A Writer's Paradise

Book: Cartoon History of the Universe

Cartoon History of the Universe, Vol. 3 by Larry Gonnick (21)

Long awaited, much anticipated... and a smidge confusing in parts. I don't know why... except that there's a lot more documented history between the rise of Islam and the Renaissance than the other periods of time Gonnick covered in vols. 1 & 2. I would have advised him to slow it down, and give more attention to the details.

Book: Lord of My Heart

Lord of My Heart by Jo Beverley (20)

It was going very well; the period details were reasonably researched or reasonably speculated. (The time period: the Conquest of Britain, 1066 and a few years after). There were, perhaps, too many prologues, but the plot was swimming along pretty reasonably. Then, one of the characters did something largely out of character, to the point that I was actually making loud, unhappy noises. (The heroine kills a man to save her husband's honor; technically, his life, but his life was not in immediate danger... and when the end came, and it was uncovered that the heroine's husband wasn't in all that much trouble anyway... oh, dear God.) Essentially: fiasco. Maybe I missed something, but it was totally the wrong thing to have happened, it wasn't necessary to the plot, and the heroine recovered from it awfully quickly; even in a setting where life was held somewhat cheaply, it was often indicated that young, convent-raised Madeleine wouldn't have just bounced back from killing a guy to protect her husband's dubious honor.

Strange. I really wasn't expecting it from Beverley.

Book: War of Honor

War of Honor by David Weber (19)

I love Honor Harrington, but she wasn't thrilling me this time... David Weber writes political intrigue about as well as George R.R. Martin writes women. The important thing to notice here is that I usually like Weber's portrayal of women, because he writes them just like he writes men. It seemed like a smart comment as well because George R.R. Martin's got some impressive political intrigue mojo, which I remembered in talking to Brandon today about A Game of Thrones. And it's not as though Weber's political intrigue is terrible; it's just that his space battles are way better than almost anything else he writes. And finally, notice I did not say, "David Weber writes political intrigue about as well as Robert Jordan writes women," which would be a slam that any author should never want to hear.

But I did experience this as an audiobook instead of reading it, so perhaps that wasn't fair. Though the reader was great, and did a very impressive, non-cheesy French accent for the Peeps, and the Manticorans were super-Brits, and Honor was... an American. And the Graysonites were Southern Americans. Interesting choices, pretty obvious choices from the contextual allegory, but fun to listen to nonetheless.

And a quote:

"Talking is always preferable to killing people," NewKiev said icily.
"That depends on who you're talking about killing, doesn't it?"

Warning: Graphic Pictures

I tried to make my own fun this morning.

Instead, I made a mess.

Here is the predator:




Here is her prey, the innocent violets:




Gearing up for an attack:




The hunt is successful:




Displaying the kill:




The kill site:




The aftermath was bloody. As the candied violets lay there, not drying, I began to wonder where I went wrong. Dann asked, "Are you sure you followed the directions?" Well, sure, I had followed them. I hadn't printed them out, or anything, but I had followed them... sort of...

Only 1 in 5 lion-hunts are successful. I don't feel so bad. Tomorrow is another day.

Noted

Jayne Anne Krentz is quoted all over the cover and front matter of Narcissus in Chains (review style).

Some worlds should never collide. But, look, here they done did collide.

Book: The Uncanny X-men

The Uncanny X-men (18)

"Graphic novel" -- or anyway, a lot of issues of X-men bound together. I wanted to know about the Dark Phoenix stuff when we finished watching X-men 2, so Dann threw this at me so I'd stop pestering him.

I ran into the usual graphic novel problem that I have, but it was worth reading. The incessant exposition is good for someone like me who can't keep up with the pictures and the story. I far prefer the movie X-men (for one thing, Wolverine is way hotter), but I'm glad I have a little background now.

Book: Smoke in Mirrors

Smoke in Mirrors by Jayne Ann Krentz (17)

Another day, another JAK book. Overall, I have to say I see evidence of her style maturing, which will happen if you keep writing upwards of 3 books a year, no matter how hard you try. I don't think I was in a proper JAK mood, however, because (while not bored), I was not massively entertained. Or maybe my style is maturing. Anyway.

The setting lent itself to a few entertaining bits; the heroine is a librarian, and yet started out no more or less sexually unfulfilled than any other JAK heroine. A minor character shows up-- a departmental secretary-- and demonstrates the insane power of departmental secretaries in the academic world. So, it had some relevance to my work landscape that I enjoyed.

On the other hand, I almost wonder if the de-stereo-typing of Krentz's hero/heroines has hurt her. It's nice that the characters are not completely obsessive in keeping with their one-dimensionality, but at the same time, I don't think we've moved up to three dimensions yet, so they still feel a bit flat but lack the punch of the completely one-track stereotype characters.

Either that, or I've just matured enough as a reader to no longer be satisfied with these books... I did start reading her work back when I was 18, and it's a whopping 10 years later. But I do remember being quite thrilled by I Thee Wed, which I read on vacation in England, and it was quite good. But it honestly just might have been my setting. So, I don't know.