reading
January 11, 2008
Fables
Last month I was introduced to Fables - the best comic book series ever. I was intrigued when I heard the premise, but I had no idea how wonderfully it would be played out. Roughly: all different farie tale characters have been kicked out of their various worlds or "homelands" by the Adversary. A large group of them have formed a community called Fabletown in our world, where they all live and try to avoid catching the attention of the mundane humans ("mundies") surrounding their city. The writing is excellent, the plots are very engaging, and the characters, while not original, are very well-written for this series. Some of my favorites are Bigby Wolf, Snow White, Boy Blue, Rose Red, the Beast, and Flycatcher. With the exception of volumes 2 and 3, I have all the trade paperback volumes currently released. The next volume, 10, is due out in May, and after I get that I think I'm going to have to start getting the comics monthly to tide me over until the next volume is released.
Posted by oracle at 8:25 PM | Comments (0)
January 3, 2008
Confessor
Mike gave me Confessor, the last book in Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series, as one of my Christmas presents this year. I just finished it on Tuesday, and I absolutely loved it. It was everything I had hoped it would be. It was a fantastic end to the series, and none of the characters who died were near and dear to my heart, so I didn't even tear up once! Seriously, I can't say enough good things about the book. This series is one of my all-time favorites.
Posted by oracle at 10:25 AM | Comments (0)
December 2, 2007
Wizard's First Rule
This isn't new news, but I'm just finding out about it. Sam Raimi is going to be directing a tv mini-series of Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series, starting with the first book, Wizard's First Rule. This makes me almost as happy as finding out about The Dark is Rising. All my favorite fantasy stories are being translated to film!
Posted by oracle at 8:29 PM | Comments (5)
November 28, 2007
Everything's Eventual
Stephen King's done it again. I finished Everything's Eventual this morning. I didn't like all of the stories as much as I did the ones from the other two short story books, but there were some good ones. I particularly liked "Everything's Eventual", "Autopsy Room Four", "In the Deathroom", "The Little Sisters of Eluria", "L. T.'s Theory of Pets",
"The Road Virus Heads North", "That Feeling, You Can Only Say What It Is in French", and
"Riding the Bullet".
"The Little Sisters of Eluria" is part of Stephen King's The Dark Tower series. I've heard about that series several times, but nothing about it piqued my interest until I read that short story. I'm fairly confident I'll be poking through Mike's Stephen King collection over the weekend to see if I can find the first book.
Posted by oracle at 11:43 AM | Comments (0)
November 27, 2007
"1408" on paper
Everything's Eventual was waiting for me in the mail when I got home yesterday, and, even though "1408" was near the end of the book, I'm sure I don't have to tell you that I zipped my way through it before the night was over. It was a pretty good story, but I was a little let-down. I wish I'd read "1408" before I saw the movie, especially since I enjoyed the movie as much as I did. I think I would have been better able to appreciate the story on its own merits without my expectations from the movie adaptation coloring my opinion of the short story.
*** SPOILERS ***
As with "The Mist", the movie adaptation of "1408" added to the story, which I didn't mind because I feel the additions didn't take away from the story. I thought both versions of "The Mist" were equally good, but I didn't feel that was the case with "1408", maybe because I saw the movie first. Whatever the reason, I was expecting the story to be even better than the movie, which it wasn't. It didn't have the detail or the suspense I liked so much about the movie adaptation, and one of the parts I liked the best (the part where John Cusack's character thinks he's escaped from the room) wasn't in it either.
Posted by oracle at 8:07 AM | Comments (0)
November 25, 2007
The Heroin Diaries: A Year in the Life of a Shattered Rock Star
Shortly after I started reading The Dirt, I knew I wanted to read this book too. I liked the way Nikki wrote his parts, and, as I mentioned, I have a huge crush on Nikki Sixx, so I was eagerly looking forward to reading more of what he had to say. I wasn't disappointed. Even though he wasn't through with it yet, Mike let me read this one after I finished with The Dirt, and, like The Dirt, it didn't take me long to read. Since I had only heard it referred to as The Heroin Diaries, I was a little disappointed when I realized it only covered a year. Also, I was surprised to see the pages done the way they were. I was expecting regular text and paper, not the colorful glossy pages that I found when I opened the book up.
