I'm sure that when I call them video games, I am being flippant. But I do love a good role-playing story, especially since Bioware decided to really do storytelling. I know there were others before, but mine own heart was caught by KOTOR, and I haven't been the same since.

The latest offering is Dragon Age: Origins, and it arrived in my mailbox this afternoon. Seemingly, it is an entry in the newly-named Fantasy Noir genre, with an optional setting called "Persistant Gore", and some social commentary in the opening sequence for the character background I chose (Dwarf Commener). Set in a semi-standard North Europe fantasy land - it seems to draw more from the Germanic than the Celt or Norse, from what I can make out - I enjoyed the upsetting of genre gender roles by playing a female warrier. For a male adventurer, it seems much more traditional fantasy in its genre tropes.

I look forward to seeing how much the twists turn the genre expectations on their heads.

new fangled phone, with a newfangled app out of Russia.

Testing...testing 1...2...3

Pure cheese, but oh, so fun. I still don't like a lot of what they do for Beckett's characterization, but the supporting cast is a delight. Castle himself, I pretty much want to strangle, though he usually manages to be amusing at just the right intervals to keep me from turning the show off.

Husband and I just got back from seeing Whiteout (official site - over flashed, but with actual images), and it was as good as I was expecting.

Being a comic book movie, and also starring Kate Beckinsale, our introduction to the main character - U.S. Marshall Carrie Stetko - involves the camera ogling her in her underwear. However, this gets the seemingly-obligatory T&A out of the way quick, and we can move on to the serious business of freaking the characters, and the audience, the hell out.

Set at a research facility on Antarctica, the movie centers around a murder mystery. The kicker is that the setting is isolated and hostile-to-life all on its own (as the trailer helpfully informs us) and our heroine must solve the mystery before the winter exodus, or be trapped at the facility with a murderer and no transport out, for six months.

The movie-makers got the tension just right, and the constant feeling of not being able to trust your surroundings. My big complaint is that MI-6 agent Lily Sharpe from the graphic novel (you want to read the available free preview. Trust me) got gender- and nationality- swapped to Robert Pryce, an American man on loan to a UN investigative division. And the just chaps me, given how unusual Lily was as both a character, and in regards to her relationship with Stetko, in the mainstream. Fortunately, Stetko didn't get watered down, and Pryce doesn't become the de-facto hero of the movie, which would have been my predicted result of the gender-swap if I'd known about it going in. The other thing that grates is that our single non-American in the entire film has nasty anti-foreigner implications attached to him, but virtue of his narrative place. (Is that sentence convoluted enough to avoid being a spoiler? I hope so).

Other changes were annoying, but I could see their necessity in the conversion from graphic novel to movie. Rucka is good at international implications, nuanced plots, and large character rosters. Movies tend not to be. So our group of international stations and outposts, all on Antarctica and all talking to one another, make no appearance. The movie turns the plot into a purely American matter, despite the Russians in the prologue. And Stetko's complex set of professional challenges get distilled into the one personal/professional trauma that came across from the graphic novel.

Stetko is one tough, stubborn, smart heroine. I happily add her movie version to my pantheon.

The Story Teller: Pages 58-100 represent chapters Seven through Twelve, in which Plot Happens. I am liking the echoing cultural ownership as a theme. Vicky is having to face people trying to "own" bits of Arapaho culture in a number of different contexts. UST still heavy, but at least our two heroes get some page time together dealing with the actual mystery.
Previously
( in which hopes are dashed and battles are joined )

I'm liveblogging my reading of this book, in an attempt to drum up anticipation for Margaret Coel speaking at the AAUW-Boulder Membership Tea on Sunday. Or at least, anticipation in someone other than myself, because I am already a stoked fangirl.

Hint: I actually made a Facebook event for it. Someone check under the bed for pods.

The Story Teller: Pages 1-57 represent chapters Prologue through Six, and I'm remembering why I don't read these too closely together. The UST kills me, usually because it gets more words than I really want to devote time to reading. She's a lawyer, he's a priest, they aren't going to do anything with the UST with each other. Period. I'm really looking forward to finding out if Coel can mellow it out to a kind of deep and abiding friendship in later books. No The Thorn Birds, please.

( we're taking the long way )

I have become annoyed with my current reading book's Lack-of-Girl, which is accomplished in such a way as to be a kind of off-hand dismissal.

So, I'm going to write about the book I finished yesterday, which does not suffer from that particular malady.

The Ruby Key by Holly Lisle is book one in an ongoing young-adult Secondary World fantasy series¹. I saw a lot of elements from other works that I enjoyed in The Ruby Key, but that familiarity doesn't keep the story arc in the book from being entirely itself. This first installment is very much a Quest, in the manner that A New Hope² or The Hobbit are, with an engaging cast of characters. First Person POV goes to Genna, a young woman in her mid teens and our Protagonist.

