So Hey, I'm Doing This Thing...

No, I'm not asking for money or anything like that.

But I am participating in NaNoWriMo (as "Dana the Biped," of course), and I could really use some help keeping on track.

So if I'm not averaging about 1,667 words a day, kick my ass, okay?

Read This! The Enchanted Forest Chronicles by Patricia C. Wrede

I didn't read a lot of young adult fiction when I was a kid.  I kind of skipped straight from Goosebumps and Choose Your Own Adventure straight to proper novels meant for adults (a lot of fantasy, also some improper romance novels I sneaked from my Nana, who had one of those book club memberships).

Nevertheless, the school book fair was always one of the most exciting days of the year.  It wasn't like the Scholastic book club pamphlets we got every month--those just had books designed for my age group.  Boring.  The book fair had books for teenagers, and while ninety percent of them were in the Sweet Valley High type of genre (by which I mean, romantic word vomit), once in a while I'd come across a book that piqued my interest.

Calling on Dragons was just such a book.  It was the third in the series, and try as I might, I couldn't find the other books in the series that day.  But the idea of a fairy-tale princess who takes herself out of the fairy tale intrigued me enough that I bought it anyway--and I was one tight-fisted little kid.

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The Enchanted Forest Chronicles remains one of my favorite YA series to this day--one of the best things about fantasy novels is that the well-written ones never feel dated.

Dealing with Dragons begins the saga--we meet Princess Cimorene (one of my favorite heroines ever, and pretty much who I want to be when I grow up.  That or Betty White.), who doesn't like being told that proper princesses don't fence or learn magic or cook cherries jubilee.  So she runs away to volunteer captive for the dragon Kazul.  There, she cooks, cleans, practices her Latin, and kicks some evil wizard butt--all while sending well-meaning princes off to rescue other princesses.  (Something about a second-hand prince is just too perfect.)

In Searching for Dragons, Cimorene meets King Mendenbar, and that kicks off two books of twisted fairytale fun (wait till you meet Rapunzel...) and the kind of grand romance that doesn't make you want to gag or chuck the book across the room.

Finally, in Talking with Dragons (or maybe first, because the last book in the series was actually the first published), the adventures continue with Daystar, Cimorene and Mendenbar's son.

Oh!  And if you read this series, make sure you get your hands on Book of Enchantments, which includes the short story "Utensile Strength," in which our favorite family encounter the Frying Pan of Doom.  (This was a thing before the new Rapunzel movie.  Seriously.  Check out the publication dates.)

And you don't have to take my word for it that this series is one of the best:  It made NPR's list of 100 Best-Ever Teen Novels.  (Just ignore the Twilight series, and the list is a very good one.  Should I be embarrassed that I've read well over half the books on that list?)


(True:  I reread Dealing with Dragons last night.  Guess what I'm doing the rest of the week?)

It's Pretty Much the Greatest Thing Ever.

No, I'm not talking about mac and cheese.  This time.

I'm talking about When Curiosity Met Insanity.  It's a web comic, and it's slowly (but surely!)  telling the love story of grown-up Alice and the Mad-Hatter, Disney-style.  Yep, it sounds absurd.  But it's crazy-awesome-absurd.

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Now, imagine that Disneyland is the actual magical place where Disney movie character live.  Got it?  Good.  Now add a bunch of different characters from the animated movies, including a bumbling and sweet (not to mention kooky) Hatter, and a sassy Alice.  Oh, yeah, and excellent storytelling and artistry.

I have a lot of Internet obsessions, but this is one I've stuck with the longest.  Unfortunately, the extremely talented artists/creators don't update nearly as often as I'd like, but just when you think it's over, they really have abandoned the project--boom!  New chapter!  And life is amazing and I snortlaugh and check the blog compulsively every day until I realize I'm going to have to wait some more.

BUT, that being said, even for someone who isn't the biggest Disney fan out there, this is something special, and well worth the waiting.

You can find all the chapters here.


(True:  I would love for you to tell me what other Internet treasures I'm missing.  Because I don't piss away nearly enough of my life in front of my laptop as is.  No, seriously--tell me.)

It's My Two Hundred and Onest Post!

I woke up this morning with my cat's face so close, I could feel her breath on my eyelashes.

In other news, did you know Monday's post was my 200th?  Yeah, me neither.  But to all four of you who follow me, and have stuck around for the ride, thank you.

I started this blog because I'd recently adopted a three-legged puff of hair, and I wanted to do my part to raise awareness about how awesome dogs are, altered mobility or no.  I still try to do that with my "Hops in the Right Direction" series, but those are never my most popular posts.  That's okay.  You're stuck with it.

