Dopplegangland

Written by Erin Bow

I offer you three reasons why Plain Kate is a fantastic book…

(1) PLAIN KATE IS EVOCATIVE — The setting is a mystical eastern Europe/Poland/Ukraine-ish place, straight out of fables and folklore. It smells & tastes of cottages, deep & impenentrable forests, well worn cobblestones, and forgotten streams. You could swear that the aroma of baking bread, wet & muddy clothing, and harsh buring embers fills your nostrils as you read through the novel…every page, every scene wraps you in the layers of a world not our own, yet so very familiar.

(2) PLAIN KATE IS EPIC — Sometimes, this epicness lies in the plot (such as the ultimate goal of the witch Linay…read it and find out what it is). Sometimes, the epicness lies in the cast of characters (it’s actually surprisingly how many of them populate the book)…even background extras are given moments to shine, as if you knew them & what they are about, with a single line. Ultimatlely, the most epic aspect of the book is the language. Playful, seductive, witty…descriptions dance off the page, with not a single word wasted.

(3) PLAIN KATE IS TERRIFYING — There are moments where your heart pounds, your anger builds, your frustration mounts. Kate goes through several levels of personal hell: her helplessness, her determination, her ordeals will take your breath away. Most of these involve the character of Linay…a witch with enough emotional baggage to damn the St. Lawrence River. Just when you think he’s simply mischevious, sly & non-chalant…he transforms into something dark, duplicitous, cunning, and Machiavellian in a way that would make the real Machiavelli hide under his bed and wish his name had never become an adjective. He is one of the single best villains I have ever had the privilege of reading…IF he really IS a villain, that is…

Plain Kate is a novel that might be marketed as Young Adult, but like the best Doctor Who novels, like the works of Philip Pullman & Neil Gaiman, it transcends categories and labels, and is simply a gorgeous, awe-inspiring adventure. It’s not for reading…it’s for “experiencing”.

Yes, there has been a re-design. Primarily because I have found that my blog doesn’t seem to read well on some people’s browsers. Therefore, in order to prevent large grey blocks blotting out my text, I have been granted some design tweaks.

The only disadvantage to this transformation is that many of my older posts will look a bit odd, now that the space for my text has increased…causing many of my carefully arranged pictures and text blocks of old to look like crazy paving. I doubt I’ll ever be able to fix all the previous posts (I’m pushing 1500 over six plus years), so do forgive me if some older items look like my baby niece has been given access to them.

Anyhow, time to adapt to this new paradigm…

(1) ATTEND ON A SUNDAY — The crowd is huge, but much more tolerable than Saturday, which was unbearable last year. Based on anecdotal evidence at THIS convetion, this year’s Saturday attendance was nearly riotous!

(2) PRE-PURCHASE YOUR TICKET ONLINE — the line up to enter is smaller, quicker, and your life will be MUCH easier in the long run. Last year, I stood in line for two hours with my VERY pregnant sister…on a SATURDAY! I will never make such a mistake again.

(3) ARRIVE REASONABLY EARLY — even with the pre-purchase, you’ll still find yourself in a line. Make it as short a wait as possible.

(4) TAKE LOTS OF CASH — the autographs and photos cost money, and they expect you to have it READY at all times (convention staff specializes in shrewishness). Many of the dealers don’t take credit cards, or charge American prices…cash will be your saviour.

(5) MAKE PEACE WITH PARTING WITH YOUR CASH — you think getting an autograph and/or a photo with James Marsters or William Shatner will be free? If you want the goods, resign yourself to purchasing them.

(6) MAKE PEACE WITH LINE UPS — anywhere from 45 minutes to 2 hours, if you’re lucky. Take (or buy) some reading material.

(7) GO WITH FRIENDS — they can help with line ups (nothing beats taking shifts), and if it’s their first time EVER at a convention, their unabashed joy at discovering the Mecca of geekdom will rub off on you!

(8) TAKE A BAG OR THREE — many of the dealers don’t provide them.

Follow these instructions, and you will have as pleasant an experience as you can possibly imagine. It was 11 exhausting but worthwhile hours…and it was MUCH better than last year’s gong show extraordinaire! Now, all I have to do is relax and wait for my picture with William Shatner to arrive in the mail…

Well, it’s the biggest geek news in ages…and it’s been a very LONG time in the making. The 8th Doctor - Paul McGann - and his TV movie, coming to Region 1 DVD at last!

