Soledad's Journal

I read the books back in the early 1980s and were of two minds about them. I'm the kind of fangirl who likes her genres unmixed. So, sci-fi, fantasy, post-apocalyptic stuff, all in their own places. Shannara is fantasy built on a post-apocalyptic background, and in the places when that becomes obvious, I was always alienated. But aside from that, it was an enjoyable read.

Now, when the TV-series came to Hungarian TV, I gave it a try. It took about 20 or 30 minutes - the horrible dubbing certainly didn't help. Finally, today it started on German TV, too, so I thought why not give it a second try? Perhaps I'd like it better for the second time.

Well... I didn't. The scenery is pleasant, and the young actor who plays Wil Ohmsford I could easily accept, but that's basically it. I found the rest of the casting as horrible as for the first time. I remember Amberle Elessedil being a dignified character from the books - in this, she isn't. Neither is anyone else in the elvish court, for that matter. And John Rhys-Davies as an Elf, even as an old Elf, is ridiculous. Especially in the role of Eventine Elessedil. Granted, the first book I read was The Sword of Shannara, in which Eventine was a young, heroic and dynamic Elf King, so the contrast was probably too great, but still...

We were given 4 episodes in a row today. Even less impressed than by the first 3. More gratutious nudity - just how did two whores performing for evaluation in front of the brothel owner move the plot forward?
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All in all, the only things worth watching are Sean Bean as Eddard Stark and Tyrion Lannister. They I great fun. I wish we had a ten-episode-series for each of the LotR-books, though, instead of 3 big films. I'd have enjoyed slower pace there

Now that I've watched the entire trilogy, I still like the films. The kids said something about there being a fourth one - I must check it out and at least borrow it from someone. I guess it would be The Silver Throne - we'll see.

I must admit, it has been a long time since I last enjoyed writing a story so much. Even if sometimes there's the one or other minor hindrance to conquer. And even if there are going to be only few reviews, due to the nature of the story, I'm very, very happy with it.

The most fun I have with is, of course, the world-building part: the intricate process of somehow reconciling the BBC show with the general events of the legendarium. In some places, I simply have to make up my own legends, as the show is simply too different. This is especially true when it comes to religion.

First of all, there is very little of it. The Old Religion, so often mentioned and condemned by the series' main baddie, Uther Pendragon, is not a belief system that would be either organized or particularly understandable. It seems that it is simpy identical with using magic, good or bad. Also, compared with the Old Religion, there doesn't seem to be a new one, either, one that Uther would support in exchange. Which is, especially in a semi-medieval society, simply impossible. Such a vacuum simply cannot exist.

Behind the tag are a few vague ideas of the development of Albion's belief system, as portrayed in the series. That's pure speculation on my part, of course, but this is how I'll deal with it in the entire story. Read it only if you don't mind being spoiled.

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Of course, this is still just a rough outline. I expect it to change and expand continously as I write the Epic Merlin Tale(TM).

Tell me what you think!

This post will be full of spoilers, so, in the unlikely case that you intend to read the story, you shouldn't look behind the tag. On the other hand, if you don't mind being spoiled and love to discuss different aspects of a story, you're welcome to look.

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A character list has been created and added to the Database of my Otherworlds fantasy and horror Yahoo group; unfortunately, only group members can see it. Currently, it contains 67 characters, but there will be more, eventually. I'll post another entry about what mythological/mythical/fantasy elements I have added to the series' quite convulted mix.

... not that it would say anyone a thing, since it's written in Hungarian, but I've finally given myself a kick in the backside and typed up the next chapter the Grand Epos and posted it to Fictionpress.com. Yes, it's the same Grand Epos(TM) that misses a hundred pages or more from the middle. Someone borrowed my only copy and never gave it back, and I can't remember who it was.

In any case, the Grand Epos is some 1,500 pages long, and with today's heroic action I reached Page 41 - so it will take some time until I'll have to force myself to sit down and rewrite the missing parts as well as I can remember them. Wish me luck. :(

In other news, work restarts tomorrow, so creative work will be seriously quenched. At least I've overcome the cold... well, mostly. Gah, I hate it when holidays end!

I've posted a couple of one-shots to hiddenrealms, both offshots to the Tosh/9th Doctor tale that can be cound at otherworlds_lib.

The two parts of "Final Farewell" are really short, 3 and 4 pages only, but those who follow the main story might not want to read them just yet, since they would give away the end of the Tosh/Yoshitsune arc.

The third one, however, "Breaking the Cycle", is a Japanese ghost story, sort of, including an Immortal samurai, an Eastern vampire (very different from the ones I usually write), lots and lots of swordfight and arcane arts, and, of course, a ghost - all that with a sappy, romantic ending. I was very liberal with White Wolf canon, so crowdaughter would probably want to lynch me for it, but I'm quite happy with the results.

My sparkling new Merlin story, "Movements of Fire and Shadow", has been posted to hiddenrealms. All three chapters of it. Who says I can't write anything short? Go me!

Chapter 1 has been beta read by the_wild_iris, God bless her. The other two chapters are still in their raw version, but I wanted the hand-coding horrors out of my hair. I can always make the necessary changes later.

So, that it 4 stories finished in one summer, so far. I'm well pleased with the muses.

I've just added Merlin to the fantasy section of the Otherworlds discussion board, posting my three so-far existing Merlin vignettes as well. Registrations to the forum have been disabled for quite some time because certain idiots felt the urge to post their disgusting porn and other spam, and I simply didn't have the time to manually remove all that rubbish all the time.

I'm not sure I should enable registrations and allow guest posts again. But if someone wants to join and post their stuff there, contact me privately. We can enable registrations for short periods again - and I'd really love to have more people and more discussions over there. The forums are PG-13 by default (not my choice, it's what Otherworlds is), but even within those restrictions, lots of things would be possible.

Alagos icon today, because I'm seriously working on finishing The Web of Darkness. The fact that I've finally figured out how the story is gonna end helps enormously. *g*
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