Friday, May 23, 2025

Oldies But Goodies {Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review: The Terror by Dan Simmons by Karen S. Wiesner

 

Oldies But Goodies

{Put This One on Your TBR List}

Book Review: The Terror by Dan Simmons

by Karen S. Wiesner 

 

Be aware that there may be spoilers in this review. 

Two irresistible subjects for me are Antarctica and fictional horror creatures. The Terror came close enough to having both of them for me. This 2007 novel by Dan Simmons takes place in the Arctic, the most northern place on earth, while Antarctica is the most southern, but "ice everywhere you look" is a tidy description for both places. Simmons' fictionalized account of Captain Sir John Franklin's lost expedition to find the Northwest Passage from 1845-1848 has everything a boring, dry history book might skim over or even leave out--and it has the goods aplenty.   

The story starts with two HMS ships, Erebus and Terror, trapped in the ice 28 miles north-northwest of King William Island. They've been there for more than a year, their provisions are dwindling, and there's no wildlife to be hunted. But something is hunting them. Called "the terror", this indestructible monster seems to have taken the form of a colossal polar bear with a hideously long neck. Additionally, one of the parties sent out earlier encountered "Esquimaux" (Eskimos) while out on the ice. They shoot the old man, supposedly an accident, and end up bringing the young woman back to the ships with them. When they discover her tongue has been bitten off, they begin calling her "Lady Silence". 

The main character is Captain Francis Crozier, second to Sir John Franklin, who quickly becomes commander of the expedition when their leader is lost. Crozier is initially a drunk (forced into sobriety by a lingering illness) with insecurities stemming from his Irish heritage and his societally unimpressive beginnings which surely led to him being rejected as a suitor by the Captain's own niece. Crozier may or may not have psychic abilities. Other characters of note are Commander James Fitzjames, third in command, an upper-class officer in the Royal Navy. Dr. Henry D. S. Goodsir, an anatomist, considered the least of the four doctors caring for the crews, was a phenomenal character. In his unflagging humility and compassion, he gained the respect of both crews. The antagonist is most certainly Caulker's Mate Cornelius Hickey, who compels a desperate band of rebels to attempt mutiny. 

Before and after the dwindling crew abandons both ships, they're beset with one catastrophe after another in the form of starvation, illnesses and an unending catalog of maladies. It's discovered by Goodsir that the tinned provisions are all tainted with lead from soldering and are often putrid--the result of His Majesty's Navy taking the lowest bid to stock the ships with foodstuffs. Any help from the indigenous tribes is quickly squandered by the cannibalistic mutineer and his despairingly hungry band of insurgents. As if that isn't enough, the "Chenoo" ice monster that pursues them wherever they go seems to have a personal grudge against them. Does the Lady Silence, herself a shaman, know something about that? 

This book is absolutely not for the faint of heart. The landscape is ruthless and bleak (so well written, you'll feel the icy wind at the back of your neck, making you shiver). The themes explored arise from hopelessness, desolation, trapped and depraved conditions, where human beings are pushed right to the edge of humanity as well as sanity. With players being picked off left and right from every direction, you'll soon lose track of who you're rooting for, in some cases, because the protagonist is ripped from the story by a sudden and shocking death. The ending is unexpected and equally horrifying but I was somehow gratified by how it came back around to the beginning. (Beware spoiler below!) 

 

Crozier and Lady Silence, now lovers with children, are the only survivors of the tragedy. Their family comes upon the HMS Terror, still afloat almost 200 hundred miles south of her original "prison". After touring it, he sets it on fire and watches it burn and finally sink, lost to the ice, as the man he once was is and will now always be. 

 

Another reason this massive tome isn't for the meek is its sheer length. The hardcover is nearly 800 pages, larger than even most history books! One other thing threw me a bit--the story opened in medias res ("into the middle of things”), so chronologically, we were put in the middle of the plot instead of the beginning in these opening pages. I normally wouldn't mind that, but I entered a historical-like account in present tense, and whenever I was thrust in medias res, I felt like I was floundering and ungrounded. Luckily, most of the book wasn't written that way, but that nearly kept me from continuing both times I read this book--the first time when it initially came out as a hardcover in 2007 as well in as my recent reading. 

Additionally, Simmons has a very Stephen King-esque style of writing, in that he includes details that you either didn't want to know or would have assumed anyway if he'd just had the good manners to leave them out. Some call such information flavor. I call it bad taste. (I really don't care what color pubic hair or areolas anyone has, nor what someone's body does involuntarily while he's sleeping. Though flatulence did drive one particular plot of King's, I don't know of any other story that actually "benefits" from sensory details like this.) 

In any case, despite a cast larger than most encyclopedias, the characters in this setting, immersed in such a tense plot, are well worth the endeavor of taking on this intense reading project. Nearly twenty years after its publication, it certainly stands the test of time. 

If you're not up for this in-depth read, though, you don't have to miss The Terror's incredible story. There's a TV series that at least starts on the basis of Simmons' novel. The first season, making up 10 episodes, covers the entire novel, and pretty faithfully at that. Season 2 (and the upcoming 3) is also based on another mysterious event with a supernatural twist. Jared Harris as Crozier, Ciarán Hinds as Franklin, Tobias Menzies as Fitzjames, and Paul Ready as Goodsir were standout actors. In whatever form you choose to take in this story, just don't miss it. 

Karen Wiesner is an award-winning, multi-genre author of over 150 titles and 16 series.

Visit her website here: https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/

and https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/karens-quill-blog

Find out more about her books and see her art here: http://www.facebook.com/KarenWiesnerAuthor

Visit her publisher here: https://www.writers-exchange.com/Karen-Wiesner/

Thursday, May 22, 2025

Yesterday's Tomorrow

Another glance at some futuristic inventions from fiction that have come into real existence, in this case from the cartoon series THE JETSONS:

5 Things from "The Jetsons" That Actually Exist

While middle-class families still don't have flying cars (much less a two-day work week that counts as full time or homes in cities above the clouds), we've caught up with the Jetsons in several respects. The article lists video calls, flat-screen televisions, robot vacuum cleaners, tanning beds, and ingestible, wireless, pill-shaped cameras. But they don't mention holograms, another technology brought to life in the decades since THE JETSONS.

