Musings of the Obsessive Kind

I have been on a fantasy/scifi kick lately and read a number of fun things:

( Books that aren't Elantris )

I saved the best for last - by pure chance, I stumbled on Brandon Sanderson's Elantris, that rarity-of-rarities, a standalone 'traditional' fantasy novel. The city of Elantris used to house demigods - people who could perform amazing magic with a sweep of their fingers, who glowed and lived almost forever. It wasn't a hereditary thing, either - anyone could become Elantrian - a transformation would happen at night and the person, rich or poor, man or woman, would wake up transformed. However, all of this ended 10 years ago - after a great cataclysm, Elantris fell apart and all Elantrians turned from demigods into pitiful, disgusting, mindless creatures. After initial upheaval, the country transformed and continued on, and Elantris was locked up and abandoned. One problem - the transformation still takes place, still at night, and still taking anyone - only it now transforms them into hideous cursed beings and their fate is to be thrown into the ruins of Elantris, never to be seen again. When the novel starts, Raoden, the Crown Prince, wakes up to discover he has been transformed. His father, too ashamed to admit what has happened, proclaims him dead and has him thrown into Elantris.

The novel follows three people - Raoden, who tries not only to survive the hell of Elantris but both to make sense of what happened and to protect the fellow sufferers within, Sarene, Raoden's wife-by-arranged-marriage (the two had never met), who has been told her husband had died and who stays on to protect the kingdom and counteract the influence of the third protagonist - Hrothden, a highly-ranked functionary of a militant religion intent on taking over the world.

I loved this book! It's clever - with a good plot and solid world-building, but what really got me was the characters - even the tertiary characters come alive, but I fell madly for both Sarene and Raoden (and also Sarene/Raoden), who deal with some majorly heavy stuff while remaining true to themselves. SO VERY GOOD!!! Now I need to read more of his stuff.

First off - I was reading Simon R. Green's Drood books on the flight and I am so in love with them. I am on the second one. I haven't crushed so hard on a series in a very long time.

What are they about? In the alternate reality fantasy world where things like demons, vampires, aliens and other supernatural beasties exist, the Drood family has been the world's policeman for uncounted generations - saving the world on a routine basis, or just getting rid of more than usually bad guys, the family keeps going and going, thanks in part to the powerful golden torcs around their necks - placed there upon birth. Those torcs make Droods into nearly invinsible fighting machines, ready to do good and save the world. After all, the Droods are purest of the pure, the Universe's boyscouts. Or at least that is what Edwin Drood, one of many Drood field agents, believes. Edwin (who goes by Eddie, thank you very much) is somewhat of a family rebel - not keen on discipline and tradition, he went to live separately as soon as he could. But he still believes in the Drood way of life and has certainly dedicated himself to the cause. Until suddenly, for no reason he can see, he is declared rogue by the family - to be hunted down and killed on sight. So Eddie might just have to go knocking on the doors of the bad guys - who he spent his whole life fighting - in order to find answers, answers he might not like.

I love Eddie himself, but I find all the other characters fascinating too - the wild witch of the woods Molly Malone - Eddie's habitual enemy (and eventually OTP), the Drood Matriarch who can take anyone down - ruthless and dedicated to the family, the family armourer (sort of like Q in Bond movies), Jacob the family ghost who refuses to leave, the Blue Fairy (a drunk half-elf that can fetch anything for a price), Giles Deathstalker (brought by Eddie from the future to help fight in the upcoming apocalypse, Giles has overcome his unfortunate first name by being the best killing machine in the business), Jannisary Jane - a demon bounty hunter, Roger - a boyfriend of one of the Droods who also happens to be hellspawn etc etc.

So good.

In other news, jetlag can be wonderful as I woke up at 6am which gave me time to watch the now-fully-subbed ep 2 of Next Stop Happiness.

GUUUH GUUUUH GUUUUUUH GUUUUUUUUH. I haven't been this in love with a twdrama over a year! If this keeps up, it's going onto my all-time favorites list. It's unabashedly romantic, the pace is crazy fast, the heroine and hero make me love them, and also it inserts every romantic cliche I wanted and didn't know I did and OMG GUH. I mean, the scene on the rink when he protects her with his body because otherwise she'll be hit, even if he has no armor on, and the hits just keep coming and he just clings to her and she is supporting him because he's in pain - eeeeeeee! It's Hanadan levels of awesome. Man protecting the woman with his body is my favorite romantic cliche ever and too few dramas do it. I also love that he sees through her molesting stepfather right away - his sizing the guy up in about ten seconds and siting the penal code at him (with the little rider that he'd only get 2 yrs but rapists get probably killed in prison) and then giving her his phone, telling her to keep it with herself at all times and if anything starts happening to call the cops asap - you go, boy!

