Friday, June 24, 2011

Thoughts on 'Teen Wolf': Episodes 1-4

So when I first heard about MTV's Teen Wolf, I could not get the image of that campy 80's movie with the same name staring Michael J. Fox.  Honestly, I was scared to watch.  It turns out it is not in the least bit camp.  The special effects are also pretty awesome and the male stars are not hard on the eyes at all. Okay, okay before you start chanting jail bait and accusing me of robbing the cradle, this is who I am referring to most specifically:

Ummm. Mine Mine Mine Mine
Tyler Posey is bitten in the woods by an alpha werewolf but it his best friend, Stiles who figures out right away that he is a werewolf when he starts to exhibit weird skills and behaviour.  Suddenly, Tyler is not only agile, but has a strong sense of smell and improved hearing.  Rather than showing concern about the changes happening to his body, in typical teen angst urban fantasy Tyler is lusting for the new girl Allison Argent.  Yeah why worry that your life will never be the same when you have the attention of a hot girl. Unfortunately for Tyler, Allison comes from a line of hunters that hunts and kills werewolves.  Her father, Argent is absolutely on to him, but that is not enough for him to think that maybe the cute girl isn't worth the risk. Unfortunately, to think that way one would actually have to be thinking with one's head and not one's groin.

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Anna Paquin and The Evolution of Sookie Stackhouse

The New York Times has a great piece about the evolution of Sookie Stackhouse.  The following is a small snippet to whet your appetite.
“Anna’s Sookie has always been somewhat angrier than the Sookie I wrote,” Ms. Harris said in a telephone interview from Arkansas, where she lives. “So that leaves me wondering if I wrote her angrier than I realized, or if that’s a younger person interpreting my words in a way that makes more sense to them.”

The new season of “True Blood” will further explore the budding relationship between Sookie and Eric, as Ms. Harris’s novels have already chronicled, though cast members were wary to say just how far that exploration would go.

    (snip) 
No matter how far off the deep end “True Blood” may seem to go, Ms. Paquin said, Sookie will remain a mouthpiece for viewers. “She is the character that will say, ‘No no no no no, not my problem,’ ” she explained. “It gives the audience the opportunity to address whether or not they think it’s ridiculous.”

Read the rest here

Monday, June 20, 2011

Fangs for the Fantasy Podcast - Episode 20: Interviewing Kevin Hearne



This week on Fangs for the Fantasy, we had an interview with Kevin Hearne, author of the epic and marvelous Iron Druid Chronicles.

The interview is most excellent and covers a full range of issues in the story. And yes, we're all fanpoodles

Sunday, June 19, 2011

It Is Impossible to Finish Robin McKinley's Sunshine

I am going to do something I never ever do. I am submitting a DNF review. Yes, a Did Not Finish.

I normally refuse to review a book I haven’t finished. I think it’s wrong and unfair to write a review unless you have read it. I’ve always held on this – but this book broke me.

In my defence, this is me here. Seriously, I read 3 LA Banks Vampire Huntress novels and intend to read the rest. I even read LJ Smith’s Vampire Diaries. I got through Cassadra Clare’s over written mess and Yasmine Galenorn’s florid florid prose, I even read through Anya Bast’s interminable sex scenes. I read Vampire Academy that gets a special award for slow start (the story starts at 80% in). I read Terry Goodkind’s Sword of Truth series – ALL of it, every last minute of the drek and that should have been banned by international law. I’m even STILL reading Anita Blake when everyone else has declared themselves done with the fuckery 10 books ago

In short, I have a high high high tolerance for crap books. But this broke me. The very idea of reading another word makes me cringe.