One of Isaac Asimov's stories predicts pocket calculators, with the intriguing though rather implausible outcome of their omnipresence that even professional mathematicians have lost the skill of performing basic arithmetic on their own. Another story, "The Fun They Had," postulates remote schooling through computers, taught by AI programs instead of human teachers. J. D. Robb's mid-21st-century "In Death" mysteries have featured handheld devices called "links," essentially the same as present-day tablets or smart phones, since the beginning of the long-running series, well before such personal electronics existed in real life. Her flying cars and fully humanoid droid servants, though, seem as distant from practical commercial application as ever. Admittedly, however, some personal care robots currently produced in Japan show droid-like potential. Consider the over-optimism of 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY. We didn't get commercial shuttle travel to a permanent lunar base in 2001 in the primary-world timeline, and we still aren't there. No HAL-type self-conscious computers, either. Robert Heinlein anticipated video calls on personal computers in STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND. Yet the world of his HAVE SPACE SUIT, WILL TRAVEL combines moon bases and lunar tourism with -- slide rules. And I WILL FEAR NO EVIL pairs subcutaneous contraceptive implants for women with the inconvenience of waiting several days for a pregnancy test report, not necessary even when the book was published. (The waits arose from lab backups, not limitations in the test itself.) Even brilliant science fiction authors can display blind spots as to the possibilities of technological advancement.

It's amusing to notice future-set stories with space-age technology alongside social customs frozen in the time period of their writing. Although office drone George Jetson and his housewife spouse are obviously played for laughs, Heinlein seems quite serious with the 1950s-style drugstore soda fountain in HAVE SPACE SUIT, WILL TRAVEL.

Margaret L. Carter

Please explore love among the monsters at Carter's Crypt.

Saturday, May 17, 2025

By No Means Nostril Shots

As is my wont, (or good habit), I check the meanings of words in my titles or works about which I mean to "snark".

It appears that, in the thirty years since I was a full time corporate wife (and spending a lot of time with professional automotive-world photographers), the meaning of "Nostril Shot" has changed.

Words will do that. It is a pity that AI is so literal. 

Once one gets past AI's arrogant assumption that the stupid searcher meant "nasal" and not "nostril", and that the searcher is searching for substances to insert rapidly into facial orifices, one finds that, these days, deliberately immortalizing someone else's nostrils is an art form.

In my day, which was before cameras made it easy to edit-out unwanted elements, "a nostril shot" was a serious annoyance for a professional, and referred to the unfortunate sudden appearance of an unwanted foreign body part into an important portrait, or shot of a show car.

However, my nostril research was a gold mine, especially for authors who might be doing their back matter portraits themselves. Alas, I suppose I need to look up "back matter". Thank goodness, it means what I intend it to mean.

I found Chris Gampat and his article on how to pose a nose.

Chris Gampat shares some great tips, and a helpful diagram.... and a what-not-to-do photograph!

For Blurb, Dan Milnor (a name that the AI "help" on this platform would love to edit!!!!) shares photography tips but not an url for giving Dan credit.

But, I found him on YouTube and he is worth a second look. 

For Blurb, he tells photographers to use the view finder; to avoid overshooting; to refrain from copying someone else's location photo; to eschew posting in real time; to be sure to edit your work; and to print your photos.

That last tip reminds me of the advice to authors to read their prose aloud as a means of editing.

Final tip:

Angela Hoy of Book Locker and Writers' Weekly shares a list of gigs for freelance creatives

https://writersweekly.com/freelance-writing-jobs/051425?utm_source=mailpoet&utm_medium=email&utm_source_platform=mailpoet&utm_campaign=writersweekly-com-112119_67

All the best,

Rowena Cherry
SPACE SNARK™ 
https://www.spacesnark.com/  
https://www.rowenacherry.com

Friday, May 16, 2025

{Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review: "Caver, Continue" by Caitlin Starling by Karen S. Wiesner

 

{Put This One on Your TBR List}

Book Review: "Caver, Continue" by Caitlin Starling

by Karen S. Wiesner

 

Back in June 2023, I reviewed Caitlin Starling's first novel, a 2019 sci-fi horror The Luminous Dead. (Check out the review here: https://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2023/06/karen-wiesner-book-review-luminous-dead.html.) In that story, the protagonist, 22-year-old Gyre Price, has risked everything to join the Lethe expedition, supposedly tasked with mapping the cave system, performing mining surveys, and restocking the camps set up along the way. Gyre quickly learns her handler isn't a team of professionals but a single person: Em, who owns the company and has poured a fortune into this cave and investing in perfecting a suit capable of functioning on so many levels to keep cavers alive. Em isn't what she seems, nor is this mission or its endgame. Em had apparently hired on cavers like Gyre often in the past, losing 34 to the horrors of the cave. In that story, readers were treated to the author's expertise concerning diving, climbing, caves, spelunking--things I love to read about, especially in horror and science fiction tales. 

I left The Luminous Dead completely satisfied with every part of the story. But I wanted more. I would have loved a whole series set in just this world but, alas, it seemed as single-title as it gets. I never imagined I'd get anything else connected with the novel. When I heard Starling had a story in the thirty-fifth issue of Grimdark Magazine, I bought it immediately from Amazon (for only $3.99--but keep in mind the magazine is electronic only). The short story "Caver, Continue" (a little less than 15 pages long) is set before and during the events of The Luminous Dead. Interestingly, it's told from the point-of-view of Eli Abramsson, one of Em’s lost cavers. I started it without any clue the two were related and spent a confusing several minutes reading, wondering if this was an early version of the novel that maybe had been written in a male perspective instead. Although I read The Luminous Dead years ago, I remembered the distinctive setting so vividly, I knew there had to be a connection. I did figure out it must be one of the earlier lost cavers long before I finished the story, which I read in one sitting. Eli begins to realize that his handler is seeing him fight for his life--and doing nothing to help him. This is a story well-worth the price I paid for it. My only complaint is I'll never have a hard copy of it. If I lose the e-mag, that's it. I won't be able to read the story again in the future. Sigh, why is everything so throwaway these days? 

