Book Review: Dexter by Design

I bought this book yesterday. Last night, I finished the Darkangel trilogy by Meredith Ann Pierce, and this afternoon I started Dexter by Design.

Four hours later, I've finished it.

Oops.

It was that good. Brilliant pacing, great characterization, danger around every corner, and that odd sense that you ought not be empathizing with this character quite so much. Because he's evil. But he's a nice, charming, likable sort of evil. Way to screw with my head, Jeff Lindsay.

Lindsay pulls Dexter's new family into the mix and shows the children's development as little monsters while putting them all in mortal danger, which is a good move. Keeping them as background for Dexter would have made them boring, and these characters are anything but boring.

The danger Dexter's in from the law continues to compound, as well, as he does things without thinking or without following the rules, so too many cops are figuring out what he's about, though they all seem loathe to do anything about it.

I can't wait for the new one already.

5/5

Summer 2010 Reading

Since school starts tomorrow, it's time to go back to the one-book-at-a-time sidebar widget. Here's the full list for this summer, starting with the most recent. The ones with stars next to them are the ones I read for the first time this summer.

A Gathering of Gargoyles - Meredith Ann Pierce
The Darkangel - Meredith Ann Pierce
*Storm Front - Jim Butcher
*The Phoenix Transformed - Mercedes Lackey
HP & the Goblet of Fire - J.K. Rowling
*Frostbitten - Kelley Armstrong
*The Name of the Rose - Umberto Eco
*Daughter of the Forest - Juliet Marillier
HP & the Prisoner of Azkaban - J.K. Rowling
Flowers in the Attic - V.C. Andrews
*Legacies - Mercedes Lackey & Rosemary Edghill
*Kitty Goes to War - Carrie Vaughn
*The Enchantment Emporium - Tanya Huff
*Solstice Wood - Patricia McKillip
HP & the Chamber of Secrets - J.K. Rowling
*Black Magic Sanction - Kim Harrison
White Witch, Black Curse - Kim Harrison
The Outlaw Demon Wails - Kim Harrison
For a Few Demons More - Kim Harrison
A Fistful of Charms - Kim Harrison
Every Which Way but Dead - Kim Harrison
The Good, the Bad, and the Undead - Kim Harrison
Dead Witch Walking - Kim Harrison
*Men at Arms - Terry Pratchett
*Guards! Guards! - Terry Pratchett
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone - J.K. Rowling
*The Dark Mirror - Juliet Marillier
*Dead and Gone - Charlaine Harris
From Dead to Worse - Charlaine Harris
All Together Dead - Charlaine Harris
Definitely Dead - Charlaine Harris
*Twilight - Stephanie Meyer
*Flash Forward - Robert J. Sawyer
Dead as a Doornail - Charlaine Harris
Dead to the World - Charlaine Harris
Club Dead - Charlaine Harris
Living Dead in Dallas - Charlaine Harris
Dead Until Dark - Charlaine Harris

Finishing Tennant Who

I just finished the 2009 Doctor Who specials and bid a fond farewell to Tennant. I found "The End of Time" (Parts 1 & 2) mostly pretty tedious, but I think the very last bit, with the Doctor seeing Rose for the last time with those eyes, was pretty sob-worthy. Especially Tennant's last line: "I don't want to go." SNIFFLE.

As I approached these episodes, knowing that Tennant would be gone and there was a baby-faced man with shaggy hair coming to take his place, I found myself dubious that anybody could really stand up to the legacy that Eccelston (I MISS HIM) and Tennant put in place over the last few years (keep on mind I've not yet seen any of the older series). BUT. The 30 seconds or so of Smith at the very end of "The End of Time," checking to make sure he has all his parts and lamenting the fact that he's still not ginger--as the TARDIS falls through space and time--was so adorable and well-acted that I'm already starting to think that maybe Smith can do the Doctor justice. I suppose I'll see in the next few weeks as I find bits and snatches of time to watch the latest season in between teaching, grading, and homework.

Allons-y!

Summer's About Over

I'm not ready for this semester to start.

I mean, I've got my syllabi copied and waiting for me in my inbox, I've got the first unit planned out and lesson-planned out, I've got all of my books and the syllabus for my Old English class. . . . But I guess I'm still exhausted from summer and need more of a break. I don't feel ready to go back into a classroom in any capacity. Thinking about it makes me feel vaguely ill.

