and so i return
Apr. 10th, 2024 10:55 amYesterday was all travel all the time: a three-hop flight from Cleveland to home. Turns out three flights is Just Too Many Flights. I was ready to be home about the time we were taking off from Calgary to Vancouver. In the event I rolled in shortly before midnight, unpacked my CPAP, and went to bed. Mr Tuppert was happy to see me at least. He's happier today when I'm Behaving Properly, sitting in the work chair and petting him. (And, yep, there's the demand for playtime.)
But: I am Home. I have my cat and my tea, in a mug that Erin made special for the eclipse. (Beautiful coppery glaze with a black sun.) I know I used to go straight back to work from a redeye and I am unclear how I managed that. Younger, I guess, and more willing to push through / ignore pending exhaustion. It's easier when someone else is telling me what to do, too.
Today: schoolwork, cat, and hopefully eclipse journaling. And also books.
What are you reading now?
One of the few advantages to not being at the Gathering right now is that my copy of Lyorn (Taltos #17) showed up while I was eclipsing. (Being eclipsed? Probably more accurate but sounds less good.).
Lyorn opens with a dedication to Mike Ford, "because it breaks my heart that I can't show it to him." Five pages in I said "Oh, because it's a theatre book." Two pages later, and less amused, I said "Oh, because Steve thinks he can write How Much For Just The Planet?." (Planet is JMF's Star Trek novel in the form of a musical comedy.) So far, thirteen pages in, we've had versions of "Modern Major General" and "My Favorite Things". I am still interested but my side-eye is armed and waiting. Which, it occurs to me, has been my response to most of the Taltos books post-Tiassa. (That one included the in-retrospect-prophetic line "I was told you think you're funny. That's alright, I think I'm funny too.")
I've also read a couple of chapters of Gardens of the Moon, the first book in Steven Erikson's ginormous fantasy sequence Malazan Book Of The Fallen. It's good: a bit more grim than I've been into lately, but good. Looking forward to getting back into it.
What did you just finish reading?
Yoon Ha Lee's Machineries of Empire (Hexarchate) trilogy. The first, Ninefox Gambit, remains my favourite: I quite like Cheris as a viewpoint character, and the occasional missives from one opposing character to another were a lot of fun as well. I -think- Raven Stratagem, the second, is probably the best of them? It's doing a bunch of interesting things with the plot and with the ideas of, well, empire. I'm not as fond of Brezan's narration, though. And Khiruev, the character who spends the most time with Cheris (who mostly doesn't get viewpoint anymore), is interesting but reminds me how much I miss Cheris.
On first read these felt like a duology with a third book tacked onto the end. I'm seeing a lot more thematic coherence this time, and I appreciate Revenant Gun more for it. It's not going to ever be a favourite but it's a fine conclusion to the trilogy. And the servitors, the intelligent robots, are some excellent characters too.
What do you think you'll read next?
Apart from Malazan? I've also started on Lee's collection Hexarchate Stories, and will doubtless finish it. At this point I am unfortunately prepared to concede that short story collections are Not For Me Anymore. I read an awful lot of them in junior high and high school, and then... I slowly dropped off. And now I have trouble switching gears from story to story. I still enjoy the stories quite a bit but multiple in a row have become difficult.
(I also hope against hope that Commonweal #6 will see the light of day sometime soon, but that depends heavily on Graydon's mental and financial state.)
But: I am Home. I have my cat and my tea, in a mug that Erin made special for the eclipse. (Beautiful coppery glaze with a black sun.) I know I used to go straight back to work from a redeye and I am unclear how I managed that. Younger, I guess, and more willing to push through / ignore pending exhaustion. It's easier when someone else is telling me what to do, too.
Today: schoolwork, cat, and hopefully eclipse journaling. And also books.
What are you reading now?
One of the few advantages to not being at the Gathering right now is that my copy of Lyorn (Taltos #17) showed up while I was eclipsing. (Being eclipsed? Probably more accurate but sounds less good.).
Lyorn opens with a dedication to Mike Ford, "because it breaks my heart that I can't show it to him." Five pages in I said "Oh, because it's a theatre book." Two pages later, and less amused, I said "Oh, because Steve thinks he can write How Much For Just The Planet?." (Planet is JMF's Star Trek novel in the form of a musical comedy.) So far, thirteen pages in, we've had versions of "Modern Major General" and "My Favorite Things". I am still interested but my side-eye is armed and waiting. Which, it occurs to me, has been my response to most of the Taltos books post-Tiassa. (That one included the in-retrospect-prophetic line "I was told you think you're funny. That's alright, I think I'm funny too.")
I've also read a couple of chapters of Gardens of the Moon, the first book in Steven Erikson's ginormous fantasy sequence Malazan Book Of The Fallen. It's good: a bit more grim than I've been into lately, but good. Looking forward to getting back into it.
What did you just finish reading?
Yoon Ha Lee's Machineries of Empire (Hexarchate) trilogy. The first, Ninefox Gambit, remains my favourite: I quite like Cheris as a viewpoint character, and the occasional missives from one opposing character to another were a lot of fun as well. I -think- Raven Stratagem, the second, is probably the best of them? It's doing a bunch of interesting things with the plot and with the ideas of, well, empire. I'm not as fond of Brezan's narration, though. And Khiruev, the character who spends the most time with Cheris (who mostly doesn't get viewpoint anymore), is interesting but reminds me how much I miss Cheris.
On first read these felt like a duology with a third book tacked onto the end. I'm seeing a lot more thematic coherence this time, and I appreciate Revenant Gun more for it. It's not going to ever be a favourite but it's a fine conclusion to the trilogy. And the servitors, the intelligent robots, are some excellent characters too.
What do you think you'll read next?
Apart from Malazan? I've also started on Lee's collection Hexarchate Stories, and will doubtless finish it. At this point I am unfortunately prepared to concede that short story collections are Not For Me Anymore. I read an awful lot of them in junior high and high school, and then... I slowly dropped off. And now I have trouble switching gears from story to story. I still enjoy the stories quite a bit but multiple in a row have become difficult.
(I also hope against hope that Commonweal #6 will see the light of day sometime soon, but that depends heavily on Graydon's mental and financial state.)