Twilight: Journey Into the Abyss (Part Sixteen)

After a number of breaks, both intentional and otherwise, I’m finally back, rested, out of the hospital, and ready to get this blog back on track.  Without further ado:

Chapter Ten (continued)

Lack of coherence: ‘“As it happens, I don't mind being alone with you.’

‘I know,’ he sighed, brooding.”

Either Steph doesn’t know what brooding is or Edward is sulking and being unhappy about something that actually makes him happy, causing some sort of emo-rift in the time-space continuum.  

Or Edward is just being his normal, poorly written, completely baffling, inconsistent self.

Probably that last one.

Troubling signs: You know, if it didn’t happen so often maybe I would be less worried, but I can’t help notice that Edward is displaying what you might call rather clear signs of being a frighteningly fierce control freak.

During their lunchtime conversation, Bella shows only a slight hint of disobeying his all-important will and “his eyes were suddenly fierce” and “he exhaled angrily and looked away”.  

He turns into a pissed-off three-year-old every time he doesn’t get his way.

I’m not exactly an expert on these matters, but this does not look to me like it is sowing the seeds for a healthy relationship.

Sibling rivalry: “As I cast my eyes around the room, I caught the eyes of his sister, Alice, staring at me. The others were looking at Edward.”

What, is she afraid of a little competition?  

Can’t these freaks mind their own business and let their freak of a brother get his freak on with Bella the little emo freak?

That familiar face: "’Why did you go to that Goat Rocks place last weekend... to hunt? Charlie said it wasn't a good place to hike, because of bears.’

[Edward] stared at me as if I was missing something very obvious.”

I’m guessing that’s a look he gives you on a fairly regular basis.  

Honestly, I think you might just want to get used to it, Bella.  You certainly don’t seem to be catching on any quicker.  

Mmmm... delicious forest animals: "’Bears?’ I repeated with difficulty.

‘Grizzly is Emmett's favorite.’”

As funny as this line is on its own, it took me a minute to realize that, in addition to being humorous, it also doesn’t make any sense.  

Well, unless grizzly bear blood happens to taste wildly different from black bear blood.  

Come to think of it, for all I know it might.  I think maybe I’ll just try not to think about it too hard.

He murders kitties!: "’So... what's your favorite?’

He raised an eyebrow and the corners of his mouth turned down in disapproval. ‘Mountain lion.’"

Dude!  That’s an endangered species!  

Edward’s favorite food is an animal dangerously close to being wiped off of the face of the earth by humans, even without the help of slobbering, self-interested vampires.  

Control your appetite, man.

On the other hand, if the mountain lions do disappear we can just blame it on the vampires and erase our own blame.

Hey, everyone needs a good scapegoat.

Mmmm...  scapegoat.  Sounds tasty.

Sick pleasure: "’Early spring is Emmett's favorite bear season — they're just coming out of hibernation, so they're more irritable.’

‘Nothing more fun than an irritated grizzly bear,’ I agreed, nodding.”

There’s just no way around it.  Edward and Bella make one hell of a fucked up couple.  

Weirdos.

Chapter Eleven (finally)

Beautiful nostalgia: “Mr. Banner backed into the room then ... pulling [sic] a tall metal frame on wheels that held a heavy-looking, outdated TV and VCR. A movie day — the lift in the class atmosphere was almost tangible.”

After all the terrible things this book has done to me, it finally gives me something decidedly pleasurable: nostalgia for the good old movie day.  

It didn’t matter how terrifically boring the movie was.  Back in the day, just the sight of an old, busted TV like that made the day instantly better.  Having to take notes on it always sucked, but even that was infinitely better than actually having to listen to the teacher.

Ah, the good old days.

Call the electrician: “And then, as the room went black, I was suddenly hyperaware that Edward was sitting less than an inch from me. I was stunned by the unexpected electricity that flowed through me...”

He had stuck my finger in the nearby electrical socket when I wasn’t looking.  I guess he thought it would make things easier for him if he just fried me now and got me out of his way.

