SoD Chapter Three: Of Ocean’s Fury and the Hunt
James slammed into the railing of the Luu’tre, his face stricken with terror after seeing Laura plummet over the edge. He barely held to the wooden edge as the ship rocked like a teeter-totter, partially settled in the giant reef below.“Laura!” he screamed over and over, his voice becoming a hoarse cry of despair.Captain Norp bellowed orders at the other end of the ship, but James could see that little could be done with the Luu’tre tilted thirty degrees on the port side. Two sailors at the other end of the incline lost their footing and slid wildly. He watched them, praying that they wouldn’t plunge into the sea and breathed a sigh of relief when someone managed to snatch the rope the two sailors held on to from the air and tie it to a beam. Both men jerked upward; one of them lost his hold and continued downward. He smashed into the railing and by a stroke of luck managed to hang on. Another sailor repelled down from the mast and eased the poor wretch into a safer position. The fallen sailor clutched his ribs, groaning.“James!” Pea cried from behind and then appeared at James’ side. “Do you see her?” The Littlekind peered over the edge between the ship and the railing.James watched the waters spraying white vapor and smashing against the reef. “No,” he said. He couldn’t see anything in the rough seas. A violent riptide ran through the narrow passage. Laura was somewhere below and the thought of her drowning brought such pain to his heart that he clutched the railing until his hands bled. Where is she? He wanted to scream he was sorry, even though he couldn’t explain why he felt that way.Scanning the waves, James searched for anything that looked like a person. The frothy waters made it hard to differentiate the coral from the water and the water from anything else churning below, especially under the shadow of the storm. Winds ravaged the ship, rocking it against the coral now, splashing water high across the bow and forcing the crew to wrap the sails lest they be ripped completely away, dragging the masts along with them.Then something caught his attention. A strange shape that stood out against the frothy waters. Maybe it was Laura, or maybe a bit of coral that had been dislodged by the rough seas. It bobbed in the water along the edge of the coral, a pale thing barely visible against the waves. The sea pushed it against the edges of the coral.“There!” he screamed, jutting his hand out and thrusting a finger down. “I think I see her!”“Are you sure?” Pea said.James looked over at the Littlekind; Pea returned the gaze. He tried to tell Pea that he wasn’t sure with that look, only, what difference did it make? They didn’t have much time either way and if it didn’t turn out to be Laura she would be long dead soon enough.“Alright.” At that, Pea slipped away and Darl slid into view.“If that’s her, we’ll get her,” the old man said, clapping James hard on the shoulder. James bit his lip, stifling his cries of pain as Darl continued to bat his shoulder. His shoulders ached as if the wounds on his hands had moved there too, but he wouldn’t tell the others that—couldn’t tell them.A moment later and Darl left, replaced by Iliad, who skidded down the wood surface of the Luu’tre and appeared by James’ side, carrying with him his bow and a single arrow attached to a rope. “We’ve got one chance at this,” he said through gritted teeth, “and then she drowns.”“What are you going to do?” James said, pursing his lips in anticipation.“It’s called being insane.” Iliad drew the arrow and let it fly. The rope hissed as it was dragged through the air, jerking violently one way or another as the wild winds of the storm blew against it. The arrow curved suddenly, yanking the rope into a wide “u”, before crashing through a foot of water and making contact with the reef. Iliad gave one quick pull on the rope and said, “And I don’t recommend it.” He immediately walked away, leaving James to stare down into the turbulent sea and the long rope that was now being pulled taut—though, despite that, it still wobbled in the wind and dribbled rain.James turned around and almost wished he hadn’t. The rope had been tied in an endless collection of complicated knots around the central mast of the Luu’tre. To make matters more complicated, four of Captain Norp’s crew were now holding the rope firmly as if playing a one-sided game of tug-o-war. Iliad was nearby, fastening a pair of thick leather gloves—a mottled brown and gray color that made them look particularly old—over his hands.“You’re not going to do what I think you’re going to do?” James said, widening his eyes as it dawned on him what was going on.“Depends what you think he’s going to do,” Pea said, scurrying around the mast and double-checking the knots—an occasional burst of silver magic forced the rope to re-knot itself, becoming even more tightly bound. “I’d hazard to guess that tap dancing and aggressive berry picking are not likely to be what he’s going to do.”“To answer your question,” Iliad broke in and turned to face James. “Yes. I’m going to do something I probably shouldn’t do. And it will probably kill me.“Dare I ask if it will succeed?” James smiled faintly, recalling the last time he had asked a similar question.Iliad got the joke. “Only if you want the truth, James. I’m afraid I’m in no mood for a good fib.” Then Iliad held out a strip of oiled leather, gritted his teeth and slid down the tilted ship, reaching out his leg at the last moment to propel himself over the edge. James could only watch helplessly as the nimble man disappeared. He closed his eyes tight and held his
Book Giveaways Around the Blogosphere
Well, it’s that time again, if there’s ever really a “time” for these sorts of things. Here’s a few giveaways for you: Blood of the Muse has a collection of all six Kitty Norville novels by Carrie Vaughn Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist also has the same set of Kitty Norville novels. SQT has a copy of S. L. Farell’s A Magic of Twilight. Scifi Chick has The Hidden City by Michelle West up for grabs. And just to make it easy on me, Mulluane has a huge list of other giveaways going on right now here. Good luck!
