In the Flesh, Season 2, Episode 6

2 security people have been sent to Roarton for a “collection”, presumably to pick up Kieren (stopping at a café and served by a PDS waitress who is forced to make a humiliating speech each time).

At the Walker household, Kieren’s parents have fully turned against him, locking him up and happy to let Norfolk take him. Things aren’t great for Jem who is still having guilt/trauma dreams, she also can’t even look at Kieren.

Amy is freaking out because she’s changing – because she can feel. Phillip suggests seeing the doctor, Amy is more sensible though – a PDS person doesn’t say “I’m changing” and get help – they get sent to the Treatment Centre.

Dramatic dressing and praying moment – Maxine, Gary and Simon; a montage of people whose beliefs make them do highly inadvisable and probably wrong things. Simon tells his followers to get ready and Maxine takes down a photo from her wall – but not Kieren’s. Gary rushes to Maxine eager to stop Simon but Maxine tells him to stand down, Simon isn’t a threat (yes she’s definitely got her own agenda). Gary grabs her, furious and tells her how terribad Simon is – Maxine isn’t ruffled and sends him home. Gary doesn’t listen and goes to raid Simon’s house anyway – it’s empty, just an ominous sign saying the dead will rise again.

The Norfolk people arrive and they’re actually there for Amy because of her odd medical results, that means they’re in for some testing. Dr. Russo, who tries to be a good guy, is very very unhelpful to them and may as well have yelled “TEAM AMY!” (like all right thinking people). But everyone is so very polite about the whole thing.

This day is also the “Beat the Bounds” fete where the people of Roarton walk the perimeter fence for funsies (if this seems strange, you have never seen a British summer fete or seen Morris Dancing perpetrated). Phillip takes Amy and very nicely gives a polite verbal smack to the judgemental Mrs. Lamb. Sue, Kieren’s mum, gets her own little verbal mauling when Shirley (Phillip’s mother. And she’s awesome) sympathises with her and tells her how terrible it is for Kieren to be so persecuted. Sue tries to point out Phillip with Amy but Shirley is more fazed by the fact Amy is actually eating. She goes over to Phillip to tell him “you done good” nodding to Amy. Awwwww… never mind anyone else, Shirley is the star of this show.

Steve, Kieren’s dad, takes Jem to the Beating of the Bounds where everyone is carrying big spikey weapons (in case Morrison Dancers show up. One glimpse of an accordion and it’s flight or fight). Maxine makes a big happy speech and even jokes about all the edged weapons

Gary isn’t at the march – not finding Simon, he goes to Kieren’s house, gets rid of the night-bright Dean and decides to start smacking Kieren around to find Simon. Since the PDS (except Amy) don’t feel pain, isn’t this kind of redundant? Kieren doesn’t seem very impressed either, miffed that he hasn’t seen Simon for days and generally more irritated than frightened by Gary. Gary ransacks Kieren’s room – and finds the Blue Oblivion that Kieren decided to take from Simon’s place for no damned reason. Gary drags Kieren out to his truck – watched by Simon.

Sunstruck (The Bigfoot Mysteries #1) by Polenth Blake

Ben is the new member of the Spokane Ecology Board, after his predecessor was murdered. Of course, it isn’t generally known what the full nature of the job entails – policing and investigating problems with the supernatural community of Spokane. A community Ben never knew about before – and certainly isn’t a part of.

It comes with a partner – Ari. A Bigfoot. She’s hoping this job will earn her some respect from the Bigfoot colony that has made her an outcast – she doesn’t have a great deal of experience with humans. Her predecessor has also been murdered

Both of them face something of a learning curve. But they have to learn fast – whoever killed the people before them may be targeting them next and, with the evidence heavily tampered with, the perpetrator may be one of the few people they need to trust.

Given that, Thunderbirds having a temper tantrum in town seems quite minor.

This is a neat murder mystery – it’s a story with lots of interesting little twists and tangents that unfold as the book progresses at an excellent pace. It has a few nifty red herrings that are thrown in with skill and aplomb, we have some action that’s in keeping with the characters. It’s a good plot and it has some points I really appreciated – like the action scenes not being one-on-one fights (because why going into such equal battles?) and the enemy not being so simplistic as is common place.

But the story is a far better vehicle for the world and the characters

The characters are excellent – Ari and Ben bounce off each other, flounder together, annoy each other, try not to annoy each other, fail to understand each other but keep bouncing back and coming together again trying to decide whether to sit down and figure out what happened or to Not Talk About It. They have pasts and experiences and fully realised characters that I just want to burrow through

If it weren’t for the world, the characters would be the best thing about this book. But the world, with the different supernatural groups, hefty amounts of Native American tradition, entirely newly created lore in places sprinkled with politics, tensions and strong connections to themes of colonisation – is even better.

