Yes, I finally saw the “Bourne Ultimatum.” And I loved it. There’s something about the Bourne movies that you just don’t get in other action films. I think it’s the fact that while the characters exist at the extremes of what human beings are capable of, they’re not supermen and superwomen. No wire work, no CGI amping up the fight scenes—just human brutality overlaid with either that signature heart-pounding piece of music or even no music at all. Don’t get me wrong; there’s a warm spot in my heart for Matrix-y bullet-time and the wire work of “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.” But sometimes, particularly for the spy genre, it’s really heart-stopping to see something that can feel so real. I remember my reaction when the first Bourne movie was announced. It can be summed up as, “Matt Damon, action hero?! No WAY.” And yet he works perfectly as the series’ protagonist. I never would have expected it, and yet now I can’t imagine anyone else in the role.

We also saw “The Invasion,” with Daniel Craig and Nicole Kidman. It felt like they left a few scenes on the cutting room floor; the pace and story were a bit jumpy in a few places. Other than that, however, I definitely enjoyed it.

If you’re in a bookish mood, I highly recommend checking out the R.I.P. II challenge. I think I’m a little too buried in books right now to go after it myself, but it looks like a great one!

Edit: Just had to add my favorite patch note from the new LotRO patch:

People were really bummed in Rivendell, sometimes. Now they shouldn’t be so depressing, even the Bowyer who was always going on with ‘Oh, woe is me!’ and ‘It’s terrible, just terrible!’ — brought to you by the ‘Rivendell Is A Happy Place!(tm)’ tourism bureau.

And, my second-favorite:

No more deja vu! You should now only see Athal once. You should now only see Athal once. (ed. note. MadeOfLions, that was too easy! You should be ashamed. You should be ashamed. -Patience)

I love that Turbine adds some amusement to keep the patch notes from being impossibly dry and boring.

The Hidden Side of a Leaf posted a handful of Questions for Book Bloggers. I seem to be too sleepy to think about anything more complex this morning, so I thought I’d bite:

What are you reading right now? I just finished Colette Gale’s Unmasqued, so I think I’ll pick Matt Pagett’s What Shat That? off of my book pile next. It’s a rare review book that I didn’t request or agree to first, so it’s a bit… different… than my usual reading. It also looks like a rather hysterical subject—identifying animals by their feces—so why not?!

Do you have any idea what you’ll read when you’re done with that? I don’t know what order I’ll read my upcoming books in, but I’m thinking the next one will be Tobias S. Buckell’s Crystal Rain.

What magazines do you have in your bathroom right now? Erm, I don’t keep mags in my bathroom. I keep them at the dining room table so I can read them during meals if my husband isn’t home. And the only mag I still bother with these days is the TV Guide, so I can make sure not to miss the new series such as “Bionic Woman” and the like. I just don’t like the format as much as I used to.

What’s the worst thing you were ever forced to read? I don’t think I can legitimately say I’ve been forced to read anything, so I’ll go with the worst book I ever read: Simon R. Green’s Deathstalker. I know it sold well and there are plenty of folks who like it, but they’re welcome to it; as far as I’m concerned it’s god-awful.

What’s the one book you always recommend to just about everyone? How It Was With Dooms. Garth Nix’s ‘Abhorsen’ trilogy and Anne Bishop’s ‘Black Jewels’ trilogy are close seconds, but since they’re genre books they don’t have quite the universal appeal of Dooms, which is the truly awesome told-in-photos true story of a family that raised a cheetah cub.

Admit it, the librarians at your library know you on a first name basis, don’t they? No, since I’ve only been there twice so far, but I don’t think it’ll take long!

Is there a book you absolutely love, but for some reason, people never think it sounds interesting, or maybe they read it and don’t like it at all? I’m hooked on James Rollins. I even love his earlier, less-polished stuff just because I can see the raw talent in it, probably because I read one of his more recent books first. Most of the folks I know who read one of his earlier books first aren’t nearly so eager to read more, and I admit, had that been me I would probably feel similarly.

