In Constant Use

Wear
Originally uploaded by tamaranth

Worn step* in the bathhouse complex at Chesters Roman Fort. Yes, Wallcon'09 photos from Sunday are up at Flickr!

*worn by DRUI-- oh, sorry

Deja Vu

Aha, now I know why Long Meg and her daughters seemed so familiar ...

|

(images click through to Anne Sudworth's site)

2009/39: Thirteenth Child -- Patricia Wrede

Thirteenth Child -- Patricia Wrede

We'd studied the animals of the North Plains Territories in natural history in school. They were divided into two sorts, the ordinary and the magical. The ordinary ones were things like mammoths and dire wolves and saber cats and terror birds and the magical ones were steam dragons and Columbian sphinxes and spectral bears and swarming weasels, and all of them were deadly dangerous, magical or not. And those were just the plains animals; there were other things just as bad in the northern forests, and no Great Barrier magic to keep them off, either. (p. 68)

( no-major-plot-points-spoilt review )

A couple of observations on my position regarding the controversy this book has sparked:
- I suspect that, as a European, there is a whole dimension to this book that I don't relate to in the same way as an American. Not better, not worse: different, in the way that an American reviewer might miss class-related ambience in a British novel.
- I don't believe any alternate-history situation is unacceptable, or should not be written.

I welcome civilised debate: ad hominem attacks -- actually, attacks of any sort, as opposed to discussion -- will be deleted or frozen.

Plasticine Picnic

Plasticine Picnic
Originally uploaded by tamaranth

Garden made of plasticine, Royal Festival Hall. Very green! But possibly already wilting...