Floatation Device

I had a very productive day today, I'm so proud of myself. ^_^ I did three fanfiction covers, wrote three articles, folded all the guest towels and put them away, and completely fried my brain. Never fear! I do have a little something not-boring for you today. It's a review of the newly finished section of Adrift In a Room of Mirrors by Princess Alexandria! Which will come right after I post some pictures for you...

Fanfiction Covers

HTML Tables

So there's those... I did the first two yesterday and the other three today. Photo manipulation is a lot more complicated than I remember... You can find these fanfictions, and my others, by clicking the "My Fanfiction" button up in the navigation bar.

Adrift - Floatation Device by Princess Alexandria

Okay so... this story was/is originally from Princess Alexandria's Adrift In a Room of Mirrors. It's set in an alternate Twilight Saga universe and stars Alexandria's OC Christy Taylor. Also taking starring roles in this fanfiction are Bella Swan and Tanya Denali of Stephanie Meyer's The Twilight Saga. If I were you, I'd take a look at Alexandria's other fanfiction, particulary Not Myself, before reading this fanfic. It'll give you a good idea of her characters and how she tends to write. Ya know, assuming you haven't already, since I've recommended that before.

Anyway... I have to start out by saying that I'm not a giant fan of Twilight fanfiction to begin with. Firstly, because the characters just seem too bland to do anything with or don't have enough personality to really create fanfiction out of. Secondly, no one seems to be doing anything really interesting with them. Thirdly, most Twilight fanfiction is horrible. Fourthly, Stephanie did a pretty good job wrapping things up at the end of Breaking Dawn; at least, I think so. That said, I quite liked this particular Twilight fanfic. Part of it has to do with Christy and how attached to her I am and part of it has to do with how Alexandria handled the other characters.

The story starts at some point during New Moon after Bella was left by the Cullens. Christy shows up due to the events in the prologue and takes Bella under her wing. She essentially trains Bella to be a vampire while helping her grow a spine. Along the way, Christy manages to create her own little Vampire/Shapeshifter coven and then merge it with the Denali Coven. Of course, there is some romance and some tasteful and well deserved Edward bashing. Thought I wouldn't call is bashing exactly... it fits with the way Alexandria has written this story and, as I said, is very well deserved. Toward the end, I thought the story dragged a bit... but considering how things were going at that point, I think the dragging was justified.

Overall, I enjoyed reading Floatation Device. I think that anyone who enjoys Christy and, on some level, the side characters of The Twilight Saga will enjoy it too. If you're a fan mostly of the main cast of The Twilight Saga, I'm not sure you'll like this, but you should at least give it a try. Luckily, the story is finished now so you don't have to wait for weeks between updates.

Housekeeping

The links to both Floatation Device and Princess Alexandria's fanfiction.net page comprise the heading of that section. There are also a few links scattered through the first paragraph of that section to relevant pages.

Love ya, Jessie.

Today's ACTUAL Blog Post

So... I've re-done the website/blog and moved blog posts from the old website to here... I'm sticking with this website now. It's not as awesome as I would like, but it's awesome enough, if that makes any sense... Anyway... today's blog post will be a couple of reviews: The Gargoyles section of Adrift in a Room of Mirrors and Super 8.

Adrift in a Room of Mirrors: Mercenary Motives (Gargoyles) - Princess Alexandria

     I honestly don't know who I spend more time giggling at: Christy of Demona. I also honestly can't express my delight that Christy had not only retained her power, but also is able to shift into a Gargoyle form with them. It reminds me of Raven from 500 Miles and some random picture of Mystique I saw once from the comics. I'm very glad Christy's shape-shifting powers are being put to good use as well, especially if Demona has anything to say about it. I also never realized how much I dislike Goliath. He's going right next to Cyclops on my "domineering and stupid leaders I want to just die" list. (No, you can't find that on the "Lists" page.) I'm really, really enjoying where the Gargoyle's storyline is going and I can't wait 'til the next installment. Hopefully sooner rather than later.

Super 8

     First off, I loved this movie. The characters were well-developed, the settings were believable, and the story was captivating. However, this is another one of those movies that a) makes me hate the military and b) makes me worry about the day we do encounter an intelligent alien race.

     The military in Super 8 did that thing Hollywood Military is wont to do when encountering aliens: lock it up and study its technology. Seriously, guys? This is not the right thing to do. Ever. Just because you don't understand it and it's not human, strictly speaking, doesn't give you the right to lock it up and torture it. And once you've figured out a way to communicate, don't ignore and get rid of the guy who's figured it out.

