Errol Flynn and Cinda Chima

Two things you should really check out if you are a fantasy/old-timey action lover are Errol Flynn films, and Cinda Chima's Seven Realms Series.

Errol Flynn is probably best known for his brilliant portrayal of Robinhood, in the 1937 "The Adventures of Robinhood," but he has a number of good pirate films, "Captain Blood," and "The Sea Hawk" to name a couple. The 1937 "The Prince & the Pauper" is also a marvelous film. He doesn't star in it, but it's a great movie. It's also one of the few films I know of that actually has twins in it. No camera tricks to make one person look like two, these boys are really identical twins, and they're good actors too. So if you want to see some good action/adventure films in which you don't get bombarded with stupid explosions every five seconds, then take a lot at some of these older films. They are very compelling, mostly b/c they rely on strong characters, as opposed to special FX, to tell their stories.

As for Cinda Chima, I have absolutely no idea why she isn't more popular. She's out there, right now, and her books are very good. She has strong, fascinating characters who manage not to fall into every single cliche fantasy trope, though she does use some... that doesn't bother me too much. I'm picky... but overall her writing is quite good. She also manages to avoid the broad brush villain/hero problem that plagues so many modern writers. She has characters who exist on the margins, between good and evil, and it is nice to see that. I only wish she were more popular. I really wish someone would make films of her stories. While The Hunger Games explodes, these stories still seem to languish in obscurity, and in my opinion The Hunger Games is truly awful when you look at it closely. It again, like Harry Potter, promotes a bad sense of morality, and just feeds into the gore-fest it purports to be against. No. It's the same good vs. evil story we've heard time and again. It is time we move on and recognize that all people are more complex than that, and Cinda Chima provides this in her stories. I can't wait for the final book in this series, although at the same time I wish it weren't the last one.

Also... that girl in the Hunger Games... she FAILS at being Robinhood... the main female character in Cinda Chima's books, Raisa, succeeds at her Robinhood-esque endeavor.

So PLEASE!!! I call upon you, Fantasy lovers!!! Help support Cinda Chima. :) Also does anybody out there want me to blog about my fantasy writing?