Monthly Archives: June 2013

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Reading Star Wars: Into the Void

Star Wars’ Dawn of the Jedi: Into the Void is a very interesting book. Also a very confusing book. It’s not a bad Star Wars novel – but its portrayal of the early version of Jedi Knights is not what I was expecting.

As planned, I’ve embarked upon my journey of reading through the Star Wars Universe in chronological order — meaning that I’ve started with the one of the more recent books to be published, Tim Lebbon‘s Into the Void. It steps back 25,000 years before the Battle of Yavin to the distant beginnings of the Star Wars saga. The events take place long, long ago in a system that’s literally far, far away — before the Knights of the Old Republic; the purge of the Jedi Temple on Coruscant; the long years of Palpatine’s Empire; and the rise of Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa Solo and Han Solo to save the Universe, craft the New Republic and restore the Jedi Knights in time to fight the Yuuzhon Vong and witness the Fall of yet another Skywalker.

Into the Void is intended to explain the origins of the Jedi, who in these early days are known as the Je’Daii. And that’s where my problems with the book began.

As is my practice, a spoiler alert here.

If you haven’t yet read the book, and don’t want any surprises, go no further. Here be large draigons of spoilers.

My issues with the book start with the fact that it just drops you into this prehistoric period of the Force.

With just about any other book in the Star Wars saga, there are enough points of commonality with the movies and other novels that you can figure out what’s going on. Jedi hold to the lightside of the Force, Sith to the darkside. Lightsabers shine red for the Darksiders and other colors (usually blue and green) for the Knights. The same planets, species, governmental structures and criminal gangs tend to show up, in one guise or another, on a regular basis. There is a rough sort of continuity (we won’t discuss the inconsistencies of that alleged continuity here) from book to movie to book. But those constants have to do with the known Star Wars Universe. Into the Void reverts to a time before there was a united government known as the Republic and deals with one very narrow and restricted subsection of space populated by the ancestors of a few of the more common species.

Unfortunately, the book was written as if it were any other entry into the Star Wars Universe, as though the reader would have already seen the people, planets, terms and situations in other books and could therefore just dive into the story. And that’s very definitely not the case here, or at least it wasn’t for me.

There were a number of plot and setting points, both key to the story and part of the background, that were unexplained in this book, and that slowed down my reading. It’s hard to enjoy a novel when you have to stop, frequently, to either reread a paragraph and figure out its meaning, or else run a search to look up a term. Two quick examples:

Ashla and Bogan. Ashla is the lightside of the Force, Bogan the darkside. But the way those names and/or terms were used was confusing – until about halfway into the story, when someone mentioned a stay on Bogan. There are, it seems, two moons that orbit the planet Typhon that are also known as Ashla and Bogan.

Tho Yor. There are frequent references to the Tho Yor, who apparently brought the Force users of various species who became the Je’Daii to this system. But it’s not clear at first if the Tho Yor are a species, an organization, or a ship. A huge ‘Thank You’ to the tireless workers of Wookiepedia, which explained that the Tho Yor were nine, possibly sentient, ships that brought the Dai Bendu monks and a variety of Force sensitives to the planet Tython.

I deliberately didn’t read the comic insert midway through the book, so as to keep in flow with the novel. I’ve been told by the helpful people at my local comic stores that I really should have read the comics first, as they provide a much more detailed written and pictographic explanation of this time period that helps you get oriented before tackling the novel (and presumably the novel’s forthcoming successors).

I’ve added reading the comics to my list, but the lack of clear settings and relationships was not the biggest problem I had with Into the Void. That problem – was the Je’Daii, themselves.

Almost from the start, I couldn’t seem to like Lanoree, the ‘heroine’. She’s the Je’Daii Ranger trying to stop the destruction of the system by her brother, who ‘failed out’ of Je’Daii training and faked his own death to run off and search for a way to escape from the system and push out into the wider Universe.