Do you read books while you eat? While you bathe? While you watch movies or TV? While you listen to music? While you’re on the computer? While you’re having sex? While you’re driving? Eat? Yes. Bathe? No. Movies or TV? When I used to use TV as background, yes, but now that I only watch those few shows I’m actually interested in seeing, no. While listening to music, yes. While on the computer? When am I NOT on the computer? No, seriously, if I’m reading, unless I’m off at a doctor’s office or the like, my laptop is open to my inbox or whatever; I also read during slow points when playing an mmorpg, such as during travel time. While having sex or driving? Uh, no! I have my priorities!

When you were little, did other children tease you about your reading habits? What book addict doesn’t get teased about it by other kids?!

What’s the last thing you stayed up half the night reading because it was so good you couldn’t put it down? Half the night? Sorry, I’m old and need my sleep now. Stayed up at least a little late? Colette Gale’s Unmasqued. It was very tough to put that one down toward the end!

Now… tag… you’re it!

LRN2TYPE

A flood of review books came home to roost this weekend (how’s that for mixing my metaphors?) and I thought that meant it was time for an update. So, here’s the current list of upcoming book reviews:

• “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Starting a Home-Based Business,” Barbara Weltman
• “Whole Grain Breads,” Peter Reinhart
• “What Shat That?” Matt Pagett (don’t ask!)
• “Crystal Rain,” Tobias S. Buckell
• “Ragamuffin,” Tobias S. Buckell
• “I Married a Pirate,” Samantha David
• “The Painted Messiah,” Craig Smith
• “Thirteen,” Sebastian Beaumont
• “The Gift of Rain,” Tan Twan Eng
• “Skin to Skin,” Dionne Galace
• “Bestiary,” Robert Masello
• “A Darkness More Than Night,” Michael Connelly
• “Split,” Tara Moss

(updated 8/23)

Yes, 12 books and a short, only three of which are library books and one of which is an ebook I purchased. Ye gods I’m insane.

This is gonna be fun!

I was going to write about something other than books today, really I was. But when I reviewed Colette Gale’s Unmasqued: An Erotic Novel of the Phantom of the Opera today, I just couldn’t help writing about the topic.

After I posted my review here, I did my usual thing of going to post a shortened version on Amazon. And I saw that the book, which I absolutely loved, had received a remarkably wide array of ratings. I read through all of the reviews, and saw a pattern to the majority of the reviews by people who hated the book. In some cases I could see that the book just wasn’t their thing, and that’s certainly something I can respect. However, most of the complaints came down to one of two things: either they hated the fact that the book veered too much from the original structure and plot of the Phantom of the Opera (a criticism that’s going to be leveled at any re-imagining, sadly, no matter how good it is, so I tend to automatically discard that one), or they were shocked, shocked, that the book had so much sex in it.

Okay folks, here’s a clue: it wasn’t labeled as a romance, it was labeled as erotica. Even an erotic romance still has a ton of sex in it, it just has romance too. One review read basically as, “oh my god it was pornographic!” This is someone who wasn’t reviewing the book: they were rating the book reflexively based on the fact that they apparently didn’t understand what “erotica” meant when they picked up the book, or didn’t bother to notice that it was erotica. If that happened to me, I wouldn’t trash the book for the fact that I didn’t bother to read the blurb, genre, or sub-title before reading the book. To me, that’s a rather rotten thing to do to the author for a mistake on the reader’s part. That would be like trashing a horror novel for being horrific, just because I thought I was picking up a book of literary fiction.

Romance and erotica have a reputation as being poorly written; I addressed this to some extent when I reviewed The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Writing Erotic Romance. Yes, some of it is poorly written; I think that tends to be the case when any genre is really just getting started, simply because there aren’t as many writers writing in that genre and there’s less for editors to choose from. However, that’s been changing. As romance and erotica become more mainstream and accepted, more authors are joining in and the quality has been going up. Colette Gale, for example, is the pen name of an author of historical novels; she isn’t an amateur.

