Entry tags:
Sunday
And so the weekend ends. The weather is a lot better today than yesterday - yesterday was chilly and wet; today is warm and sunny. And breezy. The living room is livable, which is awesome. And in an hour and a half, we'll have the new Doctor Who to watch.
Yesterday we went out to the mall. Jilly picked up an outfit for the cruise. I picked up some jeans, swim trunks, sandals, and a nice work shirt. Between this week and last week I'm set - I now have infinite more pairs of shorts than before, for instance (from 0 to 5). Yaaay shorts. :)
Today was Father's Day brunch. Good company. We'll leave it at that and not discuss the food.
Which brings us to this week. To do:
Have gotten most of the way through Sharpe's Triumph. The Sharpe series is actually pretty good, following the exploits of a British Sergeant in the midst of India. Good descriptions of historical events, good action. Richard Sharpe would probably be best described as the Bruce Willis of colonial England.
Having almost finished it, though, that leaves the question as to what I read next:
Yesterday we went out to the mall. Jilly picked up an outfit for the cruise. I picked up some jeans, swim trunks, sandals, and a nice work shirt. Between this week and last week I'm set - I now have infinite more pairs of shorts than before, for instance (from 0 to 5). Yaaay shorts. :)
Today was Father's Day brunch. Good company. We'll leave it at that and not discuss the food.
Which brings us to this week. To do:
write a DC report (need to just add Steve's DST awards and hit send)I'll probably work on the first three items tomorrow night. I will also likely hang out on Mirc for any online RP people want - just let me know if there's a need.
plan a Forsaken game
write up a plotkit for Nickdo a mage write-up
Have gotten most of the way through Sharpe's Triumph. The Sharpe series is actually pretty good, following the exploits of a British Sergeant in the midst of India. Good descriptions of historical events, good action. Richard Sharpe would probably be best described as the Bruce Willis of colonial England.
Having almost finished it, though, that leaves the question as to what I read next:
- Traitor, the next in the NJO series
- Starfighters of Adumar, the last X-wing novel I didn't own until earlier this weekend.
- Arrows of the Queen, a ML novel that I purchased on
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northernminx's recommendation. - The Thirteen Gun Salute, the next O'Brian novel
- Something else (suggestions welcome)
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For Urban Fantasy, his Dresden Files is some of the best out there. It is an ongoing series, 10 books so far. He's stated that he plans about 20 casefiles, and then an epic trilogy. So we're nearly at the halfway point- but the good thing is the books are rather like episodes of Buffy. While there is overarching metaplot, each casefile has its own plot which does get resolved in the individual books. Jim has unique and interesting vampires, fae that are truly scary powerhouses, and one wizard fighting to keep Chicago safe for the average human who doesn't believe in any weird stuff. The books are first person, and have a definite noir feel - Harry Dresden is a private investigator of sorts. He also has a lot of snark.
In contrast, the fantasy series is entirely third person, and jumps from viewpoint to viewpoint. The first book is decent. The rest improve vastly in quality (he gets a better handle on switching viewpoints, I feel) and by about book 3 they are simply amazing. Book 4 came out last Christmas, and damn, plot threads from the first book got resolved. The setting is vaguely that of the Roman Empire, where every citizen has elemental spirits they can control and use for magical and mundane purposes. Everyone except one lone shepherd... And the bad guys? Well there are lost of shades of grey, and then there is the inhuman menace trying to take over the world. The books have some pretty detailed worldbuilding, and the non-human races are unusual and have real depth. Plots are long-term, political, and involve the fate of the empire. Well, when they aren't short term and involve trying to live to see the next day. Lots of large battle scenes - and I actually enjoyed them which is typically not the case. The series will end in 6 books, so one more Christmas of 2008, then the final one winter of 2009.
Jim has really honed his craft, and his latest books are extremely good. Each series gets better as it goes on.