[reaction] Thief and The Queen of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner

Mon, 17 Aug 2009 14:59:10 GMT

I don't post as frequently as I used to. It's not that I lack time (although, that's an issue but not all the time) and I always think of posting but somehow... I never get to it. I mean, I have time to join fandomhigh (the most time consuming thing on the net next to TV Tropes, OMG!) but my posting frequency has gone down. I don't mean to but days would pass and I'd realize I haven't posted in a week/s.

I've consumed a lot of media since the start of August and I hope to write-up my impressions on the books, shows I've read/watched.

Let's start with the most recent.

Thief by Megan Whalen Turner

I started reading the books because I stumbled into lizbee's rec post on the Attolia trilogy. It's a bit spoilery but I think if I hadn't read the spoilery bits I would have continued to put the books in the back burner rather than go on a one woman book hunt for MWT's books.

(Sidenote: For some reason or other I always mistake Queen of Attolia for one of Tamora Pierce's books. I also plan to read TP's books one of these days.)

As a nice change of pace from all the fantasy series I've read, the Attolia books are set in the Mediterraneans, or something close to it since MWT's world is not our own. Actually, the only other book I know set in a similar are Guy Gavriel Kay's Sarantium duology.

Kay and MWT even share a similar way of handling the fantastic in their books. There's no outright magic but you know the fantastic and the mythic could occur in the stories.

( The adventures of Gen the Thief )

Queen of Attolia

This, this was the reason why I wanted to start in the first place. I read lizbee's description of the Queen and sort of... fell in love. Apparently I really do have a place in my heart for ruthless rulers.

(Okay, okay, my first thought was: ZOMG, It's like Azula as a main protagonist! Only maybe not so evil! They're really nothing alike but it was the impression I had when I read Attolia's description and like I mentioned, it was the main reason why I went around bookstores to get copies. So, yay?)

( You look like a vulpine )

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I've entered several book stores in a hunt for the Attolia books and I only have one thing to say: I am pretty damned tired of vampires. I really, really am. Every book store I went to had vampire books on prominent display and I got pretty tired of looking at the same thing over and over and over again.

I like vampire stories as much as the next person but dammit, how about some variety, huh?

I blame Twilight for this.

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NaNoWriMo is fast approaching again and I'm wondering if this is the year I actually get to finish a WriMo. One of my biggest problems aside from the worldbuilding is I don't write in order, I jump from scene to scene, sometimes I write a scene from the middle or sometimes I write the end and most of the time I don't know the plot. I mean, I try to plan for it but even if I do I find myself bogged down with the plotting because I suddenly realize I've plotted myself into a corner and I don't know how to proceed from there.

I have story ideas, lots of them but I don't know if it's enough to materialize into something.

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BTW, the Endless Eight arc of Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya finally ended and while I'm pretty patient not all fans are and I really feel like they pushed this repetition arc too far although I suppose I understand why but I think eight is far too many for a repeating arc. I do appreciate the animation studio tried to put different scenes each time but I think there's a problem when even the director has expressed concerns about the number of episodes and was... summarily dismissed.

One thing watching and reading Haruhi Suzumiya taught me is that I can be spoiled for the ending of a story but I can still appreciate and be surprised by the journey towards the outcome maybe because of that I'm now a little more lax with spoilers. I mean, I can know the vague outlines of what will happen as long as I don't know the exact details of how the ending came to be.

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[book] Children of Dune

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 17:55:01 GMT

I've changed the look of my LJ. Much as I love my Crews/Reese header I only end up depressed whenever I look at it. I also felt it was time to change the layout.

Plus I like this new one, its shiny and new and v. clean looking!

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( Dune/Children of Dune miniseries )

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( Children of Dune book )

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Seriously, why do I always insist in writing long winded posts in the middle of the night? *yawns*

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Worlds Enough and Time

[reaction] Thief and The Queen of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner

[book] Children of Dune