Dragon Legs

I've added dragon legs to my model. They're not perfect, but the shape is a good start. Here are the photos.

Vampirism and Agency

So I was reading Brandon Sanderson's Elantris all week, and while it has nothing to do with Vampires, it brought up an interesting idea. So one of the groups of people in the novel have an affliciton which stops their hearts, lungs, etc. It's a very functional approach: they only need air to talk, limbs to move, etc. Food isn't necessary, but they still have a hunger. Anyway, the characters are very hard to kill, though their bodies never heal (and so pain is a big problem). As with vampires, there's only two ways to kill them: beheading and fire. Same with vampires, which is where I think I got this connection. In most vampire mythos, both are the best ways to kill a vampire. Steaking and garlic depend more closely on the story.

Anyway I was thinking about why this is. You have an immortal body, you don't need air or food. It's mostly understood that most of our body is simply in service of our minds (or at least, it's a common assumption, from what I know). So what happens if you behead someone who doesn't need their body? They can't do anything. Talking requires lungs. At best, they could move their eyes. Same with burning, without a body you remove a minds agency. Even if the consciousness can survive without a brain (it's unclear, there's only weak evidence), without a body, all it can do is ponder, and despair.

Of course, the point of all this in the Novel is to establish the necessity of Hope, and in some way Vampires work the same way. Hope is what keeps them from turning into beasts. Maybe there's something to be said for being an agentless being.

Book Review:

Well, It's apparently been quite a while since I've done a book review blog. So let's see what we can pull together.

Mark of the Demon
The first book in Diana Rowland's Kara Gillian series, Mark of the Demon was a very impressive book. Although I'm not sure how I feel about her reaction to the demon, the plot twists and turns kept me glued to the page for the whole day. I burned through it pretty darn fast. It's possible that I'd be less impressed on a second read through, but for the moment I'm keeping an eye out for her next one.

Strange Brew
This book is an Anthology. I don't remember a lot about every story, but I'll write about hte ones I do know.

•   Seeing Eye - Patricia Briggs: This was about a blind witch helping a werewolf track down his brother. Really interesting short, especially the twist near the end.
• Last Call - Jim Butcher: Dresden Files short, in which Harry tracks down someone who's poisoned his favorite beer.
• Death Warmed Over - Rachel Caine: I don't remember all the details of this, but I remember really wanting to know if she has other books written in this world. I seem to think it's a war between witch factions.
• Vegas Odds - Karen Chance: Don't remember this one either. Hmm.
• Hecetate's Golden Eye - P.N. Elrond: This was about a girl who hires a detective/magic user to track down and steal this amulet from a sister who wanted but didn't deserve it.
• Bacon - Charline Harris: Set in the True Blood world, don't remember more.
• Signatures of the Dead - Faith Hunter: Set in the Jane Yellowrock world. I think I liekd the narrator here more than Jane, though I haven't read Jane yet. It's on my shef, i swear!
• Ginger: A Nocturne City Story - Caitlin Kitteredge - Umm...yeah. Not putting it together.
• Dark Sins - Jenna McLane: Another one I don't remember. I'll probably try and glance over these and give another entry later.

Evermore
Evermore is the first book in Alyson Noel's Immortals series. To be honest, elements of hte plot reminded me very strongly of Twilight, with a slight twist. Still, it was interesting to read. Plot was stronger than Twilight (though that's not saying much), and I liked the narrater most of the time. She was a little dramatic, but it's YA.
Betrayals
Betrayals is the 2nd book in Lili St. Crow's series. I am getting drawn into this series quite strongly. She's now in a school of people closer to her own..demenor. It's kinda fascinating. I still am not sure where she's getting her mythos, but it's fascinating to see another side of vamps and weres.
SpellCrash
SpellCrash is the latest book in Kelley McCullough's WebMage series. Hacking/Coding, Greek GOds, and Magic, all rolled into one nice aweseome bundle. There's some character decisions that I wans't as fond of in this book, but overall it made nice progress. The ending looked like it was gonna suck and then got better very quickly.

Demon Hunts
Demon Hunts is the latest in the Walker Papers series by C. E. Murphey . The series brings shamanistic traditions into the modern day world, and is quite fascinating. I'm not as grounded in shaman mythos as I am some others, but I thoroughly enjoy this series.

Last Olympian
The last book in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, by Rick Riordan finaly brings the story to a close. While the world isn't closed, this hero's journey is pretty much ended. It was a good ending, and reallyi shows the uncertainty of prophecy.

Faerie Wars
The first book in the Faerie Wars series, this details the adventures of a prince of the realm and his travels into a parallel universe: earth. I had read the books a while ago, but couldn't remember them well and thought I'd give it another go. While one of the MC's is a bit naive at times ("How can she be a lesbian, she has two kids!"), it's a pretty decent book.

How to Train Your Dragon
This is the book the Movie was based off of (If you haven't seen the movie, I highly doubt you'd regret it. Unless you're a weirdo who doesn't like dragons). This is apparently the first book in an 8-book series. THe plot is very different than the movie, I suspect only a few characters names were actually used in the movie from the book. Most of the characters are rather different as well. But it was still an enjoyable read.

New Kid in School
It's pretty rare I'm dissapointed by a book, but this one was one. The first book in the Dragon Slayers Academy books, the book was okay (if childish, but it is a children's book), until the very end. The ending was such a big letdown.


Maze of Bones
This series, the 39 clues, is put out by Scholastic, and written by a group of writers. The story is about a pair of orphans who are members in a very influential family that apparently includes people such as Ben Franklin and Mozart. While the believability of such a long-branching family streatches a little, the books themselves are pretty interesting.
One False Note
 This is the second book in the 39 clues series. Most of what I have to say about this book was said above.

Good Omens
Yes, that's right. It took me this long to read Good Omens, by Neil Gaimman and Terry Pratchett. Great story, and I never quite knew where it was going to go. The ending was a little unexpected, but follows well from the rest of the story.
Brisingr
And the last one I'll talk about for today, looks like, Is the 3rd book in the Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini. This was originally thought to be the last book, but a 4th is coming out to finish the series. WHile the plot is decent, it drags a little. However, my favorite part is some of the names. They're so intriguing, with what I assume is strong nordic influence. Still, this is part of what prompted the creation of the model dragon I was posting about the last two weeks.

Wings!

Happy 4th of July everyone. Well a day early. In any event, today it seems I'm going to post another segment on modeling. Since we last saw our dragon, He was a poor wingless beast. I've since added wings, and that's the major contribution since last time. I've been trying to figure out how to do the legs, and they keep evading me. Not sure why, they just do. If I try again later today, I'll update this blog post. For the time being however, here's some images of the shiny new wings.