Trip's Life (Recent episodes)
4 December 2013 - Wednesday
I felt productive today! I must be doing something wrong.
Poor Avalon fell asleep waiting for me to log on, so I persuaded her
to get some rest instead of staying up until all hours again.
Meep.
In a futile attempt to seem less shallow than I am, I picked up
The Ring of the Seven Worlds (Giovanni Gualdoni, Gabrielle
Clima, Matteo Piana, Davide Turotti), because I hear they have comics in
Europe, so maybe I should see what they're like. Unfortunately, this one is
not so great. It's not bad, but the world-building is pretty
rudimentary and the ending is completely ex burro. Oh well, I am still
shallow.
I know fictional worlds are often full of horrible stuff, even when
they aren't strictly mimetic, but Jack Cloudie (Stephen Hunt)
still leaves a bad taste in my mouth. The wicked grand vizier is
undeniably wicked, and yet I still had to root for his vision of the
future over the others.
Okay, this is clearly too cold for cats, even with the space heater
in my bedroom on high. I must do something.
international comics by marith (Thu Dec 5 15:16:18 2013)
You could try my copy of _Perseoplis_, which I bought in an attempt to be less shallow but have not yet managed to read. I hear it is good.
Does your apartment heating not work?
Re: international comics by Trip (Fri Dec 6 13:30:05 2013)
I could! Perhaps I will if I manage to visit Beep Street someday!
My apartment has one heater, in the wall between the living room and the cat's bathroom. This is not very useful at the other end of the apartment.
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3 December 2013 - Tuesday
Feeling significantly better today, although still kind of flat and
therefore maybe not best-equipped to deal with Surprise Reorg! second
thing in the morning.
Ever since the acquisition, we have been an appendage on Aster R&D that
does customer support, I think because the founder who stayed with Aster
wanted to keep his organization together as much as possible. He has cashed
out, though, so finally we have been assimilated into the Greater Teradata
Customer Support Empire. In fact, we now report to the same manager as does
Cow Orker D, who he speaks very highly of. I have only met New Boss S and
New Metaboss M for a few minutes, but they seem sane and definitely know
how to get things done within Teradata, which is about 1000% better than
the Horrible Boss who was apparently the best we could get by hiring from
outside the company.
Now we will have to actually follow the procedures that we are
supposed to have been following all along, which will be a pain, but I
think overall it will be much better for the team.
What? I'm just trying this optimism on to see how it fits!
Avalon is busy tonight, so I tried to eat at the new Indian place on
Castro, but I failed. I mean, I ate food, but what I ordered (pakoras,
samosas, pesto naan) was too greasy for my recently-recoved stomach.
There was no tragedy, but it was an unfulfilling dining experience.
I need a better plan for keeping the cats warm, I think. Maybe just
more Boxes of Warmth.
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2 December 2013 - Monday
Whatever it is I have, the symptoms include both exhaustion and
insomnia. After "sleeping" in I got up and felt kind of okay, so I
thought I would work from home in the afternoon, but taking a shower
used more energy than I had and I spent most of the rest of the day
lying on my bed staring blankly into space.
After microwaving some frozen oatmeal, I was able to huddle in front
of the computer for some Avalon time, but not with any significant brain.
Then I went to bed.
Dead Things (Stephen Blackmoore) is definitely noir; you
can tell by the way the protagonist gets increasingly battered
throughout the course of the book but keeps slogging onward through the
inevitable betrayals to face the consequences of his past misdeeds. Also
there is magic and horrible necromancy and sorcerous crime and death
gods.
Oof, cats.
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1 December 2013 - Sunday
What?! How did it get to be December already!?
The never-ending saga of the Sad Death of Jannik finally ended, with
the PCs thumbing their noses at the person who annoyed them most, but
not actually doing anything about the murderer. It's the Decadent
Period!
Probably no more gaming until next year, because holiday
excitement.
On the way back from gaming, I began to feel quite unwell. At first I
thought it was due to having too many little puffy cheese guys on top of
brunch on top of last night's gluttony, but it did not go away as
expected. I think I have whatever was going around Monkeycat Towers.
