Jim C. Hines's Blog, page 121

Legend of Korra: Civil Wars, Part II

Legend of Korra

2 x 4: Civil Wars, Part II

Full episodes available at Nick.com.

Episode Summary (from the Avatar Wiki): Korra must fight for her parents’ freedom when they are wrongfully arrested for plotting to assassinate Chief Unalaq.

My Thoughts: Baby sky bison! So much cute!!!

Ahem. Anyway, I’m glad that we seem to be done forcing Korra through plot hoops by making her fall for Palpatine levels of obvious manipulation. I think the writers could have done a better job of getting the story to this point, but now that we’re here, things are beginning to work better. It feels like they’ve been trying to hammer ill-fitting pieces into place for the past three episodes, whereas having Korra, Mako, Asami, Bolin, and Varrick finally come together together against the (sadly one-dimensional) bad guy feels so much more natural.

I also appreciated how they addressed the familial conflicts from the last episode. I admit it never occurred to me that Ikki had run away because the others were picking on her, but it made perfect sense looking back, and it fit so well with Tenzin’s conflicts with Bumi and Kya. Was it a little cheesy? Maybe, but I liked it. Because baby sky bison. I particularly appreciated the resilience we saw from Ikki when she went home and joined her siblings in a game of airball. It’s a little harder for the adults, but they came together as well. The photograph from Katara was the perfect touch – not only sealing the scene, but showing that Katara has been quietly taking steps of her own to heal her family’s rifts.

Korra going after the judge who jailed her father felt like the same sort of impulsive/impetuous mistakes she’s been making all along. In this case, it turned out to be the right call, and her bit about “what Naga wants” and threatening to let the polar bear dog eat the judge’s head was entertaining, but the whole sequence still bothered me. If Korra had any evidence to suggest the judge was crooked, that would be one thing. But as far as I can tell, she didn’t. Which means when she went after him, she was just trying to bully him into changing his verdict. Slamming Naga into the car could have killed the man. Yes, it ended well, but that’s only because she got very lucky.

I loved Bumi’s scene with stone-Aang, and his hug with Kya. “You always know when I need a hug.” I like that line a lot, and it makes me really appreciate Bumi’s character. I thought that scene added a lot more depth than we’d seen from him previously.

Platypus-bear pooping money? Yeah, I laughed. Because my brain is forever 12

And then there’s Bolin and Eska. Oh my sacred cabbages, will you please end this storyline already? The only way Eska’s character and that “relationship” can possibly be redeemed for me at this point is if Eska and her brother turn out to be spirits, which would give her an excuse for being such an inhumanly extreme cliche of over-the-top possessiveness and obnoxiousness. But right now, it’s unfunny, demeaning, and flat-out painful to watch. Varrick’s jabbering about how to treat “crazy women” makes it more cringeworthy, and that final scene of makeup-smeared Eska waterbending after them? Seriously, just stop it.

Also, watching Bolin and Asami together in this one has convinced me that the Asami/Bolin shippers have a valid point…

Thoughts From the Eight-Year-Old: I liked it, especially the part where they found out that Korra’s uncle was actually the bad guy. This was all I got out of him before he went back to playing his Avatar game, which involves running back and forth through the living room, and something about the fire king’s head getting lost.

Overall Rating: One of the better episodes this season, despite the Bolin/Eska train wreck. The characters finally feel more like themselves, and I have hope that we’re moving beyond the somewhat rocky setup work for this season’s arc. I will optimistically say that I think the show has found it’s footing, and everything will get even better from here on out. OR ELSE!!!

Predictions: I suspect we’ll be bringing Tenzin and his family into the spirit conflict soon. Jinora will presumably be involved there, given her experience with the avatar statues. Korra’s off to ask for help from the President, which means we’ll have some ugly North vs. South fighting for a while. (Possibly bringing former United Forces Commander Bumi’s expertise into the conflict at some point?)

I expect Korra’s impulsiveness will get her into trouble again (also, the sun will rise in the east), which I’m hopeful will eventually lead her back to Tenzin and to a better connection with the spirits. As for the spirits themselves … we’ve gotten nothing for the past two episodes. I have no idea what’s going on there.

Cool Stuff Friday

Welcome to week two of Cool Stuff Friday.

