Walter Jon Williams's Blog, page 63

Pod People

Friend of the blog Pete Johannsen and his pal Connor (who seems not to have a last name) interview each other about my novel Voice of the Whirlwind.  Interesting ideas are raised, some of which I will have to think about for a while. It’s entertaining, it’s smart, and it’s about me!  What more could you ask for?

Snjóbíll!

Dig the crazy halftrack action of this 1929 Citroen snowmobile!

Debatable Ground

So here we are atop the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, on the neutral ground between the North American tectonic plate and the Eurasian plate.  Because the land here is very new, there’s not much in the way of bedrock to support it, and in places it’s sort of collapsed— though not here, where this lake can be found in newly-formed highlands.  The sources of this lake are rainwater and springs, and there’s no exit, but trout have found their way into the lake, so at least there’s fishing. You also see bl...

Glacier Had a Baby

Springtime

Here we are, just a few days from Midsummer, and the temperature is 7º Celsius (44 Fahrenheit), with a wicked cold wind.  That’s southeast Iceland for you. This photograph was taken near the pleasant fishing town of Höfn (“Haven,” or “Port” if you like), which is currently suffering from a weird tertiary effect of global warming that I’m guessing no one ever predicted. Behind the great big mountain in the photo is Vatnajökull, the world’s third-largest glacier after Antarctica and Greenland....

Turf

I should make the point that my Iceland posts aren’t made in any particular order, but dictated by what I feel like writing about and how much time I have available. So if you’re familiar with Icelandic geography, you may suspect that I’m teleporting randomly about the landscape.  Whereas to those of you who don’t know Iceland, it won’t matter. What we have here is a turf-roofed house similar to those inhabited by most Icelanders throughout history, a style used well into the 20th century— ex...

Score!

Tölt and Snæfellsjökul

Behold the stratovolcano Snæfellsjökull, used by Jules Verne to send Professor Lidenbrock & Company toward (but not to) the Center of the Earth. Unfortunately M Verne never actually went to Iceland, else he might have learned that Snæfellsjökull’s crater is completely sealed by ice. (Do your research! I tell my students.) Here we see one of Iceland’s celebrated horses performing its singular four-beat gait, the tölt, in which either one or two feet meet the ground at each stride.  (There is n...

The Harp

This is a photo of the Harpa (Harp), Reykjavik’s astounding concert hall.  The irregular glass panels are each colored differently, or are designed to reflect different colors in a changing environment, or both.  At any rate the colors shift and change and move with the environment, and in full daylight (which we don’t see here) the effect is magical. We didn’t get inside, because a visit from the President of Germany, Herr Steinmeier, was under way, and there was a police presence.  This als...

Clews

I am off to an Undisclosed Location for ten days or so, so within this harmless karaoke video I have inserted a few clues as to my destination. And no, I have no plans to kiss any sheep while I’m there. Bæ!