Enter For A Chance To Win Volume 1 and 2 of The Walking Dead Graphic Novels

Are you counting down the days until the second season of The Walking Dead starts? Last year when AMC first aired The Walking Dead, I wasn't sure that I was going to like this zombie show, but each episode drew me in as I realized that this show is about so much more than supernatural beings.  It's about how you survive when everything that you know is gone.  In fact in volume one: Days Gone Bye, the author writes:

To me, the best zombie movies aren't the splatter fests of gore and violence with goofy characters and tongue and cheek antics. Good zombie movies show us just how messed up we are, they make us question our station in society ... and out society's station in the world. They show us gore and violence and all that cool stuff too ... but there's always an element of social commentary and thoughtfulness.

With The Walking Dead, I want to explore how people deal with extreme situations and how these events change them.  I'm in this for the long haul. You guys are going to see Rick change to the point that, when you look back on this book, you won't even recognize him. I hope you guys are looking forward to a sprawling epic because that's the idea with this one.

This is why The Walking Dead sums up some of the best that urban fantasy has to offer.  It's not just about woo woo; it's about the human experience.  If like me, you have become a fan of the series, I am sure that the chance to own:

And

Is hard to pass up.  This month we are giving away volume 1: Days Gone Bye, by Robert Kirkman and Tony Moorem as well as Volume 2: Miles Behind Us, by Robert Kirkman, Charlie Adlard and Cliff Rathburn of the Walking dead graphic novels. The lucky winner will receive both volumes.

This contest is open to Americans and Canadians.  All you have to do is follow us (not like) on Facebook (underneath the word networked blogs, there's a big blue button marked "follow"), Goodreads  or Blogger.  If  you already follow us, on one of the aforementioned sites, simply send us a short to note to let us know that you would like to enter, and where you already follow us.  When you are done, leave your email address in the comment section of this post, along with where you have chosen to follow us, or send us an email at fangsforthefantasy (at) gmail (dot) com. Without contact information, your entry will be deemed invalid.  This contest closes October 15, 2011. We allow only one entry per person. The winner will have 48 hours after being selected to contact us, or a new winner will be selected.  Good luck everyone and stay tuned for our next exciting give away.

Contest is now closed.

Clockwork Angel Giveaway Winner!

Yes, we have a winner for our Cassandra Clare Clockwork Angel giveaway.

Jeanette.

You have been sent an email to confirm that you have won, last months exciting prize.  You will have 72 hours to claim your prize, and if we do not hear from you in that time, we will be forced to choose a new winner. 

Thank you to everyone who participated and please be sure to continue to check in for our exciting giveaway offers. You can keep track of what we are giving away here. 

The Vampire Diaries Season Three, Episode Three: The End of the Affair

 

This episode brought the return of Katherine.  I was so hoping that narrowly escaping with her life last season, would be enough to end the characters purpose on the show.  More than anything, Katherine shows just how much Nina Dobrev needs to take acting classes; however, I suppose that as long as  Paul Wesley is playing Stefan, she will never hold the title for the worst actor on The Vampire Diaries. 

Shall we get right into it? Damon tracks Stefan down to beantown and brings Elena along for the ride.  This episode is filled with flashbacks from the roaring twenties, when Stefan was the ripper.  Not only did he kill willfully, he wrote the names down of his victims -- so that he could remember and experience the kills again.  Think of it sort of like a vampire trophy.  Damon takes Elena to Stefan's old apartment (okay, gotta say, why is this building still standing, and why is it in such good condition?) and she sees the list for herself.  Any normal person at that point would go screaming for the door. All Elena can see is a vampire in need of help to get over his little habit of draining people of their life blood.  Awww poor baby waby just needs help.  I don't for the life of me understand how she can still see him as good, when she now has evidence of exactly what kind of killer Stefan is.

In the flashback we learn that Stefan and Klaus had a friendship.  They were so close that Stefan referred to Klaus as his brother.  Stefan and Klaus were introduced by Rebecca, Klaus' sister.  It seems that over time, Stefan and Rebecca had a relationship, but when someone bursts into Stefan's bar, shooting wooden bullets, Klaus decides that it is once again time to leave town.  Before he leaves, he orders Stefan to forget about them, until he tells him to remember and this is why Stefan has no memory of his previous relationship with Klaus.  Rebecca refuses to leave without Stefan, and when Klaus tells her that she has to chose either himself or Stefan, Rebecca chooses Stefan.  Never being one to accept the word no, Klaus stabs her with knife making it impossible for her to move. She is essentially dead.  If you remember, this is what happened to Elijah last season. 

