Book Review: The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

Posted on March 31, 2024 by C.A. Jacobs

This month’s FanSci book club reading was The Handmaid’s Tale (fantasy (in theory, but should probably be filed in “current events”), 311 pages by Margaret Atwood.

“Environmental disasters and declining birthrates have led to a Second American Civil War. The result is the rise of the Republic of Gilead, a totalitarian regime that enforces rigid social roles and enslaves the few remaining fertile women. Offred is one of these, a Handmaid bound to produce children for one of Gilead’s Commanders. Deprived of her husband, her child, her freedom, and even her own name, Offred clings to her memories and her will to survive.”

THIS IS ABSOLUTELY NOT A SPOILER FREE REVIEW.

Because holy buckets, do I have a significant amount of thoughts about this book. I will say right from the beginning that this book is horribly unpleasant to read but it’s absolutely necessary and will definitely NOT get any easier to read as the United States gets closer to the major elections coming up in November 2024.

GO READ THIS BOOK RIGHT NOW.

Anyway.

One of the points of discussion during our book club meeting involved how when one of our members read this book twenty years ago in high school, it was a fun read because there’s “no way the United States could ever get to that point.” One of the other members of the group had a similar comment. And I think that’s what great about science fiction and fantasy and also what’s truly alarming about this book specifically because the original draft for this book began in 1984, according to the newly added author forward at the beginning of my book.

And I am definitely glad the library copy I read of this book had the author commentary at the beginning because there were several very crucial comments made about the nature of this book and the main character’s identity. One of the other members of the group mentioned the television series and how the author commentary is used during the show version of this story and adds more depth to Offred’s identity. I’m unlikely to watch the show, as the magic moving picture box doesn’t hold the same sway over me as it seems to for the rest of the population, but those comments helped our discussion about making Luke a less crappy partner and giving Offred her name back.

Our discussion on the character of Luke was interesting, as most of the people in the book club are non-male, which means none of us reacted very well when Offred starts getting to the parts about how we got to that point in the world, where religious fanatics were able to take control of everything and push women back into the role of incubators instead of the viable humans we already are and how Luke reacted to the initial changes. In the book, Luke is just like, it’s no big deal, I’ll take care of you and things will be fine while Offred is rightfully panicking about the loss of constitutional rights and their safety. I think this attitude is prominent in many males, as fundamentally, nothing would have changed for them, especially not at the beginning, as that’s an attitude I see with many males in the current world we live in. It’s not them who is losing rights or does the same job for less pay or has any experience at all with the world not catering to them and meeting their every want. Women have always had the onus of being reproductive slaves to western civilization. So because Luke’s life didn’t change, he didn’t see the need to get upset about anything happening.

And then what happened to Moira and Offred’s mom were both really hard to read. Both of them considered themselves activists before the rise of Gilead but Moira’s spirit was completely gone by the time Offred meets her again at the “playboy” party and they both saw videos with her mother in one of the nuclear waste clean up areas, which means her fate was pretty much also sealed.

I imagine it would be so hard to keep fighting or even just to build yourself a mental safe place like Offred did, but then Offred started slipping and when the book ends with Nick giving her the “Mayday” code and then the black car showing up but the reader not knowing if Offred was being rescued or taken for torture, it was rough. I almost didn’t read the follow-on chapter with the academic conference about a hundred years in the future but even my book club agreed that it would be beneficial to know how they got out of the Gilead age.

Because with religious extremism on the rise in the United States and certain populations more concerned with violating women’s constitutional rights and controlling women and their bodies, it’s not hard to think that maybe the 6 January 2021 insurrectionists right here in the United States in the real world were attempting exactly what happened around page 174: “It was after the catastrophe, when they shot the president and machine-gunned the Congress and the army declared a state of emergency. They blamed it on the Islamic fanatics, at the time.” And then, three paragraphs later, they suspended the United States Constitution. And that’s exactly what I see the religious extremists doing right now in our modern United States.

It truly terrifies me how close to this future we are.

I can’t express enough how important it is to vote, especially in your local elections. Yes, I know this year is a major presidential election for the U.S., but your local elections are critical. The primaries came and went, whether you knew it or not. If you’re in the United States, now is a great time to make sure you are registered to vote https://www.usa.gov/register-to-vote. Now is also a good time to check your local elections and see if any positions are running unopposed and maybe put your name in the hat so at the very least, you can protect small pockets of democracy.

