strange and random happenstance

The Wyrm King: Beyond the Spiderwick Chronicles Volume 3 by Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi
Published by: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing
Publication Date: September 8th, 2009
Format: Hardcover, 224 Pages
Rating: ★★
To Buy

After all that's happened the parents have decided that family counseling is the only recourse. At the counselors office the kids are well behaved while the adults sling harmful comments at the others' children and then they decide to separate. This is not what the kids want, but Nick is incapable of stating what it is he wants, seeing as he's not quite sure himself. But with the Grace kids all in Florida, they have more pressing things to worry about, in particular, what is worse than giants? Based on some very sketchy sketches, 500 year ago, during the time of the Conquistadors, something very much like an evil ball of yarn, or perhaps a hydra, rose and had to be destroyed by the giants. After much discussion, and inspection of a newly formed sinkhole in front of Jack's house, wherein Mallory passes out, they come to a working hypothesis. The little wormy dragon like creatures emit methane, hence Mallory passing out, and they become the big scary hydra creature in much the same way rats have a "rat king." The "Wyrm King" is created when all these little snake creatures get their tails entangled and become one fierce creature to be reckoned with by sheer numbers made into a single fighting unit. Also Jack had Taloa hidden in the kiddy pool in the back yard, proving that he is far more useful then the kids in working things out. Nick begs Taloa and her two sisters to help, promising on his life he will get them to fresh water if they help lure the giants back, which is becoming more and more important, the wyrms are growing at a terrifying rate and sinkholes are appearing everywhere. The mermaids are not happy the kids are back, but seeing as they aren't asked for help they just scare Nick by holding him underwater for a bit, but they do give him a fancy hat so he can breath underwater. The kids successfully lure the giants back onto land but then all hell breaks loose. Jules' car is destroyed, Jack's son returns to help, the "Sandspur" is not what people thought he was, Jules is injured, Florida looks more and more like a war zone. But in all the chaos the giants are eating the wyrms and Nick thinks that perhaps there is a giant "Wyrm King" at the epicenter of the sinkholes. Can the kids really save the day? Will they really be heroes? Can Nick ever decide what he wants? Is the Spiderwick Chronicles really at an end?

Finally it's over! Or as over as it will be for awhile, or until the authors desperately need some money (is there any other reason for why there is another Nanny Diaries coming out?) I feel extremely cheated in this final book. Yes it ends well, yes they are all happy, but I feel distinctly unhappy. Can anything those parents said at the counseling session ever be taken back? Can Laurie ever forgive her step-dad for calling her a bad influence and yelling at her? Can Jules ever look at his step-mom the same for creepily insinuating that maybe he had some nefarious designs on her daughter and his own brother? It just left a bad taste in my mouth. Also, as I've said before, I don't like how it became such a "blockbuster" summer Transformers-esque book. Did they already sign a movie deal for this one and that's why it feels like I should be ohhing and ahhing at explosions while eating vast quantities of popcorn? Also there was a real ick, gross out factor with the Wyrm King. Sure it's all scientifically backed up with correlations to rat kings, but ewww. Finally my last gripe is, can't at least one faery be mildly good, did that have to go the way they did with Sandspur? Or did they just really want another ick moment coupled with faeries are no good? In the final analysis, I think I'll just go back an enjoy the first Spiderwick arc, because while this one started out promising, it quickly found a sinkhole.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 11:12 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Beyond the Spiderwick Chronicles, Book Review, Holly Black, The Spiderwick Chronicles, The Wyrm King, Tony DiTerlizzi

A Giant Problem: Beyond the Spiderwick Chronicles Volume 2 by Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi
Published by: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing
Publication Date: September 16th, 2008
Format: Hardcover, 154 Pages
Rating: ★★★
To Buy

