between the rock and the cold, cold sea

Books 2011: 112-113


112. David Drake, Out of the Waters.

Drake's latest fantasy is the sequel to last year's Legions of Fire. In this volume, the protagonists must face another sorcerous threat to the city of Carce, their lives, and their world. The danger this time is the monster Typhon and inhabitants of a skew-dimensional Atlantis, and both set up and payoff is entertaining.

Drake's new Elements of Fire series bears passing resemblence to his previous Lord of the Isles series in both metaphysics and tone. I enjoyed the Isles books (up until the concluding pages), but the similarities are striking. Party separation, dimension-crossing monsters, wizards from the edge of the world - and the recurring prominence of the jungle/bizarre forest as a place to travel through while pursuing or fleeing magical threats.

His Carce - Rome in all but name, down to visiting Greek philosophers from Alexandria - is solid and appealingly Roman-like. His characters, too, despite the similarities I keep noticing to characters in the Isles series, are well-constructed people.

All in all, an enjoyable read, if not a stand-out one.


113. Timothy Zahn, Star Wars: Choices of One.

Despite my dislike of the direction the Star Wars Expanded Universe has taken in recent years, Timothy Zahn still writes most excellent space adventure, in Lucas's playground or out of it.

Choices of One takes place between Star Wars: A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back. It involves treacherous governors, snarky Han Solo, and young!Admiral Thrawn. It made me happy.

Books 103-107

nonfiction

103. Adomnán of Iona, Life of St Columba. Penguin Classics, London, 1995. Translated with an introduction by Richard Sharpe.

An interesting saintly life of one of the more famous saints of the early Christian church of these islands. The introduction is sufficient for a book in itself, being one hundred pages long and more than adequate to its aims. The Life itself is concerned primarily with the proofs of Columba's sainthood, not with a linear narrative, but is nonetheless fascinatingly revelatory in its preoccupations.


104. Euripides, Bacchae and Other Plays. Oxford World's Classics, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1999. Translated by James Morwood, with an introduction by Edith Hall.

Comprising Iphigenia among the Taurians, Bacchae, Iphigenia at Aulis, and (generally accepted to be by an unknown 'pseudo-Euripides') Rhesus. These are striking pieces of literature, given a fluent and readable translation. The two Iphigenias are the most moving of the plays; Rhesus is by far the weakest. The introduction is short but solid, and the plays - well, very much of their time: Classical Athens for the definitely Euripidean offerings, probably Hellenistic for Rhesus, which features a (sort of) braggart soldier of the kind seen in Latin comedy.

Interesting. For me, definitely worth reading.


105. Plato, Protagoras. Oxford World's Classics, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1996. Translated with an introduction by C.C.W.Taylor.

What is excellence, and can it be taught? These are the questions which Protagoras asks, and on which Plato offers an interesting perspective. The translation is brisk and readable, the introduction brief, the notes reasonably extensive. A short and enjoyable piece of philosophy.


106. Plato, Phaedo. Oxford World's Classics, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1996. Translated with an introduction by David Gallop.

An account of the death of Socrates, encompassing a philosophical dialogue on the nature of the soul. Definitely interesting.


107. Bertrand Russell, Why I am not a Christian: and other essays on religion and related subjects. Routledge Classics, Routledge, Oxford, 2004. First published 1957.

Russell is a remarkably readable and clear-sighted philosopher, whose chatty tone belies an intellect made of razors. I disagree with him as much as I agree with him, but I never find him less than thought-provoking. Why I am not a Christian is a frank look at Russell's views on religion - Christianity, the religion of his milieu - and other such things as freedom of thought and speech in universities, morality, and the existence of god.

Despite the fact that the book is over fifty years old, and many of the individual essays are even older, a great number of his views are still not only relevant but radical.

---

Even more books soon to come. By the by, is anyone else impressed with David Yates' directorial choices on the final Harry Potter film? Because the Hogwarts scenes have some brilliant use of colour and light.

The whole grey-sere broody thing. Seriously. Make me more films with this tonal quality. And Alan Rickman.

Books 2011: 95-97


95. Chris Wooding, Retribution Falls.

Spoilers.

First published in the UK in 2009, and re-released earlier this year for the US market, Retribution Falls is a tale of airships and pirates, double-crosses and ne'er-do-wells, Cool Shit (tm) and banter, and Things That Go BOOM! in the most entertaining possible way.