After reading the book a second time, I decided that I really, really didn’t like any of the Je’Daii. They came off as cold individuals interested only in their narrow viewpoint of life. While they ostensibly protect the harmony of the Tython system, and are supposed to mediate disputes and stop criminal activities, the Je’Daii seem to be remarkably inconsistent and ineffective at these goals. Crime is rampant. The Je’Daii stop certain events, like the development of weapons, only to then engage the very people they’ve stopped to make weapons for the Je’Daii. There are planets and places mentioned where even the Je’Dai do not dare to go. And lastly, there’s the Je’Daii ‘exploration’ of the Force.

The Masters and Rangers did things that can be seen as morally questionable — highly morally questionable. A number of them are involved in something called the ‘Alchemy of the Flesh’, including Lanoree, who’s grown a brainless (she hopes) fleshly object from her own cells as an experiment on her ship. And there was the whole matter of the balance between the Light (Ashla) and the Dark (Bogan) side of the Force. The characters are supposed to remain balanced between these two extremes. Yet, I kept feeling as if the Je’Daii were a lot farther into the Darkside of the Force than they realized. Certainly Lanoree experienced a number of instances where she seemed to be ‘tempted’ – and while she remained convinced she had not Fallen, I can’t help but wonder whether she, and her Masters, are merely deluding themselves.

In the course of pursuing her brother, Lanoree kills people, a lot of people, without much concern about her actions or her motivations. Someone presents an obstacle to her search, she talks to them only long enough to get herself into a strategic position, then pulls her sword and beheads that person. She literally is involved in the destruction of an entire city – and while that action was planned by her brother, she does nothing to assist the people of the dying city, choosing instead to run past them and continue her pursuit of her brother. Perhaps there was nothing she could have done – but in contrasting the events in this book with later novels, I think the Jedi Knights of later times would have at least tried to mitigate the chaos and death caused by their actions.

Had I read the comics beforehand, I might have enjoyed Into the Void more. I’m told that the characters of the comics are closer to the Star Wars Jedi we’ve come to know from the movies and earlier books. After I get through a few more of the novels, I plan to go back and read the comics, then reread Into the Void, and see if my opinions have changed.

In the end, as I said, it’s not a bad book, but it’s definitely not one that I would reread for fun or list as a personal Star Wars favorite.

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Go and see Joss Whedon’s Much Ado About Nothing

If you have the opportunity, go and see Joss Whedon’s Much Ado About Nothing.

We caught one of the last showings tonight at the Bryn Mawr Film Institute, and it was well worth it. As usual, Joss stocked his cast with some of his regular actors — familiar faces from Buffy, Angel, Firefly, Cabin in the Woods, The Avengers . . . the list goes on.

The play this time has a modern setting, but except for a few antiquated phrases, the actors treatment of the lines as just everyday dialogue works. And those few phrases that stick out — well, they provoked amusement when juxtaposed with the visual of those scenes. It’s black and white, which actually I liked, as it seemed to lend a greater depth to the whole movie.

It was lovely to see Amy Acker and Alexis Denisoff (my favorite doomed pairing from Angel) as Beatrice and Benedict (you have to see their pratfall stuntwork). Clark Gregg was hilarious as Leonato (especially the scene where his daughter’s getting engaged). Reed Diamond (I loved him in Homicide) is a wonderful Don Pedro, slipping from a playful levity when planning Benedict’s ensnarement into marriage into a grave seriousness at certain scenes when the play descends into Hero’s disparagement and apparent death). And speaking of Hero, I truly enjoyed Jillian Morgese’s Hero, who exhibited more spine at the play’s end than in many other productions.

Altogether a lovely film, the whole audience really responded — and it was great to see half the audience was probably college age or slightly above, as Shakespeare needs to be rediscovered by that generation. A quick review, sorry, but I’ve got work early tomorrow. Go and see it when it comes to your area!

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I, Claudia — digitized!

I’m doing a happy dance here, because, finally, finally, the first of the Claudia Seferius mysteries is available as an e-book. Now they just have to digitize the rest of the series!

Have you read any of Marilyn Todd‘s Claudia mysteries? If not, run to your computer, download the first book — I, Claudia — and prepare for a great read.

The novels are set in the Rome of Augustus, and the plots center around Claudia, the noble wife of wine merchant Gaius Seferius. The secondary lead is usually Marcus Orbilio, a patrician who has chosen to work as an investigator for the Imperial Security Police, on his way to a Senate seat and to falling for Claudia. Doesn’t sound exciting? Oh, read on.

