One does not simply ask like a rude boor

Hey,

So apparently in 1938 a German publishing house wanted to publish The Hobbit. In the course of negotiations, they asked Tolkien about his "ancestry". The good professor was a bit non-plussed and sent two possible reply letters to his publisher. One of which quietly ignored the issue and the other of which makes for delightful reading.

Don't tick off an English professor...
Tom

Reviews of Candesce

Hey,

So I was pleasantly surprised to discover that Ashes of Candesce the fifth and final book in the Virga series by Karl Schroeder. This is a series that began with Sun of Suns and it has been one of the better sci-fi series I've read.

The central premise is that Virga is a hollow sphere 5,000 miles in diameter filled mostly with air and everything inside is in free-fall. There's a large fusion-powered "sun" called Candesce in the center that lights and heats a large chunk of the center and smaller "suns" that light up more distant areas and plenty of dark, mysterious places. People live in Virga in a relatively technologically-reduced state (think steampunk). They build rotating "town wheels" to supply gravity, fly around with crude jet engines and have dashing adventures.

Candesce does more than light the world, it also puts out waves of interference that prevent a lot of high-tech stuff from working (radios for example). The builders of Virga deliberately sealed themselves off from high tech because outside of Virga, virtual intelligences have run wild and pretty much threaten to absorb everything into themselves.

This particular book really delves into a lot of the stuff that trans-human sci-fi often glosses over. It takes some time to explore what mind/body/intelligence all mean in a universe where reality can be what you want it to be. In a sense, the conflict in this book mirrored the conflict you see in the Amber books by Zelazny.

You see a bunch of people from previous books (seriously, just start with the first one and work your way through) coming together to embody different sides of the various arguments. They also continue to bounce off one another in fun and interesting ways.

Post-reading, there are a couple of spots where you think "why didn't the founders do this when they built the place?", but then you wouldn't have had a story and it's not something you worry about too much when you're in the middle of the big fight scenes so it's not too bad. The series has some strong female characters and they get a fair amount of screen time here. I believe it passes the Bechdel test.

Again, just a fun series as a whole and I really want to run a game set in Virga.

I also went through a couple more Osprey books:

The Algerian War 1954-62 -- a pretty concise overview of how the French won every battle and lost the war. While the book does cover the history, the Osprey books have really been about dress and equipment more than a detailed of the conflict. In particular, the book glosses over a lot of the stuff happening in France at the time that was at least as important as any of the fighting that took place in Algiers.

Border Reivers -- looked at the period of time when the border between England and Scotland was basically a demilitarized zone. Hill clans would raid out against both sides of the border spawning reprisals that would fight back. People of any means would fortify their farms and houses in order to protect themselves and their livestock. Again, a focus on weapons and equipment, but a nice overview of what was going on. I played a couple of games set in the period and the fluid nature of the times means it's choice for gaming small skirmishes.

later
Tom