Just wondering......
How many of those Republicans in Congress who are opposed to allowing their employers (i.e. ordinary Americans) a "government option" for health care have voluntarily given up the "government option" health care plan that their employers (i.e. ordinary Americans) are providing for members of Congress. One would think that if the "government option" is so bad then the Republicans in Congress would not avail themselves of it, insure themselves privately, and save their employers (i.e. ordinary Americans) the expense of insuring them.
Imagine the tax cut that could be passed along to ordinary Americans if the millionaire lawyers who take up so much space in Congress just paid for their own health care!
Just wondering.....
Sidereal
Friday, July 10, 2009
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Review: Fast Ships, Black Sails, edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer
Fast Ships, Black Sails, edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer, published in 2008 by Night Shade Books.
Summary:
A pirate themed anthology of original science fiction and fantasy stories. Story titles follow, along with my opinion of each one:
- Boojum, by Elizabeth Bear and Sarah Monette: good
- Castor on Troubled Waters, by Rhys Hughes: bad
- I Begyn as I Mean To Go On, by Kage Baker: OK
- Avast, Abaft!, by Howard Waldrop: bad
- Elegy to Gabrielle, Patron Saint of Healers, Whores and Righteous Thieves, by Kelly Barnhill: good, but insufficiently piratical
- Skillet and Saber, by Justin Howe: OK
- The Nymph's Child, by Carrie Vaughn: OK, but insufficiently piratical
- 68d 07m 15sN, 31d 36m 44sW by Conrad Williams: bad
- Ironface, by Michael Moorcock: bad
- Pirate Solutions, by Katherine Sparrow: bad and insufficiently piratical
- We Sleep on a Thousand Waves Beneath the Stars, by Brendan Connell: OK
- Voyage of the Iguana, by Steve Aylett: bad
- Pirates of the Suara Sea, by David Freer and Eric Flint: good
- A Cold Day in Hell, by Paul Batteiger: excellent
- The Adventures of Captain Black Heart Wentworth, by Rachel Swirsky: bad
- Araminta, or, The Wreck of the Amphidrake, by Naomi Novik: good
- The Whale Below, by Jayme Lynn Blaschke: excellent
- Beyond the Sea Gate of the Scholar-Pirates of Skarskoe, by Garth Nix: excellent
It's a tough call -- IMHO there are a lot of turkeys herein, stories that just aren't about pirates at all, or are about ex-pirates, or the children of ex-pirates, neither of whom are having piratical adventures. And some stories that are about pirates, but which are just plain bad. On the other hand, some of the stories are very good.
The first one, Boojum, tells the story of a living pirate vessel which sails a future solar system in which Lovecraft's Mi-Go patrol interplanetary space. Elegy.... is a wonderfully written story, but it felt a bit out of place, given my expectations of swashbuckling adventure stories. The Nymph's Child was a bit the same way, but not quite as well done. Pirates of the Suara Sea, and The Whale Below both succeed by merging a more traditional sort of pirate tale with science fictional trappings. A Cold Day in Hell features a naval officer on a hunt for a reknown pirate who terrorizes the American coast during the golden days of piracy -- only in this alternate version of our world, an ice age has begun to settle in on the world, and ships can only sail the seas rigged with skates for racing across the ice. Araminta is a secondary world fantasy wherein the titular heroine uses magic and her superior wits to survive at sea. The star of the anthology has to be the very last tale, Beyond the Sea Gate of the Scholar-Pirates of Skarskoe, which appears to feature characters that the author, Garth Nix, has written about before. Here Sir Hereward and Mr. Fitz masquerade as pirates, join a pirate crew, and manipulate the pirates into assisting them on their quest. I'm definitely interesting in looking up some of Nix's other work now, to see what I've been missing.
The Roundup:
There are enough good stories here for me to recommend looking this book up in the library. I wouldn't buy it, unless you are a pirate fanatic, or just really, really like anthologies.
Sidereal
What other people have to say about Fast Ships. Black Sails:
Richard Larson at Strange Horizons
Brad Moon at Wired
Fabio Fernandes at The Fix
Charles A. Tan at Bibliophile Stalker
Thursday, June 18, 2009
New Word: crypto-invention
Crypto-invention: noun. An invention that is just so useful, or so blazingly obivous that somebody, somewhere simply must have already created it, if only you could find it.
A classic crypto-invention is toddler pajamas made from velcro, with matching velcro bedsheets. This is commonly held to be superior to bungee cords because bungee cords often leave marks on the skin.
