Umpteen Things

[lenora_rose]

Went to Minnesota for Schutzenfest, the Kingdom's big archery event, this weekend, with my husband and _aura_ (And a number of others who travelled separately but hung around with us in camp). I shot... well, I shot about how I expected, which is to say mostly cruddy, but with flashes of decency that reminded me that yes, I can do this, so long as I keep up earnest practice. A mitigating factor is that the indoor archery range in town has only a 20 yard and a rarely used 27 yard line, and the weather is another obvious limiter... so long distances are rarely practiced. I *did* come in second only to HE Robin in one minor shoot, but the rest of the tiem, i was lucky to scrape up a score. Of course, it was within the last part of the Sunday Shoot that I realised one thing I'd been doing wrong all day... and all weekend. I also realised about then that I hadn't been using any of my concentration techniques to get more focused.

On the other other other hand... I had mucho fun trying all the things we never get to do.

The feast was superb if meat heavy (And included, among other things, a tiny bowl of tiny pellets that looked like hamster food buit were in fact a mongolian cheese extremely aged. So sharp it seemed like it must ahve been rolled in spices, too, but they said no. Yum.), and after the feast, the equestrian troupe invited us over to see their final activity of the day> Usually the equesrian things all happen simultaneous to the archery, but at the opposite end of the fairground, so we never get to see them, but the heat (And more specifically, cliche as it is, the humid humid air) caused them to rest the horses in the late afternoon and resume in the evening.

While they were doing that, _aura_ did henna patterns on my hands; I told her when the fun horsey things were happening, so she could pause and look up.



We also got to creep into Minneapolis proper as planned and stop at DreamHaven (But not at Uncle Hugo's or The Source, other sotres widely recommended to me.) I ended up with a stack of books so high I had sore arms, but had to put about half of them back like a sensible mature person with only $57.00 US in pocket. The haul:

Folk Underground - Both CDs, which I've been hoping to get pretty much since they came out (I was supposed to get the second one from Green Man Review, but no such CD appeared.) So far I like the first better, because the second is more traditional work and less slightly morbid weirdness. (The first has, among other things, a good rendition of The Port of Amsterdam, as well as the Neil-penned songs - and I'm in love with the Butterfly Road, which is oh so goth)

Nancy Springer - Larque on the Wing - been looking for this book for a while, because it was a fun read, but it would probably not have survived the cut at DreamHaven... if it weren't a hardcover for $0.50.
Lisa Goldstein - Tourists
Debra Doyla and James D. Macdonald - The Long Hunt (The one mistake I made was putting their Knight's Wyrd back)
Jim C. Hines - Goblin Quest (Because it had the cute bookplate with it for the same price - but even with the perk, this was the book I should have put back and kept Knight's Wyrd for.Not for lack of its own merits, but...)


We got back into town to find my mom had left me a birthday cake and a gift to wait for me... since we arrived in the house about 12:01, I didn't even get it early.


Said gift was:
Ellen kushner - The Privilege of the Sword - the pretty edition.
Jim C. Hines - Goblin Quest (See? Mistake. I even thought there was a chance that would happen.)
Jim C. Hines - Goblin Hero (Yay!)
Johnny Cash - American V: A Hundred Highways
Some patterns for trousers and skirts
A promise of a fabric run for more material for skirts, adn the labour to make them.

So far, what Colin did for me was to let me stay at home while he did the grocery shopping, and to do repairs and a complete tune-up on my own sewing machine, so I can make myself somethng cotehardie-like for our coming trip. (Oh, and to pay the tax on my books) I'd really like to talk him into getting me another bookcase, but that's more than seems reasonable considering what I got him for his birthday and our anniversary. Maybe if he gets some help from some friends for a group thing.



I got another unexpected treat on my birthday, though: one of my critiques on Raising the Storm came back to me.


The news seems more good than bad. Most of what was said I agreed with, or didn't disagree with in a violent way. The good news was ego-boosting, to say the least, the rest was useful food for thought. It's no news to me that this story is convoluted and scary-tangled and weird in scope, but it's good to have it pointed out not in those abstract terms, but in "You lost me *right* here".



My reading on the drive to and from Minneapolis mostly wound up good.