:(
I wish Avalon were here to soothe my fevered brow! But no, only
kitties, who are adorable and furry but not the same.
I'm not sure if the cats are sniffing me because they're worried
about me, or because they want to see if I've turned into food yet.
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30 November 2013 - Saturday
Encore feasting! I think I ate about as many Thanksgivings as I did
yesterday.
- Nurse Angel Ririka 6: I guess this is continuing to
espouse healthy values, like "don't let nine-year-old kids travel in
the wilderness on their own".
- Cross Game 38: I can see this romance going a variety
of ways, actually.
- Toaru Majutsu no Index 9: Susceptibility: 3d6 Drain,
all powers, when subject to successful Presence attack.
- Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood 26: Dave called it.
- Legend of Korra 4-5: Workplace romance = fail. Also,
villainous villain is villainous.
Wandering Son (Shimura Takako) is about a small cute boy
who might like to be a girl, and a tall handsome girl who might like to
be a boy. Since the characters are in 5th grade, it is much more about
gender than sex, and as of the second volume, it is pretty darn
adorable.
Twelve fliffy paws!
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29 November 2013 - Friday
Thanksgiving, with feasting!
The Austrian friends of Ayse, Ken, and Ja Baby were late, but they
were ready to serve the food they brought pretty much as soon as they
arrived, so it all worked out.
I think I ate several Thanksgivings.
Later, after the Austrians had departed to take their visitor back to
the airport, Dave showed Ayse the first episode of Magical Project
S, which she appeared to like. Then, everyone collapsed into a
terminal food coma.
Twelve fuzzy paws, who get no turkey, because I am terrible.
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28 November 2013 - Thursday
Thanksgiving, but no feast! Ayse and Ken were sick earlier this week,
so they did not get to prep, so there is no feasting until tomorrow.
However, I went over and suspended Ja Baby upside-down a suitable
amount, and ate noodles. It is all good.
Also I exchanged many mushy texts with Avalon.
The Technician (Neal Asher) address the Gabbleduck Question
in more detail. Very few planets are depopulated, and hardly anyone cuts
their own face off, so I guess by Asher standards it's a pretty positive
outcome.
Twelve paws!
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27 November 2013 - Wednesday
Since I have Friday off, today is like Friday! Wheeeee!
Even better, Friday with Avalon! Although I will probably not get to
see her much over the next few days, with the Thanksgiving
foofooraw.
Expedition to the Mountains of the Moon (Mark Hodder) is
the third book of the adventures of Richard Francis Burton and Algernon
Swinburne through broken history, and could be the last, although that
would be awfully harsh and probably not artistically satisying.
Hunnish biotech, the scourge of Africa! (Or, never trust a Prussian
with a triffid.)
The Gabble and Other Stories is a collection of Neal Asher's
short work, mostly set in his "Polity" future history, mostly
containing horrible alien biological horrors and/or DOOOOM. There is a
lot about gabbleducks, which are anthropophagous, and I think
established as full of DOOOOM, so they count double.
Twelve fuzzity paws!
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26 November 2013 - Tuesday
Blah, work.
Yay, Avalon!
Yay, cats!
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25 November 2013 - Monday
Today, I helped a customer fix a thing, and also got to laugh at my
stupid cow orker for being stupid. (For a little while, I thought he was
merely ignorant, but no, he was actually being stupid.)
My conversation is still lacking, but smooches! Also cats who want to
help me computer by giving me something more orange to look at than the
silly glowing rectangle.
Volume 1 of From The New World (Yusuke Kishi, Toru Oikawa)
is post-apocalyptic telekinetics in a mysterious world overrun by sapient
naked mole rats, with bonus girl-smooches (not for the mole rats...
yet).
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24 November 2013 - Sunday
There was no brunch yesterday because of Ja Baby's party, so there
was brunch today! Apparently my rule is that I will eat meat if someone
else is providing the food OR if Ken is present. But, sausage!
Also there was Dominion. I managed to
come in second! Then I pulled some weeds.
