Marked in Flesh (The Others #4) by Anne Bishop

Things now rest on the knife edge, the Humans First and Last Movement is growing in power and popularity, attacking humans who don’t support them and continually provoking the Terra Indegene

And they may have gone too far – and they have no idea what mighty powers they have raised against them

This book is all about surviving, hoping for the best and preparing for the aftermath. It’s not even about trying to make it less bad – it’s past that – it’s all about getting ready to pick up the pieces.Wverything heading to a bad place and everyone is just trying to soften the blow. There’s no doubt here, the worry that has been brewing for several books has reached its peak: it’s too late to stop the disaster, the elder Others have been roused and people are going to die.

The Terra Indegene we know are not unscathed by this. Simon, Henry, Vlad et all are all closely associated with the humans and one of the repeated conflicts they face is the question of how much humanity is allowed to remain. That doesn’t just mean how many humans are allowed to live – but how many human things are allowed to remain, which is a conflict for them as well as there’s a number of human things they themselves want to keep

Which also is a personal question for Simon in particular as well – Terra Indgene are beings that imitate a predator and become more like them (so wolfguard’s ancestors saw wolves and became increasingly wolfish) – as he is more and more involved with humans how much of a human is he becoming?

Which also fits in part of the personal conflict with Meg who has excellent storylines of being the Trailblazer, trying to find a new way of living and surviving for the Cassandra Sangre like herself: trying to use their power to predict the future without it killing them. There’s also the personal story of her connection with Simon. Personally, I don’t think this book needs a romance, and I appreciate, at least, that it has been a very slow burn – but if it is going to be there it’s interesting some of the elements that they’ve added. Meg has been abused – physically emotionally and sexually – by human men; she actually views Simon’s increasing humanity as a threat and a barrier

The conflict facing the human characters is how to convince the ignorant and entitled Humans First and Last Movement demanding more and more from the Others despite the repeated warnings they’ve received. There’s lots of conflict of these humans desperately trying to placate the Others and being victimised themselves for being “Wolf Lovers”. There’s a lot of uncomfortable and difficult moments with the Others, especially the wolves, being furious with humanity for just reasons and these humans being caught in the middle, sympathising while also trying to point out some of them are trying to stop this. It’s messy and has no good ending – which is kind of the underlying theme of this book

All of these is bleak and grim but comes with a nice heavy dose of humour as well which so defines this series. The joyous confusion of the Others trying to understand humanity, especially The Meg. This light, hilariously confusion is an excellent addition to ensure that everything isn’t so grim.

The world building of this series is fascinating and pretty unique. We have a lot of book series out there where the supernatural hides out of fear of the vastness of humanity – but this is one of the few where it is the opposite. The supernatural are vastly powerful who tolerate humanity’s presence. This book also lets us see how this works in different lands with the people of Cel-Romano giving gifts to their “friends in the woods” which is a nice take on old superstitions of leaving gifts out to, for example, the fae and other local supernaturals in different parts of Europe.

A Winter's Tale

"What if, once upon a time, there were no stars in the sky at all? What if the stars are not what we think? What if the light from afar doesn't come from the rays of distant suns, but from our wings as we turn into angels? Destiny calls to each of us. And there is a world behind the world where we are all connected, all part of a great and moving plan. Magic is everywhere around us. You just have to look. Look. Look closely. For even time and distance are not what they appear to be."

A Winter's Tale was released in 2014, and directed by Akiva Goldsman. It stars: Colin Farrell, Jessica Brown Findlay and Russell Crowe.

When his parents are denied entry to the U.S. at Ellis Island, young Peter Lake (Collin Farrell) is set adrift in a small boat.  When next we see him, Peter is a grown man and has fallen out of favour with the local crime boss/demon Pearly Soames (Russeell Crowe).  Peter is on the run for his life. Fortunately for Peter, when he is cornered, Athansor, a magical winged white horse appears and whisks him away.  Peter decides that perhaps he should head south for the winter and let some of the heat cool off but Ahtansor has other ideas.  When Athansor stops in front of a house, Peter watches as a family pulls away for what must be their winter vacation. Being a smart thief, Peter decides not to look a gift horse in the mouth and decides to rob the place. His plans come to a screeching halt however when he sees Beverly Penn (Jessica Brown Findlay) playing the piano.  The two quickly develop a connection and fall in love over tea but little do they know, the dark side still has plans for Peter.

