The Rings of Power (Season 1) - Amazon Prime - TV Series Review

 

*Warning! Spoilers Ahead!*

I can still recall the excitement when my mother first introduced me to Tolkien’s The Hobbit—that treasure of a first line, riddles in the dark with Gollum, the dragon Smaug, our favorite wizard Gandalf, and this bedeviling ring that would capture the imagination of Western fantasy for ages. I grew up in the age of animated Tolkien movies, and even today still find “Down, Down to Goblin Town” catchy. Easily my favorite scene in this era of Lord of the Rings is when Éowyn slays the Witch-King of Angmar (although kid self thought he was ridiculous cool, up there with the likes of Darth Vader). The series was an utter success at creating a memorable story that would stick with me for decades.

Look how cool I am! - Return of the King 1980

I was enraptured with Peter Jackson’s later adaptations. The bar was set high for any succession to Tolkien’s work, especially when Amazon announced a TV series based around the lesser-known Silmarillion material. As a newcomer to this age of Middle Earth, I waited with trepidation for the first trailer to drop.

Now as we all know, sometimes the trailer is better than the show. However, it was clear from the start that this was a teaser with nothing to tease. There was nothing particularly compelling at stake, especially when everyone knows how it all works out in the Third Age.

I regret to report that this lack of particularly compelling characters ultimately makes “The Rings of Power” a lackluster fantasy series, its only saving grace the star power that names like Galadriel and Elrond have. Frankly, I was bored.  As others have voiced, for a series titled “The Rings of Power,” the first season fails to convey the scale and grandeur of crafting rings that would grant Galadriel and Co. unparalleled authority.

Let’s appreciate the good. The story arch of Elrond’s deep friendship with Durin and Disa under duress by the animosity between their peoples is by far and large the high point of the season. The dwarven society was interesting and the actors made me care about them. Seriously, the rest of the elves were as bland as cardboard, but Robert Aramayo as Elrond pulled off the bantering chemistry with Owain Arthur’s Durin so well that I somewhat cared if The Tree was failing.

I also thought Charlie Vickers as Sauron in hiding did the best with the lines he had, but again, he was paired up with meanderingly dull plot lines and didn’t have strong actors to play off. Morfydd Clark’s Galadriel was distant and unrelatable, Isildur and Elendil were a big letdown, and the entire Harfoot plotline with the Stranger was painful to watch. Arondir as the obligatory ass-kicking elf was cool and I think Adar could have been used much earlier to create a sense of menace. Númenor, visually a feast for the eyes, but a yawn-fest in terms of plot, could really benefit from taking some notes from A Song of Fire and Ice and The Wheel of Time when it comes to court intrigue (or simply from Tolkien himself—who could ever forget how much fun King Théoden and Steward Denethor were to watch?)

Overall, the season would have benefited from a more focused plot tied around the challenges of crafting the rings themselves. There is maybe one episode dedicated to this, which makes it look like Sauron is a patient instructor walking the elves through how to make the best homemade bread. Using little known actors can be extremely effective (just see the Harry Potter trio’s breakout performances), but if they can’t convince the audience to care for them, it becomes just another generic fantasy no matter how big Tolkien’s name is. The Rings of Power has stunning imagery and a clear love for the world; now it needs to find its captivation factor.

Happy 2023 - Year of the Snake Update

Happy 2023 to everyone far and wide - hope your new year is off to a good start! Hey, it's time for that New Year's resolution thing again, when every writer puts in big, bold letters at the top of their list: Finish that book! 

Well, I have written Parts I and II of Year of the Snake and am barreling down Part III. In the meantime, please enjoy this excerpt and best of luck as we all embark to complete our great wish lists/mandates for self-actualization!

YEAR OF THE SNAKE (Changeling Sisters #5)


To find the way ahead, they must return to the beginning. Read an excerpt from the penultimate book in the Changeling Sisters Series that will take the Alvarez sisters deep into the heart of Central America...


