Tag Archives: Fiction

Movie Night: Hogfather

Year: 2006

Director: Vadim Jean

Production Company: The Mob Film Company

Leads: David Jason, Marc Warren

527-3Hard as it may be to believe, this was my first ever foray into the world of Terry Pratchett. Certainly I knew of him, and knew that his fantasy works were a rival to Tolkien in their complexity and depth, but somehow, for some reason, I just…never read them. The extent of Discworld, described throughout thirty-nine (39!) novels, frankly defies my imagination. Middle-Earth, Arda, and even my own Erâth (shameless plug, shameless plug (wait a minute; can I plug my own work in my own writing? How does that work?)) pale in comparison to the detail presented herein.

Discworld, it turns out, is in fact a flat world (I honestly did not know this when I presented Erâth as a flat world), resting on the back of four elephants, standing on the shell of a giant tortoise. I am given to wonder, of course, what keeps the tortoise entertained, and what would happen if one of the elephants sneezed, but that is pondering for another time.

Hogfather is a tale of sinister happenings at Hogswatch, which is basically Christmas except that Santa is a hog. On this particular Hogswatch, a group of rather unpleasant characters called the Auditors decide that it’s time to get rid of the Hogfather, and seek out the head of the Assassin’s Guild to commission his assassination. How exactly to assassinate an imaginary person (this got uncomfortable for me watching with Little Satis, who still believes in Father Christmas) is uncertain, but an extremely unsavory character by the name of Teatime (said Te-ah-Tim-eh), who is frankly one of the most disturbing psychopaths I’ve ever come across in fiction, giving even Hannibal Lecter a run for his money, is brought in as the killer of choice. Mr. Teatime manages to capture a tooth fairy, who leads him to the tooth fairy’s castle. Here he collects all the children’s teeth ever, and (I still don’t quite understand how) uses them for force all the children to stop believing in the Hogfather.

At the Hogfather’s absence, Death (yes, Death) takes over his job, understanding the importance of children continuing to believe. The sight of Death delivering presents is delicious, of course. Meanwhile, Death’s granddaughter Susan chases after Mr. Teatime, defeats him, and restores the Hogfather to Discworld at the very last moment.

Marc Warren as Mr. Teatime

Marc Warren as Mr. Teatime

The story (as told by the film) was confusing and disjointed, which is something that can often happen when a complex novel is adapted to the screen (see The Lord of the Rings), but this actually didn’t detract, but rather added, to the sense of darkness and confusion of the story itself. The production, for a TV miniseries, was phenomenal, from the CGI to the sets and costumes to the direction itself. The acting was of course first-rate, given that David Jason, David Warner and Tony Robinson were involved; however, it was the utterly terrifying performance by Marc Warren that really stole the show.

I really ought to have known Marc Warren better, given his high-profile career in British television, but I’m certainly going to keeping an eye out for him in the future. His embodiment of an untainted, childlike insanity is so real that I was frightened merely watching him.  The tone of innocent curiosity Warren puts into his voice clashes so violently with the words and actions of this psychopath has the effect of knotting the stomach on sight – you can’t tell if he’s going to laugh, or laugh and kill you.

I was hoping this would be good, but I was taken aback: it is one of the most astonishing pieces of film work I’ve seen for television, and it will certainly be added to the canon of festive films in our household.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

The Redemption of Erâth: Hiatus

Dear readers,

At the beginning of the year, I began work on the second book of The Redemption of Erâth, Exile. My intention was to follow the pattern I set last year of writing a new chapter each week – thus completing the book in about 25 weeks.

It’s now the 9th week of the year, and I’ve written 5 chapters. There are several things that have gotten in the way of this goal. For one, the chapters have become inherently longer (some as much as 150%), which takes more time to write. There have been a number of events in the past couple of months that have taken time away from my writing as well.

However, the most important reason I need to slow down is for my own health. Since I started looking into sleep disorders and had a polysomnography done, I’ve realized that my perpetual exhaustion may be more than just “the way I am.” My UP band (which has been simply wonderful) has helped me to realize that I am sometimes getting as little as 5 hours of sleep a night, which for me is not nearly enough. I am now consistently dozing off whilst driving to and from work, and I am going to have a serious accident if I’m not able to keep my focus on the road.

So in all of this, something has to give. My typical day starts at 6:00 AM, and I don’t have a chance to sit down and write until about 9:30 PM at the earliest. In the past, I would spend until midnight writing before going to bed, under the assumption that I’d be getting my minimum of 6 hours of sleep.

I was talking about this with a colleague at work, and I mentioned that if I went to bed earlier, I wouldn’t be able to get as much writing done. In her infinite wisdom, she pointed out that I wouldn’t get much writing done from a coffin either. It’s a fair point.

So for the immediate future, I will be slowing the progress on Exile so that I can focus on my health, and hopefully get an extra hour of sleep or so each night. I will still write on my days off, and if I happen to have an early evening, I’ll be working then, too. I want to apologize, because I feel equally anxious to find out what’s going to happen to Brandyé next. For now, though, the next part of his story will have to come more slowly.

I appreciate your readership, your support, your kindness and your patience. We will get there – and find out exactly what’s going to happen to the world of Erâth!

With the deepest affection,

 

Satis

Sleep

The Redemption of Erâth: Book 2, Chapter 5

Chapter 5: The Raid on Voènarà

It was some weeks before Brandyé had healed from the latàhní’s wounds, in which time he was allowed to rest and perform only minimal duties in Khana’s home. Khana, despite his injured leg, appeared unbothered by any pain, and limped quite contentedly here and there until his was able to better bear weight upon it. Brandyé was quite struck by the man’s resilience, for so it had been on Tahn-khafawō after the attack. No further sounds had been heard that night, whether by Andèlin’s vigilance or good fortune, but come the morning Brandyé had slept little, and was still in great pain.

Khana, however, was bright and sharp at first light, and managed to drag the latàhní’s carcass through the forest and over the plains, ensuring always that Brandyé was well and with him. For his part, Brandyé had begun to feel faint and feverish, though thanks to Khana’s remedy his wounds had not become infected. How Khana was able to descend the cliff stairs to the boat bearing the weighty carcass Brandyé was unsure, but somehow they found themselves in the open sea once more, having passed under the great rock arch at the lowest tide. Khana had […]

Read the complete chapter here.