The reason Klaus brought Stefan to Chicago was to find out why he was not able to create more hybrids. Of course the answer lies in finding another witch and surprise, surprise, surprise, the witch is a woman named Gloria who used to work in the club that they hung at during the twenties. Gloria appears to not have aged a day, and this is because she is a powerful witch and is able to slow the aging process. 

Bloodlines by Richelle Mead, book 1 of the Bloodlines series

Sydney Sage is an Alchemist – she has a duty to protect humanity from the vampires (the Moroi and the Strigoi and their half vampire children, the dhampires) and hide the vampires from humanity. The Alchemists move around the world, covering up, hiding bodies, bribing witnesses and keeping everything silent – all the while fearing and loathing the vampires they hide. Dealing with them as little as possible, always recognising them as alien and unnatural and wrong and reviling any time they have to spend in their presence.

Except Sydney got to close to a dhampire – and now she's under suspicion. She now has a new job – to hide Jill, a Moroi princess, from assassins all the while being under the suspicious eyes of her fellow Alchemists who hold a grudge – and are looking for a reason to ship her to “re-education camps”. And if she fails – her sister will be drafted in in her place.

Going into hiding in a boarding school is further complicated by a streak of strange murders in the area – and by odd tattoos, so similar to the Alchemists own secrets, that are extremely popular among the student body.

‘The Vampire Diaries’: What People of Colour Do When They Aren’t Snack Food

Over the three seasons of The Vampire Diaries, several characters of colour, not including the random walk on characters that were usually fed on by Caroline have appeared on the show:

Bonnie Bennet (Kat Graham)
Sheila Bennet (Jasmine Guy)
Emily Bennet (Bianca Lawson)
Pearl (Kelly Hu)
Anna (Malese Jow)
Luca Martin (Bryton James)
Dr. Jonas Martin (Randy J Goodwin)
Greta Martin (Lisa Tucker)
Bethan (Jenny Perillo)
Harper (Sterling Sulieman)
Tyler Lockwood (Michael Trevino)

This may seem like a decent representation; however, what the numbers don’t reveal, is that these characters were either in servile positions, or were so far separated from their African-American culture that they were rendered almost invisible or race neutral. It is also worth noting that this story is taking place in the south, and the ratio of Black to White is far higher than what is actually represented on The Vampire Diaries.


The only two characters to show any real independence and self interest were Shelia Bennet and Emily Bennet.  Shelia wanted to impart her culture and history to Bonnie.  She set very strict boundaries on her interactions with vampires, and made it clear that she did not exist to serve them.  In fact, Shelia actively threatened Stefan to warn him from harming Bonnie in anyway.  Yet, for all of her warnings and precaution, she still ended up dying to free the vampires from the crypt. 


Emily was in a servile position because she was a slave; however, she used the power that she had to create a better future for her descendants, demanding that they would never know what it was to be a slave. Emily was also not afraid to use her power against vampires when she felt that it was a public good.  Considering that Bonnie has a heritage of strong Black women, it is hard to understand why her cultural awareness is almost non-existent.  It is almost as though Bonnie is a White girl conveniently painted Black for the purposes of inclusion cookies.  I can say this confidently because in the books written by L.J. Smith, not only is Bonnie White, there are no regularly occurring characters of colour. 


Bonnie often seems to have no real independent existence outside of Elena. She exists to serve Elena, on our podcasts we even joked about Bonnie being put back into the “plot box” until Elene needed her again. It seems especially gross to see this when we consider that Emily, Bonnie’s ancestor was a slave who served exactly the same purpose for Katherine. Both was there to provide magical solutions to whatever problems Elena/Katherine had. A matter only made more distasteful by Mystic Fall’s constant worship and romanticism of the Founders that Bonnie is expected to participate in. As a descendant of slaves, Bonnie should take no pleasure in any celebration of antebellum south.

Even when Bonnie herself disagreed with what she was asked to do (being considerably more suspicious of the vampires) she still acted for Elena. Even when the spirits of dead witches, of Bonnie’s ancestors, are telling her not to do something, she ignores them in favour of Elena. Though Bonnie realises that she is pushing herself to perform more and more magic, she ignores the personal cost up to and including, nose bleeds, passing out and extreme pain. Most glaringly of all, at the end of season two Bonnie is ready to die to save Elena. 


Outside of Caroline whom Bonnie distrusts now that she is a vampire, and Elena, Bonnie is closes to Jeremy Gilbert, Elena’s brother. Jeremy actively pursues Bonnie and she is resistant at first because of the age difference between them rather than race. This stands of another example of the desire to construct Bonnie as White though she is supposedly a character of color.  Anyone in an inter-racial relationship will tell you that race is something that constantly needs to be negotiated and yet Bonnie and Jeremy have had no such conversation. Bonnie has not even wondered privately if she is being fetishised and considering the history of Black women and White men in an American context, I find this extremely unrealistic. 

