Category — Books and Writing

It’s International Pixel-Stained Technopeasant Day! Hoorah, hoorah!

Check out the links for some good reading today.
papersky: Welcome to International Pixel-Stained Technopeasant Day! has some more links.

coffeeandink: International Pixel-Stained Technopeasant Day: Calliope is coffeandink’s contribution.

seawasp: Shadow of Fear: A Jason Wood Story (part 1) +
seawasp: Shadow of Fear: A Jason Wood Story (part 2) is Ryk E. Spoor’s (seawasp) contribution (and I’m really looking forward to reading it as I just finished Digital Knight for the third time.)

papersky: Monday 23rd April is International Pixel-Stained Technopeasant Day This explains the concept and why.

Go on, be good rabble and read some awesome stuff.

ETA: Also, check out the LJ community devoted to International Pixel-Stained Technopeasant Day: ipstp.

I had a week's vacation from the Internet and I was pleasantly surprised that yes one CAN live with out the net. I read Charlie Stross's Accelerando and I should finish it tonight. Gave me lots to think about and I'll write some more when I finish it.
I was sick last Tuesday and it was a lovely stomach flu. I had the work-vomiting, diarrhea and fever and achy muscles. When I started feeling better, I was shocked at all the bloody STUFF that seemingly has accumulated, so I'm planning on doing a massive decluttering soon.
I came back to 1600 emails in my GMail account and am in the middle of clearing the inbox. I don't want to think about my bloglines inbox (checks….58586 new feed items…..passes out. I have got too many feeds)

On Noveling
I signed up again this year to do NaNoWriMo and I am going a bit slow so far with a multtitude of distractions and demands. But I am determined this year to get 50K by Nov. 30, even if I have to pull a few all-nighters. My novel is called The Wish and its about a woman who gets a wish granted and is happy. I've read several books and stories where the protag gets a wish and nothing good happens, so I wanted to write one where the protag gets a wish granted and as a result is changed for the better.

On Politics
It seems there are a lot of rather interesting things coming out of Washington these days. Between the release of emails that Mike Brown wrote, the nomination of Judge Samuel Alito to fill retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor and the indictments handed down by the grand jury convened by Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald, that there is plenty of verbiage being spewed by both the bloggers and the mainstream media.

My opinion is that something is seriously messed up in Washington.

First a very unqualified man is hired into an important post and frankly it showed. Then there was the nomination of Harriet Miers, whose only qualification to be a Supreme Court justice was that she had a law degree. You would think that somebody who would be called on to decide matters involving constitutionality of laws and other appeals would have a least some experience in deciding things like fair emplyment practices, the 1st amendment, civil rights, soveriegn immunity, etc.(List of issues facing the SCOTUS this term taken from On The Docket) Harriet Miers withdrew her nomination and 4 days Later President Bush nominates Judge Samuel Alito to the open seat. Bush made especial note of Judge Alito's judicial qualifications. I'm wondering if he was so qualified to begin with, why didn't Bush nominate him in the first place?

So I have a chance to read in-depth about the indictment handed down against "Scooter" Libby and i have had a rather interesting thought. A lot of the problems we as a country face boils down to the sheer incompetence of our elected leaders. Bush got breaks because of his daddy and didn't have to work as hard as the average American does to put food on the table and clothes on the kids.

2005 has so far seemed to be a rather odd year: Hurricanes named using the Greek alphabet, lots of natural disasters: Katrina, Rita, Wilma, earthquake in Pakistan, landslides in Costa Rica and let's not forget the bird flu or even man made diasters: over 2K service men and women killed in Iraq in a war that shouldn't have been started in the first place, higher cost of living, and the odd news that the Seine-Saint-Denis region has been rioting for 8 days(9 days as of this writing) and it is just now getting wider circulation?

I’ve been re-reading my library of books since around the end of August. I’ve read The Belgariad, The Elenium, the Tamuli, The Elder Gods and The Treasured One by David and Leigh Eddings, along with The Magicians’ Guild by Trudi Canavan, Once Upon a Winter’s Night by Dennis McKiernan, and Her Majesty’s Wizard and The Oathbound Wizard by Christopher Stasheff.

I love the majority of David and Leigh Eddings work with the exception of Mr. Eddings’s first two novels, which I didn’t really get into. I have loved my copies to death and have reread them at least twice for the new ones and five times for the ones I’ve had for a while. If I need something to read, I’ll usually reach for Pawn of Prophecy or Diamond Throne or Redemption of Athalus as my backup book. I’ll even throw one of them in my bag if I’m going to be sitting somewhere for a while and I’m not sure of the reading material availability.

I did get annoyed by Khalad in the Tamuli. Khalad is Kurik's from The Elenium and serves as Sparhawk's squire. He had some firmly held class prejudices and expressed them quite often.

The Elder Gods and The Treasured One are books 1 and 2 respectively in the Dreamers series, a new quadrology from David and Leigh Eddings. They are pretty good and I enjoy them, but I haven't finished the series yet, so I'm waiting to see where they are going to take the story. The basic plot is that the world was created by 4 Elder Gods, and 4 Younger Gods, and they take turns sleeping or waking and watching the world. In the middle of the continent the Gods watch over, there is an insect like creature called the Vlagh which wants to take over the continent and eventually the world to feed its young. So Dahlaine, whose Domain is in the North, brings his brother and sisters a baby each to raise and who become the Dreamers, children who can make things happen by dreaming. But that isn't enough, as the people the Gods watch over aren't really equipped for war, so each Elder God gets gold from wherever Gods keep gold and went and recruited people from the outside world or outlanders. Zelana, of the West finds some Maags, ocean-going men who are very good at naval warfare. Her brother Veltane of the South goes the Trogite Empire and recruits several armies who are good at land warfare. Aracia of the East recruits some warrior-women from the Isle of Akalla and Dahlaine finds some horse-warriors from the Land of Malavi who will appear in more detail in book 3, The Crystal Gorge.

Once Upon a Winter's Night is a retelling of the fairytale "East of the Sun, West of the Moon". Camille is a beautiful 16 year old crofter's daughter living on the edge of the Land of Faery, who enchants Prince Alain of the Summerwood with her beautiful singing voice. A Bear comes and takes her to the Prince where she resides for awhile until a tragedy occurs and she must quest through Faery to find and rescue Prince Alain. She meets a Giant, a firedrake, Elves and the Fates who help her along her way.

The Magicians' Guild is the beginning volume in the Black Magician Trilogy by Trudi Canavan. Magicians are members of a Guild and serve the King of Kyralia in various functions-healing, etc. They are also known for the Purge, where ordered by the King, wizards go through the city and drive out all beggars, vagrants and criminals out of the city and into the slums. Sonea, a young girl being raised by her uncle and aunt visits some of her friends from when she lived the slums and is involved in the Purge. She shows natural magic powers and is in turn hunted by the Guild as she inadvertently injured a Guild member. She is eventually found as her magic powers are uncontrolled and could be dangerous to the city. A kindly magician helps her learn Control and along the way she learns several things about the Guild and its members. I enjoyed it and I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the trilogy.

Her Majesty's Wizard and The Oathbound Wizard start the adventures of Matthew Mantrell, a graduate student who stumbles upon a piece of parchment with odd symbols written on it which whisks him to land where magic works but not science, and the magicians use poetry for their spells. Words are taken very seriously in this alternate earth and hold great power. I'm looking forward to finishing the series which should be fun to find.

del.icio.us Tags: books Fantasy

Tags: books Fantasy