Resident Evil Revelations 2 ~ Episode 4 Gameplay

Strolling through my section of video game uploads, I seemed to have forgotten the upload of my gameplay for Resident Evil Revelations 2 Episode 4: Metamorphosis.  This should subdue the completionist in me.  

Here we'll share the first 2 videos featuring that episode.  For the link to my small (extremely small until I can gather better equipment) gaming channel, click HERE. 

Creatures of the Night BOOK TAG (Video)

CREATURES OF THE NIGHT BOOK TAG
(All links are Amazon affiliate)

1. Vampire - Buffy, The Vampire Slayer: Child of the Hunt

2. Werewolf - Bad Blood by L. A. Banks3. Zombie - Devil's Wake by Tananarive Due & Steven Barnes4. Ghost - Remember Me by Christopher Pike5. Witch/Warlock/Spellcaster - Diana Tregarde Investigations by Mercedes Lackey6. Fairy/Fae - Kiss of Shadows by Laurell K. Hamilton7. Demon - The Bitten by L. A. Banks8. Angel - Surrender the Dark by L. A. Banks9. Alien - Lilith's Brood by Octavia Butler10. Superpowered human - Lies & Omens by Lyn Benedict11. Robots - Christina Aguilera: A Star is Born by Pier Dominguez

Resident Evil Revelations 2 Episode 2 Gameplay

A friend told me I should be promoting my newly gaming channel a little bit more.  So here goes.

So far, so good.  The teams and partnerships are set between Claire and Moria; Barry and Natalia.  After escaping the prison, Claire and Moria find themselves in the midst of other survivors on the island, survivors who were also victims during the raid on the Terra Save function.  Therefore, these are familiar faces to Claire.  

Nonetheless, the survivors are now trapped in a fishing village, one that houses an incapacitated helicopter in need of both fuel and a sound battery.  It’s up to Claire, Moria and a drill saw carrying Pedro to spread out through the village and find these missing parts so they can all escape the hell that makes up Resident Evil Revelations 2.  Now, it’s never as easy as it sounds.  More iron-clad monsters and other Afflicted howl their way throughout the village.  And let's not forget the later encounter with a fire-barreling, fat Inca baby.  (No really, that's what it looks like.)  Nevertheless, all monsters stunt the survivor’s progress, so much so that some of them don't make it out alive…

Watch me curse my way through this travesty–in totally enjoyment of course.  Personally, despite a slew of flawed gameplay mechanics, I do think Resident Evil Revelations 2 is superior to even Resident Evil 6.  I also find it loads–and I mean loads–less tedious than the original Revelations.  I could be bias, though.  You know, considering Claire is my absolute favorite Resident Evil character.  But who's counting?

Enjoy RE fans!

A Few Favorite Kings

So Stephen King is releasing two new books this year; Mr. Mercedes arrives June 3rd and Revival releases November 11th.  As one moderately dedicated readers (I say this for good reason considering the intensively of his readership), I'm excited to have my yearly reads stretched by two new King novels.  Especially after the fun of last September‘s Doctor Sleep, a book I followed immediately after my complete reading of King‘s classic, The Shining.  One day, after I manage to read all of King’s 60+ stories, I’ll be able to fully construct what appeals to me about his books just as effortlessly as his thorough readers.  Until then, there’s a jumble of thoughts clouding my head as I type this.  At least that’s what I tell myself.  Nonetheless, I delved into King at the unappreciative age of 12/13 when my aunt lent my copies of The Green Mile and Rose Madder.  So I started young--like many of his readers--but ultimately didn't hold tight to his stories until my early twenties.  Actually, it was Lisey’s Story that anchored me deep into King.

Before I go on I have to stress that this list isn't in any rank or order.  Nor can I press on the details that make up each book.  Also, some of the classics I haven't read or choose to skip because they're always mentioned in King listings.

