Platypus of Truth

Hi all, Josh Kenfield has begun posting a new webcomic written in collaboration with Alex Zalben.  I'm a big fan of Kenfield's work (and he is a friend of mine) so I'm excited to see where this will go.  So, if you want to see what happens when you throw a teddy bear into the land of Film Noir, just click the link .

So, what else shall we talk about?  Contrary to what my blog may lead you to believe, I don't sit around all day reading Terry brooks and trying to recover my lost childhood.  Life goes on and there are other things to be interested in.  Recently, my wife and I decided that it was time to go back and read Jane Eyre together.  Jane Eyre was the first book my wife and I read together after we were married and it was also my mother's favorite book for years and years.  I first encountered it in tenth grade at a time when most of my subsequent literary tastes were being formed (I'd already gotten to know Tolkien and Homer, and was just meeting Tennyson) and I've loved it ever since.  Subsequent readings always bring out some new treasure and here are a few of the things we've noticed thus far(we're about half way through): 1. Blanche Ingram shares many similarities of person and personality with Bertha Mason.  In selecting her to make Jane jealous, is Mr. Roch

Evidently there are a series of concept drawings created by Katsuya Terada for the first few Legend of Zelda games that have been floating around the internet (for how long before I discovered them I'm not sure).  I have to echo what I hear wherever these pictures turn up: this is the game as I imagined it when I was a kid.  There's something haunting and spacious about Katsuya Terada's images that captures all the feelings of mystery and adventure that came with playing a Zelda game.  The art that was actually released with the booklets for the games is far more "cartoony" and "safe."  Of course, the original games were made with children in mind and it makes sense that the marketing team would prefer brighter and more cartoon-like images.  What interests me, however, is that if these pictures were in fact used as concept art for the games why was there one set of visuals (a much more mature and visually arresting set) for the programers and a very diff

Today's discussion of Terry Brooks' The Druid of Shannara brings us up to chapter 8.  As always, don't read on if you're worried about spoilers. Once Quickening has done her requisite miracle in restoring the Meed Gardens, she then calls her disciples to her.  Three is a nice archetypal number, and it's much easier to handle three characters than twelve.  These guys aren't out to spread the good news, however, but to find relics and fight monsters.  Hellboy would be proud.  Anyhow, getting disciple number two means busting Morgan Leah out of jail.  It also means that we discover pretty quickly the Pe Ell (Pet Eel), has control issues.  As a pay-off, however, we get to see a nice flashback to a conversation with Rimmer Dal.  Once Morgan's out of the pen, we get a brief glimpse of Walker Boh trying to cure himself of the Asphinx's ("a sphinx," "not-sphinx," *anasphinxeus?) poison before we cut over to Coll Ohmsford and more Rimmer

It's Friday morning, the piano (a hundred year old Hardman and Peck baby grand) is being tuned in the next room, I have my toast and tea and it's time to blog.  So... What shall we blog about? Well, at the top of today's list is Terry Brooks' The Druid of Shannara .  Having advanced to somewhere around chapter 4 (the book is upstairs and I don't want to disturb the piano tuner to get it), let's continue our rambling discussion of this second book in the Heritage of Shannara Series. After finding out that the King of the Silver River so loved the Eastland that he sent his one and only daughter that whosoever meets her will get warm eco-fuzzies, we move on to Morgan Leah (don't worry, I will get back to the warm eco-fuzzies).  Morgan has now firmly detatched from Par and Coll's orbit and seems to be spinning towards Walker Boh.  This is an interesting and probably wise choice since the Highlander doesn't seem to be able to develop much as a charact

My efforts to live blog my way through Terry Brooks' Heritage Series continues with The Druid of Shannara .  This is the book in the series that I remember least from my childhood readings: a few characters and a couple of plot points at most.  I'll be interested to see if I can determine why that's the case on this read through.  Before we begin, however, I thought it would be best to restate my reasons for writing this series of posts.  I haven't read anything by Terry Brooks since Jr. High with the exception of The Sword of Shannara (which I worked my way through on a plane trip back from Oxford).  Over the years, I kept meeting people who had read the books and liked them, but I was increasingly unable to remember anything.  I've also always been interested in writing and Terry Brooks is one of the real success stories of the Fantasy Genre over the last thirty years (I believe every book he has published has been a New York Times Bestseller).  So, last summer

