Go back to sleep,' Meg said. 'Just be glad you're a kitten and not a monster like me.'"

Now, I want to talk about who is perhaps my favorite character in the story. Little Charles Wallace was such a wonderful character. I like how he was only five years old, yet so wise beyond his years. You'd almost think he was a grown man trapped in a child's body. There's no real explanation given for this - only the adage that he's "different" but I enjoyed his character so much that I'm not even really bothered by this - at least, not as much as I thought I would be. I like how, even with how mature he is throughout the story, in the end he is still Meg's baby brother, and it was nice to see him want to protect Meg and Meg want to do the same for him. This is done so well that when he was captured by IT, I was really afraid for him, and hoped that he would be okay in the end.

"Charles Wallace looked troubled. 'I don't think it's that. It's being able to understand a sort of language, like sometimes if I concentrate very hard I can understand the wind talking with the trees. You tell me, you see, sort of inad-inadvertently. That's a good word, isn't it? I got Mother to look it up in the dictionary for me this morning. I really must learn to read, except I'm afraid it will make it awfully hard for me in school next year if I already know things. I think it will be better if people go on thinking I'm not very bright. They won't hate me quite so much.'"

And, need I remind you, this kid is only five years old. When he grows up he'll probably be a genius rivaling that of Stephen Hawking or Albert Einstein.

Moving on, I want to talk about Mr. Murry a bit. As I said earlier, I've seen the missing parent plot line quite a few times now, but I still enjoyed seeing this story's take on it. Part of the reason for this is because Mr. Murry is portrayed as an extremely likable, yet still flawed man. I particularly liked how Meg had to learn that her father can't fix everything, and finding him won't solve all the issues of the story alone. Even though Murry plays the sort of in-distress character before Meg finds him, seeing him grow into his own and become more sure of himself as the story goes on was nice to see. I like how even he had to learn to let Meg do certain things on her own, because that's something every parent struggles with at some point.

"'Nothing seemed more important anymore but rest, and of course IT offered me complete rest. I had almost come to the conclusion that I was wrong to fight, that IT was right after all, and everything I believed in most passionately was nothing but a madman's dream. But then you and Meg came in to me, broke through my prison, and hope and faith returned.'"

Last of all with characters, I want to talk a little bit about the three Mrs W's. We meet Mrs Whatsit first and, honestly, I didn't really have enough time to register what my first impression of her was. She seemed nice, but that was about it, at least in the beginning. However, by the end, I really liked her. Mrs Which was an interesting person as well. I found the way she spoke a little annoying at first, but it did help me to remember her character, rather than the three of them being indistinguishable and only recognizable as a group. Finally, Mrs Who was probably the most interesting of the three, although I will admit, her shtick kind of threw me off when I first saw it. She's always quoting, and the story tells us it's easier for her to make sense of the world by doing so. I honestly don't fully understand how exactly that idea works, but it's an intriguing concept to think about.

"'Would you care for some hot chocolate, Mrs Whatsit?'

'Charmed, I'm sure,' Mrs Whatsit answered, taking off the hat and the stole. 'It isn't so much that I lost my way as that I got blown off course. And when I realized that I was at little Charles Wallace's house I thought I'd just come in and rest a bit before proceeding on my way.'"

Finally, I want to talk about L'Engle's writing style a bit. Now, I admit, the story's fantasy having a scientific basis is a new idea to me. That said, L'Engle executed it perfectly, so that science is melded with fantasy to execute the message at the story's heart. And, needless to say, it left me feeling more than fulfilled in the end.

I would recommend this book to anyone of any age.

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Review: The Black Cauldron

2018-03-19T05:25:00.001-07:00

The Black Cauldron by Lloyd Alexander
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

"Dallben straightened and turned. In his hands he held a sword.

Taran's heart leaped. He grasped the weapon eagerly, his hands trembling so that he nearly dropped it. Scabbard and hilt bore no ornament; the craftsmanship lay in its proportion and balance. Though of great age, its metal shone clear and untarnished, and its very plainness had the beauty of true nobility. Taran bowed low before Dallben and stammered thanks.

Dallben shook his head. 'Whether you should thank me or not,' he said, 'remains to be seen. Use it wisely,' he added. 'I only hope you have cause to use it not at all.'"

I honestly don't know what to say. Perhaps this book is most remembered for leading to the Disney film that nearly sent the company into bankruptcy, but I never expected it to be as enjoyable, as beautifully written, as it is.

Before I get into it, as usual, I'll give a summary.

Young Taran is an assistant pig-keeper in the kingdom of Prydain ruled by the great Caer Dallben, when a noble soldier, Gwydion, calls a meeting about a magical object known as the Black Chrocan, which can be used to raise an army of undead warriors. The evil wizard Arawn has the Chrocan and Gwydion and all the warriors in Prydain are tasked with retrieving the Chrocan and destroying it. During this meeting, we are introduced to a cast of characters who will play different roles in the story, either in large or small ways. Once the meeting is adjourned and all characters given different tasks for this expedition, they all set off for Annuvin, where the Chrochan is located. Along the way, we get to know such characters as Adaon, a noble warrior, Fflewddur, a bard with a penchant for his harp, Ellidyr, a cocky and hotheaded prince, and Doli, a dwarf with the power to turn invisible. While Adaon leads Taran and his companions, Gwydion and the others go in the opposite direction, in hopes of cornering Arawn. Along the way, the princess Eilonwy follows Taran's group discreetly with her pet Gurgi, in hopes of proving that she is useful to them. Once Taran and his traveling companions discover her, she insists on coming along, as does Gurgi, and they ultimately are allowed to. But things turn out to be not as easy as originally thought.

Taran receives word that Gwydion's troops got to Arawn's hideout, but the Chrocan is not there. Making camp while Gwydion's troops return to Caer Dallben to deliver the news, Ellidyr slips away while everyone is asleep. Thinking that he is going after the Chrocan, Taran and his friends go to look for him, only to stumble upon three witches and their cottage. Taking refuge there for the night, they find the Chrocan, which they bargain with the witches for. They try to destroy it, only to learn that the only way to do so is for someone to sacrifice themselves to it. Doing this would mean the death of that person. On the way back to Caer Dallben, Taran and his friends run into Ellidyr, who forces them to allow him to have the cauldron and the glory of returning it. Taran eventually agrees to this, only to realize that Ellidyr does not trust his word. They nearly come to blows, and Taran gets knocked out. Waking up some time later, he learns that Ellidyr took the Chrocan and fled, so the group heads back again. On the way, they meet up with the King, Morgant, who reveals himself to be a traitor who severely wounded the now-repentant Ellidyr. Gwydion's troops arrive, and they clash with Morgant over the Chrocan. Finally, Ellidyr sacrifices himself to the cauldron, destroying it and ending the battle. The story ends with Taran and his friends returning to Caer Dallben to honor those lost in the struggle for the cauldron.

Fantasy stories have always been kind of a hit-or-miss for me. Growing up, I read Jenny Nimmo's Children of the Red King series and, while I really loved it, nowadays I find myself hesitant to read fantasy because some of the worlds authors dream up don't click with me, or I find it hard to understand how they work. ~~My all-time favorite book happens to be in the fantasy genre, but let's not talk about that here.~~

All right, honestly, I did struggle with this in the beginning but, ultimately, I'm glad I stuck with it.

The world of Prydain is one that reminded me a lot of medieval Europe, and I thought that was a nice touch to the story in making the world seem all the more real. It was enjoyable to follow Taran and his friends as they journeyed to find the black Crochan. The characters weren't as fleshed out as I'm used to seeing, but considering the story's audience, length, and flow, this can be forgiven. The characters aren't given the most attention I've ever seen, but they are given just enough care that the reader can empathize with them as the story progresses.

Speaking of characters, let's delve into them a little more. Let's start with the main protagonist, Taran.

