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Books

The Unreal and the Real: Selected Stories of Ursula K. LeGuin

This is a pair of collections of her short stories; I think they’re all reprints, but some (particularly in Volume 1) were new to me.

I started with Volume Two: Outer Space, Inner Lands, which has mostly her science fiction short stories. The Rule of Names was new to me (a fun short story set in the East Reach of Earthsea), as were the following four stories of the collection. It’s hard not to be a fanboy, but all of the stories are crisp and beautifully written. The first stories are familiar, The Ones who Walk Away from Omelas is often reprinted, with great reason. Semley’s Necklace was interesting; I’d read it before, but I was more willing to read it from Semley’s perspective, which improved it for me this time around.

I think I’ve read First Contact with the Gorgonids before, but enjoyed her wry pokes at Jerry this time. So many others were familiar, but it was good to read them again and have them in one place.

Volume One: Where on Earth got off to a strong start. I really appreciated collecting the Orsinian tales; the second Orsinian story is much stronger for following the first with the same characters. Many of the remaining stories were familiar, and most were quite strong. Ether, OR was another story that was new to me–and quite enjoyable, with interesting characters dealing with a very unusual but understated problem.

There’s a really interesting piece at the end, Half Past Four. I might have gone crazy trying to line everyone up, if I hadn’t vaguely remembered her warning in the introduction explaining how the story came about.

This was a pair of books I’ll reread again; it’ll probably take a few reads to get many of these onto my favorites list… but I suspect some will clear that high bar.

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Books

The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II

This book is about Oak Ridge, a government city created from bare Tennessee clay, where much of the Uranium for the atomic bombs was enriched. The book shoots for an everyday worker’s point of view, which is tricky given how secret the project was–most people had no idea what their job was doing, much less what the process overall was supposed to accomplish.

It’s a good story, well told. The chapters alternate between “the girls”–a set of six or so women in various roles and their efforts, and a “big picture” chapter where some aspect of the overall Manhattan Project is laid out in more detail.

It doesn’t have the narrative hooks of a story, particularly since it’s a three year slice of their lives and the only “endings” were marriages for some of the workers. In the end, it’s a good book, well written, about the back end of a crazy complex and sprawling project.

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Books

Ancilliary Justice and Angel Falls

Now that I’ve finished the Wheel of Time, I can finally get to all of the cool books that I got for Christmas.

One of my most anticipated was Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie. It’s a pretty far future book; told from the point of view of a ship wide intelligence that operates ancillaries. The book really worked for me. While it’s on the space opera end of the spectrum, One Esk is a character that I can relate to–it’s not all super humans or the force in this future.

The resulting society is interesting too; one interesting parallel was the allusion to Rome and how things became difficult when their engine of conquest ran out of highly lootable enemies on their frontier. This was the first book in a trilogy; I’m eagerly awaiting Ancillary Sword. (Jennifer did run into a problem in reading it; the reviews I’d read talked about the multifaceted character, which set me up to eagerly see how it would be implemented. Jennifer went into it blind and struggled with the novel for several chapters, until the timelines and points of view clarified.)

The second novel was Angel Falls by Michael Paul Gonzalez. It was okay, but was over the top in ways that didn’t work very well for me. The story was interesting, and is probably more interesting with a deeper religious background; the characters feel a little flat, but probably play off of a more detailed view of Eve, Cain, Abel, and such.

In the end, for me it was a read once and pass it on book. Not poorly written–really, it’s what it says on the back cover. I think I just was in a specific mood when I asked for it… and wasn’t in that mindset when I got around to reading it months later.

I’ve just begun The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II. So far it’s a little slow… but I’m still getting to know the characters.

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Books

Wheel of Time: Towers of Midnight and Memories of Light

I was wrong.

The flaws that prevented me from enjoying the Wheel of Time a few years ago, it turns out, were due almost entirely to the delay between books and my lack of willingness to reread/refamiliarize for clarity.

The pacing isn’t perfect (over 100,000+ pages, it’d be surprising if it was). but the 14 books make for a great experience. Now that the series is complete, I’d be happy to recommend it to anyone interested in a sprawling world grand fantasy.

The end delivered on the build up and promise of the initial books. Thinking about the transition, it’s clear that Sanderson worked hard to emulate Jordan’s style–and succeeded brilliantly. There were minor differences, but none that I couldn’t chalk up to Jordan writing at his best.