BUT if I want to get my PhD, I've got to power through this and keep working. It could be worse. I could have an office job with no such thing as a summer break.

I'll just keep telling myself that.

Snarky vs Touchy

There's a rather large debate going on in the writers' corner of the Internet about certain sites (like this one) that make fun of query letters. A lot of people find that sort of behavior disgusting, unprofessional, rude, and any number of other epithets. It seems that there's a growing number of people who don't want to see agents/editors/publishers being funny at all (as witnessed in the comment thread of this post).

I'll admit that, since I am currently unagented and have yet to publish a short story at professional rates, my opinion means nothing as far as this goes, but I have one anyway. Live with it.

I see both sides of this, I think. At least, as much of one side (the writer's) as I can considering that I check blogs, websites, and everything else I can get my hands on to make sure that I'm following directions and crafting a well-written query before I send it. I triple-check to be sure I've spelled names right, have included the materials the agent/editor has asked for, and haven't put any commas in where they don't belong. I don't just say, "hey, read this, it's awesome! Send me a check when you've got a publisher!" and chuck my writing into the ether. Which is the sort of thing that SlushPileHell is making fun of. And guess what? I have no problem with that. A lot of people seem to fear that they'll end up being made fun of. Clearly, if you're serious about what you're doing and work hard and do everything the agent asks (and aren't a pompous ass), you're not going to. So read it and laugh, or don't if it's not your thing, but don't worry that it's going to be you. If you are worried about it, maybe you should double-check to make sure you're not doing anything that would cause that to happen.

On the other side, while I'm not involved in publishing, I do teach freshman composition. And I hand out instruction sheets and rubrics, go over them multiple times, make myself available for extra help outside of class, and do everything I possibly can so the students can craft well-written papers and grow as people who express themselves in writing. And inevitably, there's at least one who doesn't even try, turns in something that's, frankly, shit, and expects to get at least a B. A year ago when I was adjuncting, I had a group of friends who would listen to the worst lines/paragraphs, listen to me rant about how the students weren't paying attention or doing what I asked them to do, and bring me coffee when I was ready to fling something across the room. For reasons I won't go into now, I have a feeling I won't be able to do that nearly as much now that I'm a TA instead of an adjunct.

Know what? I think I'll go crazy. Without that outlet, without being able to vent, snarl, take a deep breath knowing someone understands, and move on, I'm going to get very bitter very quickly. So I understand why agents such as the one who writes SlushPileHell do what they do. It gives them a bit of space, a second for a deep breath, someone to vent to who isn't a family member and absolutely sick of hearing about it. It gives them somewhere to say what they're really thinking so they can send a form rejection without a nasty little note attached.

Reading the comments on some of the discussions about these places, however, has made me strongly suspect that I'll shut down my blog when/if I ever actually get published. Because, quite frankly, I don't want to be attacked the way Rachel Gardner was last week. At risk of sounding like a hippie, I don't want all that negative energy sucking my mojo. Those sorts of comments aren't constructive and helpful (like the sort of thing I get on OWW); they're hurtful, snide, and rude. And why in the world would I allow someone to come into my space and say things that are going to hurt me? It would be like allowing a houseguest to go off on a diatribe about how I shouldn't own guns because they're dangerous and I might kill someone and it makes me a terrible person to even consider that I might need to defend myself someday because people are basically good, decent, shiny happy beings. Or whatever.

Overall, I get why the agents do it. I support them. It helps them vent and allows the writers who care to see that at least they're not doing that. So go on, SlushPileHell agent. I'll keep reading for as long as you keep getting crappy query letters.

Book Review: Storm Front

I borrowed this from a friend because I wasn't sure I wanted to get involved with a series as long as this one already is. I was sold by the end of the first chapter. Great characters, great plot, great dialogue. A trip to Barnes & Noble is in my future.

4.5/5

Book Review: The Phoenix Transformed

Full disclosure: I am a Mercedes Lackey fanatic. She could write a user manual for an original Nintendo system and I'd read it. And probably love it.

That said, I loved this book. The pacing was spot-on, leading inexorably to the climactic final battle, which ended in a way I totally did not see coming, which always impresses me. (It's hard to do that anymore. I've read so many books I generally have the ending figured out by the middlish of the book. For example, I'm reading Storm Front by Jim Butcher right now and I'm pretty sure I know who killed those two people, if not why. If it turns out I'm wrong, I'll be very happy.)

