I just finished Froi of the Exiles

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

Assassination attempts and successes, plots and counterplots, truths and lies, traitors betraying those friends and enemies they had once betrayed and vice versa (try to work that out), a half-mad princess and good old angry and caring Froi with a song and redemption in his heart plus a fierce love entwined with a relentless curse and tangled politics. All amounting to a maze of hurt and love and foul acts done with the best intentions coupled with a desperate desire for peace. The question now is, can Froi find Quintana of Charyn?

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.