I've had a welcome return to the fantasy genre recently and I can't get enough of it! Seriously, I feel like I've run out of entertainment, despite having oodles of DVDs and books awaiting my attention.
It started with Terry Pratchett's Wintersmith, the latest in the Discworld for kids series. Tiffany Aching (Granny Weatherwax JR) is back and so are the Nac Mac Feegle and this time they're in the Ramtop mountains so Granny and Nanny make an appearance too. Huzzah! Love it! Some people accuse Terry of just writing the same story again and again and again but I personally don't care, I love that story and it's the details that make them such a delight to read. I was reading it on my lunch break at work and chuckling so much my colleagues had to ask what was going on. For example (and I'm paraphrasing here so bear with me) "When it came to being odd, Mrs Treason took the cake. In fact she also took all the biscuits, the tea set, the tea spoons and old clothes you had lying around..." Or words to those effect. Love it!!
I almost spiraled into a Terry Pratchett binge but American Gods by Neil Gaiman came my way. Another brilliant read that I would thoroughly recommend. The old gods in America are in trouble. They'd been brought there by settlers in the new world and then for the most part abandoned and forgotten. The new gods (of technology, entertainment, etc.) want to pick a fight and a chap called Shadow gets stuck somewhere in the middle. Another cracking good yarn by Mr Gaiman. Apparently they're making a film out of Stardust, I do hope they don't screw it up. I'm apprehensive about the version of Hogfather that Sky are going to broadcast over Christmas: Susan never looked like that in my head!!
Fuelled by Pratchett and Gaiman I borrowed The 10th Kingdom on DVD from Kirsi. Man, I love that mini series too. Virginia and her father go through a magic mirror in Central Park and end up in the land of fairy tales, 200 years after the golden age of Cinderella, Snow White, Queen Riding Hood and Queen Gretel. They're on the run from Trolls (singing the BeeGees) and Rutger Hauer as a very, very scary huntsman. It's great and it's got totty in the form of Wolf (pictured). I defy any girly not to fall in love with that character! It's so good in fact that Kirsi has only lent me the DVDs for a week because she'll have a panic attack if she doesn't get to stroke and pet them regularly. I must get my own copy.
The fantasy fest was topped off with a trip to the cinema to see Pan's Labyrinth, the new film by Guillermo Del Torro (Blade II, Hellboy). This is about a young girl in Spain in the 1940's. Her and her mother have travelled to the countryside to stay with her new stepfather. He's a captain in Franco's army and they are trying to capture and stop the local Communist rebels. Parallel to the story of the rebels and the captain runs the story of Ofelia and the fairies. She meets a faun in the Labyrinth who tells her she's the long lost daughter of a king and she must complete 3 tasks to get back to her father's kingdom. It's dark and different and brilliant in the best tradition of grotesque European fairy tales. It's got a 15 certificate and Naomi, Emily and I all ended up with our hands over our eyes at various points. Just brilliant!!
Now I have to find more fantasy or I am going to go on that Pratchett binge... Where's my cow?!?
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