Finished up Dragonfly this morning. It is without question one of the weirdest books I have read in a long time (the last truly odd book I read was by Lovecraft). However, it is both interesting and engaging, despite - or perhaps because of - its very unusualness.
From the page in the back of the book about the author: Quote: Frederic S. Durbin spent his childhood in the deep oak shade and sun-baked dust near Taylorsville, Illinois, climbing trees and avoiding shoes. His parents opened the town's first bookstore. While still in elementary school, he discovered the works of H. P. Lovecraft and J. R. R. Tolkien, his earliest literary influences.
He spent most of his spare time writing throughout high school and college; writing draft after draft of an epic fantasy novel, best described, he says, as "a learning experience." He majored in classical languages at Concordia College, River Forest, Illinois, where he edited the fine arts section of the college newspaper.
After graduating summa cum laude in 1988, he traveled to Japan as a Lutheran volunteer missionary teacher. In 1995, he became a full-time instructor of creative writing and English at Niigata University. It was here, among the pine groves and pounding surf of Japan's northweestern coast, that Durbin began to see the faces and hear the voices that became Dragonfly.
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Our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence.~David Zindell <i></i>
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