strange and random happenstance

Name: Amanda Hale

"Dream" Character Casting for the George Mann Newbury and Hobbes Miniseries: Amelia Hobbes

First Impression: The first time she really stuck in my head and made an impression was as the captive housewife in The Crimson Petal and the White. There was just something so intriguing about her portrayal of the crazy wife in the attic a la Jane Eyre.

Why they'd be the perfect actor for the Newbury and Hobbes Miniseries: She has this way about her where she perfectly balances insanity and a will of steel which I think is the fine line that Amelia Hobbes is always treading. Plus she looks fabulous in period costumes.

Lasting Impression: The White Queen, hands down. Of course I had seen her play crazy in The Crimson Petal and the White as well as Ripper Street, but here. Oh boy! She has a religious zealotry where the crazy actually reaches her eyes. But for all her actions she is an indomitable mother and a force to be reckoned with. I give you Amelia Hobbes!

What else you've seen them in: After starring in the newest adaptation of Persuasion Amanda quickly started getting supporting roles in miniseries until she was soon stealing the spotlight from the other so called stars. Despite her small roles in Jekyll, Spooks, and Any Human Heart, she will most be recognized as Emily Reid from Ripper Street, the disappearing wife (seriously, why does that show love to just not explain things? Especially why it isn't on Amazon Prime US) as well as the zealot mother of the future King of England, Lady Margaret Beaufort in The White Queen.

Can't believe it's them: Being Human! Not the fact that she was on the show but the fact that she was so funny! This has to be one of the funniest episodes of the show with her as a rather vulgar ghost who puts on a show of gentility for Hal. Proves she totally gets the underlying humor in all her crazy lady parts. Though my favorite scene ever from Being Human is this...



Wish they hadn't: Any Human Heart. But in all seriousness, I have no idea who she was in it I just hated this miniseries so much I will take any chance I have to badmouth it!

Bio: Hale trained at RADA, graduating in 2005, choosing to become an actress over going to Oxford to read English. She started receiving accolades while still in school and upon graduating they continued flooding in for her stage work. Currently she is staring in Uncle Vanya (yet another Chekhov play I dislike) at the St. James Theatre. There's not much else biography wise online other then she's Welsh and I'll add to that that she's an awesome and powerful actress and can't wait for her next show! Please let it not be anything from Chekhov!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Amanda Hale, Amelia Hobbes, Being Human, Chekhov, Dream Casting, George Mann, Jekyll, Newbury and Hobbes, Persuasion, Ripper Street, Spooks, The Crimson Petal and the White, The White Queen, Veronica Hobbes

The Executioner's Heart by George Mann
Book Provided by the Author
Published by: Tor
Publication Date: July 9th, 2013
Format: Hardcover, 336 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy

Newbury has been sinking further into the mire his friends had hoped to extricate him from. His days are made up of dark arts and drugs. Yet little do they know he is doing it for them. His and Amelia's visions of a darkness to come brought by the sinister Executioner need to be studied so that it can perhaps be avoided. Though with bodies turning up with their hearts ripped out, perhaps the darkness is nearer at hand then they had hoped. With motives being questioned and no one knowing who to trust, can Sir Maurice and Veronica survive the darkness to find a bright future?

The way George's books are written they lend themselves to be read at breakneck speed wherein you never set them down. Alas life almost never allows for such luxuries. Work, appointments, commitments, sleep, anything and everything can be thrown in your path of just wanting to read one more chapter. The more interruptions that happen the more the story loses it's immediacy and the more likely you are to forget salient details and the narrative to lose it's impact. As it happens I had been reading the previous volume during my downtime at a Steampunk convention (fun for the tie-in, but hard when you just had to leave for a panel during a fight scene.) After the close of the convention I had factored in a few days of rest and recuperation before transitioning back to real life. This time allowed me the luxury of getting to read The Executioner's Heart without interruption.

