This week, Drizzt Do'Urden again. Frankly, it's fertile ground.

Drizzt: This week, whilst roaming in the city with my good friend Bruenor Battlehammer (he is a dwarven king, as those I speak to seem to somehow intuit when I have but mentioned his name... doubtless it is his well-justified fame) we came  upon a number of suspicious-looking characters lurking in the shadows beside by a tanner's shop. This was most suspicious, as the odor emanating from the establishment was such that it triggered a flashback to my woeful days in Menzoberranzan, ere my liberation to the sweetness and friendship of my surface life, tainted though it ever is and shall be by my drow features. Oh, can one elf alone redeem the reputation of his race? Would such redemption, even sweet, be of any true value in the passage of time, as the evil of my kindred perpetrates further atrocities against which I must strive? Wh... Read More

This week, we hear from Kvothe and Bast.

Kvothe: That week, having somehow spiralled into abject poverty again, I drank away my troubles at the Eolian. I was not too many mugs into the night when I was induced to sing. I performed, and I performed well. Music, in time, comes to be a state of being rather than an occupation. The mechanics of fingers and strings falls away, and one becomes an engrossed spectator to his own art. It was so that night, and I was not without admirers. I passed them by with quick words and warm smiles. Simmon and Fela had entered as I sang, and most in the world then I wanted to hear the results of their studies in the library. Also, I must confess, their blossoming romance had been of no small interest to me, and...

Bast: Bast's Journal. Day Three of the Acc... Read More

This week, we hear from Drizzt Do'Urden, who has had a terrible time of it indeed.

Drizzt: This week, while I was staying with my good friend Regis, I found he had scheduled a party or gathering of some sort. Mindful that the guests might believe I had come to massacre them all -- due to my dark elven countenance and the storied malevolence of my race, that which I alone have escaped, woe is me -- I resolved to spend the evening with my hood raised, writing poetry in my journal. Ere long, I had shed more than a few lamenting tears for the wickedness of my detested kin whilst in the throes of composition, and perhaps drew too much attention to myself. A small child drew close and asked me the names of my scimitars. "This is the noble blade Twinkle," I replied, "and that is its brother Icingdeath."

The boy seemed impressed enough, as well he might have been. Unfortunately, h... Read More

Today we hear from Tara of Helium, daughter of John Carter of Mars.

Tara of Helium: Today a most vexing matter disturbed the peace. My noble father John Carter, Warlord of Mars, came to visit together with my mother Dejah Thoris and my brother Cathoris. My father and brother fell to sporting, performing great feats and leaping in the air, displaying their superior strength for the amusement of the Barsoomians there gathered. At first all seemed well, but as he watched the idle play, the brow of my husband Gahan grew furrowed and his expression dark, until I asked him what so troubled the Jeddak of Gathol.

"Truly," said my beloved, "I realized not that John Carter's strength was passed to his son."

"That is strange, for it is no secret," I replied. "Were you more often in Helium, you would often see Cathoris perform such feats as these."

... Read More

This week, Marion secures (at great personal peril) what appears to be a genuine excerpt from the journal of the Lady Jessica of House Atreides!

Jessica: From the Personal Journal of Lady Jessica:  This morning I woke strangely disturbed. My beloved Leto snored gently beside me. Sometimes I think my love could sleep through a full Sardaukar invasion. I arose, donned my still-suit and wandered out into this harsh planet’s quiet dawn. Here, in the embassy’s austere garden, I have found two strange volumes. One is titled How to Raise Your Adolescent Superhero Without Going Crazy. The author is female – I believe the name is M-Kent or something of that nature. The second, slimmer book is Decorate Your Cave, by Ayla. I must ponder this discovery. Can it have meaning for Paul? For me? For millions of others? Perhaps our tame mentat will be of some help... Read More

Batman. For those times when you realize that every one of your King Arthur jokes is ludicrously esoteric.

Batman: This week, I read nothing at all. My war on crime leaves no time for such pursuits. Fortunately, I seem to have absorbed a good 70% of the Library of Congress at some point during my years of training, as I have no trouble recognizing the frequent literary references my enemies use (once, the mayor joked that it was a source of comfort to him that although the city is threatened on a weekly basis by madmen, our educational system must be quite extraordinary. I was laughing on the inside). Also, I seem to have a working knowledge of every branch of scientific study. I assume I picked this up somewhere between learning every martial art and becoming a stage magician. I'm Batman.

Marion: I finished John Lawton�... Read More

This time around, our guest speaker Elric of Melnibonë attacks a beloved friend completely without provocation. To the surprise of absolutely no one.

Elric: This week I read The Bane of the Black Sword, by Michael Moorcock. I'm the Eternal Champion, constantly adrift in space and time. I can do that kind of thing. I was most struck by the appearance of my friend Moonglum. I suppose I had to see the name in print to be sure. I always assumed it just sounded like Moonglum but was actually some barbaric cornucopia of vowels and double-Ls. Moaounglluiem or something. But no. Moonglum. Strange that I didn't realize just how silly it seemed before. Did his parents just decide to sandwich two words together completely at random? Might he have been Gigglecracker or Couchs... Read More

Today, Aslan. I considered doing Bigwig from Watership Down, but then I thought "how can I make this even more on the nose?" Anyway, I want to reiterate: today's guest is Aslan. The character. A talking lion invented by C.S. Lewis. No one and nothing else should be seriously associated with today's remarks.

