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The Anubis Gates

Harrison Ford as Darrow. Just saying. In all seriousness, I feel as though if they ever made a movie, that is perfect casting right there. The gruffness fits so well. Plus, you could play with Harrison Ford’s previous roles, and it would be cool. Anyway, let’s talk about my thoughts on The Anubis Gates. Something I like to look at with these books is kind of where they fall in relation to each other in their respective genre’s. Like Star Wars is a very adventure focused simple but vast in scope, space opera. Interstellar is more thought provoking despite still being a Sci-fi. The Anubis Gates falls hard in the adventure romp for me which wasn’t really my expectation when I started. That’s not bad though, I did thoroughly enjoy my read. But I find it really interesting to view that comparison. I think this is in part supported by many of the more theatrical and magical elements to the story. The werewolves. The serial killers. It all helps to give this very adventure r

Chapter One - Neverwhere

I read the first chapter of Neverwhere, and after reading it I really wish I had more time to finish it. I read it because I couldn’t find a short story for this week of the course, and I’m kind of glad I couldn’t. Oddly enough the vibes it gave me were that of The City of Lost Children. Just in the odd characters we see presented in Mr. Croup and Mr. Vandemar. They reminded me of those evil teachers, that would finish sentences for each other, and were just obviously evil to an almost ridiculous extent. Then we’ve got our protagonist who resembles Ron Pearlman’s character in his naivety in a way. It just struck me as odd all around, but in the most interesting kind of way. I’d say that I understand what’s really going on here, but I can’t. I feel that about to unravel is a massive spindling plot with many routes in which is goes down and around.   That’s I guess what interests me most I suppose. Somehow Neil Gaiman has started a story in about eleven pages and I’m

Each Man Kills by Victoria Glad

Women in horror. Oh, boy. We talked about it way back in August and September. This story fits that trend very well. From the get go we are introduced to this romantic relationship, and quickly the story is spun into action due to Maria leaving for… TRANSLYVANIA Sorry had to. Anyway. We also see a horror story written by a woman, Victoria Glad. So what I’m trying to say, but doing a poor job of, is that women are important here, but also it fills many of the stereotypes that horror women fall into. We can tell very early on that something isn’t right with Maria. That the situation with Tod isn’t right. But then we see that it also subverts expectation.   Maria went with Tod of her own free will. Ultimately there is nothing our protagonist can do. That’s kind of what makes this story an interesting use of the tropes of Horror. While it’s far from being the first to play into horror tropes and then subvert them, it still remains interesting. Not that I feel it’s