Sakura of DOOM

Kushner, Ellen - Thomas the Rhymer

I finished Kushner's Thomas the Rhymer and liked it much better the second time round. It's written in four parts, each part first-person POV of a person close to Thomas or Thomas himself. I don't actually have that much to say about it, hrm. I liked the differences between Thomas before his seven years in elfhame and after, I especially liked his relationship with Gavin and Meg, an old couple he befriends before he leaves. I also love the section when he's in fairy, the language, the description, the riddle the Hunter puts him to. And I loved having him adjust to his gift of truth and to the world in general when he comes back. However, I thought his reconciliation with Elspeth would have lasted longer, and I didn't like her section of the book as much. It just felt a little off to me, as though these characters I had known had changed much too quickly from the dynamics that I had been used to for the most part of the book.

- keilexandra's review

Schone, Robin - Awaken, My Love

Also finished Robin Schone's Awaken, My Love, and I'm definitely not picking this author up again! Ugh. I'm all for historical accuracy, and I think historical romances too often pretty up the past. Schone seems determined to not do this, describing a modern-day woman's reaction to not bathing enough, to chamber pots and dirty clothes and greasy hair. And it's nice to have that instead of nostalgia, but then, when an author is going to put that level of realism in, I don't want to read about weeping male members and all that purple prose! Plus, her hero is apparently well versed in the Kama Sutra or something like it. And it might just be me, but having the emphasis on personal hygiene in the nineteenth century juxtaposed with exotic Indian terms for vagina and the like really didn't work. Plus, the hero sucked. He was boring and chauvanistic and all those other bad alpha male stereotypes without even being sexy. I didn't like Elaine much either, and I didn't really find her position of being the sex-deprived housewife that realistic. She's from modern times, supposedly, yet apparently her husband doesn't have sex with her, thinks she's insane for having sex manuals and the like. I mean, I'm sure those people exist, but it just seemed too different from my life to be "modern." And then of course, the villain had to be female. This is one of my huge pet peeves. Not that I hate female villains, but I really hate them in romance novels, where they're petty and jealous and cruel because *gasp* they've lost their man's affection and must get it back! Of course not having a man in our lives makes all females vicious bitches who, instead of blaming the guy, go postal on the other woman. Ugh. Then Schone had the grand revelation that the female villain was afraid of sex and half insane because she was sexually abused by her uncle! And instead of having sympathy for the poor girl, she just was the villain. The hero of course showed no remorse that he had forced her to have sex, despite her previous history of abuse, and I don't think we were supposed to feel sorry for her at all. It just felt like a very misogynistic book. Ick. I hate that, the attitude that girls are raped because they are somehow bad people.

Stargate SG-1

Still blazing through Stargate! I never have much to say about Stargate because I don't really analyze it like Buffy. I just watch and enjoy. And I don't even really care that there's not that much character continuity between episodes (e.g. Sam finds her father has cancer, next episode, doesn't mention it) because I just love watching the team interact with each other. I'm so glad Sam's not this minor, token female who just stands by and watches the big men do things. Instead, she's always in the thick of things, always thinking of solutions for the team. And ok, she's a little Giles-like in her exposition function, but we never see a Sam who is not capable. I love her; she's awesome. And Jack is always snarky and funny and quirky. I love his reaction to all the Carterisms and to Daniel's excited cultural explanations. I love Teal'c and his little eyebrow quirks. Back to watching more now!

Oh yeah... mass spoilers for the final three eps of Stargate season 1 below.

Yay! Just finished Stargate S1. And damnit, they ended it on a cliffhanger! I miss the relatively tied together endings of the Jossverse.

( Witness the spoilers )

I have binged on many more Stargate episodes (well, 5, but in one day, that's a good solid number). Am still enjoying it greatly, although, probably thanks to Buffy, I keep expecting some unhappy endings, where people die or people can't be saved or whatnot. For some reason, both Ben Browder of FS and Michael Shanks in SG remind me of Tom Cruise! It's strange.

