Dragon Mistress

This is supposed to be a picture of Daenerys Targaryen with one of her dragons, Drogon. Instead, it looks like Mario Teodosio drew a very awesome high fantasy/sword and sorcery picture of a woman and her dragon, hence the title of this post.

(via A Wiki of Ice and Fire)

Either way, it's a bitching picture.

I think it's funny how they never dye Emilia Clarke's eyebrows for Game of Thrones

(via Game of Thrones wiki)

It's just amusing to me that Dany has super blonde/almost white hair, but her eyebrows are Clarke's original brown. On the other hand, it's probably a pain in the ass to dye someone's brows for a show that only does what, twelve episodes a season? To say nothing of Clarke having to go around with white eyebrows and brown hair the rest of the year, or enduring a second dye job to restore her brows back to their original color.

Currently reading: The Outstretched Shadow (The Obsidian Trilogy Book 1) by Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory

(via Macmillan)

I picked a copy up at the local library's book sale (along with 58 other books for 12 bucks) and since I don't feel like reading a door stopper at the moment, I figured I'd read this one. I've been wanting to read The Outstretched Shadow for a while now, but the library's copy is pretty beaten up, if memory serves, and I just prefer having a copy of my own. Here's the blurb:

Kellen Tavadon, son of the Arch-Mage Lycaelon, thought he knew the way the world worked. His father, leading the wise and benevolent Council of Mages, protected and guided the citizens of the Golden City of the Bells. Young Mages in training-all men, for women were unfit to practice magic-memorized the intricate details of High Magic and aspired to seats on the council.
Then he found the forbidden Books of Wild Magic-or did they find him? Their Magic felt like a living thing, guided by the hearts and minds of those who practiced it and benefited from it.
Questioning everything he has known, Kellen discovers too many of the City's dark secrets. Banished, with the Outlaw Hunt on his heels, Kellen invokes Wild Magic-and finds himself running for his life with a unicorn at his side.
Rescued by a unicorn, healed by a female Wild Mage who knows more about Kellen than anyone outside the City should, meeting Elven royalty and Elven warriors, and plunged into a world full of magical beings-Kellen both revels in and fears his new freedom.
The one thing all the Mages of the City agreed on was that practicing Wild Magic corrupted a Mage. Turned him into a Demon. Would that be Kellen's fate?
Deep in Obsidian Mountain, the Demons are waiting. Since their defeat in the last great War, they've been biding their time, sowing the seeds of distrust and discontent between their human and Elven enemies. Very soon now, when the Demons rise to make war, there will be no alliance between High and Wild Magic to stand against them. And then all the world will belong to the Endarkened.

Too bad this isn't on the back cover instead of a scene from the end of the first chapter. That aside, this sounds like it might be right up my alley. I know the whole "youth banished for practicing forbidden magic" trope isn't new, I've yet to grow tired of it. The cover art is pretty nice too.

Did somebody say Elf cavalry?

Someone did. I noticed that the top search keyword this week is "artwork elf cavalry", so I may as well give the people what they want, so I googled and found this picture:

Art by Daarken (via Pins of War)

Yup, Warhammer wood elves clashing with some state troops of The Empire.

Twilight is the best fantasy book series ever

Way, way, way better than that dumb A Song of Ice and Fire or that trash Robert Jordan wrote.

Trailer released for Hercules

Looks interesting. I like the idea of showing Hercules performing his twelve labors.

Painting a scenario

Winter of The Iron Dwarf - Page 7.

Winter of The Iron Dwarf - Page 8.

I like the way Brendan sets up the background for the campaign. The pause he takes to drink from his cup is a nice touch because it adds a bit to the buildup. Table Titans is a pretty good D&D comic. It started off a bit meh, but I think it's finally finding its voice as the comic progresses.

What happens after a dungeon has been crawled?

It's a good question. I don't know much about the crawling of dungeons, tombs, or what have you, but unless they're crawled more than once, they would be left fallow, provided that everything has been killed in them. So, what happens to them after that? Seems like a waste of good space that could be repurposed for other uses. So with that thought in mind, what if the players were given the option of taking possession of the dungeon or whatever it is either for their own purposes or handing it over to the nearby settlement or authority for their use.

But what to use it for? Since dungeons and tombs are underground, they would be cool enough, temperature wise, to be usable for storing food, which would make it a profitable venture to rent it out to local farmers, vendors, and taverns. Cheap housing also comes to mind. It wouldn't be very desirable to live in a dungeon or a tomb, but it would sure beat not having anywhere to live. You could also sell it to any interested wizards.

I'd hate to be the guys hired to clean one of those places, though. Can you imagine having to haul out of the goblins, trolls, orcs, zombies, skeletons, etc. corpses. And the dusting. My god, the dusting.

Finished: Pawn of Prophecy

Well, I thought I had already written a post about this book the first time I read it, but a quick check of the archives shows that I apparently didn't. Huh.

(via The A.V. Club)

Just like the first time I read, I enjoyed Pawn of Prophecy a lot. I know that The Belgariad (and most of David Eddings' body of work) aren't looked upon very well because I guess they're generic, but honestly? Don't care. Sometimes there's nothing wrong with generic fantasy.

While I did enjoy it, I felt that parts of the book dragged and Garion's putting up with Polgara's bullshit was just a little annoying. I would have told her off mid-point in the adventure and damn the consequences. :P The lack of action is what dragged the story, in my opinion. There's only two fight scenes in the book (three if you want to get really technical and count the scuffle with Brill. Four if you count the boar). Then again, the book was aimed at children and young adults, so of course none of them are going to be gory.

Rating: 8/10.

David Eddings book haul

And fourteen books definitely constitutes a haul! I made the big score at a thrift store, but didn't realize the magnitude of my find at first. I saw one book, then another on the shelf and didn't really think much of it because you can usually find a couple of Eddings' books at almost any thrift store, yard sale, or elsewhere. Then I noticed another and another and another, sixteen in all and at fifty cents apiece, I could not not buy them. Except for two, The Rivan Codex and The Diamond Throne. I had the latter already and the former didn't interest me.

Book-wise, I have the entirety of The Belgariad, almost all of The Malloreon (I'm missing The Seeress of Kell), and all of The Tamuli series. I also have Belgarath the Sorcerer and Polgara the Sorceress. Not bad for seven dollars and some change!

I've read Pawn of Prophecy before and enjoyed quite a lot, so I've decided to reread it and yup, still enjoyable.