As for the rest of the magazine, Grimdark focuses on the "darker, grittier side of fantasy and science fiction". It's published quarterly, and each issue has articles, reviews, interviews, and a selection of short fiction. Issue 35 had 5 short stories. You can find out more about the magazine and a subscription on their website (easily found with an internet search). While I like off-beat fiction like Starling's (among others), I have to say that I wasn't in love with the rest of the material in this issue, which I, in general, found gory and needlessly gratuitous, especially one particular piece with a "fight hate with hate" theme that came off as a thinly disguised metaphor for social injustice alive and well in our current world. I don't condone hate for anyone or anything, and overdosing on negativity is a surefire way to increase violence and turbulence. That said, readers who enjoy dark fantasy will probably like everything this e-mag has to offer. 

Karen Wiesner is an award-winning, multi-genre author of over 150 titles and 16 series.

Visit her website here: https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/

and https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/karens-quill-blog

Find out more about her books and see her art here: http://www.facebook.com/KarenWiesnerAuthor 

Visit her publisher here: https://www.writers-exchange.com/Karen-Wiesner/

Thursday, May 15, 2025

Stages of Enchantment

The latest issue of MYTHLORE (the journal of the Mythopoeic Society) contains a review of a book called ART AND ENCHANTMENT: HOW WONDER WORKS, by Patrick Curry. The reviewer quotes this author as positing, "The heart of enchantment is an experience of wonder." Curry is also paraphrased as declaring "enchantment is not something that can be planned on, or willed or forced to occur. . . bidden, created, commanded or managed." As the reviewer describes the message of this book, its definition of "enchantment" or "wonder" seems related to C. S. Lewis's concept of "joy," a spontaneous upwelling of rapture that blurs the distinction between enjoyment and yearning, a feeling that often evaporates just as we realize its existence. Whether enchantment in Curry's sense and joy in Lewis's overlap or not, both can be found, of course, in other realms besides the arts, such as nature, religion, or falling in love.

Patrick Curry's concept of "enchantment" as summarized in the review reminded me of an essay by Lewis on that very topic. He traces the way our lived experience of that phenomenon evolves through three stages -- enchantment, disenchantment, and re-enchantment -- using bicycles as an example. Many of us remember the thrill of getting our first two-wheeler, the sense of freedom, almost flying. Eventually, though, a bike becomes simply a mundane device for routine transport from place to place, possibly to school or a job. We experience disenchantment, not exactly disappointment, but a kind of letdown. Yet at a later age, if we're lucky, we recapture the original thrill of riding a bicycle, in a deeper, more mature way -- re-enchantment.

We go through these cycles in many areas of life. For instance, starting a dream job and discovering the tedious details associated with the day-to-day tasks; or as the title character mentions in THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS, studying Greek because you're captivated by the ILIAD and the ODYSSEY, then having to tackle verb tenses and noun declensions. Keep at it through the tedium and the rough spots, and you may find the excitement reviving when least expected.

We especially live through the enchantment cycle in the process of falling in love and embarking on marriage. At first, we're enthralled with the beloved, wanting to be with him constantly, thrilled by everything about him. However, as Lewis remarks in the "Eros" chapter of THE FOUR LOVES, should we really expect to feel for the rest of our lives exactly the way we felt on our wedding night? Would we even want to be perpetually consumed by that excitement? The all-encompassing enchantment, no matter how rapturous, doesn't last, at least not in its original form. After marriage, we soon notice our true love isn't perfect. He has some annoying little habits, and doubtless he notices similar flaws in us. The breathtaking surges of ecstasy become less frequent, swamped by the mundane chores of running a household and maybe herding children and pets. I remember how satisfying it felt, early in marriage, to iron my husband's shirts. Later, I was just heartily thankful for the merciful Providence that invented perma-press. Partly because of the idealized images of romantic love in popular culture, some couples react to the disenchantment stage by deciding they've fallen out of love and don't really belong together after all. Yet those who stick together in lifelong marriages often grow into a deeper, richer love in the re-enchantment phase.

The romance fiction we read and write deals more often than not with the initial enchantment, the thrill of falling in love. Traditionally, the story ends with the wedding. But the subgenre of "second chance at love" also has an enthusiastic readership, and some stories explore the rekindling of passion between long-married spouses. As treated by skillful authors, both the enchantment and re-enchantment phases of romance can evoke powerful emotions.

Margaret L. Carter

Please explore love among the monsters at Carter's Crypt.

Saturday, May 10, 2025

Off Topic And Off Target

When one creates or invents something, one wants to consider ones options for copyright protection, patent protection, trademark protection or at the very least, attribution rights.

If one cannot be bothered, one at least wants to be sure that someone else does not take one's ideas and ingenuity etc, monetize it and take all the credit. There ought to be attribution.  

For example, as I understand Open AI, one of the original founders intended it to be free and for the benefit of all humanity, but other persons wanted to monetize it for their own profit. Humanity did not benefit as "openly" as originally intended, and as the name clearly implies. Not that a better urine bottle is any kind of comparison, of course.

That is why, today, I am blogging about my thoughts on how to improve urine collection bottles.

For the good of humanity, especially mankind, Urine bottles ought to be re-designed. Astronauts probably have superior urine collection mechanisms. Not that we can all pee like astronauts, but we might be inspired by the way their collection bags nestle snugly into their crotches.

1. No man (unless post penile surgery) needs such a large (2 1/2 ") opening to the bottle.

2. Few men can spread their thighs wide enough to fit the 3" width of the body of the bottle close to the crotch.

3. Uncomfortable men probably have very short penises.

4. Men without their eyeglasses or with poor vision cannot see the outline of the opening.  It ought not to be the same color as the rest of the transparent bottle. It ought to be target-colored.

5. Older men tend to have larger, lower-slung scrotums on which they often sit, and which are painfully squashed by a closely held, hard urine bottle.

The design of Y fronts etc is not conducive to pulling out a pain-shrivelled penis at the optimum level for seated or recumbent urination into a bottle. 

The current design is prone to back-flow, overflow, misalignment.  Which leads to hurried nurses thinking the patient is incontinent and their time is wasted on changing bedding, cleaning floors, and everything else when urine does not go where it is supposed to go.

It adds to the expense of laundry, additional soiled sheets, use of bed pads etc. Which is not environmentally-friendly.

Spilled urine also throws off the records that nurses purport to keep of a patient's urine output.

