All the streets are a party on Sunday evening.

Wizard's First Rule is the first in the Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind. It is reputed to be one of the classic epic fantasy / coming of age series, so I figured it was worth a read. And when I say epic, I mean it. My kindle predicted 14 hours + of read time, and I'm a pretty quick reader.

For the first 10 hours or so I though it wasn't terrible, but was aimed for a specific adolescent male audience. We all know those guys who see the world in black and white in whose fantasies everything is a life or death decision,  intentions must be scrutinized to the nth degree, but in the end true friendship (love) can trump any mistakes. It could be a bit painful but there were wizards and adventure and the book was at least encouraging understanding of shades of gray.

The book was originally published in 1994 and there are some parts that are blatant anticommunist reference. That could be OK, but they were also completely unnecessary. The bad wizard wants to have absolute power or destroy the word, regularly kills children to be his spirit guides in the underworld, and does a type of reading of tea leaves but instead of using tea he uses human entrails. My point is that he sucks. He really doesn't have to suck more my creating a "people's army" that takes food from the countryside to give to the wealthy in the interest of the "public good".

All that I could have dealt with and still overall given this an OK rating until the (almost) end - a torture scene. Really a torture chapter, maybe even a novella. I'm talking it took my over on hour on the train to get through it and I was skimming. Truly gratuitous and unpleasant.

Long Story Short: The wizards first rule is that people are stupid. The author actually meant manipulable, but I feel stupid for finishing this book, and he should feel stupid for not getting an editor.

Too big to shoot the whole thing, so you get this artsy window.

I was in sunny southern Spain, so of course the weather was predominantly cold and rainy. But the sky cleared for my visit to the Alhambra and I was rewarded with an amazing view of snow on the Sierra Nevadas.

My favorite shot of an individual flower in the rose gardens at the Alhamra in Grenada,

The Immortal Circus is a tasty tapas of a novel. I am in Spain at the moment, so its not a morsel, but a tapa. It had been floating around on my goodreads and amazon recommending that I would enjoy it, so, finally I gave in.

The plot is a bit muddled - a but of murder mystery, a side of fairy battle, some circus acts, a few lovely descriptions of  circus bodies, and a swirl of love triangle. It reads a bit of a muddle as well. We are not talking great literature here - the plot wanders here and there, the main characters inner dialogue is definitely YA, and there is no reason for the fairies to be plotting against each other other than they are fairies.

That said when I found myself on a five hour train ride, I zipped through this rather than reading my guidebook. And I really wanted them to get together. If you read it, you will know who.

Long Story Short - Its a murder mystery about fairies in a traveling circus. What you see is what you get.

Just a couple of guys sharing a joint after a tough run.

Who says you can't be fierce at the tram station?

This kid was amazing, running up and down the street, dancing, and playing. Poor Dad just wanted to do some errands.

Monster Hunter International is a book about people who, well, hunt monsters. Owen Zastava Pitt, "Z", was a CPA and a (mostly) regular guy until his boss turns into a werewolf and they have an epic showdown. His victory catches the attention of MHI and he joins their company as a professional monster hunter.

First off, the name. Owen happens to be one of my all time favorite names for men. Pitt reminds me of Dirk Pitt, the misogynistic hero of the NUMA/Dirk Pitt books that I loved in middle school. Lastly, Zastava is supposed to be a Czech family name, so another random connection. Z is not unlike Dirk Pitt in personality either. Every time I read it, I could hear the loudspeaker on the tram announcing stops in my head. A tram stop is a zastavka. Zastavka apparently means a pledge.

Back to the story. Its a pretty fun adventure story with some fun surprises. The elves for example are not exactly ethereal. That said, Z likes guns. A lot. Really. There are luscious descriptions of guns described in utmost detail. What they look like, what they fire, how they feel, smell, taste, etc. If you happen to like both monsters and guns, this is definitely the book for you. If you're buying for an impressionable YA, maybe not.

Long Story Short: Brain candy overall enjoyable if you're into this story of thing.