Neil Gaiman’s Instructions follows The Dangerous Alphabet, Blueberry Girl, and Crazy Hair as the author’s fourth children’s picture book in the span of two years. It’s also his second collaboration with artist Charles Vess in a little over half that time, with both Instructions and Blueberry Girl being adapted into children’s books from Gaiman’s popular poems of the same title. (Crazy Hair, illustrated by Dave McKean, was also based on a previously written poem, so this appears to be a new picture book trend for Gaiman.)
Instructions is essentially a list of survival tips for anyone who finds themself wandering through a fairy tale world, much like Alice tumbling into Wonderland, and covers all the common situations that have become beloved clichés of fairy tales. Written in 2000, Instructions was first published in the anthology A Wolf at the Door and appeared on the Endicott Studios website, where you can still read the full text. The poem is a natural fit for a children’s picture book, since its charm and humour is best appreciated when read aloud, as demonstrated in one of Gaiman’s live venue readings or his narration of the animated book trailer.
This is actually the second time that Instructions has been professionally illustrated. An exclusive poster version of the poem was included as a special feature in the 2007 book Brian Froud’s World of Faerie, with original art created by British artists Brian and Wendy Froud. Charles Vess’ artistic interpretation is just as fantastical, but better suited to a younger audience. While both styles draw heavily from traditional fairy tale designs, the Frouds’ art is more adult-oriented, with a darker palette and themes that may be slightly scary to children. Vess’ watercolours are light and whimsical, full of bright colours and fun hidden references. Children and adults alike will delight in spotting archetypal characters, such as Red Riding Hood and the Three Billy Goats Gruff, who make subtle appearances in many of the backgrounds. In Blueberry Girl, the main character’s age and race was depicted differently on each page, which made her relatable to a wide spectrum of readers. Vess goes a step further in Instructions, choosing to portray the protagonist as an anthropomorphised fox instead of human, a sort of Puss in Boots who transcends age, nationality, and even gender. Besides serving as a readily accessible stand-in for anyone who picks up the book, the classic animal guide gives the paintings a timeless feel, like they were reprints from lavish old volumes of fairy stories rather than modern works.
Instructions is a much smaller picture book than Blueberry Girl, which is handy, because it’s the sort of book you’ll want to carry everywhere, just in case you suddenly have need of the valuable advice it contains. Kirkus Reviews notes that the poem “could be instructions for a child, a writer, a newly minted adult or an elder,” with publisher HarperCollins adding that “its message of the value of courage, wit, and adventurousness makes it a perfect gift for anyone embarking on a journey, especially graduates of any age.”
Whether your travels take you through the otherworld or real world, be sure to read your Instructions and have a safe and wonderful journey!
The RiffTrax Live: Christmas Shorts-Stravaganza! show was recorded in San Diego, California, on December 16, 2009, and included “Weird Al” Yankovic as its guest riffer. On the DVD case, “Weird Al” and Rifftrax regulars Michael J. Nelson, Bill Corbett, and Kevin Murphy invite you to join them “for a festive night of hilarious holiday comedy that is destined to become traditional Christmas viewing”.
What do ice-skating reindeer, pipe-smoking santas and a parade of aquatic champions have in common? You’ll see them all in the RiffTrax Live: Christmas Shorts-Stravaganza! The stars of Mystery Science Theater 3000 have a sackfull of delightful and demented shorts to riff live onstage. Some of the forgotten gems of Christmases past prove to be the perfect targets for the rapid-fire riffs of Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett. And if that wasn’t enough, they’re even joined by comedy legend “Weird Al” Yankovic for a musical short about the wonders of pork! It’s funnier than Ernest Saves Christmas and far less creepy than The Polar Express!
Skipping the host segments, non-RiffTrax-created videos, and musical performances that supplemented RiffTrax Live: Plan 9 from Outer Space‘s movie and pre-feature short film, Christmas Shorts-Stravaganza! opens with a brief introduction by Mike, Bill, and Kevin, then jumps directly into its line-up of riffable short films and commercials:
Christmas Toyshop (B&W) — On Christmas Eve, a boy and girl are visited by Santa, who tells them a bizarre story about a toyshop where the merchandise comes to life after the store closes for the night. The toys mindlessly sing and dance until a giant, villainously-dressed “spider-dog” kidnaps one of the dolls, in stereotypical Snidely Whiplash fashion, forcing her friends to take up arms (in the true spirit of holiday peace) to save her. The short begins as live action, switches to animation to tell Santa’s story, then reverts back to live action when the story is revealed to be a dream (or eggnog-fueled nightmare, depending on how you view it).
A Visit to Santa (Colour) — Two children express a desire, in badly dubbed, unintelligible dialogue, to visit Santa on Christmas Eve. The equally garbled Santa has one of his elves whisk the children to his castle, the interior of which looks more like a washed-out, 1970s basement rec room. A narrator then abruptly takes over Santa’s storytelling duties, describing Santa’s travels and activities around the world. After the tedious story, Santa unceremoniously dismisses the children and wishes the viewers a “Merry Christmas”.
Christmas Rhapsody (B&W) — Shot in the style of a nature documentary, this live action short follows the life cycle of a little tree that, after reciting a depressing litany of reasons why it’s so “small and of no account” in comparison to the surrounding trees, is predictably chosen by an undiscerning family as its Charlie Brown-esque Christmas tree. Despite waxing rhapsodic about the honour, the melancholy-voiced tree fails to ever achieve the “rhapsody” of the short’s title.
Three Magic Words (B&W) — Weird Al, a vegetarian, teams up with the RiffTrax guys to riff on an ode to the quality, freshness and flavour of pork. The short stars a trio of musical butchers who praise the virtues of pork in endless song as they attempt to help Mrs. Newlywed, possibly the dumbest housewife who ever lived, prepare a special meal. It’s not clear how this short qualifies as a holiday selection, unless Mrs. Newlywed’s dinner party is supposed to be a Christmas season get-together, but it’s still one of the funniest entries on the DVD.
Gaylord (B&W) — An old TV commercial for a walking toy dog is presented to Kevin as a Christmas gift from Mike and Bill, supposedly because it made them think of Kevin, much to Kevin’s indignation.
The Night Before Christmas (B&W) — The classic poem is retold, in a combination of live action and animation, by Santa, who foists his lame toys and cheesy acting on a pair of children whose father evidently inherited some DNA from the Three Stooges, minus the comedic talent.
Jimmy Jet! (B&W) — Bill receives his gift from Mike and Kevin, an overenthusiastic TV ad for a toy flight simulator.
A Christmas Dream (B&W) — A girl opens her gifts on Christmas morning, then, inexplicably, goes straight back to bed. Santa appears in spirit form to give her a moral-laden dream in which the old ragdoll she discarded comes to creepy life, via stop motion animation, to battle the girl’s new toys for her affection.
Sports (Colour) — It’s a “Parade of Aquatic Champions”, though the swim stars don’t seem to be very champion calibre, and many don’t actually swim on-screen. There’s no Christmas theme, either, other than Bill saying that the short is a holiday viewing tradition in his family. (Bill begins to sing a modified Christmas carol, another family tradition, but is quickly cut off by his co-riffers.)
Ding-A-Lings (Colour) — Mike’s gift from Bill and Kevin, an ad for a line of toy robots, is targeted to children but rife with unintentional innuendo.