Spilled urine humiliates and adds to the patient's depression.... which is not the least of my concerns with the standard of care and the design of this medical accessory.

Therefore:

Urine bottles for men ought to have a much longer, narrower neck.

The body of the urine bottle ought to be longer and narrower and sloped to receive and hold more urine when held flat, without backflow.

The handle maybe ought to be on the long neck, not on the body.

The opening should have a brightly colored ring around it.

Possibly, the opening could be more ergonomically designed, spoon shaped with more receptacle/support under the penis and more opening above the penis.

All the best,

Rowena Cherry

Friday, May 09, 2025

Oldies But Goodies {Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review: The Willful Princess and the Piebald Prince and Words Like Coins (The Realm of the Elderlings) by Robin Hobb by Karen S. Wiesner

 

Oldies But Goodies

{Put This One on Your TBR List}

Book Review: The Willful Princess and the Piebald Prince

and Words Like Coins (The Realm of the Elderlings)

by Robin Hobb

by Karen S. Wiesner 

Be aware that there may be spoilers in this review. 

Robin Hobb is the author of The Realm of the Elderlings. Within this umbrella series, she's written five "miniseries" and numerous short stories. In previous Alien Romances Blog posts, I've reviewed The Inheritance & Other Stories, which contains a couple Realm of the Elderlings offerings. I also reviewed the first trilogy of novels within this series, The Farseer Trilogy. Do a search on both of them if you missed them previously. 

After recovering from the intensity of that first offering, I took a month or so off before I could get myself to read anything else the author has written within this overarching saga. Following that break, I was able to read two miscellaneous novellas in the series, "The Willful Princess and the Piebald Prince" and "Words Like Coins" which are the focus of this review. I was only able to buy ebook versions for both of these stories, which disappointed me as a collector. If I love a series, I want tangible copies. 

I was expecting to dislike both of these stories since I've found I prefer Robin Hobb's full-length novels immeasurably more than her short work (especially the stuff written under her real name Megan Lindholm), but I was very impressed with both of these short tales. I read them within a few hours. "The Willful Princess and the Piebald Prince" was the first I read. I opened "Words Like Coins" immediately after, and I simply couldn't put it down. 

"The Willful Princess and the Piebald Prince" was published January 1, 2013. It's referred to as a prequel to The Farseer Trilogy (#0.5). At 159 pages, the novella takes places before the time of Chivalry Farseer (Fitz's father from the original trilogy), and deals with another imprudent royal. Princess Caution Farseer is anything like her name. As queen-in-waiting, she's headstrong and rash. Caution has absolutely no interest in learning anything about the duties, responsibilities, and politics of running a kingdom, and rules and regulations have nothing to do with her! Caution falls in love with a Witted (a human bonded with an animal, allowing them to share thoughts and behavior) man with piebald markings. He possesses a piebald horse that will act tame with none other than himself. Caution literally throws all care to the wind and becomes pregnant by this Witted one. But can a happily-ever-after be in store for a spoiled princess and a man who's partly beast through his Witted skills? 

The story is told from the unvarnished point of view of Felicity, a low-born who becomes a sometimes treacherous companion to the princess almost from birth. Felicity more often than not follows the ill-advised, selfish wisdom of her own mother, and this leads to her own downfall as well as that of her charge. That made for some very excited reading! While it was often difficult to feel sorry for many of the characters in this novella, since they made their own beds, so to speak, with their poor choices and behavior, the plot nevertheless held me enthralled from start to finish. 

This tale serves as a kind of explanation about why the Witted are looked upon with such disdain in The Farseer Trilogy and more firmly establishes Fitz's origins there. 

 

"Words Like Coins" (first published in the 2009 anthology A Fantasy Medley) is considered Book number 1.5 in The Realm of the Elderlings. The 10,000 word tale was published as a standalone ebook on May 10, 2012. 

Mirrifen is the failed apprentice of a hedge witch (utilizing "natural" herbal magic). She married for security, as did her sister-in-law Jami, who's pregnant. When their husbands go off in search of work, a severe drought overtakes the farm in their absence. Rats accumulate, and Jami becomes paranoid about the fact that rats are rumored to bring pecksies. 

A pecksie is a mythological fey creature (something like a pixie) about half the size of a cat. Humans can bind them by providing assistance to one, who will then give favors. Pecksies don't take kindly to any human doing this to them, of course, since the binding can't be reversed. Jami relates the story about how her folks tried to bind a pecksie and soon paid the price when they were overrun with them. 

Mirrifen doesn't believe a word of it--until she comes across a pecksie who begs for a drink at the well, even if it means she'll be bound to Mirrifen. The fey brags that her people hunt in silence, no words necessary. "Words are like coins. To spend carefully, as they are needed only. Not to scatter like humans do." But her people are too small to draw water from the well. Only Mirrifen can help them. 

When she does, the binding between them is accomplished. This particular pecksie is a charm-maker. When Jami and her baby need help, the only one capable of saving her may not be Mirrifen but the pecksie Jami fears most. 

"Words Like Coins" is such a delightful tale with irresistible characters and a conflict that's not easily solved. As I said, I read it in almost no time at all, since I couldn't put it down until I found out how it resolved. 

While "The Willful Princess and the Piebald Prince" has a direct connection to the world and characters the previous trilogy created with the Farseer kingdom and royal line origins, "Words Like Coins" is simply a story that takes place somewhere in that world without any real connection beyond the author's word for it that it's related. But that doesn’t make it any less enjoyable. Both are definitely worth your time and money. "The Willful Princess" will only set you back $5.99, "Words Like Coins" $2.99. 

As I'm writing this, I'm in the process of reading the next novels in the series with The Liveship Traders Trilogy, so that review is coming up soon. 

Karen Wiesner is an award-winning, multi-genre author of over 150 titles and 16 series.

Visit her website here: https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/

and https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/karens-quill-blog

Find out more about her books and see her art here: http://www.facebook.com/KarenWiesnerAuthor

Visit her publisher here: https://www.writers-exchange.com/Karen-Wiesner/

Thursday, May 08, 2025

De-Extinction, Yes or No?

