The Wait is Over

The second Game of Thrones season started last Sunday with a bang. "The North Remembers" was a great way to begin the television premiere of Clash of Kings, the second book in the A Song of Ice and Fire series. Though the beginning differed from the beginning of the book in many ways, the deletion of some scenes, the addition of others, it was still amazing and left me staring at the screen in horror when it seemed to end moments after it started.

If the show continues in this route, it will keep maintain the status of "best book adaptation" in my opinion because it is definitely better than the Harry Potter movies.

"Power is Power."

-Cersei Lannister

Game of Thrones

With the success of last year's new HBO series, Game of Thrones, George R. R. Martin has become known to more than just the diehard fans hoping desperately that it won't take ten years for the next book in the series to come out. I was among the new fans to the A Song of Ice and Fire series. I'd heard about it before on livejournal, but mostly in terms of how the female characters were treated. I didn't look into the posts because he was mentioned in the same breath as Piers Anthony (who I find horribly boring and very problematic in certain areas) but what I gleaned seemed to indicate that his female characters were not handled with the same respect as his male characters. Since I have a heavy bias towards well-written female protagonists, that was enough for me to cross him off of my to read list and then go on about my business. 

Then HBO made the show and Ginia Bellafante wrote a review for the New York Times calling it "boy fiction" and claiming that sex scenes were added "out of a justifiable fear, perhaps, that no woman alive would watch otherwise". The entire internet choked and then answered in rage. Millions of female fans from around the world flooded the interwebs with their displeasure over Bellafante's blatant derision and dismissal of their existence.  George R. R. Martin himself broke his habit of ignoring reviews on his work to acknowledge his female fans and comment on how  this erased them. I watched this furor and saw how many women's whose opinion I valued were fervent fans of Martin, posting pictures of themselves on the Iron Throne, and I had to know what the hype was about. So I watched the first episode and then immediately went out and bought the first book.

"Winter is coming."
-House Stark words, said often by Eddard Stark, lord of Winterfell

Game of Thrones is the first book in the epic fantasy series, A Song of Ice and Fire. It takes place in the land of Westeros, the seven kingdoms, where seasons last for years and the long summer is about to give way to winter. The story begins with the king of the land, Robert Baratheon, coming to Winterfell, home of his friend Eddard "Ned" Stark, to ask him to become the King's Hand, his adviser, after the death of his previous one. This simple event pushes everything into motion. Ned Stark accepts the position and must deal with the responsibilities and dangers that come from it as do his wife and children as all of them are heavily effected by this turn of events. The Starks deal with political intrigue, magic, and mysteries as they adjust to their new lots in life as do those whose their actions touch including the exiled daughter of the previous king who is still burning for vengeance across the sea.

This book was genius. It is intricate and amazing and has me fangirling all over the place. Martin uses third person limited point of view from several different characters which each main character getting their own chapter. This method is both great and annoying because while it allows us to see the motivations and actions of characters on all of the sides , it is annoying when you have to get through a character you dislike. Still, the world building is great and the little bits of history that the characters mention makes me want to read a book just about the history of Westeros or about Valyria or about any random detail that Martin put in because he makes it that interesting and complete. 

Despite my love for the world, the characters make the story. I have my favorites, but Martin writes so that you can see the reasoning and understand the character that you don't like. Of all the points of view, I didn't like Catelyn Stark, Ned's wife. It wasn't that she was a bad female character, it was that she was annoying as heck to me and her logic often made no sense. It was slightly annoying that her primary motivation was her children, but it made sense that she would be very concerned about them and their safety and justice for them. Her treatment of Jon Snow, her husband's bastard son, was rankling as well since he's one of my favorites, but it was understandable considering her husband made her raise his obvious sign of infidelity. 