Spoilers ahead for the major storyline of I, Claudia so read no further if you don’t want your enjoyment of the first book to be spoiled:

Our heroine, Claudia Seferius, is, on the surface, a proper Roman matron. Prior to the novel, she lost her first husband, a judge, and her three children to a plague which also sickened her. When she recovered, she traveled to Rome in an attempt to escape her grief, and now is married to Gaius Seferius, a rich wine merchant in the equestrian class — what we would probably call the upper middle class.

She is quite a bit younger than Gaius; it’s a second marriage for him as well. However, Claudia is doing her best to live up to her marital and social obligations. She plans parties and entertainments to further her husband’s business. She steps into her role as stepmother to Gaius’ nervous daughter and prepares her for an upcoming arranged marriage. Okay, so she does some of these things very, very grudgingly, and maybe she has a little gambling problem but really, her life as a rich noble matron of Rome should be good.

Except she’s not a noblewoman. Claudia came from so far on the wrong side of the Roman road that you can’t even see it from the top of the Coliseum — unless you’re a Roman man who’s interested in the naughtier side of life. You see, the original Claudia died of the same plague that killed the rest of her family. Our Claudia, who started her professional life as a ‘dancer’ in the provinces, took the identity of the dying Claudia and came to Rome to make her fortune.

Claudia is determined to end up with a son in the Senate. It just takes one million sesterces. Which would possibly be achievable – if she didn’t have that little gambling problem.

Who am I kidding — it would be more accurate to say that Claudia has a major, life-ravaging gambling problem. If there’s something to bet on, she’s betting on it. And in Rome, there’s always something going on which involves a betting pool. Normal Romans track the year by major religious holidays. Claudia tracks the year by the games, races and entertainments associated with those holidays and the other celebrations of Rome’s upper-crust.

As the book starts, Claudia has ended up in debt to a thoroughly unpleasant moneylender, and to recover, she’s slipped back into her earlier profession – you could call her an upper-level prostitute-dominatrix who specializes in indulging the peccadillos of Rome’s elite. It’s a fine line balancing between her gambling losses and her naughty income stream – and then someone begins killing off seemingly unconnected upper-class Romans. Only Claudia sees the connection – all of the victims are her customers.

Enter Marcus Orbilio, who’s been assigned to track down the killer. Marcus is a shrewd person – and he quickly determines that these men are connected in some way with Claudia. (The fact that she travels in a litter with a very distinctive orange canopy doesn’t help to hide her whereabouts.)

Needless to say, Claudia solves the murders, with Marcus hard on her heels. But there’s more to solving the murders than just protecting her new identity. And that’s where Claudia really begins to develop into a person you can root for – the moment she discovers she has, all gods help her, developed a conscience.

On first acquaintance, Claudia strikes you as an abrasive, self-absorbed character interested only in her own future, someone who can’t really be bothered with other people’s problems. She’s sarcastic, impatient, and tends to verbally abuse and threaten when she’s unhappy or feels in danger. And let’s face it, she’s probably committed every crime in the book and then some during her life. Claudia, shall we say, does not hesitate to take any actions necessary to protect herself and further her goals.

But while she is all of that, mixed in is the fact that, while she might not want to admit it, Claudia does care about other people. And she will protect and avenge those people that belong to her, or that she identifies with in some way – and preferably in a way that furthers her goals.

For example, in this first book, Gaius ends up dead. Allegedly, he committed suicide because he was the one murdering men who were infatuated with or interested in his wife. In reality, he was murdered for an reason unrelated to the serial murders (not going to give you more than that!). Humiliatingly, while she plans a magnificent funeral for him, no one attends, by order of the Senate. So Claudia digs into his death, and makes certain that her husband’s killer is satisfactorily dealt with by Claudia herself. And then, she solves the series of murders in such a way to both remove Orbilio from her surroundings (she thinks!) and clear her husband (and herself).