Sir Patrick Stewart, Leonard Nimoy, and Sir Ian McKellan, all in one photograph.
A life-size Dalek, made out of LEGO.
Scientists at Harvard and MIT are one step closer to creating the light saber. “Lukin also suggested that the system might one day even be used to create complex three-dimensional structures – such as crystals – wholly out of light.”
The Curiosity Rover found that Martian soil is about two percent water, by weight, which could be a very good thing for future colonists. (Though there’s also perchlorate in the soil, which is harmful to humans and would need to be dealt with.)
For Banned Books Week, MediaBistro linked to excerpts from the ten most frequently challenged library books in the U.S. (Captain Underpants leads the list.)
28 Cats Having a Way Worse Day Than You. It’s a Buzzfeed page and takes a little while to load, but it made both me and my wife laugh.
I may need to pick up one of these Girl Cooties Warning T-shirts that author Jaime Lee Moyer just put up on Zazzle.
Photos from Socotra Island – About a third of the plant life here exists nowhere else on the planet. It’s described as the most alien-looking place on Earth, though I’m not sure I agree. Maybe the most alien-looking land on Earth. Deep-ocean life can get pretty unusual…

September Search Queries

Because I was bored curious, I took a look at the search queries that brought people to my website over the past month. There were the obvious searches for my name and my writing, along with the cover poses. But there were plenty of more interesting results, too…

“Sex cartoon” was in the top five queries for the month. I’m guessing most of these folks were rather disappointed to land on this sexual harassment comic.
“Sex c” was also in the top ten. Yeah … sex c and I know it!
“Form sex” – Not quite sure what that means.
“Sex carton” makes me think of Merry and Pippin, with Pippin asking, “It comes in cartons?”
“enchanted alethea kontis pdf” – Great book. You can pick it up at Amazon,  B&N, Mysterious Galaxy or your local independent bookstore.
“nude erotic men pose with semi dressed women” – I’m starting to sense a theme here.
“adam jamie fanfiction mythbuster” – Adding this to my To Do List.
“belly button shoot with nerf bullets” – Um … I got nothing.
“how racist people look when they take a dump” – Until now, this question had never once crossed my mind, and I WAS PERFECTLY HAPPY THAT WAY!
“jim hines diet and workout” - For next year’s fundraiser, I’m makin’ a workout video! We’ll call it Geekercise!
“phineas and ferb sex jokes” – Aren’t they a little young to be making that kind of joke?
“scalzi hugo travesty” - This just makes me giggle.
“serial killer hines” – HOW DID THEY FIND OUT???

Gilmour on Turning Stomachs

ETA: I should also link to this follow-up, wherein Gilmour responds to the criticism of his comments. I’ve done interviews before where my verbal comments were rephrased or edited in ways that distorted their meaning. On the other hand, the apology (which he says he normally wouldn’t give, but he’s got a book coming out) and his other comments … well, it still doesn’t feel like he gets it. But you should read his response and decide for yourself.

#

I stared at this author interview – David Gilmour On Building Strong Stomachs – for a long time before conceding defeat. I had been planning to write a satirical send-up of his interview, but nothing I could come up with came close to the things this award-winning novelist and professor actually said.

Let’s start with one of his introductory comments.

“I’m a natural teacher, I was trained in television for many years. I know how to talk to a camera, therefore I know how to talk to a room of students. It’s the same thing.”

Okay, I totally get this. I mean, I don’t like to brag, but I’m a natural sniper. I know how to hit the bowl when I take a piss, therefore I know how to take out an enemy soldier from three hundred yards. It’s the same thing.

“I teach modern short fiction to third and first-year students. So I teach mostly Russian and American authors … I can only teach stuff I love.”

Have I ever told you about my other day job? Oh yeah. I’m a professional hairstylist. So I only give people mullets and 70s pornstaches. I can only cut the styles I love.

“I’m not interested in teaching books by women … What I teach is guys. Serious heterosexual guys. F. Scott Fitzgerald, Chekhov, Tolstoy. Real guy-guys. Henry Miller. Philip Roth.”

I WANT YOU ALL TO KNOW THAT I’M VERY, VERY HETEROSEXUAL. NOT BECAUSE I’M COMPENSATING FOR ANYTHING, BUT BECAUSE GIRLS WRITE YUCKY STUFF!

(ALSO, TOTALLY NOT COMPENSATING, BUT I HAVE AN ENORMOUS PENIS! A REAL PENIS-PENIS.)

“There’s an even dirtier one that I teach, by Philip Roth, called The Dying Animal … There are men eating menstrual pads, and by the time my students get to that they’re ready. Roth has the best understanding of middle-aged sexuality I’ve ever come across.”

Speaking as a man who will be turning 40 next year, I am absolutely terrified about what looms ahead for me and my middle-aged sexuality.

Alternate response: Weirdest. Diet plan. Ever.

“I teach only the best.”

