Tales from Two Elizabeths

I enjoy reading, but I'm not the speediest reader on the planet, particularly compared to DW and my sister. Heh, compared to the two of them, I'm barely beyond the "see spot run" stage. Perhaps because of that, I usually stick to reading the work of only a handful of authors at a time. Unfortunately, I'd recently hit a sort of dead-end with my current stable of authors -- I'd either read everything they have out in paperback, or the quality of their newer work really didn't justify investing my time. Harsh, perhaps, but like I said, I'm not the swiftest reader.

Anyhoo, I was on the troll for a new author at the local Barnes & Noble when the cover of an Elizabeth Bear novel caught my eye. I know there's the whole "don't judge a book by its cover" colloquialism, but I've generally found that cheesy artwork graces the cover of cheesy fiction. So, I picked up Scardown and read the blurb on the back. Near future... semi apocalyptic... alien technology... tough-as-nails female lead. Sounded intriguing. It was the second book in the series, but Hammered wasn't on the shelf, I didn't know if I'd even like the author, so I decided to pick it up and see how it was. I barely got through the first chapter when I decided that I just had to start at the beginning. It's not that Bear's a particularly gifted writer -- there are times that I definitely stumble over her phrasing or find that I have to re-read a paragraph in order to make sense of it. I also found myself a bit annoyed that one of the antagonists is an AI based on the over-hyped, super sexist professor Richard Feynman. Nonetheless, Hammered and Scardown are fun novels and I tore through both of them with uncharacteristic speed. I just picked up the recently released WorldWired and hope that it continues the trend.

The other new author I picked up is Elizabeth Moon. Ages ago, I really enjoyed Sassinak, which she cowrote with Anne McCaffrey. Whether it was that memory or the nominal link to Elizabeth Bear that caused me to pick up Trading in Danger, I'm glad I did. Moon is a much stronger writer than Bear, but the story is just as compelling. Kylara Vatta, the main character of this series, is, on the surface at least, the polar opposite of Bear's Jenny Casey. She is young and inexperienced and her challenges stem from her powerful family and their limited view of her abilities. Marque and Reprisal is a strong sequel and I'm eagerly awaiting the release of the third book in the series, Engaging the Enemy; 'though the paperback probably won't be out 'til late next year at the earliest.

TIWIW: Garden State

Technically, someone (i.e. Zach Braff) "wrote" this scene in Garden State, but it doesn't contain a single spoken word.

Andrew (Braff) parks his car, gets out, and spies a decapitated gas nozzle sticking out of the back. Without so much as a pause, he pulls out the nozzle and tosses it in a nearby dumpster.

It's perfect. You never see him being chased by an irate gas station attendant, or for that matter fueling the car. All you see is the aftermath and the character's non-challant reaction to it.

...Also, it doesn't hurt that the scene feeds into my own personal paranoia/OCD of repeatedly checking the side-view mirror to be absolutely, positively certain that I remembered to disconnect pump from car before trying to drive off.

Things I wish I'd written (TIWIW)

I have a real fondness for the well turned phrase. Perhaps it's because I have such a hard time expressing things with words. I stutter and stumble and struggle against the long pauses that occur as I try to come up with the words to convey whatever it is that my mind silently grasps.

Whether it's a quote from a famous person, the lyric in a song, or a passage in a novel (usually by a British author, it seems), I really admire good writing. And there's a lot of it that originates right in my own "back yard", as it were. A few of the more recent gems:

"I feel like a UN translator for toddlers doing haiku narratives"

"While many admire the premise, it seems like [Woody] Allen's continuing his grim march into mediocrity"

"[She] involves her whole body in taking a poop: facial grimacing, guttural noises, legs scrunched up... If we adults did that, we'd be committed. Particularly if we did it in our pants, in public."