Bad bad me

Er, work has been nuts? What other excuses can I use?

Ack, just realised that there's an SFSA meet tomorrow: Star Wars day, all three original films. Doubt I'm going to make that - need to work on Probe. I wasn't able to go to the special meeting this past Monday [Bruce Muzik on "Quantum Physics and its application to everyday life coupled with the Power of the Mind"] as I had my dance lesson.

Anyway, I've been reading a whole bunch of Sean Russel, borrowed from Grant Charlton.

I finally, six months, later, continued with The Initiate Brother and am almost at the end of its concluding sequel, Gatherer of Clouds. Before finishing this set, I read World Without End but Grant has never been able to find the sequel, Sea Without a Shore (sequence is called "Moontide and Magic Rise").

I also reread Robin McKinley's The Hero and The Crown (hadn't reread in years so it was all fresh again to me) and The Blue Sword (which I reread often since I have a copy).

Then there was L Neil Smith's The Crystal Empire. Interesting alternative history - imagine the Muslim and Jews all happy as one united empire... Thought the ending was a bit weak, though.

Lined up to read:

• Peter F Hamilton's Judas Unchained
• Michael Scott Rohan's The Singer and The Sea; The Gates of Noon (second of a trilogy of which I've read the last one, duh); Run to the Stars
• Scott Westerfeld's The Risen Empire
• Lyn Abbey's Siege of Shadows

Catching up

Must admit, having an SO certainly has impacted on my reading. Or has it been my newly formed Muti habit? ;) But I've done a bit of catching up the last few weeks, but nowhere near my single-days norm. What with the heatwave of the past three weeks in Jozi, I've been skipping the dancing group classes and socials on Wednesdays and Fridays quite a bit.

Now to remember the order...

Lessee, 17 Feb was an SFSA meet, with a really cool speaker, Pippa Tshbalala nee Stalker, who spoke on the game art. Think along the lines of art movies. Art games.

Anyway, I proceeded to make off with Justina Robson's Making It Real and Tricia Sullivan's Double Vision. A quick search on Google tells me that I've not read any other Robson books; I'm just confused by the style of cover art. :) Some pretty decent sci-fi, even if the Robson is also fantasy. Sullivan is definitely heavier going and more thought-provoking.

I have read Sullivan before: Lethe and maybe Dreaming in Smoke. This is the whole point of starting this blog - to keep a record!

In the past few days, I've raced through Andre Norton's The Hands of Lyr, Charles de Lint's The Harp of the Grey Rose, Christopher Stasheff's Her Majesty's Wizard and am now in the middle of Wisdom of the Fox, by Harry Turtledove, all of which I've borrowed from Grant. I think I can safely categorise them as adolescent sword and sorcery, except perhaps for Turtledove (slightly more adult sword and sorcery). With respect to the Stasheff, I almost felt as if I were reading a Piers Anthony Xanth novel.

What's the point?

Dear reader (how pretentious ;)

It seems less intimidating to write this from my email account. Funny, that. :)

There are two things that have finally motivated me to set up this blog: attending the first Jozi 27dinner on 27 January 2007, as well as reading Ken Macleod's Learning the World.

The whole point of this blog is to log what I'm currently reading, mainly from a science fiction/fantasy aspect, in order to keep a record of what I read and to promote SFSA (Science Fiction and Fantasy South Africa - www.sfsa.org.za). And figure out blogging and other aspects of social media at the same time. But who knows, perhaps stuff that I read during work hours and on other blogs may creep in here? As well as ballroom and Latin American dancing, weight training, organic chocolate (Green & Black yum yum yum) and the Amazing Music group (http://amazing.za.net/).

So here's to my first proper post!