Every little bit helps.

Every little bit matters.

Don’t let The Handmaid’s Tale be our future.

Atwood, Margaret. The Handmaid’s Tale. Anchor Books, 2017.

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Book Review: Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

Posted on March 15, 2024 by C.A. Jacobs

The third and final book in The Hunger Games series is Mockingjay (dystopian/science fiction, 390 pages) by Suzanne Collins.

“Katniss Everdeen, girl on fire, has survived, even though her home has been destroyed. Gale has escaped. Katniss’s family is safe. Peeta has been captured by the Capitol. District 13 really does exist. There are rebels. There are new leaders. A revolution is unfolding. It is by design that Katniss was rescued from the arena in the cruel and haunting Quarter Quell, and it is by design that she has long been part of the revolution without knowing it. District 13 has come out of the shadows and is plotting to overthrow the Capitol. Everyone, it seems, has had a hand in the carefully laid plans – except Katniss. The success of the rebellion hinges on Katniss’s willingness to be a pawn, to accept responsibility for countless lives, and to change the course of the future of Panem. To do this, she must put aside her feelings of anger and distrust. She must become the rebels’ Mockingjay – no matter what the personal cost.”

THIS IS NOT A SPOILER FREE REVIEW

Katniss was rescued by the rebellion of District 13 and taken there to start churning propaganda for their own war machine. And as Katniss sees more and more of the way District 13 operates, we’re all left feeling like no one in charge is actually taking care of the people.

Everything wrong with Panem is wrong with our world today, where we all struggle to survive and those with the resources hoard it and then lord it over everyone else. The entitled live in a very different world where all their basic needs are met and they see the people from other Districts as conversation pieces and not as real people with real struggles, but it’s also really hard to acknowledge your own privilege and try to make the world better for those whose existence needs are not being met, especially when you have been catered to in such a way that you are also trapped by the system.

Imagine growing up in a world where you and all you love were never in any danger, not from starvation and not from being culled in the annual teenage death match games. If you were never hungry, what would life be like for you to suddenly find yourself starving all the time? If you lived a life of pseudo personal freedom where you were allowed to dress how you wanted, eat what and when you wanted, and pursue an occupation at least mostly of your choice and then to find yourself subject to a ridiculously rigid schedule and system.

Neither the Capitol, nor District 13, treat the people as anything other than meat for whichever grinder they need at that time, which feels a lot like our own modern world today.

Katniss, though, sees everyone as individuals. Like how she rescues her prep team from the District 13 jail, where they’d been starved, tortured, and abused because they didn’t understand the rules of their new living arrangement. No one showed them a shred of compassion or care until Katniss found them and made Plutarch get them out, which he only does because he needs them to make her camera-ready again. But she understands that it’s not their fault they don’t fit in with this new regime. And she understands why Haymitch drinks and Johanna steals her medicine. She doesn’t fault them or judge them for it. And then she brought Johanna pine needles when she’s back in the hospital after failing her soldier exam, just to help her feel a little piece of home.

I think the key takeaway from all of this is that we have to do better by each other. Listen to each other, help each other, participate in even small acts of thoughtfulness or kindness. And, when given the chance, make the world a better place by ensuring others have a solid chance at a fair and democratic system not based on violence, torture, trauma, and control.

Honestly, this whole series is so very good, but also really hard to read in the world we live in right now. This book is probably a low four on my rating scale. I’m very glad I own a copy and I will definitely reread it in the future.

Collins, Suzanne. Mockingjay. Scholastic Press, 2010.

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Book Review: Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

Posted on March 13, 2024 by C.A. Jacobs

Continuing with my reread of The Hunger Games series, the next book is Catching Fire (dystopian/science fiction, 391 pages) by Suzanne Collins.

