Forrest > Recent Status Updates

The deus ex machina is excusable due to Coltaine's reputation spreading like wildfire. It actually makes some sense, unlike most such instances in literature. And I love that Quick Ben is involved with the gifts. You can tell this was based on a DnD campaign: "Well, my mage is really high level and I'm ready to play someone else. Let's make Quick Ben a god!"

For some reason, when I think of the familiar, Moby, I always picture Apu from the Disney movie Alladin. Can't get that image out of my head.

Guess who has two thumbs and just bought a book for each hand? :)

Essentially, Iscarium is a walking nuclear bomb. I can see why Mappo simultaneously loves and fears his friend.

But . . . Coltaine . . . I . . . uh . . . who . . .

If this mystery, this one mystery, isn't resolved by the end of the book, I shall scream.

I have to admit that I like the running dog jokes.

I am enjoying this novel, but I can't read three "big" books at once ever again. Two big and one small, I think I can do, but I'm too slow of a reader for three bigs at once!

Sebian vampires and overactive diaphragms causing bloody froth after death leading to charges of bloodsucking. Yum. Great lunchtime reading.

Now, wait, did Felisin just become the reincarnation of Sha'ik? I'm confused . . . not uncommon with this novel, but this seems like a pretty critical scene here.

Kulp!

Love Adam Scovell's essay "The Haunted Landscape of Brian Eno's Ambient 4: On Land". The title pretty much says it all . . .

Though I love the movie Blood on Satan's Claw, it felt a bit disjointed. Now I know why: it was originally supposed to be a trilogy, but was smashed down into one movie.

The analysis of Mondrian by way of structuralism helps me understand what Saussure was getting at, while also helping me understand Mondrian (an anarchist).

I really need to read The Midwich Cuckoos.

I still don't know what to make of Heboric's special gifts. It feels a little deus-ex-machina, but not quite so blunt. Still . . .

Let's say I've never read Walter de la Mare (I haven't). Where should I start with him?

One of the more epic battles in fantasy literature, the Battle of Sekala Crossing ends:

If not for a dumb beast's incomprehension at its own destruction beneath the loving hands of two heartbroken children.

Where else do you find poetry like that in fantasy literature, especially at the end of as grim a scene of combat as you've ever read?

Amazing.

Cobweb Mehers' "One Small Step for Man: Hunting the Nephilim" is a remarkable dive into the archaeology of knowledge: the origins of giants, the evolution of myth, and the contemporary social relevance of stories far older than the Bible from which we know them. This was fascinating and has my philosophical wheels spinning so quickly that my brain is shooting sparks. I could read volumes of this type of work.

I just really like Kalam as a character. He's perfect at being imperfect.

Hmm. Intriguing soundtrack from Morgiana.

You're usually at a turning point in a novel when it's unclear whether or not dead babies are being eaten . . .

Nick Brown's essay "Ghost, Landscape and Science" hews very closely to my most speculative and wild thoughts regarding quantum mechanics and the spirit world. I don't plan on writing about this, as it's all rather speculative and very, very personal. But I'm glad to see that someone else is thinking in the same general direction as I am, even if we aren't diving down to the specifics. I'd love to chat with Brown.

Finally, now I understand why the black faces surrounding Jack-in-the-Green, as well as JITG origins. An interesting evolution of a very modern myth couched in old clothing.

I still hate Felisin. Am I supposed to feel sorry for her? Like her for her "boldness"? Can't stand her.

Erikson's clever use of Historians such as Duiker is a cunning maneuver. The Historian has to be at the crux of every important event or recitation, thus the reader gets to see much that a non-Historian observer would not have access to. Well-played, Erikson. You've baked the storyteller right into the story.

Now one of Coltaine's big engagements comes to the forefront, this time from Duiker's perspective. This is pretty intense. Makes me remember that I would not have liked to have been a sword-wielding warrior, if I could have avoided it.

I'm still trying to figure out what "The Wanderings of Melmoth" is, exactly. But I like it. A lot.

I probably could have spent a lot of time reading today, but I went hunting for morels (in vain) on a long hike, then wrote letters for my snail mail RPG campaign, then vacuumed and did laundry. NOW it's reading time!