Darian Frey, rakehell, screw-up, occasional smuggler and small-time pirate, is captain of the airship Ketty Jay. His small and highly dysfunctional crew is composed of alcoholics, terminal fuck-ups, and people with nowhere else to go. So far, they've managed to keep scraping a living together, and when the chance for a really big score comes along - a cargo airship, allegedly carrying jewels - Frey can't resist.

But the airship is rigged to blow, and when it explodes, Frey finds himself at the top of the Most Wanted list. Because what the ship was carrying wasn't jewels, but an Archduke's only son. In order to survive, he needs to find the person truly responsible, all the while avoiding the Navy, the Century Knights, and hired bounty-hunters - whose number includes the terrifying pirate captain Trinica Dancken, with whom Frey shares something of a past.

This is a tight, fast-paced book. It hooks you from the opening pages and just keeps racing along in hails of bullets, bloody fights, and banter, in an atmosphere remniscent of some 19th-century frontier. We're introduced to all of Frey's crew in short order: the wanted daemonist Grayther Crake, the new navigator Jez - who hides a dangerous secret - Malvery the alcoholic surgeon, Silo the engineer, the flyboy Pinn and the terrified pilot Harkins, and the golem Bess - and almost as soon as they appear, they're involved in a firefight.

There's a lot of interesting detail hiding in the background. Daemonism - magic, but practically outlawed - and the recent history of this world of airships and politics, pirates and Century Knights. The characters are well-drawn, rounded people. And Frey, while he starts out as a charismatic amoral rogue, undergoes significant character growth. He doesn't end up as admirable, by any stretch of the imagination, but I liked him rather more by the end than at the beginning.

Retribution Falls is really quite brilliant - it even deserves the adjective rollicking, because it's one hell of a ride.

(And if someone ever makes a miniseries of it for the television, I am so there. Because Cool Shit. And explosions!)


96. Chris Wooding, The Black Lung Captain.

I'm supposed to review this properly in this autumn's Ideomancer, so for now I'll content myself with saying that, as a sequel to Retribution Falls (which could easily stand alone), it is another step up in impressive, pacey Cool Shit with good characters.


97. Kevin Hearne, Hammered.

Third book in the Iron Druid series. This time, druid Atticus Sullivan is taking on the Norse god Thor in another fast-paced, amusing urban fantasy, complete with ominous omens and battles in Asgard. Entertaining, though light.

---

Today, I triumphed over the evil that is clothes shopping and successfully purchased shorts that fit. I celebrated this by going to the gym.

Running: 0.6 miles in 5 minutes, 1.75 miles in 20:50. Cycling: 4K in 16:00. Ten minutes of bouldering.

Before I get started with the talking-about-books, I want to mention something. From now on, I'll be providing links to The Book Depository for the books I mention here.

Confessional disclaimer: I've joined their affiliate program. All far as I can tell, they aren't particularly evil, and I've been very happy with their customer service on my own orders with them so far.

Right! On to the -

Books 2011: 86-92


86. Jacqueline Carey, Naamah's Blessing.

The third and final volume in Carey's most recent Terre d'Ange trilogy, Naamah's Blessing follows Moirin, our half d'Angeline half-Maghuin Donn narrator, in her return to Terre d'Ange with her husband Bao, and the trials that confront her there. The royal family is broken: the king is grieving the death of his second wife, Prince Thierry has disappeared in a trade expedition across the sea, and the young princess - daughter of Moirin's former patron, the late queen Jehanne - is precocious but neglected. When Moirin accepts a charge from the king to serve as the princess's protector, she is drawn into d'Angeline politics -

- Just in time to be forced away across the ocean in search of Prince Thierry, a journey which brings her, Bao and their companions through the new and strange lands to the west, finally to confront unfinished business with Raphael de Mereliot.

There's a lot to like here. While Blessing suffers very slightly from the diffusion of focus in terms of unifying theme which the trilogy's preceeding volumes also possessed (or perhaps I simply find Moirin's voice less compelling than Phedre's or Imriel's), the characters are well-rounded and often brilliantly drawn. Carey draws on indigenous South American culture in her depiction of the New World, and walks a fine, delicate line in juxtaposing the beautiful and the brutal to make human sacrifice seem understandable - at the novel's climax, even sympathic.

