Warnings: moderate violence, spoilers for Prince of Persia: Sands of Time

Summary: A foolhardy man has only himself to blame for his woes. It takes a reason to turn a  foolhardy man into a great man. Dustan has many Reasons.

Music: Linkin Park: New Divide

Story: Dustan jumps into action with no thought of how those actions will affect those he loves. When everything dear to him is taken, he fights to understand whats happened, and turns back the clock to stop his own madness.

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The new Ultimate Fantasies sequence (Orion) gave me a good excuse to explore the Golden Age of Fantasy. Some of these titles I had already read – albeit as a boy – and others I had come to by proxy, as in the case of Conan, familiar with the character through comic books and film. There is, of course, the Fantasy Masterworks Series, which includes these eight volumes in the Ultimate Fantasies sequence. Nevertheless, arranged chronologically, the Ultimate Fantasies sequence presents an excellent overview of the genre and a basic map of its evolution.

An interesting consequence of this journey was a deeper understanding of influence in fiction. From the outset, I could read between the fairy-dusted pages of Lud-in-the-Mist and see the seeds of other novels, whether these seeds were intentional, actual or not. Bilbo Baggins appears to have had a ruddy-cheeked forebear in Nathaniel Chanticleer, the pot bellied, daydreaming mayor of Lud. The fairy fruit smugglers upset Mayor Chanticleer’s everyday world in an anarchic manner I’d not encountered since An Unexpected Party. And in Lud, it seems, are the ripples that later touched such magical tales as Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange and Neil Gaiman’s Stardust.

Moving into the 1930’s and beyond, Robert E.Howard’s Conan comes swinging his sword out of Cimmeria and into the pulps, giving birth to a different kind of Fantasy, the savagery of the Hyborian Age. As mentioned, I came to these stories backwards, through a tattered collection of Marvel Comics, L.Sprague de Camp novels, Schwarzenegger’s oafish screen rendition (which, as it happens, bears little in common with the fictional character) until finally coming to drink from the source. One of Lovecraft’s regular pen pals, when Robert E.Howard writes of the Old Gods beyond the stars, whose remnants haunt the primitive lands of Zamora, Koth, and Shem, the influence of Howard the Elder is clear. Lovecraft describes the Conan tales as ‘pure adventure yarns’, and he wasn’t wrong. My imagination roamed free through guileless forests, climbed bejewelled towers to carry out unsophisticated robberies and face magicians in unaffected conflicts.  In hindsight, time has lent Conan a darker edge. My eyebrow lifted more than once over the apparent racism

peppered in the narrative. In The Vale of Lost Women (not published in Howard’s lifetime), there is an unashamed reference to ‘black sluts’. At one point, Conan even remarks, 'I am not such a dog as to leave a white woman in the clutches of a black man’. I’m aware that Howard has faced such criticism before, but to my mind these stories remain classic, and as misguided products of their age, perhaps we should not judge them too harshly. Robert E.Howard committed suicide aged 30 and the world and the genre lost a gem.

1954 saw the publication of Poul Anderson’s The Broken Sword. In retrospect, the tale seems almost wilfully naïve. A sweeping epic that draws heavily from Norse myth in a more direct fashion than Lord of the Rings, Anderson captured the flavour of those myths with energetic narrative and lyrical prose. Faery changeling Skafloc, embroiled in a long war between the elves and trolls, seeks to remake the cursed sword Tyrfing, despite warnings of tragedy to come. In that tragedy, there appears to be a stark prototype of Michael Moorcock’s Stormbringer – a blade that must draw blood whenever it is drawn, that screams and sings and will one day turn upon its wielder. Moorcock nods at The Broken Sword as an influence, but Anderson’s novel lacks the cosmic scope and depth of emotion of the Elric tales, and it seems to me that Moorcock merely enhanced the idea. From the vantage point of this progressive age of Steampunk, New Weird and Dark Fantasy, I found it interesting to come across clichés before they had become so, and in light of that, I very much enjoyed The Broken Sword.