Sidereal
A classic crypto-invention is toddler pajamas made from velcro, with matching velcro bedsheets. This is commonly held to be superior to bungee cords because bungee cords often leave marks on the skin.
Sidereal
Books I read in May
The books I read in May, along with some comments. The lateness of this entry is strongly correlated with the timing of Finals Week at the Major Regional University where I am engaged as a professor.
Fast Ships, Black Sails -- eds. Ann and Jeff VanderMeer: 5/1/09 - 5/10/09
An anthology of SF/F stories about pirates, with lots of stories about wannabe pirates, ex-pirates and people who live in pirate infested waters, but surprisingly few stories about pirates and acts of piracy. The few that there are tend to be really good.
Sunborn -- Jeffrey Carver: 5/11/09 - 5/17/09
John Bandicut and his team of crack interspecies commandos promptly escape into.... no, wait.... John Bandicut, a loner on a crusade to champion the cause of the innocent, the powerless.... no, that's not it either. Oh, the heck with it. John and his alien pals are whisked across the Galaxy yet again to stop a terrible disaster from happening, and to save the sentient stars inhabiting the Orion Nebula.
The Element of Fire -- Martha Wells: 5/17/09 - 5/23/09
Treachery has weakened the magic holding back the powers of the fae from the city of Vienne. They mount an invasion and put the royal palace under siege, primarily because no one thought to lay in a supply of grape-shot for the cannons.
The Alchemist's Apprentice -- Dave Duncan: 5/23/09 - 5/25/09
The Alchemist's Code -- Dave Duncan: 5/26/09 - 5/29/09
Imagine the Hollywood pitch: "It's just like Nero Wolfe, only Nostradamus is Nero Wolfe, and he collects rare books instead of orchids. And Archie is this Italian dude (has to be, they live in Venice) who is best friends, with privileges, with the hot courtesan who lives across the street from them. Oh yeah, and magic works!" I can see the HBO series already!
Blood Engines -- T. A. Pratt: 5/30/09 - 6/2/09
Sorcerers are real, and they secretly run the world in an organization amazingly like how you think the Mafia works if you haven't even read The Godfather or seen the movie. But this is a parallel Earth, because the entire population has had a nice-ectomy.
Despite my purposefully snarky descriptions, all these books are good, and definitely worth reading. Note for e-book aficionados, The Element of Fire is available for free on ManyBooks.net, and Blood Engines is free from the publisher at the Suvudu Free Library. The latter was an especially good tactic, since as soon as I finished Blood Engines, I immediately bought the other three books in the series on my Kindle. I didn't do that for The Element of Fire because I already own all of Martha Wells' non-tie-in novels, and they are all highly recommended.
Sideral
Fast Ships, Black Sails -- eds. Ann and Jeff VanderMeer: 5/1/09 - 5/10/09
An anthology of SF/F stories about pirates, with lots of stories about wannabe pirates, ex-pirates and people who live in pirate infested waters, but surprisingly few stories about pirates and acts of piracy. The few that there are tend to be really good.
Sunborn -- Jeffrey Carver: 5/11/09 - 5/17/09
John Bandicut and his team of crack interspecies commandos promptly escape into.... no, wait.... John Bandicut, a loner on a crusade to champion the cause of the innocent, the powerless.... no, that's not it either. Oh, the heck with it. John and his alien pals are whisked across the Galaxy yet again to stop a terrible disaster from happening, and to save the sentient stars inhabiting the Orion Nebula.
The Element of Fire -- Martha Wells: 5/17/09 - 5/23/09
Treachery has weakened the magic holding back the powers of the fae from the city of Vienne. They mount an invasion and put the royal palace under siege, primarily because no one thought to lay in a supply of grape-shot for the cannons.
The Alchemist's Apprentice -- Dave Duncan: 5/23/09 - 5/25/09
The Alchemist's Code -- Dave Duncan: 5/26/09 - 5/29/09
Imagine the Hollywood pitch: "It's just like Nero Wolfe, only Nostradamus is Nero Wolfe, and he collects rare books instead of orchids. And Archie is this Italian dude (has to be, they live in Venice) who is best friends, with privileges, with the hot courtesan who lives across the street from them. Oh yeah, and magic works!" I can see the HBO series already!
Blood Engines -- T. A. Pratt: 5/30/09 - 6/2/09
Sorcerers are real, and they secretly run the world in an organization amazingly like how you think the Mafia works if you haven't even read The Godfather or seen the movie. But this is a parallel Earth, because the entire population has had a nice-ectomy.
