Odds & Ends: Events, News & Local Theater

If you are in Mason, Texas on October 4th, you can participate in various activities on Old Yeller Day related to the book and the Disney movie (1957). Fred Gibson, the author of Old Yeller (1956), lived most of his live in Mason. Here is an article about the festivities, and here is the calendar of events on the Mason city website.

Apparently Ludwig Bemelmans' grandson has created a new Madeline story. You can read about it here. I think they could have just left the character well enough alone in print with the five original stories (you can see my thoughts in general about this practice here in part 1 and part 2), but perhaps this is one that will work. (According to a couple of reviews mentioned in the AP article, it looks like it does not though.) I will probably take a look at it once the library has it.

The Earnest Hemingway Home and Museum in Key West, Florida has worked out an agreement with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to allow the six-toed cats to stay. Here is the AP story.

If you are in Northern Utah, here are a few productions you might want to see:

Jekyll and Hyde - Rodgers Memorial Theater in Centerville is performing this musical based on Robert Louis Stevenson's Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886) through October 30th. Go to www.rodgersmemorial.com for more information.

In American Fork, through October 13th, you can experience the Legend of Sleepy Hollow Concert, based Washington Irving's short story originally published in 1820, with an orchestra, a sound effects artist, and a fully costumed chorus and narrator, as well as other activities for the whole family. Go to www.sleepyhollowshow.com for more information.

And lastly, BYU is hosting the University of Utah's production of the Classical Greek Tragedy Medea (431 BC), by Euripides on September 29th. Get production and ticket information at www.byuarts.com.

Brisinger Launch

With the release of Brisinger (2008) last week, I have been asked what I think about Christopher Paolini's Inheritance Cycle. I only read Eragon (2003), the first book and haven't had much desire to read any of the others.

While I was impressed that Christopher was 15 or so when he wrote it, the story just didn't intrigue me. I would suppose if I were younger and had not read Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings or Anne McCafferty's Dragonriders of Pern novels, or seen Star Wars (1997), I would have found the characters, world, and ideas interesting. Since I have though, there weren't any surprises or real originality so I didn't continue with the series.

Besides the derivative nature of story, I have one other complaint. Keep in mind that I have read, seen and enjoyed plenty of books and movies that push credibility and I believe I give authors quite a bit of slack - but I still expect some internal logic. I bought the magic, history, etc. in Eragon except that Eragon himself was able to not only learn to write his own language in the space a a few weeks, but also other languages. I have studied languages and I just could not accept that a person could become proficient in either in such a short time. Perhaps I missed the explanation, or it was cleared up in the second book.

It is heartening that the Inheritance Cycle is getting so much attention with midnight releases and all. I wish Christopher great success. Maybe someday I will catch up on the series (I do understand his writing has improved and I would hope the story has started to incorporate more original ideas - even Terry Brook's The Sword of Shannara (1977) is a retelling of The Lord of the Rings and look were it has taken him), but for now there are just too many older stories I haven't read and new, original ones coming out.

Free Neil Gaiman & Brandon Sanderson Books

Neil Gaiman gives a link in his blog (here) to a site where you can download an electronic version of Neverwhere (1996). This eBook has a shelf life so you have until a set date to read it after you have downloaded it. If you haven't read it, and you don't have access to a library for whatever reason, this is a great way to sample without buying.

Until September 30, 2008 you can also go here on the Fantasy Book Critic's blog to enter win copy of Gaiman's forthcoming The Graveyard Book (2008).

While you are on the Fantasy Book Critic's blog, you can enter to win several other books, including Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn Trilogy until October 14. (Here is a direct link to the form for the trilogy)

Both of the Neverwhere and Mistborn stories are well written and set in refreshingly (and increasingly hard-to-find) original fantasy worlds. Let me know if you win one of the drawings or what you think about any of the books if you read them.