Favorite Archers in Fiction

If you've been paying attention, you've probably noticed that archers seem to be becoming more and more popular in the entertainment industry lately. While some of the bow-wielding characters popular today are long-lasting favorites, such as Robin Hood, new ones are popping up every time we turn around, it seems.
So just for fun, I thought I'd dedicate a blog post to featuring the most popular archers of our time.

Legolas Greenleaf, of Mirkwood, Middle Earth.

Hawkeye, of the Avengers - a.k.a. Agent Barton of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Katniss Everdeen, of District 12, Panem.

Kili, of Erebor, Middle Earth

Merida, first-born of Clan Dunbroch, Scotland

Robin Hood, of Sherwood Forest, Nottingham. (Since there are so many different representations of him I just picked a picture of my favorite one. Yes, the Disney cartoon is my favorite version.)

Susan Pevensie, of Finchley - a.k.a. Queen Susan the Gentle, of Narnia

It's hard to say what has made archers so popular in entertainment... maybe boredom with guns, admiration for the skill required for archery, a hankering for something unique. Who knows? But I, for one, don't mind the trend at all. I like the variety it brings to books and movies. And let's face it: there's just something way too cool about a character with a bow in his or her hand, and a quiver of arrows on his or her back - whether it's a medieval-style weapon like Merida's, an elf-made weapon like Legolas', or a high-tech mechanized weapon like Hawkeye's.

Do you have a favorite archer character?

The Hobbit, and a Yorkie's Journey to Middle Earth

Last Wednesday I brought home my very own copy of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. I was so excited! I was the only member of my family who had seen it up to that point, so I couldn't wait to share it with them.
It was Friday evening before life and everyone's schedules allowed time to settle in for a three-hour movie, but settle in we did, equipped with drinks, jelly beans, and knitting. (Well... Mom and I had knitting, anyway.) With the fireplace roaring at our backs as the snow and wind howled outside, we set off on our journey into Middle Earth.
My Yorkie Terrier, Cricket, decided to join us, curled up in her usual spot on my lap. Normally, she pays little to no attention to anything on the TV screen, and instead just sleeps on my lap or snuggled down in the chair next to me. (A notable exception is the movie Pirates of the Caribbean, which for some reason holds her absolutely spellbound. So whenever she needs a haircut, I just spread a towel out in front of the TV, put Pirates in, and cut her hair while she lays perfectly still watching the movie. If it works, it works.)

For the first part of The Hobbit, Cricket stayed pretty still, dozing on and off and occasionally wiggling just enough to get tangled up in my yarn. She flicked her ears up a few times whenever the goblin army would make a sudden loud noise, but other than that she didn't seem to be paying any attention.
But then it happened: Gollum crawled his way onto the screen, hissing in his slimy voice.
And Cricket was not happy about it.
Next thing I know she's sitting bolt-upright on my lap, growling at the screen. When Bilbo spoke, she stayed quiet, but when the camera switched to Gollum and he started talking, she growled and snorted until he went away again.
Usually I'm glad to get any Gollum scene over with as quickly as possible, but Cricket was so entertaining that I was almost sorry to see him go.
But then there were the Wargs. The bravado Cricket had displayed while warning Gollum to keep his distance was quickly forgotten - or rather, flung aside in panic as she flailed her way through my knitting project and started trying to climb me.
By the time I got my knitting put down, Cricket was huddled against my chest, her claws hooked in my shirt collar, shivering and whimpering. Having experienced a similar episode when the Hulk appeared on The Avengers, I knew what was going on, so I snuggled Cricket up and tried to cover her eyes. But she didn't want that either, and kept pushing my hand away from her face to look back at the screen... only to shrink back whimpering in fear again. I guess maybe she was afraid that if she looked away the Wargs would sneak up and get her.
A word to the wise, then: if you haven't watched The Hobbit at home yet, and you have small pets around, it might be a good idea to put them in another room. ; ) My poor little Yorkie's journey to Middle Earth via The Hobbit was not nearly as enjoyable for her as mine was for me.

