Fcon countdown!

Exxxxxxxxcellent, Smithers! The Fantasycon programme grid is now up on the website here! Gosh, is that packed or what! Is it me, or are there more parties and readings than ever before? And a disco! And burlesque! And masterclasses!
(And I'm on registration during the Friday & Saturday daytime hours so I'll just gaze wistfully as you all wander past to heckle the panels!)

Friday night, though, peeps of unerring good taste must wander over to Louise Morgan's reading (and make a note to get her book Blood and Feathers when it comes out from Solaris next year - because it is teh awesome!)

Alice in Zombieland

So over on Floor to Ceiling Books is my rambling post on the awesomeness that is Alice from the Resident Evil movies. Go see! ;-P

Resident Evil Rewatch

So, very recently I opened wide my gob and promised the fabulous Amanda Rutter of Floor to Ceiling Books a guest blog post on Alice from Resident Evil. (Which will be online tomorrow. Oo-er!) Now the Resident Evil films may have their flaws but I unashamedly love them anyway – and of all the films in the series, the first one remains my favourite. The Alice/Rain double act is a joy to behold, the visuals are glorious and it's extremely quotable.

But good lord, is it a tease with the set up. I was watching it for the seventy squillionth time the other day and after the verrrrry slow sequence of dude in the haz-mat suit playing with twisty test tubes (and what is it with the twisty test tubes? How is that a sensible design feature?) realised it's thirty seven minutes until you get some actual zombie action! (But then I have the patience of someone with not very much patience so those thirty seven minutes were looooong ones.)

My brain went a little something like this:

00:03:55 - Uh oh, it’s fire drill time. Counting down to total carnage…

00:05:40 – Aaaaand this is why the lifts in convention hotels make me nervous.

00:06:25 – Woah, wait, how is this is the first time I’ve noticed how very identical the suits are that the office drones are wearing. Say bye bye, office drones.

00:07:30 – Nooooooo, silly woman, don’t try and squeeze out of the lift! And, seriously, how on earth do you think you’re getting through that teeny tiny hole anyway? Behave.

00:08:09 – Splat! I'm so not going near the Fcon lifts.

00:08:12 - Enter Leeloo Multipass! In the obligatory nekkid Milla shot.

00:10:30 – Don’t mess with the Milla, she keeps guns in her undie drawer.

00:11:35 - Eeep. There is a Weeping Angel under that there plastic. Do not blink!

00:12:55 - Finally, some excitement! SWAT is in da house!

00:14:40 – Yay, it’s the train from the games! Have to say, one of the things I do love about this film (and something that wasn’t quite followed up so much in the later films) is all the video game elements. The computer vision and map segments are particularly good touches, and the disappearing bodies, while possibly a smidge illogical in places, are a great nod to the magically disappearing corpses in the games.

00:19:30 – Infodump time! With handy computer graphics. Everything is fake and classified, just so you know.

00:22:18 - Okay, that whole underground aboveground office view with bonus traffic noise thing is just disturbing.

00:24:16 – Mermaid! Undead mermaid! Undead mermaid in a lab coat!

(1)

00:29:35 - Uh oh, the Corridor of Doom! Do not enter the Corridor of Doom. No matter how shiny it looks. And especially do not enter it when you’ve just said how you’re going to fry the crazy AI at the other end of it.

00:32:00 - Colin Salmon is such a badass. (Alas, he is now a cubed badass.)



00:35:15 - ‘You’re all going to die down here.’ Love that line!

Plot hole, though. So, there you are, able to actually ask the crazy AI why she killed off a whole facility full of people and at this point, not one person asks the question? Or attempts to get any information about the incident out of her at all? Hello? Anyone? (Also, calling the Red Queen a crazy AI does, technically, do her a bit of a disservice as the whole facility lock down thing was perfectly logical given the insane communicability of the T-virus. Though she can totally put the crazy pants back on later when she unleashes the Licker…)

00:37:35 - Fiiiiiiinally, some zombie action!


00:38:45 ‘We found a survivor.’ ‘And you shot him?’ Hah!

00:40:00 - Bring on the zombie hoards!

00:46:55 - And this is why I hate dogs - I remain secretly convinced that behind every fluffy puppy is one of these waiting to rip your throat out. Now if I could just learn to do that very awesome running up a wall kick move…



00:56:00 – Annnnnnd, finally they start asking the very sensible questions…

00:59:50 - Alice kicks ass, as only Alice can.

01:02:00 – Pipe walking over the zombie hoards. See, this? Is exactly what you need during a zombie apocalypse. Stay above them! (Unless there's a Licker nearby, then you're screwed.)