These two books are action packed. The world is ending and the heroes aren’t quite ready for it–but there’s no time.

Rand’s acceptance of his fate and developing wisdom feel earned; it’s great to see the other characters so surprised by his development and rapid change.

Perrin succeeds at embracing the wolf, but struggles appropriately. Master Luhan’s advice near the end rings true–as does Perrin’s surprised realization about his restraint.

Mat remains Mat, even when he is called upon to be the greatest general the world has known. His duel with Demandred is extensive (in page count), but it has to be. So many good people die, but that emphasizes the incredibly high stakes, and… honestly, if many more had survived, it would have strained credulity.

Again, the series was well done and the conclusion was earned. The characters went through an immense amount, but remained sympathetic, interesting, and reacted authentically throughout.

The end is final enough; there are projections toward the future, threads left hanging… but it’s a new world. I do wonder if anyone will bother with fan-fic after the series’ end… so much was resolved that seeing how people react to the great events would be fascinating, but you can’t match the excitement of the last battle without feeling derivative. [Well, that, and given the tremendous slaughter, the whole world needs trauma counseling.]

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Game Group Roleplaying

Quagg Ktk’tok: Star Wars Edge of the Empire

Years ago, young V’shtok was known among his people as a healer. He was proud to earn a name so young; he underestimated how much of his rise was due to family influence. V’shtok was hunting in the mists when he came across a wounded elder, Ak’okkta. Pride and impulse encouraged him to treat the elder, alone, without supplies–a critical mistake. Ak’okkta never recovered use of his arm.

V’shtok fled his homeworld, abandoned his name in humiliation, and studied starships. His skill with machines is often mentioned, but claiming the name he deserves for his skill might expose his past. He burns to be named once again; merely “Gand” is bitter, choking him on memory.

Worse, last month he crossed paths with Forr Zybysh, a cousin, who invoked his old name with clicking contempt. Zybysh used the name in every sentence… and promised to “introduce” V’shtok to the community, destroying his newly built life with childhood’s shadow.

Quagg Ktk’tok agreed to do “a little favor” for Zybysh–if Zybysh would travel on without destroying “Gand’s” hard won reputation. The gleam in Zybysh’s compound eyes promises that more favors will follow…

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Books

The Gathering Storm

The Gathering Storm, the 12th Wheel of Time book, may have been the best. I liked most of the characters’ arcs. Rand’s in particular was tense and depressing (for most of the book), but made sense for his character.

On to Wheel of Time 13. Towers of Midnight is off to a strong start. The end of the world, it turns out, is pretty interesting!

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FATE Games Game Group Roleplaying

A Snow Start to Roleplaying in 2014

Both of my game groups aren’t roleplaying much right now, though the Tuesday night group is getting together regularly (and we’re playing fun board games most weeks).

In January, I got a chance to play in Clay’s Dungeon World game. It’s an interesting system that I’ve wanted to try since I read its sister games (Apocalypse World and Monster Hearts), and Clay did a great job. He had a huge table, which made things a little trickier… but it served as a great platform, from which he recruited a group for recurring (instead of one-off) play.

Also in January, I ran the first half of a Fate Accelerated game–a holiday special. The players were Santa’s Elves, escorting their charges home on the Polar Express, when a blizzard and wolves and terrible things broke out. Fortunately, the elves managed to rally the kids and fight off the first assaults using ingenuity and Christmas presents.

On Tuesday, we returned and completed the adventure. Our brave elves used their steam and cocoa to melt snow from the tracks, summoned the reindeer to create an attack force, and stormed Santa’s workshop to free the jolly old elf. The White Witch’s minions were defeated in droves, and the elves stormed Santa’s cottage to free the Clauses from their villainous imprisonment.

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Books

Wheel of Time: What a difference time makes

What convinced me to wait for a giant, continuous read through the Wheel of Time was abandoning Knife of Dreams a few chapters in after suffering through Winter’s Heart years ago.

Winter’s Heart feels proportionate following Path of Daggers. The rotation around the circle catches everyone, without too many successive chapters of various minor characters. In fact, the pace seems to pick up, with several viewpoints in individual chapters now.

