Book: Briar Rose by Jane Yolen

Becca has grown up on the tale of Briar Rose that her grandmother Gemma has told her and her sisters over and over again. It is only at the end of Gemma's life that Becca comes to find there is more to the story than just a fairytale to entertain children. A box is found in her grandmother's possessions that no one in the family had ever seen before, with keepsakes that are a mystery to them all. Determined to unravel the secrets of her beloved Gemma's past, Becca undertakes the search to learn the truth behind the story of Briar Rose, and who her grandmother really was. She follows the clues to Poland, where she finally finds someone who can tell her the whole story.

Briar Rose is a retelling of Sleeping Beauty, with the Holocaust as a backdrop, and at first I was a little fearful of revisiting this time period in my "entertainment" reading. Yolen's storytelling quickly drew me in however, and with Becca, I wanted to know what happened, how had Gemma gotten to America, and what was her real name, her past?

This is my first Jane Yolen novel to read, though I have several others on Mount TBR. I'll definitely be reading more, and recommend Briar Rose as an interesting and sobering twist on the Sleeping Beauty story.

For more information on this award winning author, visit Jane Yolen's Official Website

Because you can never have too many addictions...

So if you take a little peek to the left, you'll see my Dragon Eggs right there at the top, and notice that 2 of them have hatched, and one of them grew up (not bad looking for a little orange guy!), and the other one probably will have too by the time I get up in the morning. I'm actually quite pleased at how interesting they are!

I saw eggs posted on a friends signature in a forum, and thought to myself, huh, those are neat, but when I clicked on them to try and get my own, of course they'd all been taken. So periodically I'd try it again, not at all surprised that I didn't manage to catch any. So when I actually did, I was a little shocked, but of course, had to keep trying right away, (thus two hatchlings very close to each other) and then managed to rescue an abandoned egg, and even get a new one.

Needless to say, they're neat enough I'm going to have to keep playing with it for awhile, darn it! :P In fact, I just adopted another egg just now! MUST STOP! AAAHHH!!!! (But, but, but, it's pink! You can't not take a pink one!)

There is actually more to the site, they have a forum, and all your eggs and hatchlings and grown dragons are shown to you on your own scroll, and somehow clicks and views are supposed to help them hatch and grow but I really haven't figured that out. There are also some rules as to how many eggs you can have at once. So I really better stop until I get some more hatchlings and grown dragons lol!

If anyone else is interested, here is the site: Dragon Cave or you can get there by clicking on my little lovelies in the sidebar (I really don't like orange that much, but I still love my little dragon over there, he is my first dragon child, after all!) If you do decide to adopt some of your own, go ahead and leave me a comment with a link to where they are, so I can click on them and help them along, however that works, and see what they turn into!

Book: Magic Lost, Trouble Found by Lisa Shearin

Raine Benares is a seeker, not especially high on the power scale, but passable. Her family is mostly known for being smugglers and thieves, rather than upstanding citizens. They are however very loyal to their friends and each other, which lands Raine in the trouble that this first book in the series centers around.

Afraid that a friend and sometimes employee of hers is getting himself into trouble, Raine follows him to find out what he's up to. She finds Quentin breaking into the house of a well known Necromancer in the town. As expected, things don't go well, and soon they are in an all out battle with a certain faction of goblins known as the Khrynsani. Raine herself is an elf, and I typically imagine goblins to be nasty short little ugly creatures with big noses or something like that. Not so in this story! The Goblins of this story are more along the lines of dark elves, and are a beautiful but deadly night to the Elven day in aspect.

Once free of the fight, Raine questions Quentin to find that he'd been hired to find a certain artifact and bring it to his contact. She takes it from him, deciding that anything the Khrynsani are after isn't something they should get and so she decides to hold it for safekeeping, only she gets a lot more than she bargained for. As it turns out, the artifact she now can't get rid of without great bodily harm is actually connected to a much more dangerous item, and suddenly Raine is very high on everyone's list to acquire, as their key to finding it, the Saghred... the Soul Thief... Anything with a nickname like that can't be good...