In later books, Claudia travels widely throughout the Roman world. She escorts a Vestal Virgin home after her thirty-year term of service, vacations at an exclusive resort that experiences some unfortunate circumstances, and visits/is lured to Gaul and other provinces while running her wine business. In each book, she extracts a rough form of justice for crimes against her and her ‘people’. I sometimes found myself rooting for her form of judgment, especially in circumstances where Roman justice bowed to those in a position of power and money and ignored those who were poor and unimportant.

The books are incredibly detailed – from the furnishings of the houses to the clothes worn by different strata of society to the everyday life in Augustinian Rome. You really can form a picture in your mind of what the settings were like, and how it would feel to wend your way through the crowded noisy streets filled with all kinds of people and activities. The characters in each book are never cookie-cutter, always interesting, and frequently contain multiple hidden layers underneath the polite veneer they exhibit to society.

There are a few drawbacks – for example, sometimes the language includes what seems to be more modern slang, and on occasion, unless you’re paying attention, the minor characters in some of the books can become confusing, especially when their names are similar or only mentioned once or twice. However, Todd does get past this by having Claudia, or another character, reference them along with some identifying detail, and then they snap back into focus.

Overall, though, I absolutely loved this series – I read books 1-5 (the list is below) when I found them at a now-defunct mystery-specialty bookstore in Bryn Mawr. And I was able to find the latter four books in my local library. I’ve yet to read the middle books, because, unfortunately, the books themselves tend to sell for high prices, depending on the websites.

I really don’t understand why Steven Saylor’s Roman novels were such a hit, and Claudia didn’t catch on. I would say it’s the heroine, but frankly I find Saylor’s main character much more annoying and unlikeable. Marilyn Todd has a second series of books now, the Ilona mysteries, dealing with a priestess in a temple in Greece. Unfortunately, they just don’t hold the charm for me that Claudia does.

Ah well, each to his or her own tastes.

As I said, read these books. I’ve already downloaded I, Claudia, and I’m now going to visit Amazon and harangue the publisher to please, please, please digitize the rest of the series.

Meanwhile, I’m hoping to find the books, somewhere, at a reasonable price (early books were paperback only, later books hardback only). This is a series I’ll want in both digital and paper format.

The Claudia Seferius Mysteries

I, Claudia
Virgin Territory
Man Eater
Jail Bait
Black Salamander
Wolf Whistle
Dream Boat
Dark Horse
Second Act
Widow’s Pique
Stone Cold
Sour Grapes
Scorpion Rising

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Why I shop online . . .

Contrary to the opinions of Mainstreet and the media, I do not shop online to avoid paying a sales tax on my purchases.

Congress, as you may or may not know, is considering a bill that would require online websites over a certain dollar volume of sales to collect sales taxes from their customers. The bill passed in the Senate; the House may or may not take up the matter later this year.

The media largely seem to refer to this bill as ‘the internet sales tax’, and people discussing the matter are screaming that the government is imposing yet another new tax on them. For the record, the tax already exists; it’s called a use tax. If you buy something in another state, and bring it home, you owe your state the use tax on that item. The tax is the same rate as the sales tax; the difference is that you’re supposed to remit it to the state, rather than give it to the retailer so he can send it to the state.

Most people don’t pay the use tax — they don’t know about it, can’t figure out how to report it properly, or just decide not to pay it. Nevertheless, it’s a real tax that people owe when making a purchase out of state.

However, even if the bill passes, it won’t stop me from shopping online. For me, the ‘lack’ of a tax being imposed on my online purchases is not the main reason I shop online. It’s not even on the list of reasons why I shop online.

Selection. At the top of my list is selection — or rather, the lack of selection in regular stores. I want to purchase a new laser color printer-scanner. Over the last week, I’ve browsed through Best Buy and Target, Staples and Office Max, even stores specializing in computer equipment. Each store offered, at most, three or four models — a low-end, a middle, and a high-end (extremely expensive) model. When I search online, I come up with dozens of models, at all prices, with a variety of features. If I can get a model with the features I want, and only those I want, why would I buy something that has vastly more features than I need, or settle for a model that doesn’t allow me to do everything I want to do?

