The Book of Deacon is a trilogy that should be read in the following order: The Book of Deacon -> The Great Convergence -> The Battle of Verril.
Cover art by Nick Deligaris
THE BOOK OF DEACON (2010)
My husband bought me an android for x-mas and we downloaded Kindle. They had/have a free offer on the novel The Book of Deacon. This is how I entered the world of Myranda, Lain, Myn, Ivy, Ether and Deacon.
First of all I want to say that you should go to Deligaris’ link and take a look at his art. There is some seriously cool stuff there.
Imagine what it must be like to live in a country ravaged by war for 150 years. This setting is where we find Myranda, our main protagonist. At the beginning of the war young men were the main victims. Then women were brought in as soldiers. Now cities and towns are left with the old and children, emptied of the people who are supposed to bring in the new generation. Seems kind of insane, does it not?
Myranda hates the war and all it stands for. She does not understand the need for this long-lasting enmity. As a sympathiser, she is ostracised by the general population. The general population of the Northern Alliance hates Tressorians. Having one of their own say that perhaps peace would be a good thing, grates on them and they tend to act aggressively. It is ever so in society. If you go against popular opinion, you are going to meet sanctions.
These sanctions have left Myranda feeling terribly alone. When she meets another who is hated as much as she is, Myranda opens up. Leo, the malthrope, saves Myranda from trouble and Myranda is left feeling grateful and lonely for his company.
The Book of Deacon does an excellent job of showing exactly how prejudiced we can be. It is also an incredibly good tale for both old and young. There is plenty of action and adventure. Joseph Lallo is one of those gifted persons that grabs hold of me. These authors are so much fun for an avid reader.
Cover art by Nick Deligaris
THE GREAT CONVERGENCE (2011)
I liked The Book of Deacon so much that I had to buy The Great Convergence. This is a serial, so reading these books in order is a must.
Myranda is caught in her black/white way of thinking. To her you have to do your best to follow the Prophecy. If not, you are a traitor. These books are as much about Myranda’s journey toward maturity and understanding as it is about friendship, loyalty and courage. Her thinking undergoes a radical change from the way it was at the beginning.
Finding the four other Chosen of the prophecy is her main goal. Discovering all of them is not a simple task. After all, the Northern Alliance and the Red Shadow are interested in putting an end to her quest.
Another malthrope turns up. Ivy pretty much has split personality. Her moods are what determines the personality she has. Anger, happiness, sorrow and fear are all taken to extremes and in ways that affect those around her. Arrogant Ether shows up and does her thing. She is a fun character. Her ability to annoy the others is priceless.
Cover art by Nick Deligaris
THE BATTLE OF VERRIL (2012)
It is always nice to not have to wait for the next book in a serial. As I had gotten into the game so late, I got to read The Battle of Verril right after Convergence. The promise of the previous two books was fulfilled in the last installment of The Book of Deacon. Each of the characters change into someone who is able to fulfill their part of the prophecy.
Answers to questions left open in The Great Convergence are found and solutions are discovered at the last moment.
Action and adventure are still the main ingredients of the series. Heroic deeds are obviously part of a quest and evil villains keep the plot moving. Mystical figures, monsters and friends appear suddenly. Myranda and Myn are kept busy through the novel going from one action scene to the next. The others are break-necking along them.
I found The Battle of Verril a read-through novel. It was impossible to put down.
I’m trying to decide what I thought about The Iron Wyrm Affair. It took a while for it to get off its butt, but once it did it really got going. This is my first experience with Lilith Saintcrow. Looking at her website, I see that she writes to a different audience than myself. That might be why I didn’t get wowed by The Iron Wyrm Affair.
Saintcrow’s Bannon and Clare world is an alternative Victorian one. The queen is Victrix who is also a vessel for the spirit of Britannia. London is Londonium. All the names are changed in minor ways like this. The world shares a similar yet different history to our own.
For one thing, it is a world run on magic. Magic is everywhere and in general the world works on different rules to our own. Machines run on magic and not all machines are only machines. Sometimes there is a mixture of animal and machine or person and machine. I guess kind of like magical cyborgs.
In this world there are (among lots of others) sorceresses/rors and mentaths. Bannon is a sorceress (of the Black, no less) and Clare is a mentath. To reach the rank of sorceress one must have a high degree of affinity to magic. Mentaths are addicted to logic. If they do not get puzzles to solve, they usually end up going insane.
