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The nominees for this year's Hugo awards have been announced. I've kind of fallen behind on current F/SF, so I don't recognize most of them. I do note, though, that two of the stories from Ted Chiang's _Exhalation_ were nominated: "Omphalos" for Best Novelette, and "Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom" for Best Novella. Both are, I think, worthy nominees.
On my Kindle, I have a folder labeled "Current". The books in that folder are the books that I read on my bus rides to and from work; I read a section of one, then shift to the next, and when I finish a book I remove it from the folder and replace it with another.
Those bus rides aren't happening now, of course. For the time being, then, I've put dead-tree volumes on hold, and I'm reading only from the Kindle.
Currently, the setup is for nine books: three non-fiction, three genre fiction, and three non-genre fiction. Currently loaded:
Non-fiction: _The Life and Letters of Louis Agassiz_; Pliny the Elder's _Natural History_; Richard White, _The Republic for Which It Stands_. The first two are from Project Gutenberg. I remember reading about Agassiz when I was a kid, so I grabbed the Life and Letters when I saw it on PG. White's book is a fascinating history of the U.S. during Reconstruction and the Gilded Age, tying together seemingly disparate threads (connecting, e.g., Little Big Horn and the destruction of the Pennsylvania coal miners' union).
Genre fiction: A collection of Russian folk-tales, Mary Renault's _The Persian Boy_, and (a reread) John Scalzi's _Redshirts_. The first is another freebie; I'm not sure whether I got it from PG or elsewhere. The OCR is dreadful, but the stories are amusing if predictable. I'm not quite comfortable with classing the Renault as genre, but the first book of the trilogy included Alexander's childhood visions of Heracles and other gods, so I'm hanging it there.
Non-genre fiction: Michener's _Centennial_; George McCutcheon's _Brewster's Millions_; George Eliot, _Daniel Deronda_. The first is a decades-later reread, and parts of it cross over with _The Republic for Which It Stands_. The second is a fluffy turn-of-the-century novel about a man who, having inherited a million dollars (in 1902, mind) has a shot at another seven-million dollar inheritance, provided that he squanders the original million. (He doesn't seem to know the proverb about birds, hands, and bushes.) I got the Eliot from PG, again; I haven't read anything of hers that I haven't enjoyed.
I am not close to finishing any of these, but by focusing on them I should make some headway this month.
Those bus rides aren't happening now, of course. For the time being, then, I've put dead-tree volumes on hold, and I'm reading only from the Kindle.
Currently, the setup is for nine books: three non-fiction, three genre fiction, and three non-genre fiction. Currently loaded:
Non-fiction: _The Life and Letters of Louis Agassiz_; Pliny the Elder's _Natural History_; Richard White, _The Republic for Which It Stands_. The first two are from Project Gutenberg. I remember reading about Agassiz when I was a kid, so I grabbed the Life and Letters when I saw it on PG. White's book is a fascinating history of the U.S. during Reconstruction and the Gilded Age, tying together seemingly disparate threads (connecting, e.g., Little Big Horn and the destruction of the Pennsylvania coal miners' union).
Genre fiction: A collection of Russian folk-tales, Mary Renault's _The Persian Boy_, and (a reread) John Scalzi's _Redshirts_. The first is another freebie; I'm not sure whether I got it from PG or elsewhere. The OCR is dreadful, but the stories are amusing if predictable. I'm not quite comfortable with classing the Renault as genre, but the first book of the trilogy included Alexander's childhood visions of Heracles and other gods, so I'm hanging it there.
Non-genre fiction: Michener's _Centennial_; George McCutcheon's _Brewster's Millions_; George Eliot, _Daniel Deronda_. The first is a decades-later reread, and parts of it cross over with _The Republic for Which It Stands_. The second is a fluffy turn-of-the-century novel about a man who, having inherited a million dollars (in 1902, mind) has a shot at another seven-million dollar inheritance, provided that he squanders the original million. (He doesn't seem to know the proverb about birds, hands, and bushes.) I got the Eliot from PG, again; I haven't read anything of hers that I haven't enjoyed.
I am not close to finishing any of these, but by focusing on them I should make some headway this month.
I am, in general, less fond of the Vorkosiverse books post-_ACC_ Nonetheless, I just finished rereading _Cryoburn_. I found my reading speed drastically slowing when I hit Chapter 20 - I really didn't want to read the end of that chapter. Needs must, though...