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (Colour) — Rudolph’s screen debut, a poorly animated precursor to the beloved Christmas special that airs on TV every year, gets the biggest laughs of the DVD, particularly a scene between Santa and Rudolph that’s undermined by a naughty double meaning in what Santa says to the young male reindeer.
The performers are presented in small, individual boxes on the right side of the screen while they’re riffing, the same set-up used in the first RiffTrax Live DVD, except that on that DVD they appeared to the left of the screen. As noted in a review of RiffTrax Live: Plan 9 from Outer Space, the boxes only show up intermittently, and it would be preferable if the riffers were always in view. The primary attraction of a live performance is getting to see the entertainers do their thing, and the riffers’ physical reactions to what’s happening in the films really enhance their lines. (As a side note, fans of Doctor Who‘s Fourth Doctor may be distracted by the long, multicoloured striped scarf that Bill wears throughout the show.) A contest winner is announced during Christmas Shorts-Stravaganza!, but less intrusively than in the previous DVD. The winner’s two appearances are fairly brief and, rather than simply dropping the contest announcement into the middle of proceedings, it’s fully integrated into the show’s flow, with Kevin teasing the contest winner and making him a part of the act.
Red and green theatre curtains add festive flair to the menus, with Christmas music playing pleasantly on the main screen and part of the Scene Selections sub-menu. The single bonus on this DVD is a behind-the-scenes slideshow of photos set to an instrumental version of the Christmas carol “It Came Upon the Midnight Clear”. The images aren’t captioned, like in the other RiffTrax Live slideshow, but text isn’t really necessary for such self-explanatory pictures.
Chances are that you’ve played with a Ouija board at some point in your life, as part of a childhood slumber party, slightly inebriated college gathering, or Hallowe’en dare. Typical of the majority of spirit board sessions, the answers to your questions were probably disappointingly vague, a “yes” or “no” interspersed with a bunch of random gibberish.
In The Complete Ouija Interviews, author Sarah Becan shows how interesting conversations with the dead can be when you’re lucky enough to make contact with ghosts who have good communication skills. Even more compelling, Becan reveals, “The collected stories in this book all come from actual Ouija board sessions, which occurred during the three years that my brother Jeff lived and worked at a hostel on Nantucket Island.” Who needs an Interview with the Vampire when you can read interviews with real otherworldly spooks?
The Complete Ouija Interviews was originally published as a short series of handmade mini-comics:
Sample panels from the mini-comics are posted at each of the links above, and an excerpt from the Ouija Interview #1 mini-comic is also available to read online, serving as a preview of the Ouija Interviews.
Assisted by a 2009 Xeric Foundation Grant, the mini-comics were then collected into one volume by Becan’s Shortpants Press, “an independent small press from Chicago dedicated to making unique, interesting, and really cool minicomics, zines, prints and art books.”
At the beginning of The Complete Ouija Interviews is a foreword written by Becan’s brother, Jeff, in which he gives a brief history of the Ouija board and the time the Becan siblings spent on Nantucket, including a description of a Ouija board session that may convince some readers that the toy really is a conduit to the deceased. The four Ouija interviews then follow, in the order that they were published as mini-comics. In the first interview, we’re introduced to Theo, who was murdered after getting caught cheating on his wife with a woman he gleefully describes as having “big knockers”. Despite being an unrepentant womanizer, it’s hard to dislike the villain in this tragic romance, as he claims to have sincerely loved both women, and takes full responsibility for the transgressions that led to his untimely demise. Next, we meet Chip, a young, gay ghost who’s a smart aleck with a penchant for telling truly tasteless jokes. It’s difficult to tell whether anything Chip says is serious or truthful, especially when he claims to have been reincarnated as a strawberry, but he does reveal some potentially intriguing information about the afterlife. Chapter three features a conversation with an adorable little girl who was murdered when she was only ten years old. Becan and her brother David sat at the board during this session, and Naomi indulges in a bit of shameless adolescent flirtation with David, telling him that she loves him. Naomi’s story becomes less light-hearted, though, when she’s asked about the identity of her murderer, and her answers imply that she was killed by a pedophile who was known to her and her friend. The fourth installment in the Ouija tales, the longest and most in-depth of the interviews, takes up about a third of the book, and is also the darkest and saddest of Becan’s stories. The brother and two sisters interviewed were murdered by their father, who killed their mother, as well. As if that weren’t horrifying enough, it slowly becomes clear, to the reader’s discomfort, that murder wasn’t the only crime committed against one of the sisters. It’s Agatha’s story that will haunt readers most, long after the final page of the book is read.
In addition to the main stories, the book includes a half dozen mini-interviews, bonus material brand new to The Complete Ouija Interviews. Scattered throughout the compilation, these vignettes spotlight ghosts who pop in to offer brief, yet poignant, comments or words of advice to the living.
The Complete Ouija Interviews is a very professional-looking independent publication, the perfect-bound volume covered in a heavily textured feltweave paper that feels hand-made and is embossed on the front with an image of Theo. While it resembles, in size, the cute novelty gift editions sold as impulse items at bookstores, The Complete Ouija Interviews is distinguished by its elegant sepia-toned art and meaningful content. The presentation is deceptively simple, but effective: Pages consist of single panels with narrow caption boxes containing Becan’s interview questions running unobtrusively across the top. The interviewees float against a plain background that approximates a Ouija board with the numbers and letters wiped off, their answers printed in traditional comic strip speech balloons. Like in Peanuts, the characters manage to display a remarkable range of expressions and emotions with very few drawn lines. The minimalist ghosts, using slight head tilts and subtle eye and mouth shifts, are far more expressive than the fully rendered superhero figures found in big-name comic books.
If you’re looking for a comic that will truly touch your heart, then passing over The Complete Ouija Interviews would be a grave mistake, since reading it is sure to lift your spirits.
Recommended Reading Level: Young Adult and up (12+) for implied violence, adult themes, sexual content, and crude bodily humour.
Order directly through the Shortpants Press website, or check with your local comic book store.
The Complete Ouija Interviews is distributed by Shortpants Press. For more information on the book and its author, visit jakze.com. Shortpants Press may also be followed on Twitter.
Nearly everyone has heard of the Snuggie Cult by now, but “The Original Fleece Blanket with Sleeves!” was actually The Slanket. Slanket founder Gary Clegg came up with the idea in 1998 as he huddled in his freezing dorm room, bundled up in a sleeping bag with an arm hole ripped in it. His mother sewed the Slanket prototype soon after. Multiplying quickly as the popularity of its design spread, the innovative sleeved blanket soon turned into a pop culture phenomenon. A description on the packaging explains why it’s become an inevitable object of desire for geeks: “Reading, channel surfing, snacking, working on the computer, or playing video games; We’ve got you covered! Here at the warm world of Slanket, we take comfort Seriously!”
While the Snuggie only offers a handful of styles, The Slanket comes in a dazzling variety of colours and patterns. Plus, to make choosing a colour even more interesting, each Slanket has a colour-themed story associated with it. For example, the Moss Green Slanket is paired up with cryptozoology:
The cool temperate rain forests of the Pacific Northwest are home to the legendary Sasquatch, aka Bigfoot. Some speculate that Sasquatch is really the ancient ape, Gigantopithecus blacki. Either way we know one thing, when the beast kicks back after a night of roaming the lush forest, he snuggles in with a Moss Green Slanket. Comfort for every creature.
