Magic vs. Mental Illness

If you did not note it above, here is the newest page: Magic vs. Mental Illness

The Rings Of Power - Stories from the Legendarium Featurette

Before people start complaining about them butchering the Second Age, ask yourselves how else they could have done it and be grateful we have this instead of nothing.

 

 

Eragon TV adaptation for Disney+

If you laughed on reading the title of this then rest assured I did the same when reading it on Shur'tugal. Truly HBO's Game of Thrones deserves a vote of deepest thanks! Not only has Amazon created TV adaptions for The Wheel of Time and J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth in the Second Age, plus Radar Pictures working on Mercedes Lackey's The Last Herald-Mage trilogy, but now an Eragon TV adaptation is in the works at Disney+! Eragon being the first volume of Christopher Paolini's internationally acclaimed The Inheritance Cycle, a series which caries a special place in my heart as Eragon was the first Fantasy I read on my own, back in the 5th grade, after my father read The Lord of the Rings to me.

What are my hopes for the show? Well, every Inheritance Cycle fan knows and tries the forget the travesty of a job Fox did with their Eragon movie back in 2004, so Disney+ knows that taking an artistic license to the plot and characters is not something fans will be forgiving about. Beyond that, since Christopher Paolini is co-writing the series my hopes, like his, are quite high. Luck to them as they bring Eragon & Saphira and all the rest from the wondrous world of Alagaësia – land of the Dragon Riders and the Ancient Language – to the big screen!

I just started Froi of the Exiles

I just started Froi of the Exiles by Melina Marchetta, book #2 of her Lumatere Chronicles.

As Lumatere struggles to rebuild, Froi seeks his place in a changing world and trust in himself even though others already trust him... just as a song and prophesy from their hated enemies calls out to him. I love daring missions into enemy kingdoms.

My father and I have once again finished Alphabet of Thorn by Patricia A. McKillip

My father and I have once again finished Alphabet of Thorn by Patricia A. McKillip.

Her Gilgameshian epic, this was the book that made us - then (2014), now, and forever - rank her as a Fantasy author worthy of standing beside J.R.R. Tolkien, Diana Wynne Jones, The Neverending Story by Michael Ende, and J.K. Rowling. We have not read it since because the book is so awe-inspiring, so vast in thought, deep in wisdom, eloquent in language, that one does not read it lightly. But when we learned that Patricia A. McKillip had died we could think of no better way to honor her and all her works mean to us. To be reminded again of her mighty words that shape themselves out of fish, poetry, and thorn in a palace hewn out of stone perched on the sheer edge of the world.

As I said in 2014, so I say again, well done and do well Nepenthe, Tessera, Bourne, Vevay, Felan, Laidly, and Kane. I will think of you whenever my thoughts stray over sea and under stone.

Until next time.

I just finished Finnikin of the Rock by Melina Marchetta

I just finished Finnikin of the Rock by Melina Marchetta, book #1 of her Lumatere Chronicles.

There are some Fantasy authors who, like Mercedes Lackey, make a brutal and often graphic point of showing the extremely gritty elements of the world, the key being that they counterbalances them with characters of the highest ideals who ultimately, if not unscarred, prevail. Such an author is Melina Marchetta, and it was amazing seeing Finnikin help Evanjalin pluck hope from the darkest despair, the grimmest of circumstances, to win back their kingdom from the shadow of magic and sadists, finding love and a future for all of Lumatere.

Amazon's the Wheel of Time Renewed for Season 3

“The Wheel of Time turns and Ages come and go, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave birth to it comes again.”

Just as Amazon scheduled Season 2 before Season 1 came out, so they have now declared Season 3 before Season 2 can been released. This turning of the Wheel is, of course, different, from the turning we are familiar with, but the Wheel weaves as the Wheel wills, and no eye can see the Pattern of this Age until it is woven. For myself, I am glad of this for while I do not agree with the everything the show has done, namely I think they are speeding it up too much at the expense of the world's rick history and great character moments, I feel that, thus far, the adaption is a worthy one.

"As the Wheel of Time turns, places wear many names. Men wear many names, many faces. Different faces, but always the same man. Yet no one knows the Great Pattern the Wheel weaves, or even the Pattern of an Age. We can only watch, and study, and hope." - Moiraine Aes Sedai

"I think of time in this world as fixed circular, but with a drifting variation. There are slight differences in the Pattern each time through so that if you thought of the Pattern as a tapestry and held up two successive weaves, you couldn't see any differences from a distance, only close up, but the more time turnings between tapestries, the more changes are apparent. But the basic Pattern always remains the same." - Robert Jordan