©Boris Vallejo

The innocence of these early stories starts to give way under the wit of Fritz Leiber. Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser first appeared in 1939 and their published adventures span five decades. A favourite of my youth, revisiting Lankhmar, The City of Seven Score Thousand Smokes, was nothing less than a thrill. Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser were as vivid as I remembered them, their boldness and bravado unchanged. Not to mention their dry humour and sarcasm. Leiber adopted a literary approach in crafting his stories, an approach that seems fresh even by today’s standards. He remains credited with single-handedly creating Sword and Sorcery, the first – but far from the last – offshoot of the modern genre. Fantasy was changing, keeping pace with more cynical times, and the mythically based tales of yore made way for those of a less haughty flavour. In the verbal sparring of the red haired barbarian and scrawny wizard thief, there is still a terrific touch of maturity. When

Moorcock claimed that Leiber is ‘still the greatest writer of us all’, I felt inclined to agree with him.

With Elric, Amber and Lyonesse still to come, the Ultimate Fantasies sequence is a treat, whether read in chronological order or not. I have emerged from these books with a deeper understanding of the genre I love, but have also been tremendously inspired. These stories are the seeds which encouraged me to write, and for that, I will always be grateful.

Vive le Fantasy!

JB

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time only caught a passing interest from me.  Movies based on games tend to be a hit and miss venture.  Add that to Disneys involvement and this project had caution written all over it, that is until I watched the trailer above.

I'm now excited about Prince of Persia.  The effects looks good.  I like the use of a broader variety of weaponry especially the more exocitic ones.  The trailer does a nice job of setting up the back and forth between Dastan and Princess Tamina, even if a bit cliche.

Prince of Persia hits the theaters on May 28, 2010.

Pilot / Story:  Based on the game Prince Of Persia.  Dastan is a street urchin in 6th century Persia. Adopted by the king as his heir after showing valor in battle in hopes of keeping the king's two sons from fighting over the throne.  Dastan teams up with Princess Tamina  to rescue the Sands of Time, a gift from the gods that controls time, from the hands of the villainous nobleman, Nizam.

The Sanctuary is a place of refuge, a safe haven, for those that are different from humans.  Known as Abnormals they are non-human intelligent creatures and humans with genetic variants.  They range from the cute to the extremely dangerous.

Dr. Helen Magnus, a 157-year-old English scientist, and her team of experts run the Sanctuary.  They try to help the Abnormals and learn from them.  Working toward a peaceful existence between the humans and the Abnormals.

The show follows the adventures of Dr. Magnus and her staff as they struggle to bring harmony between the world of the humans and that of the Abnormals.  This difficult task because of the more dangerous Abnormals like Vampires and Nubbins is complicated further when the Cabal goes on the move.  A shadow organization with desires to spark a war between the humans and Abnormals the Cabal desires to see the extinction of all Abnormals.

Sanctuary is a great contemporary fantasy show with a polder society full of a wonderful array of exotic creatures.  I loved the episode with the Yeti, their portrayal of vampires and werewolves.  Sanctuary is also not afraid to tackle those social issues which makes for great speculative fiction, never being afraid of asking what if and exploring it thoroughly.

Sanctuary was originally an independent production which used a web publication model.  After their first season became a big hit the show was bought up by Sci-Fi channel.  They did some re-writes did some new shots and aired what is now referred to as the first season.

Looking Forward at Sanctuary Season 2

• Finding out what happened to Ashley Magnus, who changed after being kidnapped by the Cabal at the end of the first season.


• Many more Abnormals including an oil rig extraction.


• The conflict between the Cabal and the Sanctuary heightens.


• The Tokyo Sanctuary.

For more read:  Looking Forward At Sanctuary Season 2

Sanctuary Season 2 Trailer 1

Cast

• Helen Magnus  Played by Amanda Tapping


• Will Zimmerman Played by Robin Dunne


• Henry Foss Played by Ryan Robbins


• Kate Freelander Played by Agam Darshi


• John Druitt aka Jack the Ripper Played by Christopher Heyerdahl


• Nikola Tesla Played by Jonathan Young


• Clara Griffin Played by Christine Chatelain


• Ashley Magnus  Played by Emilie Ullerup

More on the cast and picture here

Special appearance from

• Paul McGillion bringing Wexford back from the original web series but re-imagined.


• Michael Shanks who will play Jimmy who shares similar backgrounds with Kate.  For more read: Michael Shanks will be on Sanctuary!

Watch Sanctuary Streaming Online

Overall Rating: 9.5

Merlin arrives in Camelot and learns that King Uther has forbidden magic, which is punishable by death -- yet, it is magic he uses to save the life of Arthur, the king's son.  Watch the episode streaming online above.