He’s just wonderful that way.

I couldn’t wait to see his disappointed smirk when he walked into the emergency room and saw that I was still alive.  

He was such a beautiful face when he’s brooding.

*Swoon*

Public service announcement: “A crazy impulse to reach over and touch him, to stroke his perfect face just once in the darkness, nearly overwhelmed me. I crossed my arms tightly across my chest, my hands balling into fists. I was losing my mind.”

This, boys and girls, is a perfect example of a classic case of unhealthy obsession.  

Yes, Bella, you are indeed losing your mind.

If you or anyone you know begins to display signs of unhealthy obsession, please call our toll free hotline at 1-800-CRAZYBITCH and one of our trained volunteer staff members will do their best to bring you out of your frighteningly obsessed stupor by slapping you upside the head multiple times until you come out of your daze and realize that you have a serious problem and need to come back down to earth before you throw your life away on some crazy whim.

Act now.  It may not be too late.

Except for Bella.  Clearly she’s a hopeless case at this point.

Don’t be like Bella.  

Job theft: “[Edward] grinned back, his eyes somehow managing to smolder, even in the dark. I looked away before I could start hyperventilating. It was absolutely ridiculous that I should feel dizzy.”

Steph is stealing my job away from me.  This isn’t the first time she’s commented on the stupidity of her own character’s reactions within the text of her own story.

I could almost swear she knows how bad her writing really is and is just toying with me.

Poke?: “The overpowering craving to touch him also refused to fade...”

Poke.  Poke.  Poke.

Come on.  You know you want to.

...

Oh, that kind of touching.  

I see.

Speechless: Okay, seriously, I’m just going to let this last bit of text stand on its own.  I think it may be the worst couple of paragraphs I’ve ever read in my entire life.

No joke.

Read it for yourself, if you dare.  You’ll see what I mean.

“I turned to say goodbye. His face startled me — his expression was torn, almost pained, and so fiercely beautiful that the ache to touch him flared as strong as before. My goodbye stuck in my throat.

He raised his hand, hesitant, conflict raging in his eyes, and then swiftly brushed the length of my cheekbone with his fingertips. His skin was as icy as ever, but the trail his fingers left on my skin was alarmingly warm — like I'd been burned, but didn't feel the pain of it yet.”

Jesus Christ, Bella!  You’re just leaving him to go to gym class, not seeing leave on a boat to fight in World War II.

Settle down.  Damn.

Queen of the melodrama, this one.

I said I was going to let this one stand on its own didn’t I?

Oh well.

Continue to Part Seventeen

Book Review - Mass Effect: Revelation

You could safely say that I wasn’t expecting much out of Mass Effect: Revelation.

I don’t even remember buying the book. It’s been sitting on my shelf for something like two years now.

I don’t remember what was going through my mind when I bought it, other than, “Hey, Mass Effect is a decent game, let’s see what this hack writer managed to do with it,” not realizing that said hack writer was, in fact, Drew, Karpyshyn, the writer/designer for Bioware, who worked on not only the story of Mass Effect itself, but also on Knights of the Old Republic.

So Mr. Author was not exactly a hack.

Still, I think I could be forgiven for my assumptions. It is a book based off of a video game property.

How could that possibly end well?

Sure the video game property it’s based on has one of the better stories seen in modern gaming. Sure the author of the novel is working on the game itself.

But let’s face it, these cross media transitions rarely result in products digestible by your average human.

I don’t know why I decided to finally start reading it the other day, but whatever the reason, you could say I was a bit surprised that the thing wasn’t utter crap.

Mass Effect: Revelation will not usher in a new era of sci-fi storytelling. It will not go down as a hallmark classic in the genre. It probably won’t even be remembered as a stunningly written example of science fiction.

And for good reason. It’s not any of those things.

The story isn’t original. The writing style doesn’t jump out at you. Some of the plot devices are awkward and forced.