The setting is a sketchily drawn (with what feels like a promise for further explanation and detail in later books), but the familiar village-in-the-woods feudal arrangement is in full effect. Where most universes put Elves or (British Isles)Faery, Lisle has put the nightlings - who function much like creatures from old-style Bavarian folktales³ though I could have wished for more explicit differentiation.

Genna and her brother start the story by breaking village laws to try and collect ingredients for a healing elixir for their mother - and things snowball when they get caught at it by a nightling. They make a bargain for the lives of people they love (with creatures who will honor the word, rather than spirit, of a deal), and end up questing through nightmare landscapes⁴ and being hunted by forces they've never heard of before⁵, subject to manipulating allies, and generally in over their heads. There are elements that skirt the very edge of the Special cliche for fantasy heroes, of which I am wary regarding the next book.

The Ruby Key managed that great trick of young adult lit, in that the characters remained frighteningly young, rash, impulsive, and generally not yet smashed into mature-grown-up shape. Their solutions fell very in line with their characters traits, not some pre-set moves required by the plot.

~*~
1. I get my definition from reading truepenny, here.**
2. "Sunrider"
3. Nuada, from Hellboy II would be right at home.
4. it's like the Stargate, only no MALP to go in first
5. when Genna grows up, she and Harry Dresden need to have a beer together to talk about all the surprise things that want to kill them.

**And in trying to do this write up, I had to go back to read her genre theory tag, and ran into a beautiful explanation for why Shadow & Claw is making me grumpy. From here:

"We look at a woman," he says, and you know what? That "we" does not include any women in it. It's that nice unexamined "the generic pronoun in English is 'he'" kind of misogyny which has no animus against women, and it doesn't matter unless you ARE a woman, in which case you suddenly feel like you've been asked to leave.

Continuing my tradition of talking up a new-to-me tv show, and then never writing about it again, even when I watch, I introduce Castle, starring Nathan Fillion. It's another entry in the buddy-cop-series genre of television (Law and Order, due South, Bones, & etc). I have to say, that I like the genre branching out into buddy teams consisting of opposite genders - though I have to say Law and Order: Criminal Minds is still my benchmark. Especially in the first seasons.

As for Castle itself: the episode titles nearly convinced me to take a pass in watching, they're not funny though someone obviously intends for them to be. I'm still debating whether I'm actually glad I took the plunge, but I'm now on episode three of the five available on Hulu, so there must be something compelling going on.

Fillion plays the title character, a best-selling author name Richard Castle, cast in the usual fictional mold - with high publicity and a rich lifestyle, though comments indicate that the character actually has a Patterson/Clancy/Gaiman-size bibliography and not just the one Magical-Bestseller bank account. He's also an asshole, in the Mal Raynolds form, so not a complete stretch.

Det. Beckett is the hard-as-nails female cop stereotype, with hard dialog and snide remarks and control issues. There's enough else there to keep that from being the total of her characterization, which leaves hope that she'll break-away from or transcend the stereotype. I didn't like her in the promo material, though she's slowly growing on me. I'd still rather be watching Zuleikha Robinson reprise her own NYPD detective instead of Stana Katic deliver a similar yet less multi-tonal character.

The plots aren't deep, or terribly complicated - staying true to the mystery-thriller genre stereotypes as well. While the mysteries aren't deep, the characters are well done in broad strokes. This may end up being my greatest frustration: Castle has layers, facets and is all-around a dynamic character. Many of the guests in each episode are as well. Less so the rest of the regulars, which may be what's making me think wistfully of Eva Marquez - stuck a similar roll, definitely subordinate to a charismatic male lead, she actually managed to be a person rather than a foil or someone to play off of for the star.

( cut for rambling )
By episode four - Castle's wearing cool scarves too.

It's a joke. You know you want to click the link.

Like a signal boost, but with more art.

So, I've inhaled the works of Catherynne Valente over the last 15 months (give or take). Currently, she's been hit by economic woes following a layoff in the household.

Best Beloveds - this woman weaves words. I think I had bits of her Oracles: A Pilgrimage running through my head for a full month after reading it. And I breath in the things she writes that I don't like, because something about her craft is compelling - even when it doesn't touch my soul the way it does others'.

She's offering a full YA novel, delivered one chapter at a time, free to the public with a PayPal optional contribution button.

Her out-of-print works are available in e-book form (including my own obsession, Oracles), and are worth every penny.

She has had an experiment in cyber-funded art going for a little over a year now - my heart still leaps a bit when I see the Omikuji letter in my mail-box. There's never been a story that bored me, or that I skipped. A couple that I had to brace myself before finishing - but that would be the "art" portion of cyber-funded art.