A Winter's Tale definitely falls into the category of romantic fantasy and though it absolutely bombed at the box office, I found myself somewhat captivated, even if it didn't always make a lot of sense. A Winter's Tale was adapted from a book by the same name by Mark Helprin. Though I have not read the book, which was published in 1983, I am quite certain that many elements had to be stripped away to make this movie because at times things didn't really seem to connect and rather than showing us the world, we were overloaded with exposition.

We are supposed to be caught up in the love story between Peter and Beverly but they fall in love over a cup of tea and then spend a few days together at her family's winter home.  I suppose if I were one who believed in love at first sight, I might have been able to suspend belief but I read these quick love scenarios as lust and not love.  It doesn't at all help that when Peter breaks into Beverly's posh home with the intention to steal, she is barely alarmed. It's so ridiculous that Peter has to comment on it. Who exactly invites a thief for a cup of tea and tells them their life story? Yes, I get that Beverly is dying and that this is tragic, it still doesn't explain why she wasn't afraid of Peter. Let's be honest, she's in her dressing gown and she doesn't actually know him from Adam.  He could have been a rapist but none of that runs through Beverly's mind.

Russell Crowe's Pearly Soames is perhaps the least satisfying character in the movie. He growls and grunts and grimaces throughout the film to portray his evil and supposed menace.  He is at times unintelligible and this is magnified in the scenes he shares with Will Smith (Lucifer). These two have absolutely zero chemistry with each other.  Soames and Lucifer talk about accords but these are never really explained beyond the fact that Soames, for some reason cannot travel beyond the five boroughs.  I assume that this is a shortfall of the medium rather than the author's original story.
I know that these two are meant to represent evil but it is never clearly explained what threat exactly Peter represents, or why Pearly makes the desperate move of becoming human in order to kill him. Simply saying that Peter is a protegee who developed ideas simply doesn't get it.

White Trash Zombie Gone Wild (White Trash Zombie #5) by Diana Rowland

Angel is having problems. She took the zombie drug V12 originally to help her in a mission for the Tribe. Then she kept taking it because it helped with her studies and her dyslexia – and then she kept taking it despite the side effects

It’s a major hurdle to overcome, but she can’t focus on it alone – there’s a threat to expose zombies and the Tribe has its hands full with Sabaton’s plotting.

And there’s murder on her doorstep – which may be related to zombie hunting. It’s a lot to handle and there’s only Angel free to step up.

Have I mentioned how much I love this series? Because I really love this series. More surprisingly, I love this series for different reasons to why I love Diana Rowland’s Kara Gillian series (though both series are in my top 10 list). I love Kara Gillian because I love the world, I love the setting, I love the awesome, epic plots – I’m not saying I don’t love Kara as well, but the world and plot is amazing. While the White Trash Zombie Series I love primarily because of Angel – again, not that the world or plots are lacking, far from it. But Angel is such an excellent character and this book just continues Angel’s story

I think the first thing to emphasise about Angel is that she isn’t super. She’s a zombie, but no more powerful than the average zombie. She’s not stupid, but hardly super intelligent either. She’s physically capable but doesn’t have super strength or move in a blur of speed. She can handle herself, but don’t expect her to pull our ninja moves or shoot with deadly accuracy over vast distances.

Yet, despite that (or because of that), she is one of the strongest characters I’ve come across who has accomplished more and overcome more than most I’ve read. The very lack of epicness about her underscores just how awesome our White Trash Zombie is.

At the end of the last book I predicted Angel was going to have some problems with the zombie pharmaceuticals the Tribe is now producing – more, that she should have problems with them. She managed to overcome drug addiction when she became a zombie simply because she became a zombie – and with that became immune to the drugs she used to take, forcing her to quit. Now there are zombie pharmaceuticals, pharmaceuticals she uses, which are helpful and useful to her – and are addictive

Shadowhunters: The Mortal Instruments, Season One, Episode Ten: This World Inverted

Meliorn is unhappy owing a life debt to Clary, so he guides Jace and Clary into seelie land to open up a portal, so that they can find Valentine.  Watching Meliorn open the portal is like watching some really bad tai chi and cheap pajamas.  Meliorn warns Clary that when she crosses over to the alternate dimension, she will be in a world where there are no shadowhunters or demons.  If Clary stays in the alternate dimension for too long, she will forget her real identity.  Hearing that, I kind of wanted Clary to just stay forever because I find her annoying as all get out.

Clary walks into the portal and enters the body of that Clary.  The first thing that Clary notices is that her mother and father are happily married.  She freaks out a bit but after watching a commercial which advertises the services of Magnus Bane as a psychic, Clary knows where she must head for help.  Wow, can you believe how subtle the writers were at putting Clary and Magnus together in this dimension?