I have just finished the last page and I seriously don't know what to do. The book enveloped me completely and I was just mesmerized. The best stories compel you ever onward, waiting for the next twist, the next chapter, the next book. I gobbled this volume up and I am sated. I just hope it will last, because while I'm not saying that I've reached the point of searching for cheap airfare and just showing up on George's doorstep, each book has built on the previous volume creating a greater story as we watch the characters and George's writing develop, and I do want more. As soon as possible. I know where you live George.

George has a knack with his characters. They have depth and originality. You can view them all as real people that you could meet on the street, that is if you could get to the street where they live. But what really makes his books stand out, which I'm sure I've mentioned before in passing, is that not just the heroes and heroines are well rounded but so are the villains, more so in this volume. In the previous three volumes we have gotten an understanding of those who would thwart Newbury and Hobbes, but in The Executioner's Heart we get even more insight. By having chapters telling us the story of The Executioner, we get a glimpse into what makes her tick, literally. By having these little flashes of her past, while we can't condone her actions, we come to an understanding. We know why she is what she is, but even the why and the how bring up more questions.

The clockwork heart and other infernal devices that have been prolonging Queen Victoria's life have long been a theme in this series, but now they are literally the heart of the matter. With Queen Victoria and The Executioner we have two individuals living beyond their time on earth by clockwork hearts. Both these women are depicted as, well, excuse the pun, but heartless. They are cold and calculating. They do what needs to be done. This brings the idea of man versus machine into stark relief. What is it that makes us human? We talk about love and emotion as being a part of the heart, when really they are seated somewhere in our brain.

But is it the removal of this organ that makes us less then human? Is it just this that sets these two women apart? Or is it the end result of that procedure that makes them something else? Is it living beyond their time that is what breaks them? Seeing the world change and not being a part of that change eroding your humanity? Immortal creatures from Gods to vampires are all in some way monstrous in the stories we tell. Is this because they are unable to connect to what it is to be human? There are just so many questions posed and as the book comes to a close, well, the answer is more important then ever. Gaw George, I might not have the next volume but you have left me so much to ponder!

One fact though I never need to dwell on is that at the end of the day the true villain is the one who tries to justify their deeds as being for "The Greater Good." Every baddie ever from Voldemort to the Neighborhood Watch Alliance of Sandford has used this excuse for their actions. Personally if anyone started spouting this dogma in front of me I'd take to my heels immediately. Or you know, go all righteous on their asses like Newbury. The thing is evil deeds cannot be justified. There aren't gradations of evil or wrong. If you do something wrong it's wrong. Yes, you could do something more wrong, but that's just going more evil, you're already evil from the wrong act. Having some people die without their say to save more... just no. It might be a "tough decision" but committing evil is never for "the greater good." There will always be a taint. Always.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: A Clockwork Heart, George Mann, Harry Potter, Hot Fuzz, Newbury, Newbury and Hobbes, Queen Victoria, Steampunk, The Executioner, The Executioner's Heart, The Greater Good, Veronica Hobbes, Voldemort

The Immorality Engine by George Mann
Published by: Tor
Publication Date: September 27th, 2011
Format: Hardcover, 352 Pages
Rating: ★★★★
To Buy

A certain criminal, Edwin Sykes, has turned up dead. Only after his body is found a burglary with his signature all over it is perpetrated. Is this a copycat or something more sinister? Sykes was a member of The Bastion Society, an organization that seems a little too highbrow for such a criminal lowlife. The head of the society, an Enoch Graves, gives Sir Maurice, Veronica, and Bainbridge a run around that convinces them that somehow these two crimes are connected to not only each other, but to the society. When Sykes turns up dead a second time, despite erroneously thinking perhaps this is a case of twins, the erstwhile investigators turn all their attention to the society. But soon Bainbridge is distracted by an attempt on the Queen's life, and Newbury and Hobbes take some risks that might prove their downfall. One thing though is known, that whatever happens Veronica's sister Amelia will pay the price with her life.