One thing occurred to me as I finished the book. One of the pallbearers at Aral Vorkosigan's funeral was the nephew of one of the victims of the Solstice Massacre. That, friends, is a Statement. (I do wonder what the Komarran-on-the-street thinks of Duv, if they've heard of him at all.)
One thing occurred to me as I finished the book. One of the pallbearers at Aral Vorkosigan's funeral was the nephew of one of the victims of the Solstice Massacre. That, friends, is a Statement. (I do wonder what the Komarran-on-the-street thinks of Duv, if they've heard of him at all.)
Connections
Mar. 28th, 2020 11:13 amI mentioned that I was rereading the half-dozen Discworld novels that followed _The Fifth Elephant_, and that I felt they were connected. I just finished _Night Watch_, and noticed two internal connections I hadn't realized before.
The event that threw Vimes and Carcer back in time almost has to be the catastrophe at the center of _Thief of Time_. So here's a plot connection between books belonging to different subseries.
Also, there's a discussion of foreign affairs early on involving Vimes and, I think, Vetinari, concerning the possibility of war between a couple of small countries - the same two countries that actually did go to war in _Monstrous Regiment_ - a standalone, though Vimes and some other Watchmen, and also William de Worde (from _Truth_), put in cameos.
These aren't tight connections, but plot connections between different subseries or standalones are pretty rare in Pratchett, so these interested me.
The event that threw Vimes and Carcer back in time almost has to be the catastrophe at the center of _Thief of Time_. So here's a plot connection between books belonging to different subseries.
Also, there's a discussion of foreign affairs early on involving Vimes and, I think, Vetinari, concerning the possibility of war between a couple of small countries - the same two countries that actually did go to war in _Monstrous Regiment_ - a standalone, though Vimes and some other Watchmen, and also William de Worde (from _Truth_), put in cameos.
These aren't tight connections, but plot connections between different subseries or standalones are pretty rare in Pratchett, so these interested me.
Late Pterry
Mar. 17th, 2020 06:24 pmI've been on a Pratchett kick lately, specifically his late Discworld books. Not the very last of them - _Snuff_, _Unseen Academicals_, etc. - which, frankly, weren't all that good by Pratchettian standards. I'm talking about the books that followed _The Fifth Elephant_: _The Truth_, _Night Watch_, _Thief of Time_, _Going Postal_, _Making Money_, and _Monstrous Regiment_.
They're tied together, it seems to me: though most have humor in them, they are overall a good deal more serious than any of his earlier works. Most of them are not part of the earlier subseries; _Night Watch_ is a Watch book, of course, and _Thief of Time_ belongs to the Death subseries, but the old-line characters - except for Vetinari - don't get much more than cameos in the others.
It works. I don't enjoy these books as much as _Men at Arms_, or _The Fifth Elephant_, or _Lords and Ladies_, but they're pretty substantial. I'll have to remember to come back to these books from time to time.
They're tied together, it seems to me: though most have humor in them, they are overall a good deal more serious than any of his earlier works. Most of them are not part of the earlier subseries; _Night Watch_ is a Watch book, of course, and _Thief of Time_ belongs to the Death subseries, but the old-line characters - except for Vetinari - don't get much more than cameos in the others.
It works. I don't enjoy these books as much as _Men at Arms_, or _The Fifth Elephant_, or _Lords and Ladies_, but they're pretty substantial. I'll have to remember to come back to these books from time to time.
_Exhalation_
Dec. 21st, 2019 04:26 pm_Exhalation_ is Ted Chiang's second collection of short F/SF pieces, and is as much a delight as the previous one, _Stories of Your Life and Others_, which I discussed previously. I was going to list a few of my favorites, but most of the stories fall into that category. These are the stories (five out of nine) that impressed me most.
"The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate" is a story of time travel, set within a world of unchanging fate, and reconciles the two in entertaining fashion. The word I want is "neat".
"Exhalation", like many of Chiang's stories, is set in a world whose scientific underpinnings are quite different from our own, but some things are inevitable. (It's not too much of a stretch to speak of "death and taxes"...)
"The Lifecycle of Software Objects" won the Hugo in its year, and deservedly so. The subject is right there in the title; the "objects" are virtual creatures, and their sentience and even sapience is the main topic. "And sometimes one loves them..."
"The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling" deals with revolutions in time-binding - the development of writing, and of another mechanism fully as radical in nature - and its effect on people, individually and collectively. There are two story-lines, one set in West Africa around the time of WWII and the other in the not-too-distant future.
