Fast Molasses

Currently working on :
Captives of Blue Mountain by Wendi and Richard Pini
The Shadow Rising by Robert Jordan

Finished: Elfquest Bedtime Stories-
Short and Sweet: Relates to my treatment I'll give the book and the sentiment I feel about it. Fits in between the Journey to Sorrow's End and Quest Begins Storylines. Various remakes of traditional fairy tales to the Elquest world. Cute, and little kids should love it. I'm glad I picked it up at the library and didn't pick it up all the years I was thinking of it though. The art was done by other artists than Wendi... which means it doesn't have the particular glow and care that she gives the characters. It was more along the lines of asking someone who has been drawing anime for the past four years to please do a filler for Family Circle.

Fancy Fantasies

I've done it again.

Booklist for this post:
The Quest Begins by Wendy & Richard Pini
Alta by Mercedes Lackey
First Rider's Call by Kristin Britain

First Rider's Call took me until last Thursday- the nineth to get around to finishing. It's rather large continuation of Green Rider, which I am quite fond of. I love a good stand-alone story, and the only thing that gets my goat is when its painfully obvious you are reading a sequel that is leading into another sequel. I lay more blame on Alta in this category than FRC.

FRC was hard to slip into because of the confusing transistions- journal enteries as seperate pages in between chapters. I've never been fond of this kind of foreshadowing and personally think it's a useless crutch to weave into an already enormous story. Luckily, it doesn't give away too terribly much, and it is more of a pet peeve than a legitimate complaint.
I like FRC because it added a lot of history to the world, making it a lot more solid and facinating. I did feel frustrated with the obtuse and heavy emphasis on how Karrigan perceives her personal relationships- for a couple of chapters it seemed that she was backsliding in her character development.
Overall, this is a unique story, and the reader is definitely getting their money's worth in the length and bredth of the pages offerings. For those who picked up Green Rider in paperback the first time, you can probably stand to wait for First Rider to come out in paperback as well. Definitely a good summer read.

Alta..was a good continuation of Joust, but like I stated earlier it ended much too soon and had already dropped hints that there was still more to tell in this too short hardback that continues abruptly into the newest release of Sanctuary. However, Vetch/Kiron shows great character development from the wet-earred dragon boy into a leader of his own dragon wing. He steps up to the challenge of leading boys his own age to set an example for Jousters in Alta- and keeping his newfound friends safe. Alta is not the haven that Kiron dreamed it would be, if not just as corrupt as Tia. I'm not sure if this is a trilogy- but if so, this is definitely the Empire Strikes Back of the books.
I enjoy the Jousters series very much, it is quite different than McCaffrey's Dragonriders and has its own alien flavor.
But I have two major gripes.
First, the heavy emphasis on the 'taking' of magic without the permisson of the weilder. It draws too heavily from Mercedes's Obsidian Trilogy with the humans/elves/etc versus the demons. A tri-magic system that is based on debt of use of the powers granted, either by deed, energy, rite, or life. The demons, of course representing the harsh and unpermissable taking of powers without price to themselves. Only, in Alta, instead of Demons, it is Magi. Poor marks for borrowing against one of her/or James's ideas from a seperate series.
Second, I HATE real world elements being introduced into a fantasy storyline. I'm not saying it can't be done, but it detracts from the storytelling. Patriotism. There is a section near the end of the book to the effect of- anyone who was deemed unpatriotic was regarded with suspicion by the citizens. The offending fellow would then redouble efforts to be 'patriotic' to avoid persecution. Is it too much to hope for an author to not comment on their personal stance on real-wrold events while in a fantasy context? I would understand if this were allegory or satire. But it's Fantasy.

Elfquest. I adore Elfquest. Simply put anyway. The origin of Elfquest was in comic books and then progressed into compliations of graphic novels. Somewhere in the late 90's, the Pinis adapted their beloved story into prose. I can find no fault, and I enjoy the prose versions as well as the comics for the insight that is given into the characters that is sometimes sacrifices for time and space that can be limited in an artistic sense. At least in a media like comics. It doensn't skip a beat or extremely go beyond the storyline that was esstablished over twenty five years ago. So if you already have the graphic novels, there is no real need to go out and grab the prose novels. But it is defnitely for the fans or to someone who likes fantasy but isn't 'into' comics.

