Fangs for the Fantasy Episode 99

Welcome back after the New Year! Hope it was a good one for everyone.

This week we have the return of Lost Girl and all of its many issues. We also look at the Walking Dead computer game. We also discuss Fringe.

Our book of the week is the extremely awesome Touch of the Demon by Diana Rowland that we love in all its glory

Our next few books of the week are:

7/1/-14/1/2013: The Awakening by LJ Smith

14/1-21/1/2013: Grave Memory by Kalayna Price

21/1-28/1: Ever After by Kim Harrison

28/1-4/2: Magnificent Devices by Shelly Adina

Review: Touch of the Demon by Diana Rowland, Book 5 of the Kara Gillian Series

 It was awesome, go buy it.

Why are you still here? Go go now! Go buy and read it?

Have you read it yet? Then what are you doing here? Get reading! Never mind sleep, read, people, read. What, you haven’t read the previous books? Go read them too!

Ok, now I’m assuming you’ve read it, you’re allowed a brief diversion before reading it a second time.

I can’t even begin to recap this – so much happens and to truly grasp it I’d have to spoil which would be a crime. Kara enters the demon world, finds out so much she knew was wrong, discovers a whole new reality, discovers so much more about her magic – and a lot more about the Lords, who she can trust and who she can’t.  There are many twists in that, some awesome world building, a great plot and some excellent characters.

There was so much to love here. Kara is plunged into the demon world where everything is so different yet so similar to Earth. The lands and settings are described beautifully, enough information to get a true sense of the place while at the same time not drowning us in unnecessary detail or pages and pages of over the top description. I just loved the setting here and how it, in turn helped describe the demons, the different forms, their lives, the way they behave (like the demon snowball fight – which was awesome) without needing to create Wikipedia articles about each kind. We got all the information about them and them much more filled out by these events and daily behaviour than ever we could through dry lectures.

And info dumping was always going to be a risk here. Kara arrives on this brand new world, she’s surrounded by every kind of demon and she discovers that a lot of what she (and other demon summoners) thought they knew about the demons and the demon world was laughably wrong (I loved that as well, how her old knowledge wasn’t infallible). Then we’ve got to learn about the 11 demon lords, what actually happened to Szerin, the past cataclysm that nearly destroyed the world, the blades, this alien force, the groves not to mention Kara studying bran new forms of summoning and using symbols.

There was a lot of information there and none of it was dumped. Of course some was lectured in a teaching situation but it was all really well balanced. The pacing was excellent, events prevented us having long screeds of info. When Kara is traumatised it is presented respectfully without Kara getting over it over night and without endlessly melodramatic pages of angst and navel gazing – and she has ongoing issues, especially about trust and her appearance, that stem from that. It’s a very natural, very real presentation of her as a survivor and, again, is balanced perfectly with the plot and the world building and the exploration to prevent us having pages and pages of repetition or dry exposition that just drags. Kara doesn’t trust people around her, for obvious reasons, but it never reaches a point of foolishness or the whole plot scuppering over Kara failing to see the obvious out of sheer mistrust – even though it takes a long time to ever gain her full trust. Again, an excellent and real balance.

Misfits Season Three, Episode Five

The misfits are approached by Sean to do some gardening at the hospital.  Before they leave, Seth shows up.  Nathan, Curtis and Simon see Seth first and immediately worry that Seth is at the community center to take their powers. In a rather buffoonish way, Rudy attacks Seth and the struggle is broken up by Kelly, who wants to know what is going on and why Seth is there. It seems that Kelly only wanted to ask Kelly out for a drink. In the bathroom, Kelly clarifies that Seth wants an actual date and then agrees to go out with him. As Seth is walking away, Kelly asks about Shannon.  Seth replies,"you were right, she was not coming back."

The Misfits are working and of course, Rudy has to be an ass. He wonders whether Seth will take Kelly's powers if they have sex and then encourages Kelly to make Seth wear two condoms.

