Hammer of Witches by Shana Mlawski

Baltasar Infante is a story teller in Spain at a time when Spain has finally united and actively seeking to purge it's borders of anyone who has not converted to Christianity.  Being a Jew puts him and his family in a precarious position but when his father, the legendary Moor sorcerer pays him a visit one night, it brings Baltasar and his aunt and uncle to the attention of the Malleus Maleficarum.  Baltasar is forced to flee the only home he has ever known and when he gets a prophecy from the Baba Yaga that a great force is traveling west to end the world as we know it, Baltasar knows what he must do - kill the great Amir al-Katib.

As much as this story is about folklore, magic and religious persecution, it's also very much about colonialisation.  Much of this story takes place on Columbus's famous voyage west in 1492.  When the Baba Yaga speaks of a force moving west to destroy the world, what she is talking about is how colonialisation will destroy indigenous cultures and wipe language and history completely off the map.  Even if a single battle had never been waged, the diseases the Europeans brought with them alone would have been enough to start the genocide which did eventually occur.  Being Spanish, Baltasar could not conceive of the fact that it was the Spanish who were the threat.  This is framed as is part of his optimistic nature rather than his Eurocentric view of the world.  

Mlawski drew on a lot of folklore to write this book and it is evident.  There were golems, unicorns, and many other fantastical creatures from a host of mythologies.  It helped to make the world Mlawski created not only diverse but absolutely engaging.  To use his magic, Balthasar had to rely on his ability to synthesize folklore and take elements from it. The magic was also different according to race and gender. The Ayiti having a different belief system than Balthasar showed that even though their culture was different and perhaps not at technologically advanced that they were powerful in their own right. Then there is Catilina who uses the Joan D'arc spell to present as male because there are thousands of stories in which women must become men or appear to be men to gain a modicum of respect.

The Walking Dead 2013 Special (Comic)

I think this comic - or, rather, 4 comics together - were both very good and very bad. And yes, I am that awkward.

From a storytelling style perspective, I wasn’t very impressed. Each comic consisted of someone monologuing. I have to say the justification of the monologues wasn’t terrible - Michonne and her loneliness, her need to connect causing her to speak aloud. Morgan trying to salve his own conscience and talk to Duane. The Governor almost gearing himself up to do what he thinks he has to. Tyrese... actually, even with a very sympathetic eye I can’t really think of a reason behind his monologue.

But they are monologues. And even the most justified monologue tends to be more than a little convoluted. There are just very few occasions - unless your character is laid back on a psychiatrist’s couch - where your character will talk about their history, life and emotions in such depth.

Now, from the perspective of a fan of the series, of someone who has read the comics and watched the show, of someone who likes these characters a lot and is fascinated in their story, this comic is excellent. Not much happens, but we see far more of the feeling and emotion behind these characters and what drives them - we have some history and depth behind the character actions in the comics. Some of them have been touched on already - but seeing them and hearing them in this context - the loneliness of Michonne and her need to remind herself that the zombies she’s bringing are not monsters, but were people, people she cared about once. Morgan’s final realisation that society is over, that it’s not coming back and it’s not going to be rebuilt - his grieving acceptance of a new world and reality while he moves on for his son. Tyrese and the fraught relationship he has with his daughter’s boyfriend (honestly, Tyrese’s storyline is pretty much pointless and doesn’t really add anything to the story or character development). Even the Governor and us seeing another step he took down the road that lead him from being a normal person to the monster he became.

They’re not long, they’re not in depth and they don’t add essential elements to the story - you could continue the story without ever reading these; but it’s a testament to the realness of the characters in this series that even without advancing the plot, I wanted to hear their story.

It’s also interesting that the characters followed and expanded on here are all POC. If I were being cynical I would say it’s because they needed more expansion - and that certainly would apply to the TV series, but the comics are considerably better at racial representation. The fact they are POC is a testament to the comics creating compelling non-White characters.

Grimm, Season 2, Episode 22: Goodnight, Sweet Grimm

“And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.”

In their hotel, Eric and Baron Samedi are having a great time preparing for the next night, eating a fine dinner and discussing their stocks of zombies. So intrigued is Eric by zombies that he simply has to have a demonstration – sacrificing a man he’s employed for 7 years so he can see the process himself.