There was a lot of Native American tradition and beliefs in this book and even without the bibliography at the end you can tell that there has been some research gone into them which is always great to see and helped contribute to the richness of this world (along with the development of the Bigfoots mentioned below). The combination and blending of well researched actual tradition and beliefs with really well founded and well made fictional worlds made for a very strong setting

Continuum, Season 3, Episode 11: 3 Minutes to Midnight

Halo is going to market, and already it’s set to make a killing.

At Kiera’s, Brad is having lots of memory flashback confusion – including killing Kiera. Kiera returns home to find broken glass – and Brad missing. She instantly suspects the Freelancers and goes to examine their prison (sparing 2 seconds to worry about Alec she imprisoned) but they claim all innocence and try to push her into “doing the right thing” (putting Brad in a box. But while Alec in prison is totally ok, total stranger Brad is going too far).

Cut to a flashback of Brad walking with Chen, all friendly like, talking about keeping tabs on the then-free-extra-Alec and Brad seems to be Chen’s boss talking about changing their plans after learning more and keeping threats contained. Is this another Freelancer group? Like uber Freelancers? Who Freelances the Freelancers? Anyway, knowing the future and time travel doesn’t stop then Brad walking out in front of a truck. Oops

To now Brad, all confused and lost

Jason, who seems to have lost the clarity that Halo gave him, goes digging up the pieces of the time machine. Then beats a man with his shovel screaming about “not going back in the box”. This could be Jason fighting a Freelancer but turns out to be him beating up a random bystander because he’s not thinking very clearly.

Kiera and Carlos get to try and question Jason who has now lost all pretence of clarity. Kiera and Carlos are more worried about the Time Machine but, of course, Dillon’s oh-so-corrupt police force kicks in and Jason is released – and the minute he puts his Halo bracelet on he calms down.

Kiera goes to see Alec – though Carlos warns her that Alec can’t be trusted and Piron practically owns the police. Carlos confirms that Dillon was personally involved in getting the charges dropped; it’s not the first either. Other cases have been cleaned up, all with perpetrators wearing the Halo bracelets. Carlos questions the violent beta-testers of Halo and finds more of Dillon’s cover up, buying people off.

Kiera questions Alec and Jason and they both assure her Halo is wonderful and safe and amazing so all is good. Um… police corruption? Magically vanishing charges? Anyone interested in this? At all? Kiera trusts him because her CMR shows no lies – but Alec has a little programme that blocks it.

Brad, meanwhile, tracks down Kellogg. He needs his resources and help to get something back that the Freelancers took – and no, he isn’t bothered by the Freelancers

Alec, Jason and Jacqueline meet to discuss an unfortunate side effect of Halo – it makes 6% of uses unpredictable and violent – or psychotic as Alec puts it. That’s a… pretty bad side effect. But they’re sure they can fix this teeny tiny problem, of course. Which requires Jason’s help, which means he needs to wear Halo (Alec totally doesn’t want him to hurt himself, but, yeah put on the mind scrambler and fix it please!)

Kiera and Carlos consult over the blatant corruption but, as Kiera says “you shoot the king, you’ve got to kill the king.” They’re going to need a lot of evidence to bring down Dillon – and Alec. Kiera tells Carlos what Alec did to other Kiera’s body. He is not amused.

Carlos goes to see Julian – and accuses Theseus of having being bought, now working for Piron and sets him on the Halo attacks.

Julian follows up Carlos’s clues and finds Alec’s keeping secrets from him – but has a chance to speak to a Halo-less Jason (he’s wearing it part time to reduce the side effects). Jason rambles back and forth – and includes how Alec sent them all back in time 65 years. Oops. Julian naturally thinks he’s out of his mind – until Jason calls Julian “Theseus” just like Liber8 does. Of course, he also calls him a murderer and tries to strangle him. Jacqueline and Alec arrive in time to stop him and put Jason’s Halo back on.

Penny Dreadful, Season 1, Episode 5: Closer Than Sisters

In the dramatic beauty that so characterises this series, Vanessa writes a letter to Mina, one of the many letters she writes even though she cannot send them in an attempt to connect to Mina. It’s a lead in to a flashback

We see young Mina and Vanessa as neighbours and bestest friends (also seeing Mina’s older brother Peter, who died in Africa and Vanessa later channelled while possessed. The siblings kind of assume Vanessa will marry Peter because naturally). And, because this is Penny Dreadful these happy young people enjoy a bit of taxidermy – just to keep the creepiness levels high. Sir Malcolm returns from one of his many explorations and Vanessa greets him as warmly as Mina (ane he even refers to them as “my girls”, definitely a father figure).

