For those who aren't on my FB, you probably don't know of my obsession with finding reprints of the comic at the end of Boys' Life Magazine from the 80's, in which came my introduction to John Christopher's Tripod Trilogy. (I've since managed to find a blog that has the adaption of Book 1 up, but due to cropping issues, it's a pain in the butt to read.)
As part of my birthday, I received the boxed set of all four books in the trilogy. (Yes, I know, this is like Douglas Adams's misnamed Hitchhiker Trilogy. Christopher went back in 1988 and wrote a prequel.) As such, I'll be reading through them as I can.
The trilogy starts with The White Mountains, in which we meet our narrator, Will. Will lives in the British countryside in the village of Wherton, bullied by cousin Henry and friends with Cousin Jack. Jack is a year older, and therefore due to be capped by the tripods as part of his rite of passage into adulthood at 14. Jack expresses doubt to Will about being capped while they hide in a den they use to sneak away from the very commune like village. Capping day arrives, and Jack dutifuly allows the very large tripod (it's never given height qualifications beyond taller than trees) to take him up, returning later with a shaved head and a metal cap attached to his skull and a more docile nature in his personality.
We find that Will's father has a watch, one of the few relics in the village. We also find that capping doesn't work for everyone, with some percent of the population becoming Vagrants, seemingly mildly insane people for whom capping didn't take very well. (There's a bit of misogyny here, since it's mentioned females are less likely to go Vagrant, likely because they don't resists the brainwashing as much.)
One Vagrant comes to town named Ozymandias. Ozy is not nearly as nuts as he acts, since he's really a member of the resistance, wearing a fake cap and looking for recruits in villages who aren't capped as of yet. He gives will a map and a compass and directions to the White Mountains, where the resistance is based.
Will sneaks off in the night, and is followed by Henry. After a fight, Will lets Henry join him as they make their way to the sea and eventually board the Orion to another land.
In the other land, they meet Beanpole (actually Jean-Paul), who shows them the wonders of the schmand fair and one of the ancient cities (Paris, I assume, since they find a cathedral on an island in the river in the middle of the city). In the underground schmand fair, they find explosive eggs that blow up after removing a pin.
As they make their way Southeast, Will gets sick, and we get to listen to him whine about Beanpole and Henry's friendship. They do end up taking refuge with the Compte and Comptess, who's daughter Eloise teaches Will French. Beanpole and Henry plan on escaping during the Tournaments, which colnclude with capping the uncapped of the right age; Will, being a ninny, decides to stick around and be with Eloise. Well, until he finds out Eloise will be taken by the Tripods to serve them, at which point he steals a horse and rides to find Henry and Beanpole. And he gets attacked by a tripod, but the tripod leaves him be. Or not, as the boys face a tripod fox hunt as they near the mountains.
In the end, we find out how Will is tracked, watch the boys figure out grenades, and hear that they found Freedom in the mountains, even if they now will be yelling "Wolverines!" as they fight back against the Tripods.
Amazingly, the book has held up well from my childhood memories, even if I did wonder if L Ron Hubbard read this and got the idea for Battlefield Earth. I also found myself pondering how different the narrative would have been if it was set in the US, given our dystopian youth fiction involves a lot less running away and a lot more midwest stoicism and insubordination in the face of authority. Honestly, I find myself excited to start the next book and see if it still thrills me.
Wednesday, November 27, 2019
Monday, November 25, 2019
Could it be..... Satan?
As we're rounding in to the home stretch of Incarnations of Immortality by Piers Anthony, I have again suffered through For Love of Evil, concerning the office of the Incarnation of Evil, who's title of office is Satan.
It's an interesting book up until most of the last third. We meet Perry, adopted son of a local sorcerer, in a medieval village in Southern France right prior to the Avignon Crusade. Perry trains and falls in love with Jolie, a local village girl. The Crusaders come, the sorcerer winds up dead, Jolie ends up dead, but Thanatos comes to collect her, even though Jolie is a good person. Seems her death will lead to a great evil. Death does put a spot of her blood on Perry's arm, which allows her ghost to stay with him as he escapes the enemy sorcerer and becomes a monk.
