tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-50956953415707160022024-03-14T05:06:00.814-04:00The Hugo Endurance ProjectEvery Hugo Award winner in 64 weeks!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12364999124473415795noreply@blogger.comBlogger186125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5095695341570716002.post-70252305897015875932014-01-06T23:59:00.000-05:002014-01-06T23:59:12.303-05:00A Deepness in the Sky<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjci2ORKS92Z3wid7Y7tiRL_llqsDnJ0drXGaIoQ8sqo1-9TkEoEDZpJ3KuP4RE5E9ZDKfnF19cS3QD7oI-UBoRN8GQO6a6BLocJvlqP_7a_udLVPJ-QbfYN-Mks9yS9G6n1xSMJJDF2DQ/s1600/A+Deepness+in+the+Sky.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjci2ORKS92Z3wid7Y7tiRL_llqsDnJ0drXGaIoQ8sqo1-9TkEoEDZpJ3KuP4RE5E9ZDKfnF19cS3QD7oI-UBoRN8GQO6a6BLocJvlqP_7a_udLVPJ-QbfYN-Mks9yS9G6n1xSMJJDF2DQ/s1600/A+Deepness+in+the+Sky.jpg" height="400" width="247" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Stats<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<i><span style="color: #e36c0a; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-themecolor: accent6; mso-themeshade: 191;">A Deepness in the Sky</span></i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> by Vernor Vinge<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">2000 Hugo
Award Winner<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Got it
from: <i>Public Library</i><span style="color: #e36c0a; mso-themecolor: accent6; mso-themeshade: 191;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">774 pgs<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Before FTL
tech had made it to Vinge’s Zones of Thought universe, a human ship ventures
deep into the slow zone to <s>exploit</s> explore the secrets of the mysterious
On/Off Star. While the “spider” species
inhabiting an orbiting planet provide one of humanity’s greatest discoveries, the
crew quickly realizes the ship is harboring secrets of its own. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">I may have
inadvertently reviewed A Fire Upon the Deep…</span></i></b><b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I had high
expectations for Vinge after his first Hugo win, and <i><span style="color: #e36c0a; mso-themecolor: accent6; mso-themeshade: 191;">A
Deepness in the Sky</span></i><span style="color: #e36c0a; mso-themecolor: accent6; mso-themeshade: 191;"> </span>did not disappoint.
I read close to 90% of this book during our incredible vacation to
Minnesota this summer and the fact that I was able to read so much of it on
what was an insanely busy, fun, and beautiful trip should also speak to the
quality of <i><span style="color: #e36c0a; mso-themecolor: accent6; mso-themeshade: 191;">A Fire Upon the Deep’s </span></i>equally
masterful follow-up.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Despite
being different books, they share more than a few similarities. Humans trapped in a remote piece of
space. Cool tech that fundamentally
changes the way people live. There is
another previously undiscovered alien culture which is surprising for its
familiarity and weirdness all at once. The
On/Off Star provides another astrological oddity. And of course, there’s an unexpected, and in
the end beautiful, entanglement of human and alien cultures and problems.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">That the
two books are similar isn’t a problem for me though. I still like <i><span style="color: #e46c0a; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #E46C0A; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: lumm=75000; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: accent6; mso-themecolor: accent6; mso-themeshade: 191;">A Deepness in the Sky</span></i> for a lot of the same reasons that
I liked <i><span style="color: #e46c0a; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #E46C0A; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: lumm=75000; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: accent6; mso-themecolor: accent6; mso-themeshade: 191;">A Fire Upon the Deep</span></i>,
and they are each separately great works of science fiction so I’m not all that
bummed that some themes are mirrored in this one. <i><span style="color: #e46c0a; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #E46C0A; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: lumm=75000; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: accent6; mso-themecolor: accent6; mso-themeshade: 191;">A Deepness in the
Sky</span></i> reinforces how robust we all thought Vinge’s “Zones of Thought”
universe was in his previous Hugo winner and satisfied a serious itch to go
back there. That these two books may be
thematically similar is a problem that we should be celebrating.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">And beyond
that, we can celebrate the spiders. If
nothing else, <i><span style="color: #e46c0a; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #E46C0A; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: lumm=75000; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: accent6; mso-themecolor: accent6; mso-themeshade: 191;">A Deepness in the Sky</span></i><span style="color: #e46c0a; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #E46C0A; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: lumm=75000; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: accent6; mso-themecolor: accent6; mso-themeshade: 191;"> </span>solidifies
Vinge as one of the greatest creators of alien species in all of science fiction
(I certainly haven’t read enough SF to actually make this claim but I’m
convinced anyway). He does this thing
where you get to spend extended time with the creatures but it’s a slow reveal
anyway. In A Fire, early on when I
already loved the dogs but then realized that they weren’t really just dogs or
wolves, they were so much…cooler, it literally made me drop the book. And throughout the entire book Vinge gradually
gives up more and more about the species, each new reveal forcing readers to
make serious structural changes to the beings taking shape in our heads. The same thing happens with the “spiders” in
<i><span style="color: #b45f06;">A Deepness in the Sky</span></i>, only times infinity and right on up until the final
pages. It is really something to behold. For some reason the spiders didn’t quite have
the same awe factor that the Tines did as a species, but I had a more intense
connection to individual spiders like Sherkaner Underhill, than I did to with
any individual Tine, even if I wasn’t as captivated by the species as a whole.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">And that’s
what makes <span style="color: #b45f06;"><i>A Deepness in the Sky</i></span> so unceasingly readable. Vinge’s treatment of aliens alone makes each
of the Zones of Thought books magnificent.
And that’s just one of the hundreds of truly brilliant ideas included in
this story. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Recommendation<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Read <i><span style="color: #e46c0a; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #E46C0A; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: lumm=75000; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: accent6; mso-themecolor: accent6; mso-themeshade: 191;">A Fire in the Sky</span></i> first and then come here. It wasn't my favorite of the two but this is still Required Reading.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">HEP SCORE<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Universe 3/5<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Social/Political
Climate 5/5<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Dialogue 4/5
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Scientific
Wonders 5/5 <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Characters 5/5<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Overall
22/25<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12364999124473415795noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5095695341570716002.post-14031918739852969762014-01-01T17:04:00.002-05:002014-01-01T17:04:13.319-05:00Last Year Was Great, But...<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">I enjoy reading everyone’s
year-in-review posts a lot. I think its equal
parts voyeurism and wanting to see friends happy and successful. Whatever your reason for reading these things…
here’s mine:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Last night, I was feeling
pretty …meh… about 2013. When I
mentioned this to Ali, she thought I was crazy, and I’m glad I’ve sat down to
write this because it made me feel better.
Still, most of the things that make me happy about 2013 also make me a
little bit sad, so there’s plenty to feel meh about.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">I began 2013 still feeling
really happy about finishing the marathon in 2012. But I completely failed to run much in the
past year. I hardly exercised in general
for that matter. This is pretty
disappointing. After running over 300
miles in 2012, I’ll bet I ran for a maximum 20 miles in all of 2013. I have my (poor) excuses, but they didn’t
keep me from gaining 20 pounds in 2013.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Obviously, one of the things
that made me happiest in 2013 was finishing the Hugos. Despite that it’s not much of an
accomplishment, it felt like one to me and even though it took me longer than I
had set out to take, I was still pretty proud of myself for having seen this
challenge through to the very near end. But then I’ve really stalled on completing the
reviews. I’m going to try to get on the
way to finishing though, and I’m into the last ten reviews so it should happen
soon.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">And although I finished the
Hugo’s this year, I did not read much at all (outside of school).
To be fair, I am a full-time grad student and employed full-time so I
feel like I have something approaching a legitimate excuse here. Nevertheless I feel pretty bummed about my
reading stats from the past year. For
the first time ever, I actually listened to more audio books than I read in
print.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">I like to keep track of some
stupid reading stats, but it’s mostly just to help me remember and reflect on
the books I’ve read. I keep spreadsheets for everything, so you can see my embarrassing
stats below: 14 print books. Being 3 graphic novels and 1 young adult. 10.15 days listening to audiobooks.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhx2IefGXxc7XnBCTH7pmfZW0n01oVphaDffFdiXRTj0_3n5w1pRUKIJusClwidZj1dkryxk2x86kMMH4Fb08QcRn4uiL2_g8srOFBOaRxivPFyp8UlmNMru8oiVbEOzlJtk3l27Q7nK5g/s1600/2013+Capture.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhx2IefGXxc7XnBCTH7pmfZW0n01oVphaDffFdiXRTj0_3n5w1pRUKIJusClwidZj1dkryxk2x86kMMH4Fb08QcRn4uiL2_g8srOFBOaRxivPFyp8UlmNMru8oiVbEOzlJtk3l27Q7nK5g/s640/2013+Capture.JPG" width="640" /></a><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">There are some things I feel
unequivocally happy about from this past year: I’m working toward a master of arts
from the University of Florida. I
FINISHED READING ALL THE HUGOS! We took
a spectacular vacation this summer to my home state of Minnesota where my 4yo
daughter met my grandparents for the first time. My wife and I celebrated our fifth wedding
anniversary (we started dating in high school over ten years ago).</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">We had a great year but I guess after consideration I’d only say I feel slightly more positive than negative about my goals from this time last year. I feel
like I could have worked harder to achieve my goals last year, but also optimistic that I'll do better this year. Some of my resolutions relevant here being:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Finish reviewing the Hugo’s</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Vote for the 2014 Hugo’s!</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Manage my time spent on school
better (this was only reason I didn’t get more done this year…not enough free
time…)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Transition this blog into
something else and keep up with other bloggers better</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Balance my reading between
print, audio, and graphic novels better (more print and graphic novels please)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Read more books published in
the last year</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">Run another race or two (dare I commit myself to a half-marathon???)</span></span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Well, this is getting long so I
think I’ll save more (favorites of 2013 and maybe some pictures) for later… Good luck to you all in the new year!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12364999124473415795noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5095695341570716002.post-57613916424682273802013-12-28T21:49:00.000-05:002014-01-01T17:04:47.082-05:00Paladin of Souls<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiD3RTsOFCmLDr0UxRrSv8g55t42-RX2dTp63kDfNIQ4iyIOXxAPC14skUm8pWzyz4nzPOeOds2cslws0NehCVDNnhpMtPZszDIRY4C_AIfL9wKUJ2mzfag0qpFxDvBJlJ3xBqT-_5k_mM/s1600/Paladin+of+Souls.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiD3RTsOFCmLDr0UxRrSv8g55t42-RX2dTp63kDfNIQ4iyIOXxAPC14skUm8pWzyz4nzPOeOds2cslws0NehCVDNnhpMtPZszDIRY4C_AIfL9wKUJ2mzfag0qpFxDvBJlJ3xBqT-_5k_mM/s320/Paladin+of+Souls.jpg" width="195" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Stats<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<i><span style="color: #e36c0a; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-themecolor: accent6; mso-themeshade: 191;">Paladin of Souls</span></i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">
by Lois McMaster Bujold<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">2004 Hugo
Award Winner<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Got it
from: <i>Own it </i>(found it in the $1 bin
at the library)<span style="color: #e36c0a; mso-themecolor: accent6; mso-themeshade: 191;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">470 pages<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Dowager Royina
Ista, previously cursed and so profoundly grief-stricken as to be marked as mad,
sets out on a religious pilgrimage, intending to right herself in the world
once again. A different kind of madness
ensues.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Bujold does what Bujold does best<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The most
compelling aspect of <i><span style="color: #e46c0a; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #E46C0A; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: lumm=75000; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: accent6; mso-themecolor: accent6; mso-themeshade: 191;">Paladin of Souls</span></i><span style="color: #e46c0a; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #E46C0A; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: lumm=75000; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: accent6; mso-themecolor: accent6; mso-themeshade: 191;"> </span>is the part
of science fiction and fantasy that Bujold does so well. Ista is a wonderfully conflicted, funny, and
smart female protagonist who struggles to know her gods and the people around
her in a way that is at once completely foreign and weirdly unsettling, yet
also totes-compelling, human, and eerily familiar. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
differences between life on Bujold’s Ibran Peninsula and modern life abound,
but are overshadowed by a very intimate and very warm human story. Maybe Bujold’s worlds aren’t as confoundingly
different from our own as a <i><span style="color: #e46c0a; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #E46C0A; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: lumm=75000; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: accent6; mso-themecolor: accent6; mso-themeshade: 191;">Ringworld</span></i>
for example, but Bujold brings her readers there in a very different way. Rather than devising spectacular tech or weird
aliens Bujold pulls readers into her worlds by the emotions. To be fair there is some pretty rad stuff
thrown in there too…Chalion is a place where:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
</div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">direct
experience of any of five capricious gods (and demons) is possible; and</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">rescue
by hunky, sword-wielding, horseback-riding, sweaty muscle-men is not just
possible, but AS WONDERFUL AS YOU IMAGINE IT TO BE; and</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">sexytime
is just a little bit unsettling; and</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">people
will literally chop your gods-damned head off.</span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt;">Knowing
what we know about Bujold’s skillz in her other Hugo winners (there's a Bujold
Skillz meme in here somewhere...), and considering even just a short list like that, are you
prepared to say you don’t want to read this book?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">I really want to love this…<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">As I do
best, I have jumped into the middle of a Lois McMaster Bujold series. And as has been the case in the past, it
doesn’t seem to matter much. I’d say as
far as my enjoyment of the Hugo’s goes, I’d lump this in with any of Bujold’s
other winners. Which is to say that it
was a pretty damn decent book and I liked a lot about it, but it also wouldn’t
be the first book I recommend to someone wanting to break into the Hugos. Maybe reading them out of order has caused
some problems again, but I don’t think so.