Lisey's Story

I think Lisey’s Story is a great start because I’ve always liked King’s female protagonist over his men.  That’s kind of a general endorsement of mine, as there’s always been something special about literary women defying circumstances.  Especially those circumstances known to plague men protagonist.  Nevertheless, Lisey’s Story served much of what I love regarding King’s female protagonists.  Lisey is intelligent, resourceful, brave, and human.  And while she is nowhere near weak in the beginning of the novel, she organically blossoms into her true strength and out of that sort of wife-nizing (yes, I make up words here) shadow she held underneath her late husband Scott and his success as a troubled, bestselling writing.  With all that said, you can tell how incredibly personal this novel is to King and his relationship with his wife--especially considering it’s a love story Stephen King style.  Still, I wouldn’t doubt that she [Tabitha King] wouldn’t hesitating to chase King’s demons off in a terrifying place such as Boo’ya Moon.

Salem's Lot

I love old, old horror films.  I grew up watching scary movies with my mom, which developed my specific love of 80's slashers.  Seriously, Friday the 13th movies used to babysit me.  Anyway, while the original Night of the Living dead done untold things to my childish imagination, I would have to say that one of my favorite horror movies above even that was Horror Express.  Not too many people talk about that film, but it terrified the shit out of me as a kid.  Yet, I indulged in it every time I popped the cassette in.  Bleeding that film with films like 1977’s The Sentinel, and there’s no other way to express the creepy horror I received from reading Salem’s Lot.  It’s a combination of straight up horror, subtle horror, blood and guts, and that mystic religiously-themed (or occult-themed) psychological horror.  Then there was the vampire, Barlow, himself that King illustrated so beautifully that I was almost positive that nobody was going to make it out of that book alive.  Which I should add that I actually lost a tear when Susan and Father Callahan fell to Barlow.  Salem’s Lot had all the flavor I grew up loving about horror films.  And it is probably one of the few King books that I could say actually kind of scared me.

Cell

For some reason Stephen King’s Cell gets a lot of good and bad reviews.  Mostly bad I believe.  Something about his version of playing into zombie apocalyptic horror didn’t seem to move some readers.  I didn't care because I loved the book to pieces, mainly because it did a great job of conveying suspense and mystery.  And of course horror when you factor in "The Raggedy Man" and his plague of industrial science-twisted techno zombies.  Second to that is King’s cast of characters carrying the story.  While they were all capable and witty when it came to their survival, they glowed even more as doomed, cynical survivors.  That leads me to the most memorable character of the book... Alice.  Every once in awhile you come across a book where you’ll absolutely never forget a certain character and his or her exploits during the story.  For me, that character would be Alice.  Some may disagree, but I regard her as the true hero in Cell.  King gave her the spirit to be so.

Gerald's Game

If I ever make a comprehensive list of my favorite Stephen King books from Carrie to 60-something-plus Revival, the often underappreciated Gerald’s Game would easily land in my top three favorites.  Yes.  You heard me.  Gerald’s Game.  A book revolving around a single bedroom setting.  A narrow cast consisting of a dead body, a dog and a difficult woman handcuffed to a bed.  This was one of those early 90s books like Misery, yet it’s linked directly with Dolores Claiborne in which they both share the themes of abuse.  Nevertheless, this particular period seems to me where King sucked out many of his monsters from the past and placed them inside of his characters.  And tackling that on top of conceivable situations only heightened the intensity in those books.  Gerald’s Game was a good display of that intensity, as Jessie Burlingame, handcuffed to a bed, went to the rawest of human desperation to break out of her helpless situation.  That’s not to say that she didn’t have any motivation by a lurking presence known as "The Space Cowboy".  On so many different levels can I express how I found Gerald’s Game to be troubling, uncomfortable, and creepy.