From the beginning I liked Taran. While his character is introduced using a strategy I've seen many times before (with him starting out as a lowly pig-keeper who is mocked by certain characters of higher status), it helped me to feel sympathetic toward him right from the get-go. He wants to be a hero, but does not let that desire corrupt who he is as a person. The quote which opens this review illustrates just how much potential he really has to do something great, just by being a good-hearted and well-intentioned young man. It should be noted that, like any great character, he is not without flaws. Throughout the story he struggles with the question of what it really means to be a hero, and the implications of forgoing honor to do the right thing. These are not easy questions, and honestly I was surprised to see Taran be confronted with such significant ideas and actually have to work through them to reach his goal in the end.

"Taran nodded. 'I see now the price I paid was the least of all, for the brooch was never truly mine. I wore it, but it was not part of me. I am thankful I kept it as long as I did; at least I knew, for a little while, how a bard must feel and what it must be like to be a hero.'

'That is why your sacrifice was all the more difficult,' Gwydion said. 'You chose to be a hero not through enchantment but through your own manhood. And since you have chosen, for good or ill, you must take the risks of a man. You may win or you may lose. Time will decide.'"

Moving on, I want to talk a little bit about the princess Eilonwy, because I really liked the way her character was handled.

I was pleasantly surprised with how she was written. I honestly did not expect to see such a strong and independent personality from her. It was nice to see her stand up for herself when she needed to and assert that she was worth something in the same way Taran and the others were worth something. Given that she is the only girl seen in the novel, there was a certain amount of sexism from Taran and some of the other soldiers. But her reaction to that misogynistic stance is really worth mentioning and I commend Lloyd Alexander for tackling this issue in a mature and thoughtful, yet still assertive and powerful, way.

"'You're a fine one to talk, Taran of Caer Dallben,' said Eilonwy. 'Besides, I don't think you're as angry as all that, not after what you said to Ellidyr. It was wonderful the way you were ready to spite him because of me. Not that you needed to. I could have taken good care of him myself.'"

On that note, I think it is worth mentioning Ellidyr next. I should note that, throughout most of the novel, he is written as very unlikeable. He is played as this very pompous, hotheaded, sexist elitist that rubbed me the wrong way many times over. As a result, I didn't think I would ever warm up to him. That said, Alexander does not let him come away scot-free, and I liked that Ellidyr's mistakes and pompous attitude caught up to him and eventually led to him being the one to sacrifice himself in repentance. I like the message the author conveyed through him, even if I didn't like him throughout most of the story. I don't think I can say that I really even like him now, but I do understand his motivations and character better and I honestly feel sympathy for him.

"'For long, I hated him,' Taran said, 'but in the little while I bore Adaon's brooch, I believe I saw him more clearly. His heart is unhappy and tormented. Nor shall I forget what he said to me: that I taunted him for seeking glory yet clung to it myself.' Taran spread his hands in front of him. 'With dirty hands,' he said heavily."

Finally, I want to talk about one character that genuinely surprised me. King Morgant was not fleshed out well at all in the beginning - he was merely a face with a name. We just knew that Gwydion called him to the council at the story's start. And, while I would normally complain about that, I believe it was necessary here. That way, when he revealed himself as a traitor, it was justifiably shocking. When he revealed his goals - to become the most powerful monarch in Prydain - I was horrified by how powerful he already believed himself to be and how strong he knew he would become once he fulfilled his goals. I think that this revelation - hell, this character - is one of the strongest and most frightening aspects of the story as a whole. While an evil dictator is not a new idea, seeing it used in this story made it all the more terrifying, since the tyrant hid in plain sight and let others do his dirty work for him. This is an extremely frightening concept that Alexander took full advantage of, and I think it more than paid off.

"'What,' Taran cried, 'will you set yourself to rival Arawn?'

'To rival him?' Morgant asked with a hard smile. 'No. To surpass him. I know my worth, though I have chafed in the service of lesser men than I. Now I see the moment is ripe. There are few,' he continued haughtily, 'who understand the uses of power. And few who dare to use it when it is offered them.'"

The last thing I want to discuss is the story's structure. Now, I fully admit that I was worried that it wouldn't sit well with me. And, honestly, it did move a little too fast in the beginning. Again, given the younger audience it's aimed at, this is not surprising, but I did worry that I wasn't going to have a good experience. Fortunately, once I started to understand how the story worked, it was smooth sailing from there. I really did like how, in the beginning, it looked like it would be a straightforward journey to the Chrocan, but when it got to the point of arrival at Arawn's hideout, you realize that it's not as simple as the story first seemed to suggest. That made the story a lot more engaging than I had originally thought it would be.

All in all, it was a very good book and I may consider reading more of Alexander's work in the future.

"'What cause have I to grieve?' asked Taran, surprised. 'I am proud to serve Lord Gwydion, and there is a chance to win much honor, more than by washing pigs and weeding gardens!'

'I have marched many in a battle host,' Adaon answered quietly, 'but I have also planted seeds and reaped the harvest with my own hands. And I have learned there is greater honor in a field well plowed than in a field steeped in blood.'"

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A Tribute to Professor Stephen Hawking

2018-03-14T06:11:00.000-07:00

This isn't book-related, but this man did inspire me in my life in many ways, so I have to publish this today.

Professor Stephen W. Hawking passed away earlier today at the age of 76. A well known physicist with a rare form of motor neuron disease, it is really a wonder that he lived as long as he did. Just last semester I had to read one of his books for a class I was taking and need I say it was brilliantly written? This man was one of the greatest scientists to ever grace the Earth, and I am incredibly saddened by his passing.

The way this man personally inspired me had more to do with his life story than his work in cosmology. I have watched two movies dedicated to his life (Hawking and The Theory of Everything) and they are part of the reason that I find his story so incredibly awe-inspiring! Granted, I know I'm not really a fan of him for why he should have been famous (his scientific contributions) and I am a little ashamed of that, but honestly, that doesn't mean this man inspired me any less than I've already said.

I feel like it's the end of an era as this wonderful cosmologist and human being passes on, and while I am incredibly sad that he has done so, I know now that when I look at the stars I will always remember him. He was as beautiful a human being as he was brilliant, and I know that he has left this earth having made contributions that we should always be thankful for!

Professor Hawking had a comedic side to him that often showed up on one of my old favorite television shows. Seeing this man appear and be practically worshipped on The Big Bang Theory made me proud to know his story, because every time I saw him on the show, not only did it acknowledge his brilliance, but also allowed him to have fun by engaging in comedic situations, which I imagine he needed.

In his life, he met the Queen of England and turned down a knighthood. I know why he turned the honor down, but I feel like he fully deserved it. He made a wonderful contribution to the scientific community, and for that alone he should be remembered. That said, I will always remember the reason why he inspired me so much. To be diagnosed with motor neuron disease and live as long as he did is amazing in and of itself, and I am glad that he was able to do the work he wanted in life.

Thank you for your wonderful contribution to the world, Professor Hawking. We will miss you.

Professor Stephen W. Hawking (June 1942 - March 2018)

Eddie Redmayne as Professor Hawking in The Theory of Everything

Benedict Cumberbatch as Stephen Hawking in 2004's BBC movie Hawking.

Review: Waiting for Godot

2018-03-13T10:14:00.001-07:00

Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

"'Let's go.'

'We can't.'

'Why not?'

'We're waiting for Godot.'

'Ah!'"

This review is pretty much a spur-of-the-moment thing, because I never intended to write a review for this one, since I read it for the first time last year and just reread it for my Contemporary British Literature class and I simply thought I wouldn't have anything to say about it. But after this reread, I feel like I actually do have something to say.

I can't write a synopsis of this book (because, need I say, NOTHING HAPPENS in this play) so I'll just try to make sense of what seemingly has no sense.

Vladimir and Estragon are waiting for a... person? being? named Godot for a reason not really specified, and we see what happens while they wait for this being. It is how they try to pass the time that really is the meat of the story (what little of it there is) and it reveals our complexity as human beings. We want to give life meaning, even if there is seemingly nothing.

