School blahs (and book foo)
Jan. 8th, 2004 11:40 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
newnumber6Well, second day at school and am just at the beginning of my huge gap between my class ending at 11:30, and my class beginning at 7pm. At well, at least my 8:30 am class has a cute girl in it that I can use as justification for waking up and going on those difficult days. Granted, she's likely not aware of my existence nor ever will be, but that's not required for such a thing.
No such luck in my 10am class but by that time I'm already awake and at school anyway.
On to book foo...
Currently reading: Swan Songs, the complete Hooded Swan collection, by Brian Stableford.
Actually, it's something of a reread, as I read the individual books, but I bought a hardcover collecting them all before. The author wrote it in part to create a protagonist who's views on violence match his own, rather than the typical sci-fi protagonist... that it's wasteful, often futile, and almost inevitably makes things worse. So, the main character very rarely gets into physical conflict, but makes up for it in his abrasive and sarcastic personality.
He's a star-pilot, and the book starts out with his rescue after being marooned on a desolate planet for two years. His engineer died in the crash. On the planet though, he picked up a mental parasite/symbiote which he doesn't want but can't get rid of, which basically butts in its opinion whenever it feels like it (the story's told in first person). Grainger's cynical, sarcastic, nearly pacifistic, and extremely resistant to anyone changing him, even for the better, and of course to anyone owning him. Because of the terms of his rescue, however, he's forced into an arrangement which essentially makes him owned for a duration, to fly the fastest and most maneuverable ship ever built through often dangerous missions. He doesn't want to be
there. He's also got this strange penchant for risking himself to save others, but does it in such a way (insulting them if necessary) so that they don't like him for it. Really, he's a fascinating character, and I've thought of trying to play him (or rather, a homage) on a MU* somewhere, many times. Except he doesn't really mesh all that well with Marvel, and I don't play in any space games. If someone started a Firefly MU* I might try it there.. I'd have to remove his mind-partner (no aliens in Firefly), maybe change it to a slight insanity as a result of his long isolation to keep some of the flavour. Of course,
there's not likely to be a Firefly MU* (I've heard someone suggest it, but nothing serious to my knowledge), so it's probably a pipe dream, despite my mostly-finished app for him I did inmy spare time once for kicks. ;)
Another reason I like them is that Stableford has a grounding in biology, so there's nice sprinklets of evolutionary theory and interesting ecosystem information (even ones based on the space-operaish elements which aren't really kosher with the laws of physics).
Anyway, I'm on the second book out of six right now, each just a little over a hundred pages. Good stuff. :)
No such luck in my 10am class but by that time I'm already awake and at school anyway.
On to book foo...
Currently reading: Swan Songs, the complete Hooded Swan collection, by Brian Stableford.
Actually, it's something of a reread, as I read the individual books, but I bought a hardcover collecting them all before. The author wrote it in part to create a protagonist who's views on violence match his own, rather than the typical sci-fi protagonist... that it's wasteful, often futile, and almost inevitably makes things worse. So, the main character very rarely gets into physical conflict, but makes up for it in his abrasive and sarcastic personality.
He's a star-pilot, and the book starts out with his rescue after being marooned on a desolate planet for two years. His engineer died in the crash. On the planet though, he picked up a mental parasite/symbiote which he doesn't want but can't get rid of, which basically butts in its opinion whenever it feels like it (the story's told in first person). Grainger's cynical, sarcastic, nearly pacifistic, and extremely resistant to anyone changing him, even for the better, and of course to anyone owning him. Because of the terms of his rescue, however, he's forced into an arrangement which essentially makes him owned for a duration, to fly the fastest and most maneuverable ship ever built through often dangerous missions. He doesn't want to be
there. He's also got this strange penchant for risking himself to save others, but does it in such a way (insulting them if necessary) so that they don't like him for it. Really, he's a fascinating character, and I've thought of trying to play him (or rather, a homage) on a MU* somewhere, many times. Except he doesn't really mesh all that well with Marvel, and I don't play in any space games. If someone started a Firefly MU* I might try it there.. I'd have to remove his mind-partner (no aliens in Firefly), maybe change it to a slight insanity as a result of his long isolation to keep some of the flavour. Of course,
there's not likely to be a Firefly MU* (I've heard someone suggest it, but nothing serious to my knowledge), so it's probably a pipe dream, despite my mostly-finished app for him I did inmy spare time once for kicks. ;)
Another reason I like them is that Stableford has a grounding in biology, so there's nice sprinklets of evolutionary theory and interesting ecosystem information (even ones based on the space-operaish elements which aren't really kosher with the laws of physics).
Anyway, I'm on the second book out of six right now, each just a little over a hundred pages. Good stuff. :)
