WebLog ???

I'm going to go all "origins of blogging" and post this:

http://blog.archive.org/2022/01/01/welcoming-recorded-music-to-the-public-domain/

The music that moved into the public domain on Jan 1, 2022.

Gawdamm, I luv the commons!!!

In Which I Finally Quit Stalling

I finally started Neal Stephenson's latest, "Termination Shock" a few days ago. An excellent read so far.

But I did do a bit more procrastinating before I began.

1st, "Lex Talionis", by R.S.A. Garcia, 2014, 440 pages, 119k words. The author is from Trinidad & Tobago, this is her 1st novel. It opens with a time-honored SF trope: terribly injured (but recovering miraculously quickly) hero wakes up in a hospital with total amnesia. Could they be The One?

Usually they break out of the hospital and start tracking themselves down in the 1st chapter or so. In this one, she doesn't get out of the hospital until ~40% of the way in. Then the next 40% is all flashback backstory, with some very obtuse side plots.

Then jump forward a couple years in the future. Some hints of what The One had been up to claiming her legacy. A couple of the major characters who had heretofore been ciphers reappear and remain ciphers.

Definitely read like a 1st novel, but, it was surprisingly fun and enjoyable?!?!?

Next up, "The Case of the Seven Sneezes", by Anthony Boucher, 1942, 227 pages, 75k words. The 3rd of the series the 1st 2 of which I blogged last time. Stranded on an island replaces a locked room for the murder scene. I think the common theme of these is that our cheap detective always almost gets the cases solved.

Back to science fiction, "All Systems Red", by Martha Wells, 2017, 116 pages, 31k words. The 1st book of the Murderbot series, which has been winning some awards lately. A good novella, in which a manufactured cyborg explores its humanity. Expanding the definition of personhood seems to me to be a recurring theme in science fiction in the LGBTQAZ era - a laudable thing. It was good read, I was going to get some more in the series, but they were like $10.99 for 30k word novellas, which stuck me as a little high. Well, maybe I'll revisit the decision when the Kobo Unread stack on my iPad is a lot below its current 90 books.

Variety again! "The Daughter of Odred", by Ursula K. LeGuin, 2014, 36 pages, 10k words. Supertitled "A new short story from Earthsea". Being an Earthsea fan from many decades ago, I had to check it out. A dark tale of adultery, betrayal, and revenge. Nice to be reading LeGuin again. I also purchased 3 YA novels of hers I had never heard of before.

Finally, "The Divine Invasion", by Philip K. Dick, 1980, 277 pages, 75k words. I didn't remember reading this, and it was like $1.99. It was his 3rd to last (ooh, semipenultimate) novel, and was the 2nd book in the VALIS trilogy.

********************** Spoiler Alert **********************

So, when Jebus died, Yah was chased from Earth by Belial to an extraterresterial planet where he now makes contact with colonists from Earth. He does the "impregnate a virgin" trick again, plus gives the poor woman MS so she has to return to Earth for treatment. Her son Manny (Emmanuel) confounds their enemies and makes it to earth to grow up - and recover his lost memories of how to be god. Zina the fairy - actually the embodiment of the torah - helps him recover his memory. Elijah the prophet is also a character.

Sci fi based on xtian mythology and hebrew kaballah. It was tough getting through at times. Totally inconclusive ending - existential I guess.

Back to the Stephenson.