Perhaps eventually I will stop being lame at Avalon and have
interesting things to talk about.
Also, smooches.
The Curious Case of the Clockwork Man (Mark Hodder) is the
sequel of The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack, or perhaps
the continuation, since the events of the first book are still causing
immense trouble in this one. Burton and Swinburne manage to save the day
again, but that doesn't really help much with the inevitable tomorrow.
Nooooo, do not be opaque when I am computering!
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23 November 2013 - Saturday
I was not there, but I hear Ja Baby's birthday party in the park with
all her friends from preschool was quite the bash!
But, that was not the only festivity! Ayse celebrated her birthday by
feasting upon the
barbecue of Korea, along with many usual suspects, some unusual
suspects like Susan, Mike, Earl, and Cat, and extremely rare suspects such
as Carl. It was very loud and full of meat, but festive!
After listening to Ayse and Earl talk about Black Wine,
I have concluded that I am not qualified to read books and should just
stay in a dark hole.
Then many of us went back to Ayse and Ken's place and searched for the
lost art of conversation, with only this delectable tiramisu to guide us.
As of volume 5 (omnibus 2), Zero's Familiar (Noboru
Yamaguchi, Nana Mochizuki) pretty much follows the plot of the anime,
although Kirche is not as cool in this version.
Complete in one very thick volume, Another (Yukito
Ayatsuji, Hiro Kiyohara) is the story of the curse on (third-year middle
school) class 3 and how it finally ends. There was an obvious solution to
me, but it would have required official notice, which I guess is too close
to Rocking The Boat for upstanding citizens like school administrators.
Moderate gore, plenty of creepiness.
Bronze Gods (A A Aguirre) is magic-steampunk-police
procedural set in Hy Braseal several hundred years after it was colonized
by Vikings. (The Vikings do not appear except in historical flashbacks.)
This is the improbably-sexy-protagonists-with-massive-UST model of police
partnerships, but I hear some people like that sort of thing. Also, dashing
adventure! Foul villains! Infernal devices! Masked crazies beneath the
opera house! Mysterious and charming noblemen!
No, cats, I did not bring you any of the Korean barbecue. Yes, I am a
terrible cat-dad. But I am warm at night.
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22 November 2013 - Friday
Yay! I made it to Friday!
Boo! Broken customer, spent all day watching Engineering work on it,
went home and tried some things they suggested, but the workaround works
around so we can now leave it until Monday.
Avalon likes me even when my brain is very small and I cannot give
her food. Very mysterious!
Jekyll on Trial (Elyn R Saks, Stephen H Behnke) addresses
the question of what the criminal justice system should do with people with
multiple personalities. The author's position is that they generally can't
be convicted, regardless of what you believe about MPD: if each personality
is a person, or even a pseudo-person, then convicting the one who commited
a crime is to punish the ones who are innocent (the obvious exception being
if they were all involved or at least depravedly indifferent), and if the
personalities are just facets of one person, that person is too dissociated
to be mentally competent to be convicted (although they could reasonably be
committed). I might be missing nuances because I'm not a philosopher,
psychiatrist, or lawyer, but her logic seems pretty compelling if you
accept that it's better to let the guilty go free than to punish the
innocent, which our criminal justice system explicitly claims to do -- the
standard for conviction is "guilty beyond doubt" rather than "seems kinda
skeevy", even if actual trials often fall short of that.
Twelve paws!
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21 November 2013 - Thursday
Still kind of zombtastic. I added a feature to a thing for a customer,
but then spent like half an hour trying to fix the new feature after it was
already working correctly. Good thing I wasn't hired for my intellect.
Oh, wait...
Today, no errands! Only Avalon!
Poor Marmalade! I cannot do purrbuckets with him while I am typing to
Avalon!
Poor Aspen! I cornered her on the food tree and cut the mats out of
her fur!
Poor Ghirardelli! I... do not give him extra gooshyfood for being
brown? I dunno, but I'm sure there's something!