"Jon could not find it in him to pray to any gods, old or new. If they were real, he thought, they were as cruel and implacable as winter. "

-Jon Snow

Speaking of Jon Snow, he was one of my favorite male characters along with Tyrion Lannister, the dwarf brother of the Queen. Jon Snow is pivotal in the action happening on the Wall, the ancient structure built to keep the Others out, and while he is emo as all get out, he will get the job done. Tyrion Lannister faces overwhelming discrimination because of his height and deformities, but he deals with it with his sarcasm and brains. He's one of the smartest characters and awesome just for some of things he manages despite having no fighting skills to speak of and no obvious allies at times. The other male pov characters are okay; Bran does his best, but Ned just manages to keep from descending to Catelyn-like levels of annoyance for me because of his honor hang ups. I was not saddened by his fate.

The best characters in my opinion though, which is ironic considering the above article, are the women, including girls to be more precise considering that  the youngest is nine and the oldest is thirteen(the two Stark sisters, Arya and Sansa, and the exiled princess Daenerys Targeryen).

"When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die. There is no middle ground."

-Cersei Lannister

Cersei Lannister, the Queen of Westeros, doesn't get a point of view, but she doesn't need one. This woman shined and made me like her despite her incest and horrible actions towards other characters I liked. She has no trouble doing what needs to be done to achieve her ends and I loved her for it.

“Some septa trained you well. You’re like one of those birds from the Summer Isles, aren’t you? A pretty little talking bird, repeating all the pretty little words they taught you to recite.”
— Sandor Clegane to Sansa Stark

In the beginning, Sansa was grating because at eleven she is a privileged lady in training, sheltered with ideas of marrying a handsome prince and living happily ever after. These dreams are eventually crushed and she has to grow up fast, but he court-trained manners help her survive.

"Fear cuts deeper than swords. The man who fears losing has already lost.”

—	Arya Stark

Arya is Sansa's polar opposite, two years her junior, Arya is more concerned with sword-fighting, archery, and is an all-around tomboy. While her sister wants to be the princess, Arya wants to be the knight and she spends her time training for this goal, time that ends up being very well-spent.

"I have never been nothing. I am the blood of the dragon."
-Daenerys Targaryen

Thirteen year old Daenerys has the most growth in this book. Her older brother uses her in a bid to gain an army to take back his kingdom, but she gains some independence and manages to turn the situation to her advantage. By the end of her part I was screaming "Heck yeah, Khaleesi Stormborn!" and rooting for her to take over Westeros while simultaneosly rooting for the Starks and Cersei. Arya and Daenerys's pro-activeness and practicality makes them my favorite female characters of this book.

Overall, this book took me places. My emotions were everywhere and I shouted out loud at some points and cursed in others. This book makes you play favorites and then makes you second guess those favorites and change them and then bring them back again. The momentum builds up and then you hit a certain point at which you start racing towards the end and once you're finished you want to immediately start on the next one. That is how good this book is. After I finished it, I said, "did that just happen? How can he leave me like this?" And went out and bought the next two books.

This book made me rethink some of my formatting on my stories. I tend towards first person POV in my writing and reading Martin's multiple POV style, I realized that some of my stories would benefit from different POVs like that so I changed them for the better. They also made me go back to work on some of my world building. Martin also made me more certain in my desire to continue my own epic fantasy story because of how pale his world and how that struck a discordant note for me as I was reading.

Still, this book was awesome and I recommend everyone read it and watch the series. Where else are you going to get awesome house words, memorable monikers like "the Mountain That Moves", or a throne made of swords that has killed previous kings?

The Laughing Corpse

"Death didn't bother me much. Strong Christian and all that. Method of death did. Being eaten alive. One of my top three ways not to go out."

 -Anita Blake

Laurell K Hamilton's The Laughing Corpse is the second book in the Anita Blake series and it also has a comic book series based on it. Anita survived the events of the first books, but her troubles are far from over. She still has to deal with vampires that refuse to leave her alone, and now she has problems stemming from her job and animator abilities. To top off all of that, she's once more involved with a murder investigation that is hard to crack. Anita manages to juggle everything that comes her way and survive it with a mix of her wits, allies, and trusty guns. 

“I decided not to answer on the grounds that I might piss someone off.” 