01:06:18 – ‘When I get out of here, I think I’m gonna get laid.’ ‘Yeah. You might wanna clean up a little bit first.’ Hah!

01:10:30 – And this is why you never put your gun down on random tables…

01:12:01 – And this is why you shouldn’t indulge in evil overlord monologues…

01:14:12 – The Red Queen’s been a bad, bad girl. And has now got her crazy pants well and truly on. (And, incidentally, is it me or does Spence look just a little too professional at the shooting up thing. Umbrella are really not doing their background checks are they?)



01:18:18 - And is there any logical reason why you would have a bunch of random metal poles just hanging from the middle of your cargo train? Really? (Apart from the obvious monster killing usage?)

01:20:54 – ‘I’m not dead yet.’ (Alas, poor Rain, don't speak too soon...)

01:25:34 – They’re coming to take you away… (eeew, tentacle arm!)

01:28:24 - Luckily being head of security for the Hive means knowing how to disable the very expensive high tech locks with only a medical needle thingy. (While wearing only two bits of strategically placed paper held together with string.)

01:29:15 – And yet, somehow, that very empty hospital hallway is even creepier than if it had been filled with bodies…

01:29:43 - Okay, I do get the sly reference, but seriously though, when, during their zombie apocalypse, did they have time to put out a newspaper detailing it? Would they not have been a bit busy with the whole screaming in terror and eating of brainzzzzz?

Ah logic, we knew you not. Never mind, in the next one there's more ass-kicking, the legendary (oh yes it is) motorbike scene and the delectable Oded Fehr...


(1) Pic from http://www.cinemorgue.com/annabolt.html

Academic Jollies

So, it being September (it's September! So soon!) means that the next batch of OU courses are kicking in. Woohoo! Was initially a little worried about being able to do stuff, what with the insane price rises due to bastard!government!practices! but, luckily, the OU is keeping prices stable for peeps already in the midst of studying degrees. (Newbies, however, are totally buggered. Unless they happen to have a won a lottery or two.)

Anyhoo, this still-friendly pricing means I can happily continue on with the next course in the History BA - Exploring History: Medieval to Modern. Not my favourite era as I'm more an ancient history kinda gal, but on the plus side, shiny new information! (And a scary exam in June! Arrrgh! Must refine my (lack of) revision skills!)

Plus, just for fun, there's the short science courses. Given that I hated science at school this is probably a slightly twisted definition of fun. (Also I'd quite like to write some decent SF one day so a basic understanding of that there science thing might be helpful...)

So, right now I'm doing a shortie Human Nutrition course (and getting a crash course in the chemical composition of stuff) which is actually quite fascinating and fodder for dropping all kinds of 'and did you know' into random conversations with the parentals. (They did not, in fact, know, and are also quite fascinated. Which is nice.)

Then once the scary history exam is done and my brain's clear from nasty revision stuff, there's a couple of environmental science shorties I can squeeze in for doing over the summer break. I say couple, but actually there's four I've got my eye on but what gets done will depend on finances at the time.

Then come next September it's the Empire history course with a couple more shortie science courses and possibly the shortie Welsh history course fitted around it. Then 2013... (yes, I have planned that far ahead. That I've got a spreadsheet going to do so will surprise no-one I know.) ... 2013 will be From Enlightenment to Romanticism, with more shortie science things. Then after that, all I need to finish the degree will be Myth in the Greek & Roman worlds and Exploring the Classical World. (More scary exams! Double argh!)

Fun times!

Shiny Shorts: The Thief of Precious Things

The Thief of Precious Things by A.C. Wise

"The world has been still too long, crows above, foxes below, and men somewhere in between."

There is a glass tower in the city, a place where the humans congregate and work on secret things, but fox-girls have a habit of getting into secret things - especially when there's Crow Lords to get the better of.

There is a fox-girl who dared what her sisters wouldn't and had her name stolen from her. She breached the tower but those memories, too, have escaped her and now what she found and what she stole is wanted by humans and Crow Lords alike.

There are a man and a woman whose goodwill and need for peace get them tangled up in trickster games, and when you play with tricksters, change is inevitable.

I'll confess, I have a thing for trickster tales and this one is a rather glorious example. It's about freedom and becoming something else and shaking the world up when its gotten stuck in a rut. This latter can be seen particularly by the division between the two trickster races - the brotherhood of Crow Lords get authority (and capitalisation) while the sisterhood of fox-girls have submission as one of their recognisable natural attributes; a display of extremes that illustrates the need for something a little more balanced if things are to move forward.

Our fox-girl protag makes for a heroine who is both charming and daring, as she gets herself into trouble then finangles her way out of it and the changes wrought in her wake promise interesting times ahead. While the Crow Lords are identikit ciphers, the human support, Yuki and Ani, have character enough to make you care about their divergent needs and fates.