I.e., “Look, I don’t want to generalize, but women and gay men are no good at anything.”

#

What gets me is that so much of what Gilmour says is the same crap we hear all the time. Gilmour turns it up to eleven, but the underlying sentiment is the same. “I only read stories I love. I don’t judge by sex or race or anything else.” Sure, I never stray outside of my white, male, American comfort zone, but it’s not like I’m racist or sexist!

I know Gilmour’s an easy target with this interview. But he’s not saying anything plenty of other people don’t believe, even if they’re not as obnoxiously blunt about it. And that’s disturbing as hell.

New Books

Lots of friends with new books out this week. Because apparently I don’t have enough to read already? At this rate, I’m never going to reach the summit of Mount To Be Read!

Morgan Keyes’ Darkbeast Rebellion [Amazon | B&N | Mysterious Galaxy] is a middle-grade fantasy, the follow-up to Darkbeast, which I enjoyed and reviewed here.

Martha Wells has a Star Wars book out about Princess Leia, called Razor’s Edge [Amazon | B&N | Mysterious Galaxy], set between the events of Star Wars and Empire.

Anton Strout’s Stonecast [Amazon | B&N | Mysterious Galaxy] is the second book in his Stonemason Chronicles. There may or may not be were-jaguars.

Laura Anne Gilman’s Soul of Fire [Amazon | B&N | Mysterious Galaxy] is the second part of the Portals Duology, following Heart of Briar.

Marie Brennan has put together a collection of essays on writing fight scenes, called (appropriately enough) Writing Fight Scenes [Amazon | B&N].

Elizabeth Bear’s novella Book of Iron [Amazon | B&N | Mysterious Galaxy] is a standalone prequel to Bone and Jewel Creatures.

Finally, the tenth issue of Seanan McGuire’s serial Indexing [Amazon] has just been released.

As always, please feel free to suggest other new books I’m forgetting, or just share what you’re reading and enjoying right now.

Legend of Korra: Civil Wars, Part I

Legend of Korra

2 x 3: Civil Wars, Part I

Full episodes available at Nick.com.

Episode Summary (from the Avatar Wiki): Korra tries to remain neutral as tensions flare between the Northern and Southern Water Tribes.

My Thoughts: I loved the familial theme in this episode. After seeing Tenzin take the brunt of his siblings’ teasing last week (to Katara’s obvious distress), it was good to see the sibling relationships developed more. In group dynamic terms, we’re getting into the storming phase of development. All three of them have pain the others don’t understand, and it will take time to get past that. But they’re all good people, and you see that in their interactions, even when they’re hurting each other.

I’m sad to hear about Aang’s shortcomings as a father. Though it’s not unrealistic. He was the Avatar as well as the last airbender until Tenzin was born. Being a father is hard enough without those two extra planet-sized responsibilities weighing you down. Yeah … completely realistic and well thought out by the writers, but sad to see the scars his kids are still dealing with.

You also had Korra working through her argument with her parents and coming together with them at the end, which was nice. I’m glad to see us moving past that split. I’m also glad she made up with them before Unalaq came to arrest them. Arresting her parents would have served as external motivation to push Korra back onto her parents’ side; I think it works better seeing that come from within.

And then you have Bolin who’s unable to cut off his messed-up relationship with Eska. I’m sorry, but this just isn’t working for me. In a show that’s demonstrated the ability to explore complicated, messy, genuine relationships, Bolin and Eska’s antics feel like a blend of television commercial cliche and possessive/nasty/controlling relationship dynamics played for laughs. I expect better than this.

I got so into the family dynamics that I paid less attention to the actual plot. Let’s see, Ikki has disappeared somewhere, the Southern Water Tribe is unhappy about the “war of northern aggression,” and quirky businessman dude wants a revolution to protect his rotting fish. Something about a spirit portal that they’ll use for a teleporter from the north to south pole. Nothing could possibly go wrong with that plan. Oh, and Korra captures some rebels using waterbending and some sweet rope-work that reminded me of metalbending.

Speaking of which, once again there’s a noticeable and unforgivable lack of Lin Beifong. We also lost Asami from this episode, despite her business partner getting a scene. What’s up with that?

Thoughts from the Eight-Year-Old: I liked it, except how at the end the leader of the northern tribe thought that Korra’s mom and dad were assassins. They weren’t the bad guys! I thought it was funny when Bumi wanted to hunt the shark-squid, even though there wasn’t really a shark-squid.

Overall Rating: I was very glad to see more humor and moments of lightness in this episode, much of which came from Tenzin and his siblings. This felt like a better episode than the first two, though I’d love to swap out Bolin and Eska for a few more hints at the larger plotline and conflicts. I’m more interested in learning about the spirits and what’s going on there.