He does eventually track down his pursuer, curses him, and finds out that Lucifer has a plot in motion that will destroy Europe. Perry eventually figures out it has to do with the death of the Great Khan, and switched messages that won't stop the horde before they overrun the West. Perry and Jolie go deep into northern Russia and switch one of the messages back, stopping Lucifer's plot. However, in the process of stopping the plot, Jolie does possess a woman, and the marriage is consummated again, which of course, violates several of Perry's oaths. Something that the demoness Lilah is quick to point out after Lucifer assigns her to corrupt Perry.
Which she does, particularly since Lilah's presence means Jolie can't be present. Prerry does his best to mitigate the evil he does, but it's still evil. On his death bed, he casts a mirror spell on Lilah, causing Lucifer to die. Perry assume the office, taking the name Satan. All the incarnations other than Chronos hate him, and Hell is a mess.
He does encounter JHWH in the Void after seeing how badly managed Heaven is. (Both afterlife destinations draw heavily on Dante's Divine Comedy. As such, Heaven is dull. Indeed, God can't hear anyone, because God in this setting is too busy in narcissistic contemplation to do anything.) JHVH does explain more about how Incarnations work, then suggests Perry pull a Karen and go talk to the manager. Which leads us to Gabriel, who makes a bet with Satan, that eventually leads to Niobe and Orb.
Which is about the point the book pretty much rehashes the previous volumes, with some getting a brief mention and others getting whole chapters.
The only bright spot in all of this is a bit of history changing one could only wish happened in reality. As a favor to JHVH, Perry stops the Holocaust by convincing Chronos that the Nazis will lead to Satan's ultimate victory.
Anyway, we do eventually get the epilogue to Gaea's book, finding out what happens to Perry after he goes up in flames at his second wedding.
In reflection, the book is better than I remember, but it does still have a feeling of rehash in the latter parts. It also manages to further muddle the timeline in favor of narrative, which gets annoying.
It's an interesting book up until most of the last third. We meet Perry, adopted son of a local sorcerer, in a medieval village in Southern France right prior to the Avignon Crusade. Perry trains and falls in love with Jolie, a local village girl. The Crusaders come, the sorcerer winds up dead, Jolie ends up dead, but Thanatos comes to collect her, even though Jolie is a good person. Seems her death will lead to a great evil. Death does put a spot of her blood on Perry's arm, which allows her ghost to stay with him as he escapes the enemy sorcerer and becomes a monk.
He does eventually track down his pursuer, curses him, and finds out that Lucifer has a plot in motion that will destroy Europe. Perry eventually figures out it has to do with the death of the Great Khan, and switched messages that won't stop the horde before they overrun the West. Perry and Jolie go deep into northern Russia and switch one of the messages back, stopping Lucifer's plot. However, in the process of stopping the plot, Jolie does possess a woman, and the marriage is consummated again, which of course, violates several of Perry's oaths. Something that the demoness Lilah is quick to point out after Lucifer assigns her to corrupt Perry.
Which she does, particularly since Lilah's presence means Jolie can't be present. Prerry does his best to mitigate the evil he does, but it's still evil. On his death bed, he casts a mirror spell on Lilah, causing Lucifer to die. Perry assume the office, taking the name Satan. All the incarnations other than Chronos hate him, and Hell is a mess.
He does encounter JHWH in the Void after seeing how badly managed Heaven is. (Both afterlife destinations draw heavily on Dante's Divine Comedy. As such, Heaven is dull. Indeed, God can't hear anyone, because God in this setting is too busy in narcissistic contemplation to do anything.) JHVH does explain more about how Incarnations work, then suggests Perry pull a Karen and go talk to the manager. Which leads us to Gabriel, who makes a bet with Satan, that eventually leads to Niobe and Orb.
