Musings – Page 62 – Into the West

Book Review: Magician: Apprentice by Feist

Magician: Apprentice by Raymond E. Feist

Read in February 2011

I am kicking myself for not reading this novel when published, my only excuse being I was a teenager with no funds and no connections (remember the state of the Internet in 1982?). I lived twenty miles away from the nearest library back then. If my mom didn’t own the book, I didn’t get to read it.

This story overflows with likable characters: Pug, Tomas, Carline, Roland, Arutha, Kulgan, Meecham, just to name a few. The pacing skips, trots, canters, gallops, crashes, walks, jumps, and flies. The magic system teases you through Pug’s apprenticeship, yet we glimpse broader examples through Kulgan and the invaders. The classic fantasy races make an appearance via elves (both light and dark or good and bad as you prefer), dwarfs, goblins, trolls and dragons.

The world building interwove seamlessly with the narrative as we followed along with Pug and Tomas as they ventured along with the Duke’s expedition to seek aid to stave off an invasion of aliens from his royal kin over the mountains and east of his far western holding of Crydee. The aliens control rifts between their world, Kellewan, and Midkemia, where the Kingdom reigns through the Duke’s royal relatives. Through these rifts, the aliens establish a bridgehead and proceed to slowly encroach upon Midkemia, first to mine metals in the mountains east of Crydee, and then to expand westward to gain access to the sea.

The book ends abruptly, but understandably so, since the original publication was one large volume, not the two we see today published as Magician: Apprentice and Magician: Master. I look forward to reading the second half of this opening salvo in the Riftwar Saga next month.

Book Review: Imager’s Intrigue by Modesitt

Imager’s Intrigue by L.E. Modesitt Jr.
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Five years have passed since we last saw Rhenn. He’s married and has a daughter now. He’s continued to climb the ladder at Image Isle and now resides with his family and a servant in a house on that island.

We see more of the dark side of covert operations in Solidar and how Rhenn responds when thrust into leading and architecting strategies that lead to long term victories and continued prosperity for Solidar and it’s Imagers.

All the Imager novels to date have been related in the first person from Rhenn’s point of view, which limits my knowledge to what he shares with me. I often feel as if I’m missing much of the story, because what he takes for granted as common knowledge, I do not, and what he focuses on may or may not be relevant to what I desire to know. So, I get frustrated and bored and miss a seemingly unimportant piece that later completes the puzzle.

The ending, or the resolution designed and personally carried out by Rhenn, disturbed me. Perhaps I’m naive and want our world, or any world I immerse myself in, to be more forgiving, more understanding. I firmly believe the only things you can change are yourself; you can’t change others no matter how much you want them to change. Rhenn believed change needed to occur now, and only extreme measures, including the use of deadly force, could meet his needs, which he equated with the continued prosperity of Solidar and by extension, imagers. Again, absolute power tempts to corrupt absolutely, for we learn that Rhenn is now the most powerful Imager alive.

This may be the last novel in the Imager Porfolio devoted solely to Rhenn. I got the feeling at the end that the focus of any future books would steer away from Master Rhennythl.

View all my reviews

Sunrises and Scarves

I got a call from my dad this morning, cluing me in to the fact that this morning’s sunrise broke among light clouds and appeared quite photogenic. I arrived a bit late to the party, but got a couple of nice shots from my daughter’s east facing bedroom:

I ventured out a couple of hours later to attend a pancake feed at a Crossroads UMC just down the hill from my house. Enjoyed the fresh pancakes the company. Since I remembered to bring my camera with me, I took a couple of shots of Lansing’s favorite sledding hill (unoccupied so early on a Saturday morning):

Perhaps the next time I’m out I’ll get a couple of shots of kids sledding.

I continue working on my new moebius scarf, which I’ll probably finish today or tomorrow. Here’s a picture of it after five or six times around:

Moebius Scarf Using Moss Stitch After 5-6 Rounds

And a close-up of the moss stitching, which I think is cool (and easy to crochet):

Second 2011 Crochet Project: Mossy Moebius Scarf for Myself

I’ve made several moebius scarves for myself over the last decade, but it’s been a couple of years since I crocheted a new one for myself. I’m ‘winging’ it as far as the pattern goes, and using my favorite scarf stitch, called, ironically, the moss stitch. I may refer back to the original pattern I stumbled upon years ago as a reference.

I’m using a six ounce skein of Caron Simply Soft Country Blue and another one of Grey Heather. I chained 225 using the Country Blue and will alternate every other row with the Grey Heather.

Here’s hoping it doesn’t take me very long to get through this project. I’d rather be reading, than crocheting, but I also want a nice, warm, soft scarf to keep my ears warm during this brutal cold spell.

Happy 150th Kansas!

My home state turned 150 today. I live within three miles of the First City in Kansas, also known as Leavenworth, and within ten miles of Fort Leavenworth, first established in 1827. Except for a dozen years spent in the Wichita area, I’ve lived in Leavenworth County, Kansas all my life.

For a brief history and a look back over the last century and a half, visit Wikipedia‘s page for Kansas.

For information on events occurring today to celebrate the sesquicentennial, visit the official Kansas 150 web site.

And don’t forget to sing our state song, the quintessential and unofficial anthem of the American West: Home on the Range

Recovering from Our Mad Dash North Yesterday

We cut short or trip to Texas, visiting our kids in Plano and Denton, due to forecast inclement winter weather for today (Sunday). We crossed into the Flint Hills at 5:15 pm on I-35 northbound yesterday and reached the Matfield Green Service Center a few minutes later. Just in time for the start of a spectacular prairie sunset:

To see the other photos I took with the normal and telephoto lenses for the Pentax K100D, please follow this link: Flint Hills Sunset Saturday Evening 22 Jan 2011

Final Jeopardy: Law

From last Thursday on Jeopardy, I was a bit surprised none of the three contestants (none of whom were attorneys) got the answer right.

The final category was Law and the clue was: In 1790 the USA’s 1st law governing this protection gave it a term of 14 years; today it can extend well over a century.

The first contestant stated: “What are Patents?” … wrong

The second contestant stated: “What is haebius corpus?” … wrong

The third contestant stated: “What is witness protection?” … wrong

The correct answer was: “What is a copyright?” … which my husband can confirm I got way before the end of the thirty second song.

Kudos to Terry for getting “What is amnesty?” from this clue: This pardon, especially for political offenses against government, is from a Greek word for “forgetting” in the category From the Greek.

Roxy Is Watching You!

Yes, that’s Roxy, my favorite Rottweiler, eyeballing you from my blog header photo, sporting her new pink collar.

If you squint just a bit to the right of her head, you can see an unfocused Apollo guarding her back. He’s my other favorite Rottweiler. But you can’t see his new red nearly identical collar.

Aren’t they cute?

Here’s a similar closeup of Apollo:

And because I just can’t leave well enough alone, and will change my header photograph the next time I take a nifty photograph, here’s the photo I used to crop the shot above from:

Lending An eBook Needs K.I.S.S.

Friends, Romans, Librarians: Lend Me Your E-book (Part 1).

Friends, Romans, Librarians: Lend Me Your E-books (Part 2).

I especially like the idea behind the Open Book Alliance. And I completely agree that OverDrive has the right model, but the process for most library patrons is way too complex (I never did get it working and most days I consider myself quite tech savvy).

Nominations Open for the Next Series Read

Join the Fantasy Book Club Series group on GoodReads and help us select our next fantasy series to read as a group. Follow this link to the nominations discussion thread.

Fantasy Book Club Series’s bookshelf: read