Jack still cool. Teal'c as well. I want Teal'c fic now, because it's interesting looking at redemption and whatnot from this angle instead of in the Buffyverse with Angel. And... I think Stargate is somehow a simpler universe than the Buffyverse and Angel as well, but because of that, it's almost more homey feeling. I have no idea if that made sense. And I like the episodicness of the show, I like how it's a new planet every episode, with new things, and all. I'm pretty sure there's going to be an arc in there somewhere, but I'm kind of hoping that it won't take over the show. I loved the mytharc of X-Files until it just got too strange and complicated to ever figure out. And XF had some quality monster of the week episodes. I loved the early Angel episodes with their different cases, and I still kind of miss that show sometimes. But then, what Angel's evolved to is also spectacularly good, so I'm happy both ways. But still kind of sad that they kind of lost the detective agency along the way. And with FS, I'm still waiting for it to get arcy, because I don't so much like the individual episodes right now. There's something a little off about the characters interacting in there that don't make the MotW ones as fun to watch... I think it's because the Angel crew, Mulder and Scully and SG-1 are all teams. The FS people aren't... and while I like that aspect, how everyone can be at each other's throats, I like the feeling of camaraderie and trust that's in the first three as well.

And now on Sam, because I like her. Yeah, I know, I often am guilty of liking a character because she's the only female character. But I do like Sam. And now I want Sam-fic in which Sam thinks about things, because I think she's interesting. I like how she's very second in command, how she's the really practical one on the team. Teal'c's got the stoic warrior thing going, and the want to atone (I've only seen up to Singularity of the first season so far) I think. Daniel's the kind of idealistic guy who also really hates the Goa'uld. And Sam often gets to be the voice of reason and compromise. She just feels very steady to me, and she just seems like a Very Nice Person. I like Dr. Fraser a lot too and her no-nonsenseness. Mostly I like how the show doesn't treat them as the Token Females, although there are definitely episodes that do (i.e. Hathor! Emancipation!). But mostly Sam is just a trusted member of the team and Dr. Fraser is the good doctor. *sigh* This show is making me miss X-Files and the Mulder/Scully partnership. I wasn't really into the fandom then, I was just reading fic. But I heard about the noromos, and even though I was an avid shipper at the time, just the tight friendship or connection that the two had was my favorite part. And that held the show up through all the episodic plots, because I wasn't really watching people investigating liver-eating monsters. I was watching Mulder and Scully do it. And that's kind of how I feel about Stargate now.

Well, I just watched loads of Stargate. One of our friends here has all of season 1 on DVD, which is nice because I never got the chance to watch them all in Princeton. My sister watched the first two yesterday, and I was pleasantly surprised on rewatching with her. For some reason, I just felt very familiar with it. Perhaps this is because I dreamt I met Richard Dean Anderson a couple of days ago, and he was nice and gave me an autograph and everything. When I woke up, I was very confused when I didn't have his autograph -_-;;.

Anyway, it was nice, and fun, and I liked it a lot. And I've just watched four more episodes, and for some reason, it feels friendlier to me than Farscape did (and I'm halfway through the first season of that). I think there's something about the military nature of it that reminds me of the good old X-Files days. And I'm enormously fond of Jack and Sam and Teal'c right now. Grrrr... after this one, 5 more seasons to go! Fer crying out loud....

Must go download season two now! This does it... also must get a subscription to Netflix.

Am still recovering from being drunk! Whheee! First time drunk in a very loooong time.

So I watched the Stargate pilot with T. and his friend from NYC. I liked. Jack (who was Kurt Russell in the movie) is quite cool. The girl was really, unbelievably annoying! "Look at me, I'm a scientist, and I know everything! And you don't like me because I'm a grrrl so watch me make not-so-smart comebacks. Like me, like me!" Thankfully, T. says her part in the pilot is incredibly badly written (miss Buffy already, sigh) and that her character gets much much better later on. Which is good, or else I would have to glance askance (askew? Hee. Fun with words!) at Sam/Jack shipper people. And definitely slashy subtext between Jack and Daniel.

Now I will watch more episodes and hope that the writing tightens up. They get so much money to make that show! So many special effects! I wish Buffy got that much money, though I heard they're not holding anything back for the final few episodes.

Lalalala... head still spin-y and wobbly. Wooooooo. Fun. T. had some yummy vanilla shot things... das Komet or something... that tasted very good. Which is good, because I'm the girliest drinker ever. S. fed me some scotch once and nearly killed me. Then she fed me 151, which nearly killed both of us. I think after drinking 151, I could breathe out and light my breath on fire, it was that strong.

And I have clean clothes now! Yay!

Still missing the boy =(.

Hey, hecatehatesthat, is there going to be a NJ Buffy finale party? *grins prettily and bats wobbly lashes*