     It's actions like this that make me really concerned about the human race in general. One of the things that's beamed out into space is movies. Aliens, assuming they exist, aren't necessarily going to understand that it's fiction. They're going to see the way our fictional counterparts treat things they don't understand (and let's face it, the way we tend to treat things we don't understand) and they're going to hate us before they even meet us. Just, ya know, needed to get that out. I know it's fiction and all but... this stuff has to be coming from somewhere, even if it's subconscious, because it's used over and over in pretty much every medium known to man.

     Rants over and despite the anger factor, I really did enjoy Super 8. The character interactions were very true to life, I thought. The kids weren't annoying or bad the way child actors can be sometimes. Elle Fanning in particular was amazing. I highly recommend you go rent, buy, watch on Netflix, whatever, Super 8. You won't regret it.

Housekeeping

As usual, links to fanfictions, author pages, and wikipedia pages are in the section headings. I think I've finally figured out how to make the headings look like they make sense with the site... Don't forget to go check out the rest of the new site. 

Love ya, Jessie.

The Problems With Commitments and Hiatuses

So...I said a really long time ago (last year at some point, I think) that I needed to review both Not Myself and 500 Miles before I went to to review Adrift in a Room of Mirrors by Princess Alexandria. Well... life happened, I fell off the blogging bandwagon, and I'm honestly not in any sort of mood to finish my reviews *cough* summaries *cough* of 500 Miles. I'm not even in the mood to finish re-reading it just for me... But anyway, I still highly recommend you go and read the rest of it. It's awesome. I enjoyed it. I just have to be in the right mindset to read it.

That said, I am going to go ahead and review some, not all, of Adrift in a Room of Mirrors. I'm going to start with the prologue and jump around with the rest. Jumping just a tad off-topic, Adrift in a Room of Mirrors is really better enjoyed if you know a few things about the various universes Christy (yup, there's a connection to the other two fics and she's it) travels to. That said, I'm going to be completely leaving out of my reviews the True Blood and Star Trek: Voyager sections. I've never had any interest in these series *cough* Lies *cough* and so I don't feel I can properly speak about the fanfictions pertaining to them. I have been reading and for the most part enjoying these sections, but... my reviews of them essentially end there.

Henceforth, I will be writing a simple acronym (ARM) for Adrift in a Room of Mirrors because the stories contained within have their own titles and I'm sure I'll get tired of typing it out... Just a heads-up for later.

Adrift in a Room of Mirrors: Prologue - Princess Alexandria

     This essentially lays out the how and why of the story. Ms. Christy Taylor, not the same as in Not Myself and 500 Miles but a very similar version, has gotten herself into some trouble with the X-Men. Instead of stay in that universe and cause more trouble for herself and her loved ones, Christy has decided to jump ship and start new elsewhere. With the aid of Annie (see Not Myself) and Doug Ramsey, Christy is able to hop through Scythe (see 500 Miles) with some degree of, well, good luck.
     As I told Princess Alexandria in my initial review: I can't wait to see what happens next. Doug having a new and slightly more interesting power and that Christy could end up somewhere fairly nice for her was awesome. Her mostly blind jumping in 500 Miles got tedious after a while. Anyway, this chapter was a great first chapter and gives a nice introduction/re-introduction to Christy.

ARM: Not so Black and White (Once Upon a Time) - Princess Alexandria

     This chapter appeared in my inbox yesterday and I'd for some reason forgotten I was even reading Adrift in a Room of Mirrors. Imagine my surprise when I ended up there instead of in a chapter of Against the Moon. I quickly realized my mistake and settled in to giggle at Christy... which I do often.

     Another mistake I made was mistaking Henry for his grandfather... That was embarrassing. Henry is not Prince Charming and his castle is definitely NOT in story-book land. Christy lands in front of Henry, at his castle, in the Once Upon a Time Universe. Their little exchange amused me greatly and I'm wondering how Christy is going to cope so out of her element...

     But anyway... I really enjoyed the start to this story. If the earlier chapters and previous fanfictions are any indication, Christy's time in Storybrooke will be awesome. Christy did remind me a bit of Emma (not Emma Frost) but that's okay considering how similar they are in temperament once you think about it.

Housekeeping

As usual, the links to the fanfictions reviewed are in the headings of their respective review. Although Adrift in a Room of Mirrors is posted all as one story, I've linked to the beginning of the story-lines reviewed. Also, Alexandria's fanfiction.net page is linked in three places, for your convenience.

Love ya, Jessie.