Three weeks left until the release of Waterfire Saga 2, Rogue Wave (Olas Salvajes) in Spain. The book is mostly Neela-centric, with the life of the party getting tangled up in bureaucratic hell, then locked up in her bedroom by overprotective parents who think she has gone insane (from bad to worse), then performing a great escape to trick a couple of guard dragons away from her talisman (We count on you, Neel!)... So nearly no Astrid, but Neels getting into scrapes and becoming more and more serious.
Neela locked up in her room, looking at a dragon from the window...
Aside from the fact that the fortress community of Tsarno has got a university (changing headcanon of Tsarno from typical outpost to something like Ingolstadt...). At last the typical hinterland/provincial university, like in so many other real-life realms (Oxbridge, Leipzig, Uppsala, Ingolstadt itself...)!
And the story of Orfeo (yes, like THAT Orpheus), Astrid's ancestor. SPOILER ALERT for those who haven't read the novel!!!
So this dashing and good-natured healer fell in love and married happily. What was her name...? Euri something...? No, it was Alma. Which means "soul", conveniently.
Anyway... All was well. But one day, his wife, the light of his life, died.
So Orfeo was crushed by her loss, and even went insane (I mean, I know Lady Tremaine, Maria Theresa, Mary Eleanor, Archibald Craven, Robert Baratheon, anyone else left brokenhearted by the death of their respective partners...). And he made a decision that changed the destiny of all the worlds.
So, did he descend to the underworld to parley with its rulers...?
NO.
Orfeo tried to resurrect his beloved Alma, in spite of what others had to say against it. Like Frankenstein. Obviously, she came back wrong...
And this was Orfeo's start of darkness.
So now it's three weeks of waiting for Rogue Wave to hit Spain!!!
Dark Tide will come to the Anglosphere in October this year (I hope it makes it to Spain in December!)
And Astrid Kolfinnsdottir will disclose her darkest secrets:
Voilà the cover:
In the summary, we found out that Ling had been taken to some sort of stalag or gulag. Depressing, eh?
Here, however, she is free and striving to retrieve her talisman from a deep, dark trench, whose fauna looks rather menacing. Will our omnivoxa manage to reach them?
In Book 3 of the epic saga, Astrid struggles with a devastating personal secret while Becca tries to figure out how to extract her talisman from a killer whirlpool. Ling must find a way to escape the prison camp where she and hundreds of other merfolk are being forced to do slave labor.
So Ling and Becca get their talismans (way to go, Becks!) while we learn Astrid's secret (it must be something REALLY painful to trouble her to such a degree). There's got to be another book, the finale, ere she can come to grips with that traumatic secret and reach the talisman. The same goes for Ava, who may go home as soon as the Stark children...
At least Becks and Astrid will have a little more conversation.
The prelude shows Astrid Kolfinnsdottir being tempted by Mfeme or some other villain to turn over to the dark side, yet refusing the offer... Will she yield to darkness? Is Astrid Kolfinnsdottir a heroine or a villain?
Ling is in the hold of Rafe Mfeme’s giant trawler, on her way to a prison camp. Becca meets up with Astrid and learns why the Ondalinian mermaid is always so angry: she is hiding a shameful secret. Ava can’t return home, because death riders await her arrival. Here's the prologue, with the temptation of Astrid Kolfinnsdottir:
What's more, the release of Olas salvajes (Rogue Wave) in Spain is scheduled for the 23rd of June, within four weeks. The countdown starts from NOW!
To all the victims of chemical warfare in World War I
Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge, Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs And towards our distant rest began to trudge. Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind; Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.
Gas! Gas! Quick, boys!–An ecstasy of fumbling, Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time; But someone still was yelling out and stumbling And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime...
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light, As under a green sea, I saw him drowning. In all my dreams, before my helpless sight, He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.
If in some smothering dreams you too could pace Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face, His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin; If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs, Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,– My friend, you would not tell with such high zest To children ardent for some desperate glory, The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori. (The last words are Latin for: "It's sweet and crowning to die for the motherland.")
