So it’s been a very (very) long time since I posted a movie review, and the Oscar-nominated “Beasts of the Southern Wild” seems like as good a film as any to break the lengthy review hiatus.
Tag: fantasy
“The War of the Ravels”, Then and Now
So lately I’ve been doing mostly Teaser Tuesday posts, which are quick and fun, but for the last post of the year I thought I would go back and do another comparison of an original scene from the Shards follow-up, The War of the Ravels, and the same scene as it currently stands in the draft revision. (The final revision will be done in 2013.) Although the scene name remains the same for the moment, and the activity in the scene is similar — Mercy is still going after Daras-Drûm, AKA the death-wind — the setting has totally changed. There’s no longer a flashback to Yexandor’s place (which in the current version was no longer a temple, but instead a fallen tree) and a certain blue-skinned sorcerer, whose influence is alluded to in the original scene, is no longer involved in the death-wind’s activities. But other than that it hasn’t changed at all.
Teaser Tuesday 12/18/2012: A Plague of Demons
This week I’m reading A Plague of Demons by Keith Laumer, another of the e-books that I downloaded directly from Baen’s Free Library. This is not the sequel to the much-loved A Plague of Angels (that would be the quite avoidable The Waters Rising); rather, it’s about aliens in North Africa harvesting brains. Why? I don’t know yet. Maybe they sell them in roach coaches that roam zombie-infested areas. (Or maybe not.)
Then I re-crossed the street, slowed, and gave half a dozen grimy windows filled with moth-riddled mats and hammered brass atrocities more attention than they deserved. By the time I reached the end of the long block, I was sure: the little man with the formerly white suit and the pendulous lower lip was following me.
Another protagonist being followed by another unskilled tail? I see a trend! Clearly our villains need to invest in a training program for their operatives.
And, of course, here is this weeks teaser from The War of the Ravels!
“They were issuing weapons to every man who could hold a blade,” Cynidece said. “Even you probably would have gotten one, if Aldric hadn’t tucked you into his fancy cab and given his horse a smack on the rump to make it run along home.”
Teaser Tuesday 12/11/2012: “Tears in Rain”
This month my free book from Amazon is Tears in Rain by Rosa Montero. The astute reader may recognize “tears in rain” as part of Rutger Hauer’s epic Famous Last Words in the film “Blade Runner”, appearing here as listed on Wikipedia:
“I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. [laughs] Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched c-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like [coughs] tears in rain. Time to die.”
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Teaser Tuesday 12/4/2012: The Apocalypse Troll
So at the moment I’m reading a book by David Weber with the somewhat unfortunate title The Apocalypse Troll, which always makes me snicker a little, perhaps because of Dennis the Vizsla’s run-in with Obvious Troll a few years ago. (However, the Troll in this book is not obvious. At least, not once it stops firing nukes at the U.S. Navy.)
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Teaser Tuesday 11/20/2012: “The Half-Made World”
Well I finally paid for another book, The Half-Made World by Felix Gilman. Why, you ask? Two reasons:
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Teaser Tuesday 11/6/2012: “Apocalypse Z”.
So I’ve been a bit remiss the last couple of weeks with Teaser Tuesday posts. Busy busy busy, you know, plus the stuff I’ve been reading has been mostly freebie Halloween short stories that I downloaded toward the end of October, and not really conducive to teaserification. But this month I have another real, live book, Apocalpyse Z. Hmm, what could a book with a title like that be about?
In some refugee camps in neighboring republics, they’re reporting new cases of what they insist is an especially virulent strain of the West Nile virus. But media sources are calling it Ebola.
Hmm. West Nile, Ebola; potato, rotten tomato that oozes nasty red juice all over everything. But hey, whatever gets you the most clicks, media sources! Interestingly, this book is translated from the Spanish and takes place in Spain, making it the first foreign zombie novel I’ve read. (Although I’ve seen one or two Italian zombie movies, and sort of wish I hadn’t.)
