Saturday, March 31, 2012

Magic of the Angels


While I was in London over spring break, I happened to pick up a few books that aren't easily availible in the States. This is one of them. Plus, at 2 pds, was cheaper than any meal I had in London. Magic of the Angels is a Doctor Who story in the Quickreads line, designed to encourage literacy and reading. Just over a hundred pages long, it's an easy read--I'm thinking of loaning it to a ten-year-old introductory Whovian.
The Doctor's attempts to play tourist in modern London don't go so well, but he ends up taking Amy and Rory to a magican's show in an attempt to learn the magican's secret. Since a Weeping Angel is featured on the cover, it's not too much of a giveaway to say that one is behind the events. It provides a nice combination of the Blink and Time of the Angels/Flesh and Stone conceptions of the Angels, as well as a hilarious listing of the Doctor's view of London's tourist attractions. I read it at Heathrow Airportm appreciating it all the more because I'd been to most of those places.
As a quick, entertaining read, it tops the charts.

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

The Thirteenth Tribe



After the golden calf incident at the base of Mount Sinai, a small group was cursed with immortality. Throughout the centuries, they attempt to earn heaven by conducting vigilante killings of people they judge to be sinners. Meanwhile, the head of security for an archelogical dig near Mt. Sinai gets drawn into their schemes.
I generally like sci-fi and thrillers, but I felt the author wasted a lot of character potential in favor of action. For example, the youngest of the immortals is about seven. Does she ever think of growing up? Get frusterated because she's never going to be able to fall in love? Apart from one twist near the end, it was fairly predictable and "safe"--the fear for the main characters was more from the genre, not any circumstance.
2 of 5


* I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."

Saturday, March 24, 2012

New Trailer


The real one comes out online Monday (after which I will probably update this), but here's a cameraphone version from the Doctor Who Convention.

General suspicisions:

That's rather a sacriligous use of the Lord's Prayer, but ...well...it is funny. Feels rather Firefly-ish.
There's one shot of them running on the same beach that was used for Bad Wolf Bay and Alpha Metraxis.
Snow. Everest?
Bar lady?
Egypt?
Astronaut on Everest?
Space-monster thing
Dalek eyeball out of the snow...that makes me feel so much better about their return. If that sort of subtly is being used, it should be good.

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Stand by for Heresy

I recently started going through the Third Doctor's seasons (having already seen his last season because that's where Sarah Jane joined). And while I was thinking about it, I came to a startling--and slighly heretical--conclusion.

John Pertwee's regeneration is sadder than David Tennent's.
Before you throw me into the nearest black hole, watch it yourself.



As heartbreaking as Tennant's is, it is obviously staged for all the dramatic value possible. The Oodsong, the explosions and fire, his prolonged delay...his last words. Pertwee's regeneration is smaller, more intimate, with Sarah Jane and the Brig really thinking he is dead....sniff...

Friday, March 2, 2012

Tumblr Repost: I'm Looking for a Madman with a Box

Tumblr Repost: Nerd Girl Problems

I have a feeling I'll do enough of these that I'll eventally make tumblr, but in the meantime...from Splotches and Splatters by Jenni (slightly altered)














---Trying to explain Doctor Who to someone

Halflings



I requested a digital gallery copy of this book without knowing what to expect. Maybe I would have been better prepared if I had seen the cover image of a girl in a red dress with a wing motif in the background. As much as I wanted to like it, it felt like a Twilight derivative with half-breed angels instead of vampires and werewolves. You have the hot, none-human males; one good, one evil, but both dangerous, and a girl who's awkward with boys. The prose is a bit purply as well. All in all, it falls firmly under the "paranormal romance" catagory, not fantasy, and isn't really that unique.
2 stars.

Thursday, March 1, 2012

Scones, Soccer, and Spaceships

What do the above three items have in common besides their initial letter? They are things the British do extremely well. While I love scones and have little interest in soccer (well, they call it football but that ruins the rhythm), it is the “spaceships”—aka speculative fiction of Great Britain that attracts my attention. Even before genres were invented, British writers were turning out tales of wonder such as Paradise Lost and The Fairie Queene. As the genre dawned in the early 1900s, George MacDonald and Edith Nesbit were exploring fairy tale worlds in new ways.
The founders of modern fantasy, J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, were professors at Oxford University, with Tolkien even stating his goal of creating a new mythology for England with his Middle-Earth mythos, while Lewis’s Narnia series had thoroughly British roots, and even his Space Trilogy shows amazing development of ideas. A third author who approaches their fame is J.K. Rowling, whose saga of a wizarding academy captured the hearts of millions. Other British authors include Douglas Adams, Terry Pratchett, Brian Jacques, and M.I. McAllister (who should have more readers). The former two are known for their dry wit and satirical fiction, while the latter are authors of beast-fable.
Douglass Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series features such side-splitting lines as “the ship hung in the sky in much the way that bricks don’t” and “The word yellow wandered through his mind in search of something to connect it to.” His dry style brings a sense of humor to such dreary topics as the end of the world, androids, and evolution. Terry Pratchett takes a similar approach to fantasy in his Discworld novels, a world held up by four elephants on the back of a giant turtle where things happen according to the rules of narrative causality. Characters like Bruatha, Captain Vimes, Granny Weatherwax, and Death’s granddaughter Susan merely turn the world upside down and milk the sacred cows for all they’re worth.
In the realm of beast-fable, Brian Jacques’ Redwall series focuses on an abbey built by woodland creatures and defended against all invaders. Famous on both sides of the Atlantic, his tales of feasts and fights were sadly cut short when he died in February last year. Fans can still enjoy the twenty-plus books in the series. M. I. McAllister’s Mistmantle Chronicles quintet crosses Narnian atmosphere with more Redwallian beasts. All the characters are amazingly realistic, to the point it’s hard to tell minor characters from major.
In the realm of television, the BBC is responsible for Doctor Who, one of the longest running sci-fi drams in the world. Since 1963, viewers have been enjoying the exploits of a Time Lord and his companions exploring the universe in a steering-challenged TARDIS. In the past few years, the show has produced two spinoffs; Torchwood for adult views and Sarah Jane Adventures for CBBC. The later was cancelled after the death of the main actress last April, but is much closer in tone to the original series than Torchwood’s dark, sex-filled mania. Rival station ITV has produced “Primeval,” which follows a rag-tag team of scientists investigating rips in the space-time continuum that leak prehistoric beasts into Southern England. There’s also BBC’s Merlin, of which I have only watched the first episode and was turned slightly off by Prince Arthur throwing knives at a servant for amusement.

