Review: Tasting History

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When the world went on lockdown due to Covid, former Disney employee Max Miller decided to start his own cooking show on Youtube. Specifically, he decided to focus his efforts on historical recipes from all across the world, from Babylonian stew to pecan pie, making modern recreations and trying them to see how they fit the modern palate.

Which is where we got the cookbook, “Tasting History,” which is a fun read not only for food enthusiasts, but also for history enthusiasts. Miller includes various recipes – many from his show – that highlight the variety, richness and sometimes weirdness of cooking through the ages, from Grecian blood soup to Genghis Khan’s little meat cakes, from the elegantly-named “Farts of Portingale” to Aztec tamales. And with every recipe, you get a history lesson.

Miller divides the book into various geographic regions: the ancient world in Europe and the Middle East (including Babylonians stews, cheesecake called “placenta,” asafoetida chicken and an Egyptian bread made of tiger nuts), the British Isles (parmesan ice cream and everlasting syllabub), Continental Europe (a vampire-repelling Transylvanian beef dish, a rich papal torte, and a pre-tomato lasagna), the Near and Far East (Chinese yuanxiao, Korean fried pork, Indian rice pudding) and the New World (Aztec chocolate, vinegar candy and egg nog).

I should note that while many of the recipes are covered on Miller’s Youtube channel, some of these are recipes he has not previously addressed, such as Vitellian piglet or Korean Gajeyuk. But each one has been modernized into current-day measurements, and Miller tries to be as forgiving with the more exotic ingredients as he can without sacrificing the integrity of the dish, offering substitutions for things like hyssop. And yes, some of the recipes have odd ingredients that may need some extra work to obtain, like spikenard, tequesquite, garum, spelt, jujubes, gold leaf and pork blood.

And every recipe comes with an intriguing little historical lesson that goes into the time period where the dish originated, was first recorded in, or was somehow involved in something historically interesting and unique. For instance, Chinese niangao (glutinous rice cakes) come with a fascinating story about a very intelligent man named Wu Zixu, who did something… unexpected with niangao. I won’t spoil what he did, but it’s very memorable.

One of the best aspects of “Tasting History” – both the show and the cookbook – is the powerful feeling of connection to ancient history and the people who once ate this food. Recommended for history enthusiasts who want to learn something new and/or people who love the idea of making new and fascinating dishes.

And serve it forth!

Review: Jungle Juice Volume 1

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Disclaimer: I received an advance copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Suchan Jang seems to have the perfect college life – he’s popular, lots of friends, straight-A grades, and girls adore him. The only problem is that he’s a human-insect hybrid.

And that’s the premise behind “Jungle Juice Volume 1,” the opening salvo of Hyeong Eun’s Webtoon manhwa about people with insect body parts, complete with a kind of insectoid Hogwarts. Fortunately, JUDER’s artwork won’t trigger discomfort in people who hate bugs – like me – and the first volume is somewhat reminiscent of a slightly offbeat shonen manga. Expect lots of bug-people fighting, some bloody deaths, and plenty of scholastic mayhem… sometimes involving chainsaws.

Suchan Jang was a perfectly ordinary boy… until he used a can of Jungle Juice (a pesticide spray) to kill a dragonfly. The next morning, he awoke with a full-sized pair of dragonfly wings on his back. Despite his popularity, he has to keep his abnormality a secret from other people, and he’s pretty successful… until a mantis-man attacks during a movie date, and Suchan has to publicly expose his wings in order to save his girlfriend.

Needless to say, everyone now treats him as a freak, including the girl he likes. Devastated, he tries to kill himself – only for Huijin Park, a girl with antennae, to usher him to a place where he can fit in. NEST is a college town for people who are also insect-human hybrids, and Suchan’s only chance of finally returning to normal is if he graduates at the top of his class. It sounds simple enough, right? As if life at a fictional school for strange/special people has ever been that easy.

The chaos starts on registration day, when Suchan immediately discovers that signing up for classes is very competitive… and physical. At this college, survival of the fittest is key. Even if he can manage to get into the college, his scholastic path won’t be the easy one he hoped for – especially since the mantis-man is roaming on campus, along with an insectile femme fatale who has nothing but bad intentions towards NEST and everyone in it.

“Jungle Juice Volume 1” is a pretty solid opening to a shonen-style manhwa series – we have the relatable male lead who finds himself with special abilities (including a signature power he only learns about later), and ends up at a special, action-packed school with other people with similar abilities. Except since various characters have different insect hybridizations, they have different abilities – stingers, immense jumping, explosions, and Suchan’s agility, flight and ability to foresee attacks.

