I stood up from my desk to get Cooper, the golden retriever, a calming chewie to keep his barking down when I had two minutes before the start time. Little did I know (because they only wrote in chat and did not speak) the proctor had logged in early and decided that my coming back into frame was enough to declare my test time invalid. Before the exam would start.
Yes, I’m appealing for a redo and should hear something soon. But to say that I was angry was an understatement of…epic proportions. I basically shut down to keep from shouting at everyone, since no one around me deserved to receive my grumpiness. I’ve calmed down enough to be socially acceptable (as much as I am normally, anyway) and I’m making the most of my time off from the post office and not studying for 9 hours a day.
On a high note, I’ve found books to read for the next month!
I have no idea what the Swifts book is about, and I’m not one for Young Adult stories, but it caught my attention (understandably) when Sarah pointed it out at the bookstore. That, and finding a new (to me) series to try out rounded out my birthday.
I’ll give myself a month to read “Colonyside” and set a reminder to write up an opinion piece, but if you’re a science-fiction reader and fan of John Scalzi: the first line is a damn good hook.
“I’m not dead yet.”
You know what…all right, Michael Mammay. That’ll do. If it turns out that I’m reading out of order, I’ll post a correction and hurriedly catch up.
And now…Cooper taking the good seat for the fireplace.
Well, it took a few weeks (in truth, a couple of flights and waiting in airport terminals), but I’ve finished one of the best science fiction classics I have on my bookshelf.
“Battlestar Galactica”, published in 1978, written by Glen A. Larson and Robert Thurston.
I got a lot of stares while reading this at the airport.
Before I dive into the book, I want to preface this essay by saying that I never saw the first TV show adaptation; it was before my time. But I did watch the more recent version, and I’ve been a dedicated fan of Katee Sackhoff ever since.
Quick Sidenote: She was Kimberly, the Pink Ranger, in the 2015 short film “Power/Ranger”. Check it out when you can, but it’s a dark retelling.
I’ve had this book in my collection for years and years, but this is the first time I’ve made it beyond Chapter 2. Leisurely reading is difficult for adults, it turns out. While I knew to expect the book to be different from the show (and maybe both shows; I need to find the older one and go through it, sometime) I wasn’t expecting the story-crafting to be instructional for my writing and still entertaining for this sci-fi nerd, all these years and retellings later.
I’ll talk about the Cylons, but there’s something that I want to look over beforehand.
The biggest difference between the book and the show is, of course, the Ovions. Not mentioned in the show (to my knowledge, at least, but I admit that it’s been a minute since I watched it) and taking me completely by surprise, Larson portrays an alien species that, in my opinion, carries two traits that are both predictable and disturbing.
We always expect an alien species to have some resemblance to insects. They’re a diverse chunk of Life and occupy an entire Class of biological classification. Don’t pay attention to me flipping through old science textbooks and trying to recall biology lessons. We rarely see an insectoid alien species that holds to the same vices or virtues as humanity, such as ambition or servility.
Weird take, but it disturbs me that an insectoid queen would be subservient to a cyborg species. It’s a cool idea.
The Cylons themselves were fascinating for more than just their strangeness. Like the Ovions, the humanizing of the Imperious Leader was expected, but his awareness and disgust of it caught my attention. Larson portrayed the Cylons as truly monstrous, yes, but that he included our own desire to see ourselves in a totally non-human species, and thus relate to them on some level, and then showed the rejection of that desire… now that struck a chord.
The show ended with the survivors finding Earth, but the book showed that the remnant of humanity was merely starting their journey. It left me with so many questions for which the show tried to provide answers. I’m not sure I’ve ever accepted those answers, and reading the book is bringing them back to the forefront.
If you’re a sci-fi nerd and haven’t gone through the classics, I recommend doing so and having this book in your itinerary.
I did say I’d choose a classic to read throughout the week, and I’ve been looking forward to Battlestar Galactica.