But what the reader is left with is a perfectly enjoyable piece of fiction.

Perhaps the most impressive thing about Mass Effect: Revelation is related to the reason it exists in the first place. The reason the book was written was to provide an introduction to the massive universe of Mass Effect in the form of a book. It was essentially a peek into the world of the upcoming game prior to its release.

It would be easy to assume that such a work would be more concerned with introducing races and worlds and historical elements than with telling a unique tale that stands on its own.

Indeed, exposition does sometimes get in the way and make the book feel a little clunkier than it might have otherwise. On the whole though, it’s impressive how little it obstructs the flow of the story. I came away feeling that the book was no less clunky than most other average science fiction novels. Considering the burden placed upon this particular title in terms of positioning and marketing, this is a fairly impressive achievement.

The thing that bothered me the most about Mass Effect: Revelation had relatively little to do with the marketing aspects of the novel. The most troubling element of the book’s construction to me is that the author has a rather annoying tendency to spastically jump from one character’s perspective to another.

In a longer novel this might have been acceptable, but a novel of only just over 300 pages does not feel substantial enough to support the number of viewpoint characters that this book asks the reader to follow. Having four or five viewpoint characters in such a small novel felt erratic - as if the author were using this technique as a crutch to deliver information he had no other way of getting across.

While the story as a whole is reasonably interesting in an “average science fiction/action romp” kind of way, none of the characters are interesting or unique enough on their own to support the book. You really do have to be hooked in by the Mass Effect universe for this book to hook you.

With that said, it’s possible that this book alone might fulfill its intended purpose and suck you into the universe and make you want to experience more of it.

The erratic multiple character perspective may be a detriment to the book’s attempt at storytelling, but it does allow for a more in-depth look at aspects of the universe that we wouldn’t have gotten to see any other way.

Another fear I had when picking up Mass Effect: Revelation is that it would feel outdated and unnecessary by this point in time since the actual game has now been released. I guess I expected it to be a giant, redundant tutorial for the universe.

Thankfully, I do not feel that this was the case. There was plenty of material shared between book and game, but the book did not spend so much of its time on any of these elements that it became annoying. Some of the material was presented from a fresh perspective that made it interesting all over again, and there were plenty of details about the universe I learned only from the book.

Keep in mind that this is all coming from the perspective of someone who hasn’t played the game in many a long month and, in fact, never finished it in the first place, so perhaps I do not represent your average reader of Mass Effect: Revelation.

The novel does tie nicely into the game’s story line, but in an enjoyable fashion that I didn’t think was jarring It tells an unrelated side story that sets up some key elements for the game to come while at the same time acceptably wrapping up its own plot arc.

Not every book needs to be the second coming of its genre. Mass Effect Revelation is a book I could nitpick to death if I tried, but I won’t because that would be missing the point.

This is a short, somewhat forgettable book, but I had a good time reading it, it presented the wonderfully compelling Mass Effect universe from a different perspective than that given to us in the games, and it provided a decent story of its own. It was a little erratic and told from one too many viewpoints, but was compelling enough to see the book through to the end while giving us a look at how the events in the game came to be.

If I do manage to finish the game, I would have no hesitation in picking up the second Mass Effect novel and seeing where it takes me. From someone who went into the book expecting a cheap marketing gimmick, I’d say that’s decent enough praise.

Mass Effect Revelation makes me curious to see how well it stacks up against other video game to book adaptations. Maybe I’ll do a little exploring and see whether it gets any better than this.

If you are into both books and video games, or have any sort of interest in sci-fi or the Mass Effect universe at all, I’d recommend giving Revelation a shot. It won’t blow you out of the water, but it will likely keep you entertained for the short time it’ll take you to read it and give you a great excuse to spend more time in the world of Mass Effect.

It’s a bit clunky, a bit unwieldy, a bit forgettable, and a bit predictable, but it’s fun. In this case, I think that’s good enough to warrant a recommendation.

