On a strange whim, I read The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde this morning. I adore that play and wouldn’t mind the opportunity to see it live one day.
This is book 3 of the 45. Still reading the Atrocity Archives as well. Also, there is likely to be a new addition to the family in the next couple of days.
So I read this little gem of a story by Cory Doctorow this morning and I really liked it. And while I don’t explicitly believe in his “experiment” or his views on copyright, you cannot doubt that his short stories are great.
This story follows Felix and Van two system administrators who are trying to keep the major Canadian backbone of the Net online after a series of catastrophes have brought about a worldwide apocalypse. It’s a good story, and to prove it (only if awards are your thing I suppose) it won the 2007 Locus award for best novelette.
On a completely different note I need to figure out if and how short stories will add into my overall total for the 45 books in 2010. I’m thinking 2-1 if they are novellas, or 3 or 4-1 for novelettes. Hell I might not even care.
So I blew through Poison Sleep in two days. What a fun book! And so much more satisfying than the first one was. I will be after the rest of this series this year for certain. This novel follows Marla Mason, lead sorcerer for the fictional city of Felsport, actually battling it out within her own city. (The first novel had her fighting some foe in San Francisco, something I always thought annoying. I mean why create a fictional city and then not even use it in your debut novel?)
The character development is more involved here and there is a feeling that the characters are not cardboard cutouts like I sometimes felt in the first novel. Either way a very enjoyable read.
For the next read I am going to do something that I don’t normally do, I’m going to re-read a book I read about a year ago. Some of you you just “whoopty-dooo’d” me into next week, but honestly I do re-reads very rarely and usually only after several years.
But with the possible release of a third book in the fantastic Laundry series, I thought I should make the effort to re-read on of the funniest and funnest books that I have read, ever. The Atrocity Archives by Charles Stross. And this has me ahead of the game for the week starting book 3 inside week 2 is always a good thing.
On Saturday I finished the vastly popular Pride Prejudice and Zombies from Quirk Press. The basic premise is that of a Victorian England story of misunderstood love that everyone is familiar with thanks to the forced reading of the novel in high school and from the excellent BBC productions that have been produced over the years. There is one major difference however, the addition of a strange plague that has afflicted England’s corpses reanimating them into the “unmentionables” (zombies) “denizens of Satan” with a penchant for brains.
At first, I wasn’t too sure about this book and therefore left it alone for the better part of a year, but my resolve and curiosity finally gave way and it was added to the Queue. This was a really fun book to read and honestly was hard to put down. It was fun and funny and really kept me interested even though I knew the main plotline almost as well as the back of my right hand. 
It is campy with lots of innuendos about England’s “balls” and I was happy to see Mr. and Mrs. Bennett still are the primary humor for the story. I won’t go into the prime differences as they are far too numerous to list. But just know that if you LOVE the original you likely won’t enjoy this version. But, for those of us that are casual fans or totally unfamiliar with the story it will be a really funny read. I can say that reading this has actually made me want to read the original because you realize how very good it really is. So I give it 4 out of 5 stars.
Now for the next on the reading list is Poison Sleep by T.A. Pratt, book 2 of the Marla Mason series, I’m already about half-way through so another post on it should follow this week.
This means that I am still on tract for the 45 books this year. Yippee to me, prematurely at least.
So at the end of 2009 I scoured through my Goodreads and Shelfari profiles to determine to number of books that I read last year. And to my surprise I didn’t even break through to the 30’s. This really surprised me at first but then the more I thought about it I realized that I had indeed gone weeks without touching a book and even more weeks reading the same damn thing.
It turns out that having a pregnant wife can really zap your time and energy when it comes to allotting the needed time for reading, well that and Wire in the Blood on Netflix. So this year around, I am challenging myself to read a novel a week for the rest of the year minus two proscribed 2 week breaks. Since it is already the third week of the year and accounting for the 4 weeks off, that leaves me with 45 novels until victory.
Lending even more difficulty to this is the realization that I will have a newborn in the house here with me at any time now. Hopefully the odd feeding hours and early risings will give me the right amount of time to finish what I plan.
To be honest 45 novels in a year is not an unheard of proposition, but I am almost certain I can’t do it. But on the other hand, it would be nice to read that much again in a year.
So for fuck’s sake if you see me watching too much Robson Green or Top Gear on the tellie please kick me in the ass and through me a Warhammer novel so I can get back on track.
So Sunday morning I finally finished Charles Stross’s Singularity Sky, a science fiction novel centered around the event and aftermath of a “type 3 singularity,” a technological singularity, occurring on a distant planet under a feudal government. The premise is that a backwater feudal government and pre-industrial society under heavy censorship and an informational chokehold is thrust into an open information galactic network hub, essentially becoming the equivalent of a giant PBX switch in space. The flood of information to and from the purported attackers, known as The Festival, exchanges local information for basically anything the person wants.
This book took me a long time to get through, from no fault of its own, and honestly the first half is somewhat slow. But the second half is excellent. and while this is not my favorite book as a whole, that still belongs to the excellent Culture series, this is still a brilliant piece on a subject with which Mr. Stross is always good at, a singularity. The premise is very interesting but the story doesn’t really grab you and hold you until the later half when 
things turn more exciting. All in all it is a good sci-fi novel and worth reading, and it’s evident sequel Iron Sunrise will definitely be on the list of to- read items very soon.
So next on my to-read list is the humorous Pride Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith. So far I’m about a third of the way through its campy humor and zombie vanquishing Victorian ladies.
