Which is mostly about books!
First of all, I think those of you who like genderswap and Veronica Mars (cough caramelsilvercough ;)) will enjoy this:
Veronica Mars Genderswap Cast by penny_lane_42
Simply fabulous! :D It’s Anton Yelchin, Jane Lynch, Gina Torres, Jonathan Groff and many others, all in one cast- how could you resist?
*wishes this were real*
***
There’s gonna be a new Sweet Valley series! Yep. Sweet Valley Confidential where Liz and Jess will be 26 years old. How strange, after all this time. Along with The Baby-Sitters’ Club and The Bobbsey Twins (expect another post on the latter soon!), these were the ‘chapter books’ of my childhood. Sweet Valley High is mostly a blur of lolwhat? : Evil twins? Werewolves? Psycho stalkers? LOL. I maintain, however, that Sweet Valley Twins is still heaps of awesome and taught me many lessons on how I could be one of the ‘nice kids’ and still have fun.
Back to that new series. I don’t care much about, say, Elizabeth and Todd (zomg, blasphemy!) but I will pull a :sadface: if Lila Fowler and Bruce Patman are not married and snarky and beautiful-dirty-rich, forever and ever. XD Come to think of it, Lila/Bruce was like the proto-Blair/Chuck ( I don’t even watch Gossip Girl and I know that this ship makes that show) .
***
And now I wanna talk about what I’ve been reading lately!
Some things about The Demon’s Lexicon: on the first read, it’s a very good book; on the second read, it’s a great book. On the first read, I liked it very much; on the reread, I loved it.
+I liked Nick a lot more! A whole, whole lot more. (I think I actually do grow to love him in Covenant- more on that later!) It was incredibly revealing to go through his tempestuous thoughts knowing that he’s showing signs of what he is, knowing now that it isn’t the angry teenage boy in him acting up, it’s the demon. Or…is it only the demon? Going by his behavior in the next book and in Nick’s First Word (so lovely! Read it if you haven’t yet!), I’m pretty sure his personality has human-bits and demon-bits rattling around and not always getting along.
+ Now I can catch Alan in his lies and it is so very fascinating. I love how SRB controls Nick’s narration so that his thoughts about his identity and his mother’s hunted charm (aka the lies that Alan has told him) rise up every time I, the reader, am aware of Alan working his gambits. Very clever; it’s a treat to reread and watch for clues. Oh, and I can also catch the all the instances of Alan trying desperately to coax some form or admission of love out of Nick, knowing all the while what Nick really is. Nick snarks all the time about Alan trying to Make Him Talk About His Feelings but I think both brothers must do that or, I don’t know, the world will explode.
…Nick really is hilarious. I missed that at first because I was wary about his whole dark hero thing (damn you, sparkly vampire book) But he is. I can’t wait to reread Covenant because his banter with Jamie gets even more golden there.
+ I’m still breathless at the final pages. I’m certain that my feelings about them will never change, no matter how many times I read this book. Oh, boys!
+ (spoilers for The Demon’s Covenant) The first time I read Lexicon, I was very much against Mae/Nick. I appreciated that they went into their mutual flirtation with their eyes open, and I thought it was very cool of Mae state that she wouldn’t stand for any of his games. But I wasn’t rooting for them to get together at all-I’d have been very disappointed if SRB had started building a romance then.
Then after everything they shared together in Covenant, after Mae read about his past and forged headlong into helping him become human, I thought it made so much sense that she fell in love with him. I’m still not rooting for them to be endgame or anything (she has his mark now and who knows how that will be sorted, plus I don’t know how Nick feels now); I’m just glad we were given time and Mae’s perspective to see her attraction turn into love.
(Now might be a good time to mention that I don’t really fiercely ship anything, aside from Alan/Sin. ;) )
I’m looking forward to seeing Mae kick ass all over again! I don’t want her to take over the Market, though. That one’s for Sin.