Time for Nick and Juliette to have their awkward and difficult conversation over, well, everything. After some excellent acting and trying to address the hugeness of it all, they settl on they love each other

Elsewhere, Baron Samedi has decided to go all out for the full Voodoo appropriation ensemble. No idea why, he seemed quite capable of directing his zombies without make up and dramatic magic circles before. Maybe they thought they were being too “subtle”?

In Austria Frau Pech is cooking up a spell, including a “doppleganger” ingredient. Adalind, in her hotel, has her meal doctored by Frau Pech (who controls the waiter), knocking her unconscious and allowing Frau Pech to extract what looks like spinal fluid from her neck. Nasty.

And in Portland Rosalie has just made pie for Monroe and proving she can be just as adorably neurotic as he can before the sexual tension finally has them in each other’s arms.

Get your neckbraces because the show is zipping all over – Renard gets a call from his minion in Austria passing over all the details from the files he found – including the photograph-less passports, death certificates and body transport permits.

Got that? Good, zoom to next scene – Zombies on public transport! Zombies in the street! And they’re all fast zombies too which it totally cheating

Fangs for the Fantasy Episode 123

This week we discuss the season finale of the Vampire Diaries. We also look at Game of Thrones and discuss nudity on that and Da Vinci's Demons. We talk briefly about Defiance and Orphan Black

Our Book of the Week is Tempting Danger by Eileen Wilks

Our next books of the week are:

20th May - 27th May: Blue Blazes by Chuck Wendig

27th May - 3rd June: Shapeshifted by Cassie Alexander

3rd June - 10th June: Binding the Shadows by Jenn Bennet

10th June - 17th June: The Fury by L.J. Smith

17th June - 24th June: The Mermaid’s Madness by Jim C Hines

Untimed by Andy Gavin

 

Charlie is an odd boy who moves through life unnoticed. Literally. People don’t see him, people look away and even his own mother forgets his name. He is utterly forgettable.

Until he runs into and battles a clockwork man and finds himself falling through a portal to 18^th century London – and meets a girl who can see him, a girl who can remember him, a girl who is out of time like himself.

But Yvaine has her own problems, a child, and a cruel gang she’s had to join to survive the streets of London who is not so quick to abandon her life to help him back to his own time. But more than their own stories, their presence has damaged the time, especially the accidental death of a young Ben Franklin. Now the future itself has been drastically changed and it’s a scramble to see if they can fix it, save Yvaine’s family and learn more about themselves

But there’s also a question of not just whether they can fix it – but also whether they should.

This book is definitely one to get your teeth into – a complicated time traveller world, leaping back and forth up and down the time line and trying to ensure the future stays right.

Of course, one of the advanced questions it asks is what is the right future, really? After all, how can any of them be sure what the time line is supposed to look like? Are the Tick-Tocks trying to bring about a change back to where they, their technology and their future is dominant – or are they fighting to bring back a future that was that other time travellers have already changed? Are they restoring the time line or changing it? Is it a time-travellers duty to change the time line? Is it their duty to preserve it?

It’s a wonderfully twisty, confusing world with lots of potentials and lots of excellent unknowns. We don’t know this, they don’t know the answers. The clues are scattered throughout time and need considerable research and translation to decipher the keys of history, to discover which individuals are pivot points on which all of time can change.

And the story isn’t about that

Oh, this complicated world certainly takes up a lot of the book. It influences everything and is part of everything and every decision has to consider it and a huge amount of it is explored. But this isn’t a book about philosophy or temporal musings with lots of dry info-dumps. This is the story of Charlie, clumsy new time traveller stumbling through the world and these revelations. Much of this he learns through trial and error and occasional insights and philosophies from people who, they themselves, have only a limited understanding. We get this excellent world show cased through the lens of a character and his more mundane wishes – trying to get home and his burgeoning relationship with Yvaine. In other books I’ve complained that an excellent world and concept has gone unexplored in favour of telling a clichéd romance – but in this book it works. This book needs the mundane to anchor the philosophical, it needs this basic, human story to balance the abstract of the concept and the world. It needed grounding so it isn’t all theoretical and concept dominated.

Podcast rescheduled for TONIGHT

Now that our technical difficulties have been resolved (or so it seems) we are rescheduling the podcast for tonight at our usual time of 6:30 EST

As ever, if you miss any of our podcasts, they will be available in our archives.

