Almighty Johnsons Season 3, Episode 6: And Then On To Norsewood

Axl is still on a road trip with his dad when Mike calls to check in – and Zeb speaks to him, much much angrier, about Axl leaving and not knowing when he’s coming back and driving off Amelia. Axl makes the very good point that Amelia did actually stab him. Zeb makes excuses for her and demands Axl come back or he’ll sell his stuff for rent – to which Axl declares he may not return at all. Which worries Mike, as well.

Axl then jumps down a hill in a giant plastic ball and Mike is left to pay Axl’s portion of the rent to Zeb, again. Poor Mike. Poor Zeb (who is also being traumatised by Ingrid).

Karen asks Mike when Axl and Joe are returning and Mike tells her he doesn’t know – and that he doesn’t intend to go hunting for them using Ullr powers. Karen reveals that her father was the previous incarnation of Ullr, something Michele doesn’t know because Karen’s father committed suicide. She cryptically warns Mike not to go down the “Odin road” and then clams up because Michele walks in; ready to mock Karen for expecting Joe to come back.

Joe and Axl are having a great time with lots of outdoorsy activities which I’m sure are so very very fun if you’re odd and like hurtling down a river in an overblown plastic bag. But Axl begins to think about going home; but Joe keeps stalling and distracting him. Leading to Joe deciding to take Axl fishing.

After a long delay while Joe gets fishing equipment (and, for a moment, I thought he’d abandoned Axl). He has managed to find a boat – which surprises Axl because he expected to be fishing off a pier. But by boat, Joe means crewing a fishing vessel; he’s got them a job crewing a Korean long-liner. And it’s going to Korea. Joe did not quite get the point of a father and son fishing trip. Joe talks about Odin and Njord going to see – his dream; but not Axl’s. Joe says Axl doesn’t have any dreams – he said, and Axl lays down exactly what he wants. He wants to go, with his father, to where he grew up and he wants to know why Joe abandoned them – then he can figure out who he, Axl, actually is.

Joe turns and leaves – mocking Axl for not wanting to go on his “huge opportunity”, doubting whether he’s really Odin and demeaning his “nice little life.” Oh, and Joe has also given away the car they were driving (Olaf’s car) to bribe their way on board. Nice man. This is where Sleipnir would come in handy.

Michele tells Mike, again, how she’s ready to kill her mother if they don’t move out soon. Which drives Mike to work more on the bar to make it livable and wishing he could afford to hire a larger team – which grandfather Olaf skewers as silly because, as Ullr, Mike is quite capable of rustling up more money. Mike pulls the “I’m living my life on my own terms” card and Olaf reminds him that Mike is Ullr, Ullr is Mike and denying his godly skills is just denying himself. Mike uses his excuse of being blacklisted at the casino – Olaf suggests disguising himself as an “old Asian lady” or, y’know using the god-of-the-hunt power to track down another source of gambling (like the net? Internet gambling, Mike! It’s convenient!)

Shrouded in Illusion by H.D. Thomson

Skye has come to Las Vegas in a desperate quest for answers – answers to fill the gaps in her memories, answers about who she is, where she come from and where she got these odd psychic powers she has.

And answers that may tell her who is targeting her son.

In Vegas she finds David – with the same holes in his memory, the same origins and the same odd, unexplained powers. Together they may be able to find some answers – but the past is catching up with her and her enemies are getting closer.

This book surprised me considerably with its twists. And it’s not often that happens. For a long time I thought I knew what was going on – and I was wrong.

I thought I knew what Skye’s powers were – and  turned out to be very wrong.

I thought I knew why she was on the run – and, again, turned out to be wrong.

I thought I knew her past and the source of her powers and the cause of her flashbacks – and I was wrong.

I didn’t even know why one of the characters was chasing her – and all of my guesses were completely and utterly wrong on that score as well.

I’m not usually that wrong – and I hasten to say it’s not because the book set out to deliberately mislead me. There was plenty of ways I could have guessed correctly, there was no deliberate bait and switch – but it had left enough up in the air for me to make wrong assumptions and leave the ending a mystery.

The writing was generally well done – lots of hints without dropping huge amounts of information but also without making it feel like the book was being ridiculously or convolutedly cagey. There were never times when information was withheld in a way that didn’t make sense. And the multiple red herrings along the way were perfectly crafted. It was a little long and slow in places, especially when it comes to emotional introspection, but it generally worked, particularly for a mystery with so little leads to go on.