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20 November 2013 - Wednesday
About an hour after I went to sleep last night, I got called to fix something
that none of the n00bs could. Fortunately it did not require figuring
out anything new, but it did take 2½ hours to implement the known
solution. Now I am sleepy and zombie-like, and furthermore afflicted by
a phone meeting in which everyone has to shout down everyone else to
get their rants heard, repeatedly. This gives me a headache, and also
eats away at the tattered remnants of my soul.
I left work a couple of hours early to run errands, and was ultimately
successful. I bought a huge pile of stuff at Lee's (reviews to follow) and although the
nice pharmacy lady had to argue with insurance on my behalf I did
eventually get my new brain pills. Also, pizza!
Also, Avalon! And opaque cats.
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19 November 2013 - Tuesday
I sort of understand how this thing was written, but I have no idea
why someone would write it this way. Some perverse attempt at improving
performance, maybe? Gah, humans.
Soul Hunt (Margaret Ronald) is the third (and final?) "Evie
Scelan" book, in which the doom from the first and second books gets
together with some new doom to whack the protagonist upside the head.
Again.
I got the brain pill doctor to promise to phone the new prescription
in to the pharmacy, but the bus failed to get me to the pharmacy to see
if it actually came to pass. Argh. Maybe I should tell Marmalade that
the VTA is made out of string.
No Avalon for me! Except in mushy text messages.
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18 November 2013 - Monday
I made a thing, which will do what was asked, but I'm not sure it's
even possible for it to do its things without interfering with the
things done by other things. The customer environment is so crazy I'm
not sure we can do anything except give it to them and see if makes them
break out in hives.
Wild Hunt (Margaret Ronald) is the sequel to Spiral
Hunt, where it turns out that being blamed for PC-like activities
is not so great, and also warped spirits can be serious assholes. Almost
as bad as mages.
Hyperbole and a Half
(Allie Brosh) is now available in dead tree format! I know this because
Marith got it for me because she is the Best Lizard Ever.
I can't refute Ayse's position that some of the HaaH pieces are about
horrible brain stuff and/or horrible behavior, but the way it is
described still makes me laugh uncontrollably.
I was blargh when I got home, but Avalon makes everything better.
I have brought back the warmth, cats! Do not despair!
Make a comment!
17 November 2013 - Sunday
Adam is not dead, so we successfully had brunch before gaming! Hurray
for nourishing food!
Gaming was sort of a success, although I was unable to resist
throwing in a red herring that distracted people for a good two hours.
By the time we had to call it a session, they had decided who to blame
next, so I think next time we'll start with that, and if it doesn't
conclude things, I'll have ninjas burst in and we can move on to
Dave's truffid-rustling adventure. (In which everyone will have a -2 to
everything because they aren't doing what the Empress told them.)
My friends are extremely silly.
Avalon is also pretty silly, but cozy and adorable.
Thank you for being fuzzy, cats!
Make a comment!
16 November 2013 - Saturday
Ken and Ja Baby were in town for a puppet show at the library and they
lured me to dim sum,
like fiendish luring things! (Ayse was not there because she was busy
watching over Ta Baby, who was sleeping like his health depends on it, but
we carried some dim sum back for her.)
Overwhelming Carcassonne
victory! Muahahahahahaha! (That is to say, my gambles on fields paid off
and other people's didn't.)
Ayse was available for anime, and we had nothing better to do, so we
started early and watched NAR AND all the regular stuff!
- Nurse Angel Ririka 4-5: Our theory is that this show
didn't do as well as Sailor Moon because it promotes
unpopular values like "work hard" and "don't pig out on all the
cookies".
- Cross Game 36-37: Apparently this arc about Aoba and
nationals wasn't in the manga at all
- Toaru Majutsu no Index 8: Ah, now we are in the Creepy
genre.
- Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood 24-25: Gluttony hit a
limit break! However, there is much more his victims should be doing
before they despair and fall to fighting among themselves.
- Legend of Korra 3: It's not 1930s without mobsters!
Senran Kagura vol 1 (Kenichiro Takagi, Amame Takatsume) is 10%
ninjutsu, 90% cheesecake.