-Anita Blake

Like the first book, Anita's humor and wry observations make the book for me. She is constantly quipping about the people around her and the situations she finds herself in no matter how bad it is. And Laurell K continues to build her world in interesting and engaging ways. Everything that had to do with zombies was awesomeness personified as she got the perfect mixture of creepy, horrifying, and sympathetic. The vampire issues were also great because Anita, unlike so many other heroines, refuses to just roll over and let Jean Claude, now the master vampire of the city, have his way with her and their back and forth play was fun to read. Anita also grows as a character in terms of abilities and views on the world.

 "Hope is a lying bitch."

-Anita Blake

Another great thing about this book is that it could be read as a stand alone. Yes, the experience would be richer if you read Guilty Pleasures first, but you don't have to in order to understand and enjoy The Laughing Corpse. And while it has the same elements as the first book, vampires and the crime case, it does not come across as formulaic like some series do. 

Overall, this book is one of my favorites of the series. The vaundun priestess Dominga Salvadore was an arresting character and great foreshadowing for Anita. Edward doesn't show up, but Anita is badass enough on her own, taking out people in a variety of ways. And although she tolerates Jean-Claude more than she did before, I loved the fact that never once did it seem to be a given that they would get together. Jean-Claude tries one of the typical 'force you into loving/belonging with me' type gesture which is very popular in urban fantasy and Anita does her best to get out of it. I supported this fully because Jean-Claude is one of my least favorite characters and I had no desire to see Anita end up with him.

This book just fanned the flames of my love for this series and for my own ideas about heroines, their love interests, and what they could be able to do.

“Stupidity isn't punishable by death. If it was, there would be a hell of a population drop.” 

-Anita Blake

Utada Hikaru and Kingdom Hearts

Utada Hikaru, or "Hikki" as she is known to some fans, is one of my favorite musicians. My love for anime introduced me to Japanese music when I was younger but I never came across any of her songs until a particular video game that many people doubted took the world by storm.

When I first saw the commercial for this game, I was sold and not because of the great looking graphics, the intriguing premise, or the fact that the mash-up of Disney and Final Fantasy might actually work. In fact, I didn't even know what game the commercial was for.

I only wanted to know two things:

1. Who is the owner of that heavenly voice?

 2. What is the name of the song playing in the background?

Any time the commercial came on I watched it in its entirety and through typing what lyrics I could remember into a search engine, I was able to determine that the voice was owned by Hikki, and the song was "Simple and Clean".

Words can't come close to describing how much I love this song. I played (play) it over and over again. Everyone in my house knows it by heart. Everyone. And I wasn't content to just hear the song in English; I also had to hear the Japanese version from the original Japanese commercial. In the process of tracking down the other version, I learned that despite the songs having the same tune, they have different meanings since Utada rewrote the original version "Hikari" instead of just directly translating it into English.

So the English version:

And the Japanese version:

Are two different wonderful songs which are both the theme songs of Kingdom Hearts in their respective countries. 

I also have to admit that I have all the remixes to both songs which also have high play counts on my playlists. My favorite is the "Simple and Clean -PLANITb Remix-" which speeds up the song slightly and gives it more of an dancing edge. This song and the original two always end up on my writing playlists. There's an epic quality to them that gives me a boost whether I'm writing about vampires, aliens, witches, or dimension jumpers. It's no wonder that the director of Kingdom Hearts, Tetsuya Nomura, only wanted Utada to do the theme song.

As a treat, here's the "Simple and Clean -PLANITb Remix-" over the Kingdom Hearts opening in honor of the upcoming 10th anniversary of the game.

"Simple and clean is the way that you're making me feel tonight
It's hard to let it go"
-Utada Hikaru

The Black Jewels Trilogy: Daughter of the Blood

"Briarwood is the pretty poison. There is no cure for Briarwood. Beware the golden spider that spins a tangled web."
-Jaenelle

Three authors dominated my bookshelf in middle school and most of high school, J.K Rowling, Laurell K Hamilton, and Anne Bishop. I read them so much that I have a tendency to just refer to them by their first names as if we're good friends. And my girl Anne B writes fantasy novels. In my humble opinion, The Dark Jewels trilogy is the best of them.

As usual when I was younger, I accidentally read the books out of order. I picked up the second one from my local library and had no idea what was going on. Despite this, the world that Anne B introduced me to was so interesting that I checked it out the book numerous times before hunting down the first one, Daughter of the Blood.