You can find the concise report at the Doctor Who news site, but I offer below a simple summation of the issue, courtesy of the always informative Doctor Who North American DVD FAQ…

Over 14 years after its production and broadcast, the Doctor Who TV Movie starring Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor will finally see release in North America!!!

2entertain’s Commissioning Editor Dan Hall revealed this surprise news on the “Hoo on Who” podcast (available on iTunes) on August 25. He was successful in negotiating release rights for this production outside of the UK that had previously been held by the co-producers of the TV Movie, Universal Television. This clears the way for a release in North America by BBC Worldwide Americas.

The version that will see release is a new edition that will be available in the UK in October as part of what they’re calling the Revisitations Box Set, where three previously available titles are being re-released together with boosted extra features. The McGann TV Movie is one of them. It (and the others) will be released (likely separately) in North America sometime in 2011.

For those of you who don’t know, “the TV Movie” as it is called was a one-off attempt to revive Doctor Who in 1996 as a “back door pilot” for the Fox Network in the U.S. It was a co-production by Universal Television, BBC Worldwide Americas, and Fox. In it, we see the Seventh Doctor regenerate into the Eighth, and embark on an adventure to save the Earth from being destroyed by the TARDIS after the Master opens its power source, on the eve of the new millennium. Ratings on Fox were not strong enough to warrant a series, and nothing else happened with the TV rights until 2005, although the McGann Eighth Doctor continued on in the spinoff fiction of original novels, audio dramas, and comic strips, all of which will be highlighted in the extra features on the upcoming DVD.

To say most North American Doctor Who fans were shocked & delighted by this announcement is an understatement.

I’ve previously analysed the 8th Doctor movie in the last of my Essential Classic Doctor Who posts, so I’ll offer my own hearty thanks to Dan Hall & 2/E Entertainment in the UK for managing something most of us thought would be impossible. Love it or hate it, the 1996 telefilm has been sorely missing from the Doctor Who DVD collection in the USA and Canada…and I’m sure a decade of built-up desire will lead to some solid sales figures. Paul McGann deserves his day in the sun, on the continent where his Doctor first premiered…

…to say nothing of finally giving Sylvester McCoy’s swan song full exposure!

Two more books from the reading pile to review…

ALEXANDER THE GREAT: JOURNEY TO THE END OF THE EARTH

Written by Norman F. Cantor

Damn Norman Cantor and his mastery of succinct writing!

In every Cantor book I’ve read, he has managed to condense a large topic into a concise, readable, straightforward, entertaining and informative work that tells you everything you need to know on the topic being covered, without disappearing down boring, irrelevant, or confusing tangents. Alexander the Great is no different: it’s the best all-in-one guide you’ll ever need for one of history’s most famous individuals.

My only complaint is that he tries to raise certain parallels to the modern world that are extremely pointed and fascinating…but they DO threaten to take us down one of those tangents Cantor usually avoids. Frankly, the modern-day Afghanistan-compared-to-Alexander’s-Afghanistan is a thick book begging to be written…hopefully by Cantor himself. But at the last moment, it threatens to pull the reader out of what is an engrossing-yet-concise summation of the ancient world’s most famous warlord.

Engrossing is the key word. For such a short book, it’s packed with a multitude of cultural, social, economic, and anthropological detail…so much so that you can’t quite believe it’s all been successfully compressed into such a compact work. Neverthess, this a book that every student of antquity shouldn’t do without…and it’s easily my favourite Norman Cantor book to date.

1492: THE YEAR THE WORLD BEGAN

Written by Felipe Fernandez-Armesto

It tries to be a Norman Cantor book…but it makes the mistake Cantor avoids.

The thesis at the heart of 1492 — and one I’m inclined to agree with — is that the year marks the end of the isolation that deliniates the ancient world from the modern world. Thanks to the mass migration, exploration, and explusion of peoples across Europe, Asia, and the Atlantic Ocean, the end result is the cross-cultural contamination & exchange that would eventually form the basis of our modern, inter-connected world. The evidence is divided into discreet, geographical and biographical chapters that support this thesis with great alacrity.

But just as the reader becomes engrossed in the argument, the author’s enthusiasm begins to take him down paths that scream “tangent”. The detours aren’t exactly boring, but they reduce the thrust of the argument by getting too bogged down in tiny details and relationships that try too hard to provide extra background colour. In the end, they simply slow down the narrative.

It’s a solid work, and it’s one that proves to be invaluable to the study of the period. But if it had only been tightened up at the editing stage, it would be even more effective as a tool of scholarship, and as an enjoyable read in its own right. Slow and steady may win the race on many occasions, but sometimes you can be too slow for your own good.