Of Swords and Parasols

1. I tried reading more of Dan Brown's The Last Symbol. I made it to about chapter 19 (they're short chapters), and it would have been a mch better book with about 1/3 of the wordcount at that point. Anyway, apparently, almost every college student in America gets an Eurorail ticket and tours Europe between high school and college. This, apparently, is a true American standard. The hundreds of college graduates and students that I know and I would like to know where our tickets were. With our silver spoons, maybe? ("Silver spoons" referring not from coming from a family able to send their kid to Europe, but to the classism involved in the assumption.) And really, aside from being tedious and having a boring plot (which gets interrupted every other paragraph by trivia, most of which serves absolutely no purpose) it's...extremely elitist. Almost every character is an amazingly brilliant, wealthy white person who is revolutionary in hir field, which we are constantly reminded of, and their lives and brilliance get explained to us in minute detail. Complete with what appears to be the main female character being mansplained into brilliance. Also, I find the characters terribly dull? Like, even the geeky ladies aren't fun. Also, the only nonwhite people are (1) the hispanic guard who did not properly perform a security check and let the villain in, and (2) the Japanese leader of the supersecret branch of the CIA. Who is actually the only character with the potential to be interesting so far, but she's also the only character to get a really detailed physical description, and she's described in extremely unflattering terms, depicted as incredibly ugly and scary looking.

2. But for better or for worse, they took the books off the computers again, so no more The Lost Symbol for me. Actually, that's probably unquestionably good. It also means no more Sparklepire posts, though. Not reading more of that is also probably for the best, but, while time consuming, those posts were pretty fun to write. More time to catch up with all the books (good and bad) that i've read the last month or so, though.

3. The whole thing with Elizabeth Moon's really bad Islamophobic/appropriative/narrowminded post went down when I had laryngitis and did not want to, uhm, discuss unpleasant things. (Random fact: Eureka and Scarecrow and Mrs. King go from fun to utterly fabulous when you live in a mild blur caused by drugs meant to keep you from feeling the pain of trying to hack up a lung for a week, let me tell you.) A lot of the hoopla involved the fact that Moon is a guest of honor for 2011's WisCon, and whether or not that status is being revoked. It isn't, and while I'm not familiar with the process involved, I suspect that, in most cases, there are far more strings and rules involved in uninviting a GoH than in inviting them in the first place. Like many others, I think that, while the post itself is pretty awful, the biggest problem is that Moon deleted all the comments to the post but left the post itself exactly as it originally was and has said nothing else on the matter publicly. Third parties have said she regrets the post, but nothing from Moon herself. I mean, what, is she saving it up for a giant, manipulative group hug at WisCon?

I also think that the other GoH, Nisi Shawl, is largely being overlooked? Here's what she has to say on the matter.

Anyway, assuming I can afford it and have a roommate/place to stay next year, I still plan on going. I mean, this year, I wanted to see Nnedi Okorafor (ETA to fix the name change, which I will eventually remember!), and only did at the GoH speeches and the signing?

4.  Continuing with authorfail, Christopher Pike's recent fail is possibly the most entertaining.  Basically, he wrote a book set in Turkey.  A Turkish woman read the beginning and posted an Amazon reviews explaining a number of misrepresentations in the book.  A man claiming to be Pike's editor left a (now deleted) response explaining why she was wrongwrongwrong.  They interacted a bit more and "Michael Bright" basically said that she couldn't possibly know what she was talking about and that one trip to Turkey made Pike an expert.  And then it was discovered that Pike had previously publicly admitted that "Michael Bright" is one of several sockpuppets he uses.  And then it was discovered that Pike had left a number of Amazon reviews praising his books as amazing and brilliant and the best things ever.  There's an excellent writeup on the whole thing here.

Naturally, this went down just as I was about to embark on a reread of Pike's books!  And it was to be a reread for pleasure, no doubt marred by what my adult mind will register as Fail.  Now it'll be a reread watching for the Fail!  Uhm...when i get around to it.

5.  You know, I get that a lot of book releases are scheduled for late in the year so they can be bought as gifts and whatnot, but it can be a bit overwhelming?  This is the stack of books released in the last couple months (some paperback releases of hardcovers) that I have but haven't read yet:

Tasha Alexander: Tears of Pearl
Julie Berry: The Amaranth Enchantment
Rhys Bowen: Royal Flush
Marie Brennan: A Star Shall Fall
Elizabeth Chadwick: For the King's Favor
Loretta Chase: Last Night's Scandal
Simon R. Green: Ghost of A Chance
Karen Kincy: Other
Carolyn McCullough: Once A Witch
Deanna Raybourn: Dark Road to Darjeeling
Gillian Shields: Immortal

I suspect there are a few out that I've missed, I'm good at that.  And Anna Godberson and Sarah Beth Durst both have new books out next week!