Crossroads of Twilight is a bit slower, mostly because its events are largely a continuation of the previous book’s events. Perrin is still trying to free Faile, Mat is still fleeing/courting, and Egewene is stuck in seige throughout. (It also suffers, a bit, from having Winter’s Heart’s rush forward with Rand, so that each other character in this book can mark time from the cleansing–it crosses all of their stories, but takes a while to get to for some characters.)

With Knife of Dreams it’s becoming clear that the world is coming to an end. The world is unraveling in ominous ways–Tarmon Gai’don isn’t just words anymore, it’s happening. It’s almost amusing now that I gave up because “nothing was happening” and I didn’t care about enough characters–because this is the book that lays down a marker and substantially ups the pace.

I’m just beginning The Gathering Storm, the first of Sanderson’s contributions. So far, I doubt I’d have noticed, which is high praise. [The first chapter with the abandoned farm feels somewhat different… more grounded? I did notice that, before I even thought about Sanderson’s role.]

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Books Podcasts

The end of an era?

Without long drives, the era of listening to podcasts could be coming to an end. The recent ones have been pretty good… so maybe I’ll see if I can keep them in the rotation, somehow.

Dice tower news 186 – 189; steady good updates.

Radio Free Burrito 034 — Another weird, solid episode, though I was hoping for more Poe.

Feat the Boot 320 & 321 — Conclusion of unique snowflakes; fine, though much less “concrete” than they seem to think.

Ken and Robin 67 — The gaming hut about character design options was a good exploration of point buy versus package improvement. Ask Ken and Robin was a good segment about buying into the premise of the game to enjoy the game.

This American Life 512 — House Rules. A great examination of zoning, home ownership, redlining’s historical roots (and after effects). Good detailed reporting.

TJ Hour 1051 and 1052 — an exception to the generally good nature of the podcasts this week. They teased the episode as a press conference, and said they had an hour and a half of material–but for some reason only included one non-staged question in 1051, then repeated the boilerplate discussion of Jefferson and architecture (the same questions but differently phrased answers; like we’d heard a rough and final draft in the two weeks). We got a few more “press conference” questions, but very few. A real missed opportunity.

Books

The Path of Daggers (Wheel of Time 8) — Continued strong and ended well.

Winter’s Heart (Wheel of Time 9) — The first part is good, but when we turn our attention to Mat we realize how much he’s been absent. It’s an interesting chunk of book; slow without being stagnant. The return to Rand at the end is slow, then frantic.

Book 10, Crossroads of Twilight is with Dad… I need to borrow it before I lose momentum.

I began R. A. MacAvoy’s “The Grey Horse”, which I almost set aside before the early reveal. It’s still not compelling, but I have higher hopes.

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Books Memes

Meme: 10 books

What’s old is new again… the 10 books meme struck me on Facebook. I thought I’d toss the answers here, so I can be amused at how much they change next time it rolls around.

10 Books that changed my life upon first reading them and have stayed with me: (via Will Johnson and Tony Ridgway)

10. Hyperion and Fall of Hyperion
9. Several Piers Anthony series: Xanth, Bio of a Space Tyrant, and Incarnations of Immortality
8. Ender’s Game
7. The Time of the Dark
6. The Chronicles of Amber
5. The Eye of the Heron. A great prompt to examine pacifism, the difficulty in adhering to it… and to think about success and failure of non-violence as a movement. All of her Hainish/Ekumen novels prompt thought about cultural influences and nature/nurture in worlds with very different nurture.
4. The Chronicles of Narnia. I read the covers off of them. Then I heard how it had all been a trick to proselytize, which led me to carefully reread and notice the parallels. Soon I appreciated how well drawn they were and how appealing Narnia’s story is. Streamlined for kids; rough in important ways. The stone table scene delivers what feels overwrought or like torture porn in telling Jesus’ life.
3. Red Box D&D/AD&D: I read, and mused, and studied, and researched—and built worlds for myself and my friends to inhabit. In many ways THE most influential book in terms of guiding how I spend my days and what I think about.
2. The Last Herald Mage: Magic’s Pawn. Lackey’s hurting, misunderstood young hero made homosexuality painfully normal, by experiencing the confusion and longing for myself.
1. A Wizard of Earthsea. Precise, beautiful writing, a story with a moral; difficult relationships, and acceptance that we all die. The third book, The Furthest Shore, was similarly powerful–though it taught a sense of balance, restraint, and provided a vision of life as an old person that seemed pretty cool all the same.