“Against all odds, Katniss has won the Hunger Games. She and fellow District 12 tribute Peeta Mellark are miraculously still alive. Katniss should be relieved, happy even. After all, she has returned to her family and her longtime friend, Gale. Yet nothing is the way Katniss wishes it to be. Gale holds her at an icy distance. Peeta has turned his back on her completely. And there are whispers of a rebellion against the Capitol – a rebellion that Katniss and Peeta may have helped create. Much to her shock, Katniss has fueled an unrest she’s afraid she cannot stop. And what scares her even more is that she’s not entirely convinced she should try. As time draws near for Katniss and Peeta to visit the districts on the Capitol’s cruel Victory Tour, the stakes are higher than ever. If they can’t prove, without a shadow of a doubt, that they are lost in their love for each other, the consequences will be horrifying.”

THIS IS NOT A SPOILER FREE REVIEW

I’m very interested in how my first thought about this continuation story of how our lives are on track to get even worse in the future if we continue to allow evil, heartless dictators use their selfish greed to burn the world for their own benefit by realizing that when Panem was created, the main thing they did was update North America’s rail system to have extremely high-speed trains used as the primary means of transportation.

Like. The modern society we know today, right now, broke so badly that everything we know went down the toilet. And then when a new nation was formed, they updated and upgraded the entire North American rail system. Katniss, Peeta, and their entire entourage get on a train and use it to travel to all the other districts on their “Victory Tour”. Even President Snow makes a random appearance first thing in the book to Katniss’s house and it’s assumed he arrived there silently, without fanfare, on a train because any sort of aircraft would have been noticed.

Personally, I think it would be great if we could upgrade our entire rail system before the end of the world as we know it and who knows? Maybe updated trains could be what prevents us from sinking any farther into the quagmire of dystopian future.

About a third of the way into Catching Fire, Katniss comes across Twill and Bonnie, refugees from District 8, who tell her about the uprising and the rebellion, and how the people of District 8 actually used the televised and mandatory Victory Tour interview with Caesar Flickerman to take over key government facilities. And these two strangers recognized Katniss and used a cracker with a mockingjay baked in to show they were on her side.

One of the things often overlooked when people discuss this series as a whole is how smart Katniss really is. She puts a lot of information together in her head without discussing anything with anyone. She understands President Snow’s threats but she also pays attention to the little comments made by her prep team when they arrive and realizes how much of Panem is likely rebelling. And she pays attention to all of it, while also respecting everyone else in her life.

She goes out of her way to take care of as many of the people in her area that she can, spreading out all the game she brings in across the Hobb and helping as many people as she can. She doesn’t judge anyone else, just accepts them as they are, where they are, when they interact with her. The only difference is when she refers to The Capitol or the Peacekeepers, those in authority who don’t do anything to make the world better for anyone, even though they would have the means and resources to do so.

When they go back into the Games for the Quarter Quell, it’s Peeta this time who has the ability and opportunity to demonstrate compassion with another tribute’s death. In The Hunger Games, Katniss befriended little Rue from District 11 and gave her a beautiful memorial, singing to her until she was gone, then covering her in flowers. In Catching Fire, it’s Peeta who tells one of the District 6 morphling addicts about the different colors he can paint and describing those colors to someone who loved them so desperately.

This is what sets Katniss and Peeta and those she allies herself with apart from those who put her in the Games and those in charge at the Capitol. How we treat our dead is a sign of who we are as people. The Careers from the lower number districts volunteer to go into the bloodbath of the Hunger Games, but they aren’t used to being hungry themselves, nor are they used to having less than what one would need to survive. The Careers kill as a matter of pride and leave the bodies for someone else to clean up. Katniss and Peeta and the others mourn the loss of the person who was and they respect the road that person traveled, no matter how it ended.

Overall, this was a very good book and I’m glad I own it and reread it. I’m probably going to reread it again many times in the future. This is probably a low four on my rating scale. And it really is getting harder to read books like this as our world continues to spiral.

Collins, Suzanne. Catching Fire. Scholastic Press, 2009.

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Book Review: the Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Posted on March 11, 2024 by C.A. Jacobs

I’m not quite sure why, but I felt the need to reread The Hunger Games (dystopian/science fiction, 374 pages) by Suzanne Collins and I was surprised that I’d never done a book review.

“In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV. Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives alone with her mother and younger sister, regards it as a death sentence when she steps forward to take her sister’s place in the Games. But Katniss has been close to dead before – and survival, for her, is second nature. Without really meaning to, she becomes a contender. But if she is to win, she will have to start making choices that weigh survival against humanity and life against love.”