It has been my experience that there comes a point in a series of books that will either cement the longevity of the series and make it a viable franchise or will make you inherently know that the storyline is bound to collapse and fail miserably. This is the book in the Newbury and Hobbes series in which I just knew that this series had wings. While this in no way is throwing shade at the previous two volumes, there was just an extra something that made this book spark with the potential this series will achieve. I personally think that it all comes down to the expansion of the universe of these characters that leads one to feel that longevity is possible. What made me most excited was that the narrative isn't contained to the events in the books. What I mean is that Sir Maurice and Veronica often reference events and cases that we haven't heard about while not detracting from the narrative.

While yes, these might be out there as short stories which I haven't read yet, what I adore is that their narrative lives aren't bound by just the stories in the three volumes I have read so far and the allusions to other adventures aren't clumsily inserted making it necessary to find out if indeed you missed something or were supposed to by an anthology for the one story you wanted. I like to think of the characters I know and love in a book are having adventures when I'm not around, it makes them more realistic if you will. Many series recount all the adventures, one after the other in volume upon volume, and there's just something so restricting about this. Something contained and episodic. By lacking this restrictive container the series has so much more potential for expansion, I just thrill at what is to come!

What drew me into the book most of all, aside from that heart stopping flash-forward, was The Bastion Society. The real reason I was interested in them wasn't the megalomania of their leader Enoch Graves with his delusions of being King Arthur, oh no, but their underlying belief system? Oh yes. The Bastion Society's tenants are that great deeds should be done to keep England the England of myth and legend. By doing what needs to be done in this life, our next life shall be better. Earlier this year when I did a theme month for Lauren Willig's book That Summer, I spent a lot of time researching and reading about the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. They believed in chivalry and deeds worthy of myth. Truth in art that will withstand time and show the past for those in the present. All beliefs that are eerily similar to The Bastion Society.

Therefore I was thrilled when Newbury and Veronica were lurking around Packworth House and many of the Pre-Raphaelite paintings were strewn about the meeting house's walls. Of course none of the art was mentioned by name, but by golly, I can recognize their artwork my the meanest description there is, and there it was. There was a frisson of happiness that I saw this correlation and then George took it one step further by placing the artwork on the walls. It felt like a special in joke just for me and anyone else who might get it. Plus, the fantastical imagery thus created in my mind of, what if the Brotherhood did take up arms like The Bastion Society did... Rossetti, Hunt, and Millais on real horses, not just posing for each others paintings, I literally can not stop smirking at this idea.

Yet there was an aspect of this chivalry that I think went to far, and that is Veronica as the damsel in distress. She has never been one of those swooning women in these paintings! If anything the men are more liable to swoon. But in this book where she has finally taken center stage she seems somewhat watered down. When the time comes she is able to kick the arse and take the names that we know she has always done, but there's some underlying current that second guesses her that I just don't like. Newbury, who has always been solicitous is almost overly protective, which could be written off as his growing feelings for Veronica coupled with the mores of the day, but it just didn't sit right this time around. Veronica herself seemed to even wonder at her own abilities and this I shall not tolerate! A kick ass character can have self doubts but there's a point you reach when their acts of daring do and chivalry outweigh any possible doubts, and The Immorality Engine was weighted a little lopsidedly...

But in the final analysis, it all comes down to the fact that George is able to handle concepts and characters better then most writers out there. While reading The Immorality Engine I was reminded of a show that just aired on BBC America, Intruders, which I watched solely for John Simm. The show was about rebirth and resurrection, and the idea that there is a secret society that has found the secret to immortality, all high and mighty concepts that in the end was a hot mess with plot holes and a narrative disaster that even the best of actors couldn't act their way out of. The third volume of George's series handles similar concepts and conceits and in such a clear and profound way that at one time I literally looked up to my friend who was working on a project while I was reading (at a Steampunk Convention no less) and said, "If Intruders could have captured these concepts half as good as George did here it would have been an awesome show." Instead we are just left with the consolation of an awesome book. I know, it's such a disappointment.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Bainbridge, George Mann, Intruders, John Simm, Lauren Willig, Newbury, Newbury and Hobbes, Pre-Raphaelite, Queen Victoria, Teslacon, That Summer, The Bastion Society, The Immorality Engine, Veronica Hobbes

Name: Scarlett Johansson

"Dream" Character Casting for the George Mann Newbury and Hobbes Miniseries: Veronica Hobbes

First Impression: My first impression of Scarlett was rather forgettable in Ghost World as the rather boring best friend. Though in all honesty, I don't really remember much about Ghost World at all, I watched it the day of my grandfather's funeral because I was too sick to go with a horrid inner ear infection, so perhaps I should maybe watch this movie again sometime?