On that note, though, yesterday I got to watch a live behind-the-scenes tour with Hobbit and LotR director Peter Jackson, which included a sneak peak of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. They were offering it online to everyone who bought the DVD as soon as it came out. And it. Was. Awesome!
As if I wasn't dying already, waiting for the second installment of The Hobbit, they had to spend almost an hour taunting viewers with questions and answers about both An Unexpected Journey and The Desolation of Smaug, snippets of production footage, guest appearances by actors from both LotR and The Hobbit, and a short finished scene from the next movie.
Those of you who watched it won't need to be told how I'm feeling right now. For those of you who didn't, let me just say that March and December have never, ever, seemed farther apart. If the theater would let me reserve my tickets now, I would. I feel like a little kid waiting for Christmas - I cannot wait for The Hobbit Part II!!!
Just sayin'.

Well, I'm off now, to venture out into my own fantasy world (i.e. get some writing done). Here's hoping all of you are getting your week off to a great start!

Proclaiming the Original "New Feminism"

Mainstream Western culture has been spewing its feminist mantra of gender equality, abortion on demand, cessation of discrimination, and women's liberation from degrading practices such as marriage, motherhood, etc., for generations now. To anyone who's been observing the cultural trends - couples having children only to turn them over to be raised by daycare workers and schoolteachers, rampant teen and/or out-of-wedlock pregnancies, annual abortion rates sustained in the thousands, and the overwhelming pressure on girls to find fulfillment not in being wives and mothers but in being career women - it would appear that the FemiNazi movement (to borrow the words of Rush Limbaugh) has established a pretty solid foothold.
Lately, though, I've been seeing signs that maybe feminism's foothold isn't quite as solid as the feminists have hoped, that maybe their runaway campaign is losing some of its steam. It's got me hopeful that maybe we're not quite finished and down for the count yet. Maybe we still have the juice for another upswing in the cycle.
What's the giveaway?
It's called "New Feminism". Here's a very basic rundown of the idea:
Many professing feminists are beginning to discover that they actually gain a greater sense of emotional, spiritual, and physical fulfillment from being homemakers and even stay-at-home moms than they do from being professional, career women. Some are putting forward the idea that the physical differences between men and women are connected to a difference in the roles in society and family life that they are each best suited to fill.
Wikipedia's article on New Feminism has this to say:

In order for men and women to be truly free, New Feminists assert that they must act in accordance with the way they are psychologically and emotionally structured to be as sexed human persons. Philosophy and Religion, then, are essential components in the search for how men and women should and ought to act for "a higher truth or good", not just how they want or can act. New Feminists assert that people must remember God and purpose to recognize that life, in some way, is a gift and not a mere thing which a person can claim as his or her exclusive property.

And...

New Feminists claim that other feminisms are preoccupied with "power", domination and positions of visible "authority" and claim that those are as masculine and faulty. Dismayed by what they see as the bitterness, hatred, or retribution of many feminists against men or other women for current or past injustices, they argue that men and women should cooperate with one another in interpersonal communion. This means giving of themselves in mutual service and love.

