Early in Tehanu, Tenar (hello old friend!) muses about her friend Moss, the village witch: “She thought Moss was following her heart, but it was a dark, wild, queer heart, like a crow, going its own ways on its own errands.” I can’t think of a better way to describe this book. In the last pages of The Farthest Shore, another mage says of Ged, “He has done with doing.” Tehanu is the story of what comes after The Doing. Ged leaves Roke and returns […]
Wish I Could Be… Part of His New World?
Collecting Lucifer issues #14-28, and presented in a series of 3-part tales, Lucifer, Book 2 packs just as much interest, theological imagination, grotesqueness, and creativity as the first volume in the series. This kind of thing is definitely not for everyone, and my appreciation of the illustrative qualities varied from artist to artist within the book. However, I once again thoroughly enjoyed the characterization that Mike Carey has created in Lucifer, many of the issue covers and artworks separating the different sections within this book […]
Ghost Stories on a Tatami Mat
Target: Miyabe Miyuki’s Apparitions: Ghosts of Old Edo. Translated by Daniel Huddleston Profile: Horror, Ghost Stories Japanese horror ranges pretty heavily from mild ghost stories to some incredibly creepy and dehumanizing body horror. Apparitions fortunately falls into the former citatory, chronicling a series of stories that walk a fine line between scary and sentimental. These tales capitalize on the cornerstone of Japanese spirituality: that every object and creature is imbued with a sprit. At their core, these stories are more cautionary tales, advising the listener to act with honor […]
Personally, I’ve Never Much Cared for Bees
This was a book club book choice for me, so going in, I had no real idea of what to expect or even what the book was about (other than bees and mist, the great outdoors?). I might have enjoyed this a little more had I bothered to read a quick book synopsis, but this is definitely not a book I would have chosen on my own. To find out why, head over to my blog post.