Haven, Season 5, Episode 4: Much Ado About Mara

Dwight has just arrived to collect Mara but is forced to pause when she points out Duke is about to explode and spatter them all with unpleasant Trouble bits unless they let her loosen the pressure by releasing a Trouble. Dwight agrees to wait and Audrey briefly breaks through to tell Duke he can totally trust Mara in this instance.

She bleeds out one of the Troubles and they both leave finding a whole gang of Red Guard including a guy called Mitchell who is very kill happy. Duke’s new Trouble is to babble nonsense. Aha, we finally have the Teague Trouble revealed! He also thinks he’s making sense (not quite the same as the Teagues then).

Dwight questions Mara and after much back and forth she reveals she can cure the Troubles to put them off killing her – and agrees to cure one person.

Duke is talking gibberish to poor Jodie who tries to share some family secret to the man talking gibberish so he can somehow pass it on to her kids. Nathan has also been lurking around observing Dwight taking Mara and now tries to question Duke. Not useful. Nathan is, of course, focused on Audrey – and how to make that work they need to treat Mara like Audrey (which is a fun denial game) while Dwight treating Mara like Mara is only reinforcing Mara.

Nathan and Duke launch a rescue while Dwight is collecting Jodie (the obvious cure candidate) and Mara spills about the night she and Duke spent together which is a suitable distraction before Dwight returns and catches them all. Nathan and Duke are locked up. Mara cures Jodie –her light Trouble ends.

It then rains birds. Because Haven. Which interrupts Dwight arguing with Mara about helping others – she wants Aether, he threatens her and she lets slip that the Troubles aren’t bad (or seems contemptuous of the idea the Troubles are bad).

Nathan has a breakthrough that Duke’s nonsense Trouble is related to his guilt over Jennifer’s death which leads to a quick and tidy resolution and Duke speaking coherently again. Duke is also on Team Get Audrey Back so picks the lock of the chains holding him and Nathan.

Anyway back to the Trouble – water is now boiling and a rake is bending and a guy goes blind. Well that’s random. Dwight assumes it’s Duke but they’re working on the assumption Duke can only be Troubled by one thing at a time – to be sure Dwight wants Duke out of the area; the Trouble stops happening and they know it’s Duke though Duke insists it isn’t and they need Nathan and Duke to figure it out. Of course Dwight doesn’t trust Nathan who is still obsessing over Audrey despite the fact Audrey is nothing compared to ending the Troubles on Dwight’s priority list. In the end Duke hammers out a deal – Nathan won’t take Mara, Dwight won’t talk to Mara and they can all focus on the raining dead birds for a moment.

The Vampire Diaries, Season 6, Episode 1: I'll Remember

So, last season ended pretty dramatically – let’s see if this season undoes everything that happened.

And now we open with a double freak out – teenagers in the woods not actually being murdered (and Sherriff Liz Forbes being rather bored) looking all safe. Hah, no they all get mauled.

Now we have to go to Elena (alas) who is now getting a medical degree and training to be a doctor (wouldn’t that have required her to have attended at least one class in her entire academic life?) she’s also providing is with a vast info-dumpy voice over to recap the last season.

Alaric’s back and is a vampire and now a college professor as well (one of Elena’s no less) because of various plot reasons (but, I think, mainly because Cult fell through). Mystic Falls is still a mystical free zone – including vampires. Matt is working out (and I recognised his trainer so that’s a new character) and Jeremy apparently making out with a woman which troubles Elena (while many sisters would be weirded out thinking of their baby brother’s sex life, remember Elena had no problem with under-aged Jeremy and Vicki who was older than Elena) so I predict lots of angst-sex is happening there. Stefan has become a mechanic (seriously? When did Stefan pick up those skills in between killing people and moping?) though Elena thinks he’s looking for a necromancer or medium.

Tyler’s in college with Elena, Caroline has dropped out and is lurking around Mystic Falls unable to enter. Caroline is obsessing on breaking the spell on Mystic Falls and/or maybe getting Damon and Bonnie back and upset that Elena isn’t more upset about Damon (ok, Caroline, you need to make up your mind whether you like Damon or hate him because this is getting weird). Caroline’s also spending lots of time with her mother which is starting to creep Liz out – but she gets away when she hears of the two dead teenagers with neck wounds – why it looks like a vampire attack (both teenagers were POC so are we sure it wasn’t Caroline, returning to her old feeding habits?)

Elena is dealing with all of this to drink some kind of potion and spend her time with Damon – apparently there and in the flesh.