Now, there are some flaws in this secular interpretation of the ideology, naturally. But at its core, its structure is remarkably similar to the way the Bible outlines the separate and distinct roles of men and women.
Initially upon hearing things like the above article, I am sorely tempted to gasp and exclaim, wide-eyed, something dripping with snark and sarcasm such as "What?! No, it can't be! Who would ever have thought this?! Well, I mean, who other than the untold thousands of stay-at-home wives and moms out there who've been saying it for years, right? Other than those kooky fringe people, who would have thought it?"
Sarcasm aside, though, I think there's a different approach that Christians need to be taking to this.
In this particular case, there's really no getting around the "told-you-so" factor, whether we're being sarcastic about it or not. If we're going to engage people in conversation about this at all, we're going to have to, at the very least, acknowledge the fact that conservative Christians have been telling people to live this way all along.
But, rather than be snarky about it, I propose we use it to present and uphold the validity of scripture and God's outline for living. Because the fact is, the Bible has been saying this from the very beginning. It presents a blueprint for meaningful, cooperative, peaceful, and selfless living that sounds remarkably like this seemingly "new" discovery of a more fulfilling way of life.
Let me ask a question: How many of us have heard the argument that "the Bible may have been relevant for a certain time period, or a particular culture, but its ideas don't work in a modern society or with our culture"? Sadly, even many Christians have discounted parts of scripture because they don't believe that those parts are still "relevant".
But, to quote pastor and writer Scott Brown, "God's ways are trans-cultural. They transcend culture." What these "New Feminists" are actually discovering, whether they realize it or not, is that God's ways still work. They're still relevant, even today, even in modern "post-Christian" culture.
This is an incredible opportunity for Christians to present the gospel to people who may have been completely closed off to it before. If the Bible is right about the best way to find fulfillment and contentment in your life, even millenia after being written, might it not be worth listening to in other areas of life as well? Might we not consider giving it a bit more credence, rather than simply writing it off as outdated mythology?
If we can engage people in conversation about this topic, we will have an opportunity to open the scriptures to them, counting on God's promise that His word will not return void. As the culture shifts and we are able to once again discuss an idea like that of women staying at home without automatically being written off as fringe lunatics, those of us who are keeping head up and eyes open will, I believe, find abundant opportunities to give account of the hope that is in us.
Yes, it can be terribly infuriating, like a cliche scenario out of a sitcom - one character offers an idea to the other, who mocks it and declares that it will never work, but a moment later comes back and presents Character 1's idea as his own. Traditional Feminism couldn't offer what women were truly searching for, so when women found their desires answered somewhere else, Feminism had to sweep in and take the credit for it by changing their tune and touting it as a "new discovery". It's far easier than taking their medicine and admitting that they were wrong.
The secular world is still going to have the instinctive desire to reject God's word, because they are lost. The notion of their "new discovery" being borrowed from the Bible is going to be very offensive to them. That's just the way the cookie crumbles.
But that doesn't change the truth of it, or change what we have to do as Christians. We must take advantage of this opportunity to help people understand that every real truth comes from God. The Bible has the answers - and it's had them for a lot longer than the feminist movement has been around. What is considered a "revolutionary idea" in secular culture is old news to those who believe the Bible.
So, should you happen to come upon a discussion on the topic of New Feminism, I hope you'll graciously weigh in with a bit of Biblical truth on what is, essentially, the same subject... the only difference being that ours is the original version. ; )

Book Review: Winter

Author: Keven Newsome
Genre: Spiritual Warfare, Supernatural
Publisher: Darkwater (an imprint of Splashdown Books)
Pages: 322

My Thoughts: I'd been wanting to read this book for a long time, so I was very excited when I finally got a chance to make that happen. The unique premise of a new Christian (who's also goth) discovering that she has the gift of prophecy intrigued me. Actually reading the book kept me on the edge of my seat from cover to cover.
Winter is a new Believer whose faith is helping her put her life back together after a childhood that was more than a little rough. It's slow going, but she's making progress bit by bit.
Her progress gets a pretty major shaking-up, though, when she begins having premonitions, seeing things that haven't happened or knowing things she has no logical way of knowing. When her friend Kaci talks to her about spiritual gifts to Believers, Winter begins to suspect that hers is the gift of prophecy.
And when hideous, violent crimes and an anti-religious power grab rock the campus of the university, Winter's gift might be the only way to save the lives of her friends and bring the college back to its Christian foundation.

This book had me hooked from the first page. The author, Keven Newsome, is absolutely an artist with the written word. He has the ability to present an image or setting in complete, vivid detail in the reader's mind with just a single turn of phrase or a word or two (literally) of description. His ability at scene-crafting is incredible. There were multiple scenes throughout the book that just amazed me with their vividness and the way they came to life, making me feel like I was watching a movie instead of reading a book. If nothing else, writers, read this book to learn how to create scenes and settings like Keven Newsome does it!
As for the content itself, be forewarned that it is very, very dark throughout the book, which just sort of comes with the territory. Between the spiritual warfare and brutal crime (and by brutal I mean very brutal) that make up the plot, and the frequent flashbacks to Winter's early teenage years, following her path into the Goth sub-culture and her eventual experimentation with witchcraft prior to her conversion, darkness is a necessary element. What I loved about it was the way that Winter's own experience with the dark elements of the book was part of what enabled her to figure out what was going on and fight against it, and in several instances it was what kept her from being shocked and freaked out to the point of not being able to function. I thought that was a skillful use on the author's part of the fact that what we intend for harm, God uses for good.
One element that seriously bothered me about this book was when Winter was first realizing that she had the gift of prophecy, but was doubting her own suitability for the calling. During one of her doubt-filled, questioning prayers, she hears the voice of God saying "I, the Lord, believe in you." Which is totally not a Biblical concept in any way, shape, or form. God makes it abundantly clear over and over in His word that our ability is not ours, but His. He pulls no punches making sure we know that we don't have the ability in ourselves to do what He wants of us, that the ability all comes from Him. So that really got under my skin.
Another thing that puzzled and perplexed me was the lack of parental involvement in the plot. At one point a few of the main characters even show up at parents' house seeking medical help after one of them has been kidnapped and beaten, tell the parents what's going on in full, and ask their advice. The parents offer them advice, prayer, and encouragement to face the situation as God would have them to... and make no attempt whatsoever to get involved. Their children are facing sadistic Satanic maniacs, and they don't make an effort to get involved. Really, now? I understand that, as a writer, if your main character is a child you sometimes have to marginalize the parents to an extent, since a parent's job is to protect the child from the kind of things that usually go on in fictional stories. But this was just a little extreme for my tastes.
There was some lack or realism, too, in how quickly Winter seems to recover from the various injuries she receives over the course of the story. For instance, at one point she gets a few broken ribs; after looking her over a nurse sends her upstairs to take a shower before she wraps the ribs. Having had a little bit of experience with rib injuries, let me tell you that with broken ribs, you're not going to be interested in undertaking anything more ambitious than just breathing - and even that becomes a chore. No way are you going to walk upstairs and take a shower.
But, if I forced myself to ignore the "I, the Lord, believe in you" thing, and overlooked the other few things, like I said I really enjoyed this book. Dark, yes. Brutal at times, yes. I definitely wouldn't recommend it for anyone under 18. But a very unique story with a unique cast of characters, and stellar writing and scene-craft.
Let me know when the movie comes out - I'll have my ticket reserved!