+ (spoilers for Sarah’s Demon’s Surrender cookie) What will happen to Jamie? Next to Alan (who is my favorite, after all :p), he’s the one I fear for the most! I adore Jamie with all his cheer and irony, and am upset at the idea of him turning dark--I hope to all hell that he was just doing some very, very good acting in that cookie. Most of the fanbase has come to that conclusion, but with all of Sarah’s twists, who knows how much of it is acting and how much of it is magic addiction? T_T Ah Jamie, nooo! There’s gotta be a magician’s alternative to going dark!
+ Sin is going to be fabulous. I KNOW IT.
Ahhhh. You guys, I think the last ‘new’ book series I got this emotionally attached to was Harry Potter. I am SO anxious/fearful/(feverishly)excited for The Demon’s Surrender!
***
A few days ago, I read Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl. Okay, so I just have to wonder: what makes certain YA books oh-so-hyped? I found this book pretty much the definition of ‘meh’, but my local bookstores are marketing the hell out of it and it was in a list - Amazon, I think- calling it one of the best books of 2009. Huh. I think it must be the black cover with the pretty font. No, really.
It’s set in a town called Gatlin, in the Southern part of the US*, and I actually thought the town’s atmosphere was the best thing about the book. It certainly wasn’t the characters. Aside from the two leads, and three secondary characters, everybody is a stereotype. I mean it. Everybody. There are big dumb jocks, and bitchy cheerleaders, and awful authority figures, and small-minded parents. And I rolled my eyes at the lot of them.
I really, really wanted to love the two leads, Ethan and Lena. I mean, Ethan is a teenage boy narrating a supernatural YA novel- that would have been so awesome if done right! It…wasn’t. The authors make him sound like a teenage girl, and he is narrating in first person! Yeah, not a good move. To their credit, he’s rather sweet and awkward and oh-so-smitten.I can’t hate him; I just can’t believe him.
Lena, the female lead, is no better. She’s the supernatural one in the story-she’s a one of a family of Casters (I don’t know why they didn’t just say witch) and her abilities make her an outsider at school. Her whole character is pretty much defined by that: being an outcast. To her credit, she is a fighter who stands up for herself. For most of the book (and it is long), she remains withdrawn and obsessed with some impending doom coming on her sixteenth birthday, while Ethan vows to save her from it.
And well, the authors’ attempt at building some kind of mythology falls horribly flat. It’s like they just enjoyed the names and spells and myths they’d created; and then they plastered them onto cookie-cutter characters, and moved them about like dolls. :/ It starts off strong, but I was impatient with the slow pacing and very disappointed with the shoddy finale.
*Though many Amazon reviewers say that it is not very Southern at all.
I do see why people would be entertained for a while. I just do not get all the rave reviews.
***
Behemoth, the sequel to Leviathan, is AWESOMEPANTS so far. I could not stop smiling and fidgeting while reading it on the bus-I think I made my seatmate very, very nervous.
Character development! Munchy, scrumptious character development! Oh Alek! And Deryn! Also, Deryn crushing on him, and Alek being in love with the, uh, SHIP. Mmmmhmmm just tell yourself that, boy. ;) I am glad Scott Westerfeld did not listen to those who were saying that Deryn should tone down the ass-kicking. Um, NO. She is a soldier and a fighter and she will continue to be snarky and quick-thinking and reckless. And I love her.
Alek is adorkable and confused and getting things done. I am having great fun seeing him evolve-I appreciate that I’m shown his day-to-day difficulty in keeping up his commoner disguise. He slips up a lot, but he keeps his head and carries on. I also love that his sense of loyalty to his men has gotten steely; that he’s come to know the value of allies; that he’s thinking of the big picture now: being a key to ending the war and possibly ascending the throne.
I think Westerfeld has outdone himself with his AU Clanker Istanbul! The way I feel about it is much like the way I felt about Ba Sing Se in Avatar: the Last Airbender: it comes so alive, has so much history, is rife which so much intrigue , that I want the characters to slow down for a moment and take it all in. I want them to skulk around every ally and coffee shop and market and palace, just so I can see the whole place for myself!
I’m barely halfway through, and I already like it better than Leviathan. In my typical fashion when reading books that are awesome, I am actually slowing down so I can savor it.
***
I’ve made an early New Year’s resolution: Self, less lurking around on TVTropes, Lolcats, GoFugYourself, and other black hole sites. Self, more book-reading por favor.
