Mad Times

The Hidden Family by Charles Stross

Second book in Stross's Merchant Princes series. In this volume, Miriam begins exploring another alternate world and opening it to commerce while in the other two known alternate Earths various and sundry plots thicken. Miriam continues to be hyper-competent (and hyper-lucky) to a degree that strains credulity. I suspect these books might be enjoyed more by people who are more Economics-geeky than I am. Still, Stross can spin a yarn interestingly enough to keep the pages flipping by. This volume has some nice character building for some of the minor women characters from the first book including quite a few interesting revelations about Miriam's foster mother.

Lost Glove #102

September 13. On the bridge of lost gloves (stretch of SE 56th Street where it crosses Issaquah Creek. I have seen more lost gloves in this 100-yard stretch of road than anywhere else.)

Lost Glove #101

Back on September 7th.

Dzur by Steven Brust

I can't think of another author who writes books that are as entertaining as Steven Brust's. Vlad Taltos, the protagonist of the series this is the tenth volume in, is a flawed, sarcastic, intelligent character who has had some significant growth over the course of the series while remaining fundamentally himself. This volume is lighter on plot than most of the books, but it makes up for it with a whole stack of in-jokes and a lovely framing device in the lush descriptions of a multi-course meal that start each of the seventeen (of course) chapters.

I should probably read it again cause I went pretty fast and by the end I completely couldn't understand why it was necessary for Vlad to enlist the assistance of Vera to get out of the fix he was in. Seemed like overkill.

But the book is fun and brings back some beloved characters and moves the story along. Definitely not the place to start, so catch up on the series before you hit this volume.

Blissing

That thing Alice is licking on is called a "Hot Cats", it's a fabric tube filled with cat nip. We've had that particular one for almost four years and they still seem to like it. Amazing.

The Family Trade by Charles Stross

Miriam is a journalist reporting on corporate startups and venture capital. With the help of research assistant Paulette, she uncovers a massive money laundering operation. Rather than making her career, the discovery gets her fired and possibly stalked. If that weren't enough, her adoptive mother gives her a box of things relating to her birth mother. Among those things is a locket with a strange pattern inside. When Miriam examines it closely she finds herself abruptly transported from her cosy home in Boston to a cold dark wood.

In over her head in two worlds is about the size of it. But Stross's Miriam is a strong swimmer.

I was very distracted in the first few chapters when I wasn't sure whether the setting was England or New England. Mostly it seemed like the US, but there was just enough ambiguity ("Cambridge" doesn't narrow it down for example) and misplaced British terms to keep throwing me off. Also I think I was reading it too sporadically to get into the setting.

Miriam is one of those hyper-competent protagonists who are fun to read about but hard to believe. Fortunately Stross writes a tale with enough mysteries and a fast enough pace to distract you from the implausibility.

Two years later

This was supposed to go up back at the beginning of September, but here is what's left of lost glove #23 two years after I first saw it.

It was still glove-shaped until just a couple days before this picture was taken which is fairly remarkable since it's not in some out of the way spot, it's right in the middle of the driveway for I-90 Motor Sports and must get run over at least a couple times a day.

Here's what it looked like last year.

Parked

I wasn't feeling well when I got home from work last night so I laid down for a while and soon had this furball planted on my chest. Feline therapy.