Aslan: Today is a particularly special day. On this day, true Narnians give voice to songs and dance hearty reels in the halls of Cair Paravel. It is a day of feasting and of merrymaking, and if a book is read, it is that account of the table and the witch. You have a book like it in your world, though I shan't tell you exactly what the name is: that would be gauche. Anyway, today all are welcome, Narnian or no, to celebrate in whatever way they see fit.

Except Susan. Likes boys that much, does she? Well, fine. She can just tart herself up for a night on ... Read More

This week, Jirel of Joiry throws down the sword & sorcery gauntlet.

Jirel: Whilst trapped in an ineffable darkness beneath the earth, I came upon a certain codex bathed in light (from whence either light or text came I could not say). Tarrying there some breaths ere returning to my forlorn odyssey, I took up the volume out of a whisper of curiosity. I found it to be the account of a man's life, a warrior called Conan of Cimmeria. I passed no more than twenty leaves ere I felt my soul ablaze with disgust: this Conan was clearly a ridiculous, affected pansy.

Kat: I was pretty busy this week, so I didn’t get a chance to read as much as usual, even on audio. I did manage to finish Robert A. Heinlein’s The Moon is ... Read More

This week, we hear from a great King of Men, fallen into shadow....

Bill: This week I read Guy Gavriel Kay's River of Stars, certainly one of my best reads of the past few months and a rare five star review (on its way).

Brad: Other than finishing the first volume of Beautiful Creatures and rereading Murakami's After Dark, primarily I've been reading comics. I just reread the awesome cosmic events in Marvel's Annihilation and Annihilation: Conquest mini-series. I also reread the entire run in the Criminal series by Read More

This week, a famous character from A Song of Ice and Fire, because I'm feeling incredibly lazy his admittedly simple but elegant philosophy can be of use to us all.



Hodor: ....................... hodor? *sigh* Hodor.

John: Crazy busy...  Reading Frost Burned by Patricia Briggs, another installment in the Mercy Thompson series.

Kat: I finished Elizabeth Moon’s VATTA’S WAR this week with the third, fourth, and fifth books: Engaging the Enemy, Command Decision, and... Read More

This week, Arthur Pendragon.

Arthur: Of late, I didst take upon myself the task of viewing those accounts of my reign penned by such scribes as have the skill. Soothly, I have come to greatly rue such errant whimsy, for in reading one account from Wales and another from Brittany, certainty has bled from my soul and I now know not what to believe. Is my royal nephew Gawain a base recreant coward, or is he rather the shining pillar of stout knighthood? I deem him both and neither these past days. Lancelot...does he exist? I cannot say. At times, he is here, yet even as I pen these lines, my good brother Sir Kai swears most mightily that such a knight has never seen Tintagel. I sought the counsel of Merlin, and he has called this madness a "metaphysical paradox". I wish greatly that it would cease. My only solace is Guinevere, who exists in much the same wise in all times and places. So long as my queen be goo... Read More

This week we hear from the God-Emperor of Arrakis, Paul Atreides.

Brad: I've been enjoying Kindle's Immersion Reading, which allows you the option to purchase very cheaply any of over 15,000 audiobooks if you purchase the digital book first. Usually the price drops $10-20 , and as a result, you can often get the digital book and audiobook for less than it would cost to buy the audiobook alone! Immersion Reading plays the audiobook in sync with the digital book:  The words are highlighted while the audiobook plays. It even turns the pages while it plays. I reread Pride and Prejudice this way the past few weeks, and I'm currently rereading Emma and Wuthering Heights. I've also started Beautiful Creatures, which is much better tha... Read More

This week, we hear from guest speaker Peter Pan. Who is in retrospect woefully unsuited to be anywhere near a literary site.

Brad: This week I finished rereading Pride and Prejudice. I love it more every time I read it. I consider talking about it in the classroom one of the great pleasures of teaching. As for my comic book reading, the next installments in two of my favorite noir series came out this Wednesday: Fatale #12 by Ed Brubaker and Powers: The Bureau #1 by Bendis (Powers has been around for years; The Bureau is merely the latest installment, or storyline). I also stumbled onto a hysterical sitcom style superhero comic called Love and Capes by Thomas F. Zahler. I'm not a fan of sitcoms, which makes this comic even fun... Read More

This week, we hear from the famous dark elf Drizzt Do'Urden. It was Sir Gawain's week, but Drizzt has the advantage of about ten thousand more readily available pictures on Google Image Search, so he's bumped up the roster while I search for a Gawain pic that doesn't make him look like a villainous Tom Selleck. 

Brad: I'm rereading yet again my favorite novel of all-time: Pride and Prejudice, though when I'm reading Emma--Austen's other masterpiece--it's my all-time favorite. It's just too hard to choose between the two.  As for comics, I just read the mediocre Daredevil Noir mini-series.  It's not as good as the Daredevil run by Mark Waid that I just reviewed on Friday. I'm also rereading Volume One of the four-volume omnibus reprinting of Jack Kirby Read More