Night of the Demons

“Angela is having a party, Jason and Freddy are too scared to come. But you'll have a hell of a time.”

Hee! This is just another one of those 80’s slashers, chock full of teenagers drinking, having sex, and then getting chopped up by scary things. This time around, the group of teenagers decides to celebrate Halloween in an abandoned funeral parlor, naturally rumored to be haunted by the Hull family who were murdered there years before. So what do you do when you party in a haunted house, especially when you party with a Gothy chick? You have a séance of course, right smack in front of a mirror. This awakens the demon that lurks in the basement, and all hell breaks loose. Angela, aka Gothy chick, is possessed, and each teen fights to get away with his or her life.

Linnea Quigley, everyone’s favorite B-Movie scream queen, shows up as Angela’s friend Suzanne, with such awesome lines as, “Do you guys have sour balls?… Too bad. I bet you don't get many blow jobs.” She meets her untimely end, turns into a demon, and gets to eat people up herself. It looks like she is having a blast.

This flick was obviously entertaining enough to spawn 2 sequels, all with Angela returning, and even played by the original actress Amelia Kinkade. It was silly, not that scary, but the gore effects were decent enough. It’s funny on a bad 80’s horror flick sort of way, but if you aren't a horror freak like I am, you might just steer clear of this one.

Rating: 3 ½ Purrs, always for Linnea Quigley and the lipstick breasts scene

Arthur and George by Julian Barnes

The book Arthur and George tells the story of the real-life meeting between the very famous Arthur Conan Doyle and small town lawyer George Edalji. Julian Barnes paints a very vivid picture of what life was like for Doyle and Edalji in Late-Victorian Britain. It’s a real life mystery, where Doyle gets to use the skills he builds up in his Sherlock Holmes stories, which is why I bought the book in the first place. It was a good read, once I got several chapters in to the story.

The novel is written chronicling the two men’s lives from birth onward, slowly bringing them together, with Doyle eventually becoming George’s savior. George is a near-sighted, shy half-Indian living in Great Wyrley, a small country town whose residents aren’t very accepting of George and his family. He is victimized for years, from childhood where he is accused of theft and sent harassing letters, to later, where Doyle comes in, when he is accused of mutilating the animals of Great Wyrley. Arthur Conan Doyle began studying medicine where he meets Dr. Bell, the man who inspired his character Sherlock Holmes. He later becomes quite famous, marries and has children, and later falls in love with the love of his life, Jean (despite being married). The two men meet when George is finally set free after serving time for the animal mutilations (found guilty on shady circumstantial evidence), and Doyle decides to take up the case and investigate, mostly because he has sunk into a depression after his wife dies. He wants to bring justice to George, and you hope along with him that he can find it. In doing so, he hopes to find peace within himself.

I almost put this book down at the beginning. The first few chapters were very long-winded, but I kept plowing along and in the end, I was glad I did. The book is such an interesting tale of two men who would never have met, but when they did, they made such a difference in each other’s lives that it changed where they went from there. It is a good mystery, but even more it’s a character study and a story of love, loss, and family. It’s wonderful to think of it being a true story (fictionalized accounting of course), that Doyle became his famous detective for a short while and found new purpose to his life, and that George found happiness in the end.

Rating: 4 Purrs. I’d give it five but I can’t because of the very slow start to the book.

The Dragonlance Chronicles by Margaret Weiss and Tracy Hickman

The Dragonlance Chronicles: Dragons of Autumn Twilight, Dragons of Winter Night, and Dragons of Spring Dawning by Margaret Weiss and Tracy Hickman

Let me just say up front that I am not a fan of fantasy novels, especially those you could call “dragon books.” You know, the ones with the elf-lords running around with swords, mages calling up spells with capes, all that stuff. It’s a bit too much D&D for me. Okay, a lot too D&D for me. You might wonder why in the world, if I dislike fantasy so much, I would have ever read these books. I never would have on my own, but my husband has insisted for years that I read them since they were his favorite books when he was younger. I broke down. I’m a little embarrassed. Never had I believed that Tolkien influenced fantasy writers more than I do now, because boy, he sure did with these two.

The trilogy starts out with a group of friends meeting at an inn. There is an evil spreading, and they by chance join up to help Goldmoon, a barbarian woman and her lover, escape from the bad guys. They want her magical staff, so of course, our life-long friends jump to her aid. They must travel the land of Krynn to find its owner and keep it from the forces of evil. (Sound familiar? Yeah, me too.) This group of friends includes Tanis, the half-elf with a past, torn between two loves, Laurana the beautiful elf maiden and Kitiara the swordswoman. There are the two brothers, Caramon, the big warrior with a head of mush and a heart of steel, and Raistlin, the mage who could be evil or could be good but of course has a growing power and lots of magic. Flint Fireforge, the crusty dwarf, and Tasselhoff Burrfoot, the kender, who pick peoples pockets and provides comic relief, supposedly. There’s Strum Brightblade, the knight who still believes in valor, and the flighty old magician that shows up and wrecks havoc, but naturally has a secret that we will only discover at the very end. Once they journey on, find out about the staff and the war has broken out, the group of friends is separated (Two Towers? What do you think?) You meet more elves, learn a bit about the dragon lances and dragon orbs, and find out there is more to Laurana than you thought and wonder if Tanis is really turning to the dark side. The third book finds the friends fighting a hard battle, brothers being separated, and some friends are lost. The friends meet the evil Queen of Darkness, Takhisis, and the big battle begins. Will Tanis choose Laurana or Kitiara? Will good beat out evil? Why do they want the Everman? Will the metallic dragons help the people of Krynn fight the evil dragons?

I found this trilogy to be difficult to read, especially at first. I really enjoyed The Lord of the Rings trilogy, so this just felt like a cheap rip off. I must admit, to be truthful, I did get caught up wondering if Raistlin would end up a bad guy. It was actually the only reason I kept reading the trilogy all the way through. Everything else just felt like I was watching the TAMS kids larp back in college.

Rating: Hiss, for making me read all three books and then taking the easy way out.