Unique products for my tastes and styles. I live just outside Philadelphia, and so I have access to numerous department and specialty stores. Yet I often can’t find the things I want in the style I like. Last summer, I was looking for a simple necklace to go with a new outfit — I wear mostly sterling silver and natural stones. I am not kidding when I tell you I visited four department stores, and five other chain stores, and saw the exact same necklaces in every store. I hopped onto Etsy — and found my necklace in five minutes. Okay, so I had to wait two days for it to be delivered — I didn’t mind, since I had something I wouldn’t see on twenty other women at the party.

Easy, unlimited returns. When I buy something online, most websites have very open-ended return policies, as opposed to the stores’ ever-more restrictive policies which limit the time to return an item and set numerous conditions on that return. If I wear a pair of shoes, and the heel breaks off after three wearings, I can send it back to the site and get a new pair of shoes. Contrast that with my last experience trying to return a defective pair of shoes to a department store — I was told to contact the manufacturer; the manufacturer told me to take the shoes back to the store. I ended up tossing them out.

Saved Time. Shopping online, once I’ve established an account with a site, saves me time. Also gas, but mostly time. Let’s use Star Wars action figures as an example. The last few years have been miserable for collectors — Hasbro’s distribution problems resulted in stores getting new figures only occasionally and randomly. You could spend the day driving from Target to Walmart to Toys ‘R Us, and the only thing you would buy would be more gas for your car. Or, you could hop online to Entertainment Earth or Brian’s Toys or any of a dozen other sites and find exactly what you wanted in just a few minutes.

Price. Price actually ranks fairly low on my list. Yes, there are lower prices on some things online. I’ve also seen higher prices online. I like Essie nail polish. I can buy it for $7.79 at Target. Online, I usually find it for a flat $8-9.00. Yet I now buy it online — because the stores only carry some of the colors, and the ones that I want are generally not in the stores. Same scenario with Star Wars toys, or certain shoe lines. You can find your item for the same price — or cheaper or more expensive — online. The price disparity all depends on the website, the item you want to buy and the availability of the item in stores in your area.

I have many other reasons for shopping online, but those are the main ones. As stores carry less and less merchandise, I end up shopping more and more online. A case in point? Barnes and Noble. I used to buy a lot of books at Barnes, as well as magazines and endless cups of coffee. However, as the years have passed, Barnes has decreased both the number and types of books they carry, branching out instead to selling toys and other items. I’ve been told that they took this step because of decreasing book sales, as a result of online purchases for Amazon’s Kindle and their own Nook.

However, for me at least, it’s led to purchasing even more at Amazon. Now, some of that is because I’m digitizing my entertainment, to clear up clutter in my home. But it’s also because I can’t find what I want at Barnes anymore. I spot a new release in the mystery section — but it’s the third book in a series. Unless the author is immensely popular, Barnes will not have the earlier books. To read them, I’m going to have to go to Amazon (I already had Kindle before the Nook came out, and so I keep buying there rather than have two different sources for my novels).

And if I have to buy books one and two online, I might as well wait and get book three there as well, defeating Barnes’ purpose in carrying less books. Instead of cutting back on their overhead by stocking fewer books, it’s cost them a sale.

Nevertheless, the Mainstreet retailers are pushing for passage of the ‘internet sales tax’ bill, because they see it as ‘leveling the playing field’ between stores and websites. If I’ve understood their statements to Congress and the media, the stores believe this bill will result in people returning to shop in stores, as opposed to online, because they’ll have to pay the sales tax wherever they buy something, and therefore they might as well shop in a local store.

However, if and when the bill passes, I’ll still be shopping online for many things. For all the reasons I listed above, I often have an overall better shopping experience online than in a store.

And that is not good news for Mainstreet.

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Is Hawkeye in Avengers 2?!?

From an article on the BBC app announcing that Robert Downey Jr. will return for Avengers 2 and 3:

Downey, 48, was one of the main stars of 2012’s Avengers Assemble, which united superhero characters Iron Man, The Hulk, Captain America, Thor and the Black Widow, as played by Mark Ruffalo, Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth and Scarlett Johansson respectively.

All four of the stars are expected to join Downey Jr in the forthcoming films.

