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I recently finished reading Jim Butcher’s Princeps Fury, the fifth in his Codex Alera series, and it’s one of the best books ever.  Epic without being bogged down in clunky exposition and confusing detail, way more accessible than classics like Lord of the Rings, featuring a variety of characters with their own distinct personalities and stories, and most importantly, it has both a sense of humor and a bit of romance. I’m not a big fan of the trend for fantasies to turn into doom-and-gloom tragedies, so this series lifts my spirits.

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Unfortunately, this wonderful book has raised an appetite for fantasy. I say unfortunately, because I am so picky about what I expect that I am rarely pleased and more often disappointed. I've tried a few different fantasies in the past fortnight and I've enjoyed none of them so far.

In the first, the girl gets raped by the second chapter. To be fair, the rape wasn't gratuitous in the sense that it served no purpose, because it did shape her character and inform her actions, which started a series of events that had consequences throughout the rest of the book. But I don't care how brilliantly it's executed, I stop reading once it happens.

In another, it was going so well. Powerful magic dude rescues an urchin with powers of her own, and they work together to overthrow the corrupt system. I have a soft spot for these kinds of ships, ever since Daine/Numair in Tamora Pierce's The Immortals. [Call me deviant, I don't care. Although she was really young, but I'm ignoring that, lalala]. The book was so good that when I saw the second in Borders, I thought about buying it so I didn't have to wait for the library- except I read the blurb, everything came crashing down around my ears. The dude dies and she gets with some other guy. Ouch.

The third was part of a series. Absolutely adored the first book, again had plans to purchase them. But in the second, the chick finds out she's bonded to this vampire- who she has feeling for, I might add- and wants to get rid of the spell so she has sex with another guy. Wtf?! NO. I looked up the plot for the third book, and it's still about her relationship with the vampire and the UST and epic romance of it all, and I'm thinking, 'What's romantic about sleeping with another guy to try and sever the connection between her and the first guy?' So...yah. Down the drain.

The problem I have is that there are, for some reason, a lot of love triangles in fantasy novels. What is up with that? I'm a fan of the OTP so it hurts me deeply. What's so wrong with having the one couple and sticking to that, instead of trying to ratchet up the chick's number of sexual partners?

Note to self: getting into the shower, realizing I still had my glasses on, ducking quickly to avoid splashing them and bashing my head against the wall? Not my finest hour. Omg, wait- the klutziness, the tripping, the idiocy...I'M EMULATING BELLA SWAN. KILL ME NOW. *headdesks*

- another tennis match with mother this morning...she beat me AGAIN, 6-3. I did worse than the first time, but my excuse is that after our epic first match, I'm all bruised and battered and not in my best form. Though I am in better shape than my father, who took her on over the weekend and limped away from battle with strained calf muscles in both legs, lol. He’ll be out of commission for a few weeks now. :P 

- finally bit the bullet and registered an insanejournal account. Here I am. Hope like hell I never need it because omg, I forgot how painful it was trying to figure out how to customize my journal. I looked at the option but I don't think I'm even allowed to personalize it. Although I suck at technical stuff, so maybe I'm holding myself back rather than the site, lol. They do offer ONE HUNDRED userpics right off, though, which made me a little dizzy because dear god, I had to pay HOW MUCH for that here?!

- OMGYAY, I’m awash with new ships! Please, gods, don’t let me down. I’m so into The Mentalist it’ll break my heart if this one goes down the drain.

    *Patrick and Lisbon’s flirty banter and cutesy exchanges are killing me with squee. The end of ep 9, with them running in the rain, was pretty sweet. Ep 10, however, surpassed its awesomeness a million times over. I about died from giggly glee.

    *And In Plain Sight...*dies* Just when I thought I didn't have it in me to fall for another police procedural. The character's name is Mary, which made me partial to liking her before I even met her, lol. She's one of those smart asses that make wisecracks all the time and makes her boss's life hell by playing fast and loose with the rules. Pretty much like House or Patrick Jane, except I'm shipping partners here, NOT boss/subordinate, kthxbai.

- I'm no good at thinking up captions, and I applaud those with the talent to do so. [One of my favorite time-wasting sites is icanhascheezburger.com, heh.] But this RL pic of my cousin's cat, Checkers, and their bird, Icarus makes me lol.



Look at that, no fear! It's not surprising, though. The bloody bird is a tyrant, it literally rules the roost. I mean, you'd think the life expectancy of a free flying bird in a house with TWO cats would be limited, but it is a vicious thing and totally freaks them out, heh.