Happy!

My brother (Screwy) is here, yay. He's just come from Israel, and was planning to spend the night and then head straight off to Leeds, but they don't need him in Leeds any more so he's here. Yay. It's good to see him, and hang out with him, and argue with him.

Also, I have encouraging noises that aren't quite a job offer yet from another quarter (German p53 factory, and I shan't be more specific in a public post). It's probably the job best matched to my skillset of any job in the whole of science, so I was fairly certain my application would be favourably received. But it's still gratifying.

On a further happy note, greengolux is very, very funny.

Book: The King's Name

Author: Jo Walton

Details: (c) 2001 Jo Walton; Pub Tor 2002; ISBN 0-765-34340-1

Verdict: The King's Name is clever and original but didn't entirely hold my interest.

Reasons for reading it: Um. *squirms* I read the first half of the pair, The King's Peace, just before I started my journal. And while I liked it, I got very annoyed with the way it just stops dead in the middle of the story, without resolving anything. I have no time for books that absolutely force you to read the sequel, so I refused on principle to be so manipulated. And then I somehow ended up mentioning this to papersky; neither I nor Google can now find the relevant conversation, which may be a mercy as it involved me making an idiot of myself. Anyway, the upshot of this was that papersky convinced me that I ought to overcome my annoyance and read the rest of the story, on the basis that it is more one story that was divided into two by the exigencies of publishing, rather than a book and a sequel.

How it came into my hands: I bought it, out of a weird mixture of guilt at accidentally insulting the author, and awe at being in a situation where it's possible to interact directly with a real author. Anyway, I bought it in Montreal where books are a bit more reasonably priced than over here, so although my reasoning was not very sensible it didn't matter too much.

( detailed review )

I have a feeling I may have recommended The King's Peace to neonchameleon before, but anyway, I think he'd very likely get on with the Sulien books. And in general they're worth reading if you're a fantasy reader with an interest in something with more of a historical flavour than average. wychwood might like them too, I would guess. But anyway, you really have to read both to appreciate them, so people who don't mind that are likely to enjoy the books more than I did.