Z Nation, Season One, Episode Thirteen: Doctor of the Dead

This episode begins with a flashback to before the zombie apocalypse in New York city.  Dr.Kurian meets up with Johnny on a street corner and they head to a flop house, where Bill lies passed out on the ground due to drugs.  Dr. Kurian pays off Johnny and Kurian asks Bill when his last meal was, if he has an increased sensitivity light, numbness in his extremities, and if he is cold.  Bill says yes to all of these things and Kurian injects him with what appears to be blood and Bill starts to convulse.  Kurian then places a large syringe up Bills nose and takes a sample before leaving.  Kurian walks past Johnny, who is now lying on the floor outside of the room.

In present day, somewhere west of the Rockies, Warren tells Citizen Z that she is not sure how long they can hold it together and that Cassandra is not looking good. Citizen Z asks about Murphy and is told that he is acting weirder than usual.  Citizen Z says that he has picked up a message from Dr. Merch, the same woman who injected Murphy and their new destination is Fort Collins.  Citizen Z adds that Colorado, is the new California.

10K comforts Cassandra, who is puking her brains out by the road side as Murphy watches.  Doc informs Warren that not only are they low on gas, they are low on ammo as well.  Murphy finds the keys to the van and hops in the drivers seat but before he can drive off, Warren knocks on the window and informs Murphy that Dr. Merch is waiting for him. Murphy is extremely angry with Dr.Merch and Warren points out that Merch is the reason Murphy is still alive. 

The group drives off together with Doc behind the wheel.  Doc tells Murphy that he is going to miss him and after all of the miles they have traveled together, it's starting to feel like a real family.  Murphy tells Doc that he almost considers him a friend.  Doc however tells Murphy that he does not envy him because once he is dropped off, he is going to have tons of needles stuck in him. When Murphy tries to deny this, Doc again asserts that Murphy is going to have a tube in every orifice. Warren stops the conversation by asking how much further they have to go.  10K says that after this is over he might head north because the Z's don't like the cold.  Warren says that her plans are to head to west because she has never been to California. Doc plans on buying a boat and sailing around the world.

They make it to the location and Warren puts handcuffs on Murphy, saying that they are looking for a group of civilians transporting a prisoner and she does not want Murphy being confused as a zombie.  Murphy calls bullshit, saying that Warren does not trust him.  Murphy heads straight to the door which is surrounded by zombies, forcing the team to hop back into their van.  10K reports that he has two bullets and Doc only has one.  Roberta calls out to Murphy and he snarks about the group needing his help.  Murphy opens the van door and tells the group to follow him.  They each wrap themselves around Murphy and the zombies surround them but do not attack.

Death's Mistress (Dorina Basarab #2) by Karen Chance

Dorina is doing more and more missions for her father, Mircea, senator for the North American vampire council. Of course, being a vampire, her father, and extremely ancient he keeps far too many secrets – including the true nature of her latest task and the powerful artefact at the heart of it

A task that also drags in Louis-Cesare, who has his own political machinations caught between two senates

And then there’s Dorina’s best friend Claire – bringing a whole lot of lethal fae politics and her fae child with her.

This world has so much happening in it and it all comes into play in this book. The mages, the fae and the vampires all play varying role (focusing on the vampires but there’s a huge fae involvement). We have lots of political machinations from the world that has been completely upset by a huge ongoing war. I really like that each of the supernatural beings presented has a sense of culture – and not just a sense of culture but a sense of multiple cultures and factions rather than them just being homogenous groups.

I also love the sense that there is a lot going on beyond what Dorina is aware of – that great feeling that the world continues without her and doesn’t focus on her just because she is the protagonist. A lot of worlds seem to disappear when the protagonist is not involved, but not here.

The war makes for an excellent backdrop for the series because it gives such a perfect motivation for Dorina to be involved. The consumption of resources and attention by the war – coupled with the disruption by it – gives us a perfect reason why Dorina needs to be involved in things she’d normally be kept from. It also makes for an excellent world building exposition without making Dorina ignorant – she’s clearly capable and skilled (and, excellently, has some tricks that even the ancient master vampires don’t have), but the new situation means things need to be explained to her (and us). Similarly, explaining how the war has changed things also elegantly explains to us how the status quo normally operates. It works, it works really well considering just how much there is to grasp.