The past few weeks Noseeum Jack has been trying to teach Laurie and Nick the ways of giant slaying, only Nick can't help thinking that they are too young and too few. When that night while watching two giants brawl, to avoid their brawling parents, Jack is injured and Nick realizes that not only are they too young but also too old. Laurie on the other hand is thinking that they should increase the number of the fighters, by covertly giving Jules a four-leaf clover. Early the next morning Nick hears what he assumes is a cat in the garbage, only to find a faery. The "sandspur" races to the water and proceeds too eat the parting message Taloa left the kids saying they will regret not helping her. After they capture the faery and are all sitting pretty in the house the giants attack. While they are not attacking Mangrove Hollow, per sae, it's in the path and it goes up in smoke, with a rather shell shocked Jules saving Nick, Laurie and her new pet. Jules demands an explanation for the giants, and the scary merefolk he saw while surfing earlier that day. Laurie and Nick explain to him about faeries, all the while Nick is furious at Laurie for tricking Jules into having the sight. They meet up with the parents at the hotel that is now their home, but shortly thereafter have to ditch them to stop this "giant problem." They go to see Jack but he is being taken away by his son, Jack Junior, seeing as Jack is old and injured. Jack says he left the kids something out back but all they see is a kiddy pool and leave his house, barely avoiding a sink hole. That night Nick can't sleep and reads some of Laurie's books that were saved from the fire, one of them being a fairy tale book including the Pied Piper of Hamlin. The next day they go to the devastated development where Nick recovers a viking ship he made from a kit his dead mother gave him. Back at the hotel Jules introduces Cindy to "the sight" by showing her Laurie's new pet that lives in their bathroom. Nick tells them that he might have a plan to get ride of the faeries, based on the Pied Piper and the merefolk Jules saw. If they could lure the giants to the ocean, perhaps that would solve their problems. They all sneak out and steal Nick's dad's car and head for the sea. The mermaids agree to help by singing for them if they bring them a fish that they have never seen before dawn or Jules dies, otherwise known as sending them on a fool's errand. Nick decides that a fish from a landlocked sea would be the best bet, and as it luckily and incredulously turns out Cindy's dad has just the fish, which they then have to steal and barely get away with. But with the fish the mermaids still try to trick them, but Nick saw this coming and tricked them in return...so the plan might still work...but what if the giants weren't the problem? What if they were rising to fight a greater big bad?

I did not enjoy this second installment nearly as much as the first. Second installments in a trilogy have a bit of a bad lot, they are not known for resolving anything and are usually just a bridge to the final confrontation. Of course I'm not saying that things didn't progress, they did, but they progressed in a way where the kids made a bigger mess, so not only will they have to solve the overall problem, but also the problem they created by banishing the giants to the bottom of the ocean. Also, once again, being a fast read I was impatient for the story to be over. I also have an issue with were the story is going, meaning I don't like it going so big and bad that it really is turning into some sort of behemoth or a summer blockbuster. I should have seen this coming though, giants themselves are big. As a final thought I'll ruminate on Laurie. In particular Laurie's ability to convincingly lie. Nick is in awe of her ability to casually throw out comments and spin them into a believable yarn. Shouldn't we, as readers, be worried that this book is kind of glorifying the ability to lie to children? I'm usually not this hyper aware of stuff like this, anyone should read anything they want, I just thought that this might be sending the wrong message. Perhaps Nick's Dad is 100% right and Laurie is a bad influence on Nick. He might be finally interacting with the world...but is it in a good way? Is the the fabrication of false truths justified if they save Florida? We will have to see as I now crack open the final volume after a protracted wait.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 2:10 AM 0 comments  

Labels: A Giant Problem, Beyond the Spiderwick Chronicles, Book Review, Holly Black, The Spiderwick Chronicles, Tony DiTerlizzi

Evey: Who are you?

V: Who? Who is but the form following the function of what and what I am is a man in a mask.

Evey: Well I can see that.

V: Of course you can, I’m not questioning your powers of observation, I’m merely remarking upon the paradox of asking a masked man who he is.

Evey: Oh, right.

V: But on this most auspicious of nights, permit me then, in lieu of the more commonplace sobriquet, to suggest the character of this dramatis persona. Voila! In view humble vaudevillian veteran, cast vicariously as both victim and villain by the vicissitudes of fate. This visage, no mere veneer of vanity, is a vestige of the “vox populi” now vacant, vanished. However, this valorous visitation of a bygone vexation stands vivified, and has vowed to vanquish these venal and virulent vermin, van guarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition.

The only verdict is vengeance; a vendetta, held as a votive not in vain, for the value and veracity of such shall one day vindicate the vigilant and the virtuous.
Verily this vichyssoise of verbiage veers most verbose, so let me simply add that it’s my very good honour to meet you and you may call me V.

Evey: Are you like a crazy person?

V: I’m quite sure they will say so.