<i><span style="color: #e46c0a; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #E46C0A; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: lumm=75000; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: accent6; mso-themecolor: accent6; mso-themeshade: 191;">Paladin of Souls</span></i>
is good as a stand-alone novel.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<i><span style="color: #e46c0a; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #E46C0A; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: lumm=75000; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: accent6; mso-themecolor: accent6; mso-themeshade: 191;">Paladin of Souls</span></i><span style="color: #e46c0a; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #E46C0A; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: lumm=75000; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: accent6; mso-themecolor: accent6; mso-themeshade: 191;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">is
one of just few of what I have come to think of as the Spiritual Hugos in which
dealings with a divine being or matters dealing with spiritual practices take precedence
over other more traditional SF & F elements. I have tended to like these books, but not
really love them and that’s pretty much what’s happened once again. Everything about <i><span style="color: #e46c0a; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #E46C0A; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: lumm=75000; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: accent6; mso-themecolor: accent6; mso-themeshade: 191;">Paladin of Souls</span></i><span style="color: #e46c0a; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #E46C0A; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: lumm=75000; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: accent6; mso-themecolor: accent6; mso-themeshade: 191;"> </span>appeals to me on a conceptual level and I really want to
love every page, but it doesn’t ever elevate itself beyond just the sum of its
parts.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Recommendation<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">If you
were a fan of <i><span style="color: #e46c0a; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #E46C0A; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: lumm=75000; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: accent6; mso-themecolor: accent6; mso-themeshade: 191;">Barrayar</span></i>, this
would be another great read. In fact,
Ista was to me a character very much akin to Cordelia Naismith. If you thought Cordelia was maybe a little
too ultra-confident sometimes, you won’t see that in Ista. However, while she seemed a little more
rounded out as a character, she’s still been lumped the same exact space of my
brain (my brain is just a tiny chest of drawers) and so have the two books. To be clear it’s a good space, but it’s also
the same space as her other books.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">There is
also a lot of horseback excitement. Which
is to say that from a strictly level-of-horseback-excitement view, I guess <i><span style="color: #e46c0a; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #E46C0A; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: lumm=75000; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: accent6; mso-themecolor: accent6; mso-themeshade: 191;">Paladin of Souls</span></i><span style="color: #e46c0a; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #E46C0A; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: lumm=75000; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: accent6; mso-themecolor: accent6; mso-themeshade: 191;"> </span>is your clear winner.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">HEP SCORE<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Universe 3/5<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Social/Political
Climate 3/5<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Dialogue 4/5
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Scientific
Wonders 3/5 <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Characters
4/5<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Overall
17/25<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">My last
post was October. That is really
bad. As you know I’m all caught up on
the Hugos, but I’m still reviewing the last 10 or so. I’ll be trying to pick up the pace again. Also, I’m trying to finish the first <i><span style="color: #e46c0a; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #E46C0A; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: lumm=75000; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: accent6; mso-themecolor: accent6; mso-themeshade: 191;">Mouse Guard</span></i><span style="color: #e46c0a; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #E46C0A; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: lumm=75000; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: accent6; mso-themecolor: accent6; mso-themeshade: 191;"> </span>by David Peterson (a graphic novel) by the end of the year
because my reading list for 2013 is pretty embarrassing and I need to spice it
up at the last minute. Because that will
change everything.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12364999124473415795noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5095695341570716002.post-4963728907473247872013-10-13T23:42:00.001-04:002013-10-13T23:43:09.337-04:00Caffiene has never killed anyone...right?<p dir="ltr">This was me preparing for a long night with inappropriate applications of caffiene well into darkness. I was writing, but unfortunately not reviews.</p>
<p dir="ltr">The news that I actually wanted to share was that I am caught up again on the Hugos. I actually finished Redshirts...I don't know...maybe a week ago. I don't have any conception of time anymore now that I no longer have Hugos to tick off the passage of time against. Either that or my brain is busted. Hmm, yeah, it's probably busted.</p>
<p dir="ltr">I just finished a really exhausting project so no caffiene tonight. Just sleep. But I should get to at least one review this week!</p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu_GgN-3wYJwADMYibDh4Rm6rd6V-wgXW68ir3_FIfU_AxeMSabm8ZXueOfKBz4B50ckffbmFrATkzFthCTXehod9sIoRsqspQZmeoJffBpfhRNUcsv99t_05tfFNdecgFq6NL0l7ZeOI/s1600/IMG_20131012_095622.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"> <img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu_GgN-3wYJwADMYibDh4Rm6rd6V-wgXW68ir3_FIfU_AxeMSabm8ZXueOfKBz4B50ckffbmFrATkzFthCTXehod9sIoRsqspQZmeoJffBpfhRNUcsv99t_05tfFNdecgFq6NL0l7ZeOI/s640/IMG_20131012_095622.jpg"> </a> </div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12364999124473415795noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5095695341570716002.post-52805656122038309582013-09-05T03:22:00.001-04:002013-09-05T03:22:29.650-04:00Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2vnee5kKK6Vct-aPzSxpm1MRAVLfpHK5Zyj4KY7CwDD_-86n3W-7Ayk5KP1JlNw6oGpJdMEopyX7hqXUI0X-3gFNFm9AVh769TCOdj4XfNanLKfJOUZ5kU5pDVw-Zphn4S7KYnc-oDkg/s1600/HP+and+the+Goblet+of+Fire.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2vnee5kKK6Vct-aPzSxpm1MRAVLfpHK5Zyj4KY7CwDD_-86n3W-7Ayk5KP1JlNw6oGpJdMEopyX7hqXUI0X-3gFNFm9AVh769TCOdj4XfNanLKfJOUZ5kU5pDVw-Zphn4S7KYnc-oDkg/s400/HP+and+the+Goblet+of+Fire.jpg" width="276" /></a><b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Stats<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<i><span style="color: #e36c0a; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-themecolor: accent6; mso-themeshade: 191;">Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire</span></i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> by J.K. Rowling<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Audiobook
read by Jim Dale<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">2001 Hugo
Award Winner<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Got it
from: <i>Public Library</i><span style="color: #e36c0a; mso-themecolor: accent6; mso-themeshade: 191;"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">20h 37m<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The same,
but darker.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Trying to make sense of so many questions…<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I’ve read
the Harry Potter series twice now and I always enjoy them as fun, familiar, and
not very challenging. Preparing to read
it in the context of all of the really great SF/F titles that have earned the
Hugo, I was a little perplexed and to be honest, earnestly <i>dreading</i> this read (is it possible to dread earnestly? Because I was very intent in my dread). I would never admit to this, but there may
have even been a moment in time when I sort of chose to listen to the audiobook
so that I could only half pay attention and just be done with it with minimal
effort. And I was even less excited
about writing this review. Now, I’m glad
I’ve taken some time to stew over it, because I’ve developed a slightly
different perspective.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Initially,
I was concerned that the pendulum swing of voter fickleness (is that a word?)
had swung from the very hard SF choices of the 90’s to what appeared to be
little more than a popularity contest in the 2000’s (Vinge, Gaiman, Bujold, and
Rowling, all with large fan bases, account for half of the Hugo’s). But really, that’s a silly comparison; after
all, people like Heinlein, Asimov, Clarke, and LeGuin have been getting repeat
wins since the beginning.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">My fear
that Rowling’s win would only evidence the number of fans rather than the
quality of the book was probably unwarranted as popularity has always
influenced Hugo Award voting. But my
concerns about the book went beyond popularity too. I joked that this was the same Harry Potter
only darker. I’ll get to the darker part
in a minute, but Rowling really does lean heavily on the safe and predictable
at times. I wondered for a long time why
this book won, if none of the others (which are written <i>very similarly</i>) had even been nominated?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I have also
been seriously delaying this review (earnestly delaying it), then writing and
rewriting major portions of it for the last month or so, trying to decide what
to defend (I think there’s plenty worth defending) and what to criticize
(probably even more). But just now, I
don’t think I’ll go there except to remember that if any book signaled Rowling’s
attempt to transform this series to something darker, it was this one. There’s a lot that feels rote-Harry-Potter
about this book, but even amidst really awful moments like the entire <s>World
Cup</s> Quidditch Cup, Rowling was able to introduce a sense of pervading and
seemingly permanent doom. <i><span style="color: #e46c0a; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #E46C0A; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: lumm=75000; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: accent6; mso-themecolor: accent6; mso-themeshade: 191;">Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire</span></i><span style="color: #e46c0a; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #E46C0A; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: lumm=75000; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: accent6; mso-themecolor: accent6; mso-themeshade: 191;"> </span>shed quite a
lot of the happy-go-lucky, even-if-something-bad-happens-it-will-turn-out-alright-in-the-end
feeling of the first three books.
Rowling’s fourth installment had some real weight (physically too), and
even a sliver of emotional depth. In all
fairness, it’s not entirely undeserving (just mostly).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">So I
guess, while it might seem that I could get behind arguments in favor of- or in
opposition to- this win, I think I still lean toward being opposed to this
win. At the same time, I’m of the
opinion that the question of whether this or any of the Harry Potter books are
deserving of the Hugo is irrelevant. That
<i>Harry Potter </i>won the Hugo seems to
say more about the award process to me than the worthiness of the book.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The Hugo
Award, at least for best novel, is only marginally about the crowning of this
year’s best SF/F work. It’s a fan
process. It’s a thing anyone can do (if
you can pay). It’s a popularity
vote. And yet, we also know that people
are supposed to be voting for the “best” of the year. I don’t think any of that is bad necessarily,
but I think it’s probably necessary to remember before starting to read <i><span style="color: #e46c0a; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #E46C0A; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: lumm=75000; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: accent6; mso-themecolor: accent6; mso-themeshade: 191;">Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire</span></i><span style="color: #e46c0a; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #E46C0A; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: lumm=75000; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: accent6; mso-themecolor: accent6; mso-themeshade: 191;"> </span>in the
context of quite a few really distinguished SF/F novels. It might be a little more fraught with questions
of legitimacy (rightfully IMHO), but it is still fun, immersive and <a href="http://hugoenduranceproject.blogspot.com/2013/03/gross-hagrid.html">sometimes
a little gross</a>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Recommendation<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">If you’re
trying to finish off the Hugo list like me and, like I was, regretting this
one, just know that despite being a little miffed about this Hugo, I still
think there’s plenty to enjoy. Overall,
I enjoyed the book. Not my favorite HP,
definitely not my favorite Hugo, but still worth the time.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">If you’ve
already gone through the print books and you think you want to read them again,
I recommend giving the audiobooks a shot.