On Writing

As much as I wanted to share how I felt about the Jockey in Duma Keys and how that book seems to bounce back to Bag of Bones, I’m not.  I made this list and will stick to my initial idea to add On Writing.  It is one of my favorite King books after all.  Besides, what better book to mention that encompasses where all the previous books listed have come from?  On Writing is part memoir part writing course--according to how you approach it.  I certainly took it from both standpoints considering I wanted to get near King’s inspirational story as well as his craft.  The book is really that intimate.  My favorite quote from the books states:

“If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot.  There’s no way around these two things that I'm aware of, no shortcut.”

That’s all I got for today, folks.  I just wanted to share five King books that I really enjoyed while it’s on the top of my mind.  We're less than a month away before Mr. Mercedes releases and hopefully I can swallow it and throw my thoughts together in a blog post dedicated to the book--as well as Revival later this year.  I got this good mind to re-read some of my older King books (Gerald’s Game is suddenly looking really good) and post “final thoughts” on each.  In the meantime share your top five favorite Stephen King books or your favorite King book as a whole.  I’m interested in learning what and why a certain book appeals to different King readers.

Rhodes, Voodoo Queen and Lackluster

Jewell Parker Rhodes's voodoo mystery trilogy started out with a celebrated, spirited bang; however, it ended like a teary-eyed Toni Braxton love song.  SAD PANDA INDEED!  I still recall that dazzled-tongue dude (talking about myself here) walking into a used bookstore and happening across the first book in the series, Voodoo Season.  Here he was, between the stacks, holding back a jovial scream as the synopsis read the likes of voodoo, murder mystery, and a woman of color playing as the lead.  Damnit, what more could he ask for?  So let him hear his dreams!

Well, evidently he could have asked for much more.  Hate to say it.

I’ll be first to admit that the first book in the Marie Levant Mystery series wasn’t the best piece of fiction.  To make this quick, it introduced Marie Levant, a Chicago defect who decided to port back to the South where her deceased mother’s roots lie long underneath the stretch of the famed Voodoo Queen, Marie Laveau.  Nevertheless, in doing so, Marie [Levant] becomes a doctor at New Orleans’s Charity Hospital.  This is where she runs across her first murder mystery case in the form of a seemingly dead girl wheeled into the ER.  However, this seemingly dead girl is pregnant and the baby is safely retrieved and later adopted by Marie.  As the police move in, and Marie’s fondness for the child increases, she implements herself in the case.  Marie discovers that the girl was a part of a prostitution ring and her state of zombification was brought by dark voodoo magic.  This investigation awakens Marie's own voodoo power, as well as her sleuthing skills that later go sour as the trilogy continues.

Voodoo Season had its airy moments, where swinging swirls of poetic narrative/dialogue took over the necessity for elaborating details needed to further character development and the mystery plot.  Some pages read like a James Patterson book; sparse on ink.  Nevertheless, it still contained those elements that I loved.  Marie Levant was black.  She is the ancestor of the famed and historically bona fide Voodoo Queen of Louisiana, Marie Laveau.  And while she has an appetite for sex, it doesn’t hinder her from being both an indomitable doctor at New Orleans’s Charity Hospital or an amateur sleuth.  Basically, Marie carried the book just fine for my personal taste.  Along with the other cast.  Though some are questionable, like Charity Hospital’s top dog, Dulac, and his penchant for being drunk on the job.  As well as the handsome Detective Reneaux who guides Marie on her case (or his case).  Topple in the subjects of cryptograms, death gods, ghosts, ancestral tales, and some Creole culture, and you can consider me absorbed.  Then there’s that extra layer where Rhodes demystifies some subjects pertaining to voodoo, or the Vodun religion.  The ending had a cinema exploitative reel to it, but that was actually my favorite part as Marie called on the darker voodoo gods to exact revenge for herself, the be-spelled prostitutes, and someone close to her who didn't survive.