THIS IS NOT A SPOILER FREE REVIEW

I don’t remember if I read the books first or watched the movies first, but I am one of those people who knows you always treat books and movies or television shows as completely separate entities that just happen to share the same name. I remember when the movies came out, though, and how the media around the movies was exactly what the books used as social commentary – that you have a portion of the population who only sees what they are supposed to see and develop a severe disconnect with reality. In this instance, I remember catching small snippets of television spots where the sole focus of the commenters was on the love triangle with Katniss, Peeta, and Gale. In the books, there isn’t any love triangle at all. Katniss is sixteen and has spent her entire life so far struggling not just to survive, but to ensure the survival of her sister and mother, as well. She is absolutely focused on not just her own survival, but how she survives so that Prim and her mother back in District 12 don’t receive any backlash from her own highly-scrutinized actions and words. Katniss knows everything she says and does is watched and controlled and that any mistake could harm them and this makes her very self-contained.

And yet, all anyone in the media could talk about was the potential romantic interests. “What do you think, are you Team Gale or Team Peeta?” as though Katniss herself wasn’t just a teenage girl involved in a struggle to survive the worst conditions imaginable. But the media people here in our real world were just like the people in the Capitol – so far removed from real life that the only thing they can focus on is the superficial. And I also think it’s a demonstration of one of the most toxic parts of our society, where we force romance, and by extension sex, on girls as soon as their gender is identified before even their birth. But that’s another rant on sexism and misogyny all by itself.

My point is when you are in a hostile survival situation, romance is the last thing on your mind.

During the Hunger Games themselves, Katniss uses Peeta’s media-announced feelings to help them both survive. Whether her feelings are genuine or not or which of the two boys in the book she romantically prefers isn’t the point at all. Feelings are complicated and she knew she needed to provide a good show to help both of them survive, and her internal conflict over the entire situation is well-portrayed throughout the entire book.

She also doesn’t want to kill anyone at all, even if she is going into the Hunger Games. She only directly causes two deaths, the first by killing the boy who killed Rue, and the second by killing Cato, which at that point was an act of mercy.

This brings up the question of who we are when we think everyone is watching and when we think no one is. When left on your own, starving and hunted, will you treat other humans as sport or try to help whoever you can with what you have? Peeta says it before they go into the Games about how he doesn’t want them to change who he is and he doesn’t change. He’s probably one of the smartest, kindest, most considerate people in the entire story. His goal is to make sure Katniss wins the Hunger Games and he does everything he can to ensure exactly that, even pretending to form an alliance with the Careers. But still, he takes no action to willingly or knowingly kill anyone else. He thinks of the future while Katniss lives only in the present, which you can’t blame her for because the amount of anxiety in daily life in Panem is crushing.

I think this book (and the series in general) is actually getting harder to read as the years go by and we all feel like things are getting decidedly worse and not better. The past described in Panem looks more and more like our own modern future right now. There’s even a sentence on page 18: “He lists the disasters, the droughts, the storms, the fires, the encroaching seas that swallowed up so much of the land, the brutal war for what little sustenance remained.” that really just hits so hard. All of those things are getting worse right now, as climate change starts to impact more of our lives and resources are already becoming more problematic, it’s not difficult at all to imagine the world described as Panem.

Overall, this book is a solid three on my rating scale. I’m glad I own it and it’s a really good story but it’s just getting so much harder to read these days because of the deteriorating situation in the world lately. This is a future that’s too easy to see and that’s not a good thing at all.

Collins, Suzanne. The Hunger Games. Scholastic Press, 2008.

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TV Series Review: Xena: Warrior Princess season 1

Posted on March 3, 2024 by C.A. Jacobs

As March is Women’s History Month in the U.S., I decided I should watch things that made history, starting with the first season of Xena: Warrior Princess.

“In a time of ancient gods, warlords, and kings, a land in turmoil cried out for a hero. She was Xena, a mighty princess forged in the heat of battle. The power. The passion. The danger. Her courage will change the world.”

If you’ve ever seen the show, I’m sure you heard the opening credit voice in your head as you read the summary. The back of the box summary is a little more detailed. “Xena is a smart, tough, and fearless fighter who travels the dangerous roads of Ancient Greece defending the innocent from the forces of darkness and seeking redemption for her cruel misdeeds of the past. Along for the adventures is her devoted friend Gabrielle, a compassionate girl who hopes to be a warrior one day, and other legendary figures, including the formidable Hercules. Combining impressive displays of mythology, fantasy, and martial arts, it’s the iconic show that set the bar for all female action heroes.”

