Flight into Fantasy

Heinlein is kind of a male chauvenist pig. His portrayal of women is almost offensive. Although not nearly so offensive that I've considered not finishing his books, but I do want to slap him most of the time.

For some reason, I never actually finished this book either of the two times I started it. I don’t remember why.

However, I finished it within a day this time. And I thought it was wonderful. I thought King captured the horror and the pathos of what life must have been like for Carrie, a teenager with telekenetic abilities.

The writing was also a lot tighter than some of King’s other books, and I liked his use of foreshadowing. I thought it was effective that the reader knows the tragedy of the events in advance.

So, in essence, a very good read.
Eta: I think I’m going to give this one a B+ for a grade. It’s not my favorite King, although it’s still very good.

So, as I’ve gushed in my last entry, I really loved this book. I found the characters realistic and I found the plot engaging.

Essentially, the story is about two women, Arianrhod, the queen of Winter, who wants to keep power on the planet Tiamat, and her clone, Moon, who is trying to protect her lover, Sparks, from danger and to fulfill an ancient destiny.

There are lots of paralels to the Hans Christian Andersen story of the same title. It was fun to try and pick those out. And I found the anti-empeirialist message interesting.

Assuming my tape recorder hasn't decided to completely break on me, I intend to read the sequels, World's End and The Summer Queen.

ETA: B+ for a grade on this one. Very, very good, but there were definitely some Mary Sue moments for our protagonist.

Some of the people who read my journal really ought to take a gander at this book. There’s a nice anti-imperialist theme that isn’t beaten over one’s head. There’s also a strong feminist aspect to the book, which of course I appreciate, too.

And, in other news, I really love her handling of the romantic tension. There are no big misunderstandings, no stupid miscommunications, but actual conflict that makes one think that keeps her characters apart.

My only quibble with the book so far has been that the narrator really really overacts. A lot. Which is either because some of the dialogue is cheesy or because she just overacts, I can't really tell.

At any rate, I'm not done with the book, so will post a full review when I get to that point.

…Joan D. Vinge’s The Snow Queen? I’m reading it now. It’s kind of ggrowing on me, although I could do without Joan’s penchant for giving her characters ridiculous names.

This book is one of the best I’ve read this year, bar none. It sunk its little claws in me and wouldn’t let me go until I was finished.

The premise: Two warring aliens land on Earth, in a small, dying Texas town. One is the good alien, and one the not so good alien. The people of the town, a disparate group of individuals from a school custodian to the members of two rival gangs, must use all their wits in order to survive the showdown between the aliens.

Yeah, it's a schlocky premise, even McCammon admits it. But it totally works, because McCammon writes some of the best characters I've read in a while, from Cody and Rick, the leaders of the rival gangs, who have a lot more in common than they think, to Sarge, the slightly crazy custodian, to the aliens themselves. They're all compelling.

McCammon also does a good job with the suspense. He just keeps ratchetting it up, and I felt that his pacing was excellent.

A lack of sleep over the last couple of days keeps me from rambling even more incoherently about why you should all read this book right now… but trust me, you should.

ETA: McCammon is totally underappreciated. A- for this one.

Sometimes finding a decent book is difficult, but certain things don’t help the process. When I read, I usually perform what I call the “chapter 1 test”. Which means, if I get through chapter 1, I pretty much do finish the book.

But three books today failed that test. The first wouldn’t have if I’d known there was a prequel to it. The second failed because it was a historical romance that I don’t believe was actually researched at all. (It was set in Scotland, it was 1200, there were highland games being held in a festival near the English border, and there was a clan Council of Elders, which sounded more like standard fantasy kitch than anything even vaguely historically accurate.)

The third featured some of the most overwrought dialogue I’ve ever read. I’m paraphrasing, but it seemed to go like this:

“Who is it?” Tyler demanded hoarsely.

“Royal Benedict,” Sydney asserted defiantly.

“My God! He’s your cousin! That’s incest!” Tyler exclaimed disgustedly.

“Well, if it’s incest, I’ve been committing it since I was fifteen. In fact, I made love with him on the day I married you!”

I’m not paraphrasing much. The dialogue was pretty much like that. And I thought the book was too long to sit through MSTing as I went along.