If you want to make sure you find good erotica and romance, just read the reviews out there. Check out the blogroll on the reviews blog—a good handful of the reviewers on there review some romance or erotica, and a few of the sites are dedicated to those genres. This is one case, however, where I don’t recommend reading the Amazon reviews. You really need to read reviews by people who actually knew what “erotica” meant before they picked up the books.

First up, the now-traditional Booking Through Thursday weekly book meme:

One book at a time? Or more than one? If more, are they different types/genres? Or similar?

(We’re talking recreational reading, here—books for work or school don’t really count since they’re not optional.)

When I was a child I regularly read, I would say, up to five books and three magazines at a time. That’s a conservative estimate. I devoured the things, and one at a time just wasn’t enough. They were often of different varieties and genres.

As I got older I settled down a bit. Now I only tend to read one novel at a time, although I sometimes have a non-fiction book going concurrently, and often have a magazine sitting at the dining room table to read at meals when I’m the only one home. That doesn’t include, of course, the several cookbooks I might have going at the same time for review, because one doesn’t quite “read” a cookbook.

Second, if you’re looking for an interesting reading challenge this Fall, check out the Outmoded Authors Challenge:

Greetings. The final list of outmoded authors is completed and we’re ready to go on September 1st 2007. The idea behind this challenge is to give some needed attention to authors who have fallen by the way side.

Third, a new romance review site, The Long and Short of It, is debuting and holding a contest in which you can win a bag o’ books. So head on over there!

Fourth (I’m just full of tidbits today, aren’t I?!), check out today’s review of Brian Yarvin’s A World of Dumplings (yum!).

I have this odd feeling I meant to link to something else as well, but I can’t remember what it was, so… ah well.

Reluctant Romance Reader
I tried to resist. Really I did.

This morning I posted my review of Dr. Jeffrey Anderson’s Second Genesis. This was not a book that I enjoyed, and it’s very memorable for being only the fourth item I’ve reviewed—out of more than 500—to which I’ve applied a rating of one out of five.

It’s interesting that authors and fans seem to think that reviewers take great pleasure in cutting down other people’s work, when in fact I’ve found the opposite to largely be true. I’ve seen many people be soft in their ratings because they’re afraid to hurt the author’s feelings or they’re afraid someone will get angry at them for not liking the work; it’s easier to be liked for being a nice person, after all. I think hard before I give something a low rating, certainly, and I always feel a mild sense of dread when I post such a review—I know someone is going to give me hell for it, whether it’s the author or a fan, friend or relative. I often catch hell just for giving something a less-than-perfect review, after all, particularly if it’s a popular book.

This attitude mystifies me. It presupposes that there is such a thing as a ‘perfect’ book or writer, with which one cannot find fault; since I believe that the skill of writing is something that a writer is always developing or perfecting, I cannot agree with this. If this were true, there would be almost no need for editors in the book business, as publishing houses could simply take perfect manuscripts from these perfect writers and publish them as-is.

This attitude also presupposes that there is a set definition or set of standards by which we could identify the perfect book. As people seem so much more willing to accept when it comes to the visual arts, artistic works are something we judge and interpret through our own internal viewpoints. No two people will see the same painting or the same book in the exact same way. We all have different tastes; for instance, I have no interest in Westerns, and I know plenty of people who don’t want to read horror while I love a good fright. I’d likely find a supposedly good Western to be boring, and someone else might find my idea of a good horror novel to be pointless or offensive. This should make it obvious from the get-go that there’s no perfect book, no one set of standards by which to judge books, and no one viewpoint about a book which will be ‘correct’.