We meet both Bannon and Clare as Bannon is trying to save Clare from being killed. It seems unregistered mentaths are being killed for who knows what reason. Saving Clare from murder, just happens to save him from insanity as well. Being bored just does not suit a mentath. Now Clare gets to join in on solving who is killing off mentaths.
There is plenty of action and some humorous interplay between the various characters.
The Iron Wyrm Affair is probably going to be a good fit for Saintcrow’s target group.
The Pip and Flinx series has spanned 35 years which is quite a long time to follow a series. Alan Dean Foster has written a typically young adult series. They are quite innocent and free of explicit sex and violence. I guess you could say that the Pip and Flinx series is fairly wholesome. Thankfully, Flinx is no angel. He is, however, a good person – for a given definition of good.
The series begins with Flinx as a child on the Planet Moth and ends with Flinx as an adult on the planet Cachalot. He has had many adventures travelling around the galaxy trying to figure out who and what he is. We are in the science fiction world with loads of drama and very little realism. I guess that is part of the charm of the series. Sometimes there is more fantasy in science fiction than there is in fantasy itself. All in all, the Pip and Flinx series has been an enjoyable journey. In spite of the writing being fairly average a lot of the time, I got caught wondering how the whole thing was going to resolve itself.
Flinx (later discovers his name is Philip Lynx) appears for the first time in For Love of Mother Not (1983). For Love of Mother Not was written after the first three books in the series, but for you as a reader it would be a good idea to read For Love of MotherNot first as it explains Flinx’ background.
At the time of For Love of Mother Not, Flinx is not aware of who he is or where he is from. On the planet Moth Mother Mastiff buys Flinx at an auction and raises him as her own. It does not take long for them to discover that there is something unusual about Flinx, and both decide that it is a good idea to keep Flinx’ erratic abilities under wraps.
One night Flinx wakes hearing an emotional distress signal. His empathic abilities are reading loud and clear for once. He goes out into the rain to see who is in trouble and discovers an Alaspin dragon that he names Pip. We never find out how Pip ended up on Moth, nor is it all that important. Pip’s venomous spitting abilities come in handy when the two of them go after Mother Mastiff and her kidnappers.
After having read For Love of Mother Not you go back to the original reading order. Because For Love of Mother Not was written so much later than The Tar-Aim Krang (1972) you will probably notice a couple of discrepancies. You will survive, believe me.
As The Tar-Aim Krang begins Flinx and Pip are still with Mother Mastiff on Moth. They discover a treasure map on a dead man. Flinx meets Bran Tse-Mallory (human) and Truzenzuzex (thranx) for the first time, while acting as their guide. Flinx and Pip end up travelling with the two to the Blight. To get there, they need to go by space-ship. Flinx’ empathic abilities will play an important part in the group’s discoveries.
Foster is not big on explanations of how Flinx and the rest travel from one solar system to another. To him the plot is the important part. Flinx and Pip’s interactions with others and their adventures are what drives this story up, up, up and away.
Flinx is still searching for clues to his ancestry in Orphan Star (1977). During his unwilling stay with the merchant Conda Challis, Conda hinted heavily about Flinx’ parentage. Flinx’ chase brings him into contact with the female Thranx, Sylzenzuzex, who just happens to be the niece of Truzenzuzex. Eventually, the pair of them end up on the edicted planet Ulra-Ujurr, where they meet a highly telepathic race (Ulra-Ujurrians).
Flinx and Pip now have their own space ship – Teacher – making the search for Flinx’s parents a whole lot easier. On their way they acquire a new pet by the name of Abalamahalamatandra (Ab for short). In The End of the Matter (1977) Bran and True turn up out of the blue looking for Ab. What a coincidence. That is the way it is with some authors. The coincidences line up. The human Skua September tells Flinx something of the Meliorare Society and the Qwarm (assassins) are sent after Flinx. Each book takes us a step closer to the end of Flinx’s search.
Love is in the air. Flinx in Flux (1988) shows us a new side of Flinx. I’m hopelessly in love with you, he tells Clarity Held. It cannot be, I’m an experiment. OK. So I exaggerate a bit. But he did tell Clarity Held that due to his experimental state, he felt that the two of them could not be an item. Trouble appears on the horizon in form of Clarity’s boss. He wants what Flinx has, even if he has to kidnap him. But Flinx has these strange abilities, and it might be a bad idea to be mean to him.