Peg Kerr - Emerald House Rising

First, a confession. I wrote a demi-review of Peg Kerr's The Wild Swans which she apparantly noticed enough to quote on her LJ some years back, that described it as problematic and critiqued whole chunks of it (Here are two of the significant quotes: "But Peg Kerr's "resolution", and the finally-in-the-last-chapter connection between the two time periods were accomplished with transparent writerly "devices" which, being transparent, didn't work (This is consistent with a writing style that includes pov slips and a few dropped threads - when I started the book, I thought her writing sounded a bit like mine. By the time I finished it, I thought her writing sounded like mine - a few years ago." ... "And the question which apparantly prompted her to write the book, she never dares to answer - or even to offer a different non-answer from the one that she had at the beginning." )

This, however, is also true: while I haven't got around to rereading the Wild Swans, it has survived several heavy and thorough cullings of books off my shelves, because Something worked. That mini-review was entirely in comparison to another book, and about the aspects the other book did right, which is part of why it dwelled, as I try not to, on the bad side.

Still, it did mean I wasn't expecting a lot of Emerald Huse Rising, which was written first. But I finished it easily on the way to Minneapolis, and handed it off to _aura_. Anyone who heard us talkign about it afterwards would think we hadn't liked it much, as we discussed its flaws at length, but that was more a case of what snags in the brain than a lack of positives.

It's a quiet story, with more about the lives and dreams of individuals, plans for careers and futures, than about the major key plot, which is an attempt to steal a kingdom. It's about a woman finding herself, and the people around her doing the same. The world is well-drawn, and the characters likewise. _aura_ is right that the main plot depends on a bit more coincidence of when and where and how people meet or learn things, and definitely right that something that happens after the climax makes no sense (Why does she never go and look for Bram, but waits passively for him to come home?) But I liked a few things; the two main characters, a man and a woman, are not romantically attached to each other, but to other peope they knew beforehand. they clearly had lives that started before the story and continued after. One of my very favourite scenes in the whole book, the one that rang the most true to be about relationships and plans, was the one in which Jena and Bram first talk together, after both have had setbacks in their intended careers. Overall, I was very pleased with this book, more so than with the Wild Swans.

Steven Brust - Dzur

Strangely, I felt mildly dissatisfied with this. Can't quite say why. The dialogue had much of the usual sparkle, the plot was slight but clever enough, the technique of starting each chapter with a segment of a lengthy and complicated meal was nice...

I think it was mostly that it seemed like more of the same. Nothing much new happening yet, at least in comparison to Issola. The revelations that were msot significant were allones that depended on and expanded prior chapters, not that deepened this book. He hasn't fallen into repeating himself; I don't know that Steven Brust can be accused of ever doing that for long -- I've caught him putting in some phrases and turns because they were in prior books and expected, but more in the most recent Khaavren romances than here, and never to the point where they were problematic. I guess it's that we're far enough in the series now that the individual episode is less its own thing and more a part of the whole. And the whole is getting bigger, more epic in scope. The resolution felt, well, not much like the cleverness of the past, even with the ace-in-the-hole that he'd coem up with in advance. Not clever, not the best of answers at all.

Also I didn't feel his anger when his entire actions were dependant on being in a rage. *That* is a bad sign.

Jim C. Hines - Goblin Quest

Started reading this as soon as I was done Dzur, and that was a good choice. I'm not done yet (They've got to the point of dealing with the necromancer and the other wizard... which is not, by the way a spoiler) but I'm far enugh in to have a few things to say already. The short version, for those not in the know, is that it's an advanture not unlike many D&D campaigns... from the point of view of the goblin captured by the party to guide them through the underground caves. It's deeply funny, but it's also deeply observant, both of fantasy adventure tropes (role playing and book/film adventures alike: there's one remark that would have applied as well to the first Harry Potter Book as to several campaigns) a la Order of the Stick, but also of relations and dynamics, and what life would be like for the person at the bottom of the pecking order. Jig is a runt among goblins, not just the lost prisoner, so he has a lot of experience with how to get by while being ignored or neglected, and it colours everything he does; his whole perspective on gods is priceless, but also... poignant. You feel for the little guy for having such a perspective on the world even as you're laughing out loud at the result.

I particularly like that it's not just Funny.