You've probably read about the recent alleged re-creation of dire wolves:

Dogs Who Birthed Dire Wolves

Colossal Biosciences claims "they have brought the Dire Wolf back from extinction with the birth of three Dire Wolves." In order to perform this feat, they went through the following steps -- "to extract and sequence DNA from two Dire Wolf Fossils, assemble ancient genomes from both, perform gene editing from their closest living relative (the Grey Wolf)." The embryos thus produced in vitro were implanted in dog surrogate mothers. Are these cubs really dire wolves, however, or merely "high-tech lookalikes" constructed by supplementing fragments of an extinct creature's DNA with genetic material from a closely related modern species? An article linked below points out that the alleged dire wolf puppies are in fact "genetically much closer to modern wolves than their prehistoric namesake."

Future projects under consideration include reviving the "Woolly Mammoth, the Dodo and the Tasmanian tiger."

One step toward breeding mammoths has actually occurred, the creation of an oxymoronic-sounding "woolly mouse":

Woolly Mouse

Projects such as these are regarded with skepticism by many experts on the same grounds as the "de-extinction" of dire wolves:

Can We Really Resurrect Extinct Animals?

Any such creatures won't really be resurrections of extinct species, but rather "hybrids, mosaics or functional stand-ins." Gene editing of this kind, though, does have potentially useful applications in preventing the further decline of endangered species and reviving bloodlines of nearly extinct creatures such as the northern white rhino.

Ethical considerations arise about lavishing resources on re-creation of extinct species rather than the conservation of still-living endangered animals. Another concern, if extinct species such as mammoths could be literally de-extincted and released into the wild, is how they would affect present-day ecosystems. The critical question is whether we use this technology "to heal broken ecosystems, to preserve the genetic legacy of vanishing species or simply to prove that we can."

Margaret L. Carter

Please explore love among the monsters at Carter's Crypt.

Sunday, May 04, 2025

Deer, Damage

 Of Deer and Damage


What do deer and damage have in common, apart from nibbled tulips in the Spring?

Neither has a plural, at least among educated folks (except for one rate lawyerly example).

A hurricane does damage, but it does not "do" damages, even if it hits multiple locations.

The difference between “damage” and “damages”

The technical name is " Uncountable Nouns".

Some examples of uncountable nouns are:
news 
traffic
weather
flour
luggage
safety

Some may come with a definite or indefinite article, or a possessive adjective, others may not.

Then there are the exceptions that prove the rule, such as Baggage, Work, Water, Air.

Take Work/ works.   "Good work" is praise for effort or achievement.  "Good works" are saintly doings, unless they are factories, or earthworks.

In the case of baggage vs baggages, the singular refers to clutter with which one travels, or encumbrances . The plural is slang for a countable number of naughty women.
Some would say that the elements, such as air, and water, and earth, and fire are uncountable, but a haughty person puts on airs. I think the EPA mentions "the waters" of America, and sometimes includes low parts of private property that may flood and retain a temporary pond.

Headwaters are something else... where surface runoff collects to form a stream or river, or where several brooks come together.

All the best,
Rowena Cherry 

Friday, May 02, 2025

Oldies But Goodies {Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review Subseries 1: The Farseer Trilogy (The Realm of the Elderlings) by Robin Hobb by Karen S. Wiesner

 

Oldies But Goodies

{Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review

Subseries 1: The Farseer Trilogy (The Realm of the Elderlings)

by Robin Hobb

by Karen S. Wiesner 

Last week, I did an overview of Robin Hobb's The Realm of the Elderlings series, which has multiple subseries within it. This week, I'll review the first subseries, The Farseer Trilogy. 

 

In this first trilogy, FitzChivalry Farseer is the illegitimate son of a prince (Chivalry, the King-in-Waiting until Fitz's birth forces him to abdicate the throne). Chivalry willingly steps aside and moves away from Buckkeep, the royal castle, to live a quiet life away from what was once his legacy. Meanwhile, Fitz is shuffled around in his early life. As the story and subseries progresses, Fitz learns he possesses two forms of magic. The Skill is an ability that mainly only the royal Farseer line tend to have, though there are "wild strains". With the Skill, a person can reach out to another's mind, no matter how far away, and read thoughts and influence thinking and behavior. An even older magic is the Wit, in which humans feel such a kinship with animals, they share thoughts and behaviors, sometimes becoming so bonded that they themselves become little more than beasts. The strength of the bond can also lead to performing powerful attacks. The Wit is looked upon with scorn and fear by most humans. 

In Assassin's Apprentice, Book 1, Fitz is a six-year-old boy when handed off to his father's most loyal servant, Burrich, who currently tends the animals within the castle keep. Fitz doesn't know his own name or origins and remembers little of his upbringing, only that nothing was ever home and he was always hungry. Burrich provides Fitz with both, though at first Fitz doesn't see his guardian as much more than a hard (though never cruel) caretaker. Burrich tries to stamp the Wit out of Fitz from an early age, with only mild success. (Why he did this was obvious to me from the first.) Later, Burrich becomes the one Fitz trusts most. 

Burrich determines that Fitz must take his rightful place within the royal family. Though he's only a bastard, his life must be made to serve, and early on King Shrewd determines Fitz will become his secret weapon in exchange for allowing him to live in the castle and partake of its bounty. Eventually, Fitz is trained as an assassin as well as formally instructed in the Skill by a jealous, ruthless teacher who damages young Fitz far more than he ever helps him. Also, the King-in-Waiting, Verity, is the oldest son of Shrewd, and has given himself over almost entirely to the Skill in his relentless attempts to circumvent the Red-Ship Raiders, while his fashionable, frivolous, and scheming youngest stepbrother Regal seeks to usurp his brother's rightful place on the throne. Quickly, Fitz becomes the King-in-Waiting's man instead of King Shrewd's, but political machinations within the royal family inevitably and always become honest and good Fitz's downfall. 

In this first Farseer title, we learn little more than that Elderlings and their ancient cities and settlements are found throughout the Six Duchies. However, almost nothing is written down or known about them so they've become as obscure as fables that no one living is entirely sure were ever true. As barely a mention in Assassin's Apprentice, it's said that in the olden days of King Wisdom, Elderlings came to the aid of the Six Duchies in the deadly sea raiders' war against the people of the land and promised to return in the future if help is ever again needed. 

