Pessimism and optimism...

Don't ever become a pessimist ... A pessimist is correct oftener than an optimist, but an optimist has more fun - and neither can stop the march of events. - Robert A. Heinlein, 1907 - 1988

Colouring an open book...

This came from : What colour am I?

Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.

My Colour is Blue.

Now, I don't play Magic so this maybe skews my approach, but I don't think I'm in any way deceitful! (Of course, I would say that, wouldn't I?) In fact, I think lying is a terrible thing. But sometimes I am... strategic... in what I say and do.

Anyway, blue is my favourite colour.

Nine-year-old Canadian released...

A while ago I was talking about about this case of a Canadian boy and his family being held in horrible conditions in an American detention centre. I see today there is more news, and it's a happy development - Kevin and his family have at last been allowed to return to Canada.

The story seems much more tame when it doesn't actually describe the unpleasant conditions of their prison.

The Sharing Knife: Legacy by Lois McMaster Bujold...

Lois McMaster Bujold is one of my favourite authors, mostly because of Shards of Honour and The Warrior's Apprentice and other books in the Vorkosigan saga. Which is a science fiction series.

In recent years she has been writing fantasy rather than SF, and I've yet to enjoy it as much. Even saying so make me feel like an ungrateful wretch, because she still has some amazing characters, wonderful insight into human nature, and engrossing plots. And it isn't that I prefer SF to fantasy - I generally read for style rather than content, and I'm not fussy about genre.

So. The Sharing Knife: Legacy is the second part of the story begun in The Sharing Knife: Beguilement. "Legacy" is so new it isn't published yet. There isn't even a picture of it on amazon.com yet, it's that new.

The Sharing Knife: Beguilement was a wonderful love story about a Lakewalker named Dag and a Farmer named Fawn, whom he calls Spark. There's every reason they shouldn't be together: their peoples don't intermarry, he's about three times her age (their peoples age at different rates), and their lifestyles are incompatible. But they get married anyway, and then deal with the consequences. In the first book, the 'consequences' were mostly Fawn's family, and the interaction is magnificent, as Dag uses every trick in the book (and a good degree of ingenious improvisation) to win over his new in-laws.

In "Legacy", the consequences are Dag's family and people ( as he and Fawn settle down... )

I Am a Dalek by Gareth Roberts...

I Am a Dalek by Gareth Roberts. The title's a giveaway, right? This is a Doctor Who story. A novella, actually. Marketed as a 'quick read', and it is.

I’ve read two other Doctor Who novels. Both were reasonably entertaining. Neither had the wit and wisdom and emotional power of the TV show. Both were... pleasant but shallow. One doesn't realistically expect more of a novel that is a spin-off of a TV show that's marketed to kids, but I had hopes.

I read I Am a Dalek because the public library had it, and I’m a Doctor Who addict not even looking for a 12-step programme. It was a free fix, right? I had low expectations. To my delight, this book was smart and witty and action-packed and had (to my mind) much more of the spirit of the TV show than the previous full-length novels I'd read. Roberts was particularly good at catching the tenth Doctor's distinctive voice.