By now there are a whole lot of people who want to get to Flinx. There are the authorities who want him for various crimes. The Qwarm want to assassinate him and a few criminal bosses want to use Flinx. As we enter the world of Mid-Flinx (1995) Flinx has become quite a popular person. Maybe the saying “All PR is good PR” isn’t all that correct. To get a break Pip and Flinx go to Midworld. But breaks from trouble only happen to people who are not in adventure novels. On this semi-sentient planet Flinx and Pip learn to respect this dangerous planet, and also find that through this respect they have some protection when the baddies come to get them.
In Reunion (2001) Foster once again throws his heroes Pip and Flinx around the galaxy in search of an answer to Flinx’s heritage. Somehow Flinx thinks that this will make his choice of saviorhood or not easier. Together Pip and Flinx discover more about the Meliorare Society, the eugenicists who experimented with Flinx and other children in their search to create the perfect human.
Due to the information they uncover, Flinx and Pip go to Aan space where the walking lizards live – enemies of both humans and Thranx. Once there, Flinx’s unusual abilities come in handy in uncovering information and keeping himself hidden from the Aan – who would like nothing more than killing a human.
In Flinx’s Folly (2003) Flinx discovers exactly what the Great Emptiness (mysterious force) approaching the Milkyway is. Getting that knowledge almost tore his mind apart, and he would like to avoid repeating the experience. Like all mysterious things, the Great Emptiness has its set of followers. The cult of the Order of Null is set on stopping Flinx permanently. Extinction of life is the goal to have it seems. Fortunately for Flinx, he has loyal friends who want to help him in any way they can. One of these is the love of his life, Clarity Held. I wonder if she really holds clarity.
Flinx is tired of the expectations and just wants to go somewhere peaceful to think. His AI-space-ship Teacher suggests the planet Jast. Jast is where the action in Sliding Scales (2004) takes place. As you’ve probably understood by now, the Pip and Flinx series isn’t so much about Flinx’s search for an identity, nor is it all that much about winning over the Great Emptiness. These books are mainly about the trouble Flinx gets into hopping from place to place.
On Jast three seemingly incompatible races live together in peace. The Vssey, Aan and humans live in apparent harmony though apart. When Flinx upon arrival gets attacked by one of the Aan, he loses his memory and ends up in an Aan artist community. A Vssey rebellion is in the offing, and Flinx and Pip get caught in the middle of it.
In his search for a super-weapon that might destroy the darkness, Flinx has problems with his space-vesse,l and the Teacher has to make an emergency landing on an uncharted planet. In Running From the Deity (2005) Flinx experiences for the first time what it is like to live without his headaches and his empathic abilities going haywire.
The prime directive of the Commonwealth is to not interfere with primitive species, especially when using technology. Flinx breaks that rule and ends up being worshipped as a god. These compatible beings aren’t any nicer than any other species, and two opposing sides on the planet both want Flinx for their own. This leaves Flinx running again.
In 1973 Foster wrote Bloodhype. Flinx appears in the latter half of the novel. In a timeline sort of sense this action and humor filled novel should appear after Running From the Deity and before Trouble Magnet.
Bloodhype is a powerful drug that addicts you the first time and kills you if you do not continue with it. A pretty good deal for the producers, I would think. Pip and Flinx end up trying to stop the Bloodhype industry and end up on the planet Repler. We get to meet the Vom and a revived Tar-Aiym Krang in psionic battle, with the Tar-Aiym Krang more or less on the Commonwealth’s side. So, drugwar and psionic battle make for an interesting scifi adventure.
In Trouble Magnet (2006) a group of street-kids need to be rescued several times by Flinx. Once again Flinx has been side-tracked from his mission to find a solution to the problem of the Great Emptiness. As such, Flinx’s visit to Visaria seems part of a tendency to delay the ending of the series. Flinx’s aim seems to be to see if there is still any good out there worth saving, but Foster did not convince me of those intentions. Not one of his better ones.
With Patrimony (2007) Foster is finally back on track, both in terms of the quality of his writing and with the storyline. Oh, well. What would writers do without faithful readers (or suckers as anyone else would call us)? Flinx and Pip go to the planet Gestalt to follow-up on a clue they received in Trouble Magnet.
In showing his face, Flinx has once again come to the attention of the cult of the Order of Null. This time they are not about to fail in destroying him. Flinx is tracked and finally shot down in a river. His native guide is severely wounded but Flinx and Pip are OK. They are discovered and saved by the native Tlel. Together dangers are faced and Flinx discovers what he has wondered about his father.
Flinx Transcendent (2009) is the last story in the adventures of Pip and Flinx, or the last three stories in one novel. The first part of the story sees Pip and Flinx on the Aan home world. Flinx’s interactions with a young Aan are well-paced and well written.