A statement on the Marvel website said Avengers 2 will feature “favourites from the first Avengers film and new Marvel characters never before seen on the big screen.”

Okay. First, there were SIX superheroes in Avengers — and Hawkeye, played by Jeremy Renner, was the sixth. Suddenly, no mention of him — which is either sloppy journalism or a reason for me to become very annoyed and/or concerned.

Because, second, I’m a Hawkeye fan since forever, and if they add in some new characters and leave him out — well, I’m going to be extremely annoyed, maybe even to the point of NOT seeing the film. Or seeing it only once, on the regular screen, instead of the marathon IMAX, 3D, multiple viewings. And under my new rules of life — possibly not even buying merchandise from the film. Because seriously, life is too short to waste on things that annoy me.

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Real Life — Online

I either have accounts at too many websites — or I need to accept that my real life is online.

While passing through a hotel lobby this week, I caught the tail-end of a discussion between a couple over their online activities. Basically, the guy was informing the girl that she spent more time on Facebook and Twitter than talking to him.

Which made me think about my online activities — and the more I thought, the more — surprised — I became.

I am registered, have accounts and/or am participating on a lot of websites. Within twenty minutes, I’d listed: WordPress, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Livejournal, LinkedIn, Marvel, Deviantarts, Fanfiction.net, Archive of our own, Rebelscum, Pinterest, Netflix, Hulu, HBOgo, Nanowrimo, CNET, 2 library websites, 3 knitting sites, a number of Yahoo groups, and at least five more Star Wars sites, not to mention all the shopping sites like Amazon and Etsy and eBay and specialty stores. Plus I have various emails used for work, professional relationships, shopping and/or entertainment.

In short, I’m listed in a lot of places, but the real question, I soon realized, was whether I spent any time on them. And the answer, for some, was very little.

I rarely update my Facebook. I created an account there when I first went to a Marillion Weekend, so that I could keep track of fellow fans, but while I try to read their updates, I scarcely have any of my own to include.

I don’t think I’ve ever posted anything on Pinterest or Deviantarts. I post the same things (like fan fiction) on the same fic sites, but at different times and as I can get to the posting. The more I thought about all these accounts, the more I realized that, if I’m spending all that time keeping up with them, how can I have any time to get my physical life back in order and on track?

In other words, what value does my participation on these sites add to my life? And from there, it was a short step to the realization that maybe, just maybe, I didn’t need to be on all these sites.

At the very least, I could streamline my access and participation and perhaps free up some time to live more in the real world. I can cross-post my entries onto various blogs, simultaneously post my fics at all sites. Cut out the sites I don’t really visit anymore — like Yahoo groups that have degenerated into namecalling or are all but moribund but for the postings from spammers.

By doing that, I can focus my attention on the places that really add value to my life. WordPress, from which I can cross-post to Livejournal. AO3 for my fics. Tumblr and Twitter (I really need to tweet more.). I just need to plan it out and make some decisions.

It’s something I’ll be doing this weekend, as I pull apart my laptop and do some upgrades. I also realized, while streaming a movie in the hotel room, that I desperately need a bigger hard drive. Fortunately drives are both inexpensive to buy and idiot-proof to install. Once I do that, I can redo the layout here and on my Tumblr, and be better organized.

I hope. Assuming the upgrades go smoothly.

Now, being exhausted from trip one and needing to be ready for trip two tomorrow, I’m toddling off to bed . . .

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Must Read: Ex-Heroes by Peter Clines

If you love superheroes, and zombies, and end-of-the-world survival scenarios, you must read Ex-Heroes by Peter Clines. Even if you don’t love those things, you must read this book.

I took a brief detour from reading my way through Star Wars (I’m through Into the Void and Lost Tribe of the Sith and Revan, which I’ll review shortly). The sun had finally come out, after all the rain and gloomy skies of Thursday and Friday, and I planned to drop myself onto a blanket in one of Valley Forge Park’s grassy meadows and read something quick and light while relaxing before a busy week of work. So I browsed through the library shelves and spotted Ex-Heroes, by Peter Clines. The blurb on the back said the novel featured super-heroes fighting zombies. I figured it would be a fast-reading, but ultimately forgettable, book.