In the real dimension, at the institute, Shadowhunters are being questioned about what happened at the Silent Brothers.  Alec pulls Izzy aside, afraid that it won't be long until the investigation focuses in on her.  Naturally he's right, and it's a New York minute before Lydia decides that she needs to arrest Izzy because everyone knows she was sleeping with Meliorn.  How's that for evidence; your sex like makes you guilty?  Alec comes up with a compromise and decides to offer Lydia the Mortal Cup in exchange for Izzy's freedom.  Unfortunately for Alec, he finds that the Mortal Cup is missing. So much for plan one.

Meliorn continues to meditate in front of the portal and an irritated Jace looks on.  In the alternate dimension, Simon is dating Izzy and naturally Jace and Clary are still a couple. Clary tracks down Magnus and he does a tarot card reading, informing Clary that  she is in love (yeah tell us something we don't know). Magnus continues the reading and says that Clary's relationship will be threatened by a revelation (readers of the books totally know what that means). Clary is not content with the reading and informs Magnus that she knows that he is a warlock and needs his help. Unfortunately, Magnus's magic has gone dormant. Magnus makes a potion but still cannot get his magic to work, even when Clary tells him that his spell casting isn't nearly as flamboyant as she has seen him do. In desperation, Clary shows Magnus the shard and when he touches it, it reinvigorates his magic allowing him to see that the portal is in the institute.  Fortunately for Clary, Valentine is holding an Alice in Wonderland party at the institute tonight so they will be able to get in.  Quick question, if there are no Shadowhunters, why does the institute still exist? I guess we won't quibble with common sense and just go ahead with it.

Back in the real dimension, Simon goes to Jade to say that Raphael has made him the vampire ambassador to the werewolves. Now that he is undead, the werewolves don't exactly warm to Simon but thankfully, Luke is the Alpha so Simon is safe.  The two sit and share a few secrets and though Luke is a werewolf, he is able to empathise with Simon's plot because a fledgling vampire goes through the same problems as a newbie wolf.  Aww look, they're building bridges. Simon and Luke head outside and Luke warns Simon not to think about going home until he has his urges under control.  The two are confronted by an internal affairs officer and having a gun pointed at him, is enough to get Simon to attack. Thankfully, Luke's werewolf reflexes stop Simon from killing the cop. The two then set Simon up to play the role of the serial killer that the cops have been looking for and Luke shows up to play hero, shooting Simon dead.  In the morgue, Luke is hailed as a hero for rescuing a fellow cop and closing the case. Wow, I guess internal affairs is about as competent as Barney Fife.  Alone again, Simon opens the body bag and when he is informed that he saved the alpha from a police problem, Simon requests free food for life.  See, that's how alliances are made.

Back at the institute, a pissed off Alec is determined that his sister won't suffer for Jace's girlfriend. With the aid of Hodge, Alec decides to trace Jace through their parabatai bond.  This is huge because it could either weaken or break the bond altogether.  Izzy is particularly concerned but Alec claims he no longer gives a damn about Jace. Oh Alec, thou thus protestest too much. Alec begins the process despite all of the warnings.  Jace and Meliorn are busy fighting off demons but when Alec reaches out to Jace through the bond, the pain becomes unbearable and Jace falls to the ground in pain.  The absence of a foe is enough for a demon to launch itself through the portal.

In the alternate dimension, Jace approaches Clary for a dance and is disturbed that she seems not to be doting on him.  That's some relationship Clary.  If dude cannot handle that you didn't immediately respond to his text and cannot stand the idea that you might not have the time to dance with him, it's time to institute a catch and release policy.  At any rate, Magnus is outside but he cannot get into the party because Clary hasn't gotten around to putting his name on the list (way to go with priorities Clary. ) It's Alec to the rescue and he takes responsibility for Magnus. This is a total role reversal because this time, it's Alec who is doing the pursuing.  He even repeats Magnus words from a previous episode claiming that Magnus is playing hard to get and that he likes a challenge.  I kind of like this self assured Alec, even if he comes across as slightly sleazy.

Damien, Season 1, Episode 2: Second Death

Damien is all sad and tortured doing lots of research and freaking about Revelations because of his 666 tattoo on his scalp, his dead friend Kelly and lots of memory flashbacks. I think they need to lean on the flashbacks to the film to convince us why Damien has so rapidly gone back into the deep end.

