Mortal Instruments and talky meme
So apparently there is going to be a Shadowhunters tv show. I know this because of tumblr. And judging by the website it is aimed straight at 14 year olds. Which is fine! 14 year olds should definitely have crappy supernatural tv shows to watch and swoon over the main characters!
(Actually upon second glance, it's like a website created about 15 years ago, which is slightly weird, but ok.)
The problem however is that constant exposure to the actors being cute eroded my resistance to Cassie Clare. (also if they are aged 16-19 I'm going to be very surprised)
And then it turned out that the library has the first 4 books in Mortal Instruments + the Bane Chronicles in ebook rental. To sum up: I have read half of the Bane Chronicles, read/skimmed book 1, skimmed most of book 2, read most of book 3 and currently stalled half way through book 4.
Things I like
Maia. I ship Maia/Isabelle at the moment. Doesn't look like she's in the tv show though which is disappointing.
Jace's flunctuating identity, which cracks me up. I'm fully expecting new reveals about his heritage in the other 2 anna half books. I can't begin to think HOW it can get more complicated, but I have faith!
Luke. Best of all step-fathers, my god.
Tattoos. Though honestly that's probably partly because of a Swedish-Norwegian book series that uses runes in much the same way. I don't think it's ever been translated -- if it had I would be pushing it on people, going "here! here! get disturbing insights into the shaping of my id! --why are you running away? Come back! THERE ARE WILFUL LADIES AND STOIC LOYAL DUDES! WITH MAGIC!"
Alec and Isabelle's relationship. Best of siblings.
Magnus Bane. He's great. As far as Deus ex Machinas in sparkles go, he's top shelf.
Book 3. Stuff happens all over the place! Fantasyland in not!Switzerland seems more real to me as a setting than New York does. Which. Uh. Is possibly unfortunate...
Desperately cool. I don't know how much of that is deliberate -- I'm assuming it is because if not it's one hell of a coincidence -- but every single character in these books basically embody some characteristic of stereotypical fandom favorite. And that's ignoring the entire hipster cool of Fandemonium, Simon's garageband, Luke's bookshop and the demoncycles. (Demoncycles = Anne Bishop OR Hawkeye? Who published first? Or just a frankly bizarre form of zeitgeist?) They are all children of EVIL PEOPLES OMG. (Runaways did it better) They have tattoos! and fancy weaponry! All super attractive! (Clary is obvs. unaware of this fact) Angels! Demons! More supernaturals than you've ever seen before in one place!
Sebastian. Way better villain than Valentine.
Things I don't like
Magnus/Alec. I think she's aiming for a relationship that takes place in the margins, but I'm left mostly bewildered as to wtf they're doing even after having read the Bane Chronicles -- no, actually, that confused me even more. I have no idea if I've caught up to the events in that book yet. I think I need a timeline to work this out, but I'm not sure I care enough to go looking. I totally ship them though because I am absolutely that easy.
Alec is gay? Most abrupt revelation this side of Jean Gray outing tiny!Bobby Drake. Was amused by his exasperated "why the fuck does everybody know my business? Why do you even care? Fuck off" later on though. I paraphrase. Alec would never curse that much.
Max's death. Which seemed very "well, somebody these people care about have to die -- oh I know! Little brother! Awesome! High five to me!"
One girl. Do none of these girls have friends? Do they all consider other girls deeply uninteresting? Like, why does THAT have to be the starting point for all of them?
Clary and Jace. After three and a half books I STILL have zero interest in their relationship drama, which is an actual problem considering they have at least 85% of the narrative time. Also while Jace's flunctuating identity does amuse me, I do feel that's a bit of a incest cop-out. Like, commit to your incest storyline, Clare! I'm currently stalled in book 4 because Jace is all "I love you! but I can't be with you! because I have nightmares! which I won't tell you about! Instead I shall skulk around in the shadows! and make out with you madly! because sexual tension! and then run away again! because nightmares! but I won't officially break up with you because love! and stuff!" It is SO ANNOYING! It's not exciting misunderstandings and pinings, it's just idiotic.
I do like Clary's powers but I find her amazingly dull aside from that (possibly why I liked Book 3 which gave her the opportunity to mess around with that aspect more).
(btw I expect the tv show to have more psuedo-incest Alec/Jace moments as Alec has book canon crush on him and I will be v. disappointed if that's not played up more in the tv show.)