Flinx is once again with the love of his life, Clarity, and his two friends, Bran and True. Once again, the Order or Null are after Flinx, and he will need the help from all of his friends to survive their attention.
And finally, Flinx faces the Great Emptiness that is speeding its way across the universe towards our galaxy. Flinx still does not know how to defeat it, but fear not, a solution will arise.
And so our journey with Pip and Flinx ends, or maybe not. The Commonwealth is a large place, and while Flinx might not again take main stage, he might very well appear in a smaller role – at least according to some of the speculations out there. I for one am finished with the Commonwealth.
ADAPTATIONS
Tar Aiym Krang (2M) An experiment with sequencers by Mark Earll Music.
Krang (aka Tar-Aiym Krang) music group mentioned by Wikipedia.
If there is one thing in this world that has inspired the world of nerddom, it has to be the fantastical writings of J.R.R. Tolkien. While I’m not a Tolkien nerd/geek/fan/cult-member, I understand those who are. I mean, I’m writing a blog mostly about fantasy and science fiction – and I love doing the digging necessary for each article.
Tolkien did not only write “high epic fantasy”. He was first and foremost a Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford. You can see a list of his published material at the Tolkien Library website.
While working as a lexicographer on the New English Dictionary, Tolkien began working on the elven language (primarily based on Finnish and Welsh – go to The Elvish Library to get your Tengwar baptism). At the same time he presented his The Fall of Gandolin. The Fall of Gandolin represents the beginning of what later became The Silmarillion. He ended up at Oxford in 1925, and it was after this that the work on first The Hobbit and then The Lord of The Rings began. (Tolkien Library – biography)
The Hobbit was a hit, making it easier for the publisher to contemplate publishing The Lord of The Rings. But for economic reasons, it was decided that three volumes were necessary. The three volumes were The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers and the Return of the King. My copy is the omnibus containing all three novels and the appendices at the end, appendices that are quite a bit of fun.
Generally, I try to analyze what it is about a book that makes me like it. With The Hobbit it was the adventure of the tale. The Lord of the Rings is rather more difficult to pin down. Part of my liking has to do with the quality of the work. Tolkien nit-picked at details until they fit into his Middle-Earth world. The likeability of all of the characters also plays a great role. Even the “baddies”. The way the story is told, jumping from place to place is frustrating at times but also makes a lot of sense. I absolutely hated it when Tolkien broke from one adventure when things were at their most critical, to visit someone else where he had left them off. But it did keep me reading. I remember the first time I read The Lord of the Rings. I stayed up all night to get through it. Once I get going, The Lord of the Rings is difficult to put down. I have no idea how many times I have read this book, but I have gone through it a few times.
THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING
Each book is divided into two parts. The Fellowship of the Ring consists of I: The Ring Sets Out and II: The Ring Goes South.
Bilbo is having his 111th birthday party combining it with Frodo’s 33rd. The whole Shire is looking forward to the celebration as there will be gifts for everyone and enormous amounts of food. As ordered, Gandalf shows up with fireworks for the party.
Bilbo is going to give up the ring, but he is finding it more difficult than he had thought. Somehow, it ends up in his pocket no matter what his intentions are. That is one of the problems with the ring. Once it chooses you as an owner, it will use you up until it feels like letting you go. Now Bilbo has to fight his own desires. In the end he manages to leave the ring with Frodo, his nephew, and Bilbo leaves the Shire with Gandalf.
Originally, the ring had belonged to Sauron. Sauron is a wizard who has gone over to the dark side (like Darth Vader in Star Wars). Now that he has amassed quite a bit of power, he wants his ring back and has sent his minions to search for it. The search has led him to the Shire. Gandalf returns to warn Frodo that he needs to leave the Shire. He does so, and ends up in the company of his friends Sam, Pippin and Merry. They go via the Old Forest to avoid whatever is looking for them.
The Old Forest is ruled by Tom Bombadil. Thankfully, he keeps a close watch over his kingdom and manages to be there for the hobbits when they need him. With his assistance the hobbits are able to get through the Old Forest. Their journey carries them through Barrow-Downs, Bree and Weathertop.
The four hobbits learn quite a bit about themselves, their strengths and weaknesses. Their loyalty to each other increases with their trials. Middle-Earth is not exactly a paradise, free from dangers. Once the Shire is left behind, danger seems to be the word of the day for this little troup. At Bree the hobbits meet up with a ranger called Aragorn. Together, they test the bond between human and hobbits and find out what they all are made of. Eventually, the gang manages to arrive at Rivendell, one of the homes of the elves.