So while the school-for-special-people is in full effect here, Hyeong Eun keeps things fresh by introducing different insect-people and abilities, including one whose abilities are still a mystery. But the story is set in. a dark, brutal environment, and there’s no telling who might get eaten by a cannibalistic mantis-man or chased by Jun Ju, a giant muscular grandpa with a chainsaw. The author doesn’t shy away from the survival-of-the-fittest aspects of life at NEST, but at the same time, doesn’t depict it as a bad thing to be compassionate towards others.

Suchan is a little bland, but fairly relatable – his misery over being socially ostracized has left him desperate to become fully human again, but he also is beginning to learn about the benefits of being a dragonfly man. Huijin Park is a kind, stalwart girl who seems earmarked to be the love interest, and Hyeseong Cha is introduced as a kind of friendly rival character to Suchan – rough around the edges and blunt to a fault, but an overall goodhearted guy, it seems.

JUDER’s artwork is a little rough around the edges, but very striking – it glows with light and vivid colors without becoming too overwhelming, or losing the simplicity of the manhwa artwork style. Furthermore, their artwork seem to be improving as the first volume goes on. The biggest problem is that the action scenes are often hard to follow; it’s not very easy to see exactly what is going on if people are really beating the stuffin’ out of each other.

“Jungle Juice Volume 1” is a solid first volume to a promising series – and with a powerful antagonist and a cliffhanger, there’s sure to be more intriguing developments to come. Even if you hate bugs, this is worth a read.

Review: The Forest Grimm by Kathryn Purdie

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Disclaimer: I received an advance copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Outside the town of Grimm’s Hollow is the Forest Grimm – a magical place twisted by a malevolent curse that draws bespelled people into its depths and is slowly killing the surrounding farmland.

And as you could probably guess by the name of the forest, “The Forest Grimm” by Kathryn Purdie wraps itself in a cloak of glittering fairy tales. But these aren’t the sanitized, Disneyfied stories you might know, where all you need to fix things is true love’s kiss. Instead, her elegant, winding fantasy tale delves into the dark, distorted versions of these familiar tales, with a seemingly doomed heroine as perhaps the only chance of breaking the curse.

For her entire life, the cards telling Clara’s fortune have said only one thing – she will die young, as a result of a “fanged creature.” Despite this dismal future, she is determined to enter the hostile Forest Grimm and find her beloved mother, who was the very first person to be lost there – and if she can’t find her mother directly, then she wants to find a missing magical book, the Sortes Fortunae, to end the curse once and for all.

Then she discovers something shocking: the forest will allow a person to enter it if they have red rampion. And before she vanished, Clara’s mother made her a hooded cloak dyed with rampion flowers – which she takes as a sign that she’s destined to enter the Forest Grimm and change the fate of everyone in the forest and the town. She’s accompanied in her quest by Axel, a strikingly handsome young man whose fiancee Ella vanished into the forest, and her best friend Henni, who also happens to be Ella’s sister.

Unfortunately, the Forest Grimm has bigger dangers than vicious trees and a constantly-shifting landscape. It doesn’t just take the people of Grimm’s Hollow – it changes and twists them, and its dark, malevolent magic is channeled through them. Also, a giant wolf is following Clara, and she’s pretty sure it’s the fanged creature destined to kill her. But fate may have something else in mind, if Clara can stay alive long enough.

“The Forest Grimm” is one of those fantasy stories that trips lightly on the edge of horror, especially the gruesome whimsy found in old-timey fairy tales. The fairy tale figures here are not sweet-natured princesses in pretty dresses – they are cruel, maddened and extremely dangerous, whether they are using a vast web of prehensile hair, tree roots or some well-timed magic mushrooms. And yes, it’s THAT kind of magic mushrooms.

And Kathryn Purdie weaves the entire tale together with elegance and skill. Her writing has a timeless quality reminiscent of the fairy tales she twines into her original tale, except for a few more modern-sounding descriptions of how attractive Axel is. And alongside her dark fairy-tale trappings, she also dips into some fairly heavy thematic material about whether a person can change their fate, and whether your fate is necessarily what you think it is.

It helps that Clara is one of the most likable and engaging heroines I’ve read about in years – she’s earnest and unselfish, resourceful and determined. Believing that she has no future, she tries to ensure a future for other people, even if it hurts her in the process. Axel is a thoroughly wholesome male lead alongside her, and their budding relationship is a tentative, sweet one… if they can get past issues with obligation, guilt and loneliness.