Even from a hardened critic like myself.

Twilight: Journey Into the Abyss (Part Twelve)

Chapter Nine (continued)

Clumsy/hilarious: “‘You were going to fight them?’ This upset him. ‘Didn't you think about running?’
‘I fall down a lot when I run,’ I admitted."

Best. Excuse. Ever.

A true first: “We were in front of Charlie's house. The lights were on, my truck in its place, everything utterly normal. It was like waking from a dream.”

I can honestly say that this is the first time in my life full of consuming stories that I have really and truly wished for the “wake up from a dream” ending.

???: "’Bella? ... Will you promise me something? ... Don't go into the woods alone."

What is this, Friday the 13th?

Not that I don’t wish it were. This book could really use some more needless death.

...Especially Bella’s.

Predictions of the predictable future: “This [not going into the woods], at least, was an easy promise to honor.”

Well, I know where Bella’s going in the very near future by herself.

You just mark my words.

Unintended consequences: “I turned and he was leaning toward me, his pale, glorious face just inches from mine. My heart stopped beating.”

I stood there for a moment, a lustful smile creeping onto my face, then collapsed on the ground in an uncomfortable heap.

I don’t remember much from the trip to the hospital.

They said Edward had panicked and dumped me on the sidewalk in front of Charlie’s house. Luckily Charile was up that night doing something particularly boring as normal and heard the commotion. He was the one that actually took me to the hospital and saved my life and stuff.

I still don’t like him.

I only wish I could have been there to see Edward abandon me. I’m sure his eyes looked dreamy and half-worried as he quickly dumped me on the ground and ran away, every step a picture of grace.

The whole post-date cardiac arrest thing did get the rest of the school gossiping for quite a while though. Don’t those stupid hicks know that’s a perfectly normal reaction to being obsessively infatuated with Edward?

Sheesh. Bunch of weirdos.

Minty fresh: “‘Sleep well,’ he said. His breath blew in my face, stunning me.”

Dude, get a breath mint! What the hell man? I was all into you too and you had to go and ruin it with your stinky breath.

Seriously though, Bella goes on to say that his breath smelled wonderful because it contained the same scent as his jacket.

WTF?

Whose breath smells the same as their clothing? Does this guy order sides of leather with his animal blood?

What a pair these two make.

A desire to nitpick: “‘Hello?’ I asked breathlessly.”

I really want to nitpick here about the fact that it’s technically impossible to ask anything while lacking the breath required for human speech, but Twilight is hardly the first book I’ve read to use this stupid speech tag so, as much as I want to, I can’t hold it against Steph in particular.

Damn.

Little white lies: Jess: “‘Bella?’
Bella: ‘Hey, Jess, I was just going to call you.’

Well, I was, but then I remembered that I hate you. Then I decided not to.

The cold, it burns: “It wasn't until I was in the shower — the water too hot, burning my skin — that I realized I was freezing.”

A few minutes after finally figuring out that I was cold, I realized that I had forgotten to turn on the cold water in the shower at all and now had third degree burns all over me. I chided myself for being so forgetful. A little while later I decided a few horrified screams of pain might be appropriate, so I let loose.

Self-comfort: “I dressed for bed swiftly and climbed under my quilt, curling into a ball, hugging myself to keep warm.”

Yes Bella, keep telling yourself that the cold is the reason you’re curled into a ball hugging yourself at night, not the fact that you’ve fallen in love with a goddamn vampire and are now totally screwed.

An inside look: “My mind still swirled dizzily, full of images I couldn't understand...”

Now I know what it's like to be a ditz.

ZING!

To recap: “About three things I was absolutely positive. First, Edward was a vampire. Second, there was part of him — and I didn't know how potent that part might be — that thirsted for my blood. And third, I was unconditionally and irrevocably in love with him.”

See, if you had just said all of this earlier, we could have saved ourselves an entire chapter.

Bella does have quite a talent for obvious restatement, however. She should find a way to put that talent to good use.