A well-earned rest is taken at Rivendell. Elrond, the elven-leader at Rivendell convenes the Council of Elrond. At the Council, reports are given, and the decision as to what needs to be done next is taken. They decide that the One Ring must be destroyed and once again the hobbits set off. This time there are nine people who set out.
THE TWO TOWERS
As with The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers also consists of two books. Book III is The Treason of Isengard and book IV The Ring Goes East.
This is when Tolkien begins to get seriously annoying. Sadly, he has to because the company has split up and we need to know what happens to each party. Frodo has left the Fellowship and gone down the road he thinks is necessary. Along with him went Sam. For now, we learn very little new about them, but we will later on (of course). This part of the story belongs to Merry and Pippin and the important part they play in furthering the plot.
The group gets split even further. Merry and Pippin are taken by the Uruk-hai. The rest have to make a decision. Try to find Frodo and Sam or follow Merry and Pippin. Merry and Pippin it is. Fortunately for Merry and Pippin, their stay with the Uruk-hai is not an extended one. After their escape they come to Fangorn forest and the Ents. Treebeard’s depiction above is one of the coolest ones I’ve come accross yet. Treebeard is the leader of the Ents, tree-people who have taken a looooong rest (for some of them a permanent one).
Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas come accross tracks that remind them of hobbit feet. They follow them into Fangorn and meet Gandalf again. Meeting him is a shock and a surprise (hah, hah, hah – not telling why). Together they rouse the armies of Rohan and all of them travel on to Helm’s Deep where they are needed.
In the meantime, Frodo and Sam continue on their journey toward Mordor. Who should appear but Gollum. His attraction to the One Ring is strong and he cannot help being pulled towards it. Frodo and Sam get him to promise to guide them to the Black Gate of Mordor.
Once they get to the Black Gate, Gollum finds it easy to convince Frodo and Sam to follow him to a secret entrance into Mordor. By going there, they will avoid guards. As they keep on going, the three-hobbit-group meets up with Faramir and his Rangers. The Rangers help them on their way. Faramir warns Frodo and Sam that Gollum might know more about the secret entrance than he is telling. And he does. Does he ever. But then Gollum is true to the nature that has become his. Possession of the One Ring is all that matters to him. Means justify the end, and what an unpleasant set of means he has awaiting the two hobbits.
THE RETURN OF THE KING
In our last book of The Lord of the Ring trilogy we find the books V: The War of the Ring and VI: The Return of the King.
The Lord of the Rings is not a trilogy for the faint-hearted. From what I’ve heard, that goes for the movies as well (I have not seen them). There is violence, plenty of violence and death. As you have found thus far, people die along the way. How many of these heroes will survive, is not certain at all. But what most of you already know, due to all of the media coverage of the films, is that some of our heroes will make it – all the way to the very end.
But before we get that far, war beckons in another land. A horde of Orcs are attacking Gondor and the people of Gondor are desperate for help. The goal of Gandalf and Aragorn and the rest is to get there in time to make a difference. But when the dreaded Witch King of Angmar arrives on the scene with even more help from Mordor, nothing is certain.
As you will see when you read The Return of the King, plenty has happened to Frodo and Sam. Their journey towards the destruction of the One Ring is proving extremely problematic. Orcs are following their tracks through the desolate landscape of Mordor. Getting from Cirith Ungol to the Crack of Doom is by no means certain. Nothing of value is to be easy for the two friends.
And this is where I leave off. Like I said at the beginning, The Lord of the Rings has been an enjoyable and tense journey, one that I wish everyone could enjoy. I have not seen the films, and I will not do so either. The images evoked by this trilogy through reading, are enough for me. I wish to retain them, not replace them.
For my dyslectic son, the films were the obvious choice and one that he enjoyed. My non-dyslectic son has read the trilogy several times and seen the films and enjoyed all of them. I’m just too old-fashioned, I guess.
1978: Part I of a rotoscoped animation of Lord of the Rings was released by United Artists and directed by Ralph Bakshi. UA considered the film a flop and refused to fund Part II.
1980: Rankin/Bass use the opportunity to give out a televised animation of the Return of the King. It was targeted at a younger audience.
1998: Miramax began a live-action adaptation of The Lord of the Rings, directed by Peter Jackson. New Line Cinema assumed production responsibility and decided that there would be three, not two films. 2001: The Fellowship of the Ring; 2002: The Two Towers; 2003: The Return of the King.
