mbarker: (Fireworks Delight)
This is not exactly a review.

However, not too long ago, at the end of a long week, traveling to a conference that I had helped organize, leading a day-long workshop, running two short sessions... by the end of the week, I was exhausted. So when we got up at 4 in the morning to go to the airport for the flight home, I was tired, depressed, ready to run away and hide.

And First Blood, by Sarah A. Hoyt writing as Sarah Marques, was just the medicine I needed. I got to meet Rene D'Herblay, despised by his father and older brother, relegated to the seminary -- and watched him fight the vampires who have taken over France. With communion wine, a flower pot... and, well, you will have to read the novella.

Anyway, I read it sitting in the airport and on the airplane. And by the time I got to the end, when the three friends got together to say "one for all" and "all for one" and the final line, where René embraces his fantasies and names himself...

I very nearly got up and cheered in the middle of the airplane!

So if you like that kind of a story, with swashbuckling heroes learning to stand up for what is right... I think you'll like First Blood. I know I did. And if you want to stand up and cheer, I'll understand.

First Blood is available here
http://nakedreader.com/storefront/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=108
mbarker: (BrainUnderRepair)
Last night, Mitsuko and I watched Gake no ue no Ponyo, or Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea. This was a showing on TV, preceded by about an hour of  background.
Spoilers galore... )
I think perhaps they couldn't figure out how to resolve the movie. After all, his mother left, headed for the old folks' home. And the boy and Ponyo set out to find her. But there's no obvious way for Ponyo to become a human, especially as the dose of humanity gained from licking his blood earlier wears off. Unless... Hard to tell. But I think sticking with the realism of the old folks and mother would have made it better for me, even though it would have been more difficult to reach a clear ending.

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