Maybe she should try being a writer or something.

Chapter Ten

Inner conflict: “It was very hard, in the morning, to argue with the part of me that was sure last night was a dream.”

This was primarily because that part of me was busy arguing with the part of me that kept trying to insist I shouldn’t be arguing with myself like this.

“It’s not healthy!” she kept saying. “People will think you’re crazy!”

Stupid part of me. What does she know?

Doom and gloom: “It was foggy and dark outside my window, absolutely perfect.”

Freakin’ goth chicks. Weirdos.

Friends in the sky: “Hopefully the rain would hold off until I could find Jessica.”

Luckily I’m fast friends with the rain god, Ishkur, so I can probably pull a favor for this one.

He owes me.

Foggy with fog: “It was unusually foggy; the air was almost smoky with it.”

Smoky with fog? Could you possibly come up with any more redundant of a descriptor than that? Wow. The master of truly creative pose as always, Steph.

I love how the air is “almost” smoky with it. Not quite, but almost. The air was so close to being smoky with fog that you could almost taste it, but alas, it was just plain old foggy.

Contradictory weather: “It was such a thick fog that I was a few feet down the driveway before I realized there was a car in it: a silver car.”

Let me get this straight. The fog is not even to the point where you’d consider it “smoky,” but it’s so thick that you can’t see more than a few feet down the driveway?

Someone’s being a little inconsistent again.

She needs a hotline: “‘Do you want to ride with me today?’ he [Edward] asked.... He was really giving me a choice — I was free to refuse, and part of him hoped for that.”

How is Edward the one with mind reading powers, again? Bella is displaying psychic abilities that would make Miss Cleo jealous. She can read Edward’s mind like a book.

A poorly written book, anyway.

Uncanny insight: “I frowned. ‘Do I react badly?’
Edward: ‘No, that's the problem. You take everything so coolly — it's unnatural. It makes me wonder what you're really thinking.’”

Here, Edward displays a frankly unnerving ability to point out a problem with the book that even Steph didn’t seem to catch on to. Even though Steph wrote Edward’s character....

Hmm....

You’d really think she’d learn from... herself.

Continue to Part Thirteen

Twilight - Journey Into the Abyss (Part Eleven)

Note: Many, many thanks go out to my roommate, Bryan, and his significant other, Anna, for obtaining the wonderful item you see in the above photo for me during a recent trip.  I absolutely adore it.  

Chapter Nine (continued)

Shattered Dreams: All right, so you know those myths about vampires? You know, every single vampire myth ever? The thing that makes a vampire a vampire and not a weird shiny thing with superpowers that just happens to drink blood like an overgrown mosquito?

Yeah, throw all of those out the window. They’re not welcome here.

Creatures of the night? Nope.

Burned by the sun? Nope.

Sleep in coffins? Nope.

Apparently the Twilight breed of “vampires” actually do drink blood, but that is the single solitary thing I can find that ties them even somewhat to the mythical creature that the rest of the world has been featuring in other legends and pieces of fiction for perhaps hundreds of years.

Well, okay, that and a long, possibly immortal life span.

There, I found two things. Are you happy now?

It really is enough to make one wonder why Steph chose vampires for this ridiculous story in the first place. I mean, I’ve heard of taking a familiar concept and reinventing it, but usually when that’s done there’s, oh I don’t know, some sort of reason for it.

Here it seems totally arbitrary. Edward might as well be labelled a superhero or a mutant or something for the random mishmash of various qualities that have been slapped on him. There’s no apparent underlying philosophy behind the vampire reinvention. She just seems to tack on whatever features are most convenient for her sappy story.

Beautiful slumber: “He hesitated for a moment, and a peculiar tone entered his voice. ‘I can't sleep.’

It took me a minute to absorb that. ‘At all?’

‘Never," he said.’”

Well... I sort of can, but only vicariously. I’ve been meaning to talk to you about that. You, uh... you might want to close your windows at night.