The character of Xena was first seen in the 1995 Hercules: the Legendary Journeys episode “The Warrior Princess” and then she became a fan-favorite and got her own show.

This season introduces the main characters, specifically Xena and Gabrielle, and shows the very beginning of their friendship. And there’s a LOT of fun in this early season, like in “Dreamworker”, the episode where Morpheus is attempting to get Gabrielle to spill her blood innocence and her first instinct is to ask what Morpheus finds unattractive because she has many faults.

The first season introduces us to a number of Greek and historical people including Ares, Hades, Titans, Prometheus, Amazons, Centaurs, Virgil, and many others, plus guest appearances by characters from Hercule: the Legendary Journeys such as Hercules, Iolus, Salmoneus, and Autolycus, and some series specific characters like Joxer and Callisto, who become reoccurring characters throughout the show.

I think one of the best parts about this show is how absolutely irreverent to everything. One of the episodes has Salmoneus selling a “fizzy drink” and another has a vendor attempting to sell Gabrielle fake Mount Vulcan souvenirs. There’s no possibility of a consistent timeline, nor feasibility for most of the stunts. Somehow, Xena and Gabrielle are both able to be there for the fall of Troy and the attempted sacrifice of Isaac by Abraham. There’s also no real concept of how much time passes between adventures, making the show timeless.

All of this contributes to making this show absolutely fantastic!

Though, I don’t think this show would be able to be made today because fanbases get really obsessive about tiny details and a show like this would drive toxic fandoms into being even worse than they really can be sometimes. And most of those toxic fandoms center around those who would not like even the idea of a woman capable of taking care of herself and disrupting their fragile worldview. This show also used practical effects, which made it more authentic, instead of using something like CGI.

And not every episode was focused just on action or making the plot move forward. There were plenty of “filler” episodes and times where they really just had fun, though most of the episodes of the first season focused on Gabrielle helping Xena figure out how to redeem her actions from her warlord days. We see a lot of Xena being tricked into actions to set her back on her search for atonement and Gabrielle is there to make sure Xena remembers the path she’s on towards doing good.

Overall, this continues to be one of the most influential shows of my younger days and I’m enjoying the rewatch. I’d rate this first season as a solid three on my rating scale. I’m glad I own it and it’s good to rewatch it again from time to time.

Xena: Warrior Princess. Produced by R.J. Stewart, Liz Friedman, performances by Lucy Lawless, Renee O’Connor, Renaissance Pictures, Ltd, 1995.

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Book Review: The Silver Gryphon by Mercedes Lackey and Larry Dixon

Posted on February 28, 2024 by C.A. Jacobs

To finish out The Mage Wars trilogy by Mercedes Lackey and Larry Dixon, I finished reading The Silver Gryphon (fantasy, 400 pages).

“A dozen years of peace have passed in the city of White Gryphon – but the inhabitants of this hard-won haven have not forgotten their struggles, and have trained an elite guard force, the Silver Gryphons, to protect their city. Skandranon, the Black Gryphon, and Amberdrake the healer, have settled into quite, comfortable lives. But things are not so tranquil for Silverblade, Drake’s daughter, and Tadrith, Skan’s son. Anxious to prove themselves, and despite their parents’ very real concerns, they have enlisted in the Silvers. After two years of rigorous training, Blade and Tad are finally given their first solo assignment – a remote guard post in wild, largely unexplored territory. Everything seems auspicious as Tad and Blade set off in the air, but three days out from White Gryphon disaster strikes – the two young guards plummet from the sky to the deep jungle below, struck down by an unseen enemy. Lost and badly injured, the desperate partners take stock of their situation: all their spell-fueled equipment – including their only means of communication – is inoperable, drained of all magic. But their troubles are just beginning. For in the dark of the tropical rain forest which surrounds them waits a nameless terror which even their fathers could never have envisioned.”