Dead Like Me: Season 1, Episode 12: Nighthawks

We open with George suffering from amnesia – the toll of taking the souls of the living and watching them die is bothering her and she can’t stop thinking about death. She does the insomnia work through the town, hating everyone who is maliciously sleeping while she can’t (oh I’ve done that a few times)

Everyone else was sleeping just fine – unfortunately – because Rube has called them in for a 1:00am meeting at the Waffle House. It’s time for their joyful self-assessment forms (which everyone complains about – Daisy tries to weasel out of it, Mason needs more drugs, Roxy glares at the waste of her time)

George’s wandering brings her to the Waffle House where everyone is grumbling through their exams and is bemused why she’s not involved and what people are actually doing. Rube grabs George and pulls her away and gives her a wonderfully cryptic non-answer about why she’s not taking the test in between talking about his desire to learn how to paint. George is almost offended that she isn’t taking the test.

For some reason art and George whining leads to lots of flashback clips about Rube and food. That’s the second lot of rather convoluted flashback clips that have been shoe-horned into this episode.

Which is when we switch to Roxy doing her test and get a series of clips of her as well.

Really? Really Dead Like Me? A clip show? You are actually having a clip show? A clip show on episode 12 of your first season? You don’t have enough material for a clip show!

On to Daisy – and her clips. Really? Daisy hasn’t even been in the show that long yet I get a clips recap? Mason’s recap follows before George and Rube discuss art and, seeing a picture that looks like Daisy, George corrects Rube’s opinion of her shallowness and tells him she thinks Daisy is sad. Oh, and Mason and Daisy torment the poor waitress Kiffany for test answers. She even offers to help Roxy. Rube also keeps focusing on a couple eating in the Waffle House.

And George learns Rube has a job – a soul to Reap, that morning, at her old house. George, naturally, freaks out a little while Rube lays down the law – she cannot interfere. Rube tells her it’s not about her and tells her she has a problem with rules (excuse me – one of her family could be potentially about to die and he brings it down to a “problem with rules”? That’s grossly off base for Rube). This convoluted segue leads us to a set of George flashback clips.

Continuum and the Ruined Setting

As fans of speculative fiction, we expect to see the fantastic and the unbelievable on our shows and in our books. We accept vampires and demons, zombies and werewolves, space ships with strangely humanoid aliens, we accept dragons and magic and all kinds of fantastic and wonderful things besides. The very nature of the genre requires us to believe the very extremes of human imagination to be possible.

But, sadly, sometimes we’re left feeling that because we’re fans of speculative fiction, we’re able to swallow anything, no matter how implausible. This particularly applies to the real world setting, the world and characters which can be inexplicably radically different from the actual settings we know (or even incomprehensible to anything resembling basic common sense) and we’re expected to accept that. This leaves a yawning credibility gap that undermines the story and smacks of lazy writing or poor research

While there are many ways to produce this credibility gap (many shows have done this by having protagonists who make the most unimaginable decisions - AND survive them), Continuum opens it’s credibility gap with its highly dubious representation of its setting that barely resembles the actual city its supposed to be set in.

One of the things that continues to bother me about Continuum is the fact that though it is set in Vancouver, Canada; Betty is the only Asian character. Vancouver is the site of the second largest Chinatown in North America and the Chinese are by far the most visible minority in Vancouver. The Chinese population is also the fastest growing and is expected to reach 809,000 by 2031. That being said, where are all of the Asian cast members? Why don't we see more Chinese people in street shots? The racial makeup of Vancouver is well known and yet Continuum chose to basically erase Chinese people. This is actually very much in line with most media as on an average night’s television viewing Asian people are greatly erased.

If this was Continuum's only failure it would be bad but, unfortunately, while Continuum took the time and care to create a fantastic future, it showed little concern  for the present. When Kiera first arrived in the past, Alec was able to quickly create a shaky covert identity for by breaking into CSIS's computer banks. I am sure that I was not the only shaking my head at that. Yes, Alec is a genius but, to be clear, CSIS is the highest level of policing in Canada. Not just policing, but this is the head of Canada’s intelligence and security - but Alec, working from a computer in his back yard, is not only able to do this but do so with incredible ease?

To further confound this (and insult our intelligences), everyone is quite willing to accept Kiera’s heavily redacted file from an organisation no-one’s ever heard of. So willing are they to go along, unquestioning, with Kiera’s shoddy background that when Agent Gardiner, an actual CSIS agent, shows up he is treated as suspicious and paranoid for questioning who Kiera is and what she’s actually doing and under whose authority?

Magic Rises (Kate Daniels #6) by Ilona Andrews

Kate and Curran are faced with a tragedy that continually afflicts the pack – children going Loup. Shapeshifter children falling prey to the Lyc virus and becoming uncontrollable, mindless killing machines. There’s only one cure – Panacea, and only a few people in Europe know how to make it. They do not trade.