Vladimir and Estragon are seemingly homeless, waiting for Godot, and their constant bantering back and forth and just general conversation about seemingly frivolous things brings forth our own complexities as humans: we give our own lives meaning, but without the ability to do so, what are our lives reduced to? What happens when there seemingly is no meaning? We are merely reduced to our basest selves and most basic desires. In this state life is the waiting game Vladimir and Estragon play throughout the entire work, and it is one that life is in the most basic sense. We cannot function in a complex manner when our lives are devoid of all meaning.

Vladimir and Estragon's lives hang on the one purpose to wait for Godot, and nothing else. As they banter throughout this meaningless (yet somehow meaningful) play they cling to that one purpose, and it keeps them going but, even in that going forward, the dark matter of death is dealt with in a callous manner, which means that they only see their purpose as waiting.

It is this long wait in which they search for meaning, only to find none. This is especially prevalent in the slave owner Pozzo and his servant Lucky. After Pozzo commands him to think, Lucky starts out by reciting what we think will be a meaningful soliloquy that ultimately dissolves into meaningless gibberish that makes zero sense. It leads back only to the enigma of life that Beckett is shining a light on in this play. Existentialism says that humans themselves give their own lives meaning and when they are deprived the means to do so, no meaning will arise at all. Beckett, by showing nothing, brings forth one of the greatest mysteries of human life: where does meaning fit into life, if at all, and is the search for it ultimately in vain? If the answer is no, as the play purports, then ultimately if we embrace that, living will no longer be necessary for us as complex beings, so we become like Vladimir and Estragon.

Is life devoid of meaning really worthless, or is the search for it human life itself? And, if the latter, is that actually worth something if we end up finding no meaning?

We may not find meaning in our lives, but it is not always about the destination, but the journey. That is why the search for meaning is important, even if it may not always lead to anything with gravity. It gives us what Vladimir and Estragon are hanging on to in this play: purpose, and sometimes the journey itself is our purpose. Life is an enigma, and we as humans find importance and joy in trying to make sense when there is none, being complex humans.

These are the questions I mulled over in reading this play a second time. I can't say I'm right in doing this (as I said, this play is highly enigmatic and open to many interpretations) but this is what I took away from this (at least on the surface) boring book "in which nothing happens. Twice."

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Update on Project: Watership Down

2018-03-05T11:14:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since I shared an update on this ongoing project, so I thought I'd let you all know about this recent development with my Watership Down audiobook. First of all, I've decided to dedicate the recording to Adams' memory, even though I started this project a little over a year before he died. I'm using Garage band to play around with some of the clips that I've recorded, although at this point, I'm hesitant to delete and redo certain parts because I'm sick as of now and my voice is not up to snuff.

When I completely get my voice back, I may try to redo certain parts by cutting up the recording so it's easier to find the mistakes I made the first time (right now the pointer goes at the pace of the recording, and it's too fast for me to catch any errors made or background noise the mic picked up).

Also, although I've tried to get some sense of instruction in using this program, most of what I'm doing right now is guesswork at best and if it completely fails I have copies of the original audio clips that I can edit another way if needed. I'm hoping to get a sense of how to use this program, though, because it's the easiest one for me to get to.

I'll be sure to keep you guys updated on this as it goes on. I'll try to do as much as I can this week (as I'm on spring break) before I go back to school next week. If I can't get a lot done, I do have the summer to fine-tune the recording and fix the stuff I don't like, but I hate to have to wait that long, given that the last time I touched this project was - literally - two years ago, and I want to at least take the baby steps to start editing it.

What I've got of the recording so far.

The original audio files, converted to .wav at my father's suggestion (he's a musician and likely to know better than I do).

I am also in the process of rereading the full novel and trying to remember each voice as I come across each new character. I may need to come up with some new voices for this....

Updates to come!

The Race with Time

2018-02-22T10:30:00.001-08:00

I am running in the dark.

Is there light at the end of the tunnel?

As Time blurs the notions of this run, I hold my heart in my hands as I gain stride and exert all my energy into this run. I am not running on purpose. Time has forced me to.

I am trapped in a long cave, and I am not sure if that is light at the end of the tunnel, or just a car or a train.... or even a fallen star looking to get back up into oblivion.

I stop running, panting and holding my bleeding heart. At this moment, Time freezes for me. I want so badly to look at the stars, but I am a trapped animal in a cage of Time, Time that will not cease until I have ceased myself. I want so badly for you to be here with me, to put your arm around me and envelop me so that I forget the angels and demons of Time.

Past. Present. Future.

I wasn't always in this cave, but I don't remember ever not being here, and I am a scared little girl. I sink to the ground as the tears of a child stream down my face. Around me is nothing but dirt, dust, and darkness. I am sobbing, but I try to regain control over my breathing once I rise to my feet. My head feels heavy on my shoulders, and it is cold, but I take a deep breath and continue to run.

Time catches up to me as I continue to run. My heart is still in my hands as I strive to get to that light at the end of the tunnel. I am losing stride with Time now as it races ahead of me to the end of the cave and into the sun. I force my eyes to remain open, although I long to close them and rest, but I need to get out of here. Time is plunging ahead without a care in the world, and I am alone.

The light is now flooding into the cave, and I do not know if I am closer or not, but I see it, the light is closer now. I smile in spite of myself as I look down briefly to see budding flowers where there was once only dust. I stop running and pluck the flower, only to realize that the light is the sun, and I see the blue sky, and exit the cave where Time was trapped.

I look up at the star that is the sun and embrace the passage of Time as it is freed from the darkness and floods the world around me.

Review: The Third Man

2018-02-01T10:15:00.001-08:00

The Third Man by Graham Greene
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

"It was not the face that was familiar, for he could not make out so much as the angle of the jaw; nor a movement, for the body was so still that he began to believe that the whole thing was an illusion caused by shadow. He called sharply, 'Do you want anything?' and there was no reply. He called again with the irascibility of drink, 'Answer, can't you,' and an answer came, for a window curtain was drawn petulantly back by some sleeper he had awakened, and the light fell straight across the narrow street and lit up the features of Harry Lime."

Confession: I read this for my Contemporary British Literature class.

Second confession: I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would.

The book opens in post-WWII Vienna, where the country is divided into different zones owned by each of the Allies. When our main protagonist, Rollo Martins, arrives in Vienna to pay a visit to his old friend, Harry Lime, the trip takes a sudden unexpected turn - as Martins finds out that Lime was run over by a car and killed. Martins, wanting to say goodbye to Lime, goes to the funeral, where he meets the narrator of the story, a policeman called Calloway. Calloway and Martins go out for a drink, where Calloway reveals that if Harry were still alive, he would be in prison for racketeering. Martins, taken aback, decides to investigate this and prove the police wrong. When Martins and Calloway get together later, however, Calloway reveals that Lime was found out to have been the head of a group of people supplying penicillin to children in a hospital, who either suffered mentally as a result or simply died. Martins leaves, only to find out that Lime is actually alive and faked his death to elude the police. Martins and Calloway then set up a plot to apprehend him, and in the end, Martins kills his former friend, avenging all the children Lime harmed.

Okay, I admit a murder mystery is not my usual cup of tea, and this was somewhat unfamiliar territory, given the time period in which the story takes place. That said, I was grabbed by the story very early on. There was something alluring about Lime's character, and the circumstances surrounding his supposed death. The dichotomy between Lime's mysterious persona and Martins' rather straightforward and curious character made it easy to be intrigued by the story surrounding them, especially after Lime is revealed to be alive and we see them interact more.

Martins is a bit different in the film than the book (being American in the film and his first name being changed to Holly). Martins is the kind of character that I often think will annoy me when I start reading. He comes into the story with very little personality of his own, and his main attributes seem to surround drinking too much and writing cheap novels, which both book and film show. That said, I can easily forgive this type of character if the characters or plot surrounding him are interesting enough (similar to what I say of Richard Mayhew in my Neverwhere review). That said, I do like how the whole mystery surrounding Lime causes Martins to struggle with how he feels about his old friend. Should he still care about Lime, as his friend, or should he forget the friendship and apprehend him? I enjoyed seeing him struggle with coming to terms with the fact that Lime is a criminal, even feeling haunted by his final decision to kill him.