Character Costume Challenge: 'Object' Edition

It's that time again, and I'm so excited to be getting to participate in Gillian Adams' Characters in Costume Challenge! I was so excited when she announced last month that she was making it a monthly event!
This month's specification was an object - something your character carries or values or always has with them. So I decided I would feature my character Alice Ewing's necklace.

Alice Ewing is a seventeen-year-old girl who lives in the United States during the Great Depression/Dustbowl era. After the deaths of both her parents, Alice finds herself homeless and is forced to join her drifter half-brother, Frederick, as he rides the rails in search of work.

Alice wears her necklace all the time, and everywhere she goes. It never comes off. It consists of a simple, plain chain, on which she carries a whole host of different trinkets and small useful items. Some of the items come and go as the need arises, but some of them are there all the time.
The key is to the house Alice and her parents lived in. After her parents died and Alice was evicted, she took the key with her - it's the last piece she has of the home she loved.
The ring belonged to her mother, but in the impoverished world Alice lives in, it's not safe to draw attention by wearing it on her hand, so she carries it on a necklace under her shirt, out of sight.
The pocket watch belonged to her father, and was given to him by his father.
The little wheel/gear thing is just one of those items that Alice has picked up along the way. While it could serve a useful purpose - as a spare button, for instance - collecting little items like that has sort of become a habit with Alice. She just picks things up and puts them on her necklace, just because.

"It's a hard life on the roads and the rails. And the world isn't kind."  ~ Frederick

 

"When the world forces you out of the home and the life you've always known, I guess you just have to carry whatever pieces you can with you. And then - maybe - the home that's still in your heart will come to live in those little pieces, so that sooner or later you're carrying your whole home in those little pieces. It's a nice thought, anyway."   ~from Alice's journal

