The Almighty Johnsons, Season One, Episode One: It's a Kind of a Birthday Present

 

The Almighty Johnsons is a fantasy show based in New Zealand.  I think this is the first time we have done a show from this area of the world.  The Johnsons are all human manifestations of Norse Gods.  They become aware of who and what they are on their 21st birthday. They escaped to New Zealand (of all places) to avoid religious persecution.  Throughout the years, their powers are diminished but it has beeN foretold that when Odin completes his quest that they will again become full Gods.

Axl Johnson is about to turn 21 and so his grandfather, who he believes is his cousin, and his brothers, take him out the woods to tell him the family history.  He is rightfully distrustful and believes that his family is about to pull some sort of weird prank on him.  He learns that the man he believes to be his cousin is actually his grandfather.  Olaf Johnson is actually Baldr and this makes him the God of long life and rebirth.  This is why he looks young, despite the fact that he is actually 90 years old.  Olaf is the oracle of he family, and he is the one responsible for figuring out exactly which God Axl is. It turns out, Axl is the reincarnation of Odin.

Axl quickly moves from disbelief to excitement.  He is desperate to find out what his God power is as all of his male family members do seem to have some sort of power.  His older brother Mike Johnson who raised him is Ullr - the God of the hunt and he has the ability to win any game he chooses to play. Anders Johnson is Bragi, and is he God of manipulation and poetry.  A simple whisper in someone's ear is enough to get them to act in the manner that he wants.  Mike makes it clear that he believes that Anders is evil, as well as the veiled suggestion that he is a rapist.  If one is manipulated into having sex, then one cannot consent.  Ty Johnson is Höðr - the God who has the power to make everything around him cold. 

There are a group of women who attempt to halt the prophecy of Odin's return, but their actions actually fulfill the finale prophecy.  At this point, I highly suspect that this group of women are actually female Gods, but we have been given no back story surrounding their purpose. They attempt to kill Axl twice, and they  fail twice.

Teen Wolf Season 2 The first 10 minutes!

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Review of Child of Fire By Harry Connolly Book 1 of the Twenty Palaces Series

 

The book opens with Ray Lilly driving Annalise Powliss, who is a member of the Twenty Palace Society - a group dedicated to eradicating demons and stopping the use of magic in the world,  towards a small town.  Ray knows that when Annalise is finished using him as her wooden man that she intends to kill him.  Though Annalise is the least powerful member of her society, there is no doubt that she can easily kill Ray.  

The children in this town are disappearing and even more alarming -- once they disappear -- no one remembers them, not even their parents.  At the center of this mystery, is a strange doll factory that was created specifically to give jobs to the locals, because the mining industry has fallen apart.  As with all small towns, the community is extremely tight knit and very protective of the Hammers, who are the richest family in town.  The police are completely corrupt and actually demand 100 dollars protection money a month from local businesses.  

As Ray and Annalise investigate, it is clear that some sort of evil is at work in this town, but when Annalise gets horribly burnt, Ray is left to his own devices to solve the mystery and attempt to find a way to restore the children. He is armed with a magical knife made out of paper, which has the ability to cut through anything, eradicate magic and comes to him on command.  His body is marked with several tattoos that render him somewhat immune to harm.

Ray is a touch of a Gary Stu and regardless of what the situation is, or how fantastic the odds, he manages to escape.  Interestingly enough, though we are told that Annalise is the powerful one, it is Ray who ends up feeding her raw meat in an attempt to heal her, and it is Ray who ultimately saves her life. Ray also has a complete and utter aversion to guns, even when people are shooting at him, he refuses to fire back because, "someone might get hurt."  No matter how many bullets the bad guys fire, Ray never gets shot.  Uh huh...this is a pure action and adventure trope that is boring. 

The Problem With Female Werewolves

Of all the creatures in Urban Fantasy, it seems that werewolves more than any other are intrinsically masculine. Female monsters are often much rarer  - and often problematic at that - but female werewolves in particular seem to be an extra rarity.

In many ways a werewolf is the utter opposite of how we view womanhood, especially white womanhood. In many European traditions (and, we have to remember, the shapeshifter tradition is a broad one) the werewolf is an uncontrolled, hairy, animalistic creature. Something utterly unrestrained, something that is unleashed, something aggressive and violent. In short - everything a woman “should not be”. A woman should be restrained, delicate, gentle, always in control and most certainly not hairy! This unrestrained, unrefined, uncontrolled aggressiveness (and hairiness) is the very antithesis of pedestal womanhood.

When we do see female werewolves they usually have difficulties above and beyond what is experienced by other werewolves. They have extra angst, or extra problems or some other issue dealing with their werewolfdom.

