TV Review: Once Upon A Time Premier

And here we are again, finding ourselves swept up in all of our favorite stories, in the same place.

While OUAT can be confusing for someone who hasn't been following it since season one, this season promises it to be the greatest.  I'll keep this short, sweet, and spoiler free.

Here are ten bullet points that sum everything up about the pilot:

• Neverland, Peter Pan, Lost Boys
• Mermaids
• Best part of the episode was Neal's story
• why? Robin Hood, Mulan
• Hook is dashing as ever
• Rumplestilskin is creepy and has a past with Neverland and Pan
• Prince Charming is looking much better (and more exciting) this season
• the dark side of the "good-guys"
• magic is abundant
• unlikely allies and Emma taking charge

Does that work for you guys?  Sorry for the rushed review, but if you watch the show, this should be good enough for you.  Rating: 4 stars.

Book Review: The Dream Thieves (The Raven Cycle #2)

Now that the ley lines around Cabeswater have been woken, nothing for Ronan, Gansey, Blue, and Adam will be the same. Ronan, for one, is falling more and more deeply into his dreams, and his dreams are intruding more and more into waking life. Meanwhile, some very sinister people are looking for some of the same pieces of the Cabeswater puzzle that Gansey is after...

(SPOILER FREE)

While I did enjoy this book, it was not as good as the first.  While the first third held all that magical, fairy-tale-esque feeling, there was little plot, and little focus on anything.  The writing was amazing- in fact, so good it was distracting.  The entirety of the book felt as if nothing happened at all, really.  Too many cars, too many drugs, too much pointless swearing, and, dare I say it?, to much Ronan.

 

This book was wonderful, don't get me wrong, it just felt distracted.  The characters did grow, important roots were planted, but over all, the book felt like a filler book.  Maybe that's necessary set-up for the next two books, but maybe it's not.  I guess I won't know until number three comes out.  However, it was disappointing.

 

Because so little happened I have so little to say.  I did like the direction the characters are heading, especially the many relationships between them, and I love the Grey Man (new character; you'll love him, too) but beyond the prose I wasn't impressed.

 

My rating: 3 1/2 stars

Blood Doctor Chapter One

I'll be publishing chapters of this both on my FictionPress account and the blog simultaneously.  Check out the description on my WIP page.  Every other week a new chapter will go up, so I hope you enjoy, and please comment with reviews, suggestions, and anything of note you might want to say about it.

Here goes nothing:

Book Review: The Crown Conspiracy (Theft of Swords Part One)

This series was originally self published independently, but than they were bound up in three omnibus versions, two books a piece.  The Crown Conspiracy is the first book in the series, Ryria Revelations, and also the first book in the bind-up Theft of Swords.  I'll be doing each book separately because they're rather long (I think about 300 pages each).

The description is taken from goodreads:

In the first episode, the reader is introduced to Royce Melborn, a skilled thief, and his mercenary partner, Hadrian Blackwater, who make a profitable living carrying out dangerous assignments for conspiring nobles until they become the unwitting scapegoats in the murder of the king. Sentenced to death, they have only one way out...and so begins this epic tale of treachery and adventure, sword fighting and magic, myth and legend.

One word: Captivating.  I read this book in small increments, a few pages every day, so that I could read many other books simultaneously.  Let me assure you that settling down to dig in a little deeper to this story was the best part of every day.  It was like sitting down for a wonderful feast made up of all my favorite foods and I never got fat from eating more than I needed.  Yeah, it was really, really good.

 

I could write praises for this book for hours.  HOURS people, and I'm not exaggerating.  While I was considering what to write in this review I had to stop myself from OVERLY praising this book.  I want to give an honest review that says more than just "this book was awesome.  so very, very awesome." although that would be completely honest, too.