Which is about the point the book pretty much rehashes the previous volumes, with some getting a brief mention and others getting whole chapters.
The only bright spot in all of this is a bit of history changing one could only wish happened in reality. As a favor to JHVH, Perry stops the Holocaust by convincing Chronos that the Nazis will lead to Satan's ultimate victory.
Anyway, we do eventually get the epilogue to Gaea's book, finding out what happens to Perry after he goes up in flames at his second wedding.
In reflection, the book is better than I remember, but it does still have a feeling of rehash in the latter parts. It also manages to further muddle the timeline in favor of narrative, which gets annoying.
Wednesday, November 20, 2019
It's not Halloween until we find out what the ol lady's been doing
So, a bit late in the season, but I finally got to reread Lisa W. Cantrell's awesome Halloween novel, The Manse.
Set over roughly two years in the small North Carolina town of Merrilville, we meet the Junior Chamber of Commerce and their annual haunted house. Their venue is the old house atop a hill on the outskirts of town, owned by the elderly Beaufort Twins, Miss Bessie and Miss Flossie. Miss Flossie doesn't talk very much, but Miss Bessie is all about trying to get restoration funding for her childhood home, which is filled with tragedies, like the girl who was locked in the basement for 3 days before dying, the gardener who went nuts and killed people, Miss Bessie's Aunt and Uncle who fell and died on the grand staircase...
All of which get used as scenarios in the house as time goes on. See, the Jaycees pay the sisters a stipend and do caretaking in the off season.
Of the Jaycees, we mostly follow around Dood, Tank, Zack, Samantha, and Ted. Zack and Samantha used to be a thing, and it appears that despite the abusive nature at the heart of that relationship, there's always a chance of a rekindling. Ted, lawyer for both the Jaycees and the Beaufort twins, starts dating Samantha about halfway through.
Our first encounter starts in 1997, as the house is closing up on the final night. Tank is hustling some local juvenile delinquents out, when he overhears them discussing a haunt that wasn't part of the house.
We skip to the next Halloween, when the younger brother of one of the JDs goes through the haunt alone. Davey's all of about 8, and too young for what has become a very R rated house. Indeed, we get the house from his perspective, with glowing skeletons guiding people through, and thinking everything is real, vs Dood, who's off duty as a guide and showing us how the tricks work. This also introduces us to everyone else, as Dood walks in on one of Zack and Sam's fights, this time concerning Zack scaring kids in the line. We also get in the head of a trucker driving south through North Carolina from Virginia Eventually Dood and Davey collide, as Dood finds Davey in the Panther room scared out of his mind. Dood gets Davey out of the house and tells him how to get to the exit, so he can save face by making it look like he exited the house like a regular patron. However, he doesn't walk Davey over, so Davey braves the dark alone, and encounters a haunt that's not part of the house as the mermaid fountain tries to eat him. This sends Davey running as fast as he can, which is when his story quite literally collides with that of our lonely trucker.
Over the course of the following year, we follow our principles around, as Dood consults with the local Magical Negro/"I can't believe these stupid crackers" character, Pearl Rollins, who used to work at the Manse when the Twins were in residence. She tells Samantha, Dood, and Ted about how something evil is gestating inside, waiting to be born.
As the year progresses, the twins get declared non compos mentis and their nephew Peter gets control of the estate as of November 1st, after the 13th annual haunted house ends.
Which is what occupies the last part of the book, as the house wakes up and everyone's secrets are laid bare. Including exactly what Miss Bessie's been hiding all these years, as her narrative takes a decidedly Old Hag of the Manor turn.
It's quite a bit of fun, even if the premise isn't exactly original.