It’s all idyllic and very Victorian, from Malcolm’s tall tales of his adventures, to his very restrained and decorous greeting of his wife – even the slightly scandalised looks Mina’s family gives Vanessa’s over their Catholicism. And under all the so-pretty veneer Vanessa explores the maze at night and finds that Sir Malcolm was having an affair with Vanessa’s mother (so very very very Victorian). And in similar Victorianness, Vanessa enjoys the view – and then feels sinful and demonic because of it.

They grow up and Mina finds her ideal and considers going to India – which leaves Vanessa feeling so lonely (especially since Peter, her expected betrothed, seems so inadequate) and with more than a little seething jealousy. Peter is also not especially happy with Mina going to India – but more to do with his racism than anything else. He’s also pouty that daddy isn’t especially eager to take Peter adventuring in Africa; especially since his sickly, less-than-physically-adeptness feels like a disappointment to his father. Vanessa, perhaps more to “get there first” than out of any genuine wish, kisses Peter and he flees the scene. (Vanessa’s dramatic monologue says how she loves Peter for his weakness – but how he would never survive Africa).

More desperate prayer, more demons and, getting out of bed with Mina (probably not sexual, for women of that class and era – but certainly very close) on the night of Mina’s wedding, Vanessa shows Mina’s fiancé her very powerful, creepy taxidermy… (make dead things alive – ah Victor, she did it first!) and then has sex with him among the stuffed bodies. Witnessed by Mina.

The fallout isn’t pretty. The wedding is off, Mina is in tears. Vanessa’s mother tries to remonstrate with her – but Vanessa throws her hypocrisy in her face; still Mina isn’t accepting visits from Vanessa and Sir Malcolm closes the ever-open gates between their homes.

Vanessa dramatically faints and becomes mysteriously ill with an inexplicable illness. The illness lasts for some time and her mother frays as the doctors are more and more bemused by it. They decide to take Vanessa to an asylum – though Vanessa just wants to die.

Game of Thrones, Season 4, Episode 9: The Watchers on the Wall

The North where it’s very cold

And Sam and Jon are very cold on the very cold Wall during the very cold night in the very cold wind. I think Jon’s face may have frozen into a pout. They discuss Ygritte and the exact interpretation of their vow of celibacy (or “no wives, no children” which is a different kettle of fish and has some big loopholes) and lots of moping.

The Wildlings (also in the north, also very cold) are having their own discussion – not about having sex with bears (thank you Ygritte for cutting that story short), Ygritte talks about killing everyone while the creepy Thenn taunt her about having sex with Jon the Mopey. She declares Jon is hers just so we can be more dramatic about it.

Back at Castle Black, Maester Aemon deals out some wisdom to Sam – about how all the nasty stories told about Wildlings and what they do to people are probably no worse than the stories the Wildlings tell about the Night’s Watch before going into lost loves, nostalgia and more ominous forbodings about death

Consider me properly forboded. Please get to the stabbing already.

And Gilly isn’t dead! She’s at the gate with baby Sam. Sam forces Pip to let her in and insists that he’ll go with Gilly if they try to force her out. Very touching. Now can we get to the stabbing?

An Alarm Horn sounds (stabbing time! At long last!)

Lots of fires are lit (dramatic!), weapons are prepared, Ser Alliser has a little “you were right but I still hate you” moment with Jon and Sam has a big moment with Gilly about how he has to fight.

The Wildlings make their move (Actual stabbing time!), Ygritte looking all angsty. They have giants and they have mammoths. The battle begins – Alliser drawn away from the wall to try and deal with a sneak attack on the south gate (led by Ygritte’s band) while his deputy handles the important Arrows vs Dramatic Posing part of the fight (arrows are more effective)

As Ser Alliser leads his dramatically speached-men against the South Gate attack, the main Wildling force decides that fighting is probably a good idea and move in. Alliser’s useless deputy is dumped quickly so Jon can lead that flank

The fighting is dramatic and bloody and well rendered and exciting with all the named major characters killing loads with lots of epic heroism. A blow by blow recounting of the battle is unnecessary – it’s dramatic and epic and well rendered and shiny. Jon kills the head of the Then, Ygitte kills Pip and eventually confronts Jon Snow (who still knows nothing). She struggles whether to shoot him or not – and Oliver, a little boy, inspired by Sam, shoots her in the back. Jon ignores the fighting all around him to run to her; touching death scene is made slightly silly but much much better by her dying words being “you know nothing, Jon Snow”. Because they had to be.