Veronica Mars Genderswap Cast by penny_lane_42
Simply fabulous! :D It’s Anton Yelchin, Jane Lynch, Gina Torres, Jonathan Groff and many others, all in one cast- how could you resist?
*wishes this were real*
***
There’s gonna be a new Sweet Valley series! Yep. Sweet Valley Confidential where Liz and Jess will be 26 years old. How strange, after all this time. Along with The Baby-Sitters’ Club and The Bobbsey Twins (expect another post on the latter soon!), these were the ‘chapter books’ of my childhood. Sweet Valley High is mostly a blur of lolwhat? : Evil twins? Werewolves? Psycho stalkers? LOL. I maintain, however, that Sweet Valley Twins is still heaps of awesome and taught me many lessons on how I could be one of the ‘nice kids’ and still have fun.
Back to that new series. I don’t care much about, say, Elizabeth and Todd (zomg, blasphemy!) but I will pull a :sadface: if Lila Fowler and Bruce Patman are not married and snarky and beautiful-dirty-rich, forever and ever. XD Come to think of it, Lila/Bruce was like the proto-Blair/Chuck ( I don’t even watch Gossip Girl and I know that this ship makes that show) .
***
And now I wanna talk about what I’ve been reading lately!
Some things about The Demon’s Lexicon: on the first read, it’s a very good book; on the second read, it’s a great book. On the first read, I liked it very much; on the reread, I loved it.
+I liked Nick a lot more! A whole, whole lot more. (I think I actually do grow to love him in Covenant- more on that later!) It was incredibly revealing to go through his tempestuous thoughts knowing that he’s showing signs of what he is, knowing now that it isn’t the angry teenage boy in him acting up, it’s the demon. Or…is it only the demon? Going by his behavior in the next book and in Nick’s First Word (so lovely! Read it if you haven’t yet!), I’m pretty sure his personality has human-bits and demon-bits rattling around and not always getting along.
+ Now I can catch Alan in his lies and it is so very fascinating. I love how SRB controls Nick’s narration so that his thoughts about his identity and his mother’s hunted charm (aka the lies that Alan has told him) rise up every time I, the reader, am aware of Alan working his gambits. Very clever; it’s a treat to reread and watch for clues. Oh, and I can also catch the all the instances of Alan trying desperately to coax some form or admission of love out of Nick, knowing all the while what Nick really is. Nick snarks all the time about Alan trying to Make Him Talk About His Feelings but I think both brothers must do that or, I don’t know, the world will explode.
…Nick really is hilarious. I missed that at first because I was wary about his whole dark hero thing (damn you, sparkly vampire book) But he is. I can’t wait to reread Covenant because his banter with Jamie gets even more golden there.
+ I’m still breathless at the final pages. I’m certain that my feelings about them will never change, no matter how many times I read this book. Oh, boys!
+ (spoilers for The Demon’s Covenant) The first time I read Lexicon, I was very much against Mae/Nick. I appreciated that they went into their mutual flirtation with their eyes open, and I thought it was very cool of Mae state that she wouldn’t stand for any of his games. But I wasn’t rooting for them to get together at all-I’d have been very disappointed if SRB had started building a romance then.
Then after everything they shared together in Covenant, after Mae read about his past and forged headlong into helping him become human, I thought it made so much sense that she fell in love with him. I’m still not rooting for them to be endgame or anything (she has his mark now and who knows how that will be sorted, plus I don’t know how Nick feels now); I’m just glad we were given time and Mae’s perspective to see her attraction turn into love.
(Now might be a good time to mention that I don’t really fiercely ship anything, aside from Alan/Sin. ;) )
I’m looking forward to seeing Mae kick ass all over again! I don’t want her to take over the Market, though. That one’s for Sin.
+ (spoilers for Sarah’s Demon’s Surrender cookie) What will happen to Jamie? Next to Alan (who is my favorite, after all :p), he’s the one I fear for the most! I adore Jamie with all his cheer and irony, and am upset at the idea of him turning dark--I hope to all hell that he was just doing some very, very good acting in that cookie. Most of the fanbase has come to that conclusion, but with all of Sarah’s twists, who knows how much of it is acting and how much of it is magic addiction? T_T Ah Jamie, nooo! There’s gotta be a magician’s alternative to going dark!