In the hospital, Jenn who is a coma victim is being visited by her boyfriend Dom. He is clearly sad and lonely and missing her.  Finally, Dom stands up and says that he cannot do it anymore and then kisses Jenn goodbye.  The moment Dom walks out of the room, Jenn's monitors start buzzing. Kelly walks in the room and see the monitors going berserk.  Kelly touches Jenn's hand asking if she needs anything, then Jenn and Kelly change bodies.  I get that this had to happen for the plot of this episode to occur, but this is one hospital I wouldn't want to be in.  You would think that with all of the sounds the machine is making that a nurse would at some point think that it's a good idea to check out what's wrong.

Jenn rushes out of the hospital hoping to catch up with Dom but he drives off too quickly.  Jenn then finds a mirror to check herself out in Kelly's body.  Satisfied with how she looks, Jenn goes back into her former hospital room and apologises to Kelly, who is now in a coma in Jenn's body.

Back at the community center, Sean tells Rudy that there is an anger management counsellor waiting to see him and then walks off. Rudy tells Simon that he is on community service because one of his alters trashed a car after breaking up with a woman.  Rudy then heads into the office to see Claire, the therapist. He is disappointed when he learns that treatment involves talking and not breaking things. Rudy blames the full moon for his actions. Claire then asks him if he wet the bed as a child because apparently, it is often linked to anger issues in adults. Rudy then excuses himself and heads to the bathroom, where his other half pops out. It seems that at least one of the Rudy's was a bedwetter.  They cannot agree on going back to talk to Claire.

Later as Claire leaves the community center, she is on the phone and is clearly upset.  When she gets into her car and start to cry, Rudy approaches her and asks if she needs help.

Jenn heads off to see her boyfriend in Kelly's body and claims to be a friend. Dom explains that though this has been very difficult, he has had a lot of support. Dom gets upset and asks if it's okay for them to do this another time and then Jenn reveals that she has taken over Kelly's body. Dom is shocked and so Jenn starts telling Dom about their relationship and about how she heard everything he said to her while she was in a coma, in order to prove her identity.

At the bar, Seth is waiting for Kelly, but of course, she does not show up because she is lying in a hospital bed.  Seth calls Kelly's cell and asks that she inform him, if she isn't really into him.

Jenn and Dom are exchanging pleasantries and it's very awkward between the two of them, so Jenn suggests takeaway and then leaves the room to put on her old clothing. When Dom enters, the two start to kiss.  I have to pause to point out that even though Jenn consented to sexual activity, Kelly most certainly did not.  This is yet another in a long history of Misfits playing fast and loose with consent. Afterwards, Jenn admits that she knows that this is weird, but says that this is the only way for them to be together.

The next day, the misfits are back at the community center and Rudy is concerned because his other half did not return last night.  Alisha points out that Kelly is missing as well and so of course, Rudy has to suggest that Kelly is sleeping with his other half. Sean enters and says that all of the misfits except Rudy are to head to the hospital for work detail and then informs Rudy that he has another counselling session.  Sean notices that Kelly is missing and so Simon tries to cover for her by saying that she has menstrual cramps.

Fangs for Fantasy Book of the Week

 Every week on the Fangs for the Fantasy podcast (archives here) we read a book and discuss it on the show. The review for the book of the week always goes up on 3:00pm (EST) on a Monday (Monday’s book review).

To give people a chance to read along with us, every Monday we’re also going to include a list of our planned books of the week for the next few shows, so people can get the books, read them and join in the conversation.

17/12-7/1/2013: Touch of the Demon by Diana Rowland

7/1/-14/1/2013: The Awakening by LJ Smith

14/1-21/1/2013: Grave Memory by Kalayna Price

21/1-28/1: Ever After by Kim Harrison

28/1-4/2: Magnificent Devices by Shelly Adina

 

We will discuss each book on the latter date – so on the 21st January, we will discuss Grave Memory by Kalayna Price

We will post a new list every Monday with any changes or new books.

