Fairy Tale Spotlight: The Fairy Caravan [Book Review]

"The Fairy Caravan" is a children's novel (not joking) written by Beatrix Potter. It was published in 1929. This book is well within the subject matter of Fairy Tale Spotlight. It has a lot to do with fairies and reminds me a bit of the stuff I had read in Irish folktales.

The thing that attracted me to this was it's length. At first, I thought it was just another collection of short stories by Potter, something she is best known for. This is, however, a full story intended for children, although I am not sure what children would be able to read this today. It's weirdly sort of aged into more of an adult book because of it's difficult reading comprehension curve.

The story begins with what may be considered the main character, a Guinea pig named Tuppenny. Some scam artist rats sell him a hair-growing potion that makes him to grow so much hair that it causes him problems. His friends all begin pulling his fur out, which leads to him running away and finding the titular caravan. From here, Tuppenny is less of a main character and more of just one of the many animal circus performers traveling around the country.

I've never seen an opening character take a backseat like this. I kept thinking Tuppenny might make a comeback or play a bigger role in the story, but he is not even mentioned in the final chapter. He is just sort of there and enjoying it. What an odd way to introduce a story.

The real story is about the caravan which is full of animals. You get to meet all of them, and they are all very cute. I especially liked Xarifa the doormouse who was often sleepy and a little silly. Pony William was also very cool. Paddy Pig was pompous and funny. I really liked them all.

As for the main story, not much happens. The story comes across as a slice of life. There could have been adventures happening before and after, but we only see this one slice of it. The worst that happens is that Paddy Pig goes missing in the forest. He might have been picked on by fairies living there which made him a little depressed and crazy. The fairies in this story are the "Good People" of Irish fame. They are only nice when it suites them, so everyone is very careful about them.

Like in her short stories, animals are basically people like us, while still being animals. Cats will still devour mice, despite them being people. This becomes a serious thing during the story. The caravan has to make sure their audience will not attack each other during their shows. In one instance, the mice could not come to the show because there were cats present. The caravan later gives the mice their own show, which I thought was really cute.

Although not technically a collection of short stories, it does sometimes sidestep into a short story told by various animals. These stories often use heavy dialect which can make reading them a chore. Many times over, I lost the plot because I could not fully grasp the dialect being used. The caravan riders seem to be the easiest to understand thankfully.

Beatrix Potter was apparently really defensive about this book being unchanged. She said that it was a story she used to tell her family, and she told the publishers that it must not be fixed to make it easier to read, a task she allowed to happen to her other stories. This book was something personal. To be fair, it wasn't really that bad, and she might not have published it to begin with. I'm glad she just decided to put it out there.

Once again, this story is really long and difficult for a children's book, but it might be okay for a fully grown adult with high reading comprehension skills. If you want to go a bit further than her Peter Rabbit stories, then I'd recommend this one just fine. Just know what you are getting into.

This blog was written on August 6, 2025.

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Fairy Tale Spotlight: Outer Wilds [Video Game Review]

"Outer Wilds" is a video game developed by Mobius Digital. It was released in 2019, but I only just discovered it this year in 2025. I also bought it completely randomly, knowing very little about it. It might have been intuition, but if so, why did I not get this back when it came out? I'm not sure how I ended up with it in the first place.

But I digress.

In "Outer Wilds" you play one of an alien race with four eyes (they actually look really good), who have just started their own space program. You are their new astronaut, and all they want you to do is just fly into outer space and have a look at what's up there. At first, it almost seems farcical that these aliens even have a space program. They are about as backwater as they can be. They seem almost like hillbillies. Even your spaceship has some parts on it that are made of wood.

Once you blast off, you quickly realized that the entire solar system is very small. All the planets are flying wildly around the sun at impossible speeds. Nothing is very far away. In fact, you might accidently take off and mistakenly fly right into the sun. It's... right... there. And the planets are spinning super fast too. A day is like a few minutes, and it feels like it too. Just stand on your homeworld and look up. The stars are flying past quickly, and you can even see all the other planets out there. Day and night come and go constantly. This is just how this universe is designed.

There are no objectives to the game. They just want you to go up there and explore... figure things out. Your only motivation is your own curiosity. Pretty soon, and likely by accident, you are going to die. It might be due to a daring act, or you might just accidently decide to open up the hatch without your spacesuit on. Either way, you will die. And when you die, you will wake up at the same moment in time when the game began. As it turns out, you are in a time loop. You are living out the day over and over again.