Some Slankets have punny, trademarked names, as well, like the Royale with Sleeves, a light purple robe fit for a fairy princess to lounge in:
Hear ye, hear ye! By proclamation of the Grand Wizard of Blankets, we hereby present our most magical Slanket to date. If you are traveling to exotic lands, fighting dragons, or rocketing around the galaxy, you’ll want to have your Royale with Sleeves Slanket. Protection against chills, monsters and laser beams! Plus, your hands are free, so piloting your space craft and waving your wand is easy. Space craft and wand not included. Please be a responsible adventurer and remember to share any ancient stock piles of gold with the less fortunate back home.
Walk the Slank, the first Slanket print produced, combines geek-chic black with a pirate theme for extra geek points:
Well this is a fine mess, a cutlass at my back prodding me out beyond the edge of the gunwale, and the swirling ocean below. If only my blunderbuss hadn’t misfired in the humid South China sea air… It wasn’t the water I feared, but the man eating sharks that followed the ship, feeding on the garbage thrown overboard, in this case, likely to be me. If I get out of this, I’ll never forget the mark on their flag… Walk the Slank.
One touch of The Slanket lets you know that this luxurious sleeved blanket is far superior to all of its imitators and cheap knock-offs. It’s made of a thick, super-soft fleece whose 100% polyester microfibers will survive multiple trips through the washing machine without pilling or getting that ratty look that fleece often does when it’s repeatedly washed. Stitching along the hems and seams is flawless, and durable enough to guarantee many years of use. The Slanket is also oversized to keep every inch of you warm, its overflow of material stretching well past your toes; you’ll start to feel the fleece’s cocooning warmth the moment you wrap up in it. (Slankets don’t have pockets for your hands, like the Snuggie Deluxe, but who really needs pockets on a blanket anyway?) The Slanket is so warm, in fact, that you can earn Eco-Geek points by turning the heat down or completely off while wearing it, saving money on your heating bill that could be better spent on things like DVDs and video games. Just one warning: when others see how cozy you are in your Slanket, they’ll immediately covet it, so it’s best to leave spares lying around to avoid having your own Slanket filched.
In addition to the standard Slanket, there’s a Kids Slanket for children and adults under five feet tall, a Travel Slanket that’s cut shorter than the regular 60″ x 95″ Slanket so you can wear it in public without tripping over the hem, and a double-occupancy Siamese Slanket. The Siamese Slanket seems to defeat the purpose of a blanket created for ease of mobility, but, if you’re snuggled up with the right person, it offers an obvious alternative benefit.
Everyone behind the The Slanket is on the same level when it comes to life. Besides creating a product to make people comfortable and warm, our life goals are not to accumulate mansions, SUV’s, expensive watches and closets just for shoes. What we want in life is to travel the world and experience all its cultures while representing humanity positively. Whether surfing in Costa Rica, snowboarding in Austria, or studying language in South America and China, we love to spread our sleeves and let them flap in the wind, giving back in the process.
In case that doesn’t give you sufficient warm fuzzies, here’s the note that’s attached to shipping receipts:
Thank You for Your Slanket Order!
We value you as a customer and appreciate your business very much.
You are now part of the coalition of comfort. Our Slanket army has one top priority, to spread the warmth. Now that you have your Slanket sit back, relax, and enjoy it!
I hope you love yours as much as I love mine.
— Gary
A tag sewn on the right sleeve of The Slanket proclaims it “The Best Blanket Ever”, and it’s not an empty boast. After getting a Slanket, you’ll wonder how you ever managed without one.
The Slanket is distributed by The Slanket and its international affiliates. For all the latest news and special offers, follow The Slanket on Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace, and sign up for their newsletter.
Ever wanted to be in two places at the same time? Now you can.
WowWee has a long history of creating imaginative, high-tech toys, dating back almost 30 years. Originally developing toys for other companies, their focus shifted to their own branding in the late 80s when they began offering robotic toys and remote-controlled animals. As technology advanced, WowWee has stayed at the front of the game, creating unique robotic offerings that incorporate the highest quality and cutting-edge technology while maintaining a beautiful esthetic design.
They offer stylized humanoids, cuddly animals and even a realistic chimpanzee, as well as more traditional robots in both humanoid and creature forms. Their most popular and innovative offering has been the series of Robosapiens, first released in 2004, which have sold millions of units in the past 6 years. Newer models offer a range of multimedia functions including speech capability and user customization.
Taking those multimedia developments to another level, WowWee now introduces the Rovio, a Wi-Fi enabled, programmable, wheeled robot that includes a webcam, microphone and speakers. A step up from other mobile robotic toys, the Rovio is not just a glorified RC car but a useful tool. Because of its Wi-Fi capability, not only can it be programmed to patrol your home so you can check on things when you are away, the Rovio can be used to represent you in meetings, gatherings and just about any other scenario you can imagine.
The Rovio comes with an installation disc but it’s recommended that you get the newest software directly from their website. Once installed, you connect the Rovio via a USB cord to your computer to set it up. When I first plugged it in, it wasn’t recognized. After powering it down a few times, it was finally recognized and from there, it was simple. Initial setup was quick and the interface is easy to use. The quality of the sound is clear both in the speaker and the mic. The video size, quality and speed can be adjusted so if you need a clear picture more than speed or vice versa, it’s as simple as a few clicks.
Moving and controlling the Rovio is easy as well. The interface is accessed by typing the address into a browser. I typically use Chrome, but the speaker and mic functions didn’t work. I tried Firefox and Safari with the same results. When I loaded the interface in Internet Explorer, everything functioned correctly, so keep in mind that you currently must have Internet Explorer loaded on whatever computer you are logging into Rovio with. Moving Rovio is as simple as clicking on one of the directional icons or even clicking on the Rovio icon in the center of the directional pad, dragging and dropping it where you want to go.
While installation, setup and controlling the Rovio is easy, getting the remote access to work might be a challenge. First off, you have to set your wireless router to allow incoming connections. You also need to know the IP address assigned to your Rovio. Most home networks have dynamic IP addresses (changing each time the device is connected to the network). This can cause a problem for you if there is a power outage, or some other situation arises that resets your IP address for the Rovio. When you are home, it’s not a problem because the software includes a utility called Find Rovio that searches for its current IP address and allows you to connect to it. As for finding it when you are away from home, there are free services that will look for your Rovio’s IP address and connect you to it by simply going to the web address you’ve assigned for it, but it does require the purchase of a domain name with the companies offering the service. The average price is about $40 per year for the domain, so if you don’t have your own website to piggyback it off of, you can always choose one of those services to connect to.
Since it can get complicated getting the remote access to work, WowWee tries to make it easier by offering some comprehensive tutorials on YouTube to talk you through each step. Once you get it set up, the possibilities are endless. You can access your Rovio from any internet connection, including your cell phone, PDA or even game systems.
