Game of Thrones, Season 4, Episode 7: Mocking Bird

Kings Landing: The Usual nest of vipers

Jaime is very very annoyed with his brother for ungratefully throwing his life away. Tyrion, being much more astute, doesn’t see any reason to be grateful for being sent to the wall for a crime he didn’t commit – and yes, the whole farce is a joke. Tyrion also throws some hard truth at Jaime – Tyrion is always going to be disposable to Tywin. More, Tywin wants to dispose of him; Jaime protests that Tywin would sacrifice any of them and Tyrion calls bullshit – Jaime could (quite literally) “kill a king, lose your hand, fuck your sister” and still be the golden son.

Jaime can’t fight for Tyrion in his trial by combat – without his hand he isn’t ready yet (though the idea of Tyrion and Tywin both dying because of the trial is faintly amusing to Tyrion). Tyrion asks Jaime to find Bronn.

And Cersei chooses her champion – Ser Gregor Clegane, the Mountain. Who is happily butchering some prisoners for funsies.

Unfortunate for Tyrion, Bronn has been nobbled. He has been married off to a wealthy lady through Cersei’s influence giving him much more luxury and a considerable lack of need to be chopped into itty bitty pieces by the Mountain. It’s Bronn’s turn to lay on some hard truths, Tyrion no longer has wealth to offer him and while he is Tyrion’s friend, that doesn’t extend to risking his life for Tyrion – after all, Tyrion has never done the same. They part as friends.

Tyrion gets a visit from Oberyn who, in between making it clear he knew Cersei was trying to turn him against Tyrion and he tells of his first visit to Castlery rock when Tyrion was a newborn baby and how rumour had painted him as so monstrous. But when a young Oberyn was so eager to see this monstrous baby, he was surprised when Cersei showed him Tyrion – a pretty normal baby without any of the claws and tails Oberyn had pictured. But Cersei hated him and blamed him for the death of their mother.

And Oberyn wants revenge on the killers of his sister – the Mountain, Gregor Clegane, who raped and killed his sister and killed her children. Being Tyrion’s champion gives him that chance. I feel this scene would have been far more powerful without Oberyn mentioning cocks every 5 seconds.

The Riverlands: Arya and the Hound

They find a man, injured from an attack, a wound in his stomach killing him slowly. The Hound and Arya both wonder why he doesn’t commit suicide since he is suffering and cannot possibly heal from the wound. He thinks nothing – death - could be worse but Arya creepily refutes: nothing can be neither better, nor worse. It’s nothing. The Hound gives him a last drink before finishing him off, showing Arya a heart blow

And some fool attacks the Hound by biting him. He gets his neck broken – but that leaves his companion free to tell them there’s a price on the Hound’s head and that Joffrey is dead. Arya recognises the man as a prisoner heading to the wall who threatened her. The Hound asks if he’s on Arya’s death list but alas it cannot be – she doesn’t know his name. So The Hound asks, the bounty hunter rather foolishly tells them – and Arya stabs him through the heart. Even the Hound is a little impressed.

Fangs for the Fantasy Podcast

Unfortunately, we seem to be suffering some difficulties. You wouldn't believe how hard it is to vanquish weremoose - or the mess they leave behind afterwards! See, at least Moospires turn to dust when you stake them with a maple branch.

Alas, this means we're not able to do the podcast today folks, we will try to be back next week, once all the supernatural moose scourages have been cleared from our path. And possibly after a drink

Or three.

Deep Blue (Waterfire Saga #1) by Jennifer Donnelly

Serfina is a mermaid, the heir to the throne of one of the 6 merfolk nations and ready to complete her coming of age ceremony and meet her new husband

Until all out war breaks out in the middle of it. With her life, her city and her nation in ruins, hunted by barely understood, relentless enemies, Serfina flees with her best friend relying on very dubious and worrisome allies.

In the end, they have one hope – chasing an answer that spoke to them in a dream, speaking of 6 mermaids who have to come together to fight the threat.

The world setting for this book is really rich and deep setting. We have a long, detailed history, an origin story and a wide, varied political landscape that creates a very large, rich and diverse feeling society. This world is one of those worlds where a lot of effort has gone into the full creation, making it very plausible and very internally consistent. There are also a lot of hints that all of this world is going to be called upon and be relevant in the story – including the history and the politics – and it’s not just exposition for exposition’s sake. I think it may be the best underwater world I’ve ever seen in the genre – from the magic setting to the different political entities, it’s very promising.