The climax comes a little far from the novel's end, however. While the wrapping-up of threads is elegantly done, it does drag a little towards the finish.

Enjoyable book, and a solid addition to the series.


87. Gail Carriger, Heartless.

Fourth Alexia Tarabotti novel. The pace in this is uneven compared to its predecessors, and the humour less full-bodied. However, vampire assassination attempts, werewolf liaisons, and rampaging mechanical contrivances in the streets of Queen Victoria's London make for an entertaining combination.

Fun.


88. Erin Hoffman, Sword of Fire and Sea.

An entertaining fantasy debut, containing an overabundance of cool shit, and possibly an underabundance of connective tissue. I enjoyed it, and I hope to have more to say about it later.


nonfiction

89. James Kelly, The Liberty and the Ormond Boys: Factional riot in eighteenth-century Dublin. Maynooth Studies in Local History, Four Courts Press, Dublin, 2005.

A very short - ~60 pages - book discussing the phenomenon of faction-fighting in Dublin city in the 1700s. The primary factions comprised the Liberty boys - the weavers of Thomas St. and the Coombe - and the butchers of Ormond quay and the Smithfield market. For all its brevity, it's an interesting and illuminating work considering the causes and manifestations of factionalism, and the trends that led to its demise.


90. Plato, Meno and Other Dialogues. Oxford World's Classics, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2005. Translated with an introduction and notes by Robin Waterfield.

This volume comprises the four dialogues Charmides, Laches, Lysis, and Meno. The first three concern themselves with self-control, courage and friendship, while Meno is concerned with the nature of excellence, and whether excellence is an attribute that can be taught. This particular dialogue concludes with the self-professed bafflement of both Socrates and his interlocutor, Meno.

They make for interesting reading, and are very slightly useful to my thesis.


91. Stephen O'Shea, Sea of Faith: Islam and Christianity in the Medieval Mediterranean World. Walker Publishing Company Inc., New York, 2006.

This is a very accessible survey of the encounter between the Islamic and Christian worlds in the Mediterranean. O'Shea casts an admirably wide net, beginning in the lifetime of the Prophet and concluding with the siege of Malta, touching on everything from Medina to Morocco, Byzantium to Sicily, Templars to Ismailis, Saladin to El Cid.

It's a brilliant book, immensely knowledgeable and immensely readable. I have the impression that O'Shea is privileging accessibility over pettifogging detail, and I really don't mind, because I vastly enjoyed reading this.


92. Bertrand Russell, In Praise of Idleness. Routledge Classics, Routledge, Oxford and New York, 2004.

This book should be required reading. For everyone.

Bertrand Russell was, of course, a prominent intellectual and philosopher in the first half of the 20th century. In Praise of Idleness collects some fifteen of his essays, which the copyright page of my copy informs me were first collected and published in 1935. They have aged surprisingly well, all things considered: Russell is a very accessible prose stylist, and while occasionally his cultural assumptions have me saying hell, no, much of what he writes is extremely thought-provoking. A lot of the time I found myself saying hell yes.

Of the essays collected here, the first two, "In Praise of Idleness" and "'Useless' Knowledge" are substantial, and remain radical and thought-provoking the better part of a century after their first appearance. "The Case for Socialism" is also a thoughtful defence of a political philosophy that remains derided. "The Ancestry of Fascism" is a lengthy piece which is very much of its time, a trait which it shares with "Scylla and Charibdis, or Communism and Fascism," but both these essays are interesting for the insight into the world of the nineteen twenties and thirties. "Western Civilisation" partakes much of sardonicism, and one or two of the shorter essays - "Men vs. Insects," for example - may be a little lightweight.

Nonetheless, the essays are a fascinating and provoking discussion of themes which remain relevent even today.

---

We shall pass over without mention the bits-of-books I have read for thesis work. Blergh, I say. Blergh.

Although I think I'm almost getting to the point where I can make a decent beginning on actually writing the bloody thing.

---

Yesterday's minor freakout was followed by productive emailing. And today, much exercise. Cycling 10K in 38:45, followed by running. 1 miles in 11:02, 2 miles in 24:30.

Oh, insanity. I wish you were more... amenable to regulation.

Books 2011: 76-79


76. Malinda Lo, Huntress.

I'd heard so many good things about Lo's Ash and Huntress that I walked into this book expecting it to be a tour de force. The problem with having high expectations comes when the material doesn't live up to your image of what to expect. Huntress is a good book, with some interesting characters, but it's not the Stunning Work of Fascinating Genius I'd expected.

