poukledden

A fun find at Bookman's sometime ago: The Amazing Dr. Darwin, a collection of stories by the late, and sorely missed, Charles Sheffield. The stories follow the exploits of Erasmus Darwin, the remarkable grandfather of that other vaguely famous Darwin. Imagine an Age of Reason Sherlock Holmes, and you have the basic tenor of the stories. Also a bit of Scooby Doo in the mix, minus the kids, the dog, and the Scooby Snacks. If it weren't for that meddlin' Darwin!

I've only ever read Sheffield's far future science fiction -- the Convergence series and a few others. So this is a nice discovery, another side of a writer that I've long loved. Good rollicking fun, which is about where I'm at with the reading at the moment. I've always had a fondness for ol' Erasmus, and a love for fantastic stories set in that era, whether it's over the top Holmesian stuff like this, or out and out fantasy like Susanna Clarke or Gregory Keyes.

Recommended, especially if you're looking for some good, diversionary fun to fill a few hours.

And yes, I've been rather quiet lo these many moons. There are reasons, and plans, and things. Stay tuned. For now, though, I'm still suffering from a "ouch but it hurts to type a lot" problem brought on by a nasty bite of eczema/whatever you want to call it. It's getting better, but slowly, and in the meantime I am a sore and uncomfortable Gregory, prone to sleeplessness when I'm not being knocked out cold by doses of allergy medicine. Pity the poor Gregory!

For fun, I've changed my journal appearance. And I'm not doing the paid account thang anymore, opting for a plus one instead, to save money. And plans, for what it's worth, means that there's going to be a new Wordpress blog soon. Stay tuned!

At last, finally, I got through the almost 700 pages of Redemption Ark by  Alastair Reynolds. It took me almost a month. It's not that I wasn't enjoying it -- it was more like it was the kind of book that, at that moment, I would have been better off putting off. It took too much attention, and wasn't well suited to, say, snatches of reading here and there, which various things were turning my reading schedule into over the past 2 months or so.

But I got through  it, and I liked it, and will be hunting down a copy of Absolution Gap to finish up the trilogy. But, but, but...oh man, the end of this one. How do I explain?

Try this:

You're in bed with a great lover. A fucking amazing lover, the kind who knows what buttons to push, and in what order. A lover who takes the time to linger and tease, keeps bringing you right up to the brink and then back down, delaying the moment, intensifying the feeling. It's amazing, blow out sex, and the orgasm you're going to have is going to set off car alarms. Then, just as you can feel it building to a final climax, your lover punches you in the face and you black out. When you come to, your lover whispers in your ear: "It was the best orgasm you ever had, my love..."

It was a bit like that.

(I mean, seriously.  660 or so pages into the  novel, and he tries to cram in another novel's worth of action by having a character go into cold sleep, wake up and have someone tell him about what happened, cliffnotes version. Talk about deflating...)

You see the ending coming, but this is a cute little story anyway: It can easily be accomplished with computers.