Elijah David

We're officially into the autumn season and October (and Inktober*) has begun. That means our household is in for our annual spooky/Halloween/autumn movie marathon. One of our favorites to bring out this time of year is M. Night Shyamalan's The Village . It's been at least a year, if not several, since I last watched this one but it still makes me happy as both a consumer and creator of stories. However, it's not perfect, so I want to talk about what I (still) love and what doesn't quite work for me after all these years. Love: Ivy and Lucius These two are the heart of this movie (along with Ivy's father), and they are a demonstration of Shyamalan's ability to craft strong characters beset by extraordinary circumstances. Ivy is brave, but still experiences almost crippling fear. Lucius is passionate, but has trouble expressing that passion. Their story unfolds slowly but elegantly, and the climax of emotion and wit that is "the porch scene"...

In the words of the indomitable Samwise Gamgee, "Well, I'm back." Sorry for the unexpected absence of the last couple months. I experienced an unexpected career change earlier this year and while the transition has been fairly smooth, I haven't had a lot of blogging in me. I've told myself to just take the plunge and get back to it, but it took Mirriam's awesome autumn tag to finally get me back here. So without further ado, the Autumn Tag: Favorite Autumn Activity Walking. I love walking in the autumn when the air is crisp and smells of woodsmoke and dead leaves and the promise of adventure. There's a certain kind of wanderlust that appears in autumn that isn't always about reaching faraway lands but sometimes just about getting 'round the corner. Favorite Autumn Music The Harry Potter soundtracks, the Nightmare Before Christmas soundtrack, the Lord of the Rings  film soundtracks Spooky or Cozy Autumn Both? Probably more cozy than...

Well, it's finally happened, friends. We have reached the (current) end of the Queen's Thief/Attolia series. Now, since Megan Whalen Turner is already working on book six, this isn't the final conclusion, but it's the furthest we can read for now. Thick as Thieves continues Turner's trend of opening up a new perspective on the world of Attolia with each new book. This time, we're treated to a Mede perspective--specifically that of Kamet, slave and secretary to former Mede ambassador Nahuseresh (antagonist of The Queen of Attolia ). Kamet is recovering from his master's response being passed over for a small governance in the country when an Attolian soldier appears offering him an escape from the empire. Kamet, ever the proper slave, laughs in his face and decides the Attolian doesn't know him well at all. Then his master is poisoned; Kamet is the obvious suspect, so he flees, hoping to get out of the city before he's caught. He runs in...

I can remember when A Conspiracy of Kings was gearing up for release. Everyone I knew who'd read the first three Attolia books was on tenterhooks because we were finally getting Sophos back into the story after two books and lots of unhappy hints in The King of Attolia . Sadly, this is the last of these beautiful covers, since Greenwillow changed the styles for Thick as Thieves . Then the book came out, and we all felt a little let down by it. Not that the story wasn't good; it just felt a little flat after the brilliant intrigue novel that was KoA. On this reading, I went in knowing that it was a slower book. A book that wasn't meant to be filled with court politics in the same way as its predecessor. Instead, ACoK is a character novel. Not a character novel in the sense of many "literary" novels that follow a character's "growth" and generally bore the public to tears (something they'd never admit to their book clubs). A character no...

After finishing The Queen of Attolia last week, I picked up its sequel, The King of Attolia almost immediately. The twists and turns of QoA's finale left me craving more, and boy does KoA deliver more. The King of Attolia picks up where its predecessor left off: with the marriage of Irene (Queen of Attolia) and Eugenides (Gen, Thief of Eddis, now King of Attolia or Attolis). After offering glimpses of the wedding night from various parties within and without the Attolian capitol, the story moves to Costis, a young squad leader in the Queen's Guard. He's in trouble, you see. He punched Gen for baiting Teleus, the Captain of the Guard. By rights, Costis should be executed. But Gen has other plans. He makes Costis a lieutenant and assigns him to be Gen's personal guard and sparring partner. It makes Costis' life difficult, but his brothers in arms support him in his trials. No one in Attolia likes Gen, except his wife. Everyone sees him as a buffoon...

And yes, that is a Tow'rs reference. Go listen . I just finished rereading The Queen of Attolia (only a year after I reread The Thief in hopes of reading the whole series again before getting to Thick as Thieves ). As I plotted out how to do this month's ThrowBook Thursday post (delayed from last week due to a sick Samwise, who's now on the mend), I realized that I'd already used QoA for last year's TBT in May . I'm pretty sure I blinked. Then I laughed. Then I said, "What the heck, let's review it again anyway." Everything I said last year remains true (minus me thinking QoA has multiple myths; it just has the one). But I want to add a few things that I appreciated even more on this, my third time through the book: Eugenides and his sass. "I'll stop shouting, but I won't sit down. I might need to throw more ink bottles." Attolia and everything we learn about her history Ruby earrings (if you've read the books,...