+ Sin is going to be fabulous. I KNOW IT.
Ahhhh. You guys, I think the last ‘new’ book series I got this emotionally attached to was Harry Potter. I am SO anxious/fearful/(feverishly)excited for The Demon’s Surrender!
***
A few days ago, I read Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl. Okay, so I just have to wonder: what makes certain YA books oh-so-hyped? I found this book pretty much the definition of ‘meh’, but my local bookstores are marketing the hell out of it and it was in a list - Amazon, I think- calling it one of the best books of 2009. Huh. I think it must be the black cover with the pretty font. No, really.
It’s set in a town called Gatlin, in the Southern part of the US*, and I actually thought the town’s atmosphere was the best thing about the book. It certainly wasn’t the characters. Aside from the two leads, and three secondary characters, everybody is a stereotype. I mean it. Everybody. There are big dumb jocks, and bitchy cheerleaders, and awful authority figures, and small-minded parents. And I rolled my eyes at the lot of them.
I really, really wanted to love the two leads, Ethan and Lena. I mean, Ethan is a teenage boy narrating a supernatural YA novel- that would have been so awesome if done right! It…wasn’t. The authors make him sound like a teenage girl, and he is narrating in first person! Yeah, not a good move. To their credit, he’s rather sweet and awkward and oh-so-smitten.I can’t hate him; I just can’t believe him.
Lena, the female lead, is no better. She’s the supernatural one in the story-she’s a one of a family of Casters (I don’t know why they didn’t just say witch) and her abilities make her an outsider at school. Her whole character is pretty much defined by that: being an outcast. To her credit, she is a fighter who stands up for herself. For most of the book (and it is long), she remains withdrawn and obsessed with some impending doom coming on her sixteenth birthday, while Ethan vows to save her from it.
And well, the authors’ attempt at building some kind of mythology falls horribly flat. It’s like they just enjoyed the names and spells and myths they’d created; and then they plastered them onto cookie-cutter characters, and moved them about like dolls. :/ It starts off strong, but I was impatient with the slow pacing and very disappointed with the shoddy finale.
*Though many Amazon reviewers say that it is not very Southern at all.
I do see why people would be entertained for a while. I just do not get all the rave reviews.
***
Behemoth, the sequel to Leviathan, is AWESOMEPANTS so far. I could not stop smiling and fidgeting while reading it on the bus-I think I made my seatmate very, very nervous.
Character development! Munchy, scrumptious character development! Oh Alek! And Deryn! Also, Deryn crushing on him, and Alek being in love with the, uh, SHIP. Mmmmhmmm just tell yourself that, boy. ;) I am glad Scott Westerfeld did not listen to those who were saying that Deryn should tone down the ass-kicking. Um, NO. She is a soldier and a fighter and she will continue to be snarky and quick-thinking and reckless. And I love her.
Alek is adorkable and confused and getting things done. I am having great fun seeing him evolve-I appreciate that I’m shown his day-to-day difficulty in keeping up his commoner disguise. He slips up a lot, but he keeps his head and carries on. I also love that his sense of loyalty to his men has gotten steely; that he’s come to know the value of allies; that he’s thinking of the big picture now: being a key to ending the war and possibly ascending the throne.
I think Westerfeld has outdone himself with his AU Clanker Istanbul! The way I feel about it is much like the way I felt about Ba Sing Se in Avatar: the Last Airbender: it comes so alive, has so much history, is rife which so much intrigue , that I want the characters to slow down for a moment and take it all in. I want them to skulk around every ally and coffee shop and market and palace, just so I can see the whole place for myself!
I’m barely halfway through, and I already like it better than Leviathan. In my typical fashion when reading books that are awesome, I am actually slowing down so I can savor it.
***
I’ve made an early New Year’s resolution: Self, less lurking around on TVTropes, Lolcats, GoFugYourself, and other black hole sites. Self, more book-reading por favor.