If I had a wish list of things I’d change about the Rovio, I think the biggest issues would be battery life, browsers supported, and the adjustability of the camera. The battery only lasts about an hour so, if you have a larger house, you might want to invest in a second dock so that it can get to the nearest dock wherever it is when the battery runs low. My Rovio died before making it “home” a few times. As I mentioned before, the Rovio is only fully functional at this point if you use Internet Explorer. When I tried adjusting the video settings in IE, the quality would change but not the image size, so while sound and video worked with IE, the video picture wasn’t as sharp or clear as it was with Chrome. As for the neck, it has only 3 positions (as you can see from the image above). It does not rotate or pivot between the mid and upper setting. Granted, I was just chasing my dogs and family around the house, but the camera angle limitations were a bit frustrating.
All in all, the Rovio is fun to play with, easy to use, and has a lot of potential uses. With the frequent software updates offered by WowWee, I’m sure browser support and camera functionality (if not position) will continue to improve.
Features:
Easily control Rovio remotely 24/7 from anywhere in the world with an internet connection. Use any web-enabled device: PC or Mac, cell phone, smartphone, PDA or even your video game console.
Rovio detects your computer settings and guides you through the setup process.
Its head-mounted moveable camera and wide range of vision enable you to see and hear exactly what Rovio sees and hears, on your screen.
Set waypoints so that Rovio can navigate itself around your home, without having to control each step yourself!*
At the click of a button, send Rovio back to the charging dock using its self-docking capabilities — even when you are not at home!*
Guide Rovio through dimly lit locations with the aid of its built-in LED headlight.
Rechargeable NiMH battery included
1 x Charging dock with built-in TrueTrack Beacon
3 x Omni-directional wheels
1 x Head-mounted VGA camera
LED illumination
1 x Speaker and 1 x microphone for 2-way audio
USB connectivity
Wi-Fi connectivity (802.11b and 802.11g)
*Rovio requires additional TrueTrack Room Beacons (each sold separately) to navigate or self-dock across multiple rooms.
The Rovio can be purchased through Amazon, or wherever you find your favorite high-tech toys.
Looney Labs knows how to have serious fun. The rocket scientist duo of Kristin and Andrew Looney (both formerly of NASA) have churned out another two additions to their award-winning Fluxx series of games. For those of you who have never heard of Fluxx (what?!?), it’s a card game where the rules change with every card that is played. Introduced over 20 years ago, Fluxx has won many awards, sold millions of copies, and spawned several spin-off games, including Zombie Fluxx, Martian Fluxx, Monty Python Fluxx and various foreign language versions of the game. With the rules changing based on what cards are played, no two games will ever be the same.
The Fluxx games were designed by the Looneys and are, as usual, illustrated by them as well. They are about the size of standard playing cards, but have rounded corners so you won’t get any dog-eared cards standing out from the rest of the deck. Also, with the back of every card being identical, you can mix and match your cards to build your own custom deck, because, with the exception of Martian Fluxx, where you are the Martians, every game has the same basic playing rules and ever-changing goals.
Fluxx is easy to play and starts with one basic gameplay rule: draw one, play one. From there, everything changes, because every card has a different set of instructions on it. Each variation of Fluxx includes the following types of cards: Rules, Goals, Actions and Keepers. Most versions also include Creeper cards, typically a card you don’t want in your hand. When you play a rule card, you change the rules of the game for everyone. For example, you could place the Draw 2 or Hand Limit 1 rules, or perhaps you place the Play All rule where, instead of only playing 1 card per turn, you have to play your entire hand each turn. Play All, by the way, creates some crazy and fun twists in the game because you don’t get to choose what cards you play and, sometimes, playing those cards can make it easier for someone else to win the game, but that’s okay because you’ll laugh while you’re losing. You don’t like a rule? No problem, just replace it with one you like, if you have one in your hand.
The Keeper cards can be people, places or things, depending on which version of Fluxx you are playing. They are collected and held or discarded throughout the game as you try to accomplish the Goal or Goals. When the game begins, there are no goals until you play a Goal card. The Goal card will typically specify two or more conditions that must be met in order to win the game. For example, the first player to have two specific Keeper cards wins the game. If you are playing a version with Creeper cards, some goals may specify that you can’t win the game, even if you have met the goal, if you have a particular Creeper in your hand, or may require you to have a particular Creeper in order to win. The Creeper cards are similar to the Keeper cards in that they are usually people, places or things, but they typically have a negative impact on your hand. Action cards are just that, the action you take on your turn. Actions allow you to change the rules, steal your opponent’s cards, draw extra cards, and a myriad of other things that can turn the game around quickly.
The two newest Fluxx games live up to the same artful, fun, high-quality standards you’ve come to expect from Looney Labs.
Family Fluxx is fun for the whole family
While all of the Fluxx family of games are fun and easy to play for everyone (most include rules for gameplay for younger players), Family Fluxx was intentionally designed for a family gathering of all ages. From 6 to 96, everyone can play and enjoy this game because there are no rules to learn and every card has instructions on it. Featuring easy to understand Goals, Actions and Keepers, Family Fluxx has no Creepers and all of the Goals are to collect familiar objects you find around your home. Example goals are “Cheesecake: The player with Cheese and Cake on the table wins” or “Mice Love Cheese: The player with the Mouse and Cheese on the table wins.”
Keepers in Family Fluxx include things like colorful toy balls, yummy cake and ice-cream, household pets and pests, rainy weather and even a playground. The Action and New Rule cards are similar to other versions of Fluxx but add a few new, family-friendly rules such as the Child Bonus (if you are 12 years old or younger, you can draw an extra card each turn), the Parent Bonus (if you are a parent, you can draw an extra card each turn), and the Grandparent Bonus (if you are a grandparent, you can ignore hand limit rules).
Alison Looney’s artwork for Family Fluxx is similar to a children’s picture book, and with all the cute little pictures, it should keep the minds of young’uns from wandering too far from the chocolate cake or the kitty cat in their hands.
EcoFluxx makes learning science fun
Looney Labs has a history of being an eco-friendly company, and with EcoFluxx, they continue to follow that tradition while making learning about ecology fun.
My mother is an elementary school teacher whose favorite subject is science. The moment I showed her EcoFluxx, she was thrilled. She oooed and ahhed over the cards as she read them, and pointed out how each one would help with lesson plans. By design, EcoFluxx helps develop and reinforce understanding of the ecology and life sciences, and actually meets the National Life Science Content Standard for grade levels 5-8 and 9-12. The illustrations by Derek Ring are detailed and similar to what you might find in a junior high science book.
EcoFluxx follows the traditional Fluxx gameplay, with wildlife featured on their Keeper cards and environmental hazards on their Creeper cards. The Goals require having 2 Keepers to win a step further by making them Eats cards where a bear might eat a fish, thus teaching kids about the food chain. Rules such as Recycling and Composting further educate about how every event and action in life has an effect on other aspects of nature. My favorite, and perhaps most impactful, Creeper card is Forest Fire. It’s pretty straight-forward in its statement — “Nobody can win while this card is on the table.” Its special rule is that, while it’s on the table, one of your Keepers must be discarded at the start of your turn, thus demonstrating the destruction that fires wreak in nature as you watch it “devour” your bears, frogs and insect life along with the trees.
