LIKE DRAGONS? HAVE I GOT A BOOK SERIES FOR YOU!

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"I read and watch GOT for the dragons and fantasy," you mutter.

Really?

How about a stunning series starring dragons of all kinds that Peter Jackson has bought the movie rights to?

Think Horatio Hornblower collides full-on 

with Anne McCaffrey in 

an alternate history of the Napoleonic Wars, 

in which our heroes are aided by intelligent dragons 

and a British ship of the line is ordered rather like a sail-powered aircraft/dragon carrier? 

 

Aerial combat brings a thrilling new dimension to the Napoleonic Wars 

as valiant warriors rise 

to Britain’s defense by taking to the skies . . .

not aboard aircraft but atop the mighty backs of fighting dragons.

 When HMS Reliant captures a French frigate 

and seizes its precious cargo,

 an unhatched dragon egg, 

fate sweeps Capt. Will Laurence from his seafaring life into an uncertain future–

and an unexpected kinship with a most extraordinary creature

Thrust into the rarified world of the Aerial Corps as master of the dragon Temeraire, 

he will face a crash course in the daring tactics of airborne battle.

 For as France’s own dragon-borne forces rally to breach British soil in Bonaparte’s boldest gambit, 

Laurence and Temeraire must soar into their own baptism of fire.

 http://www.amazon.com/His-Majestys-Dragon-Temeraire-Book/dp/0345481283/

You can get a used paperback copy for a PENNY!  C'mon, give it a try!

Or you can a used hardback of the first 3 novels for only $9.97!

 http://www.amazon.com/Temeraire-Service-Majestys-Dragon-Throne/dp/B002V4KOOK/

IS GAME OF THRONES TORTURE PORN?

Ayn Rand said about the goal of her fiction:

“My basic test for any story is: 

Would I want to meet these characters and observe these events in real life?

 Is this story an experience worth living through for its own sake?

 Is the pleasure of contemplating these characters an end in itself?”


 I answer NO to each of these questions regarding GAME OF THRONES.

In the very first episode of the HBO series, GAME OF THRONES,  

Daenerys “Dany” Targaryen—one of the series’ most beloved protagonists—

is raped on her wedding night by her husband, Khal Drogo, 

 to whom she has been “given” as part of a political alliance.

Dany stands on a shoreline, shivering and crying, 

while Drogo circles her, assesses her, then rapes her. 

In the second episode, he rapes her again. 

By the third episode, they’re in love, and oddly enough, 

the rapes don’t seem to have at all hampered the evolution of their relationship.

I've been told that one of the appeals of GOT is that it is fantasy with realistic consequences.

Really?  Rapes pretty much negate love quickly following them.

And throwing in a few dragons and night walkers does not make GOT a fantasy.  

I guess having love following rape would qualify it for fantasy though.

Don't get me talking about "The Bear and the Maiden Fair."

I couldn't take more than a few seconds of the scene on YouTube:
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rk4res-iDKU

 And then there is the gory RED WEDDING episode:

It was such an obvious trap that even Shaggy and Scooby-Doo would have avoided it!

Throughout the four seasons, 

the show’s creators have added a number of sex scenes that weren’t in the book, 

including long, prominent scenes where female prostitutes are raped, tortured or abused 

with titillating, porn-like camera framing. 

 In the United States, 

1 in 5 women report having been raped at some time in their lives, 

and 97 percent of rapists do not serve any time for their crime.


As a former counselor, 

I find the constant sexual violence portrayed in GOT disheartening.  

No, I do not watch it.  I don't have to. 

 Some of my co-workers do, and they fill me in on the gory details until I ask them to cease and desist.

 Medieval misogyny is no excuse for contemporary misogyny.

Evil always triumphs in GOT.  That is as much a cliche as having good always winning. 

WHAT DO YOU FEEL ABOUT 

GAME OF THRONES?

J is for a show whose spirit died along with its creator

Elmore Leonard created a unique character in Raylan Givens

and the TV show spun from his story, FIRE IN THE HOLE was impressive.

Justified has received critical acclaim throughout all six seasons,

particularly for its acting, directing, art direction, writing, and Olyphant's and Goggins' performances.

I thoroughly enjoyed it up until Season 5 when Raylan devolved into someone I did not like. 