I kind of had a hard time getting into this one, but I suspect that's more my real life circumstances and how busy and tired I've been rather than any fault of the story. It's actually very fast paced and witty, with likable characters, and well put together ideas. By the end I was definitely interested in getting the next book Armed and Magical to see what Raine and her friends are up to next! This is a good pick if you're looking for a fun fantasy romp.

See Lisa Shearin's Website for more information, and a peek at the covers for the next two books!

Movie: Nanny McPhee

I love Emma Thompson, but have to admit her initial appearance in this movie is pretty off putting! But that's part of the magic of this story. Nanny McPhee appears on the scene when Mr. Brown has run out of nannies to watch after his brood of children, and they are awful children! Nanny McPhee soon brings order to the household through a bit of magic and where the children at first dislike her as much as any other nanny they've had, they come to love her very much. She strikes me as a little bit darker of a cross between Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle and Mary Poppins, but these children definitely need a firmer hand than those of the other stories! Cute movie, I recommend it!

I really like this script sequence from it:

Nanny McPhee: There is something you should understand about the way I work. When you need me but do not want me, then I must stay. When you want me but no longer need me, then I have to go. It's rather sad, really, but there it is.
[Nanny McPhee turns around to walk out of the room, but stops once she hears Simon]
Simon Brown: We will never want you!
Nanny McPhee: Then I will never go.

Movie: The Golden Compass

The Golden Compass is a fantasy movie based on the novel by Phillip Pullman of the same name (also known as Northern Lights in some places).

Lyra is a little girl who's uncle, Lord Asriel, brought her to live at Jordan College while he travels, questing after the sources of the mysterious "Dust" (Dust is consciousness, or awareness of the world around you and all of its possibilities), which is treated as a threat. While there she gets into all kinds of mischief with her Daemon, Pantalaimon, and her friend Roger. Everyone in this world has a Daemon, which is the outward expression of a person's soul. While young, the Daemon's are constantly changing form (Pantalaimon had at least 3 or 4 different shapes during the movie I believe), but settle into their permanent form once the person is an adult. Lyra's uncle Lord Asreal Lyra meets the acquaintance of Mrs. Coulter, who takes a liking to her and wants to take her North. Lyra is all for this, as that's where Lord Asriel has once again taken off for, and she really wants to learn more about what "Dust" is.

In the meantime, children and their Daemons have been disappearing, and it's been blamed on a group only known as the Gobblers. Lyra, insatiably curious as always, discovers notes in Mrs. Coulter's study that she believes links her to this frightening group, and escapes from the house, to be rescued by the Gyptians, who have been watching out for her all the time she has been at the college. That's when Lyra discovers that another her friends, who was a Gyptian, has disappeared.

The Master of the College had given Lyra a very special device before she left, the alethiometer, or golden compass, that only certain people can read, of course Lyra turns out to be one of these. The golden compass shows the truth of things. Using this, they find out that the children are in a place called Bolvanger, and so the group of Gyptians heads North to try and rescue them, enlisting the aide of an Aeronaut (Scorsby) and an Armored Bear (Iorek) along the way.

My initial impression of the movie was very good, though much simplified from the book I think. Also a few things happened out of order, and in different ways, but that's almost always the case when taking something from a book to a movie. "Dust" was not well explained in the movie, it was shown that they all felt threatened by it, but not really why, though by end you could kind of get the idea that was basically free will/consciousness. Lord Asriel has a much smaller part in the movie than in the book, but I think the movie ended sooner than the 1st book of the trilogy. The effects were very good, on the daemons and the bears. I really enjoyed it, and would recommend it, though it is a lot toned down from the book, just as a warning (which in some ways was better for me, because there were a few parts of the book that really bothered me, just because they were painful and sad). I think it's a good beginning of a trilogy/series, and hope they make another one, though I haven't read book 2 yet!

Thursday Thirteen #8 - Book Recommendations

Welcome to my Thursday Thirteen #8! I had a couple of ideas, but I decided that they were going to take too long to research tonight in the time I had, so I'll put them aside for another time and fall back on a dependable standby: Books! I'm sure you'll see many more book related TT's from me, my first one was in fact!

