Sunday, July 30, 2023

Birthday loot 2023.

Got these first two Thursday, (7/28/23)


The Way Home (2023)


Previously with the Last Unicorn-verse...

-The Overneath (review part 1)
-The Overneath (review part 2)

Said here...

It left it wide open for the threequel that's coming out next year in the story collection "The Way Home". Which is also going to have doubles of "Two Hearts".
Ah, well, I don't mind having doubles, the other stories in this one are great too.

The threequel being "Sooz".

So, the chronology goes....

-Green Eyed Boy
-Shmendrick Alone
-The Last Unicorn
-Two Hearts
-Sooz

I'll review "Sooz" once I read it; to be continued....

Update (8/8/23)
Finished it (8/4/23)

Well! First of all!
I said in the Overneath review, the various prequel and sequel short stories need to be mashed up into the second animated movie.
HAHA!
Nope!
Unless they wanna make it live-action and R like Thrones and Outlander.
Yeah, "Sooz" has some Outlander shit going down.
We're not in Rankin Bass territory anymore.
Buckle up!

That being said, I gotta say, I like "Sooz" better than "Two Hearts".
"Two Hearts" wallowed in the "Last Unicorn" nostalgia a bit much.
This feels like its own thing. A true sequel.
Whereas, "Two Hearts" felt like an addendum to "Last Unicorn".

We only get the Last Unicorn characters in mention.
It's all Sooz, and her new spinoff buddies and baddies.
"Two Hearts" pretty much becomes the torch pass in the middle.
Like "Generations" then "First Contact".

Now to those aforementioned baddies!
The Dreamies, our main villains, are like horror monsters.
I imagine them like a cross between the trolls in "Troll" the shapeshifters in "Society" and the claymation gnomes in "Return To Oz".

The whimsical landscape that's home to the Dreamies is something out of a children's illustrated book, which makes it all the more unsettling.
It's dark fantasy with whimsy-fantasy trappings to emphasize the darkness.
Again, we're not in Rankin Bass anymore.

Getting to the good guys...
This is dedicated to Peter's wife who passed away.
I wonder if Dakkoun is supposed to be her.

There's a theme of loss throughout.
Of loved ones, and of innocence.

Maybe that's the message of the whole quintilogy.
Even a fairy tale isn't a fairy tale.
Sometimes you just have to make it through some harrowing shit.

Or, maybe the positive take away is, "you can be this brave, and maybe already are, you maybe just need the fairies and unicorns to see it".

Come to think of it....
When you go back to LU, Mommy Fortuna and the harpy are fucking disturbing.
King Haggard is fucked up.
How Haggard put the skeleton there is fucked.
There's always been pretty dark aspects to LU.
Just Rankin Bass soft-pedalled the fuck out of it.
But it's there for adult eyes to see.

Okay, LU-verse has always been a wild mix of horror and sentiment.
When you go back and look at LU through the eyes of "Sooz" it all lines up.

SO!! "Sooz" is a brilliant sequel to LU!
And I appreciate "Two Hearts" all the more too!!


Star Trek: Lower Decks, season 3 (2022)



The DS9 episode makes me soooooo fucking happy.

Turns out, on the timeline, the Strange New Worlds crossover episode "Those Old Scientists" happens just before it.
Can't wait to watch them back-to-back.


(Me from (8/20/23))

Screw it, I have another Peter Beagle book on order, but its been more than a couple weeks.
It ain't coming.
If it breaks reality, and unexpectedly does, I'll do a new post.

Anyway, just these two things for now.


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