I haven’t done one of these in forever, and the questions aren’t stupid, so let’s get crackin’. Sreevay brought to you by the lovely Anna.

1. You can press a button that will make any one person explode. Who would you blow
up?
My apartment maintenance man. Teach him to treat me like I’m four years old after that. Bwahahahahaha!
2. You can flip a switch that will wipe any band or musical artist out of existence.
Which one will it be?
Michael Jackson. Because, really, we totally didn’t need that whole circus.
3. Who would you really like to just punch in the face?
This is a really violent survey. Possibly the old lady who can’t seem to let me walk to Runza by myself.
4. What is the best kind of cheese?
I don’t eat cheese.
5. You can only have one kind of sandwich. Every sandwich ingredient known to humankind
is at your immediate disposal. What does your dream-sandwich consist of?
Probably a BLT. On multigrain bread.
6. You have the opportunity to sleep with the movie celebrity of your choice. We
are talking no-strings-attached sex and it can only happen once (they will never
call you back).
Oh hell, I don’t know.
7. You have the opportunity to sleep with the music celebrity of your choice. Same
rules as above. Who is it?
Well, see, my taste in music tends to run toward music celebrities I don’t think of as sexy. But maybe Alan Doyle of Great Big Sea.
8. Now that you’ve slept with two different people in a row, you seem to be having
an excellent day because you just came across a hundred-dollar bill on the sidewalk.
Holy shit, a hundred bucks! How are you gonna spend it?
CDs, dude!
9. You just got a free plane ticket to anywhere. You have to depart right now. Where
do you go?
Scotland.
10. Upon arrival to the aforementioned location, you get off the plane and discover
another hundred-dollar bill. Now that you are in the new location, where are you
gonna go to spend that?
I'd find a pub somewhere and hope for some good local music.
11. An angel appears out of Heaven and offers you a lifetime supply of the alcoholic
beverage of your choice. “Be brand-specific” it says.
I'm not sure what brand it is, but there's a butterscotch liqueur I'm fond of.
12. Rufus appears out of nowhere with a time-traveling phone booth. You can go anytime
in the PAST. What time are you traveling to and what are you going to do when you
get there?
The early part of the last century. I want to be a Suffragist and/or a flapper.
13. You discover a beautiful island upon which you may build your own society. You
make the rules. What is the first rule you put into place?
Mandatory drunken orgies.
14. You have been given the opportunity to create the half-hour TV show of your own
design. What is it called and what's the premise?
It would be a sitcom based roughly around my life as it currently stands. Wacky characters would include my little sister, a debauched drunk, the evil old lady who would interfere in my life more than she does now, and because this is fiction, I would have multiple love interests but would end up with the quiet best friend male character who was always there to bail me out of trouble. The show would be called, “Out of Sight” or something cheesy like that.
15. What is your favorite expletive?
Fuck!
16. One night you wake up because you heard a noise. You turn on the light to find
that you are surrounded by MUMMIES. The mummies aren't really doing anything, they're
just standing around your bed. What do you do?
Scream and twitch violently for a while.
17. Your house is on fire! You have just enough time to run in there and grab ONE
inanimate object. Don't worry, your loved ones and pets have already made it out
safely. So what's the one thing you're going to save from that blazing inferno?
My sister's laptop. Duh.
18. The Angel Of Death has descended upon you. Fortunately, the Angel Of Death is
pretty cool and in a good mood, and it offers you a half-hour to do whatever you
want before you bite it. Whatcha gonna do in that half-hour?
- Have toe-curling sex, and then run naked through the streets screaming “I win!!!
I win!!!” (I like Annamatic's answer so I'm keeping it.)
19. You accidentally eat some radioactive vegetables. They were good, and what's
even cooler is that they endow you with the super-power of your choice! What's it
gonna be?
Telekenesis.
20. You can re-live any point of time in your life. The time-span can only be a half-hour,
though. What half-hour of your past would you like to relive again?
The first time I made out with my high school boyfriend.
21. You can erase any horrible experience from your past. What will it be? (the answer
“nothing” doesn't count)
The Evil Ex of D00m period.
22. You got kicked out of the country for being a time-traveling heathen who sleeps
with celebrities and has super-powers. But check this out… you can move to anywhere
else in the world! What country are you going to live in now?
Scotland. Or maybe Australia.
23. This question still counts, even for those of you who are under 21. Check it
out. You have been eternally banned from every single bar in the world except for
ONE. Which one is it gonna be?
I don't like bars, but maybe the bar above Henry's?
24. Hopefully you didn't mention this in the super-powers question…. If you did,
then we'll just expand on that. Check it out… Suddenly, you have gained the ability
to FLOAT!!! Whose house are you going to float to first?
Belinda's. Because then I could squee about how I could float now.
25. The constant absorption of magical moonbeams mixed with the radioactive vegetables
you consumed earlier have given you the ability to resurrect the dead famous-person
of your choice. So which late celebrity will you bring back to life?
Well, let's just go all the way. I'd resurrect Jesus. Then I'd sit back and watch what happens, cackling maniacally.