This week I'll give 13 recommendations based on books that I read in 2007 that I really enjoyed and would like others to give a try. If they were part of a series, I've substituted the one I actually read with the 1st of the series :) These are not in order of like, just jumbled together as I came across them!

1. On What Grounds by Cleo Coyle - This is a fun coffeehouse mystery series, packed with coffee facts, recipes in the back, and fun characters. Claire gets herself into a lot of trouble!

2. The Pillars of the World by Anne Bishop - This is a darker fantasy, the first of the Tir Alainn trilogy, dealing with how the witches (keepers of the Old Places, and very in tune with nature) are being hunted down and destroyed. The Fae also figure in, some who are aware and wish to help, and many who would rather ignore what's happening as the tie between the worlds is erroded away. Anne Bishop's Black Jewels series is one of my favorites of all times as well!

3. The Secret History of the Pink Carnation by Lauren Willig - This is a fun historical fiction romp, the engine to get us back in time, slightly after the main popularity of the Scarlet Pimpernel, is a research paper on a little known spy, the Pink Carnation. This one was a lot of fun, the first one has been the best so far in my opinion, but the other books are fun too, and highlight different characters which were previously mentioned in the books before.

4. Storm Front by Jim Butcher - The Harry Dresden series, yay! Another in the dark fantasy genre. Harry is a wizard for hire, and gets himself into all kinds of trouble, magical and otherwise. There's a little bit of everything in this series, fairies, vampires, werewolves, you name it, Harry probably has to fight it or somehow get it's help, or something! They did a television series, which is now out on DVD, alas no longer being produced, but it was actually pretty good, so give it a try! You gotta love Bob the skull!

5. Dragon Rider by Cornelia Funke - a fun kids fantasy about a dragon looking for a safe place to live as the world of men expands, and the friends he meets along the way. I actually listened to this on audiobook, read by Brendan Fraser, and it was very good, my favorite character was the brownie, Sorrel.

6. Magyk by Angie Sage Another kids fantasy the first of the Septimus Heap series. from Fantastic Fiction: A baby girl is rescued from a snowy path in the woods. A baby boy is stillborn. A young Queen is taken ill. An ExtraOrdinary Wizard mysteriously resigns from his post. And all on the same night. A string of events, seemingly unconnected, begins to converge ten years later, when the Heap family receive a knock at the door. The evil Necromancer DomDaniel is plotting his comeback and a Major Obstacle resides in the Heap family. Life as they know it is about to change, and the most fantastically fast-paced adventure of confused identities, magyk and mayhem, begin. (I snagged their blurb because I wasn't sure how to describe without spoilers!)

7. I'm the Vampire, That's Why by Michele Bardsley There's a new soccer mom in town, and she's got fangs! This is in that paranormal romance category, but it's very humorous, I zipped through it and was laughing all the way. The first of the Broken Heart, Oklahoma series. The covers on these crack me up, I wish I had a better picture, love the apron, and the cupcakes with little vampire sticks in them!

8. In the Company of the Courtesan by Sarah Dunant - Historical Fiction, more serious than Pink Carnation. A Courtesan and her companion escape the sack of Rome in 1527 and make their way home to Venice where they must rebuild their life, and get back into society after starting once more from nothing.

9. Kushiel's Dart by Jacqueline Carey More dark fantasy, are you sensing a theme here? heehee... I admit it, this one took me about 3 years to finally get through, it's a doorstopper, but well worth it, and I only mention it because I think it was funny that it took me so long. Nothing at all to do with how good it is, just my schedule. (another bit of blurb from Fantastic Fiction) Phedre no Delaunay is sold into indentured servitude as a child. When her bond is purchased by an enigmatic nobleman, she is trained in history, theology, politics, foreign languages, and the arts of pleasure. Above all, she learns the ability to observe, remember, and analyze. Exquisite courtesan, yet talented spy, she may seem an unlikely heroine... but when Phedre stumbles upon a plot threatening her homeland, Terre d'Ange, she has no choice but to act. I'd put it in the Epic fantasy category.

10. Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones - Kids Fantasy, while running her family's hat shop, Sophie makes a customer angry, the dreaded Witch of the Waste, and she is bespelled into being an old woman. She sets off to find a way to cure herself, and joins up with Howl in his moving castle (he's also regarded with some fear, though he's more of a dandy than fearsome). An interesting tale about finding yourself. I personally did not like the movie compared to the book, even though it was quite lauded. I just thought it came out very weird feeling, when the book was a lot of fun!

11. Catnap - Carole Nelson Douglas - The Midnight Louie mystery series. Unlike many mysteries lately that feature a cat on the cover, this series actually HAS a cat character in the story! Can you tell this is a pet peeve of mine? DO NOT PUT A CAT ON YOUR COVER IF THERE IS NO PROMINENTLY FEATURED CAT IN YOUR STORY! ARGH! I'm a cat lover, I want cat characters! Okay, back on track, Midnight Louie is a big old black cat about town, who gets his own chapters as he is concurrently attempting to solve mysteries with his owner (read roommate, cause no one really owns a cat, do they?) Temple. Very funny, Louie gets himself into and out of many scrapes, most of the time without Temple knowing about it.

12. One for the Money by Janet Evanovich - The Stephanie Plum mystery series. This has got to be one of the funniest series I've EVER read in my life. This poor girl gets into more comic trouble than any character I've read. Stephanie falls into a bond enforcement agent job thanks to her cousin, in other words, a bounty hunter, and she couldn't be less suited. She hates guns, loves donuts and her hamster Rex (I think he's a hamster, he may be a gerbil), destroys many cars, never her fault of course, and somehow usually manages to catch her quarry (with help, and not necessarily on the first try). And their has to be love interest trauma right? So throw in a cop and another bounty hunter, and the great debate is on, Morelli or Ranger? My answer is, ya gotta have both! ;)

13. I, Mona Lisa by Jeanne Kalogridis - Historical fiction centered around the life of the girl in Da Vinci's painting, Mona Lisa. The Medici's figure prominently. I was drawn into the story and enjoyed it very much, highly recommend this one to historical fiction lovers.

Thanks for sticking with me! I'd love to hear if you've read any of these and what you thought, or if you're now considering any of them after my recommendation! If so I hope you enjoy them, and let me know!

Movie: The Forbidden Kingdom

Jason, a modern day teenager who is a fan of the martial arts greats, goes to visit his favorite pawn shop in Chinatown, where he's friends with the proprietor, Lu Yan. Discovering an old staff in the back room, he realizes it is the same as in a dream he had, but the old man hustles him back to the front room, where he pays for the movies he found and leaves. Getting waylaid by some girls that he knows, a gang of boys comes up behind him, and starts to give him trouble about having been in Chinatown, and his enjoyment of all things martial arts. Finding out where he had just come from, the boys force him to help them break into old Lu Yan's shop to steal his money. Lu Yan, mostly blind, finally realizes that Jason is not alone, and that's when things get out of hand. He tries to fight back, but gets shot by the leader of the gang in the process, and giving Jason the old staff, tells him to run, that he must return the staff to it's owner. At this point the fantasy adventure begins, as the staff transports Jason to another time and place.

I've always enjoyed Jackie Chan's comic antics, along with his martial arts prowess, and the scene of Chan and Jet Li sparring is great, also when they both decide to teach Jason how to fight, very very funny! I felt so bad for Jason, he really was getting the raw end of that deal in the beginning! LOL! The scenery and costumes of the movie are beautiful, and the story is a typical fantasy adventure quest, and enjoyable! The feeling I came away with was "well that was a lot of fun!" and I prize that feeling a lot, it's what I look for in my movie entertainment! ;)

I highly recommend it, if you're a fantasy story fan, or enjoy martial arts and/or oriental themed stories, I think you would like this one!

