He's still writing Abhorsen books! You don't really need to read Goldenhand, but Clariel is a sorta prequel that you might not have seen and it is my precioussss.
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...have you read Clariel by
on 2020-12-23 23:56:19 UTC
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Which is a shame, really by
on 2020-12-23 19:40:55 UTC
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What I've read of Garth Nix's stuff is good - I remember quite liking the Abhorsen books way back when.
(My personal top bit of comfort food space opera is the Chanur books, probably because they've got a lot of alien-perspectives stuff going)
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Door 23 by
on 2020-12-23 16:48:44 UTC
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They aren't lamps.
They hang overhead like lamps, and indeed they glow like lamps, illuminating the desks where contented readers pass the hours. No-one could be faulted for imagining that to be their sole purpose.
But they are collectors: of hopes and dreams, of highs and lows, of laughter and tears and anger and longing, of all the powers that a good book can unleash. The readers fill the air with it, and the collectors catch it, store it, keep it safe in crystal vials.
And when someone comes to the library depressed, or lost, or mournful, they sense it, and select a vial, and with exquisite care release a little light into a shadowed life.
So perhaps, in a way, they are lamps after all.
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Not really, sadly... by
on 2020-12-23 07:35:58 UTC
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It's not much my genre, which is why I like A Confusion Of Princes so much. It shows me a lot of the strengths of a genre that usually doesn't work for me. And yeah, I don't think Garth Nix's books seem to have a lot of fic in general. Which is a shame, since I really like his work.
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Having looked, there doesn't seem to be any fic by
on 2020-12-23 06:44:22 UTC
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I'd say "I should fix that" but that would require ideas, motivation, and time.
Do you have any favorite space operas you'd recommend at me?
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"The Pyros' Song" by
on 2020-12-23 02:33:17 UTC
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To the tune of the Gloucestershire Wassail
Assail, assail the Suvian town!
It's urple and sparkly and needs to burn down!
The summer's been dry and the town's full of trees!
So with torches alight let us now run free!
So blaze bright, Ormar, thou city of bleen!
And nevermore let thou on Arda be seen!
A Vanyarin town in the Misties' foothills?
That would be enough to warrant a kill!
Assail, assail the Suvian town!
It's urple and sparkly and needs to burn down!
North Wilderland cannot have deodar trees!
Middle-Earth, we shall light the night for thee!
The houses are wood and the roofs are of thatch!
I reckon it could all go up with just one match!
The Luinocarn river that sparkles so plue
Shall burn no more eyes with its hideous hue!
Assail, assail the Suvian town!
It's urple and sparkly and needs to burn down!
So at the bidding of one Bonsai Tree,
We will watch the town blaze with so much glee!
The fire is kindled and glowing bright!
The town's disappearance is a lovely sight!
And Suvians will trouble the world no more,
Until the next fic the Suethors have in store.
Assail, assail the Suvian town!
It's urple and sparkly and needs to burn down!
Now Ormar's no more; let's admire the trees!
And with Shire Fourteen-Twenty I'll drink to thee!
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/thumbs up/ Seconding all of this, though I ran across it in a different circle. (nm) by
on 2020-12-22 21:56:39 UTC
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Door 22 by
on 2020-12-22 11:32:12 UTC
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"Why doesn't your library have an art section?"
"Well, sir, the previous librarian was rejected from art school. When he took the position, the very first thing he did was to remove all the art books and conceal them. We're positive they're still in the library, so we can hardly replace them, but we haven't yet tracked them down."
"And why doesn't your library have a chemistry section?"
"Well, sir, the very first benefactor of the library was a self-styled alchemist. It seems he deeply resented the reduction of his pursuit to a historical footnote in chemical texts, so as a condition of his bequest, he forbade the inclusion of any books related to the field."
"And why doesn't your library have a children's section?"
"Sir! How can you say such a thing? Our children read all the books; how else are they to learn what they need to grow?"
(Literary And Philosphical Society of Newcastle, United Kingdom)
hS
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One of many photos by
on 2020-12-22 10:46:23 UTC
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Via Twitter, because it's all clouds here.
Jupiter, Saturn, Io, Europa, Ganymede, Callisto, and Titan, all in the same shot. Ridiculous.
hS
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And I have been overcome by MADNESS! by
on 2020-12-22 05:01:32 UTC
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summons Cthulu
parses HTML with regex
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I got a look at it by
on 2020-12-22 05:00:53 UTC
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Dad got a telescope for his birthday, so I at least got to see two dots off in the corner of the view.
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Sigh. Nothing but cloud cover the last few days... at least I only have to wait another 800 years! (nm) by
on 2020-12-22 01:53:27 UTC
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My house has a poor horizon view on the Southwest BUT by
on 2020-12-21 23:39:09 UTC
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We were still able to spot them!
I feel very uncursed. =P Not blessed, but certainly uncursed.
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Short rambling review of A Confusion of Princes by
on 2020-12-21 22:53:16 UTC
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A while back, Granz said good things about Garth Nix's A Confusion of Princes in the chat and I thought it sounded interesting, so I grabbed a copy and promptly ignored it until yesterday. My high-level thoughts on said book are that it's very tightly paced (in that I picked it up in the evening and just kept reading) and that the first-person perspective works well for the story being told. The book does a good job of throwing you into a universe without infodumping or leaving you confused.