Perhaps the most frustrating thing about “The Forest Grimm” is finishing it, and realizing that the story is not actually over – meaning that I now have to wait for Kathryn Purdie to publish the sequel before I can find out what’s next for Clara, Axel and Henni. In the meantime, it’s a richly-imagined, shadows-and-tatters homage to Grimm’s fairy tales.

Review: The horrors of “The Lord of the Rings: Gollum”

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It hasn’t been a good few years to be a Lord of the Rings fan.

First, Amazon crapped on Tolkien’s intellectual property with The Rings of Power, even as they followed the time-honored tradition of attacking the fans preemptively to try to bully people into watching. I’ve been blocked by TheOneRingNet on Twitter after I called them out for bigotry against Tolkien’s religion and their abuse of fans, and I am very proud of that fact. Being blocked by bigots is practically a compliment.

And then… we got The Lord of the Rings: Gollum.

If anything will make you miss the glory days of Lord of the Rings games, it will be this… thing. The Lord of the Rings: Gollum proves that there is a distinct lack of quality control in J.R.R. Tolkien’s franchise, displayed here through a game that is deeply and intensely broken on every level. Nothing about this game is good, except for possibly the entertainment factor of goggling at whatever aspect of Tolkien’s world that is being molested.

The core concept is not necessarily a bad one. Sure, a video game about a cannibalistic crackhead who obsesses about jewelry sounds like a terrible idea, but Gollum is a complex and nuanced enough character to lend himself to an expanded story. He’s also strong and nimble, which lends itself well to the idea of a parkour game. The story supposedly covers Gollum’s adventures prior to the events of The Lord of the Rings, namely how he was captured by Sauron and imprisoned in Mordor, and then captured by the wood-elves and imprisoned in Mirkwood.

Unfortunately, it soon becomes obvious what is wrong with the game. For one thing, it looks like a PS2 game that somehow fell through a time vortex and landed in the year 2023… and was given a PS5 release. The graphics are primitive at best, eye-gougingly ugly at worst. Gollum looks like he’s melting 95% of the time, and almost all of the other characters look primitive and sometimes actually unfinished. The color palette is depressingly muted, except for when the world suddenly becomes radioactive and burns your retinas.

There are also a thousand artistic choices that are absolutely baffling. Why does Thranduil look like an overtrimmed shrub is growing out of his head? Why is Gandalf referred to as “wizard”? Why do some of the orcs have phallic armor? Why is there a random Russian in Mordor? Why is one of the orcs French? Why does Gollum have a bird sidekick? Why does the Mouth of Sauron dress like an extra from “Dune”?And why, in the name of Eru, did someone decide that Sauron, the Nazgul and the orcs weren’t sufficient villains for the story, and thus we needed a new and chilling enemy titled “The Candle Man”?

Even this might have been slightly tolerable if they had plumbed the depths of Gollum’s tortured, addiction-wracked, divided mind. Unfortunately, most of what the devs seem to know about him is the existence of his Smeagol alter ego… and not much else. He’s never convincingly depicted as the sly, corrupt, malign, disgusting little creature of Tolkien’s works – this Gollum has an internal moral debate about killing a beetle and adopts a little baby bird. For context, the Gollum of Tolkien’s books ate babies. Human babies.

As if the story wasn’t bad enough, the game is extremely broken – glitchy and buggy, frequent crashes, and a confusingly random frame rate that often makes the animation janky and stuttering. The stealth mechanics are poor, with some tasks that are very difficult to complete due to a lack of user-friendliness, and it’s often difficult to see what’s going on around Gollum. It sometimes feels like a game made by enthusiastic but not-very-well-trained amateurs who did their best… except that you’re expected to pay for it.

Playing The Lord of the Rings: Gollum is a thankless, joyless experience, and it is all the more egregious when you realize it was based on the life’s work of a man who so expertly and passionately crafted his imaginary world. There are many good or at least tolerable Lord of the Rings games, and any of those would be better than this one.

Recommendation: The Untamed

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I will probably write a full-blown review of this TV series sometime in the future, once I figure out how to summarize fifty plot-packed episodes that bounce around the timeline of almost twenty years.