*** SPOILERS ***
I was happy to see that Nikki did a wrap-up at the end of the book so we didn't just leave off in 1987, but I have to confess, I was bummed to read that his wife Donna had asked for a divorce. Because of my crush on him, I want him to live happily ever after, dammit.
Posted by oracle at 7:07 PM | Comments (0)
November 24, 2007
The Dirt: Confessions of the World's Most Notorious Rock Band
Until today I would not have said I was a fan of Mötley Crüe, but I am after reading The Dirt. The first I heard of this book was when Mike bought it and started reading it. He read me a couple of parts from it as he went through, and eventually his enthusiasm infected me too. It got to the point where I was agitated because he wasn't done with the book yet, and I wanted to read it already. When he finished it yesterday, I started in on it immediately and finished it this afternoon. I really liked the book. My favorite parts are the ones written by Nikki Sixx or Mick Mars. I have a HUGE crush on Nikki, I think Mick is hilarious, I'm meh about Vince Neil, and I really don't think much of Tommy Lee. There were several parts that made me snort with laughter and one that made me burst into tears. Reading The Dirt has sparked my interest in the band - I want to listen to their music and learn more about them, as a band and as individuals (especially Nikki and Mick).
Posted by oracle at 8:07 PM | Comments (0)
November 17, 2007
Stephen King is slowly reeling me in
I read a few of his books a while ago, but his writing style was hard for me to appreciate; with the exception of Rose Madder, it wore on me and grated as the stories progressed. Lately I've found myself appreciating his stories more, though. It began when Mike and I saw 1408. I liked the movie so much that I wanted to read the story it was based on. Mike didn't have that particular short story book, but shortly after that he picked up two of Stephen King's other short story books, Skeleton Crew and Night Shift. I pounced on them, thinking one of them was the book "1408" was in. I realized that wasn't the case after a quick glance through the each table of contents (and a conversation with Mike, just to make sure I hadn't missed it), but, in spite of that, I decided to read Skeleton Crew because "The Mist" is the first story in the book. (Mike and I saw the trailer for that recently, and I really want to see the movie when it comes out, partly because it looks interesting, and partly because Thomas Jane is in it.) "The Mist" hooked me after the first few pages, and I took Skeleton Crew with me everywhere, cracking it open whenever I had a few minutes to spare. After I had burned through Skeleton Crew, I started on Night Shift and went through that book just as quickly. The short story of "'Salem's Lot" motivated me to pick up the novel, which was an interesting story, although, since I initially expected it to be along the same lines as the short story, I wasn't expecting vampires. After finishing that, I ordered Everything's Eventual, the short story collection that "1408" is in, and it cannot get here soon enough.
Posted by oracle at 7:30 PM | Comments (0)
October 24, 2007
30 Days of Night
Mike is a HUGE fan of the 30 Days of Night comic books, written by Steve Niles, and he was thrilled when he found out it was being made into a movie. We went to see it on Saturday with Maddy and D, but unlike Mike and D, neither Maddy or I had read any of the comic books beforehand.
*** SPOILERS ***
I really liked the movie. The story was great, and the effects were done well. It never occurred to me that Alaska would be vamp heaven in the winter, but that makes a lot of sense. Why wouldn't they want to go somewhere they didn't have to worry about sleeping for a month?
Josh Hartnett played the main character, Eben. He's very pretty to look at, but I don't think he has much of a character range. It took me at least 1/3 of the movie to figure out where I recognized the actress who played his wife, Stella, from, and once I had it, I mentally kicked myself for not getting it sooner: Melissa George was Molly on Roar. Ugh. There goes my fangrrl status. I wish the ending had been different, but that wasn't the way the story went in the comics, and I'm glad they stuck so close to the original plot. The only thing I was disappointed in was the vampires' fangs. I like vampires to have the regular vampire fangs, like in Underworld, but the 30 Days of Night vamps had a mouthful of shark teeth. That will change when I am in charge, you know.
As soon as we got home, I tracked down all of Mike's trade paperbacks and settled down to read the original stories. I was pleasantly surprised to see how close the movie had stuck to the comic books, and I'm hoping they make the second series, Dark Days, into a movie too.