(Also, if you find yourself worried about how the viewpoint character is at the beginning, it gets better.)
I wouldn't say it's the best book I've ever read, or that it's got infinite reread value, but if you're looking for the book equivalent of a generally entertaining movie that'll keep you munching popcorn, A Confusion of Princes will do it.
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I should dig out my old telescope by
on 2020-12-21 19:18:09 UTC
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...only I just checked the weather and it's going to be pretty cloudy for the next handful of days. Dang. (Plus I never could get that telescope working to begin with.)
I'll definitely still keep an eye out, though, and at least there are multiple places to watch though a stream on the internet, according to this article from the Washington Post.
As for the Great Old Ones, it definitely is for better for the world's sanity that the stars aren't quite aligned—as fitting as an end as Them awakening would be to this nightmare of a year. I'd prefer not having to worry about Cthulhu climbing down my chimney this Christmas.
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Dang it! I know I should've posted that joke earlier! (nm) by
on 2020-12-21 18:10:17 UTC
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*snrrrk* And thus the madness begins... (nm) by
on 2020-12-21 17:20:25 UTC
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Just you wait. You've triggered the IO by saying that. (nm) by
on 2020-12-21 16:57:31 UTC
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The stars are right. by
on 2020-12-21 16:17:19 UTC
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These Great Old Ones were not composed altogether of flesh and blood. They had shape—for did not this star-fashioned image prove it?—but that shape was not made of matter. When the stars were right, They could plunge from world to world through the sky; but when the stars were wrong, They could not live. But although They no longer lived, They would never really die. They all lay in stone houses in Their great city of R’lyeh, preserved by the spells of mighty Cthulhu for a glorious resurrection when the stars and the earth might once more be ready for Them.
“That is not dead which can eternal lie,
And with strange aeons even death may die.”
Welcome to the Great Solstice Conjunction! If you have clear skies on this Longest Night, you can see Jupiter and Saturn together in the sky just after sunset, merged into a single bright point. Together they make up probably the second brightest thing in the night sky, after the moon.
This is the closest the two planets have appeared together since 1623, and the telescope photos are getting ridiculous: I saw one yesterday that showed both planets, three Galileian Moons, and Titan (moon of Saturn, we went there once). You can probably get a decent view even through binoculars, any time for the next couple of nights.
Luckily for the world's little remaining sanity, the stars aren't quite right for the Great Old Ones to emerge from their cursed tombs: the eclipse came a week and two hours early. So hopefully They are sticklers for precise timing! Not that that stopped me from referencing IT in the advent calendar today.
Iä! Iä! Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn!
hS
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Door 21 by
on 2020-12-21 15:54:50 UTC
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And on that longest, darkest night, if the stars align and the great planets burn together in the heavens, a visitor will slither down their pallid radiance. At ITs presence, this fragile Earth will tremble, and the library doors will melt away before ITs touch.
IT will leave grooves in the floor as it passes, the stones cracking beneath impossible chemistries. When IT touches a shelf, all the volumes stacked there recoil, their pages curling in mute despair. And when at last IT approaches the counter, the librarian on duty will realise at last that there are some things no amount of training can prepare you for.
"I have come," IT will hiss, in a thousand voices of madness and misery. "I am seeking…" The words will hang in the air for an eternity before it continues: "... a book. I don't remember the title, but it had a black cover…"
(Hendrik Conscience Heritage Library, Antwerp, Belgium)
(In honour of the Great Solstice Conjunction)
hS
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Happy birthday! (nm) by
on 2020-12-21 05:14:46 UTC
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And certainly no gorefics. (nm) by
on 2020-12-21 01:33:29 UTC
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I loved it! by
on 2020-12-21 00:06:58 UTC
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Favorite line: "Spelling and grammar have disappeared,"
I don't know why I love such a mundane line, but I do!
Great job!
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"Assigning the Missions" by
on 2020-12-20 23:14:39 UTC
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To the tune of "That's What I Love About Christmas", by Mark Watters. (from A Very Minty Christmas)
Oiolossiën, who is Walker Number Ten,
Claims to hail from Elven shores.
Flets high in the air--near the City of Corsairs?
I will contact the Mallorn.
So that is a mission for Pyros.
It's hard to believe, with so many maps,
Arda could still get so twisted!
What's the next report? Oh snap!
TARDIS comes to land on the world Horizon and
Seven joins with Shepard's squad
For Collector Base. There is Wilting-Lily!Ace,
Which he doesn't see as odd.
Most crossovers that are done badly
Mean that Untanglers will separate
Both (or all) timelines enmeshed here.
Now, what is the next report? Oh, great.
The report's here unfurling; my head is a-whirling
As Legolas falls in love
With a lithe dancer, a "neorcomancer"
Who fell to "Ard" from above.
With "Hitharglir" ringing from Aragorn's singing
(From Sam's and Gimli's, too)
Of the Beatles' hit songs--half the words are spelled wrong.
To the Comma I patch it through.
This is a problem recurring:
Spelling and grammar have disappeared,
Swamped in the technical errors.
What's this next report? Oh dear.
Seems that Peter Pevensie loves Miss Crystal Chickadee,
Who's an Archenlandish queen
She's a textbook Mary Sue, to Assassins now patched through.
This next, though, I don't e'en!
This makes no sense! Tungsten-Tritium-Fluorine!?