Elizabeth Tai

Digital Content Specialist and freelance writer, editor and proofreader based in Adelaide

Apr
3

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Free science fiction and fantasy short stories at Tor.com

Category: Free reads Tags: , , Leave a Comment

Like any Malaysian, I like free stuff, and nothing gives me more pleasure than finding legitimate sources of free, high-quality fiction.

Today’s discovery: Tor.com’s excellent free short stories archive. They are mostly science fiction, epic fantasy, urban fantasy, steampunk, paranormal romance and space opera stuff. The authors are some of the best in the science fiction and fantasy genre: Gene Wolf, Brian Sanderson, John Scalzi, Harry Turtledove and Elizabeth Bear.

Love speculative fiction? Then this is the place to visit.

Jun
12

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Review: The Spirit Lens by Carol Berg

Category: Book Reviews Tags: , , 1 Comment

THE SPIRIT LENS
By Carol Berg
Publisher: Roc, 480 pages
ISBN: 978-0451463111

IT’S tough having to live up to some kind of standard, especially one set by your family. It’s near impossible when you’re desdended from a prestigious bloodline of magic users and do not have a jot of magic talent.

Thus, our hero Portier de Duplais is forced to abandon his dreams of becoming a sorceror and settle for a quiet and boring life as a librarian at the Collegia Magica, where potential magicians go to be trained.

Depressed and dispirited by the way his life has turned out, and tortured by his demons that author Carol Berg coyly hints at – setting up future storylines, no doubt – Portier glumly trudges through his days in the dusty confines of the library.

Then, Phillipe, the king Sabria, gives him a purpose in life when he sets Portier a “little” problem to solve: Someone is trying to assasinate Phillipe and the king, who happens to be Portier’s distant cousin, wants Portier to find the culprit.

Although he has about as much experience as an investigator as he does a magician, Portier accepts the new “job”. Though he probably would’ve thought twice if he had known that he’d have two unconventional partners foisted on him: the foppish Chevelier Illario and the surly sorceror Dante.

Portier has his hands full with his fellow “agentes”. Having two unpredictable characters as colleagues while conducting an undercover operation in the politically-complex Sabrian court certainly does a number on his sanity.

I have to say that, although Ilario and Dante seem like complete cliches in the beginning – Illario is the consumate fashion-obsessed fop and Dante, the typical tortured-genius of sorcerer with a bad attitude – I was glad to discover that the two do indeed have some complexity to them. In fact, Dante and Illario’s actions sometimes left me dumbstruck with amazement. Unpredictable characters make for interesting tales!

This is Berg’s fourth series, yet she has maintained, if not exceeded, her track record of producing compelling fantasy yarns.

While her last series, The Lighthouse Duet, crawled at the start, The Spirit Lens sprints off, with Portier receiving the missive from his royal cousin and going undercover in the Sabrian court as Illario’s supposedly brown-nosing secretary in double quick time.

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Sep
14

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Review: Final Sacrifice by Patricia Bray

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Patricia Bray’s Chronicles of Josan caught me by surprise – I didn’t think it would be good enough to catch my attention, let alone drive me to wait eagerly for each installation.

The first installation The First Betrayal impressed me with its well-drawn characters, and how it kept me surprised as you just don’t know who’s good or who’s bad.

The series is about a monk who finds out that he’s in the body of a prince, and how he’s forced to live with the mind of another. Worse, he has to contend with the prince’s many enemies as they plot to kill him.

With a lot of fantasy books, you almost know straight away who’s the hero and who’s the villain. Some authors do not even bother to give their villains shades of grey to make their allegience more dubious, but not so with Patricia Bray.

One of the villains, as I found out in the first book, was someone I thought would be Josan’s love interest. Instead, she proved to be one of his most formidable enemies.

But Lady Ysobel is no heartless witch. Ruthless and terribly ambitious, yex, but possessing of enough heart to be likeable. That’s pretty difficult to pull off for an author.

Sea Change, the second book, took an amazing plot turn at the beggining, getting rid of a character that I thought would last till the very end. It was also more violent than I thought, with a rape and torture scene that may send weaker stomachs churning.

In The Final Sacrifice, Josan, now emperor of an empire that tried to murder him in the first two books has to find a cure for his deadly predicament: His body, or rather, the body of the real owner, Prince Lucius, is dying. The two souls trapped in the body has to find a way to seperate, but being an emperor has its drawbacks. There’s the safety of the nation to think about, for one.