To class in which Alaric is teaching about the occult – why Elena who wants to be a doctor is in this class is a little beyond me (or why a vampire feels the need to take a class on the occult for that matter) but she’s actually in class so I suppose we should give some credit. Liv is also in class because… reasons? Why are Luke and Liv in college with Elena? For added bonus, Alaric is very much resisting the urge to eat his class.

Elena catches up with Luke after class because he’s been supplying her with the potion she took, against his coven’s orders (as I recall, their coven kills law breakers) which lets her see Damon. He also made Alaric his daylight bracelet. And you wondered what everyone would do without Bonnie to serve their every whim? Why they’ve got a new serving witch!

Fantasy and Science Fiction Fans

Anyone who’s a fan of fantasy and science fiction knows how much of an inflammatory minefield describing fantasy and science fictions can be.

You can’t go in with the stereotypical ‘basement dwelling Morloc’ description anymore because fantasy and science fiction has become widely accepted in modern culture that to nail down one specific fan base as having an atypical style is pretty much impossible.

Granted there are those that are easy to spot, they’re normally sporting some sort of reference to the genre they love either in hat, beanie, t-shirt, belt and in some cases belt buckles and even tattoos. It’s the same way in which sports fans wear team shirts or people who love music wear their favourite band shirts, it’s their way of saying “Hey world, this is what I like.”

Fans of these genres are no longer confined to old stereotypes anymore as they can be pretty much anyone which means you can now longer judge a person’s interests on their looks alone.

Take Vin Diesel for example, he may look like a muscle bound action movie star but he’s admitted in interviews that he’s a huge fan of Dungeons and Dragons and still plays it to this day. He even used to play World of Warcraft for hours with his Fast and the Furious Co-star Paul Walker before he passed away.

Fantasy and sci-fi fans do have one thing in common and that’s a passion for what they love. They’ll drone on for days on the thing that they know as well as vehemently defending it when someone else comes in with a conflicting opinion.

They’ll write fan-fiction, create plushies and in some cases write fan-fiction or even the most badly crowbarred in and rather disturbing character crossovers they can imagine, like Captain Picard meets My Little Pony.

Although this may paint them in a bad light, these fans are actually the nicest people you can meet. They love human contact and will happily chat to you about anything and everything. They’re not the anti-social people that society used to paint them out to be, they’re wonderful community of characters that you’ll always love to have a chat with.

Once upon a time, fantasy and science fiction fans were kept confined to conventions and special events in the past, but with the Marvel movies and Hobbit films hitting blockbuster level, the fantasy and science fiction genres have finally become mainstream.

This is generally down to more people sparking an interest which in turn makes it more widely accepted and ok to talk about in day-to-day life. But if it hadn’t accrued this kind of interest it would still remain that weird hobby it’s managed to separate itself from.

It’s the same kind of attitude people still express now when they look at anyone who spends time and money on online casino games, because they have no interest in it they consider them to be a bunch of weirdos who waste their money on frivolous games.

Overall there’s no specific way to define someone who’s a fantasy or sci-fi fan. They come in all shapes and sizes and to have such a passion for a genre or hobby is something that we all should have.

References:

http://www.dragoncon.org/?q=american_sci_fi_fantasy

http://www.2machines.com/articles/166446.html

http://www.casinojuggler.com/casino-weirdos/

Grimm: The Killing Time by Tim Waggoner

There’s a new wesen in Portland – a shapeshifter that takes the form of its victims. Deadly and hidden, there’s very little known about these creatures and they usually hide even from wesen society

But this wesen is sick, it’s not as careful or as hidden as usual – and is much more dangerous even to begin with. That dangerous grows to a threat that may destroy the entire wesen community of Portland after an encounter between the ill wesen and Nick.

Not only does a killer have to be stopped, but the side effects of its disease must be curtailed before the Wesen Council intervenes.

Obviously, this is a book set in the same world and with the same characters as Grimm. Books of established TV series or films always have some difficulty because they’re trying to capture in print the characters and world that we already know; can they convey a sense of the characters I already know in a completely different medium especially one that offers new opportunities like the ability to see what the characters are thinking. That’s a tough call.

And I think this book largely did it right. These characters feel a lot like the characters from the show. They were in character, nothing was drastically awry from what I expected and the insight into Nick’s head managed to be both revelatory and developing while not jarring my current sense of the character. That takes some doing – to expand the character beyond what we’ve already seen while still keeping him true to what we’d expect from the TV? That’s excellent, I’m impressed.