Bloodshifted (Edie Spence #5) by Cassie Alexander

Edie was rescued in the last book and her life saved from the parasite inside her – with an infusion of vampire blood. When a human drinks vampire blood they become a Daytimer, the people Edie had so often pitied when working in the hospital. Bound to vampires, the benefits of strength and resilience are offset by the enslavement to a vampire – mystically forced to obey their every command

And most vampires are not nice people, Raven, her new master, is certainly not one of them. Edie has to hope to survive until Anna can rescue her – originally planning to wait until her baby is born. But life as a Daytimer is fraught, dangerous and highly competitive and rescue plans – or escape plans – need to be speeded up. Especially since her conscience won’t let her stay idle in the face of Raven’s abuses and murders.

I really like Edie as a protagonist – she has so many excellent qualities that make her stand out as a special person without needing special shiny woo-woo that sets her above or apart, without her having to be the Chosen One. Edie is a nurse (and so is the author which means we have some excellent authenticity), and, now, a Blood Servant. But she’s a Blood Servant among Blood Servants, she’s still the bottom-of-the-rung baseline. But she’s intelligent (without being a genius), she’s brave (without being a foolish, defiant, RAWR-I-PROOVE-HOW-BADASS-I-AM-BY-HEADBUTTING-DRAGONS!), she’s extremely good – but not saintly. I think that last point is an excellent balance to strike; Edie is good. There are lines she won’t cross and she will risk herself to save someone, unable to live with herself if she didn’t. But she’s not going to do it without weighing up the risks and, ultimately, if she has to keep quiet or even do something terrible to save herself then so be it. She hits a great balance in a genre that is often quite inconsistent with their protagonist’s morality (often the confused result of wanting to write a super saint AND a ruthless badass at the same time).

What I wasn’t thrilled about is Edie’s single-minded focus on her pregnancy. Yes, she’s pregnant, yes she’s worried about the baby – but it’s ok for her to worry about her own life as well. It’s ok for her to be afraid and want to live without using the baby as, I don’t know, some kind of justification for self-interest? Like Edie doing every she did in order to live is not acceptable, but it’s ok so long as it’s clear she’s doing it for her pregnancy? And I’m quite sure the zygote isn’t judging Edie on her behaviour, she can stop worrying about that

I like that there is still a level of complexity to the meta-plot of this book and series. There are enemies (like Dren) who have become… well, if not friends, then reluctant and complicated allies. Which covers a lot of the relationships in this book – Anna is Edie’s friend and that’s true and endearing and powerful – but the concerns about her, what she represents and what she seems to be doing are legitimate. House Grey of the vampires is threatening and menacing and has been a terrible enemy far too often – but are they entirely in the wrong? Even the Blood Servants Edie spends time with – the friendly are only friendly to a given degree while even the most hateful of the enemies have a good reason for their opposition, hyper-competitiveness and general insecurity.

Fangs for the Fantasy Book of the Week

As has been probably very apparent the last few weeks, we've been having some difficulties with the podcast. After a few attempts of thinking we had defeated the problem it ends up sneaking round and biting us

As soon as we're more sure about what's happening, we'll post a new time and schedule it - but scheduling and cancelling is messy so for now it's on hold until I have more surety

In the meantime, we will continue with the books of the week - because they're already scheduled and it will ruin my precious lists to have them all disrupted - and it gives people chance to read a long and comment on our Monday book review.

(Our list is always subject to change should we need to squeeze something in or something random happens)

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: Bloodshifted by Cassie Alexander

9th June - 16th June: A Lady of Spirit by Shelly Adina

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

23rd June - 30th June: The Tale of the Body Thief by Anne Rice

30th June - 7th July: Hunting Ground by Patricia Briggs

7th July - 14th July: Memnoch the Devil by Anne Rice

14th July - 21st July: Grave Visions by Kalayna Price

21st July - 28th July: The Vampire Armand by Anne Rice

28th July - 4th August: Fair Game by Patricia Briggs

4th August-11th August: Blood Games by Chloe Neil

11th August - 18th August: Merrick by Anne Rice

18th August - 25th August: Daughter of the Sword by Steve Bein

Orphan Black, Season 2, Episode 8: Variable and Full of Perturbation

We open with some drama – a white van hurrying into a hideout and 2 figures getting out – one injured badly and being half carried by the other; who looks a lot like another of Sarah’s clones, a male clone called Tony. While he tries to help his wounded fellow we learn they’ve tried to pull off a robbery of some kind which went very badly indeed – with the intervention of serious men in expensive suits (sounds like Dyad – Proletheans go for cheap suits). The injured guy seems to have an idea what happened (looks like he’s Tony’s monitor). Dying guy tells Tony to find Beth Childs.