The Walking Dead Game

 When I first got this game, I thought it was going to be a Resident Evil style survival horror – I’d get to run around a building or complex or city with lots of guns and blow the heads off zombies while collecting oddly primary-coloured healing herbs. Yes, they’re a guilty pleasure of mine. Tension would come with things leaping out at me from behind doors, or hordes of enemies to gun down or even a big bad that just won’t die.

But that isn’t The Walking Dead. Not the TV series, or the comics. That’s not what The Walking Dead is about.

Not that there aren’t tense action moments. But they aren’t “how many zombies can I kill?” moments. No, they’re you scooting backwards with an injured leg, your back hitting a car with nowhere else to go, trying to load a shell into a shotgun while the Walker crawls after you and then dropping your only shotgun shell! An entirely different kind of tension but still very nerve wracking.

But, more than that, it’s a game about hard choices, again like the comics and the series. It’s about deciding who lives or dies. It’s about forming a group, forming a relationship with them, having real characters and companions – and then them dying, and then not being able to save them.

There are several moments when someone will die. Will. You can’t save everyone, you won’t save everyone and often you have to choose who lives or who dies and even to save yourself at the cost of others. And you often have to make these decisions in split-seconds, Walkers don’t wait for you to ponder the ramifications. Some people will hate you for what you have to do, some people will be evil in the dystopian world and you’ll have to decide what to do with them. Some won’t be evil – but will still be dangerous. And when seeing several of these dangerous people there’s then a question of who to trust, if anyone.

This is also a story where things and people change based on your decisions throughout the game which creates another difficulty – not just on deciding who dies or not – but how to interact with the party. When they have arguments and disputes, who do you support? What if you agree with one but the other is your friend? Can you risk alienating people? What if something is the right thing to do but not the safe thing? How far do you go? It says a lot about the quality of the game – writing, graphics and voice-acting – that all of these combine really well to make these decisions matter.

I don’t know if I’d call this game fun. In fact, having completed it until the next chapters come out I would definitely say it’s not fun. Fun games don’t leave you chanting “no” at the screen and the ending scene doesn’t leave you feeling vaguely beat up and sad. It’s powerful, it’s emotional both in ways that you hardly ever see in the computer games. There’s no happy ending, there’s no easy answers and you don’t leave with a happy sense of victory. In short, it’s incredibly true to the comics and the TV series – it’s desperate, it’s character driven, it’s tense, it’s difficult – not in the sense that it’s hard to play, but that it forces hard choices on you – and it has a realness to it that other computer games only wish they could manage. 

It also helps add texture to the game and the comics - it's easy to shout at their bad decisions, much less so when you, in a moment of fumbling panic, killed that Walker with a noisy gun rather than a quieter bludgeon.

Terra Nova, Season 1, Episode 12 & 13: Occupation, Resistance

 Back in the bleak bleak future, an army is mustering, with an ominous looking Weaver talking to  Lucas about his dinosaur scars the mining equipment they have ready.

In Terra Nova, Taylor is preparing his troops ahead of the invading 11^th pilgrimage army. Malcolm reminds us they can’t shut down the portal because they’d still arrive – but at a random point, at least with the terminus they know where they’re coming from. The Shannons are all domestic and ready – and Josh still hopes Kara’s going to make it through. Lots of goodbyes, and dramatic scenes of war preparation, Reynolds kisses Maddy goodbye (without getting permission from her father in triplicate! The cad!) Taylor leaves Washington behind at Terra Nova to keep her safe (and ensure its Jim at his side during the actions scenes) and they move out.

The portal opens and the 11^th pilgrimage arrives. Actual pilgrims, including Kara. Until one comes through with a bomb strapped to him – he has time to ask for help before exploding messily. No-one expected this? Someone’s not been watching their Stargate episodes. Jim is knocked to the floor semi-conscious and we have dramatic images of numerous injured and burned people.

He wakes, deafened and disorientated by the blast in a hospital. He staggers outside to find a devastated and occupied Terra Nova, with Mira and Lucas in the command building. Elizabeth rescues him and brings him back to the infirmary and explains what happened. The bomb blew up the gate, allowing them to open the portal somewhere else, it opened close to Terra Nova and they attacked the colony, Taylor couldn’t move his troops to help in time.

