Constantine, Season 1 Episode 8: The Saint of Last Resorts

So we have a big ornate building (a convent), nuns then a Spanish speaking couple with a new baby and a nun sneaking in sweets for the new mother. The convent is huge and spooky but everyone looks all bright and happy. I’m sure this will change soon.

Something clawed and robed reaches for the baby in the night – but the mother wakes up and screams. When the nun gets to her, her throat has been slashed and the baby is gone.

To the Mill where Zed is having dreams and drawing them – John identifies the creature as an Invunche which he thinks are extinct (he puts her visions down to a side effect of touching the fallen angel’s heart last episode).

And then a nun in her nightclothes appears looking for John (though not for the reasons Zed guesses). John recognises her as Anne-Marie – and she’s not really there, she’s a projected image from Mexico. She tells them about the attacker including the scar her cross left on her chest due to its presence – it’s clear she doesn’t like John much, but he owes her.

She returns to her body – and she has a picture of herself and John in younger punk days. Elsewhere a clawed, robed figure puts the baby in a cage.

John wants to leave Zed behind because of the whole Fallen Angel thing – Zed points out she’s the Spanish speaker and he’s going to Mexico. Zed guesses Anne-Marie was an old flame and John and she did sleep together – but she also got him into the occult and was there at Newcastle when the Bad Thing happened, like Gary. She also swore to kill him. Because of the personal drama, John is still leaving Zed behind and taking Chas.

So to Mexico, the Convent and two people who don’t speak Spanish, but they do find Anne-Marie in her habit (John did not know she was a nun) and she knows Chas. Alone, Anne-Marie tells John what happened and he attempts to flirt and be his usual self – much to Anne-Marie’s disgust since she thought Newcastle and Astrid’s fate should have changed him. She became a nun to repent for the séance – he throws back that he does help people (like flying to Mexico at a moment’s notice) and she brings up the names of the other people who experienced the séance. Definitely a lot of unpleasant tension there.

In the nursery John finds a big hole that Anne-Marie puts down to mice but John rattles off a list if “wall dwellers” that target children. Time to use woo-woo to discern what (and try and get rid of nosy nuns). Anne-Marie snarls at John for flirting with a nun (who was flirting with him, as he points out). They cast the runes and they catch fire – the monster is cloaking itself which means it’s more sophisticated than your average baby snatching monster. So they need to find the child – which means digging up a placenta.

On the way Anne-Marie and John keep sniping and their issues go deeper than Newcastle – John’s womanising and cheating on her also comes up and John’s vast ego. They dig for the placenta and find that the tree it’s buried under is now producing fruit made of flesh. Hey, does that count as vegetarian or not? When he cuts into one, it bleeds – and so do all the fruit on the tree. Human fruit means John knows who took the baby.

Vampire Diaries, Season 6, Episode 10: Christmas Through Your Eyes

Kai manages to kidnap Jo by stabbing someone (Jo may suck as a doctor since she apparently though this was caused by a car accident. Presumably a car with a knife) and following them to the hospital because despite the vampires everywhere, hospitals have zero security

Sheriff Liz drops in on Caroline so they can have their special tree-trimming thing in her improbably-huge-dorm-room (even Sheriff Liz snarks this) and she invites Stefan because clearly more relationship drama is necessary. To help move the whole Stefan/Caroline bonding along, Sheriff Liz suddenly feels faint.

Elena and Damon are technically looking for ways to free Bonnie but really Elena is staring at Damon’s uber sexiness. Alaric calls them to come see him – Damon suggests that maybe some precautions may, perhaps, have been useful with the serial killer loose but Alaric scoffs at the very idea. Damon’s plan is to kill Kai. They also add some more exposition – Kai can’t merge with Jo without her magic which is stored in a knife which Damon has hidden – and Kai can’t use a locator spell because he can’t do magic.

Elena joins Caroline at the hospital where they’ve taken Sheriff Liz and they talk about Damon and Elena’s relationship because it’s definitely the thing they should be talking about right now. After compelling a doctor, Elena learns that Sherriff Liz has cancer (vampire blood cure anyone?)