Jim Dale is always great, and he has such a <i>Harry Potter-y</i> voice that he’s doubly good here.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">HEP SCORE<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Universe 5/5<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Social/Political
Climate 4/5<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Dialogue 2/5
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Scientific
Wonders 4/5 <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Characters
3/5<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Overall
18/25<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Hey! In case you didn’t notice, I actually finished the Hugo’s
just a few hours before <i>Redshirts</i> was announced this weekend. I considered that a challenge completed,
though I have already started reading <i>Redshirts</i>, and I’m sure I’ll end up
reviewing it here later.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12364999124473415795noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5095695341570716002.post-47995945960733641492013-09-02T10:47:00.001-04:002013-09-02T10:47:16.346-04:00Finished...For Now<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Well, I guess I won't get to enjoy this view (below) for much longer. Congratulations to ALL the Hugo winners who are not reading this!</div>
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I've still got to get to a number of reviews yet, and I feel like I still have a lot of other thoughts that I've been meaning to take down here, but right now I'm still feeling like I've completed something. Combined with the excitement of the streaming Hugo Award Ceremony and the all the pictures and status updates from LoneStarCon, I'm feeling pretty happy. Gee, having finished all the Hugos sure made this year's announcement feel different.</div>
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Now off to the library to get Redshirts! Oh wait, it's Labor Day... TOMORROW THEN!</div>
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<br /></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirNWbXDQ_6NdU5eeuhdn4sffArOptRm05PQcdKIPuPoU8Vn877YYOzcTga8k2VHJp0DETu3ljd7oa-HriLzJJhAC2WIeJ7L4jUdLncUsnDrKvuRWGigzhQ8Sd60CAZR6X-94Pz7QX47ak/s1600/FINISHED.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="428" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirNWbXDQ_6NdU5eeuhdn4sffArOptRm05PQcdKIPuPoU8Vn877YYOzcTga8k2VHJp0DETu3ljd7oa-HriLzJJhAC2WIeJ7L4jUdLncUsnDrKvuRWGigzhQ8Sd60CAZR6X-94Pz7QX47ak/s640/FINISHED.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12364999124473415795noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5095695341570716002.post-68805533639584109012013-07-31T21:36:00.000-04:002013-07-31T21:36:30.178-04:00If You Can Believe It....<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">For those of you who have been aching for me to finish this damn thing already, your wait is almost over. I'm reading the very last Hugo. <i>A Deepness in the Sky</i> by Vernor Vinge. In between semesters I hope to get a few of these reviews done that have been waiting and soon this will be over. Sad. Happy. It's been so much fun. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I wish I had read <i>Among Others</i> last, it would have felt very fitting somehow. Oh well, only about 600 pages of Vinge to go now. I hope you're all having a great summer (all two of you...including my Mom).</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12364999124473415795noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5095695341570716002.post-64619462691694816232013-07-07T02:11:00.004-04:002013-07-07T02:12:36.601-04:00I thought you all might like an update...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Here it is, from <a href="https://www.worldswithoutend.com/booktrackr.asp" target="_blank">WWEND's BookTrackr</a>:</div>
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<br /></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizVQI8hnqRcBD5Qslrs1YQNgZK7jalMcAnq6jYJvIRTRPjiX5z37htK2atBrup4mt6HULzeS1VvxT1CS5fZyH4_1hMQAF3wBEhOG4_CEzx-XYPIuuigM5qcqY51dXE19UHMjkOSm9Z5oY/s1600/Hugo+progress.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="157" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizVQI8hnqRcBD5Qslrs1YQNgZK7jalMcAnq6jYJvIRTRPjiX5z37htK2atBrup4mt6HULzeS1VvxT1CS5fZyH4_1hMQAF3wBEhOG4_CEzx-XYPIuuigM5qcqY51dXE19UHMjkOSm9Z5oY/s640/Hugo+progress.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
Despite my inactivity here, I am still moving forward and I hope to unleash a torrent of reviews soon as my workload is considerably lighter than the past 8 weeks. I should be back to regular posts in a matter of days...maybe a week? We'll see...<br />
<br />
FYI this count isn't entirely accurate since it doesn't include All Clear, which I am currently listening to. Other than that, the last two are A Deepness in the Sky and Among Others. <br />
<br />
Tally ho!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12364999124473415795noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5095695341570716002.post-35443868867581609932013-04-30T23:36:00.002-04:002013-04-30T23:36:59.821-04:00The Hugo Death Sentence<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I recently mentioned that I have backed off my original goal for finishing the Hugos. I also thought I might have a better idea of how far off I am.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">It took me nine weeks to read <i>Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norell</i>. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">It was an extraordinarily long book, but it wasn't nine weeks long. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">While I was reading it, I was also studying for the GRE and I may have watched an episode or two, or a season, of <i>Downton Abbey</i> when I wasn't jamming books in my face. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Now I have found myself back in school, still working, still a dad, and with just over a handful of Hugo's left, some of them being nearly as ridiculously long as <i>Jonathan Strange.</i> That is to say, I've taken too long to finish the Hugo's and now I'll have more reading with more urgent deadlines and all of my usual things to do and a lot less time to fit the Hugo's in.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I had originally envisioned that I would go back to this year, but I had also thought I would be done with the Hugos by then. Ha!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">So, how do I now approach these final Hugos?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Well, to start, I should explain that I am a slow reader, or I should say that I am a <i>careful</i> reader. I read and re-read passages that are confusing, enlightening, awkward, or just rad. I stop and think. I drink a little wine. I figure reading a novel should be taken seriously and approached with the same gravitas that any thousands of years old craft deserves (kind of makes you wonder why I started this challenge right?) Okay, sometimes I read while Emmeline watches Powerpuff Girls or My Little Pony, but when I can, I like to have all my things arranged and I like to dig in. This challenge aside, I take forever to read even the shortest books and I like it that way.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">When I started this challenge, I finished each book with days to spare. I was psyched, the books were shorter, I was staying up until all hours of the night and operating during the day on a tiny, coffee fueled replacement brain. Since then the books have grown longer, I've taken on more commitments, staying up past midnight has become a death sentence, my brain is real (and still tiny) and I've had trouble getting through any book in under two weeks. Erg.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">With that in mind, my first thought was to just finish them out via audiobook, because it's possible that I could end up reading these until the end of time, but that's out because they aren't all available at my library. Also, apart being a little disappointed about not meeting my self-imposed goal, I'm not terribly depressed about the idea of continuing this for a little longer.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I don't know yet how easy it will be to balance my required reading and my Hugo reading, but with just few to go, I don' t imagine it will take me more than a few more months. I might take a while to finish the longer books and my posts might be a little irregular for the first few weeks, but hopefully I'll get into a groove soon and everything in the entire world will be perfect. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Let's plan on that.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">And if all else fails, instead of "64 books in 64 weeks", The Hugo Endurance Project will just have to mean that I'm "reading books to death". It might be a confusing goal at first but I assume the autopsy will clear it right up.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12364999124473415795noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5095695341570716002.post-54064687675634430272013-04-28T23:18:00.002-04:002013-04-28T23:18:56.751-04:00Rainbows End<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLirQU8Xm3iIfE7PTF6oaWwI4NdRgX-6pT6leGT9NJ0YQKvSIos7bjVwTTfjKRVsuneUOG0blLSIMXdn5kYjOXCZorZRn2Avi42fiDA9TgAh62vbe_DiPFQ8U1XTrElHsQstz_ejpwB2U/s1600/Rainbows+End.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLirQU8Xm3iIfE7PTF6oaWwI4NdRgX-6pT6leGT9NJ0YQKvSIos7bjVwTTfjKRVsuneUOG0blLSIMXdn5kYjOXCZorZRn2Avi42fiDA9TgAh62vbe_DiPFQ8U1XTrElHsQstz_ejpwB2U/s320/Rainbows+End.JPG" width="195" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Stats<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<i><span style="color: #e36c0a; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-themecolor: accent6; mso-themeshade: 191;">Rainbows End</span></i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">
by Vernor Vinge<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">2007 Hugo
Award Winner<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Read by Eric
Conger<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Got it
from: <i>Own it</i><span style="color: #e36c0a; mso-themecolor: accent6; mso-themeshade: 191;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">14h 46m<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">After
medical treatments make it possible for Alzheimer patients to completely
recover, Robert Gu finds himself in a pretty intensive rehab program. He isn’t the person he used to be, and he
doesn’t live in the same world either.
He was a famous poet in a world similar to ours. Now he is no one,
learning how to “sming” and how to interface with computers. It is during his rehab at Fairmont High
School, that Robert becomes embroiled in a conspiracy plot to end all
conspiracy plots.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Multiple realities<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">So there
is one reality where an author has an uncanny ability to tap into the most
salient features of some really complex issues.
In <i>Rainbows End</i>, Vinge reminds
us how well he capitalizes on our most deep-rooted fears <i>and</i> our most lofty scientific achievements. In beginning this book, I had figured <i>Rainbows End</i> for another goldmine of Vinge-y,
SF goodness…but I didn’t labor under that delusion for long.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I was
excited by the opening computer/chemical warfare plot. I was reminded of the cyber-attacks on
nuclear facilities in Iran going back a couple of years and I thought Vinge
might have been preparing to go bigger. I
was strapping myself in for Vinge’s brand of ultra-paranoia. It harkened to the message boards in <i>A Fire Upon the Deep</i> and man…I ate that
stuff up.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">In the
first chapter, “Mr. Rabbit visits Barcelona” (Sweet title. I loved it), Vinge
was poised to capitalize on how compelling and/or dangerous the convergence of several
technological advancements could be in a world where anonymous access is taken
to just about every extreme, and I was ready to follow him wherever he wanted
to go.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Taken
separately, individual elements of Vinge’s future were awe inspiring, but the
other reality of <i>Rainbows End</i> is that
as these elements come together and the story starts to drag on and on, the
final product doesn’t seem equal the sum of its parts.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I almost
think this is worse than having just written a story that falls flat altogether. Vinge touches on all the right topics and
sets himself up for a home run, while everyone is batting blindfolded. Instead of just striking out, as authors do
sometimes, in <i>Rainbows End</i>, Vinge lets
go of the bat and injures some unsuspecting kid in the stands hoping to catch a
foul ball. And I think I might have been
that kid, because this one left me confused.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">While I
admit to exclaiming audibly at the <i>coolness</i>
of this or that bit of tech or social construction quite frequently, I didn’t
much enjoy the overall story. Tension?
Not so much. Compelling characters?
Nope. Cool world, but there was never
any reason to be in it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Recommendation<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Consistent
with <a href="http://hugoenduranceproject.blogspot.com/2013/01/a-fire-upon-deep.html">my
last Vinge experience</a>, <i>Rainbows End</i>
incorporates a plethora of themes both scientific and psychological, and
fantastically so, but it also lacks a lot. Comparing the two Hugo winners that
I’m familiar with, <i>Rainbows End</i> feels
like it occupies a specific place and time in a way that <i>A Fire Upon the Deep</i> did not.
I don’t have much interest in re-reading this one, but I am curious how
it will hold up to another ten years or so.
I might be wrong; it could be like good wine.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I actually
started this review several weeks ago and before I chucked everything I had and
started again, I noticed that this audiobook was only fourteen hours. Not terribly long as far as audiobooks go,
but it felt longer than some of the longest I’ve gone through so far. I guess even though the concepts were
interesting, they only had the power to captivate for so long. Perhaps I’ll enjoy the shorter stories that <i>Rainbows End</i> was based on instead.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">HEP SCORE<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Universe 4/5<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Social/Political
Climate 5/5<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Dialogue 3/5
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Scientific
Wonders 4/5 <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Characters
3/5<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Overall
19/25<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12364999124473415795noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5095695341570716002.post-25603834329858223902013-04-18T02:29:00.002-04:002013-04-18T02:29:23.590-04:00Stardust Read Along Pt. 2<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiX1hZ2BWSna6hwyqUxDcmAC3le-KL6DD29bgLMZRb2FAb5PlwKQUlGfDkLMrgYQQjn2X4ITiEZGqT1qOpON4AyTJ4_x4UUIwtnNd2bfae80oS0WESZ8O8pcjHeaBxUXW66D0MvYl9MfLw/s1600/StardustReadAlong.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiX1hZ2BWSna6hwyqUxDcmAC3le-KL6DD29bgLMZRb2FAb5PlwKQUlGfDkLMrgYQQjn2X4ITiEZGqT1qOpON4AyTJ4_x4UUIwtnNd2bfae80oS0WESZ8O8pcjHeaBxUXW66D0MvYl9MfLw/s320/StardustReadAlong.jpg" width="210" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Well, Stardust was an interesting interlude between the two
other Neil Gaiman novels. I’m glad to
have participated and I always enjoy read alongs because the questions either
require that I think differently about the book or force me to articulate some
half-formed thoughts. Carl is especially
good at generating questions that get to the meat of a story, but also some of
the fun too.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Of course, one of the best parts of a read along is visiting
and discussing with other bloggers. For
Stardust, it has been a great, smart group and I can’t wait to hear from
everyone again. Thanks again Carl for
organizing this and I look forward to the book vs. movie discussion to follow.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">So how about Carl's questions.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">1. In the first part
we saw a naive, wool-headed and self-involved Tristran. What are your thoughts about Tristran and his
personal journey now that the book has ended?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Carl did a good job of bringing me around to Tristran during
the last discussion. Tristran’s journey
was predictable but fun, funny at times.