Despite my purposefully snarky descriptions, all these books are good, and definitely worth reading. Note for e-book aficionados, The Element of Fire is available for free on ManyBooks.net, and Blood Engines is free from the publisher at the Suvudu Free Library. The latter was an especially good tactic, since as soon as I finished Blood Engines, I immediately bought the other three books in the series on my Kindle. I didn't do that for The Element of Fire because I already own all of Martha Wells' non-tie-in novels, and they are all highly recommended.
Sideral
Saturday, May 9, 2009
Wise Old Sayings (that Never Were, but Should Have Been)
"All good recipes begin 'First, chop an onion'."
Sidereal
Sidereal
Books I Read in April 2009
The books I read in April 2009, along with some comments. The number is sadly reduced from previous months, an indication of two books that slowed me down, along with an excessive amount of interference from The Job.
Small Favor -- Jim Butcher: 4/1/09 - 4/2/09
Harry Dresden gets in over his head in dealings with supernatural beings and gets lots of help from his friends in extracting himself from between the rock and the hard place. Hmm.... Sounds familiar....
Ingenious Pursuits -- Lisa Jardine: 4/3/09 - 4/9/09
The book that ate a week of my life. Scientists in the late seventeenth century were cool! But weird!
A Cavern of Black Ice -- J. V. Jones: 4/10/09 - 4/16/09
A Fortress of Grey Ice -- J.V. Jones: 4/17/09 - 4/26/09
A Sword From Red Ice -- J.V. Jones: 4/27/09 - 4/30/09
And from this experience I learned that I am no longer so happy to reread books, even if I need to in order to understand the most recent entry in a series. Summary: Pseudo-Scots clansmen fight each other instead of uniting to fight the evil city dwellers intent on stealing their marginally inhabitable clanholds. Evil city dwellers try to steal only marginally inhabitable land from pseudo-Scots clansmen and from mystical race of pseudo-Elves. Pseudo-Elves engage in ritualistic self-mutilation instead of warning other races about impending invasion by undead army ruled by evil gods from the dark realms of Death.
I like the world building, but it often seems as though the plot depends on every single person involved in a given situation acting in the least intelligent way possible. If I didn't already know that the next book is to be named Watcher of the Dead, I'd suggest: A Taste of Yellow Ice.
Sidereal
Small Favor -- Jim Butcher: 4/1/09 - 4/2/09
Harry Dresden gets in over his head in dealings with supernatural beings and gets lots of help from his friends in extracting himself from between the rock and the hard place. Hmm.... Sounds familiar....
Ingenious Pursuits -- Lisa Jardine: 4/3/09 - 4/9/09
The book that ate a week of my life. Scientists in the late seventeenth century were cool! But weird!
A Cavern of Black Ice -- J. V. Jones: 4/10/09 - 4/16/09
A Fortress of Grey Ice -- J.V. Jones: 4/17/09 - 4/26/09
A Sword From Red Ice -- J.V. Jones: 4/27/09 - 4/30/09
And from this experience I learned that I am no longer so happy to reread books, even if I need to in order to understand the most recent entry in a series. Summary: Pseudo-Scots clansmen fight each other instead of uniting to fight the evil city dwellers intent on stealing their marginally inhabitable clanholds. Evil city dwellers try to steal only marginally inhabitable land from pseudo-Scots clansmen and from mystical race of pseudo-Elves. Pseudo-Elves engage in ritualistic self-mutilation instead of warning other races about impending invasion by undead army ruled by evil gods from the dark realms of Death.
I like the world building, but it often seems as though the plot depends on every single person involved in a given situation acting in the least intelligent way possible. If I didn't already know that the next book is to be named Watcher of the Dead, I'd suggest: A Taste of Yellow Ice.
Sidereal
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Further Conversations with Sidereal Jr.
In which the science of Chromomathematics is born.....
S.: What's your favorite color?
S. Jr.: I have three favorite colors, blue, red and green. That's because I'm three.
When I'm four I'll have four favorite colors, blue, red, green and yellow.
And when I'm fivel I'll have five favorite colors, blue, red, green, yellow and brown.
According to Crayola, he's good until he reachs 133....
Sidereal
S.: What's your favorite color?
S. Jr.: I have three favorite colors, blue, red and green. That's because I'm three.
When I'm four I'll have four favorite colors, blue, red, green and yellow.
And when I'm fivel I'll have five favorite colors, blue, red, green, yellow and brown.
According to Crayola, he's good until he reachs 133....
Sidereal
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