The Dragon’s call, the pilot show for Merlin is really well done.  It’s a great fantasy show and a well constructed pilot.  They did a wonderful job introducing thoroughly and succinctly the main character’s, establishing the setting and showing us the magic of the setting.  The writing is solid and a nice take on the Arthurian legends.

The look of Merlin is well done, I was particularly impressed with the castle used for Camelot.  The show starts out with a Camelot in the background and at first I thought ‘wow what a nice use of the mat painting effect.’  They zoom in and I was even more impressed because it still looks really nice.  Then they get up close and I realized it was not a mat painting effect but it was a real set or a real castle!  After watching a making of special I was pleased to find out that the castle is a real castle in France.  I very glad they used that for the setting because it adds so much to the believability to the show.

I really enjoyed how magic is handled in Merlin.  Fantasy shows turn me off when they claim to have magic but push for a realistic look by removing and muting most of the magic.  I’m also disappointed when a fantasy show goes so over the top with the magic that they undue the immaculate reality making it hard for me to get into the show.  In Merlin they struck a nice balance in the setting where there is magic, it occurs, it looks really nice but it is not over the top.

The characters are likeable, charming and show room for growth.  This is very promising for a pilot and I can’t wait to see what happens with Merlin, Morgana, Guinevere, Gaius, and Arthur.

Merlin is a must see for fantasy fans, and I would recommend it for everyone as well.  I look forward to watching future episodes of Merlin and am thrilled to know that the BBC are already working on the next season.

Likes

1. Very good job introducing the setting, characters, and rules.


2. The look of the magic


3. the set up for how magic works:  there are spells, enchantments and natural / elemental in nature.


4. Merlin character is likeable, charming, he has talent but unrefined, he has noble characteristics, and hot,


5. I like the shift in focus where Arthur is a spoiled noble ass and the focus is definitely shifted onto Merlin.


6. I love the introduction of Guwen with her watching from the window


7. very intrigued with Morgan and how she was set up


8. the witches spell rocked with her singing the song and stuff slowly changing


9. Merlin’s teacher being a physician / alchemist


10. the use of a real castle in France… i thought it was a matt painting effect and a really good one but they kept getting closer to the point where i realized it was a real castle.


11. good fantasy show
    
    
    
    1. two inept guards
    
    
    2. A Dragon
    
    
    3. the young adventurer in a new town picking fights without discerning who they are fighting with.
    
    
    4. lots of magic
    
    
    5. Sword play aka medieval weapon play daggers, morning star!!!, ect.
    
    
    
    

Dislikes / Concerns

1. the music is a little lighthearted at times when not necessarily appropriate like the fight scenes between Arthur and Merlin

For more read Exploring: Merlin

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Netflix lets you rent, watch and return DVDs from home - Try free for 2 weeks

Don't wait. Guarantee your seat before you go and  avoid a sold out show. Skip the box office lines and buy movie tickets at Fandango.com.

An Americanized manga, Sorcerers & Secretaries hooked me with the name. I was expecting a evil-fighting admin assistant with a pen that dissolves evil and a stapler that will fend off the most intimidating magical creature. What I found was something completely different.

Nicole is a receptionist and college student who lives her life in a dream world that she spins through writing sword and sorcery tales. We can all relate to her immediately with issues such as, an annoying mom, annoying job and coworkers, wanting to write instead of work, and everyone in her life putting down her interests by saying “that childish fantasy stuff you like”. This tale started slow for me, but won me over with its cute book references and speculative fiction inside jokes that only we understand. Although the art is very American (circa 1980’s Sunday morning newspaper comics), the drawings of the bookstore are great and had me pause for a few minutes to read the titles. One cover I especially got a chuckle from was “LARP for Beginners”. A new twist in this tale is that the cute hottie at the bookstore actually likes the geeky, book-loving, allergy girl.

The author is definitely in our demographic and should be supported for that alone. However, this is not a tale I would recommend for its excellent fantasy story. This book is not so much a fantasy story as a romance where the lead is in love with the lead character in her fantasy novel. Like Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey, the girl is wrapped up in a fantasy tale so completely that she cannot see a real guy who wants to date her. Still, an amusing, quick read and one that despite its cover warning 13+, is safe for all readers. Sorcerers and Secretaries is a great gift for your teenage cousins who are into the fantasy/romance genre.

