Goddammit, my right hand /still/ hurts
How am I supposed to hypothetically write or draw like this? Or play Odin Sphere!
On the bright side, Kate Beaton's 20 History Comics are so very awesome. Guys! There's one on /Margaret Trudeau/.
The Winds of Marble Arch and Other Stories by Connie Willis
"The Curse of Kings": Not in Willis' previous collections. This story of futuristic archaeologists on another planet, the apparent curse that falls on the people who opened an ancient alien tomb, and the reporter trying to get to the bottom of it, took a while to jive for me. I don't know why - about halfway through (it's a long one) things began to click. Maybe it's because you have to get a decent way into the story to really follow properly what's going on and the story's atmosphere doesn't compel me enough to make it a great read when I'm /not/ sure what's going on. Interesting enough, and continuing Willis' tradition of writing science fiction in areas which aren't technically given the science fiction, but it wasn't even that memorable, which is a shame, since this is one of the larger new pieces in the collection.
"Even the Queen": This, however, is a gem. Which I've read before, and I have in other collections, and I will probably read dozens of times before the end of the world. It's short, funny, smart, and to explain it would ruin a chunk of the story. Suffice to say, it's about a mother, her daughters, her granddaughters, /and/ her mother-in-laws, when one of the girls joins a strongly disapproved of gang.
"Inn": This is another of Willis' Christmas stories, and one of her very Christian stories. It's not what I would consider breaking new ground or anything like that - modern Christianity and how it relates and would respond to pivotal points and figures in its history. In this case, one pretty damn integral to Christianity - Mary and Joseph and the journey to Bethlehem, when they get lost and end up at the door of a church in the middle of the night, during choir practice. So it's nothing startling original, especially if you've sat through sermons in liberal churches, but I like it anyway. I like it for the sentiment in general, for the positive religious themes. I like it for Willis' being willing to show her beliefs in a genre where atheism dominates where heavy-handed religious metaphor doesn't. And I like it because the bickering choir, the frantic minister, preparing for Christmas in and out of the church, all seem so familiar. Probably not a story for everyone, particularly science fiction fans, but it resonates with me, personally, even though I know it isn't really anything special.
On the bright side, Kate Beaton's 20 History Comics are so very awesome. Guys! There's one on /Margaret Trudeau/.
The Winds of Marble Arch and Other Stories by Connie Willis
"The Curse of Kings": Not in Willis' previous collections. This story of futuristic archaeologists on another planet, the apparent curse that falls on the people who opened an ancient alien tomb, and the reporter trying to get to the bottom of it, took a while to jive for me. I don't know why - about halfway through (it's a long one) things began to click. Maybe it's because you have to get a decent way into the story to really follow properly what's going on and the story's atmosphere doesn't compel me enough to make it a great read when I'm /not/ sure what's going on. Interesting enough, and continuing Willis' tradition of writing science fiction in areas which aren't technically given the science fiction, but it wasn't even that memorable, which is a shame, since this is one of the larger new pieces in the collection.
"Even the Queen": This, however, is a gem. Which I've read before, and I have in other collections, and I will probably read dozens of times before the end of the world. It's short, funny, smart, and to explain it would ruin a chunk of the story. Suffice to say, it's about a mother, her daughters, her granddaughters, /and/ her mother-in-laws, when one of the girls joins a strongly disapproved of gang.
"Inn": This is another of Willis' Christmas stories, and one of her very Christian stories. It's not what I would consider breaking new ground or anything like that - modern Christianity and how it relates and would respond to pivotal points and figures in its history. In this case, one pretty damn integral to Christianity - Mary and Joseph and the journey to Bethlehem, when they get lost and end up at the door of a church in the middle of the night, during choir practice. So it's nothing startling original, especially if you've sat through sermons in liberal churches, but I like it anyway. I like it for the sentiment in general, for the positive religious themes. I like it for Willis' being willing to show her beliefs in a genre where atheism dominates where heavy-handed religious metaphor doesn't. And I like it because the bickering choir, the frantic minister, preparing for Christmas in and out of the church, all seem so familiar. Probably not a story for everyone, particularly science fiction fans, but it resonates with me, personally, even though I know it isn't really anything special.