Outside of a Dog

Deborah Pickett commented on Existence by David Brin

In a future world dominated by a neural-link web where people can tune into live …

I’m still reading this. I think I hit the 25% mark!

Deborah Pickett replied to TQ@wyrms.de's status

@TQ@wyrms.de This is the book in the series where I think Chambers really hits her stride. Just superb. Really made me think about the value of rituals.

Deborah Pickett replied to Ms Kat's status

@pelagikat@bookwyrm.social Yep, it cost you $8.00 apparently.

Deborah Pickett commented on Existence by David Brin

In a future world dominated by a neural-link web where people can tune into live …

I have no fucking idea yet what is going on in this book.

This edition has unexplained dotted underlines randomly under some words. I can explain them away as faux hyperlinks in the Helvetica sections but they are in the Times New Roman sections too. Is there some clever spy code revealed later in the novel, or did the typesetter forget to turn off spellcheck in their word processor? It’s quite offputting.

Deborah Pickett started reading Existence by David Brin

In a future world dominated by a neural-link web where people can tune into live …

880 pages! Could take a while.

Deborah Pickett reviewed Consorts Of Heaven by Jaine Fenn

A bridge from fantasy to sf

3 stars

The blurb on the back of this book says that it’s a standalone story in the same universe as Fenn’s first book, Principles of Angels, which I haven’t read. That claim is probably a bit of a stretch because I feel like I’ve been dealt plot spoilers on the first book now.

This novel begins as a straight fantasy in a village in a land that draws heavily on Middle-Ages Celtic culture. As world-building, it’s fine and detailed, but not my cup of tea, and it felt slow and drawn out. Fortunately the trope gets subverted about halfway through the book as it pivots—quite suddenly—to a science fiction adventure.

The reliance on Celtic legend, not something I’m very familiar with, left me confused at times, and it might have led to my feeling that the climax had an element of deus ex machina. A bit of earlier application of …

The blurb on the back of this book says that it’s a standalone story in the same universe as Fenn’s first book, Principles of Angels, which I haven’t read. That claim is probably a bit of a stretch because I feel like I’ve been dealt plot spoilers on the first book now.

This novel begins as a straight fantasy in a village in a land that draws heavily on Middle-Ages Celtic culture. As world-building, it’s fine and detailed, but not my cup of tea, and it felt slow and drawn out. Fortunately the trope gets subverted about halfway through the book as it pivots—quite suddenly—to a science fiction adventure.

The reliance on Celtic legend, not something I’m very familiar with, left me confused at times, and it might have led to my feeling that the climax had an element of deus ex machina. A bit of earlier application of Chekhov’s Gun might have prevented that.

Apparently there are five books in the series. Will I hunt down the others? Probably not.

Deborah Pickett finished reading Consorts Of Heaven by Jaine Fenn

Consorts Of Heaven by Jaine Fenn

Deborah Pickett replied to Ms Kat's status

@pelagikat@bookwyrm.social I was about to chime in with "Doesn't water just reflect the sky?" and oh boy how wrong am I? Very wrong. Some person on Reddit goes into great detail about why even on Mars water would be blue.

Deborah Pickett commented on Consorts Of Heaven by Jaine Fenn

Ah ha, almost exactly halfway through this book and it flips from fantasy to science fiction. It’ll be interesting to see where it goes from here.

Deborah Pickett replied to Ms Kat's status

@pelagikat@bookwyrm.social What’s with the author metadata of that edition? I don’t recognize the name “Corinna Antelmann”.

Deborah Pickett quoted Lessons From Lucy by Dave Barry

Lessons From Lucy (Paperback, 2020, Simon & Schuster)

Some dogs don't seem to like anybody. These are usually your very small dogs, the kind that have to be transported in special dog-holding purses, because if they were ever to be set down on the ground they would be carried off by spiders. They need constant attention from their owners, and they can be very annoying. I refer here to the owners. The dogs are even worse, always yapping and growling, as if they're some kind of badass carnivore of the animal kingdom, instead of basically a paramecium with fur.

— Lessons From Lucy by Dave Barry (Page 31)

This book is 225 pages long, just warning you now.

Deborah Pickett quoted Lessons From Lucy by Dave Barry

The way you send your DNA to 23andMe is frankly disgusting: you drool into a test tube. Really. The tube has a line on the side, and you're supposed to drool into it until your saliva reaches that level. I was not aware that drool contains DNA, but apparently it does. Either that, or this is an elaborate ruse by the people at 23andMe, who actually obtain your DNA from your fingerprints on the test tube, and for some sick reason are collecting a vast supply of human saliva. Maybe they use it to fill a decorative fountain at the 23andMe headquarters. Or maybe they have some kind of bizarre ritual wherein they immerse their naked bodies in vats of drool. I don't know, and I frankly refuse to engage in unfounded speculation about the perverts running 23andMe.

— Lessons From Lucy by Dave Barry (Page 27 - 28)

Deborah Pickett quoted Lessons From Lucy by Dave Barry

When we brought Lucy home she quickly adapted, as dogs do, to her new environment, except for one element: photo albums. We have a lot of albums; Michelle usually makes one after we take a vacation. I don't know why they and Lucy could not coexist peacefully. Perhaps tens of thousands of years ago, Lucy's ancestors were attacked by primitive photo albums, which in those days were much larger and more aggressive than the ones we have today. Whatever happened, Lucy had not forgotten it, and on several occasions during her first few months with us we came home to find an album from one of our family trips chewed into small pieces, leaving little shredded fragments of our happy decapitated vacation faces smiling up from all over the floor.

— Lessons From Lucy by Dave Barry (Page 12 - 13)

Deborah Pickett commented on Rubyfruit jungle by Rita Mae Brown

No rating

Rubyfruit Jungle is the first novel by Rita Mae Brown. Published in 1973, it was …

This was mentioned on the episode of Jeopardy! I watched tonight as an early example of queer literature. I know Rita Mae Brown from her whodunit mysteries co-authored with her cat Sneaky Pie Brown.