Wandering Thoughts, Treasure of Books

We went to go get Crown of Swords last night, and I was bummed that the Target didn't have the new Foo Fighters album. I was shocked and delighted-it was probably nine years ago when my mother introduced me to an author, along the bent of Tolkien but different. I got to read one book and couldn't get anymore since it was a small library and not as resourced as it is now. I saw the name, and the title and I got this huge thrill. Ever since I read Riddle-Master, it reminded me of those days and I had been trying for so long to track down the books even though I only barely remembered plot and the vaguest titles.

Dennis L. McKiernan and his Iron Tower trilogy. I got to read Dark Tide, and my bumbling attempts at research turned up RA Salvatore's Crimson Shadow Book - Sword of Bedwyr. I feel mostly happy for tying up a loose end of my childhood that has haunted me for so long. Too stubborn for my own good I Suppose.

I think I only have one other book to track down that was as vague as this one- a children's book heavily illustrated in an ornate style and grotesque as if Tim Burton had rewritten the Little Mermaid. It was facinating, people under the sea, a man taken to the sea king's court for his daughter. Facinating all the details of sea hags, decapitated heads talking, the sort of horrible art that a child can fear and pour over from interest alone. I mistakenly thought it was the Sea King's Daughter- but it wasn't the right story or illustrator.

I was that horrible child that when looking for things in the library when I was small, would describe things by their covoer art. Frustrating. Like the time I was trying to find a particular book again on Grecian Gods and Goddesses, Mythology. Doesn't help Amazon doensn't have pictures for all of its listings. Thank God for BooksAMillion. The MacMillan Book of Greek Gods and Heroes

Which reminds me of this lovely set of Grecian Mythology monsters that the library back home got shortly before I left full of stories, variations, and history.. need to find those. Had art and artifacts. On the Furies and Charybdis and such. ah! found them! Bernard Evslin's Monsters of Mythology. Great stuff for middle schoolers. Good reference too for quick reports when you're stuck with Homer.

Wandering-
Oh I remember this book. I wish Egyptology wouldn't get dulled up by lots of discussion of all the dirt they had to dig up and more about the tombs and their relics.. *sighs* Beauty and the Beast was a favorite... which the TV series needs to be on DVD!! *hint hint* Oh, I had no idea Winter Rose was by McKillip too! I read that long long ago, now I feel odd that I didn't/couln't bring that up to my husband when I didn't know who she was. lol.
I need to get back to my reviews now before I'm hopelessly off track!

The Essential X-Men vol1

I've heard complaints of the fact this is the cheap version of the comics since its on common paper and not colored but I didn't really see it as a serious problem to enjoying the comics. What did bother me is that the essential line runs directly up into the giant sized x-men books that introduce the new team of X-Men that is seventy some odd issues forward in time (granted 30+ of which is reprints).

The only way to get the issues inbetween said reprints and the end of the vol 1 EUX is to pick up the mostly out-of-print Marvel Masterworks series. Did I meantion they only have about ten issues per volume and cost from 20-50 dollars apiece? Vol 5 is out of print/being released in mid-july and can only be found on ebay/preorders. Volume 3 of masterworks begins to pick up where EUX picks off. However, volume 5 stops at #53, leaving out three issues before the start of the Uncanny X-Men (issues 94 +). Which are coincedentally printed in the essential line for at least 3 volumes. Weird publication scheduling, Marvel.

All the formalities aside- I'm glad I started from the beginning, I easily got over the cheese factor that someone of my generation can fall in love with something from the mid-sixties (some of the expressions are nothing less than quaint). Seeing the genesis of the X-Men gives much appreciation for the work that Lee and Kirby put into these ideas. Each comic has a new plot and story arc, and doesn't fall on the villian of the issue syndrome that many comic readers are familiar with.

Highly recommened for all ages! Buy or borrow ASAP!