A Visit from Author and Archaeologist Jordan Jacobs! Also: New Releases, Desolation of Smaug Review, and a Man Booker Round-up

elcome, Jordan Jacobs!

Globetrotting archaeologist and author Jordan Jacobs is back with another exciting adventure for his title heroine in Samantha Sutton and the Winter of the Warrior Queen, out in January 2014.

Jordan's first novel, Samantha Sutton and the Labyrinth of Lies, had critics raving:

"Passionate Sam is a rewarding heroine to follow." -- Publishers Weekly
"Middle-grade readers will be focused on the mystery, pulled on by gripping suspense..." -- Kirkus Reviews
"Dig this book! ... If you're looking for a suspenseful story, then pick up this book and follow Samantha through hidden tunnels and haunted ruins." -- Time for Kids

Jordan is a real-life archaeologist and travel enthusiast who infuses his firsthand experiences and knowledge of exotic settings into the Samantha Sutton adventure novels. Didn't catch the first book? Don't worry! Each Samantha Sutton novel stands on its own as a thrilling archaeological mystery.

Samantha Sutton and The Winter of the Warrior Queen by Jordan Jacobs

Samantha is hesitant to join Uncle Jay on a second archaeological excavation. But the marshes near Cambridge, England, sound harmless after the sinister perils she faced in Peru. Or so she thought...

During the excavation, Samantha realizes the site could be the ancient fortress of Queen Boudica, who led an uprising against the Roman Empire. An amazing find! But Samantha's crucial discovery threatens to halt construction on a nearby theme park that will make millions for English Lord and eccentric landowner Cairn Catesby. Unfortunately for Samantha, Catesby is also the scheming head of Cambridge University's Archaeology Department, making him Uncle Jay's current boss. Catesby will stop at nothing to discredit Uncle Jay's theories about the excavation site's royal ties. When Samantha is entrusted with the protection of an artifact that undeniably links the site to the Warrior Queen, she becomes the target of unscrupulous men determined to get their fortune by any means necessary.

On the run through the snowy English countryside, Samantha must muster the strength and wit to protect the treasured artifact -- with her uncle's professional reputation hanging in the balance.

Jordan Jacobs' career as an archaeologist began with a love of mummies, castles, and Indiana Jones. He journeyed to his first archaeological excavation at age 13 in California's Sierra Nevada. A Stanford, Oxford, and Cambridge-educated man, Jordan has worked as an archaeologist at world-class institutions such as The Smithsonian and The American Museum of Natural History in New York.

Jordan is passionate about public awareness for the illicit looting of artifacts at globally important archaeological sites. He works with UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization), where his recommendations have helped to protect historic sites and to alert agents around the world about precious artifacts smuggled on the black market. Jordan is currently a senior specialist at the Phoebe Hearst Museum of Anthropology at UC Berkeley.

Here's Jordan himself, on A Day at an Archaeological Dig (not what you might expect!):

A typical day in archaeology is a little tricky to pin down.

There are lots of different kinds of archaeologists, for starters, and each have their own ways of doing things. The work done at universities -- or on university-led excavations -- is very different from what happens in cultural resource management -- which tries to save information that might be lost due to construction, or to determine whether construction should happen at all. And then there are the archaeologists who work in museums, gleaning new information from old collections, or the archaeologists in governments or foundations, working to protect sites or promote responsible tourism.

I've done work across these categories, and have a general sense for each. But within each broad category, the "typical" can vary, and I have only my own experience to draw from.

As I remember it, a typical day on a major university excavation involves an invigorating cup of coca tea, a steep march up a sloping Andean road, and the gentle shooing away of the fuzzy piglets who've clustered by the unit overnight. A long, careful day of digging follows, with emphasis on the paperwork. Every bit of information is saved. Dinner is rice and fried plantains and a split and roasted guinea pig.

A typical day in cultural resource management, as I remember it, involves an alarm set for 4:30, and a predawn subway ride, to a bus, to another bus to an obscure stop by the side of a freeway bridge. The day is spent beneath that bypass, shoveling sand, and dodging the litter and debris raining down from the cars above. The overwhelming feeling is "Hurry! Budget! Save the information you can!" Everyone is anxious, all the time. There is no telling when the job will end.

Museum and government archaeology are even more variable, if my experiences are any indication. A day may be spent with a delegation from a descendant community, whose interest in -- and knowledge of -- a collection or site may inform or dispute what theories archaeologists have come up with. Or, a day might be devoted to discovering how a collection came to the museum in the first place -- the archaeology of archaeology, in a way.

Linking all these experiences is a basic truth: that archaeology is a puzzle, where the solution can never be known. But rather than frustrating, the process is humbling. It's often surprising. And it's always a thrill.

on a project in Lazio, just north of Rome

Thanks for sharing with us, Jordan!

