I’m a lukewarm watching of Smallville. I used to watch it when it was brand new, got tired of the Lana obsession of Clarks, and the unlikelihood of Chloe/Lex actually happening, but turned in to Absolute Justice for Michael Shanks, and was brought back to the fold by Justin Hartley as Oliver Queen (and his chemistry with Alison Mack as Chloe). This is my first season watching it again where I start at the beginning (a very good place to start).
Spoilers beneath cut.
One of my favorite series was Anne McCaffery’s Talent series. It was the story of The Rowan, an orphan girl who had strong telepathic and telekinetic powers which her children and grandchildren inherited from her. The first book is about The Rowan (The Rowan), The second is about her daughter (Damia). The next three books (Damia’s Children, Lyon’s Pride and The Tower & the Hive) are about her grandchildren and their friends/family.
I thought this was the end of the story (though I wanted it to continue, as it was (and is) my favorite sci-fi series), but as I was wondering through the book store a few years back, I stumbled upon ‘Pegasus in Space’. I noticed the name Peter Reidinger, a name I recognized from the Talent series as Rowan’s boss and Father-figure. So I picked it up, but I never ended up reading it till recently.
Continue reading “Anne McCaffery’s Pegasus Trilogy (review, and general Fan babble)”
I had Lost in Austen on my Netflix Instant Queue for several weeks, and last night my mother decided it was time we watched it. It was a 3 hour long movie about a girl named Amanda Price who has a doorway to the Bennet’s house in her bathroom. She’s got a mother urging her to marry, a boyfriend who wants to marry her but proposes when he’s drunk so she doesn’t believe him, and a flatmate who appears for about 5 minutes total in the movie so she is unimportant.
spoilers beneath. Apparently I have trouble explaining a movie without explaining the whole movie. But there is a lot I left out.
Dear Writers,
I would like to see one day a heroine who is kick ass. One who doesn’t have the perfect life, but hasn’t had hell either. One who takes the obstacles in her life and overcomes them without four pages of woe-is-me. I want a heroine who saves the day using her smarts and manages to get the guy too. I want a heroine who wears normal clothes and not 3 inch platform boots to go kick butt. Sure, she can wear them sometimes but when you are running through the woods trying to catch the bad guy, heels aren’t very logical. So how about a girl who wears jeans and a sports jersey (or whatever is historically accurate) or I suppose a business suit if she so wishes, who eats chocolate pudding and doesn’t cry about the calories, whose smart and intelligent and doesn’t need a man to save her (although if he would like to help that would be fine.). One where if the guy leaves her, her world doesn’t completely crumble. She might be hurt, she might be devastated, but she picks up and carries on. A character who can be kick ass and a mother if she she so chooses. A character who realizes showing emotion every once and awhile ISN”T a sign of weakness. Actually, that would be for guys too. You can fall in love and still save the world.
If you find this character, please write her. I would like to see more of her on my bookshelf and on my computer.
Sincerely,
A Reader.
After school let out for the summer I decided to go through my computer and finish the unfinished stories and start getting them moved over to the “Look how much crap I have written” Disk. I opened the NCIS folder, having decided to start there and realized I had six unfinished stories. All of them were AUs in the sense that Kate Todd never dies in my stories (except in the Doom Fic, which she actually only dies for a few minutes) but I wondered if I should actually call them AUs. For examples, I shall list the summaries of these WIPs.
1. Dirty Deeds
Basically I’m writing a cliché. Kate and Tony have a one-night stand the night before his wedding to Bianca (an OC). Much angst is held because Tony is confused, Kate feels guilt and confusion, Abby and the rest of the gang are wondering why the hell Tony is getting married and Bianca has issues of her own. AU because Kate is alive and Tony is actually getting married, but still staying close to canon.
2. As the World Falls Down
Kate & Tony (are you getting my ship for this fandom yet?) babysit Tony’s half-sister. Kate has a strange dream inspired by Labyrinth and decides to make a move on Tony. It starts off as a fluffy one-shot but Abby & Tim wanted their turn. So its more. AU Kate but stays close to canon
3. The Christmas AU 1
Tony and Kate spend Christmas together during the great Snow-in. Canon AU
4. The Christmas AU 2
Jen, Kate and Ziva own a book store. Ari is a patient at a mental facility where he is watched over by Dr. Leon Vance. Ducky runs a clinic with Gerald and Jimmy, Paula Cassidy a jewelry store, Cassie Yates a drug store, Tony a movie rental place and Abby a computer repair center. Tim is a writer known for spending time at the book store. I forget what I have Gibbs doing. AU AU
5. Untitled
Tony decides to take a job in LA for a few months to put distance between himself and Kate. This is how She realizes how much Tony actually does within the group dynamic. AU season 3
6. The One with a Casino
Jen owns a casino. Ari wants her casino, so he sends his best man Peter to try and blackmail and otherwise terrorize a stubborn Jen out of the casino. Kate is a PI (partnered with Tony) and comes to work undercover to catch Ari & Peter in the act. Gibbs is Jen’s wealthy but retired boyfriend, Ducky and Jimmy bartenders, Ziva is head of security, and McGee is a frequent customer to the table where Abby is the dealer.
