The Magic Mirror of the Mermaid Queen by Delia Sherman

In one of the WisCon panels I attended, the subject was brought up that part of the increasing popularity of urban fantasy may be caused by the fact that most of its target audience (meaning, for the purposes of the panel, Americans) has no real concept of the traditional idea of a wilderness (Trees. Shadows. Beasts. Unknown depths. Etc.) as an unknown threat, and that “the streets” are the modern wilderness. During the panel, Sherman’s Changeling* was brought up as an example. Changeling is about Neef, a human changeling who was stolen as a baby and raised in New York Between, the fae otherworld that co-exists with our world. New York Between is, in essence, the urban wilderness transformed into a traditional wilderness, while still being, well, urban.

In Changeling Neef met and had adventures with the changeling who took her place in the human world. They had adventures (quests, actually) and both decided that they were perfectly happy where they were, and absolutely did not want to change places. Ever. The Magic Mirror of the Mermaid Queen follows up on some remaining threads of Changeling, as well as the political ramifications of Neef’s adventures. More importantly, we see the other human changelings who live in New York Between, in one of the few fantasy schools that I actually find entertaining.

In the school setting, I was a bit put off initially when school dynamics initially fell into the typical “outsider newcomer bonds with other outsiders against evil mean pretty girls cheerleaders” but that’s pretty much demolished by the end, and a lot of the book is about Neef and her friends on a new quest.

This isn’t nearly as dear to me as Changeling was, but I had a lot of fun with it, especially the school rules.

*Trufax: All but one panel focusing on fiction** that I attended spent a portion of the time on YA. I had read every single book mentioned except for Emily Horner’s A Love Story Starring My Dead Best Friend. It hadn’t been released yet.

**And that was a manga panel.

The Night of the Solstice and Heart of Valor by L.J. Smith

These books fall under the “I read these when I was 12 and was in love and then couldn’t remember who the author was when I lost my copies” category. I’m pretty sure that they are the source of my lifelong love for Morgan le Fay, as well as why I always have a moment of confusion when Arthur-returned figures are male.

In The Night of the Solstice, Alys, Janie, Charles and Claudia Hodges-Bailey are loyal-but-not-really-close siblings ranging in age from about 8-15. When a fox belonging to their mysterious neighbor, Morgana Shee, asks though Claudia to rescue her mistress, they go on a quest into the Wildworld (faery) to rescue her. The book starts of looking like it may take the Narnia route with the youngest sibling encountering the otherworld and the rest not believing her, but the similarities are quickly dispelled, though, for the most part, the plot is somewhat standard for “kids find fairyland,” though the world is a bit darker than I remember others being. What’s noteworthy is that it’s the sisters who get the more active, traditionally heroic roles, and Charles who keeps getting distracted by Beautiful Others, and doesn’t always keep his mind on things. This may be highlighted by the end, where the siblings get their dearest wish granted. Alys gets a horse meant for heroes, Jane gets to be an apprentice sorceress, Claudia gets to talk to animals, and Charles gets a container of krypton, because that’s the closest thing there is to kryptonite. These are fairly stereotypical girl/boy wishes, but spun in a way that the stereotyped girlie wishes are the ones that lead to importance and heroism, and the boyish wish has no practical use. Also, when they meet Morgana, unlike most adults in similar situations, she doesn’t praise them for their bravery and ingenuity and risking their lives, but goes “Oh blippetty blip I have five minutes to save the universe and I have to make sure you kids don’t die in the crossfire? Gaaah!”

I think I read the sequel Heart of Valor first when I was younger. At the least, it’s the one that I remembered. This is where Smith gets into Arthurian legend, and I think it’s the first time (one of the few times) I saw a positive take on both Morgan and Guenevere at the same time. Smith’s version of Arthurian myth is closer to the pre-medieval myths than the better known medieval adaptations, and she delves further into more specific Celtic mythologies, as well as the siblings discovering more about their individual paths.

The books aren’t quite as awesome as I thought they were when I was younger (And I can’t help but roll my eyes at what I now know are Marks Of Specialness, like Alys instead of Alice, and Janie having purple eyes.) but they’re still pretty fun, and it’s easy to see why certain aspects of them stuck firmly in my head for well over a decade.

GIVE ME BACK THOSE TWELVE MINUTES OF MY LIFE

The other day, I stumbled across The Rebel, which is a Vietnamese movie from a couple years ago set in French-occupied Vietnam. Based on descriptions, it was about a Vietnamese guy working for the French who falls in love with the daughter of a rebel trying to oust the French, and the trailers showed pretty nifty martial arts from both leads, and the girl apparently rescuing herself. So I figured to give it a try, thinking that the worst that could happen to my delicate sensibilities was either his lying to her for half the movie, or a mild case of Stockholm's, and that awesome martial arts would make up for it.

OMG I should have been that lucky!

Within 7 minutes, the heroine is being tortured by the hero's partner while he watched (angstily and looking sad for her, so we knew he wasn't totally evil) and then he took over the torture. Then there was a scene showeing us how messed up the partner was or something, and then we went back to another scene of the partner torturing her while the hero watched. (Angstily. I feel his pain, don't you?)

Thoroughly traumatized, I switched to Ichi, which is a Japanese movie featuring Ayase Haruka as a blind wandering swordswoman. It helps with the trauma.

But seriously! The heroine gets tortured by her future love interest! Who also watches her get tortured! WTF? (And is this, like, normal for Vietnamese movies? Should I run away next time I stumble across one that sounds interesting?)