At home Jim sees his kids and finds Josh mourning Kara’s death and finding that all weapons have been confiscated and that there’s a curfew. The survivors in Terra Nova are hostages to prevent Taylor and his forces – still out there – from retaking the colony. Even Boylan is being forced to hand out free drinks rather than taking fake Terra money. Jim goes to see Washington to ask her what’s going on (why doesn’t he know? Elizabeth explained everything). Washington calls the soldiers the “Phoenix Group”, mercenaries hired by whoever Lucas is working for. Washington had to surrender when they started shelling the colony and slaughtering innocent people. They brought a new portal terminus through, but it was broken by dinosaurs. So they now have to fix it – and Malcolm is the one fixing it. Jim fires up Washington and brings her out of her depression to get her ready to fight them – hurting them until they’re gone.

Mira notices Jim is missing and Jim goes to see Malcolm. He’s working as slowly as he can because they killed his assistant, but he’s trying to stall. Lucas’s team finds Jim but with Malcolm’s help he pretends to be disabled by the blast and unable to understand. Lucas has a creepy moment with Skye who he has decided is his sibling now (he doesn’t need a reason) and Mira is been sent off on a mission to the Badlands – no questions asked (or answered anyway).

One of the soldiers brought in after a skirmish with Taylor’s men has some bullets removed in the infirmary – and the bullets have map co-ordinates on them, Taylor’s rendez-vous point. Using a distraction from their friendly wheelchair bound market trader they slow up a convoy of Lucas and Weaver and Jim manages to sneak aboard to leave the compound.

Out there the bad guys talk about an entire valley of super meteoric ore but infested with wildlife. Weaver shows what a bad guy he is by shooting and killing a Brachiosaur, which even Lucas protests is harmless (and I protest for its cannon shredding! Mira, Taylor, Jim, everyone have been shooting dinosaurs at point blank range and causing mild irritation – but Weaver’s gun can one shot a Brachiasaurus?) The plan is to use a bomb to clear the valley and, later to use several big bombs across the continent to destroy all wildlife and foliage, leaving it free to mine the Unobtainium without dangerous wildlife (and giant blue cat people. Oh, wait, wrong story).

Jim meets up with Taylor and tells him what’s happening. They race to where the bomb has been planted to diffuse it. There’s a race as Weaver notices heat sources around the bomb, Riley, one of Taylor’s soldiers, works at diffusing the bomb while Lucas tries to get out of the blast zone so he can blow up the bomb and his father with it. Riley gets it done on time (and most wonderfully tells everyone to shut up and stop heckling her). In a snit, Lucas fires cluster bombs at Taylor and crew which does nothing as they drive off in their armoured vehicle.

Jim and Taylor compare casualty reports and bring everyone back to speed before Jim returns to Terra Nova, with a communicator from Taylor so they can keep in touch.

There follows a wonderful reversal of roles. Taylor’s men out in the woods, Jim and Washington acting as spies, planting tracking beacons on the mercenaries so Taylor can launch raids and Lucas having more and more temper tantrums.

He comes to the conclusion they have a spy and tries for some sibling bonding with Skye in the bar over their father figure Taylor, especially since Taylor hasn’t spoken to Skye since she was revealed as a spy (admittedly he hasn’t exactly had time to). He gets more touchy feely with Skye until Josh attacks him (because Josh has the brains of the drink he is serving). They soldiers drag him off Lucas and then hold him so Lucas can punch Josh (oh I’ve been waiting a whole season to see that). Skye runs for help.

So called, Jim rushes to the bar (blowing his cover as disabled and unable to understand) to attack Lucas and the mercenaries with his crutches. Of course Jim is a big damn hero and can take on a room full of squaddies until they draw guns on him. And they find the transponder he was carrying, revealing him as the spy. Wow, he held that cover for… minutes?

This gives Josh and Jim time to bond in the prison and Lucas comes in for a round of Jim torturing that, alas, we don’t get to see.