Royal Assassin, Book 2, continues almost directly after the previous story, with Fitz initially little more than a cripple after circumventing his uncle's botched attempt to claim a birthright that doesn't belong to him. Fitz is a teenager but also a grown man. He dreams of the girl he'd met when he was a child--a lowly candle maker, the only daughter of an abusive drunk. Molly has become a maid in the royal household, and when Fitz realizes it, his heart wants nothing more than to marry her and live with her in a way that proves impossible. As a bastard, an assassin, a fumbling Skill user who's unable to tamp down on his Wit abilities with a wolf he rescued, his life is complicated, to say the least. There are secrets he can't share with anyone, least of all the woman he loves. Shrewd already has plans to marry Fitz off to someone with a desirous position, influence, and wealth. 

Meanwhile, the Six Duchies are in turmoil with increased raids and the jealousies of a spoiled younger prince that again puts Fitz in the center of the worst of it. While his father's health is ailing, no doubt part of Regal's renewed, ruthless efforts to become ruler, Verity's focus has been on building massive ships that, with his Skill, he can now send out to the sea and meet the Red-Ships head to head. He charges Fitz with being his protector (to that end, Burrich begins training him in earnest for combat) as well as his physical eyes and hands in dealing with the enemy on the high seas. In this way, Verity begins re-teaching Fitz the Skill. However, their efforts aren't successful in turning the tide against the raiders. The court Fool, a being who in later trilogies becomes androgynous seems to have Farsight, investigates the Elderlings' promise to help them with future raiders. Soon, Verity decides he must go himself to seek Elderling aid before the battle against the Red Ships is lost once and for all. He leaves behind a pregnant queen wife who hasn't been fully accepted by the people, let alone by his devious younger sibling who's intent on regicide and deposing his older brother through any means necessary. Fitz again stands between selfish ambition and the destruction of the Six Duchies until the King-in-Waiting, hopefully, returns with help enough to save them. 

In the second book of Farseer, Hobb described Elderlings very briefly: "Of stone were their bones made, of the sparkling veined stone of the Mountains. Their flesh was made of the shining salts of the earth. But their hearts were made of the hearts of wise men. They came from afar, those men, a long and trying way. They did not hesitate to lay down the lives that had become a weariness to them. They ended their days and began eternities, they put aside flesh and donned stone, they let fall their weapons and rose on new wings." Elderlings were said to live beyond the tallest mountains of the Mountain Kingdom. The only explanation I can think of why Hobb describes these creatures as humanoid (those men from afar) in this passage is because of what happens at the very end of Book 3 between Verity and the Elderling he awakens. 

Assassin's Quest, Book 3, spends nearly three-fourths of its length dealing with issues that came up in the first two books. As necessary as it was to address the critical plot threads that were left dangling, the thrust of the book--and almost my sole focus at that point--was on the last quarter of the tale and the trilogy. Finally, finally, in this last installment, after Verity is thought to be lost, Fitz and his friends go on a quest to find the king. In the process, they also discover the nature of the Elderlings--stone dragons that can only be woken by carving them out and filling them up with everything the person of Skill has and is. So the dragons are also "men" in the sense that they have a Skilled man's entire being--memories as well as the tangible--incorporated into their beings. 

In this final book, we also learn that Regal long ago stole everything written about instructing those in the Skill (and maybe also in the use of Wit), which is necessary to truly wake these Elderlings. We also find out that a companion that made the journey with Fitz to find Verity and the Elderlings was once a powerful Skill user during the time of King Wisdom, having used her abilities (as was common at that time) to make herself young and all but ageless. Though it was assumed that Verity had the most Skill of anyone alive up to this point, it becomes clear he doesn't know enough to do what must be done to awaken the dragons. Able to use Skill and Wit magic, Fitz must utilize both to do what seems impossible. 

~*~

These three books that make up the first trilogy are very introspective and slow-moving tales. Despite the inherent clichés of the basic theme of the stories, Fitz is a singular character and introducing him to readers at such a young age allowed me, for one, to grow to care for him. Despite all that he's made to do, he remains innocent, if a bit naïve and childishly reckless, unwilling to do harm where it isn't warranted. He's taught by the court assassin Chade to never assume but to follow every single lead until you're absolutely sure you know everything before you act, and Fitz does that. Though as a "king's man" he's forced to do what he's told, he always has a mind and a conscience of his own that direct his actions. I was deeply drawn into his story in Book 1 and moved by his successes but mainly his failures, as those seems to be more prevalent in his lamentable life. In a review, the Los Angeles Review of Books stated, The Farseer Trilogy offers "complete immersion in Fitz's complicated personality." 

That said, I can't deny that by Book 2, my interest was waning. I desperately wanted to find out more about Elderlings, and so much of Books 2 and 3 of this particular trilogy aren't really about that. Additionally, I became very frustrated with all the characters because it seemed like there was a trend in everyone to make the stupidest decisions possible in whatever came about as a result of the plots and conflicts. For instance, in Book 2, Regal's mad schemes to gain power should have made everyone--especially the older brother Verity--wise to his ways. Instead, after nearly killing their father, Verity, Fitz, and Burrich, what happens as a result of this megalomaniac's grab for power? Basically nothing. Regal continues on with his plans without punishment, let alone restraint or confinement, and, gee and golly, what happens in Book 3? Yup, you guessed it! Regal attempts to kill his king father, his brother, Fitz, while trying to seize the throne. He does this all but unfettered. It was senseless on the part of everyone. Not one of them ever learned the lesson of not trusting Regal. Locking him up and throwing away the key might have been the best course of action here, but illogically no one ever thought to do that. In one particularly moronic situation, Regal orders every last horse in the Buckkeep stable to be sent away. What possible reason would he have for doing that, other than nefarious purposes? Yet everyone follows his orders, letting the castle be plundered while Regal sets up his own keep somewhere else in the ultimate goal, of course, of ruling the land from there. It was hard to escape the everybody's-too-stupid-to-live assessment of the trilogy after that point. 

