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!
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.]
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.
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.
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.
Lord of Chaos (Wheel of Time 6)– It had a few lulls, but the developing action was compelling and kept me interested throughout. Wow, the ending. The world is dramatically different as the book closes.
A Crown of Swords (Wheel of Time 7) — Much stronger than I remembered, thrown off by a weak confrontation at the end of the book. I think that must have soured the whole book in my memory, undeservedly. Mat’s story feels like filler too, until it finally isn’t near the book’s end. Oh, the Seanchan’s return is well telegraphed, and scary.
The Path of Daggers (Wheel of Time 8) — The series is still going pretty strong, though the Rand channeling sickness is a weird development I hadn’t remembered. The guerrilla war with the Seanchan continues strong; so far, all of the plots are holding up. [I’m currently about 2/3rd through.] In this book it becomes clear that there are enough major characters that just updating everyone’s story slows the advancement of the overall story substantially–even when it’s not diluted with “who was that again?” extraneous characters.
Overall, the books are holding up when read straight through. I do remember the next book [Winter’s Heart] being painful, but maybe with momentum it’ll also be good!
Fear the Boot 318, 319: About “PAUS” [precious and unique snowflakes]. Interesting discussion so far. I’m looking forward to the third (and final) part on my drive home tonight.
Independent Insurgency 31 — A little less focus; Robert had a goal, but didn’t get enough engagement.
This American Life 477 was a repeat that I enjoyed enough to listen to all through.
TAL 511 –The 7 things you’re not supposed to talk about. It’s a good guideline; the show may have revealed a corner case or two, but also reaffirmed the wisdom of the rules. Six boring stories; a good rule about polite conversation, and stories to contradict the rule.
Dice Tower 329 — Lots of discussion of good kids games. We should stock our store with these…
Dice Tower 330 — A more conventional episode; good, balanced, not terribly memorable.
Ken and Robin 64-66: Interesting as always.
TJ Hour 1048– An interesting examination of wealth concentration, and Jefferson’s musings inspired by the French Revolution… how do you keep accumulation of wealth from stealing the subsistance from the poorest? Delves in Lockian state of nature… interesting.
TJ Hour 1049– Jefferson’s interaction and life in Paris; how it affects him.
TJ Hour 1050– Founding Fathers; Jefferson’s opinions of the other founding fathers. Not a lot of surprises, but a good restatement of his opinions.
Talking with Chris, it sounds like there are several more series that would be great to catch. In particular, Arrow sounds well done and actually interesting.
Cloud Atlas also sounds like a great movie for me; I’ll have to Netflix it with Jennifer one of these nights.
We also discussed Ender’s Game, which he recommends as a theater only experience, mostly for great special effects. So, if I’m going to see it, it sounds like the clock is ticking. (He expressly advised against it as a watch at home movie due to the truncation of the story.)
(4) The Shadow Rising was a strong continuation of the series. I really liked the focus on Perrin and home; it made for an excellent counterpoint. Similarly, Rand’s story and interaction with the Aiel was handled well. The Thom, Julian, Elayne and Nynaeve story line was a little less interesting, in part because of the focus on conflict between the girls. It’s also more clearly a “B” plot… important, but not as important.
In the end, this book was a nice recovery from the non-Rand focus of The Dragon Reborn.
(5) The Fires of Heaven was also a solid book. Elayne and Nynaeve continued to be a misstep, and the “join the circus” seemed like a writer’s fancy instead of fitting the characters, but the interaction with Brigitte and Moghedien made this storyline feel more central.
Mat earned his role in this book; he’s interesting and has lots of issues to play with–as well as some solid development.
Perrin’s absence was felt more in retrospect than as reading. Rand’s continuing development was well handled–as was Morraine’s alteration. The “first ending” at the wagons was dramatic and very well done. The “second ending”, was rushed and blurred; the battle was handled pretty well, and balefire’s risks (and benefits) came clear.
The big misstep seems to be the tucking in of the final few pages. Really, that’s how Asmodean is going to end? Just a rough paragraph or two? The “chosen” disappeared awfully quickly this time.
(6) Lord of Chaos I’m a few chapters into the book. The initial 70 pages of prologue felt long, but the action advanced nicely with Bashere fitting in and Rand’s amnesty shaking things up.
TJ Hour 1044: Interventions — About America intervening abroad. No surprises, but a useful corrective to our meddling impulse.
TJ Hour 1045: Leith — About the intersection between free speech and accepting speech we hate. Specifically about Hate Speech and its boundaries, and Leith, ND, and white supremacists.
Dice Tower 327 & 328 continued strong.
Fear the Boot 317 was good; I didn’t realize that the short shows were due to resting a throat. That’s too bad… I enjoy the short run time.
