Ok, maybe not HEART, but I have been completely swept away. I must say, these books are even more engaging than Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar novels, and for me that's saying something. Seriously.
If you have any ANY interest in fantasy novels I highly recommend Anne Bishop's Black Jewels series. Definitely not for children, this adult fantasy (and by adult I don't mean porn). Brutal is the best word I have for her work, in the sense that you simply cannot put them down once you've been hooked, and that hook gets you in the first chapter. Dark but not overly gothic, violent but not overly bloody, and sexy but not generally explicit...I bought the Black Jewels trilogy a few years ago in a single book and somehow lost it during one of our moves. I picked them up again at hte library a few weeks ago and have completely given up on TV while the series is in my house (now 6 books: the original trilogy, a stand alone novel set a few centuries earlier, a book of novellas in various time periods, and a follow-up novel). The main characters? Sataen, Lucivar, and Daemon SaDiablo. That's right peeps, they're the heroes. It's awesome. What a pathetic word to use in a review, especially by someone who supposedly has some affinity for writing, but I honestly can't come up with anything better. Most Excellent, as Roberto would say. Most Excellent.
www.annebishop.com
I will own every one of her novels by this time next year. I guarantee it.
Tuesday, April 08, 2008
Sunday, April 06, 2008
History Channel: The Great Misinformer
I was so irked at The History Channel today I had to send them a comment. We're watching a show that's supposed to investigate whether Cleopatra actually killed herself using a famous FBI Profiler and modern forensics. I think it's a great idea. Except for the same glaring issue that plagues ALL of the History Channel shows: Christian-value based experts who assume ancient peoples had the same social mores and values that we do now.
Guess what Pat Brown: Suicide WAS NOT a last resort by a person in extreme pain in Cleopatra's time. Suicide was a better option for Cleopatra than being paraded by Octavian as a war prize in front of the entire roman population, only to rot in prison forever or be killed in the games as Vercingetorix was. Christianity took such a dim view of suicide because it WAS seen as an honorable, viable alternative to being killed by the state, and suiciding would take away martyrdom, becuase by killing yourself you take your fate out of God's hands.
Sometimes I really love the History Channel for bringing ancient knowledge to light for the average person. most of the time I hate it for being inaccurate and using experts who don't bother to learn any of the history before they comment on something.
ARGH!!!
I fully accept that killing herself with a snake is unlikely and probably part of the mythology of Cleopatra, but having an expert say she wasn't the type to kill herself at all is just damn idiotic. Of course she doesn't fit the modern profile of a suicide: she wasn't a modern woman. Idiots. Ignorant fools.
Guess what Pat Brown: Suicide WAS NOT a last resort by a person in extreme pain in Cleopatra's time. Suicide was a better option for Cleopatra than being paraded by Octavian as a war prize in front of the entire roman population, only to rot in prison forever or be killed in the games as Vercingetorix was. Christianity took such a dim view of suicide because it WAS seen as an honorable, viable alternative to being killed by the state, and suiciding would take away martyrdom, becuase by killing yourself you take your fate out of God's hands.
Sometimes I really love the History Channel for bringing ancient knowledge to light for the average person. most of the time I hate it for being inaccurate and using experts who don't bother to learn any of the history before they comment on something.
ARGH!!!
I fully accept that killing herself with a snake is unlikely and probably part of the mythology of Cleopatra, but having an expert say she wasn't the type to kill herself at all is just damn idiotic. Of course she doesn't fit the modern profile of a suicide: she wasn't a modern woman. Idiots. Ignorant fools.
Tuesday, April 01, 2008
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