The Cost is Too High

Sometimes the cost is just too high...
I have a problem. My problem is that my favorite genre of reading is what is termed 'space opera'. (I would prefer it being called something else 'cause that is a pretty strange term, but unfortunately no one asked me) Back to my problem, why is that a problem, you ask. I am glad you asked. The problem arises due to the fact that this is my favorite genre, and yet there is not much to read that I like. Why is it my favorite genre then? I think I like the idea of it more than its usual incarnations. The Star Wars influence on my life probably. There are some good ones out there, Lois McMaster Bujold's Miles Vorkosigan series comes to mind, but by and large the genre is lacking.
As a result of this issue I am forced, Forced, I say, to read shall we say, less than excellent books. To be fair most of the books in David Weber's Honor Harrington series I have enjoyed. However he throws in some weird ones, and the last two in particular have gotten a bit over the top.
I just recently finished At All Costs and the scenes that I enjoy, the space battles, the intrigue, stuff like that, was good, but the protaganist of the series is getting into some very strange personal stuff. I try to run a fine line when writing this blog about spoiling stuff, but if you don't want to find out about a book, don't read my blog. So, anyway, she is sleeping with a married man, gets pregnant, then decides to marry the married man. Yes, that's right a threesome. What is future society coming to? Anyway, the whole story line where she is in love with a married man is just a waste of valuable 'space opera' pages. What can you do? I think that this series has finally reached the 'wait for paperback' status for me. A sad stage that has previously claimed such one time greats as Tom Clancy.
Dragons falling from the sky is on the clock...

A Funny Name for a Chair

Daniel has been doing this thing recently where when you tell him the name of something, he responds, "That's a funny name, isn't it dada?" It could be the name Frank, or Betty, or anything. The response is almost always the same. The other day when he asked me what I was reading and I told him, The Dragonbone Chair, he kind of did a double take (as much as a four year old can) and really delivered his patented line, "That's a funny name for a chair!" I would have to agree.
The book itself was pretty good. When I think about it after the fact it was kind of formulaic, but it was a formula that I like. Impending doom on the land by a unseen, magical menace. Hope comes only from a ragtag band of 'heroes'. One of the refreshing elements that I enjoyed in this book was the frailties of the heroes, mostly the central character is just a young teenage boy who is certainly full of normal teenage behaivor. The others in his party have no special powers as yet, just normal people/creatures thrown into crazy circumstances. Another interesting aspect of the book is the race relations, many of the humans just don't like the 'trolls', not for any rational reasons, they just like their 'kind'. My main reason for liking this book is pure fun. A few people wandering around having an adventure. My kind of book. The second book in the series has already been added to my Amazon wish list, but I can't buy it yet because I have a bit of a backlog! Three and a half stars for the book with a funny name for a chair.

Aslan is on the move...

Well, I took a chance and decided to read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe to Daniel. This isn't on par with the first time I will watch the Star Wars movies with him, but it is up there. He had just turned four when I brought it up to him, and he seemed pretty excited. So that night I brought in the book and we layed down to read. The chapters are a pretty good length for him, long enough to cover some good material, but not too long that finding a stopping point becomes problematic. We read about three chapters that first night, and he really seemed to enjoy it. There were some parts that he didn't really follow, so we took some breaks for explanations, but overall I felt like he 'got it'. We also try to read for a while to him before he takes his nap in the afternoon, Suzy reads at nap and I read at night. Well the next day when I found out she read the chapter about meeting the White Witch it really got me. I didn't want to miss out on anything. Suzy quickly realized my craziness, and she made sure to not read any of it to Daniel without me around. It took us less than a week to crank through it all, and he was really staying with it. I was a little worried about the battle and fighting scenes (call me crazy since a lot of his classmates already watch the Batman movie, Spiderman, Star Wars, etc.) but he didn't get overly scared. We also had a good talk about the miracle of Aslan coming to life again. It is one of those experiences as a parent that I will always wonder what is going on in his head, what does he think about all of that, does it scare him, does he understand Aslan's sacrifice? Who knows, but I sure enjoyed reading it to him, and hopefully it continued to develop his love for stories and reading. Next up some things that I have read myself...