"Ileana Alvarez was barely as tall as a stalk of wheat the first time she saw the Serpent Wall. Like a stormfront warning of danger, snakes of many shapes and sizes crawled over and under one another in an intricate pattern. There were spearheaded rattlers, bushmasters with poison tongues, vipers the blackish blue of shells, and coral snakes more colorful than any rainbow.

She walked toward them as if in a trance. First she stuck in a hand, and then a foot.

Then she pressed inside completely, leaving the city streets behind. All was dark and warm.

Gunfire erupted behind her." -- Year of the Snake 2023, by Heather Heffner

December 2022 Book Review: All Systems Red

All Systems Red

By Martha Wells

~Book Review~

*Warning! Minor Spoilers!*

MURDERBOT PROVES INSTANTLY RELATABLE when all it wants to do is watch tv shows. This novella by Martha Wells introduces us to a spacefaring future where the faceless Company is in charge, dispatching droid “SecUnits” like Murderbot to protect missions. Murderbot, who has hacked its governor module and is able to cover its newfound autonomy, immediately uses it to binge all the thousands of sitcoms it can intercept—all while making sure the silly humans mapping a new hostile terrain don’t kill themselves.

It's a quick read that serves as an introduction to a greater series that stays largely in the shadows for this installment. We are teased with greater mysteries lurking, such as why Murderbot dubbed itself such an ominous title, and the crew of humans it protects also stay largely faceless. Our narrator is an android so just the brisk, data-driven facts about the crew at large. There is the head of the exploratory mission, Mensah, who sees the humanity in Murderbot, comical relief like Ratthi, and an interesting augmented human called Gurathin who is less trusting. The team discovers someone is out to sabotage the exploratory missions on this terrain and teams up with Murderbot to save themselves, especially when it appears the Company may be in on it.

Part of the expository style and underwhelming names like “the Company” make All Systems Red feel generic; if this had been published even ten years back its AI storyline grappling with the meaning of humanity and second-class citizenry may have made more of a splash, but compounding with this being a novella, the result is an unremarkable, easy story. Not much is delved into about why Murderbot feels so drawn to the human-written series Sanctuary Moon, for example (387 episodes mentioned!), and its realization at the end is more of an abrupt action to usher in what will likely be deeper questions explored in further works.

Nevertheless, you can’t argue it doesn’t have a unique narrator who pokes fun at our humanity. A nice dive off point for The Murderbot Diaries.



Recommended for fans of: Arkady Martine; Tamsyn Muir; Dennis E. Taylor

Westworld (Season 1) - HBO Max - TV Series Review

*Warning! Spoilers!*

IT’S COME A LONG WAY from this - 

Remakes can neglect the old magic, but hat’s off to the creators of HBO Max’s stunning Westworld (Season 1), a masterpiece that tells the story of AI awakening to a horror story in the hands of indifferent human masters. It’s the Matrix except we’re the bad guys.

Set in the not-too-distant future, Delos Corporation runs virtual-reality-come-to-life theme parks, in which wealthy visitors can enact their wildest fantasies. The Wild, Wild West offers saloons, brothels, and adventure on the frontier, guided by biomechanical “Host” characters who aid the guest’s every beck and call even if it means death—until they start to remember every gruesome detail about their former “lives.”

The cast is fantastic. Evan Rachel Wood evokes sympathy as the “Farmer’s Daughter,” Dolores, who endures an awful invasion of her home at the hands of Ed Harris’s “Man in Black,” a guest of great importance with a mysterious history to the park who mows down the various Hosts on a single-minded mission to discover a deeper level to the “game.” Anthony Hopkins plays one of the park’s creators and evokes his Hannibal-esque machinations here in performances that are so devious you’re glued to the screen. Jeffrey Wright plays the Head of Programming, and the clashes between engineering and quality assurance will be very entertaining to anyone who has ever worked in product manufacturing.