Scones, Soccer, and Spaceships

What do the above three items have in common besides their initial letter? They are things the British do extremely well. While I love scones and have little interest in soccer (well, they call it football but that ruins the rhythm), it is the “spaceships”—aka speculative fiction of Great Britain that attracts my attention. Even before genres were invented, British writers were turning out tales of wonder such as Paradise Lost and The Fairie Queene. As the genre dawned in the early 1900s, George MacDonald and Edith Nesbit were exploring fairy tale worlds in new ways.
The founders of modern fantasy, J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, were professors at Oxford University, with Tolkien even stating his goal of creating a new mythology for England with his Middle-Earth mythos, while Lewis’s Narnia series had thoroughly British roots, and even his Space Trilogy shows amazing development of ideas. A third author who approaches their fame is J.K. Rowling, whose saga of a wizarding academy captured the hearts of millions. Other British authors include Douglas Adams, Terry Pratchett, Brian Jacques, and M.I. McAllister (who should have more readers). The former two are known for their dry wit and satirical fiction, while the latter are authors of beast-fable.
Douglass Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series features such side-splitting lines as “the ship hung in the sky in much the way that bricks don’t” and “The word yellow wandered through his mind in search of something to connect it to.” His dry style brings a sense of humor to such dreary topics as the end of the world, androids, and evolution. Terry Pratchett takes a similar approach to fantasy in his Discworld novels, a world held up by four elephants on the back of a giant turtle where things happen according to the rules of narrative causality. Characters like Bruatha, Captain Vimes, Granny Weatherwax, and Death’s granddaughter Susan merely turn the world upside down and milk the sacred cows for all they’re worth.
In the realm of beast-fable, Brian Jacques’ Redwall series focuses on an abbey built by woodland creatures and defended against all invaders. Famous on both sides of the Atlantic, his tales of feasts and fights were sadly cut short when he died in February last year. Fans can still enjoy the twenty-plus books in the series. M. I. McAllister’s Mistmantle Chronicles quintet crosses Narnian atmosphere with more Redwallian beasts. All the characters are amazingly realistic, to the point it’s hard to tell minor characters from major.
In the realm of television, the BBC is responsible for Doctor Who, one of the longest running sci-fi drams in the world. Since 1963, viewers have been enjoying the exploits of a Time Lord and his companions exploring the universe in a steering-challenged TARDIS. In the past few years, the show has produced two spinoffs; Torchwood for adult views and Sarah Jane Adventures for CBBC. The later was cancelled after the death of the main actress last April, but is much closer in tone to the original series than Torchwood’s dark, sex-filled mania. Rival station ITV has produced “Primeval,” which follows a rag-tag team of scientists investigating rips in the space-time continuum that leak prehistoric beasts into Southern England. There’s also BBC’s Merlin, of which I have only watched the first episode and was turned slightly off by Prince Arthur throwing knives at a servant for amusement.

Where You Go

Where You go, I'll go
Where You stay, I'll stay
When You move, I'll move
I will follow You
Who You love, I'll love
How You serve I'll serve
If this life I lose, I will follow You
I will follow You
---“I Will Follow” by Chris Tomlin

On my other blog, I recently posted a review of a book titled I am a Follower. Instead of leading others to Christ, it emphasized being a follower of the risen Lord who brings others to him. The Christian life isn’t about building pyramids or flowcharts—it’s about following God where he leads you. As the song quoted above says, the Christian life is an adventure with a guide.

In a way, it reminded me of the Doctor’s interaction with his companions. As great and exciting as all the places they visit, it’s an adventure they’d never have without his guidance. Back in December, the BBC America blog posted the following question as part of their “12 Days of Whomas” giveaway: If you could go anywhere with the Doctor, where would you choose? My answer was something along the lines of “I wouldn’t care as long as I got to go with him.” You might not know how everything will go, but isn’t that what makes it an adventure?

Replication



I recieved this book through Zonderhaven's Z Street program for teens. The story of a clone called Martyr and an average teenage girl named Abbey. Without giving any plot, I will say that it was an engaging read that gripped my attention. I also liked how Abbey's slight preachiness to her dad was shown with realistic consquences.