However, I forgot just how busy the adult life can be at times.
Sigh.
The best time to read, it turns out, is the bit just before work, when no one can approach me or distract me with questions. Not that they don’t try, though.
Let’s hope for an easy day and a quiet evening for writing. There’s a character that needs building so the player can join in Zino’s Arcs!
Post was moved to Drafts and published on Monday after a bit of indecision. Apologies for the confusion in your emails.
I’ve been getting into the habit of picking out something to read in my quieter moments (they do happen, I swear) for two reasons:
1: It’s good for me to see what styles were popular and how to learn from them.
2: I have all these books collecting dust, and that bothers me to no end.
For this week, I’m going to one of my pile that for some reason, people around me forget was a book before two shows were made for it: Battlestar Galactica.
Pulled this image from the Internet. My copy is rather worn.
I’m not strong in telling stories about AI, robots, and similar tropes, but this will be a fascinating setting to revisit. I haven’t read this book since I was about thirteen or so years old, though I have carried my copy around all these years.
I know that the shows will affect my biases, but I want to step into this story with as open a mind as I can bring. I think to reflect this, I’ll write a short review on Saturday.
“Dad,” Han said as she climbed into Sarah’s car and buckled up, “can you outrun the storm?” We had just finished a family dinner at my mother’s home, letting the kids spend time with their Uncle before he heads back to Tennessee. A sudden thunderstorm had rolled in right as we were readying to leave, and the 7yr old knows that of the two cars in the family, mine is the older and riskier to drive in rough weather.
She may have been right to worry.
“Kid, what our name?” I asked. She smiled at the routine question. “We’re Swifts.” “That’s right,” I told her. “When we need to, we can outrun the weather.”
Gotta admit, that was a worrisome drive. Louisiana has an odd quirk with its storm: you can literally see the storm front coming, as the rain falls in a curtain towards you. But my old 4Runner and I made it home, in time to go around the property and see to our myriad animals.
As much as I like to use my evenings for writing, I’ll have to push that to tomorrow. The power might go out and it’s a good opportunity to actually relax and read for a change.
Hello, old friend.
Been a long time since I’ve sat down with a David Weber story. They’re both comforting and make me envious; this was published back when you can drop a 400-page book full of world-building.
While we may consider JRR Tolkien to be the father of fantasy literature, giving us the settings, people, and cultural influences that would later help create numerous book series and uncounted D&D campaigns, I think I can be justified in saying Piers Anthony is the fun uncle of fantasy literature. Yes, you can have swords and sorcery. Yes, you can have intrigues and manipulations.
But you can also have puns. Puns, just everywhere, and the story is just as wonderful to readers young and old.
I was first introduced to this book series when I was around 12 years old (making that a 24 year-long fanboy of me, and shameless in admitting it) and with this book, I learned two very critical things to writing: it’s okay to not take your work so seriously that you can’t use humor, and writing humor is hard work and should be taken seriously.
This is coming from someone who is so socially awkward that he does feel the need to practice jokes in his head before he ever tries them out on another person. I’ve accepted this shortcoming in my personality and worked it into my routines, up to and including figuring out which jokes to try on certain friends to get the feel of a type of humor.
(That makes me sound like I don’t have much of a personality. Unfortunately, the mail doesn’t require me to have one, just to be able to walk long distances, and it’s not like I get to do much socializing when on the job.)
When I saw this story, I marveled at the idea that puns could (and would) be taken seriously as an aspect of the magic system. I thoroughly enjoyed the idea of individual magic, making even the boring people in the background seem interesting, if just for the fact that their magic is making splotches of color drift around their body. This was draping over the setting of a heavily isolated community, cut off so thoroughly that it needed to be invaded occasionally just to have a sustainable population. Where the magic of the setting was so pervasive, people were slowly being turned into magical creatures. The royalty system was based on who had the most powerful magic talent (being a magocracy before Dungeons & Dragons made it a concept for nerds to capitalize on), and if you could not prove to have a magical talent, you were shunned and exiled.
