THE PREPOSTEROUS BOLLOX OF THE SITUATION
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Carey Mulligan: Carey, Carey, Quite Contrary - W by Michael Thompson, January 2012
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Mila Kunis by Ruven Afanador
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He said Star Trek is too “philosophical”? Screw that noise.
I don’t...
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Zoe Saldana
Kirsty Mitchell’s late mother Maureen was an English teacher who spent her life inspiring generations of children with imaginative stories and plays. Following Maureen’s death from a brain tumour in 2008, Kirsty channelled her grief into her passion for photography.
She retreated behind the lens of her camera and created Wonderland, an ethereal fantasy world. The photographic series began as a small summer project but grew into an inspirational creative journey.
‘Real life became a difficult place to deal with, and I found myself retreating further into an alternative existence through the portal of my camera,’ said the artist. (read the rest here).
absolutely breath taking
(via emmra)
From The Guardian - A rainy encounter in London on the banks of the Thames unlocks a tale of loss and grief in this exclusive story from Neil Gaiman, Down to a Sunless Sea.
“The Thames is a filthy beast: it winds through London like a snake, or a sea serpent. All the rivers flow into it, the Fleet and the Tyburn and the Neckinger, carrying all the filth and scum and waste, the bodies of cats and dogs and the bones of sheep and pigs down into the brown water of the Thames, which carries them east into the estuary and from there into the North Sea and oblivion.
“It is raining in London…”
“A handmade personal plush inspired by the saddest character In the Game of Thrones series. Jon Snow the bastard son of House Stark and his trusty Direwolf ‘Ghost’.
“This lonely plush doll comes with his own Valyrian steel sword ‘Longclaw’. Ghost comes with his very own White Walker hand which he found out past the wall in the snowy snow.”
From The Abominations of Yondo, by Clark Ashton Smith, available to read via
The Eldritch Dark: The Sanctum of Clark Ashton Smith:
“Clark Ashton Smith (1893-1961), perhaps best known today for his association with H.P Lovecraft and the Cthulhu Mythos, is in his own right a unique master of fantasy, horror and science-fiction. Highly imaginative, his genre-spanning visions of worlds beyond, combined with his profound understanding of the English language, have inspired an ever -increasing legion of fans and admirers.
“The Eldritch Dark is a site to facilitate both scholars and fans in their appreciation and study of Clark Ashton Smith and his works.”
If you’ve never read Clark Ashton Smith - and he is a far greater writer than either Lovecraft or Howard, in my opinion - this is a great place to start.
Gorel and the Pot-Bellied God by Lavie Tidhar
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I loved this. The comparisons with King’s Dark Tower and Howard’s Conan are inevitable, but to go even further back, there is a distinct flavour of Lieber’s Lankhmar and Clark Ashton Smith’s Zothique series in here, all mixed up in a proto-Asian setting, and with added sex, drugs and violence. There is mystery about the beginnings of this tale, and mysteries to follow, and I eagerly anticipate reading more. For such a slim volume, there is a great deal in here to enjoy.
View all my reviews
“I gotta say though, I really wish this could just be one movie, a more tight and complete experience than LORD OF THE RINGS, the one you can watch when you’re in a hobbity mood but don’t want to dedicate your whole damn week to watching it. I mean if you really want to go overboard then make two I guess, but if you’re tellin me I gotta wait a year just to see the middle of this story, there better be a big payoff. But I know there’s not, because this is The Hobbit, it’s about a guy meets some dwarfs and a Gollum and then talks to a dragon. It’s not supposed to be LAWRENCE OF ARABIA. Which, by the way, was one movie…”
Over on the Forbidden Planet Blog, Owen Johnson has been given the Director’s Commentary slot to discuss the genesis and process of creating and steering the collaborative graphic novel Who On Earth Was Thaddeus Mist?, a chapter of which I had the pleasure of writing. From Owen’s introduction:
“Who On Earth Was Thaddeus Mist? was born out of Dave West and Colin Mathieson (co-founders of Accent UK, and no strangers to blog readers), and their desire to take some risks with their themed anthologies (previously Zombies, Western, Robots etc). I, being a fan of the Kate Bush record ‘The Dreaming’ and David Bowie’s brilliant creation Ziggy Stardust, suggested creating a book more akin to a concept album of music: a continuous storyline that multiple creative teams contributed “tracks” to. It was felt that this way the creative teams had the best of both worlds: the freedom to explore tales of personal interest, while tying into a larger narrative everyone had a hand in crafting.”
Please click through to read the entire article, complete with preview art. Who On Earth Was Thaddeus Mist? debuts at Thought Bubble in a few weeks.
A Dance with Dragons by George R.R. Martin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
A (mostly) fine return to form for this series after the almost entirely redundant A Feast For Crows, which is looking more and more like a publisher-pleasing stopgap rather than a valid entry in the series. Still, this is not without flaws: Tyrion spends most of this book stuck on a boat, and - while it’s interesting to see him function without his usual weapons of wit and cunning - this means that he contributes very little to the overall plot; Daenerys also treads water in this book, dithering more than acting, and having both her and Tyrion removed as proactive characters gives this book an unfocused edge that doesn’t quite work for me.
If you wanted to catch up on Brienne and Jaime and Lady Stoneheart (which I’ve been waiting for since Book III a hundred years ago), you’re out of luck. Jon Snow’s story remains as the one in which most of this instalment’s joys are to be found, and seems to set the scene for the next book, as do the once irrelevant-seeming adventures of Arya, whose role in the rest of the story becomes clearer.
So, not without some of the flaws which A Feast For Crows introduced into the series, but certainly enough to reignite the love and enthusiasm I had for these book so many years ago. Actually can’t wait for The Winds of Winter - well done, George.
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Marleen Lowe’s glorious cover for AccentUK’s upcoming Who On Earth Was Thaddeus Mist? Increasingly proud to have been a part of this project.
(via angry-candy)