Faced with the inevitable death of 2 small children – and so many more in the future – Kate and Curran are presented with an offer they cannot refuse. Go to the Black Sea and help protect Desandra, a woman pregnant with twins; both of which have separate fathers. Whichever twin is born first will win their shapeshifter group a massive reward – but both fathers’ clans and Desandra’s father are all snarling at each other.

Kate and Curran are called in as neutral third parties – with only a few guards and both knowing that it must be a trap, they cannot refuse the chance to get their hands on Panacea for the pack. But the trap is far more devious and dangerous than they imagined – and far more than those three packs know.

I love this series. And with each passing book I just love it a little more. I really cannot adequately describe just how much I love it – not without descending into the worst kind of fanpoodleness. Alas, I simply cannot!

So fandpoodleness it is then!

I love the world. I love this completely unique world with its vast variety of creatures and beings and characters. I love the incredible research the authors must have engaged in to make it this rich and deep and varied. I love the vast amount of mythology that has packed the book from edge to edge which combines to make the world incredibly real even while its uniqueness makes it vastly different from both our world but also anything in the genre.

I love the writing that can convey all of this knowledge without being boring, can make fight scenes edge of your seat exciting and can convey truly deep and powerful emotion. I love that the sense of epic and the entire world in balance can saturate a scene without going over the top and making it drag. I love how even with an excellent story and all this epic around, there’s still room for some excellent humour. It’s amazing that you can be on the edge of your seat with tension and then laugh out loud – and both of them work.

I love Kate as a character. I love that she’s immensely powerful and skilled but manages to not be a super-perfect protagonist who is superior to everyone around her. I love that, even with all her power, a large part of why people around her respect her is because of her knowledge. I like that she is respected as a leader because she has earned it and proved herself time and again. I like that she genuinely cares without being a wreck, she is strong without being callous, she is intelligent without being all-knowing, she is loving without expecting a perfect relationship

Under the Dome, Season 1, Episode 7: Imperfect Circles

Norrie rousts Joe from his bed so they can go play with the potentially dangerous Dome and see if they can make it do shiny things. They start by experimenting on the edge of the Dome (and, by experimenting, I mean making out against it) before Joe suggests going to the centre of the Dome to see if they can do anything there.

A more pleasant awakening greets Julia and Barbie, naked in bed together and prepared to continue the night before’s activities but are interrupted by Julia’s neighbour – Harriet – a heavily pregnant woman who can only eat yoghurt. Barbie runs away – err, leaves to see if anyone needs his help.

As Harriet leaves she sees her husband – who should be away with the military and definitely not in the Dome – she goes to him and reaches to touch his hand. And touches the Dome – her husband, Greg, wasn’t really there. Her waters break and she goes into labour, though it’s too early.

At Big Jim’s Jim frogmarches his son out of the house away from Angie – where he is to say. Junior is all embarrassed at Jim manhandling in front of the woman he stalked, kidnapped and imprisoned and Jim points out the foolishness of that, following it up with a good slap when Junior claims Angie was “sick” because of the Dome and he had to lock her up. He calls Junior sick – which he objects to – and kicks Junior out and orders him never to go near Angie again under dire threat. With Junior kicked out Jim offers to let Angie stay – but she wants to go home to her brother. But first she wants to pay her last respects to Rose, whose body is kept in the Diner kitchen while the mortuary is full (Jim owns the Diner after repeatedly loaning Rose money to keep it open).

In the police station, Junior is the only deputy to arrive – so Linda puts Barbie on patrol while she and Junior go seeking the Dundees – the guys who murdered Rose (initially she was going to take Barbie, but Junior knows the Dundees and hopes to talk them down peacefully). This also means giving Junior a big automatic weapon – showing that, yes, Linda can make a worse decision than giving him a badge.

Angie, while paying her respects to Rose, meets up with Ben and, after a brief understanding with a knife, learns that Joe is ok. At Ollie’s well, half the town is getting water and Jim shows up to make peace with his old friend (yeah, why do I not trust this?) But this time it looks like Ollie has done some plotting of his own – and questions Jim whether he still owns the propane he thinks he owns. Following up on that cryptic comment, Jim finds that Ollie has cut the lock on Jim’s propane stores and has put a big guard with a shot gun on them. When Jim tries to get past, the man hits him.

All the people I hate are getting smacked this episode.

Junior asks Linda exactly what they’re going to do with the Dundees when they arrest them, since the court is outside of the Dome. This question is shelved when Linda tells Junior that the two Dundees planned to rape Angie and Barbie saved her.

The Walking Dead Volume 11: Fear the Hunters

This week, the group continues their movement towards DC to, hopefully, reverse the zombie apocalypse. Along the way they are dogged with tragedy - including the death of Billy at the hands of his twin brother Ben, the child not understanding death in a world where the dead rise again. Handling a child murderer who doesn’t understand murder is a heartbreaking test for the group.

