The Beer Garden

Y’know,this doesn’t seem to be working.  Despite my best intentions, and reading several books I think would be good to review, I can’t seem to get it done properly.  I read, I make notes, but it doesn’t seem to come together into a coherent review.  I’ve spent over a month trying to do something with The Alton Gift, for instance, and all I can come up with is that the author may have been working from the creator’s notes, but it doesn’t work.  I hate doing a negative review, but this one is nothing else … characterizations are off (or at least not connected satisfactorily back to previous books), such as Illona being terrified of the Towers last book, and now being an underKeeper, Lou turning from self-haunted but a fighter to someone seeking refuge with the Cristoforos at Nevarsin … and worst, the one Terran who escaped after the Battle of the Great North Road being a biowar specialist and the only person who could handle the sudden resurgence of Trailmen’s Plague.  Deus ex machina?  No thanks — that’s cheating.  I’ve got several other gripes, but those will do for now.

Other books have other problems … either I can’t force myself to read enough to do a decent review, or my other interests distract me into overemphasizing that interest to the detriment of the review as a whole.

I guess I’m just not up to doing a regular blog on ANY subject, so I’ll probably be shutting this mish-mash down fairly soon.

by David and Leigh Eddings
ISBN: 978-0-345-43586-6

If you liked the authors’ Belgariad and Malloreon — and share my love for background information — you’ll love this book. It covers geography, history, excerpts from the Holy Books, and all sorts of other fascinating details that don’t appear in the books, but are really nice to have available.

And it’s written with a good sense of humor. In describing the Arends, for instance (remember Sir Mandorallen?): “Arends are formal to the point of being socially incapacitated.”

It also includes some goodies on how the two series came to be written, and how the Codex came about — the world-building that, if a new universe is going to work, has to be done before the stories can even be properly started. I’d like to have seen things like the Mrin and Darine Codices. but “They aren’t here because they don’t exist.” Partly, it seems, because Lester del Rey wouldn’t agree to publish the Mrin Codex on a scroll, darn it! Though I can certainly understand why not.

Strongly recommended for Eddings fans!

I didn’t get any feedback here, so I went and asked the same question of the folks on Little Green Footballs, where I’m a fairly long-time, but not terribly active, Lizard. With only one exception — who thought a re-start would make it easier to become known a a review spot on the search engines — the recommendation was to hang onto the old name and notify readers of the change.

So let’s make it official. The Beer Garden is now a review blog, concentrating on science fiction and fantasy, but with other subjects appearing as they attract my interest. I can’t promise a schedule, since what I’ll have available to review depends on my budget, how often I can get to the bookstore up in Dover, and what the state library system gets. The Science Fiction Book Club fits in there as well!

Those restrictions mean my access to current books is more limited than I’d prefer, so I’ll welcome guest reviews as well, either in the comments or e-mailed to me to put in a front-page post.

Beer is on the house!

I finally seem to be recovered as well as I’m going to from a stroke I had about this time last year. I couldn’t see well enough to be on the computer much, so while I was off line, I did a lot of thinking, including about this blog. I never did as much as I planned to here, probably because I didn’t have a real focus for the Garden — always an error, and I knew it, but I made it anyway. Mea culpa, and I apologize to those of you who showed up rightfully expecting more.

I’d started off with a vague idea of it being a semi-political, semi-everything-else blog, but there are too many much better political blogs out there, and even before the stroke, I was feeling inadequate. While I enjoy following politics (or used to), I’m not enough of an expert to compete with the big fish in that pond.

So I’m going back to my roots, and do a review blog — mostly of science fiction and fantasy books, but other subjects that attract my attention will be fair game, as well. It wouldn’t be right to just shut the Garden down with no explanation or feedback, though, so I’m going to give it a week before deciding to convert this place to reviews, or shut it down and start over from scratch. Your input is welcome, and will be a major influence on which way my decision goes.

I’ll spend that week writing the first reviews, and will let you all know which way it goes no later than Sunday fhe 8th of August (yes, this year!).

I am delighted to announce that Silverfox has joined us here as a Moderator, and the Tech Expert of the Terran Empire LOTGD game, which is in the midst of being set up.  We want to add some modules to spice things up before the official opening, but I just wanted to let you know it’s being done, and should be ready to go soon.  Though I must caution you things will keep changing as we find good modules, and it morphs into a version based on my Terran Empire universe.

Frank’s only had the first Mitaban dip and three doses of antibiotic so far, but it already seems to be helping … the scabs on his head are smaller, and his neck wasn’t raw and bloody this morning.  This is wonderful!  I wonder if a Pagan can nominate a veterinarian for sainthood …

I’d love to see him with all his hair again, but I’ll be quite happy if his skin just clears up — I can always make him a nice handspun wool sweater and cap for winter!