This was probably my least favorite book in this trilogy. I think part of my unhappiness for this book stems from the same unhappiness I found with the first book and that’s all about the mandatory het-pairings. When we first meet Silverblade, she’s the opposite of her parents and on purpose. She wants to be a fighter, a scout, an adventurer – someone who makes her own way and protects others from threats they may not see coming. But then she becomes like so many characters before her with a romantic and sexual subplot that takes over a good portion of her story. Many of her conversations revolve around an attractive man instead of talking about her and Tad’s situation.

While I did enjoy the resourcefulness of both Tad and Blade in this story, and how their actions showed a very keen understanding of survival situations in hostile areas, I found the references to Blade’s romantic interest annoying. I think that stems a lot from my exhaustion with every story having to have a romantic or sexual subplot and also with how much of your brain and body are focused on just surviving when you’re in a hostile survival situation. Maybe it’d be different if the wyrsa weren’t hunting Blade and Tad and they’d just have to hang out with the wreck of their equipment long enough for a rescue to take place because boredom in that situation is very real.

Anyway. Just because of the forced, mandatory-for-that-time het relationship, that bumps this book from a low three to a high two on my rating scale. I’m glad I own it but this is exactly why I haven’t reread this trilogy for decades :/

Lackey, Mercedes and Dixon, Larry. The Silver Gryphon. DAW Book Collectors, 1996.

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Book Review: the White Gryphon by Mercedes Lackey and Larry Dixon

Posted on February 27, 2024 by C.A. Jacobs

Because I just reread The Black Gryphon and I don’t like leaving a series unfinished if I can help it, I just finished rereading The White Gryphon (fantasy, 399 pages) by Merceded Lackey and Larry Dixon.

“It has been ten years since the magical Cataclysm which destroyed the stronghold of the world’s most powerful Mage, killing Urtho, creator of the gryphons, and sending his forces into exile. It had taken urtho’s peoples one year of terrible travail crossing dangerous lands to find a sheltered haven, and nine hard years of building, but their city, called White Gryphon, is now a secure stronghold. Secure, at least, until the fleet of the mysterious Black Kings appears in their harbor, bringing envoys who inform the residents of White Gryphon that their newfound sanctruary lies on land claimed by this powerful kingdom. Desperate not to lose their hard-won home, Skandranon Rashkae, the Black Gryphon, along with his longtime friend, Amberdrake, agree to accompany the envoys back to the court of the Black Kings, hoping to negotiate an alliance. But once settled in this strange court, Skandranon and Amberdrake quickly become aware that this negotiation will not be an easy one. And when a high-ranking noble who opposes this alliance is found murdered – seemingly torn apart by gryphon’s talons – Skandranon and Amberdrake realize that they are up against unknown enemies who will stop at nothing, even the use of diabolical Blood Magic, to destroy White Gryphon.”

This book has a lot of very close, very deep, very uncomfortable looks inside the minds of very unhealthy characters. It’s a reminder that not everyone in the world, real or fictional, is a positive person who only has the best interests of others in mind. It’s a reminder that monsters do exist, and they usually have a pleasant face and do horrible things.

I think that’s one of the things I enjoy most about reading these books – the “good guys” do actually win and those human monsters who are true evil are not successful in their endeavors. But, boy howdy do they do a LOT of damage along the way.

I enjoyed my reread of this much more than The Black Gryphon and was a lot more invested in the characters and the overall situation, though you could tell this was a book written in the U.S. in the 1990s. Overall, I would say this is bumped up to a low three on my rating scale. I’m glad I own it and might actually reread it again in the future.

Lackey, Mercedes and Dixon, Larry. The White Gryphon. DAW Book Collectors, 1995.

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Movie Review: Who Framed Roger Rabbit

Posted on February 24, 2024 by C.A. Jacobs

Continuing with my vintage movie streak, this weekend’s movie was Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

“It’s 1947 Hollywood and Eddie Valiant, a down-on-his-luck detective, is hired to find proof that Marvin Acme, gag factory mogul and owner of Toontown, is playing hanky-panky with femme fatale Jessica Rabbit, wife of Maroon Cartoon superstar, Roger Rabbit. When Acme is found murdered, all fingers point to Roger, and the sinister, power-hungry Judge Doom is on a mission to bring Roger to justice. Roger begs the Toon-hating Valiant to find the real evildoer and the plot thickens as Eddie uncovers scandal after scandal and realizes the very existence of Toontown is at stake!“

I had honestly forgotten how much fun this movie was. It starts out with a classic-looking cartoon with a cartoon rabbit in charge of babysitting a danger-prone baby after some cookies and then a real, human director shows up and yells at Roger for having cartoon tweety birds instead of stars when the refrigerator drops on his head. And then as Eddie is leaving “Toon Town”, a man with a saxophone is playing theme music from Fantasia to get the magic brooms to sweep up the mess.