Thief is set in a post-apocalyptic world but it has the kind of enchanting storytelling that can be found in the best Charles de Lint. Definitely a world to which the author should return to as I'd love to read more stories set here. All in all, a fantastic tale.


Found in Bewere the Night, ed. Ekaterina Sedia
Published in April 2011 by Prime books, $14.95 (or thereabouts) from assorted retailers.
More about A.C. Wise here.

30 Days of Genre - Masterlist!

Alrighty then, so that was the 30 Days of Genre!

Started by Bibliotropic and picked up by such funky peeps as Floor to Ceiling Books, The Erudite Ogre, A Fantastical Librarian and SMZb (go check out their answers!) - here's the 30 Days (and then some) that was:

Questions:

Day 1 – Very first genre novel.
Day 2 – Your favourite character.
Day 3 – A genre novel that is underrated.
Day 4 – Your guilty pleasure book.
Day 5 – Character you feel you are most like (or wish you were).
Day 6 – Most annoying character.
Day 7 – Favourite couple in a genre novel.
Day 8 – Best fan soundtrack.
Day 9 – Saddest scene in a genre novel.
Day 10 – Best writing style, or the style that resonates most with you.
Day 11 – Favourite genre series
Day 12 – A genre novel everyone should read.
Day 13 – A genre novel you’ve read more than five times.
Day 14 – Favourite book trailer from a genre novel.
Day 15 – The cover from your current (or most recent) genre read.
Day 16 – Genre novel with the most intriguing plot
Day 17 – Favourite antagonist.
Day 18 – Favourite protagonist.
Day 19 – World/setting you wish you lived in
Day 20 – Favourite genre.
Day 21 – Genre novel with the most interesting character interactions
Day 22 – A sequel which disappointed you.
Day 23 – Genre novel you haven't read, but wish you had
Day 24 – Favourite classic genre novel.
Day 25 – A genre novel you plan on reading soon.
Day 26 – Best hero.
Day 27 – Most epic scene ever.
Day 28 – Favourite publisher of genre novels.
Day 29 – A genre novel you thought you wouldn’t like, but ended up loving.
Day 30 – Your favourite genre novel of all time.

30 Days of Genre - Day 30

Day 30 – Your favourite genre novel of all time.

Charles de Lint - Spirit Walk.



My first De Lint, and a rather lovely one to be getting going with. There's something very appealing about Tamson House with it's eclectic community of people and the close merging with the spirit world. I love the mixture of Celtic and Native American mythology that gets woven in, the characters are lovely - particularly Esmeralda Foylan and Whiskey Jack - and there's just so many beautiful elements to it that taken as a whole it becomes this enchanting patchwork story that hits something deep.

30 Days of Genre - Day 29

Day 29 – A genre novel you thought you wouldn’t like, but ended up loving.

Hannu Rajaniemi - The Quantum Thief



It's hard SF. I don't do hard SF. And yet... I landed a copy that had to be read for BFS purposes, so, I read it expecting not to understand word one... but, actually, it's quite an easy read. It's got an excellently conceived world, with some fab character interactions. The detective story elements hang together beautifully, it's brain twisting and has a thoroughly enthralling story. And, just generally, it's bloody fantastic.

30 Days of Genre - Day 28

Day 28 – Favourite publisher of genre novels.

Ooh, there's a dangerous question! Gotta be a flip between Orbit and Angry Robot who both have a knack of picking up some excellent authors and make their lovelies available on Kindle. That last is now a very important factor in my book buying decisions and publishers as I'll hesitate over physical copies of books but show me a nicely priced e-book (of any format) and I'm in there.

So - Orbit - manage to come out with scads loads of cool series ranging from the urban fantasy to trad fantasy stuff to funky space sci-fi/space opera - their books tend to make for great comfort reading and there's so many of them! Meanwhile, Angry Robot is just plain fun and have a knack for putting out all kinds of the off-the-wall stuff.

30 Days of Genre - Day 27

Day 27 – Most epic scene ever.

How do you judge epic, anyway? Do you go for the wide sweeping epicness such as, well, pretty much the whole of David Gemmell's Legend. (Which is the cheat's way of saying that I can't find my copy to pinpoint a particular scene, but I do distinctly remember that there was plenty to be found in the epic scene department.)

Or do you go for the 'OMG, that was so epically cool' aspect? Because in that case it would be that scene in Deadline, which I'm not going to spoil, but if you've read it, you know the one I mean. Chapter 27. The Coda. It's short and a total gut punch, coming, as it does, after the characters had been adjusting to the world as it was, and then, everything changes... (Damn you, Mira Grant!)