Utnapishtim sat upon his rock and his disciple stood at his feet and was listening to all the words that Utnapishtim was saying from out of his wisdom.  Now the time of afternoon meal came upon them and Utnapishtim bid his disciple to be seated on the grass.  Then he drew forth a fish and divided it with his disciple and bade him eat saying: "Eat of this fish, oh my disciple, for Utnapishtim would be as this fish and would you not be as Utnapishtim?  Now learn from this fish for it has its beginnings here in the waters of my Lake but when its youthly-vigor and its power come upon it then it follows the Great River to the Sea and becomes a creature of the Sea, but when the time comes it returns from the Sea even to the waters of the Lake where it was born.  Does it not know the Lake because it knows the Sea; does it not know the Sea because it knows the Lake; does it not know the Great River from striving against it?" Then the disciple of Utnapishtim was silent and pondere

This review of Terry Brooks' The Scions of Shannara will take us up to the end of the book.  I intend to continue these reviews with the next book in the series The Druid of Shannara . *Spoiler Alert* I want to start with plot structure because it is such a fundamental test of an author's ability.  Watching Brooks grow as a writer over more than a decade reveals just how much work the man was willing to put into his craft and how much he was able to grow through practice, guidance, and determination.  Great writers may be born, but good writers can certainly be made.  If they choose to write light fiction for entertainment, that's their choice.  Anyhow, I think it's only fit to start out this final review of The Scions of Shannara by saying that it reaches a new level.  No longer is Brooks writing "Hardy Boys meets Tolkien," this novel stands, modestly, on its own two legs.  So, that said, let's talk plot structure. In the end, we move from a st

Today's post brings us from chapter 24 to the beginning of chapter 28.  These books have been out for around twenty years, but I still feel obliged to say: *Spoiler Warning* In this section, Brooks ups the narritive ante by moving from two interlacing stories (Walker Boh and the Ohmsford Brothers) to three (Walker Boh, The Ohmsford Brothers, Morgan Leah).  So far, the cord of three strands is holding.  This increased narrative complexity comes as The Scions of Shannara moves towards its climax.  As this is the first book in a series of four, that climax is bound to be a cliff-hanger; indeed, three cliff-hangers.  If Brooks can pull it off that will be a great beginning for the series.  Meantime, lets take a brief look at each thread. The Ohmsford thread, given the age of its protagonists, is bound to be the mature.  I wish I could remember as a Jr. Higher which thread interested me the most.  I'd wager it was watching the 18-22ish Ohmsford bros.  Now, they feel a lit

C.S. Lewis talks about the effect myth has on ordinary things: it hands us back a sense of wonder.  As an example, he takes a child at play pretending that lunch is actually buffalo meat that he, as a Native American warrior, has killed while hunting out on the plains.  Lewis calls the child "wise" because his make-believe recaptures the truth that all of us once only knew the joys of food through the thrill of the hunt.  The ordinary is seen to be extra-ordinary, the food is seen to be more than mere calories. I was looking at a stump the other day that several friends were endeavoring to dislodge from the box in the church parking lot.  As the strange and spiky roots peeped through the surface I couldn't help thinking that it was like a little creature that might scuttle off at any moment muttering imprecations at the humans who so had so rudely grabbed it by the head.  The thought, of course, should be familiar to anyone who played "The Legend of Zelda: A Link t

Today's musings bring us up to the end of chapter 24. *Spoilers Ahead* As Par and Damson set out to rescue the others from the Federation guardhouse, we enter into a nice, protracted interlacement with Walker Boh's narrative.  The switching back and forth between the two plots in this section of the book is deftly handled right down to meteorological details and emphasizes the unity of the overarching story while also ratcheting up the suspense in each of the sub-plots.  This is a mature writing technique and Brooks is to be commended for pulling it off. Beyond that, however, I'm thinking of deducting a few points for Walker's encounter with the Grimpond during this sequence.  I already cried foul over this aquatic oracle as too much like the Hadeshorn in my reviews of The Wishsong of Shannara .  The scenes only saving graces in this context are that it is well-written and that with the Grimpond as an established character the scene feels organic instead of for

For today, we're moving things up to chapter 20. *Ph33r teh Sp0173rz* Ok, so Brooks first decides to follow Par's attempts to recover the Sword of Shannara after the three scions each receive their charge from Allanon.  Since we adopt Par's p.o.v. more or less throughout the first part of this volume, it's a wise place to start.  Chekov's gun #1 can now go off: we find out who Par and Coll's daring rescuer was by using the hawk ring and asking for the "the Archer."  The whole scene has shades of Robin Hood floating all around it, but Brooks has gotten better at disguising his source material and working it seamlessly into his sub-created world. Par, Coll, Morgan, Steff, and Teel sneak into the occupied city of Varfleet and locate "the Movement" in the person of the large, but good-natured Hirehone (a guy who'd fit right in with the Merry Men).  He takes them to the outlaw fortress known as "The Jut" and introduces them t