TAL #509: It Says So Right Here — Interesting tales about identities, documentation and who we are. The first story, about identity theft, stuck with me.
Ask me Another 1310304: How Punk Is This? — Pretty cool; I hadn’t heard of the guest, but will look for some of his music now.
Republic, Lost by Lawrence Lessig. I think this would interest Bryan; it points out the fundamental corruption of our system. The capture of legislators by special interests is more interesting and more subtle than “here’s a sack of cash”– the dance of influence, the importance of indirectly signaling, and the prominence of lobbyists and connectors were all important notes that altered my thinking. The particular thought that legislator is one step on a career path: aide -> legislator -> lobbyist, was revealing… as was the note that our “underpaying” legislators (versus what else they can do with their degree and experience) probably plays into their desire to tap extra income. After all, it’s expensive to keep two households.
I agree that the solutions are somewhat far-fetched, but necessary. I hate the idea of trying to square that circle. Probably the best point made is the systemic slow deviation towards prioritizing what the people they talk to and interact with care about most–more “dividing the pie” taking their time and effort. The corruption of tax extenders was a great specific example of the overall thesis.
After a few disappointing books dispirited me, I decided not to read the Wheel of Time until the series was complete. I’ve heard very good things about Sanderson’s wrap up of Jordan’s series, and I do want to see how it all ends. Reading a book in the middle, years after the previous book’s publication, left me cold–too much of my time was spent trying to remember who had done what and where they were when I left off. So this will be a full series reread and read.
The Eye of the World: This is a great book, introducing a vibrant world. For the first half of the book, the voice is Rand’s alone. It’s Rand who introduces us to the world, exposes the relations between the characters, and whose voice is charming.
In the middle of the book, we get a few new points of view when the characters are separated. These new POV chapters are true complements to Rand’s adventure– with interesting character development for the others. I think we top out at 4 points of view (Rand, Perrin, Nynaeve… and Egwene?), and the story moves. It feels like a breathless race at the very end–stumbling a bit as the final, built up “battle” was disposed of so quickly.
The Great Hunt: Another strong book, far more evenly distributed in viewpoint character chapters. The men and women spend the book doing entirely separate things. Visiting locations for the first time is rewarding; Tar Valon feels sculpted and beautiful–and very in contrast with its contents.
The number of view point characters increases substantially–even including Moraine for a chapter. I like the characters’ continued development; Rand’s struggle feels real and difficult, Perrin’s beating himself up feels authentic, Egwene’s development and voice becomes strong–even more so post leashing. Politics is tricky to write; both Cairhien and tower politics are (appropriately) difficult to understand from traveling teenagers’ points of view.
The book ends strongly, with everyone reunited and a victory… though lots of doubts about that victory, and consequences clearly telegraphed.
The Dragon Reborn: In memory this was one of the stronger books; now that I’ve reread it, it’s much less good. Rand gets almost no POV time and his actions are both distant and difficult to understand. Perrin is the star of this book, and Mat comes into his own–Mat really becomes interesting, doubling down on “rascally”, and showing tremendous competence with his quarterstaff out of nowhere.
The girls don’t get much time in the tower; it’s pretty jarring to see how quickly they cycle through and set off on another adventure. (There’s no real classroom time on screen, and few interactions with the other novices and accepted–it’s broad brush strokes, and well done, but feels way too slight given the tower’s centrality to their lives.)
The book structure feels overly deliberate by the end. The last quarter of the book draws everyone together–geographically–they only overlap and interact with each other in the final chapters. (Those chapters involve frequent POV changes, which really picks up the pace.) In this read through, this book first tickles my “wait, why are they doing that?” characterization problems button.
The Dice Tower 325: Returned to the show after a long break, and really enjoyed it. They talked about three games that I think our gamers would appreciate–at least one of which I wouldn’t mind trying.
TAL 506: Secret Identity — An interesting look at masks and roles. Diana sounds amazing but scary, as a vigilante should. It makes you think about what goes on when society, law, and order have broken down.a
Wait Wait and Ask Me Another were both good–as was getting to listen to it with Jennifer.
Roll for News: Enjoyable; I love the 5 minute interview podcast format. I’ve been going through old episodes, as it’s been a while since new ones were released.
Books
Several issues of the Nation magazine: Several good articles that retain significance, and lots of articles about events that have passed. On to the articles about the government shutdown and debt ceiling.
Elizabeth Moon: Oath of Betrayal It turns out that this wasn’t a trilogy; the world and its struggles will continue on for another book or three. The themes of change and reconciliation are still strong; the book ends on a big reveal, bringing the hidden foe into the open.