But all in all, good book.


77. Dashiell Hammett, The Maltese Falcon.

I read this in the Everyman's Library edition, and I kept getting distracted by the texture of the pages. Everyman's Library editions are just beautifully put together books - comparatively, they feel like luxury, though I got this one in the bargain basement.

It's an interesting book. Hammett is a brutally elegant prose stylist, but I'm not sure I actually enjoyed the story.


nonfiction


78. Usama ibn Munqidh, The Book of Contemplation: Islam and the Crusades. Penguin Classics, London and New York, 2008. Translated with an introduction and notes by Paul M. Cobb.

A fascinating book by the 12th-century soldier, writer, and sometime schemer, Usama ibn Manqidh. It's a series of anecdotes, and very interesting ones they are.


79. Amin Maalouf, The Crusades Through Arab Eyes. Schocken Books, New York, 1984. Translated by Jon Rothschild.

An interesting perspective on the history of the Crusades.

---

I am implausibly tired. I wonder why this is?

Books 2011: 67


67. Terry Pratchett, Guards, Guards!

It's been long enough since I've read this that it probably counts as a new book. Vastly entertaining. I'd forgotten how far down Sam Vimes started.

I am sad that further adventures of Errol and his missus probably will never happen, but one can't have everything.

---

Swam yesterday and today. Sea temp is probably around 12 degrees, and with an air temp of around 18-20 that's plenty balmy for a nice, refreshing dip, particularly since high tide has the courtesy to be around noon, and the breeze is mild. The sea has been clear and calm as (slightly greenish) glass these last couple of days. Beautiful, if numbing.

Sadly, the weather's expected to break on Sunday and go back to being cloudy and drizzly, but at least I have acquired a small itchy mild sunburn in these few precious bright hours!

...Also, there must be something peculiar in Porterhouse Red Ale. I drank a bottle on Tuesday, I think it was, and ended up staying awake until 0530 in the morning. I drank half a bottle when I came in tonight, and was struck by the urge to go running. And I ran longer and further than I have in months. (Although not faster. Still, 18 minutes at about 5mph is not a terrible thing, and the walk back was refreshing.)

Books 2011: 60-65


60. Kevin Hearnes, Hounded.

Interesting, well-done urban fantasy of the Celtic flavour set in Arizona, featuring a two-thousand-year-old druid and the sword Fragarach. The Irish mythology bits were largely enjoyable rather than irritating, and the conclusion had more than sufficient kaboom to be satisfying.


61. Suzanne McLeod, The Cold Kiss of Death.

Moderately entertaining, but I am officially done with sexy vampires.


62-65. Catherine Asaro, Catch the Lightning, Diamond Star, The Ruby Dice, and The Final Key.

Asaro's science fiction novels are interesting, but they're a little too focused in the tradition of the science fiction romance for my preferences. (The Final Key isn't, but Catch the Lightning definitely is, and the other two are divided in their focus.)

Nonetheless, I find them entertaining.

Rereads:

The rest of Asaro's Skolian Imperialate SF, bunches of David Weber's Honor Harrington books. The Honor Harrington books' techsposition does not get less annoying with exposure.

---

I'm doing somewhat better than last week. Which is definitely something. It'll be a while before I'm properly back in harness, though.

Books 53-56


53. Joanna Russ, We Who Are About To...

The sad news of the writer's death spurred me to this book, which has been sitting unread on my shelf lo these last two years. It's beautiful, highly tragic, and rather thought-provoking.


non-fiction


54. Richard Holmes, The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science. Harper Press, London, 2009.

This? This is fantastic history. It's a vibrant sketch of English 'natural philosophy' between about 1770 and 1830, focusing on Joseph Banks, William and Caroline Herschel, and Humphrey Davies. Holmes has a light touch and a sort of understated good humour about the period, and if he's occasionally none to firm about nailing down dates for certain throw-away lines and developments, I'm inclined to view it charitably.

The initial three-quarters of the book stand out. Joseph Banks' place on James Cook's first voyage, the ballooning craze, William Herschel, with his conviction there was life on the moon and in the sun, Caroline Herschel, a brilliant astronomer in her own right, young Humphrey Davies and the experiments with laughing gas. The later quarter, dealing with mature Humphrey Davies and the rise of people like John Herschel and Charles Babbage in English science, has a tendency to drag a little. But overall, damned interesting reading.