Ok, if he is a monitor he is very very very out of the loop. Tony goes to meet Beth – and meets Art instead.

Over to Sarah and she and Mrs. S are plotting, Mrs. S is confident she has everything under control on pain of death (Ethan is there and likes to think she’s bluffing. Everyone knows better than that). Felix briefly arrives to drop of Kira (Sarah does not want Ethan asking any questions about her), but then is called out by Art to deal with other “cloney” issues.

Tony and Art go to Felix’s (of course, it’s hotel des clones) and Felix joins them. Art is confused but when Felix and he take a moment they realise Tony is trans (and Felix corrects Art’s pronoun use).

They tell Tony that Beth is dead and try to figure out what Tony knows which is very little beyond that Beth called and claimed to be a relative back in the past (also a cop, so Tony hung up) and now Tony has a message. Before they can trust Tony with the big secret, Art goes to check out his story, leaving him with Felix. There follows lots of taunting back and forth (a lot of it dancing on the line – do the writers think it’s ok because both Tony and Felix are in the LGBT umbrella?). Art does confirm what we already know about Tony and the dead possibly-monitor, Sami – and Felix returns to try and get the message out of Tony.

At Dyad, things are not rosy between Delphine and Cosima after last week. Cosima has changed the locks on the lab. Making it very clear Delphine is not welcome (ouch…) Cosima and Scott work on Kira’s tooth that Sarah sent.

Delphine goes to see Leekie – only to find Rachel at his desk (who is, in turn, rather annoyed by Paul’s absence and silence). Leekie had a “heart attack,” how tragic – now to business, Rachel is Delphine’s new boss.

Back to Sarah spending some quality time with Kira – but she brushes off Kira’s concerns about Aunty Helena. It says so much about Kira’s life and how quickly she’s learned that when she hears a knock on the door she asks if she has to hide. The visitor is Delphine reporting that Leekie is dead (Delphine isn’t happy about that since she thought he was the lesser of two evils… I’m less convinced. I think the scientist Delphine can just identify more with the scientist Leekie – also Leekie is way better at playing nice guy). Rachel has a plan for a cure for Cosima (and maybe all of them) using Ethan’s information and knowledge rather than Kira’s stem cells – but they need Ethan at Dyad. Sarah wants to veto this – she doesn’t trust Rachel or Delphine, Ethan is leverage – but Mrs. S calls for a break to think about it.

In Cosima’s lab, Scott has pulled in his new-found Dyad friends for a game (is that Magic the Gathering with a Hexagram board?) and Cosima proves her credentials as the Supreme Queen of Geekdom, bow down before her. Alas, her supremacy is interrupted by both a coughing fit and Delphine. Delphine tells Cosima the terrible news that Dyad may have killed Leekie! Cosima is shocked! While she sits down, Delphine also tells her that Ethan may be her cure. Cosima decides it’s time to break up the geek fest and break out the cannabis.

And the helium balloons. And the lovey-dovey bonding again in which Delphine tells Cosima she loves her. Which is fine and great but Cosima won’t accept that as an excuse to betray her or the other clones on behalf of saving her. Threats out of the way, Cosima also loves Delphine

Cut back to Sarah and Ethan warns her that giving him to Dyad will give them the “keys to the kingdom” – but it will cure Cosima. Which leaves no question in Sarah’s mind, they have to do it. In the meantime, Ethan reads Kira a bed-time story – The Island of Dr. Moreau. That is just so wrong on so many levels it manages to be awesome (Sarah objects for obvious reasons).

Felix calls Sarah then flirting and kissing happens between him and Tony. Which means Felix is kissing his sister’s clone, but at least Tony reminded us all that Sarah’s his foster-sister. Which may be why Felix pulls back. Tony pulls out one of Felix’s paintings of Sarah and is both angry and worried at Felix having a painting with his face on it – Tony storms out

And runs into Sarah. Clone explanation follows and Tony adapts pretty well. Sarah calls it their usual identity crisis but Tony declares he’s already handled all that work. Tony reveals Sammy (her monitor) was ex-military delivers the message which basically boils down to “Paul is like me, he’s on it, a ghost”.