However, while I can see now that the pacing is perfect, in the middle of it sometimes it dragged. By page 500 I was starting to wonder if we even needed this book. Couldn't we have summarized all this? Perhaps, if plot's all we're going for. But Lackey is about more than plot; she crafts her characters with a purposeful, delicate hand. In order to get the characters to the point that they could do what they needed to do during the climactic battle, they had to go through all the stuff they went through in this book. And in order to understand them, we had to see them do it.

**SPOILERS BEYOND THIS POINT**
You have been warned.

I did find myself a bit annoyed by Alacandar's disappearance. Other than making everything entirely more difficult than it would have been otherwise, there didn't seem to be any purpose to it. Even the explanation that he'd fallen through a door that was supposed to allow dragons and Bonded to live forever--therefore making Bisochim into even more of an idiot than he had been anyway--didn't satisfy me. It was too convenient. As was his reappearance--right when the climactic battle is underway. Of course.

Other than that, the book was wonderful. I love Harrier's character and dialogue; I often stopped to read bits of it out loud to W.E. so we could giggle over it together.

At some point, I need to read back through both trilogies involved in this story so I can get a larger view of everything that's happened. The wait time between books has been so long that I'll forget exactly what happened, but the books are so long I don't want to reread two of them before reading the brand new 3rd one. Bleh.

I know I've raved about Lackey a lot in this review, but that's only because I don't know any of Mallory's solo work. If any of the stuff I've loved is one of his touches, I apologize for ascribing it to Lackey.

4.5/5

Book Review: The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross

I will admit that I did not quite finish this book. Close to the end, I decided I'd gotten Allegro's point as well as I could expect to, and any further reading would merely confuse me further.

With only an English-department-mandated amount of linguistics background, coming to this book was incredibly difficult. I understood the point he was trying to make, and understood that there were already theories about Christianity rising from ancient pagan fertility religions, but I wasn't entirely convinced about the "Jesus mushroom" part. Due to my inability to understand his complex linguistics, I remain unconvinced.

The book is written as well as one can expect; Allegro does appear to be trying to offer his information as clearly, succinctly, and simply as possible. The serious linguistic work is relegated to the endnotes and not included in the immediate text, which helps readability quite a bit. However, this also leaves gaps in his argument which makes some of his points seem spurious or far-fetched, maybe stretching for the correlations he's making. Again, however, I do not have the linguistic background necessary to make any claims about his scholarship.

As an introduction to this theory, The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross is not an easy book to read. But it tries, and perhaps to someone with more background in the subject or in linguistics it would be easier to follow.

3/5

Wedding Bells & Airports

The wedding was beautiful. The trip, less so, but only because of the sheer length of it.

On Wednesday morning, I got up at 4 AM, double-checked my luggage, packed my pillow, and headed to the airport. At 8:30, I was on the plane and headed to my first layover. Since it had been about 9 years since I've flown, I'd forgotten how horrifying takeoff can be. I also learned that sometime in the last 9 years, I've developed a tendency toward airsickness (I blame aging). On my second layover, I got some Dramamine and lunch, both of which helped (at that point, I hadn't had anything substantial to eat at all, and it was about 4 PM CST).

When I landed in Hawaii, I met my future brother-in-law for the first time, and when we got to my parents' house, I met my sister-in-law for the first time. I also discovered that, due to a blend of allergies, people-claustrophobia, heat, and a leaky air mattress, staying in my parents' house was untenable, so my sister's friend and I got a room at a local camp ($35/night is nothing to sneeze at).

We all went shopping for last-minute wedding necessities (slips, skin-colored bras, shoes, etc.) and the stuff I'd planned to pick up while there anyway (a sushi press & mat, Hawaiian candy, macadamia nuts), then had the rehearsal--only two quick run-throughs because nearly everyone was late--and dinner--the groom's cake was awesome. When we headed back to go to bed, my sister came with us so she could sleep in a less-peopled, air-conditioned environment the night before her wedding.

The day of was a marathon of making favors, getting the hotel set up, getting dressed, etc. The dressing-and-makeup part was a bit weird because of all the photographers in the hotel room with us; my sister went for the full-blown professional-photography thing, which was a lot like having paparazzi following you around (or so I guess, considering I've never had that happen). Then we headed for the garden and hid around a corner so the groom couldn't see his bride before she actually hit the aisle.