There is more (including, I think, a McAbby ficlet) but I will stop there. Especially since this is supposed to be a reading/writing original fic journal. But the point is most of those stick to canon in the sense that they have the same missions, the same things happen to people, but its altered slightly by the fact that Kate (and at times Jen) lived to see another season. But then I also have the Casino and Bookshop fics. If its AU to have Kate alive, what do I call fics where its not even in the same setting as the original product.
What if I have Rodney and John as professors at Atlantis University instead of who they are on the show? Do I call that Au or do I have another label for it. Or what if I write a fic where Vala never got off the Prometheus the first time?
So what I am asking my few readers is How do you define an AU and whats canon fic.
Title: Fantastic Four
Author: Peter David (Based on Screenplay by Mark Frost, Simon Kinberg, and Michael France, who were inspired by Marvel)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Movie Novelization, some romance
Summery: Reed Richards, Victor Von Doom, Ben Grimm, and the Storm siblings go up in space to hold experiments with a cosmic cloud. Things don’t go as planed, and the crew is hit by the cloud instead of being protected by the stations shielding. Suddenly Reed can stretch his arms further then natural, Susan can be invisible, Johnny can turn into fire, and Ben has transformed into a man made out of rock. Victor seems unharmed, but slowly he is transforming into a metal alloy, which turns to to be a bad combination with his mood.
Yeah, bad summery. You can probably get the gist if you watch a cartoon, or read the comic. I tend to stick to the film when it comes to Marvel stuff. And I should probably mention that there are slight spoilers here if you are a Fantastic Four newbie.
I have read Peter David novels in the past. He wrote one of my favorite Star Trek novels, Imzadi. That was slightly different then this, as Imazdi was based within that universe while Fantastic Four is based directly on a script. I bought this after watching the movie so I already had the characters set in my head as the actors. I liked it the first time through. I decided to re-read it for this year’s bookit 50, and liked it again.
There was one issue I had with this book this time through. Since the second movie hadn’t been out before I read the first movie’s novelization it didn’t phase me the first time, and I don’t think I even realized it till this time reading it. The novel has a Frankie Raye, which if you have seen the second film you know she’s a character in that film. One quite different then the one in this novelization. Although this does give me ideas for a fanfic where they ARE the same person (I doubt they are. I just think it was a matter of Peter David doing his homework and the writers of movie II not taking his novelization into account when they wrote it. Movie trumps book in this case)
Like with Willow, this book had some scenes that never made it to film or were cut during the final edit (and there are a few in the deleted scenes on the DVD). Some scenes were completely different. Like the scene where Reed and Susan talk about their relationship? Happens in a different location then in the movie.
I enjoyed it. Its a good novelization.
Rating: 4/5
Bookit # (2/50) of (1/52)
Title: Willow
Author: Wayland Davis (based on the screenplay by Bob Dolman who inturn based it on a story by George Lucas.)
Genre: Fantasy/Movie Novelization
Summery: Willow Ufgood, A Nelwyn farmer (and aspiring magican), is sent on a journey to return a baby Daikini to its people. As always, this journey goes differently then planned. He ends up teaming up with swordsmen Madmartigan, two brownies named Franjean and Rool and a transformed Sorceress named Fin Raziel to protect the baby from the evil Queen Bavmorda of Nockmaar who wants to kill her.
Apparently for the month of January, my theme for book reading is Movie Novelizations. These are books derived from movies (as opposed as books on which movies are derived.)
I borrowed this book from a friend because I loved the movie. And I love this book too. It follows the course of the film nicely, and as with all novelizations, has scenes that were cut out of the movie. Many I wish had been included. Like Madmartigan’s back story. Or the back story of Bavmorda and Fin Raziel’s animosity towards each other (Not only is Bav evil, but she also stole Fin’s boyfriend!).
Anyway, The Pros/Cons
Pros
– Madmartigan’s Back story (he apparently was a weapons prodigy)
– Bavmorda Backstory
– The Nelwyns have more screen time
Cons
– The flashback style is kinda awkward
– It feels like it needs to be longer.