Simon. Simon has at least 10% of the remaining narrative, and I don't give a fuck about him either. So far I've mostly liked him when he's been stuck in a jail cell, which isn't that promising. He is, admittedly, more interesting in Book 4 than ever before, but that doesn't say much.
Revelations. There are frequent revelations that are set up like "tiny factoid that make the rest make perfect sense! see what I did there?" but in fact come out of left field and reveal nothing in regards to past interactions. Cassie Clare is not Diane Wynne Jones, let me tell you. Even Rees Brennan is better at this.
Book 1. Iiit is not good. Getting past the first couple of chapters took some genuine effort.
Honestly, my main problem with this series is that I don't care about Clary and Jace. I don't usually have a main character problem -- Katniss is my fave, Percy Jackson is a delight, Alex Rider is lovely, Sabriel is a wonder, and Blue is awesome -- but I really, really do in this case. Maybe I'll get lucky and they'll break up and/or fade into the background. *hopeful*
I sort of fear that I'm going to end up writing 100k fics for this particular fandom and everyone I know will laugh in my face. Forever. AND THEY WILL BE RIGHT TO.
(It'll probably be Sebastian/Isabelle or something for maximum irony.)
talky meme snagged from musesfool:
Pick a date in December and give me something to talk about. TV, books, movies, music, poetry, fandom, writing, food, travel, fictional characters (&/or pairings) and all of their feelings, stuff about my life, whatever.
- You don't have to be following me or ever have commented to request a topic.
- If you're doing the meme, I'll leave topics for you, too! Feel free to link me at any time if you want one.
- Feel free to suggest multiple topics/dates.
- Feel free to just leave a topic and no date. I'll fill it in.
Feel free to suggest a topic whenever you see this in December. And I'll try to do all of them this time, since I have very little else to do through most of December...
5 December
6 December
7 December
8 December: for littlerhymes: Dick Francis thoughts pls. :)
9 December
10 December
11 December
12 December: for chrryblssmninja: top 5 places
13 December
14 December
15 December: for littlerhymes: top 5 formative movies
16 December
17 December
18 December
19 December
20 December
21 December: for musesfool: The differences between DC & Marvel! Or what you're enjoying about current Batfamily books! Or ROBINS. (Or all of the above!)
22 December
23 December
24 December
25 December
26 December
27 December: for halotolerant: Three canons that you *wish* were fandoms with lots of fic but aren't *g*
28 December
29 December
30 December
31 December
(Actually upon second glance, it's like a website created about 15 years ago, which is slightly weird, but ok.)
The problem however is that constant exposure to the actors being cute eroded my resistance to Cassie Clare. (also if they are aged 16-19 I'm going to be very surprised)
And then it turned out that the library has the first 4 books in Mortal Instruments + the Bane Chronicles in ebook rental. To sum up: I have read half of the Bane Chronicles, read/skimmed book 1, skimmed most of book 2, read most of book 3 and currently stalled half way through book 4.
Things I like
Maia. I ship Maia/Isabelle at the moment. Doesn't look like she's in the tv show though which is disappointing.
Jace's flunctuating identity, which cracks me up. I'm fully expecting new reveals about his heritage in the other 2 anna half books. I can't begin to think HOW it can get more complicated, but I have faith!
Luke. Best of all step-fathers, my god.
Tattoos. Though honestly that's probably partly because of a Swedish-Norwegian book series that uses runes in much the same way. I don't think it's ever been translated -- if it had I would be pushing it on people, going "here! here! get disturbing insights into the shaping of my id! --why are you running away? Come back! THERE ARE WILFUL LADIES AND STOIC LOYAL DUDES! WITH MAGIC!"
Alec and Isabelle's relationship. Best of siblings.
Magnus Bane. He's great. As far as Deus ex Machinas in sparkles go, he's top shelf.
Book 3. Stuff happens all over the place! Fantasyland in not!Switzerland seems more real to me as a setting than New York does. Which. Uh. Is possibly unfortunate...
Desperately cool. I don't know how much of that is deliberate -- I'm assuming it is because if not it's one hell of a coincidence -- but every single character in these books basically embody some characteristic of stereotypical fandom favorite. And that's ignoring the entire hipster cool of Fandemonium, Simon's garageband, Luke's bookshop and the demoncycles. (Demoncycles = Anne Bishop OR Hawkeye? Who published first? Or just a frankly bizarre form of zeitgeist?) They are all children of EVIL PEOPLES OMG. (Runaways did it better) They have tattoos! and fancy weaponry! All super attractive! (Clary is obvs. unaware of this fact) Angels! Demons! More supernaturals than you've ever seen before in one place!