On a personal note my wife is ready to pop with my second child, her third, and therefore posting, and reading have been slow. I will post pics as soon as it happens.
I have finally finished Charles Stross’s Singularity Sky this morning. I will post more later on it. Now starting Pride Prejudice & Zombies, I can’t wait! 
by REINA HARDY
I admit it. Keeping myself pure for the Great Cthulhu has been a daily struggle. But, now that I’ve enjoyed the pomp and ceremony of my very first sacrificial death, I have just one thing to say: I’m glad I waited!
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve fended off an ardent suitor with the gentle words, “No dear, I’m saving myself for the Shambling Mountain,” while smiling pleadingly and crossing my legs firmly at the knee. Indeed, there were nights when I couldn’t wait, when I pressed myself against the chilly glass of my vestal window, dreaming of the Great Cthulhu’s welcoming maw, and cried out “When will the stars be right? When?”
Needless to say, when I received the Call, I was excited. My heart pounded. I began to hyperventilate, heaving my unbesmirched chest in a most pleasing way. Finally my long-cherished maidenhead would be put to its proper use! My violent death would appease the lust of He Who Slumbers, allowing my sacrificers, the members of Columbia University’s Science Fiction Society, to live! Perhaps months longer than they would otherwise!
And so, last night, at the appointed hour, I was brought to the tiny vestal chamber in Butler Library, where an attendant priestess arrayed me in the finest linen that can be stolen from Columbia University’s Lerner Hall storage. Stepping outside, I was immediately borne off by four strong and virile cultists, who hoisted me on their shoulders and paraded me throughout the study halls of Butler, so that the infidels might see my doomed purity, and know what dues are paid to the power of Great Cthulhu. They were sore afraid, I imagine. Particularly since the servitor had an octopus for a face.
A lot of thoughts ran through my head as the procession wound its way, singing and chanting, to the sacrificial sundial. “I wonder if they are planning to stab my heart or my chest?” “The High Priest’s fetish cuffs are digging into my neck.” “It’s drafty…is my sheet slipping?” But mostly, I was thinking, what would it be like? What would HE be like?
Finally, we reached the sundial, where the priests lowered me roughly onto the frigid marble and pinned me down by my ankles and my wrists. I looked up towards the cold moon and the dire configured stars. The masked and tentacled faces of the cultists loomed above me. I was a little nervous. All right, I was terrified! For a moment, as the High Priest drew his gleaming blade, I wondered if I’d done the right thing by consenting to die like this, so young, so unenjoyed.
But then the High Priest struck. As he thrust mercilessly into my inviolate flesh, spilling my blood across the stone, I knew. There’s nothing like the first time! My mortal screams rang out, all but overpowering the hypnotic chanting of the assembled cult, and I arched my back with ultimate joy, secure in the glory of a pure death. The High Priest continued to slash at my abdomen and throat in an orgiastic frenzy until the last few gurgles of life escaped my lips. My soul plummeted to Cthulhu’s slimy embrace while my ravished body was trundled off to Butler’s inner chambers, to gratify some of the High Priest’s darker desires.
And now that it’s all over, I couldn’t be happier that I waited! Sure, I missed a few of those fleshly pleasures enjoyed between a man and a woman, but now that I’ve had a whole day’s worth of experience as Cthulhu’s post-mortem slave, I’m beginning to realize that there are some things only tentacles can do. He Who Slumbers is the light of my afterlife. I am satisfied to praise Him and serve Him for the rest of eternity as best I can.
Finally, I’d just like to thank the wonderful people at the Campus Crusade, who gave me this unparalleled opportunity. May Cthulhu eat you last!
First published in Columbia University’s Federalist newspaper (The Fed) during Cthulhu Week 2000.
Tuesday the International Cuttlefish Society (ISC) was implicated in a massive money laundering and tax evasion scheme that touched virtually every government in Europe. Sources say that the ISC had worked in coordination with various crime lords of Ukraine and Russia in an attempt to launder billions of dollars through local European aquariums and zoos in exchange for cooperation during what it described as the "end of all ends, the day His Worshipful Death would arise from his eternal slumber."
Apparently, the ISC was merely a cover for some sort of underworld cult hell bent on world destruction, but as of yet we have been unable to tie them with any particular religious order. Some have said that they are a front for a fictional group known as the Cult of Cthulhu based on the writings of H.P. Lovecraft, but that cannot be confirmed.
The ISC was laundering money for the gangsters by funneling it through various aquariums 
and zoos as bloated charges for cuttlefish, cuttlefish care, and supplies. Since the ISC possesses a basic monopoly on cuttlefish breeding programs and cuttlefish skin harvesting, used by scientists, everyone attributed the gross increases to the global recession.
Representatives from the ISC were unreachable for comment, but followers and members world wide have been seen wearing tentacled masks and sporting large ceremonial daggers.
"Some people are getting nervous," said an aquarium worker that wishes to remain anonymous, "cuttlefish are starting to disappear. And those people are everywhere!" Reporters for Al-Jazeera cornered one masked man who screamed, "Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn!" before the reporter, cameraman, and producer were all stabbed to death and their bodies dragged 
off. The same phrase has turned up at several aquariums in the Mediterranean region, especially in Spain and Greece, painted in blood near entrances.
In a seemingly unrelated issue, thousands of ocean geologists are baffled by the apparent appearance of a previously uncharted island in the Pacific basin. The island evidently has what can only be described as non-euclidean buildings intact. Some are calling this the lost Atlantis, and many are making the pilgrimage there now.