Meanwhile, ROW80. With a little over a week to go, I must admit to a very slowed down pace. I've sort of organized the edits that need to be done, for Druid's Moon (my own story that features archaeology!) and the vignette, but have not tackled them. I've been knitting and reading instead (and will update the knitting blog soon!) -- and will in the next post or two do my yearly round up of All The Books Read This Year.

Speaking of reading, if you'd like to read a 200 word story written following a prompt from Neil Gaiman, visit Budgie.

And if you have an hour or so and want to dive into a wintertime romance, Kait Nolan's got a brand new novelette: Once Upon A Snow Day.

If you've seen The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (which, I emphatically repeat, is not pronounced Smög), then I've got my Hobbit review on the Forum. I've copied it here, so beware, spoilers!

S P O I L E R S

One of the first items in the credits is "based on a novel by J. R. R. Tolkien". I wonder what Jackson et al think 'based on' means? I certainly don't recall this much action smaction from my many rereads of the book. But okay, other filmgoers seem to really enjoy these things. And I have no issue with adding a female captain of the guard. But the very fact of adding a female character means you have to have romantic elements? Isn't that a bit sexist? Never mind how non-canon it is for her and a dwarf to be attracted to each other.

I have some issues with the passage of time as well. It's all very well to ignore everything that happened in Mirkwood (the eyes in the dark, the enchanted stream, the sleeping Bombur, the boat, the hart and hind) but I think they could have done a better job of showing how many days and nights were passing, with the company getting increasingly hungry and footsore and desperate. Then Bilbo climbing up and feeling the sun for the first time in days would have meant much more (instead of everyone in the theatre going 'ooh! butterflies!'). I'm not sure why they didn't include the elves' red fires and feasting, and the company's stumbling off the path toward the lights, at all. I guess they had to save all their screen time for the endless spider attack. And the endless fight sequences in Lake Town. Oh, and the jarring cuts back and forth to Gandalf walking alone into Dol Guldur. As if it wasn't the full White Council that went in to drive Sauron out.

Then there are the three real errors:

Thranduil lops off the orc's head and then resheaths his sword without cleaning it!

The river to Esgaroth is all rapids - um, how are they supposed to use it for trade if you can't paddle up the river?

Gandalf drops both sword and staff in Dol Guldur - the next thing you know, Glamdring is back at his side! (I also thought it was pointless to have Gandalf hear Galadriel telling him to go to the made-up Tombs of the High Fells to confirm that the Witch King has risen, since it seems she already knows that.)

I'm also not entirely certain about the moon rising directly after the sun set. Was it a full moon, at least (I don't remember)?

As usual, I'm not a big fan of the all-action-no-character-development-or-story mode of filmmaking (I want to watch The Hobbit not a video game). Others have suggested that you can see, for instance, Bilbo's growth of character in his facial expressions at certain key scenes. I'm not certain that's enough. And I don't see, for example, what on earth the point of including Beorn was if he does nothing. He rants about orcs for a bit, and hey look, he's the bear watching them entering Mirkwood! That's it? The company couldn't at least talk to him? Or the intriguing way Gandalf had them enter his hall, why not include that?

And what's the point of including Thorin and Gandalf's 'chance meeting, as we say in Middle-earth' if you twist it so that Thorin actually says "this isn't a chance meeting, is it?"?

The one time in the entire movie I was pleasantly surprised was when Thorin and Balin first went through the doorway into the mountain, and got emotional. That was a nice touch, to include their sense memory of the very stones of the place.

If you don't like my rantish review, there's a more balanced review at BoingBoing. I like this comment especially: "a completely unnecessary and tedious finale action sequence -- and another potential theme park ride -- involving the dwarves, that dispels the magical effect of Bilbo and Smaug's back-and-forth." He also had the same reaction as I did about Bilbo: "Also regrettable: The disappearance of Bilbo. I'm not talking about invisibility. What I mean is, what happened to the story of this modest hobbit gradually gaining courage and confidence, and coming into his own? ... poor old Bilbo's tale is buried under easily 45 minutes of chases, captures, narrow escapes, more escapes, melees and other heroics, often comically-staged with acrobatics".

It's not a good sign when I find myself rolling my eyes at yet another sneak attack, or cringing as audience members laugh at scenes they're not supposed to find funny. I'll put myself through this torture one more time next year, but if Jackson ever gets his hands on the Silmarillion (and I desperately hope he doesn't), I'll have to develop a stronger will and stay away from the theatre completely.

END Spoilers!

We have a winner! The prizewinner of the Forrester giveaway is Kathy! Please email me your contact info.

Meanwhile, I've got more New York photos, this time from the Morgan Library. I thought I hadn't read any Man Booker Prize winning books, but when I was at the Library in October, they had an exhibit on past winners, and it turns out I've read these eight:

A couple of others are still on my To Read list, like Remains of the Day and A. S. Byatt's Possession. Here's the full list of winners; which ones have you read?

Do you usually enjoy films made from your favourite books (or do you get all snarky like I seem to)?

What will you be reading over the holidays?