The pacing takes its time. We get perspectives from Hosts such as Brothel Owner Maeve (Thandiwe Newton) who get touched by the “code” that incites her to remember all of her lives over the course of her time in Westworld (like the fact that she was once a frontierswoman raising a daughter), and then we also experience the theme park from human visitors like the idealistic “white hat” cowboy William (Jimmi Simpson) and his sadistic business partner Logan (Ben Barnes), treating it like a no-consequences video game where he does whatever he wants even to bystanders. It’s fun. It’s finding out who you really are when all the rules are lifted. The Hosts can’t do visitors any serious harm, so best of all, it’s safe.

Then someone starts messing with the Hosts’ coding.

I can’t recommend this show enough. The shots from the majestic desert plateaus of Santa Clarita, CA, Utah, and Arizona suck you in. The plot twists are top-notch, and one of them definitely made my jaw drop (one of them I did guess, but the reveal was still supremely satisfying). The juxtaposition between the living, breathing Hosts galloping across the plains with the cold, clinical reality of the lab where they are stitched back up after bullets, strangulation, or worse is masterful. The end of Season 1 gratifies in every way.

**SPOILER My one complaint:

I love that Maeve changes her “attributes” to have a chilling level of intelligence and influence, but I can’t buy that she successfully bullied two human technicians into doing it and didn’t get caught. Given how encompassing security infrastructure would be, especially at a company like Delos, it seems highly doubtful that the tampering wouldn’t get flagged. Supposedly Felix may be crushing hard, but if he had that much sympathy for the Hosts’ plight, there wasn’t much build up. Granted, QA seems to miss a lot!

Westworld has four seasons, and the fifth which would have concluded the series was cancelled. Rumor is the show loses the plot (which we American shows love to do), but we’ll see! On to Season 2.

Westworld is streaming on HBO Max.

Writing When You Have No Time

 

I WROTE THE MOST when I was a teen. On top of a school schedule. On top of friends and sports, and “zero” hour choir practice. I could find that otherworldly creative zone fondly known as “the Flow” with ease. Now writing with a fulltime job and family to take care of, I’m mourning that loss of freedom and energetic youth in general. Time to yourself is this incredible endangered thing that you have to fight fiercely to protect. It’s essential to writing. So how to you prioritize it without feeling like you’re shortchanging all those other new responsibilities in your life?

#1 Remember that you are a Writer and will always be a Writer. Nothing can take that from you. If you are a Writer, then it is your core identity. You will be drawn back to writing no matter what life throws at you. It’s how you find balance. It’s how you make sense of the world. So you will always still write…the question is how.

#2 Set Realistic Expectations. The struggle of finding time is real. Lord help you if you’re an epic fantasy novelist. You read about how J.K. Rowling wrote the  first scenes of Harry Potter on napkins while riding the train, or how George R.R. Martin locked himself in a cabin (and still no Winds of Winter…?).

My first child was a rude awakening. See, I had this fantasy that maternity leave meant so much “free time” to write. (I’ll give all parents a moment to spit out their tea.) Yes, I had no idea how much work raising a child is. Once the reality settled in, I realized that in no world would I be able to both feed a newborn and type. However, I could edit. So I repurposed that time to edit manuscripts instead. I researched. I experimented with voice command. I actually did write a short children’s story on my phone.

You eventually do get time back. However, there will always be something. If it’s not the refrigerator broke down, then it’s the car, or the newest bug from daycare. Or heck, what about just making the time to catch up with friends?

Navigating your Writer identity when you’re adulting is a challenge. There’s often no reliable schedule. However, identify the most consistent windows of time available. For myself, I made a commitment to write 15 minutes a day. Short enough that you could sneak it in before work or after you put the kiddo down to bed. Long enough that you can find “the Flow,” that beautiful feeling when the floodgates open and you’re just hammering away at that keyboard, deliriously lost in your own little world. Those 15 minutes will fly by, but they add up, day after day. Find what can honestly work for you, and commit.

#3 Stoke the Fire. Stay connected with what drives you to tell your stories. Read the latest review of a favorite author’s new book or watch a show closely related to your story’s theme. Spare a minute or two on what gets you fired up to write so you stay the course. Always be asking what action you can take today to help your story get one step closer to completion. Sometimes just reading a bit from the previous chapter is enough to get you back into the Flow.