 

The pace.  For the first chapter it's slow.  And then, immediately, it picks up.  It's not a whirlwind adventure, but it's fast paced, funny, and full of action.  I think the fact that it takes the characters time to get from one place to another, and that the time doesn't seem too long, makes the story that much better.  A large portion of the middle is them travelling, but unlike many authors, Sullivan manages to get the pace exactly right.  It may not be one-hundred percent accurate, but who cares?  It keeps you entertained and the story believable at the same time.

 

The characters really take the cake, though.  Right from the start I knew I was in love with Royce and Hadrian.  I didn't read more than a few sentences of their dialogue before I knew the author was, too.  They're so perfectly written you can tell they've been sitting around in Sullivan's head for a long time and that, when they came out, the transferred to the page as if they'd always been there.  In addition to our heroes there are Alric- the prince- and Myron- a monk.  At first Alric is a little hard to like, but that's on purpose.  His character is also a little shaky early on, but as soon as the story really starts moving along, that stops.  Myron, too, is amazing.  He's so sweet and reminded me of an autistic kid (in a good way, I promise).  He was, by far, my favorite, and his story made me start to cry (really cry, not just on the inside, which is a feat for any book or show or movie, because I don't tend to cry).  There's also Arista, who, while not a main character, is central to the story, and instantly likeable, if not a little too "weak" for my liking.

 

The world is fully realized and without having to go into deep explanations of the mechanics I felt fully immersed.  It's a wonderfully built world for epic fantasy fans to fall in love with.  There is a magic system, lightly touched upon, but more important is the religious system.  I feel like that's often left out of epic and high fantasy and I was impressed by it's usage in the book.

 

It's no surprise, then, that I'm giving this book 5 stars.  I just LOVE it so much and am dying to begin the next one immediately.  If you haven't picked this book up, I really recommend it.  Even if you aren't a big fan of fantasy, the story is so compelling I think anyone could like it.  And a bonus?  It's clean!  There are some suggestions and one of the characters is a prostitute, but if you're not a fan of the sexual stuff that's becoming common in the popular epic fantasy of today (I'm looking at you, GoT) you'll like this one even more.

TV Review: Elementary Premier

I know I'm posting this a little late, but I did watch the episode live.  Things have just been insane and I'm behind on a lot.  This is going to be a short little review.

It's so nice to get back into this show, like sinking into a warm bath.  It made me laugh out loud, and Rhys Ifans' Mycroft was great (better than I expected, for sure).  His interactions with Sherlock and Watson were wonderfully hilarious.  The case was strong, it really held the episode together.  In fact, the only real complaint I had was with... Sherlock himself.

He's a recovering addict, I get that.  But his take on fame as an addiction (which can be true) and his attitude towards his old friend seemed so out of character.  I guess I can really blame the writers for this one.  Miller was just as wonderful as always playing the neurotic sleuth. 

For a premier it was good.  It gets 4 stars, which may be a little generous, but may not.  Check back in later for a more timely review of Once Upon A Time.

TV Review: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Pilot & Person of Interest Premier

This was by far my most anticipated show of the fall.  I’m a big fan of the Marvel movies, have been since the original Iron Man, and like any good fan, I just could not wait to watch this one.  It didn’t disappoint.  Unfortunately, it didn’t exceed expectations, either.  This is mostly likely because I have the show so built up in my head and I’ve been obsessing over it since the moment it was announced.  I’ll definitely tune in every Tuesday to check it out, since I LOVE it, but I wasn’t blown away.

The characters are all good, Fitz and Skye are my favorite (after Coulson, of course), but they aren’t more than good.  This is understandable, in fact it’s acceptable, because this is the first episode and there are so many characters to get to know.  Everyone has a backstory, and if the episode had focused on one way more than the others it might have seemed like a lesser show (see Alpha’s, a similar show that just COULD NOT juggle its characters).  I can imagine that by episode three or four we’ll have a pretty good grasp on who’s who and why we like them.  Another point on the characters- they’re unique.  They don’t blend together like is often the case with pilots.  Everyone stands out, we know their names (something inconceivable in the first episode of Lost), and we have a general idea of their personalities and hints at their backgrounds.  This isn’t just delightfully helpful, but wonderfully endearing.  I love knowing exactly who I’ll be spending my time with for the Fall TV season (because I totally view these “people” as my friends… hehe).