“What does it matter? She is coming. …the day is coming when the debt will be called in, and the Blood will have to answer for what they’ve become. The Darkness has had a Prince for a long, long, time. Now the Queen is coming.”

—

Tersa

Daughter of the Blood is the first stage in the chronicle of the prophesied Witch. Despite being born with immense powers, Jaenelle Angelline is a young girl who struggles with her nature and a decaying society that wants to either control or destroy her. Misunderstood by her family,  she tries to find her place and she finds teachers and guides in  Saetan SaDiablo, Daemon Sadi, Surreal, and Luciavar Yaslana, people who are trying to survive in a corrupt system without going insane or giving up hope.

This story brings you into the world of the Blood where magical power is determined by what jewel you wear and Darkness is the deity by which you swear. The Blood are born with a certain jewel and depending on their strength, they can descend three levels in jewel rank. The darker your jewels the stronger you; the weakest jewel is White and the most powerful jewel is Black. 

The Blood are matriarchal and along with jewels, they have different power castes denoted by gender. Women can be either Queens, Healers, Priestesses, Black Widows, or some mixture of the four. Men can be Warlord Princes, Princes, or warlords but there is no equivalent male caste to Queen which is the strongest caste. Thus in this world, Queens are meant to form courts, rule, and protect the land. One of the main conflicts comes from the antagonists' distorting the natural order as they are lesser jeweled priestesses who set themselves up as Queens.

Again, it was the world-building that dragged me into this story: the jewel ranks, the power castes, the matriarchal society where women are the stronger ones, and a culture in which purity is dark and black. 

The diversity of the races of the Blood was another draw. They each had their own culture and land.  Most races like the Dea al Mon and Chaillotians live up to around a hundred and twenty five years. Jaenelle is from Chaillot and falls into this category. Like her, these two races tend to have pale skin and lighter colored hair and eyes though the Dea al Mon also have pointed ears, big eyes, and are basically the elves of this dimension. 

The Hayllian, Dhemlans, and Eyrien are the long-lived races able to live up to five thousand years. These races are darker-skinned, ranging from golden to brown, with darker hair and gold eyes. The Eyrien have leathery wings and can fly. Saetan, Lucivar, Daemon, and Surreal all fall into this category; Lucivar is the only Eyrien. 

"Hell's Fire, Mother Night and May the Darkness Be Merciful." 

-Lucivar Yaslana

The characters were what clinched the story for me though. The story might be about Jaenelle, but its told from the perspective of the other characters. The main narrators are Saetan, Lucivar, and Daemon with a little bit of Surreal, and Hekatah and Dorethea, the antagonists, sprinkled in. The story is very heavy at times as it deals with systematic sexual slavery, child abuse, sexual abuse, abuse, and rape, but the narrators' distinct voices help bring you through each topic. With the exceptions of Hekatah and Dorethea, the narrators are engaging, serious when they need to be but always bringing humor and sarcasm that will make you laugh out loud even when they are splattering people over walls. And in this world, splattering people happens more often than not. These characters live in a violence filled world and are unquestionably and unresistingly violent; there is no good and evil but shades of grey.  Daemon is nicknamed the Sadist for his cruelty and body count. Lucivar is almost as bad; Saetan's past out does them both. And Surreal is an assassin. This remains one of the few books where I like every single main character even though Surreal will always be my favorite because of her attitude, power, and humor.

 Plus, not only was it refreshing to have a female character of color in a fantasy novel with a central speaking role, it was wonderful that she was there and she wasn't a walking racial stereotype. 

 This book is on my forever reading book list alongside the rest of the trilogy, early Laurrell K, and most of JK. It helped inspire me to write characters that look like me, be as graphic as I felt necessary, and to allow my darker sense of humor to shine in my work.

"Everything has its price."

-Saetan

 

Dragonball Z: The Vegeta Arc

Dragon Dragon, Rock the Dragon, Dragon Ball Z!

- every English dub fan knows this song

"On our planet, we have something called the Dragonballs." 