The Book Review Meme
Well, I thought I would jump in on the bandwagon. Here’s the newest viral meme from John of Grasping for the Wind: The Book Review Meme @ Grasping for the Wind1. Grasping for the Wind – INFOQUAKE by David Louis Edelman2. Age 30+ … A Lifetime of Books – A COMPANION TO WOLVES by Sarah Monette and Elizabeth Bear3. Dragons, Heroes and Wizards – ASSASSIN’S APPRENTICE by Robin Hobb4. Walker of Worlds – THE TEMPORAL VOID by Peter F Hamilton5. Neth Space – TOLL THE HOUNDS by Steven Erikson6. Dark in the Dark – GHOST STORIES OF AN ANTIQUARY by M.R. James7. A Dribble of Ink – THE SHADOW OF THE WIND by Carlos Ruiz Zafon8. Fantasy Book News & Reviews – EMPRESS by Karen Miller9. Fantasy Debut – ACACIA by David Anthony Durham Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Overall Review Afterthought 10. WISB/F&SF Lovin’ Blog – SEABORN by Chris Howard There you have it! Feel free to steal it and add your own!
Show Review: Dollhouse (Ep. 1)
I was skeptical of Dollhouse, not because of Whedon (I’m a huge Firefly fan), but because it’s science fiction television on a network station (FOX). FOX has done a fine job destroying good science fiction shows for a while, and even killing a few that weren’t great, but still deserved to have a good run. Then, of course, there’s the fact that I find the vast majority of television in general to be mediocre at best, including some shows folks have praised as great. (Minor spoilers ahead, although, to be honest, if you’re at all interested in this show and haven’t seen the first ep., then you probably already know what I’m going to talk about) Dollhouse, I think, is a show with an enormous amount of potential. The first episode does a fine job establishing all the major elements Whedon wants us to know about. The Dollhouse is a facility where people are implanted with personalities to perform tasks (called “engagements”) and where, once finished, these same people are essentially wiped of those implants and returned to the facility where they are monitored and kept in relative bliss–free massages, free healthcare, and presumably free happy time. Echo (Dushku) is our protagonist, whose reasons for coming to the facility are, as of yet, not clear (I get the impression that she did something bad, but this could be twisted in so many ways based on the introductory moments). On one particular mission, Echo begins having flashbacks of something she witnessed back at the Dollhouse and flashbacks from the personality she has been implanted with. This, of course, raises a lot of questions about the memory-wiping/implanting process and the facility in general. Underneath all this there are several subplots: A detective (Penikett) investigating the existence of the Dollhouse (who seems somewhat, well, obsessed?). The conflict between Echo’s handler (Lennix) and the director (Williams) of the Dollhouse. It’s hard to say for certain whether I truly like this show based on one episode. As of now, I am excited to see what Dollhouse has in store for me. It could turn out to be my replacement for Battlestar Galactica, a show that is inches away from ending and subsequently turning my life back to the TV-less boredom it once was. Perhaps Dollhouse will become the next great science fiction show, or perhaps FOX will kill it like they did Firefly. What I can say about the first episode is that it is expertly crafted. Transitions are smooth, the acting is on par, the characters are interesting, the concept is fascinating and well drawn (leaving out a few things to make sure there’s plenty of twists and turns later), and overall it’s beautifully written. Some part of me also wanted there to be more of the creep-factor in the Dollhouse. Don’t get me wrong, it’s somewhat of a creepy-everyone-is-the-same place, but I think Whedon could have stepped a little farther into the darkness of this entire concept. After all, the inhabitants of the Dollhouse, with the exception of the staff, are essentially slaves. Short of them going schizo on us, they’re stuck there and could technically be kept there indefinitely without knowing about any of it. That’s somewhat terrifying and it will be interesting to learn whether the Dollhouse is really all that secret, or if there’s something darker underneath that we haven’t learned about. On the critical side of things, I think the first episode did leave a little to be desired, and that stems from having a bit much going on and not enough of a bang. True, I loved the concept and I was intrigued and entertained, but I suspect that Dollhouse’s future will depend on whether it can capture the vast majority of fans who aren’t necessarily interested in science fiction that is “thoughtful.” This isn’t meant to be an insult to those fans, but it does explain why Battlestar Galactica does not have the massive ratings it deserves; television viewers tend to want a bit more action or comedy (and this is based on the vast majority of stuff that seems to show up on TV these days). My verdict is that this show is worth sticking with for now. I’m not on the fence about this, but I do have to reserve some of my judgment until I have seen two or three episodes. Episode two is coming soon and we’ll see if Dollhouse can keep me interested, or if it will lose me like Legend of the Seeker did. If you haven’t seen the episode already, go to Hulu and check it out. Edit: I’ve added some bits to this review, primarily because I’ve had some different opinions swim into my head after letting things sit for a while. If you liked this post, please stumble it, buzz it, tweet it, leave a comment, etc. Thanks for reading!