My complaint with all of this is that there is just so much going on. This rune is so valuable that half of the supernatural world want it which means there are a lot of players, a lot of possibles, a lot of factions that is all kind of overwhelming. Some I can see as important foreshadowing for the future and world building like Ming-de and the Chinese delegation, but Ganimus felt like a step too far and I’m not sure if the mage involvement and their event was particularly necessary either. I’m not saying any one of these elements was badly done or boring – certainly not – but there’s just so much going on not just in this book, but in this huge, varied and multi-layered world there needs to be triage, especially for readers who haven’t read other series set in the same world. Sometimes I felt like I should have been taking notes or keeping a flowchart or something.

Fangs for the Fantasy book of the week

The next episode of our podcast will be starting tonight at 7:00pm EST (12:00am GMT). You will be able to listen to us on our youtube channel, or by the link in the sidebar or by the post here that will be posted. We hope to see you there

Like all  the Fangs for the Fantasy podcasts (archives here) we read a book and discuss it on the show. 

To give people a chance to read along with us we include a list of our planned books of the week for the next few shows, so people can get the books, read them and join in the conversation.

17th November - 24th November: Loki’s Wolves by K.L. Armstrong, M.A. Marr

24th November - 1st December: The Big Over Easy by Jasper Fforde

1st December - 8th December : Death’s Mistress by Karen Chance

8th December - 15th December: Staked by J.F. Lewis

15th December -  22nd December: Odin Ravens by  K.L. Armstrong, M.A. Marr

22nd December - 5th January: Hidden Legacy by Ilona Andrews

Since we missed last week's podcast we will try to discuss the last 2 books of the week.

Atlantis, Season 2, Episode 4: A Marriage of True Minds

Just in case we hadn’t guessed that Telamon was evil, we begin this episode with Medea and Pasiphae casting a spell on him and anointing him with chicken blood. They’re plotting to kill Ariadne and then Medea will shower riches on Telamon – who is estranged from his father (for reasons we don’t know – last episodes reasons were lies). Medea has her doubts but Pasiphae is sure that Telamon, a desperate exile, will kill Ariadne.

Meanwhile Dion, Telamon and Ariadne are planning to go to Telamon’s father’s territory; Dion would much rather Ariadne stay in Atlantis but Telamon has decided he must have his father’s blessing so they can reconcile. Naturally such an emotional appeal means Ariadne agrees – and Telamon helpfully has advice for the route they should take. Dion says he’ll consider it in a tone that tells Telamon where he can shove his travel guide. Dion will know the route, no-one else, in the name of safety.

Jason & co are at least all suspicious, but Jason is still Jason so has no good ideas – he does have a bad one though, run up to Ariadne and say “your betrothed is evil!” Pythagoras and Hercules warn him he just looks like a desperate, jealous, stalker ex. Jason goes and does it anyway and, unsurprisingly, sounds like a desperate, jealous, stalker ex. Jason gets the consolation prize of going along as bodyguard so they can continue to look longingly and tragically at each other. This also volunteers Pythagoras and Hercules.

Time for the journey and Ariadne is in her fanciest frock and Jason has his mopiest face. When they stop for the night we have more moping and Telamon being all lovey dovey with Ariadne and, for reasons unknown, Dion tells Telamon the next day’s travel plans. The gang have a little back and forth about finding Jason another love interest and Hercules references Medusa. Oh Medusa, I miss you.

When they leave for the day, Telamon leaves a message behind to tell Pasiphae where they’re going

The route they’ve chosen is very dangerous with an easy ambush point – but it’s also a very unexpected route. Probably because there are lots of Colchean enemies nearby. Personally, I’ve come to expect people to pick the suicidally foolish choice.

To the surprise of absolutely no-one, they’re ambushed by archers. Many die (including Ariadne’s maid), everyone scrambles for cover. While everyone is distracted, Telamon runs to Ariadne, sword drawn ready to stab her, she realises that bad guy is bad - but he can’t bring himself to do it. With a quick “forgive me” he runs to his horse and rides off. Jason gets Ariadne to safety among a storm of dead extras. More people die and Jason and Ariadne hug it out.