I read some commentary over at the book/daddy blog on a book by Gail Poole, and the subject was, rather than ‘objective’ reviews, fair reviews. This is an argument I’ve had with people before, always those same people who are berating me for finding some fault with a book they love. These people argue that it’s entirely possible to write a completely objective book review—one that leaves out entirely any biases or feelings on the part of the reader.

I wholeheartedly disagree. I believe it’s entirely possible to write a fair review, but not an objective one. We are, after all, human beings. We can no more turn off our emotional reactions to a piece of art than we can throw a switch and stop loving or hating a person. Nor can we prevent those reactions from coloring how we see and judge that work. However, we can certainly be open and honest about our biases, and provide enough information when writing a review that even those who don’t see things the way we do are capable of gleaning useful information from our reviews.

To me, there is little better compliment with respect to my reviewing than to have someone tell me they can tell by my effusive review of something that I loved that they wouldn’t enjoy it, or to see someone purchase an item based on my having panned it. Both scenarios tell me that I’m doing my job—that I’m providing enough information in my review to help someone else make her own choice based on her own preferences.

I started reviewing on a whim in 1998, and oddly, it wasn’t until recently that I realized with a start that all my other writing endeavors and publications simply aren’t what I want to pursue; reviewing is where my passion lies. This was a somewhat difficult realization, as many writers sneer at reviewers as being somehow less than “real” writers. I’ve been told wonderful things about those pieces of fiction I’ve had published, and that feels great, but it doesn’t hold my interest the way reviewing does.

The one thing that’s very important to me, however, if I’m to do so much reviewing, is that I always be honest in my opinions. I won’t slam a book just because others think it’s cruddy. Likewise, I won’t praise a book just because people rake me over the coals for not liking it (my favorite is the person who told me I must have lost my lover to an SF author—apparently disliking one book makes me jealous and spiteful). I tell people not to send us review copies unless they’re willing to risk that the review won’t be positive, and I mean it. To be honest, I find it very uncomfortable letting someone know I’ve posted the review of their book when it’s a less-than-complimentary review, because I know what it’s like to get both good and bad reviews of your work and how difficult that can be. But I can’t let that stop me from saying what I think, or how could anyone trust the reviews I write? If reviewers can’t be honest then they might as well not review at all—their words would be little different from the publishers’ own press releases.

Anyway, that’s my rant for today, brought on by the (luckily!) unusual event of giving a book such a low rating.

Oh, I almost forgot. The real irony of getting berated for those low ratings? I’ve also been accused of being a softy for giving out so few of them. *sigh*

Books are a girl’s best friend

I was going to watch the Bourne Ultimatum this weekend; really I was. But when we got to the mall it turned out the stores were still closed (we like morning showings—fewer people) and the first showing of Stardust was earlier than Bourne, so we watched that instead.

I haven’t yet read Stardust, but I like to take movies separately from any book or story they might be based on anyway. You can’t duplicate a book with a movie; you really need to make some significant changes to make it work and I think of the result as a separate entity. So I like to see separately whether the movie works as a movie. Stardust, to me, was a wonderful movie. It was fun and funny, heart-warming, beautiful, and just plain fun. The actors were great, particularly Claire Danes and Robert DeNiro.

But back to the Bourne Ultimatum. I’m hoping I’ll get around to seeing it this weekend, but in the meantime, here’s a hysterical video parody of the movie. Ya gotta love actors who don’t mind making fun of themselves:

In other news, today’s review is of Douglas Clegg’s The Abandoned. I know people have said lots of good things about Clegg, but honestly, I didn’t really like the book that much. Hopefully I’ll find some better books when I take this and Second Genesis back to the library this afternoon. The Second Genesis review will be up later this week.

I decided to participate in the latest Bookworm Carnival, Surviving the Dog Days. There are some great links there to other book reviews and book blogs, so take a peek.

