Diving Into Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s Universe

One of the sci-fi novels that I was anticipating most late last year was Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s Diving into the Wreck, a novel about an “active historian” diving into the wreckage’s of space in search of the past, an honest living, and most recently, clues to a massive and mysterious ship that drifts abandoned in an area of space where it shouldn’t have been able to travel. What happens as she investigates further leads to, by most accounts, a page turner of a novel that moves at break neck speed, which is exactly the kind of thing that I’ve been looking for in a sci-fi book following a few…more methodical books as of late.

And I suppose the best news, for those that perhaps haven’t yet heard, is that fans of Diving into the Wreck are in for even more “diving” as the author has recently sold the rights to the sequel, entitled City of Ruins to Pyr books:

Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s Diving into the Wreck is proving to be quite a hit. Portions of the novel had already garnered not one but two Asimov’s Readers Choice Awards before the book itself came out. And since Diving appeared, the novel is garnering numerous favorable comparisons to the best of sf film and television, in that it brings back a sense of action and adventure that Rusch herself feels is so often lacking in contemporary SF literature.

So I know quite a few of you will be as excited to learn as I am to announce that  we’ve just shaken hands on a sequel, City of Ruins, so that fans can follow the further adventures of Boss and her crew. The novel sees Boss dealing with the repercussions of events in Diving, and further expands the universe in which the novel takes place in all sorts of interesting ways.

So, while I wait for Diving into the Wreck to arrive at my door (only a few days now), I thought I’d download Rusch’s short story set in the same universe, entitled The Spires of Denon to hold me over. You can obtain the short story from Scribd as a .pdf download for $1.99 in the case you can’t track down the Asimov’s Science Fiction Anthology (#400) in which it originally appeared.

On my way to print it out as soon as I submit this, and looking forward to some happy reading in the days to come.

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (PS3)

Pardon my diverging off-topic for a few moments but I just finished Uncharted 2: Among Thieves yesterday afternoon and wanted to take a few moments to “yack” about it. Like a great page turner Uncharted 2 just doesn’t let up  and it only gets better and better as the story progresses. In it, we follow explorer Nathan Drake, Elena Fisher, Victor “Sully” Sullivan and a few new faces as they attempt to ’save the world’ from a madman bent on becoming the next Genghis Khan through the power of an ancient city — the doors of which that can only be unlocked by an artifact in Drake’s possession. The action is intense, the gun play is a blast, particularly with the ingenious level designs, and if that wasn’t enough then certainly the  fascinating characters and oddball dialogue serve as the added icing on the cake.

Honestly, it was so good that I’m going to have to fire it up all over again on one of the more difficult settings just to experience it all over again (something I rarely have the time and interest to do), especially the gun play and level designs. I’ll also have to hop online a little more now that I’ve finished the single player storyline as the online multi-player is awfully fun in its own right. The game really does remind me of some of the more entertaining times I’ve had when reading a good book and I thought I’d share that on the blog in case any of y’all haven’t played it yet and have the opportunity (and a PS3).

It’s funny, my wife was so cute as I was fighting the final boss. Not a big gamer by any means she couldn’t help but look up from what she was doing in the other room to yell “run, run!” “shoot him!” “ack! get out of there!” and finally, “yea!” Definitely pulled her in for a few moments there and I thought that served as a nice way of illustrating how immersive Uncharted 2 really is.

See you in Shambala!

Quote the Raven

Just when we think we know it all…

All scholarship, like all science, is an ongoing, open-ended discussion in which all conclusions are tentative forever, the principal value and charm of the game being the discovery of the totally unexpected.

– Hugh Nibley

Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn & Ravens

Who knew that Peter S. Beagle’s first novel, A Fine and Private Place had much to do with ravens? Well, I didn’t at least, and so I’ll have to busy myself reading it (a story Beagle penned at  age 19 no less) now that I’ve managed to track down a copy of his fantasy collection, The Fantasy Worlds of Peter Beagle, which also features one of my favorite childhood tales, The Last Unicorn. In addition, the collection also features the short stories Come, Lady Death and Lila, The Werewolf, both of which sound great.

But all of these will have to wait until I can tear through The Last Unicorn, as well as his 2005 novelette, Two Hearts, where Beagle once again returns to the world of the Last Unicorn as well as one or two of its principle characters. Also of interest to fans, IDW will be adapting TLU in comic form beginning this April, so keep an eye out for that in the months to come.

“Snow Days!”

Or, sorry Mr. Gore, I ain’t buyin’ it. ; )

North Texas has enjoyed several snow days this winter, with our first “White Christmas” in over 2 decades, and I woke up this morning with the surprise news that the University was closed for the day due to the ice and treacherous conditions on the road (one freeway was closed with cars waiting over 2 hours to move). That will halt my enjoyment of Brandon Sanderson’s Elantris for a few days as the weekend approaches, but I look forward to firing it up again Monday morning as I’m really enjoying it, about 6-chapters in!