Posted by oracle at 7:55 AM | Comments (0)
August 4, 2007
The Dead Room
We went to the library today so I could pick up the books that were on hold for me (only 7 today - I'm slacking), and one of those was ,em>The Dead Room. I started reading it after we got home, planning to get through just a few chapters before I tackled the basket of laundry that needs to be folded and put away, but once I was into the story, I didn't want to stop reading. (Part of that was because the story was pretty good, but I have to be honest, the other part was because I REALLY did not want to start on the laundry just yet.) It's a paranormal adventure story by Heather Graham, and I thought it was pretty good. I liked the characters, I liked the plot, and I really liked that there didn't seem to be anything thrown in as a token (character, scene, etc.). There were a couple of sex scenes that seemed a hair out of place, but, whatever.
*** SPOILERS ***
I hated the ending. HATED. I do not like it when a relationship starts to form throughout a book but then one of the couple dies at the end. I have gotten attached to these people, y'all. I am interested in their future, in the outcome of this relationship. I CARE, DAMMIT. This one was better than some because at least the heroine was reunited with her fiance' in the afterlife (he died in the prologue, and that made me tear up a bit too), but I still would have rather skipped the relationship build-up since it was going to go nowhere seeing as how she DIED AT THE END.
Posted by oracle at 8:29 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 30, 2007
my nerdly heart is going to explode
Mike called me a few minutes ago to let me know that Disney is going to be making the rest of the Chronicles of Narnia books into movies and will be releasing one each May beginning in 2008 and concluding in 2013. Currently, Prince Caspian is scheduled to be released on May 16, 2008, and Voyage of the Dawn Treader (one of my favorite books of the series) is set for May 1, 2009. I don't know how much more of this bookly glee I can take!
Posted by oracle at 8:27 AM | Comments (0)
my fangrrl glee is somewhat tarnished
As excited as I am about the The Dark is Rising movie (67 days till it's in theaters!), I am alarmed by some of what I have been reading about the adaptation, particularly this bit:
The planned film diverges from the book on several fundamental points, including the decision to rewrite Will Stanton's character to change him from an eleven-year-old English boy to a fourteen-year-old American boy, significant changes to the mythological structure of the plot, re-setting the story to occur in the present-day, and the addition of a brother of Will's as a potential "Judas" character among them.
I don't really think changing Will's age is a huge deal (although that does have some impact on the story since part of the reason it's such a big deal that Will is an Old One is because he's so young), and setting it in the present isn't too major either, but changing the setting from England to AMERICA?!? That changes the whole premise of the story! Arthurian mythology is heavily woven into the series, and America is NOT the country where Arthur lived. Arthur is not supposed to come back to AMERICA in a time of great trouble, he's supposed to come back to ENGLAND to save his people. Who are ENGLISH. This change affects not just this book, but the entire series, especially The Grey King and Silver on the Tree. In both of those stories the setting (location) is pivotal. Being in England is CRITICAL to the plot. You can't just change the setting and expect everything to be the same. America is a great country and all, but it doesn't have the same atmosphere (or culture) as England, and that's important, dammit! If the location wasn't changed in the remake of the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, why was it necessary to change it for The Dark is Rising? Bah.
Posted by oracle at 7:37 AM | Comments (2)
July 29, 2007
the Dark is Rising
Sweet tiny baby Moses. My brother just called to tell me that The Dark is Rising is being made into a movie! And it's supposed to be released this year! (October 5, to be exact.) How did I not hear about this until now? I LOVE that series. As far as I'm concerned, it's easily on par with the Chronicles of Narnia, the Sword of Truth, and the Wheel of Time as one of my favorite fantasy series. In retrospect it's probably for the best that I'm just finding out about this now, because had I known earlier, it would have been hard for me to wait patiently. As it is, October seems too far away. Seriously, y'all. The Dark? Is rising.
When the Dark comes rising, six shall turn it back;
Three from the circle, three from the track;
Wood, bronze, iron; water, fire, stone;
Five will return, and one go alone.
Iron for the birthday, bronze carried long;
Wood from the burning, stone out of song;
Fire in the candle-ring, water from the thaw;
Six Signs the circle, and the grail gone before.
Fire on the mountain shall find the harp of gold
Played to wake the Sleepers, oldest of the old;
Power from the green witch, lost beneath the sea;
All shall find the light at last, silver on the tree.