Set over roughly two years in the small North Carolina town of Merrilville, we meet the Junior Chamber of Commerce and their annual haunted house. Their venue is the old house atop a hill on the outskirts of town, owned by the elderly Beaufort Twins, Miss Bessie and Miss Flossie. Miss Flossie doesn't talk very much, but Miss Bessie is all about trying to get restoration funding for her childhood home, which is filled with tragedies, like the girl who was locked in the basement for 3 days before dying, the gardener who went nuts and killed people, Miss Bessie's Aunt and Uncle who fell and died on the grand staircase...
All of which get used as scenarios in the house as time goes on. See, the Jaycees pay the sisters a stipend and do caretaking in the off season.
Of the Jaycees, we mostly follow around Dood, Tank, Zack, Samantha, and Ted. Zack and Samantha used to be a thing, and it appears that despite the abusive nature at the heart of that relationship, there's always a chance of a rekindling. Ted, lawyer for both the Jaycees and the Beaufort twins, starts dating Samantha about halfway through.
Our first encounter starts in 1997, as the house is closing up on the final night. Tank is hustling some local juvenile delinquents out, when he overhears them discussing a haunt that wasn't part of the house.
We skip to the next Halloween, when the younger brother of one of the JDs goes through the haunt alone. Davey's all of about 8, and too young for what has become a very R rated house. Indeed, we get the house from his perspective, with glowing skeletons guiding people through, and thinking everything is real, vs Dood, who's off duty as a guide and showing us how the tricks work. This also introduces us to everyone else, as Dood walks in on one of Zack and Sam's fights, this time concerning Zack scaring kids in the line. We also get in the head of a trucker driving south through North Carolina from Virginia Eventually Dood and Davey collide, as Dood finds Davey in the Panther room scared out of his mind. Dood gets Davey out of the house and tells him how to get to the exit, so he can save face by making it look like he exited the house like a regular patron. However, he doesn't walk Davey over, so Davey braves the dark alone, and encounters a haunt that's not part of the house as the mermaid fountain tries to eat him. This sends Davey running as fast as he can, which is when his story quite literally collides with that of our lonely trucker.
Over the course of the following year, we follow our principles around, as Dood consults with the local Magical Negro/"I can't believe these stupid crackers" character, Pearl Rollins, who used to work at the Manse when the Twins were in residence. She tells Samantha, Dood, and Ted about how something evil is gestating inside, waiting to be born.
As the year progresses, the twins get declared non compos mentis and their nephew Peter gets control of the estate as of November 1st, after the 13th annual haunted house ends.
Which is what occupies the last part of the book, as the house wakes up and everyone's secrets are laid bare. Including exactly what Miss Bessie's been hiding all these years, as her narrative takes a decidedly Old Hag of the Manor turn.
It's quite a bit of fun, even if the premise isn't exactly original.
Monday, November 18, 2019
In accordance with the prophecy
Being a Green Mother by Piers Anthony wraps up the original five books of Incarnations of Immortality, and covers events leading to the ultimate resolution of the prophecies surrounding Orb. Luna's, not so much, which is why we later got two more books.
Ok, so as a reminder, Orb is Niobe (Clotho/Lachesis)'s daughter, Luna's (destined to foil Satan) cousin, Mother of Orlene (who becomes Chronos's lover before he takes office), and Mym's (Now Mars) former lover. She's prophesied to become Gaea and may marry Evil.
So, after a recap of her childhood and time with the carnival in India, we get going on Orb and her time among the gypsies and looking for the Llano, the song of songs. We see Orb join up with The Livin' Sludge, last seen in On a Pale Horse, hiring a succubus, and traveling around in the fish that swallowed Jonah. We see her courted by Natasha, who also knows parts of the Llano. And since that level of naming is up there with Alucard, Natasha is Ah, Satan.
Which isn't revealed until Orb has ascended into Nature, and manages to pretty much destroy the world for 40 pages. (Read as catfished woman gets irrationally mad about being deceived.)
And in the end, Orb makes the only choice she can make, after a long winded internal dialogue about good and evil.