And now, there's a community offering myriad beautiful, useful things so that Cat may create again. I know I have my eye on a couple of those jewelry auctions.

LibraryThing has debuted Collections - so I can actually see all 9 books that I'm currently reading.

Turns out that's a great motivator for actually reading them: makes the list shorter.

ETA: It's actually 10 books, because I picked up The Thunder Keeper. I'm going to see Margaret Coel speak at Chautauqua on the 29th, and want to brush up.

Things I've been doing while avoiding posting anything to LiveJournal:

Walking. As of this evening, I've walked 207 miles this year.

Putting together an informational site for my AAUW branch. Yeah, real website developers are collectively scowling right now and they don't know why. Still, I'm pretty pleased with the function:form going on there.

Working. Yeah, we're having fun in that photo. Yeah, we work our assess off too.

Reading, but not nearly as much as I want to. I'm having a hard time finishing things these days.

The National Institute of Health has drafted new guidelines for the funding of embryonic stem cell research. The U.S. is in the public comment period until May 26th.

Rallying Cry Letter

The Draft Guidelines

The Public Comment page

If you are a U.S. Citizen or Resident, and support the use of embryonic stem cells for scientific (medical) research, please comment on the drafted guidelines to say so. Registering your comments here may have a direct effect on the policy eventually being put into place.


links found via neilhimself

It's comfortable here in my bottle. Like something off of TV, with the sleeping couches along the curve, and a cute stopper that lets in the light. Books appear in giant brass bowls, overflowing onto my little table. They taste of cotton, sweat, tears, paper, and dreams on my tongue as I chew thoughtfully. The glue sticks like a foggy memory of peanut butter. I am replete with knowledge of darkest desire, and often shake my head at the sheer folly. Even I cannot break physics for very long, and know better than to tamper with the minds of sentients en-mass. It never lasts.

The bottle hasn't moved in a while, and I hope I've been forgotten, at least long enough to get some rest. Too many wishes wear a girl out, y'know.

The glass behind my couch is ever-so thinner than the rest, from chafing in pockets and being rubbed in desperation. I make sure the couch is never so well situated that it doesn't move slightly with every shift of my abode. I have time and patience; I learn your minds much better than you can learn mine.

Dollhouse 1x02 - "The Target"

This could have done with a few more edits, and a little less transparency in who they think the audience is made up of. It's not like Joss Whedon draws the T&A crowd by default.

As it is, this episode is severely disjointed, clunky, and talks as if it thinks the viewers are idiots. Both Eliza Dushku and Tahmoh Penikett are very pretty, and I'm developing a similar inclination for Penikett's voice as I had for Coster-Waldau's nose in New Amsterdam. This doesn't bode well.

Still not deft. Still getting the benefit of the doubt on fondness for Joss Whedon, and a couple of good moments, particularly the confrontation scene between Echo's Jenny persona and the Bad Guy of the week. The Alpha sub-plot, and Ballard's investigation hold no interest for me (despite the developing thing for Penikett's voice).

( details, with spoilers )

I'm cooking a very low-maintenance dinner, and waiting for it to be done before returning to the bounty that is Hulu. Burn Notice awaits.

While waiting, I'm going through my old reading notes for various things over the last six months or so, and found the ones for Lies of Locke Lamora, that I'd done in preparation for what I think of as a formal review. I was reading this on the plane out to Austin for Maker Faire in October, and typed these up when I got home. Since the formal version isn't likely to be completed, I've decided to go ahead and post these.

Lies of Locke Lamora
by Scott Lynch

As a narrative, this sometimes seems rather too pleased with itself. At the points where I would have been most annoyed with this, I could talk myself into believing that this was merely and echo of the protagonist's own personality. It was still annoying.

Set in a richly detailed world of un-known origin (evidence of the Eldren points to one other than an alternate of our own), the story follows thief and master con-man Locke Lamora. From his beginning education as a con-man to the point at which his whole world falls completely apart. The cast of characters is dynamic and well-detailed. The emotional ties are easy to see and respect.

Jumping between two time periods, alternating chapters, the tension and suspense were difficult to sustain. The forays into the city-state's history only increased this problem. I love the details that I got about this world, as a reader, but the method of delivery was clunky as hell; if I hadn't been on an airplane when I started this book, I'm not sure my good-will with that aspect would have lasted.

I care a great deal more about the world itself and Jean Tannen than I do about the central actions of the book. I like it for the fantasy "standards" that it overturns or completely ignores. I could take or leave the whole Thorn of Camorr distinction entirely - it felt superfluous and unnecessary, a gratuitous tie-in to the Robin Hood legends familiar to readers.