Of all the dogs we’ve had, I think our current two have the best personalities, and surprisingly enough, they’re both pit bull mixes — yes, I suppose I had been affected by media reports, even though I know the primary reason dogs "go bad" is due to bad owners, with the next reason being abuse by someone else, usually kids who may or may not know better.

May Frank continue to improve, and may whatever deity Dr. Lewis worships pour blessings upon him!

Yeah, I know I said this was turning into a LotGD blog instead of a personal one, but I simply have to share this good news!

Took the puppy to the vet today (the earliest we could get in) for a skin problem he’s had for a while, but only got us concerned about six weeks ago.  (We thought it was a simple allergy till then, and got rid of everything we thought it might be, starting with that [expletive deleted] Chinese melamine-contaminated food, then Chinese dog toys, then anything plastic].

I was very pleasantly impressed by both Dr. Lewis and how well Frank(furter) behaved. The problem turns out to be not all that uncommon with pit bulls, pit mixes, and bulldogs … demodectic mange, with secondary bacterial infection.

It sounds terrible, but he says it’s not difficult to cure; I came home with a dip and two antibiotics, plus a dog food recommendation that caused a special stop at the grocery store. According to him, I should see an improvement in less than two weeks, when I’m to give him a second dip. I’m really hoping so (please, Lord Anubis!), ‘cause the poor little guy looks awful, and it has to be both painful and itchy.

Military base vets are quite good, since their primary job is taking care of the base’s working dogs — the rest are to keep them in practice — and I’m just glad we have access to this one!

I want my version of LotGD to have a distinct Terran Empire feel, but the Empire isn’t a classical-fantasy world, which makes for some difficulties in translation.  Some are minor, such as the races, with a couple either direct equivalents (human/human, felyne/Irschchan) and at least one would only need minor tweaks (troll/Traiti).  

Even the Healers can be equated to doctors or med techs, given how advanced Imperial medicine is.  But in this vein comes a (even the!) major problem: time in the equivalents of Heaven and Limbo/Hell, with the respective deities, has an effect on game stats, plus the very common phenomenon of resurrection.  Divine intervention has happened in the Empire, very rarely, and there’s been one case of resurrection (briefly), but in the standard LotGD game, both are everyday matters.  That’s a big problem, and I’m not sure how to deal with it.

Some of the races/specialties use magic, or what acts like it; that could be equated to Talent.  That’s rare in all the TE races except Irschchans (and Sandemans, who don’t really like it), but it would make sense for warriors attracted to the world of the game to have a higher-than-average number of Talented.

Other fudges could be using high tech in at least some of the places that usually use magic, like the dragon’s eye in Ze Gypsy Tent becoming a remote camera or real-time satellite image.  Flying mounts could be null-grav vehicles, and so on.

This is going to be fun!  I have genetic engineering to play with — though it’s illegal in the Empire except for medically necessary purposes, there’ve been several groups that have gone out-Empire to play, like the Shapers of the Sandeman human-variant race.  So there are undoubtedly other worlds not discovered as of my last canonic story, or that weren’t relevant to mention.  Methinks I feel a story coming on … well, at least once the vet can solve Frank(furter)’s skin problem.  Poor kid!

Frank is our mini-Dachshund/pit bull puppy who is having a nasty rash with hair loss … I personally think it at least got started with the [expletive deleted] Chinese-tainted food, but it’s getting worse, not better, even though we’ve taken both dogs off everything on the recall list.  Yes, I am severely ticked! 

Since this has proved to be no more successful than my previous attempts at a diary/journal in any form, it’s undergoing a major change.

For now, at least, it’s going to be a place to discuss the setup and running of our version of the Legends of the Green Dragon text-based on-line game.  (For me to run or even play it, it has to be text-based; I’m stuck with a 24-K dial-up.)

Anyway, I’ll be giving She of Many Nics posting privileges as soon as she registers and I know which one she wants to use here.  Comments will remain open to registered users; in fact, if anyone’s interested in the game, we welcome comments, since that may well improve our version. 

Especially this early! I don’t like having it dark when I get up (6 AM or a bit earlier) almost all year, and going back to dead-of-winter time again (7:20 sunrise here) really stinks!

This is supposed to save energy, it’s said, but I have to run the lights an hour longer in the morning, so it doesn’t save me a bloody thing.  As for the longer light at night?  OK, makes me feel a bit guilty for going to bed at my usual time ‘cause it’s still light, but I’m not doing anything outside at 9 PM, so the light then is no help.  (It’s too durn hot in summer!  Outside work is early in the day, when it’s cooler.)

I’ll admit I don’t mind too much if it’s later in the year, like late April to mid-May, when it’s still going to be light in the morning, but doggone it, early March is going too far!