Amani is there to help drag him out of his pit and to Kelly’s funeral (this is actually lampooned with Simone, Kelly’s sister, commenting about Amani is there to clear up Damien’s mess. Does the show get points for realising what it’s doing to its POC? Nope nope it does not) which he was going to skip because Manpain. Amani points out that would be epic arseholery so it’s off to the church with lots of ominous music, flashbacks, Damien struggling and in pain and windows breaking before he’s driven out – because churches and the antichrist don’t mix

He is dragged to the wake where all the reporters talk about their various war wounds and we find Damien got through all the terrible things he’s seen (despite always being in the middle of the worst situations) completely unscathed because OBVIOUS REASON CAN WE NOT WITH THE FORESHADOWING ALREADY?!

Anne Rutlidge is also at the church and, well, everywhere. She just follows him around and says vaguely cryptic ominous things. Over and over and over. OMINOUS GUYS! Listen to the music! Ominous

He also has a loud, tasteless argument with a priest at the wake that has him run into the night because yelling about there being no god while everyone’s grieving is kind of tacky. Though, to be fair, the priest approached him and continues talking god talk to him when it was clear Damien wasn’t buying his bullshit. Take a hint padre and back off.

Instead Damien goes into the night-time streets, finds some poor areas and homeless people to take photos of without their consent because treating people like zoo animals is totally ok, right? Yeah, I know he’s a journalist, but he’s not writing a story here and it’s equally clear part of his career is taking photos of Big Dramatic Tragic Moments and selling them without commentary like some kind of vulture feeding off people’s pain. Rich people then buy his art and comment on the Big Special Feelings that poor-people pain makes them feel probably saying how powerful or moving it is without actually adding any kind of commentary, awareness or productive help being given to the actual victims depicted.

Sorry, side rant.

Magicians, Season 1, Episode 9: The Writing Room

With the death of Eliza/Jane last week  we’re reminded that Fillory is real, the books Quinn’s obsessed over are real and way back at the beginning of the series he was given the missing 6^th book of the series which would really help right now. Unfortunately he’s lost it or, more accurately, Penny grabbed it and threw it away because Penny’s an arsehole and doesn’t like Quinn. Now they have to rely on Penny’s dubious memory of a hook he read but wasn’t interested in

Can we just throw in a shenanigans here? Ok I’ll accept that Penny is a bully and arsehole enough to steal Quinn’s stuff and destroy it. But reading the book first? When it’s book 6 in a series he’s never read and had no interest in? Would he really read it?

Anyway, Penny remembers that there was a magical button that would get them into Fillory whenever they wanted which should be back in the author’s, Pulover, house in England

Time for a history reminder. This author was inspired to write Fillory books and put children in hem who were his neighbours and/or his housekeeper’s kids. At one point he took in the neighbour’s kids when their parent’s dies. But these kids all disappeared under mysterious circumstances and he died of a heart attack shortly afterwards

So, they go to Elliot since he has a convenient portal to London (Elliot is following them because why not?) to investigate the house which is preserved as some kind of historical site. They take the tour then return late at night to find it spooky and haunted and apparently inclined to kill tour guides and sew up their lips.

This is where I would leave. But that’s me. They also learn that Pulover was definitely a student of magic – perhaps even Travelling like Penny.

The haunting plays lots of flashbacks of life in the Pulover household and it’s very much not a nice, happy place. We have Prudence, Pulover’s sister, who positively loathed the kids and hit them, drugged them, tied them up, tortured them and even sewed their lips shut in the name of keeping the house quiet.

Lucifer, Season One, Episode Eight: Et Tu, Doctor?

It seems that the burning of his wings is cause for celebration as far as Lucifer is concerned.  He declares his birthday, claiming that it's time for a new beginning.  Mazikeen is not impressed with this announcement, clearly still determined to get Lucifer back to hell.  Chloe and Dan (who is still not dead) show up to share a drink with Lucifer but cannot stay because they need to head to a cop party. It seems that the cops are celebrating the survival of Malcolm, the cop Chloe accused of corruption. At the bar, Malcolm is as slimy as can be and tells Chloe that they need to talk.

A chastened Lucifer heads to see Linda, full of apologies for punching a hole in her wall.  Linda calls it a break through.  Lucifer questions why he feels like a fat man sitting on his chest when he is around Chloe.  The answer is obvious - Lucifer is jealous.  Naturally, this is something Lucifer refuses to accept and so he decides that Linda needs to talk to Chloe about her douche addiction. This is something that Linda says she is unwilling to do, causing Lucifer to ask for help bringing an end to his emotions.