Sebastian. Way better villain than Valentine.
Things I don't like
Magnus/Alec. I think she's aiming for a relationship that takes place in the margins, but I'm left mostly bewildered as to wtf they're doing even after having read the Bane Chronicles -- no, actually, that confused me even more. I have no idea if I've caught up to the events in that book yet. I think I need a timeline to work this out, but I'm not sure I care enough to go looking. I totally ship them though because I am absolutely that easy.
Alec is gay? Most abrupt revelation this side of Jean Gray outing tiny!Bobby Drake. Was amused by his exasperated "why the fuck does everybody know my business? Why do you even care? Fuck off" later on though. I paraphrase. Alec would never curse that much.
Max's death. Which seemed very "well, somebody these people care about have to die -- oh I know! Little brother! Awesome! High five to me!"
One girl. Do none of these girls have friends? Do they all consider other girls deeply uninteresting? Like, why does THAT have to be the starting point for all of them?
Clary and Jace. After three and a half books I STILL have zero interest in their relationship drama, which is an actual problem considering they have at least 85% of the narrative time. Also while Jace's flunctuating identity does amuse me, I do feel that's a bit of a incest cop-out. Like, commit to your incest storyline, Clare! I'm currently stalled in book 4 because Jace is all "I love you! but I can't be with you! because I have nightmares! which I won't tell you about! Instead I shall skulk around in the shadows! and make out with you madly! because sexual tension! and then run away again! because nightmares! but I won't officially break up with you because love! and stuff!" It is SO ANNOYING! It's not exciting misunderstandings and pinings, it's just idiotic.
I do like Clary's powers but I find her amazingly dull aside from that (possibly why I liked Book 3 which gave her the opportunity to mess around with that aspect more).
(btw I expect the tv show to have more psuedo-incest Alec/Jace moments as Alec has book canon crush on him and I will be v. disappointed if that's not played up more in the tv show.)
Simon. Simon has at least 10% of the remaining narrative, and I don't give a fuck about him either. So far I've mostly liked him when he's been stuck in a jail cell, which isn't that promising. He is, admittedly, more interesting in Book 4 than ever before, but that doesn't say much.
Revelations. There are frequent revelations that are set up like "tiny factoid that make the rest make perfect sense! see what I did there?" but in fact come out of left field and reveal nothing in regards to past interactions. Cassie Clare is not Diane Wynne Jones, let me tell you. Even Rees Brennan is better at this.
Book 1. Iiit is not good. Getting past the first couple of chapters took some genuine effort.
Honestly, my main problem with this series is that I don't care about Clary and Jace. I don't usually have a main character problem -- Katniss is my fave, Percy Jackson is a delight, Alex Rider is lovely, Sabriel is a wonder, and Blue is awesome -- but I really, really do in this case. Maybe I'll get lucky and they'll break up and/or fade into the background. *hopeful*
I sort of fear that I'm going to end up writing 100k fics for this particular fandom and everyone I know will laugh in my face. Forever. AND THEY WILL BE RIGHT TO.
(It'll probably be Sebastian/Isabelle or something for maximum irony.)
talky meme snagged from musesfool:
Pick a date in December and give me something to talk about. TV, books, movies, music, poetry, fandom, writing, food, travel, fictional characters (&/or pairings) and all of their feelings, stuff about my life, whatever.
- You don't have to be following me or ever have commented to request a topic.
- If you're doing the meme, I'll leave topics for you, too! Feel free to link me at any time if you want one.
- Feel free to suggest multiple topics/dates.
- Feel free to just leave a topic and no date. I'll fill it in.
Feel free to suggest a topic whenever you see this in December. And I'll try to do all of them this time, since I have very little else to do through most of December...
5 December
6 December
7 December
8 December: for littlerhymes: Dick Francis thoughts pls. :)
9 December
10 December
11 December
12 December: for chrryblssmninja: top 5 places
13 December
14 December
15 December: for littlerhymes: top 5 formative movies
16 December
17 December
18 December
19 December
20 December
21 December: for musesfool: The differences between DC & Marvel! Or what you're enjoying about current Batfamily books! Or ROBINS. (Or all of the above!)
22 December
23 December
24 December
25 December
26 December
27 December: for halotolerant: Three canons that you *wish* were fandoms with lots of fic but aren't *g*
28 December
29 December
30 December
31 December