Another very important card included in the deck, but not used for gameplay, is the EcoFluxx Pledge, a challenge issued from Looney Labs to do your part and make a difference:
The EcoFluxx Pledge
We Pledge Allegiance to the Earth
Our planet is finite. Our resources are limited. We as human beings have a conscience and free will. We have choices and are aware of our impact on nature and the world around us. We can choose to be compassionate, and care about other people (both present and future) as well as our environment. Or we can be selfish and greedy, only caring for ourselves. Every single thing we do in our daily life affects the health of the planet and the well-being of other people. When you play EcoFluxx, think about the choices you make and the interconnectedness of all things and share your insights with others. Let’s choose to treat the Earth right! Spread the word! Looney Labs will donate a portion of the proceeds from EcoFluxx to environmental groups. For immediate actions you can take and for a list of recipient organizations, visit: EcoFluxx Foundation
Thanks for helping us make a better world!
Not only does EcoFluxx have a positive impact on players by teaching about ecology and raising environmental awareness, it maintains the ecological standards that Looney Labs has always held for their games. All Looney Labs games and packaging are made from recycled materials, the packages are compact and use minimal resources in their production, the inks are environmentally friendly, and everything is made 100% in the USA. Also, as part of the EcoFluxx Pledge, Looney Labs is donating 5% of all sales of EcoFluxx to environmental groups to help further their protection of our environment.
Enter the spellbinding world of dragons... and those who tend them
With over 20 fantasy novels in print, Robin Hobb has firmly established herself in the fantasy community, garnering praise from both her readers and her peers as “one of the most gifted fantasy authors writing today”, and deservedly so. What I discovered as I began to read Dragon Keeper, the first book in her new The Rain Wilds Chronicles series, was an endearing gem that struck a cord with me the way books like Terry Goodkind’s The Sword of Truth, Raymond E. Feist’s The Riftwar Saga and Marcia J. Bennett’s Ni’Lach series did.
From the moment I first laid eyes on Dragon Keeper, I was excited. The cover of the book appears to be 3D animation, with the kind of color and depth you’d find in a scene from an Ubisoft game such as Myst. It features a girl and a dragon standing along the banks of a river at sunset with a tree village sprawling in the background against an overcast sky. The image is so detailed, I feel as if I could step into the scene and wander the grassy banks or walk across the suspended bridges between the tree tops. I am pleased to say that the world painted within the pages is just as vibrant and detailed as that depicted on the cover.
Dragon Keeper is the story of an ill-fated attempt at restoring dragons, a near extinct species, to their former glory. After being rescued by dragon Tintaglia from a savage invasion by the Chalcedeans, the Trader cities strike a bargain with her: she will continue to protect them from their enemies if they assist her in trying to restore her species.
Dragons begin their life as sea serpents and must make a voyage upriver to their former breeding grounds in order to start the transformation process into dragons. Tintaglia disappears soon after only a handful of dragons hatch, and the Traders find themselves stuck with the burden of having to care for them. A plan is made to “help” relocate the dragons to the fabled city of Kelsingra, the ancient homeland that has long ago disappeared into the jungles and into myth. The only clues to the location of Kelsingra lie in the ancestral memories of the dragons and a handful of ancient scrolls that have been translated by Alise, a woman who has dedicated her life to the study of dragons.
Having made her way to the riverbanks of Cassarick to continue her studies, Alise soon finds herself caught up in the expedition to Kelsingra. Chaperoned by her husband’s much-disapproving secretary, she travels up the Rain Wilds River with a motley assortment of misfits and castaways in hopes of discovering the past while helping the dragons find their future.
At risk of sounding like a fangurl, I have to admit how very enamored I am with this book. Not just enamoured, but deeply, madly in love with it. I simply devoured it, reading about 150 to 180 pages a day (it’s 474 pages long), giving it every waking moment I could spare. All of the characters are interesting, even the unlikable ones. In many books with a lot of supporting characters, those characters remain very two-dimensional and you are left with only an impression of who they are as they fulfill whatever their purpose is in moving the story along. The characters in this book, however, truly round out what should be considered an ensemble cast. There is a depth to them, each personality, emotion and motivation ringing true and breathing life into them. Even the relationships and interactions between characters are compelling.
One of the nice little touches that forward the story is the correspondence between towns that begins each new chapter. Carrier pigeons are used to carry scrolls between the towns and, along with those scrolls, two of the pigeon keepers attach personal notes. These notes not only give us some information about their own lives, but add additional tidbits about what’s happening back at home as Alise and the others make their way up the Rain Wilds River.
Dragon Keeper explores the internal workings of each character with both humor and levity. The world is beautiful and wild, the characters are compelling, and the story is so interesting — and so easy to submerse yourself in — that by halfway through the book I was already lamenting the long wait for the next book in the series. Imagine my joy when I noticed this little note at the very end of the liner notes at the back of the book:
Look for the second book in the Rain Wilds Chronicles, Dragon Haven, coming in May 2010 from Eos.
This book didn’t just make my week, it looks like it will be making my summer as well.
For those new to B-movie riffing, Cinematic Titanic is the successor project of Mystery Science Theater 3000. It features Joel Hodgson, the creator of both shows, and the entire original cast of MST3K: Trace Beaulieu (Crow, Dr. Forrester), J. Elvis Weinstein (Tom Servo, Dr. Erhardt), Frank Conniff (TV’s Frank), and Mary Jo Pehl (Pearl Forrester). As the Cinematic Titanic website states, “the CT crew is reconnecting with MSTies around the world as well as bringing new fans to the comedy art form first introduced by this group 20 years ago on television.” In pursuit of that goal, the Titans (as the cast is called) have toured extensively since the group’s founding in 2007, and released seven studio DVDs:
All of the DVDs are also conveniently available as downloads.
Cinematic Titanic LIVE‘s second outing has a script that brings just as much humour to the screen as East Meets Watts, which Cinematic Titanic says is “quickly becoming the runaway favorite CT ep!”, but The Alien Factor could very well abduct that distinction. The performers have had time to refine their live show since they were last taped, and are therefore noticably more relaxed in their new, less formal format, often straying from the script to improv an extra comment or tease one another. They sometimes get so caught up in the moment, laughing at their fellow riffers’ antics and responding to reactions from the appreciative audience, that they miscue or flub a line, which only adds to the hilarity. The overall result is a more interactive, personal experience that comes close to recreating the casual feel of hanging out with friends to view a cheesy movie while goofing off and eating pizza. It’s clear from their banter that the Titans are close friends who enjoy working together, and their playfulness is infectious, making anyone watching them want to join in the fun. As such, the Cinematic Titanic LIVE DVDs are a perfect gateway to entice fans to the live shows.
Like the first live DVD, The Alien Factor seats the five Titans on either side of the movie screen in roughly the same arrangement as the studio shows, the performers highlighted in individual spotlights instead of just appearing as black silhouettes. In the studio DVDs, it’s sometimes difficult to tell who’s saying what in silhouette, so having everyone in full view throughout the live films is a definite plus, especially as it allows facial expressions and subtler gestures to be seen. This is a novelty for Mystery Science Theater 3000 fans, who only saw the host and two robots riff from shadowy theatre seats at the bottom of the screen, and then only from the shoulders up.