"'Then he began to whimper again. I couldn't bear it any more and put a bullet through him.'

'We'll forget that bit,' I said.

Martins said, 'I never shall.'"

Joseph Cotton as ~~Rollo~~ Holly Martins.

Before I go on, I want to give mention to this story's sort of femme fatale, Anna Schmidt, Harry Lime's former lover. She comes across as an independent woman who, in the beginning, was just saddened by Lime's death, and wished to die herself. But once she finds out what Lime had done, like Martins, she is shocked, and angry, and Calloway notes that Anna mostly comforted Martins and not the other way around like one would expect to happen given the story's post-WWII setting. To me, this shows that Anna, as a character, was way ahead of her time and strong in her own right.

"'But can you understand how Harry - your Harry, my Harry - could have got mixed up ....?' He said hopelessly, 'I feel as though he had never really existed, that we'd dreamed him. Was he laughing at fools like us all the time?'

'He may have been. What does it matter?' she said. 'Sit down. Don't worry.' He had pictured himself comforting her - not this other way about."

Alida Valli as Anna Schmidt.

Moving on to the narrator, Calloway came across as someone who was just trying to do what was right. Usually this type of narrator, as a character in the story, has little personality of his own (think Nick from The Great Gatsby) but, as a participant in the story, we do see his value. In writing down what happened with Martins and Lime, he makes it clear that he wants justice to be served and the world to know how the story came to a close, like a reporter. This reporter role is cemented when he mentions, from time to time, what Martins would later tell him about an event he was about to recount. It drove home the impact of the events of the story on both Calloway and Martins, and set up their eventual teaming up to catch Lime.

"'I told Harry not to trust me, but he didn't hear.'

'Do you agree?'

He had given me back the photographs of the children and they lay on my desk. I could see him take a long look at them. 'Yes,' he said, 'I agree.'"

Me:

Trevor Howard as Calloway.

Finally, I want to talk about Lime a bit. As I said in the summary, we don't really get to see him and who he is until later in the story. Up to that point, we only have what other characters say about him, and we learn his terrible secret along with the characters in the story. Once we do actually see him, the jury is up on who he is as a person. From then on, he shows just how far he is willing to go to evade the police and the repercussions for his actions. And yet, there is a certain charisma about him that makes it hard to completely, flat-out despise him. I didn't like him, far from it, but I am willing to admit that there is something about him, even after we know who he is, that is charismatic enough that I don't completely despise him. He is completely twisted, but we see where he is coming from - disturbing as it is - being in post-WWII Vienna, and living in ruins and despair.

"'You used to be a Catholic.'

'Oh, I still believe, old man. In God and mercy and all that. I'm not hurting anybody's soul by what I do. The dead are happier dead.'"

Orson Welles as Harry Lime.

And since those are the main players in the novella, let's move on to structure. In my copy of the book there is a preface where Greene admits that this book was written as a sort of rough draft for the movie about to come out (the movie is, he admits, the final product). Usually, these types of stories (the kinds that you know are just waiting for that film adaptation of the story being told) don't really sit well with me, because I feel that they often get weighed down by the author's desire to have it adapted, almost like they are writing a screenplay and not a story. As for this book, I did feel like there were little subtle touches that told Greene was going to have it adapted. Luckily these little touches are few and far between and don't detract from the story very much at all. For example, the quote which opens this review can very easily be adapted, as we know it was, but I did not really have a problem with how it was written, because I felt like the moment fit the story in the book and was not just there because of the coming movie. I think that was because I found the story compelling enough on its own that the movie adaptation was really far in the back of my mind when I read it.

Finally, I want to talk a little bit about how the book compared to the film. I usually give the argument with books that were made into movies that the book is usually better, and I think I am in the minority when I admit that I thought The Third Man was more compelling as a book than a movie. I am biased in that I usually don't really like watching black and white films (simply because, for some reason, it is hard for me to catch everything said by the characters) and it makes it hard for me to process fully what is happening in the film. But this is not the only reason I prefer the novella. I also liked how there was a great sense of tension in the novel, which I felt the film somewhat lacked. I do admit that this is an entirely biased view on my part, and I do understand why the film is as loved as it is - I just prefer the book and, if you want to watch the movie, I do recommend picking up Greene's work first. It is a fascinating and refreshing take on a murder mystery.

The Third Man receives four stars.

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The Gaiman Galleries: Final List and Verdict

2018-01-22T16:06:00.002-08:00

Well, it's been fun screwing up the uploads (not!) but I finally have the video ready for you guys to watch. If you saw most of the video, but need to see the placing for the novels I missed the first time, go to 1:48 and 3:29 on the video.

Sorry about all the screwups. I do not own the music or images used in this video (used in accordance with the Act of Fair Use.)

Music: "Pale Blue Dot" by Adam Young, album "Voyager One." Can be found at www.ayoungscores.com.

Enjoy!

Review: Norse Mythology

2018-01-15T16:27:00.001-08:00

Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

"That is why Odin is called the all-father. Because he was the father of the gods, and because he breathed the breath of life into our grandparents' grandparents' grandparents. Whether we are gods or mortals, Odin is the father of us all."

I have a confession: Usually when I hear about a book that contains mythological stories containing gods and what they were like, I roll my eyes. As such, I was worried about reading Gaiman's take on Norse mythology. It is something that is completely alien to me, and it is in a genre that I don't really enjoy on a regular reading basis.

And, despite all of my fears about if this wouldn't work out for me, I actually really enjoyed this somewhat-modern retelling of Norse mythology.

Once again, good job, Gaiman!

Where to start with this one? I guess I should really begin by talking a little about characters, just to break it down a bit. Let's start with the all-father.

Odin was a wonderful character, really. You could tell, in every story in which he took part, that he really cared for the gods and the people of Asgard. He was kind (most of the time), reasonable, and was always willing to step up and do what was best for those in Asgard. Throughout all the stories, he remains at the throne of Asgard, watching over all the other gods, often settling disputes or finding ways to solve problems. He was a good leader. Gaiman says of Odin:

"[He] knows many secrets. He gave an eye for wisdom. More than that, for knowledge of the runes, and for power, he sacrificed himself to himself."

Honest to God, I couldn't stop thinking of this when I read that!

Now, let's move on to Thor, who honestly reminded me a lot of this bruiser:

I think it was how brash he acted, how he always seemed to lean toward force when considering options to solve a problem. I will admit, in one of my favorite stories from this collection, he pretty much took center stage, and I loved seeing, in every story he was in, that there was a sort of impatience about him that reminded me a lot of Bigwig. I couldn't help it.

"'She won't go through life bald,' said Thor. 'Because, Loki Laufey's son, if you do not put her hair back right now, I am going to break every single bone in your body. Each and every one of them. And if her hair does not grow properly, I will come back and break every bone in your body again. And again. If I do it every day, I'll soon get really good at it,' he carried on, sounding slightly more cheerful."

Don't mess with the thunder god!

Next I want to talk a bit about Loki, whose character kind of confused me, honestly. In the beginning, he hangs around with Thor and the other gods, and even though he's known to be a bit of a troublemaker as the trickster god, he's still valued by the other gods as a blood brother to Odin. In the stories, he is not entirely trusted, and in the end, he ultimately couldn't be trusted. What started out as plain mischief ultimately turned into a corrupt monster who would go on to be slain at the end of the world. The way this change was carried out confused me a bit, because in one story he could be doing something as silly and petty as cutting off Thor's wife's hair.... and in another he could be tricking a blind god, Hod, into killing Balder, a god of whom Loki was jealous!

Once the other gods punish him for tricking Hod, we don't know how it will end, but the final story in the book makes it clear: Loki has been corrupted through and through by a combination of his own nature and the actions driven by that nature. And he is out to destroy both the gods and the world in which they live at that point.