If you're a Jet Li fan, look for him in the 3rd of Brendan Fraser's Mummy movies, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor coming later this summer. I know I'll be there! Mmmmm Brendan Fraser! *drool*

Amy Brown art - Bandaids!!!

I don't know why this was such a funny surprise to me, it's not like I've never seen character bandaids before, but it's just really funny that a fantasy artist that I like has her own line of healing fairy bandaids! LOL! Check it out!




Of course I had to buy some, I mean, collectible cards and such, you know? LMAO!

Check out Amy's website HERE. The bandages were under Special Items. Too funny!

Book: The Bastard Prince (Heirs of Saint Camber #3) - Katherine Kurtz, and a recommendation on where to start!

I actually finished this one about a week ago, but needed to think on it awhile. I wanted to “review” it, but wonder if many people that might read this blog would be completely lost as this particular book really requires having read a lot of the ones before it to be able to completely experience it. I’ll give a short little blurb here about The Bastard Prince in particular, and then a little more about the Deryni in general, with my recommendation on where to start!

The Bastard Prince is the third in the Heirs of Saint Camber series, and tells the story of Rhys Michael Haldane’s attempt at freeing the Haldane line from the great lords of Gwenydd who have served as the regents for his two brothers before him. It is a story of sacrifice, and of a young man forced to play a very dangerous game of deception, in constant fear of the safety of his loved ones, and under the threat of losing his own life. To say much more is to give away the story of this one, so I’ll move on to talk about the Deryni series as a whole.

While the Deryni books are found in the Fantasy section, to me they read much more like historical fiction, I’m going to say of medieval England/Scotland/Ireland-esque areas, and not being a historian I can’t really say if any parts of the story are reflective of actual historical events, but the feel is there. Add to this the conflict of some individuals with magical abilities (the Deryni) in a time period of rigid religious beliefs and policies, and you can guess where much of the plot lines center, the persecution of a people by those who fear their powers.

The sympathies of the stories are obviously on the side of the Deryni, who even with their considerable powers are often forced into hiding and fighting for their lives. In many cases they are a deeply religious people, making their persecution from that quarter all the more heartbreaking for them, and much of their magic involves religious ritual. There are differing opinions on the order to read the books in, I actually started with The Bishop’s Heir, not knowing it was the first of the second trilogy centered around Kelson Haldane, the latest Haldane King. I first read this in junior high, and that’s been a few years now, so I can’t remember if I had trouble picking up the story elements that had gone before, but it hooked me, and I’ve read just about all of them now (I still need to read the King Kelson’s Bride, and the new trilogy about Morgan). My own suggestion would be to read them in this order:

Deryni
1. Deryni Rising (1970)
2. Deryni Checkmate (1972)
3. High Deryni (1973)

King Kelson
1. The Bishop's Heir (1984)
2. The King's Justice (1985)
3. The Quest for Saint Camber (1986)
4. King Kelson's Bride (1997)

Camber of Culdi
1. Camber of Culdi (1976)
2. Saint Camber (1978)
3. Camber the Heretic (1981)

Heirs of Saint Camber
1. The Harrowing of Gwynedd (1989)
2. King Javan's Year (1992)
3. The Bastard Prince (1994)

Deryni (2)
1. In the King's Service (2003)
2. The Childe Morgan (2006)
3. No title yet ???

My reasoning for this is that honestly I like the books of Kelson more than Camber, and that may just be because I read them first. I believe Katherine Kurtz herself suggests to read them in the order they were published. Basically by the time of Kelson, Camber had become regarded as a controversial saint with quite a mind of his own, and he appears periodically throughout the stories long after his death, so it’s kind of fun to read them with him being a mystery figure, and THEN go back and read his story in Camber of Culdi. Definitely read Heirs of Saint Camber AFTER Camber of Culdi.

I think these speak to me because I like historical fiction and fantasy and those feelings mesh very nicely in these books.





