A Clash of Kings by George R. R. Martin

First off, does anyone besides uclamaverickhave the A Song of Ice and Fire artbook?  I have one rec for it, but it’s costly enough to really need more than one rec.  Anyone know where I can find some good scans of it?

( more alonbg the lines of babbles than a proper review )

A Clash of Kings by George R. R. Martin

First off, does anyone besides uclamaverickhave the A Song of Ice and Fire artbook?  I have one rec for it, but it’s costly enough to really need more than one rec.  Anyone know where I can find some good scans of it?

( more alonbg the lines of babbles than a proper review )

may comics, part 1

This time I played it safe and started with the ones I knew would drive me batty.  In order read.  Incidentally, now that I’m back in the comics reading mood, it kinda sucks that I get them once a month because New Warriors #1 is already out and it’s apparently actually pretty good and I won’t have it for a month…

And when oh when will the days of Gail Simone’s Wonder Woman come?  I mean sure, Diana and the amazons will be screwed beyond redemption by then, but at least it’ll become readable again.

( babbles )

may comics, part 1

This time I played it safe and started with the ones I knew would drive me batty.  In order read.  Incidentally, now that I’m back in the comics reading mood, it kinda sucks that I get them once a month because New Warriors #1 is already out and it’s apparently actually pretty good and I won’t have it for a month…

And when oh when will the days of Gail Simone’s Wonder Woman come?  I mean sure, Diana and the amazons will be screwed beyond redemption by then, but at least it’ll become readable again.

( babbles )

jdorama: Hero + 9 End 2 Out

Ok, before I get into Hero: YAY!  Soo Ae is going to be in a new drama...her first since Emperor of the Sea.  How Wiki describes the series, called 9 End 2 Outs:

The drama is about love of singles in their 30s. Hong Nan Hee (Soo Ae) is an ordinary worker at a publishing firm, she's a girl who always falls out of love since she was young until one day when she meets an old classmate, Ban Hyung Tae (Lee Jung Jin), who is a team leader of an advertising company again. Hyung Tae may seem to be a good catch in the eyes of many women but he's only a cowardly boy to Nan Hee whom he has grown up with. '9 End 2 Outs' is using the baseball theme to compare to the fates and lives of the people in love. 

I find it a bit odd, though, that it's about singles in their 30s and the lead actress is only a few months older than me(I'm 26, for those who don't know)  

Now that she's back from making movies, my dreams of having her in another period drama with Song Il Gook(where she returns his love) or a period drama with Lee Seo Jin need to be answered.

Anyway, I just finished my first Kimura Takuya(aka: "That guy most of the dorama fans on my flist are nuts about") drama, Hero.  Hero is about Kuryu Kohei, a very laid back and unconventional prosecutor with a serious need for justice and a nose for sniffing out the truth who transfers to a new branch where he gets paired with Amamiya Maiko, an extremely conventional and by the books clerk who wants to take the exam to be a prosecutor.  The rest of the cast is a delightful group who appear to be perfectly normal on the surfce but are really loveable oddballs who love getting into each others' business and are shameless eavesdroppers underneath.

Kuryu is also hopelessly addicted to the shopping network, and if a "call now for this special offer" commercial airs, he's already dialing...especially if it's for exercise equipment.  He has a tendency to take what seems to be an open and shut case and investigate it until he finds out what's really going on, resulting in much flustered  chasing after him by Amamiya and causing his boss to have anxiety attacks, while the rest of the office looks on and comments in fascination.

It was a really fun series that I liked a lot, but for someone who's never seen a KimiTaku series before, it had 2 major flaws:  the firtst is that it assumes you already like him, and the second is that you've seen his other series with Matsu Takako and thus will automatically want them to get together.  As I didn't have either of those, I felt that I was missing out on something thoughtout.  That said, it was really fun and I liked it a lot.

Also, Abe Hiroshi cleans up NICE.  He's always good looking, but in every other role I've seen him in except Musashi(where he played Gion Toji and had a wig, scruff, kimono and sword) he's played an oddball, whether only slightly(Dragon Zakura and Egao no Hosoku-his character in both was mostly normal and only a bit "different," but it was there in both) or full out odd(Trick, Kekkon Dekinai Otoko) so this was my first time seeing him all spiffed and cleaned up and normal.  And I loved how the camera went way up then way down for him everytime it was scrolling down a lineup, and how every time they were all peering over something, you just saw his head kinda floating above the others.

jdorama: Hero + 9 End 2 Out

Ok, before I get into Hero: YAY!  Soo Ae is going to be in a new drama...her first since Emperor of the Sea.  How Wiki describes the series, called 9 End 2 Outs:

The drama is about love of singles in their 30s. Hong Nan Hee (Soo Ae) is an ordinary worker at a publishing firm, she's a girl who always falls out of love since she was young until one day when she meets an old classmate, Ban Hyung Tae (Lee Jung Jin), who is a team leader of an advertising company again. Hyung Tae may seem to be a good catch in the eyes of many women but he's only a cowardly boy to Nan Hee whom he has grown up with. '9 End 2 Outs' is using the baseball theme to compare to the fates and lives of the people in love. 

I find it a bit odd, though, that it's about singles in their 30s and the lead actress is only a few months older than me(I'm 26, for those who don't know)  

Now that she's back from making movies, my dreams of having her in another period drama with Song Il Gook(where she returns his love) or a period drama with Lee Seo Jin need to be answered.

