vilakins | Things done and read

Things I have done in the last couple of days include over an hour tootling around on Segways which was great fun (Greg loved this so much, he’s considering buying one to commute on), having a hot stone massage (almost sinfully relaxing), and painting two ceramic cats. Seduced by the gorgeous and extensive range of beads in the Creative Café as it’s called, I also booked in for jewellery making one evening.

I’ve also read five and a bit books while I’ve been here.

The Kalahari Typing School for Men by Alexander McCall Smith. This proved to be the fourth in the series, I think, and there are frustrating references to what has happened since The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency. I shall have to get the other two from the library. I know some people don’t like these books with their very simple narrative, but it matches the slow, sedate world that fat, wise Precious Ramotswe lives in.

I, Virgil by David Wishart. I didn’t like this much; it was ploddingly pedestrian despite being purported to be told by a poet, and I didn’t like him either. For that matter, no one was particularly real, vivid, or engaging. Luckily his second novel (see below) was a lot better.

Swallowdale by Arthur Ransome. What else should I read by a lake with mountains on the other side, and when better to vicariously enjoy childhood but on holiday?

Ovid by David Wishart. This one’s the first in the Corvinus series, recced by hafren, I think. The eponymous poet is dead before the book begins, so Wishart’s free to invent an irreverent and roguish Roman detective very much in the Marcus Didius Falco mode, though this one’s a patrician and a patron with clients in the Roman rather than modern sense. He uncovers an old conspiracy and a very plausible explanation for Varus’s loss of three legions, and the strangely similar Julia scandals during Augustus’s reign, and entertainingly too. Corvinus is a vivid and witty narrator, and the scene where he’s set upon by thugs and saved by some new legionary recruits had me laughing out loud. I’ll definitely read more of him.

The Many-Coloured Land by Julian May. imhilien recced the whole Galactic Milieu series a while back, and this is the second one I’ve read, the first in the Pliocene series. It’s about 22nd century misfits who choose to go back to the Pliocene on a one-way trip. I’m only a little way in but it’s already made me think about the drawbacks of their peaceful society imposed by powerful and well-meaning aliens. One of the characters is Aiken Drum, an incorrigible thief and practical joker whom they try to reprogram using “metapsychic deep-redact and deprivation conditioning and multiphase electroshock and narcotherapy”, and when it fails, offer him the choice of permanent incarceration, psychosurgical implant of a docilisation unit (a limiter!), or euthanasia. He chooses none of the above: exile to the Pliocene.

Sound like any thief and government we know? I’ve always thought that the Federation started off as a Good Thing with imposed peace and order welcomed by most. That said, I’d probably be quite happy in the Galactic Milieu with all its benefits, tech, and space travel; certainly much more so than in a primitive past.

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Mmm, it's been sounding like you're having a pretty blissful time, and that hot stone massage sounds wonderful. I'm really glad it's so good.

I hope you enjoy the Julian May books! I first read them years ago, and absolutely love them. I hope you'll be able to find and read them all - they're worth it.

It was such a long time ago that I read the first few Julian May books, that I can't remember much. I think I thought they were okay. One of the drawbacks is that I now realize that Very Thick Books and I don't often get along well. There are notable exceptions, of course, such as LotR and 1632. 1632 surprised me by being over 500 pages long -- I thought that anything over 500 pages would fall into the "too long and slow" category.

Maybe some day I'll try Julian May again. But there are a couple of big thick trilogies higher on my to-read list that I'd better get to first.

I often avoid series, but this one looks as if it's all available at the library, and the one I read last year was fairly standalone.

Swallowdale surprised me by being over 500 pages, but then it had bigger print. :-)

It's been great. It's probably going to rain today so we'll go look at the dam before it does, then go to the cinema. :-)

T read the Intervention one which I liked, so I decided to read the series. I'm pretty sure the library system has them all.

So you got stoned. :)

Glad you've been having a good time.

a very plausible explanation for Varus’s loss of three legions

[Lady Bracknell]
To lose one legion may be accounted a misfortune. To lose three sounds like carelessness.
[/Lady Bracknell]

I did, and I almost went to sleep, it was so relaxing.

LOL!

A hot stone massage sounds good to me!

I can never walk past bead shops, and have had fun making necklaces. :D I hope your jewellery making session goes well.

I'm glad you're reading 'The Many Coloured Land' after I recommended Julian May. :-) I'm sure Aiken and Vila would get along - no 'reprogamming' for them, thanks!

The Milieu isn't as bad as the Federation, but it's quite happy to have a place to send the misfits & crooks to for good...

It doesn't seem as bad going by the Intervention book I read last year: the aliens had senses of humour, and that counts for a lot. Most of the misfits are people who just don't belong in a nice safe society; at least they didn't try to reprogram them.

I will not write a crossover with Aiken and Vila. ;-)

I'm glad that the aliens have a sense of humour too, and that they're not portrayed as all-perfect beings.

*looks interested at the idea of a crossover*

Actually, some of them behaved really badly pre-intervention with UFOs etc, which doesn't fit with the Milieu's rejection of Aiken. I'm sure they could have found something for such an inventive and lively person to do.

Hmm. There would have to be time travel for one of them. I did do a B7/Shaun of the Dead crossover once though, with Avon and Vila being sent into the past by Orac. I think in this case it would be Aiken who sussed time travel using the plans he took with him. No! No no no. And who but a handful of people would read it? :-P

Glad to hear you've been having a fun and relaxing time. :) It's always good to find time for reading too.

Reading Without Guilt is a big part of being on holiday because there aren't any chores waiting to be done. :-D

I seemed to remember that Aiken was one of my favourite characters in that book.
I suppose it depends on how far you are prepared to sacrifice your very SELF to live in the society.

The Covinus detecxtive series sounds interesting I'll have to check out my local library for them.

He's a lot ruder than Marcus Didius Falco; he swears. :-P I like it when other languages like Latin are in effect translated into modern English. I don't think it's anachronistic at all, unless the author uses metaphors that don't work in that place and time. I think I'll like Corvinus as much as Falco; you could check both of them out if you don't know Falco and his Helena. The only thing is, the Falco series should be read in order as there are references to previous adventures, and I suspect Corvinus may be the same.

I've read some of Falco, even watched the movie with Bryan Brown in too.

I don't mind idiom so long as its not anachronistic too.
I'm sure considering the Empire's mix they had the F-word for instance. But describing someone as homosexual as a queer or queen would be. They had their own idioms for that.

He uses the F-word, and I'm sure the Romans did too.

That film with Bryan Brown was dreadful! He didn't look like Falco (who has curly black hair) or sound like him (We kept laughing and saying things like "Strewth, mate, you think that's a sword? This is a sword!") and they completely rewrote the story making it totally unrecognisable.

I've read all of the Pliocene Exiles

The first two I devoured (The Many-Coloured Land (1981) The Golden Torc (1981))

#3 I got through(The Nonborn King (1983))
and #4 (The Adversary (1984)) I gave up on, I'm afraid I feel it is a 4 book series that should have either had a good editor to cut it back to 3 or which should have stopped at 3.

I'll see how I go. I don't waste time reading books I don't like or find boring; life is too short. I do think a lot of SF and fantasy authors seem to think they have to produce enormous drawn-out series.

That sounds an ideal holiday. Enough to do to avoid being bored, but not so organised as to be a pressure.

I'll definitely come back here again. :-)

I'll have to 'hit the ground running' to catch up, as my boss said, when I get back to work next week, which I'm not looking forward to. At least I'll have Easter to recover in.

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