All posts by Carl V. Anderson

Short Story Monday: The Very Best of Charles de Lint, Part II

Well, this week it was my turn to ask the questions.

Confused?

Check out Part I (click here) and the clouds will be parted.

The ‘Very Best’ collection kicked it up a notch with this week’s stories, tales 4, 5, and 6 from the collection. I verbally wished for more stories about the character Meran from last week’s installment and was rewarded with two more Meran stories this week–both very good, as was the story about Merlin and a tree.

If you will recall, Kailana is answering the questions over on her site, here, and I am answering them after the break. If you would like to track down a copy of The Very Best of Charles de Lint and join us, we would love it. We can put you on the email list for the weekly stories and questions or you can just grab them here or at Kailana’s and answer them in the comments section. The stories for this week’s reading (and next week’s questions) are listed at the end of this post.

Continue reading Short Story Monday: The Very Best of Charles de Lint, Part II →

Short Story Monday–The Very Best of Charles de Lint

As part of the Once Upon a Time Challenge, Kailana and I are doing a buddy read of the latest collection of Charles de Lint short stories. There are upwards of 30 stories in this collection, so we decided to read a few stories each week and then take turns choosing questions to ask about the stories read. Each Monday we will post our answers to these questions on our blogs. This week it was Kailana’s turn to ask the questions. You can click here to read her answers.

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Dragon Age II

“If you’ve heard this story before, don’t stop me, because I’d like to hear it again.”
~Groucho Marx

As the curtain closed on November 2009, I found myself having spent the month caught up in a compelling, emotional, immersive fantasy gaming experience in the form of Bioware’s Dragon Age: Origins. I mentioned in that review that technology and storytelling were starting to make great strides in coming together to produce games where the player can get lost in the story on nearly the same level as a good book. Those strides continue with Bioware’s newest release, Dragon Age II. I picked up my pre-ordered copy earlier in March and wasted no time in setting out on my epic journey towards destiny. Everything that was wonderful about Dragon Age: Origins has been retained and improved upon in Dragon Age II and I cannot adequately express how enjoyable it is to interact with a story that is so emotionally satisfying.

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Sucker Punch

“You Will Be Unprepared”…hmmmm…

Largely bloodless bullet-filled orgy of video game violence? Check!

Attractive young women in a variety of leather outfits? Check!

A geek-stravaganza of computer-generated visual wizardry? Check!

Virtually no story to get in the way of the eye candy? Double Check!

Unprepared? I think not. Sucker Punch was by and large exactly what I expected it to be. Yes, it can be successfully argued that the film caters to the basic adolescent male fantasy, but hey, even I like to be catered to now and again.

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The Name of the Wind ~Patrick Rothfuss

The Name of the Wind ~Patrick Rothfuss

–published 2007
–Daw Books
–722 pages (mmpb)
–2007 Quill Award, Publisher’s Weekly ‘Best Books of the Year’ 2007, 2008 Alex Award
–10/10 (I am in awe)

“It is a word. Words are pale shadows of forgotten names. As names have power, words have power. Words can light fires in the minds of men. Words can wring tears from the hardest hearts. There are seven words that will make a person love you. There are ten words that will break a strong man’s will. But a word is nothing but a painting of a fire. A name is the fire itself”.

I do not know what the typing equivalent is to a whisper, but I feel as if I must do so. Type gently, quietly, or it might break the spell that I am under. For a spell it is. I stand transfixed. Undone. And once again transformed by the power of the gift of good storytelling. A scant thirty minutes have passed since I turned the final page of Patrick Rothfuss’ debut novel, The Name of the Wind, and I literally feel that tiny quivering, that emanating glow, that comes when I find myself wholly immersed in story. Patrick Rothfuss has lit a fire in this man’s mind and it has suffused me with a warmth known only to other passionate readers.

Wow.

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