And, of course, here’s today’s teaser from The War of the Ravels. I’m rewriting this part of it pretty much completely, so it’s been rather slow going, but things are shaping up!
She soon realized she was wandering through unfamiliar territory, and moved closer to the buildings on the left—which, she thought, was the direction in which the harbor gate would be found—hoping to spot a building she recognized, or maybe find a sign or a person to tell her which way to go. Not that she had much hope of either; no one was out on this sinister night, and as far as she could tell, Abacar did not believe in “You Are Here” kiosks.
Just imagine how much easier going the mines of Moria would have been with “You Are Here” kiosks scattered around! Or, even better, “You Are Here And The Balrog Is There” …
Teaser Tuesday (Or Wednesday Or Whatever If I Screw The Date Up Again): “Pines”
This week I’m reading Pines, by Blake Crouch. This is another Prime freebie for the Kindle, thus continuing my effort to avoid spending money on books for a while — an effort which has probably just been extended by another few months due to my iPod’s unfortunate high-speed encounter with a tile floor. Deceleration trauma is rough on small spinning drives! Anyway, “Pines” is about a Secret Service agents who awakens in a small Idaho town following a car crash, and has a rather rough time leaving. I’m almost finished with it and, while I figured out the Big Twist well before the Big Reveal, the rules say no spoilers, so I had to choose my two sentences carefully. Here goes!
“It’s done,” Pilcher said, “and you’re my new sheriff. Welcome aboard.”
Believe me, this falls into the category of “An Offer You Can’t Refuse”.
And now, of course, here is this week’s teaser from The War of the Ravels:
The innkeeper tugged his blade free again, and accidentally dropped it this time. It failed to penetrate the ground, ending up lying on its side like some sort of unintentional metaphor.
Teaser Tuesday 9/25/2012: “Ghosts of a Tired Universe”
So now I’m reading a book called Ghosts of a Tired Universe, which is not to be confused with “Ghosts: The Complete Series”. For one thing, so far, this book doesn’t have any actual ghosts in it. This one is under the impression that it has something profound to say about Physics and Art (which, in the context of the book, would definitely be capitalized). I haven’t quite decided what I think of it yet, but I’m still reading, so it’s one up on the dreadful Seed from a few weeks back.
Dormius didn’t know at the time that the addiction to brightness had begun to seep into him as well. He too would one day have to rise from that subterranean playground and grow into the being he was meant to become.
Hey, Dormius, be careful with that. Sometimes, growing into the being you were meant to become gets you stabbed by The Slayer and sent to a hell dimension.
And of course, here’s a little teaser from the current section of The War of the Ravels that I’m working on:
“I delivered clothes to them as well, though whether that—” Here he wrinkled his nose a little. “—woman chooses to wear them rather than go around the common room in her shift remains unknown.”
Readers of Shards may be able to guess whose line that is; and the woman in question isn’t Mercy, of course. After all, Mercy is not, at the moment, a woman — she’s an elf. Semantics!
Teaser Tuesday 9/18/2012: More “Ghosts: The Complete Series”
Still reading “Ghosts: The Complete Series” by Amy Cross. At this rate, I’ll be finishing it up just in time to become eligible to borrow another book from the Kindle Lending Library. After spending all my book money for, oh, the next year or so on car repairs last month, this is a good thing. Long books FTW!
“Just tell me,” I say. “Don’t say I can’t handle the truth.”
And in case you were wondering, she is not talking to Jack Nicholson.
And of course, here’s this week’s teaser from “The War of the Ravels”!
In effect, she would be using herself as the battery to power Daras-Drûm’s prison. That might work for a while, but the way everyone talked about this entity, she didn’t think she’d be able to contain it for very long; you didn’t get to be nicknamed “the death-wind” without having some kick.
Indeed, one way to get nicknamed “the death-wind” is to be a demonic entity with a group of necromantic priests as followers commanding legions of the dead; another is to be Tucker the Vizsla. Guess which one Daras-Drûm is …
Viscosity 