"Omphalos" is set in a world in which a variant of young-Earth creationism is provably true, and involves a disquieting astronomical discovery. It's cleverly and sympathetically done.
The other four stories didn't impress me quite as much, but I should probably think about the stories "What's Expected of Us" and "Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom". They both deal with questions of determinism and free will, but in different ways; the second story is much the stronger, I think.
Anyway, Chiang continues to hold his position in my mind, as probably the best writer of short F/SF currently in the business. I've enjoyed both collections.
"The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate" is a story of time travel, set within a world of unchanging fate, and reconciles the two in entertaining fashion. The word I want is "neat".
"Exhalation", like many of Chiang's stories, is set in a world whose scientific underpinnings are quite different from our own, but some things are inevitable. (It's not too much of a stretch to speak of "death and taxes"...)
"The Lifecycle of Software Objects" won the Hugo in its year, and deservedly so. The subject is right there in the title; the "objects" are virtual creatures, and their sentience and even sapience is the main topic. "And sometimes one loves them..."
"The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling" deals with revolutions in time-binding - the development of writing, and of another mechanism fully as radical in nature - and its effect on people, individually and collectively. There are two story-lines, one set in West Africa around the time of WWII and the other in the not-too-distant future.
"Omphalos" is set in a world in which a variant of young-Earth creationism is provably true, and involves a disquieting astronomical discovery. It's cleverly and sympathetically done.
The other four stories didn't impress me quite as much, but I should probably think about the stories "What's Expected of Us" and "Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom". They both deal with questions of determinism and free will, but in different ways; the second story is much the stronger, I think.
Anyway, Chiang continues to hold his position in my mind, as probably the best writer of short F/SF currently in the business. I've enjoyed both collections.
An Odd Coincidence
Dec. 16th, 2019 04:37 pmI'm currently reading _No Name_, a novel by the 19th century author Wilkie Collins (better known for _The Moonstone_ and _The Woman in White_). One of the characters has come to the bedside of a gravely ill friend, and is trying to comfort her, reassuring her that he is here to protect and revive her. In his boastful speech to that effect, he cries, "Dum vivimus, vivamus". (He immediately apologies for his pedantry.)
What's odd is that I've encountered that saying ("While we live, let us live!") exactly once before, in Robert Heinlein's rather odd fantasy/science fiction novel _Glory Road_. There, the hero used it to propose to his lady-love. (Also oddly, this was in midbook; much happened afterward, to the detriment of their marriage.)
Collins and Heinlein are not two authors I would think of in the same breath, but there you are.
What's odd is that I've encountered that saying ("While we live, let us live!") exactly once before, in Robert Heinlein's rather odd fantasy/science fiction novel _Glory Road_. There, the hero used it to propose to his lady-love. (Also oddly, this was in midbook; much happened afterward, to the detriment of their marriage.)
Collins and Heinlein are not two authors I would think of in the same breath, but there you are.
I've enjoyed the Harry Dresden novels (and a couple of short stories) by Jim Butcher quite a bit. (I do wish he'd get back to them and stop futzing around with other universes; he promised us an *ending* that should be only a few volumes away.)
One thing in particular I've liked is the alternating power of the Winter and Summer Courts, and the revelation of Winter's true role. But... my Willing Suspension of Disbelief on this point keeps getting put under stress. *The world is round and axially tilted.* Northern winter is southern summer, and that puts Butcher's whole scheme awry.
It's not as bad as some of, e.g., Rowling's solecisms, but the issue is more central to the series, and the flaw is therefore more irritating.
One thing in particular I've liked is the alternating power of the Winter and Summer Courts, and the revelation of Winter's true role. But... my Willing Suspension of Disbelief on this point keeps getting put under stress. *The world is round and axially tilted.* Northern winter is southern summer, and that puts Butcher's whole scheme awry.
It's not as bad as some of, e.g., Rowling's solecisms, but the issue is more central to the series, and the flaw is therefore more irritating.
I'm not going to give a full-bore review of George R. Stewart's _Storm_, but I do want to make a few comments.
First: a book with that title nowadays - or any time since, say, 1970 - would have an exclamation point attached; the titular storm would be, at the very least, a Category 3 hurricane; and Irwin Allen or someone like him would produce the film version. That is not this book. "Maria", at her peak, is an extremely large rainstorm, stretching from south of LA to the Bay Area. There is lots of rain - flooding in the Sacramento Valley; lots of snow - Donner Pass is briefly blocked; and the occasional gale-force wind, but nothing sustained for long.