So, quick sum-up: The Untamed is a Chinese xianxia TV show that became a hit on Netflix because… well, people are starved for good TV, and it’s a good TV show. It’s based on the Mo Dao Zu Shi/Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation books by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu (pseudonym), which recently got published in the United States. The original novels are part of a genre called danmei, which refers to books aimed at the female reading public that focus on a romantic relationship between two men. But because of Chinese censorship laws, the TV show just has the most intense bromance you will ever find.

The bare-bones summary is that it takes place in an ancient-medieval-styled fantasy world where Daoist magic allows people to have superpowers, fly on their swords, manipulate spiritual energy, and so on. A mentally ill man summons the spirit of Wei Wuxian, who was sort of the bogeyman of the cultivation world. Before he died sixteen years ago, he used demonic magic and rebelled against all the various sects, so they regard him as being a sort of low-level Sauron. Wei Wuxian ends up in the body of the mentally-ill man so he can enact revenge against the guy’s family, and ends up tangled in a weird supernatural mystery. He also reconnects with Lan Zhan, who was his best friend in his old life, despite them having opposite personalities.

It’s a little hard to understand what’s going on in the first two episodes, but it quickly flashes back for about thirty episodes to reveal everything that got the main characters to the present day. Basically, refined uptight boy Lan Zhan despised Wei Wuxian at first because Wei Wuxian was a free spirit who regularly flouted the rules, but eventually grew to admire and care about him. At the same time, the various sects have to deal with the Wen clan, who are effectively taking over everything, and Wei Wuxian ends up sacrificing everything to help other people, but is branded a monster for doing so. He’s also being framed by somebody who is only revealed much later on.

After that flashback, it’s a good idea to go watch the first two episodes a second time, now that you know who everybody is and what their history consists of. After that, it follows Wei Wuxian and Lan Zhan as they try to figure out who the mastermind behind all this is.

The biggest problem of the story is obviously the censorship. Not just because they had to remove the romantic elements, but because it won’t allow such things as ghosts and zombies… in a story about a necromancer. As a result, there are some scars and stitch marks in the narrative where things had to be excised or drastically changed.

But if you can get past that, it’s a great show. The casting is one of the most perfect ones I’ve seen since Lord of the Rings – every actor is giving a pitch-perfect performance, and some of the roles are pretty difficult. The roles of the two leads are particularly hard. Lan Zhan is a sort of defrosting ice prince who conveys a lot of emotion with very few words and extremely understated facial expressions.

And the actor playing Wei Wuxian is called on to play a mercurial quirky genius. He could have been a very irritating character in a less talented man’s hands, but he’s absolutely charming instead – and it’s worth noting that Wei Wuxian goes through a LOT of development. He suffers a complete mental breakdown, is tormented for months until he’s suffering from PTSD, has a fixation on family relationships, has a crippling fear of dogs, and so on and so forth. He overall grows from a brilliant but cocky youth into a clever and more insightful man, all without losing his mischievous streak or his ADHD.

And there are billions of characters in this drama, and many of them have their own stories and development as well. Hell, a few of them get whole side-stories, such as the psychotic Xue Yang and the pure-hearted Xiao Xingchen.

A few cultural details require explanations to understand, but the backbone of The Untamed is just really good storytelling, excellent acting and a gripping, complex story that will keep you mesmerized right to the end.

Review: Tress of the Emerald Sea

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While the rest of us were gaining weight and getting depressed during the Covid-19 lockdown, Brandon Sanderson was doing what he does best: churning out books.

And the first of these four surprise books is “Tress of the Emerald Sea,” a Cosmere novel that mingles quirky fairy-tale quests for a true love with the rough’n’tumble life of a pirate. Sanderson gives us a extraordinarily ordinary heroine who stumbles and triumphs on her quest, along with a talking rat, seas of colorful spores, and the occasional zombie doctor.

Tress is a seemingly ordinary girl on a small rocky island in the green spore sea – she collects teacups, washes windows, loves her family, and regularly meets with the local duke’s son, Charlie. When the duke realizes that his son is in love with a window-washing girl, he whisks the boy off the island to marry a princess. When the duke returns, he’s got a brand new heir with a new wife – and Charlie is nowhere to be seen. He’s been sent off to the realm of the Sorceress in the Midnight Sea, which means he’s effectively doomed.

But Tress is determined to get him back, so she smuggles herself off the island… and finds herself the prisoner first of smugglers, and then a crew of pirates ruled by the bloodthirsty Captain Crow. She also acquires a talking rat friend, Huck, who becomes her best friend and ally, especially since he knows some things about the Sorceress. Though the situation isn’t ideal, Tress believes the ship can get her to the Sorceress, and manages to work her way into the crew.