Telamon goes to Pasiphae to say he didn’t kill Ariadne and he gets himself a non-fatal stabbing and abandoned with just one water bottle. She won’t kill him outright because he is technically royalty and they fear the gods might get miffed when you kill blue bloods (the gods are apparently totally ok with the regular attempts to slice and dice Ariadne). Medea also decides to puncture his water bottle just for extra funsies. Telamon is not a happy bunny.

Haven, Season 5, Episode 13: Chosen

Charlotte is Audrey/Mara’s mother! Dwight is shocked that Charlotte has been lying and doesn’t understand since Charlotte is way too young (ignoring the fact that Mara has been around for centuries); she reveals she’s about 1100 years old while Mara is 600. She says the proof of this is the ring which everyone in the family (including Mara) has (because “immortals” is definitely an explanation that is more reasonable than “mass produced crap made in China”). She adds that she’s from a different world, far away, that is separated from theirs – and it should stay that way. Dwight is super huffy and refuses to speak to Charlotte, summoning a guard instead.

Charlotte’s plan is to take Mara away and try to undo the damage she has done. She explains that the “void” between their world and our world is where Mara and William got the Aethur. Charlotte intervened and set up the Barn to teach Mara the error of her ways – Audrey isn’t best impressed by Charlotte stealing personalities so she can teach her daughter a life lesson. Charlotte also hopes it made things better because she hasn’t figured out yet how to fix Mara’s damage. Nathan finds this all very boring since it’s not about Audrey he doesn’t really care – but Charlotte thinks that 2 Maras can’t exist in the same place so, in theory, if Mara goes home Audrey will be fine. But she needs Mara – so Nathan plans to bring her to him

That damage segues us to Duke at the Gull who is getting tetchy and throwing out Troubles at an annoying customer who shatters several things including another person. Which is really messy.

Reports of this reach the police who arm up and are ready to head to the Gull, except a random Trouble seals them in the armoury, much to the confusion of Rebecca and Dwight.

Nathan and Audrey plan to head over but Nathan goes to get coffee (Audrey is having a cold spell) and Mara gets in the car with a gun. Unsurprisingly, she refuses to see her mother instead she sends a message – either Charlotte opens a Thinny so she can leave (alone) otherwise Duke will explode and cover Haven in a whole new batch of super-terrible Troubles. She then hits Audrey (just so we’re clear she’s super, and rather gloriously shamelessly evil) and leaves.

In the hospital Gloria is causing a scene, possibly to cause a distraction to allow Duke to visit Charlotte and possibly just because she’s ornery. Duke explains his problem and when he takes off his shirt we see he is covered in black handprints.

Audrey returns to speak to Charlotte to try and figure out her identity crisis and deliver Mara’s message. Duke overhears their conversation including the fact he’s a Trouble bomb – Duke decides to leave. Because that’s completely sensible; regardless, Charlotte won’t let Mara through alone and she can’t stop Duke exploding.

Next Trouble – a group of school kids are trapped on a boat completely encased in animate rigging, ropes and net – and seemingly crushing the boat. Everyone gathers there to try and help remove all the ropes and keep the boat afloat and Dwight guesses it’s the same locking Trouble as the police station. Audrey and Charlotte also arrive and they have a plan to stop Mara – Mara’s personality has been pasted over so many times that Charlotte thinks that if they’re recombined the goodness in Audrey, that has come from Mara(ish) will reform Mara and she will choose to stop.

Constantine, Season 1, Episode 7: Blessed are the Damned

We have a church revival (I’m not even sure what that is so I may end up calling it “Jesus camp”) and a man, Zach with a box containing rattle snakes. His sister, Sarah, thinks he might want to use some of the other poisonous snakes they have that have had their venom milked but Zach wants to follow in his daddy’s footsteps (and possibly into his daddy’s grave) use actual deadly snakes in his sermon.

Zach’s worried about declining church numbers and is sure a bit of venomous reptile handling is just what the preacher ordered. I think handling venomous reptiles could, possibly, be a reason for the declining numbers.

At the actual sermon another reason may be Zach’s terrible performance as a preacher. After watching that, I can now understand why seeing the pastor bitten by a rattlesnake may be the highlight of the whole day. He gets bitten and collapses – and everyone seems quite shocked and upset by this. But while Sarah performs CPR he suddenly sits up – and there’s a glowing shard in his hand, he pockets it before praising Jesus. Everyone gets excited and a man with one leg hurries forward and pastor Zach touches him and regrows his leg. I have to say that’s more convincing than your average faith healer.

