Look at this.

This my friends is Reason Number.... (uhm, well I don't actually know which number I've gotten to but be assured it is quite high) Why I Want to Live in the UK. I have a very short list of things that I get ridiculously fangirl-y about and Chris Wooding is hanging out near the top with Death Cab for Cutie. Retribution Falls: Tales of the Ketty Jay comes out in JUNE.

Fangirlishly screaming,

Medeia

P.S. I would gladly sell my soul for an ARC...so if you happened to get your hands on one...

*is speechless*

Cry of the Icemark and Blade of Fire were speechless-making, it's true. The ohmygodthisissofreakinAMAZINGhowhaveIlivedwithoutthis? kind of speechless. So I wasn't planning on reviewing The Last Battle of the Icemark because this is one of those series that you just expect to be 100% made of awesome. So I got through the first chapter... and was disconcerted....and then I read the second... and the third... and it was AWFUL. This is legitimately terrible. After a while I just put it down (as one would a rabid kitten) and moved my mouth but no words came out. All I can say is: WHAT HAPPENED?!

oh dear...

I've decided that in order to do everything I need to do, I'm going to start lurking around the library during my free time (hah, free time... that's a good one) and kill-- I mean, wait patiently for a free spot in the computer room.

I logged into blogger for the first time in a forever and saw that there are many many posts for me to read and so if I don't right at this second (13 minutes until they'll yell at me to start shelving some books) I will at some point.

On another (completely random) note, there are a lot of series that need to die. Like, they were great when there were, oh, say 3 books (or even in some cases, a single novel) and now it's just kind of *yawn* "What, there's a new {insert series name here} book out? Really? I'll probably mean to read that, get halfway through, decide it's really not as good as the first and leave it on that conveniently placed table for Q weeks until the library calls and asks why I'm holding it hostage."

Only bringing this up because the other day (which was... three weeks ago...) Aella and I trekked to the bookstore... okay no. We trekked to the movie theater to see Coraline and just happened to stop in at the bookstore. The movie was GREAT... the failbat displays in the store, not so much. I mean come on! Twilight on one side and Eragon on the other... ugh...*hunts for matches*. And also, we found an entire floor-to-ceiling shrine to the Goddesses of Agressive Vapidity... who I'm sure are vampires... since everyone else seems to be these days. Even in the CAFE we couldn't escape the vampire-ness.

*Aella and I wait in line for scrumptious looking Reeses cookies*
Woman at nearby table: "No no. Robert's not a vampire... he just doesn't like the sun..."
*We glance at each other, knowing that we both heard the same thing, and burst into gales of laughter*
*Woman gives us a strange look*

We really need to go there more often. P'raps help them out with some of their display choices *mischievous smile*

Don't expect much from me for a while

My computer, faithful (if frustrating) piece of technology, has handed in its resignation letter. Turns out, it didn't like when I tried to run Word, Photoshop, iTunes, and the internet all at the same time. I mistakenly thought that it made the "I'm chewing on screwdrivers" noise because it was happy ...like a cat purring.

~Medeia

Dilemma

Do you ever get the feeling that you know something from somewhere but you don't know what it is?

Wow, I'm articulate. NOT.

It's kind of like when you're watching a movie and you see an actor and you're like "Oh, what movie do I know him from?" That sort of thing happens to me a lot (and I've gotten really good at the name-another-character-played-by-that-actor-whose-name-I-don't-know game). Today for example.

We just got in a copy of The Fetch by.... *lacks Aella's uncanny ability to name the author of any book she's ever read* .... you know, the one that wrote A Certain Slant of Light... ugh. Fine. *Googles* Laura Whitcomb, that's it. And I know I've read a book which mentions fetches before. I've been google-ing and wikipedia-ing for about an hour now, trying to find out what it is.

I think it could be from:

- one of the Wheel of Time books by Robert Jordan (but not really, I'm pretty sure those are Fades....)
- Foundling by... that guy... who draws and writes.... *sighs and googles* D. M. Cornish. But it's probably just one of those technical terms that abound in that book and isn't really what I'm talking about at all.