The second book, Yellow Moon, turns its eye a little more toward the paranormal side of Marie's journey.  Citizens over the city of New Orleans are turning up dead, wheeled into Charity Hospital’s morgue in conditions mysteriously close to an immoderate case of exsanguination.  Puncture marks riddle their wrist, leading Marie, and our newly casted detective, Park, to attribute the cause of death to a type of vampiric draining.  Nevertheless, matters gather more interest for Marie as the ghost of these victims begin to haunt her, pushing her to seek their justice.  What Marie and Detective Park don’t anticipate is that an ancient, African vampire spirit called wazimamoto is behind the deaths.  Having a taste of Marie’s essence--or spirit--as the Voodoo Queen of Louisiana, the wazimamoto turns its sights on draining her to end Marie Laveau’s bloodline (can you keep up with the difference between Marie Levant and her ancestor Marie Laveau?).  As it comes to light, Marie realizes that the wazimamoto and her ancestor Marie Laveau are enemies from the past  And it’s this wazimamoto that’ll take several of Marie’s closest friends with it to death before she manages to pull all of her ancestor's powers together to stop it from taking hers.

Writing that short summary kind of made me realize that I liked the mystery of the book a lot more than that dull feeling I felt after finishing the last page.  I wouldn’t say that Yellow Moon was a complete dud, but I will say that it wasn’t as dark or swallowing as I’d anticipated.  Written much the same as the first book, it had that same airy quality of poetic prose/dialogue, however, not nearly as much.  Some events felt like an unnecessary action to the plot, including central characters’ death.  I say this mainly because it’s hard to grieve for characters that you’re expect to, yet have little awareness of them outside of their involvement with the main heroine.  In that respect, many should have survived just as Marie did, to sort of compound the trilogy and keep its character flavor.  In a roundabout way, I kind of want to blame this on how the books were released two to three years apart; Rhodes wasn't looking ahead.  However, the book did establish more of Marie’s inner struggles being a Voodooienne priestess, enough so that those struggles overpowered the hunt for the wazimamoto while exposing nuggets of information on the subject of voodoo.  Nevertheless, Rhodes made up for shuffles of plot verses complex inner monologue by introducing new themes.  Rich, authentic Jazz, African folklore, personal inner demons come manifested, and other cultural concerns were a few.  Quite frankly, Yellow Moon didn’t read like a mystery, which is the backbone of my interest in the series.  Rhodes can throw everything she can at me to tickle my interest--those are a given.  Nonetheless, I strongly, strongly need the careful sleight-of-hand of a mystery and Marie’s ability to think for herself to keep me holding on.  Yellow Moon could easily arrive on the doorstep of urban fantasy.

And that’s where my main draw with the last book, Hurricane, comes into play.  Hoping Rhodes would get back into the mystery element of the trilogy, I was let down in the final book.  From the beginning I knew something was off.  Marie is led by a vision/dream of some sort to town outside of New Orleans called DeLaire, bayou country.  An hour or two on the highway something (I emphasize “something”) causes her to pull onto the berm where she follows a path to a house.  Furthering her need to investigate, Marie uncovers the bodies of three people--it appears to be a family.  Father, mother and daughter.  Dead.  It quickly becomes obvious to Marie that they were murder, each one shot and killed as she looks closer.  Naturally, she sought the local’s police station.  There she meets Deet Malveaux, the town sheriff.  It seems that Deet was halfway expecting Marie’s presence, driven by the fact that his dying grandmother had a vision of Marie coming to save the afflicted community of DeLaire.  And those afflicted show up in droves when Deet takes Marie to his dying grandmother.  The announcement is made clear: Marie Laveau’s ancestor is there to heal the people of DeLaire.  Deet’s sheriff brother, Aaron, seems more or less impressed as he sets off to investigate Marie’s claims while she’s stuck at the Malveaux’s house attending to the line of ill towners.  Pushing medical science over shamanism for their illness upsets the desperate gathering.  Marie is mostly at a lost for their haggard cries for healing, but she deals.  Upon Aaron's return, Marie realizes through the ghosts of the murdered family that now accompanies him, that Aaron did nothing more but blaze a fire to destroy the crime scene.  In turn, concealing the murders.  The question now becomes why and what exactly is going on in the town of DeLaire?  And here I was hoping Marie would be stuck there surviving something out of a Stephen King novel where every bit of her wits are needed to find out DeLaire's secrets.