Stefan decides it’s his job to give Caroline the bad news. Apparently vampire blood doesn’t cure cancer – Stefan is sure if it did they’d have heard about it (why? Because there are a huge number of compassionate vampire blood donors out there?) and Liz is incurably ill. Caroline is sure his mother is cancer proof. Ok I’m being unfair this is a really deep, moving scene that if Liz had been given 10 minutes this season – or if they couldn’t just VAMPIRISE her – would be excellently done. And since I’m British and am exposed to British soaps there is absolutely no way shape or form you can get me in the emotions with a tragic Christmas episodes because we are the masters of making people sob piteously over the turkey.

Over to Tyler and his plan is to let Kai live – Luke and Liv aren’t big fans of letting him live since he did try to murder them when they were children, but Tyler thinks letting Kai merge with Jo and becoming a super-powerful serial killer will be an awesome way to spare Luke and Liv from the merging thing. This is why Tyler shouldn’t make plans. Luke points out a super-powerful witch on a killing spree is probably not a good thing, he also has a sense of fated duty towards the coven. But Liv is willing to throw that aside and unleash a serial killer for a normal life.

Unfortunately Liv seems to win the argument because they cast the finding spell for Kai and get him the knife full of Jo’s magic and join him in his evil ritual of sibling bonding (which sounds vaguely incestuous). Kai starts stabbing Jo which shocked Luke that his stabby brother likes stabbing things and nearly gets himself stabbed in the process – so he leaves. Jo points out she has to voluntarily retake her magic back and random stabbing won’t change that (but it could kill her first).

Jo begs Liv to let her go but Liv does point out that Jo trying to avoid the terrible fate of merging means that it falls on Liv and Luke instead, the whole “spare me from this terrible fate so you can have it instead” isn’t a big winner. Except, of course, Kai’s a serial killer. But Liv points out that Jo may win the merging (amusingly, while Liv is willing to consider that, absolutely no-one believes Luke would survive the merge with Liv) and points out how strong she is – which is when Kai comes back and steals Liv’s magic. He tortures Liv until Jo willingly takes back her magic.

Archangel's Storm (Guildhunter #5) by Nalini Singh

Princess Mahiya is the niece of the Archangel Neha. A privileged position – or it would be if she weren’t the daughter of Neha’s cheating husband and Neha’s own sister. Neha is more than a little bitter and not above using Mahiya as a scapegoat for her parents’ actions

But when one of those parents, her father Eris, is brutally murdered the Archangel Raphael offers to send Jason, his spymaster, to help investigate in the hope of curbing Neha’s growing instability and rage. But for Neha to trust Jason in her lands, she needs someone to bond with Jason – the disposable princess seems like an ideal choice. But Jason sees far more in Mahiya than ever Neha did.

This book has an excellently balanced and paced storyline – it combines character development, mystery and romance in a perfect amount that none of it is neglected and none of it is overwhelming. We have a series of murders to investigate and not once does it feel like the characters are ignoring that mission – but nor does that mission get in the way of us seeing the characters and allowing the characters to show they have their own agendas beyond the mission they have been given. They’re not just servants and we really get to see their own personality. Similarly the romance doesn’t get in the way of the mission and it doesn’t subsume the characters own personality in a wave of oh-how-hot the other is but it still allowed to grow in strength and depth over the course of the book with enough passion to keep it real without the melodrama to make me want to roll my eyes.

I especially like how Mahiya doesn’t expect a long term relationship and though would prefer one, understands if it isn’t on the cards. The best line of this is when someone worries about Mahiya getting her heart broken to which Mahiya accepts it could happen – but that she’d live through it and heal. She acts like a mature grown up – more, she acts like the immortal creature she is and that a bad love affair won’t destroy her.

On top of that we have some nice building of meta – it’s a nice slow burn which I think this story needs because the early books in the series pulled out the vast epic so early that we needed a more slow burn to prevent the idea that vast epic disasters afflict every week. There are lots of questions and hooks left in this world to bring in a vast number of storylines which points to a rich world and a lot of meaty plots to come.

What I loved most about this book is how it flipped the script – both on the last four books in the series but also in the genre in general.