And it is — fast-reading, that is. Forgettable, it is not.

I assumed the book would follow the standard comics plot: Danger appears. Superheroes answer the call. Superheroes save the day, stopping the danger and preventing the collapse of civilization. Life returns to normal.

I was so wrong in my assumptions.

IF YOU HAVEN’T READ IT YET — SPOILERS AHEAD ——>

A virus begins spreading in Los Angeles, the location for the story. The virus turns dead people into zombies — or exes, for ex-humans. Naturally, the superheroes respond, but slowly –a number of them are only a year or so into their powers and they don’t know each other really well. Before they can even mount an effective defense — the plague overwhelms the City. And the world. Our heroes aren’t concerned with that, though; they’re just trying to save the City of Los Angeles.

Surprise Number 1: These superheroes do not save the people or the City of Los Angeles.

Surprise Number 2: Some of them can’t even save themselves.

Yes, that’s right. Some of the heroes fall victim to the virus and become zombies themselves. Superpowered zombies.

The best these heroes can manage is to hold back the inevitable and preserve one tiny little corner of the City with a few hundred/thousand survivors.

And that’s what makes the novel so interesting.

You see, one of the things I love about so many of the comics superheroes is that they’re flawed. Yes, they have powers. Specialized equipment. Secret identities and hideouts and really cool vehicles from which to fight criminals and supervillains.

But underneath it all, they’re still human (well, the ones who aren’t extraterrestrial beings or deitites, that is). They have flaws. They experience fear, feel inadequate, lack confidence. They make mistakes, and they don’t always do the right thing even when they know what the right thing is. Despite those failings, they get back up — or are helped back up — and return to try again, and again, until they fix their mistakes.

And that’s what this book got right. We get into the heads of the heroes and find out how they become powered and more importantly, why they started into the superhero gig. And those insights feed into the events of the main storyline and how the characters react to a bigger threat than either zombies or supervillains.

I sped through this book at light speed, finished it, then went back and reread it. Because I was surprised how good it was, and how much I enjoyed it. Let’s face it — based on the plot outline, this book could have been so bad. So very, very bad. It could have pandered to the whole zombie apocalypse stereotype and filled the pages with gore and death and little to no character development or plot beyond ‘shoot the dead guy in the head.’ Instead, I read a book with believable people who happened to have superpowers. People who screwed up and yet continued trying to do what they could to help others. In the end, they manage to save their little corner of surviving civilization, but at a high cost.

The book isn’t perfect — for one thing, you jump back and forth between the past and present, and different characters’ viewpoints, but if you keep your attention focused, that’s a small problem that can be handled.

How much did I like this book? Enough to drive to Barnes and Noble on my way home and buy both it and its sequel, Ex-Patriots. There’s a third book coming out in July.

I’ve already pre-ordered.

Go and buy these books. You won’t regret it.

And now, I’ll return to Star Wars.

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I found bunnies!

Wasn’t it just a few weeks ago that I was mourning the lack of rabbits in my area? These last few days, I’ve seen them everywhere.

I walked out of my apartment building early Tuesday morning, and spotted two palm-sized, fuzzy baby bunnies wandering the lawn by the stream. Wednesday, I flushed three more tiny rabbits from the garden at work. Thursday evening, after the storms ended, I drove past another couple of small brown bunnies hopping through a grassy field. And then, while walking in the park later that evening, I saw at least half-a-dozen rabbits running in and out of the tall grasses lining the paths.

And the important thing about all these sightings is that all of these rabbits were small. They ranged from the baby variety measuring maybe four-to-six inches long to the juvenile eight-to-ten inch size. None of them, though, appeared to be adults.

Logically, of course, there have to be adults around. I mean, where else would baby bunnies come from? But the adults — are in hiding.

Maybe they’ve become ultra-paranoid about being hunted, given the jump in the number of hawks and foxes around, and are wisely keeping out of sight of the predators. Or perhaps their little brains (and the brain of a rabbit is very tiny, according to my friends who have pet bunnies) have finally assimilated the fact that in rabbit versus car competitions, the car always wins, and so the adult rabbits now avoid the roadways.

