'The Tapestry of Fate' - May 20

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks. So, I look at ‘The Tapestry of Fate’ by Ms. Chakraborty, and what do I think?

…A complete re-making of the franchise, that is what. In the series debut (2023), ‘The Adventures of Amina…’ the novel was extremely influenced by Disney’s PotC franchise. (Remember it? Mr. Depp was acquitted, aye, but so far, he kept a low profile regardless). It was not a bad novel, but the Daevabad series was better.

Now we came to ‘The Tapestry of Fate’, and the entire premise we were given in ‘The Adventures’ gets not-so-subtle dismissed. For example, Captain Amina’s first mate, Timbu, was in the same-sex relationship with a man named Joseph, who was also of the Judaic faith – and now that plotline is not mentioned at all, and Timbu himself has a much-reduced role – for the bulk of ‘The Tapestry’ he is not there, not really. Many other characters, introduced in ‘The Adventures…’ became sidelined or removed or barely mentioned in ‘The Tapestry’, leaving the spotlight not just on the novel’s villain, queen Lab, (no, that’s not a typo, that’s her moniker; at least Ms. Chakraborty and her team didn’t name her queen Lab O’Ratory, as that would be just silly), but also on Amina, Dalila, and Raksh.

…Raksh (I’m quite sure it’s an abbreviation of ‘Rakshasa’) was decidedly an enemy of captain Amina and her crew in ‘The Adventures’; now, in ‘The Tapestry’, he’s part of the team instead. Pause.

Listen, I can list the differences as how the novels in captain Amina line treat the characters, the plot, everything else, but what for? Let us just assume that Ms. Chakraborty hired a ghostwriter, or re-hired an old ghostwriter, or hired a new one, and move on. To where?

That is a good question. What else is out there? The ‘Twisted Disney’ series, where various respected authors are paid to create book-length fanfics about various Disney characters? If you like Disney, you will probably enjoy the different adventures of Jasmine, Mulan, Lilo and Stitch, etc., and buy those books; if you do not, you probably will not.

Ms. Patricia Briggs keeps on releasing the novels about Mercy, but not all. This brings us back to the topic of ghostwriters – on her own, Ms. Briggs’ novels are an endless parade of Mary Sue – one is called Mercy, and the other is called Anna or Ann, depending on which of the Marrok’s two sons a novel focuses. Ms. Briggs did not have something to name her Mary Sue three distinct names – one can be called Mercy, another Anna (or Ann), and the third – Betty or Cherry, off the top of my head – but no. Clearly, if Ms. Briggs’ Mary Sue is not named Mercy, her name has to start with the letter ‘A’, or else it just does not work.  

…Like all Mary Sue novels, the female characters who are not the main lead are villains, who are treated much harsher than the male characters, or else are bitchy and redundant. Fair enough. Ms. Briggs owns a ranch, she can release as much fiction as she can afford. Huzzah. What next?

MCU itself does not know what to do with ‘Punisher: One Last Kill’. BB has released their second S2 ‘Endlings’ episode – this one on the giant Galapagos tortoise. Again, they dutifully took the Wikipedia article – or just asked one A.I. or another – read the results, and, well, read the results to us via YouTube.

Aye, it is somewhat curious to think how people moaned the fate of Lonesome George, when just a few miles in one direction or another his cousins flourished, and, in this case, extinction didn’t get to be forever, and it is interesting to learn just how easily giant Galapagos tortoises crossbreed/hybridize with each other, and how tricky is conserving those species/subspecies, but-

Pause. I enjoyed watching this episode. It was straightforward, simple, and fun to follow. Whether or not it was original, is another question, but after reading Ms. Chakraborty (seriously, the woman does not even look the part – are we talking cultural appropriation here, or has it been relegated back to empty noise?), I do not really care. BB