I also find the parallels between his mother and her stepmom quite something else - one might be a high-class society lady and one a low-level fishwife, but they are both quite happy to prostitute their kids if this gets the Moms ahead in business. They should bond.

Also, preview for ep 3 looks even better. God, I love this.

What with this, You're Beautiful and IRIS, I really won't have time for Angel's Temptation atm, most likely. Even if it's deliciously cheesy posters tempt me. ( Nekkid angels ahoy )

First off - I was reading Simon R. Green's Drood books on the flight and I am so in love with them. I am on the second one. I haven't crushed so hard on a series in a very long time.

What are they about? In the alternate reality fantasy world where things like demons, vampires, aliens and other supernatural beasties exist, the Drood family has been the world's policeman for uncounted generations - saving the world on a routine basis, or just getting rid of more than usually bad guys, the family keeps going and going, thanks in part to the powerful golden torcs around their necks - placed there upon birth. Those torcs make Droods into nearly invinsible fighting machines, ready to do good and save the world. After all, the Droods are purest of the pure, the Universe's boyscouts. Or at least that is what Edwin Drood, one of many Drood field agents, believes. Edwin (who goes by Eddie, thank you very much) is somewhat of a family rebel - not keen on discipline and tradition, he went to live separately as soon as he could. But he still believes in the Drood way of life and has certainly dedicated himself to the cause. Until suddenly, for no reason he can see, he is declared rogue by the family - to be hunted down and killed on sight. So Eddie might just have to go knocking on the doors of the bad guys - who he spent his whole life fighting - in order to find answers, answers he might not like.

I love Eddie himself, but I find all the other characters fascinating too - the wild witch of the woods Molly Malone - Eddie's habitual enemy (and eventually OTP), the Drood Matriarch who can take anyone down - ruthless and dedicated to the family, the family armourer (sort of like Q in Bond movies), Jacob the family ghost who refuses to leave, the Blue Fairy (a drunk half-elf that can fetch anything for a price), Giles Deathstalker (brought by Eddie from the future to help fight in the upcoming apocalypse, Giles has overcome his unfortunate first name by being the best killing machine in the business), Jannisary Jane - a demon bounty hunter, Roger - a boyfriend of one of the Droods who also happens to be hellspawn etc etc.

So good.

In other news, jetlag can be wonderful as I woke up at 6am which gave me time to watch the now-fully-subbed ep 2 of Next Stop Happiness.

GUUUH GUUUUH GUUUUUUH GUUUUUUUUH. I haven't been this in love with a twdrama over a year! If this keeps up, it's going onto my all-time favorites list. It's unabashedly romantic, the pace is crazy fast, the heroine and hero make me love them, and also it inserts every romantic cliche I wanted and didn't know I did and OMG GUH. I mean, the scene on the rink when he protects her with his body because otherwise she'll be hit, even if he has no armor on, and the hits just keep coming and he just clings to her and she is supporting him because he's in pain - eeeeeeee! It's Hanadan levels of awesome. Man protecting the woman with his body is my favorite romantic cliche ever and too few dramas do it. I also love that he sees through her molesting stepfather right away - his sizing the guy up in about ten seconds and siting the penal code at him (with the little rider that he'd only get 2 yrs but rapists get probably killed in prison) and then giving her his phone, telling her to keep it with herself at all times and if anything starts happening to call the cops asap - you go, boy!

I also find the parallels between his mother and her stepmom quite something else - one might be a high-class society lady and one a low-level fishwife, but they are both quite happy to prostitute their kids if this gets the Moms ahead in business. They should bond.

Also, preview for ep 3 looks even better. God, I love this.

What with this, You're Beautiful and IRIS, I really won't have time for Angel's Temptation atm, most likely. Even if it's deliciously cheesy posters tempt me. ( Nekkid angels ahoy )

Seeing that "hot men" seems to be uniformly the most popular topic, by popular demand, I bring you: Hot Men of TV SciFi and Fantasy. This has nothing to do with my desire to look at them myself. Of course.

You know how I said I like scifi/fantasy for adventure, clever writing etc? Well, that and hot angsty men, frequently wearing leather and toting guns.

Without much further ado, I present my list. Quite subjective and murder on the dial-up, considering there are 20 pics of varying sizes.

( Read more... )