Honestly, this is one of the better books in the series. It does have its faults (the courtship makes no sense to anyone, and the scene with her doing the Gypsy version of the lambada to kill of skeletons is silly), but the pacing is fun, the recaps of what's happened before don't totally overwhelm the narrative, and it does ultimately end the series in a way that makes sense. (Even if there are 3 more books.)
Ok, so as a reminder, Orb is Niobe (Clotho/Lachesis)'s daughter, Luna's (destined to foil Satan) cousin, Mother of Orlene (who becomes Chronos's lover before he takes office), and Mym's (Now Mars) former lover. She's prophesied to become Gaea and may marry Evil.
So, after a recap of her childhood and time with the carnival in India, we get going on Orb and her time among the gypsies and looking for the Llano, the song of songs. We see Orb join up with The Livin' Sludge, last seen in On a Pale Horse, hiring a succubus, and traveling around in the fish that swallowed Jonah. We see her courted by Natasha, who also knows parts of the Llano. And since that level of naming is up there with Alucard, Natasha is Ah, Satan.
Which isn't revealed until Orb has ascended into Nature, and manages to pretty much destroy the world for 40 pages. (Read as catfished woman gets irrationally mad about being deceived.)
And in the end, Orb makes the only choice she can make, after a long winded internal dialogue about good and evil.
Honestly, this is one of the better books in the series. It does have its faults (the courtship makes no sense to anyone, and the scene with her doing the Gypsy version of the lambada to kill of skeletons is silly), but the pacing is fun, the recaps of what's happened before don't totally overwhelm the narrative, and it does ultimately end the series in a way that makes sense. (Even if there are 3 more books.)
Wednesday, November 13, 2019
What is it good for?
Wielding a Red Sword by Piers Anthony still remains one of my least favorite entries in Incarnations of Immortality. I mean, it's not that it's ever dull, but honestly, it's entire raison d' etre is to set up the eventual payoffs down the line, rather than give us something as interesting as the previous three books.
We start with Mym, "Pride of the Kingdom", a Brahmin stutterer on the run from his father and responsibilities of being the second born prince of the king. He joins a traveling circus (wearing a remarkably familiar snake ring that answers yes/no questions), shacks up with Luna's cousin Orb, and winds up being dragged back into his Kingdom as the circus tries to leave India. Seems Mym's brother died, leaving Mym the heir. Because we have to, Orb is payed off like a common whore, and Mym goes home, where Daddy dearest starts executing concubines until Mym agrees to marry Princess Rapture.
He and Rapture do wind up falling in love, but things happen, Mym happens to be the angriest person in the world when War flares up after a small break in fighting around the globe, Mym gets the Red Sword and becomes Mars, incarnation of War. (One should also mention Mars has a few Minor Incarnations [Slaughter, Conquest, Famine, and Pestilence] associated with him. Given Death is a separate Incarnation, and they never do explain how the minors work....)
Anyway....
Long story short, Satan sends a succubus to annoy Mym. Lila does her job, helping Rapture become an independent woman. Heaven forbid that Mym be without a subservient woman, so Lila sends him after Ligea, who's unfairly damned. Mym winds up trapped in Hell, so, being a rational man of War, he starts a revolt of the Damned.
Anyway, long story short, Mym winds up foiling Satan and having Ligea as wife and Lila as concubine.
It's all kind of silly, and really only seems to be written to explain where the heck Orlene came from.
But, it's readable.
We start with Mym, "Pride of the Kingdom", a Brahmin stutterer on the run from his father and responsibilities of being the second born prince of the king. He joins a traveling circus (wearing a remarkably familiar snake ring that answers yes/no questions), shacks up with Luna's cousin Orb, and winds up being dragged back into his Kingdom as the circus tries to leave India. Seems Mym's brother died, leaving Mym the heir. Because we have to, Orb is payed off like a common whore, and Mym goes home, where Daddy dearest starts executing concubines until Mym agrees to marry Princess Rapture.