But what if you don't die? Whelp, you'll still die anyways. At the end of 22 minutes, the sun goes super nova, killing you and everyone else. This will also reset the loop. Why is this happening? You don't know, but the clues to it are scattered everywhere. Pretty soon, you are landing on planets, poking around, looking for the reason the system keeps blowing up and killing everybody. Nobody is telling you what to do at any point. It's just you, trying to learn why it's all happening, trying to learn the meaning of the loop you are caught inside. And that is the genius of this game: it's all you.

"Outer Wilds" is a thinking man's game. It isn't about shooting things or fighting off evil; it's about unraveling a mystery 22 minutes at a time. And knowing you are going to die will only make you brave. You'll go to places scarier than you can imagine, because if you fail you'll just be back to try again. It's all about just trying to learn one more thing before everything starts over. You can do it... all you need is 22 minutes.

This game has a similar vibe to a much older game called "Myst." Myst had a very simple solution to solving it, but you had to spend hours and hours on it trying to figure out what that solution even was. But once you figure it out, "Myst" could be beaten in minutes. "Outer Wilds" is the same sort of game, but it has a much better presentation and gameplay. And the best part about it is that it is entirely powered by your own curiosity. You are the driving force that makes everything work; the game isn't really doing anything but existing until you look into it. Brilliant.

The worst thing about "Outer Wilds" might surprise you. Once you unravel its mysteries and finish the game... you will miss it. You will feel like you lost something. There's no real reason to keep playing it because you already solved it. You'd have to wait a few years to forget everything, and so it's just suddenly over and gone. The worst thing about this game... is when it's over. Every game I played afterwards did very little to please me. I couldn't even enjoy "Doom."

This next statement is very true: "Outer Wilds" is my favorite game of all time. No game in my entire life made me feel this way. It haunted my dreams. I wanted to talk to people about it. One of the puzzles was actually solved while I was not even playing it. I just sort of figured it out while thinking it over. For about 30 hours, "Outer Wilds" became my life. I love this game so much, and I recommend it more than any game I have ever played. It should be a rite of passage for any thinking man or woman living on this planet. Go out there and explore.

This blog was written on July 28, 2025.

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Fairy Tale Spotlight: Ben and Me [Book Review]

Full title "Ben and Me: An Astonishing Life of Benjamin Franklin By His Good Mouse Amos" is a book written by Robert Lawson. It was first published in 1939. I have a renewed copy with minor changes released in 1967. This book was also adapted into a short animated film by Disney in 1953, simply called "Ben and Me." That animated film was what got me interested in the book.

The whole idea here is that Ben Franklin was actually kind of an idiot, and if it wasn't for a talking mouse named Amos, he would never have become the famous man that he inevitably became. At first glance, this seems a little mean to one of our founding fathers... but only if you believe in talking mice. In truth, this is a cute and fun fictional story about one of history's most interesting men.

And to be fair, Amos doesn't always do what's best for Ben. In a couple circumstances, Ben's wisdom does hold out. But Amos was clearly the most pragmatic of the two, while Ben was more of a crazy loony, although I should say he was a very lovable sort of crazy loony.

One thing that did surprise me was that a scene I really liked from the film apparently was not in the book. I liked how, in the animation, Amos takes credit for inventing Ben's bifocal glasses. This is nowhere in the book, which means Disney did that themselves.

But to be fair there are things in the book that were not in the Disney film. Amos gets a cute French girlfriend mouse and fights for her cause during Ben's visit to France. It also goes into Ben's obsession with his own looks, and this was sadly very true. He really got into a bit of foppery in his day.

This book was absolutely intended to be children's literature, but weirdly enough, it is very eloquently written. Robert Lawson was born in the 1800s, so he just had a different way of writing things. Children today might have some trouble understanding some of the words he uses in the book. The renewed version of this book includes a glossary for all the words that tend not to be used anymore in today's English. Very helpful!

Of course, I recommend this book to anyone. If you want to read it, it is still in print, but it is not available on Kindle. You'll have to order up a physical copy. You can get it new, though, and very cheap. I got mine for about $7. That is an overly reasonable price for the story I got. Check it out.

This blog was written on July 23, 2025.

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Fairy Tale Spotlight: Pit Fighters [Book Series Review]

[This review contains some spoilers, and it is also a review of an erotic piece of literature. You may not want to read about that, and, if so, feel free to skip this one.]

"Pit Fighters" is a short erotic book series written by Rick Griffin. As of the writing of this review, there are currently four available:

1. "The Opportunity" (2019)

2. "Orientation" (2019)

3. "Side Gig" (2020)

4. "Family Ties" (2021)

These are erotic stories about furry anthropomorphic characters, but the author sticks to the story in a way that makes them extremely immersive and interesting.