This story showed both sides of this concept in great detail, down to the idea of an Evil Magician being considered evil while still being honorable and ethical in his practices. It did so in a very blatant approach of both ‘show and tell‘, but that might also be because the main protagonist was so biased toward his truths that he had to have everything explained to him.
(A concept I wish I could emulate, if just to more thoroughly dive into the mechanics of storytelling through the work)
Through this book, we are introduced to the source of Earth’s legends. If there was an isthmus anywhere in the world, there was the chance of finding a path that led to a magical land that strangely, always resembled Florida. After you read this book, you’ll have the opportunity to continue the series.
Through 45 more novels. And the puns never end.
Also, a personal note. When I was 12 and just discovering this series, I was an enthusiastic fan. I managed to look up Anthony’s address and write to him about the books, and he sent me an autographed polaroid. He’s an interesting man, beyond his books.
It’s been some years of waiting, re-reading (or in my case most often, re-listening) to the rest of the series, diving through the threads on Reddit or the forum on his website, and scouring YouTube for interview bits, but Jim Butcher has put out his next novel, “Peace Talks”, with a follow-up “Battle Ground” hitting my Audible app in September.
A duology within a series that is supposed to end on a trilogy. Dammit Jim, but you’re good.
After taking a hiatus that I know very little details about, and honestly do not want to know; that’s his private life and dammit that needs to be respected, and it’s not like I’m not going to prepare myself for a new book by going through all of the previous stories, but “Peace Talks” hit my phone a few days ago and I gave it my utmost attention.
Hello, old friend.
To give some personal history, I was introduced to this series back in 2006, when a friend of mine bought me a hardcover copy of “Proven Guilty” as a Christmas present. I made it until Lasciel showed up in the story before I put the book away and decided that I needed to know more about the series and should start at the beginning. From there, I delved into the world of Dresden and marveled at the interpretations of the mythologies I grew up around. I even have my hardcover copy of “Changes” autographed by Jim, done by proxy from a friend who was attending a convention. It’s all but impossible for me to attend a convention, and he knew how much of a fan I was of the writer. Good people are hard to find, so hold them close.
Anyway, “Peace Talks” hit my phone and I listened to James Marsters tell me the story. I reveled in ‘seeing’ all of the people I’ve spent the past 14 years knowing, learning about the fallouts from their decisions and making my personal predictions of where they’d go (by the way, Jim, I friggin’ called Thomas’ outcome back when I heard “Thomas, you idiot” and I want that noted somewhere, hence the blog), and also being totally floored by the new introductions.
Understand, readers: I’m an amatuer historian, but I read a LOT of Irish mythology. I was not expecting to see who I would, and it’s raising a metric fuckton of questions that I’m pretty sure Dresden can’t resolve, and Jim simply won’t (I’m a writer, I understand the perverse joy of denying readers their answers if they don’t figure it out for themselves). Namely because I don’t think Dresden would really survive a conversation with Lugh, if he managed to survive his own problems way back when. But it’d be stupidly awesome to see Dresden trying to manage the Spear of Assal, just saying.
The only problem I really have with the story is the time displacement, and that is honestly just a personal one as I rectify internal calendars. Some of the story elements hit like they’re from 2014 (about the time that we last saw Dresden, or so I’ve been told by good sources), but some others hit like they’re from 2019, and when I notice them I try to place them historically. That’s a crux of writing urban fantasy with real-world settings; I’m looking for the when so I can have a bulwark of personal questions concerning the characters.
All in all, a good book, Jim, and a good read, James. I’d love to go into more detail and discuss particulars, but I will not spoil it for anybody who hasn’t yet had the time to read or the opportunity to listen.
I’m actually about to go through my second listen, to see what I missed. See y’all around, folks.
Swift's Corner 