2009: The Hunt for Gollum, a fan film based on elements of the appendices to The Lord of the Rings, was released on the internet in May 2009.
Awards
All three films by Peter Jackson won the Hugo Award for Best (Long-form) Dramatic Presentation in their respective years.
4 Oscars for The Fellowship of the Ring
2 Oscars for The Two Towers
11 Oscars for The Return of the King
Radio
1955: The BBC produced a 13-part-radio adaptation of The Lord of the Rings. It is a very faithful adaptation.
1979: US dramatization subsequently issued on tape and CD.
1981: BBC produced a 26 half-hour-episode adaptation of The Lord of the Rings.
Stage
1990s: Lifeline Theatre in Chicago, Illinois, produced individual plays of each of the three books.
2001-2003: Full-length productions of each of The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), The Two Towers (2002), and The Return of the King (2003) were staged in Cincinnati, Ohio.
2006: Three-hour-stage musical adaptation of The Lord of the Rings by Mirvish Productions opened in Toronto (opened in London 2007).
Music: There are groups playing anything from death-metal to folk music who are fans of Middle-Earth. Some albums are very middle-age while others are far from it.
…Of Forest And Fire…
…Where the Shadows Lie
A Night in Rivendell
All that Glitters
An Evening in Rivendell
At Dawn in Rivendell
Beyond the Western Seas
Complete Songs and Poems
Dol Guldur (album)
Evernight (album)
Firestorm Apocalypse – Tomorrow Shall Know the Blackest Dawn
The First Ring
Forest of Edoras
In Elven Lands
Inspirations of the Middle Earth
Journey of the Dunadan
Landscapes of Middle-earth
Leaving Rivendell
Let Mortal Heroes Sing Your Fame
Lost Tales (album)
Lugburz (album)
Minas Morgul (album)
Mountain Live: The Road Goes Ever On
Music Inspired by Middle Earth
Music of Middle-Earth, Vol. 1: From the Shire to Rivendell
Music of Middle-Earth, Vol. 2: From Khazad-dum to Gondor
Mystic Legends…
Nightfall in Middle-Earth
Nightshade Forests (album)
Oath Bound
Onwards to the Spectral Defile
Sagan om Ringen (album)
Shadow Rising
The Starlit Jewel
Stronghold
Sword’s Song
The Adventures of Tom Bombadil (album)
The Last Alliance (album)
The Lay Of Leithian (album)
The Middle Earth Album
Third Age of the Sun
Unveiling the Essence
Winds of Change
Audio books
1990: Recorded Books published an audio version of The Lord of the Rings, with British actor Rob Inglis.
A soft core porn comedy entitled The Lord of the G-Strings.
The Harvard Lampoon satire Bored of the Rings, and its prequel The Soddit.
A little-known BBC Radio series, Hordes of the Things (1980) attempted to parody heroic fantasy in the style of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
A German resynchronization of the Fellowship’s first twenty minutes, called Lord of the Weed – Sinnlos in Mittelerde, portrays the characters as highly drug addicted.
Quickbeam and Bombadil, The Lords of the Rhymes, mix Tolkien’s fantasy world with hip-hop.
Two New York City based authors, Jessica and Chris, parody Tolkien’s work in Once More With Hobbits.
Several former members of Mystery Science Theater 3000 created Edward the Less which parodies the trilogy.
The episode of South Park entitled The Return of the Fellowship of the Ring to the Two Towers spoofs Peter Jackson’s version of the trilogy.
The Lord of The … whatever, a “transcribed electronic text version”, written by the Tolkien fans of the rec.arts.books.tolkien newsgroup as a reply to those who ask where can they download an electronic copy of the book. It has lots of fan in-jokes, like whether Balrogs have wings or not, a long-standing debate in the Tolkien fandom.
Flight of the Conchords claim that their parody Frodo was rejected as a theme song for Peter Jackson’s movies.
The Ring Thing – a Swiss parody of The Lord of the Rings: The Motion Picture Trilogy, however it has received mixed reviews.
MADtv spoofed the series with The Lords of the Bling.
Kingdom O’Magic by Fergus McNeill. He became famous during the eighties for games such as Bored of the Rings (influenced by, but not adapted from, the Harvard Lampoon book) and The Boggit.
Why can’t they just lose the ring in the sink?, humour columnist Dave Barry’s satire.
Dead Ringers, BBC Radio/TV satirical comedy show regularly features Lord of the Rings-themed sketches.
Bobo, a very popular Serbian voice-over video on scene from the first film, which features Boromir and Frodo as gay lovers.