Why they'd be the perfect actor for the Newbury and Hobbes Miniseries: Not only does Scarlett have the requisite beauty to play Veronica, as well as looking fabulous in historical costumes, but if her recent showing in The Avengers movies proves anything is that she can kick serious ass as well. In fact it was that most Steampunky and David Bowie-y of movies, The Prestige, that had me thinking that the dynamic duo of Newbury and Hobbes couldn't do better than Hugh Jackman and Scarlett Johansson... that was until I recast Hugh, sorry Hugh.

Lasting Impression: As the bored bewigged girl in Lost in Translation. In fact I think this is the first time a lot of people started to sit up and take notice of her. Not only did it revitalize Bill Murray's career, establish Sophia Coppola as more then just an art house director, but it really got the bigger offers coming in for Scarlett.

What else you've seen them in: Well, if you haven't seen The Avengers and Scarlett as Black Widow, well, I don't know what planet you've been living on. Before her becoming ubiquitous in the Marvel franchise, she did a lot more art house films with big name directors, from Sophia Coppola to Woody Allen, even a film with Brian De Palma. She's made a few missteps with a bad movie here and there, but for every The Island there is a Her, where people are protesting award category rules to allow her to be considered even though only her voice is in the movie.

Can't believe it's them: North!?! Literally her first movie role and something I remember seeing in the theatre! All I remember was watching this movie as a jaded high schooler and thinking, damn, this is shit. And you can hold me to that review.

Wish they hadn't: Have you seen Scoop? If you haven't I would avoid it like the plague. I remember the insanely wonderful press of the movie, it's Woody Allen, it's Scarlett Johansson, it's Hugh Jackman! It's putting me to sleep with how boring it is... oh look, she can swim. Yawn. If you want to see good Jackman and Johansson just watch The Prestige!

Bio: Scarlett, unlike a lot of celebrities, seems to not make much of a splash and was able to successfully transition from a child actor (though only in a few roles) to an adult actress without too many bumps in the road. She has a very distinct husky voice and usually garners critical acclaim for many of her movies while mixing them up with blockbusters that really pad the bank account. Oddly she was married to Ryan Reynolds for a few years, and I always thought it a bizarre pairing, an amazing actress who has played opposite heartthrobs like Colin Firth with the guy who played Berg on Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place, a show I really want on DVD for Nathan Fillion FYI. She's also stared in a few plays, again to rave reviews, and oddly released an album, seeing as I hadn't heard about that I'm guessing it wasn't released to rave reviews... She just had her first child, a daughter named Rose and has a lot more Marvel-ous movies coming soon!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Bill Murray, Colin Firth, Dream Casting, Ghost World, Hugh Jackman, Lost in Translation, Marvel, Nathan Fillion, Newbury and Hobbes, Scarlett Johansson, Scoop, The Avengers, The Prestige, Veronica Hobbes

The Affinity Bridge by George Mann
Published by: Tor
Publication Date: July 1st, 2008
Format: Hardcover, 336 Pages
Rating: ★★★★
To Buy

Queen Victoria should have died at the turn of 1901, but in November of that year Victoria lives still via machines, past her time on this earth, preserved as ruler. Sir Maurice Newbury works as an "investigator for the crown" for this indomitable woman who plans to outwit death, by any means necessary, technological or otherwise. While he works at the British Museum, his job there is little more then a cover. Or as Newbury and his clever assistant Victoria Hobbes would say, the museum is there to mark the time between their interesting adventures. Luckily this is a time when they aren't needed at the museum as Queen Victoria has several mysterious situations at present that need Newbury's expertise. There is a plague of revenants, zombie like corpses attacking people in the fog, a string of deaths in Whitechapel that are linked to a mysterious glowing policeman, but most importantly, a crashed airship that had a minor royal on board and among the lists of the dead, a list that is suspiciously missing a pilot. While Newbury longs to find a satisfying conclusion to the murders in Whitechapel and help Scotland Yard and his copper friend Sir Charles Bainbridge, Victoria has insisted that the crash of The Lady Armitage comes before everything else.

