Kev called and said his schedule will let him make it both this week and the next one. Remember, this week we’ll start at 7 PM– I’ll be picking Jennifer up from the airport.
Do we want to grab food on the way, or order pizza like normal?
A clear sequel to The Dark Path, it picks up shortly after the previous book ended. This book is stronger, with Jackie making interesting choices. The world changes and unusual talents are revealed. We learn more about the vuhls, but not enough to steal their mystery.
Jackie finds out interesting truths about Zor myths, leading to more choices and a much more flexible feel. The books ends on a high note– and, though it appears to be just an interlude, the next book hops forward 20 years.
While this book is in the same world as The Dark Wing, it’s set 80 years later. The cultures have changed in the interval; Zor and Human are used to interacting, though resentment is still present.
This book centers around Jackie and Ch’k’te, who react to the discovery/invasion of strange aliens– the Ghuls. There’s a lot of confusion given the alien’s powers of deception. Along the way, Jackie looses control of her base and gets drug into complex Zor plans. She’s seen as the current incarnation of Qu’u and is dragged into events to replicate those of legend.
Despite a more personal viewpoint throughout and good characterization, it’s frustrating to be as lost as Jackie. The book doesn’t really end– unlike the Dark Wing, this is clearly a chunk of a larger book and doesn’t have a satisfying ending. I checked out the next book in the series and hope that it’s more rewarding in the end.
The Dark Wing is a tale of war between the (human) Imperium and an alien race– the Zor, birdlike and different.
The story is well written and centers on Sergei Torrijos, though other characters (including, later on, Zor protagonists) get POV chapters. There are elements that suggest roleplaying potential– like the ability of gunners to “crack” a shield early, and a pilot’s ability to evade/present new faces to the enemy in a way that prolongs the ship’s life. That information, and several other bits of history and technological explanation are given in straightforward info-dumps.
The book is mostly about the war; the Zor attack in the first chapter, and the humans scramble to counter attack. Interestingly, a cultural gulf between civilians and military is laid out and developed; the military is generally tired of the premature peaces that are negotiated, always leaving the Zor ready to attack again soon.
Admiral Marais steps on scene and begins driving the Imperial Navy onto a new path. It’s interesting watching through Sergei’s eyes as he learns about the Admiral’s drives and goals. There’s a very interesting subplot about Intellegence and spies, and hints at a future enemy.
The book lasts a longer than you’d expect– the war comes to a close, but the after effects must be navigated. This takes about 25% more of the book and casts a different light on the accomplishments of the war.
I enjoyed this book quite a bit. This was a reread.
At the moment, it looks like everyone can make it for the game on Friday. If Dad and Eric change their schedules, I’ll try to let you all know.
We left off with the group perched on a ledge about 500′ above the end of the trail, as a Wyvern and rider flew around the mountain face and seemed to spot you…
Off Armageddon Reef is an interesting book with two distinct parts. The first part is a brief tale of humanity’s end, as the Gbaba destroy Earth’s last war fleet. The Gbaba are implacable and not really detailed– it’s enough to know that they’re the creatures in the night.
The book transitions to the other half of part one for a while, telling briefly about the terraforming and colonization efforts to establish humanity’s last colony. There’s an interesting tale of hubris and terrible decisions, as the survivors are almost all mindwiped and led around by a false religion, where the unimpaired humans use technology to establish themselves as angels and make their decrees inviolable. While it’s done for (mostly) good reasons, it makes the reader queasy– and sparks a rebellion among the unimpaired. In the end, the religious decrees are established and the angels fade into the background.
All of the above is background for the bulk of the book. This chunk is a mostly first person tale by Nimue Allen, an android with memories from the end of Earth’s empire. Nimue decides to right wrongs and nudge the world’s development towards the best technology they can reestablish without the Gbaba sensing it.
Her struggle is interesting and mirrors a lot of Renaissance and Reformation history, altered for the new world and experiences. It’s compellingly written, with slightly progressive allies and a lot of worries about deception and the effect of their actions. The characters come across as clear and strong, making me look forward to its sequel By Schism Rent Asunder. It’s on request at the library now.
After wrestling with AT&T Friday night (where she was told that our “connectiods must have reset”), we got direct connection to the net back up, but the wireless routers still wouldn’t work. After a frustrating struggle on Saturday morning where the wireless setup still wasn’t working, Jennifer stumbled on some “AT&T only” advice from someone who’d gone through it themselves.
The trick was that instead of setting up the connection as PPoE (which it was), AT&T forces you to set it up as DHCP… and after the setup fails switch to PPoE. Somehow, it worked, and we have internet at home again.
At the end of last session, it sounded like everyone can make it on Friday. Please let me know if you can’t make it.
The Armagedon Rag was an interesting book, written in 1982. I picked it up because it was sympathetic to the boomers and I thought I’d look at the world from their point of view. It didn’t do much for my opinion of the boomers… though I enjoyed it somewhat as a book with solid characters.
The book has two halves; the first is a journalist’s investigation of a murder and a lot of cross country travel. Spots were good, but I was impatient through most of it. Near the middle the book twists and goes down an occult and music path. While the tension was more impressive in the second half, the plot was much less centered around the viewpoint character.
In the end, I had a collection of interesting characters [mostly boomers having problems adjusting to the end of their movement, selling out, etc.], an initial plot that was OK but slow, a trailing plot that was more removed, a brief moment of crazy, and a nice party with friends to end it. I don’t recommend it unless you’re presold on the power of music and nostaligia.
Just a quick FYI; I spent most of last week (and all day Friday and Saturday) fighting off a nasty cough/fever– it looks like I’ve finally emerged victorious, though there’s a bit of a cough trying to linger. Meanwhile, for a little longer than that, we’ve had internet connectivity problems at home. Jennifer spent a lot of time (and even more patience) working with AT&T on Sunday, but their test didn’t find anything. It’s quite frustrating, and will be more so before we get it resolved.
Jennifer has done a great job taking care of me, but I’m eager to return to more normal life.