Posted by oracle at 1:35 PM | Comments (0)
July 21, 2007
that Potter boy
Mike bought me the new Harry Potter book while we were at Best Buy today, and I just finished it about half an hour ago. Originally I wasn't going to buy it - I was going to wait until the library had it and check it out from there instead - but we passed by a display of the pretty hardbacks with their colorful covers and their shiny new book smells, and when Mike told me he was going to buy one for me, I couldn't say no. I started it shortly after we got home, and I just finished it a few minutes ago. I'm going to get into what I think about the Deathly Hallows later, but for now I'll give a little (a lot) backstory about me and Harry Potter.
When the first book came out, I could not have cared less about it or him. I thought it was kind of funny that so many people were getting so into it, but that was about all the thought I put into it at the time. Then, as more of the books came out and more people got into it, I started getting annoyed - I couldn't go ANYWHERE without hearing about Harry Potter, and the fans weren't laid-back about it all. They were fucking RABID, talking Harry Potter up like it was the best series ever written, bar none, and that grated on me. Even my brother got caught up. He was the cause of my first personal exposure to the series, in the form of the movies. The first Harry Potter movie was scheduled to come out right around his birthday, and because he was a HUGE fan (and I was notoriously bad about wrapping presents), I decided to take him to see it for his birthday: he'd get to see a movie he was extremely anxious to see and get a great birthday present, and I wouldn't have to wrap anything - perfection! I didn't hate the movie, but it didn't exactly suck me in, either. While I put aside some of my hate for Harry, I stayed a little aloof, unsure of whether or not I wanted to give the series any more of a try than that. The following year the second Harry Potter movie was on the horizon. Since taking my brother to the first one had been such a success, I took him to the second one for his birthday that year, with the same results. By that point I no longer hated Potter, but I still wasn't ready to don a Hogwarts shirt or wizard hat. We had plans to do the same thing the next year for the third movie, but when November rolled around, they foiled my brilliant birthday plan and pushed the release date back to the following summer. The cycle was broken (and I had to find another idea for a birthday present). After I met Mike, the kids reintroduced Harry Potter into my life. A and Z were both hardcore fans, and N was interested in the series as well, although not quite as much as his older brothers. I held out for a couple more years, but when Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was released in 2005, I caved. I decided to read the first book and see how I liked it. That coincided with my start at my new job, so while I was waiting to get set up with a computer and an account and all that good stuff, I brought Harry Potter along to keep me company. It only took me a couple of days to finish the first book, and that was the beginning of the end for me. For the rest of that week and part of the next, the only things I brought to work with me were the Harry Potter books, and I read them every chance I could. I finally understood why so many people liked the series. I still didn't (and don't) think it's the Best Series Evar (I'm still partial to the Chronicles of Narnia, the Dark is Rising, the Wheel of Time, and the Sword of Truth), but I do think it's much better than I initially gave it credit for. With that said, I'm a little sad to the series come to an end, although I do think it's best to end things like this while they are still good, instead of dragging them out until they're limping along, barely breathing anymore.
Posted by oracle at 11:20 PM | Comments (0)
October 17, 2006
keys, knights, and nightmares
Skeleton Key was on HBO Sunday night, and that's one I've wanted to see since it first came out, even though I knew next to nothing about it. Mike flipped past it early on in the movie and humored me when I asked if he'd leave it there. That is not a movie I should watch before bedtime, let me just say that. I liked the plot, I liked the twist (it may have been obvious to you, but it was definitely a twist for me) near the end, I liked the hoodoo involvement, but sweet, weeping Moses, I spent a good chunk of the night trying to get the image of the ghosts in the mirror out of my head. I think that part got to me more than the rest of the movie, although after seeing the ending, it was neat to go back and put all the pieces/clues together. I'd like to see it again now that I know what's going on so I can watch it all unfold from that perspective, but that's not going to happen anytime soon. (When I finally did fall asleep, I had a nightmare. All I can remember from it is peeking through my eyelashes to see if it was safe, only to see someone's eye so close to mine that all I could see was the light reflecting off the black iris. Creepy.)
After watching the movie I was so freaked out I needed something to take my mind off the hoodoo so I picked up The Templar Legacy, one of the books I got from the library on Saturday. I finished it Monday afternoon and really enjoyed it. I'm pondering starting a book blog, so that's all I'll write about the story for now.
Posted by oracle at 11:55 AM | Comments (0)