Volume 2 of Midnight Secretary (Tomu Ohmi) gets to the
smut. Presumably next volume, some event will eventuate to tear the
lovers apart, but maybe not.
Heart of Briar (Laura Anne Gilman) starts a new series,
about unpleasant supernatural creatures vs even more unpleasant
interdimensional invaders, with humans caught squarely and unknowningly
in the middle. Internet dating sites are involved in the villainous
plans. Also, bonus Tam Lin references.
Twelve fliffy paws!
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15 November 2013 - Friday
Hurray! I made it to Friday!
Avalon was kind of busy, but we chatted slowly.
A Centaur's Life vol 1 (Kei Murayama) is slightly raunchy
highschool slice-of-life in a world where everyone is a centaur or has goat
horns or dragon wings and tail or whatever.
Three tails!
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14 November 2013 - Thursday
I spent like an hour fixing a thing, and as soon as I handed it back,
they broke it again in exactly the same way and I had to spend two hours
fixing it. Gaaaaaaaaah.
Under the Moons of Mars (ed John Joseph Adams) is an
anthology of Barsoom fanfic. The stories are by serious authors (Catherynne
M Valente, Joe R Lansdale, S M Stirling, Austin Grossman, etc) and the
introduction is by Tamora Pierce, but it's undeniably fanfic. This is not a
bad thing, although most of the stories didn't really do it for me.
Shadows (Robin McKinley) is YA set in a world with day-to-day
life much like our own, but many strange goings-on to annoy the characters.
It seems like the beginning of a series, but doesn't explicitly say so. Also
it made me think of the Captain
Awkward thread on embarrassing teenage crushes.
Captain Awkward recommended
Spiral Hunt (Margaret Ronald) because the author commented on
a post a ways back. It is not bad, and has creepier magic than a lot of
urban fantasy.
My brain is almost too small for Avalon. But not quite!
Opaque! So opaque!
Make a comment!
13 November 2013 - Wednesday
I am only coughing a little. Probably this means I will not actually
die.
Suddenly, no Avalon, because she had to go to a work thing. I will
console myself with comics, or maybe brains.
Three tails!
Silver by Avalon (Thu Nov 14 19:32:19 2013)
At least we won silver. =) It is funny, one of my coworkers' husbands said don't come home a loser. HmmmMMmmm I thought that was a bit much although I am sure he was joking.
Re: Silver by Trip (Fri Nov 15 08:16:11 2013)
Did you get an actual chunk of silver she can bludgeon him over the head with?
No... by Avalon (Fri Nov 15 17:31:40 2013)
...this is Canadian publishing, we got a certificate and no frame. =)
Re: No... by Trip (Sun Nov 17 10:05:11 2013)
Bummer! That makes gloating so much less satisfying, or at least less showy!
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12 November 2013 - Tuesday
I really did go to work today! I didn't even die!
Hopefully Aspen appreciated it.
The Hydrogen Sonata (Iain M Banks) must be literary SF,
because it pretty much goes nowhere. Semi-transcendent AIs rush around,
exotic locations are visited, innocent lives are snuffed out, and none of
it makes any difference.
Sometimes, when the library says there is one Link+ book waiting, there are actually
four!
Lately I have been going to bed only a little late, but
today I was actually on time! Eight full hours of sack time!
Make a comment!
11 November 2013 - Monday
I was able to set my alarm to the correct time, but not actually turn
it on, which is another thing I haven't done in years. I wonder if they
might be related?
Time for another verse of the "Working From Home Blues".
I did some work. I also read some more Captain Awkward. The core messages of
"use your words to set boundaries", "take care of yourself", and "you can't
control what other people think or do" seem like ones everyone should
learn.
Then I talked about it with Avalon.
It's okay, Aspen! Tomorrow I will definitely leave!
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10 November 2013 - Sunday
It's an off week for gaming, so I am still at home with my germs. I
only slept in about half as far this time!
I don't know what they put in the sauce for Sizzling Rice Stuff
— sugar? umami-juice? crack? — but it was exactly what my
body wanted.