Rating: 4/5
Bookit # (1/50 of 1/52)
(I promise these will become better as I go. Its been along time since I did a book review that was more “Eh, it was good”, so I need time to learn how to do it again.)
I read tons of fan fiction in my free time. And over time I have come across some things that have made me want to bang my head against the wall. Sometimes it was atrocious spelling (if its worse then my own, its really really bad, believe me), other times it could be the lack of capitals or punctuation. And often it is the author notes.
Author notes are for the purpose of speaking to the reader about whatever it is your story that isn’t explained within the story itself, or answering a common question in reviews for the last trouble, or even making a note about the song you listened to or an excuse why its late. I usually include people who helped in the brainstorming and beta’ing of the story. It belongs at the top and/or bottom of your chapter.
Where it does not belong is in the middle of it. Over the last couple of months I have constantly come across stories where I’m into the story and get thrown out because the author decided to stick an author’s note into a paragraph. I spend a few minutes glaring at said author’s note and continue on. On occasion I have found fics riddled with author notes.
As a reader I am begging the writers: Please keep the notes to the start or the finish. If you feel you need to explain something, put an asterisk or a number ala footnotes and explain it later. Or just explain it in the opening notes.
When its in the middle of your story it throws the reader off. Its like floating through a river and suddenly a rock appears. Also, half the author notes within the story I have seen tend to be commentary rather then explanations. If you want to do that, do a fic commentary like people do for television shows. I find the “And he danced to the hokey pokey. (A/N: I love that song!)” to be greatly annoying.
Also, if you feel something needs to be explained, have another character explain it.
I don’t want to sound mean or make it sound like those who do this aren’t good writers. All I am saying is that I have stopped reading fics before because of excessive internal author notes. Keep them to the before or after area, and not the during, please.
Remember when you were younger and the library had special summer reading (or during the school year sometimes) that if you read so many gooks, you’d get a gift card to Pizza Hut (or whatever)? Well, my friends and I, seeing a similar non-organization based version of it, decided last year to have what we called ‘The Fellowship Book-it”. The Fellowship is a nickname we gave our group after seeing LOTR. Don’t ask. Anyway, the point of the Book-it is to get back to reading. And reading something that isn’t on the screen of one’s computer (Basically that news article on Britney Spears doesn’t count). If you have a Kindle, or an ebook program, that’s different.
The Goal: 50 books during the year. That is basically 1 book per week, with two weeks off.
Time Frame: January 1st – December 31st.
The Rules (of the fellowship version, its not exactly a standard):
– This is not a competition, its a goal line
– The story you read must be able to be found by itself somewhere. So a packet of short stories doesn’t count as five books. You can count it as one book (But point it out that its a group) If its an exceptionally long short story, an exception might be made (like the 28 page excerpt of St. Augustine I read last year. I counted that by itself)
– Text books count if there is reading involved. Math books do not count, there are more numbers then words.
– A book counts once. If you read it twice in one year, it still only gets counted once
– You can count books you’ve read before, as long as you actually read it again and don’t count it twice in the same year.
– If you start a book in 09, and finish it in ‘10, it can count.
Most people just keep a list of what they read. We are using a facebook group thing to keep track of what is what, and when someone reaches 25 we *plan* to have a pizza party. (we kinda forgot last year). Some people write reviews as they go along, and that is what I’m going to try to do
So I’m off to read. Expect my first review to come soon. Also, I read alot of Fandom fiction (movie novelization, spin off books etc) so expect some fandom talk as well.
If anyone would like to do this and has questions, feel free to comment or email me. Its just a fun thing to do. There is also a movie and TV episode versions I’ve seen, and I;m doing the 100 movies in a year one. Its my first year. So far so good, except I keep rewatching movies:)
I got this book mainly because its a tie-in novel for castle, which is probably one of the most unique procedural. And Nathan Fillion rocks. But I digress. This is about the book.
Its about an NYPD detective named Nikki Heat, her two associates Raley and Ochoa, the ME Lauren and a reporter by the name of Jameson Rook (Which actually isn’t too bad of a name). They investigate the murder of Real Estate CEO Matt Starr.
I liked it. It had mystery, banter and a touch of romance. There were certain things that I thought could have been better (I would have liked to have seen Rook’s POV sometimes). If you like the show, you’ll like the book because it reads like an episode. You can figure out who is who in the book quite easily.
I wouldn’t mind reading more of these. Also, I want to know what Kate Beckett thinks of page 105.
Sokorra Lewis 