Like every paranormal romance character ever, both Jason and Mahiya have tragic pasts (a tragic present in Mahiya’s case) and Jason follows the same pattern we see a lot of male characters with tragic pasts do – he’s cold and distant and unable to connect with people. He isn’t, however, cruel which is a very nice change nor is he aggressive. His tragic past that still haunts him isn’t treated as an excuse for him to lash out at others – he’s distant, cold and his emotions are dampened. He’s isolated but he doesn’t force that isolation with savagery or cruelty or bitter womanising with the inevitable trail of desperate women who just want to love him dogging his wake (like Dmitri) which is very nice to see.

American Horror Story, Season 4, Episode 9: Tupperware Massacre Party

Dandy visits fortune teller Maggie for some advice about his messed up life especially since he’s now added a passing Avon lady to his victims so he can sew together a Dot and Bette puppet out of her corpse and his mother’s. Maggie tells him something blandy reassuring which he takes as complete vindication and leaves relieved – after creeping Maggie out.

Jimmy has taken to getting very drunk, flirting with Barbara – now under the stage name Ima – and feeding her. Until he sees Dandy and drunkenly runs after him, accuses him of being behind the twins’ absence and being the other clown murderer (50% right) before falling down drunk. Dandy swears to destroy Jimmy

While looking for the twins at the camp, Desiree is met by a man called Angus – who she tells Maggie is her “beau” but to keep it quiet. In a tent they find Jimmy having sex with Barbara. Desiree calls them “pigs rutting” and Maggie adds “he’ll put it in anyone, he’s drunk.” Maggie tries to storm off and Jimmy stops her yelling that Barbara both begged her as crude descriptions of her, Maggie gives him a well deserved smack. Barbara runs to Jimmy’s defence (threatening to “flatten” Maggie) while Maggie points out Barbara could be anything for Jimmy (“a pillow, a doughnut, a sock”). Jimmy is sick.

And he’s still drunk at one of the “Tupperware parties” he does for the housewives of the town – and it does not improve his performance. He hallucinates his mother who is definitely not impressed with Jimmy’s decline. Eerily, the other Tupperware attendees also have small talk with Ethel. When the hallucination ends, Jimmy is kicked out.

When he leaves, Dandy arrives, asking to borrow a phone. And later, when the hostess’s husband returns home he finds all the women murdered in the swimming pool, blood everywhere.

Dandy took some of their blood for his bath and Regina visits to tell him she’s gone to the cops. Dandy calmly tells her he killed her mother. Regina is shocked and horrified – and then takes in her blood stained surroundings. Dandy happily expositions about killing his own mother and how he’s discovered bathing in blood. Regina tries to leave and Dandy locks the door. Dandy tells her how happy he is, Regina replies that his victims aren’t. He wants her to join him in his blood stained bath with a tantrum over her being so scared. He gets disappointed and angry because Regina isn’t joining him on his murder train – and he kicks her out. He goes off on one of his classic rants

Regina comes back with the police and it looks like Dandy may finally get his; but Dandy relies on his vast wealth and happily admits to murder and that he’ll get away with it because he’s just that wealthy. To prove it, he offers the detective $1,000,000 to kill Regina – and he does it without thinking for a second.

The Potential of Urban Fantasy

© 2013 Craig Sunter (Thanx a Million !), Flickr | CC-BY-ND | via Wylio

“Popular escapist fiction enchants adult readers without challenging them to be educated for critical consciousness” - bell hooks Rock My Soul 2003

One of the reasons we were inspired to create Fangs for the Fantasy is to hold the genre we love to read accountable - it is too easy and too common to love a thing and decide that, therefore, it must be perfect when we should love it enough to work for it to be better. When authors routinely create books that contain trope laden marginalised characters or erase us because for some reason we didn’t fit their storyline or out of fear of a rejection from publishers, it says that our struggles, indeed our very lives don’t matter.  It is an act of self love to demand to see your self represented well in a genre you consume. It’s an act of critical consciousness to challenge the prevailing thought which says repeatedly that we don’t matter.