But I also want to ask someone whether this is canon or not. Because this book does an excellent job of expanding on what it means to be Grimm and even what it means to be various wesen. It even pins down some of the actual abilities of a Grimm while the show has always been so very cagey in actually explaining what being a Grimm means. Can I take that and run with it? I want to run with it, I really do but it’s such an expansion on what the show has been willing to explain that I feel it’s a little extra-cannonical. In particularly, Nick constantly thinks about his Grimm side pushing him to violence which I don’t think the show really backed up – but since it’s a restrained mental impulse, would we see it on the show? I also liked the way it addressed the way Wesen culture in Portland changed with Nick around – how he was having an effect and changing opinions and while many were still afraid of him, equally many were coming to see him as on their side and even a person to call in times of need.

Telltale Games The Walking Dead, Season 2

I went into this game with wariness – because I was trying to curb my enthusiasm. I loved season 1 of this game and that was causing majorly high expectations that I feared would just lead to disappointment. In many ways I was right to be wary as I wasn’t nearly as blown away by this as I was the first one – though it was still pretty excellent.

First we have a protagonist switch from Lee to Clementine – you now play as a 10 year old girl. In some ways this is excellent because Clementine is a brilliant character – tough and wise for her age, clever, resourceful determined – still a child but definitely someone who has had to grow up too fast. It shows in nearly every character interaction you’re part of and I can’t emphasise enough how well done this is or just how plain awesome Clementine is as a character. I would happily follow any numbers of stories of Clementine, the child who grew so fast, mix of compassion and ruthlessness and finding the balance between. I think this also really works well with the actual game because Clementine is, obviously, a 10 year old child played by an adult – so she’s a child with a (semi-) mature adult making her decisions and rather than being jarring it helps really build this hyper-mature character

It also allows you to explore a completely different dynamic as a child in this setting – something we don’t see a lot of. There are a number of scenes where you simply cannot help, where you’re not expected to help and when your decisions and the future of the group is so very much outside of your hands. There are several occasions when there’s a conflict happening and the best you can do is stay on the sidelines and beg ineffectually for people to listen or to, clumsily and equally ineffectually intervene. And while she does become much more effective at killing Walkers, for much of the game, lucky strikes and running is the best she can manage – while Lee could carve his way through packs. Even one of the core conflicts of the story – whether you are close to Luke or Kenny – is different from the same dilemmas Lee had to face because, on some level, you’re also choosing your primary care taker. And the choice is between a manchild who is less mature than Clementine in many ways or a rage filled man who can start and argument in an empty room. Personally I think Clementine was better off without either of them – because she’s awesome.

But there are downsides as well. As a child there are a lot of scenes where I feel like I’m on the sidelines and not that involved – there are some swathes of the game that feel more like a movie than a computer game because I have relatively little input to what’s happening. The flip side is, in terms of characterisation, I sometimes have a lot of input that may build Clementine’s character but makes me question the other characters. Why is a child the one with a deciding influence on this decision? Why are people asking Clementine’s advice? And the number of times we have a terrible dangerous task that only a 10 year old can do to save the group makes me ask where the applications for Woodbury are.

And oh, the people who share their deep emotional turmoil! Seriously – and in season 1 these would have been awesome character building moments full of conflict and depth – and they still were. Kind of. But I kept snapping back to the fact these adults were unloading their deep trauma and issues onto a 10 year old child. So my mental conversation always went:

Rebecca: let me share all of my worries about my pregnancy and 2 possible fathers

Clementine: lady, really? I’m 10 years old and you want my input on infidelity, raising a child in a dystopian world and all your guilts and fears? Really?

Nick: let me tell you about all my guilt and constant fear that I’m a total screw up

Clementine: look mister, I barely know you and if you’re looking for reassurance from a 10 year old, then you are a screw up. Also, I’ve had to rescue you, that’s kind of the definition of screw up.

Deadly Remains (A Clairvoyant's Complicated Life #1) by Katherine Bayless

Lire works for the police pro-bono – and as the most powerful touch-psychic in the area, she’s definitely a major asset. Unfortunately, prejudice and superstition make it hard to convince others to accept that, especially Detective Vince Vanelli. She has enough problems navigating in a world where touch is a constant peril, without having to babysit the chip on his shoulder

There’s a serial killer on the loose and she’s determined to help catch him especially when one of the victims hits so close to home. She pushes far further than is wise – both taxing her powers and rising the ire of an secret organisation that has a lot of power to make life difficult; but can Lire really risk the killer killing again?

When I picked up this book I saw it was about a psychic helping the police I was interested, but expected something I’d seen before – after all, a psychometric reading information from evidence, or any psychic helping the police isn’t new.

