Ink Heart: An Intriguing, Imaginative Tale About What Happens When Books Come To Life, Literally.

Ink Heart By Cornelia Funke Smoothie Review

A couple years ago, I watched this fantasy movie. It was something I rented having no idea of what it was. It wasn’t the best movie in the world, but it was so imaginative that no matter how much I try to forget it, it will just hang in my head because it was just so original. It was called Ink Heart. And when I found out it was based on a book, I just had to read it. I actually went out of the way to buy Ink Heart by Cornelia Funke.

The book is a story about a man named “Mo.” It is short for Mortimore who can actually read objects out and into books. And it actually begins one peaceful night when Mo and his wife Teresa are cuddling by the fire place. Mo decides to read a bit out of a story that Teresa likes called Ink Heart. But when Mo reads, objects appear like they typically do. But his wife and two house cats were sucked into the tale of Ink Heart and as a result three book characters appeared in the living room. Two of them were villains and the other is a fire wielding street performer named Dustfinger. Baffled and shocked, he tells the three that he can not control the power to send them back home. As the villains and Dustfinger leaves to this brave new world, Mo rushes to his daughter’s room and is relieved that she’s still in his world and not trapped in Ink Heart.

The book picks up many years later where things have certainly changed. The villains Basta and Capracorn are glad that they are out of Inkheart and want to control this new world they became accustomed to. But they know they can control the world so much more easily with monsters and spells out of Ink Heart. So they are desperately searching for a Silvertounge (some one who can bring things out of books), Mo in particular. They had found some that can bring people out of books in a distorted fashion. They read out many soldiers to help Capricorn. Basta and Capricorn wants one who can do it perfectly like Mo did. Knowing this Mo and his daughter Meggie are on the move never staying in place too long to elude these villains. He works as a book restorer who, along the way, is desperately hoping to find a way to get his wife back. Dustfinger meanwhile is following Mo in the distance hoping there is a way Mo can send him home even though he told him “no” many times before. Then one day Capricorn finds Dustfinger and makes a deal. If Dustfinger tells him where Mo is, then he will command Mo to read him back into the book. Desperate to go home, he agrees and sets Mo and Meggie up to be caught. Wow. That was a whole lot of exposition. Sorry about it all that. But I didn’t know how else to explain it.

So what is good? Well first I will start with the story itself. The concept is something I never seen before. It is original and kind of brilliant. Second, I have to say Dustfinger. He is just a great character. He’s not a good guy and not a bad guy either. He just wants to go home. He feels that he doesn’t belong in this world. He doesn’t want any one hurt. He just wants to go home. And he prefers to be alone. He’s the only true anti hero I have ever seen in a book. And he’s so complex. He’s a double/triple crosser with a heart that is somewhat hidden. And he wants to desperately return to a story where
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he dies at the end. Only he doesn’t know it.
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The bad? Not much to say. Well maybe a couple tiny things. One mainly being that compared to Dustfinger, Meggie and Mo are very boring characters. He literally does steal the show. And secondly Meggie and Mo are book worms. I get that. I mean I’m a book worm too, or else I would not be writing this. But their love for books was so strong that it appeared the characters have an OCD disorder. But the again it is aimed at all audiences, especially children, so I guess that this was for them. I just thought that it was kind of weird.

But with all said and done, I recommend this to anyone who likes fantasy. It’s fresh, new and well worth the read.

4 smoothies out of four

Overall rating: An intriguing, imaginative tale about what happens when books come to life, literally.

P.S. Check out my book and ebook website at Lelue’s Realm. Google it or go directly to http://www.freewebs.com/lelue/

We’re Alive : Zombies Have Now Invaded A New Form Of Entertainment

We’re Alive – Season 1 – From The Zombie Podcast

Overall Rating: Zombies have now invaded a new form of entertainment

Okay, I won’t deny it any more. Zombies have over taken our media and you know what? People love it. People just can’t get enough of them. They invaded our video games with Resident Evil. It has just invaded TV with the premier of The Walking Dead. It’s been in horror comics for quite a while. And then they won’t get out of our movies. And I’m not just talking about American flicks. It has spread to other countries. It’s Le Horde in France. 28 Days Later in Great Britain. And Undead in Australia. And they don’t die. I mean there’s even a Undead Nightmare cowboy game. It will never go away. So now you’re probably asking why am I talking about zombies? Well because zombies have entered a new genre, which is a audio drama called We’re Alive.

You know I review books. But a audio drama or radio show isn’t that much different than a audio book. And I have to say it’s much more entertaining than a audio book in some ways. And I actually accidentally found out about, when I was listening to another podcast about a author who began by self publishing. And they wouldn’t stop talking about We’re Alive. So I looked it up.

So We’re Alive is a podcast audio drama made up of twelve or so serial episodes that make up season one. (That’s all I’m reviewing now) It starts off with three military commandos Michael, Angel and Sol who are called to help the military with riots. But it turns out that these are not people and are actually zombies. So they actually go on a run and try to survive. They meet other survivors’ and decide to live and reinforce a apartment building. They lock themselves inside as the world falls apart around them.

But as the story goes on, it goes a bit beyond the Dawn of the Dead setup. As the story goes on, the zombies are changing, hinting that they might not be zombies at all, but something else entirely. I’ll stop there, because I might spoil something. That and people who are survivors, but are not part of Angel’s Michael’s and Sol’s community are not exactly friendly and are willing to kill them for supplies. It’s a nice post apocalyptic piece.

So the good? Well it’s a zombie podcast that is a long layered story with enjoyable characters. I mean they might seem stereotypical at first, but evolve and grow on you. I mean there’s Sol who talks like “Ah man, I ain’t play’n dog.” Don’t they call that Gansta now? I don’t know. But he was the flattest character at the beginning, but became my favorite at the end. The voice acting has emotion. (This is how it’s better than a dull monotone reading of a audio book) It had a music score and sound effects. And it is told through different point of views through out the story too, making it more interesting. And it’s an episodic format. So it’s not one giant long pod cast. And it’s not just about zombies. It’s about people. Common people who are trying to survive. The think what I like the most is, the show is creating its own mythology around zombies and not just copying everyone else.

The bad? Well some voice actors did better than others. Which isn’t too bad. Except for when a certain two characters share the same scene. Angel and Michael sound the same, so I kept on getting them mixed up when they were holding a conversation.

Overall, if you like good Resident Evil (I’m talking about the games. The older ones to be more specific) or Dawn of the Dead, this is worth looking into. I know I would just listen to it as I was working on projects, and got to hear a good story as I did it. So if you like this sort of thing , it’s on itunes and just on line to listen for free.

Listen To It Here @ http://www.zombiepodcast.com/The_Zombie_Podcast/WereAliveEpisodes.html

3 ¼ smoothies out of four

P.S. Check out my book and ebook website at Lelue’s Realm. Google it or go directly to http://www.lelue.webs.com/

Overall Rating: Zombies have now invaded a new form of entertainment