The Weekend of the Doctor

On November 27, 2013November 25, 2013 By cherylmahoneyIn Reviews, Science Fiction3 Comments

If you’ve been paying attention to geek news (or went on Google last weekend), you may have noticed just a bit of Doctor Who buzz… Saturday marked the 50th anniversary, with a thoroughly hyped special that’s been promised for months. Happily, I thought it lived entirely up to all the anticipation!

I went with some friends to see the special at a showing at a local pub. The place was packed with Who shirts and costumes, and there was a photo opp with a life-size TARDIS. Near as I can tell, this is the closest thing to the geek Superbowl. 🙂

The special, The Day of the Doctor, proved to be epic, hilarious, heartrending and, my very favorite thing in geek franchises, from beginning to end a love letter to the fans. It’s all well and good to create something for “the general audience”…but we all know the fans really want something with in-jokes and past references galore!

The story centers around a meeting of Three Doctors (ish–maybe). We’ve known since the beginning of New Who that there had been a huge Time War between the Time Lords and the Daleks, which ended when the Doctor destroyed both races. This special features the War Doctor, a previously-unknown Regeneration (John Hurt), who made the fatal decision. The War Doctor goes through time and space to meet the 10th Doctor (David Tennant) and the 11th Doctor (Matt Smith) to fight alien shape-shifters and make a truly universe-changing decision.

The plot is far more epic (and surprisingly coherent) than I’m making it sound! It was epic and immense both on the level of threats to billions, and on the personal level of what effect one enormous decision has on the man who makes it, and then carries it through multiple centuries and lives.

But in between all the epicness and the heart-rending and the guilt, there is so much that is so fun! I loved the Doctors bouncing off of each other, making snarky observations about one another that fans have been making for years. And so many in-jokes, from the 4th Doctor’s scarf to the 11th Doctor’s fez to the 10th’s Doctor’s mysterious history with Elizabeth I (and his propensity for kissing). And there was possibly my single favorite line, about reversing the reversing of the polarity–“we’re confusing the polarity!”

If you’re thinking you might like to jump into Doctor Who, this is not the place to jump, full as it is of earlier references. But if that paragraph above all made perfect sense to you, do not miss this special. It’s going on my list of top 5 favorite episodes–and that is saying quite a lot!

Blog Wander: Little Lion Lynnet’s

On November 26, 2013November 13, 2013 By cherylmahoneyIn Novel News1 Comment

Continuing my blog wander, today I have a very special event! By wild coincidence, my friend Lynn also published her first book this month, Feather by Feather and Other Stories. Today we’re doing an interview swap to share about both our books. Read on for Lynn’s thoughts about writing and publishing, and wander over to her blog for my answers to the same questions.

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Lynn E. O’Connacht is a writer by twilight and, occasionally, sunlight and moonlight. At all times she is a cisgendered white woman. She holds an MA in English literature with a focus on creative writing and fantasy literature. She has geographically confused spelling despite her education’s best efforts to fix this and has been writing stories for as long as she has been able to write. She used to type her works on an old-fashioned typewriter using red ink, but alas both the equipment and the stories have since been lost to time.

Lynn blogs at Little Lion Lynnet’s and can be found on GoodReads, Twitter and LibraryThing.

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Tell me a little about your book.

Feather by Feather and Other Stories is, as the title suggests, a collection of short stories and poetry. It’s a bit of a mixed bag. There are some pieces of realistic fiction, but it’s predominantly fantasy. Which isn’t much of an answer, I know. It’s pretty hard to respond to a question like this concisely when you’re dealing with a collection, I’m afraid. There’s such a large range to cover… Which story do you want to know about? It has biscuit-baking demons, QUILTBAG protagonists, utterly alien stories with nary a human in sight, a bunch of fairytale retellings, poetry, a one-legged dog, witches, bobble hats, sentient steam engines, fairies… Actually a lot of fairies. I blame the fairytales. Apart from space ships and the kitchen sink, it might have everything. (Warning: it may not actually have everything.) Continue reading “Blog Wander: Little Lion Lynnet’s” →

When We First Met

On November 25, 2013November 23, 2013 By cherylmahoneyIn Reviews1 Comment

When We First Met by Norma Fox Mazer is a really lovely YA romance. It’s all the more remarkable for having two aspects I normally don’t like (love at first sight, and teenage romances that take themselves very seriously) and yet in this particular case it really does work.

Jenny and Rob feel an immediate connection the moment they see each other at a school assembly, a connection that continues in their first conversation–at least until Jenny learns Rob’s last name, and realizes that his mother was the drunk driver who two years ago killed Jenny’s older sister. Unable to stop herself from continuing to see Rob, Jenny soon finds herself torn between her love for him, and her love for her family.