The Kindle Two: Audio Controversy or Industry Stupidity?
No release of a new and improved version of an already powerful piece of technology would be as interesting without a little controversy. Apparently the Authors Guild is upset about the new Kindle’s text-to-speech feature, claiming that it could “undermine the market for audio books” (Associated Press). The Wall Street Journal has a bit more to say on that: Some publishers and agents expressed concern over a new, experimental feature that reads text aloud with a computer-generated voice. “They don’t have the right to read a book out loud,” said Paul Aiken, executive director of the Authors Guild. “That’s an audio right, which is derivative under copyright law.” Now, quite a few folks with far more authority than myself have already spoken up on the issue, including Robert J. Sawyer and Neil Gaiman. They’ve made some fairly good arguments about the whole thing and I’d like to toss my two cents into the game. The problem with all this is that it is flirting dangerously close to the same line the music industry so idiotically crossed. And the music industry hasn’t contracted so much as literature has. True, as I’ve mentioned before, readership hasn’t actually drastically changed. Book sales are still high, with exception to everything following this massive recession we’re so firmly stuck in, and the same amount of people, if not a little more, are reading books now as much as they were about ten years ago–not to mention that most teenagers read a lot more these days than their parents did simply because access to the written word, particularly on subjects kids are interested in, is far better thanks to the Interwebs. What does this mean for the book industry if it crosses the line? It could spell disaster for it. The music industry was enormous when piracy first came into the public sphere. When they tried to stomp down on it by imposing harsh punishments and DRMing everything imaginable, they found that folks were far more willing to flip the bird to the big record labels and switch to the indie scene. But, the music industry didn’t die. It was big enough to survive its mistakes and it has done a decent job doing so. iTunes, as much as I despise it, has helped curb the piracy empire, though it hasn’t stopped. The music industry was at least smart enough to realize that it needed to begin changing its ways if it wanted to continue being profitable. The book industry, however, could find themselves in a horrible position by trying to impose the same rules. With all these electronic reading devices out there, if the book industry isn’t careful it could find that people will stop buying books entirely and use the electronic formats to get books for free. Add on to the fact that there is a thriving indie book community (podcasting, blog novels, etc.) and you can see where being music-industry-anal could spell certain doom. Audio rights are important; I’m not going to deny that. All rights are important, but when we start talking about suing Amazon for having text-to-speech technology installed on the Kindle Two, it’s like saying we’re going to sue mothers for reading to their children. Why should Amazon have to pay what would likely be an absurd amount of money for a feature that isn’t all that great anyway? Yeah, okay, I get the argument that some day technology will progress enough to make text-to-speech sound like something other than a craptastic, semi-realistic, mostly-robotic, humanoid demon. But that’s not happening tomorrow and it’s probably not happening for years. When that happens, then start bitching. Until it does, why can’t we stick with this feature? It won’t influence audiobook sales because people who like audiobooks are still going to buy them. A robotic voice cannot meet the production quality of a good audiobook. Period. And the people who are likely to use this feature regularly are probably not going to be people who would have paid the somewhat high price for an audiobook in the first place. Before we toss the almighty book of lawsuits at Amazon for adding a useful feature to their new techno-gizmo, we should consider the ramifications of that and the reality of the situation as a whole. We’re treading on dangerous ground in considering using the law to thwart technological progress; we’d be one step away from suing parents for reading to their kids, or blind people using a computer to read a book to themselves (a book they already paid $14.99 for)–or people reading to blind people, perhaps. When Amazon’s technology is able to actually replace audiobooks, then you can start demanding compensation. And maybe that will never happen. Maybe the next step for the Kindle (the Kindle Three, perhaps) is to make it capable of having both eBooks and audiobooks. That would make everyone happy, right? Imagine if Amazon’s enormous selling engine made it easier to buy and sell audiobooks through a wireless device? Consider that before we start making rash decisions and crossing the line.