Lessons Learned

Last Thursday, we got a glaze of ice followed by two inches of sleet. By Saturday morning, the sleet had compressed into a hard, solid surface. To a country kid, that spells SLEDDING!!!! Let me assure you, there is no sledding surface in the world like hard-packed sleet.
One of my brothers had already left for the day, but I rousted my other two siblings out of bed, threw some breakfast at them, dragged the sled down from the attic, and headed out.
Our house sits on top of a hill with a wide valley in front, so the best sledding spot around is right off the front yard. My sister and I rode down the hill together the first time, and on the hard surface of the sleet pack it felt like we were flying.
When we finally drifted to a stop, my sister let out a breath of relief and said she was glad we'd stopped. She had been worried we would slide right across the valley into the creek.
"Don't worry," I said, "the boys and I have been trying for years to sled all the way from the hilltop to the creek, and we've never so much as come close a single time. The valley's just too wide, and the sled just won't go that far."
"Oh," she said. "Okay."
We dragged the sled back up the hill and each took a solo run. When my second turn came around, I situated the sled at the angle I wanted, situated myself on my belly (for aerodynamic purposes), and Karri gave me a push to get me started.
The conditions must have been just right, because I picked up an incredible amount of speed going down the hill. The sled lost almost no speed as it skimmed across the valley - farther than it had ever gone before. It dawned on me that the creek bank was getting really, really close. I put my feet down behind me to create some drag and slow myself down, but on the slick surface of the sleet they didn't do much good.
About the time that I realized "Oh - I should bail out!", the sled flipped over the edge and I tumbled head-over-heels (literally) down the bank, disappearing from sight of my siblings still on top of the hill.
The first sound to reach my ears as I clawed at the muddy bank trying to keep from crashing into the water was that of my siblings' hysterical laughter. (I also learned later that my mother had seen the whole episode from the kitchen window and had nearly drowned in the dishwater laughing as a result.) I raised a hand over the edge of the bank and yelled "I'm okay!" since, in spite of the laughter, I knew they would be concerned - at least mildly - about me.
Then I crawled back up onto dry ground and took stock of myself. No pain, just a lot of mud - a lot of mud.
My brother had started down the hill to check on me, but stopped when he saw that I was alright. Instead he was bewailing the fact that he didn't get my spectacular (so I'm told) mishap on video.
As I dragged my mud-soaked self and the mud-covered sled back up the hill, my own words came back to me. "The valley's just too wide. The sled just won't go that far. It's never happened before, there's no need to worry."

Lessons learned:
The sled will go that far. The conditions just haven't ever been right before.
Bail out a little sooner next time.
Keep my mouth shut.

Race isn't an issue - so stop making it one!

After all we've been through here in the United States, you'd think we could safely consider ourselves past the issue of 'race'. Unfortunately for all involved, however, it seems we just can't manage to let go.
A few weeks ago I saw part of a televised interview featuring a lovely young actress who, though I personally haven't seen any of her performances to know, has apparently met with a good bit of success in Hollywood. The woman hosting the interview asked this young lady to share with the audience what it was like having achieved this kind of success in spite of the challenges presented by her being "black and a woman". The actress responded with a long discourse on other women who have overcome these or similar obstacles before her, and how much their courage inspired her.
I was floored.
Don't get me wrong: I am painfully aware that there are still people who maintain strong racial hostilities. They are out there, and I'm not under any delusions about that. But honestly, can't we admit that an interview question like that is severely outdated? It isn't as if this young lady is the first female to really become successful in the movie industry, and it isn't as if she's the first dark-skinned person to become successful in the movie industry either. I'm not trying to downplay her success, but if pop culture is really so concerned with eliminating the 'race issue', then why in the world don't they let it go?

