The Return

And tomorrow we're back at work. The weekend was not much to speak of. Time with the in-laws was surprisingly draining. I dozed a little yesterday, and I dozed a little today.

I finished The Born Queen by Greg Keyes, and read a book, I never got on my active reading list.

The Born Queen was a good book for the end of the series. I enjoyed the final conflicts between the powers and the way things were wrapped up in the end. The series wasn't great, but it was entertaining and engaging.

Then there's Death from the Skies! by Philip Plait. That was a fun book which again goes to show just what kind of a person I am. It's an astronomy book by the creator of the Bad Astronomy blog at Discover Magazine online.The book is about the many ways that life and the earth could be affected by various incidents from or in outer space. And written in ways that both the scientist and layman could enjoy.

And tomorrow, I will once again try to pick up Paul of Dune at the library.

Sunday night

Once we got back from the football game, there was a feeling around the house of Sundays before returning to school. There was just a thick feeling of "SCHOOL NIGHT", but there was still so much light left with things to do.

I checked the hours left at Fantasy Books and Games, and seeing they were open until 7:00, I got in the car and drove down to get two weeks' worth of comic books. This includes the new Joker hard cover which I'll describe when I get a chance. One of the nice things about Saturday was that John brought the second book of Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn trilogy (and today he told me the third book is coming from him this coming Saturday) and the third book in Greg Keyes' Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone series. I'm not needing the library for a while.

The thing that amazes me is the speed with which some people on the net read their comics. Granted they're reviewing the books for their blogs. Intensely reviewing. I'm just reading them for enjoyment. I've considered reviewing things more officially, but I can't quite get into it. But anyway,these people post pictures of from the books, and I almost have to skip the posts when I haven't read the books yet.

And Sunday night, I finished Mistborn. It was a fun read with good tension, exciting twists, and very little predictability. John told me, and you can see for yourself, on Sanderson's site that he is writing the conclusion to Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series. After reading this first book, and John's continued (never waning) raving (truly, raving) about the trilogy, I look forward to strong ending of the Wheel of Time. Of course the Wheel never stops turning, but you get the idea.

Reading and such

I finished Greg Keyes' Briar King recently. It's a good read once you get used to jumping around to different characters a lot. I understand they were necessary, but I would just be getting interested in the character and what was happening, and there would be a mini-cliffhanger, and he would jump to a different character. I've got the next book set aside from John. I'll get to it soon, but...

Right now, I'm reading Juggler of Worlds by Larry Niven and Edward M. Lerner. They co-wrote Fleet of Worlds which was pretty good, but this one is much more enjoyable. It's kind of a what was going on in the background during the Beowulf Schaeffer stories (as best compiled in Crashlander). And what was happening on Earth during Fleet of Worlds. I would have almost liked to have seen Fleet and Juggler as one book. It could have been done, if been a bit massive of a book.

And now a geeky pondering: One thing that I have wondered since reading Crashlander is what happened to Beowulf, Carlos Wu, and the rest of the family on the earth-like planet of Home. I did a tiny bit of research last night since there are years given in Juggler of Worlds, and I compared them to a timeline given in Protector.

Protector is kind of an unofficial prequel to Ringworld, and describes the Pak race and their connection to Earth. Towards the end, the Brennan-Monster and his human assistant are traveling to Home. The timeline the assistant creates begins with time a few hundred years before events in Juggler, but dates get distorted as they are traveling at relativistic speeds. He even mentions the need to reset calendars when they reach Home.

We know that Louis Wu, son of Carlos, and primary protagonist in Ringworld and its sequels, survives and travels, but what of the rest? Do they live long enough to become Protectors? Does Carlos Wu become a genius Protector? This site has a timeline which incorporates dates from Known Space up through Fleet of Worlds. We'll have to see.

Maybe it will say in this book, or maybe there will be future revelations in other books. I have to admit my joy of the continuing tales from Known Space. I just hope Mr. Niven keeps writing.