By far and away, my most popular post has been The Hunger Games and Nazi Germany: Visual Metaphor in the Film and Why It Works.  It's the post that got me a call-out from Neil Howe, who's kind of a hero of mine.  It's the post that made the first page of a Google search, and it's still the first for the search "Hunger Games Nazi Germany" (because I Google things that might bring up my blog like other people stalk their exes on Facebook).  Clearly I posted that on a good day.

I've also posted about a particularly bad day.  I forget what made it bad, but the hits on the post sure make me smile now.

I've given fashion advice and dating advice.  I've given more unsolicited reading advice than anyone probably ever wanted, but who cares?  Ian Beck, author extraordinaire, commented on my review!  (Which renders your complaints invalid, by the way.)

AND I gave away free copies of the world's most disturbing pinup calendar.  You know.  For charity.

All in all, it's been an amazing ride.  Thanks for sharing it with me.

Ready for the next leg of this road trip?

(Yes, that was a tripod joke.)

(Sorry.)


(True:  You guys are the best.  You're a little strange, but you're my favorite kind of strange.)

In Defence of Books

I have a collection, or a library.  Call it what you will, I have a lot of books, and I take a lot of pride in that.  I have a knack for choosing good ones in a number of genres.  (My reference collection is particularly eclectic and interesting.)  I've managed to get my hands on a number of unedited pre-release books, a few of which are now worth a fair bit of money.  I have a book by one of my favorite poets, signed just a few weeks before the man passed away.  I have books from friends that we use as an excuse to keep in touch, and I have books I've reread so often pages are falling out.

I recently got my first smart phone, and one of the first apps I downloaded was an e-reader.  It's fantastic, but there are reasons I will always love the "real thing" better...

A new book smells fresh and crisp, like possibility--and nothing can compare to the feeling of cracking a hardcover spine for the first time, and opening the book and yourself to a new world.  An old book smells a little musty and comfortable, like a well-broken-in couch.  It's familiar and cozy, and the plot and characters greet you like old friends.

A book finds a space in your home and settles in.  It never demands attention (until you actually start reading it, if it's a good one), and it never "helpfully suggests" you should be doing something better with your time.  It never gives you a hard time for what you do or how you do it or who you are--books provide a shelter against a world of people who all think you ought to be fundamentally different than you are.  A book never thinks you're too fat.  It never tells you that you're weird, or that you're bad at all the things you should be good at. A book never points out your perceived flaws, and it never makes you feel bad about who you are.

Instead, it gives you adventure, even though you're stuck in a cubicle all day.  It gives you characteristics to aspire to, even in a world where reality TV actors are considered role-models.  It gives you hope in happy endings and in the possiblity that the loose ends will all tie themselves up and that there will somehow be meaning, even though the news tells you all about how everything is going to hell and we're all doomed.

I've got a lot of books.  I've also got a lot of adventure, aspirations, and hope in my life.  And those are all Very Good Things.


(True:  You'll notice that when I do book reviews here, I only give positive reviews.  That's because I'm not going to waste my time reviewing a book I didn't like, and I'm not going to waste your time reading a review I don't think is worth your time.)

Read This! Fathomless by Jackson Pearce

If you ask me, there aren't nearly enough books about sea monsters.  And if you know me at all, you know I soak up fairy-tale retellings like a sponge.  Fathomless fulfills on both counts.

If you want a lovely little Disney-esque Little Mermaid, stop here.  Go watch some animated fish sing.  This is a lovely tale, true enough, but the darkness in it goes deep.

Quick synopsis:  Celia is the triplet who can see the past, which isn't nearly as useful as the talents of her sisters Anne and Jane, who can see the future and present, respectively.  That is, until she meets Lo, an ocean girl who doesn't remember her past as  the human girl Naida.  (Brief note:  love the play on the word "naiad," a type of water nymph.)

Sounds like a sweet tale of friendship, right?  Well, sort of.  But add a love triangle, familial discord, two characters fighting to live in the same body, missing souls, monsters, and murder, and--well, there's that darkness I was talking about.

Flipping through the book at the bookstore, I saw the narrative is in first person, from two/three characters' points of view.  (It's a little complicated.)  This always makes me pause, since I frequently have a difficult time either telling the characters apart or caring for both (or all) of them, but Pearce uses subtle differences between how the characters view the world to make the POV switches clear, but not jolting.  The well-crafted adventure kept me turning pages, but this clarity kept me from having to turn back.

Celia's voice is matter-of-fact.  As a narrator, she offers enough description to get the point across, focusing on the facts she knows and the actions she and those around her take.  In her relationship with her sisters, she feels a level of disconnect, but the hurt that causes her is something to be inferred.