55. Gary A. Boyd, Dublin 1745-1922: Hospitals, Spectacle & Vice. Four Courts Press, Dublin, 2006.

A really interesting, if brief, discussion of how hospitals - primarily the Lying-In Hospital (now the Rotunda) and the Lock Hospital - related to the architecture and public development of the city. It's even remotely relevant to the interests of my thesis - in the Lying-In Hospital, patients were required to enter from the rear, the monumental front entry-way being reserved for Important Persons. Since I'm considering uses of space and entrances in antiquity, this might be something to remember.


56. Juvenal, The Satires. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1991. Translated by Niall Rudd.

Bitter, bitter old man. It seems human nature hasn't changed much from antiquity. He has some choice quotes, though. Like: "So much stronger is the thirst for glory than for goodness. (Who, in fact, embraces Goodness herself, if you take away the rewards?)"

---

I have been putting off reading Philostratus. (Boring old sod.) I really oughtn't leave him any longer, much as I'd like to.

I really need to settle down to proper work, and stop running around from book to book like a dilettante on speed.

---

The parent has decreed that the hall must be painted in the next month. I will lay you odds on who ends up doing the majority of the painting. But it'll be nice to have a colour other than white somewhere in the house, so I daresay I won't complain too loudly.

Books 2011: 47-49


47. Richelle Mead, Iron Crowned.

And my trend of picking up middle books of series (in this case, third and presently last) continues. Urban fantasy. Sort of. High levels of angst and sex. Not so happy with the amount of sex relative to plot, but I cannot deny the plot is entertaining.


48. Ben Aaronovitch, Rivers of London.

Published in the US as Midnight Riot, this is what the Dresden files would be if Harry Dresden had a)started out with a better sense of humour and higher levels of genre-savvy and b)was a PC in the London Met. This book has a fantastic voice and feels like London all the way to the ground. Also interesting plot developments, but I'd read it for the voice and the sheer depth of London in it anyway.


non-fiction

49. Chris Wickham, The Inheritance of Rome: A History of Europe from 400 to 1000. Penguin History of Europe, Penguin, London and New York, 2010.

This book does exactly what it says on the tin. It is a wide-ranging survey of European history - which, as and when it's appropriate, includes the Ummayads of Damascus, the Abbasids of Baghdad, and the Fatimids of Egypt in the category Europe - from the fifth to the eleventh centuries. It is divided into four parts: the break-up of the Roman Empire, 400-550; the Post-Roman West, 550-750; the Empires of the East, 550-1000; and the Carolingian and Post-Carolingian West, 750-100. These are subdivided into chapters, which deal with separate geographical, chronological, and thematic chunks of the very large amount of information Wickham aims to cover.

It is a fascinating and very readable history, and it cracked my brain open and let new light in concerning Roman and post-Roman political systems, and how each can be expected to function. The chapters which survey the Arab invasions and subsequent polities were very helpful in understanding the forces which shaped the early medieval Mediterranean, and are not always included in general surveys of this period of "European" history.

I recommend it without hesitation. I think this may be one of the best works of narrative history I've read in the last while - on point, focused, clear about its biases without being obtrusive with them, and immensely knowledgeable. Wickham dedicates it to his students - fortunate students, I would say, to have the opportunity to learn from such a mind.

---

I am tired and feel sick and stupid, and want very much not to have to get up tomorrow and pretend I care what college bureaucracy is doing. Particularly when they have scheduled me to invigilate during the times when I am supposed to be taking an exam after I specifically emailed to inform them of this.

Oh, well. I need the money, even if it's not nearly enough. (I need a job, but who the hell is hiring? And Tor.com has not begun to pay me for my work for them yet, which - argh! - is money I am counting on to be there. Eventually. Soon would be nice.)

---

When the wide world comes winding to a close
where shall we be? Who knows? That day is yet
beyond reach, unconsummated. Time flows
in one direction only, oily, wet,
impermeable to the human eye
impermeable to answers. What, why -

I saw the sibyl caged at Cumae
when every word she spoke became a lie.
This is the truth of oracles. Like us,
they guess how the dice fall before they die.


....I appear to have committed poem. I should really stop doing that in public. Or at least make sure it has a title, first.

Still, why not?