Meanwhile, boss man Weaver has a horrible rash from being bitten by one of the insects and is not appreciative of the natural wonders of Terra Nova and all the wonderful creatures that try to eat you. But don’t worry, he’s been treated by Dr. Shannon who tells him she’s injected him with terrible, nasty parasites (her husband is being tortured in in prison, the Hippocratic oath just took a back seat) if he wants the cure, he’ll help her free her husband.

Review: Demon Mistress (Otherworld Series #6) by Yasmine Galenorn

 Menolly steps back up as protagonist in this book as the sisters come across an old potential crime while burrowing through the storerooms of the Wayfarer. Tracking down a missing elf from years ago isn’t easy, but is complicated by a missing vampire, a posse of undead, a friendly neighbourhood necromancer and his wandering ghouls, a demonic frat house who get exactly what they deserve and a whole new force of demons who fight on the astral plane

It’s a lot to juggle and, of course, behind it all is the politics from Otherworld and the eternal threat of Shadow Wing and his demons.

Menolly also has relationships to balance – Nerissa is finding her time taxed with the puma council demanding she assume a political role; while Vanzir and Rozuriel both pursue Menolly, their demonic natures fitting powerfully well with Menolly’s vampirism.

One of the main problems I’ve had with this series in the past is that it brings in a lot of extraneous issues, lots of side plots and lots of distractions that bogs down a very epic story – which is further exacerbated by the over-description, unnecessary recapping and constant talking everything through.

So I was really happy that this book managed to avoid a lot of that. I think part of it is that the world is so huge now there’s a limit to how much recapping and reiteration you can actually do. Similarly most of the storylines and elements were pretty much relevant to the plot without too much in the way of distraction. The writing was more concise, there was no need to reiterate the battle order every time they fought, less random anecdotes from Iris, less putting the end of the world on hold so they could have a meal – it was tighter. There was still some side references that made things longer than they needed to be, but they were relevant side references to things like the fae queens or Iris’s personal life. The story was much more contained and moved at a much brisker pace with a far greater sense of both the urgency and the epic consequences they face.

I wasn’t especially happy with how the story started, however. I can understand going after the astral demons since Delilah was targeted and people were dying. It was a nice reminder that, while Shadow Wing must be the priority, he’s not the only threat out there and they can’t focus on him when there are bodies on the ground. I can also understand Chase asking for information on the missing vampire from Menolly since she’s his vampire contact and it’s only a matter of asking questions. What I don’t understand is, with the ominous threat of Shadow Wing looming over them, they decided that it’d be great to search for an elf who may or may not have gone missing several years ago. Where’s the triage? Where’s the sense of priorities? I’m actually a little put out that it did all end up being related to Shadow Wing. Maybe it’s supposed to be a sense of how wide spread his power and influence is, but I felt it was a little “hey we got another spirit seal!” “How?” “Uh… we kind of stumbled over it, to be honest.”  The story itself was great – fun, well written, well paced – but the beginning and end were shaky.

I also think the friendly neighbourhood necromancer is really unnecessary in a cast that already has a rather large cast of characters. This is a wonderfully huge world with a massive, multi-layers epic storyline with so many factors and sides and forces that it always stands on the edge of becoming bloated.

Of course, it’s that world and epic story that keeps me coming back to this series. The fae, the devas, the different realms of fae, the demons and their factions, humans, shapeshifters, vampires – I don’t think there are many worlds I’ve come across that are as rich as this series. And it’s not just the sheer number of supernaturals that are present, it’s how all these forces are relevant to the plot line. All of them have an influence and all of them have a stake – they’re not just mentioned in passing, they are integral parts of the story

American Horror Story, Season 2, Episode 10: The Name Game

 Hiatus is over, American Horror Story is back, hold on to your hats and your turkey because the whacky and weird and often awful has returned.

Much to everyone’s shock, Arden actually does try to bring Kit back from the dead. Kit is dazed from his harrowing experience and Arden is callously clinical. He tells Kit that the aliens didn’t come – even while the flashbacks show us what a liar he is.