Over to Zed, who’s in this episode, at her art class which she disrupts by screaming when she has a vision of snakes crawling around her ankles, alas vision calling means she can’t flirt with the sexy life model though she does set up a date.

She rushes to John to tell him all about it and he’s a bit of a bastard because he’s John and it’s what he does. But he hears her and tells her about the resurrecting snake bit preacher. John packs his bag of tricks, including a scythe from the Grimm Reaper and a whole lot of condoms. And this time Chas can’t come – what does John have to ration his sidekicks?

They watch Zach heal and Zed is convinced he’s a conman preying on the now very expanded flock. Zed also has some hope when it comes to faith – John, not so much. They also see Zach heal some very obvious burn scars which proves genuine power. John is more concerned when Zachary begins babbling in Enochian, the language of the angels. He also thinks that this kind of healing will have a downside.

Time for that downside, once-one-legged man Nate is being checked out by his stunned doctor before complaining of it being hot, his eyes flaring red, the lights flickering and him brutally murdering his doctor. He wanders off and walks down the road and kills a cop – the murder caught on the dashcam.

John and Zed join the big queue to see Pastor Zach, when she touches him she has a vision (that seems to involve wings) that leaves her stunned. John tries to question Pastor Zach about his Enochian but it’s pretty clear he doesn’t know. Afterwards Zed tells John that Zach is unwavering in his faith, has good intentions and believe he felt an angel when he came near death. Zed keeps raising Zach’s good intentions which John kind of concedes but also puts in the irrelevant column – Zed has a scry-map vision which means evil and healing magic must come from somewhere.

Vampire Diaries, Season 6, episode 9: I Alone

Alaric and Jo are being all romantic – this may be less of a romantic gesture and more (as we switch to Damon and Stefan) because of Damon’s compulsion on Alaric to get the magic-steampunk-key no matter what which is why Alaric is asking lots of questions about it (I suppose I should call it the “Ascendant” because that’s its name – but it’s brass and it has cogs! It’s like they went to a Steampunk convention and asked for the shiniest thing! Also with a name that pretentious it needs to do more than open a door). Stefan points out that Alaric may kill Damon for this but Damon takes the chance to mock Stefan about Caroline some more, which, as I pointed out last episode, may be the highlight of the whole season. (Damned with faint praise).

In other news, Elena has deigned to notice her little brother so he is now totally over his angst over Bonnie (it may distract Elena from, well, Elena and force her to care about someone). Learning that Jeremy has moved on and stopped grieving, Elena decides to tell him that Bonnie’s imprisoned still. Jeremy is neither willing to have a lot of hope nor put a lot of trust in Damon. Elena is sad by this, Elena has clearly (again) forgotten that Damon murdered Jeremy.

Over to Liv who has been hiding out with Tyler for an unspecified period of time and is now sick of it so is going back to a normal life or risking her life or something. Anyway, Damon wants her to do some witchy magic on the Ascendant to get Bonnie back – Tyler suggests using Luke (because absolutely no-one gives a damn if he gets killed. No, really, even Liv doesn’t take exception to “hey, let’s just sacrifice your twin brother” plan) but since that would involve giving Luke some on-screen time other than to exposition Liv’s relationship AND suggest he actually has power there’s no way that’s happening.

Sarah is still around (I actually had to do some googling to figure out who she is) and she wants Matt to help her find Stefan (the whole Tripp the vampire-hunter storyline appears to be officially buried now). Anyway Sarah wants to talk to Stefan which involves talking to Enzo (“Matt and Stefan, you can do so much better.” So very very true). Stefan arrives so he and Enzo can do their usual dick measuring. Enzo and Matt retreat to snark at each other while Sarah tells her life story to Stefan. And Stefan uses a milk shake blender so he can compel her without Enzo overhearing because apparently everything Sarah has said is a lie.

In the car, Stefan reveals that he actually looked after the real Stefan Salvatore, ensuring she was adopted by a great family et al and he’s even kept an eye on her and knows her entire life story because she’s family and Stefan cares about that in a long-distance stalky kind of way. Fake Sarah tries to run which is really pointless with a vampire. She reveals her real name is Monique who knew Sarah and decided to try and hijack Sarah’s history because her life is terribad. Stefan points out that she has no idea how terribad Sarah’s life would have been because Monique hasn’t met Damon yet. And to make sure terribad Damon never goes to the real Sarah he compels Monique to completely forget Sarah and get out of town.