"'Nothing to say, Heimdall of the nine mothers? When I was bound beneath the ground, with the serpent's poison dripping into my face, with poor Sigyn standing beside me trying to catch what venom she could in her bowl, bound in the darkness in the intestines of my son, all that kept me from madness was thinking of this moment, rehearsing it in my mind, imagining the days when my beautiful children and I would end the time of the gods and end the world.'"

Odin, Thor, and Loki are the main "players" (Gaiman's word, not mine) in this collection of stories, though other gods are mentioned in the stories, these three bear the most weight and bear the greatest importance. Stories cannot move in the author's intended direction without certain characters, and the three Gaiman focuses on show their importance in many ways in all the different stories.

On the topic of stories, let's discuss them head-on, shall we?

In the beginning, the first few sections didn't grab me (mainly those being origin stories and the beginning of the world in which the gods live), but once we got going, the pacing picked up significantly. I particularly enjoyed "The Treasures of the Gods," "The Master Builder," "Freya's Unusual Wedding," and "The Mead of Poets."

All of these stories have a charm to them that made them hard to put down and made me want to read on.

I'll just give brief synopses of the first three I listed and discuss how they impacted me:

In "The Treasures of the Gods" we learn how the gods received the items that popularize them in culture: Thor's hammer, Mjollnir, a ship that can be folded up and stored away, Skidbladnir, and a scarf made of real gold to replace Thor's wife's hair (which Loki cut off while she slept, which started the whole story). It is a gift-giving ceremony, but it is also a sort of contest between the builders Brokk and Eitri and the sons of Ivaldi (all dwarves). Loki went to Brokk and Eitri for help in crafting a wig for Thor's wife after betting to the sons of Ivaldi that they were worse builders than Brokk and Eitri, but Brokk and Eitri don't trust Loki, so they give him a wager: If they make better gifts than the other builders, they get to cut off and keep Loki's head. The sons of Ivaldi lose the contest, and Brokk and Eitri get to cut off Loki's head, only to learn that they can't because they can only take his head, when they would need to cut off the neck as well to get the head. In the end, Loki gets to live.

I liked this story. I've always had a personal love for stories involving some type of gift-giving that would impact the character who gets the gift later. While Thor's hammer is really the only one we see continuously after that, it's still nice to see the gods be given these gifts as a sort of way of honoring them. Kind of like how, in Christian tradition, bread and wine is given to God. Of course, the gift giving in Norse mythology is literal, unlike the Christian tradition, but I was still reminded of it, nonetheless.

"The Master Builder" was another good one.

Odin wants to build a wall to protect Asgard from its enemies (as its only protector, Thor, had gone off to fight giants), but he realizes that it would take years to do so. The next day, a stranger arrives and proposes to build a wall in exchange for the sun, the moon, and the goddess Freya's hand in marriage. Of course, the gods are not so keen on giving him any of these things, and that's when Loki comes up with a plan: give the stranger only one season to do it, and he can have what he demands as payment. Thinking the builder can only fail to do this, the gods allow him to build the wall. This ends up backfiring, as they start to realize that the stranger built the wall very quickly and efficiently, something a normal man cannot do. Suspecting that the builder is actually a giant, Loki devises a plan to take away the stranger's efficient and hard-working horse, the main reason he was able to get all the supplies that he could as fast as he could. Loki distracts the horse by summoning a mare, which distracts the animal long enough so the wall cannot be finished before the season is over. The gods expose the giant and he is killed by the returning Thor shortly afterward. The gods then finish building the wall themselves.

This story was particularly entertaining. Seeing Loki mess up the way he did and then actually work to fix everything so the gods and all of Asgard are safe was particularly satisfying. I also liked how Thor, even if he was only returning from his trip, killed the giant with no hesitation. It is kind of a deus ex machina, but it was so well-executed that I don't even care. It showed that, again, Thor is not to be messed with. And it was nice to see that lying giant get what was coming to him.

"Freya's Unusual Wedding" is probably my favorite out of all the stories.

Thor wakes up one day to find that his hammer has been stolen. At first wondering if Loki stole it, but then realizing that even Loki wouldn't dare to steal the hammer, Thor asks Loki to find out who did. Loki goes out and finds the ogre who did, who will only give the hammer back if he has Freya's hand in marriage. Freya, of course, does not want to marry the ogre, so Loki and Thor disguise themselves as maidens and go to the ogre's living place, with Thor disguised as the bride Freya and Loki her companion. When Thor doesn't do a good job (at all) of hiding his ravenous appetite, the ogre starts to get suspicious, although Loki comes up with an excuse which the ogre buys. Finally, during the ceremony, the ogres bring out Thor's hammer, and once Thor gets it back, he proceeds to knock all of the ogres out and he and Loki flee the wedding.

I think it's worth mentioning that this story was actually really funny. Imagining Thor in a bridal gown and veil was honestly hysterical, and it really made the story move very quickly, and the ending was very satisfying. Even when he's in a wedding dress, Thor is able to kick some serious butt! I particularly liked how, although Thor wasn't too happy to be playing the bride, Loki went in there as his female companion without any qualms. It was nice to see them work together to get Thor's hammer back, even if it was extremely embarrassing having to do so.

I also want to give special mention to the final story in the collection, "Ragnarok: The Final Destiny of the Gods" because I particularly enjoyed how the story was wrapped up. It really is your traditional end-of-the-world scenario, but I liked what happened after all was said and done. The gods who died on the battlefield became little chess pieces, and Balder was resurrected along with Hod (the blind god I mentioned earlier) and they pick up all the pieces and create a new game, in a sort of "rebirth"-like scenario. That was a really great way to end it.

All in all, this was an affectionate retelling of the Norse myths. Gaiman's love for these stories is more than clear in this work and it is well-crafted with modern language that makes it fairly easy to comprehend. That said, it is not a traditional Gaiman story: those looking for his trademark spooky fantasy may be disappointed on that end. That said, I would recommend this to any fan of mythology and any Gaiman fan who is willing to give this new territory a try.

All that said, I leave you with Mjollnir, Thor's hammer!

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Review: Anansi Boys

2018-01-11T11:28:00.001-08:00

Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

"It begins, as most things begin, with a song.
In the beginning, after all, were the words, and they came with a tune. That was how the world was made, how the void was divided, how the lands and the stars and the dreams and the little gods and the animals, how all of them came into the world."

Heh. I'm a little torn on this.

This should be interesting.

So, let's break it down a bit.

"Fat" Charlie Nancy lives a normal life, with his fiancee, Rosie, and works for a temp agency run by a man named Grahame Coats. That is, it would be normal, if his father, Mr. Anansi Nancy, weren't a total embarrassment to him. Then, one day, seemingly out of the blue, Mr. Nancy dies, and Charlie has to go to the funeral. It is only after the funeral that a family member lets slip this crucial piece of information:

"'But you can't judge him like you would judge a man. You got to remember, Fat Charlie, that your father was a god.'"

That is where it starts, as Charlie sees a spider in the bathtub, rescues it and apologizes to it, and soon starts to notice this strange man who is following him around shortly afterward. Meet Spider, Charlie's brother that he never knew he had, who comes with his own stories and secrets about their family and the world Charlie's father lived in. I guess I'll start with him.

Spider seems to be completely normal at first, friendly and willing to be there for Charlie now that he has met him for the first time in a long time. They go out for drinks, Spider sings, and they mourn their father's death together. It is only afterward that things start to go downhill, and I somewhat started to dislike Spider. He starts to sabotage his brother's life, having fallen deeply in love with Rosie, and pretends to be Charlie, and here I started to realize what he really was. Not who, what. And I want to talk about what exactly bothered me about Spider's execution, while on the topic of his character. Fair warning, a major spoiler to follow, but I need to do it to explain where Gaiman lost me a bit on his character.

Spider's powers, as a god, are not well-defined. I called him being a god not that far into the story, but we're never directly told what these powers are. Somehow, he can sabotage Charlie's ride home (so a house only ten minutes away is so hard to get to that it takes all night for Charlie to get there), he can fool Rosie into believing he is Charlie (when, I should note, they look absolutely nothing alike), and he can get into Charlie's boss' computer, which requires a super-secret password to access, in ten seconds or less. Those are the main powers he uses throughout most of the story, but since we don't know exactly where Spider came from, and thus don't know the exact nature of his supernatural abilities, it's hard to state exactly what he is able to do. We see it, but there's no word for it, and that honestly bothered me.