It's time for the case of the week, which involves the death of a therapist who advises his patients to have open marriages though it's framed as cheating on your spouse for happiness.  Chloe is full of judgement about this idea saying that sleeping with someone else is not how you save a marriage and as expected, Lucifer loves the idea.  Since a therapist is needed to go through the files of the "cheaters therapist" , they need a judge to assign someone. Lucifer wants Linda selected but Chloe wants someone impartial and further is not impressed that Linda sleeps with Lucifer.  Lucifer never being one to take no for an answer, sleeps with a judge and gets her to sign off on Linda's involvement.

In the process of working on the case, Lucifer looks for a human to explain jealousy to him because it's an emotion that he is not familiar with.  When he does find a human, who as luck should have it is in the same situation as him, Lucifer again goes into denial.  When Chloe said that Lucifer is far from introspective, she was absolutely right on the money.

After being called to Lux, Linda has a meeting with Mazikeen and the gloves come off.  I actually love that Linda held her own with Mazikeen after being told that when Lucifer was done with her, that she would be cast aside like refuse.  I love that Linda suggested to Mazikeen that her real issue is a loss of power and control. I would say that in this case, Linda served Mazikeen a big plate of check and mate. Linda however doesn't fare as well when she faces off with Chloe who questions whether Linda's sexual relationship with Lucifer is ethical.

With the case solved, Chloe discovers that Tony, Malcolm's partner dead.  Tony has left behind a note explaining that he was on the take and now that Malcolm is feeling better, the guilt got to him. Chloe accepts this as the resolution to the Palmetto case.   Naturally, this ending is far too neat but Chloe doesn't question.

Beowulf: Return to the Shieldlands Season One, Episode Elven

And it's war!  Unfortunately this episode is absolutely anticlimactic but at this point, I don't expect better from Beowulf: Return to the Shieldlands.  Abrecan is surrounded by the people of Bregan and of course his Wolfling allies and plots the best way to attack Herot. Already there are frays in the alliance about what is the best way to approach Herot.   Rheda, having escaped her brother is back in Herot and her first action is to question Slean about his role in the uprisings.  A guilty Slean cannot look into his mother's eyes and she demands Hrothgar's  sword be taken from him and then demands his arrest.

Thanks to Slean's betrayal, Herot's closest allies are too far away to be of any real aid.  Compounding the issue, they don't have enough Huscarla to defeat Abrecan's army.  Under Slean's direction, the people of Herot have been training but they are absolutely the last line of defense and certainly no match for a Wolfling army.  It's Beowulf who suggests reaching out to the Varni but Rheda is convinced that any messenger from her will immediately be murdered because she threw the Varni out of the alliance of clans. Varr to the rescue.  As Varni, Varr believes that he can get Rate to listen to Rheda's pleas.

Elvina heads to visit Slean in jail and assures him that because he didn't judge her, she won't judge him.  Elvina then takes off to the woods and finds the mudborn who she has been feeding and warns it away because war is coming.  Razzak has been waiting for her and declares that while he doesn't want to be enemies, he wants to know why it is that Elvina seems to have taken sides with the humans against her own kind.  Elvina being Elvina, does her peacenik routine.

Varr and Beowulf arrive at the Varni land only to find that Hane is already there.  Seeing as how both sides want the Varni, Rate says that his people are happy to let Herot and Bregan fight it out and then swear loyalty which ever side wins.  Rate's supposed neutrality is actually a death sentence to Herot and he's astute enough to know that.  Varr then demands his right to be heard as a member of a Varni which means he has to right Rate's champion. Unfortunately, the fight is way too short but Varr emerges victorious.  Instead of asking Rate to send Varni warriors to defend Herot, he simply asks Rate to read Rheda's letter.  Rate reads Rheda's entreaty but it doesn't sway him.  Beowulf decides to head back to Herot to see what he can do to help, thankful that at least they still have Varr, It's time for Beowulf to look confused because it seems that now that Varr has killed the Varni champion, he is responsible for supporting the man's family and cannot leave.  With a sad smile, Varr hopes that he will find living with the Varni better the second time around.

Arla heads to see Slean, interrupting his bought of self pity.  With everything that he has done, Slean was actually wallowing in his daddy issues.  Arla wants to help and is quick to follow Slean's suggestion that she find a way to get Argat to come and see him.  Arla manages to track down Argat, but with everything going down, he doesn't have time to talk to a pubescent girl, until she invokes her position.  Arla argues that despite what he has done, Slean really cares about the Huscarla and has proven it with his washing of a Huscarla's body. Argat goes to see Slean and actually frees him so that Slean can fight with his men.  A gloating Arla sees Rheda and informs her that Slean has been set free.  Rheda is not the least bit impressed but Arla argues that Slean deserves the right to die in battle and cleanse his honour.