But her plans are complicated when she becomes friends with several of the pirates, and learns some disturbing facts about Crow. How can a simple window-washer girl defeat a pirate captain, sail the deadly Crimson and Midnight Seas, escape a dragon and defeat the terrible Sorceress – all while learning the true nature of spores and aethers?

“Tress of the Emerald Sea” is one parts fairy tale, one part pirate adventure, and one part Cosmere story (especially since the narrator is none other than Hoid, who plays a pivotal role). And the world Sanderson conjures is a fascinating one, where twelve moons produce a steady downfall of spores that form whole seas that wooden ships can sail on. But, much like a mogwai, never expose them to water, or very bad things happen.

Since Hoid is the one telling the tale, the entire story unfolds in a quirky, laid-back narrative style, reminiscent of William Goldman or a more modern fairy tale. It’s arch, snarky and very omniscient third-person (Tress’s hair is once described as an “eldritch horror” bent on “disintegrating reality, seeking the lives of virgins, and demanding a sacrifice of a hundred bottles of expensive conditioner”). The only major flaw, ironically, is that self-same snarky tone – it sometimes becomes kind of overbearing, especially during the more serious parts of the story, and sometimes it feels like Hoid is hijacking the story.

It also has Sanderson’s exceptional world-building, especially in the idea of the spores, which will immediately erupt into SOMETHING – air, vines, crystals – upon contact with water. And while Sanderson weaves in elements of the Cosmere, creating a more science-fiction-y world, there are elements of magic included in it, such as Huck. No, I will not explain what is up with the rat, only that not all is as it seems… as you’d expect with a talking rat.

Tress herself is an exceptional heroine – smart, resourceful, determined, good-hearted and practical, with a nimble brain and a love for collectible cups. Her relationship with Huck is very wholesome and sometimes heartwrenching, as are her friendships with other members of the crew – a seemingly-zombie doctor, an assistant cannonmaster who never successfully hits anything, a cheery deaf man with a writing board, and the deadly, nihilistic Captain Crow. There are also Dougs, but we don’t care about them.

“Tress of the Emerald Sea” is a charming, well-paced story that is a little too suffused in Hoid for its own good. For those seeking a rollicking pirate adventure with some wild fantastical twists, this is a must-read.

Review: Heaven Official’s Blessing Volume 2

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Xie Lian has ferreted out another god’s dirty laundry… but he had no idea that someone would reveal his own past misdeeds.

In fact, a great deal of “Heaven Official’s Blessing” Volume 2 is dedicated to Xie Lian’s past, both recent and ancient – Mo Xiang Tong Xiu (hereafter referred to as MXTX) delves into a situation that threatens to stain Xie Lian’s reputation, before diving back eight hundred years to his days as a mortal prince. There are a heavy load of unexpected twists, a loathsome new villain, and some gripping insights into how Hua Cheng came to be so enraptured by the prince of Xianle.

The heavenly emperor Jun Wu gives Xie Lian a new mission: enter Ghost City and find out what happened to a Heavenly Official who sent out a distress call. Accompanied by the exuberant, gender-flipping Wind Master Shi Qingxuan and the earnest Lang Qianqiu, he heads into what qualifies as enemy territory… except that Ghost City is also Hua Cheng’s demesne. And Hua Cheng is very, very pleased to see him there, which unfortunately doesn’t make Ghost City any less perilous.

To make matters worse, Lang Qianqiu discovers that Xie Lian is a figure from his own past – the state preceptor who murdered his family. Even more shocking, Xie Lian freely admits his guilt. But Hua Cheng knows there’s something more than meets the eye, and invades Heaven itself to take Xie Lian away from captivity. Alongside this mysterious ghost, Xie Lian will find out exactly what happened centuries ago… and rediscover a terrible figure from his own past.

Speaking of his past, we then get bounced back in time eight hundred years. Back then, Xie Lian was a kind but naive teen prince who believed he could do anything – like abandon a ritual fight during a parade to rescue a child from a fatal fall. To the dismay of the state preceptor, he steadfastly refused to accept any kind of blame. When his cousin tries to murder the child for the second time, Xie Lian takes the boy under his wing – with no idea how the boy will affect his future.