At first I wasn’t sure he had changed all that much by the end. Now that I’m sitting here thinking about it
more, I like that Tristran’s journey resulted in a realistic personal
growth. We saw his unhealthy infatuation
with Victoria vanish, his niavete lessen, but his sudden choice to travel the
world with Yvaine recalled some of the old impulsive, romantic Tristran. It seemed a very human way to “grow”.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">2. The star, who we
now know as Yvaine, also experienced a transformation of her own. So I ask the same question, what are your
thoughts about Yvaine and the journey she took?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">I had a hard time getting on board with Yvaine’s
transformation. I thought the
progression from hating Tristran, to feeling obligated to him, to falling in
love with him was forced and frankly, I failed to make that last jump from
obligation to love. I thought for a
minute I had missed something. Yvaine
seemed to rather abruptly change her mind about him at each stage and I never
really developed much of an emotional connection with her.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">I never really saw her as destined for something bigger
either. We meet her as a fallen star
with a broken leg, helpless and I felt rather insipid at times. That she would later become a wise and
balanced ruler was certainly a more appealing fate than just wasting after
Tristan died, but I never got a real sense of a trajectory from her.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">I wouldn’t say I was particularly upset about her character
or her journey, but frankly, I didn’t really follow her transformation very
well and as a result didn’t have much of a connection to her.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">3. The villains of
the story came to interesting ends, but not necessarily expected ones. How do you feel about Neil Gaiman's handling
of the Stormhold brothers (who had remained at the end of Part 1) and the two
witches, the one Lilim and Ditchwater Sal?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">This was certainly the most interesting treatment of
villains I can recall for a long time. I
mentioned how much I enjoyed seeing the witch queen humbled while at the same
time demonstrating her terrible power.
Gaiman only intensified his very unusual handling of villains and I only
enjoyed it, and them, even more in the second half.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">4. Were there any
descriptions, characters, settings, plot threads that stood out to you
personally during this second half of the book?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">I was rather touched by the carefree approach to
experiencing the world that overtook Tristran and Yvain after leaving
Victoria. There was this one last thing
tethering them to Wall, Tristran’s family and society. Once that was eliminated, and combined with
the feeling from the first half of the book that Tristran’s parents could have
done with a little more upfront honesty about Tristran, their choice to just
aimlessly wander was deeply satisfying to me.
<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">5. At the very end of
the book we see that Tristran and Yvaine's relationship and fate echoes that of
Aragorn and Arwen from The Lord of the Rings.
If this question makes any sense to you (lol), what comparisons and/or
contrasts do you see, especially in the fates of Yvaine and Arwen?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">I came to this same conclusion about the two couples
myself. I’m not sure I have a lot to add
about that here though as it was mostly just something of a passing thought
once or twice. What did strike me a
differentiating the two was that Yvaine didn’t seem nearly as concerned about
what her life would be like with Tristran gone.
Perhaps this is the result of a life span counted on a galactic scale,
or because Yvaine was less emotionally tied to her man? I’m not sure I have that answer, I admit it
has been several years since I read LOTR.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">6. What are your
overall impressions of the story now that it is done?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">In broad strokes, I liked it. Probably my favorite of Gaiman’s stories that
I’ve read. I was fun and whimsical in a
vague and vaguely dark way. I think this
is one to be read several times over the course of a life. I imagine it would take on drastically
different meanings each time.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">7. If Gaiman were to
return to Wall/Faerie, would you take another journey there? If so, are there any adventures hinted at in
Stardust that you would like to see Neil expand on?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">My first inclination was to say that all I cared about was
Dunstan, but I think I’d also revisit Wall/Faerie for more about any of the
villains. Any of them at all.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12364999124473415795noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5095695341570716002.post-20078876493346918442013-04-14T22:18:00.001-04:002013-04-14T22:18:02.535-04:00The End of Everything<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoHvM7dKRP4iREQWs74CcGYZGPyrROrTB-Qi1-aLibm8C6x4kV9BTGaaPoHYn-VpuZG8Igwcb0CFJGoyvsLvJfgFtPcsZc-FT7r8-OdXb6GRsWOM6Vq7g-gWtU6YXQrkkqtAMs8yy_p7k/s1600/100_7748.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoHvM7dKRP4iREQWs74CcGYZGPyrROrTB-Qi1-aLibm8C6x4kV9BTGaaPoHYn-VpuZG8Igwcb0CFJGoyvsLvJfgFtPcsZc-FT7r8-OdXb6GRsWOM6Vq7g-gWtU6YXQrkkqtAMs8yy_p7k/s320/100_7748.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
As we all know, I am the worst at things.<br />
<br />
This blog was meant to chronicle my time spent training for my first marathon while at the same time reading through every Hugo Award winning novel in as many weeks as there are winners, or the other way around. Being that there are 64 Hugo winners, including the retros, this meant that had I stayed on schedule the entire time, I would have finished reading every Hugo novel ever, <i>yesterday</i>. Anyone keeping track (to my knowledge this is just me, and that is only sometimes), knows that this has not happened. In fact, I still have yet to finish eight more Hugo's.<br />
<br />
Books like <span style="color: #b45f06;"><i>Cyteen</i></span>, <span style="color: #b45f06;"><i>Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norell</i></span>, and the <i>Mars Trilogy</i>, combined with a ton of really poor excuses (which I'm going to lean pretty heavily on anyway) to pretty seriously delay progress at several points over the last few months and even though I'm so near the end, I know that I have a couple of whammies that could still make my life difficult.<br />
<br />
At the same time, listening to audiobooks more than I ever thought I would, has also allowed me to make some good time when I otherwise would not have been able to. Currently, I've started, and found many excuses not to dig into, <i><span style="color: #b45f06;">Paladin of Souls</span></i> and I'm also about two-thirds through <i><span style="color: #b45f06;">American Gods</span></i> audiobook.<br />
<br />
Continuing progress notwithstanding, I have obviously failed meeting my reading goal for this challenge.<br />
<br />
The silver lining here is that there are about two maybe three people actually reading anything I write here, and fewer people who care, so I'm thinking no one will really hold it over my head and I can just keep chugging until I get there. Except for myself. You know I'm going to lord it over myself every chance I get.<br />
<br />
So, I'm hoping that, if I haven't upset the SF gods too much, I will have an amended goal within the next few days. I should be telling you all how disappointed I am, I am I assure you, but the writing has been on the wall since somewhere around week two, so I've had some time to come to terms with my inadequacies (see first sentence). In terms of the stages of grief, I'm well into <a href="http://the-girlieshow.tumblr.com/post/4465709106/jack-donaghys-5-stages-of-grief" target="_blank">Shoving Down Emotions and Proceeding as if Everything is Fine</a> (probably because of all the "handshakefullness" workshops I've been attending).<br />
<br />
Light up the comments if you'd like. I deserve it. But know that I'm still going strong, just slower. And to those of you who have been around since the early days AND to those of you who continue to leave comments and encouragement: THANKS AND PLEASE STICK AROUND!<br />
<br />
Oh, and if you see my wife around, remind her how patient and forgiving she is :-)Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12364999124473415795noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5095695341570716002.post-64576651202582090192013-04-11T01:00:00.002-04:002013-04-11T01:00:51.192-04:00Stardust Read-Along: Pt. 1<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwJfGrpFJ2gl2zqaQhbAhgvkD10mBGhYScGJz6GZ2Hmdd7l8_vc-omkggyjWOW3gZUb-6YwiZl0ZLZwya09oiWM4CIfMztMFYshBjXHFjbPNHMQ4a0lbklZBF2YUy69E3PNsVL7aXRaro/s1600/StardustReadAlong.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwJfGrpFJ2gl2zqaQhbAhgvkD10mBGhYScGJz6GZ2Hmdd7l8_vc-omkggyjWOW3gZUb-6YwiZl0ZLZwya09oiWM4CIfMztMFYshBjXHFjbPNHMQ4a0lbklZBF2YUy69E3PNsVL7aXRaro/s320/StardustReadAlong.jpg" width="210" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Over the past year, I’ve participated in several of the
(non)challenges hosted by Carl over at <a href="http://www.stainlesssteeldroppings.com/stardust-read-along">Stainless
Steel Droppings</a>. In that time, I’ve
had to pass on quite a few read-alongs that he has also hosted and which have
always looked amazingly fun. When I saw
that he had one planned for Neil Gaiman’s <i><span style="color: #e46c0a; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #E46C0A; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: lumm=75000; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: accent6; mso-themecolor: accent6; mso-themeshade: 191;">Stardust</span></i>,
which is short and sounded fun, I thought it was not only a good chance to
hopefully redeem my opinion of Gaiman after a not so enthusiastic reading of <a href="http://hugoenduranceproject.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-graveyard-book.html">The
Graveyard Book</a>, and also the opportunity to participate in one of Carl’s
read-alongs as I’ve been waiting for so long to do.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">So here is the first installment. <a href="http://www.stainlesssteeldroppings.com/stardust-read-along-part-i">As
Carl suggested</a>, I’ve been listening to Gaiman himself read this one and
like I said in the case of The Graveyard Book, Gaiman does a fantastic job
reading his own work. Carl has also
suggested we take these questions as we please and I’m doing just that. I’m getting to this late after-all.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">******<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">1. We have spent a
little time with Tristran and even less time with the star. What are your initial thoughts/impressions of
our two protagonists?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">2. There are some very
interesting potential villains introduced in this first half of the book. Do any of them particularly stand out to you?
If so why or why not?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><i>At
first I didn’t care much for any of the villains, but I became very interested
in the Witch Queen toward the end of Chapter 5.
Her goats were interesting and her chariot even more so, but what I
really appreciated was that we see her fooled so early in the story. She is still clearly a force to be reckoned
with and will no doubt cause some serious trouble for Tristan but she’s also
liable to be tricked when her guard is down too. It didn’t so much endear me to her as it did
to the storytelling itself. I like that
Gaiman’s villains can be pretty terrifying even when we see that they can be
tricked into paying too much for the milk (that is totally not a saying but I’m
going with it).<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">3. In Chapter Three,
just after the section with the brothers in Stormhold, Neil Gaiman gives us a
description of Faerie that includes "each land that has been forced off
the map by explorers and the brave going out and proving it wasn't
there...". What imaginary lands do
you then hope are a part of Faerie?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">4. We do not get to
spend a great deal of time in the market but while there we are given a number
of interesting descriptions of the wares being bartered or sold. Which if any of them caught your eye, either
as items you would like to possess or ones you would most certainly hope to
avoid.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">5. If you have read
much of Gaiman's work, particularly his short fiction, then you have come
across some rather graphic and disturbing portrayals of sex. Gaiman offers up something very different in
the way of a sex scene early on in Stardust.
What are your feelings of the scene either in general or as a contrast
to other Gaiman-penned scenes involving sex?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><i>I
didn’t so much enjoy the sex scene per-se, but I did enjoy how emotionally
charged it was, without being graphic or disturbing as Gaiman’s other
portrayals have been. Instead, I came
away feeling very much a part of the fleeting yet strong and unspoken
connection between two people. It seemed
like something that shouldn’t be overlooked and felt real and important. In a world that was so quickly established as
something different than our own, their meeting seemed so real. Of course, anything Gaiman writes has an
essentially other-worldly quality but, and especially in contrast to the market
scene, this scene imparted a sense of grace and beauty that was shockingly
endearing. </i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">6. I suspect Neil
Gaiman is influenced by a number of fairy and folk tales in Stardust. Are there any elements of the story that made
a particular impression and/or reminded you of other fairy stories you have
read or are familiar with?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">7. And finally, which
of the many side characters introduce have caught your eye and why? Or what
else about the story thus far is of interest to you?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><i>The
dynamic between Tristan and his father, Tristan and his mother, and between the
father and mother themselves was just great.
Gaiman really just hints at a quiet anxiety but even the nub he shows us
hints at a pretty complicated family dynamic that I really wish we could have
heard more about. The truth just seemed to hang about the air and though the
family put on pretty taciturn airs, all the little things apparently made a
huge impact on Tristan’s upbringing. Meanwhile,
his father’s acceptance and special attention only highlights what they were
all trying so desperately not to point out.