Captain Ralph Crewe poisoned with chlorine in the trenches of the Western Front. Lovely battlefield setting and much of a tearjerker. This is to commemorate 2015 as the centennial of the second year of WWI and the first use of chlorine warfare.
By the way, Ralph Crewe is played by Davos Seaworth --- Liam Cunningham.
This is by no means the only way to commemorate 2015 as the centennial of modern chemical warfare, and to remember all the casualties of such a tragic event.
Now let’s jump ahead to the trenches where we see Captain Crewe bravely yet futiley try to save a fellow soldier and succumb to mustard gas. There are so many problems with this scene it is astounding. Had I written this in 2009 I could tell you exact dates that various technologies were introduced but now the specifics are no longer in my brain so bare with me as I might need to generalize. Now, based on the amount of time that has elapsed in the movie, paying attention to the seasons etc., it can only have gotten as far as the fall of 1914 by the time of Captain Crewe’s war scene. Entrenchment only starts around this time, yet the trenches shown are very sophisticated. They are very deep and wide with bridges and ladders all throughout. To give you an idea of this, here is a shot of a horse running through the trenches. Note the body hanging off a bridge well above the horse’s head.
Captain Crewe is walking dejectedly through this trench that is filled with dead bodies when he discovers one soldier is kind of gasping. He runs over and hoists him onto his shoulders, just in time for a biplane to fly by and strafe the trench. Yes, airplanes evolve rapidly during WWI, but it is far too early. It isn’t until pretty late in the war that you have planes used for offensive purposes. When the war began they were believed to be of little to no use in war. They were mainly used for reconnaissance purposes. Do you know how many advances had to be made to make planes acceptable for fighting? At first a dude just had to have a machine gun with him and stand up to shoot people with it. It was eventually discovered the best thing was to mount the gun on the front, but then propeller technology had to be improved so that one could shoot through the propellers without crippling their own plane. One of my all-time favorite books is Storm of Steel by Earnst Junger who was a German soldier (seriously this is a fabulous book and Junger is a fascinating guy. He is to this day the youngest guy to ever earn the highest military honor in the German army. He lived through and fought in WWI and WWII and died when he was over 100 years old) and it is not till a good way through his book that he records anything about planes. He was in one of the earliest groups to arrive on the Western Front so he witnesses a great deal of the war. It is pretty jarring when he suddenly starts talking about planes. It is waaaaay too early for the plane in A Little Princess.
Next we see Captain Crewe climbing out of the trench to escape a cloud of mustard gas. Now here I can give you some exact dates. Poison gas was first used at the Second Battle of Ypres which was fought between April 21-May 25 1915. It was deployed by the Germans and it was the Canadians who suffered the most from it at this battle. So how on earth could it be in this ridiculous trench in the fall of 1914?
We zoom out as we watch Captain Crewe drowning in gas Just after the ten-headed demon shoots ten arrows around Rama in Sara's story, releasing thick clouds of poisonous yellow smoke, Cuaron cuts to Captain Crewe in the trenches, clouds of tear gas threatening to engulf him. we see Sara's father bombed in the trenches. Mexican director Alfonso Cuaron gets some details wrong. His map of World War I Europe included a Yugoslavia that would not come into existence until after the war. His depiction of gas warfare might be strong stuff for children if they really understood what they were seeing. There's a war scene with explosions, fallen bodies, and a man is shown succumbing to poison gas.
(e.g., the thick clouds of yellow smoke are a stand in for the mustard gas that blinds her father in the WWI bunker)
The film is set during the first world war, so there are scenes in the trenches showing dead bodies and the sounds of bombs falling.
to bring Mr. Crowe's actual war experiences home to the young children. Everyone gasps when Sarah's hero succumbs to poison gas in the playground of Sarah's fantasyscape; what they don't realize is that Sarah's real-life heroic father is just then collapsing under a cloud of chlorine. This ongoing dramatic parallel is one of the movie's best features.
