Aron 2 Blue

Since no one reads my blog, I'm always excited to see some comments. Right now, 2 out of 3 are spam. Sigh. But at least I figured out how to delete a comment: sign in to Blogger, then view your blog. When viewing the comment, there's a little trash-can icon, which will delete the comment.

I stayed up late to finish this book. I was surprised by that, because I didn't think I would be engaged with the book during the first 1/3... I would recommend it. Ista is a 'dowager Royina' who has been touched by a god. There are several interesting variations on fantasy themes that are explored and expanded skillfully. Five gods, mother father son daughter and Bastard, with the mischievous Bastard getting the attention here. Magic flows from demons, which start as elementals and gradually absorb qualities and skills from their hosts, often animals at first, jumping to a new host when the old one dies. They can be controlled by a person for a long time, creating sorcerers, until they loose control.... The gods get involved in human affairs by giving abilities and directives to people. Ista has had a bad experience in the past with this, and now resists the Bastard trying to draw her in again. She starts on a pilgrimage and ends up in a border fortress, trying to unravel ...

As good as the visual effects were in Avatar, the plot was a wreck. I was going to fill this out right after I saw it, but I give up, since it's been done in so many other places. It seems strange how the well-trodden path taken by the plot doesn't seem to hurt this movie. It doesn't help it a whole lot, either. I was most bothered by the frontal assault of the cavalry on the ground against the mecha. That was just dumb, something even a grunt marine should know was futile.