If the first volume of “Heaven Official’s Blessing” was devoted mostly to unraveling supernatural mysteries, then the second one is devoted mostly to exploring some of Xie Lian’s backstory. Obviously a character who’s eight hundred years old can’t be summed up that quickly, but we see a little of how he used to be – especially the glimpse of him as a mortal teenager, still recognizably kind and good-hearted, but also kind of spoiled and arrogant.

It stands in stark contrast to the Xie Lian of the present, who is much humbler, more self-deprecating, and happy to live in a shack-turned-shrine. At the same time, we see the scars that his past actions have left on him, and hear about some particularly nasty run-ins he’s had. Conversely, we get glimpses of Hua Cheng from the past – seriously, it’s abundantly clear who the little boy in the flashback is – that contrast sharply against the confident, powerful, seductive figure he is now.

We also encounter an array of new characters – we see more of Mu Qing and Feng Xin, Xie Lian’s former servants, both in the present and the past; the powerful and promiscuous Pei Ming; the friendly and unembarrassable Shi Qingxuan; and the vaguely paternal Jun Wu.

MXTX also shows off her ability to combine twisty, cleverly-plotted story arcs with amusing, warmer moments for the characters (Xie Lian and Hua Cheng nerding out over a room full of rare swords) and the occasional laugh-out-loud moment (Xie Lian publicly faking impotence to escape a prostitute). She also demonstrates a talent for weaving romance into the story, such as when Hua Cheng “teaches” Xie Lian to roll dice. Nothing obvious, nothing explicit – just the characters gazing at each other and touching one another’s hands. Very sensual.

ZeldaCW also deserves credit for the interior illustrations, black-and-white pictures of both detail and delicacy. Particular highlights includes Xie Lian stroking Hua Cheng’s sword (no, not a euphemism), Shi Qingxuan doing battle in a sexy dress (while male), Xie Lian being swarmed by butterflies, and his teenage self in his God-Pleasing Warrior garb.

The second volume of “Heaven Official’s Blessing” delves a lot deeper than the first one did, revealing more about the self-deprecatingly pleasant prince and the mysterious ghost who loves him. And it leaves you poised to dive right into the third volume, just to find out what happens next. Beware – it’s going to get dark.

Review: Heaven Official’s Blessing Volume 1

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Once upon a time, Xie Lian was the beloved crown prince of a beautiful kingdom, who ascended to godhood in his teens. But then he interfered in mortal affairs, made things worse, and was cast out. He ascended to godhood a second time… and was kicked out again.

And in “Heaven Official’s Blessing Volume 1,” we find out what happens when this unfortunate godling ascends to deityhood for the third time. Mo Xiang Tong Xiu (pen name, to be hereafter referred to as MXTX) digs into Xie Lian’s story with a heady mix of timeless romance with a uniquely Chinese brand of high fantasy, where the powerful or virtuous can become deities, but the tormented and tragic may become something else.

Upon his third ascension to godhood, Xie Lian discovers that nothing has really changed – he’s deeply in debt, and none of the other gods like or respect him. The usual way to pay off his debt is by receiving merits from the worship of mortals… except people stopped worshiping him eight hundred years ago. But there is another way – he can investigate a certain mysterious problem on a rural mountain, where seventeen brides have been abducted by a mysterious “ghost groom.”

With the assistance of the sulky, combative Fu Yao and Nan Feng, he goes undercover (as a bride) to find out what is abducting the girls – and ends up being escorted up the mountain by a handsome, mysterious stranger dressed all in red, who turns into a swarm of silver butterflies. But that man was NOT the ghost groom – which leaves Xie Lian to uncover the horror that lives atop the mountain. To make matters worse, the locals are also searching for the ghost groom, which only makes things more complicated when things inevitably go pear-shaped.

After that, Xie Lian decides to set up a shrine to himself in an abandoned shack, with the help of a young man named San Lang, who is very obviously not what he pretends to be. But trouble finds Xie Lian again when someone tries to trick him into going to a haunted pass in the Gobi desert, near the dead city-state of Banyue. Even weirder, the other gods seem to avoid talking about this.

Along with San Lang, Fu Yao and Nan Feng, he sets out to the pass to find out what’s going on there, and ends up encountering a sandstorm, a few dozen merchants… and a cave full of scorpion-snakes. But that’s only the beginning of the undying terrors that still dwell in Banyue, killing anyone unlucky enough to pass through. And soon Xie Lian realizes that someone in Banyue has a very strong connection to him.

