The danger and the power, the friend and the foe

[sovay]

As the wind darkens into, I hope, a real post-Christmas blizzard, my brother and his wife have just left with their presents. We split up the holiday across the weekend this year: Christmas proper celebrated in two households, recombining for roast beef and plum pudding on Boxing Day. I had intended to make a goose with apples and quinces yesterday, but instead it wound up just a goose basted with honey and cloves; nothing went at all according to schedule, although somehow we still got a surprisingly functional afternoon of people and eggnog, not counting everyone who canceled on account of being either sick or asleep or both. I saw lesser_celery a mere two months after our last meeting. fleurdelis28 and sharhaun stayed for dinner. I received two of the best non-book presents I can remember in some time. One was the Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab's "Last of the Three Spirits," which on me smells like green bitters and musky fruits; the other a bottle-green velvet blazer which looks vaguely Renaissance-ish when left unbuttoned and when done up properly, vaguely RAF. I should probably not wear both of them every day, but right now that's not my problem.

I also got Patricia McKillip's The Bards of Bone Plain (2010), which I read last night before I failed to sleep. I agree with rushthatspeaks that it's her best work since Ombria in Shadow (2002) even as it revisits some of the core images from the Riddle-Master: riddles, harps, deep sounding notes and snapping strings, mythical archaeology, immortal provocateurs, the plain on which stands (and falls) the mysterious, endlessly spiraling tower whose door opens only to an unknown word. Its present day is a post-industrial, non-dystopian fantasy. There are royal bards and mnemonic triads; there are also steam trams and skylines. One of the protagonists is a princess, but she's by preference an archaeologist and eternally grateful she was born too far down the line of succession for her mother to do more than give her despairing looks when she turns up two hours late for a garden party in work boots, dungarees, and thousand-year-old dirt under her nails. There are echoes also of "A Matter of Music" and The Sorceress and the Cygnet (1991), but never such that the novel feels like falling back on familiar material rather than re-exploration. Its presiding figure is Nairn the Unforgiven, the Wanderer, the Fool, the Cursed, the dubiously legendary harper who failed the three bardic trials of Bone Plain and "render[ed] himself at once immortal and uninspired. Not a good example to follow." Especially given how entirely underwhelmed I was by Od Magic (2005) and frustrated by The Bell at Sealey Head (2008), I am very pleased.

Now I have to get back to grading papers.

Comments

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I was thinking about your eggnog on Christmas Eve! I had forgotten about it, and then, when you posted, I suddenly remembered it--how rich and delicious it is. (I remember you also said that eggnog is not really your thing, but man, the recipe your family makes is so delicious for those of us who *are* partial to eggnog.) .... I mention this because your notes on the food you had reminded me, again.

May the storm be stormy! Let's hear those snowflakes sing as the snow host rushes through.

[thistleingrey.livejournal.com]

Ah! Good to know about Bone Plain; I loved Ombria in Shadow, merely liked Alphabet of Thorn, and nodded through Od Magic; then I forgot to read new McKillips for a little while.

[clarionj.livejournal.com]

All the textures, tastes, smells, and colors in here! Thanks. I was taking a work break and feel I just came from a banquet in some old, fabric-ed place with food simmering in gold dishes and exotic characters strolling by. Your words always evoke entire worlds for me.

[rosefox]

I read Bone Plain and really enjoyed it and then afterwards I tried to figure out why I enjoyed it, because it has no coherent plot whatsoever. (The romance is the most obviously phoned-in part, but all of it is really quite muddled and wait-what-just-happened.) But the language is so delicious that the lack of substance is surprisingly forgivable. Like cotton candy.

[mamishka.livejournal.com]

Patricia McKillip is going to be the Writer GOH at Norwescon in Seattle in 2011. I'll have to make sure I read this before then. :)

[helivoy.livejournal.com]

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[ap-aelfwine.livejournal.com]

Glad you've had good things and goose. We cheated and had half-ducks for Christmas dinner--good, but nothing particularly interesting.

The McKillip sounds very interesting, and might be an appropriate target for the Amazon giftcard I've got sitting on my desk. Non-dystopian industrial fantasies are a rare breed. Thanks for letting me know of it.

I hope your brother and his wife got safely home--the St. Stephen's Day snow was brutal here in CT. I tried going out for a cup of tea early in the afternoon after getting home from Mass and ended up taking the car unintentionally off-road nearly within sight of home.* I've still not left the house today but to put out the bird feeders and for the dog's relief--digging out the driveway seemed useless when the little path shoveled out for the latter purpose was filled in by snowdrift within a few hours.

I hope you've had less snow, or at least haven't had to be out in it. Good luck with the grading.

*Fortunately, I didn't end up sliding to the bottom of the hill or hitting a tree, fence, or house and was able to turn the car round and drive home without further incident.