This morning I reviewed Lenny Rice and Brigid Callinan’s Fondue, and received another review book—a cookbook entirely focused on whole grain breads (yum!). I also very nearly put down Anderson’s novel “Second Genesis” around page 36 or so to take back to the library unfinished, but I decided that I owe it to my review blog readers to finish it and review it so they won’t make the mistake of reading it.

Does that make me generous or masochistic?

Wait, don’t answer that. I don’t wanna know.

I didn’t really start watching Dr. Who in earnest until I was in my teens, and then I was totally addicted to its campy sci-fi wonderfulness. The funny thing is, I later saw an episode that I recognized as one I’d briefly caught part of when I was rather younger, and hurriedly switched away from because it scared the hell out of me—at the time I had no idea what the show was or what it was about. I just knew there were giant spiders biting a girl, and something about a humanoid alien about to get his brain vivisected, and when you’re young those are scary things! It left enough of an impression that I still found the same episode a bit creepy the second time around, even though by then I was quite familiar with the show.

Today, though, I have to share a great little video called “The Complete Dr. Who in Five Minutes:”

Found on the eminently handy SF Signal blog.

In an unrelated note, my review of James Rollins’s Sandstorm is up at the reviews blog. I have two cookbook and three novel reviews coming up soon!

Since I’ve been chatting about Pirates of the Burning Sea on other folks’ blogs for a while now (hi, Bildo and Keen & Graev! *waves*), I figured it was time to muse on the subject myself. But first, as context, a couple of thoughts on where my current MMORPG gaming lies:

City of Heroes/City of Villains: Currently I’m playing these two the most, although that’s mostly because they’re my most recent purchase and I’m rather expecting to end my subscription when I next decide to subscribe to another game, so I want to get my play-time in now. Love the highly individualized characters; love the faithful genre-feel; miss the ability to juggle 20-40 quests at a time.

LotRO: My current favorite of the games I play. I love to relax with this game, and can enjoy just about anything with it, from questing to deeds to crafting (yes, I even have a grand master cook). Love the deed system in particular, and the crafting is more complex and useful, IMO, than Warcraft’s. Of course I gather soloing gets rather tough at high levels, and it has the usual end-game “what now?” woes.

World of Warcraft: Warcraft is rather like an old friend who grows in a different direction than you do. You think of it fondly, you still hang out with it once in a while, but mostly you realize that you have very little in common with it any more—and that’s okay. Things change and eventually you just have to move on. Because of the way it’s designed, it really isn’t viable for them to push casual (i.e., non-raider, non-PvP) content much beyond the run it’s already had and keep it interesting and worth the expansion pack price of admission, IMO. But again, that’s okay. I had my more-than-two-years of fun with it, and I’m happy with that. I’m still subscribed for now, and I’ll continue to play now and then as long as it continues to be a way to hang out with distant friends, but eventually I expect to move on entirely.

This did, however, leave me wondering what would take its place, and then along came Pirates of the Burning Sea. Bildo in particular has been talking up how wonderful it is, and eventually I just had to overcome my inertia and go check it out.

What I saw didn’t just intrigue me; it made me immediately fill out a beta app and start babbling about game design details to my husband. I swear I check my inbox once an hour in the hope of getting a beta invite.

Sure, there’s a ton of very different stuff in the game, and that’s what intrigues me about it—it’s high time someone made a game that broke the mold, and this one looks like it’s broken almost all of them! The thing I truly can’t wait to play with, though? The entirely player-run economy. *rubs hands together with glee* Plots of land! Manufacturing! Resources! Trading! I swear, that could be the entire focus of the game and I’d be in heaven.

Okay, so there are ways this game could play out that might cause me to say, “well, it’s got awesome ideas, but it just isn’t for me.” However, I’m sure as hell going to give it the chance to impress me, because those ideas really are awesome.

Now… anyone got an inside track on a spare beta invite? Or maybe a Limited Wish spell lying around?

I’m not lazy
I’m just out of MANA