#4 Shatter the Block. What’s your writing methodology? Are you linear in style where you like all chapters of Part I to be complete before you move on to the next one, or do you jump around in the storyline as inspiration strikes?

Once you get to those 15 minutes of precious writing time, you don’t want to waste them staring at the screen. Come with a clear idea of what you want to accomplish. If you’re stuck, I heartily recommend jumping ahead (or behind). Write a different scene in the book that’s calling to you. Tell a chapter from a different character’s perspective. Work on the outline. If you took 15 minutes to move the needle closer to the goal, then that’s progress.

#5 Make Mistakes. This is a first draft. Punctuation be damned. If you’re in the Flow, you need to keep up, not pause to look up a continuity question from the previous book (“Did I give the grizzled warrior deep emerald or hazelnut eyes?”). Highlight the passage for future review and move on.

#6: Prioritize for You. Lastly, we all choose what to prioritize. At different stages of your life, writing may not be the most important thing. That’s ok. Again, doesn’t mean you’re not a writer. Remember that nothing takes that from you, but sometimes we value things differently over time—especially once we realize how short it is! However, if you’re not prioritizing writing, then it won’t get done. It’s a simple fact. Make a realistic commitment to your writing and then guard it fiercely. Some people want to become the next New York Times Best Seller. Others just want to make sense of things. Know what your goal is as a Writer, and then make your peace with it.

Looking forward to your next work of sleep-deprived greatness!

August 2022 Book Review: The Last Story of Mina Lee

The Last Story of Mina Lee

By Nancy Jooyoun Kim

~Book Review~

LIFE CAN END abruptly and leave us with too many words left unspoken, too many questions we should have asked but never did. In present day, Margot Lee travels to Koreatown, Los Angeles and discovers that her mother has died under mysterious circumstances. After growing up constantly at loggerheads with her mother who was first generation Korean and never seemed to understand Margot’s American life, Margot sets off to pick up the pieces of who her mother really was. Lush and moving, this first novel of Nancy Jooyoun Kim bridges the divide between mother and daughter with alternating perspectives of their lives in America—one accepted, and the other caught between worlds.

The writing is easy and introspective, capturing the sense of regret and reflection in both Margot and her mother, Mina, as they ponder what could have been. Mina’s chapters are the most engaging as we watch her evolve from timid to taking a stand, and both perspectives capture how isolated and apart they are, no other family except for each other. Kim builds each chapter’s closing to great effect, such as revealing the tragedy Mina left behind, and she shows how the outcome of North and South Korea’s split impacted families for generations.

Margot is joined in her investigation into her mother’s death by an engaging friend Miguel, and Kim does a great job illustrating the mix of Chicano and Korean cultures interfusing on the LA scene. By and large, food plays a central part, and I’ve never finished a book so hungry—whether it is Mina, reminiscing about the past over a bowl of jjigae, or Margot, digging into the traditional cuisine and realizing how much it reminds her of her mother, the dominant role food plays in bringing people together is excellently portrayed:

“Once the meat had browned, Margot laid pieces on Miguel’s plate, like her mother would’ve done, before serving herself. A heaviness gathered in her chest. She wrapped a bite of warm white rice, soft pork belly, and ssamjang in a red lettuce leaf, still wet, and crammed it into her mouth.” –page 127

Overall, a reflective beach read that will certainly make us all reach out to our loved ones and let them know how much they mean to us. It captures the sentiment perfectly that as you grow, the more you understand the choices your parents made.

Recommended for fans of: Unknown! A genre outside my usual wheelhouse :) 

Backpacking Ozette Triangle: Sandpoint - Washington State, USA

BEACH DEER? SEA STACKS? Tidal pools & tire swings?

The Ozette Loop (9 miles round trip) on the peninsula of Washington State offers fantastic beginner backpacking trips or car camping at the Lake Ozette trailhead. Drive 81 miles west of Port Angeles, leave your car at overnight parking and embark on a short journey via boardwalk through coastal rainforest and skunk cabbage to a gorgeous coast full of finds for the curious explorer.