Remember remember the fifth of November
Gunpowder, treason and plot.
I know of no reason why gunpowder, treason
Should ever be forgot…

Posted by Miss Eliza at 1:33 AM 3 comments  

Labels: Cox Populi, Evey, Guy Fawkes, V, V for Vendeta

The Nixie's Song: Beyond the Spiderwick Chronicles Volume 1 by Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi
Published by: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing
Publication Date: September 18th, 2007
Format: Hardcover, 162 Pages
Rating: ★★★
To Buy

In Florida at the new Mangrove Hollow development things aren't going Nick's way. After the death of his mom he decided it would be better to just not bother with anything and look where that's got him... a new fairy loving step-sister, Laurie, and now has to share a bedroom with his older surf board loving brother Jules. Laurie's favorite book is Arthur Spiderwick's Field Guide (yes, they are doing the self referential author thing like Lemony Snicket). Whilst Nick humors Laurie on a walk looking for the fae he finds a four leaf clover. Later when a storm starts to brew and Laurie dances in the rain Nick heads for home. From his window he sees a body in distress, thinking it's Laurie (he did leave her in the woods afterall) he rushes outside but finds it's a faery, thanks to the four leaf clover he can see her, and enlists Laurie's help. They dump her in the developments lake, where she starts to recover. As a thank you Taloa gives the children the gift of sight (which horrifies Nick, because now he can never not see "them") and asks their help to find her sisters, well actually more blackmails them into helping, because when they refuse Nick's Dad's car gets filled with sand. They begrudgingly help Taloa and end up finding her sisters are dead and there's a giant about, who only stops his rampage because of Taloa's voice. They realize they need help and decide to go to the book signing that Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi are having nearby. Jules and his girlfriend Cindy take them to the talk where the authors turn out to be useless, but they find Jared and Simon Grace (not their real names) and they offer their help. There turns out to be an old friend of Arthur Spiderwick's, a giant expert, who lives nearby. The three children, Simon having gone home, rendezvous at the man's house and find drawing's by Arthur Spiderwick that could prove useful. They attempt the noose like trap for the giant but in the world of faeries things are not as they seem. Then Noseeum Jack, the giant expert, arrives with portents of doom, giants are like cicadas and every 500 years they all rise, this happens to be now, and if they don't all become like "Jack the Giant Killer" Florida is going to burn. Can they stop it from happening?

I like that in the not-really-but-really-it-is sequel to The Spiderwick Chronicles, that we get such a different setting. Instead of a very old New Englandy Victorian ruin we get a very new sub development in humid Florida. Also I can relate to Nick, the pudgy, indoor loving, video game playing boy who just tries to keep his head down. The faeries are just as annoying and singsongy as ever, all with the expected undercurrent of menace. I do have to wonder about Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi's growing up with their two Spiderwick arcs dealing with broken homes. Of course this one is more hopeful because it's a family trying to come together and become a family, versus the fall out of a shattered marriage. It's like The Brady Bunch only with giants and merefolk versus a football to the face. The whole book is coming to terms with and dealing with what is unwillingly thrust on you, whether a sister or a nixie. I do find it annoying how they love to cliffhanger the overly short, quickly read book with a year wait for the next one...but then again, sometimes the suspense of what is to come is better than when it actually arrives...as you'll see in my upcoming review of A Giant Problem!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 2:18 AM 4 comments  

Labels: Beyond the Spiderwick Chronicles, Book Review, Holly Black, The Nixie's Song, The Spiderwick Chronicles, Tony DiTerlizzi

<br/><a href="http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?mkt=en-US&amp;vid=c53b6435-06bc-4b28-ad6e-2f9dc8e51364" target="_new" title="Season 3 - Episode 9: Wit&#39;s End">Video: Season 3 - Episode 9: Wit&#39;s End</a>

Posted by Miss Eliza at 2:23 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Felicia Day, The Guild, The Knights of Good

Sandman: The Dream Hunters by Neil Gaiman
Published by: DC Comics
Publication Date: November 3rd, 2009
Format: Hardcover, 144 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:08 AM 1 comments  

Labels: Chagall, Neil Gaiman, Sandman, The Graveyard Book, The Hunter's Dream, Tuesday Tomorrow

I have, for awhile now, been inspired by Nick Hornby. In particular his columns from The Believer magazine. Of course I'm always a little miffed that they make him only write the positive and not really lay into a book. If you don't like a book I think you should be allowed to rail against it all you like. But what I do like is that at the beginning of his monthly column, he writes what books he bought versus what he was able to read. The theory, or at least my take on this experiment, is to get your buying habits in align with your reading habits. So that you aren't buying more than you need in a month and thus are saving money. I have been trying to align the two, buying and reading, but with being an admitted book addict, not wanting to seek help, and seeing as I troll a lot of used bookstores, where if you don't by it then it will be gone...it is hard. So I've decided at the begning of each month to itemize the best finds of the previous month. It will be bowdlerized, not to spare you from anything unseamly, but to make me look not as insane a book buyer....hey, Nick Hornby admits he does it to make himself look not as bad, so why can't I? And he is an extreme book addict! He actually believes the whole book buying process and the anticipation of reading your new purchase justifies buying it, even if in the end you never read it. (And I heard this direct from the Football Addicts mouth, as it were...was going to say horses, wouldn't work for him). So here I list, my best finds of October:

1) So Long, and Thanks for all the Fish by Douglas Adams - The only edition I didn't have with the weird floating orbs! Half Price Books, $2.