Lo, meanwhile, is highly descriptive.  Her life under the water is expounded upon in a manner that is very lyrical--without sludging into purple prose.  It seemed totally natural for her to live within the ocean, and her home there is definitely the setting I felt the most connection to--after a couple of Lo's chapters, I recognized her home, as well as the unity she feels with her sister-monsters.

Finally, there's Naida.  Naida lived in the past, and can only resurface briefly, when Celia helps Lo remember.  She was a happy girl.  She had a family she loved, a sister she loved, but can't quite remember.  Her narration is somewhat stilted for the mere fact that she is only the pieces of herself she can remember--just half a girl now, and one who has lost her soul to the ocean and the "angel" that made Lo what she is today.

All three are desperate for a sense of self, for independence, and for love--a desperation made all the more poignant since only two of them can survive.

My only itty-bitty issue was the physical description of the "angels" that created Lo and the other ocean girls--there is a clear social concept of the creatures they are described as (sorry, no spoilers here) that has no connection I could see to the role they play in the book.  However, that was balanced by the fact that I really liked the portrayal of the love interest.  I could see what the girls saw in him, and felt a pull to him myself--but the whole love-triangle bit doesn't consume the the entire plot.  Thank you, Ms. Pearce, for creating characters to whom a boy can be important without becoming an unhealthy obsession!  (Okay, with one possible glaring exception at the end...)

All in all, I'd highly recommend this one, especially if you like your heroines strong and believable.  I'll definitely be checking out the companion books soon.

Read This: Fairest by Gail Carson Levine

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In a land where music and beauty are revered, Aza has the voice of an angel.  But her face?  Not so much.  At all.  I mean really.  But when the new, stunningly beautiful queen wants Aza to be her new lady-in-waiting, how can she refuse?  Especially when Prince Ijori not only doesn't cringe at the sight of her, but seems to actively seek her company.

Things go awry, as they are wont to do in fairy tales.  The king is badly injured, and the queen, ruling in his stead, quickly brings the country to the point of rebellion, dragging Aza into her intrigue and deceipt and possibly the worst of all, into the public eye.

If you've read Ella Enchanted, then you know Levine's writing style is deceptively simple--there is nothing here that is difficult to read or understand, and Fairest could easily be enjoyed by an eight-year-old.  And yet I couldn't put it down.  Part of the reason I love classic fairy tales so much is that they can be equally enjoyed by children and adults--refashionings of the tales don't always work that way.

As an adult reader, I see Aza worrying constantly about her looks.  Her looks have always been thrown in her face.  At her parents' inn, patrons don't want her serving their dinner or cleaning their rooms.  They cringe or laugh or grimace or pretend she's not there.  Even people she's known her whole life are unspeakably rude to her.  She's sixteen.

I don't know about you, but when I was sixteen, I was pretty worried about my looks too--and I've never been mistaken for an ogre.

On the other hand, Aza is also very confident in her voice, and her special ability to throw it, even when she's singing.  Singing and composing songs are how she expresses herself--there are a lot of songs in the book, and it's a rather lovely way to understand a main character, and far more telling than a simple "she was sad," or "she thought that was funny."

As the storyline progresses, Aza's definition of herself stop hinging solely on her ugliness (it's not that she's not pretty--she's actively ugly) and her beautiful voice.  She comes to know herself as someone clever, honest, and interesting.  She becomes a whole person.

Yeah, yeah, enough about her personal growth.  There are also murder plots (yes, that is plural), an evil mirror-dweller, potions that disguise and spells that beautify (or not...), personal and political betrayal, and a very discerning dog.

The lesson that beauty is only skin-deep is rather heavy-handed, but the grace with which Levine writes more than makes up for it.  Her version of the Snow White tale, with a more sympathetic queen and a cave-dwelling gnome-judge, and a king who is not dead but comatose in a country on the brink of civil war is not your everyday, perfectly parallel retelling.  It is something new altogether, and it's really rather wonderful.

(True:  I have read Ella Enchanted.  I've also seen the film version with Anne Hathaway.  The movie is supercute.  The book is far more sophisticated, and just plain better.  But the movie does have musical numbers, which is pretty great, too...)

Read This! ArchEnemy by Frank Beddor

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My friend Seven originally introduced me to The Looking Glass Wars several years ago, and I owe him big for that. 