"Until now Spider had believed that gods were different: they had no consciences, nor did they need them. A god's relationship to the world, even a world in which he was walking, was about as emotionally connected as that of a computer gamer playing with knowledge of the overall shape of the game and armed with a complete set of cheat codes."

Anyway, moving on to Charlie, the main protagonist of the story.

Gaiman executed his character better, if I'm being honest. I ended up liking him quite a lot. He's a good person who just wants a normal life with Rosie (which his life never was), but I like how he slowly comes to terms with the fact that he's not in a normal situation, and learns to accept who he is and who Spider is. I like how Charlie eventually starts to realize that he cares for Spider, and doesn't want him to get hurt, not really. He just wants to be normal, and I like how he eventually learns to accept that he's not, given his family line. Spider was never normal, Anansi Nancy was never normal, so why should Charlie be? I like that message. After all, gods are not normal and they impact the lives of those they love, so there's no longer anything normal for Charlie.

"He went along the corridor to the tiny spare room at the back of the house and looked down into the gardens below. The dawn chorus had begun, and he could see blackbirds, and small hedge-hopping sparrows, a single spotted-breasted thrush in the boughs of a nearby tree. Fat Charlie thought that a world in which birds sang in the morning was a normal world, a sensible world, a world he didn't mind being a part of."

Now, I need to switch gears a bit and talk about a character that you may be surprised to learn is important. Charlie works at a sort of temp agency under the bigwig Grahame Coats. And I absolutely loathed this man. I have never had such a strong reaction to a character, even one I hated. Gaiman really did a fantastic job making Coats absolutely detestable. He is nothing but a sleazy, calculating and cruel, manipulative, and horrible person.

"Grahame Coats smiled at her in exactly the same way that striking cobras tend not to. 'Absa-tively. If you go to the police, then I will deny everything, and hire excellent lawyers. In a worst-case scenario, after an extremely lengthy trial, during which I shall be forced to blacken Morris's good name in every way I possibly can, I will be sentenced at most to ten to twelve years in prison. I might actually serve five years, with good behavior - and I should be a model prisoner. Given the general overcrowding of the prison services, I'd serve most of my sentence in an open prison, or even on day release. I don't see this as being too problematic. On the flip side, I can guarantee that if you go to the police, you will never get a penny of Morris's money. The alternative is to keep your mouth shut, get all the money you need and more, while I buy myself a little time to... to do the decent thing. If you see what I mean.'"

I should mention that, at that point, I had written down a very profane statement about Coats. It was fun to trash him, given that I cussed at practically every word out of the man's mouth. But still...

I have never, ever gotten so angry over a fictional character to the point where I was writing down my horrible thoughts in my notes. And this isn't even covering the fact that we eventually learn that Coats is not above murder and false imprisonment!

I hadn't even gotten to that point and I already wanted Coats to go jump into the fiery depths of hell!

And this is putting it lightly. God, I hate this character.

I need to step away from this guy, because, yet again, I could go on and on. (American Gods gave me that feeling, too.)

One of the major reasons why this book is three stars and not four or five lies mainly in the setting. Usually (or at least lately) when Gaiman sets a novel in the real world it is to his detriment ( The Graveyard Book is seemingly the only exception to this rule, and that only because the world was our own, but it was a setting we don't live in). His world-building of the fantasy places is so beautifully crafted that it makes his real-world settings seem dull in comparison. It makes the fantastical elements feel somewhat out of place, although I do see what Gaiman was going for in setting the story up that way. A god lives among the inhabitants of England and they don't even know it. It is clever, but it really didn't add to my enjoyment of the story, it didn't add anything meaningful for me.

Moving on to structure, the way the story was set up wasn't bad, but at the same time, it wasn't perfect, either. Often, Gaiman layered certain scenes, one on top of the other, within one chapter. There was a lot happening, I was only rarely bored, but I felt like there was a sort of dead spot in the middle of the story. Where this dead spot occurred the only real concern was Charlie's engagement to Rosie and whether it would work out or not. I feel like, even though it was still there, the fantasy of the story (which is Gaiman's strength) was shoved into the background for a bit, not entirely forgotten, but not fully explored. I mean, the only way that worked was when it was centered on Grahame Coats, but even then I was wondering more about the fantasy world (which came out later and was thus a little rushed).

I only have one more quip with structure and then I'll try to wrap this up. Toward the end, when I pretty much knew that Coats was the story's big bad, there's this scene where he turns into the Tiger mentioned in Anansi's stories. And I have to ask, what is this man's connection to Anansi? Is he the Tiger from the story, or simply an ordinary tiger? How did the tiger who got trapped in the end not turn out to be Coats and instead he was a small weasel-thing in the cave?

How did this....

...turn into this?

Even with all these questions, though, I didn't hate this story. I actually enjoyed it, even if it lacked a certain finesse of one of Gaiman's original fantasy worlds. Overall, it was a gripping story with a fairly decent setup. I would recommend it to any Gaiman fan.

I kept thinking of this when the Tiger appeared.

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Review: The Sleeper and the Spindle

2018-01-07T12:48:00.001-08:00

The Sleeper and the Spindle by Neil Gaiman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

"She wondered how she would feel to be a married woman. It would be the end of her life, she decided, if life was a time of choices. In a week from now, she would have no choices. She would reign over her people. She would have children. Perhaps she would die in childbirth, perhaps she would die as an old woman, or in battle. But the path to her death, heartbeat by heartbeat, would be inevitable."

One thing to say before I really break this down:

Good job, Gaiman. Very good job!

Okay, I admit, I was somewhat disillusioned after reading American Gods (full review here), but The Sleeper and the Spindle is a whole different deal entirely.

Let's set the mood. Remember those fairytales you would read growing up, or perhaps even just watching the animation giant Walt Disney's take on them? This book presents a setup in a very similar vein, so get comfy!

A young queen (whose name is not given) is a day from her wedding, when the dwarves show up, having learned of a supposed "sleeping plague" spreading through the kingdom and beyond. The queen decides to get to the bottom of the cause, having once been awoken from a long, almost deathly, sleep herself.

Oh, come on. I can't be the only one reminded of this.

So the unnamed queen arms herself with a sword and sets off with the dwarves to find the source of the sleeping spell. The main problem is, the spell is spreading rapidly, and the queen has to worry that if she sleeps, she may not wake up again. I found this little bit to be particularly well thought out. It kept up the tension and suspense, that this innocent young woman could fall asleep forever, without any warning, at any moment.

Gaiman sometimes likes to switch gears in the middle of a scene, and sometimes he can get away with it, while other times, he really can't. The transitions from scene to scene, setting to different setting, in this story were not perfect (some were a little confusing) but I was able to get my bearings and understand where the story was headed often very shortly after the transition was put in place.

Once we do switch gears, we are transported to a high tower surrounded by - what else? - a field of poisonous thorns. In that tower is a young woman who has been asleep for a very long time, and an old woman who we are led to believe is the one who caused the sleeping spell.

"The old woman reached down, and picked up the spindle. She said, aloud, 'If I drove this spindle through your heart, then you'd not be so pretty-pretty, would you? Eh? Would you?'
She walked towards the sleeping girl in the dusty white dress. Then she lowered her hand. 'No. I cannot. I wish to all the gods that I could.'"

Again, I can't be the only one reminded of this.

This is where things really started to get interesting, to me. Once the queen reaches the tower, and gets in, we see where it all started. First, she had to awaken the sleeping girl, and I have to admit, small as it was, I liked how the queen had zero qualms about waking the girl the way she did.

Considering the time period of the story, I like this. A lot.

However, once the girl awakens, we find that things aren't that simple. But then, when are things ever that simple in a Gaiman work?

