![]() There is drama and a fast-moving narrative, but she skillfully weaves a mounting dread into the novel, as well as a claustrophobic sensuality. ![]() ![]() Megan Abbott's 'high school noir' is sensual and sinister.atmospheric and compelling.What sets Abbott apart from other mystery scribes is her evocative language. But it's also a great novel, full stop, without any of the usual genre caveats, and I can think of no higher recommendation than that you'll want to read it twice: First insatiably, speeding through to find out just what's going to happen, and then again slowly, to savor the sharp, dare I say literary, insights about her characters that Abbott effortlessly scatters throughout.-Adam Sternbergh, Slate The Fever sends chills. Dare Me hurtles past the glitter and angst of high-school cheerleading, right to the bruising inner struggles of adolescence.-New York Magazine The Fever is a potboiler in the truest, best sense of that devalued word: Its ingredients are expertly combined, patiently agitated, and heated to an inexorable boil. ![]()
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![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() When they needed people the most, those people showed up. Ruthless Kingdom also showed us the community coming together to support the Boneyard Kings. There were also some very steamy moments for our characters. From the situation with Everly's uncle, to the involvement with Leo, to just overall sketchy situations, this book was captivating. I was on the edge of my seat throughout, and could not put this book down. Ruthless Kingdom was absolutely fabulous. I could not wait to find out how all of this was going to be discovered, and how it was all going to conclude. I had to know what was happening with Everly, Saint, Matteo, and Cal. Having read both of the previous books, I could not wait to see what happened after that cliffhanger. Becca Steele and C Lymari did an outstanding job on this trilogy, but this last book was next level. What I can say is that this was an epic finale. ![]() With this being the final book in a continuing story, recapping just isn't possible because of spoilers. So come find out what happens after that cliffhanger in Vicious Queen. Ruthless Kingdom by Becca Steele and C Lymari is now available!! This is the final installment in the Boneyard Kings trilogy, and it gives you all the closure you need. ![]() ![]() ![]() It was back between the covers, challenging me to start again.Īt a superficial level, “Lolita” is a relatively straight-forward novel. Nor was it going to tell me I had been a Good Reader or that it had appreciated my attentiveness. Now, not being a smoker, all I needed was some post-coital conversation.Īnd there was no one around to converse with.Īnd the book wasn’t giving away any more of its secrets than it already had. My cheeks were still flushed, my nerve endings were still tingling, I had experienced the “spine thrill of delight”, I felt like I had just had sex with a book. ![]() I wanted to talk to someone about my experience straight away. I had read “Lolita” in a couple of days, less time than my work commitments normally allow me, but I found it incredibly easy to read.Įven though I was taking notes, even though I was conscious that Nabokov was playing games (even if I didn’t always know what game), even though there were unfamiliar words I should have looked up, I was constantly drawn towards the conclusion. This wasn’t the conversation I had been hoping for. He’s a paedophile.”Ī bit taken aback, I enquired further, “Who? The author or the character?”įortunately, she replied, “The character.”įor me, this exchange showed how much “Lolita” can still sharply divide opinion, even within lovers of fiction. She replied firmly, “No…and I’m not going to either. After re-reading "Lolita", I asked my local bookseller if she'd ever read it. ![]() ![]() ![]() In 1939, Stuart married Naomi Deane Norris, a school teacher, and they settled in W-Hollow. In 1937 Stuart won a Guggenheim Fellowship, and lived and studied for 14 months in Scotland, from where he travelled all over Europe. įrom 1933 to 1937 he was principal of McKell High School. While at Vanderbilt he published his debut collection of poetry, a vanity publication called Harvest of Youth. He did graduate studies for a year at Vanderbilt University, where he came to know poets Robert Penn Warren, John Crowe Ransom, and Donald Davidson. ![]() Career Īfter graduating he returned to the his home area, becoming principal and teacher at Warnock High School (a 1-room high school), and then principal at Greenup High School. Stuart attended Lincoln Memorial University, near Harrogate, Tennessee, where he befriended writers James Still and Don West. After graduation he worked in a carnival, spent 6 months in a Citizens Military Training Camp at Camp Knox, Tennessee, and then worked for 6 months in a steel mill in Ashland, Kentucky. He had less than 2 years of education in the local 1-room schoolhouse, before entering Greenup High School. Stuart was born near Riverton, Greenup co., Kentucky, to Mitchell and Martha (Hilton) Stuart on August 8, 1907. Born and raised in Greenup County, Kentucky, he relied heavily on the rural locale of Northeastern Kentucky for his writings. ![]() Stuart is known for writing short stories, poetry, and novels about Southern Appalachia. ![]() ![]() Two works of historical fiction shine through in Corissa Baker’s “The Deep” which reimagines the Irish Famine as a slow supernatural horror and Jason Andrew’s “Fear and Loathing in Innsmouth: Richard Nixon’s Revenge”, a fun detective noir. Two others which ply humor to great effect are Martin Hill Ortiz’ “Nutmeat” which imagines a parasitic takeover and James Brogden’s Monty Python worthy “The Decorative Water Feature of Nameless Dread”. My 4-star honorable mentions include: Greg Stolze’s “Iden-Inshi”, a humor-thriller that devolves into a horror-sci-fi. I’ve separately reviewed and rated each of the collection’s component stories, giving top honors and 5 stars to Erica Satifka’s “You Will Never Be the Same”, an imaginative horror-sci-fi in which humans break dimensional boundaries for the sake of interstellar travel at the risk of their sanity. The best of the bunch carve their own path through the mythos to great effect. Thankfully, most tales share a fresh perspective rising above mere Lovecraft fan fiction. ![]() ![]() Accordingly, horror and the supernatural permeate the collection, though humor and historical fiction are well represented, too. This anthology solidly delivers an array of Lovecraft inspired tales. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() output processed stuff to output variable process input(s) and do some weird graphics stuff Don't worry if you don't know what uniforms are, we'll get to those shortly.Ī shader typically has the following structure: Each shader's entry point is at its main function where we process any input variables and output the results in its output variables. Shaders always begin with a version declaration, followed by a list of input and output variables, uniforms and its main function. GLSL is tailored for use with graphics and contains useful features specifically targeted at vector and matrix manipulation. Shaders are written in the C-like language GLSL. We will now explain shaders, and specifically the OpenGL Shading Language, in a more general fashion. In the previous chapter we briefly touched the surface of shaders and how to properly use them. Shaders are also very isolated programs in that they're not allowed to communicate with each other the only communication they have is via their inputs and outputs. In a basic sense, shaders are nothing more than programs transforming inputs to outputs. These programs are run for each specific section of the graphics pipeline. As mentioned in the Hello Triangle chapter, shaders are little programs that rest on the GPU. ![]() ![]() ![]() New Times: What’s the creation story behind this tour? ![]() Phoenix New Times recently got a chance to speak by phone with Beaulieu and Conniff about the live tour, the devotions of fans, and dicking around. A question-and-answer session will follow, as well as meet-and-greet opportunities. Making fun of these extremely bad movies was the only way the subjects could survive, and the results were hilarious.ĭuring The Mads Are Back! events, Beaulieu and Conniff will riff on a different movie each night ( Walk the Dark Street on Friday, and The Tingler on Saturday). They're the two mad scientists forcing Joel or Mike and the bots Tom Servo and Crow to watch terrible, B-if-not-lower movies under the guise of experimentation from seasons two through six (and season seven for Beaulieu). ![]() In case you never watched the sketches, the Mads consist of MST3K's Deep 13 villains Forrester (also the orig Crow T. “The Mads” – are on a movie-riffing tour of their own.Īlamo Drafthouse will host The Mads Are Back! on Friday and Saturday, October 20 and 21. This year has seen a reboot of MST3K on Netflix, a visit from Joel Hodgson and that whole gang at Phoenix's Orpheum Theatre in July, and now, Trace Beaulieu and Frank Conniff – a.k.a. It’s a good time to be a Mystery Science Theater 3000 fan. ![]() ![]() ![]() I also suspect that part of my dislike is because there were too many deaths of characters I liked. I wasn’t as happy with this particular installment as it seemed a bit condescending in parts. If you’re interested, there is a chronological listing of the Tortall books on my website. Other books by this author which I have reviewed include Alanna: The First Adventure, In the Hand of the Goddess, Woman Who Rides Like a Man, Wild Magic, Trickster's Choice, Trickster's Queen, Wolf-Speaker, Emperor Mage, Realms of the Gods, First Test, Page, Squire, Lady Knight, Terrier, Bloodhound, Mastiff, Daja's Book, Sandry's Book, Tris's Book, Briar's Book, Magic Steps, Street Magic, Cold Fire, Shatterglass, The Will of the Empress, Melting Stones, Battle Magic, Tempests and Slaughterįourth in the Song of the Lioness children’s adventure series revolving around the Lady Alanna, a knight in the service of King Roald of Tortall. It is part of the, series and is a fantasy in Paperback edition that was published by Simon Pulse on Januand has 384 pages. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. ![]() I received this book for free from the library in exchange for an honest review. ![]() ![]() ![]() Even though Jonasson gives us a happy ending with all the loose strings tied up, even that was too far-fetched. There are way too many of these improbable, tall tales that became silly, then boring, and finally repetitious. ![]() ![]() For example, one falls out of a plane, lands in a haystack, misses the pitchfork in the haystack, and survives to tell the tale. Unfortunately, some of them are just too stupid to be believable and turn into comic book characters performing in a slapstick comedy of errors. We also get a lot of background on major and minor characters, most of which is quite humorous. There was plenty of political and social commentary on the state of the world, details about the folly of politicians and bureaucrats, and information on South African policy and Swedish heads of state, too much in all. The characters were interesting and the plot was intriguing – a poor South African girl who’s a math genius escapes from enforced servitude to prevent the assassination of the King of Sweden. ![]() ![]() ![]() And poor Will, did he really think that hiding Vaughn’s reappearance in his life would help his precarious relationship with Lake any? Nope. I hated Vaughn on the spot, that manipulative, coy bitch. To the first plot-hurdle: Vaughn and Reece. The second plot twist that happens in the latter part of the book involves a serious car accident in the snow that leaves Eddie (who is sixteen weeks pregnant) and Will hurt and Lake severely injured in hospital. Reece, Will’s best friend of ten-ish years also makes an appearance. So, PoR has two plot twists – the first behind Vaughn, Will’s blast from the past and the ensuing chaos she instigates when they end up having classes together in college. We have the same wonderful cast with some bright new additions (Kiersten and her mother Sherry in particular) and some faces from Will’s past that are not so bright and welcome. Point of Retreat follows on more than a year after the end of Slammed and we see Lake and Will’s relationship evolve around conflict that neither of them has control over. ![]() ![]() As soon as I finished Slammed, I literally opened up the next book and dove right into it. I know how much I love a book series when I simply must read the next installment right after I’ve finished the first. ![]() |