Violence & Gore
Two short war scenes, one showing a man struggling to carry another wounded soldier who has trouble breathing. He ultimately collapses in exhaustion.
In another scene, he brings us to the trenches of World War 1 that was horrifying without even showing a drop of blood, just bodies laying there. There's excitement - scenes from the World War I trenches, Captain Crewe has been killed in battle and his estate has been seized by the British government John, also fighting in WWI, is MIA, an unidentified soldier suffering from blindess and amnesia due to exposure to poison gas images of poison gas on the battlefield. her father, who is eventually lost in the European trenches. her father ... since he had no memory ... agonising footage of her father being injured and left for dead in the trenches. I know all this isn’t in the book, but I think it does build on passages of Burnett’s where Sara thinks about what her father is going through and imagines what it would be like to be a soldier suffering on the battlefield. Also, as it is probably impossible really to show children in a film suffering as much cruelty as Sara does in the book, bringing in the war is a different way to include the darkness which is such an essential part of this story. Rama's quest for Sita (both Rama and Sara's father are played by the same actor) becomes a trek through the Allied trenches, while Ravana's arrows emit poisonously yellow mustard gas...
As a side note, I'm a little surprised the movie is rated G when it shows some rather gruesome scenes of the WWI trenches strewn with bodies--it's certainly not gory, and it obviously didn't scar me for life since I don't even remember those parts, but still...
Her father did so to provide protection for his daughter whilst being absent ,fighting in the war. During the war, a poison gas was released and caused amnesia to her father. But at the end of the film, he regained his memory.
her father's experiences in the trenches
that her father has been killed in action
injured by the poisonous gases in the war.
after he was ill after war.
an injured World War 1 soldier
They didn't need to show the WWI footage in a children's film.
Parents need to know that this movie includes images of war with dead men strewn about trenches and explosions in the background.
There are two fairly graphic scened depicting battles in the trenches of World War I, complete with clearly depicted dying and dead soldiers. Even worse, the second battle scene shows the father dying. Maybe not all children are as unused to this kind of violence as mine is, but parents should know ahead of time.
her father’s participation in World War I trench warfare (he is British). Because he wants me to belong. My little girl. She spoke French! She really spoke French. Your mother and l are very proud of you. l caught you, Nellie! Papa! Randolph. . .John! Rama approached the thorny palace... ...unaware that Ravana was waiting for him. But Ravana was not through yet. He took a bow that could hold, not one, but 1 0 arrows. . . . . .each filled with poison. The arrows sped through the air. . . ...heading straight for Rama. The arrows hit the ground... ...and released their poison, giant clouds of thick, yello w smoke. lt's been discovered that your father has died. He was killed in battle several weeks ago. He's suffering from amnesia... . . .one of the rare side effects of poison gas. His eyes will heal in time. His memory. . .who can say?
"Sara!"
The name was like clear water breaking. Wholesome, terrifying and clean. It was baptism. Redemption. A bloody scab healing fast as the thunder rolled like shell-blasts, echoing in the distance. It was too much all at once. He stumbled backwards, cheeks flaming – shuddering with the force of every breath - as the phantom scents of Cardamom and singed flesh threatened to turn his stomach.
"I'm so sorry!"
He had spent months trying to piece his life back together. Trying to understand what the gas had taken. Desperate for a scrap, for the smallest clue that could tell him something – anything! And now he was tempted to run from it. Gripping the chair at his back with a vicious bite as the child was ripped from him, screaming. Frightened by the ferocity of the memories that came streaming back. Faster than he could handle. Faster than he could process. Faster than any man – hale and hearty - could rightly shoulder as the room exploded into a whirling frenzy of water-logged activity.
"No! No! Papa! Papa!"