There are two trails that fork from the Lake Ozette campground trailhead. One goes north to Cape Alava/Wedding Bells area, where if you look closely enough, you can spot petroglyphs on rocky coastal crags. Walking along the coast south from Cape Alava can get dicey with slippery rocks, and since our party had an infant with us, we chose the other fork, the Sandpoint Trail. This is 3.0 miles one way to the beach, and then there are numerous campsites to choose from along the tree line or right on the beach. First come, first served, and if you time the weather right, you’ll get some of the best memories of beach camping.

I highly recommend camping near the water source: Wish Creek. After the Sandpoint trail, you break out onto the beach and walk south around the headland for about half a mile more to find it. The stream is tea-colored in appearance due to the leaves, and my husband swears it tastes like iced tea, too! You won’t want to add a lemon, though; make sure to bring your water filter, and the Park Service recommends boiling the filtered water, too.

We had an infant, and so we brought enough liquid Similac bottles and pouch baby food to last the trip. That way we didn’t have to worry about sanitizing bottles and burning through our fuel. The dirty diapers definitely added the most weight. One thing about backpacking at the Ozette Loop is you have to keep all of your food and smelly stuff like deodorant or delightfully pungent baby diapers in bear canisters. For a two night, three day trip, we got away with using two bear canisters. You can borrow them at the Olympic National Park Visitor Center in Port Angeles or buy your own. Stopping at the Visitor Center on the way in is recommended either way to check the weather conditions, get tips, and buy a National Parks Pass if you haven’t already. Backpacking requires a permit, and you can now print it out ahead of time. It’s kind of confusing, but here’s how you reserve a Backpacking Permit for this area:

·         https://www.recreation.gov/permits/4098362

·         Click “Check Availability”

·         Select “North Coast”

·         You’ll see different North Coast peninsula beaches and can choose to camp at Cape Alava, Sandpoint, or South Sandpoint. Avid backpackers may plan a longer trip down to Yellow Banks/Norwegian Memorial, but you’ll want a tidal guide to safely cross the headland

 

It wasn't all butterflies and rainbows. We did get caught in the famous coastal rain one night. We'd made the mistake to put a large tarp under our tent, which was great for keeping the sand out of the tent, but not-so-great at fending off the pooling rainwater. It collected under our tent and started leaking! Thankfully we were blessed with sweet sunshine the next day and were able to dry everything out. We switched for a smaller tarp and barricaded the sides with branches as well to divert water flow. If you have a tent with a built in tarp, that's likely best- and less weight.

Overall, our campsite was a top-notch pick. All of them are very well maintained, some coming with makeshift benches, there are even pit toilets, and the bugs weren’t bad in late May, even in the forest. We were right on the beach and our little one loved exploring the rocks and driftwood fortresses. We took her exploring and spent hours in the sun zigzagging up and down the sandy shores, hiking up a dramatic bluff at the Sandpoint headland which is home to several “beach deer,” and poking around tidal pools. We traversed further south and crossed larger streams; there was a dead baby orca that had washed up toward South Sandpoint, which was sobering.

Some of the South Sandpoint campsites hide higher up in the cliffs, but one, to our delight, even had a tire swing over the river. You never know what you’ll find out here; there’s always little sea treasures or backwoods paths to explore, and whenever the sun comes out in the Pacific Northwest, it makes the entire sea glitter. Sunset at Sandpoint was gorgeous, with cathedral-soft sun rays dancing over the far shores and dramatic orange brilliance showering you from the north. Granted, with our infant, we were all snug in the tent before it finished setting, but from past trips, seeing the awesome breadth of the star-studded firmament over the ocean at night is stunning. If you can catch a comet or meteor shower out here, it will be downright magical!

We’re already looking forward to our next trip. This has always been a favorite area of mine from childhood, and I'm eager to see our little one make more memories of her own here.

The above is depicted as fiction, not fact.