And there were a lot of concepts I’ve seen before – but this goes to show that a concept doesn’t have to be completely new to be awesome. Because while I’ve seen them before, I don’t think I’d seen them as well done as I have here. The information that Lire gets from touching things is really well done – as is the peril of her touching things without realising. The way she can get overwhelmed is really well done – as well as the worry over the subject matter – how can you go around touching things involved in a murder without seeing and experiencing truly horrendously traumatic images and events? Or, what if you touch someone who themselves is a terrible person and you absorb their entire experience and mind set? It’s really well written to really bring home the power of these visions and how they can affect the psychic’s mental health.

On top of that, the world building has been developed beyond these concepts – so we have a psychic who gets impressions from touching things? We often see that, are giving a dash of tragedy and move on but this book takes it to the next level. What does that mean? How does this psychic eat? How do they drink? How do they wash their clothes or buy furniture or sleep in a hotel? Since animals also leave impressions, can they even eat meat? This is where this book excels – it takes the basic concepts but develops it and makes it real with the detail and all the little elements that we generally don’t think about but have to be considered.

I also love how it’s developed into an actual marketable skill – authenticating antiques or providing information for historians is an excellent twist I’ve never come across before.

I’ve rambled on about this world building of the psychics for a while and it probably gives a terrible impression that there are lots of infodumps in this book – but there isn’t. It actually flows wonderfully with all these elements of the world naturally incorporated into Lire’s experience.

Also she has an undead necromantic possessed teddy bear which manages neither to be twee nor ridiculous. How can this not be a good thing?

Witches of East End, Season 2, Episode 11: Poe Way Out

Last episode Joanna decided to solve all her problems by time travelling to the distant past and Ingrid decided that she’d rather get to know her evil grandfather than support her mother.

This is not a family known for its common sense. They’re lucky Dash and Killian are around, they tend to make the Beauchamps seem sensible – Killian has decided to track down the family of the woman who was magically enslaving and raping him.

So Joanna, Freya and Wendy are in Baltimore in 1848 wearing very out of place clothing. They’re there to pick up a powerful weapon to kill the king with – one that Joanna once used to kill Freya. Well that was tactful. Freya is, astonishingly, not thrilled by this news.

They go to a brothel/opium den the Beauchamps owned at the time so they can get clothes and clumsily dodge past versions of themselves (Joanna apparently an opium addict because she’s mooning after Victor. Which is kind of hilarious because Victor died in the present and Joanna completely forgot about him two episodes afterwards).

Anyway, they have 12 hours to leave or ill-defined bad things will happen because time travel is bad. We also get another story of Freya’s past life and why Joanna has to kill her – involving Killian trying on a new wardrobe and different accent. That past life is as Edgar Allen Poe. Past Freya predicted his future which is “we shall have sex” – I must be psychic because I predicted exactly the same thing!

Past Freya broke the sacred code and told Killian/Edgar that she was a witch which was inspiration for him but also naughty/bad/wrong. Also, since Edgillian got writers block Freya decided to open a door to the great beyond for inspiration (did I mention the bad decisions these people make?) which gets her possessed by a serial killer. When Wendy tries to deal with it, Freya kills her (a temporary issue with Freya). Ingrid turned to Joanna who was too stoned to be helpful so he calls a friend who has a box called an Anima; when someone possessed looks in the spirit is ripped out (hence why it’s useful against evil granddaddy). But the host also dies, alas. Something Ingrid accepts even knowing it will kill her because she knows she will be reborn – but she also needs Joanna to pull herself together since she wants her to be present and capable when raising them

That’s the first time someone finally recognised that death for the daughters was a temporary inconvenience. A shame Victor didn’t remember that when sacrificing himself for Freya.

So they used the box, killed Freya then future Joanna claimed the box (which past Joanna remembers).

This Week in Book Covers 22nd September - 26th September

This week we ask ourselves that age old question - does anyone bother to tell a cover artist what the book is about or do they just pick images randomly?

Blackwood Farm (Vampire Chronicles #9) by Anne Rice

Another Vampire Chronicles cover - you already know what I’m going to say. Generic, non-informative and doesn’t need to be because of the name. Here we have ahead and a strange weathered stone effect. I’m not sure where the weathered stone effect comes in unless we’re talking about the excruciatingly detailed description of every building I had to endure.

Deamhan (Deamhan Chronicles #1) by Isaiyan Morrison

Is… is she naked? She looks naked just holding a length of cloth to her breasts. Why is she naked? Naked with the tousled bed-head hair and the slightly-sultry-slightly-stoned expression. Did we catch veronica just as she got out of bed? And if so, why was this needed to present this book? It’s not a book about naked ladies - hair tousled or otherwise - it’s about a woman trying to find her mother alongside vampire-like monsters. Naked ladies don’t really feature, bed sheets round their breasts or not.

Y’know, in the extremely highly unlikely event of me buying a book because I wanted it to be about naked ladies I think I’d be kind of disappointed.