Sunday Post #114

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimba the Caffeinated Book Reviewer

This was a beautiful week- sunshine with mild temps. It's full on autumn now and the combination of colored leaves and blue sky make this a favorite time of year. I had a good reading week but SciFi Month is approaching and I've got a lot of posts for that set up.

This week I finished Continuum S4 - what a bittersweet ending. I'm going to miss that show and those characters. And thanks to everyone for the suggestions last week- I think I'm going to give Orphan Black a try and a few of the other suggestions.



BOOKISH NEWS

SciFi Month runs all through November- you can check out the details here. #RRSciFiMonth and @SciFiMonth.

Cover Characteristics #2

Cover Characteristics is a meme by Sugar and Snark- every week a characteristic is selected and we post 5 books with that week's theme.

This week's pick- EYE(S)

Bookcover Spotlight #19

Land of Terror is the sixth book of the Pellucidar series by Edgar Rice Burroughs. The cover art here is by Frank Frazetta. This is a later entry in the series and I've heard it's not great, but Frazetta sure can set a tone. I have no idea if this scene is in the book, but it makes me want to read it!

Frazetta liked to draw his characters without the burden of, you know, clothes. This is a pretty elemental scene - it all just works in a very primal way.

Here is a close up view.

Comic of the Week #10

This week we have Xenozoic Tales #10. I love the sense of the rolling sea in the background.

A Dance with Dragons- Daenerys II/ Reek I

Welcome to my A Dance with Dragons readalong. This week we look back in on Daenerys, who is having her troubles in the city of Meereen. This is the eleventh chapter of the book but only the second Dany chapter- so let's take a look. 

Also starting this week I'm going to cover two chapters a week. So next up we have the first Reek chapter- also known as Theon. Poor Theon is in a bit of a state, not doing very well. His chapters are a bit harrowing to read, as we will see... 

DAENERYS II

Dany is woken and told there has been another attack- the Sons of the Harpy have killed and one of the dead is Missandei's brother. She has two brothers, both Unsullied. There is a wineseller and his daughters who are suspects as two of the dead were poisoned- Dany orders them questioned. When the Shavepate asks if he should question them harshly or gently, she says gently- but then changes her mind. The Shavepate says he could torture the daughters while the father watches, and Dany tells him to do whatever. Hmm... 

Dany decides to pull the Unsullied back and have Meereenese patrol the city. She is told the masters of Zhek and Merreq are preparing to leave the city- she instructs Shavepate to let them go, but only with the clothes on their back- they must leave all their stuff behind. She also decides to take hostages- two kids, a boy and girl, from each great house as insurance against future killings. 

She misses Daario and comforts Misseandei, and when she takes a bath Quiathe appears to her. Quaithe, the mysterious woman with the lacquered mask who tells her to beware the pale mare, the kraken and dark flame, the lion and griffin, the sun's son and the mummer's dragon. She also mentions a perfumed seneschal, and tells Dany to trust none of them. Also, the glass candles are burning, she says. Dany assumes the seneschal is Reznak, and when she asks the woman what she wants, she replies she wants to show her the way. 

We are reminded of what she had been told earlier- to go north she must go south, east to go west, back to g oforward. And to touch the light she must pass beneath the shadow. Whatever that means. We also get some hints that Dany's dragons have been captured or something- there are mentions of burned areas where they tried to catch Drogon, and she thinks at one point that her dragons are roaring.

Hizdahr zo Loraq comes before her again to plead once more for the reopening of the fighting pits. He brings former pitfighters with him to plead their case- they all tell her they lived better when they were slaves, or now that they are free they should be free to fight for coin and glory. She promises she will consider it. Later she talks with Ser Barristan and he tells her of his escape from King's Landing, and mentions that Lord Stark spoke against having her killed. She then asks to see her dragons, and they go into the vaults beneath the pyramid and into a room with a pit- where Rhaegal and Viserion are imprisoned. 

They are chained, and Dany thinks they're bigger. Apparently they had been getting so wild she felt she had to restrain them, but Drogon had escaped.  She asks if if is true that dragons never stop growing, and he tells her if they have enough food and space it is true. 