Of course, as annoying as instances like I just described are, I suppose it can be expected from the secular world. When your cushy western lifestyle takes care of all your needs and wants for you, I guess you have to find something you can still fret about.
What is completely inexcusable, though, is the racial segregation still taking place within Christianity. I'm not talking about the "Whites on one side, blacks on the other!" kind of segregation. I'm talking about Christians behaving as if so-called "white" and "black" are any different at all, period.
As many of you know, I am signed up with several different Christian publishing houses as an Advance Reader. They send me new releases, I read them, and then review them online. Recently I was scanning the Available Books list of a large and well-known Christian publishing house when I came across a book geared towards single mothers, offering advice on how to raise "a successful black man".
And last week, I was in a Christian book store and saw another title offering financial advice "for the African-American family".
The question I just have to ask is this: if we don't want race to be an issue, why are we still treating people of different colors as if they're different in any other way? Why should your skin color have any affect on the way you raise your children or manage your finances any more than your hair color does? God's laws, principles, and instructions are absolute, all-inclusive, and, last I checked, don't come with skin color-specific caveats.
Now, I don't want to be one of those platitudinous people who assume expressions reminiscent of Renaissance martyrs and proclaim that "I don't see color when I look at people!". When I look at you I do see the color of your skin, just like I see the color of your hair and your eyes, whether you're male or female, whether you're tall or short, etc. Your skin color is part of what makes you a unique individual. I just don't happen to believe that it's what makes you like or unlike me, because as a Christian I know that we're all of one race and one blood.
Acts 17:26 says "From one man He (God) created all the nations throughout the whole earth..."
Every human alive on the planet is descended from Adam and Eve - all of the DNA code for every genetic trait there is was present in their bodies when they were created. Jesus Christ didn't have to die on the cross as a black person and then again as a white person and then yet again as an Asian person, He died as a human, and that covered everybody!
The secular culture tries to put everybody in a box of one kind or another, and their packaging system defies the imagination with its boxes-within-boxes and boxes-linked-to-other-boxes. I get so tired of surveys, job applications, and other official forms demanding that I assign myself to one of their many "race" boxes. When "Other" is given as an option, I check it and write in "Human". When that isn't an option, I'm rather stuck. According to their perspective, I'm a mix of two different 'races', but I'm not going to denounce one whole side of my family just to fit into one of their pre-made boxes, so what exactly do they expect me to do? And if they're the ones making such a noise over how much race doesn't matter, why are they so insistent to know what my "race" is, anyway? It's a system that just doesn't work except to keep non-issues alive and festering needlessly.
We as Christians should be leading the fight to make race truly a non-issue. And I don't mean getting all warm-and-fuzzified over someone who 'overcomes' their race to be a success. I mean really, truly, believing and showing others that there is only one physical race. The only race-like distinction that the Bible makes is between the two spiritual races of Believers and Unbelievers - no division according to skin color.
This isn't an issue that Christians talk about very much, at least not in a Biblical context. I've talked to Christians who have never stopped and taken the time to think about what the Bible actually says on the topic. Tragically, I've talked to professing Christians who harbor strong racial prejudices. Both situations sadden me greatly. Living in a culture that's constantly spewing humanist blather on the subject, it can be difficult to step back, take a breath, and prayerfully seek out God's answers. Believe me, I know. I struggle with it too. But we have got to find our feet, step up, and take a stand on this. The Bible offers the only solid answer to the question of why racism is wrong in the first place. All anyone else can come up with is a lot of warm-fuzzy jargon that doesn't even make sense within the context of humanist ideology.
We have the answer to the race question. Let's not waste it.

Meteorite Hits Russia

If you're like me and don't watch the news, you might not have heard yet about the meteorite that struck Russia yesterday.

I only heard about it because my dad saw it on the news at work last night. So far it looks like about 1,100 people have sustained injuries due to the massive sonic boom that shattered windows and caused several explosions, so we need to be sure to keep those people in our prayers.

Just watching Youtube videos of the fireball flying through the sky and the explosions shaking the ground gave me chills, so I can't begin to imagine how scary it must have been for the people who were actually there, witnessing it first hand. (I think my first thought probably would have been "Missile!") Several years ago my brothers and I did witness a huge meteor that, we later learned, was seen over five states in the mid-west. Seeing a huge, burning chunk of rock literally tumbling end-over-end across the sky totally freaked us out, but there was no sonic boom or explosion to go with it so I'm sure the fear we felt then was nothing next to what people were feeling in Russia yesterday.
There really are some amazing videos of this on Youtube, so you should go check them out - especially you science fiction writers out there. This is the kind of stuff you normally only get to see in books and movies. It's not often you get to see the real thing!

It's amazing to me to see things like this. It's a sobering reminder of just how small we really are. I doubt many of us have ever thought to thank God for keeping us from being hit by meteors... but maybe it's time that changed. I know I'm thankful that I haven't had to live through that kind of an ordeal (yet, anyway). I'm thankful that my missionary friends in Russia are safe and sound. I'm thankful the meteor didn't hit in the middle of a city, which it very easily could have. God is good, my friends.


Any thoughts on this event, anyone?