Anyway, I just finished my first Kimura Takuya(aka: "That guy most of the dorama fans on my flist are nuts about") drama, Hero.  Hero is about Kuryu Kohei, a very laid back and unconventional prosecutor with a serious need for justice and a nose for sniffing out the truth who transfers to a new branch where he gets paired with Amamiya Maiko, an extremely conventional and by the books clerk who wants to take the exam to be a prosecutor.  The rest of the cast is a delightful group who appear to be perfectly normal on the surfce but are really loveable oddballs who love getting into each others' business and are shameless eavesdroppers underneath.

Kuryu is also hopelessly addicted to the shopping network, and if a "call now for this special offer" commercial airs, he's already dialing...especially if it's for exercise equipment.  He has a tendency to take what seems to be an open and shut case and investigate it until he finds out what's really going on, resulting in much flustered  chasing after him by Amamiya and causing his boss to have anxiety attacks, while the rest of the office looks on and comments in fascination.

It was a really fun series that I liked a lot, but for someone who's never seen a KimiTaku series before, it had 2 major flaws:  the firtst is that it assumes you already like him, and the second is that you've seen his other series with Matsu Takako and thus will automatically want them to get together.  As I didn't have either of those, I felt that I was missing out on something thoughtout.  That said, it was really fun and I liked it a lot.

Also, Abe Hiroshi cleans up NICE.  He's always good looking, but in every other role I've seen him in except Musashi(where he played Gion Toji and had a wig, scruff, kimono and sword) he's played an oddball, whether only slightly(Dragon Zakura and Egao no Hosoku-his character in both was mostly normal and only a bit "different," but it was there in both) or full out odd(Trick, Kekkon Dekinai Otoko) so this was my first time seeing him all spiffed and cleaned up and normal.  And I loved how the camera went way up then way down for him everytime it was scrolling down a lineup, and how every time they were all peering over something, you just saw his head kinda floating above the others.

*sigh* some heroines...

I've started Resenting the Hero by Moira J Moore, a fantasy-romance-comedy set in a world where people called Sources are able to detect and ward off natural dsasters and perform other magic feats that haven't been elaborated on yet(only about 60 pages in)  Unfortunately, they tend tob have so much power that uses more than a little tends to make them lose control and kill them.  Fortunately, there's another set of people called Shields who are able to help them control and direct the power output so they don't die and can keep the realm safe.  Any Shield and Source can work together, but the best match is a bonded pair, and once you're bonded, you're bonded for life.

Our protagonist, who we'll call Lee(her nickname...I'll post the full one when I do a proper post) is a young Shield who is very practical and down to earth and hopes to be bonded to a Source who prefers to live a quiet life...do the job, stay out of the limelight, etc.  Instead she gets Taro, and aristocrat with a rep for being a playboy who's the last type of person Lee wanted to get stuck with.

Here's the thing, despite his reputation, Taro has gone out of his way to be kind, polite and conscietious of Lee.  He never allows himself to be distracted from either her protection or his mission, and every time someone has tried to get him in bed, he's politely rejected them because of either work or a promise to Lee.  He has never leered at her or hit on her and has made every effort for them to have a friendly working relationship.  Lee, however, basically treats him like a worthless lech and refuses to have anything resembling faith in him and rejects every attempt he makes at their having a good working relationship.  Now, I get that she was disappointed because she's young and idealistic and he isn't what she wanted, but he's never been anything but nice, polite and professional to her and his every action disproves his reputation.  The book is first person so it's not like we're privy to anything about Taro that Lee isn't, but it's obvious that his reputation is, at the least, exagerated, and her every reaction to him is a negative assumption.

Still, the book is quite fun so far and I like both Taro and Lee, even if I keep wanting to strangle her.

*sigh* some heroines...

I've started Resenting the Hero by Moira J Moore, a fantasy-romance-comedy set in a world where people called Sources are able to detect and ward off natural dsasters and perform other magic feats that haven't been elaborated on yet(only about 60 pages in)  Unfortunately, they tend tob have so much power that uses more than a little tends to make them lose control and kill them.  Fortunately, there's another set of people called Shields who are able to help them control and direct the power output so they don't die and can keep the realm safe.  Any Shield and Source can work together, but the best match is a bonded pair, and once you're bonded, you're bonded for life.

Our protagonist, who we'll call Lee(her nickname...I'll post the full one when I do a proper post) is a young Shield who is very practical and down to earth and hopes to be bonded to a Source who prefers to live a quiet life...do the job, stay out of the limelight, etc.  Instead she gets Taro, and aristocrat with a rep for being a playboy who's the last type of person Lee wanted to get stuck with.

Here's the thing, despite his reputation, Taro has gone out of his way to be kind, polite and conscietious of Lee.  He never allows himself to be distracted from either her protection or his mission, and every time someone has tried to get him in bed, he's politely rejected them because of either work or a promise to Lee.  He has never leered at her or hit on her and has made every effort for them to have a friendly working relationship.  Lee, however, basically treats him like a worthless lech and refuses to have anything resembling faith in him and rejects every attempt he makes at their having a good working relationship.  Now, I get that she was disappointed because she's young and idealistic and he isn't what she wanted, but he's never been anything but nice, polite and professional to her and his every action disproves his reputation.  The book is first person so it's not like we're privy to anything about Taro that Lee isn't, but it's obvious that his reputation is, at the least, exagerated, and her every reaction to him is a negative assumption.

Still, the book is quite fun so far and I like both Taro and Lee, even if I keep wanting to strangle her.