Warner

Accelerate

admin — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 23:53:00 +0000

Recently I was in my car listening to Raw Power and cringed to note that Iggy Pop's music is now being used to promote cruise lines. Therefore, Accelerate might be an ironic title, or wishful thinking, although others crow that it is their most charged effort in years.

I haven’t listened to REM for some time (though I bear them no ill will), and perhaps I’m not enough of a fan to critique them fairly. To me, this band is positive aural wallpaper that inevitably appears in one room or another - sometimes it’s ironically flocked, sometimes it’s tinfoil retro. I preferred it when it was half torn off.

One party-house-wormhole-in-the-space-time-continuum host (the inevitable fedora-wearing chemical casualty with a symbolically random playing card tucked in the hat’s band) described “Stand” as “living instructions for stupid people.” REM? I remember Chronic Town. REM is one of the few arena shows I’ve seen (others include Culture Club and Prince).

Music inevitably becomes personal, a distinct sensory layer of anyone’s recollections. Some of my own associations: “Talk about the Passion” is the memorial song for a friend’s failed suicide attempt. She didn’t mean to take quite so many pills, really. She never woke up, but it took her years to die. Apparently when they came through town a few years later, Stipe sat down on the stage and refused to play “Radio Free Europe.” “Superman” was on the soundtrack for a real relationship, and “Swan Swan Hummingbird” was on the soundtrack for an imaginary one. “Losing My Religion” spoke to me at a bad time. Glad to hear that they’re still doing their thing. If you want to take a drive back to Rockville, go ahead and pick this up.

Written by: Erika Mikkalo, July 23rd 2008

Kushiel’s Justice

admin — Sat, 05 May 2007 11:24:00 +0000

By Jacqueline Carey

Warner

Imriel was an orphan, a slave and a goat herder until he learned he is a Prince of the Realm. He is engaged to Dorelei of Alba, the niece of Drustan the Cruarch of Alba, who is husband to Queen Ysandre of Terre d’Ange. It is a marriage of state though Imriel’s heart belongs to the Dauphine Sidonie, heir to the Terre d’Ange throne. Sidonie loves Imriel with the same passionate intensity that he feels for her.

They embark on an affair that only intensifies their feeling, but they are too afraid to admit their love to the queen and cause chaos in both realms. Imriel marries Dorelei and when he moves to Alba, he spills his seed on that soil and an Old One, who is a bear shape shifter, makes a manikin out of of it. She can use it to control him, but she takes a binding oath that she won’t. Imriel’s relationship with Dorelei is sweet, but not passionate. When she becomes pregnant with his child, he is elated until the Old Ones strike; Imriel begins a journey of vengeance that will take him too many lands, but hopes to reunite with Sidonie when is quest is finished.

[Kushiel’s Justice}(http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0446500038?ie=UTF8&tag=feminrevie-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0446500038) is historical fantasy at its finest. Readers who like the works of Judith Tarr will thoroughly enjoy this romantic fantasy. The Old Ones act out of fear and that causes Imriel to learn how to cope with his feelings and change and grow to be a person worthy of being loved. He travels a hard road because his mother was a traitor to the realm and almost caused Terre d’ Ange to be conquered. Many people don’t trust him; although those who get to know him find him an honorable man. Readers will enjoy this long epic saga and will adore Sidonie a woman whose strength and intelligence makes Imre a better person.

Written by: Harriet Klausner, May 5th 2007

Fledgling

admin — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 17:08:00 +0000

By Octavia E. Butler

Warner

She awakens feeling inside middle age, but looking preadolescent. Even more confusing is that she suffers from amnesia and doesn’t know why she is in this cave, badly bruised and injured. Finally she is starving, but instinctively knows she must dine on human blood, preferably without killing the host.

Wright drives by, sees this young battered girl alone, stops and offers her a ride, which she accepts along with feeding from him. He stays at her side feeling compelled to do so as Shori meets other Ina almost like her and learns that humans like Wright are symbionts providing their nourishment. However, she also finds out how unique she is even amongst the vampiric Ina, as she is the result of a genetic experiment using African American human DNA that enables her to withstand sunlight, why her family was murdered and that a predator seeks to finish the job by killing her and her new symbiont. Survival is her only objective.

Fledgling is a reprint of a terrific vampire tale that provides a deep look at family, race relationships and sexuality, yet is loaded with action. Shori holds the tale together as she learns who she is and why someone wants her dead. Though some readers might have issue with a fifty-three years old female who looks like she is ten or eleven years old (Ina age slower and live longer) having adult relationships, Octavia E. Butler writes a thought provoking character driven relationship allegory.

Written by: Harriet Klausner, April 1st 2007