Predictions: Unalaq has pretty much guaranteed the conflict between north and south is going to escalate, and he’s turned the Avatar against him. Well done, dude. We know Korra opened up the southern spirit gate, but she hasn’t really done anything to address the problem of the spirits being out of balance or angry, has she? So I imagine we’ll see a lot more spirit-based threats soon. And I’m guessing that one way or another, Korra’s going to have to go through that spirit gate. Possibly to rescue Ikki?

Cool Stuff Friday

I’m thinking about trying to make this a recurring thing, because the world needs more positive. So here, have some random goodness…

My wife’s surgery went well, and she should be coming home from the hospital today is home now! Thank you all for your good wishes.
Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. starts Tuesday!
Author Harry Connolly started a Kickstarter campaign for The Great Way, an epic fantasy trilogy. He reached his funding goal in 8 hours, which is mind-bogglingly sweet.
Jodi Meadows got to see a rocket launch from a NASA facility. I am jealous, but at least I got to read her great write-up and see the pictures
Did you know the Curiosity Rover is on Twitter? Its latest advice: “Always look both ways before autonomously navigating yourself across the crater.”
Finally, a walking, fire-breathing robot dragon. I want one!

Going Off the Grid. Sort of.

I’ll be getting up at ridiculous o’clock in the morning to take my wife in for surgery. Nothing life-threatening, but she’ll be in the hospital for three days. So I have no idea how often I will or won’t be online for the rest of the week.

On the bright side, this also means I’m taking at least the next three days off from work. With how the past few days have gone at the day job, this is a very good thing. I just wish it was for a happier reason.

There’s one problem, though. The past few times she’s gone in for surgery, I’ve had a Seanan McGuire book to read. It’s become a tradition. And I have no McGuire to read!

Maybe I should ask my wife to reschedule the surgery for after Half-Off Ragnarok comes out. Yeah, I think that might be best…

Legend of Korra: Book Two

Legend of Korra

2 x 1: Rebel Spirit

2 x 2: The Southern Lights

Full episodes available at Nick.com.

Episode Summary (from the Avatar Wiki): Team Avatar and Tenzin’s family travel to the Southern Water Tribe to attend the Glacial Spirits Festival. While there, Korra’s uncle, Unalaq, attempts to persuade Korra to let him advise her about the spirits, but both Korra’s father and Tenzin assert that she needs to focus on her airbending. However, during the festival, Korra discovers that it was her father and Tenzin rather than Aang who kept her locked away, and after a Dark Spirit attacks, Korra breaks off her studies under Tenzin and takes up Unalaq as her instructor. Korra and Unalaq travel to the deeper parts of the South Pole to open the mystical portal between the spirit world and the physical world in order to release the long-gone southern lights into the sky.

[image error]

My Initial Thoughts: Legend of Korra is back! Never make us wait fifteen months again!

Nice of the show to give us a bit of a refresher on who everyone is and what they’ve been up to, but where’s Lin Beifong? Mako mentions her, but I was sad to miss my favorite metalbender. Then again, there was a lot to catch us up on. Asami’s appearance felt a bit rushed as well. I almost wish they’d started with Team Avatar and caught us up on Asami in a future episode, when they could devote more time and attention to her character.

I appreciate that we jump right into the conflict and imbalance of the spirit world, and that these are antagonists Korra doesn’t understand, let alone know how to control. The backstory suggests the imbalance is the fault of Korra’s father, but the show also seems to be working really hard to make Unalaq appear shifty. A between-the-lines reading could suggest that Unalaq is the one who set his brother up, first summoning the spirits to attack the Northern Water Tribe, then sending them away again once his brother had been shamed. We see hints of Unalaq’s envy, and the appearance of his army at the end of episode two certainly makes him look like a bad guy, not to mention the rather slimy overtones as he manipulates Korra to turn her against Tonraq and Tenzin.

I hope that’s not where they’re going. It seems too obvious, and I want more complexity with my show. The conflict between Tonraq and Unalaq is deep and old. I’d love to see them forced to work together over the course of the season.

I’m not sure yet what to think about Eska and her brother, Unalaq’s Spock-like twin children. I think Bolin’s attempt to woo Eska could be a lot of fun, but it could also go off the rails. The bit where she used waterbending to separate Bolin from Korra was both amusing and cringeworthy. I think I’m going to withhold judgment until I see a few more episodes.