"She passed the spindle to the old woman beside her. The old woman hefted it, thoughtfully. She began to unwrap the yarn from the spindle with arthritic fingers. 'This was my life,' she said. 'This thread was my life...'

'It was your life. You gave it to me,' said the sleeper, irritably."

And we see that, sometimes, evil is encased in beauty. I loved that aspect of the story! It came completely out of nowhere and it was the perfect way to show who the old woman and the sleeping girl really were. What we expected all along ended up doing a total 180 and suddenly things aren't so clear-cut anymore.

But then, when is life ever that clear-cut?

A short book with a surprisingly powerful message. A dark twist on two fairytales we all think we know, a twist that left me reeling shortly after I'd finished it. This is, again, an example of the masterful storytelling Gaiman is capable of.

The perfect sentiment to describe this story. Well done, Gaiman!

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Review: American Gods

2018-01-05T12:29:00.001-08:00

American Gods by Neil Gaiman
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

"'Gods die. And when they truly die they are unmourned and unremembered. Ideas are more difficult to kill than people, but they can be killed, in the end.'"

The Gaiman Galleries has been really fun so far. The most intriguing thing about the work I'm doing is finding out how each fantasy element Gaiman sets up works within the story, discovering how the main protagonist interacts with it and how it changes him or her as a character.

I am ashamed to say that the structure I was looking for was not in this book, and that is the main reason I am DNF'ing it. I don't mind a little weirdness in a Gaiman book, such as that in Stardust or The Ocean at the End of the Lane, but there was structure in those stories, very clear structure, and it made me want to read on in both of them.

Where did the incredible world building I love, and have honestly come to expect, go?

In the story, a young man named Shadow is released from prison after doing time for three years. Shortly before he is released, his wife dies in a car crash, and on the way back home, Shadow meets an eccentric man named Mr. Wednesday, and is hired to be a sort of personal assistant for him. We follow Shadow as he works for his boss, but we don't learn anything about what exactly Mr. Wednesday wants, or why he even needs Shadow.

It is hinted in the story that Wednesday could be a bad guy, but it's glanced at and that's really it. Shadow doesn't wonder about it after he questioned his boss, and we see nothing else. At least, with what I read.

One of the major things that bothered me about this story is that we don't even get the slightest hint as to how the supernatural works in this world. I know Gaiman never, in any of his works, just comes right out and says it, but here I didn't even get small hints as to how it could work. Random supernatural events just seemed to happen out of nowhere and then get tossed aside and not looked at again.

The best example I have of this (this event really bugged me) involved a random man who was in the story because reasons. His arc wasn't even hinted at in the story when we first meet him. Anyway this man goes back to his hotel after a meeting that never came to be, and he talks to the cabbie, who we quickly discover to be a jinn, and a lonely one at that. The man invites the jinn to hang out with him in his hotel room, and what do they do? They make love. After they, literally, just met.

How do genies even make love? Does he have some sort of magical penis that shows up when he wants to go to bed with somebody? And aren't genies usually attached to a lamp of some kind, or usually a prisoner of something? How did the jinn have the time and ability to meet this man in the hotel room? What happens when the mortal man gets an erection?

I don't see a penis here! How would he make love?

I need to step away from this, because I could go on and on. We do get hints as to what Wednesday is up to. There seems to be a war coming, and Shadow is not sure which group to trust. He's kidnapped by the people who claim to be the good guys, but this just blurs things even further. And why exactly are these groups fighting? We don't get hints to that, either.

"'But I can assure you,' said Stone, with another smiley smile, 'we are the good guys.'"

Well, gee, you just kidnapped Shadow! Sure we can trust you, you're just lovely, aren't you? ~~Facepalm~~

And in between all this, Shadow is told to follow Mr. Wednesday from place to place, and nothing of much significance happens. He meets people, sure, but when Wednesday's not around, I didn't see how the people Shadow met were important. We see him make friends, but they seemed to be merely extraneous characters with minimal impact on the story.

And, on top of it, we get no answers to any of the big questions. What is the war about? How did it start? What, exactly, is the goal of that other group? It's mentioned multiple times that there's a storm coming - can we start acting like it? Will Shadow ever be clued in to what is going on?

Honestly, at this point, I don't want to find out. I just don't care. This book needed to be significantly cut down. Otherwise, it reads like a novel with minimal direction and zero structure, something crucial to a good story.

I wish I had liked it better.

"'I think,' said Shadow, 'that they think they're the white hats.'

'Of course they do. There's never been a true war that wasn't fought between two sets of people who were certain they were in the right. The really dangerous people believe that they are doing whatever they are doing solely and only because it is without question the right thing to do. And that is what makes them dangerous.'

'And you?' asked Shadow. 'Why are you doing what you're doing?'

'Because I want to,' said Wednesday. And then he grinned. 'So that's all right.'"

Great. A quote that could have been profound doing a complete 180. Better luck next time, Gaiman.

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How does Music Influence Writing?

2018-01-02T20:39:00.000-08:00

It feels so liberating to be out of school and able to read whatever I want, at least for now. I just reviewed Stardust by Neil Gaiman, and I know I haven't written anything in a while. I'm not feeling particularly romantic right now, but I am listening to a fan-made version of a long-lost song and it's breathtaking. Let's try something....

Music, in all its forms, is a beautiful thing. I'm not talking about just the everyday music we all listen to, but the music of life as a whole. All those people meeting in different places and the mingling of different tongues, different societies coming together, and it seems almost like they are from different worlds altogether. It can be either easy to connect to someone or something, or it can be difficult. We all march to the beat of our own drum.
Words are my music. They always have been, perhaps they always will be. I can connect and get lost to simple words easier than I can to music. Somehow, though, I've always found it easier to express my words while hearing instrumental music, and I wonder if there's something about the power of words and the power of music that is similar, almost like the song of the instrument gives words to the message somehow, at least in my experience.
Something about instrumental music clears my head. I don't know what it is, and I don't know how it happens, but it does. Take now, for instance. I found this long-lost song by one of my favorite artist's side projects, Port Blue, a fan-made rework of a song called On the Morning Tide. The full, official song is lost, but this fan reworked what little audio of the song we had, and created a beautiful piece of music.
The power of music to fuel the desire to write is what most interests me here. I happen to know that there are other people who feel they write better when listening to music, but why? For some reason, for me, dead silence that a writer would think they'd need can sometimes cause my mind to go completely blank, unless I have a spurt of thought at one particular moment and just have to get it down before it leaves me. But when I'm listening to music... it's almost like the words write themselves, and nothing was originally in my conscious thought that I had to get out. And it is this connection that I do not understand.
Does one art form influence another? And, if so, how? Does music influence the subconscious, the words hiding in my mind that only the music can bring out? What is the relationship? Where is it? And, if there is a connection, does personality influence it (for example, is one person better off listening to jazz to get creative with writing, while another person is better off listening to, say, ambient)?
I think I'll do some research on this and try to find out for myself. Just some pondering at 11:00 at night.

Oh, and by the way, I started reading American Gods for The Gaiman Galleries. Review coming soon!

Screenshot of the video with the song I was listening to as I wrote this piece. Source: Youtube.com

Review: Stardust

2018-01-01T15:41:00.001-08:00

Stardust by Neil Gaiman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Confession: I wanted to like this more than I did.

"It's not hard to own something. Or everything. You just have to know it's yours and then be willing to let it go."

When a young man, Tristran, falls in love with the young Victoria Forrester in the village of Wall, he will do anything for a simple kiss from her. Victoria, not so keen on kissing him, watches a falling star in the night with him. And she gives him a quest: find that fallen star and bring it back here and I will give you anything you desire.

What follows is really a quest straight out of a medieval literature text and fairytale, complete with witches and the spirits of the dead being able to communicate with their living brothers at their dying father's bedside. We get to see how all of these seemingly extraneous events intertwine with Tristran's quest, and I have to admit, I was excited to see how it all came together.

The only thing missing was Tristran being knighted and slaying a fire-breathing dragon!