I personally like my romance stories with a heavy dose of plot, which makes “Heaven Official’s Blessing” perfectly balanced – even if the slow-blooming romance weren’t part of the story, it would still be a solid fantasy-horror series with gods, ghosts, goblins, zombies, and a really freaky undead face in the ground. The exalted and elegant world of the gods is a stark contrast to the nightmarish creatures that lurk in the mortal world below.

It’s also a fantasy that feels distinct from its western cousins – its world and cosmology are uniquely Chinese, drawing heavily from Taoism and other Chinese beliefs. The two supernatural mysteries are pretty well-developed, both horrifying and yet tragic, and the stories occasionally slow down a little for either some mild comic relief (the entire “Tremendous Masculinity” story, which is thankfully explained in full) or an ethereal romantic moment between Xie Lian and his mysterious red-clad man of the silver butterflies.

MXTX’s writing is bright and evocative, with a casual omniscent narrator (“One might ask, if there was an Upper Court and a Middle Court, was there a Lower Court? … No.”) that makes it feel like you’re sitting in the room with her and explaining her story as she tells it. There are also a number of very nice interior illustrations by ZeldaCW, delicate and evocative, of such things as Xie Lian and San Lang surrounded by snakes and riding in a cart, Xie Lian in a wedding dress, and an adorable chibi drawing of the four with the broken sword.

Xie Lian is an easy character to like – perpetually unlucky and unpopular, yet unfailingly earnest and kind to everyone around him (as long as they don’t beat up girls). But MXTX gives us broad hints that he hasn’t always been so upbeat about his unfortunate life, and of past struggles yet to be explored. On the flip side, we have the mysterious Hua Cheng, a supposedly terrifying figure that treats Xie Lian with flirtatious kindness that hints at deeper emotions; and the cast is rounded out by Fu Yao and Nan Feng, a couple of clashing, abrasive young men who actually do care about the disgraced prince.

“Heaven Official’s Blessing Volume 1” is a solid beginning to a webnovel series that perfectly balances out a slow-blooming romance, a solid blend of fantasy and horror, and some supernatural mystery. A great place to start.

Review: The Reckoners Series

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The red star Calamity came, and suddenly a small number of people on Earth had superpowers. But they weren’t superheroes – they were tyrants.

Let’s face it: realistically, that is what would happen if people suddenly got superpowers. But the Reckoners trilogy is less about the Epics that now rule the world, and more about the plucky, ingenious little guys who want to take them down. And Brandon Sanderson’s boundless imagination and clever writing turn this trilogy from a straightforward twist-on-superheroes into a clever, suspenseful tale of superpowered friends and foes.

Ten years, Calamity came — and so did Steelheart, who conquered Chicago and made it his personal kingdom, Newcago. Steelheart is invincible, super-strong, can control the elements, and his rage turns everything inorganic to steel. But ten years ago, someone made him bleed, so he killed everyone who had seen it. The only survivor is David, who devotes his life to studying the weaknesses of the Epics.

Ten years later, he bumbles into a sting by the Reckoners, a vigilante group trying to kill the Epics, and they reluctantly let him join when they find out he’s a walking encyclopedia of Epic information. With his info, they can take down Steelheart’s lieutenants. But the group is torn by fears about what killing Steelheart might cause — and they don’t have a prayer of killing him until they figure out his weakness. What’s more, one of the Epics may be closer than they think.

“Fireheart” opens with war being declared on the Reckoners by the powerful water-bending Epic Regalia, who rules the half-sunken city of Babilar (formerly Manhattan). But even worse, Regalia has summoned Obliteration, a cruel fanatic who destroys cities with solar energy, and is preparing to destroy everything in Babilar. As the Reckoners struggle to figure out her plan, David finds that the woman he loved is also in this city — and that the lines between friends and enemies are about to blur.

“Calamity” is appropriately named – the Reckoners are all but wiped-out, and their benevolent leader has been corrupted by his own power. So they follow him to Ildithia (formerly Atlanta), a moving city of crystalline salt, and manage to drag the bratty, power-stealing Larcener into their fight against Limelight. But their attempts to stop Limelight lead to the discovery of a devastating plan that could give him the ultimate Epic power — and a confrontation with the greatest Epic alive.

In a world where dictators and governments perpetrate unspeakable horrors, most people with incredible unstoppable superpowers would quickly be corrupted, or end up wussing out and serving someone who is corrupt. Yet in the Reckoners trilogy, Sanderson reminds us that “You can’t be so frightened of what might happen that you are unwilling to act” against tyranny, and that people can ultimately choose to be good.