We didn’t get much of a look at the family, but what we did see was
fraught…in the most intriguing way.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><i>Similarly,
I was, at least initially, very interested in what could have made Tristan’s
mother leave him at the Gates of Wall. I
think we’ll probably get a better flavor for the pressures and fears that lead
her to make such a difficult choice as we get further into the book, but maybe
not. In any case, it only contributed to
a very much understated sense of mystery surrounding Tristan that I was quite
thrilled with. Compared to Gaiman’s
other books I’ve read (just a few of them), this has been the most absorbing
beginning for me.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><i>Of
course this is also where my only complaint comes in so far. I couldn’t help feeling there was something
missing in Tristan’s character. I didn’t
get the sense that his family life, excessive teasing, and his deep love for
Victoria didn’t make for the strong connection with Tristan that you might
expect. He seemed oddly impervious to
the weirdness and meanness, and the outright rebuffs Victoria deals him. You’d expect his reactions, or lack thereof,
to somehow manifest themselves as an extraordinary sense of determinedness or
other such capability. Instead he came
off rather uncaring and emotionally inept at times.</i></span></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12364999124473415795noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5095695341570716002.post-22067038892993815442013-04-07T22:24:00.000-04:002013-04-07T22:24:45.096-04:00Finally!<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I'm sure some of you thought it might never happen, but I finally finished Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norell. On April 7th, 2013 at 10:10 pm. If you haven't read it, this is something of a life moment for me. That's all I have for you. Start celebrating!</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12364999124473415795noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5095695341570716002.post-15892372708621936462013-03-31T22:08:00.000-04:002013-03-31T22:08:06.361-04:00The Yiddish Policeman's Union<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmdeBSlKndtnz2u0evIodTMUUrv-teJdSY4ZHL5Ih3qS4ThZWRDGwaStXXr9dY5HWr2MRuEUteCGkrbJ32QVCRj4jgDB0xKjwqOlI_S7z0wIxChb1Fo6mfqGW6PWc2b47VUYjOVeVDdA0/s1600/The+Yiddish+Policemans+Union.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmdeBSlKndtnz2u0evIodTMUUrv-teJdSY4ZHL5Ih3qS4ThZWRDGwaStXXr9dY5HWr2MRuEUteCGkrbJ32QVCRj4jgDB0xKjwqOlI_S7z0wIxChb1Fo6mfqGW6PWc2b47VUYjOVeVDdA0/s320/The+Yiddish+Policemans+Union.JPG" width="215" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Stats<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<i><span style="color: #e36c0a; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-themecolor: accent6; mso-themeshade: 191;">The Yiddish Policeman’s Union</span></i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> by Michael Chabon<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">2008 Hugo
Award Winner<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Read by
Peter Riegert<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Got it
from: <i>Public Library</i><span style="color: #e36c0a; mso-themecolor: accent6; mso-themeshade: 191;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">10h 45m<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">In Chabon’s
alternate history, European Jewish refugees were allowed to settle in Sitka,
Alaska during WWII. Israel was destroyed
after only a few months, and now after sixty years, the Federal District of
Sitka is set to revert to the state of Alaska.
In the midst of the gloom and the impending finality that surrounds the
district and its inhabitants, Meyer Landsman, an alcoholic homicide detective,
finds himself pulled inexorably into the murder investigation of the son of a
powerful organized crime boss. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Reading in three dimensions<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">No one can
deny that the Hugo list, which has tended to the representation of male and
WASPy perspectives, could use an infusion of diversity. Some of my favorite Hugo’s have been those that
more inclusive of a wider array of human experience, but they’re few and far
between. I was pretty excited by the
title, <i><span style="color: #e36c0a; mso-themecolor: accent6; mso-themeshade: 191;">The Yiddish Policeman’s Union</span></i>,
for that very reason. Chabon’s win has
the added benefit, or curse, of being the kind of book that tests our
boundaries, and as a result, reaches fans outside the genre. And that’s probably a good thing.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">At the
same time as I’m happy about this book as a kind of border crossing, I’m not a
great fan of alternate history as SF. I’m
not aware of much critical discussion regarding the topic, and maybe this is my
fault. Maybe there is a true dearth of
scholarship on the fringes of SF, I’m not sure.
I suppose I should do some research.
I do know that I don’t find that the most often repeated justification
holds water. After all, doesn’t every
book ask, “what if?”, in some way or another?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Whatever
your perspective of the appropriateness of considering this book, or alternate
history in general, as a part of the Science Fiction/Fantasy universe, this
book will hopefully be one that, years from now helps us to better understand
the genre. Other than this, I feel
pretty ambivalent about <i><span style="color: #e36c0a; mso-themecolor: accent6; mso-themeshade: 191;">The Yiddish
Policeman’s Union</span></i>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Chabon in
fact conceived of the book as a result of something of an odd question - What
if there was a place that would necessitate a translation manual from English
to Yiddish. What countries would such a
manual (he happened across one called “<i>Say
it in Yiddish”</i>) be necessary?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Chabon’s
Sitka, Alaska, was a pretty wonderful exploration. There is a very real sense of place and space
– a feeling of a living breathing place – which is the result of some truly
great prose. It tricks you into grabbing
hold of the direct and austere noir elements which he then slyly pokes holes in
with unexpectedly sardonic witticism and cynical-yet-florid descriptions. The effect is that every street, building,
and room, has something of a unique texture and feeling of actual depth. It felt like reading in three dimensions.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Despite amazingly
great writing, I thought the story itself was lackluster at best. I’m normally a fool for a story with such
dark and hopeless characters and places, but something kept me from really
sinking into this one. Even by the end I
didn’t have any particular feelings about it.
I hope it wasn’t because I was forced to listen to the audiobook, but it
could have been. There were countless
times that I wish I could have lingered on a scene or phrase. I guess this is all good reason to return, at
a time when I’m more prepared to give it some real effort. Honestly though, I don’t know what would
motivate me to do that.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The audiobook<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">When I
started this decade, I was committed to “<i>no
more audiobooks”</i>. Then I checked out
Susanna Clarke’s mind-bogglingly long winner and felt I had no choice but to
listen during my commute if I wanted to finish the Hugo’s anytime soon. A vague awareness of the book’s critical
reception had only heightened my anticipation and I had been excited to read
The Yiddish Policeman’s Union for the cover alone so I was a little
disappointed that I didn’t get the feel of real pages. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Peter
Riegert’s reading was the perfect substitute.
He was great for capturing the gritty-noir and the uncomfortable air of
something impending. Perhaps his gruff
sound took something from the moments of levity in Chabon’s prose, but I loved
every minute of his reading.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">There is
also an interview with Chabon at the end of the book which was helpful. I appreciated the better understanding of
where Chabon was coming from, the genesis of Jewish Sitka, and his intentions.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Overall, I
was happy with the audiobook. I don’t
know that I would really encourage anyone else to listen but if someone were
anxious to, I wouldn’t stop them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Recommendation<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Despite
recognizing that this was an amazing book, I find myself deeply perplexed as to
how it was nominated and won Best Novel.
I’m not completely convinced that it belongs here and Chabon himself
admits that he never thought of it as science fiction while writing it. I normally don’t care much for what an artist
thinks of their own work once it’s in the public sphere, but in this case it
seems telling. I’m not diametrically
opposed to it winning, I just need better context. For everyone else, there’s plenty to like
here. Just know what you’re getting into.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">HEP SCORE<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Universe 5/5<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Social/Political
Climate 4/5<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Dialogue 4/5
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Scientific
Wonders 3/5 <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Characters
2/5<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Overall
18/25<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12364999124473415795noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5095695341570716002.post-16205127325994945622013-03-29T00:24:00.000-04:002013-03-29T00:24:26.113-04:00Hominids<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgN4noSqbNaBs32WJllJ8x6y_abV10JsnvclhH2veC92q0Mvk9lo1amzfl2EQbsCqLzguyA6PcroLy8fBi_9U5nsz2fTC1YpKh_g8JhVsGTEKpVndL-y7CrT5LXy781csoKIHLqCjjJhx4/s1600/Hominids.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgN4noSqbNaBs32WJllJ8x6y_abV10JsnvclhH2veC92q0Mvk9lo1amzfl2EQbsCqLzguyA6PcroLy8fBi_9U5nsz2fTC1YpKh_g8JhVsGTEKpVndL-y7CrT5LXy781csoKIHLqCjjJhx4/s320/Hominids.jpg" width="217" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Stats<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<i><span style="color: #e36c0a; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-themecolor: accent6; mso-themeshade: 191;">Hominids</span></i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">
by Robert J. Sawyer<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">2003 Hugo
Award Winner<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Got it
from: <i>Public Library</i><span style="color: #e36c0a; mso-themecolor: accent6; mso-themeshade: 191;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">431 Pages<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The book’s
synopsis had me quite worried at the start:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">“During a quantum-computing
experiment, Ponter Boddit, a Neanderthal physicist, accidentally pierces the
barrier between worlds and is transferred to our universe. He is almost immediately recognized as a Neanderthal,
but only much later as a scientist. He
is quarantined and studied, along and bewildered, a stranger in a strange land.” </span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">– from the
inside cover<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Us<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<i><span style="color: #e46c0a; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #E46C0A; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: lumm=75000; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: accent6; mso-themecolor: accent6; mso-themeshade: 191;">Hominids</span></i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">
was such an odd read and got off to a very shaky start for me. Parallel universe stories are not my
favorite, AT ALL. Added to that was a
decidedly pretentious author’s note intended to demonstrate how much research
Sawyer had done – and no, Mr. Sawyer, I’m not interested in where to look if I
want to learn more about Neanderthals. Then
a decidedly male gaze (we are introduced to Louise as a lacy-bra-wearing, <i>cosmo</i>-reading-when-she-should-be-paying-attention-to-sciency-stuff,
statuesque French-Canadian post-doc) left me thinking I had really stepped in
it. I should have been more prepared, the
dedication was to “Dude and The Other Dude” after all. Of course that was only the beginning of my
woes, but I’ll get back to that because there was at least one element that had
me smiling (not for long), and I don’t want to lose this fleeting positive
attitude.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I’ve you’ve
seen my reviews of <a href="http://hugoenduranceproject.blogspot.com/2012/10/startide-rising.html">Startide
Rising</a> and <a href="http://hugoenduranceproject.blogspot.com/2012/11/the-uplift-war.html">The
Uplift War</a>, you know that one of my favorite things about the Hugo Awards
has been the extension of personhood to dolphins and monkeys. The jump from Neanderthal to Sapien probably
isn’t much of a leap but it’s something, but expanding our sense of who we are
and who else is “us”, even just a little, is a step in the right
direction. And it’s a direction that I
consider one of the most proper roles of science fiction.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Rape, religion, and everything else that made <i>no</i> sense.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">While we’re
on the topic of the proper roles of science fiction, let’s talk about one of
the most contentious elements of the book, <i>the
rape of Mary Vaughan</i>. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">After
reading +/-80% of the Hugo Novels, I’ve come to expect a nuanced and meaningful
discussion of the interplay between technological and social progress from any
Hugo winner. Instead, Sawyer completely
misses an opportunity to discuss the unequal realization of the benefits of scientific
advancements between men and women. Here
I found myself excited at the possibility for a courageous discussion when Mary
dashes back to the lab to collect any possible evidence. Skipping ahead though, rather than a
treatment of the way that science allows us to bring to justice so many more
rapists than ever before, or maybe instead of the frequency with which the
justice system fails to do so <i>despite</i>
clear evidence, Sawyer never returns to the evidence in the lab. In fact, Mary never really gives reporting
the rape a second thought once she’s made her way into Ponter’s safe, gigantic –<i> mal</i>e – hands. Sawyer’s treatment of rape is problematic at best;
his failure to return to the theme though, is inexcusable.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Then,
there is the unexplainable religious debate between Mary and Ponter just days after
Ponter finds himself in our universe, and while he still can’t speak English. The whole argument is completely flaccid and
clearly propped-up by a desire to make Mary’s faith seem silly. More than the question of whether Mary’s
beliefs were given a fair shake though, I just found myself exasperated that the
entire conversation was even happening. Meanwhile,
Reuben and Louise are either pounding each like they’ve been charged with
repopulating the world, or else cooking meat in the back yard.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Needless
to say, I found it completely ludicrous that after a Neanderthal inexplicably
shows up on Earth and has subsequently been kidnapped, fallen deathly ill,
quarantined, and learned English, all in a matter of days, that anyone it that
house would act as they did. These were
apparently serious and respected scientists in the midst of the greatest
discovery in the history of the universe and the whole thing had the air of a <i>Seinfeld</i> episode with the added gravity
of <i>The Room</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Finally
there is Sawyer’s apparent disdain for humanity. Here I’ll call into question precisely that
which has been so hailed as Sawyer’s crowning achievement, the Neanderthal
society. Sawyer from the beginning establishes
a worldview which holds human social norms in pretty low regard, clearly in an effort to bludgeon his way to a human development story, but his
apparent response is the creation of a Neanderthal universe which is clearly
just as bad in every way. <o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px;">I actually thought there was the potential for an interesting question of free-will here, but trying to do too many things made any possible human development theme awkward and confused.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">In
particular, but among other things, I was thrown by his treatment of
male-female sexual relationships. Sex
for Reuben/Louise was just inappropriate, and in Mary’s case, it’s a tool for violence. Sawyer’s response is basically akin to an
abstinence only philosophy. Sure
male-male sex seems to be good, but I don’t recall if there is even mention of
female-female, and male-female is only allowed for procreation…and we all know
how well that works.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Recommendation<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Worst of
all, Sawyer never returns to Mary’s rape.