As with all of the Gaiman books I've read thus far in this project, the world building was very well done. I actually felt like I was in the middle of the magic forest of Faerie in which the book is set. Gaiman's ability to construct these beautiful, dangerous worlds and then let the world interact with the characters is one of his greatest strengths in writing. I mean, just the way the setting is described is so wonderfully detailed and carefully thought out.

"Below Wall on the west is a forest; in the south is a treacherously placid lake served by the streams that drop from the hills behind Wall to the north. There are fields beyond the hills, on which sheep graze. To the east is more woodland.
Immediately to the east of Wall is a high grey rock wall, from which the town takes its name. The wall is old, built of rough, square lumps of hewn granite, and it comes from the woods and goes back to the woods once more."

This is just in the beginning, but once Tristran is able to get beyond Wall to find the fallen star do we start to see more fantastical elements in the world of the story. This is probably a good time to talk about characters, because they are huge components of these fantasy elements.

The star turned out to be a young woman, named Yvaine, once she fell to the earth. She is ultimately a rather mysterious character, following Tristran even though she technically does not like having to do so. In the beginning, she is Tristran's slave and little else, and it's no wonder she resented him in the beginning. The main quip I have with her occurs toward the end of the story. Tristran saves her life, and as a star, she is then bound to him in a different way, who has to now follow him, and that makes sense, but when things don't work out between Victoria and Tristran, Tristran realizes out of nowhere that he is in love with Yvaine. I wouldn't normally have a problem with something like this - a whole journey together gives them a lot of time to bond and get to know each other - but I didn't see any of those hints of a budding romance that is essential to making it work. As such, it felt a bit forced, even if I did like how Yvaine got an ending she could be happy with as a star and a human being. It was nice to see her grow from his slave to his friend, though, even if it was forced.

"She was to the southwest of him, moving faster than he could walk. He followed after her in the bright moonlight. Inside, he felt numbed and foolish, stung by a pang of guilt and shame and regret. He should not have loosed her chain, he should have tied it to a tree; he should have forced the star to go with him into the village. This went through his head as he walked; but another voice spoke to him also, pointing out that if he had not unchained her then, he would have done it sometime soon, and she would have run from him then."

Tristran, the main protagonist of the story, takes on the role of a young man who has fallen in love and, being the young naïve kid he is, will do anything to earn the hand of the woman he loves. This sets forth a journey that, at first glance, seems to be only for the woman of his affection, but actually turns out to be a journey on which he grows as a person. We see him start to understand what he really wants as he grows on this journey and he sees how the world around him works. I will say that Tristran's character was not fleshed out enough in the beginning, because he did not seem to have any other goals besides marrying Victoria, and the end of the story tries to resolve this once he marries Yvaine, but it wasn't his choice. He was given the Power of Stormhold and didn't seem to have much say in the matter, and that bothered me a bit.

"'You will make a fine Lord of Stormhold.'

Tristran stared at her in honest puzzlement.

'But I have no wish to be a lord of anywhere,' he told her, 'or of anything, except perhaps my lady's heart.'"

Finally, I want to talk a little about the witches. The witches were bound by a Sisterhood, and they desired Yvaine's heart in order to stay immortal and young (even though that's the last thing they were). The witches, again, were not fleshed out enough to stand entirely alone, but this is okay because as a whole they make up this sinister force that Tristran and Yvaine must evade if Yvaine is to stay alive. And, despite all they did to harm Tristran and the star, I like the way their angle was tied up, with Yvaine meeting one of them and coming to realize that the old woman was just a character who was scared by the Sisterhood, and no longer wanted to hurt anyone, because she had seen how much damage the Sisterhood had caused.

"'So what I want to know is why it is that I can no longer find you, in my mind. You are still there, just, but you are there like a ghost, a will o' the wisp. Not long ago you burned - your heart burned - in my mind like a silver fire. But after that night in the inn it became patchy and dim, and now it is not there at all.'

Yvaine realized that she felt nothing but pity for the creature who had wanted her dead, so she said, 'Could it be that the heart that you seek is no longer my own?'

The old woman coughed. Her whole frame shook and spasmed with the retching effort of it.

The star waited for her to be done, and then she said, 'I have given my heart to another.'"

Do you think the witches were imagined to look like this?

The structure of the story felt a little disjointed at first, what with each new chapter starting out anywhere but where the previous one left off, but again, Gaiman brings it all together masterfully, and neatly ties up all the angles. The only problem with this tactic is that I feel like the story would have really benefited from him leaving a few loose threads, just to give the reader something to ponder over at the end. I think that's why I'm giving this story three stars rather than four or five. It was just too neat for me, and I felt like he could have left me really thinking things over a little more if he'd left it open.

All in all, though, I did enjoy it, and I can't wait to see what else Gaiman has up his sleeve.

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100th Post Celebration Video!

2017-12-31T10:59:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year's Eve! I hope you all have a fantastic new year.

I wanted to thank you all for sticking with me in this endeavor. I adore writing on this blog, and I am so grateful to my viewers. To show you just a little glimpse of the blog the way I see it, I put together a short video of me looking over the blog and some stats. I've tried to highlight in this video how you guys help me to make the blog even better as time goes on. I want you to know that I value your input and the time you take to look at the work I do here.

Before I share it, I just wanted to say that one little thing I know I probably need to: I do not own the music used in this video. All rights go to their respectful owners.

Enjoy!

Review: Coraline

2017-12-29T10:48:00.001-08:00

Coraline by Neil Gaiman
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

"The mist hung like blindness around the house. She walked slowly to the stairs up to her family's flat, and then stopped and looked around.
In the mist, it was a ghost-world."

ARGH. I wish I could say I enjoyed it, it captivated me, it was terrifying - whatever. There's only one word I can use for this reading experience, and I'm almost ashamed to admit it - underwhelming.

You know the story: Coraline is bored with her life and she finds a door in her flat that leads to the Other world - there is the Other Father, a black cat who talks to her, and the Other Mother, who wants to sew buttons on her eyes and keep her forever until she is a soulless wisp.

"'She will take your life and all you are and all you care'st for, and she will love you with nothing but mist and fog. She'll take your joy. And one day you'll awake and your heart and soul will have gone. A husk you'll be, a wisp you'll be, and a thing no more than a dream on waking, or a memory of something forgotten.'"

The Other Mother, as beautiful as ever.

It's the classic setup: this Other world seems perfect at first, but is soon revealed to be nothing but darkness and evil. I've seen this type of setup so many times now.... Maybe I'm jaded, but I saw it all coming, and it just didn't click with me - I didn't feel the dread and anticipation I know I was supposed to feel. I decided not to read at night in case it scared me - which it didn't. I wanted to be blown away - I wasn't.

"Coraline patted its hairless head. Its skin was tacky, like warm bread dough. 'Poor thing,' she said. 'You're just a thing she made then threw away.'"

I get it. It's supposed to be incredibly sad, incredibly creepy. And there was a moment or two that made me go, "What the hell?" in response to it. But this - I just don't get it. What am I not seeing? Why doesn't it make me want to go stroke a kitten for comfort?

Even the cover to my copy of the book hinted at creepy things and darkness!

I just didn't see it. Any of it. Maybe it was the way the book was written? I know I wasn't the target audience for this, but I was hoping to be at least a little unsettled, and instead I was just reading this book with a blank expression, not really reacting to much, and there seemed to be little payoff for my struggle with the story. It got to the point where I was tempted to not even read the last chapter, because after Coraline returns to the real world and everything seems fine again, there's still one little pesky thing the Other world left behind for her. One little thing that was supposed to be disturbing and weird, but I was just left feeling annoyed that it was even there.

"'But it's not fair,' said Coraline, in her dream, angrily. 'It's just not fair. It should be over.'"

Even Coraline agrees with me!

I just don't get it. I already know Gaiman is a fantastic writer, but he and I just weren't on the same page here. It's a shame, too, because I could tell how creepy it was - for some reason it just didn't faze me. Hopefully I'll like the next book of his that I pick up better.

Nope. This still doesn't creep me out the way it should. Sorry, Gaiman.

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