Steampunk Novels -- Sept 2011

The books I've really enjoyed so far this month:

1. Heartless by Gail Carriger -- the 4th in the Parasol Protectorate series, set in Victorian England about Alexia Tarabotti who has no soul which gives her power over werewolves and vampires. At one point, I had to tweet the author about her great plotting and characters. Within a few pages, Ms. Carriger threw in a red herring; revealed the truth about a doomed love affair that broke my heart; a flirtation between two minor characters that were in character that made me cringe; then broke my heart again with 2 other characters. So well done!
2. Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve -- the first of a 4 book series in a post-apocalyptic Earth far in the future where cities are built in tiers and mounted on wheels where they roam around hunting and eating other cities and towns. They call it Municipal Darwinism. They're opposed by the Anti-Tractionists who believe that cities should be stationary. Very inventive and fun.

I've pre-ordered Goliath by Scott Westerfeld, the 3rd in the Leviathan series. It's set during WWI between the Darwinists (genetic engineering) and the Clankers (steampowered machines with legs instead of wheels).

What these all have in common are action, adventure, and romance.

Another book was A Life in Stitches by Rachael Herron, aka Yarn-a-go-go. It's a series of essays about her life, really the important people and events in her life, that have knitted pieces associated with them. For example, her quest to knit her own wedding dress, but really it's about her wedding to Lala and what weddings and marriage are really about. Another book that mad me smile and tear-up. Lovely book.

So far, September's been full of good books.

Dragon*Con 2011 and water damage

Husband and I went for the second time this year, which was also D*C's 25th anniversary.

There are tons of pictures on the web, on Flickr, How Stuff Works, CNN, etc. I didn't take many pictures myself, unfortunately.

When it began, I wanted to go to sessions about Whedon, Dr. Who, Writing, and Alternate History/steampunk and Silk Road, the "Asian" track. For the first time this year there was a Dragon*Con app, which was so cool! With a few clicks, I could add the sessions I wanted to attend to my iPhone calendar. I double, triple, quadruple booked myself for nearly every time slot.

What I actually made it to:

• A few steampunk panels, including one about Steampunk and Orientalism, a term that makes me cringe. However, the panelist was very clear that it was a very Eurocentric term to include anything East and South of Europe. One person asked for recommendations for steampunk books set in Asia. The panelist said he couldn't think of any that are available in English.


• A reading by Jammy Wurtz. I want to broaden my reading horizons and picked that reading randomly. She gave out copies of her 4th book in a series of 7 to newbies. I was the only newbie. That one was alright. I wish I went to the author that preceded her; sounds like she wrote romance fantasy/sci-fi. Good thing I can look her up on the app or paper schedule.


• A fan panel where Snape, the Winter Queen from Narnia, and another villian explained their side. Was the weakest of the panels I went to, but they can't all be gems.


• Urban survival in case of zombies -- now I know what the Y2K survivalists are doing. Husband suggested that I take a class on how to use a shotgun. Hmmm.


• Market trends in sci-fi/fantasy -- It was an interesting peek into the business side of publishing.

Spent a lot of time wandering the exhibits. Didn't buy anything. Other than the cost of the membership, my money went to food and drink. A lot of drink. Which is kind of why I missed a lot of the sessions.

Another reason I missed alot of panels: the night before Dragon*Con started, some of the sprinklers in our condo building malfunctioned, spewing water. So I had to stay and take care of that with the maintenance people, calling insurance (which could not find our policy at first), etc.

All in all, however, it was a great time. Definitely thinking of going again next year. Thinking of making a little Jayne hat as a fascinator or headband. I'm not one for dressing up but would like to let my geek flag fly a little. Let's see what's on Etsy....

Progress of all sorts

Finished sewing the pink border to the blue field of the 5 year quilt. Here's the cat using the quilt top as a bed. Next up, sewing on the yellow border, then shopping for orange fabric for the binding, something for the back, and the batting.
Here's the roll of blue Kaffe Fassett fabrics, partly laid out. Was watching Season One of Warehouse 13 while doing this.
Speaking of Syfy, I've really been into Alphas. I think I've mentioned before that I like how the show starts by just dropping the viewer into the story -- there are people with powers (called Alphas), there's a team of Alphas headed up by a non-Alpha that works for the US gov't, and they work to solve crimes that may or may not involve Alphas.

Part of the mythology is dangerous Alphas are sent to be imprisoned in a special facility in Binghamton, NY; the US gov't doesn't like that there are Alphas, and there's a rebel group of Alphas called Red Flag that is agitating for the right to live freely and not be hunted down by the gov't.