So if anyone knows of any books with Fetches in them, I'd greatly appreciate it if you'd share. And also, I'll probably read The Fetch and review it because it looks interesting. I hope it's not like a Certain Slant of Light which I liked in the beginning but then didn't at the end.

Something I love

is when there's a book, and it's great (maybe even amazing), but then you read something else and finally get one of the parallels that were totally invisible before.

So we're reading Frankenstein in my english class and I'm finally getting more out of Storm Thief. I loved the book before, but now it's like there's a whole 'nother level that I never even noticed. I was spacing out about it through the entire class just thinking "that's so COOL". And I finally read the Rime of the Ancient Mariner and understand the significance of the Vago's seagull necklace.

Also, Frankenstein is pretty fantastic. I freakin' love British lit.

~Medeia

And the bookmoviefail CONTINUES

Oh you thought it was over. That we wouldn't get together again and watch yet ANOTHER horribleawful book movie. Well you were wrong. *evil/insane laughter ensues* What is it this time? The Golden Compass!!

So first off, daemons. I never realized just how many animals would be terribly awkward to have as a daemon. Most animals actually. Having a flamingo? Or a giraffe? Or a spider?! What if someone stepped on it? That would be the WORST. Imagine it, people would just be dying all over the place because they steppped on an ant or something that was someone's daemon. And don't they find it weird that it's all "OHMYGOD that boy doesn't have a daemon!!" but in every scene with the witches, you don't see a single one and it's totally normal.

Also, we noticed that there was a slight imbalance in the budget for this movie. They spent a ton on the gorgeous three-second scenery shots but then remembered that they had to pay for actors... enter Dakota Blue Richards. And I love how they completely screwed up the ending. Everything was shuffled around so I kept getting confused. And then at the end Roger definitely isn't dead and they fly off into the sunset. *headdesk*

Off to watch the Neverending Story 2 (which I believe Aella will post about on her blog soon),

Medeia

PS My favorite part from the book actually made it into the movie. I was incredibly happy.

Epic bookmoviefailcakes

Scary, isn't it?

I stayed at Aella's for New Year's Eve... and New Year's Day... and most of the day after that, actually... aanyways, on January 1st, 2009 (still getting used to the whole '09 thing):

Me: *is on computer... blogging or something*
Aella: "Oooh, I know what we should do!" *pulls out Stormbreaker DVD*
Me: "Isn't that....as in...--"
Aella: "The Alex Rider series, yes"
Me: "Hmmm..." *looks at cover...* "Okay"
[note: Alex Pettyfer is on the cover.]

Unsurprisingly, there were some (well, quite a few) moments where Aella and I just had to say, with puzzled expressions, "What?" and pause and rewind to see it again. We also did it because some of those fight scenes look incredibly funny (and awkward) backwards.

Some of those moments:

• Ian Rider's car (super spy BMW) has a license plate with R1D3R on it. Yeah sure, Agent 00Fail, I'm sure no one will notice that it's your last name.
• Alex Rider teleporting back to get his bike and then chasing down a creepy white van. During the chase, every cliche thing you can do with a bike (like sliding under things all dramatic-like) happens. And then once he gets to the junkyard where they've taken his uncle's things (including his BMW) he crouches behind his bike as though it's going to hide him from the scary junkyard workers as he follows the van.
• The junkyard workers ambush him and they're all scary men with shaved heads wiping old car parts with rags. Every single one.
  
• Alan Blunt (see above picture) randomly, suddenly, and disturbingly popping up when you least expect it and making weird dramatic hand gestures.
• Alex is inside the Stormbreaker computer (when they don't know he's a secret agent or anything, mind you) and strikes up a random conversation with a scary Swedish woman. "My father was murdered, and I'm going to find out who killed him" She responds, "Not today you won't."
  

And this isn't even all of it. If you ever have nothing to do and just want to laugh at the awfulness of a movie, watch Stormbreaker. It just takes it past awful and into hilarious. Especially because Alex Pettyfer only got the role for his looks, not his acting ability.

Hugging her copy of The Dark Knight,

Medeia