This past Sunday was Trinity Sunday, or the feast day devoted to celebrating the Christian doctrine of the Trinity.  This meant that hymn-singing churches were forced to shuffle through the ecclesiastical cabinet for anything that emphasizes and lauds the Holy Trinity.  Holy, Holy, Holy , one of my all-time favorites, was probably at the top of a lot of music director's lists, but I imagine St. Patrick's Breastplate was up there as well.  We sang it at my church. The Breastplate is an odd song with an odd tune and it comes from an odd people.  Chesterton talks about the Gaels of Ireland as the men that God made mad, for all their wars are merry, and all their songs are sad.   Growing up among the Irish in America, I'd say that's about right.  There's a fierceness, an a mystic tenacity about St. Patrick's Breastplate that's quintessentially Irish.  It's a hymn for those who see the supernatural as a plain fact, as plain as potatoes.  The hymn claims the

I read through chapters 16 and 17 last night which takes us (finally) to the meeting with Allanon and the Shannara childrens' decisions. *All That Spoiler Warning Boilerplate* In case you've forgotten, just a little recap on what Cogline and Allanon said.  The Shadowen are bits of magic that have evolved consciousness and are possessing people around the Four Lands.  There ultimate goal, whatever it is, will have the effect of turning the world into a wasteland where what life remains serves as the play-things of the Shadowen.  To put a stop to them, it will require the retrieval of the old Shannara magic.  Par will need to find the Sword of Shannara.  Wren will need to bring back the missing elves.  Walker Boh will need to return Paranor to the world of men and revive the Druid Order.  Of course, we can all guess by now what each scion will choose.  Walker throws up his hands in disgust, Wren says "that's nice, but where do I even start," and Par and Coll d

This story gave me nightmares.  That's rare.  I don't usually even dream; at least that I remember.  Now here's what I learned staring at the ceiling at four-in-the-morning. The Sleeping and the Dead is a two part story collected in Hellboy Volume 11: The Bride of Hell and others.   It features Hellboy doing a little free lance work for the B.P.R.D. in England back in the 60s.  It's also one of the few vampire pieces Mignola has done.  Over the course of the story we find out why there are so few vampires in Hellboy's world, but the main plot line is how an ancient European vampire takes over a Victorian English family and uses them to pray on the village of Hoxne.  At least that's what it appears at first...  In reality, it's really about what evil does and how, in the end, evil is undone by its own hubris.  The real terror in the story is not the vampire, nor his English mistress, nor his subverted manservant, but Mary, the youngest daughter in the ho

We ended off the last post at book 10 of The Scions of Shannara , the first book in Terry Brooks' Heritage of Shannara series.  This post will bring us up to the end of book 15.  If you want to remain spoiler free, don't read on. *Spoiler-type-schtuffe* Chapters 10-15 bring all the scions of the house of Shannara to their meeting with the shade of Allanon at the Hadeshorn.  Par has the worst time of it (Shadowen and Spoder Gnomes at every turn), but that's fitting as he seems to be the main character (for this book at least).  Walker Boh has a few challenges to face, mostly due to Par (and them Spider Gnomes), and Wren gets a cake walk.  The moral of the story seems to be that when the shade of a long dead druid summons you its in your best interest to go immediately.  Wren goes immediately and she's fine.  Walker stays put and has a bit of trouble, Par hikes in the complete opposite direction and has one mischance after another.  Ironically, I thought the chapters

So, when I was in college I spent a semester studying abroad at Oxford.  When I wasn't studying like mad or taking in the English culture, I turned to writing light fiction to pass the time.  On rainy evenings, I would sit down at the keyboard and tap out a few pages to send back to the folks at home.  Now in the midst of the writing, and the studying, and the rain, an idea came to me: what ever did happen to Vivian after she stole Merlin's spell and bound him in tree for all eternity.  Neither Mallory nor Tennyson have anything to say.  What if she was biding her time all those years until Arthur's kingdom fell and she could emerge as a power.  With her magic, the Saxons would worship her as a goddess and she would bring ruin on the isle of Britain.  Of course, she'd have to get her comeuppance in the end and be undone by the very powers she'd summoned.  That was my idea and it went exactly nowhere.  I couldn't write something like that and make it interestin