His heart shattered. Cutting deep inside his chest in a thousand fracturing pieces as her broken cries rang out. Filling the spaces between heartbeats with a torment that far surpassed the darkest moments of his recovery. Ushering in the doorman of suffering as an expression he didn't recognize – agonized and wrecked – pulled at unfamiliar muscles and sinew.
But why?
He had no idea what was happening.
No idea why he felt so- so-
Oh.
What had once been a blur, a singular impression of the man he'd thought himself to be, soared back to him in pieces. Rewriting itself in less time than it took for his expression to change. Giving meaning to what existed beyond that of mere words as the pitching despair of the girl's screams seemed to rise above even that of the worsening storm.
The epiphany was already in full swing, frisson-fast and heady when Ram Dass appeared at his side. Silent and unjudging but electric with the same realization that was firming through him as he looked up at the world with new eyes.
Every word she'd issued – now experienced in seconds old hindsight – was akin to a fresh blow that had the power to send him reeling. Quickly overtopping that of uncertainty and self-doubt as the haze thinned, clearing like the freshness of a northern-born wind cutting through a cloud of poisonous gas. Stiffening his back with a confident, careful strength as every instinct he possessed – everything he was – reached out. Unfurling like an exotic midnight bloom desperate for the warmth of the sun.
Sara. Papa. Papa. Papa! Papa it's me! It's Sara! Oh god Papa, don't you remember me? Papa please, you've got to know me! Its Sara remember?! Remember India? And Maya! Remember the Riviana! And Emily! And the locket with Mama's picture in it? Oh god, papa please! Papa please! Papa, tell them!
Sara.
Sara.
Oh god!
His little girl.
His little princess.
There was a roaring in his ears. So different from that of diving planes and whistling shells. So different from the screams of the dying, distant fires and the murky wet of sick-lined trenches. He didn't have words. In that one glorious moment there was nothing but a name. A face. A flickering reel of memory that followed down through the years only to stall in favor of real time. Fading like radio static as a calloused hand reached out, eyes falling on the swinging glass doors as he took one step, then another.
And before he could internalize the switch, he was already running.
So this post makes one thousand (hoorray!)
And, since I said there would be a surprise in this post, voilà! I will talk about my visual novels and the virtual boyfriends I have got.
First things first. You readers may ask: What is a visual novel?
Well, it is a genre somewhere in between literature and e-game. Like a hybrid between e-book and video game or computer game. Most visual novels are centered on romance. My favourites are otome (maiden) games, in which you have to romance a dashing male character while solving mysteries, getting into scrapes... Most of them take place in fantasy worlds or in the past, so the period costumes are another reason why I am hooked on them.
So far, I could only dream of otome games, which were non-existent here in backwater Spain until the brand Shall we date? made itself known in Western cyberspace, and I downloaded two of its visual novels...
My Fairy Tales, which is basically with male versions of fairytale princesses, and Wizardess Heart, set in a boarding sorcery school like Hogwarts but set in a Victorian fantasy world and without the house system (I wish Wizardess Heart had got the house system!)
Here are my crushes from these novels:
Sean White, from My Fairy Tales:
This is, basically, a male Snow White.
A dethroned prince who fled his jealous stepfather's court and found shelter in the deep dark woods.
He is very innocent, kind, and generous, especially to the woodland animals and to the two littlepeople he lives with, but he is insecure of whether he will make a good ruler.
Currently, he is perfectly contented with his life, but his past and his stepfather the Wicked King may catch up with him...
Wicked King Aster: usurper, poisoner, and the antagonist of this story.
The spirit in the magic mirror on the wall...
The littlepeople, Ruben and Toto.
Randy March, from Wizardess Heart:
An aloof, misunderstood eccentric who still acts like a child, in spite of being in his late teens. Loves cute things, bright colours, and sweets. His experiments are always surprising and bring unexpected results! I'd like to think of him as a younger M. Gustave (from The GBH) or a male Luna Lovegood. Which means he is kindred spirits with me.