Movie Review - Snow White and the Huntsman

*Warning: Contains Spoilers*
Well, I finally got around to seeing this movie for myself, so the friends who've been telling me to for ages can now rest easy. : )
Fairytales can be very tricky to work with, I've learned, especially when it comes to fleshing them out so that the classic fairytale coincidences aren't so... well, coincidental (i.e. 'and then the prince just happened to come riding through the woods and decided to kiss the dead princess and voila! she wasn't dead after all and she woke up! The end.), but I thought that this one was very well done in that regard. All the plot threads concerning character relationships and connections were done very nicely, in my opinion.
The characters were a bit of a mixed bag for me, though.
The huntsman was definitely the most interesting character; I loved the relationship between his backstory and his natural personality traits. Not all of his decisions made complete sense to me, (Remind me again just exactly how leaving the princess alone makes her safer than she would be with you when she's the one the evil queen is really after?) but he was still a fairly well-developed character and a rough-around-the-edges but still really sweet guy.
Snow White was rather... oh, how shall I say this?... muddled? Maybe it's the result of some residual fairytale 'just because'-ness. We know the princess is as beautiful inside as she is outside, and she's kind and warm and loving and compassionate and sweet-spirited... but we have no idea why. She's just that way, just because. The years she's spent in solitary confinement seem to have had no lasting ill effects on her, which is quite interesting considering the young age at which her imprisonment began. Due to my own pathetic lack of ability when it comes to acting, I'm a little hesitant to criticize someone else. However, I will say that Snow White was very lacking in expressiveness. I think that was what created the muddled feeling of her character - her lack of expressiveness made it very difficult as a viewer to tell what she was feeling or thinking, which made the whole thing feel confused and rather shallow. Her unwavering confidence in herself was a little odd, too. Never once over the entire course of the movie did she wonder "What if I can't do this? What if it isn't enough? Am I really the fairest of them all? Is that really enough to undo all of this?". It was just rather strange. I like characters who have at least enough sense to question themselves from time to time.
The evil queen Ravenna, while indeed exceedingly evil, was in my opinion just downright bizarre. I understand, evil people do evil things. No problem there. However, I fail to understand what bathing in a strange, white, paint-like substance has to do with being evil. At first I thought "Oh, this will come back later and be connected to something significant"... but it didn't. I have no idea what it had to do with anything at all, actually. There were also some cliche aspects to her character - portrayals of cruelty that didn't contribute anything of real significance (We know she's evil. We don't need to watch her eat the hearts of songbirds to figure that out.).
The movie as a whole was extremely dark - the darkest movie I've seen in quite a long time - with very little relief. I understand, the queen is holding the kingdom under a spell of black magic which necessarily means there has to be some darkness, but with only a few moments of relief over the course of the entire movie it got a bit depressing.
There was also a slight problem with randomness, and things just sort of dropping into the story without being attached to anything else or given any kind of a segue. The bath-in-white-paint thing was one such instance. Another one was when the huntsman and Snow White are on the lam through the Dark Forest, and he suddenly stops, hands her a knife, and teaches her one move with it. Then they're off again. But at the very end of the movie, that one move ends up being the one that both saves her life and enables her to kill the evil witch. But between those times she's successfully used a sword to fight her way through dozens of soldiers. So... yeah.
And of course there was the love triangle that was completely unresolved. All I can say is that it had better be resolved in the sequel.
On the whole, not a movie I would necessarily get excited about seeing again, but a good one to have seen.

Any thoughts from others who've seen it?

Book Review - The Floating Island

Author: Elizabeth Haydon
Series: The Lost Journals of Ven Polypheme
Genre: Fantasy
Publisher: Starscape
Pages: 351

I stumbled across this book in the library last week and, in spite of the fact that I had never heard of it or its author before, I was intrigued so I picked it up.
The Floating Island is the story of Ven Polypheme, a young Nain (similar to a dwarf) boy who finds himself thrown into a 'series of unfortunate events', as it were. Being attacked by pirates, nearly drowned, threatened by unintentionally-made enemies, and forced to seek shelter in a haunted inn, are just a few of the mishaps that befall him along the way as he seeks to find his way home and, at the same time, satisfy his own insatiable curiosity and desire for adventure.
I really enjoyed reading this book. I must admit, I have absolutely no idea what the dragon on the cover has to do with anything in the story - a talking cat, or a mermaid, or even a ghost wolf would have been much more appropriate and applicable - but it was still a very fun story.
My one complaint was the part of the story that hinged on the cursed spirit of someone who was buried at a crossroads, and the characters' quest to bring the spirit rest in order to restore the magic of the land surrounding the crossroads. The magic itself didn't bother me that much in and of itself, because of the author's explanation that magic was a force or energy built into creation when the Creator (and yes, she capitalized Creator) made it. I was more bothered by the ghost character who came into the story, and by some of the ghost-related circumstances that arose, however. I won't say I would never let my kids read this book, but I would definitely wait to let them read it until they were mature enough to understand the true nature of ghosts and spirits and not be confused. I would let my 18-year-old brother read it without a second thought, but I wouldn't give it to my much more impressionable 13-year-old sister.
So on the whole, a very fun, lighthearted fantasy read, but one I wouldn't necessarily recommend for the young audience it was intended for.