COMMENTARY: 

I think it's interesting that Dany felt the need to lock up her dragons. Again she seems to have put ruling Meereen before not only going to Westeros, but before training and making her dragons her top priority. AS the last Targaryen you would think she would realize this. Also we again get a glimpse of how ruthless Dany can be, in the matter of the wineseller and his daughters. Do they know anything, and how badly will Shavepate torture them?  

REEK I 

We catch up with Theon in the dungeons beneath the Dreadfort, the seat of House Bolton. He is eating a rat he just caught, but then two men come for him- or boys, to be more accurate. Theon has apparently lost fingers to torture, and calls himself Reek now- he has been told to go by that name. Nice place, this Dreadfort. 

Theon is brought before and two other men- lords obviously. One recognizes him as Theon, and they're shocked at his condition. 

Top Ten Tuesday- Bookish Wish

This weeks Top Ten is 10 Wishes relating to books- you wish it and it's done. So... mine is all over the map this week. Some of my choices are for changes I'd like to see in books, and some are just - more general. So here we go.

1) I wish that Ned Stark had not died in A Game of Thrones. Of all the plot twists in those books, the one I've wondered about a lot is... what happened if Ned had taken Renly up on his offer and taken the Red Keep with Renly's help. Bye bye Cersei! And a lot of bad stuff wouldn't happened...

2) I wish I had The Winds of Winter right now to read!

3) I wish I could visit Middle earth- as long as I could come home too. Top stops: Rivendell, followed by the Shire and maybe the Prancing Pony in Bree.

4) I wish comic books were still sold on spinner racks in stores



5) I wish the original (unaltered) Star Wars movies would be released, so I can watch them just as they were presented in theaters originally (and rumor has it this is going to happen). Yay!

6) I wish The 100 Aker Wood was a real place.


7) I wish comics were still all ages friendly for the most part- I mean, there were adult themes popping up when I was reading them, but nothing like today.

8) I wish I could go back in time and visit a bookstore from yesteryear- a lot of books I used to collect were still in print and on the shelves- and they were cheaper too. When I was a kid and got a $20 gift certificate I could get a ton of books when they were only $2.25 or whatever...

9) I wish there was a real Jurassic Park- without the inevitable security breaches!

10) I wish I could think of a tenth wish! Oh well, c'est la vie.

Ooh, I know! I wish I could still get Slurpees in superhero cups.

Guaranteed to Bleed

Guaranteed to Bleed is the second Country Club Murders book by Julie Mulhern. I was a big fan of her first book The Deep End, so I've been looking forward to this one a lot. It did not disappoint. This one is set a few months after the first one. Ellison and her daughter Grace have returned from Europe and are adjusting to life when a new crisis presents itself. Ellison is at a football game and literally stumbles over a body- a boy has been shot. Just before he dies he asks Ellison to tell a girl that he loved her. But who is the girl? Her daughter and her friends know the boy, but no  one knows why he was killed. Or do they?

Ellison is soon enmeshed in a mystery involving the boy, the girl he loved, and the country club set that she is a part of. Just like in the first book, there are lots of secrets and lies here- and a lot of humor as well. Ellison is a joy to read, she has been through a rough patch in her life and is now a single mother- and her life gets complicated again when murder once more intrudes. Detective Jones reappears on the scene to investigate the murder, and Hunter Tafft is also in the picture- the high powered attorney who her mother tries to set her up with. Problem is, Ellison is attracted to both men, for very different reasons. Life is not getting any easier for her!

The book takes a dark turn as we find out more about the boys death and the reason why he was killed, and faced with some tough decisions. No matter what she chooses, someone may get hurt. I enjoyed this aspect of the story- just like real life, things are sometimes messy and there are no easy answers. This combined with the 70's references (this is set in 1974) made this a great read for me. I like Ellison's internal voice and her musings frequently made me laugh. And the author does a great job with evoking the culture of the country club set, as well as the spirit of the times.

My parents belonged to a country club when I was a kid, and I remember the Sunday brunches, the view of the golf course, and the socializing. Reading these books brings that back to me, and I think Julie Mulhern captures that brilliantly. Ellison is a great character and I look forward to seeing who- Detective Jones or Hunter Tafft- wins her heart. If either of them do. And I wouldn't mind seeing more of her overbearing mother and her gossipy, sometimes nasty country club friends either. It's all great fun. Compulsively readable.