Of course, while all this history and politics is fascinating and rich and well designed and mostly pertinent to the story, it is a lot of information that is expositioned at us a lot. I didn’t find it boring, but a lot of it I found excessive and unnecessary – especially in the first part of the book; lots of info-dump, little reason for it.

The story remembers it’s underwater most of the time – but not all the time – we still get moments where merfolk pour drinks from teapots and the like underwater (which I can only imagine would be messy – really, if your creatures are aquatic you can skip the whole drinking thing) or sweat, or things pouring or falling which probably shouldn’t happen.

The main character, Serafina, also breaks a lot of moulds. She’s a princess and knows to act it and is very aware of her responsibilities – even though she’s 16 and often feels overwhelmed. It’s also interesting how she works with other women. When the book began, she had a rival at court that was an almost classic Mean Girl and I rolled my eyes because we’d seen this play out so many times – and even a princess and heir to the throne has to be the unpopular bullied one… but this elements of the story was quickly left behind (which made me think it was rather unnecessary to be honest) and we got to the meat.

And in the meat she’s one of 6 young women working together all with their own talents and skills. 6 young women who respect and like one another, regard each other as peers and work well as a team – yes there’s conflict between Serafina and another but it has a strong basis in the story and even then she tries to work through it. Is she special? Yes, but they all are – each in their own way. It’s even emphasised that she’s not the most powerful of them – in fact “most powerful” doesn’t even apply in any logical sense since each of them have powers and abilities and talents that are very different from each other. And if Serafina may, possibly, be the most specialist of them all, it’s a slim claim – and it pales next to the true strength of the 6 is how they work together. This is a really strong emphasis on them being much much stronger together than apart and that co-operation is the key to victor. Each mermaid also has a chance to shine, a moment when they are the hero, when they save the others – just as each mermaid is equally in need of the help and support of the others. This isn’t the story of one mermaid and her sidekicks, nor 6 women who are fighting and snarling and competing with each other.

If anything, the lack of conflict between them is poorly done because these 6 women meet, understand and bond almost ridiculously quickly. They go from complete strangers to knowing each other incredibly well astonishingly quickly with little development or depth.

Da Vinci's Demons, Season 2, Episode 9: The Enemies of Man

Leo and Riario are on the ship back to Italy, Leo still obsessed and Riario thinking they need to pack it all in – he even intends to throw himself on the pope’s mercy. Good luck with that. They also acknowledge that while they’ve liked working together the whole alliance thing is now other

In Florence, Leo notices something amiss – the streets are empty. He and Nico return to his old workshop where Verrocchio meets them and warns them Florence is no longer home, shortly before the guards arrive. A new guard captain drags them to the palace which is full of men and bare breasted women (some seemingly enjoying proceedings, others definitely abused). The palace is in a shambles – and Clarice is chained on a throne wearing very scanty clothing. All of this is forced by Duke Federico of Urbino – who took the city by force at the Pope’s urging. Both Clarice and Leo cling to the hope that Lorenzo will return.

In Naples, the Pope is trying to make Lorenzo tell him where the vast sums of Medici gold got to, since neither he nor Urbino can find them, in exchange for exile for Lorenzo and his family. He reveals that Florence has fallen – and Lorenzo punches him. How many Hail Marys for punching a pope? The Pope calls him no matter than usurers, heathens or jews, which pretty much sums up a fair chunk of the Pope’s prejudice. Lorenzo does promise to give up all of the money - to king Ferrante of Naples if he can free Florence. The pope smugly points out he and Naples are allies, this isn’t a negotiation – Ferrante, considering the vast sum of money would beg to differ – it is a negotiation now.

Lorenzo and Ipolita flirt and kiss and are seen by the pope.

Back in Florence, after a brief reunion with Vanessa, Leo is taken for some special torture (with some side references to him being a “sodomite” so he might enjoy the torture. Da Vinci’s Demons you’re on far too thin ice to pull this shit). He’s fastened in stocks opposite Carlo, also in stocks; but at least Carlo is eager to meet Leo. The torturers arrive (with background scenes of rape) and knock out the guards – it’s Zoroaster and Amerigo in disguise.