Books 2011: 41-45


It strikes me that I may have counted Bear's The White City twice in previous bookposts. Well, no harm. I certainly read it more than once.


41. Greg Van Eekhout, Norse Code.

A fast-paced, engaging Norse apocalypse romp starring Mist, a modern Valkyrie, and Hermod, apparently the Norse god of poking-his-nose-into-awkward-corners-and-getting-bit. Decidedly entertaining, if light.


42. Melissa Marr, Wicked Lovely.

YA. With faeries. Rather less twee than I expected, and entertaining while it lasted, but I'm not left feeling terribly pushed about reading the sequel.


43. Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson, Towers of Midnight.

I forgot to put this in the last bookpost. It's massive, and it continues the trend of wrapping things up and getting them pointed at The Last Battle. At this point I'm more than a little worn out by the whole thing. Book Fourteen of the WOT had damn well better has some freaking excellent payoff, because despite some moments of win- actually, Mat in the Tower of Ghenjei and Egwene's battle in Tel'aran'rhiod are pretty much the only two that stand out: Morgase could have had a moment of win, but it felt like a flop - mostly what I remember of this book is that it is massive.


non-fiction


44. Christopher I. Beckwith, Empires of the Silk Road: A History of Central Eurasia from the Bronze Age to the Present. Princeton University Press, Princeton NJ, 2009.

In any sweeping history that aims to cover three thousand years, the author must choose his central thesis carefully. In general, Beckwith does this admirably, choosing to focus first on the characteristics of what he refers to as the "Central Eurasian Culture Complex," and as the historical sources permit more detailed statements to be made, on the fundamental economic interconnectedness of the region between the Black Sea and the Eastern Steppe and the vital role of nomad kingdoms and hegemonies in creating and driving prosperity.

Beckwith takes a roughly chronological approach in his history, proceeding from the Scythians first mentioned in Herodotos down to the collapse of the Soviet Union. His writing is lucid, generally clear, and frequently entertaining. However, his sweeping statements sometimes did strike me as a little too sweeping, and in chapter 12, "Central Eurasia Reborn," he permits himself to digress into a lengthy rebuttal of theoretical and aesthetic Modernism, which does the book little good. Critique of poetry and art on aesthetic grounds does not belong in what is primarily a work of history, however interesting and thought-provoking Beckwith's position is. It is, dare I say it, aesthetically displeasing.

(I take no issue with his critique of Postmodernism. Postmodernist theory is interested only in tearing down, not in creating, which makes it very frustrating.)

That one chapter out of thirteen (and two very lengthy appendices on Proto-Indo-European diaspora and Ancient Central European Ethnonyms) is entirely auctorial soapbox detracts little from the rest of the book, though. It is a fascinating, highly readable book about a region and a set of cultures much neglected by modern English-language (European in general, I think) historiography.


45. Judith Flanders, The Invention of Murder: How the Victorians Revelled in Death and Detection and Created Modern Crime. Harper Press, London, 2011.

I thought, when I picked this book up, that the subtitle would prove to be an exaggeration. Revelled? Really?

Surprisingly, it's not. Flanders draws upon newspaper reports as well as broadsides, fiction, playbills and penny-bloods, to create a picture of how English (British, but mostly English) society of the 19th century viewed murder: the crime itself, the victims, and the (putative) perpetrators. And since newspapers, broadsides, and penny-bloods did, indeed, revel in murder, it seems their readers would share their outlook.

It's a fascinating book, bringing to light just how little evidence (in some cases, none at all, or evidence that pointed in the opposite direction) was required to get a person convicted of murder. Rumour, innuendo, or local grudges were frequently all it took to achieve a conviction - and in many cases a hanging. The chapter on secret poisonings (few to none, despite the widespread conviction that they were EPIDEMIC!!111! even - especially - among medical professionals) and burial-society insurance murder (also few to none, also widespread conviction that vasty numbers of the poor were killing their children to collect on the coffin money) is particularly illuminating.

I recommend it extremely.

---

Eventually, I'll have something more to say about Dragon Age 2, apart from my previous I-am-being-set-up-for-a-sequel-do-not-want rant. The more I consider it, the more I'm coming to appreciate what Bioware is striving at. Like it or not, DA2's a fine example of the videogame RPG approaching mature artform status. It has a thematic argument.

But that's a post to be made when I'm properly awake.