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I think a fake story was put in the paper so as to not spoil the season 2 storyline.

That’s the most likely explanation but I like to think that perhaps the paper was referring to another event we haven’t seen yet. Especially since Sidney knew in episode 2 of season one that “She had Henry in Phoenix” and the paper refers to Emma’s visit to Worcester, MA in 1996. Maybe we have yet to learn that someone was already manipulating events in her life when she was 16 (Peter Pan, maybe?)

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Was it the shift lock or the “sticky keys” as Happy Endings suggested? I agree that those sound like the most likely culprits. If that didn’t do it, I’d search for a menu that contains a system setting that specifies the font to be used, since it sounds like you might have accidentally selected a symbol font. There’s usually a default font menu somewhere in the form of a pull down list. Sorry I can’t be more helpful but I haven’t touched Windows since Windows95 came out – I’m strictly a Unix user (Linux and Macs) but there are enough commonalities that I can sometimes make an educated guess about Windows.

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Great spreadsheet, Keb! Even though I didn’t even know the term “ship” until recently and don’t engage in it myself (with the possible exception of HenryBon since I am also addicted to “more frosting”), I was so impressed with the list compiled by obisgirl that I was thinking of making a spreadsheet like this. But yours is much better than mine would have been!

I have one question. Since the spreadsheet clearly covers many types of relationships besides romantic ones and since the type of relationship is color-coded, might we start making up new names for unnamed relationships to be included in the spreadsheet? (I notice that almost all the named ships are romantic ones with the exception of HenryBon and Flook). Even though I don’t ship any combinations, I enjoy discovering all the creative names that are out there (my favorites are  Dwarf Star and Fish Hook, just because the names work so well). With that in mind, I’ll nominate some new ship names:

People                       Ship Name            Type

Snow+Emma           SnowSwan           parent-child

Snow+Regina         SnowQueen         other family/enemies

Emma+Henry           SwanSon             parent-child

Emma+Charming    Swaning               parent-child

 

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Phee wrote:

Wendy: “A few weeks ago, right about the time you got here, this Shadow came to the window.” Don’t think it was ever mentioned how long it’s been in London. All the boys in NL may not be from London, or even all from our world, if PP has only had a pic to go on and no other specifics

Thanks! I wonder if the Shadow couldn’t get to our world until someone came through and “opened” the doorway. So the kids in NL thus far are only from other worlds.

That’s what I’m guessing. I’m assuming PP is looking for a boy in a world without magic who is the child of parents from a  magical land. Hence, he investigates every  time a boy crosses from a magical to a non-magical world. Of course, there must be something in addition to that that makes Henry special; perhaps it is the fact that he was actually born in a world without magic or perhaps it’s something else.

 

I also wonder if the shadow may contain a person’s dark side. Ripping the shadow from his enemies leaves them too meek and passive to take any action against him, but concentrating all that darkness eventually makes him increasingly evil (perhaps with a connection to the original Dark One?). Maybe Henry contains enough goodness in his heart to counter the darkness of all those shadows.

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Excellent review! Thanks for posting it. I had pretty much the same reaction to the book. I’m such a huge fan of the show that I consider the book was worth my time and money for the sake of seeing a little more of what was going on inside Snow and Emma’s heads, but just barely.

I didn’t mind the occasional changes in dialogue. Even though some of the changed dialogue was pretty bad, most of the changes were neutral and a few even even improved on the original, given that they had to be presented in written form without the visual impact of seeing the actors’ delivery. At least the changes kept the book from being as stale as simply reading a copy of the scripts. Alas, like you, I can’t find much else to say about this book that is good.

I suspect you are right that the book was rushed into print and that may be the cause of many of its flaws. How else can we explain the decision to leave out several episodes when the book was not that long to begin with? Considering that the story is presented from Emma and Snow’s point of view, it is surprising that they chose to leave out “True North”. While it was not an episode that advanced the overall plot, the Storybrooke portion afforded a lot of opportunities to evoke Emma’s memories and see her changing thoughts. The same could be said of “That Still Small Voice”;  that episode would have provided a lot of opportunity for exploring Emma’s relationship with Regina and her developing feelings for Henry. The necessary background information from the flashbacks of both episodes could have easily been provided by the usual device of having Henry give a quick summary from his book.

As you mention, screen-to-book adaptations are generally much worse than book-to-screen adaptations. Isaac Asimov once told a story about getting the contract to write a novelization of the movie, Fantastic Voyage. According to him, not only did the book suffer because he was under intense time pressure, but the publishers cut out the best of what he wanted to add to the story and insisted he include other things that ruined the book. Even as gifted a writer as Asimov couldn’t turn the result into a very good book.

Even though I didn’t care much for the book, like you, I’m sure I’ll buy the next one they release – partly because I want to support the show (every penny ABC makes from merchandising makes keeping the show on the air that much more attractive to them) and partly because I hope they’ll find the books profitable enough to continue a long series of them. If they do, hopefully we’ll eventually get a few books that are really good and explore aspects of the story which weren’t presented on screen.

 

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With the movie coming out soon, I really need to pick up Ender’s Game. I tried a few years ago and then got too busy to finish, but I really want to see the movie cause the trailer looks AMAZING.

Ender’s Game is one of my favorite novels, but it is also one of the very few books for which I found the sequels even better than the original. Even if I hadn’t enjoyed Ender’s Game, I would have considered reading it well worth my time if only to set up the story for the first sequel, Speaker for the Dead. I would definitely recommend adding Speaker for the Dead to your list after you’ve read the first book.

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Good point, KFC, to mention that The Ugly Little Boy is technically SF but is strongly grounded in some of the same character themes as Once. The same thing is true of Anathem, although 80% of the book doesn’t feel like SF.

Connie Willis sounds good I will definitely look for her stuff. I also would like to second your suggestion of anything by Henry James.

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I love the EarthSea novels of Ursula K. LeGuin. Lots of magic with dragons and the importance of understanding the power inherent in knowing true names! In addition to the six novels, there are some short stories set in the same world in her book of stories, The Wind’s Twelve Quarters.

Another treatment of the idea of many different realms coexisting is found in Neal Stephenson’s Anathem. In this novel, he also suggests how ideas (including maybe authors’ ideas of fictional characters like Snow White or Frankenstein?) might cross from one universe to another.

Finally, whenever I think of Regina’s or Gepetto’s desire to adopt a child, I recall Isaac Asimov’s short story, The Ugly Little Boy. It remains one of the most touching stories I have ever read of the bond forming between an adult and a child.  It was first published in his collection of stories, Nine Tomorrows, which is now out of print (but can be found used) but it is also included in his more recent Collected Short Stories, Volume 1. The short story was later expanded into a novel in collaboration with Robert Silverberg, but I confess I never read the novel. Maybe I’ll read it this summer!

So many books, so little time!

(Sorry the new forum software doesn’t seem to be applying italics to the titles. I need to figure out if I am doing something wrong.)

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Since next year is the 50th anniversary of the release of Mary Poppins, I’d love to see them do a Mary Poppins episode and include a brief cameo of Dick Van Dyke and Julie Andrews, even if we only saw them for 5 seconds standing on a street corner.

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