Lost Girl Season Two Episode Four: Mirror Mirror

Bo is still moaning and groaning over the loss of Dyson. On one hand she accepts that he gave up his passion for her, in order to save her life, but on the other, she expects him to be celibate.  As Hale brags about Dyson's conquests, Bo lies and says that she is fine with it however, the moment that he walks away she admits that she cannot handle it.  Speaking of Hale, there have been 16 episodes of Lost Girl to date and all he has done is joke about being Dyson's wing man and pick up whatever Dyson leaves behind.  I find this absolutely racist.  Hale is an attractive man but he is continually reduced to sidekick, and now the writers have made it clear that he is not worthy of any sort of relationship.  Even Kenzi had an episode where she fell for a fae with a death sentence over his head.

In her drunken state, Kenzi tells Bo about a Russian witch called Baba Yaga. In my brief research on this mythical being, I found nothing about vengeance for lovers that had betrayed their partners however, in this episode that was the purpose of Baba Yaga's existence. Seeking vengeance on Bo's behalf, Kenzi calls upon Baba Yaga to put a curse on Dyson.

The next morning Bo awakes to find something carved into her behind. When she asks Trick about it, she learns that it is the marking of Baba Yaga.  Kenzi didn't actually believe that Baba Yaga was real when she cursed Dyson.  At the police station, every woman that Dyson interacts with physically attacks him.  When he goes to the bar for respite, he is attacked again by the barmaid.  Hale has to draw the woman away from Dyson.  Isn't it lovely the way that Hale is just there - nice and handy to help solve Dyson's problems?  When Dyson learns that Kenzi cursed him he yells at her for meddling in things that she does not understand and once again calls her a human.  The catch is the way he said human, it was though she was lower than a cockroach.

The Secret Circle: Season 1, Episode 2: Bound

We begin with Cassie practising with her new super powers and finding she has lots of power and no control – she quickly flees the scene. We then do a quick check in on the Scooby Gang for some random characterisation. Nick (the Hot One) is an arsehole who loves himself,. Melissa (the Other One) is something of a doormat, especially to Faye, and Faye is a Mean Girl still

Cassie gets to school and we get another new character (ok, I'm going to have to start taking notes), Sally, the class president – and she's black (inclusion beyond crowd scenes?) Don't get your hopes up, she's quickly interrupted by Faye interjecting for some more Mean Girl. Really, just about everything Faye does or says is for the purpose of establishing how Mean she is. Anyway the mean is to establish that Binding the Circle stops the members from using magic individually, only collectively therefvore controlling their powers. Faye hates this and says it will put 'fascist' Diana in charge of their magic which she doesn't want (I can't say I blame her, I wouldn't want Chief Scooby in charge either). Cassie's having none of it and they go to class where Faye is Mean Girl and Melissa is Mean Girl Doormat – they poke Cassie with magic and she turns round and pokes back a lot harder by accident. Cue Cassie angst and fleeing the scene while Adam follows (going to change his name from Love Interest to Puppy Dog).

The Secret Circle: Season 1, Episode 1: Pilot

Brand new Urban Fantasy, so of course we had to check it out right?

The protagonist is Cassie – teenaged girl from California

The episode opens with a prologue with Cassie's mother being attacked and killed in her home by a magic user. I have to say I loved this scene, I haven't seen many great depictions of this kind of sympathetic magic often in Urban Fantasy – and definitely not in Urban Fantasy on television but I loved this – pouring the water to break the water pipes, lighting matches to set fires. I love the idea – and I love the sense of a magic system that has rules and structure rather than just being made up as and when the story demands it. Yes I have the geeky love for this. Unfortunately, this theme doesn't seem to be overly maintained for the rest of the episode.

This leads to Cassie moving in with her grandmother in a whole new town and new school... there follows a series of people out competing themselves for the Creepy Crown with little tricks that kinda coulda be magic.. Unfortunately we're instantly introduced to the resident Mean Girl, Faye (do we always have to have a Mean Girl?) and to the soon-to-be-Scooby-Gang, Adam and Diana.

Mean Girl uses magic to set fire to Cassie's car and lock her in, to try and get Cassie to use her own magic to put it out, though she's rescued by Adam. Daian confronts Faye over it later and the plot thickens – with Cassie there the “circle” is complete and Faye claims it was Cassie's magic that boosted the fire. The two have a show down and lines are drawn - Diana and Faye are set up as clear rivals, possibly for leadership since Diana is Chief Scooby.

The next day Cassie goes into town and meets Diana's father Charlie – and shock, (unbeknownst to her) it's the man who killed her mother! Grandma meets the school headmistress (Faye's mother – that's Mean Girl, keep up) because she's afraid that the kids are... practising