Best Laid Plans…

I belong to two book clubs: one nearby attended by the older female patrons of the library that hosts it, and one across town full of raucous, loud, opinionated folks in the prime of their lives who love science fiction–always have and always will.

Today was the longest day of the year, the best time for driving across town and back. The dining out afterward is problematic, as I am a full generation older than the oldest of the group and food must be ingested earlier in the day.

Today’s program was about two books authored by Lois McMaster Bujold, the first and second in a series re-published together as “Cordelia’s Honor”. The Miles Vorkosiegan saga is well known in Science Fiction Fandom, This same book had been the subject of a panel at a recent Deep South Conference, the 50th of that line. Yours truly was drafted to serve on the panel. The author sat quietly on the back row muttering to herself, “that’s not what I meant at all”.

Since then the SF book club (the one whose meeting I went to, remember) had been discussing online the pros and cons on the two books, especially as the first one was her first effort, and the second one was written years later and showed it in more polished prose and story line. In spite of all that we had a lively discussion in the Barnes & Noble bookstore where we meet.

After the meeting, the young folks (the 30s, 40s, & 50s) go out to eat. Josh, who hates Chinese food, was not in attendance so everyone said, this is our chance: let’s go to the Mandarin House on Highway 31. I declined the pleasure because I am blind as a bat after dark and can drive only to those places hard-wired in my brain, like home, for instance.

Imagine my surprise to see it was still daylight… “I’ll surprise them,” I thought, and hopped in the car. Maryanne had said, “If you get to Vestavia, you’ve gone too far, turn around and go back.” I asked directions and was told to go past all the car dealerships and when you see a McDonald’s, look for a strip mall on the left. It’s in a corner of the mall.
This sounds easy enough and savoring the surprise in store for my friends I zoomed down Hwy.31 past all the car dealerships. Looking for a McDonald’s, it came to me that when leaving home I had grabbed my purse and keys. It also came to me that I had changed out of my jeans for dressier pants. Doing errands earlier that day I had put a little fold-up-and-snap wallet containing driver’s license, debit card, credit card and a folded up twenty dollar bill in my jeans pocket. Unfortunately, I had not transferred it back to my purse. The larger wallet, upon inspection, contained Medicare Card, Blue Cross card, and Unrestricted Pistol Permit. Wasn’t sure how much Chinese food I could get for that so I came on home.

Tomorrow I’m taking Jerry out to lunch at this great Chinese place I know close to home, just across from Lowe’s parking lot. I’ll get some General Tso’s chicken yet.

Thoughts on book club book selections

I want to join my friends Thelma and Louise’s conversation about book club books. Thelma recently said The Help, assigned by her local ladies book club, was one of those books written by white women about black women. She found it strange that people need a novel to tell them about race relations in the South in the 1960s… but if they do, this is a nice novel for it.

Louise recently joined a breakfast book club and a retired ladies book club. She read the same Wall Street Journal article that I did, stating the vast majority of people who read have given up reading serious books. She said, “As the WSJ analyzed it, even people who make time to read are mostly fried from work and family responsibilities, so all they want is something that will distract them with as little thought as possible.” She was not so kind in her assessment of the clubs’ selections, referring to them as dreck.

Firefly the TV show and Serenity the Movie, Space Opera Glorified

Firefly class spaceship Serenity

This short-lived television series came and went like its namesake, the elusive firefly of summer. Flash Gordon would have been comfortable in this universe, and Buzz Lightyear. It was cancelled with 14 shows in the can, some of which were never aired. Then came a great hue and cry from the fans. Three years later, in 2005, Firefly was born anew in the movie Serenity, with the same cast and same plot lines, now explained more fully and played out to their ends.

SciFi Books and Movie Review

Overthrowing Heaven by Mark L. Van Name, Baen 2009, is the sequel to One Jump Ahead and Slanted Jack.  It’s a road-trip buddy book, the continuing story of a man, Jon, and his machine, a Predator-Class Assault Vehicle (PCAV) named Lobo.  Lobo has a really good (and sarcastic) AI program.   Jon, though human, is also a nanotech- enhanced experiment, the only one that survived — and escaped from the lab.  One Jump Ahead described how Jon found and teamed up with a decommission PCAV that turns out to be smarter than the average PCAV.   They stay on the move, taking small-time mercenary jobs, so no one will recognize their uniqueness.  A PCAV is like a large, aggressive, tank, mobile through land, sea, air, and space.  No FTL flight is required in this Universe: just navigate through local space to the nearest jump-gate.