If you enjoy this manga, you can read more about the series and download desktop images from this site: Sorcerers And Secretaries

Get your copy here from amazon and hlep support the project:

• Sorcerers & Secretaries, Volume 1


• Sorcerers & Secretaries, Volume 2

Imagine That is about A financial executive, who can’t stop his career downspiral, is invited into his daughter’s imaginary world.  While in it he finds the solutions to his problems.

I like the idea of having a movie that would celebrate the imagination and it's value  in our busy modern society.  That is why I love speculative fiction so much.  It allows me to look at a situation and ask what if.  Beyond that it allows me to put a difficult to approach situation / topic into a new context, one that is detached from myself so that I can approach it and think it through.  Imagine That appears to be a movie that is demonstrating this idea within a fantasy context.

Though I really like the premise and have hopes that the movie could show the value of celebrating our imagination, just relaxing and being silly when appropriate I also have concerns that it will focus too much on the silly, grotesque, and bathroom humor.  I love all three of these things but like my love for chocolate, too many candy bars only serves to make me sick.

Imagine That is a renter for me.  Eddie Murphy and Martin Sheen have a hit and miss track record with movies and the trailers just didn't motivate me enough to want to rush out and see it.

To watch the trailer and get more info on Imagine That and other SF movies out in June read Theater or Renter: June 2009

Let me know what you think.  Will you go to see Imagine That in the theater on June 12th or rent it?

If you have seen it in the theater should I go see it and why?

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Don't wait. Guarantee your seat before you go and  avoid a sold out show. Skip the box office lines and buy movie tickets at Fandango.com.

Out this week we have one DVD to feature:  Were the World Mine.

• Were the World Mine:  This is a modern fantasy retelling of  A Midsummer Night's Dream.  The movie is about Timothy who is cast as Puck in his school's upcoming production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream."  The words of Shakespeare seize upon Timothy’s mind and lead him to create a love potion--which he uses to capture the heart of the school’s star rugby player, but also to make everyone see the world through his eyes. Soon the rugby coach is pursuing the school principal, the principal’s wife swoons for Timothy’s mother, and the school jocks are prancing around like ballerinas.  The trailers looks great.  I didn't get to watch it in the theaters due to it's limited release but Were the World Mine got good reviews.  I'm definitely going to rent this one.

Watch the trailer below.

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Night at the Museum 2: Battle of the Smithsonian is the second in the Night at the Museum movies.  In it we follow security guard Larry Daley as he infiltrates the Smithsonian Institute in order to rescue Jedediah and Octavius, who have been shipped to the museum by mistake.

I really enjoyed the first Night at the Museum movie but I'm not holding my breath for this one.  From the trailers it looks like one badly repeated stale joke after another.  What worries me the most is that I only chuckled once at  one moment from the trailers.  My rationale is that trailers tend to feature the best the movie has to offer and if that is their best I'm not impressed.  The early reviews have only supported this concern.

I'm doubting if I will even rent this movie.  More then likely I will be made to watch it by family and expect to only enjoy the moments spent with family during that time.

For more on Night at the Museum read Theater or Renter: May 2009

Let me know what you think.  Will you go to see Night at the Museum 2: Battle of the Smithsonian  in the theater on May 22, 2009 or rent it?  If you have seen it in the theater should I go see it and why?

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Don't wait. Guarantee your seat before you go and  avoid a sold out show. Skip the box office lines and buy movie tickets at Fandango.com.

The trailer is out for Where The Wild Things Are watch it above.  The movie is an adaptation of the classic children's book by the same name.  The movie is scheduled for release October 16th, 2009.

Max, a disobedient little boy sent to his room without his supper.  He then creates his own fantasy world.  A forest inhabited by ferocious wild creatures.   He then befriends a large monster called Carol, who helps him understand the meaning of love.

Where the Wild Things Are is a picture book and was a favorite of mine growing up.  I was an unruly child who felt a lot like Max because I was often getting punished.  This book is a must have for any parent with children as it will help the unruly child relate to Max and to understand that even though they are being punished their parents still love and miss their child.

Get your copy of Where the Wild Things Are here though Amazon

(Thanks mlewis106)