And the battling pianos scene with Donald and Daffy Duck in the nightclub is one of my favorite musical pieces in all my movie watching throughout all the years.

There’s so many different references with so many cartoon cameos that this movie is just a visual treat. I think it’s also one of the only movies Disney and Warner Brothers ever agreed to do together.

Though, I will also say that for all this movie has a lot of fun, it’s also really, really dark. Like, using chemicals to murder cartoon characters? That red shoe scene is so hard to watch. What a sad, squeaky shoe. Eddie’s brother was killed by a toon and so he takes out his unhappiness on all the toons. And there’s also the concept of how dark the world was in 1947. And the really sad part is how Judge Doom’s vision of freeways, gas stations, and the future is actually what came to pass. And maybe a little bit about how it’s so hard to find things that make us all laugh these days, like the viewers in the cartoon movies laughed. I don’t know that I see very much uncontrollable laughter these days.

Overall, I have a lot of fond memories of this movie and it was still an enjoyable rewatch. It’s still a three on my rating scale and it made me happy to rewatch it.

Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Directed by Robert Zemeckis, Executive Producers Steven Spielberg and Kathleen Kennedy, Produced by Robert Watts and Frank Marshall, performances by Bob Hoskins, Christopher Lloyd, Charles Fleischer, Joanna Cassidy, Touchstone Pictures, 1988.

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Book Review: the Black Gryhon by Mercedes Lackey and Larry Dixon

Posted on February 23, 2024 by C.A. Jacobs

This month’s book club book was The Black Gryphon (fantasy, 460 pages) by Mercedes Lackey and Larry Dixon.

“Skandranon Rashkae is everything a gryphon should be with gleaming ebony feathers, majestic wingspan, keen magesight, and a sharp intelligence, he is the fulfillment of all that the Mage of Silence, the human sorcerer called Urtho, intended to achieve when he created these magical beings to be his champions, the defenders of his realm – a verdant plain long coveted by the evil mage Ma’ar. And now, as Ma’ar is once again preparing to advance on Urtho’s Keep, this time with a huge force spearheaded by magical constructs of his own, Skandranon is sent to spy across enemy lines, cloaked in the protection of Urtho’s powerful Spell of Silence. As days pass and Skandranon doesn’t return, all in Urtho’s camp wait anxiously. But there is one among them for whom the possible loss of this great bird will be more than just a major military defeat. Amberdrake – a Healer of body, mind and spirit whose talents are as essential to the army as those of any general – waits on the landing strip with anguish in his heart. For Amberdrake has come to value the vain, cocksure, and brave Skandranon as his closet friend and comrade, and now he fears that this prince of gryphons will never return.”

Probably one of the most interesting things about this book is that the back of the book summary is actually the story before you start reading at the beginning. This summary doesn’t mention at all what happens in the book itself and I think this is the only time I can think of where reading the back of the book actually helped fill in a lot of gaps with the beginning of the book, as it was a little bit like the text before the Star Wars movies. So if you read the book without reading the back, it might feel like you were missing parts of the story and background in the beginning (which you were).

While I have read this book, and the whole trilogy, before, it’s been well over at least one decade if not more since I read them. I do reread the Heralds of Valdemar books frequently (about once a year) but these books just didn’t catch my desire to reread them so often. Maybe it’s the lack of women in this story or other relatable characters for me? Or maybe because everyone winds up in het relationships? I don’t know. There aren’t zero women in this story, just the two who show up as love interests for the main characters of Shandranon (Zhaneel) and Amberdrake (Winterhart), and one who is already attached to another man in the book (Cinnabar with Tamsin).

What do I mean when I say these women don’t exist except to become partners for the main male characters?