Unfortunately, it takes ages before DeLaire's secret is clear, and its unfolding is so rocky that I almost gave up.  In the end my attempt wasn’t to solve the crime before Marie.  It was to understand the crime and purpose of it.  While it later becomes clear, though nowhere near as believable or compelling as Rhodes may have hoped it would be, I still felt like there were no leads or further evidence for Marie to trace down toward the culprit of the events in DeLaire.  After the described visit, she goes back to New Orleans where she informs law enforcement there on the murders.  It’s proposed to the reader that an albino detective has his doubts, therefore, pushing Marie out of the precinct underneath an entailing fact that he is involved.  He's probably the only notable villain to the mystery, while coming across as uncompelling to the mystery.  Basically, he is not interesting as a character, and later his role provides absolutely no suspense to the already suspense less mystery.  While once again Marie loses someone close to her, it becomes evident at this point that her losing friends are a weak plot device.  I hardly gathered the feeling of despair through this lose; not as a means to sound unsympathetic, but as a means of sounding too aware of Rhodes’s techniques.  She needs to learn how to keep her characters around longer, moving and breathing well on their own before she kills them off.  And slices of back story won't do.  

With all that being said, it’s clear that above her two previous books in the series, the themes in Hurricane overrides all else without hesitation.  Here Rhodes explores not only the wake of Hurricane Katrina, but also environmental destruction and its proceeding domino effect.  She also explores racism a little more fatally here, as we later learn the township of DeLaire is paying the price of some rather ruthless others.  And where the wazimamoto played the malevolent spirit in Yellow Moon, the benevolence of an African water goddess spirit called Mami Wata helped encourage the power of Rhodes environmental theme.

In closing, I will more or less miss this series.  I give it kudos for Rhode’s proposal on exploring the subject of voodoo underneath a mystery and sassy lead.  But much of that execution did not totally win with me.  The balance between her need to unload on the reader certain interesting themes seemed to push aside the complexities of creating a profound mystery throughout each book.  And in essence, I needed that strong, powerful mystery to help fill in the desire to soak in the other elements provided by Rhodes.  So while the first bite was an unaware party on the taste buds, after awhile it didn't go down so easily.

Any thoughts on my take of Rhodes's series?  Have you read them or suggest any books piled with mysteries and voodoo spells gone wrong?  Add your comments here.

Book Housekeeping Video

Review and Book Housekeeping Video

I'm giving a small review of Domino Falls by Steven Barnes and Tananarive Due and doing a mini book haul featuring Control by Lydia Kang and Year of the Demon by Steve Bein.  Be on the lookout for reviews.

January Reading Wrap-Up

January was a very good month.  My year of blogging and book tubing remained strong, just as I’d planned and continue to work on.  Set the stage and keep on performing… so to speak.  In any regard, time to wrap up my January reads as we move on into February.  My list is incredible short because two of the books I’ve already written about on Comic Towel.  If you’ve read any of these books and have something to share about them, please feel free to do so.  Who doesn’t love discussing books, right?

Beside finally finishing Laurell K Hamilton’s airless Anita Blake novel, Affliction, and Maya Angelou’s inspirational collection of essays in, Wouldn’t Take Nothing For My Journey Now, I finally managed to catch up on Steve Bein’s multi-layered genre novel, Daughter of the Sword.  I also devoured Jung Chang and Jon Halliday's Mao.  Needless to say, I am now pleasantly--pleasantly--satisfied with them both.