Unfortunately the few times we do see female werewolves they are clearly less rational than their male counterparts. It is only when the text in question has only a male werewolf that the werewolf is allowed to become unglued, and subject to call of the moon.  The degree to which they are affected by the curse of lycanthropy, is directly related to the position of the moon. In some texts, the waxing gibbous is enough to cause significant change to their behavior pattern.  Oddly enough, regardless of the position of the moon, the female werewolf is generally effected by the curse. Her reason for a loss of control, has nothing to do with the moon, which I found odd because menstruation is often referred to as moon time. 

Debbie Pelt of True Blood, is clearly out of control and when you cast this against her would be boyfriend Alcide, there is a clear difference.  With the exception of the full moon, Alcide is always in control; he is extremely rationale.  Alcide possess all of the qualities needed in a pack leader.  Debbie on the other hand is violent, a drug addict [note: vampire blood; known as V is her drug of choice], jealous, and vindictive.  Many of her problems are at first blamed on her drug addiction; however, at the end of last season, Pelt was sober and once again her jealousy and rage flared.

Kelley Armstrong’s Otherworld series brings us one of the few female protagonist werewolves out there and certainly another werewolf who struggles extremely with what it means to be a werewolf. Despite being part of the Pack - a lofty status among werewolves - she has extreme trouble integrating with the pack. In fact the whole plot of Bitten revolves around her leaving the the Pack and moving to Toronto -- to try and flee not just them -- but being a werewolf entirely. She seeks a normal, human life regardless of how dangerous or impossible that is. She’s certainly not the only werewolf to leave the Pack - but they have left the pack because of objections to the Pack itself - Pack politics, Pack restrictions, Pack personalities - not being a werewolf. The whole world of the series is set up to make her an oddity because she is the only female werewolf - female werewolves are not supposed to exist, they’re never born and don’t usually survive the bite. And we see that same impossibility of her existence as a werewolf in Broken, where she has constant doubts over whether she can actually have children because she can’t imagine a werewolf being able to be pregnant or carry children. Being a werewolf and being a woman is a constant impossibility that plagues Elena’s life - whether her own doubts and trouble integrating or by making her a bauble or novelty to possess.

Review: Haunted by Kelley Armstrong, Book 5 of the Otherworld Series

Eve Levine, witch, half-demon and general supernatural bad ass is a ghost. She jumped the gun a while back protecting her daughter and ended up dead in an unmarked grave, now she’s pottering about the afterlife trying to find a purpose and stalking her daughter. Her whole life has revolved around protecting her daughter for so long – but there’s nothing she can do but watch in her afterlife.

And the Fates are vaguely irritated with her – because she does a very good job of being irritating. But they have a task for her and her very very unique way of looking at things – her ruthlessness, her highly grey moral code and her determination to get things done. And she owes them a favour after they let Lucas and Paige out of the afterlife.

So she has a task to hunt down a Nix – a task that has previously been given to angels who have failed rather dismally. The Fates hope someone with her grey moral code may have a better chance against the conniving, dangerous and devious Nix. Of course, her angel partner believes that the Fates have other schemes in mind

It also gives her a chance to grow and experience the afterlife beyond the obsession with checking with Savannah – but does she embrace her new role, especially since it comes with the ability to influence the real world – and possibly be Savannah’s real protector – but at the same time tie her to her mortal daughter rather than moving on with her afterlife.

Storywise, this is an extremely good mystery. Not that they don’t know who did it – but the sheer difficulty of trying to capture the Nix is a mystery in and of itself. She can teleport, she could be anywhere in the world, she flips from mind to mind leaving a path of destruction in her wake. The difficulty of finding her – let alone capturing and containing her – is a difficult puzzle on its own.

This involves a mystery that has them jumping back and forth around the US and Scotland, jumping to different historical murders, trying to find an edge and constantly surprising the Fates with Eve’s fun, twisty ways of completely leaving the Fates standing (and bemusement why they just won’t let her kill people!) as well as heartstopping when the Nix shows she’s a dangerous quarry to hunt and attacks Eve however she can as well – including through her family.

The pacing’s extremely good – there were no slow periods even when Eve was frustrated by lack of information and leads.

Blood Ties Season 1, Episode 7: Heart of Ice

Vicki and Celluci are doing their flirty thing, with Celluci blurring the boundaries around their relationship and Vicki giving him not too subtle “back off” vibes. And Vicki doing some actual, mundane detective work for money.

On the supernatural front, Francine, a homeless woman is attacked by night-versioned beast-like hunter under the light of the full moon.

Annie, another homeless person and a friend of Francine takes the case to Vicki. She remembers Vicki from her police days as one of the few who had any sympathy for the homeless – and with at least 4 people missing, they need sympathy.

After finding some of the dead woman’s stuff and some blood she, of course, turns to henry, hoping to use him as a bloodhound to track the blood trail into the sewer. Yes there is flirting. Vicki takes the bag they found to Celluci to try and get the police working on the case. Celluci is unwilling to devote resources to the case and deems it a low priority and a “hard sell” especially since it’s based on the witness statements of homeless people.