I've also been using MyFitnessPal app to track calories in, calories out. In the 3 weeks I've used it, I've lost 4 lbs, then gained back 2. Plus exercising more. Dang I'm tired. However, in the long run, it'll be good for me.

Fabric shopping

I can see the end of the tunnel with piecing the 5-year quilt top. So I went to Intown Quilters to see if they do finishing work. They don't but did refer me to people who can.

Quilt shops are like yarn shops. All the colors! All the possibilities!

I first went to Hancock Fabrics where I picked up the quarters. I'm consistently drawn to bright colors. I thought about getting some different kinds of colors too, but none of them spoke to me.

Then I stopped at Intown Quilters and picked up the roll of 20 Kaffe Fassett fabrics bundled in 2.5 inch strips. I so want to start a new project and have many in mind. Once I get the 5 year quilt off for finishing....

Winding wool

Spent some time today winding wool. I had wound up one skein of the Plymouth Kudo and started a summer scarf. Gonna try one of those infinity loops all the kids are wearing these days.

And for the fun of it, I wound up the other balls of Kudo yarn I got last week.

Then I wound up some fingering weight yarn I've had for a while.

The green is one is Toasty Toes by Numma Numma in the Pepper Jelly colorway. To be combined with the blue/green cashmere/merino blend of something or other. Lost the ball band.

The black/purple is the Raven colorway from ... forgot already. Possibly to be combined with the Madeline Tosh light in the Tangelo colorway.

New fave author: N. K. Jemisin

It started a few months ago. I saw a tweet by Felicia Day (a pop culture geek goddess, though I've only ever seen her Whedonverse work) recommending it, especially for the strong female characters. The first book of Jemisin's Inheritance Series trilogy, The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, happened to be on sale as an e-book for about $3 so I bought it. See a tweet, download an e-book from home. I felt like I was living in the future!

Jemisin's created a very interesting world where there are gods, godlings, humans, power struggles, love, hate, action, wisdom. I guess it would count as fantasy, as there is magic, coming from the gods. In terms of plot, there was a war among the three gods that resulted in one god becoming dominant, another killed, and the third enslaved to the human ruling family.

Yeine, the heroine of book one, has been summoned to the capitol because she's in the running to inherit the ruling crown (not that there's a literal crown). She's been raised in another part of the country/ another kingdom where the women are the warriors. Her claim to the crown comes from her mother who left the capitol and married a man from a different culture. So Yeine has lots of challenges due to a different cultural upbringing, being the upstart, being the reluctant participant in the intrigues among the humans and gods.

Up to the end, it's not clear who's going to get the crown and what's going to happen to Yeine.

Jemison does a great job describing the different cultures and ethnicities of the Hundred Thousand Kingdoms (we only really see one), by describing hair texture and color, describing freckles, skin color. And I love that Yeine is a strong female character (as is Oree, heroine of the second book The Broken Kingdoms), and they don't resort to physical violence. Yeine, the trained warrior, uses her head first to figure things out, and to think about the consequences of using violence. I know! When's the last time you saw that?

Also, it's clear that Yeine is of a brown ethnicity and Oree definitely of African descent. Except that the Kingdoms aren't on earth, so there's no Africa.

NK Jemisin's website is really interesting also, with posts about gender and race in speculative fiction (new term for sci-fi/fantasy? I like it) and creating cultures for the books, and other stuff. It's right up my alley.

Stayed up late reading book 2, so happy book 3 is out later this year.

Now off to look up the manga and anime she references as her influences.

ETA: This morning I sent a tweet to @feliciaday, thanking her for the recommendation and tagged @nkjemisin in it as well. Then at lunch, I get a tweet back from FDay saying she's glad I liked the books, do I know when the next one is out? *squeeeeee!* So I looked it up on NKJ's site and wrote back to FDay. I may also have squeed a little. Fortunately in the tweet back saying thanks for the info, FDay overlooked the squeeage.

squeeee!

Plymouth Kudo

Went to NeedleNook yarn shop in Atlanta, meaning only to get some needles and a project bag. It's soon time for the annual Husband's family reunion and I need something to keep the yarn organized.

Well, I walked out with the above as well, except for the red skein of Kudo on the bottom, which I got last year. I seem to have a thing for Plymouth Kudo and I haven't even knitted anything at all with it. But they're so pretty! I'll find a use someday. The grey and red/white/blue Kudo skeins will be made into a shawlette or something. The yellow into...?

Kudo: 198 yds. Size US 7 needles. Cotton/Rayon/Silk

The red and grey skeins of Panda yarn will be made into the Pretty Twisted cuffs by Cat Wong at Knitty.

The grey Cotton Classic will be added to the cotton crochet blanket.

On the other hand, most of these things were on sale.