A reminder of our books of the week

13th May - 22nd May: Tempting Danger by Eileen Wilks

22nd May - 27th May: Blue Blazes by Chuck Wendig

27th May - 3rd June: Shapeshifted by Cassie Alexander 

3rd June - 10th June: Binding the Shadows by Jenn Bennet

10th June - 17th June: The Fury by L.J. Smith

Warehouse 13: Season 4, Episode 14: The Sky's the Limit

Artie is watering Leena’s plants and begging them not to die. His mournful rant at the plant is overheard by Jinks and Claudia before he rapidly brings up a ping – 2 jockeys falling into comas after winning races outside of London. They won the racers despite being longshots, were in perfect health and their bodies were completely drained of adrenaline. Sounds suspicious – but no-one bet on these horses. Claudia can’t believe he’s not coming to England with them – but he has to talk to Mrs. Frederick about the Regents - which causes Jinks to have a guilty start, which makes Claudia very very suspicious. Especially since Jinks is a terrible liar.

And Artie wants them to bring back a tin of digestives. And rightly so.

There’s also a suspicious woman watching the warehouse from a distance. She says “I know where he is, and I know how to get to him.”

Pete and Myka are re-shelving inventory – which means Pete playing with Artefacts until Artie shows up with a job for them in Vegas. Where a man apparently fell out of the sky on a golf course.

To Vegas! Where Myka learns the dead man was already dead before he hit ground (well, golf cart) – apparently from altitude exposure. Pete has his ID – Luke Rose from New Mexico – and his hotel room which is the next port of call.

Inside they find three passed out men and evidence of considerable partying, half empty booze, a piñata. One airhorn blast later and they’re ready for stunned and confused interviews. Unfortunately after the tequila fountain everything’s kind of predictably fuzzy. Emptying their pockets they find fliers, matchboxes etc of the places they visited.

The restaurant, hotel and bar all remember the party as loud, obnoxious and terrible tippers. The strip club remembers them as good tippers – and the man talked about “floating” to the stripper. Pete suggests a long term investigation of the strip club, Myka gives him a look and they change it to a 20 minute mutual search.

Meanwhile outside it starts raining casino chips – until another body falls from the sky. I’m sure from that distance there’d be more… splashing.

Defiance Season 1, Episode 7: Brothers in Arms

 

A busy day at Defiance market when a Castithan man spots a human man who is apparently looking for him and we have a chase scene until the Castithan trips and falls. The man thinks he’s got him, points his gun – only to have the Castithan throw an explosive and almost escape. Until Nolan comes out of nowhere, pins him and cuffs him. The man who was chasing points a gun at Nolan for stealing his target then they recognise each other, Nolan calls him Eddie.

To the Lawkeeper’s office where Nolan takes his old friend Eddie’s guns (Defiance maintains a no weapons policy for visitors). Eddie’s a bounty hunter for the Earth Republic and the Castithan is wanted in Yuma. In the cell the Castithan is being treated by the Awesome Dr. Yewl and recognises her. He praises her for her amazing scientific achievements during the Pale Wars, but promises to keep them secret. In particular he mentions the “Biodyne project”. He tries to get her to let him out with strongly implied blackmail, Yewl tells him he has the wrong person.

Eddie just wants Nolan to deliver the Castithan, but Nolan wants him to stand trial in Defiance since his explosive took off a grocer’s leg. Which is when Tommy comes in to confirm who the Castithan is – Pol Maddis, the Castithan who invented that particular explosive. He’s a weapon’s designer, a very talented one, who made weapons during the Pale Wars. Eddie’s bringing Maddis in for warcrimes which Nolan cynically notes must be worth a lot of money to him.

To Need/Want for a drink and Eddie trying to make his seeking a pay day seem more acceptable. And Irisa arrives and isn’t that impressed with Eddie since he’s making disparaging comments about Irathients when she comes in – but he remembers her as a little girl and considers himself her uncle.

The argument doesn’t end – Nolan wants Maddis in prison but Eddie still wants his payday so Nolan gives him some money- for drink and a prostitute. Eddie has his eyes on Kenya and there’s an awkward moment when he realises Kenya and Nolan are together – but Nolan steps back and recognises Kenya’s choice to do her job.