Well he does, but simply and vaguely to move her past her rape and “into
the future”. In the absence of further
discussion, Sawyer appears to use rape simply to create drama. This is of course a frequent use of rape in
popular culture, but inexcusable nonetheless. For this reason alone (but the other issues
don’t help Hominid’s cause), I would hesitate for a long while before recommending
this book to anyone.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">HEP SCORE<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Universe 3/5<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Social/Political
Climate 4/5<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Dialogue 3/5
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Scientific
Wonders 3/5 <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Characters
3/5<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Overall
16/25<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12364999124473415795noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5095695341570716002.post-63701844871798429482013-03-19T22:17:00.001-04:002013-03-19T22:17:51.219-04:00Gross, Hagrid<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
</div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">I finished listening to Harry Potter today. Jim Dale is so much fun. Of course I have several other reviews to
write before I can get around to reviewing it, but I wanted to take a moment now
to have some fun with it anyway. You
see, one of the worst things about the book is that Rowling completely fails to
capitalize on the year when Harry and Ron start to notice girls and well, Hermione’s
feelings are pretty much non-existent.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">I refuse to miss out on all the magical teenage anguish that
must have been floating around Hogwarts, so I did my very best to remove a few
quotes as far from their context as possible and imagine that Rowling was
actually giving us closely guarded hints at how being a teenage witch or wizard
might really have been with so many students and so few teachers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Let’s ease into
this. What exactly did Harry have in
mind, I wonder</span></i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">And
as the vela danced faster and faster, wild, half-formed thoughts started
chasing through Harry’s dazed mind. He
wanted to do something very impressive, right now.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Harry’s dirty thinking - Chapter 8<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">This makes me
uncomfortable for so many reasons</span></i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">“Nice
socks, Potter.” Moody growled as he
passed, his magical eye staring through Harry’s robes.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Mad-Eye Moody to Harry - Chapter 23<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">I always figured Hagrid for
a despicable old half-giant, but this is just obscene</span></i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">“Big
bones…I’ll give her big bones.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Harry,
Ron, and Hermione looked at one another nervously…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Hagrid to the Gang - Chapter 24<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Never, ever, say prod</span></i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">(his
voice was so quiet now, Harry leaned closer to listen) “if I can help at all…a
prod in the right direction…I’ve taken a liking to you…”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Ludo Bagman to Harry - Chapter 24<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Everything about this
next one is filthy, but then her name is Moaning Myrtle after all</span></i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">“Oooh,
very good,” she said, her thick glasses twinkling, “it took Diggory much longer
than that! And that was with <i>her</i> awake too” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Moaning Myrtle to Harry - Chapter 25<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">I’d venture to guess
this is illegal for several reasons, but what do I know about Wizarding Law
(also this is not actually funny)</span></i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Ron
was tied between Hermione and Cho Chang.
There was also a girl who looked no older than eight…All four of them
appeared to be in a very deep sleep.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Chapter 26<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">I can’t tell if it’s the
“master” or the “winky” that makes this sound wrong</span></i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">“Master
is needing his…Winky!”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Winky to Hermione - Chapter 28<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">I actually look forward to reviewing this book, and I hope
to get around to soon. Until then, which
was the least appropriate?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12364999124473415795noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5095695341570716002.post-86601450983170834532013-03-17T21:48:00.000-04:002013-03-17T21:48:18.433-04:00The Graveyard Book<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Stats<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<i><span style="color: #e36c0a; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-themecolor: accent6; mso-themeshade: 191;">The Graveyard Book</span></i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> by Neil Gaiman<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">2009 Hugo
Award Winner<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Got it
from: <i>Public Library</i><span style="color: #e36c0a; mso-themecolor: accent6; mso-themeshade: 191;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Audiobook
read by the author<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">7h 45m<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The only surviving member of his murdered family,
Nobody Owens was raised by ghosts. As
you can imagine, Nobody eventually wishes to leave the graveyard and explore the
big world, only to find that in the real world, there’s no place as friendly as
your neighborhood graveyard.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5tTh_fyH3ySxpX4ku3x-j4xAeBZbiCXzy-zlFKL0pyJd7dWqEPb-BDp0hchONud2H-jqChPvZPmaCQThpB3KYA1GCT-NVxJwIgWJt4wa8ovvYWwzO3yV1FBrKB0q8CN14LyCXZVLaESM/s1600/The+Graveyard+Book.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5tTh_fyH3ySxpX4ku3x-j4xAeBZbiCXzy-zlFKL0pyJd7dWqEPb-BDp0hchONud2H-jqChPvZPmaCQThpB3KYA1GCT-NVxJwIgWJt4wa8ovvYWwzO3yV1FBrKB0q8CN14LyCXZVLaESM/s200/The+Graveyard+Book.jpg" width="146" /></a><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">My library
has <i><span style="color: #e46c0a; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #E46C0A; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: lumm=75000; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: accent6; mso-themecolor: accent6; mso-themeshade: 191;">The Graveyard Book </span></i>in
just about every format to be found and I tried to sample them all. In the end, I decided to try out these <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Playaway">Playaway thingies</a>. My Mom has told me about them at her library,
but I’d never actually seen one before now. I liked that there was an option to speed-up
or slow-down the audio, and that it was read by the author, so I decided to
give it a shot while also making note of the many other formats in existence
(the illustrations by Dave McKean looked fantastic).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I’m glad I
chose the Playaway device (a counterintuitive use of an mp3 player) because
although the faster speed setting wasn’t to my taste, just hearing Gaiman read “flibbertigibbet”
at what was descriptively labeled “speed ++”, was well worth the price of
admission.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Titular-ly suggestive<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Going into
this book, I knew next to nothing about it.
Since completing it, I’ve seen <i><span style="color: #e46c0a; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #E46C0A; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: lumm=75000; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: accent6; mso-themecolor: accent6; mso-themeshade: 191;">The Graveyard Book</span></i>
oft praised for inspiring a sense of wonder.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Well, it
certainly starts out promising. The
title alone is about as ominous as the Hugo’s come (maybe right behind <i><span style="color: #e46c0a; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #E46C0A; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: lumm=75000; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: accent6; mso-themecolor: accent6; mso-themeshade: 191;">Doomsday book</span></i>). We
are immediately introduced to a toddler who has only narrowly escaped the
clutches of “The Man Jack” (another threatening title), who murdered his
family for an undisclosed reason. The
first chapter ends when the boy is rescued, at the behest of his recently dead
mother, by a graveyard full of very unthreatening ghosts. The rest of the book cobbles together an
uninspiring hero’s journey, never managing to live up to the possibilities suggested
by the title and first chapter. Gaiman
notes that it began as a re-telling of <i><span style="color: #e46c0a; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #E46C0A; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: lumm=75000; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: accent6; mso-themecolor: accent6; mso-themeshade: 191;">The Jungle Book</span></i>,
but I just didn’t find it to be much of an improvement.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">This is a
book with an orphaned protagonist, ghosts, ghouls, and a murderous evil dude,
from the 2000’s and it’s not Harry Potter.
The fact that it is still well-known and well-loved is impressive. However, beyond the neat concept, the story lacks
any robust development and it never mattered to me whether Bod would ever see
Scarlett again, whether he’d get out of the graveyard permanently, or whether
anything in particular would happen at all.
The graveyard ghosts fell flat for me and Nobody Owens was one the most
flat characters of all the Hugos. I might have cared about The Man Jack for a
minute…but then I stopped at the uninspired “Jacks of All Trades”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2w7GSjADgyHAIjoGzCET6GijTI063sZ6WGmk5jWItJwNjfU5HPxkWZSMGSlvLUwKrmQxFJ7uTSjat08-oEeQwlt16eNja0t-HsbruTaL_q2yUPddnpOKZmUsQecxy3ofyxSsE0W22wJ4/s1600/The+Graveyard+Book+Cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2w7GSjADgyHAIjoGzCET6GijTI063sZ6WGmk5jWItJwNjfU5HPxkWZSMGSlvLUwKrmQxFJ7uTSjat08-oEeQwlt16eNja0t-HsbruTaL_q2yUPddnpOKZmUsQecxy3ofyxSsE0W22wJ4/s320/The+Graveyard+Book+Cover.jpg" width="213" /></a><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The Harry
Potter series, for all its faults, had readers invested in not only Harry, Ron,
and Hermione, but in the Hogwarts Castle, secondary characters and the
compendium of magical beasts and intricacies of the previously unknown magical
world. Compared, <i><span style="color: #e46c0a; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #E46C0A; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: lumm=75000; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: accent6; mso-themecolor: accent6; mso-themeshade: 191;">The Graveyard Book</span></i><span style="color: #e46c0a; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #E46C0A; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: lumm=75000; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: accent6; mso-themecolor: accent6; mso-themeshade: 191;"> </span>is just the most beautifully wrapped and enticing gift
under your Christmas tree that upon unwrapping turns out to just be a second
pair<i> </i>of <i>boring pajamas</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The good wreck<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Gaiman has
a very recognizable voice. I’ve only read
<i><span style="color: #e46c0a; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #E46C0A; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: lumm=75000; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: accent6; mso-themecolor: accent6; mso-themeshade: 191;">The Graveyard Book</span></i>, <i><span style="color: #e46c0a; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #E46C0A; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: lumm=75000; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: accent6; mso-themecolor: accent6; mso-themeshade: 191;">Coraline</span></i>,
and I’ve heard him read a handful of things on the Youtube, but even this small
sample has demonstrated an instantly recognizable author’s voice. He tells <i><span style="color: #e46c0a; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #E46C0A; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: lumm=75000; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: accent6; mso-themecolor: accent6; mso-themeshade: 191;">The Graveyard Book</span></i>
in much the same way that he addresses a graduating class. I happen to like that he approaches all of
these with the same level of care for the construction and tone, so it’s fair
to say that despite a fairly strong disconnection from the characters and events
in <i><span style="color: #e46c0a; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #E46C0A; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: lumm=75000; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: accent6; mso-themecolor: accent6; mso-themeshade: 191;">The Graveyard Book</span></i>, the vehicle in which it was told was
truly pleasing.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">But that’s
not the voice I mean to talk about. I
mean to say that his voice – his speaking voice – is just wonderful. If I were a contestant on one of those old
dating shows where the bachelors are screened from view and they answer inane questions
and whatnot <i>and</i> Neil Gaiman were one
of the bachelors, his voice would totally be my pick.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">He has the
sort of voice that can perfectly convey the sense of wonder (I’ll admit there
is a little more than none), of silliness, but also of the grave things that
only a children’s story might contain all at once. The combination of his distinctive brand of storytelling
and a rather natural voice-acting ability (the man knows how to pause like
nobody’s business) created a children’s story that can fill the room.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I’m aware
there are a great many people out there that enjoyed this book more than I did
and I imagine for those who did, listening to Gaiman read it himself will just wreck
them. This has been one of my most
favorite audiobook experiences thus far.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Recommendation<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The only
other complaint I’d pass on here, was that it seemed to have such a deficit of
emotion (and a story about an orphaned child should have been easy) that I
never felt much about it at all. Honestly, the 2009 nominees included some
pretty big names (Charles Stross, Cory Doctorow, John Scalzi, and Neal
Stephenson), and it seems unlikely that this one pulled out the win. It was fun at times, but mostly just seemed <i>uninspired</i>. If my daughter were reading now, this would
be pretty hard to suggest given the dearth of amazing SF/F for kids in
existence.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">HEP SCORE<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Universe 2/5<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Social/Political
Climate 3/5<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Dialogue 4/5
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Scientific
Wonders 2/5 <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Characters
3/5<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Overall
14/25<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">After initially deciding not to listen to any more audiobooks for the remainder of the challenge, the time it is taking me to finish <i>Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell</i> is forcing me to. So while I continue with that beast, I'm also listening to <i>Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire</i>.</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12364999124473415795noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5095695341570716002.post-56952447398781015302013-03-14T23:29:00.000-04:002013-03-14T23:29:38.904-04:00How Do You Feel about Footnotes?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKleupr6Z_A1vJrM1HvFg3wknbBgiTM9od5FKkPCiFWUkdWJTBpqPUZd4UgK35NcTAwme4kA6VgDG-Nn9J21N7s1irLJwdFdIyN2bCxvUyV8iJALkST6yV9X0vAua9-nhb2tAqghB-8zk/s1600/Strange+and+Norrell+page.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKleupr6Z_A1vJrM1HvFg3wknbBgiTM9od5FKkPCiFWUkdWJTBpqPUZd4UgK35NcTAwme4kA6VgDG-Nn9J21N7s1irLJwdFdIyN2bCxvUyV8iJALkST6yV9X0vAua9-nhb2tAqghB-8zk/s640/Strange+and+Norrell+page.jpg" width="401" /></a></div>
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So. What we have here is a page from <i><span style="color: #b45f06;">Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell</span></i>. I've been reading this for weeks but I hope my pace will pick up, now that I've finished with a few tasks that had been taking up too much time, namely, studying and practicing for the GRE.</div>
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The first thing you will notice about this page is that it contains not one word of actual text. Well, there's text there. More precisely, the page contains not one word that is not a footnote. It is a page that exists <i>solely</i> for the purpose of footnoting the main body of text. Not only is this a page that exists tertiary to the story itself, but it is footnote continued from the previous page. And it isn't even the longest footnote in the book.</div>
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Nevertheless, I can't decide if I love or hate this phenomenon yet. There have certainly been instances when a footnote has seemed so unimportant that I cannot for the life of me determine why it has been included, and there have also been footnotes that I cannot for the life of me determine why it wasn't just a part of the damn story. I just can't deny that <i>act itself</i> has the effect of supplementing the character of the telling.</div>
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Have you read it? Your thoughts?</div>
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12364999124473415795noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5095695341570716002.post-63831911152867665612013-03-09T22:20:00.000-05:002013-03-09T22:20:42.595-05:00Everything is Worse with Kids<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><i>When they reached the house in Harley-street the gentleman
took a most affectionate farewell of Stephen, urging him not to feel sad at
this parting and reminding him that they would meet again that very night at
Lost-hope. “…when a most charming ceremony
will be held in the belfry of the Easternmost Tower. It commemorates an occasion which happened –
oh! five children of my enemy and we pushed them out of the belfry to their
deaths. Tonight we will re-enact this
great triumph! We will dress straw dolls
in the children’s blood-stained clothes and fling them down on to the paving
stones and then we will sing and dance and rejoice over their destruction!”<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><i>“And do you perform this ceremony every year, sir? I feel sure I could have remembered it if I
had seen it before. It is so very…striking.”<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><i>“I am glad you think so.
