Wot's new?

06-Dec-2005
The newest Vimes novel is out!! Terry Pratchett's Thud, about dwarves and trolls and ethnic violence, where speciesism is the enemy of every down-to-earth copper to ever wear chainmail and fight dragons with fire, as it were. The Samuel Vimes books are police procedurals set on the discworld, which is flat and floats through space on the back of a giant space-turtle, if you please. The immensity of the magical field required to keep this scenario within the bounds of probability is staggering, to say the least. It's sword and sorcery with a twist, however: the dwarves, trolls, werewolves, swashbuckling heroes, religious nuts and... one scary Nobbs, are all coppers. It's Homicide: Life on the Street in chainmail. And I love it.

Thud is a board game wherein trolls fight dwarfs for control of the board. It was seen as a substitute for conflict between the two species. But it isn't working... Dragons, guns (ooh, the horror), evil plots to murder the Patrician, evil plots to start a war, or just the violent demise of The People's Republic of Treacle Mine Road(twice), His Grace Sir Samuel Vimes, Ankh-Morpork City Guard (Night Watch) has seen everything. And believe you me, looking down the throat of a loaded dragon with the little pilot light flickering dimly in your view is no picnic. But dragons are not very high on Vimes's list of priorities: he has to be home, punctually every night, to read a book about cows to his little son. Oh, and the anniversary of Koom Valley is coming up, which could mean all-out war between the rocks and the gritsuckers citizens of the vertically challenged and igneousish persuasion. All in a day's work. With vampires thrown in, just for fun.

The Narnia reviews are now complete - it's just a battle trying to find the right words. Most of the Pratchett reviews are complete, and I'm trying to find some art for the overview pages (Unseen University section just added). The Art of Discworld is pretty much the definitive artwork, but I hesitate to break copyright... Don't want a nasty letter from Mr Slant, do I?

I'm trying to build up a bit of interesting Bible background, for those of us without fancy reference books. I may buy myself some, eventually. Until then, I'm trying to put some brilliant teaching I've been getting for the past seven years or so up on my site - copyright is reserved in the name of the teacher, naturally - even if the subsequent wording is mine. It's hard turning ages of eclectic oral presentation and discussion into neat, tight prose, but I'm getting there. As soon as I get started on one topic, I want to branch off into three others, so organising my thoughts is the major effort here. Will try complete it as soon as I can. I can highly recommend Francine Rivers's books in the Lineage of Grace series for a dramatisation of the lives of the notable women in the lineage of Jesus, very revealing as to customs and context. Give it a whirl.

It's taking me longer than I thought to finish the Mary Renault section, but I'm hoping the font is now easier to read. (I hope the Republicans will forgive the Abu Ghraib comments - I'm very anti-war at best, and at worst I find that giving the red telephone that blows up the world to a three-year-old to play with is possibly safer than the current situation.)

The "Thoughts" section is growing: a Da Vinci Code spiel, not so much a review, as I can't force myself to read the stupid thing; more a review on a commentary I came across. About the Cathars and alleged conspiracies in the Romish church. A bunch of old hokey, of course, but interesting none the less.

I've fixed most of the links, but if you find something, please let me know at the address below.

I'm trying to add some more commentary on cartoon oddity and all-round Freudian stuff, but the topic is frankly endless. And after the fourth Evil Pony Plot instalment I'm running out of action-figures at a mean rate. Perhaps I can do something about that...

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