Books, books, books

[mandragora]

Last week was luverly. Especially seeing Maz, T'lyr and whitecrow again. And alsoa of course. Goes without saying.

But it's been ages since I saw whitecrow, T'lyr and Mazzy. Far too long. Had the pleasure of whitecrow and alsoa's company again on Friday night, round at my place where there was (yet more) Firefly pimping. And another one bites the dust. Whitecrow was converted and will be buying the DVD when it comes out. I had in mind that this is due to take place in October but alsoa thinks its December. Rats!

Bought SXF magazine on Saturday and read a review of Firefly. The salient points were that Firefly was doomed from the beginning, that an anti-establishment show wouldn't wear well in the US in the present political climate. It's a point, although I tend to suspect that the lack of marketing and screwing around with the running order probably contributed more to the show's tragic demise.

Clearly SXF recognises quality when it sees it, though, referring to Firefly as:

'without a doubt the best thing to have hit SF TV for ages

and

Firefly was SF for adults.

That's it exactly. SXF acknowledges the strength of characterisation, the wit, the humour and calls it Joss Whedon's finest achievement.

Tomorrow night it's the last ever episode.

Sob.

Whitecrow stayed at my place on Friday night leading to some wistful reminiscing and wishing that smaragdgrun was here. Last time I had whitecrow to stay, Smara was here too. Wish you were here, Smara!

And, oh yeah, am officially World's Crappiest Hostess - managed to have no milk and no bread in to feed the poor, starving whitecrow for breakfast. She was forced to make do with *ahem* a rice cake...

Bought a few books on Saturday and now face the agonising choice of what to read next. Serendipitously I just finished The Catch Trap by Marion Zimmer Bradley, which is a gay novel set in the world of the circus, specifically the flying acts, in 1940s and 1950s America. It's a pretty good novel, IMO, and my gratitude to uschickens for donating it to the Brit-girlies before she (alas) departed for home.

So, the question now is do I read the latest Michelle West novel in the Sun Sword series? This is precisely the type of fantasy I like best, multi-layered, intricately woven, well characterised and with some fascinating world building.

Or do I go for the Hidden Warrior by Lynn Flewelling, which is guaranteed to be both well written and slashy as hell. I could follow the exploits of boy-Tobin who-everyone-thinks-is-a-girl, with all the complications that flow from that.

Possibly I should read Swordspoint by Ellen Kushner, in preparation for the sort-of-sequel, which has recently been published. Definitely slashy, but most importantly it's meant to be a good read.

Then there's an Andre Norton novel, three novels published as one, called Warlock. Norton's Witchworld series was one of my favourite reads in my formative years. Still remains a favourite. And this one has witches and slavery and telepathy. Yum.

Finally (but not least) there's another instalment in Kate Elliott's Crown of Stars series. Another fine fantasy series and if I don't like it quite as much as her Jaran series this still remains a favourite.

Decisions, decisions.

Of course, this means that I'll be putting off (yet again) reading Order of the Phoenix, which alsoa kindly lent to me. *looks guiltily alsoa's way*

Wonder if I'm the last person of a fannish bent who intends to read OotP but hasn't actually yet done so...

Off to bed to try to sleep in the exceptionally hot weather (by British standards). The talk is of breaking records. Oh, joy!