Ahira's Hangar

*hoping a certain chapter of ToA is squeezed in there somewhere*

...just yanking your chain, Av. get to it when you get to it...

Dragon Keeper by Robin Hobb. It is a sequel of sorts to her Liveship Traders trilogy, but I think people who have not read Liveship could probably pick up on it pretty well. So far I am enjoying it very much.

And Hand of Isis, while it idealized Cleopatra and her court a bit too much (probably to counteract the surviving Roman writings which pretty much demonized her), was pretty good, too. Had a theme of sacrifice, tying in with the Middle Eastern religions where the God/priest/hero had to die for the better good of his people. Always good to read historical fantasy set in Africa or Asia or someplace else not the standard Northern European sort of setting.

Dragon Keeper's out? I loved Liveship Traders, and will have to read it. I gotta say, though, I find it hard to believe that she can write a standalone novel. She needs a book and a half just to get a story going.

I finished Shadow in Summer, and it was pretty good, but then read the 1st Dresden series book, and am now half-way through book 4. Those books are awesome!

OK, you're the third Watcher I have heard recommend these Dresden books, Ted. Sounds like I need to look them up...

Watcher? Here he's a pilot, or a Chugger. tsk, tsk...

DO NOT listen nor really take serious anything Butcher says about Chicago, because most of what is said is erroneous. Examples, parking lot at Wrigley Field, Hyde Park neighboring Lincoln Park, WalMart in Chicago. He gets facts about suburbs wrong, too. Yes, I know there's all kinds of excuses and rationales about these issues. I suppose his narratives are so engrossing and riveting that no body really cares.

Actually, I find his numerous Chicago blunders to be hilarious. Wrigley Field sitting in a middle of acres of asphalt, for example (it is in the middle of a quaint neighborhood with no parking). I just figure that his Chicago is on a different Earth is all, since our Chicago does not have vampires, werewolves, and wizards and such beings and his does.

Maybe he confused Wrigley with Sox Park...

For your information, Komiskey Park while not in a residential neighborhood like Wrigley Field doesn't have acres of parking lots surrounding it either, nor does it need one (did I say that). OTOH, Soldier Field has a pretty large parking lot surrounding it, and Chicago Stadium, too, has a large parking lot.

What's the big new-ish one you can see from -- oh, frack, whatever the heck I-94 is downtown, the Ryan? Didn't that replace Comiskey Park? Or did they retain the name? (Haven't lived in greater Chicagoland since about 1980, sorry, and then I always took the South Shore into town...)