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giandujakiss ’s new Castiel vid “A Charming Man,” which I was privileged to beta. It’s exactly the argument about Castiel and what he is/does/portends for Dean, and how he fits into and upends Sam and Dean’s lives, that I wanted to see. Great use of internal motion and lyric matching; superfast cuts.
Liz Williams, Snake Agent: Detective Inspector Chen of Singapore Three has a special assignment: deal with problems arising from Hell. In this high-tech future, email and other innovations make communicating with Heaven and Hell much easier. Chen has personal troubles: abandoned by his goddess for taking a demon as his bride, Chen (and his wife) are now the target of a powerful vendetta. But Chen does his duty when a young girl’s ghost turns up in a brothel in Hell, rather than safely in Heaven as she was supposed to. He teams up with demon Vice cop Zhu Irzh (Vice cop meaning rather the opposite in Hell of what it means on earth) to solve the mystery. Both Hell and Singapore Three feature very traditional gender roles, which made me a bit itchy, but the combination of tech and myth was intriguing, and I will probably check out the next book in the series.
Mabel Maney, Nancy Clue and the Hardly Boys in A Ghost in the Closet: It’s a lesbian parody of Nancy Drew, Cherry Ames, and the Hardy Boys. It sure did seem to have the style basically down pat.
R.M. Meluch, The Myriad: Tour of the Merrimack: Stopped reading early on. Seemed written entirely in sentence fragments to prove hard-assedness of narrators. Plot involved fragile alliance between spacefaring Roman Empire (secretly preserved lo these many millennia, now moved into genetic engineering) and spacefaring United States (that is, Earth: you didn’t know they were same thing?) in order to fight alien threat, encountering different alien race. Seemed promising in some ways; hoped arrogance and aggression of US ship got it in deep shit but couldn't bear to hang around for results. Couldn’t get past wanting to strangle all stoic, hard-as-nails characters.
Jacqueline Carey, Santa Olivia: I loved Godslayer and Banewreaker, couldn’t get into Kushiel, and thought this book was basically likeable YA: it’s Carey’s version of Dark Angel. Set in a town that’s been turned into a military outpost in between the Mexican and American borders, the inhabitants deprived of citizenship and much human dignity, used for entertainment by the military men stationed there for a few years at a time, a genetically enhanced supersoldier falls in love with a young woman. He strikes out for freedom and she has a child, Loup Garron, who grows up knowing that to reveal her strengths is likely to end in disaster for herself and for those around her. When tragedy strikes, she’s forced to use her limited resources to fight. A well-told standard coming-of-age story with boxing, romance (despite Loup’s neuro-atypicality—she doesn’t feel fear, which changes the way in which she experiences other emotions), and help from surprising quarters.
Adam Gallardo & Todd Demong, 100 Girls: Graphic novel about Sylvia and a bunch of other girls with superpowers that start manifesting in their early teens. Sylvia and the others are chased by a set of boys with their own superpowers, who are controlled by/also part of a secret government project. The girls’ self-discovery may be their self-destruction. I really liked the ideas but thought everything happened way too fast.
giandujakiss ’s new Castiel vid “A Charming Man,” which I was privileged to beta. It’s exactly the argument about Castiel and what he is/does/portends for Dean, and how he fits into and upends Sam and Dean’s lives, that I wanted to see. Great use of internal motion and lyric matching; superfast cuts.Liz Williams, Snake Agent: Detective Inspector Chen of Singapore Three has a special assignment: deal with problems arising from Hell. In this high-tech future, email and other innovations make communicating with Heaven and Hell much easier. Chen has personal troubles: abandoned by his goddess for taking a demon as his bride, Chen (and his wife) are now the target of a powerful vendetta. But Chen does his duty when a young girl’s ghost turns up in a brothel in Hell, rather than safely in Heaven as she was supposed to. He teams up with demon Vice cop Zhu Irzh (Vice cop meaning rather the opposite in Hell of what it means on earth) to solve the mystery. Both Hell and Singapore Three feature very traditional gender roles, which made me a bit itchy, but the combination of tech and myth was intriguing, and I will probably check out the next book in the series.
Mabel Maney, Nancy Clue and the Hardly Boys in A Ghost in the Closet: It’s a lesbian parody of Nancy Drew, Cherry Ames, and the Hardy Boys. It sure did seem to have the style basically down pat.
R.M. Meluch, The Myriad: Tour of the Merrimack: Stopped reading early on. Seemed written entirely in sentence fragments to prove hard-assedness of narrators. Plot involved fragile alliance between spacefaring Roman Empire (secretly preserved lo these many millennia, now moved into genetic engineering) and spacefaring United States (that is, Earth: you didn’t know they were same thing?) in order to fight alien threat, encountering different alien race. Seemed promising in some ways; hoped arrogance and aggression of US ship got it in deep shit but couldn't bear to hang around for results. Couldn’t get past wanting to strangle all stoic, hard-as-nails characters.
Jacqueline Carey, Santa Olivia: I loved Godslayer and Banewreaker, couldn’t get into Kushiel, and thought this book was basically likeable YA: it’s Carey’s version of Dark Angel. Set in a town that’s been turned into a military outpost in between the Mexican and American borders, the inhabitants deprived of citizenship and much human dignity, used for entertainment by the military men stationed there for a few years at a time, a genetically enhanced supersoldier falls in love with a young woman. He strikes out for freedom and she has a child, Loup Garron, who grows up knowing that to reveal her strengths is likely to end in disaster for herself and for those around her. When tragedy strikes, she’s forced to use her limited resources to fight. A well-told standard coming-of-age story with boxing, romance (despite Loup’s neuro-atypicality—she doesn’t feel fear, which changes the way in which she experiences other emotions), and help from surprising quarters.
Adam Gallardo & Todd Demong, 100 Girls: Graphic novel about Sylvia and a bunch of other girls with superpowers that start manifesting in their early teens. Sylvia and the others are chased by a set of boys with their own superpowers, who are controlled by/also part of a secret government project. The girls’ self-discovery may be their self-destruction. I really liked the ideas but thought everything happened way too fast.
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