Review time!

[darkelf105]

So what have I been up to lately? Let's find out, click-y the cuts for my thoughts on: 

Oh the books! I am in love! Or maybe lurv. Either way, Lorna Freeman’s Covenants and The King’s Own are awesomely, awesomely awesome. So, they’re not particularly deep, but they are well-written, character driven and hit all of my Personal Fantasy Tickle Spots™. And by Personal Fantasy Tickle Spots™, I mean those things that I look for when selecting a fine specimen from the fantasy genre. First, Miss Freeman has elves. But elves the way I like them. They’re pretty and tall and snarky. They’re arrogant and cruel, but also funny and mischievous and in just the right mix. She also has a cat person, a friggin’ mountain lion cat person named Laurel, who is the gentle teacher, the snarling guardian and the laconic ambassador all rolled into one naked, anthropomorphic ball of magic wielding fun. Then there is the army stuff. I love books and about soldiers and this series has just the right combination. Which brings me to Captain Suiden. Who is the bestest Captain ever. Makes me want join the army, what? And speaking of Suiden, there is also Captain Javes…who has a British accent and mannerisms out of pure affectation and people let him get away with it, because deep down inside, he’s a wolf….and Suiden is a dragon, and yes, we mean this literally.

 

Which brings me to plot. The Borderlands series centers around the Kingdom of Iversterre and the Border. Iversterre is full of humans that awhile ago (not sure how long ago as Freeman never really says, but at least a few generations) belonged to the Border. The Border of course is full of fae, elves (dark and light), dragons and all the other manner of mystical creatures. They form a kingdom in name only, really they are a bunch of squabbling factions, but a bunch of squabbling factions that are waaaaaaaaaaaaaay more powerful than any of the human kingdoms when they are united. They were only united for so long in the war for Iversterre, so that is why they no longer own that particular chunk of real estate. Bring in Rabbit, a lowly human farm boy raised in the Border. But wait, Rabbit is no ordinary lowly human farm boy, but actually sixty-some degrees tied to the throne of Iversterre and Jusson IV (who is another wickedly fantastic character) the king of Iversterre. And not only is Rabbit royalty with the most lines to the throne of anyone in Iversterre, he’s also the world’s most powerful mage….except he doesn’t really know it. He’s run away from the Border and joined Jusson’s army as a common trooper (aka foot soldier…or maybe not because his division is mounted, er, I like army stuff but honestly I know jack about the army so bear with me)…enter problems…people are being killed in the Border and turned into things (like dragon hide armor and the trees of sprites being turned into staves of office for the church figures) which, uh, causes problems. Which brings Laurel to Iversterre. Okay, there is way more plot and I don’t want to give it all away, but lets just say the plots of both of the books are part murder mystery, part espionage, part political thriller, part epic fantasy, part growing up drama, part clash of cultures drama, part clash of church and state and church and magic, and part comedy. It’s fantastic. Lorna Freeman does a great job of balancing all of these elements and making them believable. The tension between the humans and the border people is great. The human’s religion and their church done well and the relationship between all the different elements is fantastic and well thought out. Throw in Rabbit, who really should be a Gary Stu but miraculously isn’t, and you have one hell of a series.  Plus Suiden and Jusson and Javes and Groskin and Chadde and, and, well, almost all of the characters are awesome. There are horrible rumors that the third book has been cancelled and this causes much wailing and gnashing of teeth on my part. I hope that they aren’t true.

Now the video game. Playing Drakengard II. Well, I give it, so far, about a three. It’s pretty fun, but there are things that annoy me. Like, you have a dragon as your friend. And you fly on said dragon and have dragon dogfights in the air. Which should be fun, but A) I’ve never played a flight simulator so that sucks and B) the controls are balky and hard to use. Secondly, Nowe, the main character, is boring. The world is very drab (I get that it’s dying or something, but really it’s very generic) and, well, you fight droves and droves of the crazy ass bad guys. At the end of a mission, your kill count comes up and I kill between fifty and three hundred soldiers per encounter. Erm, by my calculations, that should leave the Knights of the Seal with a whole ten men left.  So I’ve come the conclusion that either all of the soldiers I have been killing are either A) zombies, B) robots which have been repaired or C) clones. I mean logically, they’d have to be one of those because there is no other reason why they should keep freaking coming back. I shouldn’t be seeing any more Knights of the Seal because I’ve killed them all. And lastly, really, I have no idea what’s going on. I’ve never played the original Drakengard so I suspect that things are going over my head…or maybe not. But anyways, lets talk about the newest member of my part. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm, Urick. Blue haired, artistically scarred and beautiful. When he took off his “mask”, it was love. He even smiled at me. Heeeeeeeeeellllllllllllllllloooooooooooooo, bishie. But, let’s also talk about Urick besides his yummie-ness. Um, he has a “mask” and I call it a mask here because that’s what the game characters call it, but really, it’s a helmet. A huge, metal, spiked thing that looks like a grinning skull. It is a serious piece of hardware. It says, look at me, I’m badass and maybe a paladin or dark lord or at the very least crazy, come get me. And he wields an axe shaped like a scythe…mmmmm, and does he wield it. The only problem is, besides the standard arm pieces of armory stuff, Urick is wearing street clothes. And not just any street clothes, he looks like a jolly ol’ pirate that decided, to um, disco dance. We’ll leave at that.  So overall, okay story, some interesting character, pretty but generic look to the world and a dragon.

And the anime. Been watching Knights of the Zodiac. Um. That’s all I can say. Um. And yet, I will keep watching; there is a Lord Yasha look alike nuff said. I know it’s old….and that, I think, makes it crazy. So, I reserve judgment and leave it at um.