“[...] the function of art is to do more than tell it like it is - it’s to imagine what is possible” - bell hooks Outlaw Culture 1994

Urban Fantasy, Fantasy, Science Fiction, indeed all Speculative Fiction, fits this paradigm perfectly. It’s a world in which anything is possible. From vampires to light sabres, to zombies to dragons and werewolves, yet somehow marginalised people and our experiences don’t flatter the imagination. To some degree, we are all complicit in maintaining the discord in worth and value but taken as a whole, urban fantasy is guilty of perpetuating some of the worst attributes of our problematic understanding of power and privilege.  

Because much of the fantasy genre is regarded as pure fluff, it can be tempting to simply internalise the messages we receive when we consume it. After all, there really are no such things as vampires and wendigo and since the basis of the work is the imagination, it becomes all too easy to not take it seriously and deny the power it has. But if you love something, truly love something, isn’t it important to listen that much more carefully? Isn’t it important to give it your full attention? More, isn’t it important to respect the power and influence it has? Too often we see the bizarre contradiction where we celebrate speculative fiction being widely popular in books, TV series and films yet at the same time we dismiss the power and influence such a vastly consumed genre actually has. We even go so far as to deny it actually being an art form, as if it’s very popularity renders it ineligible. Speculative fiction cannot be as immensely popular and as widely consumed as it is and at the same time be irrelevant or lack influence.

It’s all too easy to get completely caught up in the fantastical or the romantic nature of the story itself and scream, “my precious.”  Many times I have perused Goodreads after writing a review to find out if others took the same umbrage with a story that I did, to find any kind of critical critique lacking. It is understandable that not everyone will agree over a review - but it’s astonishing how grossly blatant a trope can be and still be near universally overlooked. Sure, there is a lot of commentary about purple prose and nonsensical plot lines but more often than not an absolute failure to acknowledge the greater issues with a book or series prevails. It’s not enough that we demand good writing. We need to begin to demand greater diversity of characters, locations and perspective for the genre to grow, otherwise we are simply telling the same story repeatedly and lauding it while it fails to contribute little that is new, substantial, challenging or useful. Urban Fantasy need not be something we dismissively accept as junk food for the brain because it has the absolute potential to be subversive in ways more restrictive genres cannot hope to accomplish.

And it is the sheer lack of barriers at the heart of this genre that makes the paucity of diversity or subversion in it so utterly shocking and inexcusable. More than any other genre out there, Sci-fi, Fantasy, Urban Fantasy and the greater speculative fiction mega-genre are limited only by our own imaginations - and it is depressing that our collective imagination is apparently so very narrow.

Storytelling has the power to generate and spread new ideas, to shape our society and our values, to pass on these vital messages to the next generation in a way that no history book could possibly manage. Storytelling is how we can re-imagine and reshape the world and lay the foundation on which we can build something better. Storytelling is how we reach out and allow ourselves to escape a harsh, often unfriendly world to one where we can know excitement, joy and escape - something all the more vital for the most marginalised among us. Storytelling is, therefore, important even vital.

Grimm, Season Four, Episode Seven: The Grimm Who Stole Christmas

"I have but to swallow this,

and be fore the rest of my days

persecuted by a legion of

goblins, all of my own creation.

Humbug, I tell you; humbug!"

Dennis and Emma Gladstone are throwing a massive Christmas party.  The doorbell rings and when it is opened, their guests find a present on the front porch.

Monroe has decorated the house for Christmas and he starts the train for the first time for the season, much to Rosalie's excitement. Monroe then points out an invitation taped to one of the train cars to Rosalie. When it comes around, Rosalie grabs it.  The invitation turns out to be an offer from Monroe to go on a honeymoon with him.  Can I just say, it's about time. The two hug happily and they both say that they are going to be okay.

At the Gladstone's, a hand breaks its way through the present that was dropped off.  Emma wakes Dennis to let him know that there is someone in the house.  Downstairs, a kallikantzaroi, which looks quite like the Grinch  becomes visible. Denis makes his way down the stairs after telling Emma to call the police and hears the sound of things being crashed.  He confronts two kallikantzaroi with glowing green eyes.  Denis calls out for help and tries to run back upstairs but the kallikantzaroi grab him by the legs and drag him away.