They take Leo and Carlo to a tavern where the loyalists are hiding (including Captain Dragonetti) – while Frederico’s men attack random men in the street. Of course Leo intends to take the palace back and with Carlo’s knowledge of the palace he comes up with a plan.

Which is foiled when Dragonetti et al are captured obtaining supplies, interrupting Leo and Carlo bonding over being bastards and Cosimo’s obsession with the Book of Leaves. Instead they take a riskier route into the palace, past the furnace

Inside the palace, a guard tries to take Vanessa to be raped by Nico stands in his way. In response to Nico’s defiance, the other prisoners stand as well. Faced with all the prisoners ready to attack him, he backs out.

Fangs for the Fantasy Podcast

We are battle against the weremoose continues - watch this space to see if Fangs for the Fantasy podcast is back on tonight. If it is it'll be on at 7:00pm EST

You can catch us here, through google+ or on our youtube channel

If you had missed any of our previous podcasts you can find them here.

12th May - 19th May: Deep Blue by Jennifer Donnelly

19th May - 26th May: Banishing the Dark by Jenn Bennet

26th May - 2nd June: City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare

2nd June - 9th June: The Tale of the Body Thief by Anne Rice

9th June - 16th June: Hunting Ground by Patricia Briggs

16th June - 23rd June: Shattered by Kevin Hearne

23rd June - 30th June: Ocean at the End of Lane by Neil Gaiman

Orphan Black, Season 2, Episode 5: Ipsa Scientias Potestas

In the aftermath of last week, Leekie has a team examining Rachel’s apartment when she arrives, icily controlled, to see Daniel’s body. Leekie tries to offer condolences (Daniel was Rachel’s monitor and likely lover) about his loyalty but Rachel only says “to you” about his loyalty – Rachel was clearly aware that Daniel was her monitor and reported to Leekie; even if she did care for him. They know it was Helena, they know Sarah was there and Leekie, after snaking at Paul (though Rachel defends him) criticises Rachel’s “heavy handed tactics” which is something of an understatement. But Rachel has “only just begun.”

At Felix’s apartment, Felix objects to Sarah bringing Helena home. He’s played host to just about every clone but he has to draw the line at the serial killer. Of course, where Felix draws the line is completely irrelevant to everyone else and Sarah recruits Felix to be Helena’s chaperone. Because Felix’s entire purpose for existence is to serve and support various clones.

Time for a business meeting at Dyad – Rachel needs a new monitor. Paul is kind of stunned that she had a monitor – but being self-aware since a child doesn’t mean she gets to duck out of the programme, apparently, though she has some advantages form knowing. Anyway, Paul has just been recruited with lots of talk about promotion (he pointedly reminds them he doesn’t have much choice in the matter).

Personally, I don’t think that the Monitor with the proven divided loyalties is really the best Monitor material for Rachel, but that’s just me. Just to remind us that Rachel is evil, she tells Leekie not to go ahead with his newfound cure for Cosima until Sarah gives herself up.

Speaking of, Cosima checks with her patent expert Scott on how you patent a person and his answer is that because the law hasn’t come close to understanding genetics yet, companies just slap a patent on everything and wait to see what’s actually enforceable; also it’s likely Dyad is subcontracting military patents which may be why everything is so hidden. He’d like to work for Cosima but Delphine points out that one of the job downsides is a murdered family (Scott seems pretty ok with that). Delphine is distracted – she has found Leekie’s cure for Cosima – only it has been sent to her by mistake. Cosima and Delphine won’t let that stop them

Kira is still with Cal in his handy-dandy getaway RV which no-one has quite explained why he has an RV set up this way and is looking even more suspicious since it has convenient stashes of cash and weapons. Sarah calls to check in – and Kira has started calling Cal “daddy” and doesn’t seem that overjoyed with Sarah. Since this is Kira, I suspect a cunning plan.

Kira draws pictures of the clones (which Cal asks about) and Kira knows a cop has arrived before Cal (psychic creepy child!) Thankfully Cal has fake ID all ready (which is totally not suspicious) and Kira is a creepy genius child.

Felix takes Helena to stay with Art, who promptly cuffs her, removes the pen she’s managed to hide as a weapon and generally blurs the line between “staying with” and “imprisoned by”. Felix bails when Helena starts making pig noises.