The Graveyard Book, by Neil Gaimen. A good book; I can see why it won a Newberry Medal and the Hugo. I read it front to back, broken only by silly things like work. It was a quick read, quite engaging–and, much like Jennifer, I suspect there will be more to savor on a reread.
What, more listening?
TJ 1041 Madam I Blush: A good in character interview following last week’s, about Jefferson’s relations with the women in his life. The only problem was that it was too short.
TJ 1042 Hamiltonian or Jeffersonian: A discussion of what our nation currently practices and preaches. The move away from self sufficiency on isolated farms really moves us away from Jeffersonian ideals…
TJ 1043 Home Schooling: A good discussion of the tensions between individual liberty, a family’s right to raise their children as they choose, and the evolution of the public school system.
Ask me another: 223: Foodie: The Other ‘F’ Word — A fun show as always.
224: Planet money as the special guest.
TAL 504: How I got into college — Interesting, but dominated by one long story instead of the many viewpoints I expected (and would have appreciated.)
TAL 505: About acetaminophen, and the dangerous toxicity level… double the label dose is enough to cause kidney failure and risk worse. Good discussion of company policies, the FDA and its label requirements, etc.
Roll for News 2-8: Magpie Games and Indie +. I like the 5 minute format.
Ken and Robin talk at FanExpo Canada(57): A good live show for them; not very heavy on the local questions.
Elizabeth Moon: Oath of Fealty, Kings of the North, and Oath of Betrayal
— An interesting trilogy, a sequel to the Paks books. The multiple points of view do a great job of revealing more about the universe and adding depth. It’s interesting how much slower events progress with the multiple POVs… Pak’s first book covered more time and big changes than the first two and a half books [so far] of this trilogy.
Despite that, I’m not complaining. It’s a good set of books, with a good cast of characters. It’s interesting to see “from the inside” characters that Paks interacted with–and their views of her.
Spero Lucas: The Cut by George P. Pelecanos. A straight up modern day mystery, kind of. The main character is troubled, somewhat troubling, and very interesting. Another interesting view of “sliding between” type characters. Very well written and enjoyable. Good DC area atmosphere too–with a strong place feel.
RoleplayDNA 23 — Phil talks about Odyssey with Roleplay DNA.
RoleplayDNA 24 — Planning the first adventure; while good, I think the episode would have benefitted from a larger team that could have unpacked the unconscious assumptions they were making.
RoleplayDNA-U 1 — Good start, interesting interview
RoleplayDNA-U 2 — Very inside baseball, more about running a game company, still somewhat interesting
Roll for News 2-10: Listened to it because it was about Silverine games. I like the format–very short, good interview. I’ve downloaded a few more for the next week or two.
Ken and Robin 51 – 54. Congratulations on over a year of podcasting! Continued solid episodes.
Ask me Another 9/5 — Peter Segel was the guest. Fun as always.
This American Life 175 — All about what happens when babysitting. Some good tales, somewhat familiar, though not to the extremes shown.
This American Life 388 — A visit to a rest stop. Talking with the workers, travelers. A nice slice of life.
TJ 1034 — Intellectual Property w/ Brad Crisler; an interesting discussion. It’s interesting how Jefferson’s passion for free exchange of ideas cut against patent protection.
TJ 1035 — Regrets w/ Brad Crisler, excellent episode, really quite revealing.
TJ 1036 — Wine; a pleasant conversation with a lot of interesting detail about
TJ 1037 — Government Farms and Food; an easily anticipated attempt to get Jefferson’s hostility to “big government” to rail against SNAP.
TJ 1038 & 39 — Delving into Lewis, discussing the common components of suicides and how they apply to Lewis.
TJ 1040 — The women Jefferson loved; an interesting discussion of how Jefferson related to the women of his life; his wife, daughters, Sally Hemming, etc.
Odyssey. The Engine book about managing campaigns. A good read; sometimes Phil gets a little too project manager-y, but it’s all good to think about.
Sorcerer Annotated. A great two page spread format, with the original text on the left page and explanatory text on the right. It does a great job of
Elanor and Park is a completely wonderful YA novel, very unlike anything else I read. The two main characters make me ache and ran me through the wringer; the author succeeded at making them feel completely real.
Libromancer by Jim C. Hines: A fun world.
A collaborative story, 218. A gripping apocalypse.
Ken and Robin 45-49
Jono & Sushu on PTA, excellent.
Ask Me Another: Central Park
This American Life 498 & 500
TJ 1031: Childhood and Nature, on the changes of how childhood is viewed now and then.
TJ 1032: On publishing and quotations, mostly misquotations
TJ 1033: Charles Willson Peale: Artist, sculptor and creator of Philadelphia museum. Sounds like an amazing man.