I also highly recommend Kurtz’s Adept series, a different feel, modern day, but still centered on individuals with supernatural abilities, and heavily into ritual magic:

Adept (with Deborah Turner Harris)
1. The Adept (1991)
2. The Lodge of the Lynx (1992)
3. The Templar Treasure (1993)
4. Dagger Magic (1995)
5. Death of an Adept (1996)

In my opinion, these were kind of precursors to some popular series today, like Jim Butcher’s Harry Dresden series and others of similar style, and I think that fans of the magical/paranormal/mystery combination would enjoy them. I know I did!

You can check out Katherine Kurtz’ home page HERE where there is more and better information on the Deryni than I could possibly give. ;)

My listings above came from the Katherine Kurtz page of Fantasticfiction.com, one of my favorite resources!

Movie: Dragonlance: Dragons of Autumn Twilight

While watching the Dragonlance movie, I wasn't sure if I should laugh or cry. About 20 minutes in, I really felt like I didn't want to bother with the rest, but I felt compelled to finish it, I guess out of loyalty or something, I don't know! LOL! I hate to say it was BAD exactly, it just wasn't what I had hoped for. It's a weird mix of traditional animation and computer animation that just doesn't really work together. The dragons and draconians are all done in Computer Graphics and actually seem very detailed and interesting, while everything else is in typical Saturday Morning cartoon looking animation. I'm sure this was to set the dragons apart and make them seem amazing, but really all it did for me was make me wonder if they could do the dragons that well, why didn't they do everything else that way? I went into it knowing it was probably going to fall far short of expectations, based on DragonGoddess' opinion, who told me that she now needs to go back and read the books to get the movie out of her head, and I think I may have to do that as well!

I won't tell anyone not to waste your time and rent it (definitely rent it before you buy it) because even knowing DG's opinion, I still had to see for myself, but don't expect too much from it. There were a few things I did like, Keifer Sutherland as Raistlin's voice for example, and I actually thought that Tasslehoff was done fairly well (not that it couldn't ALL have been A LOT better) but he was cute.

I'm not sorry I watched it, I'm just sorry it wasn't done a little differently. Would I watch a sequel? Oh, probably, again, out of loyalty, and maybe a hope that it would be better! ;)

Book: Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder

Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder originally came out under Harlequin’s Luna line, but has been reissued under MIRA it appears. I actually listened to it from an Audible download, and was very impressed.

Yelena is imprisoned for murder, and next in line to be executed, when she is offered the chance to live by becoming the food taster for the Commander. She agrees, and begins her schooling in how to detect different poisons. Kept from escaping by having been poisoned before she realizes it, she must be present every day to receive the antidote that will keep her alive.

She befriends some of the castle help, and is tormented by others, and is especially in danger whenever in the vicinity of General Brizelle (sp? I listened to it, so I’m not sure how names may be spelled) as it was his son, Rayahd that Yelena had murdered. She begins to learn how to defend herself, and continues to impress Valek, the Commander’s right hand who trained her as the food taster, and who has responsibility for her.

Soon it becomes clear there is a plot afoot, and that all is not as it seems, and it’s up to Yelena and Valek to discover what is happening. They must learn to trust each other in order to make it through.

There are several twists in the story that I don’t want to give away, so I’ll stop here on the plot line!

I really enjoyed this one, and look forward to listening to the next two, Magic Study, and Fire Study. The story kept me interested, and I really felt for the characters, primary and secondary. I wasn’t sure for about ¾ of the story whether Valek was good or bad, though I desperately wanted him to be good, as I liked his character very much! I’m not going to tell you how he turned out, because I want you to read it for yourself! ;)

The setting is a bit militaristic, as the land of Ixia is divided up into Military Districts, and magic has been outlawed, punishable by death, with no recourse, though to the south in Citia, magicians are quite common. So while I would consider it a fantasy novel (as is suggested by the fact it was originally published in the Luna line) it has a sterile feel to it (not as in clean, but as in sans fantastical elements) because of this. Everyone in Ixia has a particular uniform according to their station and the structure is very rigid, with an industrial factory playing a key role in one piece of the plot. This factor was a little different than what I initially expected, but didn’t detract from the story at all, in actually enhanced the differences between countries.

Give it a try, I recommend it!