Despite Bray’s excellent characters and careful plotting, I can’t help but feel that the Chronicles of Josan could have been better. The world could’ve been better fleshed out and more details could’ve been given to the plot to enrich it further.

In The Final Sacrifice, although riveting, I felt that Bray glossed over the plot points too quickly and too simply. I couldn’t figure out, for one, how Josan was tracked down by his people, for one.

Apparently, this is the final book of the series, but I felt that Josan’s story could go on chugging a couple of more books more. (Or at least, one nice, thick volume. I kinda hate all these Vol.1,Vol.2 business). Well, hopefully Bray will read this post and know that I want a sequel, please! :)

Nov
26

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Dragon Wars

Category: Movie Reviews Tags: , , , , 1 Comment

dwar.jpgOkay, seriously, big hit in South Korea or not, the person who wrote the script has to be shot, quartered and burnt. I thought I’ve heard some bad scripts, but D-Wars has got to be the absolutely worst script I’ve ever had the misfortune of listening to/watching.

I mean, how badly can you mess up a story about dragons attacking Los Angeles, right? Apparently, a lot of ways.

It’s not that the characters say stupid things (They do. A lot), but what gets my goat is how illogical their actions are. Take this example: At the start of the movie our heroine is locked up in the hospital. For what? Because she is being quarantined for having a weird mark on her shoulder. Okay! Maybe I’m no expert, and the only thing I know about hospital policy is from what I see on House and Grey’s Anatomy, but hospitals in the sane world do not quarantine people just because they have a strange birthmark. And even if it was a cause for concern, she can’t be held against her will like some stark raving lunatic who will go on a killing spree unless locked behind bars.

And then there’s this journalist (Jason Behr, why oh why did you say yes to this role)? And I know a good deal about being one, so I have to shake him and ask him how in the world does he think a 19-year-old girl named Sarah has anything to do with a crater in Los Angeles? Oh wait, based on some tale an old geezer tells him. Great investigative journailsm, man.

It’s downright stupid.

I truly should’ve listened to the reviewers who poured oil and lit the movie on fire and called it a disaster. I honestly thought that I could overlook its flaws and just enjoy the dragon ride. I mean, the trailer looked good and a New York Times reviewer even liked it. Plus, I love seeing cities destroyed in a grand way. But what if you can’t even make it that far?

Yes, I gave up quarter way because it was so awful I couldn’t torture my brain cells any further. The only other show I’ve done that is the godawful Earthsea miniseries. (I lasted 5 minutes with that one. With this … okay, I lasted 20. I wanted to see dragons, okay?)

Really. If you like dragons and can bear the shitty dialogue and plot, go ahead. Or else, and I can’t emphasise this strongly enough: Avoid at all costs!

(Rating: 0.5. At least the dragons looked interesting)

Nov
22

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Review: Enchanted

Category: Movie Reviews Tags: , , , , , , , , Leave a Comment

enchanted2.jpgGiselle (Amy Adams) is your typical storybook princess-to-be. She is eternally optimistic, and when she sings animals flock around to help her with her chores and to put together her clothes. Ahh. All she wants is a Prince of her own, and one day she falls into the lap of Prince Edward (James Marsden) and they live happily ever after …

Or at least they’re supposed to until Prince Edward’s wicked stepmum (Susan Sarandon) decides to shove her to another universe: New York. No one in New York appreciates Giselle’s sunny side. Only one cynical lawyer (Patrick Dempsey) seems to tolerate her “weirdness”.

Enchanted is such a sweet, sweet, sweet movie. Usually I hate movies like these with a vengeance, but there’s something about Enchanted that made me go awwwww in the end. Maybe because inside every woman is a little girl who wishes for her prince. Maybe it’s because Patrick Dempsey wears a handsome coat during a ball. Maybe it’s James Marsden’s cuteness, goofy hair or no goofy hair.

A little bit of Enchanted is animated, which will appeal to the kids. In fact, the entire movie will appeal to the kids, but adults won’t be bored either.

Sure, the ending is achingly predictable, and the chemistry between the characters barely there, but again, there’s just something about Enchanted that makes you disregard these flaws.

Designed to sweeten the cynics. Whether it works is something to be seen, however!