The book is mostly about the people who have to deal with the storm: meteorologists, utility workers (both the linemen out repairing breaks and the coordinators shunting electricity and phone lines around the breaches), airport personnel, the people who manage the weirs and dams to mitigate flooding... Their tasks, the decisions they make and the labor they put in, are the true content of the story.
It is notable that many of the main characters are never named, only identified by title: the Junior Meteorologist, the General whose job it is to try to control flooding, and a dozen more. There are people with names, but almost all of them are outsiders - drivers caught in the snow, a pilot struggling with sudden turbulence, and others whose safety lies in the hands of the titled. The list of named characters and the list of casualties are almost identical: a couple of named people survive, and likewise one or two titled people die. The point, I think, is that Stewart valued these characters on the basis of their responsibilities and abilities, giving due honor to the nameless engineers and Sons of Martha who work behind the scenes to keep the rest of us safe. (There are a couple of passages in _Earth Abides_ which express a similar view.)
It's a good read, not a great one, but if you found value in _Earth Abides_, you'll find at least a taste of the same in this book.
First: a book with that title nowadays - or any time since, say, 1970 - would have an exclamation point attached; the titular storm would be, at the very least, a Category 3 hurricane; and Irwin Allen or someone like him would produce the film version. That is not this book. "Maria", at her peak, is an extremely large rainstorm, stretching from south of LA to the Bay Area. There is lots of rain - flooding in the Sacramento Valley; lots of snow - Donner Pass is briefly blocked; and the occasional gale-force wind, but nothing sustained for long.
The book is mostly about the people who have to deal with the storm: meteorologists, utility workers (both the linemen out repairing breaks and the coordinators shunting electricity and phone lines around the breaches), airport personnel, the people who manage the weirs and dams to mitigate flooding... Their tasks, the decisions they make and the labor they put in, are the true content of the story.
It is notable that many of the main characters are never named, only identified by title: the Junior Meteorologist, the General whose job it is to try to control flooding, and a dozen more. There are people with names, but almost all of them are outsiders - drivers caught in the snow, a pilot struggling with sudden turbulence, and others whose safety lies in the hands of the titled. The list of named characters and the list of casualties are almost identical: a couple of named people survive, and likewise one or two titled people die. The point, I think, is that Stewart valued these characters on the basis of their responsibilities and abilities, giving due honor to the nameless engineers and Sons of Martha who work behind the scenes to keep the rest of us safe. (There are a couple of passages in _Earth Abides_ which express a similar view.)
It's a good read, not a great one, but if you found value in _Earth Abides_, you'll find at least a taste of the same in this book.
Before the Butterfly
Nov. 10th, 2019 07:49 pmGeorge R. Stewart wrote _Storm_ in 1940; in the introduction to the edition I have, he mentions "the dark days of Dunkirk and the fall of France". That makes the following item intriguing to me. (An otherwise unnamed Junior Meteorologist is thinking.)
"He thought of his old professor's saying: 'A Chinaman sneezing in Shen-si may set men to shoveling snow in New York City'."
The famous hurricane-causing butterfly first appeared in the literature in the early to mid-1960s. Apparently the underlying idea was already present in the meteorological community a good deal earlier. (The general problem of sensitivity to initial conditions goes back at least to the work of Henri Poincare at the beginning of the twentieth century.)
"He thought of his old professor's saying: 'A Chinaman sneezing in Shen-si may set men to shoveling snow in New York City'."
The famous hurricane-causing butterfly first appeared in the literature in the early to mid-1960s. Apparently the underlying idea was already present in the meteorological community a good deal earlier. (The general problem of sensitivity to initial conditions goes back at least to the work of Henri Poincare at the beginning of the twentieth century.)
I've begun reading George Stewart's _Storm_. So far, it seems to have the same characteristics as _Earth Abides_, a mix of (informative!) didacticism with solid human interest. The passage I just read had a pleasing multidirectional allusion. A meteorologist, analyzing data (with hand-annotated map and slide rule) that point to the just-emerging storm, recalls the relevant equations, and Stewart comments "To a well-trained mathematical meteorologist, they were more beautiful than Grecian urns." Of course, that's a reference to Keats' "Ode on a Grecian Urn" ("Beauty is truth, truth beauty - that is all ye know on Earth, and all ye need to know"), but it also called Edna St. Vincent Millay to my mind ("Euclid alone has looked on Beauty bare. Fortunate they Who, though once only and then but far away, Have heard her massive sandal set on stone.").
