ConFusion report, part 2

When I posted a couple of days ago about ConFusion, I hadn't meant that to be the end of my report, but when I woke up the next day, I had fallen into the Pit of Despair again and I couldn't find it in myself to do anything as demanding as write in LJ.

I will now, somewhat belatedly, post a few words about the real meat of ConFusion, which was, of course, the music.

( Way too much detail about the music )

So in all, it was a wonderful musical experience, at least as good as the previous ConFusions I've gotten to. ConFusion is scheduled at a horrible time (what genius thought of having a con in the frozen north in January? It was a bad idea even before GaFilk got started only two weeks away from it and Capricon moved from the end of February to the beginning!), but, as it has been when I've made it before, it was worth the trip. So, a big thank you to qnvhrtz for organizing the filk, the rest of the concom for making it available, all the musicians for making it so musically wonderful, and all my friends for the hugs and support.

Book review: Dragon Venom

Yesterday's book review, which I didn't get around to writing until now, is Dragon Venom by Lawrence Watt-Evans.

This book completes the trilogy which began with Dragon Weather and continued with The Dragon Society.  The first book provided an interesting take on where dragons come from and introduced a reasonably interesting world.  The second book was rather weak, but I hoped that it was middle-of-the-trilogy syndrome and there would be more meat in the third book, which I bought and read on the strength of the first book only.

I was not entirely disappointed.  New and interesting things happened, the nature of the dragons was developed further, and the series plot reached a tentative conclusion.  Still, this book satisfied me less than I'd hoped, because, standard fantasy archetypes notwithstanding, I want my dragons to be nice people, and these, despite being given some justification in the this volume that hadn't been in the first two, are not.  And I find it much easier to follow a story when I can really identify with the main character, and in much of the story, Arlian is a monster who is almost more terrible than the dragons.  His being this way is kind of the point of the story, and it does get better at the end, but it wasn't exactly a feel-good story.  Maybe I would have appreciated it more if I read it when I was less in need of a feel-good story.

So, despite some nice world-building and a reasonably good job of telling the story, I couldn't really get into the story they way I wanted to.  It was a relief to finish the book, partly because of where the characters ended up, but partly just because it was finally over.  7 out of 10.

Book review: Relativity

Today's book review is Relativity by Robert J. Sawyer.

This book is a potpourri of some of Sawyer's short stories, some of his speeches and opinion pieces, some of his articles about writing, and a 24 page autobiography.

I have read a few of Sawyer's novels, and I've found all of them interesting; even when there have been some issues of believability with the premises, he's managed to make the story good enough to keep me from really worrying about the issues until after I've finished the book.  I had never heard him speak until this fall at Windycon, where I learned that he is a wonderful speaker, who can be funny and engaging and genuinely thought-provoking in front of a crowd.

The short stories were quite readable, pithy, good stories.

The speeches and opinions get a little repetetive, since they weren't intended to be read as a blob, and his ideas are interesting.  I don't agree with everything he says, but he manages to present even ideas that I can't fully agree with in such a way that I have to think about them, which is the point.  He makes a strong point of rejecting faith and basing his beliefs and understanding of the universe on what he can find rational proof of, and in his agnosticism (as he points out, atheism -- the certain belief that God does not exist -- is as much a matter of faith as is beliving in a religion) he is coming from someplace pretty close to where I am coming from.  I find it ironic that, though he denies holding any beliefs based on faith, he has an innate optimism that things will turn out well that certainly appears to spring from nothing but faith.  Right or wrong, though, his opinions are well expressed and interesting.

Finally, the series of short articles on the craft and business of writing are quite good.  I've never had really serious ambitions of being a writer, but he manages to give me quite a push in that direction; after reading those pieces, I feel more inspired to be a writer than I have (at least consciously) for a long time.  At the same time, I think they would all be very good practical advice for someone who was seriously trying to get started as a writer.

In all, the book makes me feel that I now know Sawyer better than almost any writer I've never actually had a personal conversation with, and leaves me hoping to actually have such conversations with him in the future.  9 out of 10.