Whatever the reason, I’m not seeing any adult rabbits, but I now have pretty concrete evidence that they’re still in the area. I hope that the plethora of babies I’m seeing means that the population is beginning to grow again. Rabbits are such an integral part of my concept of a healthy world; not seeing them had me worried that our local forests were going to be devoid of animals. Not that that would occur — we’ve got enough white-tailed deer here to stock a good-sized farm — but no matter how graceful they are, deer just can’t replace bunnies in my heart.

And of course, the bunnies are just So. Darned. Cute!

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I have too much furniture

Green spring cleaning has revealed something very important, from a redecorating perspective: I have way too much furniture for this apartment.

My home has a grand total of 750 square feet, spread through a large living room, narrow dining nook, small kitchen and bathroom, decent-sized bedroom and a lot of closets. As I’ve cleaned out the closets and drawers, and sorted out books, knick-knacks and storage containers, I’ve uncovered the basic decor of my apartment, the furniture on which I would base my redecorating scheme.

And there’s a lot of furniture.

Just in the living room, there’s enough furniture to line every wall. A giant entertainment armoire and two matching bookcases. A sofa, side chair and large sofa table. Another two bookcases. A side table, desk and chair, sewing machine cabinet, entry table, two giant stereo speakers and floor lamps. Add in the full-size, round table and chairs in the dining nook, and you face a forest of wood.

Things aren’t much better in the bedroom. Canopy bed and two end-tables, bureau, dresser, cedar chest, bookcase and a large armoire. Lots of pieces in which to store clothing.

As if I didn’t have a nice-sized closet in the bedroom.

the thing is, much of this furniture doesn’t belong to me. There are pieces that belonged to various relatives and family friends, and ended up with me because other relatives didn’t have room in their full-sized homes for them but didn’t want to let them go out of the family.

Like the table and chairs, which were meant to replace the old dining set in my Dad’s kitchen. I was supposed to have them until he redid the kitchen. Years and years on, the kitchen still hasn’t been redone, the old furniture is now breaking, and yet the good table and chairs are sitting in my apartment. They’re much too large for the dining nook, which is only 40 inches deep, but every time I mention giving them back to Dad, no one wants to take the time to move them back to his house.

Same situation with the sewing machine cabinet, bedroom armoire, desk and chair, which all came from my grandparents’ home. These pieces were given to me to hold until room was made for them at someone else’s house. But, no one ever seems to want to take them back, and so they’re still sitting in my place.

I will admit that I did need the armoire at an earlier apartment, which had huge rooms but tiny closets. However, I’ve been in this apartment for years, don’t use the armoire for anything, and still, every time I mention that they can take back the armoire, I get an excuse — can’t do it right now, don’t have a truck to move it. The same excuse extends to the desk and chair, the sewing cabinet, and so on.

The truth is, sentimentally, none of us, including me, want to let go of the memories that are attached to these items. The armoire held discarded clothing, jewelry and accessories, and on weekends, we children would dress-up and play fantastic games. The desk and chair were where, every Sunday, my grandfather would sit and do his Lodge work while his grandchildren watched TV and waited for him to finish so he would tell us stories. My grandmother used the sewing machine to help my mother make clothes and costumes for us.

I’m as guilty as everyone else — I love these memories. But the reality is, I don’t, and never did, have room for these pieces. Someone needs to take them, someone with a larger house and better storage facilities.

I just need to get them to understand that fact. And possibly, rent a U-Haul and physically move the furniture for them.

Only then will I be able to redecorate properly, as I’ve been meaning to do for the last three years.

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The app doesn’t love me anymore . . .

Apparently, the WordPress app for my smartphone doesn’t love me anymore.

I’ve been using it to post for the last week, but there seems to have been some sort of disconnect. I wrote out entries, hit post and — it looked like it went through, but in reality, it was an epic fail. Which I didn’t know until I checked WordPress on my laptop.

For whatever reason, the app won’t seem to send the correct password to upload an entry. Now, I could fix this in one of two ways:

1) obsess for a week over what’s going wrong, trying various fixes; or

2) reload the app.

Guess which one I’m going with?

Meanwhile I’m just going to repost the last few entries. In one big batch.