Daughter of the Sword

Daughter of the Sword combines elements of urban fantasy, historical fiction, and crime fiction into one fantasy seen cavorting down some mean and murderous Tokyo streets.  To a degree, however.  The fact is that the narrative switches between several time periods between 1587 Japan and 2010 Tokyo.  Nevertheless, the story begins with Tokyo detective, Mariko Oshiro (the only female detective in the city so noted within the text), in the midst of placing a cap on a string of narcotics dealings taking place within the city.  Almost inadvertently, her sister collides into her latest sting operation, troubling Mariko’s position.  Go easy on the drug-using sister?  Or book her?  Mariko goes easy on her sister and later finds criticism for her actions via her partners.  It’s already troubling being the only female detective in Tokyo--now this.  What troubles abounds Mariko gets worst when the new station lieutenant, Lieutenant Ko, gathers Mariko into his office for a critical rundown of her previous operation.  In basic terms, he’s a straight-up asshole to her for a variety of reasons besides the fact that she is a female cop.  Nevertheless, with his rank, he decides to put Mariko on probation from working Narcotics cases, and in turn, sends her on “shit cases” involving an elderly Japanese man who recently reported an attempted burglary of his home.  Someone tried--but obviously failed--to steal one of his many ancient swords.  To be specific, his Master Inazuma sword named Glorious Victory. 

Reluctantly taking on the case, it's here that Mariko is introduced to Yamada, the elderly man who reported the attempted burglary.  With this introduction comes a budding friendship and a peek into the legend by the ancient Inazuma swords--which consist of three swords providing three different utilities to its wielders.  Now, while Mariko’s case seems packed and all well and good, what really sets this story off is the leaps into the past we experience as the narrative switches.  I should clarify that the book remains third person, however the narrative changes by providing interlocking plots that illustrate the purpose and power behind each Inazuma sword via characters from ancient Japan.  This was especially fun for me because I love Asian ghost stories and Japanese Kwaidan tales.

Now, the third narrative point revolves around the actual villain and his quest to retrieve the three Inazuma swords.  Meanwhile, he wields the bloodiest of them all, Beautiful Singer, around Tokyo leaving a trail of bodies for Mariko to follow.

The way this book comes together between these three points is what kept the text fresh and engrossing.  You get the history behind the swords, as well as the case, as well as the desperate actions of the villain, all rolled into one.  It’s also told through a solid beat, or voice, that is consistent throughout the ride.  Therefore, the switches between narratives didn’t drag through certain areas to impress you with monologues on tradition and culture.  All that was woven into the voice.  A personal plus for me was that the book wasn't urban fantasy underneath the veil of chick lit.  Therefore, no romance was present enough to override the plot.  That, my friends, is gold country right there!  I recently bought the second novel in the series, Year of the Demon, and will be sinking my teeth into it this month.  Steve Bein.  You have a new fan.

The Unknown Story: Mao

Without a doubt, The Unknown Story: Mao, by Jung Chang and Jon Halliday, made for a thick and concentrating read.  There was absolutely nothing light about this 600+ page elephantidae of a biography uncovering the life of one of China’s [add your own adjective here] leaders.  I walked away from reading the book mesmerized, puzzled, and a little appalled at this leader’s tenacity to beat an entire country of people down, particularly through the use of vicious indoctrination and starvation.  Now, much of this I’m familiar with having read books (fiction and non-fiction) revolving around the atrocities of China’s Cultural Revolution.  However, there was no way I could know--or even come to understand--the truth behind its history.  This book provided that truth; some agree some disagree.

What a spread of information!  From Mao’s Communist beginnings, his many rivalries (I saw Chiang Kai-shek more like a nemesis; only one I voted for between the two), his usurping of the Red Army, and the fate of his wives; this book was just an uncontrollable wealth of information page after page.  Let’s not even forget to mention Mao's ugly Purges, kidnapping schemes, poisonings, and failed attempts to spread his Maoism across the world as China starved.  This book was explosive to say the least, and I enjoyed every minute of delving into the dept of this man.  It was an exhaustive ride, but very much worth the trip.  Guided by Chang and Halliday’s near seamless writing, I found myself devouring every bit of painted descriptions, character (though they are actual historical people) portraits, and factual (rather documented) pieces of dialogue.  However, I must say that in the beginning I was gathering a “textbook” feel for the book, but eventually their storytelling operation took over the more I understood the role and names of the historical people this book was written around.  Only then did each event unfold ceaselessly until its end.