The world of "Pit Fighter" is a very socially open place where bisexuality is normalized and even pants seems to be optional. It really plays into the concept of animals not worrying about having their bits showing, as long as the context is correct. You can be naked in front of your mother, but if you had an erection, that would still be a problem. So context in nakedness is still important.

In this world, there are pit fighting competitions, and they are very popular with the crowd. But it isn't just the bloodsport aspect of it. A lot of the "heros" in the sport are somewhat sexualized by their fans, and the promoters of the events sometimes encourage this for ratings, even if the sport itself is just fighting. It also seems that a lot of the fighters are encouraged to have sex with each other behind the scenes if they want to.

All this hype tends to lead fans to try and get into the business themselves, often for the wrong reasons. The main character of the story, a rabbit named Paris, falls for this trap and ends up in a very bad contract and up to his long ears in debt. From here, it is all a matter of self-discovery as he learns that he will be a pit fighter for a major portion of his life or suffer the consequences of going back on his contract which could ruin himself and his family. It's a bitter pill to swallow, and the author does a wonderful job relaying this.

Now, I don't want to spoil any more of the story than this. Heck, I already covered a good portion of that first book, but I felt it was needed to give you an idea of how serious the story is. From here, I really just want to explain a little more about Rick Griffin's interesting split between what is serious and what is erotic.

Rick Griffin does not normally do erotic content. In fact, I think this may be his only erotic series ever. He has some erotic art here and there, but he tends to be known more for clean content. I should also point out that I consider Rick Griffin to be one of the best modern writers of our time. The reason he is not well known is because of his niche subject matter, that being locked tightly within the furry genre. If you aren't into that sort of thing, you may never discover him.

Despite this being an erotic story, Rick knows well how to focus on what makes these characters tick rather than just focusing on their genitalia. They are people with families and friends. They have dreams and sometimes those dreams get dashed. We can all relate, to some extent, to what Paris goes through in these stories, even if you don't agree with his erotic love for strong male fighters. Rick Griffin masters the literary arts in this series and manages to take what would otherwise be a horny throw-a-way porn book, and instead he gives you a serious, interesting, and even amusing story for you to comfortably digest. It is a masterpiece.

My criticisms are very light. Each book takes about an hour to read, making them all feel like short stories. Actually, it's more like he released a chapter in each book. I don't like that as much, but it really was not that bad, considering each of them was so cheap. I honestly treated the four parts as one complete book. But then, it isn't complete. By the end of the forth book, it still ends with an unfinished story.

It's been a long time since he wrote the last part, and that makes me sad. I honestly loved reading this so much that I felt I could have continued reading it forever. It had an almost soap opera effect. I just liked the characters and enjoyed how everything unfolded. It will be sad if I never get to see how things go.

As for the erotic elements, they are sprinkled in, but they never feel out of place. They happen for the right reasons and only last as long as they need to. And while they occur, the author still retains the same writing style, explaining what's happening in the mind of the characters involved. I rarely see something like this happen. I am honestly shocked that he was able to keep things together so flawlessly. Bravo.

Although technically unfinished, I still recommend the "Pit Fighter" series. There is still a lot of fulfillment to be had here. Like I said, it has a soap opera feel, so it was never going to have a complete resolution anyhow. But what is here is still amazingly satisfying.

This blog was written on July 7, 2025.

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Fairy Tale Spotlight: The Last Starfighter [Book Review]

"The Last Starfighter" is a novel written by Alan Dean Foster. It was published in 1984 which is the same year as the movie. This is a promotional novelization of the film. Yeah, I read a lot of those.

If you've seen the movie then great! It is, at least in my own opinion, one of the best scifi movies of all time. It's all about a guy named Alex Rogan who got really good at a surprisingly advanced video game at his trailer park. What he didn't know was that this game was actually a training simulator for the real thing. Aliens in outer space were in a real space battle, and Alex had just been recruited to be one of their best. It's got all the makings of a wonderful story.

But how does the novelization stack up? Well, Alan was definitely a reasonable choice for an adaptation. The whole setup for this story is very similar to Foster's "Spellsinger" series, which also had a normal guy thrust into a crazy situation. But the one problem with that series was that it was a bit overwritten. As it happens, so is this one.

It's not a bad story. I would even say that it is a great way to experience the story in literary form. However, every single milestone of this story tends to move in loops. One of the issues of the story is that Alex cannot decide if he wants to be just a normal guy on Earth or a starfighter for an alien race. In this movie, this conversation proceeds quite well and naturally. But in the book, everything is extended much more than it should be. It makes Alex's reluctance come across as annoying. Every scene is pretty much like this. If you enjoyed a scene from the movie, expect it to be triple length in the book. Not good.

