Ahira's Hangar

Sounds interesting Duchess. I usually like his work on the whole...

--A ____________________________________

A sense of the sardonic preserves a man from believing in his own pretensions. -The Sayings Of Maud'Dib<i></i>

I really enjoyed the Swords books. ________________
I wanna feel the metamorphosis and cleansing I've endured within my shadow. Change is coming. Now is my time. Listen to my muscle memory. Contemplate what I've been clinging to. -Tool, "Forty-Six & Two" <i></i>

ILL MET BY MOONLIGHT by Mercedes Lackey and Roberta Gellis is the sequel to This Scepter'd Isle. The elves have received visions of the fate of England after the death of Henry VIII. They see his daughter Mary ushering in a period of death and horror. They see his daughter Elizabeth ushering in a golden age. The Dark Elves, who feed on fear and pain, will do anything to bring Mary to the throne. The Bright Elves, who feed from joy and love, wish to bring Elizabeth to the throne. This novel tells of Elizabeth's girlhood - protected by the Bright Elves, threatened by the Dark.

This Scepter'd Isle was very enjoyable - and this book was a worthy sequel. ******************************************************

Our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence.~David Zindell
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A TASTE OF MAGIC by Andre Norton and Jean Rabe is the Grand Master Norton's last story. Near the end of her life she requested Rabe, an author she had worked with before, to finish it. She provided Rabe with piles of notes and many conversations about how she wanted the story to go. The final effort is quite seemless - you cannot tell where Norton stopped writing and Rabe started. It is a little fanasty novel that starts with a cliche - a person is out hunting when nearly her entire village is wiped out and swears revenge when she returns home and finds the slaughter. But it quickly transcends that cliche and has lots of nice twists. Wisteria, the main character, has an interesting form of magic - one that primarily enhances her senses of smell and taste. A very pleasant little novel.
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Our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence.~David Zindell
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MIDNIGHT TIDES by Steven Erikson - fifth (of a projected ten) fat novel in his Malazan Book of the Fallen fantasy series. This one is a bit smaller than some, but is still pushing 900 pages. This one will take me awhile to get though.

Looks like it set on yet another continent or subcontinent, with action and geography thus far not connected to the previous books, other than the first few pages.

I have heard that in the next book (BONEHUNTERS, book 6) he will start to knit it all together. That will be welcome and good. ******************************************************

Our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence.~David Zindell
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I take back the above post: Midnight Tides actually pushes about 1000 pages in paperback. And I am finding it to be the least interesting book in the series, though it is still better written than book one (though I think I enjoyed GOTM as a story more than MT). I am about halfway through, and it is a struggle. Everytime I open the book, I eventually find myself waking up out of a sound sleep, with the book open on the bed next to me.

Someone please tell me that Bonehunters will not be boring! Or that this book picks up in the second half and I can actually care about what happens to any of these characters? <i></i>

I still have three days left of my long weekend and the weather has turned ugly on me. My goal: to defeat this book before it defeats me.

Midnight Tides : about 400 pages to go. ******************************************************

Our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence.~David Zindell
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Thus far today:
Midnight Tides : down to about 300 pages left

I have thus far fallen asleep twice while reading it this morning.

I have come to realize that there is a good story hidden in there somewhere. If you were to cut about 500 or so pages from the text to leave the core story I might be having a bit less trouble reading it.

It also seems to take place years before the other four novels, and in a completely different part of the world. ******************************************************

Our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence.~David Zindell
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Latest update:

we're having an ice storm and I am expecting to lose power if the freezing rain keeps up for a few more hours - there is already enough ice that there are little icicles hanging down from the power lines and tree branches.

Midnight Tides : about 150 pages to go

There is a great story in there - screaming to be released!!!

A good editor would have been of great service to that potential great story.
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Our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence.~David Zindell
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Finished. Dear God...finished. I feel as if I have just completed a 10k road race over hilly terrain. I think I will go drink a glass of sangria and then take a long winter's nap. ******************************************************

Our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence.~David Zindell
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For a while now I've been reading Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses, which is proving to be a very enjoyable and original piece of work. Rushdie has a very individual style, which makes the quality of the writing stand out even more.

I also recently finished Bone, the comic by Jeff Smith, which I enjoyed a lot. I've posted some of my thoughts on it over at my blog: and .

Lately I have been slowly reading my way through Neil Gaiman's latest short story and poetry collection, Fragile Things. He is a quite gifted short story writer, though the one about Narnia's Susan in this collection is very disturbing (and I think he intended it to be so).

I have started reading David Gemmel's Troy - Lord of the Silver Bow, set in the years before the Trojan War.

I have not tried this author before, but I am really enjoying this book. Odysseus and Aeneus are great characters - and the author has placed the story in the light of the latest archaelogical research - placing Troy as a regional capital of the Hittite Empire and integrated into the melting pot of the Mediterranean as the Egyptian and Hittite Empires are slowly on the fall and the rapacious Greek pirate kings are on the rise.

I haven't red that yet, but I'm wokring my way towards it!

I'm reading the Temple of the Winds by Terry Goodkind.