New Releases 18th May - 24th May

What follows is a list of books which will be released between May 18 - May 24.  It can be tough  keeping up with ongoing stories and often, we miss the latest new release, unless the book/series is the beneficiary of a big round of publicity . That is why we are committed to sharing with you books that are the first in their series every week.  Please check out the list and let us know what books you are interested in checking out and why.

Dangerous Creatures (Dangerous Creatures #1) by Kami Garcia, Margaret Stohl

A new series returns to the world of Beautiful Creatures. Some loves are cursed...others are dangerous.

Ridley Duchannes will be the first to tell you that she's a bad girl. She's Dark. She's a Siren. You can never trust her, or even yourself when she's around. Lucky for her, Wesley "Link" Lincoln can never seem to remember that; quarter Incubus or not, his heart is Mortal when it comes to Ridley. When Link heads to New York City to start a music career, Ridley goes along for the ride-and she has her own reasons. As if leaving small-town Gatlin for the big city, trying to form a band, and surviving life with a partially reformed Siren isn't hard enough already, Link soon learns he has a price on his head that no Caster or Mortal can ever pay.

Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, the #1 New York Times bestselling coauthors of Beautiful Creatures, are back and casting another magical spell. Their signature mixture of mystery, suspense, and romance, along with a dash of fun and danger, will pull fans in and leave them begging for more.

End Times by Anna Schumacher

Carbon County, Wyoming is like a current running through Daphne’s heart.

When life gets too tough to bear in Detroit, Daphne flees to her Uncle Floyd’s home, where she believes she’ll find solace in the silent hills of her childhood summers. But Daphne’s Greyhound bus pulls over in downtown Carbon County and it’s not silence that welcomes her. It’s the sound of trumpets.

Grimm, Season 3, Episode 22: Blond Ambition

“Turn back, turn back,

Thou pretty bride,

Within this house thou must not abide.

For there do evil things betide.”

It’s the long awaited wedding! Complete with wedding rehearsal and lots of people rushing to defend why Nick must must wear sunglasses. At the rehearsal dinner everything’s wonderful and friendly with old hatchets being buried et al. Awww

Speaking of “awww” Nick and Rosalie come home to a smoke gilled house because Truble is trying to cook for them (awwww).

While they’re all preparing for the wedding, Rogue FBI Agent Steward who works for the Royals is Up To No Good and Adalind is using nefarious magic to impersonate Juliette and visiting Renard. She expresses all kind of worry over Adalind while Renard warns Fake!Juliette that Adalind is super dangerous. Fake!Juliette also plays on the love spell between them, claiming she’s confused and that they have real feelings for each other. She kisses him, says it was wrong, then leaves telling him to call. Renard looks thoroughly bemused. She this a taxi as her imitation spell wears off.

Adalind calls Juliette to warn her that she think Renard’s obsession is returning – and offers a potion which Juliette quickly rejects. Adalind doesn’t give her time to say more before hanging up.

But Dieta makes a play for “worst sister ever” and gets drunk, puts on Rosalie’s wedding dress, declares it cursed (since her weddings wearing that dress ended badly) and spills red wine on it and tears it. The day before the wedding. Which has them turning out early the day of the wedding begging a bridal shop to let them buy a dress early; it’s way beyond Rosalie’s price range but Monroe’s parents (after his dad has made a huge shift of opinions) will pick up the bill. Dieta wakes up with the most epic guilt of all time, but Monroe assures her (between them) that Rosalie and him kind of hated the really old fashioned dress.

Renard calls Juliette to say, though fond, he doesn’t want to start up a relationship and, no, she can’t come and see him. Which confuses Juliette and they have an argument before she hangs up over whether or not she visited last night. Adalind calls and continues to stir things up and leaves as Juliette again – leaving just as Renard finds her storage unit and spell casting gear – but Nick doesn’t answer his phone

Nick and Truble have a Grimm road trip moving the Trailer to a more hidden location and they talk family and Nick’s mother (who is awesome) and the fact one of Truble’s parents had to be a Grimm. They also talk about being a Grimm, the possibility of living a normal life and whether they would choose it. When they go home Truble is becoming uncomfortable living with them – she doesn’t want to live off them forever though Nick is pretty happy to have a Grimm around.