I perform it whenever I think of it.
Of course it was a great deal more striking when we used real children.”<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><span style="color: #e46c0a; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #E46C0A; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: lumm=75000; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: accent6; mso-themecolor: accent6; mso-themeshade: 191;">Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">by Susanna Clarke<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Chapter 26<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">I’m finally able to get back to blogging more regularly. Still plodding through Susanna Clarke’s
unforgivably long Hugo.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12364999124473415795noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5095695341570716002.post-40915927713579699172013-03-06T00:46:00.000-05:002013-03-06T00:46:58.504-05:00Hiérarchie du Heinlein<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">For some reason I woke up
thinking about Robert A. Heinlein’s body of work – his Hugo winners (novels) in
particular. Heinlein’s Hugo winners <i>Stranger in a Strange Land</i> and <i>The Moon
is a Harsh Mistress</i> were some of the first works of Science Fiction I ever read. Not only were they fun to read, the conception
of Earth and Humanity (in both) as <i>weird</i>
and the pursuit of revolutionary social and political change (in both) resonated
with me and inspired me to seek out more like them. Strangely enough, in attempting a systematic
approach to the genre through the Hugo Award, these two have become my least
and most favorite of his five winners for best novel. So this morning I decided that I couldn’t
decide if I had ever formalized a complete Hierarchy of Heinlein’s Hugo Novels, so here
they are. I should make a graphic huh?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Opine away.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">1.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span></b><!--[endif]--><b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The Moon is a Harsh Mistress</span></b></blockquote>
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<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b><b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">2.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span></b><!--[endif]--><b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Double Star</span></b></blockquote>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYdSp6Bzdv1_nANmhVL5IP4ZnPEtwmbE-9B9cgHU81ztT2AHWKF2UvcHIZDLVp7HCskzdZ1lQ51Q_Na9rnuCL7lZE7jQ9BdtxXnxDV3d7_M8i_V1M49TLVJUaPS2t4See_FAJtS4XRx5I/s1600/Double+Star.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYdSp6Bzdv1_nANmhVL5IP4ZnPEtwmbE-9B9cgHU81ztT2AHWKF2UvcHIZDLVp7HCskzdZ1lQ51Q_Na9rnuCL7lZE7jQ9BdtxXnxDV3d7_M8i_V1M49TLVJUaPS2t4See_FAJtS4XRx5I/s200/Double+Star.jpeg" width="125" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b><b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">3.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span></b><!--[endif]--><b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Farmer in the Sky</span></b></blockquote>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPqDO92M14hWvAbD6zFroJs4Nave0sQ_MwGSlDcPHNTHDUgJy-Ipir3z0qsBGKjsZwoXj2ujAJNwnmzIg81sl3NrdjoxDDYuzA1PJD_plHdpOgOmcl6eBcfymv47zffaI74oNwVuCCZMs/s1600/Farmer+in+the+Sky.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPqDO92M14hWvAbD6zFroJs4Nave0sQ_MwGSlDcPHNTHDUgJy-Ipir3z0qsBGKjsZwoXj2ujAJNwnmzIg81sl3NrdjoxDDYuzA1PJD_plHdpOgOmcl6eBcfymv47zffaI74oNwVuCCZMs/s200/Farmer+in+the+Sky.jpg" width="125" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b><b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">4.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span></b><!--[endif]--><b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Starship Troopers</span></b></blockquote>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjDNpo9tP1RtiI2uD2P0SIEvBDprEHoR_rrXVrnf_o8Sg8dRGOGJDa7XBQNZppOUjmIksWO9z0xANlYlKH9TTQnJIf4uW6dJhpq7k1bkjSM-QzuwiGdmMmwfIPsD9aADrWYvPxCTh9GIQ/s1600/Starship+Troopers+001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjDNpo9tP1RtiI2uD2P0SIEvBDprEHoR_rrXVrnf_o8Sg8dRGOGJDa7XBQNZppOUjmIksWO9z0xANlYlKH9TTQnJIf4uW6dJhpq7k1bkjSM-QzuwiGdmMmwfIPsD9aADrWYvPxCTh9GIQ/s200/Starship+Troopers+001.jpg" width="133" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b><b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">5.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span></b><!--[endif]--><b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Stranger in a Strange Land</span></b></blockquote>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlPb5tMQa8DZtOn2gqqzwEbiDlz8CYQuw1Y1-Ae6EpsucJNSlQwsj7TAow6bM0rTY6_yifve0VXkhn-I9KLfQjIMjsqGEDd2XAQdHCBx3vKOSBRQwHPcnG06WdhvDTl9a-sQel8SdjQUs/s1600/Stranger+in+a+Strange+Land.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlPb5tMQa8DZtOn2gqqzwEbiDlz8CYQuw1Y1-Ae6EpsucJNSlQwsj7TAow6bM0rTY6_yifve0VXkhn-I9KLfQjIMjsqGEDd2XAQdHCBx3vKOSBRQwHPcnG06WdhvDTl9a-sQel8SdjQUs/s200/Stranger+in+a+Strange+Land.jpg" width="131" /></a></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12364999124473415795noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5095695341570716002.post-84771756462825273612013-03-01T00:03:00.000-05:002013-03-01T00:03:42.190-05:00The Brother from Another Planet<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjigBLp3RxDSnAmTQOYwBp78X2GA0M3_zWSBQ9awj0pqy2sxMDAWsAceMYwXEPfLe-8Wu5imWlyhOVOT_IpdPp_bmfHF2UeCTFZBAEx-L26CZsmdQIxfFIurHk3QXiT5iB9RovyFEEl9Rc/s1600/13sfexp2001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjigBLp3RxDSnAmTQOYwBp78X2GA0M3_zWSBQ9awj0pqy2sxMDAWsAceMYwXEPfLe-8Wu5imWlyhOVOT_IpdPp_bmfHF2UeCTFZBAEx-L26CZsmdQIxfFIurHk3QXiT5iB9RovyFEEl9Rc/s320/13sfexp2001.jpg" width="195" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I am
both disappointed and excited about this post.
The disappointment is the result of the end of the <i>2013 Sci-Fi Experience</i>. I
had very high hopes for this year. In
particular I wanted focus on expanding my participation this year to
film/television in addition to my Hugos (they are mine). In fact I did that and more. As a result of Carl’s delightful non-challenge
(we are teaching Emmeline to say “delightful!”) I read part 1 of the graphic
novel <i>Akira</i> by Katsuhiro Otomo, made a return to the <i>delightful</i> concept album <i><span style="color: #e46c0a; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #E46C0A; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: lumm=75000; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: accent6; mso-themecolor: accent6; mso-themeshade: 191;">Deltron 3030</span></i>
(and actual posted <a href="http://hugoenduranceproject.blogspot.com/2013/02/mid-hiatus-aporia.html">briefly</a>,
but I’m not sure if it counts), finally began to wade into <i><span style="color: #e46c0a; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #E46C0A; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: lumm=75000; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: accent6; mso-themecolor: accent6; mso-themeshade: 191;">Star Trek: The Original Series</span></i> (5 or so episodes written
by Hugo winners or other SF writers), and I also watched the <i>delightful</i> film from the 1980’s, <i><span style="color: #b45f06;">The
Brother from Another Planet</span></i> - the topic of today’s post. I’m also disappointed that I wasn’t able to
write about more of these experiences so, on this last day of the
non-challenge, I am tearing myself from studying for the <i>delightful</i> Graduate Record Examination to sneak one last review in
before the closing bell.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTb__fVxlTvb8aDHYdIx_BdoUUehq5Te-cTDPRji_AbdiQvNpK20VZDqRxqRwG3gp0kkBXNOh6LVVHtilpgS04QbkhtqozaYBZ4rY0IBM3oPfSV6nCQgTTO9ap0WEKTG7q-vImJYM0Gg4/s1600/The+Brother+from+Another+Planet.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTb__fVxlTvb8aDHYdIx_BdoUUehq5Te-cTDPRji_AbdiQvNpK20VZDqRxqRwG3gp0kkBXNOh6LVVHtilpgS04QbkhtqozaYBZ4rY0IBM3oPfSV6nCQgTTO9ap0WEKTG7q-vImJYM0Gg4/s1600/The+Brother+from+Another+Planet.JPG" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Stats<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<i><span style="color: #e46c0a; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #E46C0A; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: lumm=75000; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: accent6; mso-themecolor: accent6; mso-themeshade: 191;">The Brother from Another Planet</span></i><span style="color: #e46c0a; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #E46C0A; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: lumm=75000; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: accent6; mso-themecolor: accent6; mso-themeshade: 191;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">(1984) – Rated R<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Dir. by
John Sayles<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Starring
Joe Morton, Daryl Edwards<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">109m<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">After
Joe Morton (The Brother) escapes his home planet, where he was a slave, he
crash-lands his <s>horrible shaky light-up cardboard box</s> <i>delightful</i> spaceship in New York Harbor. Luckily for him, he passes for human as no
one ever seems to notice his feet. Aside
from a few really hairy moments and his inability to speak, his assimilation is
<s>unbelievably</s> rather uncomplicated.
Shortly after his arrival in NY however, we also learn he is being
pursued by two ridiculous men dressed in black.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The
Brother from Another Planet is about outsiders, featuring outsiders. It isn’t a pretty film. It’s dark and grainy, and the sound, lighting,
and effects can be a bit wonky at times.
