Insurrection, by Thomas Reid. This being the second novel in a shared-setting series, I think, as one reviewer also pointed out, I started reading with the desire to learn more about the unique society and psychology of the drow that the books center around, but I've been caught up by the various characters and (big!) story. Which, in this novel, starts out a bit ambigously but quickly crescendoes in terms of huge amounts of intrigue and excitement. That being said, I'll note that I didn't particularly enjoy the characters and action this time around as much as in the first novel by Richard Lee Byers, but to be honest I'd say that's a hell of a tough act to follow, with fighting being described by a martial artist and the chance to introduce the characters in question.
      In any case, there is some fun writing, with things like the phrase "incendiary alchemy" used seriously, and "My mother always told me not to get involved with bad girls, especially if they had wings."

      Martial arts having been mentioned, I'll just note again that the choreography in Atlantis maintained it's extraordinary quality through the season finale, with fight scenes that both traditional and MMA stylists can appreciate. Now, that being said, the finale for Battlestar Galactica was very, very interesting for a few reasons. Firstly, its usual high-quality cinematography and character-driven storyline. Then, the other bit; for the whole week up till Friday, I'd noticed that they were hyping the Atlantis finale over and over, and barely if ever mentioned the Galactica finale which was to be on the same night (which was decidedly odd, as the latter show was the much bigger draw for ratings). Then, about halfway through the Galactica finale, there was one of those "The follow segment contains scenes of a mature..." messages, which really confused me, as I'd never seen one before in the middle of a show. And the next segment was quite disturbing, almost to the point of making me walk out of the room for a moment (as it was, I ended up just standing up and looking away because I realized how they were going to end the scene); basically, it dealt with a sanctioned rape of a prisoner.
      Which is interesting now that I've had some time to adapt to the memory, in that it was sanctioned by a female officer, who appears to have only males under her command. If anybody with some gender issues experience wants to tackle that one, I'm all ears. I will say that at the least I thought the SciFi channel did the best they could with that episode in terms of advertising it, and in justifying that scene in terms of the story.

Deeper Than Words - art

Welcome to the Thrid Season of the O.C., Bitch! nice...or rather, very not-nice primer...sort of (via Carolyn)

CharacterDesigns.com - art resource