Those pesky details: “‘You aren't concerned about my diet?’ he asked sarcastically.

‘Oh,’ I murmured, "that.’”

Yeah, the tiny little part where the boy sitting next to you DRINKS FREAKING BLOOD AND IS A VAMPIRE.

That part.

This should be fun: Now Mr. Golden-Eyed Dreamboat is attempting to explain why, despite all outward appearances, he’s actually still dangerous.

This should be good.

Well, come to think of it, there is the whole part where he’s a schizophrenic, obsessive, psychic, maniac vampire. That might qualify.

Change the game tape, please: “I watched the headlights twist with the curves of the road. They moved too fast; it didn't look real, it looked like a video game.”

They looked like a video game: the most boring video game EVER MADE.

Adventures in improper usage: I’ve heard of being “terribly afraid” before. I’ve even heard of being “wonderfully afraid”.

This distinctly marks the first time, however, that I have heard of being “hideously afraid”.

Being both hideous and afraid I can understand (a condition which our little Bella just might fulfill - ba dum tish), but being “hideously afraid” is a state I’m afraid I just can’t wrap my head around.

No kidding: “...openly, the walls between us gone for once.”

Yeah, in nine long-ass chapters. Tell me about it. I’m just as relieved as you are, Bella.

Place your bets: “I realized my eyes were wet, and I fought against the grief that was

trying to overpower me.”

I’d like to place $10 on grief, please.

Come on, grief! Go grief! Overpower her! You can do it! We’re all counting on you, little guy!

Disturbingly unfunny: [Referring to feeding off of animals instead of humans] “‘But animals aren't enough?’

He paused. "I can't be sure, of course, but I'd compare it to living on tofu and soy milk;

we call ourselves vegetarians, our little inside joke.”

Hahaha.

Haha.

Heh...

...

Ummm....

*Gulp*

Woah: Bella: “‘Why didn't you want to leave?’

Edward: ‘It makes me… anxious… to be away from you.’”

Wow. I knew Edward was a freaky stalker, but that’s way beyond weird.

Whuh?: “His eyes were gentle but intense, and they seemed to be making my bones turn soft.”

LOOK OUT! Edward’s stare gives you a degenerative bone disease! Avoid his gaze at all costs lest you melt into a little puddle of skin on the floor.

And gentle, but intense? Really? Those are, quite literally, two completely opposite states at the same time. I know this dude’s got a lot of powers (including the apparent ability to inflict degenerative diseases by looking at people), but I think this is a bit much even for him.

Snicker: “‘Well, you asked if the sun hurt me, and it doesn't. But I can't go out in the sunlight — at least, not where anyone can see.’”

Awww, does poor little Edward have self confidence problems?

“‘Why?’

‘I'll show you sometime,’ he promised.”

Now this is a moment I really and truly can’t wait for. My sunglasses are at the ready.

You know what they say: “‘Don't you see, Bella? It's one thing for me to make myself miserable, but a wholly other thing for you to be so involved.’”

Hey, misery loves company, right? You two would be perfect for each other. Trust me. Go for it.

Role reversal: “‘What are you thinking?’ he asked.”

Hey, isn’t that supposed to be her line? At least, that’s what terrible romantic comedies have told me should be the case.

And terrible romantic comedies are never wrong.

Predictable tears: “‘Are you crying?’ He sounded appalled. ...sure enough, traitor tears were there, betraying me.”

Damn those traitor tears.

Damn them to hell.

So cute: Man, I can’t tell you how adorable this scene is. Poor Steph is just trying so hard to write a serious scene with lots of building tension and regret and budding romance not to be.

It’s just so cute how hard she tries.

You can’t blame her for lack of effort though, I’ll give her that much. She really is digging deep into shallow pool of emotional depth to try and make this work.

The fact that it doesn’t is not at all surprising, but reading her failure is just so much fun.

Continue to Part Twelve

Yes, I’m a terrible person.