The Alien Factor, a 1978 horror sci-fi that rates 4.0/10 on IMDb, is the sort of film that would have been right at home on MST3K, as it was seemingly made for the express purpose of being riffed on. When a movie opens with the cliché situation of “teenagers in a car at make-out point being attacked by an alien monster”, you know you’re in for an enjoyably predictable ride. Indeed, The Alien Factor quickly runs through the expected checklist of cheesy sci-fi tropes that are so much fun to roast, including rubber-suited aliens, special effects done on a less-than-shoestring budget, and a town populated by half-wits who make it painfully easy for the aliens to pick them off, like shooting fish in a barrel. The real proof of Cinematic Titanic‘s claim to fame as “The Masters of Movie Riffing” is revealed, though, when the female lead stumbles aimlessly through the woods for an interminable length of time, with not a moment of dialogue or plot development in sight, and the Titans still manage to make it entertaining. Their incisive critique transforms this unintentionally funny film into a first-rate comedy.
The production quality of Cinematic Titanic‘s DVDs remains on par with big studio releases, an impressive feat for a small, artist-funded project. They may not have bonus materials on their discs, aside from previews of other Cinematic Titanic titles, but with such an outstanding main feature, padding isn’t really essential. The one improvement Cinematic Titanic could make in future releases is to their menus, which are a bit plain and rough-edged, but unless you’re one of those DVD snobs who isn’t satisfied with anything less than fully animated, singing and dancing menus, that’s just a small quibble with an otherwise excellent DVD.
Cinematic Titanic has even posted the first five minutes of Cinematic Titanic LIVE: The Alien Factor on YouTube, so you can “try before you buy”:
The DVD comes with a photo postcard of the Cinematic Titanic cast, printed “Thanks for Watching!” Our pleasure, Titans! Please keep the live (and studio) DVDs coming.
AbbyShot Clothiers’s officially licensed, screen accurate, and limited edition Tenth Doctor’s Coat and Martha Jones Companion Jacket from Doctor Who are apparel fit for a Time Lord. While the majority of replica clothing only vaguely resembles the costume it was inspired by, AbbyShot’s recreations look like originals sneaked directly off production sets.
Q&A with AbbyShot Clothiers:
ÜberSciFiGeek (ÜSFG) What led AbbyShot to choose Doctor Who, a British series, for its newest line of sci-fi inspired clothing?
AbbyShot Clothiers (AC) First and foremost — the fans. Everything at AbbyShot begins with fan suggestions, as it has from day one when we were making our first Matrix-style coat. AbbyShot is known globally as the creator of high quality sci-fi inspired clothing, so not long after David Tennant’s first Christmas Special as the Tenth Doctor in 2005 Doctor Who fans were quick to put his costume on our radar. Then we became huge fans of Doctor Who ourselves soon after.
Over the past several years, there has really been something magical happening with Doctor Who — the buzz has been building and the interest for this show and this protagonist is the highest it’s ever been. David Tennant played a very human and relatable, yet still insanely fun-to-watch, Doctor, and the BBC got the show out to more and more people every year. Let’s just say that our email Inbox was filling up with fans wanting us to create an AbbyShot “real-life” version of the Tenth Doctor’s Coat!
We always listen to the fans so we carefully evaluated the idea and decided to take on this exciting new project. We also attended a Licensing Show in New York City where we met up with representatives from the BBC and from those initial meetings came a new Licensing Agreement for a whole new breed of Doctor Who collectibles — wearable replica clothing.
The Tenth Doctor’s Coat as well was very appealing to our team right from the start — it’s such a classic cut and style for a man’s overcoat, with a back vent and box pleat that make it very distinctive. Add in the deep blue lining and the orange trim on the inside pockets and THAT’S when you realize — this is no average coat, this is Doctor Who!
What makes AbbyShot different from most replica companies is that our products stand up to the test of time. Our products are ones which you can wear every day for years to come. And while they are hits at conventions, they are not simply costumes. We take great pride in our attention to detail, and we never forget that our coats are first and foremost pieces of apparel which people wear in their everyday lives. Both the Tenth Doctor’s coat and the Martha Jones jacket are just that… jackets that were worn by their characters time and time again… It seemed like a natural extension of that for which we stand.
(ÜSFG) With David Tennant recently stepping down from his popular reign on the series, it does make perfect sense why his signature overcoat was selected to launch AbbyShot’s Doctor Who line. Will the Tenth Doctor’s Coat be followed by apparel specific to previous incarnations of the Time Lord, such as the Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker)’s iconic scarf?
(AC) Iconic is really the keyword here — a quick scan through the catalogue on the AbbyShot site will tell you that we only take on the most iconic characters and their clothing designs. Like you said, David Tennant stepped down from the role of the Doctor at the peak of his popularity and his costume was one of the most recognizable as well (with designer Louise Page stating recently that it was the costume she was most proud of designing). So the Tenth Doctor’s Coat was indeed the obvious flagship to launch our line, but it doesn’t stop there.
This BBC license opens up a world of opportunities as so much interesting apparel has been seen on Doctor Who over the decades — over 40 years worth of material! We don’t want to say too much at this point, but we can say that the wardrobe of previous Doctors would be obvious sources of inspirations (who can forget the Sixth Doctor’s multicoloured coat, or the Seventh Doctor’s question-mark-laden jumper?). However, we’re not ruling out some fan-favourite Doctor Who guest stars either!
We’re always open to suggestions as well and invite Doctor Who fans to email us through our “Suggestions Page” with any wonderful and inspired ideas.
(ÜSFG) The Tenth Doctor had three main companions: Rose Tyler, Martha Jones, and Donna Noble. Why was Martha Jones, and her red leather jacket, picked to represent the Doctor’s companions? Will Rose Tyler and Donna Noble, or companions of the past Doctors, like Sarah Jane Smith, also receive the AbbyShot treatment?
(AC) Again, it comes down to the “iconic” factor — Martha Jones wore her striking red leather jacket for the majority of Series 3 and it really became a signature part of her look. All the women on our Design Team love the design as well, it goes beyond a “cool Doctor Who replica” and is truly a beautiful leather jacket that women not familiar with Martha Jones still want to wear!
For some AbbyShot coats and jackets the fans tell us that wearing them is like being a member of a secret society. The Martha Jones Companion Jacket is one of those jackets where you really do hide your fandom in plain sight! You walk down the street and 90% of people think you’re simply wearing a cool leather jacket. However, those 10% that DO recognize the source material — they will look at you like you’re a goddess! Be warned.
As for other Companions, we’re absolutely leaving the door open for other opportunities there as well. Once again — if there’s a coat or jacket you absolutely MUST have then please visit our Suggestions Page and let us know.
(ÜSFG) Will AbbyShot be producing replica jewelry and accessories, such as the Master’s ring, to accompany the Doctor Who clothing line?
(AC) Interesting question! Our strength here at AbbyShot is in clothing design so while we may create accessories in the future we most likely wouldn’t stray too far from the apparel category. There are also some other talented BBC licensees making Doctor Who prop replicas already so jewelry would most likely fall under another company’s core strength.
AbbyShot is the ultimate source for science-fiction replica clothing and we’ll keep building on that strength into the future.
(ÜSFG) Fans of Doctor Who will always have their “favourite Doctor”, so who do the designers cite as their favourite?
(AC) Our favourite Doctor — that is a tough one but we would have to say David Tennant’s Tenth Doctor. And we’re not just saying that because we make his coat replica! He’s molto bene, what else can we say?
