Fin's Wrong Ideas

Just finished rereading theCrossroads series by Nick O’Donohoe. It’s an old series, and you probably won’t find it on the shelves at your local B&N. I own the first two books and haven’t ever bought the third one. I enjoy them though so eventually I’ll pick up the third book.

I love the characters, I love the setting, and I love the story. Overall it’s a great read, but some readers may get turned off by the level of detail the author uses in some of the animal surgery scenes.

I have read a ton of fantasy, it’s by far my favorite genre. This book is a branch off of the fantasy tree into urban fantasy. It was originally printed in 1994 so it’s not like a lot of the recent urban fantasy novels.

There aren’t vampires in it, but there are werewolves or Wyr as they are called. Most of the critters in the book are from classical lit: centaurs, satyrs, chimera, and griffins. The setting is a place called Strangeways, it’s an intersection of space and possibly time where people come and go and it’s magical of course. The interesting twist is that it’s about veterinarian students who go into Strangeways to help the magical critters. It’s different. There is a touch of romance to it, but it’s not as prevalent as in current novels.

Where do you draw the line at too much sex in a novel?

Sex is becoming commonplace in our commercials, tv shows, internet, and even video games. There are people who want it on every page. There are people who don’t want it at all.

I don’t mind sex in a novel, but I don’t think it should be gratuitous. I am also one of those who thinks the book is always better than the movie. So poorly written gratuitous sex is sorta like watching a bad movie….you’re sorry you spent the money and sorry for the waste of time. Sex should add to the story, not overshadow it. That’s the way I like to think of it. Sex scenes can be fun, titillating, or even scary.
I think some people have different tastes as far as reading goes. Each person should make that call for t

Genre can be misleading as well. You can find sex scenes in most Romance novels, but it’s becoming common in standard fiction and even my favorite sci-fi/fantasy. I’ve heard rumors of some of those books being put in young adult literature sections. How does that even work? Do I really want my kid reading that? As an adult I can make those decisions for myself…but children?

I found this interesting article via google. Thought I would share it. This one is also interesting.

In two weeks I test for a green belt in Taekwondo. I have some trepidation about this because at green the sparring starts. While I totally enjoy learning the forms and sparring stances, I don’t know how I feel about actually trying to hit someone. I played soccer when I was younger and even though they say it’s not a contact sport it required a certain amount of physicality. Playing soccer had some pushing and shoving and tripping….Taekwondo is actually the art of striking with the hands and the feet. So we’ll see.

I’m really diggin’ the Old Man Logan series in the Marvel series ‘Wolverine‘. It’s been awhile since any of the x-books have interested me. I used to collect them avidly until the movies came out and created a ton of spin-offs. I didn’t have the time or the money to spend on them so I gave them up. I just started getting the current x-books via a retailer that gives me the retail cost on comics and so far I’ve been pretty happy with the new story line in Wolverine.

I want to pick up the Deadlands RPG, but am unsure of weather to pick up the old edition or the reloaded edition. I hear (via amazon reviews) that the new books is prettier and more consolidated..that it’s missing some of the ‘feel’ of the original.

Last night I made one of my favorite dishes. Blackeyed peas and spinach….very tasty.

I tried to sit down and again read “Blood Noir” by Laurell K Hamilton. It has been aptly named Blood Bore by a few Lashers. I 2nd that name and have been tempted to round up my Anita Blake books and throw them away. The direction that the Anita Blake books has taken is not what I want to read. Poorly written porn with very little plot, unless you count the need to find new ways to get down and dirty as plot. I don’t. I find it amusing that although she includes necrophilia, bondage, beastiality, and multiple partners sex she seems to overlook the anal sex even though she considers herself edgy. Not that I encourage her to include it, I just find it fascinating that she strives to include all the others but steers clear of that…it’s almost comedic in how she works her way around it.

I miss the mystery/supernatural plot.

Has anyone read “Wolfsbane and Mistletoe“? I hope it’s all new stories.