I was going to say a few words about the aesthetics of mathematics, but Edna has done that job better than I could.
I was going to say a few words about the aesthetics of mathematics, but Edna has done that job better than I could.
Zafon? Zo Fine!
Nov. 1st, 2019 09:16 pmSome years back I read Carlos Ruiz Zafon's novel, "The Shadow of the Wind". I loved it; it's an rethinking of traditional Gothic, with the elements of the old genre updated to modern equivalents.
I have now discovered that it's the first part of a four-book series, all of which have been translated. [I really should try to read them in the original Spanish, but my energies for that kind of work are being absorbed by "Les Miserables".]
Well, there's one entry in each of my next few Amazon expeditions.
I have now discovered that it's the first part of a four-book series, all of which have been translated. [I really should try to read them in the original Spanish, but my energies for that kind of work are being absorbed by "Les Miserables".]
Well, there's one entry in each of my next few Amazon expeditions.
Time Passages
Oct. 30th, 2019 09:05 pmOne of the books I'm currently reading is Michael Collins' _Carrying the Fire_, an autobiographical work on his career as a pilot and astronaut. It's not badly written, a good mix of human interest and technical detail.
The passage I just read told of the beginning of the Apollo 11 flight, including a description of the Command Module as the three of them climbed in. He spent a couple of pages on Velcro: what it is, how it works, and what it's good for. Of course, this was written in the early '70s, before the stuff became so widely used; it just struck me as interesting that he felt the need to explain this.
The passage I just read told of the beginning of the Apollo 11 flight, including a description of the Command Module as the three of them climbed in. He spent a couple of pages on Velcro: what it is, how it works, and what it's good for. Of course, this was written in the early '70s, before the stuff became so widely used; it just struck me as interesting that he felt the need to explain this.
Exhalation
Oct. 12th, 2019 09:40 amI've begun reading Ted Chiang's short story collection _Exhalation_, and I'm finding it, as expected, to be a delight. I'm currently midway through "The Lifecycle of Software Objects", which I've read before; it was, justly, the Hugo winner for Best Novella in 2011. I'll probably give a full review after I'm done with the collection, but I thought I'd mention "What's Expected of Us", a short and somber reflection on the question of free will. By chance, I'm also grinding my way through Hilary Bok's _Freedom and Responsibility_, a full-scale philosophical treatise on the subject, and the device which Chiang uses in his story is (probably by coincidence) a simplified version of a thought-experiment Bok uses in her book. (Bok is a professor of philosophy at Johns Hopkins, and the daughter of former Harvard president Derek Bok and philosopher Sissela Bok - I also have two of *her* books in my library - but she was also, for a long time, one of the front-pagers at Obsidian Wings under the handle of "hilzoy"; I still follow her Twitter feed.)
Chanur's Heir
Oct. 6th, 2019 06:12 pmI'm nearing the end of _Chanur's Legacy_, and have realized a couple of things.
1. Thanks to a video pointed out by the redoubtable filkferengi, I see that I have been mispronouncing "Chanur" for lo these many years: the "ch" is a French "ch", not an English one, and the stress is on the second syllable. (Also, the hani "r" is strongly trilled.)
2. I have wondered about the future of the Compact. Pyanfar Chanur's remarkable domination - mekt-hakkikt, Personage of Personages, President, Director, and who knows what the methane breathers call her - can't last forever. What happens when she dies? I have just realized that Hilfy is in line to the succession, not by blood but by talent and skill. Thanks in particular to the events of _Legacy_, she understands stsho better than any non-stsho alive; she is fluent in main-kifish, and understands their psychology better than any non-kif other than her aunt; and she's rubbed shoulders often enough with the mahe as well. Her gift for languages and her experience on the Pride make her a plausible successor. (I should have known _Legacy_ was deeper than I had perceived it to be!)
1. Thanks to a video pointed out by the redoubtable filkferengi, I see that I have been mispronouncing "Chanur" for lo these many years: the "ch" is a French "ch", not an English one, and the stress is on the second syllable. (Also, the hani "r" is strongly trilled.)