It coincided with the death of the series consultant, Elmore Leonard.

Has any TV series fizzled toward the end of its seasons for you?

NOW IN PRINT & AUDIO!

http://www.amazon.com/French-Quarter-Nocturne-Saga/dp/1511548207/

AFTER HURRICANE KATRINA, 

DEATH COMES TO CLAIM NEW ORLEANS

CAN A CURSED JAZZ CLUB OWNER 

AND A VAMPIRE PRIEST

HOPE TO STOP HER?

I is for the Show I watched as an exile of Hurricane Rita

As an exile from my city after Hurricane Rita,

I started watching the TV series INVASION

The premiere was preceded

with a warning that the show featured images of a fictional hurricane that viewers could be sensitive to.

The show told the story of the aftermath of a hurricane in which water-based creatures infiltrate a small Florida town

and begin to take over the bodies of the town's inhabitants through killing them in the water and then cloning the bodies.

Some years earlier, the sherrif had been replaced but had no knowledge of how to deal with what he had become.

Invasion received mostly positive critical reception.

Metacritic gave the season a score of 72, making it generally favorable

But executives wanted it to do better since it followed LOST.  Once they cancelled it, no show ever did better.

The human hero and the creature/sheriff try to stop an apocalypse

during the last episode as RIDERS ON THE STORM plays in the background.

I never hear that tune without thinking of INVASION.

It is on Amazon Instant Video.  Try it.

***

Another fun I TV Show:

iZombie

 

H is for the series cancelled to make room for CHARLIE'S ANGELS



Harry O re-runs flit in and out of my consciousness.

I cannot remember any whole episode --

only an impression of a sad-eyed loner and two scenes.

One:

A lovely lady is laying beside him in bed and asks, "If I leave you, would it crush you?"

He says in his gravel voice, "It would hurt, and I would survive."

"Damn you!" she snaps, hitting him with a pillow. "You would, wouldn't you?"


Two:

Harry has solved the murder of his best friend, Manny.

He is sitting at the bar they often frequented. He asks for a bottle of their best whiskey.

He tears a page from his notebook, writes MANNY on it,

and tapes it on the bottle, handing it back to the bartender.

"When somebody walks in here, looking like he's been beat by life, give him a shot of this -- but only one."

The bartender asks, "And when it runs out?"

Harry sighs, "It runs out ... just like life."

He gets up, walks from the bar, opens the door, and walks into the night.

***
Ratings for the series were initially fair and got a boost after the series was retooled in January 1975.

Harry O was picked up for a second season and continued to gain viewership and critical acclaim;

however, then-ABC president Fred Silverman

decided to take the network in a different direction and canceled the series in favor of Charlie's Angels.

David Janssen vowed never to do another series.

***

Samuel McCord owes a debt to another H TV show:

HAVE GUN WILL TRAVEL

A haunted, educated gunfighter, looking at life with a unique perspective sparked Samuel McCord into being.

The first season's Christmas episode, "The Hanging Cross," is unique.

Instead of drawing the revolver, Paladin unbuckles the belt and removes the whole rig,

 holding it out to the camera as he talks.

The camera tilts upward,

revealing Richard Boone speaking to the camera, then hanging his belt, holster, and pistol on a wall peg

and walking away as the theme begins and the title graphics appear.

G stands for GHOST

I have said before:  I am super-sentimental.

I remember the re-runs of THE GHOST AND MRS. MUIR --

Early in my childhood watching reruns, I learned that sometimes networks work hard to kill a good show.

Hope Lange won two Emmy Awards for Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for 1968–1969 and 1969–1970.

Despite Lange's consecutive Emmy wins,

the show struggled in the ratings and only ran for two seasons.

During its first year on NBC, it followed Get Smart;

its Big Three competition was My Three Sons on CBS and The Lawrence Welk Show on ABC.

NBC cancelled it. 

ABC picked it up only to place it against the hugely popular Family Affair.

TIME FOR ANOTHER GHOST:

GHOST IN THE SHELL - INNOCENCE

A Japanese Anime that asks the question:

"WHAT IS HUMAN?"

I think of the following theme as belonging to Sam and Meilori:

(The song begins after a bit of Japanese voice-over)