One other thing that bothered me about The Farseer Trilogy was that Fitz's Skill abilities seemed a little too convenient. For most of the trilogy, he didn't know what the heck he was doing, his training was abysmal (which makes a lot of sense), and yet when he most needs to use the talent, suddenly he's able to do all but impossible things with it (which doesn't make a lot of sense). This reminded me of Terry Brooks' Shannara Series. In that, those from the Shannara line would be called upon to utilize magic without any idea how to go about doing that. There were fits and starts, some success, a lot of failure, and eventually confidence grew as the user and the magic within whatever the instrument of power was (a sword, a stone, a song, etc.) melded into one--a scary proposition that frequently led the users to put magic as far from them as possible once the immediate danger was past. In some ways, it's logical that someone who comes from a lineage of magic users wouldn't necessarily know how to use it effectively themselves. It's like learning a language. At first, nothing makes sense; it's all Greek. But, as the learning process continues, things start to gel as understanding and adeptness grows. But Fitz's Skill advancement felt a bit too contrived as the trilogy progressed, too convenient to whatever the plot needed it to be at the moment of direst need. 

All that said, finally having the Elderlings "realized" in this trilogy was thrilling, though I felt like it came far too late and also, once they appeared, the story wasn't focused enough on the actual battle of Elderlings driving back the Red-Ship Raiders, nor on the in-depth information I wanted about these majestic, powerful creatures of legend. I wanted much, much more of that. I hope to get it in reading further subseries, though I do need to take a break from The Realm of the Elderlings. This first trilogy was intense and complicated, to the extreme. I do intend to review the rest of the offerings in The Realm of the Elderlings series in coming months, though at this point I'm not sure what order I'll do that in. Stay tuned. 

Karen Wiesner is an award-winning, multi-genre author of over 150 titles and 16 series.

Visit her website here: https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/

and https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/karens-quill-blog

Find out more about her books and see her art here: http://www.facebook.com/KarenWiesnerAuthor

Visit her publisher here: https://www.writers-exchange.com/Karen-Wiesner/


Thursday, May 01, 2025

RavenCon 18

RavenCon occurred this past weekend in a hotel near Richmond, Virginia. The weather was a bit weird for Virginia in late April. While the days were nice enough, aside from occasional bursts of rain on Saturday -- however, a rainbow appeared, a rare spectacle -- the nights and early mornings got abnormally chilly. The hotel is actually a complex of three buildings, one with guest rooms and two that contain convention spaces, registration desk, restaurant, etc., so people have to either walk outside or go through tunnels between buildings. Happily, buffet meals were available for Friday and Saturday dinners, Saturday and Sunday breakfasts, and Saturday lunch. That was a welcome improvement over last year, when there was nowhere to eat on Friday evening except the bar, overcrowded with painfully slow service, causing us to miss most of the opening ceremonies that evening.

The musical guests included at least two acoustic performers as relief from the relentlessly loud, "energetic" groups that seemed to predominate in previous years. I especially enjoyed the Possum Princess, who has a lovely voice and sings so I could understand the lyrics. (Since I'm not musical, I have a low bar for music performers, and that's my main criterion.) She sang for almost an hour in the art show room on Saturday, allowing one to combine listening to her with admiring the displays. The Guest of Honor was fantasy author Alix Harrow, several of whose books I've read. She gave an engaging interview. She also appeared on a panel about Appalachian folklore and fiction, which I found fascinating and got several book recommendations from. In fact, I ordered two of the folklore-related books right away, and they're arriving this week.

The masquerade/costume contest, surprisingly, had only six entries, but they were all impressive: Harley Quinn (female) from the Batman franchise, Fizzarolli from HAZBIN HOTEL, one of Ken's buddies from the Barbie movie, Bo Peep as seen in the TOY STORY series complete with her sheep lamp, Queen Amidala from the Star Wars universe dressed as the Queen of Hearts (quite a wild crossover idea), and Amalthea from THE LAST UNICORN in human form but with a lit-up horn on her forehead, who won first place.

Some other notable sessions I attended: Darker Disney -- how and why have more recent Disney movies become darker than the vintage ones, if they have? Discussion on WICKED, the book, stage play, and movie (part one), with references to Baum's original series. Law enforcement for writers, presentation and freewheeling Q and A by a veteran in the field. Writing alternate history, with extensive reading suggestions, presented by an author of a trilogy about ancient Romans in North America interacting with Native tribes, among many other books. Panel on Vincent Price's movies, in which I heard about lots of films I was previously unaware of. "Neurofollies," avoiding overused and often false tropes about "brain functions and dysfunctions," a very detailed 90-minute lecture plus Q and A on the structures of the brain and how they work, with slides. "Old-school monsters," how they reflect and deviate from their folkloric and literary sources, well attended and very lively. Favorite world-ending disasters -- how likely the familiar ones are and how to survive them, or try to. Writing RPG games such as Dungeons and Dragons, and what to do if the players veer off in unexpected directions, which had a rather small audience but a nice discussion. I also dropped in on parts of some other panels; the one I most regretted missing the start of was "Eugenics in Science Fiction."

A novel activity occurred during the lunch hour Saturday, an improv live-action D and D scenario in which a three-person party explored the dungeon of the Mad Mage's castle in search of his missing wife. Audience members got to roll the oversized, Nerf-textured 20-sided die for the monsters and non-player characters. Entertaining with some very funny moments.

This was the scheduled "off" year for my husband and me, no panels. Having total freedom in planning our schedule was nice, but I look forward to appearing on panels again at future cons.

Margaret L. Carter

Please explore love among the monsters at Carter's Crypt.

Friday, April 25, 2025

Oldies But Goodies {Put This One on Your TBR List} Series Overview Review: The Realm of the Elderlings by Robin Hobb by Karen S. Wiesner

 

Oldies But Goodies

{Put This One on Your TBR List}

Series Overview Review: The Realm of the Elderlings 

by Robin Hobb

by Karen S. Wiesner 

 

Be aware that there are spoilers in this review. 