Meanwhile, back at an air temple, Tenzin’s daughter Jinora is communing with the statue of Aang, and is drawn to the very old and crumbling statue of an avatar she doesn’t recognize, a statue that lights up when Korra opens the spirit portal. Interesting…

We also get a bit of grumpy Korra. While it was frustrating to see her snapping at everyone, I also think it helps emphasize that “spirit” really isn’t her thing.

Thoughts From the Eight-Year-Old: “I liked it! Some of the bad spirits scared me. But it made up for it when they were turning the bad spirits good. I don’t like it when good guys turn bad, but I do like it when bad guys turn good, and there hasn’t been anything lately that has bad guys turn good. I really liked when Korra went into the Avatar State and made it so now there are southern lights, and not just northern lights. I saw the preview, and I think that I might know how the first avatar became the first avatar. The only way that I’ve come up with is that four people would come, one for each of the elements, and they’d use all the elements of bending and come together to become like a shiny gold ball in the sky that’s called the spirit ball, and it would choose one of them to become the Avatar.”

Overall Rating: Not bad, but not the greatest episodes I’ve seen, either. It felt a little like we had to stop and get our bearings again, and I’m hopeful that things will tighten up now with future episodes. I like the setup with the spirits, and the contrast with last season’s conflict. Mostly I’m just happy the show is back!

Predictions: The obvious conflict is between Tonraq and Unalaq, and through them, the Southern Water Tribe vs. the Northern. I don’t suspect we’ll see outright fighting right away, but it’s probably coming unless a bigger threat comes along. A bigger threat presumably tied to the spirits.

I’ve heard Korra will be communing with the first Avatar this season. I haven’t gone looking for spoilers, so I don’t know if the statue Jinora found was of the first Avatar. It would be sweet to see Korra have to go up against some kind of Fallen Avatar, a dark character whose her equal in power, with a connection to the spirits… Probably not, but I’d happily watch it.

And I hope we get a bit more humor and lightness. There were a few good moments, and the brief shot of Meelo sprawled across the bottom of the bed made me smile with recognition. But I want to see more of those moments, more of Asami (who I’m assuming will be brought into the conflict eventually), and bring back Lin Beifong!

Zombie Baseball Beatdown, by Paolo Bacigalupi

I needed something fun and relatively quick to read last week. Fortunately, I had a copy of Paolo Bacigalupi‘s Zombie Baseball Beatdown [Amazon | B&N | Mysterious Galaxy] that I picked up at Book Expo of America.

This is a middle grade book about baseball and the U. S. meat industry and racism and bullying and comic books and of course, the zombie apocalypse. It’s the first book I’ve read from Bacigalupi, and it’s rather different from his other work. From the official description:

“Rabi, Miguel, and Joe are practicing baseball near their town’s local meatpacking plant, and nearly get knocked out by a really big stink. Little do they know the plant’s toxic cattle feed is turning cows into flesh-craving monsters … With no grownups left they can trust, Rabi and his friends will have to grab their bats to protect themselves (and a few of their enemies) if they want to stay alive.”

The bad news is that while the violence is rather cartoonish, it would still give my son nightmares, so I won’t be reading this one to him. The good news is ZOMBIE COWS!

There’s actually a lot going on in this book. Bacigalupi takes some no-holds-barred shots at the meatpacking industry in particular. The description of the cows crammed into the pens, or the way they’re butchered, is far more disturbing than the zombie scenes. While I’m fairly certain our meat processing corporations haven’t actually unleashed the zombie apocalypse, the rest of the details ring nauseatingly true.

The protagonist, Rabindranath, is great. He’s a math geek, and I loved the way Bacigalupi described things through his eyes, the way he looks at the other players on his baseball team and sees their stats like power meters from a video game, their strengths and weaknesses all laid out for him.

Of the three heroes, Rabi, Joe, and Miguel, only one of the three is white. Without getting too preachy, Bacigalupi examines what it’s like to be a kid in America who doesn’t look “American.” They Joe out at one point, because being the blond, blue-eyed kid, he has the superpower of being unnoticed and invisible. The fact that Miguel’s family is undocumented also comes up, both the consequences and the pain and fear Miguel carries every day.

In the end though, everything comes back to zombies. Kids with bats and balls chasing zombies, then turning around and running like hell from other zombies. Trying to get help against the zombies, only to run up against police officers who don’t take them seriously and lawyers more concerned with making the problem go away.

I’m curious what a younger reader would think of the story, how much they’d pick up on the commentary vs. how much they’d just get into the zombie-smackdown.

Oh – and I loved Bart the zombie-cow.

Anyone else read it yet? What did you think?