26. The Celestial Gates Of Beyond have opened, much to your surprise because you
didn't think such a thing existed. Death appears. As it turns out, Death is actually
a pretty cool entity, and happens to be in a fantastic mood. Death offers to return
the friend/family-member/person/etc. of your choice to the living world. Who will
you bring back?
My aunt Kathi, who died a couple of years ago from liver cancer. Because she was an awesome lady.
27. What's your theme song?
Dar Williams singing “My Friends” which is my favorite song of hers.

Supposedly, this book, by Jean Shepherd, is the basis for that perrennial holiday movie favorite “A Christmas Story”. And some of the stories Shepherd recounts do make it into the movie, although the book doesn’t follow the movie exactly.

Shepherd’s stories aren’t particularly sentimental, though they are nostalgic. And they do resonate. My father is a lot like Ralph’s, even though, of course, they came from different generations. It's been my experience that kids are more like Ralph and his brother than the romantic portrayals they get from other authors would suggest.

For the most part, I liked Shepherd's stories. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone looking for something humorous without necessarily being overly silly.

Description: There’s a party at Pomfret Towers, and Alice Barton is invited. She doesn’t want to go, but her mother makes her, and her brother Guy will be there. The weekend at the towers changes the lives of a lot of people, most notably Alice herself.

The Good: Well, Thirkell is no Georgette Heyer, but she is pretty funny. She also does a good job at making actual characters, as opposed to caricatures. She handles the various subplots marvelously, and the whole thing feels realistic and amusing, rather than farsical and over the top. And while this book was classified as a romance, I wasn't expecting the couples to end up the way they did, which was in this case, mostly OK.

The Bad: Not really a whole lot. Except that the reader who narrated this book speaks with a pronounced twang, so it was jarrin to hear her read British accents.

Overall: It's a cute story, and it's short. Recommended.

Next up Jean Shepherd's In God We Trust: All Others Must Pay Cash which was made into that perennial favorite holiday movie “A Christmas Story”. BTW, I’m loving this book so far, so all of you who were expecting the snark will sadly be disappointed.

If My Love Could Hold You by Elaine Coffman:

Description: When Charlotte Butterworth prevents the hanging
of Walker Reed, she changes her life forever. Afraid of men
(the result of seeing her mother brutalized and murdered),
Charlotte has become a bitter spinster. When Walker learns
the reasons for Charlotte's attitude, he decides to repay her
for saving his life by awakening those feminine passions she
has so long denied.

The Good: Charlotte Butterworth is one of the most fully realized romance novel heroines I've ever read about. She's intelligent, sensible, stubborn, and has a wonderfully witty way of putting things. I kept reading this book because I was rooting for Charlotte the entire time and I wanted to see her happy.

The Bad: Walker Reed manages, all in the space of one book, to be a complete creep, a jerk, and an idiot, all at the same time. He treats Charlotte like a child, isn't honest with her, and then has the temerity to get pissed off when she reacts badly to being lied to. There are also scenes in the book that very definitely border on rape, and I'm extremely not cool with that. Thankfully, Walker never does rape Charlotte, but there were times I had to clench my jaw hard while reading certain passages lest I start screaming at him to just STFU and go away.

Overall: The novel is told very well. I like Coffman’s narrative voice. It’s not really all that surprising, and I’ve read books that pulled off very similar plots before. Generally speaking, those were a lot better than this one, but generally speaking, those books featured heroes I liked.