And he does this by showing us a world transformed by Epic ego — some cities are destroyed, some are gloomy masses of grey steel… and some are colorful, ethereal places of glowing paint and nightly parties, or creeping salt sculptures. Similarly, he weaves in some multiverse stuff (there are parallel dimensions where things went slightly differently) and the clever idea of a weakness for every superpower.

And part of what makes the Reckoners series so engaging is that Sanderson knows how to mingle the grim, apocalyptic setting with a quirky sense of humor, whether it’s the bubbly Mizzy or David’s endless weird similes (“You’re like a potato! In a minefield”). His robust, fast-moving prose keeps the story moving along briskly even when nothing much is happening, and he weaves in some genuinely shocking twists (the entire third book is basically the fallout from the double-twist ending of the second) and some truly explosive action sequences.

David is an excellent hero, in the same mold as the “extraordinarily ordinary” heroes that Sanderson writes so well — self-deprecating, eager, a little dorky, with some haunting scars from the loss of his father. He’s a good counterpoint to Megan, a darker and more sarcastic woman who finds herself being pulled back by David’s purity and uncomplicated faith.. And Phaedrus rounds out the cast as a man riddled with fear over his own powers, struggling to resist the darkness that comes when he uses them.

The Reckoners trilogy is a thoroughly solid twist on superhero stories, made even more enjoyable through Sanderson’s clever writing and boundless imagination. Here, the superheroes are the little guys — and their power is that they will never give in, despite their doubts.

Review: The Age Of Innocence

On By E. A. SolinasIn reviewsLeave a comment

It was a glittering, sumptuous time when hypocrisy was expected, discreet infidelity tolerated, and unconventionality ostracized.

That is the Gilded Age, and nobody knew its hypocrisies better than Edith Wharton. And while you wouldn’t expect Martin Scorsese to be able to pull off an elegant, delicate adaptation of her novel “The Age of Innocence,” this movie is a trip back in time to the stuffy upper crust of “old New York,” taking us through one respectable man’s hopeless love affair with a beautiful woman — and the life he isn’t brave enough to have.

Newland Archer (Daniel Day-Lewis) is the scion of a wealthy old New York family in the 1870s. He becomes engaged to pretty, naive May Welland (Winona Ryder), a very suitable match between two respected families. But as he tries to get their wedding date moved up, he becomes acquainted with May’s exotic cousin, Countess Ellen Olenska (Michelle Pfeiffer), who has dumped her cheating husband. That was pretty scandalous at the time.

At first the two are just friends, with Newland finding Ellen’s attitudes to be fresh and real. But after Newland marries May, the attraction to the mysterious Countess and her free, unconventional life becomes even stronger, as he starts to rebel against the conventions of his own existence. Will he become an outcast and go away with the beautiful countess, or will he stick with May and the safe, dull life that he has condemned in others?

It’s a bit of a head-trip to find out that the guy who did “Raging Bull” and “The Gangs of New York” was the one responsible for a subtle, bittersweet movie set in a gilded, upper-crust New York. But it shows his considerable skill that Scorsese was able to make “The Age of Innocence” so adeptly, sticking close to the original novel — we even have an omniscient narrator who quotes directly from Wharton’s book as she describes New York society.

He preserves Wharton’s portrayal of New York in the 1870s — opulent, cultured, pleasant, yet so tied up in tradition that few people in it are able to really open up and live. It’s a haze of ballrooms, gardens, engagements, and careful social rituals that absolutely MUST be followed, even if they have no meaning. And he depicts this with directorial skill that makes almost every shot look like an exquisite painting, framing the characters with flowers, art and cultivated backdrops.

And he delicately brings out the powerful half-hidden emotions that the story revolves around. One great example: a carriage ride where Newland slowly unbuttons Ellen’s glove and gently kisses her pale wrist — it’s sensual and erotic without being explicit.

Day-Lewis gives the awesome performance you would expect — his Newland is stiff and repressed, and nowhere near as awesomely unconventional as he thinks himself to be. Pfeiffer and Ryder round out a trinity of spot-on performances: Ryder plays a seemingly innocent, naive young woman who shows hints that she’s a lot smarter than Newland believes her to be, while Pfeiffer plays a sweet but sad noblewoman who craves love and kindness, and knows more of the world’s ways than Newland does.

“The Age of Innocence” is an exquisite painting of 19th-century New York’s upper crust — the hypocrisy, the beauty, and the sorrow. A truly sublime experience, and not a film to be missed.