manga: Penguin Revolution Vol 4-6

Hmm…I thought Vol 6 was the last volume of this, but I guess there’s one more.

( spoilers )

But do they sparkle?

Some of you may recall that, a while back, I stumbled across Pati Nagle's The Betrayal in the used bookstore. It promised a True Love Mind Link and, more importantly, vampire elves.

I am now reading it, and am currently on page 85.  Unfortunately, it does not have the decency to be cracktastically bad.  Every man in the world apparently falls in love with Our Heroine, Eliani, on sight, but she wants none of them.  The vampire elves showed up just long enough to bemoan how the other elves don't understand them, the True Love Mind Link doesn't show up until page 75, and the writing is painfully flowery and over descriptive.

The amazing thing, though, is how the naming system alternates between words that seem to have been created by throwing darts at a dartboard that looks like the alphabet, and overly literal naming.

We have character names like Heleri, Luruthin, Dejharan, Dironen, Shalar, Turisan.  These are the more controlled names.  There's also a character named Firthan.  I am firaly certain his name came from a process like this:  "What do I name the fourth one in love with Eliani?  Fourth one...Firthan!"

The titles are nextkin, aeldar, theyn, eldermother.  And so forth.

Then there are place names.  There are Alphabet Dart Board names like Ghlanhras and Asurindel and  Alpinon.  But then there's Evennight, High Court of Eastfaeld, Highcourt (yes, "Highcourt" AND "High Court"),  Stonereach, Highstone,  Midrange and  South Wood.  There's also Nightsand, which I'm trying to figure out if it's "Nights and..." or "Night Sand."  Mind you, the overly literal naming wouldn't be bad, save that it isn't a consistent naming system.

Let us not forget that life enrgy is khi, and there's a famous war called the Bitter Wars.  Were there cheerful wars, too?

May I just say that I'm happy that I read enough fantasy to know that I can read tons of it without reading stuff like this unless I just can't resist?

And I should mention that 95% of what I mentioned is just in the 30 pages I babbled to lyssie about over IMs while I was reading!

Dragon Strike by E. E. Knight

Dragon Strike is the fourth book in E.E. Knight’s series about three dragon siblings who are separated as children. The first three books give each dragon’s viewpoint on the events that led to their parent’s and sister’s deaths and resulted in their separation, and then followed their lives from there. This book features the three learning about each other for the first time since childhood, and seeking each other out, even though they aren’t all on the same side of various factions of humans and dragons.

I like stories about family. I especially like stories about families who are separated and find each other years later, especially if they end up on opposing sides. Though I do tend to end up a bit bitter if this element is there and not explored. So, naturally, I’m rather fond of the concept of this series, and this book especially. It’s also an interesting take on dragons, often a dull and/or overused subject, but sometimes an interesting one. The reunion between Wistala, AuRon, and the Copper isn’t really something, I don’t think, that could be easily predicted, as none of the three are anything like they were as children.

I thought going in that this would be the last book in the series, but it looks like there will be at least one more, dealing with establishing what the dragons’ place in the world will be.

Foyle's War: The French Drop

So, Netflix, in its infinite wisdom, interpreted my carefully spacing out the third season of Foyle’s War so that it would last me a while as “please send me the first three discs at once.” Hmph.

Anyway, this episode focused on a man who supposedly committed suicide, but was possibly murdered, the investigation of which eventually leads to Foyle learning about England’s new division of government spies. One thing I like about the pilot episodes of each season of this series is how they set different tones for the seasons. In the first season, Foyle has to choose between arresting a killer because he’s a murderer, or letting him go because the victim was a German, and the killer in a position to help England with the war. In the second, he learns that people more powerful than him won’t always make the same choice, even if it’s wrong. Here, he has to choose between principles of another sort and what might be a greater good.

( mild b plot spoilers )