That said, it isn't all that bad either. At it's base, this is actually a great way to get into the heads of all the characters. Alan does not just translate a script; he makes sure you know exactly what is going on. From that perspective, the book is actually a good choice. I was pretty divided on this.

The whole reason I wanted to read this book was because my friends pretty much said it was one of his best novelizations. It was a long time since I heard this, but I never forgot. But for me, it was right down the line between good and bad.

For the above reasons, I am sort of going to just recommend both the movie and the book as one unit. I think they both bring something to the table. Although, if you only had to do one, just watch the movie. It's still out there and available. "The Last Starfighter" may have bombed when it came out, but that doesn't make it any less of a great film.

This blog was written on July 4, 2025.

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Fairy Tale Spotlight: Little Brown Mouse [Book Review]

"Little Brown Mouse" is a teeny tiny book with really thick pages written by Ginger Swift. It has a copyright on it for 2024 and was released in Happy Meals at McDonalds. I don't actually know if this had an earlier release.

There's not much to say about this one. It is a very tiny book with very easy to read text. The illustrations really tell most of the story. The idea here is that a parent will read this to their young child and show them the pictures. This is basically the very earliest reading comprehension level there can be. This is a book to help a young child learn how to read, so there isn't much focus on plot.

That said, this sort of book is important. Very young children should start off with these and continue to try and work their way up to more difficult ones. I commend McDonalds for giving these away for the time that they did. There are so many kids today that just have lost all interest in reading, and that is very sad.

On the back of the book, the publisher seems to be a group called Cottage Door Press. They say that they are a "publisher of high-quality children's books designed to spark curiosity in little ones." They "believe in reading to children from the day they are born." That is a brilliant philosophy, and I support it.

I know it seems like I was doing this review as more of a joke, but I really do want to promote reading in young children, especially by eight years of age. A good thing to do is to look for a list of Newberry Award winning or nominated books. They have a long list of genuinely good books for children to read once they get somewhat good at it. Reading will strengthen the mind and push the limits of the imagination. People need to read to become smart, and there is no way around it.

As for "Little Brown Mouse," I have no choice but to recommend it to its appropriate audience. If you have a very young child, give it to them to read... or just read it to them. You gotta get them started somehow.

This blog was written on July 3, 2025.

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Fairy Tale Spotlight: Don't Raise the Bridge (Lower the River) [Book Review]

"Don't Raise the Bridge (Lower the River)" is a novel written by Max Wilk. It was published in 1960. It was made into a movie starring Jerry Lewis in 1968. I read the book because I enjoyed the movie.

The plot here is a cynical inn keeper named George Lester is about to lose his inn when his ex-wife plans to get rid of her greater share of the business. She offers for George to buy her share, but it is way out of his budget to do so. So the whole book is about him scheming to make a whole lot of money really quickly. Being the cynical man that he is, he turns to an extremely elaborate crime to make that happen.

In fact, his scheme is so elaborate that is boggles the mind as to why anyone would try it. It was almost akin to some of the plans made in a "Mission: Impossible" episode. It was also extremely sociopathic in its means as well, taking advantage of good people in order to make it happen. George was not really a good man.

The plot in general had to do with stolen blueprints for an experimental drill. He hired a corrupt dentist to place the microfilm into the inlay on a suffering man's teeth who would soon be in the vicinity of a prospective buyer. He would then have horrible pain in the second location and be forced to see a second dentist there to relieve the pain... as well as remove the microfilm. Admit it: that's way too overcomplicated... but that's also the aspect that makes the book amusing. The title of this book really makes sense.

Because the plan is so egregiously tight, it is even more dependent that nothing goes wrong, and things actually do go wrong quite often. As George frantically tries to adapt to the problems in real time, it is very funny watching as he suffers and stresses over his own folly. That aspect alone is what makes this book a fun read, not because he is otherwise a bad person.

There was also a character named Cooney that made me laugh. He is technically the only good-hearted person in the whole story... at least in a verified way. George was really annoyed that someone could be so good in a world where evil is fairly mainstream. The problem with Cooney was that, even though he was a good person seeking justice, he was also not very good at it. He was definitely trying, but he always fell short of being the hero he wanted to be. But who cares?! It was great to see such a nice person in a book full of rotten people.

I know this may seem crazy, but I actually loved this book and even recommend it. It's mainly for the ending, which was surprisingly uplifting. The turn at the end was nice, and I won't spoil it. I would also recommend the movie, but I will say that the book's main character does not seem like Jerry Lewis to me. But then again, Jerry played a very unconventional character than he was usually known for. I think he still pulled George Lester off well. Give either one of them a looksee.

This blog was written on July 2, 2025.

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