Maybe I'll get some of these read while travelling to various family things this weekend.

5.  The first few eps of season 3 of Chuck are...not as bad as I'd been lead to expect (possibly because of that) but definitely not as fun as previous seasons.  And I still refuse to believe that Chuck (or anyone) could physically adjust as quickly as Chuck did.  The end of ep 3, though, implies that the show and I may soon have a serious falling out.

ETA:  6:  I have learned that the guy behind Lost Girl is also behind my most recent One True Love, Queen of Swords (I, uhm, am a bit fickle about fictional One True Loves...what do we think will supplant girl!Zorro?) as well as La Femma Nikita, Andromeda, and Relic Hunter, all of which I have intended to watch for some time, but haven't.

Visitors and New Residents guide to Eureka:

1. Yes, the 7 year old is scrawling a physics formula on the sidewalk that people have been trying to figure out for far longer than he's been alive.  This is normal.  This is also good, as it will later be used to save the world at least once.
2. Yes, the jocks are scared of the nerds and the cheerleaders are discussing quantum physics in the hallway.  This, too, is normal.
3. Don't worry about the guy with the weapons rack in his armored jeep.  It's the local vet.
4. Yes, he's engaged in a never ending war with the local stray, you'll get used to it.
5. Yes, the local stray that made you wreck your car by running in front of it is the world's smartest dog.
6. Don't worry about the giant wormholes, they're normal. 
7. Don't worry about the noises, flashing lights, floating things, explosions and projectiles coming from the mechanic's garage.  Again, normal.
8. Don't worry about the giant death ray that will bounce off mirrors on the moon and destroy large cities.  The local sheriff has an answer for these things.  Like hitting the giant death ray gun with his jeep, causing the death ray to miss the mirrors on the moon, thus saving the world from world war 3.
9. Don't go near fence, most of them are magnetized.  If there's a member of the opposite sex around who you're attracted to, this will lead to a VERY awkward situation...especially if you're the sheriff and your deputy is there to mock you.
10. Yes, the deputy looks like she could break you in half.  Then move on to 5 biker gangs and do the same to them without breaking a sweat.  This is because she can.  Just don't piss her off and you'll be fine.
11. Don't worry about the "domestic dispute" coming from the sheriff's office that half the town can hear...it's just the sheriff and his deputy arguing over who gets which gun.  They like their sci-fi-style guns.
12. Your house may be sentient.
13. If it is, it may develop a crush on you.
14. Absolutely do NOT promise your house you will be home at a certain time and then be late.  If you do, it may scold you and lock you out.  It will definitely do this if it makes you dinner.
15. If this happens, grovel, it may work.  Especially if your house really does have a crush on you.
16. Do not be despondent around your house.  It may cause your house to lure several friends and enemies to you and take you all hostage until you work out your differences.
17. Please cooperate.  If you don't it may expose its other, super-military interrogator personality and impose many levels of psychological torture on you.
18. It may also vaporize the pizza boy if he tries to leave during one of your many escape attempts.
19. Don't worry about this, as the deputy and vet will launch a commando raid to rescue you.  Unless they get sidetracked by making out.  Even if they are covered in paintball paint and in the sewer.  If this happens, you're on your own.
20. If you find this disconcerting, please visit Beverly at the B&B, she's also a psychotherapist and sex therapist.  Watch what you say, though.  She moonlights as an assassin.
21. Should a stray machine hurtle through your wall, crash into your car or almost decapitate you, call Henry or Spencer at the mechanic's shop.
22. Please ignore all offers made to show you movies that have not been released on a large screen plasma TV.  This practice is illegal and is absolutely not endorsed by the town of Eureka. Call Spencer at 1-123-456-7890 for movies.
    

Note to flist:  The next time you want me to watch something and Salli Richardson plays one of the main characters, let me know.  It won't exactly shoot it to the top of my list, but it'll make it more of a priority.

Eureka, for those who don't know is about US Marshall Jack Carter, who crashes his car to avoid hitting a dog while transporting his runaway daughter across the country.  He finds himself stranded in Eureka, a small town that looks normal on the outside, but is secretly a haven for all the most brilliant minds in the world.  After helping to save the world from going BOOM! When the space/time continuum is threatened, Carter gets reassigned to Eureka as the new Sheriff and regularly saves the world from things like death rays, nanobyte-thingies, evil plants and radio waves that turn you into paranoid psychos.  Can keeps the universe from being un-created on a semi-regular basis.

It's great and I plan to get my own copy...uhm...soon(must get the Dresden Files set and the new William Powell/Myrna Loy set first.)

It is very mean in the last episode, though.