For today then? I spent a good 2-3 hours this morning leveling up my characters and moving forward in Persona 3:FES (PS2; a game that I love but that I’ve had to put on hold for months now), I’ve got a date with my wife to enjoy my snow day off to the fullest, and hopefully I’ll spend more than a few hours with the game again this evening (as I’ve got the day off tomorrow as it is and don’t need to hit the hay early). Sounds like a pretty good way to spend some time indoors today if I do say so myself. After all the hub-bub this winter, we can sure use the down time!

Audio Update: Warbreaker & Elantris

A sincere apologies for the lack of updates these last few months as they’ve been some of the busiest I’ve faced — and outside of work, school, marriage, renovations, travel, in-laws visiting and a thousand other things I’ve had very little time to read anything outside of textbooks for class (as I warned earlier). What’s more, last month my car was totaled and that took care of any opportunity to listen to audio books on my commute (I know, “excuses”).

The good news being that I’ve since replaced the vehicle, I ended up with an “A” in the Ancient Near Eastern class I referenced awhile back, and have Brandon Sanderson’s Elantris and Warbreaker next up on the docket. I’ve got Elantris in paperback, but I thought I might be able to manage to enjoy these two over the next month or so on those long commutes instead of trying to find leisure time that just isn’t forthcoming right now.

Following these, I certainly hope to jump back into Herbert’s Dune, and Pratchett’s Guards, Guards!

Star Wars: Death Troopers

With Star Wars, The Clone Wars Season 2 firing on all cylinders, and BioWare’s The Old Republic on the horizon I’ve had Star Wars on the brain and was looking to find something fun that would coincide well with the chill in the air as Halloween approaches — so to that end Joe Schreiber’s Star Wars: Death Troopers was recommended to me and having purchased a copy it will be all that’s on my plate this week as I take a break from Dune (which I’m about 3/4ths of the way through) and jump back into a galaxy far, far away:

When the Imperial prison barge Purge–temporary home to five hundred of the galaxy’s most ruthless killers, rebels, scoundrels, and thieves–breaks down in a distant, uninhabited part of space, its only hope appears to lie with a Star Destroyer found drifting, derelict, and seemingly abandoned. But when a boarding party from the Purge is sent to scavenge for parts, only half of them come back–bringing with them a horrific disease so lethal that within hours nearly all aboard the Purge die in ways too hideous to imagine.

And death is only the beginning.

The Purge’s half-dozen survivors–two teenage brothers, a sadistic captain of the guards, a couple of rogue smugglers, and the chief medical officer, the lone woman on board–will do whatever it takes to stay alive. But nothing can prepare them for what lies waiting aboard the Star Destroyer amid its vast creaking emptiness that isn’t really empty at all. For the dead are rising: soulless, unstoppable, and unspeakably hungry.

Beyond the blurb I’ve heard good things about Death Troopers (what a great backdrop for a horror story an Imperial ship is) so I’m really looking forward to spending the next several days with it.

Storytelling in Six Words You Say?

Wired recently recounted that Ernest Hemingway once penned a story a mere six words long, which went: “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.” According to the article Hemingway considered it his “best work.”

Well, Wired challenged some top flight talent to come up with their own and I thought that was a lot of fun and that you might enjoy a few of them. From Wired:

Gown removed carelessly. Head, less so.
- Joss Whedon

Machine. Unexpectedly, I’d invented a time
- Alan Moore

Easy. Just touch the match to
- Ursula K. Le Guin

Computer, did we bring batteries? Computer?
- Eileen Gunn

And now my own humble attempt…

; )

“Finished A Jon Snow Chapter…”

Those were encouraging words to read by George R.R. Martin, author of the highly (highly, highly) anticipated novel A Dance With Dragons. And not necessarily because there’s some real progress being made on the book (for me, it’s simply done when it’s done and I’ve plenty on my plate to enjoy until that day) but because Jon Snow has become my favorite character in the series and I’m not quite as caught up as others as of yet so I’m encouraged to learn that Jon is…well…and that there’s so much more yet to come. This is A Song of Ice and Fire after all, so perhaps you can understand my fears as I progress.

Anyhow, here’s the rest of what GRRM had to say about his work on the latest installment:

Finished a Jon Snow chapter, and have just passed the 1100 page (manuscript pages, the page count in the final printed book will be different) mark on A DANCE WITH DRAGONS. That’s counting only finished chapters in something close to final form. I have considerably more in partials, fragments, and roughs. Even with just the finished portions, DANCE is now longer than A FEAST FOR CROWS and A GAME OF THRONES, and I’m closing in on A CLASH OF KINGS. I do hope I can wrap things up before I approach the 1521 page length of A STORM OF SWORDS. Making a new run at the Meereenese knot, but maybe not tomorrow. I think I’ll hang around at the Wall a bit longer, and maybe visit Winterfell.

Next Audiobook: Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett

Last month I asked you to help me out in choosing my next audio book for the long drives home (thanks for that!) and I ended up choosing Frank Herbert’s Dune. Now, here I’ll have to admit that it started out a little slow for me, but it looks to just be hitting its stride so here’s hoping it really takes off over the next couple of weeks and I’ll have a review your way. But next up in the queue is indeed Terry Pratchett’s Guards! Guards!, which will be my first Pratchett book, so I’m really looking forward to discovering what has endeared his work to so many readers.

I’ll be sure to let you know.