Again, the group is faced with hard choices and debates what they must do to stay safe; one that seems more poignant with the addition of Gabriel, the moral preacher to the group. And they have more choices to make when the group is attacked by cannibals

On the whole, I do not think we had a new theme introduced this week so much as we had last week’s theme continued and polished.

Again we have a continued analysis of what the apocalypse and constant danger does to people - in particular reference to how it breaks down their moral rules and flips the “switch” inside them, separating people between those who will kill to survive and those who won’t - and therefore die.

Can there be a clearer representation of killing to live than the group of people who have resorted to cannibalism? They hunt and kill people to survive, this is the ultimate line of killing for survival, the ultimate switch.

Among the group we see the same extremes - perhaps the clearest is Carl killing Ben; Carl does what has to be done in his eyes, regardless of who he has to kill, even another child. He sees the rest of the group being unable to make the hard choice so he does it for them. It is his ultimate switch, the death of his childhood and him standing up clearly alongside Rick and Abraham as a ruthless, group protector - but also joining them as a figure that is broken and even almost tragic in their callousness.

That callousness caused by the “flipping of the switch” is also shown in this volume. Abraham is completely indifferent in the face of people’s loss, almost contemptuous of Andrea’s grief and dismissive of any attempt to find and help Dale. Carl outrages Rick with his own indifference - and even outright contempt for Dale as “dead weight”. Carl has developed his own ruthlessness to cover what he has been done

But there’s also some representation of the cost of this - these people are not naturally callous or unfeeling. Abraham buries his pain - which is occasionally evident in his private moments with Rosita - but focusing on getting to DC and saving the world. He has adopted an Ends Justifies the Means mentality to help him maintain his ruthlessness which does have a cost to him; though his end goal is so vital it will make everything ok. Carl, after killing Ben, is frequently shown grieving and in pain from what he did, even while he maintains a public face of callousness and contempt. Both are, in a way, hiding from their own pain or suppressing it to keep those switches flipped.

Hearts in Darkness (Nikki and Michael #2) by Keri Arthur

Nikki has been apart from Michael for 6 months, 6 months while Michael slowly relearns to control his hunger and 6 months when Michael resolves to stay away from Nikki. His life, his world, his job is just too dangerous for her and he is determined to keep her safe

Unfortunately for him, one of his jobs coincides with one of hers – she has another missing teenager and a lost contact’s family member, neither of which she is willing to ignore and she’s certainly not going to leave it because Michael asks her too

They are thrown back together in an exclusive resort trying to find a slew of missing people – and finding surprises both magical and personal waiting for them and an entire species depending on them for survival.

  

After the last book, I was a little dubious about this series, I was still waiting for something more unique to happen to set it out. While the character interactions pretty much fit some very long established moulds, the plot of this book broke out of the tropes. We had some completely new creatures and a twisty plot line that made use of them in a pretty new an interesting way that lead to a pretty original story and definitely one that could not be entirely predicted since so much was hidden and hidden well. It was a plot that had elements I have not seen elsewhere and put the series on my mental map as a unique creation with its own exclusive items that are both intriguing and fascinating – and make me want to read the next book to see where the author’s imagination will take me next and how much further this world will expand

This world is still played very close to the author’s chest. In some ways I like this – like the first book the writing style is pretty well handled in terms of descriptiveness. I don’t think the fight scenes necessarily work brilliantly, often giving me the feeling of people queuing up for battle and a few anti-climaxes, but they do work well. We do have some overly emotional monologues but, again, they’re pretty restrained to what I’ve seen elsewhere and even in the first book. The writing is careful, it has hiccoughs but they’re slight – it controls description and unnecessary exposition though I have to say I would like a little more world building about vampires and the organisation Michael works for. But the fact the hints encourage me to learn more is a good sign in itself.

There is also a considerable improvement in the relationship between Michael and Nikki. Now, it isn’t perfect, but a lot of what isn’t perfect is also challenged, at least to a degree. I’ve said before a hundred times how much I hate rushed relationships – and Nikki and Michael lamenting how they cannot possibly live without one another despite only having known each other for a week is definitely rushed. I just never get the sense of foundation to this relationship. Even Michael lampshades it with this line:

“We barely even know each other. We may share thoughts and we may share passion, but we have never once shared our dreams or our desires for the future. I don’t know your favorite movie or color or food or even what you like to read. And you know as little about me.”

I cheered when I read this line. And I cheered that Nikki was talking about finding these out –because that would be great, them deciding they have good potential and it would be worth seeing if they could build a relationship and develop it further. I was on board for that, even with Nikki angry because Michael wouldn’t try to see if they could have a relationship.