Trubel, Hank and Nick are at the Grimm trailer doing research on the Wesen heretics who burned the cross.  Hank questions how they knew that Rosalie and Monroe were married. Back at Nick's Josh Porter is going through the Grimopedia in amazement, as he and Juliet talk about the fact that Wesen are real. Josh mentions that he thought his father was "crazy" and brought his father to Nick because he was dying.  Josh reveals that there are days when he wishes he could be like Nick and Juliet points out that one day, he might not have a choice.  Josh admits that this possibility scares him. Josh then questions if the threats against Monroe and Rosalie are real and wonders if there is something he could do to help.  Juliet points out that he has enough to deal with right now and Josh concedes the points.  The two sit and look at the tree and Josh says that this is his first Christmas away from Philadelphia.

Hank and Nick arrive at the Gladstone's, where Wu tells them that Dennis got banged up pretty badly in a home invasion. Wu adds that the nieghbours reported hearing a lot of strange noises.  The cops enter the house and it is a complete wreck.  Wu takes Hank and Nick to meet Emma, who is anxious to see Dennis.  Emma tells them that she heard the attack and that when she finally got downstairs, whoever did this was gone.  Emma explains that they had a party with a lot of their friends which went until about 11.  Emma does bring up the present left on the front doorstep and points it out to Hank, who goes to check it out.  Hank realises that the box looks like something or someone ripped it open from the inside. Nick picks up a piece of fruit cake that the perpetrators were munching on. 

 Josh and Trubel make their way down the street and Trubel says that she has to check on a guy and it involves the stuff going on with Rosalie and Monroe. Josh asks what she neeeds him to do and Trubel orders him to stay there.  Josh hides in the bushes, as Trubel runs across the street and enters the backyard of a house, to hear raised voices on the inside.  When Trubel looks in the window, she sees a group of people meeting.  From his hiding spot, Josh notices a man carrying a box .  The man walks into the backyard and vogues when he sees Trubel..Josh sneaks up behind the man and bashes him over the head with a rock.  Trubel searches the man and finds something and Josh blathers on about the man voguing

Trubel and Josh head back to Nicks's and Truble hands Nick the mask she took of the man.  Trubel then brings up the incident where Bud asked her to help with a bully problem at his kid's school and reveals that it was really all about Shaw, a Wesen who was going to do something to Nick because he wasn't a Grimm anymore.  Trubel adds that Bud thought that Shaw found out that Nick was no longer a Grimm, from a guy who attended Monroe & Rosalie's wedding.  Trubel reveals that the mask was in the pocket of a Shackle that Josh hit in the head with a rock. Nick gets a call from Hank saying that the witness is ready to talk.  Nick agrees to meet Hank at the hospital and tells Trubel to see what she can find out from Bud.

At the hospital, Denis describes his attackers as three kids who dressed up like red hairy monsters.  Nick asks for more details on what the perpetrators looked like and Denis snarks about Nick and Hank filling out a police report for hairy little beasts.  Denis suggests that they look for whoever was inside the costumes, so Nick says that more detail about the costume could help point them out. 

Bud, Josh & Trubel watch the house from across the street. Using binoculars, Bud identifies some of the Wesen in the house.

The Pirate Princess (Jinx #2) by Alice Rozen

Jinx the witch is not shy about using her powers when she think it is warranted, much to the worry of the school authorities. To try and unruffle a few feathers, Jinx finds herself pulled into starring in a school play about the dread pirate captain, Sirena.

She had many worries and jitters about the play – but she definitely didn’t expect Sirena on her fabled ghostly pirate ship, the Flying Dutchman, to actually appear as the performance began.

With the new surprise arrival of Felix, Jinx must match wits with the pirate captain who is determined to sacrifice a witch born on hallowe’en to Davy Jones and isn’t afraid of having to hurt people in the process

This is one of those hard reviews to write – because I don’t have a lot to say but still loved it. I loved it because it’s immense fun. The story is fun, the characters are fun, the world setting is fun. It’s just all so very fun. It’s light, it’s fast paced, the action is perfectly balanced, it’s funny and there are lots of extremely fun, epic moments of excitement that, at the same time, don’t go over the top nor do they try to get too gritty or dark. It’s fun, it’s a fun read, it’s meant to be fun. And I can’t just write a review which says “it’s fun, go read it for the fun because fun!” though, really, what more could you possibly want from a book beyond fun? It’s one of the most difficult aspects of reviewing that when you liked a book for simple, good reasons, the review is short.