British Comedy duo French & Saunders have also satired and spoofed in detail Peter Jackson’s The Fellowship of the Ring in a BBC 2002 Easter Special entitled The Egg.
A parody entitled teh l0rd of teh Ringz0r has done the rounds of bulletin boards systems.
A Spanish voice-over video of Gollum debating about which is the best football (soccer) video game.
One Man Lord of the Rings A one man show by Charles Ross, reciting and parodying the three films in an hour.
REC Studios’ Fellowship of the Ring A parody starring four people portraying multiple characters each and condensing the first third of the story to under a quarter of an hour.
MTV produced the Lord of the Piercing, a parody about the Council of Elrond, in which Frodo uses the One Ring in a piercing. The 4 minute episode comes as a hidden extra in the first DVD of the 4-disc set of The Fellowship of the Ring.
Fellowship! – A musical parody of The Lord of the Rings
Worth 1,000 – Comical images related to The Lord of the Rings.
50 Reasons Why Lord of the Rings Sucks – Only to be read if no sharp objects are within reach.
Lord of the Rings vs. The Matrix vs. Star Wars – Comical review of the three movies, not to be taken even remotely seriously.
Video games, board games, role playing games, puzzles, card games, a chess set and miniatures games include the themes from Lord of the Rings.
Patricia Briggs has written the Hurog duology. As you might have surmised from this blog she is quite a prolific writer. Her books fall into the light entertainment category. The Hurog duology’s version of the Briggsian world-creation is placed in a world reeking of the middle-ages with all of its dragons, shape-changers, magicians and various other people.
I absolutely loved the Danish covers. Wow, what a cool dragon. I don’t think I’ve ever seen an interpretation like that. And it fits with the dragon of the story. This is probably one of the better stories that Briggs has written. Ward is a wonderful character, caught in his own trap, yet never quite giving up hope.
Dragon Bones is a stand-alone novel. Its main character is Ward, heir to Hurog. What you need to know about Ward is that his dad was, to put it mildly, a monster. Child-, spouse and animal-abuse were his main hobbies. Until he had managed to damage Ward enough to affect his thinking, he saw Ward as his rival. So when he dies at the beginning of the book, it would be fair to say that Ward did not feel like grieving.
Unfortunately for Ward, the damage done to him had enabled him to pretend to be quite dense. Undoing other people’s perception of himself turns out to be more difficult than Ward would like. Discovering a damsel in distress and the secret of Hurog both play a part in enabling Ward to figure out how to show himself as someone to be trusted. This brings the king’s attention to the Hurog family, driven by his paranoia of the world being against him.
Ward comes across as a believable character. He clearly struggles with the long-term effects of his childhood. But in learning about Hurog’s very secret secret and some truths about the people around him, Ward manages to feel less alone in his struggles. One of the first things Ward must do in getting people to take him seriously is to prove himself a warrior, taking him and a small group accross the kingdom.
The story is told in first-person, through the eyes of Ward. This is part of what makes Ward such a real person, but it also shows us the world around him through his experiences. The people around him are clearly filtered through the life of Ward, making us care more for him and for the people around him. Dragon Bones is quite an enjoyable introduction to the world of Ward of Hurog.
While Dragon Bones is a stand-alone story, Dragon Blood depends on the reader having some knowledge of the world. It continues the story of Ward, and in this case Tisala the rebel, and love of Ward. Neither book is a romance, something I quite enjoy. I’m weird like that. For some reason I both dislike romance in books and yet really enjoy it at times. Romance done the Hurog way is great.
The beginning of Dragon Blood is quite brutal. We come upon Tisala while she is being tortured for information about the rebellion that has been realized in the wake of Ward’s exploits in Dragon Bones. She escapes and runs to Hurog. This implicates Ward in the mind of the king and the king demands that Ward be committed for mental illness. All of this comes on top of Ward having to prove himself politically able to his little kingdom. One might say that Ward’s life has a bit more excitement than is good for a person’s health.
Hurog means dragon, and dragons are showing up on the door-steps of the kingdom once more. Dragons have played an important part in the whole kingdom’s past history, not only Hurog’s. Thankfully neither book is very graphic, enabling them to be read by a younger audience (not too young). Neither violence nor romance is explicit. Upon finishing the Hurog duology, I was left with a sense of wanting more.
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p>Dragon Bones and Dragon Blood are available as audiobook.
Kin Karad works for the Company. Her job is to oversee the creation of planets. Some of the workers like to play jokes on future inhabitants. The one she has discovered this time is a plesiosaur in the wrong stratum holding a placard reading “End Nuclear Testing Now”. While she is impressed with the inventiveness of the culprit, Kin is getting tired of her life. It has been a long one.
