Of Swords and Parasols

"The Bloody Chamber" by Angela Carter(fantasy)  Retellings of fairytales, often modern, that I bought and read for a chat.  A few of the stories were pretty good, but most were too bare bones, and they tended to assume that you were intimately familir with the original material, no matter how obscure.  While far from bad, I expect a lot more from a paperback that's $13 for 120 pages(I tend to look at hardcovers and trade dress as an indication of the publisher's esteem for the book.  I think they had too much esteen for this one.)

"Winter Warriors" by David Gemmell(fantasy)  The last of the Drenai books, aside from the Druss books.  A good book, but it seemed like "well, people liked the Waylander books and "Quest for Lost Heroes," so I'll just milk that cow a bit more, even though I'm tired of the "old hero" schtick"  I don't know if that's the case, but this read as something of a watered down rewrite of "Lost Heroes."  Good for a high fantasy adventure, but a bit of a letdown for Gemmell.

"Fudoki" by Kij Johnson(historical fantasy)  Easily the best of this lot, and the reverse of "Bloody Chamber" in the whole "expectations" thing.  The books is the journals of the (fictional) sister of a (real) Heian era Japanese Emperor.  It's a combination of her memoirs, showing what life was like for women of her station, and Kagaya-hime, a cat who lost her clan and her stories, and was made into a woman by the gods, becoming the Cat of One thousand Tales, and the stories for her descendants.  As it's written as the journals of an elderly woman, the prose is a bit difficult to get into at first, but great once you've adjusted.

"The First Mistake" "The Middle Sin" and "The Last Bullet" by Merline Lovelace(romantic suspense)  These are billed as Romantic Suspense, and I guess the ongoing romance and the publisher(Mira, who owns Silhouette and Harlequin) warrants that, but these are primarily adventures.  It's Merline Lovelace, so naturally it actually manages to have the advertised strong and independent heroine, and actually convince me that the knows something about the military and proper procedures (a 20~ yr career, as opposed to reading other romances with military heroes probably helped her do better than other writers in that regard.  Research too, I'm sure)  PLus, she's one of the few writers who's not scared to have a woman over thirty, not ashamed of being active, and not ashamed of being attracted to more than one man at once(not that the character is remotely slutty, she's just healthy and human and a good reminder of why I avoid 90% of the romance novels out there, regardless of genre.  Fortunately, there are still enough writers left to keep me happy.)

Basara Vol 18:  I'm so, so happy that this book has emerged from the (still good and rather necessary) melodrama it sunk into. The main storyline has kicked off into full swing again, and a few certain things that have been waiting for far, far too long are finally taken care of.  As usual, I find Shuri's storyline a bit more Interesting than Sarasa's and wish the focus on the two was reversed, but this is probably my favorite manga currently, given BotI's funk.

Green Lantern: No Fear HC:  *sets up 10 inch think steel barricades with yellow paint*  This is my first book about Hal Jordan, for fans of Hal Jordan, and I guess it settles my "Am I a Hal fan or not?" question... I'm not not a fan, but I'm not overly interested in Hal himself, it seems.  While I've always like Hal well enough,  I was always more interested in the story and events he happened to be involved in than in Hal himself.  Rebirth, for example, was written for anyone who'd ever been a GL fan, or curious about the GL mythos, and so I loved it.  However, despite good writing, good art and a good story, this one didn't work for me.

Hana Kimi Vol 12:  Oh yeah, THAT'S who Gil is...I'd completely forgotten about it.  Utterly wonderful, despite the total or near total absence of my favorite supporting characters.

Love Hina Novel Vol 1:  Great fun, though a lot of things that work in the manga don't work in prose form.

Ouran High School Host Club Vol 6: No wonder the guys all reacted so well to Haruhi's father...their own families are even scarier.

Seven Soldiers of Victory Vol 1:  Somehow, it seems that, even when he gets a little to weird for me(I still haven't quite figured out the ending of Sea Guy) I like anything of Grant Morrison's that's not X-connected.  I read the opening oneshot when it first came out, and have the same opinion rereading it...a bit too much, but good. v As for the minis inside...Shining Knight is great, Zatanna and Klarion are both considerable fun, though Klarion is slightly over my head, and Guardian doesn't quite work for me...it's like "if Booster Gold were grim and gritty" or something.  3 out of 4 though(with 3 yet to be determined) is good enough, though.

The Wood Boy/ The Burning Man TPB:  I can't decide if both of these are a case of too much story being crammed into too few pages, or too little story being dragged out.  Both are basically small pieces of a big story being dragged out, with little explanation of the big story.  As I understand it, it was made during the Dabel/Devil's Due fallout, and that's accountable for it.  I'd like to see both redone without all the background drama, but I doubt that that will happen.

Casanova:  I hadn't heard about this one until it came out on DVD(I guess Heath Ledger only gets to be known as the star of the movie that only exists because it's about gay cowboys for now)  and wasn't expecting much more than laughs and a bit of eyecandy, though I had to up my expectations when I learned it had the same director as Chocolat.  Fortunately, it still exceeded expectations.  A very, very fun romantic comedy.

Deadwood: Season 1: Well, it took me long enough, but I finally managed to track down a cdecently priced copy.  A little too much coarseness and nudity in the first few episodes, but about 3/4s was removed after that. A very good show, certainly deserving of it's accolades.  One notable thing about it is that it managed to completely change my opinion (mostly in a good way) about at least half the characters in the first season alone.  Off the top of my head, the only other show to do that is Veronica Mars.  Speaking of which, it was a bit odd to see Kristen Bell here...Veronica would eat that girl up for lunch and then spit her out...once she got over thier resemblance.  Will be getting the second season, once I find it at a good price.

Emma:  This is the A&E version with Kate Beckinsale.  I've come to have fairly high expectations from A&E in my limited exposure to them.  Fortunately, this met those expectations.  One thing I've noticed about A&E that other period productions I've watched missed is that it manages to have a true feeling of the period without getting too stiff and unapproachable, like so many other productions do, and this one is no exception.

Hoodwinked: GO. RENT. THIS. MOVIE. NOW!!!!!  Seriously, it's criminal that this one flew in under the radar.  It succeeds not only on the levels Shreck succeeded on, but also on the ones it failed on.  Sigh...I can't really get into the awesomeness of this without laying out the whole plotline(ok, B.B. Wolf, investigative reporter...)  but go get this.  Buy it.  Rent it.  Add it to your Netflix.  Just see it already@!

Tristan & Isolde:  I shouldn't have learned this was a Ridley Scott movie until after I saw it, I would have been happier with it that way.  It was, mind you, still very good, but Ridley Scott works best when he focuses on the grand scope and how it affects his stalwart hero, with his romance effectively working as his backup.  The "romance" here is the typical "lust=love" and Isolde didn't really come across as overly sympathetic or loving...more desperate to keep her hot stud available than anything else.  Franco acquits himself better than I'd expected, but still not quite the leading knight material(Henry Cavell, who played his friend/later rival did a better job of it.)  Still, when you ignore the romance, this was a pretty good movie.