ArchEnemy is the last installment of the epic dark fantasy/political thriller/fairy tale, and it's pretty damn amazing.  Queen Alyss (whom we Earth-dwellers have mistakenly misnamed Alice of Alice in Wonderland fame--way to mess it all up, Lewis Carroll) has put on hold her war with her evil aunt, Queen Redd, because King Arch of the neighboring nomadic kingdom has invaded Wonderland and seized that queendom for himself, endangering not only Wonderland, but the magic of Imagination throughout all the worlds--including ours.  (Been feeling dull lately?  Arch's fault.)

Beddor doesn't waste a lot of time rehashing characters and plots fleshed out in previous books, so I probably wouldn't recommend this one as an introduction to the series.  And if you haven't read the other books, I don't want to give too too many spoilers.

Alyss and her friend/guard/ought-to-be-lover Dodge butt heads some more against their better judgement.  What romance is in this series is both compelling and refreshing.  These people are dealing with some heavy stuff--loved ones have died, battling forces of good and evil, scary guys whose touch can blister you to death, fate of all the worlds...  There are important decisions to be made that will affect pretty much everyone in existence, and it was nice (though not always pretty) to see Alyss and Dodge disagree pretty vehemently about the way some things should be handled.  Sometimes, they even disappoint each other.  (That right there pretty much cements this series as unique.)

If you have read previous books (don't bother looking, I haven't reviewed those--it's been a while since I've read them myself), then you know that Hatter Maddigan--Alice's Mad Hatter turned Alyss's most famous member of the Military Millinery with a bad-ass hat that can slice your head off--has been dealing with some personal stuff.  And for a guy who has always put duty first, having to make the personal stuff a priority is more than a little difficult.  I dare you not to have a bookcrush on Hatter.

Oh, have I not convinced you to read this series yet?  Then how about this?  Queen Redd wears a dress of roses that can eat you.  And the cute kitten from Alice in Wonderland?  Actually an assassin.

Rating:  Kick Ass+



(True:  Chuck Roven, producer of The Dark Knight, has apparently signed on to the movie version of The Looking Glass Wars.  Hurry up and make this film, Hollywood!)

Read This! Pastworld by Ian Beck

I have not gotten the chance to read as much as I'd like to lately.  (Although I could read twelve hours a day and still not think it's enough.)  However, I was on vacation recently.  And do you know what that vacation included?  Plane rides.  And beach-lounging.  Aka, me with my nose in a book.  Several, actually.

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Pastworld by Ian Beck is about a young woman, Eve, who has grown up (sort of) believing (absolutely) that the Victorian London she lives in is the truth, and not the colossal theme park it actually is.  And someone, the Fantom, is hunting her.  And tearing up the bodies of the people who get in his way.  Caleb is a visitor to Pastworld and has been falsely accused of a crime for which he could be hanged.  Inspector LeStrade is trying to figure out what the hell is going on.  Bible J is a pickpocket who has a soft spot for people in trouble.

Got it?  Okay.

This is not your usual, straightforward YA novel, with a single character's linear narrative.  We see several characters' points of view, and the writing style varies by those characters' personal styles.  Eve, whose story we get from her journal, writes in a period-appropriate way.  The inspector's style is to-the-point, with lots of details noted, but in a straightforward, definitely not-flowery way.  Bible J likes adventure and a pretty girl.  Caleb is viewing this city of the past as a new-comer from the outside, and his descriptions often compare the two worlds.

So, it's stylistic.  Reader, beware:  you need to keep track of several main characters and keep up with several story-telling styles from two very different time periods.  It does require a bit of mental energy--most of the iffy reviews I've read reference the different POVs as the major drawback. 

That being said, it works.  Each character has a portion of the story to tell, and their unique voices make them memorable, not just one more character on a full stage overseen by an omniscient narrator.  Seeing their stories separately at first, and then more and more intertwined is fascinating.

And the steampunk influence?  Awesome.  Who doesn't appreciate a good mech rat/surveillance system these days?

Add the slight dystopian feel.  While the reader doesn't see the world outside Pastworld (excepting a few brief scenes in a police department that oversees the park), we get the feeling that it is highly mechanical, highly sanitized, and highly bland.  London, on the other hand, is dirty and dangerous, with elements both criminal and morbid.  (Anyone want to see a dead body?  It's just a shilling.)

There's adventure.  There's mystery.  There's romance.  There are circus performers and human dissections.  There is steampunk, history, and the future here. 

To say the least, it's a book that's hard to pin down.  But if you're looking for a fantastic, exciting, frightening story with a hopeful, good end (even if not all the loose ends are tied), pick this one up.  I did--and wasn't able to put it down.


(True:  Blogspot doesn't think "dystopian" is a word.  Sort of sad, really.  Also, "steampunk."  Blogspot is missing out.)