Arden has Grace and marvels over the aliens healing of her bullet wound and wants to do more testing. Which is where Alien!Pepper steps in, Grace’s Guardian. Arden mocks her, just because she can speak doesn’t make her intelligent he claims and she counters by mocking his primitive experiments and how he thinks that even remotely puts him on the alien’s level. He steps it up by threatening to cut Grace open and his scalpel is ripped from his hand by an invisible force. Pepper then proceeds to lay on an awesome smack down, telling him how she, as a Microcephallic person, as a “freak” was often blamed and used as a scapegoat – how her own sister murdered her baby and then blamed Pepper – and the judge took one look at Pepper and condemned her.  She threatens Arden with the aliens’ “stirring his brain with a fork” so he can see how people treat people like her.

Pepper also does scary quite quite well.

Monsignor Timothy has been pulled down from his cross – and isn’t dead. When Scathach came to see him on his cross it wasn’t to take his soul, it was to give him a job, to exorcise Sister Demon Lettuce. She reminds him that his rosary is his shield against Sister Demon Lettuce

Which is probably why he’s a little perturbed that Sister Demon Lettuce is his caregiver while he recovers and why he clutches his rosary.

In the common room, blessedly free of that damned singing nun, the destruction of which is mentioned snarkily by Sister Demon Lettuce to Jude’s truly awesome “like I give a shit” demeanour. Sister Demon Lettuce has brought in a Juke Box, just perfect to torment Jude and her hatred of worldly ways. Even Lana seems to be impressed by Jude (as she should be)

But Lana’s quicker still to go to Kit to tell him Threadson’s loose – something he already knows as Dr. Oliver Threadson walks into the room and sits down for a nice chat with them both – after  moving the heavy glass ashtray out of Lana’s easy reach, anyway. He’s not going to kill them because she’s carrying his kid and he has Threadson’s taped confession. But it was Sister Demon Lettuce who rescued him – and Sister Demon lettuce who gave him a job at Briarcliff – so he will be treating them.

That night there’s a room search and Lana takes the chance to confront Sister Demon Lettuce – which gets her carted off to hydrotherapy. Sister Demon Lettuce moves on to try and shame Jude for masturbating with a marrow – but Jude’s not having that and throws even more epic “like I give a shit” in Sister Demon Lettuce’s direction. Shaming failed – Demon Lettuce sets Jude up for electroshock – an extra strong dose. I’d feel more sympathy for Jude if a) she hadn’t done this to Lana and b) I didn’t suspect that electricity would only make her stronger.

Back to Monsignor Tim who tries his hand at a bit of exorcism. It does not go well, but Sister Demon Lettuce has some nifty limericks. Oh and telekinesis.  Which starts out fun – but this is American Horror Story and quickly turns into yet another rape – this time Sister Demon Lettuce raping Monsignor Tim while he begs her to stop and talks of his vows. And Arden walks in to see them at it

Jude staggers into the common room, disorientated from the electroshock, witnessed by Lana who comments to Kit that she doesn’t feel any better seeing Jude hurting. Defiant to the end, Jude staggers to the juke box and tries to unplug it. Lana goes to her and helps her up and comforts her – and asks her name. To which Jude hallucinates a song and dance number, with all the inmates, with Lana and Kit as main dancers, to The Name Game.

American Horror Story sets new records of weirdness every week. I’m almost in awe. I thought the aliens were weird. She comes back to reality with Lana reminding her of her name.

It’s feeding time for the monsters and Arden is being pouty with Sister Demon Lettuce after seeing her rape the monsignor (he’s still invested in Mary Eunice’s “purity”). He then shoots and kills all of his monsters that have arrived to eat – the experiment is over. Demon Lettuce comments on his tantrum and he says it’s a farce and puts a gun to his head (I guess Pepper’s words hit home) but can’t pull the trigger, he collapses in tears instead. He clutches her and tells her she has no idea what it’s like to have lost her – she pushes him aside contemptuously.