SoD Chapter Two: Of the Lives of Loe
The Luu’tre had struck ground. Sort of. She had hit something hard and unmoving, that much was clear, but when James and the others came out into the tempest they found the ship held at bay by something rocky, porous, and the color of the sun at sunset over thin mustache clouds.Laura knew then what they had struck: a coral reef. Captain Norp cursed and fluttered about the deck, running one way and another, commanding and demanding to pull lines one way and then the next. Everyone else had already accepted that no wind would pull the Luu’tre from the great mass beneath them. They needed the tides.Laura felt alone and crowded all at once. There was so much she didn’t understand about this world. Why did the great current in the Straight of Loe run so swiftly? Why did it run all the way down the coast of Traea? And most of all, why did this world exist in the first place? James had shown her his magical dictionary, humorously called How Not To Be a Barbarian, Fifteenth Edition. She was dismayed to find that the author, one Azimus Barthalamule, had gone into hiding and would no longer be supplying new entries. She wanted to know what was going on just like everyone else, and this little book that had once been sixty pages was their only connection.Laura most of all wanted to understand why Luthien, a man she couldn’t quite remember, even now some weeks later and after having seen his face in Sempur, had wanted her in the first place. What did she have that Luthien, a man of apparently untold power, wanted?Now she looked down over the deck of the Luu’tre and into the great red and pink mass below. Great waves bubbled and exploded. They weren’t going anywhere anytime soon. Darl was right. They were grounded.James stood beside her and she tried to give him a sympathetic smile. He had tried to hide his emotions from her, but she could see through him, even if he wouldn’t admit it to himself. He was terrified and disappointed in himself. She stopped speaking to him about his magic to make things easier. She wouldn’t want to be reminded of her faults either.But James was in bad shape, and she knew it despite not having a clue how the magics of this mysterious world worked. What she did know was that anyone with a hand that was constantly healing was not in good health; James needed more powerful healing magic and fast.James didn’t return her smile, though he glanced at her with sunken eyes. “Coral,” he said.She nodded. “I wonder how far it goes. Maybe it’s like the Great Barrier Reef.”“Maybe.”“You remember that Discovery Channel show we watched,” she started, attempting to keep up the conversation. It had been too long since they’d talked as friends. “The one with all the little orange fish.”“Clown Fish,” he said.“Right. And that really long slithery snake with the pointy teeth.”“Moray Eel.”“Right. So you remember it?”“Yeah.” He eyed the reef below. “It gave me nightmares for a week when they showed those sharks eating the seals, though.”“I remember. You wouldn’t stay at my place because we had fish.” She laughed. “You were afraid of the goldfish.”James frowned. Then with enthusiasm he said, “Those were huge goldfish though. They had those big eyes too.”Together they laughed.Laura turned to look out into the vast ocean beyond and found herself face to face with Captain Norp and his tiny Littlekind face. He grinned and looked her straight in the eye. She yelped and jumped back.“Don’t sneak up on people like that!” She cried.“Beggin’ your pardon, ma’am. Couldn’t help listenin’.”“No, I imagine not. You nearly scared me half-to-death.”“Better than full-to-death.”Laura grumbled.“What’s the Discovery Channel?”“It’s a T.V. channel,” she said instinctively. Catching herself, she corrected, “Where I come from it’s a visual show about nature.”“What, like a play?”“Kind of.”“Why’s it called Discovery Channel?”“Well, because they discover stuff.”“Bout nature?”“Yes.”Captain Norp rubbed his chin. “Sounds boring,” he said, ending the conversation and hopping off the railing to the ground. He skipped back to the bridge. A moment later his little arms could be seen grasping the wheel, turning it one way and then another. Curses followed.Laura groaned. The Littlekind was going to drive himself madder than he already was if he didn’t let up. Or, he was going to drive everyone else mad with his gallivanting about with concerns and quibbles. She watched Captain Norp turn the wheel, run one way, then other, and slip down the stairs to pull on ropes and scream out commands. When she turned back she noticed that James had gone. She frowned. Whatever was going on in his head he wasn’t going to talk to her about it, even though she was his best friend. And he certainly wasn’t going to talk to any of the others.Triska came to the railing from across the other side, taking care not to get hit by the whirl of ropes and pullies around the center mast. Laura returned the woman’s smile out of courtesy; she was too worried about James to smile with sincerity.“He’ll be alright,” Triska said.Yeah right. “I just wish I could help him,” Laura said, letting her weight fall to the railing. “He won’t let me. He saved my life and I just want to help him, but I can’t.”“He has to help himself. We can’t do anything for him now.”“I don’t believe that. There has to be something we can do,” she pleaded.“Would he let us even if there was?”No, she thought.“Just let him get over this. He has a lot weighing down on his heart.”Triska patted her arm reassuringly and walked away. She looked back over the railing into the pink below. In the background she heard the wind battering the sails. Voices spewed commands left and right, ropes became taut, snapping with resonating sound, and the ocean roared a violent triumphant note as she lunged her watery arms over