Zhaneel is an amazing character in general. She’s suffering from vast amounts of abuse in her military unit and even outside her military unit, as the gryphons pick on her for being smaller and having different foreclaws that are more like hands. (I guess that just goes to show you that prejudice knows no species boundaries). But even as she hates herself for being different than the other gryphons, she finds a way to use her smaller size and speed to her advantage, and then even goes so far to set up her own obstacle course in order to specifically train herself to be better at tasks she is actually designed for. But she doesn’t start accepting her individual differences until she comes to the attention of Skandranon, who immediately lusts after her, and she crushes on him but doesn’t want him to know it. So while she does all this training to be able to do more at war, she also has the side goal of attracting Skandranon’s attention.

Winterhart starts out in a very abusive relationship and it’s very positive to show what that actually looks like and how hard abusive relationships are to leave. I did appreciate how both Amberdrake and Winterhart acknowledge that starting a relationship in the middle of deeply traumatic emotional abuse from another person is not healthy and how they worked to communicate effectively. But while Winterhart also has a fantastic character arc, she’s still really only there to become a main love interest for Amberdrake.

One of the things that came up in discussion at book club was how accurate this portrayal of military life, especially a military in active war, truly is. It acknowledges civilians in the military camp, and it acknowledges that a major military involved in a ground war isn’t just soldiers. There’s family members, healers, supply personnel, and trading of goods or services. Of particular note was Amberdrake’s role as a Healer of not just the body, but of the mind and soul, as well. It would be amazing if that kind of care for people in general, not just military personnel, was a real thing that was actually available.

Overall, this book is a high two on my rating scale. It’s not one of my favorites and it was okay to read, but it just didn’t grip me as well as some other books. I’m happy I own it for reference purposes with the rest of the Valdemar books.

Lackey, Mercedes and Dixon, Larry. The Black Gryphon. DAW Books, 1994.

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Book Review: The Girl From the Sea by Molly Knox Ostertag

Posted on February 20, 2024 by C.A. Jacobs

The second graphic novel I was recently sent by a friend was The Girl From the Sea (graphic novel, 256 pages) by Molly Knox Ostertag.

“Fifteen-year-old Morgan has a secret: She can’t wait to escape the perfect little island where she lives. She’s desperate to finish high school and get as far away as possible from her sad divorced mom, her volatile little brother, and her group of best friends – who don’t actually know Morgan at all. Because really, Morgan’s biggest secret is that she has a lot of secrets, including the one about wanting to kiss girls. Then one night, Morgan is saved from drowning by a mysterious girl named Keltie. Suddenly, life on the island doesn’t seem so stifling anymore. But Keltie has some secrets of her own. And as the girls start to fall in love, everything they’ve been hiding will find its way to the surface, whether Morgan is ready or not.”

I really enjoyed this story. The artwork was clear and made the story easy to follow and the story was a relatable to anyone who grew up or lives in a very small community. It’s interesting to me how many stories like this are out there because it feels a lot to me like none of us really ever feel comfortable being who we are, where we are. This is pretty much true for everyone, I think. We all have this mentality that if we can just get away from the people who know us and the environment we live in that we can make all these drastic changes to who /we/ are and how /we/ interact with the world.

This book shows a lot of growth in regards to how we each have to be responsible for making the changes in ourselves in order to create the dream world we want to live in. Sure, it’s intimidating and scary for each of us to change ourselves, and therefore how the outside world views us, but if you have this grand dream of how different life could be somewhere else, it might not be your location you need to focus on changing.

When the book ends and both Morgan and Keltie have seven more years before they can interact again, you see Morgan taking her life into her own hands and maybe having some other relationships or at least more-than-friends interactions with girls she finds attractive. I think this is actually a really healthy thing for Morgan, as it allows her to just exist without the pressure of “waiting for the perfect one”, as is obsessed about in our modern western-style society. I’m sure there are people out there who are upset that Morgan isn’t going to spend the next seven years pining over her selkie-love, but I think the way this story ends shows more of a healthy relationship. Seven years is a really long time and it’s healthy to allow yourself to actually feel things and express them in ways that make sense to you.

Overall, this book is easily a high three on my rating scale. I’m glad I read it and own a copy of it now and I’m positive I will reread it again in the future.

Ostertag, Molly Knox. The Girl From the Sea. Scholastic Graphix, 2021.

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