This is, essentially, a very cleverly-done modern-day Romeo and Juliet. (In case you don’t catch it yourself, one of the characters makes a comparison–plus Rob’s last name is Montana.) There aren’t many modern-day feuds, so the particular family history of the car accident is an excellent way to modernize that element.

Both mothers become a powerful part of the book as we see how the accident devastated both of them. Mrs. Pennoyer, Jenny’s mother, is convinced that Rob’s mother is soulless and evil, but when we meet Mrs. Montana, we see her as deeply human and deeply affected by what happened. Both women have elements of a villain in them–Mrs. Montana’s action, Mrs. Pennoyer’s refusal to forgive–but Mazer’s exploration of both women’s pain makes them both…”sympathetic” may be strong, but there’s a lot of understanding there.

Jenny and Rob have their own complexities, trying to deal with the history between their families, and the present effects of their relationship on their two families. Jenny has some powerful insights on what it means to have lost her older sister, and in her continuing relationship with the rest of their family.

I think the “love at first sight” element of the book works for me because it’s really more connection at first sight, and we still get to watch Rob and Jenny fall in love as they learn more about each other. Mazer shows their bond, their relationship, and their feelings so well that I believe in the intensity of the relationship–and it does help that they’re eighteen, not fourteen (like Juliet).

Jenny’s process of trying to balance her own needs and dreams, and her loyalty to her family, is a really beautiful theme of the book. In a way it’s a coming of age story, though I feel like it’s an angle I haven’t seen. The book is about a romantic relationship, but I think it’s just as much about Jenny’s realization of herself as an individual, while part of a family.

The funny thing is, I’m not much of a fan of Romeo and Juliet (always preferred Hamlet) but this retelling is excellent. No swordplay–instead, lots of emotional depth and powerful themes. Recommended!

Other reviews:
I’ve got nothing! Literally, I’ve never seen so few results when I Googled a book title. Strange…

Buy it here: When We First Met

Blog Wander: The Bookwyrm’s Hoard

On November 22, 2013November 22, 2013 By cherylmahoneyIn Novel NewsLeave a comment

Today we’re wandering over to The Bookwyrm’s Hoard, to continue celebrating the release of my novel, The Wanderers. I love that blog title–wyrm, of course, is another word for dragon, so my fantasy novel is right at home on a blog with that name!

The Bookwyrm’s Hoard is run by Lark, who describes herself as “a voracious reader; I also love thinking and writing about books, especially mysteries, fantasy, children’s and YA books, and ebooks and publishing. In my other life, I’m a singer and director, an indexer, and a knitter — the order changes from day to day.”

In keeping with the Wyrm theme, today Lark is sharing an excerpt from The Wanderers which features a fight with a very large, fire-breathing, non-book-appreciating dragon. You won’t want to miss it–or the giveaway opportunity either!

Murder by Phone

On November 20, 2013November 20, 2013 By cherylmahoneyIn Reviews4 Comments

I’ve been watching a few more Hitchcock movies that I didn’t get to during Readers Imbibing Peril–most recently, Dial M for Murder (1954), a suspense puzzle about pulling off the perfect murder.

Grace Kelly plays Margot, whose husband Tony (Ray Milland) has discovered her affair with crime writer Mark Halliday (Robert Cummings). Margot has decided to stay with her husband and believes her affair is still a secret–but Tony has decided to murder his wife and believes he has the perfect plan to pull it off.

This is another excellent Hitchcock movie where the suspense is all in the subtle details, and in knowing the chilling significance behind apparently harmless conversations. The attempted murder is a more dramatic action sequence, but the rest of the movie is mostly people talking to each other. Originally a play, Dial M for Murder takes place almost entirely in one apartment–only I never really noticed that until the documentary extra feature pointed it out. The tension and the engagement are so good that the movie never feels close or confined.

Grace Kelly plays the (not entirely innocent) victim, but the point of view of the movie is mostly her husband, Tony. We get out of his view at the beginning and the end, but for most of the film we’re going through the story with him. It’s an interesting angle to follow the story of a murder from the murderer’s perspective, especially as he’s a particularly suave and intelligent murderer. He rarely betrays tension or worry, and seems to be totally in control of the situation at nearly every moment.

The movie plays out like a puzzle, with Tony first laying out exactly how he plans to arrange the murder–then watching to see whether it works–and how Tony devises new solutions when parts of the plan go awry. He’s so clever and so in command that it’s hard to imagine how he could eventually be caught… The conclusion is ingenious, if a bit far-fetched–but I’m willing to go along with it!

Other reviews:
Folding Seats
Flickering Myth
Canadian Cinephile
Anyone else?

Buy it here: Dial M for Murder