30
Jun
30
Jun
Ann Aguirre is releasing free short stories (one a month I believe) for fans of her SF novel Grimspace (and later this year for her Corrine Solomon urban fantasy series). The first tale touches on the history of March, the anti-hero mercenary from Grimspace and can be read here.
*Also the short came out like a month ago. I just accidentally set this post to draft instead of publish and just found it today. Sorry Ann.
29
Jun
- If you’d like to participate in the Reader project for June drop me and email now at sicacaelestasATinsightbbDOTcom (with spam guards removed). Below is the form I’m using. You can fill it out and send it to me, or fill it out and post it on your own virtual space (I’d appreciate a link to share).
You don’t have to have read the books you bought to include them. This is just about your buying habits. Why you bought the book can be anything from “It was recommended to me” to “I liked the cover” to “I needed to qualify for free shipping” or even “The author is a friend and I want to support them”. Be honest, even if it’s a negative reason.
To any publishing professionals out there: I’m creating a data sheet of my own “Books In” wherein I’m also listing the books by genre. I know I’m only one buyer, but I’m sure you can find a use for my data. My data sheet (for May through December) will be available at the end of the year.
~Reader Form~
Name:
Contact Email:
Month:
What books did you buy this month? New or Used? Why did you buy them?
Did you download any free books this month? Why did you chose to download them and where did you download them from (author web site, publisher web site, bit torrent site)?
Did you win any books or receive any books for free this month (other than downloading them)? Which ones and from where?
If you chose to participate thank you in advance and feel free to pass this call on to other readers who might be interested in participating.
Review of Part One
Review of Part Two
Review of Part Three
I really enjoy rereading Ann Rice’s The Witching Hour over and over. But I rarely read the whole book. Instead I always skip to the middle, to the long, expansive Talamasca file on the History of the Mayfair witches. I don’t particularly like Rowan Mayfair and find her story to be interesting only because of the multitude of little connections between the history of the places and people that came before that she runs into and doesn’t even understand.
What does this have to do with part four of Losing Latitude by Cory Cramer? With this part the story is shaping up the same way.
Part four, The Last Place to Run, is almost entirely sections of Bucky McGee’s journal. Of course, in this installment they take a wild, suspenseful twist that still doesn’t explain the demon that’s been chasing him. But by the end of this section the tale is hard to put down, and leaves the reader with something akin to outrage. It simply cannot end there.
As for Lilly, the young adult who lost her parents to a shipwreck and became an unexpected millionaire, well, she has about as much “screen time” as her dead father in this part of the story. She’s not as unsympathetic of a character as I find Rowan Mayfair to be, but the focus so far is on the voice of Buck. This is partly because for the length of the tale so far Lilly has been in a naval hospital recovering from injuries received during the shipwreck that killed her parents. But it’s also because with her parents dead only the journal can drive the plot forward toward its resolution.
I do wonder how one more ninety five page installment can bring Lilly from her current position to solving the mystery that led her father to sail into the storm rather than away from it. But there has definitely been growth, not just of the story, but also of Cramer’s writing skills as the story has progressed. If he can clinch this tale, and continues to build his craft I could easily see his next stories published outside the sphere of self-publishing.
22
Jun
The movie was fantastic. So much better than the Ang Lee BS fest. Not just on the level of action either. They managed to make this movie both quite character driven and exciting, action wise. It was nicely paced and fun with plenty of comic book-ish shots (which is the one thing I did like about the first movie, and here they did it better, especially in the final fight between Abomination and Hulk.) We all liked that the theme of this Jekyll and Hyde story and it came off clear enough that even the kids picked up on it.
They also showed the Hulk as a primal, angry being, particularly in the final fight where the brutality spins out of control. And the conflict of the god-like Hulk who is powerful enough on his own having to face, essentially himself, only with military training and the true heart of a monster kept me interested.
Little things, like mythos jokes and the real life “of course” moments of two college kids catching a fight between Hulk and the military on cell phone cameras definitely added to the fun. Over all, it’s fun, it’s fantastic. It’s not quite the same as Iron Man, but then the whole Iron Man mythos has a soul that Hulk doesn’t. Bruce Banner isn’t looking to save the world, and his powers are caused by an accident. He isn’t the hero that runs toward danger, who acts like a shield between the bad stuff and the average person. He’s the one who tries to mind his own business, only stepping up to the plate when either the ones he loves are in direct danger or there’s absolutely no other option.
It’s the base story that prevents this movie from being on the same level as Iron Man or the first Spiderman movie. But with that taken into consideration it’s worth the full price of the ticket and has been put on my must own list.
Finally! Here you can see photos from the new HBO series, True Blood, based on Charlaine Harris’ Sookie Stackhouse series. For those not in the know these books are urban fantasy with a romance angle about a rural mind reader in Louisiana who falls for a vampire and ends up getting sucked into the supernatural world (no pun intended).
11
Jun
It’s not until the last moments of the book that Harry Dresden wonders if someone is trying to kill him. But readers of Fool Moon, the second book in the Dresden Files series, will wonder it nearly right away.
Despite still being upset with Harry for giving her just enough information about the Nevernever to believe in it, but not enough to face its creatures in her mundane job as a cop, Special Investigations’ lead Karrin Murphy calls Harry to a crime scene with all the horrifying hallmarks of a werewolf perp. The problem is that there are multiple kinds of werewolves in this magicked up version of Chicago and Harry isn’t sure which kind is out killing people.
While the number of shape shifters and the evidence are piling up nothing seems to fit and the Chicago PD’s efforts are hampered by Murphy being under an IA investigation, a group of FBI agents playing dominance games with the crime scenes, a local mob boss who thinks he’s the next target trying to force Harry into protecting him, not to mention the humans’ stubborn refusal to take the supernatural seriously.
Fool Moon has a complexity that is not typical found in urban fantasy. Not only are there hints at the past that are never expounded on, but there are also hints at a mysterious person or persons being behind the villains of the first book, and this book. More like a noir, supernatural tinted true crime story than other books Fool Moon could easily bring the fantasy, mystery and horror crowds together under the Dresden banner.