Going to the company that made The Lady Armitage, Chapman and Villiers, the duo discover that the company has been expanding beyond their regular line of airships to encompass Automatons. Villiers is a scientist who left France under a cloud because of his unorthodox experimentations, but Newbury can not help marvelling at the work shown to them. They have created simulated life. A simulated life that coincidentally may be responsible for the disastrous air crash, no matter Chapman and Villiers's denials. The closer Victoria and Newbury get to the answers, the more danger they are in. Sir Maurice needs help from "The Fixer" on more then one occasion to keep himself alive at all. Add the ubiquitous presence of the unnerving Automatons everywhere and then throw in a dash of an insane asylum and a laudanum addiction and you can see it's going to be a miracle if they can solve the cases and keep themselves alive.

It is rare that I ever bother to write a second review of a book, one and done is usually my motto. But then there's the other side of me, the control freak which knows that my reviewing style has changed over time. To have a George Mann theme month and just hit you with an old review, a review that feels like it was written out of time (and yes, I did "adapt" the recap), well, that's just not the done thing. Yet it's not just to appease my controlling nature that I re-review it. The Affinity Bridge is one of those elusive books that are worthy of further discussion. Upon re-reading there are so many more layers and plot points that mean something new and different. You see things you missed the first time around, and overall, while the book was just as good, if not better then the first time, it's for a whole new slew of reasons. Things that I loved previously annoyed me, while things I overlooked came forward to take the hole in my heart. George Mann to me is the apotheosis of Steampunk. He has defined this genre for me with a perfect balancing of Britishness, technology, romance, storytelling, and mystery.

To get at the heart of why this book is so seminal to me I really had to think about what continually draws me back to the Victorian era. The truth is it isn't the stuff of period dramas. It isn't the clothes, it isn't the bygone days of culture and manners. I know that might come as a shock, being the lover of miniseries and historical literature that I am. But what truly fascinates me about this time period is the danger, the menace lurking in the fog, and Jack the Ripper. Even as a teenager I had a love of the lurid, the Penny Dreadful, the danger coupled with the romance of another time. A world of manners coupled with skulduggery. The two sides of the coin, if you will, the refinement living alongside the heinous. If I had the ability to time travel I would totally use it just to solve the unsolvable and find out who really was Jack the Ripper. I'd probably use my power on other unsolved cases, but Jack the Ripper, the impact on society to this day is amazing. I can not count the number of interpretations that I have read, watched, and played over the years. Yes, I did play a Sherlock Holmes Jack the Ripper video game. I never won it, but I remember scraping Macassar oil off a door and analyzing it in the lab at 221B Baker Street.

Reading The Affinity Bridge while watching Whitechapel on the side made me have this eureka moment revealing myself to myself in all it's depravity. I finally got it. The murderers, the pickpockets, the thieves, all being routed out by the erstwhile detectives, I thrive on this. I search out that darker aspect in Victorian crime. I want stories worthy of the legend of Jack the Ripper, and that is what George delivers. The glowing policeman coming out of the darkness to revenge his death, seriously, chills. The revenants being a plague on the slums wherein any patch of fog could mean, not just your death, but a horrid and painful demise of being turned into an abomination, a great twist on zombies. This book is a Penny Dreadful for a modern sensibility. Not just relying on a Jack the Ripper type character, but expanding the horror to include the supernatural, the occult, and most terrifying of all, the rapid advancement of technology. These Automatons are literally the stuff of my nightmares, part Sonny from I Robot, part Cylon, and all the horror I never really felt for the Cybermen rolled into one.