-Piccolo 

Sailor Moon was my gateway drug, but Dragon Ball Z (DBZ) is the show that cemented my love for anime forever. 

The first time I watched Dragon Ball Z, I had no idea what was going on. FUNimation's dub was aimed at children, not the older audience DBZ is intended for, so it erased any mention of death or dying in the script. This might not seem like a big deal, but in DBZ, every character dies at least once. Instead of saying they died though, the dub changed it to "they passed on to the next dimension." Because of this change, I mistakenly had the idea that the main characters were dimension hoppers trying to save their friends from some sort of dimension police. That is nothing like the plot of DBZ, but because of my misunderstanding, and the fact that I started watching it in the second arc, I decided that the show was dumb, and went back to Sailor Moon. 

Then a friend found out my love for the sailor suited pretty soldiers. She declared that I would also love Dragonball Z if I started out at the beginning and explained FUNimation's dubbing ways. I followed her advice and found myself obsessed with DBZ to an even greater level than Sailor Moon.

Akira Toriyama's manga and anime, Dragon Ball Z, is actually the second story in the saga of Son Goku, a super powered alien with an IQ slightly higher than cheese. The first series, called Dragon Ball, details his youthful hijinks and constant questing for wish-granting orbs called Dragonballs. Dragon Ball Z picks up several years after its end with mostly the same cast of the characters. But where Dragon Ball was a mostly lighthearted action quest-type comedy with lots of bathroom humor and quirky characters, Dragon Ball Z has less humor, more action, with less emphasis on the quest. 

The Vegeta Saga was the first arc of  Dragon Ball Z. Years after the end of Dragon Ball, the main characters are getting together for the first time. While they are at their party, an alien arrives on Earth and crashes it. This alien is Raditz, Goku's brother, and one of the last of Goku's species. He quickly affirms a suspicion left over from the first series, that Goku is indeed an alien, and explains Goku's presence on Earth. This explanation does not go over well with Goku or his friends and Raditz's subsequent kidnapping of Goku's only son makes the situation even worse. By the fourth episode, Goku has teamed up with his previous arch enemy Piccolo, learned about enemies more powerful than he's ever faced before, and died. Goku and his allies, the Z-fighters, must then train to prepare themselves to defend their world from warriors bent on its destruction and dragonballs: the last remaining members of Goku's species the Saiyans: Nappa and Vegeta.

This series helped me understand that I had a thing for the bad boys. For example, my favorite character is in the picture above. Vegeta is the short one wearing blue. He's the prince of the Saiyans and in the image above he's eating one of the natives of a planet that he and his fellow Saiyan Nappa have just purged of all life. This is typical behavior for him; if he doesn't eat the natives, it's probably because he just destroyed their planet from the atmosphere instead of wasting his time landing and doing it the long way. Arguably the most arrogant character in the entire series, he is obsessed with strength. Vegeta is a murderous sadistic sociopath and the main drive of this arc is defeating him.

 "I am the prince of all Saiyans!"

-Vegeta

Piccolo is another bad boy and an alien as well. His real 'bad guy' deeds happen in the previous series, but in the past he tried to kill Goku and destroy Earth a couple times. In the beginning of the series, none of the other characters trust him though he's on their side, and it doesn't help that he kidnaps Goku's son Gohan as soon as Raditz is out of the picture. Although his focus is on becoming stronger and training Gohan to become stronger so he can defeat Vegeta, with the idea that he will go after Goku as soon as the Saiyan threat is neutralized, he gains protective feelings for Gohan and becomes more of an ally to Goku. 

"It's so rare to find beauty and genius all wrapped up into one tiny package."

-Bulma 

 

I did like some of the main good guys,  Gohan and Bulma to be exact. Gohan gets props because he is four when this series starts and he begins by taking names. His young age is the only reason I forgive all the whining he did in this arc.  Bulma actually ties with Vegeta for my favorite character. She is the smartest character in the entire series as well as the reason that the first series happened. Bulma Briefs is the genius daughter of the president of the most technologically advanced company on Earth, Capsule Corps. She has no fighting power to speak of, but her intelligence and inventions let her stay relevant with the overpowered warriors. She is cocky, sure of herself, and a bit vain, but awesome. 

