Outstanding! A glimpse into Army Interrogators at the beginning of the war in Afghanistan.

I say “Worth Consuming” with the caveat that this is a “Novel in Pictures” and not a traditional novel or a graphic novel. It reads, in a sense, like a children’s book with a paucity of text which describes the images on the opposite page.

It tells the story of a woman who was made rather than born and gives birth to a cat and transforms into a moth and there is a good deal of sadness to her.

Audrey Niffenegger is the author of The Time Traveler’s Wife (a novel in words!) and The Three Incestuous Sisters (a novel in pictures) and readers who loved The Time Traveler’s Wife may not find what they are looking for here. But, The Adventuress is very well put together and there are those readers who are looking for exactly what this book is.

This isn’t so much a review as it is a recommendation. As science fiction, I can only recommend this in the strongest possible terms. It’s that good.

There is a whole lot going on in this book and while I enjoyed it and I like it, it isn’t nearly as good as the first half “Emergence”. I’m still not sure what all just happened.

You know, as much as I have enjoyed the fantasy of Terry Brooks over the years I have been disillusioned as well because somewhere along the line the boat got missed and a story that used to be packed into a single volume is spread across 3. Imagine if Brooks wrote Elfstones today, it would be a trilogy itself.

Regardless, when I read “Running With the Demon” I was impressed. Now I’m sold. The Word/Void trilogy is easily the best thing Brooks has written and that includes Elfstones (sorry Elfstones). “A Knight of the Word” continues the fantastic urban fantasy and I can’t wait to read “Angel Fire East”. Why didn’t I read this a decade ago?

Amy Adams was fantastic in this movie. She takes a character who could easily have been irritating and unintelligent and instead gives her such heart and likeability. It’s easy to see why her performance has been so loved.

The movie itself, however, was not so good. What was up with those lingering shots on empty rooms and scenery? As the director isn’t Terrance Malick, they seemed quite unnecessary and could have turned a 100 minute movie into a pretty decent 80 minute movie.

Alas. It wasn’t to be.

But we love Amy Adams.

I say “worth consuming” because it was a decent movie, well made and well acted, but “just okay”. I’m not mad that I saw it and I know why it is getting all the buzz, but it’s not the best picture of 2005 by any means (and I’ve only seen 20 some movies from 05)

This is so good it stands with her adult fiction as being simply a great book.

The music is actually decent enough and fans of Jars of Clay should still like it, but it is just missing that special something to really recommend it. I’d say that it is more “Much Afraid” than the self titled release or “The Eleventh Hour”.

By the end of this book I can say that it was worth consuming for the Star Wars reader. It had a decent ending with the promise of a greater war. The first half of the book was a bit rough and I was about ready to write off the entire Black Fleet Trilogy. It got better. Not great, not among the best of the Star Wars novels, but decent and with promise.