Tired Now
Posted by Cyn | Filed under Health, Kvetching, Reading
I had a pain doctor appointment last week, but wasn’t up to going. So Sam rescheduled it for me, and I headed across town today.
Apparently this was the day for “fitting in” everybody who has canceled an appointment in the last Goddess-knows-how-long, because I arrived to find no parking (even on the street in front of the practice). Patience was rewarded, and I got a spot that opened up as someone left, and was still 20 minutes early for my appointment.
I was seen shortly before the woman who came in after me, after stopping to glare at me from her streetside parking space (hey, it wasn’t as if she had been in the lot waiting or anything!). Her appointment was actually 15 minutes before mine, so I have no idea why they saw me first.
Still, I was very glad to have my a back-up ebook on my PDA, because it took over 2 hours to get out of there. They usually run absolutely on-time, so I only had one “normal” book with me, and I finished it.1 That office is always so overheated, so I was really dozy by the time I left.
Sam and I agreed that I had no business driving very far, so I got some fruit and water and went to his workplace. I had a brief nap, then he was off work and we were off to fill my prescriptions. We committed naughtiness by grabbing pizza for dinner, but it was yummy naughtiness.
This is the man’s “Old Farts” gaming night, when he meets up with some of his buddies and they play whatever they can agree on. The girl is going out with friends to see Watchmen (again), so I think I may be going to bed early.
First, I need to close some tabs in my browser, but I wanted to share the links with you! (You’re SO lucky!)
Elf Detection 101: How to find the hidden folk of Iceland.
Read the stories on the Nebula ballot!
It’s Read An eBook Week! So celebrate by downloading some of the free eBooks listed on their site 🙂
1 And then gifted it to someone who had been waiting before me and was still unseen when I left, who kept moaning about having forgotten to bring a book.
Tags: Books, elves, short stories, whinging
Instant Christmas: Trio of ‘elves’ transform Ritz-Carlton Buckhead overnight | ajc.com
Posted by Cyn | Filed under Holidays
From the AJC (link gone): Instant Christmas: Trio of ‘elves’ transform Ritz-Carlton Buckhead overnight
I noticed this story because it reminded me of our dear friend Sonji (Mique_Mique on LJ), who we haven’t seen in far too long! As a floral designer, this is her “crazy time” each year, so I know it’ll be some time yet before we do get to see her. We miss you, sugar!
Tags: Carlton Buckhead, Christmas, decorating, elves, floral designer, Sonji
Review: A Lick of Frost, Laurell K. Hamilton
Posted by Cyn | Filed under Reading, Sex
I honestly didn’t think Laurell K. Hamilton had it in her, but A Lick of Frost moved me to tears in spots. She managed real romance. I don’t even like reading romances, and I really hate crying, but I couldn’t help it. I even found a quote to keep.
I don’t want to give out any spoilers, especially since it’s quite new, but this novel could reasonably be seen as the end to the Merry Gentry series. I believe Hamilton will write at least one more book, to tie up some details and bring the series to seven volumes. All of the volumes have been fairly slender, and Hamilton is a guaranteed cash cow, so who knows how many books there will actually be? I could, however, stop reading now.
This series is not one to start if, like me, you don’t like waiting for another book in order to know “what happens next.” Generally, I try to wait until a series is finished before I begin to read it, in case it isn’t ever finished. I detest cliffhangers, most especially, and Hamilton has indulged in several.
Unlike most, the Merry Gentry series is good enough that I keep reading despite my personal preference. I’ve never lost track of any important details between books, which is also striking. I’d actually like to have copies of this series to keep, as I might re-read them. In contrast, I stopped buying the Anita Blake books years ago, although I would consider picking up used paperbacks to accompany those I already own just because Katie has expressed interest in them.
Sam is totally disinterested in just about anything having to do with vampires, werewolves, or anything else that is too similar to World of Darkness. I think it’s a reaction to having been so immersed in research and development when he worked for White Wolf, but I’ll leave him to explain it if we wishes. He does tend to scoff at anything too far off the “canon,” as it were.
Since he was involved in Changeling (his favorite), I would have thought the same applied to urban fantasy concerning faery. That’s true, usually, but he’s been drawn into the Merry Gentry books once or twice, and that’s saying something (if only for the quality of some sex scenes).
I know that one reason the Blake series has gotten so tiresome is that sex has taken them over, but Hamilton’s attempts to make the sex part of the plot fall flat. An even bigger one is Anita’s angst over the species and numbers of her loves and sex partners. While she occasionally mentions her religious upbringing as justification, as an animator (one who raises zombies) she left the safety of the Catholic church behind years ago. One could argue that its theology left reality behind, but in any case, her life is permeated by and depends on magic that is bound up in religion, but her overt religious beliefs no longer match her reality or how she’s truly living.
I don’t even like to include the books in that short list of those that truly deal with polyamory, due to the fact that Anita has been so guilt-ridden and unhappy (until the last book or two), while continuing to follow her crotch (okay, the magic, if you believe Hamilton, but seriously…).
Meredith Gentry never has that problem. It is unfortunate that Hamilton has to reach into an imaginary culture to depict people who are comfortable with their sexuality, including multiple sexual partners, but at least she has done so. There is still an annoying “I must pick only one!” theme, but it is made clear that Merry is being forced into such a choice by relatively recent Sidhe custom—not her heart or her conscience. She repeatedly stresses, in her interactions with humans, that she has absolutely no shame about her lifestyle, and that the Sidhe have very different ideas about such things than humans do.
I especially appreciate the repeated theme of accepting diversity and appreciating beauty in everyone. “Everyone” never goes to far as to including, for instance, fat people, but there don’t seem to be any of those in fairy. Her lovers are all terribly beautiful, even the half-Goblin and half-Sluagh, but she expressly does not reject those who are scarred or “different” because of their heritage or experiences. There is overmuch attention to description of appearances for my tastes, especially details of every character’s clothing, but that seems to be all too common in anything with any focus on relationships these days (or I’m just noticing it more—was it always there?)
While there’s still a lot of sex, the reasons for the abundance of sex and variety of partners has been integrated into the Gentry plot from square one. Despite that, it doesn’t feel like the sex scenes take over the books. Anyone with the least bit of prudery should still stay away from the series completely, of course, but that’s made clear on the covers and in the excerpts on the book flaps. Nobody who has ever picked up a Laurell K. Hamilton book in the last five years, at least, has any excuse for claiming naÃveté if he finds the content too racy!
Tags: A Lick of Frost, Books, Catholic Church, dark fantasy, elves, Laurell K. Hamilton, Meredith Gentry, review, romance, Sex