A Heroin you will love...

I just got finished reading the first series by Maria V. Snyder... and I thought it was brilliant.
You will find the first two of these books in the YA section of the book store, although the content is very adult and I think the entire series could be in the Adult Fantasy section.

The three books, in order, are:

Poison Study
Magic Study
Fire Study

and they follow the life of Yelena, a criminal on death row who is offered the position of food taster for the country of Ixia's Commander.

Yelena is a wonderful, strong, real leading character.


Book Cover: 3/5
Book Title: 5/5
Plot: 5/5
Characters: 5/5 (the reasons I keep coming back for more!)
Ending: 5/5

Avatar: The Last Airbender

Here are my reviews of the 3 season long cartoon series vs. the new movie by M. Night Shyamalan:

= Epic Win

= Epic FAIL

The cartoon series is a 3 season deal, and is one of the best written, funniest animated series I've ever watched. There is character development, unexpected surprises, and overall a vast sense of enjoyment had from watching.

The movie... was awful.

My first beef, they tried to 'Asian up' all the names. Aang (pronounced like dang without the 'd' in the cartoon) was changed to Ahng (so that it sounded more like they were saying Ahnk)... Sakka, (pronounced Sock-ah in the cartoon) was changed as well... along with every other name in the movie. It was *really* annoying.

Second, Sakka did not tell ONE joke... and really, neither did Aang (he only did one cute thing, once... the Aang I know and love is a constant wise-cracker). The animated version relies heavily on humor to pull these characters through what is really a very dark and oppressing world... the movie... was just dark and oppressing.

Third... dialogue. Possibly the worst dialogue ever. It made me believe that Mr. Shyamalan thinks children are dumb as bricks... they would recap, in lengthy detail, something you had JUST watched them do, then they would tell you what you were supposed to think about the situation (ie, "You should be scared... that was a scary situation you were just in") and then they would tell you what they were about to do... and this happened through the ENTIRE movie. There was one point towards the end of the movie where I found myself thinking, "Ah, well, this isn't so bad..." then I realized why I thought that... because it was the big battle scene and no one was speaking!!!

My advice? Take the $10 you were going to spend to see this stinker of a movie, and use it towards the purchase of the first season of the animated Avatar: The Last Airbender.

I was just thrilled that this movie only covered the first season of Airbender... so that the entire series couldn't be massacred for me.