All the same, we can’t wait to see what Matt Smith will do with the role under Stephen Moffat’s more-than-capable hands (I mean, the man wrote one of our favourite Doctor Who episodes of all time, “Blink”!). We’re at the beginning of an exciting new era of Doctor Who and AbbyShot Clothiers is so proud to be a part of it.
Thanks so much for the great questions, it’s been a pleasure.
(ÜSFG) Thank you, AbbyShot, for your brilliant answers and the exclusive photos! Now, off to watch some Doctor Who… Allons-y!
The Tenth Doctor’s Coat and Martha Jones Companion Jacket are distributed by AbbyShot Clothiers. For more information on AbbyShot’s Doctor Who replica clothing, visit the Are You a Real Time Lord? website. AbbyShot Clothiers may also be followed on Facebook and Twitter.
I read a lot of fantasy and urban mythology novels but not a large amount of vampire or supernatural fiction, mainly because most of the ones I’ve started to read turned out to be romance novels, something I’m not a fan of. Yes, I read the Twilight books at the request of my teenagers, and the one-off vampire and other supernatural books I heard good things about here and there, but in general I’m not a supernatural junkie. That being said, I think I’ve finally found a supernatural series that doesn’t fall into the romance or tween categories.
EOS Books (a division of HarperCollins) just released Black Magic Sanction, the newest book in The Hollows series from best-selling author Kim Harrison. The series is kind of a mixed-genre fantasy with a healthy balance of urban mythology (think Neil Gaiman and Charles de Lint), supernatural adventure (vampires, witches, demons and a host of otherwordly fairy folk) and revisionist history wrapped up in a classic detective/mystery novel style.
Rachel is a bit of a jack of all trades: a detective, a bounty hunter and a witch (who’s recently discovered some unsettling information about her heritage). Her business is to track down vampires, werewolves, banshees, demons and other supernatural creatures who’ve found themselves on the wrong side of the law. In her world, so very close to our own, these creatures are not only real but are part of mainstream society. During an event called “The Turn”, a virus devastated the human population and the supernaturals (or Inderlanders as they call themselves) decided to reveal themselves because they were no longer outnumbered by the humans. The government system collapsed and was replaced by two organizations: the Inderlander Security service (run by non-humans) and the Federal Inderlander Bureau (run by humans).
Rachel lives in the Hollows (the Inderlander side of Cincinnati) in an old Gothic Church with a living vampire named Ivy (there are two kinds of living vampires: the low blood — humans who’ve been infected by the traditional undead vampires, inheriting some of the qualities of a vampire but not the benefit of immortality at death; and high blood — those who were born infected with the virus and will thus rise again as an undead vampire when their mortal body dies. Ivy is the latter, a high blood vampire and last of her family to still be living) and a pixy named Jenks. They are her associates and surrogate family, assisting her in her cases and sharing her life.
Due to events in a previous book, which aren’t completely explained in Black Magic Sanction, Rachel has now been shunned by the Coven (the governing body of witches) for using black magic (something she detests), and turned from the hunter into the hunted. She finds herself kidnapped and imprisoned, facing a pretty grim fate. Fortunately, her friends are there for her and she escapes, setting off a chain of chaotic events where you can’t help but feel sorry for her as she gets battered and bruised, used and abused, while trying to free herself once and for all from the grip of the Coven and various adversaries from her past. As the story unfolds, you learn more about the history of the Inderlanders and how Rachel has now found herself on the wrong side of their law.
There is a huge cast of characters and creatures in the books, far too many to examine them all, but a few in particular play a large role in Rachel’s life:
Ivy embodies the familiar vampyric struggle between dark desires and trying to live a “normal” life. She has a deep affection and close relationship with Rachel, a tender and sweet friendship that anyone would be lucky to have. There is some reference to Ivy biting Rachel at some point in the past, the end result of which is a supernatural bond, a lasting longing and sensual tension between them that has remained unacted upon. I say sensual not sexual because the relationship is a very close friendship where the love they feel for each other is so strong that it seems the lines sometimes get blurred, rather then the typical overtly sexual flirtation often seen in close same-sex friendships in popular media.
The pixy Jenks is the comic relief of the story. He, his wife and a multitude of their children live beneath a tree stump in the churchyard where Rachel lives. Just reading his dialog makes me think of Darby O’Gill and other “drunken Irishmen” from various books and film. He’s a sly fox, smart-mouthed and spunky. He loves defiling the famous Disney pixie Tinkerbell by using her name as his favorite curse word (he randomly peppers his conversations with exclamations such as “Tink’s Titties” and other filthier variations). He and the other pixies shed multi-colored dust, the color changing along with their mood, and are all feisty creatures breaking away from pixie tradition not only by closely associating with a human but by staying together as a family rather than separating much the same way birds and other creatures do after leaving the nest.
Algaliarept (Al) is kind of the Leo Getz of the Ever-After, the magical plane that exists between and beyond normal existence. Typically, it’s where demons reside (the witches fled to our plane of existence some 5,000 years ago and a war between the demons and elves resulted in the elves being ousted approximately 2,000 years ago) and can only be reached by tapping into lines of energy that are threaded throughout all levels of reality. Al is a wheeler and dealer, taking every opportunity to acquire “familiars” that he quickly sells or trades off in exchange for regaining his status and belongings, both lost when he hides a very important fact about Rachel from the rest of the demon community. Sometimes her enemy, sometimes her mentor, Al and Rachel have a very dangerous and volatile relationship. He’s almost as much her captor as she is his at times.
Gordian Pierce was a ghost for nearly 200 years. He encountered Rachel when she was a teen and became infatuated with her. After years of haunting her and trying to get her attention, by Black Magic Sanction he has gained a body and life again. While he actively pursues a romantic relationship with her, she is highly distrustful of him and his motivations, which she suspects are less than sincere. She’s had a string of bad relationships and has a habit of making bad choices, something she doesn’t intend to do again with Pierce. Having become a virtual slave to Al, Pierce has been placed as a guardian over Rachel to help protect her from the Coven as they seek to capture and neutralize her, one way or the other. He speaks with a dialect of the 1800’s and often says things wrong when trying to use modern vernacular. He feels far too comfortable with casually using black magic when he sees the need, something that disturbs Rachel to no end as she struggles to prove to herself and everyone else that she is NOT a bad witch.
Trenton Kalamack is kind of like the Godfather of Elves. Masquerading as a human, he lives a dual life as a politician on City Council while running illegal operations in the human and Hollows criminal undergrounds. An ongoing protagonist, he’s known Rachel since they were children and they are enemies, due in large part to the fact that while she was trying to expose his crimes and bring him to justice, she managed to lay claim on him as her familiar, though she has not yet enforced that claim.
I haven’t read the other books in the series so wasn’t sure what to expect. I usually find it hard to follow or get emotionally invested in the characters when I start a book in the middle of the series, but was pleasantly surprised that this wasn’t the case with Black Magic Sanction. While there are many references to events and characters in the earlier books in the series, with little explanation, I didn’t feel completely lost. Instead of feeling like a confused outsider, I found myself just carried along with Rachel as her life careens out of control. Black Magic Sanction is a fast-paced, action-packed supernatural adventure with unexpected twists and turns. I can usually figure out the general plot of a book and what direction it is going in, but, with this one, I really didn’t have a clue how things were going to turn out.
