It didn’t take me long to pick up the second book in Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files series, “Fool Moon.” I already wrote about the origins of the pulp-style in my review of “Storm Front” (read the review here).
You can expect more of the same fun from “Fool Moon.” Jim Butcher has obviously woven a tighter story and his craft as a writer has improved. He seems to embark on this novel with a little bit more confidence, knowing the direction he wanted it to go and alluding to more of an over-arcing background plot. Along with expanding on a growing cast of interesting characters, he deepens the mythology and meshes it in with the dark urban setting he built up in the first book.
Our hero Harry Dresden, Chicago’s only practicing wizard—using his powers for private investigation—is low on clients. But things aren’t boring for long when the police department’s Special Investigations calls him in for consulting on a brutal murder. All tracks lead to werewolves, and soon he’s embroiled in a trouble. Butcher raises the stakes pretty high in this book, putting Dresden through hell to get to the truth. He’s on the run from the police, a group of blood-hungry FBI agents, tangled in with the mafia—again—, and pissed off more than one gang of werewolves. Don’t expect Dresden to get out easy. True to the first book (as well as the works of Chandler, Hammet and others), Dresden is in pain every torturous step of the way.
It takes very little time for the plot to explode into a wild ride of action that doesn’t let up until the end. Probably the best part of the book involves a loup-garou (a near invincible bad-ass werewolf) loose in the police department. The setting is apt and the battle is intense, spanning several chapters. And the body count keeps piling up.
Dresden’s relationship with Susan Rodreiquez (reporter for a tabloid paper ‘The Arcane’) is also strengthened in this book. Their relationship is believeable, and it’s a perfect build-up for what happens in the next book “Grave Peril.” There’s not much else to say; it’s wildly entertaining.
During the recent Writer’s strike, Joss Whedon (of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Angel, and Firefly fame) wrote and produced this new project: Doctor Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog. During this strike, Whedon was among other writers to try to form “partnerships for outside funding to create new work that circumvented the… system.” In Whedon’s own words:
Frustrated with the lack of movement on that front, I finally decided to do something very ambitious, very exciting, very mid-life-crisisy. Aided only by everyone I had worked with, was related to or had ever met, I single-handedly created this unique little epic. A supervillain musical, of which, as we all know, there are far too few.
The idea was to make it on the fly, on the cheap – but to make it. To turn out a really thrilling, professionalish piece of entertainment specifically for the internet. To show how much could be done with very little. To show the world there is another way. To give the public (and in particular you guys) something for all your support and patience. And to make a lot of silly jokes. (see Whedonesque.com for Joss Whedon’s full post)
It stars Neil Patrick Harris as Dr. Horrible and Nathan Fillion as Captain Hammer. Whedon explains:
It’s the story of a low-rent super-villain, the hero who keeps beating him up, and the cute girl from the laundromat he’s too shy to talk to.
Can it get any cooler than this? It will be divided into three acts, and will first be made available on the internet for free.
Act One - Tuesday July 15th
Act Two - Thursday July 17th
Act Three - Saturday July 17th
They’ll be available until midnight Sunday July 20th, at which point other options for distribution will be made available. Spread the word. And here’s a trailer:
Doctor Who last week concluded the two-parter episode (Silence in the Library, and Forest of the Dead). This episode had a lot of hype to build it up because it was written by Steven Moffat. He’s credited with some of the best Doctor Who episodes—The Empty Child, The Girl in the Fireplace, and also Blink, which is far and away the best episode of series 3.
As far as this episode goes… I was just happy Martha was gone from her 3 episode arc hanging out with the Doctor. I was really hoping she would be cooler than she was in the third series, but true to her character, she did the only two predictable things we’ve come to expect: 1) get kidnapped within the first five minutes, and 2) require someone to sacrifice their life so she can live. I know a lot of people like her, but for some reason her character doesn’t vibe with me. She’s gone for now, but I wouldn’t be surprised if she manages to ruin the series finale.
But anyway, did Silence in the Library live up to the hype? I think it was a great episode, but certainly not my favorite of Steven Moffat’s. If there is one thing he’s good at, though, is utilizing ideas of time paradoxes. He takes advantage of this more than any one else on that show, weaving it into the story to create unique and interesting stories. Most Doctor Who episodes revolve around the Doctor and his companion(s) arriving at a specific point in time and carrying out all the action at that moment. It works great, because there’s always something and somewhere new in every episode. Moffat, more often than not, utilizes time travel to put certain twists in the show.
In The Girl in the Fireplace, The Doctor, Rose and Mickey arrive on a ship thousands of years in the future. It is derelict, with the only inhabitants being clock-work robots who are trying to repair the ship. The robots have created different time portals around the ship. These time portals allow the person on the ship to look back on the past, and even travel through those portals into that past. And they all revolve around the life of Madame de Pampadour—famous mistress of Louis IV. Each mirror/time portal looks on certain moments in her life, from childhood to adulthood, and the robots are waiting and watching for the right moment, when she’s mature enough so they can snatch her up for their “sinister” plans. The Doctor travels back and forth through those portals, protecting her from the robots and getting romantically involved with her. Madame de Pampadour had to live her life the slow route, waiting intermittent years between visits from the Doctor, while all the action that was related to her was taking place millions and millions of light years away and thousands of years in the future, while time passes for the Doctor and his friends mere minutes.
Blink dealt with an alien species—the Weeping Angels—that kill their enemies by sending them to another time period and letting them die the slow way of old age. The Doctor and Martha take a background role in this episode, and are victims of the Weeping Angels. Being separated from the TARDIS, they have to use means to communicate messages to Sally Sparrow, this episode’s main character, and the only one that can get the TARDIS back to the Doctor. One of the most interesting ways he communicates are through a series of DVD easter eggs, hidden content that, when pieced together, forms one side of the Doctor having a conversation. Sally figures out that she’s the other part of the conversation. When she talks to the Doctor through this footage, she has just enough information to ask him the right questions so the conversation matches up. Here’s a clip:
Silence in the Library deals with another aspect of time paradox, which is pretty interesting as well. When the Doctor and Donna arrive at the Library, they end up running into one of the Doctor’s old companions Professor River Song. The only thing is, in his time line, he hasn’t met her yet. So she has spent time traveling with the Doctor, and he doesn’t even know her. They allude to her importance, and from the things that happened in the episode, I have to assume that they’re married, although they don’t right out and say it.
I like Steven Moffat’s episodes simply because he’s not afraid to utilize the time traveling elements to create an interesting story. But he makes sure that the time paradoxes are woven into the development of the plot and the characters. Moffat’s supposed to take over Russel Davies’ position as lead writer and executive producer for the fifth series in 2010. I’m excited. If these episodes are any indication, Moffat’s going to have fun taking the show in another direction.
It didn’t take me long to pick up the second book in Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files series, “Fool Moon.” I already wrote about the origins of the pulp-style in my review of “Storm Front” (read the review here).