Curse you, Republicans! If there were money for libraries, I would be
able to pick up the book that is on hold!
After panning In a Fix (Linda Grimes), I'm not sure why I
picked up Quick Fix. Possibly it's because I'm an idiot,
because it's not any better than the first one. I'm a guy and I can still
tell this is Enormous Feminism Fail.
The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack (Mark Hodder) is
the first in a series of steampunk books, with Richard Francis Burton
and Algernon Swinburne as the protagonists in a setting somewhere
between The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and
Westerfeld's Leviathan.
Fortunately, Avalon need not fear my germs!
Twelve paws!
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9 November 2013 - Saturday
Ayse also has germs, so no brunch today. Instead, I slept until after
13:00, which is the first time I've done that in years (probably not
actually decades, although it feels like it). This will probably result
in my never being able to sleep properly again and getting fired and
DYING, but hopefully it is also leading to fewer phlegmy germs.
No anime for me, and it sounds like Marith and Dave played the
Furniture Assembly Game instead of watching anime.
The cats are not playing with my germs, which is good.
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8 November 2013 - Friday
Back in the office today, although my brain is still full of
phlegm. Or my phlegm is empty of brain.
The Daedalus Incident (Michael J Martinez) is Double-Genre
Mars Action!™. I like the fantasy elements better, I think.
Fortune's Pawn (Rachel Bach) starts off as military SF
about an ambitious powered-armor merc and then halfway through the book
goes off into I-don't-know-what. Maybe Lovecraftian doom.
Three paws!
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7 November 2013 - Thursday
Too much sore throat. Too little brain. Working from home so as to
not spread the plague, which means not productive enough. Also, sore
throat.
I felt a little better by evening, so I dragged myself down to Palo
Alto to get my shiny new iPad. It is so shiny and thin and light! I even
got pretty much everything transferred from the old iPad, which I will
now do something with.
Also I had stuffing and mashed potatoes for dinner, which were more
or less what my body wanted.
When I was not going "blblblblblbl" at work, I read some more Captain Awkward. Some of it makes me
think a quick death is too good for humanity, but a lot of it makes me
think some bits could be salvaged.
Twelve paws!
Make a comment!
6 November 2013 - Wednesday
Ugh, I'm starting to get a sore throat. No idea if it's from visiting
Monkeycat Towers, or being at work, or what, so I will refrain from
accusing people of being plague-spreading supervillains.
Oddly, not getting enough sleep makes Avalon need to go to bed early.
But we still had a few minutes!
I heard about Ancillary Justice (Ann Leckie) from Marith,
who read about it on John Scalzi's
blog. The main character being a fragment of a larger intelligence is
not as much of a difference as I might like, but the cultural and
especially gender stuff is pretty awesome. In some ways it's very minor,
but it makes the setting very alien.
Curtsies & Conspiracies (Gail Carriger) is the sequel to
Etiquette and Espionage, silly YA set at a finishing school
for teenage female spies in the past of the setting of "The Parasol
Protectorate" books.
Six ears!
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5 November 2013 - Tuesday
Blah, work.
No Avalon today, so I had to read books.
Possession (Kat Richardson) is the eleventeenth in the
"Graywalker" series, about a slightly-dead private eye and magic that
seems a lot like electrical wiring. (Not that is unusual, or even bad,
it just seems... something. I'd rather see magic that's not based on an
electricity metaphor.)
Speaking of which, Two Serpents Rise (Max Gladstone) has
magic based more on a financial or legal metaphor, much like Three
Parts Dead, with which it shares a setting (although Alternate LA
instead of Alternate NY) and general awesomeness.
Dead Set (Richard Kadrey) has some cussing, but is otherwise
very much a YA surprise-mythic-adventure story. It reminds me of
something, but I am not remembering what just now. Not Diana Wynne
Jones, I don't think, but maybe.
Chaos Quarter (David Welch) is not the concentrated
wrongness of The Goliath Stone, but it is made of fairly
high-purity fail.
Twelve paws!
Make a comment!
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