Megan Lindholm and Robin Hobb are both pen names for Margaret Astrid Lindholm Ogden, an American author of speculative fiction. As Lindholm, the stories tend to be shorter and less detailed in a variety of genres. As Hobb, characterization, settings, and conflicts are deeper and wider, producing much larger works. Hobb is best known for her The Realm of the Elderlings fantasy stories, and that's how I became a fan of hers. I'd read the novella "The Homecoming", which is connected to The Realm of the Elderlings in that it's set in the Rain Wilds positioned at the far west edges of the Six Duchies. Within this umbrella series, she's written five subseries and numerous short stories including: 

The Farseer Trilogy

Assassin's Apprentice, Book 1 (published 1995)

Royal Assassin, Book 2 (published 1996)

Assassin's Quest, Book 3 (published 1997)

 

The Liveship Traders Trilogy

Ship of Magic, Book 1 (published 1998)

(The) Mad Ship, Book 2 (published 1999)

Ship of Destiny, Book 3 (published 2000)

 

The Tawny Man Trilogy

Fool's Errand, Book 1 (published 2001)

Golden Fool, Book 2 (published 2002)

Fool's Fate, Book 3 (published 2003)

 

The Rain Wilds Chronicles

Dragon Keeper, Book 1 (published 2009)

Dragon Haven, Book 2 (published 2010)

City of Dragons, Book 3 (published 2011)

Blood of Dragons, Book 4 (published 2013)

 

Fitz and the Fool Trilogy

Fool's Assassin, Book 1 (published 2014)

Fool's Quest, Book 2 (published 2015)

Assassin's Fate, Book 3 (published 2017)

 

Note that these series have appeared in numerous formats (ebook, audio, mass market and trade paperbacks, and hardcover editions) under slight variations to the trilogy titles. 

Timeline and reading order logistics: The Farseer, The Tawny Man, and The Fitz and the Fool trilogies follow the story of the main character chronologically, so should be read first. Liveship Traders and Rain Wilds entries take place in different faraway regions and feature different characters, so can be read independently of the others. All the short stories are standalones told by different characters than any in the longer subseries installments, set in various locations around the Six Duchies, so they're only connected by the overall universe and events that enrich the context. 

"The Willful Princess and the Piebald Prince" (published in 2013, this nearly 200-page long prequel novella relating to The Realm of the Elderlings kingdom origins hundreds of years before The Farseer Trilogy) 

“The Homecoming" (a novella set in the all but uninhabitable swampland near the mountain ranges hundreds of years prior to The Farseer Trilogy but otherwise unrelated to any of the subseries; published in Legends II in 2003 and in "The Inheritance & Other Stories" in 2011). I covered "The Homecoming" in the Legends II review previously on the Alien Romances Blog. 

"The Inheritance" (a short story set in Bingham, in the far southwest of the Six Duchies; taking place between The Farseer and Liveship Trader series; published in "The Inheritance & Other Stories" in 2011). I went over "The Inheritance" in my review of The Inheritance & Other Stories previously on the Alien Romances Blog. 

"Cat's Meat" (a short story set in Buck, close to the Forge, which is a pivotal setting in The Farseer Trilogy, and taking place hundreds of years prior to that trilogy; published in "The Inheritance & Other Stories" in 2011). I discussed "Cat's Meat" in my review of The Inheritance & Other Stories previously on the Alien Romances Blog. 

"Words Like Coins" (a 10,000 word long story taking place "somewhere in the middle" of Farseer and recommended to read either before or after Book 2; published in A Fantasy Medley Anthology in 2009 and as an individual story in 2012) 

"Blue Boots" (a short story taking place "somewhere in the middle" of Farseer and recommended to read either before or after Book 2; published in Songs of Love and Death Anthology in 2010, then in Songs of Love Lost and Found ebook collection in 2012) 

"Her Father's Sword" (a short story that takes place during the early years of the Red Ship Wars and forging with Fitz visiting the setting within the story as a secondary character; set "somewhere in the middle" of Farseer and recommended to be read either before or after Book 2; published in The Book of Swords Anthology in 2017) 

~*~

The Realm of the Elderlings is a world where magic can be used to murder and danger lies all around. All the books in this series are placed in the Six Duchies, a federation of former commercial coalitions ruled by the royal Farseer lineage, four of them being coastal, two inland. 

Hobb has said that her motivation in developing Farseer and perhaps The Realm of the Elderlings as a whole was based on a question: What if magic were addictive, and that addiction destructive or degenerative? 

In the opening of the first subseries, the Six Duchies find many of their towns under assault from raiding enemies dubbed "Red-Ship Raiders". The first place hit is called Forge, a small coastal village known for their rich metal ore deposits, which has been raided, its citizens captured. The villains' message is a strange one, to be sure: Either a ransom is paid to them or the citizens will be returned. If they're returned, loved ones become violent and ravenous, little more than rabid zombies who care nothing for family or home and only want to feed. Nothing can be done to help the inflicted. They become like a plague to everyone in the kingdom and are dubbed Forged Ones, or the escralled. 

As I said, my first experience with The Realm of the Elderlings was in "The Homecoming" in which the characters find the evidence of a fascinating dead civilization in underground ruins where an extinct people once dwelled and their music was still heard--haunting the living and drawing them hypnotically toward a kind of death as they're lost to the ages along with the Elderlings. This story confused me as to what "Elderlings" actually are, and it wasn't until the last book in The Farseer Trilogy that I found out that Elderlings are actually dragons! Therefore, the lost civilization within the Rain Wild ruins probably weren't necessarily Elderlings but might be something else entirely. I suspect I won't learn the truth until I read The Rain Wilds Chronicles, if even then. 

Thus far, any mention of the Elderlings and their magic in the stories I've read has been as elusive as a butterfly. I suspect (hope) it's the overarching theme of every story in this wide-ranging series, and I admit it was the part that I was and am most looking forward to. 

Incidentally, there's a fan site for The Realm of the Elderlings you might want to check out for much more detailed series and individual story information, complete with maps, character studies, and an in-depth, clickable index that, while not exhaustive, really helped me find available data quickly: https://robinhobbelderlings.fandom.com. 

Finally, comic book counterparts to the series have been made, but, as of 2018, no television or film rights have been sold. I'd like to see a movie or TV series involving The Realm of the Elderlings. Honestly, though, I think a video game would be the most intriguing and do this series much more justice. 

Next week, I'll review the three books in The Farseer Trilogy, as there's really too much here to cover in a single post. 

Karen Wiesner is an award-winning, multi-genre author of over 150 titles and 16 series.

Visit her website here: https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/

and https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/karens-quill-blog

Find out more about her books and see her art here: http://www.facebook.com/KarenWiesnerAuthor

Visit her publisher here: https://www.writers-exchange.com/Karen-Wiesner/