What I'm Reading

A meeting at Corvallis by Stirling, S. M.
The final piece in the trilogy starting with Dies the Fire. I like it and I'm surprised that I like it. Well, partly. I do love a good disaster. And if we suddenly lost all electricity or combustion possibilities other than what it takes to make a small fire wouldn't we all be in a good disaster? Dies the Fire explored that very well. It also brought up the problem of how one rebuilds a society once it has been rocked too far.

It is at that point I thought I'd have trouble with the series. I love the SCA. Adore those guys. If I had the time I'd probably hang out with them. And the superiority complex the SCA would get at a time like this would be disasterous. Fortunately, the superiority complex of a former SCA member is given to the bad guy. So I can live with that.

The persistance of Elvish and other fantasy elements is annoying but it's ok for this type of genre. What the heck, if we can use Navajo to confuse the Japanese during WWII, why not use Elvish if you have it? And the second novel Protector's War shows how well those mythical elements can be used to reinforce or even re-create a culture. And it does allow for suspension of belief when an unexpected group arrives from Tasmania via Great Britain...by ship...

The final piece, Meeting at Corvallis seems to explore not only what makes a culture but the positive and negative elements that must be present to allow the culture to survive. I haven't quite finished it yet and, while I know the ending will be heroic and hopeful for the future, I suspect there will be sacrifices I won't like.

Overall a fast-moving and enjoyable series.

What I'm Listening to
Full blast by Evanovich, Janet. What a hoot that woman is. Just the thing to keep a gal smiling while cursing her way through traffic.

Current Musical Motif
Dang it! I woke up early yesterday and couldn't go back to sleep. I was flipping around tv channels and came upon "Come On, Get Happy: The Partridge Family Story" (1999) (TV). I got sucked in. I couldn't stop it. It was a vortex of unimaginable power. And it leaves me wondering: Why is it we know more about what happened to Jeremy Gelbwaks, the one year wonder who couldn't play drums than we do about little Suzanne Crough who bravely and silently beat herself black and blue with that tamborine for all those years?

I feel some kind of MTV/VH1 Where are they now? thing coming on.