More could be written on this biography--lots more.  As usual, any biographer will receive their share of criticism about their interpretation of history.  Apparently, Chang and Halliday received theirs in bulk.  Nevertheless, for the individual that I am, I am happy to say that I found myself complacent with what I received from this book.  I can’t weight fact from fiction because I‘m not an expert or historian on the subject of Mao.  All I can say is that I read the book, soaked into the history/story, and found myself a lot smarter and informed at its end.  That’s good enough for me.

What I'm Currently Reading

A couple of weeks from now will mark a year since I had this particularly book.  After digging into the depths of Mao, I thought it was time for some light reading... with a little post-apocalyptic zombie mayhem.  Domino Falls (second in a series) by the married writing duo, Steven Barnes and Tananarive Due, had been staring at me from its sleeper position on my shelf for quite some time.  I figured what the hell, I could save money buying books by reading what I already have.

At approximately 179 pages into Domino Falls, I have to say that I like the first book in the series, Devil's Wake, a little better.  Mainly because in Devil's Wake we are introduced to the zombie outbreak on what is known as Freak Day, as well as the immediate chaos that followed.  Plus, we witnessed how the cast of characters came together, which is always fun.

In Domino Falls, the pacing has slowed down considerable from chase scenes, survival tactics, and shootouts.  This is done in favor of building character conflict/discord/relationships, survival-town huddling, and a creepy mystery hinting to something out of The Walking Dead's Governor's secret room.  I haven't gotten into that part quite yet to tell what is happening, but it's definitely happening.  I'm kind of upset that I put the book down a year ago after stopping about 20 pages in.  The shift in pacing between the two books is necessary.  So what was I thinking?

Nevertheless, the draw of this series (when is the 3rd book due?) is the fact that the main cast of characters are people of color.  It's the same cast of survivors, ranging from late teens to mid-twenties, that were introduced in the first book, Devil's Wake.  From African-American to Native American, the seven of them (plus a dog) find themselves manning and avoiding the politics that make up the survivors town/colony inside Domino Falls.  While several of the cast of characters annoy me, I can't help but grin because I know them so well from the first book.  Should something happen to one of them, I don't know how I'll handle myself.  With that said, I don't think all eight of them will come out of this novel together.

After I post this, I'm seeping back into their world.

Books That Didn't Make It

There is one book in the month of January that I bought and couldn't find myself to finish.  I found it at my public library's bookstore.  It's called The Healing, by Gayl Jones.  I haven't decided whether I should give the book another try or not, but as of right now, it's on my TD pile--To Donate.  I've never read Gayl Jones, but I am a complete sucker for African-American writers who are of a certain age writing with a certain wisdom and vernacular that reminds me of butter on toast.  While I don't doubt that a book about a traveling faith healer is absent of some of the elements I love in African-American writers, Gayl Jones's The Healing just missed its mark with me.  It wasn't so much that the narrative is written in a stream-of-conscious fashion, it's the fact that her dialogue is un-punctuated!  If you have the patience to re-read lines to determine whether you are comprehending inner monologue or actual dialogue, then good for you.  For me, it's not worth the headache.  Maybe one day I'll get there, but I'll have to settle for what I am familiar with in this instance.  I can read The Healing to be absorbed into a story, not to find myself reading the equivalent of stepping carefully over shards of glass.  Sad that I didn't make it...

Thanks for catching up with me.  I'll share my latest video explaining as an extension to this post.  Well, actually, this post in an extension to the video.  (^.^)