But The Affinity Bridge couples this Victorian doom and gloom with a lighter almost campy air. During my re-reading of the book I almost felt as if Newbury was too British. Too much a parody of a man who will do anything for king and country. How does this lead to a positive you might be asking yourself right about now, well, I'm getting to it. The partnership of Newbury and Hobbes is very much reminiscent of that of John Steed and Emma Peel. This book is all the campy fun of a Victorian series of The Avengers, and no, not The Avengers with Loki. If you look at the complete run of The Avengers the four years between 1965-1968 were the shows glory years. Steed needed Emma. The show actually was on the air for many years before and after Mrs. Peel, but it is Mrs. Peel that balances Steed. This is how I view the relationship of Newbury and Hobbes. Newbury IS too campy, too British, because he isn't complete without Veronica. They balance each other to create a perfect partnership. I can only hope that they will keep walking arm and arm into the fog to fend off the next fiend and finish the day with a pot of Earl Grey.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Cybermen, Cylons, Emma Peel, George Mann, Jack the Ripper, John Steed, Mann Month, Newbury and Hobbes, Queen Victoria, Sherlock Holmes, The Affinity Bridge, The Avengers, Veronica Hobbes, Whitechapel, Zombies

Ask the majority of Steampunk fans and they will say their favorite author is George Mann. It's easy to see why, his Newbury and Hobbes books have a quirky Britishness that I would compare to The Avengers but as easily appealing to fans of Doctor Who and Sherlock Holmes. Not to forget strong female characters, go Victoria Hobbes! He is also amazingly nice and polite and generous, can you think of many authors who would not only put up with answering silly questions but also write a little piece of new work for a blog, that isn't their own, I think not, you are the man George! If that hasn't yet convinced you of his awesomeness, he's not only written a 11th Doctor Who book, Paradox Lost, he's met the 11th Doctor! See, that's real geek and Steampunk cred right there!

Question: What is the definitive Steampunk book for you?

Answer: Not strictly steampunk, but for me you have to go back to Verne and Wells. Wells's 'The First Men in the Moon' is a particular favourite.

Question: What drew you to this genre?

Answer: I love the freedom that steampunk offers, how it makes a fantasy from the past. There's something very honest about exploring 'what never was'. Plus I get to play with all the things I love - clockwork robots, airships, tentacled beasties, occult secret societies...

Question: How do you take your tea?

Answer: Assam in the morning, Earl Grey in the afternoon, with a dash of milk in both

Question: Must have sartorial accessory?

Answer: A sword stick, of course. Preferably with an ornate silver handle.

Question: Sartorial leaning: Street Urchin, Tinker, Explorer or Aesthete?

Answer: Aesthete.

Question: Top hat or bowler hat?

Answer: Always a top hat, obviously.

Question: Subgenre you most identify with: Boilerpunk, Clockpunk, Dieselpunk, Gaslight Romance, Mannerspunk, Raygun Gothic or Stitchpunk?

Answer: Clockpunk with a dash of Gaslight Romance.

Question: If there was one thing that could truly exist from the world of Steampunk what would it be?

Answer: Veronica Hobbes ;-)

Question: If there was one element in the Steampunk genre you could remove forever what would it be?

Answer: The naysayers ;-)

Question: Favorite movie or television series with Steampunk elements?

Answer: Doctor Who.

Question: Preferred mode of transport: celestial, aether, terra firma or aquatic?

Answer: Aether.

Question: Favorite Queen to have had a diamond jubilee, Victoria or Elizabeth?

Answer: Victoria.

Question: Victorian or Wild West?

Answer: Victorian.

Question: Would you like an automaton butler or ladies maid, considering that it might be the first step in the robotic apocalypse?

Answer: No! Have you READ The Affinity Bridge? Those things are dangerous!*

*Yes George, thanks for the nightmares!

Question: If The Doctor showed up at your door, where would you go?

Answer: 1880s Monmatre, for a glass of absinthe and a visit to the Moulin Rouge.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 3 comments  

Labels: Doctor Who, Earl Grey, George Mann, H.G. Wells, Monmatre, Moulin Rouge, Paradox Lost, Sherlock Holmes, The 11th Doctor, The Affinity Bridge, The Avengers, Veronica Hobbes