He and Rapture do wind up falling in love, but things happen, Mym happens to be the angriest person in the world when War flares up after a small break in fighting around the globe, Mym gets the Red Sword and becomes Mars, incarnation of War. (One should also mention Mars has a few Minor Incarnations [Slaughter, Conquest, Famine, and Pestilence] associated with him. Given Death is a separate Incarnation, and they never do explain how the minors work....)
Anyway....
Long story short, Satan sends a succubus to annoy Mym. Lila does her job, helping Rapture become an independent woman. Heaven forbid that Mym be without a subservient woman, so Lila sends him after Ligea, who's unfairly damned. Mym winds up trapped in Hell, so, being a rational man of War, he starts a revolt of the Damned.
Anyway, long story short, Mym winds up foiling Satan and having Ligea as wife and Lila as concubine.
It's all kind of silly, and really only seems to be written to explain where the heck Orlene came from.
But, it's readable.
Saturday, November 9, 2019
Oh what a tangled web we weave
With a Tangled Skein is the book in Piers Anthony's Incarnations of Immortality wherein we see that the Earthly Incarnations are basically the Skywalker family from Star Wars.
We start with nubile Niobe, the most beautiful girl in her generation, being forced to marry Cedric, 5 years her junior. They eventually do come to love each other, befriending a dryad in the wetlands in the process. Cedric goes to college, becomes a wetlands advocate. Niobe births Junior. Cedric gets shot by developers. Niobe, being emotional, floats on a boat and sets it on fire to get Death's attention. Death, Time, and Nature all get involved, and we learn Niobe is destined to become Clotho soon. Which she does, foiling a few plots of Satan in the meantime.
Junior and his cousin Pacian go with Fate to a carnival where certain prophecies come to light, namely, their children will become interesting beings... one to love Death, one to marry Evil. Pacian thinsk he's stopped it by marrying Blanche, it didn't work, since Niobe leaves Fate to marry him.
Junior, in the meantime, married Blenda and births Luna. Niobe and Pacian birth Orb.
Later, Niobe comes back to Fate as Lachesis, since all three aspects wind up switching at the same time, which is unheard of.
Eventually Niobe risks hell to get information from The Magician (aka Junior).
While it does help put the timeline back in order after the previous two books, it still turns the series into "One Family to Rule Them All, and in the darkness bind them."
We start with nubile Niobe, the most beautiful girl in her generation, being forced to marry Cedric, 5 years her junior. They eventually do come to love each other, befriending a dryad in the wetlands in the process. Cedric goes to college, becomes a wetlands advocate. Niobe births Junior. Cedric gets shot by developers. Niobe, being emotional, floats on a boat and sets it on fire to get Death's attention. Death, Time, and Nature all get involved, and we learn Niobe is destined to become Clotho soon. Which she does, foiling a few plots of Satan in the meantime.
Junior and his cousin Pacian go with Fate to a carnival where certain prophecies come to light, namely, their children will become interesting beings... one to love Death, one to marry Evil. Pacian thinsk he's stopped it by marrying Blanche, it didn't work, since Niobe leaves Fate to marry him.
Junior, in the meantime, married Blenda and births Luna. Niobe and Pacian birth Orb.
Later, Niobe comes back to Fate as Lachesis, since all three aspects wind up switching at the same time, which is unheard of.
Eventually Niobe risks hell to get information from The Magician (aka Junior).
While it does help put the timeline back in order after the previous two books, it still turns the series into "One Family to Rule Them All, and in the darkness bind them."
Monday, November 4, 2019
Oh yes, Chronotons
After rereading book two of Piers Anthony's Incarnations of Immortality, Bearing an Hourglass, I got a sterling reminder of how much of a headache it is. Not that it isn't fairly well written, but the set up is involved.
We start with Norton, who's more or less an uninvolved drifter, living in different wilderness areas on and off. He's approached by a ghost, Gawain, who needs someone to sire his heir. Seems Gawain died fighting what he thought was a dragon, but was really a dinosaur, and he died without a child. As such, his family married the ghost to Orlene, who is supposed to bear a child to continue the line. Enter Norton.