Things I liked:
The Gentlemen Bastards
The details of their training
The House of Glass Roses
Jean Tannen - full stop
The setting (interview w/ S. Lynch described it as Elizabethan with Medicci overtones, which works for me).
The world building
That Locke Lamora did not turn out to be a noble's bastard son (explicitly)
The Wicked Sisters
The Berangias sisters
Location descriptions
Nazca Barsavi
The Spider
The narrative treatment of class issues within its world
That is passes the Bechdal test, and that the default isn't white, but a mix that I'd expect to find along the Mediterranean (north and south coasts) in our world.
That the trappings of a traditional Rogue Hero are spread out among four different people
The fact of the sharks

Things I didn't like:
The story's coyness about Sabetha
The structure
The mirroring of Locke's over-cleverness in the language
The sense of stringing along - that we don't really get to know the characters that we want to unless we read all the books.
The smug

Make no mistake, based on only the pilot Dollhouse is a skeevy show. By which I mean exploitative and titillating in inappropriate circumstances.

The story itself was clunky and without much sense - it's an episode made up of setting pieces and narrative short-hand. There were some good quips in the dialog, and the premise has the same promise to it that Bionic Woman did, somewhat on the thematic level. As for Dollhouse's pilot, it was an episode that improved upon second viewing - in that I could catch the puzzle pieces that (I hope) were being left for viewers, and could overlook the things that struck me as very clunky the first time. It was still clunky, and vexing, but I wasn't constantly disbelieving my eyes - I already knew they really went there.

( there's these girls, see )

The identity questions, the free-will questions, and the premise that a woman is going to break her bonds and make the bastards pay is something I would watch raptly. The lone-wolf FBI agent with a Mission, likewise. I'm not sure this series can pull it together, given that the visuals often go for the gratuitous booty-shot, or run lingeringly over the bodies of vapid, empty, vulnerable Actives - known only by their respective letters of the alphabet (Alpha, Echo, Sierra), when between personalities. The seeming self-awareness of the base narrative they're using (body as object, use of body as commodity) is deeply problematic. Doing a subversion right would take deft work. This? Was not deft.

This one is coming around again. From Twistedchick this time:

Here's my list:
1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline the books you LOVE.
4) Reprint this list in your own LJ so we can try and track down these people
who've read 6 and force books upon them ;-)

( The list: )

26 out of 100. Looks like I have a good name to defend.

As some of you know, I have one of those embarrassingly sincere discomforts with fictionalized stories about real people. I am of the opinion that, part of filing the serial numbers off and makeing it fiction, is divorcing the narrative from the real people. Real people are not puppets to use in our own narrative desires, nor mouthpieces to be used for our own messages.

Sometimes, I feel a little strongly about the whole thing. And occasionally run into problems when the work is absolutely not part of our world (history, current, or otherwise) - such as Christopher Marlow being involved with Faery instead of dead.

I just finished the second book I received as part of LibraryThing's Early Reviewer's Program, and I am now two for two, receiving a book with a fictionalized real person as the protagonist.

Is it the market, or the universe trying to wear me down?

Came home sick today - actually taking the advice I give out (for once). Not debilitated, but a sore throat and a cough never add up to anything good. Rest should kick it's butt.

So, I'm spending time going through my files, finishing up some reading notes, seeing what I want to talk about, and what I don't.

From My Notes:

Tam Lin
by Pamela Dean

This book could very well be the gateway drug from "mainstream" fiction to fantasy. I spent most of it wondering where the explicit supernatural was, thought the hints were lovely.

And then, there it was, and I wasn't sorry it had been so subtle before.

Throughout this book, but mostly in the descriptions of that first term, I was reminded of the feeling I had in my own first university literature course. Allusion upon allusion, all piling up on one another, and notable in its absense is any direct quoting of The Ballad of Tam Lin. We get a great deal of Shakespeare, and everything from Homer to Stoppard, Fry to Eliot; and these are just the ones I remember without flipping through the pages again.

I was a touch bored, and impatient with the story centering on the day-to-day issues of being a female university student in the 1970s, and could almost believe that the supernatural elements were all going to stay as University rumor and subtext, though I was promised otherwise.

It was a nice unfolding, though not quite what I was in the mood for, until about half-way through. I felt positively inadequate in my own English Literature education, which was really distracting.

The thematic threads of the book were always present, though I'm sure I didn't catch them all, as there are giant holes in my recognition of English Folklore Concerning Faery. The theme of exclusivity is interesting in and of itself. Janet's annoyance with Nick's presumption of a relationship, and her acknowledgment that they never actually talk about it. The feeling of being left to discover the "rules" of their relationship herself, and distinguishing what is Creepy Classics Department stuff and what is Oblivious College Guy stuff was a pleasant difficulty (for me, though Janet probably found it less pleasant).

Thomas was a bit of a let-down as a source of information toward the end. And I missed the implication of his character and behavior for the longest time.