I've previously written about my love for Dan Wells' John Cleaver books, specifically the third in the series, I Don't Want to Kill You . I finally picked up book 4 (after saying recently that I probably wouldn't get to it till later this year; my reading muse is a fickle beast) and let me tell you: Dan Wells (still) isn't pulling any punches. After reading the novella/short story "Next of Kin" that (sort of) bridges the two John Cleaver trilogies, I wasn't expecting this book to pick up where it did. John has left Clayton to work with the FBI in tracking down the Withered -- the demons of the previous books -- but life isn't all that great. He doesn't actually get to kill the Withered, which means that his usual routine of getting to know a Withered's weakness and then put them down is disrupted, providing him with all of the build-up and none of the release. What's more, his teammates don't exactly see him as trustworthy,...

I didn't get around to uploading more art last month, so here's the rest of the AprilFae pieces, along with some other projects I've had going in the last couple of weeks. The AprilFae pics got loaded all out of order, so I'm just going to tell you what the prompt was and what I was aiming for rather than which day it was for. This one was "faerie fruit" and I thought an acorn was the most faerie fruit. I did a little postcard with an acorn, a pebble, and a dandelion seed. This is a little trading card for "spellbound." I wanted to do something related to Sleeping Beauty, which led me to thorns, and somehow that led to a ring of thorns. This is another postcard, this time for "harebells" (which are the flowers). I couldn't quite get the idea of an actual hare and an actual bell out of my head, so we wound up with this strange little picture: These are two bookmarks, one for "goblin egg" and the...

Last week I picked up a book I'd heard about but never looked into for myself: A Monster Calls . I'd recently bought a copy at our local used book store and after some rousing recommendations from friends I decided I wanted to read it sooner rather than later. Reader beware: SPOILERS abound. It's the movie cover, but it's gorgeous and it's the copy I read. A Monster Calls has one of the best opening lines I've read in a while: "The monster shows up just after midnight. As they do." (Apparently, this is something of a trope in stories now; follow-up a sentence about extraordinary things with the statement "as you/they do" as though it's perfectly normal. I've heard it used that way in real life, but this was the first time I encountered it in fiction.) From there we're introduced to Conor, a 13-year-old boy with a cancer-stricken mum (this is the UK after all) and a recurring nightmare whose ending he won't even l...

Back in January I listed the books in my TBR pile/shelf that I was most looking forward to reading. This month, I'm going to update that list because a) I have read a few from that list and b) my reading desires change with the hour. Cold Days by Jim Butcher Now that I've read Changes and Ghost Story (and have given myself some time to recuperate), I'm ready to dive into the next Dresden Files book. I'm really interested to see where the series goes after the stunning duo that was books 12 and 13. A Report from Group 17 by Robert C. O'Brien This is the last book in the O'Brien read/watch series, and I've partly been holding off on it because after this, there will be no more new-to-me O'Brien books. Yes, there are the NIMH sequels written by his daughter, but still. I'm going to read it because I need to finish the series, but please don't be upset if it takes me a little longer. The Witchwood Crown by Tad Williams I t...

The title seems like a lot, but I'll try to keep it tidy. First off, I finished reading a book for the first time in almost a month. Second, I completely missed a (couple of) review(s) at the end of March. Bad me. Anyway, here's to catching up. Reviews Hellboy Vol. 6 This collects two shorter stories following Hellboy's departure from the BPRD in volume 5. The first follows Hellboy's encounter with a trip of mermaids, who strike deals with a sea witch to gain their revenge on our hero. Needless to say, it doesn't end well for them. There's some really great heart in this story as there usually is in Mignola's stories. The other story follows in the aftermath of the first and features the return of Hecate, queen of witches. She tries to convince Hellboy to embrace his destiny. Again. As usual, he'll have none of it, though the epilogue makes it clear that he's going to have to face that destiny one way or another. (I also read t...

Yesterday's prompt for the April Fae art challenge was Portal. Since I've been doing a poem a day this month as well as the art challenge, I started brainstorming what a portal poem might be like -- and what portals have been special to me over the years. The tendency in fantasy movies and shows like Once Upon a Time is to have a swirling vortex as the gateway between worlds. (I'm not immune to this image. In fact, the main method of inter-world travel in the Non de Velai books is a shimmering silver pool, though it often appears between two trees.) But the portals that appear in fiction are often more varied than that. The first portal stories I can remember seeing were The Wizard of Oz and Alice in Wonderland . The portals in these stories are naturally occurring phenomena: a tornado/twister/cyclone (whatever term you prefer) and a rabbit hole. While tornadoes weren't common where I grew up (outside of hurricane season), holes in the ground were common enoug...

Yes, I know this is a ThrowBook Thursday post, and therefore it's supposed to be about a book that's stayed with me over the years. But I honestly wasn't sure which one book to talk about this month, and I thought I could revisit my top 10 books. Only I haven't actually done a top 10 books post. I've done posts on my top 10 books to reread , top 10 fantasy books , top 10 non-fantasy/sci-fi books , and even top 100-ish books . So today I'm going to do a Top 10 Books post, with an emphasis on why these books have stayed with me. These are the books that I would choose if I had to choose only ten books to be able to read for the rest of my life. Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell One of my perennial favorites, this novel is the perfect mixture of fantasy and so-called "literary" fiction. It blends the humor and social commentary of authors like Austen and Dickens with the magic of Tolkien. It has spiritual, moral, and emotional depth. It features cr...