Well, Hello, Esme!

 One of the books I picked up in London was A Blink of the Screen, a collection of short fiction from Terry Pratchett. While anthologies aren't usually my thing, this is Pratchett. 

Anyway, the collection is roughly 2/3 non-Discworld, and 1/2 Discworld, although a few of those are things written for other sources. (In particular, a synopsis written setting up the Discworld boardgame that eventually got written in book form as THUD!.) 

There are some stories that are really really good and stick out in the not Discworld section. Like "Turntables of the Night", in which DEATH goes to a Disco. The entire conversation between the anthropomorphism of Death and a DJ discussing artists they collect made this worth the buy. In another really odd one, "Twenty Pence, With Envelope and Seasonal Greeting" is a bit like if HP Lovecraft wrote a Christmas story. (Seriously. Much of the story is recounted by someone observing an insane postal worker driven mad by the world turning into Christmas Cards.) 

In terms of the Discworld section, the big one is the near novella that is "The Sea and Little Fishes" (which has deleted material in the Appendix). It concerns Witch Trials, and a committee of witches trying to convince Granny Weatherwax not to enter so someone else can win. Esme's way of dealing with this is delightful. Another standout is "Theatre of Cruelty", in which the Night Watch tries to solve the mystery of a dead puppeteer. Including the absolutely wonderful interview with a witness, once again DEATH. 

One really interesting story in here, "The High Meggas", is basically the origin of The Long Earth. One of the protagonists here shares a name with the eventual protagonist of the series, but past that the resemblance to what came later on is superficial. 

And of course, there's the lyrics to the Ankh-Morpork National Anthem, written for a BBC Radio programme about various National Anthems. Which was then set to music and sung by the Scots. 

Seen Here. 

Bonus joke is Pratchett's observation that most folks remain shocked to learn their anthem has more than one verse, so the second verse has a bunch of mumbling followed by a few words, as if the Soprano singing it remembered the ends of the phrase. 

I miss Pratchett. I'm always glad to have a reminded of why I miss him.

A nightmare at midsummer.

 So, I actually finished Seanan McGuire's Be the Serpent Friday, but it's been a week. 

So, October and Tybalt are married and in bliss. Other than being summoned to Muir Woods for the debate on waking up Rayseline, who was last seen (awake) trying to kill off most of the court. Mind you, when October entered her dreams, a promise was made, which comes to the fore after she's wakened. Which is, essentially, Rayseline comes to be October's servant for a year, giving her a chance to heal. 

Which is all well and good until two of the court seers (sisters of Toby's best friend) start screaming in terror. Which leads to finding out one sister is dead, and the brothers are ok. 

Which is pretty much where the plot gets going, as we start digging deeper into the true nature of Fairie, and indeed, just about everyone in here ends up going off at Oberon at some point in time. (Frankly, he kind of has it coming.) 

Any rate, we get pretty deep into what actually caused the Broken Ride, or at least another perspective on it, and a hell of a lot of dirty laundry about the Courts and Claims of Oberon, Janet, Titania, and Maeve. We also get a really BIG freakin' cliffhanger after the main plot is mostly resolved. 

Then we get a really cool novella that explains the binding of Antigone the Sea Witch and how it came to be. 

While most people who've finished complain about the cliffhanger, I'm enjoying it, since I can't wait to find out what happens next. Particularly since the teaser we got prior to the book being released had me assuming this would be the book in which Antigone actually tries to kill October. It's not. Yet. 

Always fun, and I can't wait to see what happens next.

As unto Sodom, but with less purpose

 So, wound up rereading John Rechy's The Coming of the Night over the past week. While it's a lot less verbose than City of Night, it covers similar territory while illuminating the end of an era. 

We're in Los Angeles in 1981, opening on Jesse in the morning, as he prepares to basically screw his way to a massive release in the night. (A note on structure here. We get multiple focus characters, and we follow them from morning until Night.) The Sant'Ana winds are blowing and the entire city is on edge. We meet Zha Zha, the drag queen porn director, doing a "rehearsal" in the hills for a closeted producer. We have Clint, who's come to LA to get away from some issues in NYC. We have the black cowboy who hates being fetishized for being clack, we get the muscle guy who's worried that his size isn't enough for people. We have the older queen, who sees himself as above the lowlifes out cruising the streets, even as he cruises himself. We have Paul, who's boyfriend is off screwing around in San Francisco. We have the straight hustler, doing men for money. We have Father Norris, who is asked by a woman in confession to go save her son, who has a naked crucifix tattooed on his back while he's busy hustling.And we have the leather guy, who winds up plotting the orgy for Jesse's birthday in the park at night. And lest we forget, we have the roughnecks out to go queer bashing. 

It's quite funny in several spots, as almost everyone in here keeps mentioning how to avoid a hookup once you think the other person is saying no, as Zha Zha's party finds the stars switching roles randomly; but there's also some really painful moments as Clint reveals that he's running for a gay cancer that took out one of his friends in New York, as father Norris chases shadows, as the queer bashers wind up getting bashed themselves. 

Ultimately, it's the portrait of the days right before AIDS, when sex and sexuality were the reward for the sheer amounts of shit society poured down upon the queers. Sadly, as we all know, it got worse. 

Well worth reading.

D&D Multiverse?

 Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman have returned to Dragonlance with Dragons of Deceit, their first collaboration in this setting in several years. 

We open on Destina, a Solamnic Lady who's father dies at the battle of the High Clerist's Tower (where Sturm died in Book 2 of the original series.) As time progresses, her life falls apart, as the keep her father left her gets taken over by her Uncle, and she winds up losing everything.

Hearing tales in Palanthas of Tasslehoff's adventures (in Legends), Destina seeks first the Greygem (last seen in Summer Flame; however, this book is set before the Chaos War) in Thorbardin, and then seeks out Tasslehoff in Solace to get the Time Travel MacGuffin Device to go back in time to try to keep her father from dying. 

There's a hell of a lot of silliness, particularly since Destina's big plan to get Tas to cooperate involved her turning into a Kender, made more complicated by the Greygem also playing havoc with magic. 

By the end, two characters who were dead prior to the start of the book wind up with Tas and Destina in an major event prior to the Cataclysm, with folks in the present (of this book) looking on in horror as history rewrites itself. (With both the Greygem AND Tas in the past, time can be altered.)

While I was amused by the novel as a whole, I kind of wonder what path the authors are shooting for with this trilogy. I mean, there's Destina's narrative of accepting the death of her father, there's the whole if Chaos is back in the 3rd age, can they prevent the whole of the Chaos War later on, and another bit of two characters who sort of remember their fates but are honestly kind of as they were at the beginning of the entire world, and what could they do? 

While part of me is hoping they're retconning the entire Chaos War (it was seriously a painful read, and one gets the impression it was forced by TSR), I'm also wondering if we aren't going to wind up with the first D&D setting with a Multiverse of Madness.