Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny

One of the reasons I love reading books by Roger Zelazny is that he had an incredible talent for coming up with stories that will twist your brain around. They are not only great science fiction and/or fantasy, they make you THINK, and I doubt two people ever come away from reading his books with the same impressions and thoughts. "Lord of Light" follows in this tradition of his works perfectly.

"Lord of Light" takes place on a planet that was colonized from earth. The leaders of this planet found a way to make themselves virtually immortal through technology, and now they rule the planet having stylized themselves as the gods of the Hindu pantheon. If they were just leaders, this might not be a problem, but they are definitely corrupt.

Nobody dares oppose the leaders though, they are gods after all! Well, except for the man who was once known as Siddhartha (among other names) and now he usually goes by Sam. He is known as the Binder of demons and the Lord of Light. He was one of the original colonists and he has just as much power as the self-stylized "gods" do.

Now Sam has begun a subversive mission to under mine the "gods" of his world. How he goes about it is rather complicated, you'll have to read the book, but its definitely one of the things that makes this a mind-twisting read! In fact I doubt I understood everything Zelazny put in the book, just like I did with his Amber books I'll probably read it again at some time so that I can get more from it!

Writing ADD #14

Last week was pretty slim pickings writing-wise. I wrote about the best laid plans...which we all know often go awry! Despite the being ill and other insanity during my week I did manage to get two book reports and a total of 685 words written though :) And I spent time thinking about writing, which can be almost as an important of a step as actually writing! Right? Ah well - this week seems to be starting out better so I'm hoping for more writing to be accomplished this week! After all - the words are practically bursting to be let out.

Going Bovine by Libba Bray

"Going Bovine" is the wild journey of an adolescent boy who contracts Mad Cow Disease. Cameron is a fairly normal boy until he gets sick. Swears some, thinks about girls, and has been known to cut class to smoke pot. When he gets sick he starts seeing all sorts of strange things, including a punk angel named Dulcie.

Duclie appears to Cameron after he's been hospitalized, and she offers him a glimmer of hope. The doctors can't really do much for him other than keep him as comfortable as possible, but Dulcie says there is a cure, but he's going to have to go after it. So Cameron teams up with Gonzo, a dwarf around his age who ended up in the hospital at the same time, and they set off on one crazy road trip.

While the guys travel they get themselves into all sorts of crazy situations. Some of them are fairly normal types of crazy, well normal for boys on the run and a road trip that is (oh yes, and the police are looking for them). Others are incredibly strange, including when they add a Gnome who's possibly the Norse god Baldor to their little group of adventurers!

While I enjoyed the twists and turns of this book, I will warn you, this is an adolescent boy we're talking about, and we are seeing everything through his eyes. There's more swearing and sexual references than I care for. So if you go for the book, head in with your eyes wide open.

Mort by Terry Pratchett

What would you do if Death offered you an apprenticeship? That's the question Mort faces late one night. He's spent the entire day at the market with his father, hoping to have someone pick him as an apprentice, but no one has. Boys that would appear less desirable have even been picked! Mort is desperate, knowing that its what his father wants, so when Death comes along, he reluctantly takes the job!

Working for Death is a strange job. You would think that as an apprentice Mort would start learning the ropes (even if that sounds a little scary) but the first job Death has him do is mucking out the stables! That's not all that's strange about life in Death's abode. The whole land is just a wee bit off. Death did his best to create a landscape that would reflect what he sees on earth, but Death isn't very creative, and the main color scheme tends to be black.

He tried hard though to create a good land to live in. You see, Death has a daughter, and since she lives with him, he wanted her to have more than the dreary house to explore. Ysabelle and Mort don't get along very well at first, but by the end of the book they learn to work together.

Eventually Mort does begin to "learn the business," and Death even begins to send him out collecting on his own! That's when Mort gets into trouble. You see, it's not up to death to choose who lives or dies, it's simply his job to collect the souls, and when Mort decides to interfere and prevent a Princesses death, well all of history begins to change!

The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men...

Have you ever noticed how, no matter how good a plan seems, things often don't work out the way you want them to? I started this week on Monday with full intentions to get all sorts of things done. I was going to be home more for one thing. My dear nephews are busy getting stronger in the NICU and my brother and sister-in-law haven't needed as much support as they did when everything was initially happening.

Right. Would have been great if it worked eh?

I ended up really sick all week long. Details I'll leave out, lets just say we thought something was seriously wrong and we're very glad it isn't!

Between the babies coming and then getting sick I'm so far off of my routine it's not even funny! It may not be Monday but I'm determined to try, again, to get back into the routine and get things done. Wish me luck!

Meet Ian and Rowan!

Meet Ian Forest

Meet Rowan Patrick

For the rest of my pictures go check my facebook page!

"The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane" by Katherine Howe

"The Physic Book of Deliverance Dane" is the debut novel for Katherine Howe, but you'd never guess that from reading it! This is a solid, well written, captivating book. I found myself swept up in the story, and I didn't want to put the book down!

Connie Goodwin is a Harvard graduate student who is caught up in the pressure of the academic world and needs to come up with her doctoral dissertation. Her focus is early American history, and her mentor is pushing her to find a new piece of source material to write her dissertation from.

While Connie looks for her topic, she's being distracted by her own family's history, and how it's currently invading her life. While Connie is the ever practical academic, her mother is more a free spirit, and her mother has just informed her that they own her long dead Grandmother's property. Oh yes, and they owe back taxes on it. So it's up to Connie to go clean the old property up during the summer, when she should be researching, so they can sell it and pay the town the money they owe.

The house is more of a mess than Connie could have envisioned, she's fascinated by it's 1700's architecture and furniture, but she's also at a loss on how she's ever going to sell a place that's never electricity installed.

Her two worlds, academia and family, begin to collide when Connie discovers a key with the words "Deliverance Dane" written on a small scrap of paper inside. This sets her on a hunt to discover just who this woman was, and why her name would be in her Grandmother's house. As she searches she learns more about who she is, her family legacy, and she meets a man who she quickly begins to fall for.

The story unfolds by jumping back and forth from Connie's modern day struggles, and going back and taking us into the world of Deliverance Dane and the witch trials of the 1690's. This is a work of fiction, but the details and theory's are so well crafted that you'll easily forget that!