2. I have wondered about the future of the Compact. Pyanfar Chanur's remarkable domination - mekt-hakkikt, Personage of Personages, President, Director, and who knows what the methane breathers call her - can't last forever. What happens when she dies? I have just realized that Hilfy is in line to the succession, not by blood but by talent and skill. Thanks in particular to the events of _Legacy_, she understands stsho better than any non-stsho alive; she is fluent in main-kifish, and understands their psychology better than any non-kif other than her aunt; and she's rubbed shoulders often enough with the mahe as well. Her gift for languages and her experience on the Pride make her a plausible successor. (I should have known _Legacy_ was deeper than I had perceived it to be!)
It's been a couple of months since my last Amazon raid. I'd been holding off, because I'd bought so many books lately that I wanted to catch up as much as possible. I am now close enough, so...
E-books: Genevieve Cogman, _The Masked City_ (Invisible Library); Ben Aaronovich, _Foxglove Summer_ (Peter Grant); Myke Cole, _Legion vs Phalanx_ (military history); O. Westin, _Micro Science Fiction_ (a compilation of their delightful short-short Twitter fiction); Tim Powers, _Alternate Routes_ (I've fallen behind on Powers, and I'm trying to catch up); Dennis Taylor, _We Are Legion (We Are Bob)_.
Dead tree: Bill Willingham, _Werewolves of the Heartland_ (more Fables); George R. Stewart, _Storm_ (I talked about this one a while back); Robert Merton, _On the Shoulders of Giants_ (history of science, I think); the fourth volume of _Saga_; R. A. Lafferty, _Okla Hannali_ (his one historical novel)
Music: Jackson Browne, "Hold On"; Dan Fogelberg, "The Innocent Age"
:rubs hands:
E-books: Genevieve Cogman, _The Masked City_ (Invisible Library); Ben Aaronovich, _Foxglove Summer_ (Peter Grant); Myke Cole, _Legion vs Phalanx_ (military history); O. Westin, _Micro Science Fiction_ (a compilation of their delightful short-short Twitter fiction); Tim Powers, _Alternate Routes_ (I've fallen behind on Powers, and I'm trying to catch up); Dennis Taylor, _We Are Legion (We Are Bob)_.
Dead tree: Bill Willingham, _Werewolves of the Heartland_ (more Fables); George R. Stewart, _Storm_ (I talked about this one a while back); Robert Merton, _On the Shoulders of Giants_ (history of science, I think); the fourth volume of _Saga_; R. A. Lafferty, _Okla Hannali_ (his one historical novel)
Music: Jackson Browne, "Hold On"; Dan Fogelberg, "The Innocent Age"
:rubs hands:
Cherryh-picking
Oct. 3rd, 2019 08:35 amI've been rereading C. J. Cherryh's Chanur series. I'm just about done, maybe a third of the way into _Chanur's Legacy_.
Cherryh's work is almost always serious in tone; some of the Foreigner books display a bit of humor ("Salad!"), but stark horror is more her style. But _Chanur's Legacy_ is suffused with understated humor. Poor hapless Hallan Meras, Hilfy's fastidious stsho passenger, and the whole sequence with the mahen miner and his exploding rocks (which I haven't gotten to - they're still at Urtur Station)... It's not laugh-out-loud stuff, more shake-my-head-and-chuckle, but this book remains one of my comfort reads.
Cherryh's work is almost always serious in tone; some of the Foreigner books display a bit of humor ("Salad!"), but stark horror is more her style. But _Chanur's Legacy_ is suffused with understated humor. Poor hapless Hallan Meras, Hilfy's fastidious stsho passenger, and the whole sequence with the mahen miner and his exploding rocks (which I haven't gotten to - they're still at Urtur Station)... It's not laugh-out-loud stuff, more shake-my-head-and-chuckle, but this book remains one of my comfort reads.
Faded Memory
Sep. 17th, 2019 08:06 pmA long, long time ago - on the order of half a century - I found a book. I think this was during the family's brief stay in Texas, after we returned from Hawaii; the book may have belonged to one of our aunts or uncles. At any rate, it seemed to be one of a series (I may have even seen more than one of them), with a title something like "Off the Beaten Trail". (It might have been "...Track", but I doubt it; it certainly began with "T".) I don't remember much of it, except for one story about the idea of bombing Japanese cities with bats laden with time-delayed incendiaries, but I think the general idea was the collection of oddities, whence the title.
Does any of this ring a bell with anyone? Googling, even with the word "book" attached, only gives links to a line of footwear.
Does any of this ring a bell with anyone? Googling, even with the word "book" attached, only gives links to a line of footwear.