Nevertheless, it was precisely those elements that made it feel all the
more serious at times. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><i>The
Brother From another Planet</i> vacillates between biting social criticism and
hilarious parody. The film plays with
and goofs on traditional alien tropes but in a way that is but can be dead
serious too. “The Brother” as the
speechless alien trying to interpret some of the most inexplicable phenomena
that make up the modern human experience provides plenty of laughs but other
times strips our social conventions to the bone with just a look. He comes to earth and though he’s certainly
the outsider, he understands so much in his wordless yet hyper-expressive way. Morton is well worth the watch (and stay for
the <i>delightful</i> scene featuring Fisher
Stevens).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I’d
like to say more, but it’s late, I’m tired, and it’s almost March. Please check out this vastly under-appreciated, <i>delightful</i> film. It’s on Netflix Instant so make it happen.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Oh, and
if you were wondering: 8 times.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12364999124473415795noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5095695341570716002.post-24643648922881050122013-02-27T00:26:00.000-05:002013-02-27T00:26:12.397-05:00Mid-Hiatus Aporia<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Sorry for the extended hiatus but it's going to have to continue. I hope to get something up in the next few days. I've got a waiting list of reviews to write...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Anyway, I'm poking my head out from my GRE study hole to complain that this album never won a Hugo?! </span><br />
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<br /><object width="320" height="266" class="BLOGGER-youtube-video" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" data-thumbnail-src="http://2.gvt0.com/vi/Q7_jbluF0qo/0.jpg"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Q7_jbluF0qo&fs=1&source=uds" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><embed width="320" height="266" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Q7_jbluF0qo&fs=1&source=uds" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object></div>
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">This album should have won the 2001 Best Related Work. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Just look at this description from wikipedia:</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">"The
album's story casts Del in the role of Deltron Zero, a disillusioned mech
soldier and interplanetary computer prodigy rebelling against a 31st century
New World Order. In a world where evil oligarchs suppress both human rights and
hip-hop, Del fights rap battles against a series of foes, becoming Galactic
Rhyme Federation Champion."<span style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
</blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I'm at a loss for why it didn't even receive a nomination. How often do hip-hop and science fiction intersect AND this one achieved rather popular appeal. I have to imagine it warranted a blip on the radar.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The whole album is great but 'Virus' was special fun:</span><br />
<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/ijPE7fe4XTg?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">So, sorry for the continued absence but I'll be back </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">permanently very soon. Until then...<i>upgrade your grey matter</i>!</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12364999124473415795noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5095695341570716002.post-8413199993374222192013-02-22T22:42:00.001-05:002013-02-22T22:42:07.231-05:00"Employ Political Moral Offsets"<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I've been such a lazy blogger lately...and </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I don't have much for you right now either so I'll just leave a brief note:</span></i><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Orson Scott Card has been getting a lot of attention of late. Between the Marvel hire and forthcoming adaptation of </span><i style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="color: #b45f06;">Ender's Game</span></i><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">, there are a lot of people asking whether it is a moral question to consume the work of an artist committed to . I'll offer my thoughts by way of weighing-in on </span><a href="http://thinkprogress.org/alyssa/issue/" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;" target="_blank">Alyssa's</a><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> recent </span>post<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> in which offers <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/alyssa/2013/02/21/1619481/an-ethical-guide-to-consuming-content-created-by-awful-people-like-orson-scott-card/" target="_blank">several suggestions</a> as to whether and how to watch a movie based on the work of a </span><a href="http://greensboro.rhinotimes.com/hc.e.211703.lasso" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;" target="_blank">vocal</a><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> and committed anti-gay activist.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Alyssa proffers 4 choices for people who loved the book and desperately want to see the movie but don't want to support a man with intolerable political views even indirectly. Here was the choice most salient to me:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, Trebuchet MS, Lucida Sans, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22.5px;"><i><b>2. Employ political moral offsets:</b> If Card has points on the back end, the percentage of the purchase price of your movie ticket that goes to him will still be relatively low. But even so, offset that financial contribution to his well-being with a political contribution to an organization that fights precisely the kind of hatred that Card supports. As a ballpark, I’d suggest twice the price of your ticket purchase to Freedom to Marry, an exceedingly canny organization that does all sorts of wonderful marriage equality work. The Gay And Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, which does a lot of media work, including publishing the excellent television census of LGBT characters, the Network Responsibility Index, is also a great candidate for donations.</i></span></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In all likelihood, I won't see it in theaters but if I do, I'm taking Alyssa's advice and making an equal or greater contribution that will help fight hatred. I hope everyone else who chooses to see this film will too.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12364999124473415795noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5095695341570716002.post-25386259184669311852013-02-10T08:09:00.001-05:002013-02-10T08:21:00.295-05:00Decade in Review: 1990's<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
</div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The 90's are over and it’s time again for what has become one of my favorite parts
of this challenge. HEP STATS!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">In order of appearance: Covers, Random Title Holders, Statistics,
Everyone’s Favorite Chart, My Terrible Writing, and The Most Important Stat. Enjoy!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8QcQQjLMzw-GfwNz62P3SFwMIEaz8LJWacJpZ4qGR3ACQ9F9gCMy9_rVrRynPkGyKix8XqgOq-x3f-oOLlXSjHRW03k-05otl8hRq02n_0eEak77kzmgIqRrKx97IkAni23zZ8r26V5c/s1600/1990s+Cover+Mash-up.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8QcQQjLMzw-GfwNz62P3SFwMIEaz8LJWacJpZ4qGR3ACQ9F9gCMy9_rVrRynPkGyKix8XqgOq-x3f-oOLlXSjHRW03k-05otl8hRq02n_0eEak77kzmgIqRrKx97IkAni23zZ8r26V5c/s1600/1990s+Cover+Mash-up.JPG" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">My favorite covers:<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">1.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Barrayar<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">2.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">A Fire Upon the Deep<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Highest HEP Score:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> A TIE!
I can’t believe it and didn’t realize this had happened but two books
received perfect scores – <i><a href="http://hugoenduranceproject.blogspot.com/2013/01/a-fire-upon-deep.html">A
Fire Upon the Deep</a></i> by Vernor Vinge and <i><a href="http://hugoenduranceproject.blogspot.com/2012/12/green-mars.html">Green
Mars</a></i> by Kim Stanley Robinson. <i>Two very fine books</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Lowest HEP Score:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> <i><a href="http://hugoenduranceproject.blogspot.com/2012/12/the-vor-game.html">The
Vor Game</a></i> could only achieve 18 and was my lowest score for the
decade. Not a terrible book, though my
timing was.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Biggest Surprise:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> <i><a href="http://hugoenduranceproject.blogspot.com/2013/01/mirror-dance.html">Mirror
Dance</a></i> by Lois McMaster Bujold.
After pretty inconsistent reception of the first two, I wasn’t sure I
could count on this one being any good.
It surpassed any expectation I had though.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Mom Pick:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> <i><a href="http://hugoenduranceproject.blogspot.com/2013/01/to-say-nothing-of-dog.html">To
Say Nothing of the Dog</a></i> by Connie Willis. Seriously good. SF-lite.
Kid tested, mother approved.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Favorite Character:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> Sax Russell in <i><a href="http://hugoenduranceproject.blogspot.com/2012/12/green-mars.html">Green
Mars</a></i> by Kim Stanley Robinson, by a landslide. This could have been a runner-up for the
biggest surprise because I really didn’t care for him in <i><span style="color: #e46c0a; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #E46C0A; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: lumm=75000; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: accent6; mso-themecolor: accent6; mso-themeshade: 191;">Red Mars</span></i>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Favorite Gadget:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> <i>The
Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer</i> in Neal Stephenson’s, <i><a href="http://hugoenduranceproject.blogspot.com/2013/02/the-diamond-age.html">The
Diamond Age</a></i>. I suppose any of
the nanotech from that book could be inserted here though.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Favorite Epic Quote:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> It’s a Swan, from <i><a href="http://hugoenduranceproject.blogspot.com/2013/01/to-say-nothing-of-dog.html">To
Say Nothing of the Dog</a></i> by Connie Willis. That man was so fantastically, hilariously
frightened…I just couldn’t help myself.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Favorite Moment:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> When <a href="http://hugoenduranceproject.blogspot.com/2012/11/the-first-hundred.html">Maya
killed Phyllis</a>. It was one of the
most charged moments in all of the 90’s winners and…It. Was. Shocking. Again, <i><a href="http://hugoenduranceproject.blogspot.com/2012/12/green-mars.html">Green
Mars</a></i> by Kim Stanley Robinson.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Coolest Aliens:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> Not too many aliens in the 90’s so
nearly by the process of elimination, this title goes to Vinge’s <i><a href="http://hugoenduranceproject.blogspot.com/2013/01/a-fire-upon-deep.html">A
Fire Upon the Deep</a></i>, but you might be surpised to find that I liked the
Skroderider’s best of all. The Tines
were great but the Riders’ history really took me.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Favorite Review:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> I really enjoyed writing a number of
the reviews, <i><a href="http://hugoenduranceproject.blogspot.com/2012/12/green-mars.html">Green
Mars</a></i> and <i><a href="http://hugoenduranceproject.blogspot.com/2013/01/a-fire-upon-deep.html">A
Fire Upon the Deep</a></i> were two of my favorites, but I think I had the most
fun with <i><a href="http://hugoenduranceproject.blogspot.com/2013/01/blue-mars.html">Blue
Mars</a></i> by Kim Stanley Robinson, if you can believe it. It attracted less traffic than my other two
favorites by far but this is MY favorite, not yours ;-) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">This decade included, understandably
this time, a tie, and therefore an extra book and for reasons mostly related to
my slow reading pace and lack of time, I ended up only reading six print books and
listening to five audiobooks. The math
works out to <u><b>2,706 total pages</b></u> (averaging <b><u>451 per</u></b> – a slight decrease from 476
in the 80’s) and <b><u>6,583 total minutes</u></b> of audio (<b><u>109+ total hours</u></b> - that's 4.5 days - and almost <u><b>22
hours per</b></u>). In the course of eleven
books from the 90’s I only just wrote more than 7,700 words so I guess my
reviews tended to be brief for this decade (I wrote over 10,000 for the 80’s
with one less review).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The HEP Scores were pretty
stagnant from the 1980’s, however there were two perfect scores so take that
under advisement. As it happens, the
average HEP Score actually decreased ever so slightly from 22.20 in the 80’s
to <b><u>22.09</u></b> in the 90’s (a new phenomenon).
Needless to say with scores like that, the last 21 Hugo winners have been fantastic. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj29V-WWKWtNAIQVw9P5uEOEfP1kdF5lX3urfeGf_7vHOPW3lWaxpAiAhZDPtxM2eOCoQN2Fre_Vj6T9Zu7_YnX1CKriywbTOAbYIg18OQKFwOEmsV5c52r8uz4m-_zD3RsIP2Z4ci1D1M/s1600/1990s+Review+Chart.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="339" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj29V-WWKWtNAIQVw9P5uEOEfP1kdF5lX3urfeGf_7vHOPW3lWaxpAiAhZDPtxM2eOCoQN2Fre_Vj6T9Zu7_YnX1CKriywbTOAbYIg18OQKFwOEmsV5c52r8uz4m-_zD3RsIP2Z4ci1D1M/s640/1990s+Review+Chart.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Again my last graphic resembles
prior iterations. I still find it fun
and still wish our county library system had all of them, but I guess for the
most part if a Hugo Winner is still in print, they had it. Seems reasonable. My thanks to anyone who has helped me fill
the gaps!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr7Oq2TRXiVEVgY7yss9Kw6mEB2HlQzYfML8eNjHeIV-DM79BcbEjHpm0xngvk_FEQ1e-0IepgNimg7k_1nJe9kYPPcqiX9AvsY5pbjZtleKuhIa1ZZm4ACNXhW_RKWMexPbNTsxL9b5I/s1600/1990s+Book+Sources.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="221" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr7Oq2TRXiVEVgY7yss9Kw6mEB2HlQzYfML8eNjHeIV-DM79BcbEjHpm0xngvk_FEQ1e-0IepgNimg7k_1nJe9kYPPcqiX9AvsY5pbjZtleKuhIa1ZZm4ACNXhW_RKWMexPbNTsxL9b5I/s400/1990s+Book+Sources.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Of course I still write way below grade-level, but you're used to that by now. I like to think it's part of my charm. WHICH I TOTALLY HAVE. So much charm. Anyway, with two of my favorite books located on a certain planet it's no surprise that BOOK and REALLY once again demonstrate an uncanny knack for <i>saying my good words</i>. Oh, and I talked about Mars non-stop.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ74lqFk_x1cgyL200PKTWZy44LpHBNj1nrxf43WfsOqQoBOE6moa15etWjDqvTxznHI1vehzjz6RmCRp6rSie1AjueHwYDsT5Q_djXtOFDPNOIsXsTIp02cdMHVbbllwtFnZJDUoN3k4/s1600/1990s+Word+Cloud.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="292" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ74lqFk_x1cgyL200PKTWZy44LpHBNj1nrxf43WfsOqQoBOE6moa15etWjDqvTxznHI1vehzjz6RmCRp6rSie1AjueHwYDsT5Q_djXtOFDPNOIsXsTIp02cdMHVbbllwtFnZJDUoN3k4/s640/1990s+Word+Cloud.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">There are some kinks in there. Ve?</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">And of course, the most
important stat ever: ONLY 1.3 DECADES TO GO and I’m already making some headway in that department.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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