 

On the other hand, Goku was like the male Sailor Moon, dumb and food obsessed. The only time he was interesting was when he fought and only if he stayed away from his corny as hell Spirit Bomb technique. My love for my favorite characters and the interesting concepts kept me watching this show, not his slow behind.

Dragon Ball Z fueled my imagination just as much as Sailor Moon and I wrote numerous additions to the Z-universe, usually featuring a long lost Saiyan relative or another Saiyan child. These stories were my first delving into researching for a story and I spent many an afternoon looking up obscure character names and people's ages to make my tale more realistic. A few of my stories evolved so much that I made them original works although I've lost them with the downfall of the floppy disc. 

"Those Saiyans aren't here on vacation you know? They wanna take over our planet and sell it. It'll be the end of the world as we know it."

-Bulma

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

The entire Harry Potter craze was running rampant by the time I picked up the first book. I'd heard about it the books being good but despite their praises on the news and the lips of my classmates, I wasn't interested. Even when one of my friends told me she was getting her aunt to pick up the British versions in an attempt to get them faster I remember laughing and thinking that the books she was describing, about a boy wizard and a school for wizardry, did not sound like they were worth that amount of effort. Witches, I would read about, but I had no interest in a male protagonist. 

Harry Potter was below me. 

My mother ended up getting Sorcerer's Stone in a second hand bookstore on sale, just in case. I ignored it at first, but everyone kept on telling me to at least try it. After about a month, I gave in.

I finished it in a day and was forever lost to the fervor that was Potterdom. J. K Rowling catapulted to the top of my list of favorite authors.

We got the rest of the books for Christmas: I locked myself in my room and read all of them in two days.

'This boy will be famous, a legend. I wouldn't be surprised if today was known as Harry Potter day in future. There will be books written about Harry, every child in our world will know his name.'

-Minerva McGonagall.

  Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

This book was all it took to make me a Potterhead for life. The story is nothing new really: a young orphan boy with an unfortunate life learns that he is special, journeys to a new place, makes new friends, and has an adventure. This could be the plot synopsis for any book but Rowling's unique take on witches, wizards, and the society they live in reeled me and millions of others in. Harry Potter's entrance into the wizarding world is the reader's own and he holds you rapt as he navigates this unfamiliar terrain armed with humor and luck, trying to unravel the mystery surrounding him. By the end of the book you are in love with him, Hermione, and Ron; sad that he has to go back to the Dursley's; and desperate for the next book to come out. 

"I hope you're pleased with yourselves. We could all have been killed — or worse, expelled." -Hermione Granger

The humor was my first love in the story. The movies lose this, but Harry is hilarious. His point of view is filled with sarcastic comments and wry observations. The other characters are funny as well, intentionally or not. Ron's speech and actions often bring a smile to the lips as do Dumbledore's. Hermione's dedication to studying and school above all else including life are always good for a laugh. Draco's insults were amusing. And Snape's dry wit had me rolling even when he was putting people down. 

The characters were definitely my next love. Harry was my favorite at first, then the intelligent and bossy Hermione, and then Ron. But I also liked Severus Snape and Draco Malfoy. By my third re-read, the twins, George and Fred, were favorite characters as well. 

The setting was great. Diagon Alley was an interesting way to show how wizards lived among us and separate at the same time and Gringotts was everything you'd expect from a bank run by goblins. I wanted to go to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The school might be ridiculously dangerous, (staircases that change as you walk on them and a forest filled with deadly creatures where you are expected to serve detention) and the Headmaster dangerously lax about students' safety (because there were a million better hiding places for the stone than in a place with children) but I still wanted to be Sorted. I wavered between Slytherin and Ravenclaw as my house of choice. Ravenclaw was the house of the intelligent and studious, but Slytherin was for the cunning and it's students rocked green and silver as their colors.

All of these elements combined to make Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone an unforgettable reading experience and a source of inspiration for me. And the hints and foreshadowing to her future books that Rowling put in it helped make the entire series exceptional. 

'There is no good and evil, there is only power, and those too weak to seek it …"

-Professor Quirell