The plot was good.  Very straightforward and built to introduce all the central characters.  Skye and Ward take center stage as the ones who will be introducing us into this world, with Coulson as the commanding officer of the gang.  The villain/hero is also pretty straight forward, and while the episode wraps up with his story, a bigger one has been planted.  It also leads right into the next episode in the last minute.  There won’t be much time lost between episodes, I assume, and that makes me very happy.  While there will be a case a week it looks like it will also have more of a drama you’ll want to tune into every week.

All in all, I really, really liked it.  It had me squealing like a fan-girl (“I don’t think Thor’s technically a god.”  “Then you haven’t seen his arms.”) and laughing out loud so hard my stomach hurt.  It gets a 4 out of 5 stars and I can’t wait to see more.

 

(Some mild spoilers if you haven’t seen seasons one and two, so be careful if you’re trying to catch up)

OK, so I wasn’t completely paying attention to the episode because my puppy was falling asleep in my arms.  It was really nice, though.

This was a good start to the season.  I’m looking forward to see where it goes now that Root is a season regular and Shaw will be around to help them out.  I feel like Fusco didn’t get enough air time (and neither did Bear) but that Carter, John and Finch also felt pressed for time.  Maybe it’s the newly extended cast, we’ve got Elias who’s still around, a machine that’s off its rocker, Root in the asylum communicating with said machine, and Shaw doing her own thing as well.  Everyone seems to be playing angles this season, although I’m glad that we’ve taken this route.  The show needed new blood and I just hope it lasts.

My predictions for the new season:

·         A Carter/John hookup by the end

·         Carter gets her detective status back (or maybe this happens next season)

·         Someone big dies (best guess: Fusco)

We’ll see if I’m right at all, however, you never know when a major game changer will just break everything you knew down (season one finale, for example).

The episode was good.  The show is still young enough that all the mysteries are fresh and the twist isn’t old yet, so I can imagine this show can make it at least five seasons.  I hope this year they have more several episode arcs because at this point all the fans want something a little more substantial than case-a-week.  I also hope Fusco gets more screen time because he really is a great character.

My rating is 3 ½ out of 5 stars because the episode, while flashy and wonderfully written/acted/depicted wasn’t something new from them.  I was hoping for a little more bang to start the season.  As always, this is one of my favorite shows and I’ll be tuning in every week to visit everyone’s favorite closet-billionaire and the man in the suit.

Book of the Month: Sequel Review- Hollowmen

the sequel to Hollowland....
After six months in the quarantine, Remy finds out things are much worse than she feared. Her plans to escape come with a heavy cost, and she realizes that zombies aren't the worst of her problems.

I have never hated a book because of the direction the author took a story in. Sometimes I don’t like the story, but I always respect it. Not here not now. (OK, I’m kidding a little. I didn’t HATE it, but I was really, really unhappy.) You see, my favorite part about the first one was the cast of characters. I loved them all so much. Guess which characters stick around in this book besides Remy. Guess, seriously.

Ripley.

That’s it.

And that’s why I’m so angry.

I came to like all the new characters a lot. I really did. But I wanted the OLD ONES! I wanted Blue, and Lazlo, and Harlow! I’m not going to tell you where they are, of course, because that would spoil everything, but I am going to tell you that they are not there!

Besides the new cast of characters nothing much has changed except the end goal. It’s still an adventure story. It mirrors the original quite a bit. But, besides the character differences, the adventure is MUCH better. It’s also a more mature book than the first one was.

I also really liked the ending. It’s… well, it’s a happier ending than the first one and wraps the little duology up very nicely. I think most readers will be happy with it.

Rating: 3/2 Stars