It was a beautiful day (thank goodness), and most things went off without a hitch. The flower girl insisted on picking up her flower petals, the bride & groom discovered that it's impossible to pour sand into a vase simultaneously, the pastor messed up my sister's vows, but other than that, everything went fine. Nobody forgot the rings (the maid of honor tied the groom's ring to her hand so she wouldn't lose it), the ringbearer didn't pitch too much of a fit (though we did have to wash his face and keep him from touching the bride due to his insistence on playing in the dirt before the ceremony), and nobody ran away.

The reception was pretty, if a bit awkward for those of us at the head table (on a dais. With spotlights). The emcee surprised us with an insistence that we each say something encouraging to the bride and groom. I said: "Well, anyone who knows me knows that I'm really snarky so: if you hurt her, I will beat you to death with a shovel. A vague disclaimer is nobody's friend. But seriously, you guys are adorable and I think you're going to be fine. Congratulations." I think a few people in the audience may have been like at that, but the bride & groom were laughing and I think they got the sentiment there, anyway.

After the reception, we gathered our stuff and headed back to the camp. The next morning, we made a dash to the Swap Meet to get more Hawaiian snacks and a souvenir for W.E. (a Hawaiian shirt nicer than the one he owns), then headed to the airport. The trip back was mostly uneventful--I got to sit with my sister on the first flight and we played Risk on her husband's iPhone, didn't get to meet up with a friend in LA due to traffic and last-minute plans, and slept through nearly the entirety of the last flight (I don't even remember taking off). I got back to Nashville at 9:30 AM on Sunday and set about resetting my circadian rhythms, which was not easy. And still isn't; I slept for 14 hours last night and I still feel like I could use a nap.

May I also add that TSA is a bunch of jerks. Not only did they open my suitcase and paw through it (which I guess I should have expected), they opened my sister's wedding present, beat the box it was in as well as the tin of tea that came with it half to death, and jammed stuff back in any-which-way. At least nobody stole anything, but I was still incredibly pissed off to discover the box with the cast-iron tea set torn open with huge dents in it, and the tin of strawberry-lemonade tea also with huge dents. At least they didn't untape the lid on the tin; if I'd found strawberry-lemonade tea all over the inside of my suitcase, I'd have been REALLY unhappy.

I will have some pictures and maybe a couple of videos soon, and more pictures when the photographers send them to my sister.

Leaving On a Jet Plane

At an amazingly idiotic hour of the morning tomorrow, I will head off on one of those newfangled flying machines and sit in it for nearly a full day in order to reach Hawaii, where my sister is getting married. Also, because I am poor, I get to have two layovers each way. Bleh.

My suitcase is packed (except for the stuff that's in the dryer and my pillow), my carry-on is packed (except for the extra change of clothes that's in the dryer and the book I'm reading right now), and I can't shake the feeling that I'm forgetting something. I hate when that happens. Of course, really all I need is my boarding pass, my ID, and my shoes. My sister has my dress. As long as I can get there, I'll be fine.

Books in my carry-on, since I'm sure you're all incredibly interested (especially if you read MY blog):
The Name of the Rose - Umberto Eco (I'm about halfway through it)
Frostbitten - Kelley Armstrong
The Ruins - Scott Smith (though I'll take this out if I get a chance to go to the bookstore and replace it with The Phoenix Transformed by Mercedes Lackey)

See you all on Sunday, assuming I don't crash or something equally horrible!

Forgot It Was Out There

I got a rejection letter for "The Queen's Huntsman" from Dark Discoveries this morning. I'd practically forgotten I'd submitted to them. Well, not really, because I have my spreadsheet, but I'd figured no answer meant no (I sent it to them in December) and wasn't expecting to hear anything. It helped the rejection hurt less, at least.

"Slaymate" has been up at the OWW for a few weeks and I think the two crits I've gotten are going to have to do me. So I'll revise that a bit, try really hard to come up with a better title/monster name, and start submitting it possibly in the next week or so.

That, of course, depends on how fast I can revise between now and Wednesday, when I'm flying out to my sister's wedding and will be gone for 5 days. Bleh. (Bleh on the being gone and the flying, not on my sister getting married.)