Amusingly Enzo stays behind to exposition to Matt and lamp-shade what is so wrong with this show – that Stefan is just as evil as him but Stefan gets to be a hero while he is a villain. Wow, who’d have thought Vampire Diaries was so self-aware? Enzo points out at least he’s honest about killing people.

The 100, Season Two, Episode Six: Fog of War

Two days have passed since Finn slaughtered the grounders.  At camp Jaha, armed men guard the perimeter, as Clark explains to Bellamy how they can get into Mount Weather to rescue their people.  Bellamy declares that if Abby doesn't sanction the meeting soon, he will go by himself, Clark of course agrees to accompany him.  The conversation switches to Finn, who Clarke has not spoken to since they returned because she doesn't know what to say. Bellamy justifies Finn's actions by saying that they are at war and have all done things.  Jeremy makes himself scarce when Finn shows up asking about the plan.  Clarke is vague and they are then joined by Murphy. who announces that both he and Finn have been pardoned, causing Finn to say that they did what they had to do.  When Clarke doesn't answer, Finn leaves. causing Murphy to snark about their being trouble in paradise.  Clarke makes it clear that though Murphy and Finn have been officially pardoned, she most certainly has not pardoned them.  Ironically, for the first time on this show, Murphy is actually innocent, as he did try to get Finn to leave several times.

Raven shows up and demands that Murphy leave.  Raven explains that they haven't heard from any of the Arc stations because Mt. Weather is jamming them.  Later, at Raven's work station. Raven says that Mt. Weather crashed the Exodus ship and that if she can get to the tower that broadcasts it, she can make it explode.  Abby charges in, telling the two young women that they are not going anywhere. Abby is adamant that The 100 are not soldiers and acting like they are, puts lives at risk.  Where was her concern when she was sending her daughter to the ground to die?  Clarke tells Abby that Raven discovered that Mt. Weather is jamming their communications and that there could be more people on the ground.  Clarke points out that they are already fighting a two front war and demands to go after her friends.  Abby agrees but says that she is joining them. Of course, Major Bryne simply must object, pointing out that Cain could be dead and that the Grounders could be massing to attack.

At Mt. Weather Dr. Tsing reports in a meeting that Maya may be metabolizing radiation on her own now.  It seems that Jasper's blood was 8x more effective than anyone they have ever tested.  Cage is excited that this could mean a permanent cure and Dr.Tsing asks for permission to move forward with the rest of the 47. To his credit, Dante says no though Cage is quick to give his agreement with Tsing, saying that though their plan was to assimilate the 47 into the gene pool, this changes everything.  Dante points out that this isn't proven but Tsing says that with the blood of the 47. they will need fewer treatments, will feel better and live longer.  Dante points out that Jasper volunteered and he refuses to put the 47 in cages like animals.  Cage points out that the benefit is that they might be able to go outside again but Dante says that if he gives the order to harvest the 47, he won't deserve to see the outside again.  Dante leaves the meeting to find volunteers.  Cage says that Dante will come around but if the 47 don't volunteer they will do it anyway.

The group from camp Jaha is making its way through the woods.  Abby brings up Finn and Clarke thanks her for voting to clear Finn.  Abby says that Finn thought he was rescuing his friends. How exactly can Abby pardon Finn when neither she nor people she cared about died in the slaughter?

Cain is struggling to try to remove his chains and Jaha tells him to stop because if the Grounders wanted him dead, they would have killed him already.  Cain is concerned because they have gone two days without food and water.  Jaha points out that there were many times on the Arc they went two days without food or water.  Jaha is convinced that this is not the end because his son told him.  Right on cue, one of the others enters their cell.  They start beating on Jaha and Cain begs them to stop because they came in peace.  Gustus demands to know how Cain can speak of peace after sending an assassin into one of the villages.  Gustus unsheathes a knife saying that one of them will die today at the other's hand, adding that he will listen to terms of surrender from the man who lives.  Gustus tosses the knife on the ground and exists the cell. Oh please let it be Jaha who goes.  As much as I don't like Cain, Jaha gets on my last nerve - POC or not.