Norton and Orlene do hit it off, and she indeed bears a child, Gawain II. However, Gawain I made arrangements with Gaea to make the child a true heir, which includes some vaguely defined genetic defect that causes the baby to die before a year. (As I recall, this gets better defined in Book 8.) Thanatos does show up and explain the situation to Norton, which doesn't help when Orlene commits suicide in her grief later on. Gawain does attempt to get Norton to provide stud service with the new ghost wife, but it doesn't happen. Eventually though, Gawain does get Norton into the position of Chronos, Incarnation of Time, as a way of apologizing for getting him into the situation in the first place.
Chronos has issues, not the least of which being her travels backwards in time in relation to everyone else. In other words, when Norton takes the Hourglass, his natural progression is now from the moment he took the office until he reaches his birth or conception. As such, he takes the office roughly twenty years after the events of On a Pale Horse, but before the events of And Eternity. (As I stated at the outset, the timeline in the series is a bit wonky. Chronos makes it even worse.)
Anyway, Norton gets an offer from Satan that leads to a changed timeline, and Norton has to go fix it. Satan gets mad and keeps throwing Norton into what he claims as contraterrine worlds, made of antimatter, where time runs the way Chronos lives. Which leads to three really cheesy adventures involving Bug Eyed Monsters and Alicorns.
Oh yes, and Orlene give Norton Sning, a snake ring that can answer yes-or-no questions as well as indicate the passage of time. And other things. Sning is awesome.
The problem is, a later part of the book involves a really involved explanation of General Relativity, which, while presented in ways to make it easier to understand, still is just as lofty and migraine inducing as the 10 page chaos theory explanation in Jurrasic Park.
Still fun to read after all these years, and I remain amazed at how many clues to other volumes are hidden within.
We start with Norton, who's more or less an uninvolved drifter, living in different wilderness areas on and off. He's approached by a ghost, Gawain, who needs someone to sire his heir. Seems Gawain died fighting what he thought was a dragon, but was really a dinosaur, and he died without a child. As such, his family married the ghost to Orlene, who is supposed to bear a child to continue the line. Enter Norton.
Norton and Orlene do hit it off, and she indeed bears a child, Gawain II. However, Gawain I made arrangements with Gaea to make the child a true heir, which includes some vaguely defined genetic defect that causes the baby to die before a year. (As I recall, this gets better defined in Book 8.) Thanatos does show up and explain the situation to Norton, which doesn't help when Orlene commits suicide in her grief later on. Gawain does attempt to get Norton to provide stud service with the new ghost wife, but it doesn't happen. Eventually though, Gawain does get Norton into the position of Chronos, Incarnation of Time, as a way of apologizing for getting him into the situation in the first place.
Chronos has issues, not the least of which being her travels backwards in time in relation to everyone else. In other words, when Norton takes the Hourglass, his natural progression is now from the moment he took the office until he reaches his birth or conception. As such, he takes the office roughly twenty years after the events of On a Pale Horse, but before the events of And Eternity. (As I stated at the outset, the timeline in the series is a bit wonky. Chronos makes it even worse.)
Anyway, Norton gets an offer from Satan that leads to a changed timeline, and Norton has to go fix it. Satan gets mad and keeps throwing Norton into what he claims as contraterrine worlds, made of antimatter, where time runs the way Chronos lives. Which leads to three really cheesy adventures involving Bug Eyed Monsters and Alicorns.
Oh yes, and Orlene give Norton Sning, a snake ring that can answer yes-or-no questions as well as indicate the passage of time. And other things. Sning is awesome.
The problem is, a later part of the book involves a really involved explanation of General Relativity, which, while presented in ways to make it easier to understand, still is just as lofty and migraine inducing as the 10 page chaos theory explanation in Jurrasic Park.
Still fun to read after all these years, and I remain amazed at how many clues to other volumes are hidden within.
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