2) The Girl from Leam Lane, the Life of Catherine Cookson - Cool bio on the lady whose books have all been made into miniseries, making a star of Sean Bean and Robson Green. Frugal Muse find for $12.

3) The Daphne Du Maurier Companion - Virago Publishing, British Edition, that matches the rest of my Du Maurier set, found at Barnes & Noble of all places! $20 but worth it!

4) The Celestial Omnibus by E. M. Forster - GORGEOUS edition that I found at Half Price Books for $6, truly the most beautiful edition of any Forster book I yet have.

5) Never Slow Dance with a Zombie by E. Van Lowe - Perfect Halloweeny book found for $4 at Frugal Muse.

6) The Balkan Trilogy by Olivia Manning - The tie-in edition for Fortunes of War starring Emma Thompson and Kenneth Branagh. I found Manning's second series, the Levenant series tie-in edition years ago in Canada, and have been hoping to find this for years. $2 at the Friends of the Memorial Library book sale.

7) Decca, the Letters of Jessica Mitford by Jessica Mitford - True find! It's hard to find anything by the Mitford sisters stateside, but this lovely 1st edition was at Half Price Books for only $11.

8) The Mummy Case by Elizabeth Peters - Found the out of print (in this edition) 3rd Amelia Peabody book with the cover that matches my current editions. $3 at Half Priced Books.

9) Gaudy Night by Dorthy L. Sayers - Lord Peter Wimsey Masterpiece Theatre tie-in edition from 1987! I collect all Masterpiece tie-in editions I can, and this was a real coup! $2 at the Friends of the Memorial Library book sale.

10) Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld - New book I've been dying to read, found for $8 used! Who sold this like a week after it came out? Wackos...

These are my best finds of the month, of course I also got the new Terry Pratchett, the new Charlaine Harris, and a few others here and there...but you'll never know what they are unless you keep reading my site to get the reviews!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 3:54 PM 2 comments  

Labels: Catherine Cookson, Daphne Du Maurier, Dorthy L. Sayers, Douglas Adams, E.M. Forster, Elizabeth Peters, Jessica Mitford, Masterpiece Theater, Nick Hornby, Scott Westerfeld, The Believer

That's happy if you like the ass end of the prettiness of fall and the descent into winter bleakness accompanied by darkness at 5:30PM with dead leaves underfoot that are kind of slimy and try to trip you. But then again, those leave are probably just helping you get into training for ice...So what can we do to alleviate this sadness? Well, give books away that's how! If you recall I've been running two giveaways right now, what I refer to as the Ad(d)ams giveaways, one for the lovely Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy in sweet boxed set form, the other for the biography of Charles Addams, the macabre creator of The Addams Family.

The 1st Giveaway:
As you may or may not recall, the question I asked you all was who was you favorite character in the Hitchhiker's books...Arthur was sadly beaten by a robot...a robot, who when he learns he one will not care, due to his chronically depressed nature...it's in his programming. Marvin won by a landslide. But let's give a shout out to GOD and the Existential Lift!

Now, drum-roll....The HHGTTG Winner of the boxed set is.....Sheere...who eerily enough was entry 43! That random.org...only one off from the answer to life, the universe and everything...creepy.

The 2nd Giveaway:
Well, the favorite Gomez Addams is John Astin...personally I think it's all about Raul...but there you go. You chose Patty Dukes husband, you know the one she cheated on and told her son, Sean "Samwise Gamgee" Astin that John was his father and there was all that drama. Who would have thought Patty Duke would be so messed up? That's just child actors for you...

Anyway, I digress, the winner of the book is....my goodreads, facebook and all around Doctor Who lover friend Michelle! Yeah Michelle, the random generator likes you today!

More Giveaways to come! If you didn't know, I still have one giveaway going till next Saturday night. You could be in with a chance to win The Nearly Departed signed and inscribed to you by the author, Micheal Norman! A rare opportunity that is. Plus I have will be having a giveaway of one of the books I recently reviewed...I was thinking of saving it till December, but then though, naw...you guys want it now!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 1:34 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Charles Addams, Contest, Douglas Adams, Giveaway, Michael Norman, The Addams Family, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, The Nearly Departed