If you are a fan of supernatural books, you’ll love Black Magic Sanction. The characters are interesting and each has their own quirky characteristics providing some real depth to them, fleshing them out from the stereotyped, two-dimensional cast of characters that overpopulate popular fiction. It’s these characters and well-developed relationships that make me want to track down the rest of the books in this series and start over from the beginning.
Turning back the clock to several years before the zombie-strewn action of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, author Steve Hockensmith introduces readers to the young family of Bennet sisters as they stand on the cusp of the resurgence of the undead army, and meet their kismet as lady warriors in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls. With a cast of characters both old and new, Hockensmith attempts to address the most complex questions regarding zombies, as posed by the zombie savant Dr. Keckilpenny: “What could reanimate the flesh of the dead? What drives the resurrected to feed on the living? Why only people? Why only in Britain? Why are you taking out your sword?”
The answer to this last question, at least, is quite apparent. Following The Troubles, the decorous English reference to the original zombie plague, the genteel folk of Meryton are horrified when fresh (or at least freshly rotted) zombies begin bursting out of the ground after an unusually warm spring, like so many grisly piñata surprises. Since no one wants to acknowledge the impending horror, Mr. Bennet, surviving warrior of the original zombie menace, calls upon his daughters to lift up their katana swords and slay the dreadfuls. In doing so, Mr. Bennet’s long-repressed warrior is also reawakened, as he expels the false-front of potting shed respectability in the garden to finally get back his mojo… er, dojo, that is.
Dawn of the Dreadfuls is a hilarious prequel to Pride and Prejudice and Zombies that follows young Elizabeth Bennet from her first clumsy attempts at slaying a dreadful to her even more disastrous coming-out ball. In fact, Hockensmith does a fine job of presenting the coming out of each Bennet sister into the world of zombie slaying, in keeping with their Austen personalities. Lydia and Kitty tandem-slay a dreadful, chattering the entire time, Jane nobly dashes in to finish off a zombie to save her sister, Mary over-thinks her way through her zombie kill, and Elizabeth rushes in headlong like the fine warrior lady we later see in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.
In this prequel, we also get a bit of background on the Bennet parents and their seemingly irreconcilable differences, with the armless and legless Captain Cannon providing some comically romantic tension as an early suitor of the garrulous Mrs. Bennet. There are also some early romantic adventures for the young ladies, as Jane and Elizabeth find themselves wooed by men both dashing and dreadful (though not dreadful in the zombie sense, of course).
The style of Dawn of the Dreadfuls is quite a departure from previous Quirk Classics we’ve seen. Because it doesn’t rely on addended text and modifications to an actual Austen text, it reads more like a cohesive novel rather than a quirkily interrupted one. In addition, Hockensmith, while retaining some of the Austenite language, has refrained from direct imitation of Austen, the result being a very readable and funny novel with more emphasis on fresh plot and less reliance on fetid zombie appendages. However, while the style is simple and a quick read, there are loads of clever puns and jokes. Elizabeth, for example, stays true to her nature by falling for her deadly arts Master, whose primary downfall is his overwhelming pride. And, later, when she realizes his many faults, she reprimands herself that “far, far too late, she’d recognized the fault within the man — perhaps because all that was outward about him was so pleasing. It was a mistake she would never make again.” Not many years later, of course, she makes the exact same mistake with Wickham.
Naturally (or unnaturally, as the case may be), the show-stoppers in the novel are the hordes of brain-thirsty zombies who converge on Netherfield and eventually turn Elizabeth’s coming-out ball into a frenzy of first kisses, scandalous secrets, jealous rivals, and airborne zombie limbs.
And if this prequel doesn’t have enough slavering braniac action to satisfy the zombiephile, readers will have a chance to win one of 50 Quirk Classics Prize Packs by heading on over to the Quirk Classics message board. Each Prize Pack, with a retail value of more than $100, will include:
An advance copy of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls
Audio Books of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters
A password redeemable online for sample audio chapters of Dawn of the Dreadfuls
An awesome Dawn of the Dreadfuls poster
A Pride and Prejudice and Zombies journal
A box set of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies postcards
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls are distributed by Quirk Books (International/US) and Raincoast Books (Canada).
If you’re mad scientist parents seeking to give your offspring an edge over their mad scientist peers, then dispatch your henchmen to fetch A Young Mad Scientist’s First Alphabet Blocks, the preeminent toy choice for budding evil geniuses, before your rivals do. Xylocopa Design, a small studio in Arizona that produces handmade items from natural materials, such as steampunk jewelry with movable wooden gears, is responsible for unleashing this award-winning indoctrination aid, the likes of which the world has never seen before.
The 26 letters of the alphabet are featured on five 1 3/8 inch square blocks — meaning that four sides appear twice — and are paired with appropriately iconic mad scientist images that introduce youngsters to the fundamentals of their future careers:
A — Appendages
B — Bioengineering
C — Caffeine
D — Dirigible
E — Experiment
F — Freeze ray
G — Goggles
H — Henchmen
I — Invention
J — Jargon
K — Potassium
L — Laser
M — Maniacal
N — Nanotechnology
O — Organs
P — Peasants (with Pitchforks)
Q — Quantum physics
R — Robot
S — Self-experimentation
T — Tentacles
U — Underground Lair
V — Virus
W — Wrench
X — X-Ray
Y — You, the Mad Scientist of Tomorrow
Z — Zombies
The illustrations are reminiscent of the painstakingly detailed etchings commonly found in old textbooks, and are laser-engraved onto the blocks. Despite the intricacy of the carvings, there are no sharp or splintery edges, and the corners of the blocks are sanded smooth to prevent injury. (After all, potentially maiming or fatal playthings, like chemistry sets and rayguns, should be saved for school-age children, at the very least.) Unlike the mass-produced alphabet blocks found in most stores, the Mad Scientist blocks are also completely non-toxic, free of any dyes, paint, finishes, or even preservatives. The appearance of shading is created entirely by the laser burning process. Considering the chaos they are intended to inspire, the blocks are ironically safe and eco-friendly. These solid wood blocks are cut from untreated Sugar Maple, so if they’re a bit sticky when they arrive at your lair, that’s just uncured maple sap residue, which is easily removed by pressing the blocks in a piece of paper towel. As a sweet bonus, this aromatic sap makes the toy smell like spiced cookies, and, as everyone knows, cookies are the traditional reward for turning to the Dark Side, which is basically a prerequisite for all mad scientists. (Test-licking was not conducted, so no idea if the taste of the blocks is as appealing as their scent.) A Young Mad Scientist’s First Alphabet Blocks are so well made, they’re bound to become an heirloom piece passed from generation to generation.
An instruction sheet that comes with the blocks, The Young Mad Scientist’s Guide, outlines amusingly embellished care and safety tips in addition to providing more practical information, and reveals a secondary use for the blocks: ROT13-style encryption. It’s a fun way to trade secret messages with other block owners, decoding is as easy as flipping blocks over to find the deciphered letters, and young mads can get an early start on learning cipher techniques that will protect their diabolical plans from prying eyes.
A Young Mad Scientist’s First Alphabet Blocks lay an essential educational foundation for the scientific community, and your chip off the old block could be one of its conquering cornerstones. Let the next wave of global domination begin, and all hail our new overlords-in-training!