Then she meets a mysterious person who invites her on a journey. Kin Karad decides to go and when she gets to the spaceship she discovers that she is alone, but will be picking up two companions – a kung called Marco Farfarer, and Silver the Shandi. They are told that they will be going to a flat world.
The spaceship takes off and off they go on their adventure.
Strata precedes Pratchett’s Discworld series, but we clearly see how the foundations are laid for the later series. Kin Karad and her fellow explorers are fun characters with clearly defined personalities. Plays on words and concepts are obvious from the first pages. Pratchett was a pretty good author even back in his early days.
I think I’m finally getting a handle on what chick-lit is. The female protagonist is supposed to be ditsy but gung-ho. Studly, dudly, well-hung male is the job-description for the male protagonist. They fall passionately in love fighting it and each other all the way. Add to this cauldron of passion action and humor and you have chick-lit??????
While I’m not the biggest fan of the genre, I have read some. In my opinion most of it is so, so. Some of it is actually kind of fun while being really frustrating at the same time. The female/male leads are so ….
Katie MacAlister seems to be a big name on the chick-lit arena. It seems well-deserved. I’ve read her “Aisling Grey” series and a book called “The Last of the Red-Hot Vampires”.
The “Aisling Grey” books have great cover art. You can tell the books aren’t too serious, and they live up to that prediction. The cover art on “Vampires” is dorky, but typical of the genre. I’ll take “Aisling” covers any day compared to the alternative.
We meet Aisling Grey in “You Slay Me“. She comes off as somewhat of an air-head right off the bat. As her first assignment for her uncle Aisling travels to Paris to deliver a medieval object. Upon reaching the delivery address, she finds the recipient murdered and meets her male protagonist, Drake. Implicated in the circumstances of two murders, Aisling, the demon she summons for help (and subsequently can’t get rid of) named Jim, and Drake find themselves caught up in a web of lies and confusion that could well result in the demon lords of hell ruling the mortal world.
Aisling and Drake are pretty much what the books are about, with quite a bit of confusion added in. In “Fire Me Up” Aisling ends up in Hungary, having to receive her punishment from the Green dragon sept, find a guardian mentor and save the world from destruction. As we go on to “Light My Fire“, we see that Drake and Aisling still haven’t resolved their relationship. Aisling is still struggling to figure out her powers and has to save the world from imps and demon lords. When we come to “Holy Smokes” Drake and Aisling are getting ready for marriage. But life is never as simple as it might seem, at least not in the super-natural world and Aisling’s new status as demon lord has to be resolved. Being a guardian, wyvern’s mate and demon lord are just not compatible occupations.
I liked these books. They were light, fun and at times quite erotic.
“The Last of the Red-Hot Vampires” was along the same lines. Along comes a ditsy, non-believing female onto the super-natural scene and meets the incredibly hot man of her dreams, Theo. Theo loses his nephilim status and gets turned into a soulless vampire who needs blood, blood, blood. Portia’s job is to save his soul and herself from whatever the super-natural world has to throw at them.
Where the Aisling books were a fun read, Vampires was more work. The humor was off and the characters weren’t of the quality of the Aisling series. My advice would be to go with the Aisling books. There the author delivers what the genre promises.
To me reading is like listening to music or maybe it’s vice versa. Sometimes words flow seamlessly from one sentence to the next, one chapter to the next. Subject matter does not matter. I’ve seen it in academic articles and in this case in a young adult book.The Hero and the Crown flows beautifully. To me that makes McKinley and excellent writer. I’ve only read two of her books, but in both cases I found this indefinable flow. I suspect the ability to make text “flow” is something you have to be born with, like any other talent.
While “Hero” is the first book in the Damarian saga, it was written after The Blue Sword (another Newberry awarded book). Keep that in mind while reading the books.
Aerin is the only child of the Damarian king, born without talent and child of a suspect mother (dead). She refuses to act as a proper “lady” should. Instead she learns to wield the sword, chase dragons and tame horses. Then disaster strikes and Damarian faces war. As the king rides off with his forces, a messenger comes riding in asking for help to kill a dragon. Aerin goes off and …….
I’m trying to decide what I thought about 
To me reading is like listening to music or maybe it’s vice versa. Sometimes words flow seamlessly from one sentence to the next, one chapter to the next. Subject matter does not matter. I’ve seen it in academic articles and in this case in a young adult book.
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