Of course, while the fun is by far and away the main reason to read it, there are some nice bonuses on top of that as well. We have a short but intriguing story that involves battling the enemy in ways beyond merely squishing and killing them as well as complex villains with difficult and deep motives that are hide to argue against, even if they are overly idealistic and simplistic. We have some excellent character development in Jinx’s school life and how she uses her powers as you’d really expect a 10 year old to use her powers. This also involves, very refreshingly, a complete absence of the usual “waaah I have super powers, it’s so terrible to be me!” Jinx is a witch, she likes being a witch, she loves her powers, she has absolutely no desire to hide her powers or suppress them and she’s quite willing to let loose when she sees things she disagrees this. Does this give the 10 year old Jinx something of an invincibility complex? Of course – but what 10 year old wouldn’t?

I like how this world has developed – building from the foundation of last book, we’re now expanding outwards. Not only with the introduction of Felix (and it is only the introduction this book, there isn’t much development of it yet – but this is a 100 page book with a lot of action) and a good foundation for that future relationship, but also with bringing in the Illuminati and general hints of meta. After the basics from the first book, this book is littered with little plot hooks promising that there’s a full meaty series to come that is going to be more than what we see. This gives me a lot of hope that there’s a full series run available here.

Supernatural, Season 10, Episode 9: The Things We Left Behind

Dean has a dream about slicing and dicing people until he’s covered in blood. That’s bad Mark news. On the plus side he does wake up as if it were a nightmare so, hope!

he seems better later watching the three stooges and eating cholesterol in its most solid form – but Sam is leery of his Mark.

And to a girl, Claire Novak, who is clearly very troubled and often in trouble at that. She is visited in her cell by… Castiel. Jimmy Novak, her father, is the body Castiel is possessing. Alone things are… tense, Claire is not thrilled. Castiel tells her (to my great relief) that Jimmy’s soul isn’t in residence any more because the body has been so badly mangled. Claire doesn’t particularly want a visit from the guy who took her dad from her; especially since after her dad was taken, her mother took off and she’s ended up in a group home. But that’s exactly why Castiel wants to help – a somewhat belated attack of conscience.

She wants him to get her out – which means putting on a tie (which Cas isn’t good at) and trying to get custody of “his” daughter and having a very very very awkward interview. Sandy, the nice social services woman, is not that impressed and says no.

Unable to get her out through legitimate means, Castiel stages a gaolbreak in the middle of the night, complete with unconscious guard.

He takes her to a diner and Claire notes the change in Castiel and Castiel nicely sums it up with him used to be so assured of righteousness and now he doesn’t think there is such a thing just “people trying to do their best in a world where it’s far too easy to do your worst.” Castiel thinks they should stick together – Claire’s not so sure. So she steals his wallet and ditches him. She hitchhikes away

And Castiel calls Dean and Sam and Dean is very much doubting that this constitutes an emergency (unlike apocalypse #3, and yes this show has had numerous apocalypses) nor does Dean especially see why Castiel feels responsible. Sam goes off to check the Group Home while Dean and Castiel stay in case she comes back, ostensibly, but really so Dean can question what’s going on with Castiel (and assert that ketchup is a vegetable.) Castiel lays out his motives and Dean points out that to keep going and manage life you have to move on and not think about those you fail or those you can’t save. In an equal moment of self-awareness, he agrees that he doesn’t actually do that but also points out that he’s not exactly in an ideal state because of that.

Castiel takes the chance to turn it round and inquire as to how Dean is handling things (and Castiel’s sad eyes won’t accept “fine” as an answer). After much worry about the mark, Dean has Castiel promise to kill him of the Mark turns him evil.

To the actual hunt for Claire, Sam hear at the Group Home about a friend Claire had at the home called Dustin who now works at the Wiener Hut.