While not helpful on her case, he does want Vicki to look at his; Celluci and Graham are working on the murder of a sex-worker who was drained of blood with tiny holes on her neck. And a big, neon sign saying “vampire” flashing over her corpse. Yes, of course Celluci is aimed at Henry and Vicki is protecting him. The fact that Vicki has given Henry blood before also raises itself in the conversation

Henry’s tracking of the beast doesn’t find it – but does find a human who is also hunting it – and he calls it a Windigo. The man, Peter, a Native American, returns to Vicki’s office with Henry to tell them a dramatic story about the Windigo – a creature that used to be a man that eats people. He tells all of this in a rather stilted English for some reason. Coreens’ research fills in some gaps on the big hairy monstrous Winidgo

Celluci is approached by a Javier Mendoza over the dead sex-worker. He’s an officer of “canon law” and is basically hunting Henry because he’s a vampire.  He also brings a file of other supposed victims of Henry, including Delphine, a  woman he was in a relationship with in 1944 – which Celluci then takes to confront Henry with in his classic jealous style. Celluci is left with the difficult choice of handing Henry over to Mendoza or not – he doesn’t like Henry, but working with or helping a vigilante killer is a hard choice to make.

Javier presents Henry as a monster with a mass number of kills and that Vicki will be the next victim. And Javier gives him a sun pendant that will drain Henry’s life if placed on his chest. And Javier should know because, unknown to Celluci, he has already used it on Delphine – who isn’t dead, she’s a vampire (something Henry neglected to mention) and imprisoned at Javier’s mercy, left for the sun.

Cover Snark: Same Book, Two Covers and so Many Problems

This week on Cover Snark we’re going to look at the same book and how it is changed to different markets – alas. Yes, alas because it’s one of those choices that bemuse me.

We begin with Rivers of London. A very evocative title and very appropriate since Mama Thames and Old Father Thames – and their offspring (all tributaries of the River Thames) play such a major role in the plot line. It’s relevant to the story

And the cover? The cover is beautiful – it’s a map of London made up of the places of London , notes of those places and other indicators of the real London – with the blood red Punch, appropriately displayed on top of it. All relevant to the story, the place – and it’s a unique and interesting cover.

Review: Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch, Book 1 of the Rivers of London series

(In the US this book was released under the title Midnight Riot.)

Peter is a probationary police officer in the MET – just about to get his first real position. And it doesn’t look good – he’s a bit too easily distracted, doesn’t have much concentration and maybe not best fit for the job; a fine future of office work awaits him. At least until he meets Chief Inspector – he’s the MET’s wizard. And, after taking a witness statement from a ghost, it seems that Peter is perfectly placed to join that very unique police department.

It’s not the most conventional department – especially since he and Nightingale make up its entirety, along with a completely unknown non-human servant Molly (and a large library full of extremely old books). In addition to learning how to become a wizard, he’s also tasked with brokering a peace deal between Mama Thames and Old Father Thames – deities in all but name.

But the primary task is a series of horrendous and apparently random murders leaving people with their faces apparently falling off. The investigation of random culprits, ghosts, a couple of vampires, magic, gods of the London rivers and a rampaging Punch and Judy Show. It seems so random – but it all comes together excellently.

Sometimes I pick up a book set in Britain and I can tell it’s written by an American (anachronistic profanity and a heroin-like addiction to tea are normally involved), sometimes I’m not sure – and sometimes I know beyond a shadow of a doubt there is no way anyone but a British person could have written a book.

And this was most certainly one of those. Within seconds of opening the book I could feel the Britishness wafting off every page. There is a brilliant sense of time and place – this is London, you can feel London on every page. This is London as can only be written by a Londoner. In short, the setting is really well done with a full sense of history and local knowledge. The writing style is wordy – but concise, the descriptions giving an excellent feel of time and place and making the scene excellently real. Normally I am put off by too much description but this book hit the balance of making sure the whole scene was conveyed while not losing us in dense verbiage.

And that same level of detail applies throughout the book – not just the place settings. The author either has a background in policing or has gone to far more research than most. The book has the police procedure down perfectly. There’s no magical CSI (well, except actual magic) no random police units that don’t exist, no fudging of the issues and the procedures – it’s accurate.

The magical world setting is also excellent. I wonder how big the author’s world building notes are because it feels extremely planned. It’s consistent, we have a full, internally workable system for the magic (not just words and lights) – it feels planned, it feels workable and it adds a level of realism that all of these creatures and beings and magic work together in an overall logical and thought out system. It’s almost a scientific take to magic. It shows a lot of work a lot of dedication and it makes the story work more because it works within itself – and magic has rules so doesn’t just Deux ex Machinae everything.