Daniel Shellenbarger > Recent Status Updates

Ah, Ghostwater, not only a fun book and the first in the series to get 5 stars from me, but it marks the point of the series where we finally meet the last of the Aang gang... urrr... I mean Lindon's crew.

in what seems to have become a yearly tradition, it's halfway through spring so time to start rereading Cradle!

The more I think about it, the way Austen wrote Elinor and Edward's romance is very strange. She pretty much skips anything to do with them getting to know/like each other, presenting their affection as a fait accomplit basically from the start of the book, focuses on all the problems, during which they basically don't interact and then presents their engagement in the most 3rd hand anticlimactic way possible. weird

I find this "all sit down together and talk about what went wrong with Willoughby" segment oddly like an episode of ESPN's Sportscenter

again I long for the sea monsters...

And now that we've actually met Mrs. Ferrars I confess that I'm disappointed: no bodyguard of hulking mountain trolls, no voice made of the buzzing of flies, no eyes of flame, no spiky armor festooned made from the crystalized screams of her victims. She's just a pruned-up tiny mean manipulative controlling old biddy, like the Austen version of Palpatine.

there's a certain Sauron-esque quality to Mrs. Ferrars; we've heard of her since near the start of the book, but only as a vague and threatening presence, distant and dangerous, but as to her personality, appearance, or manners... nothing, Just people asking each other, "Have you met her?" and worrying over if she's as bad as rumors suggest and if Gondor will stand... also, by that analogy Fanny is Saruman :)