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The Jevlir Caravansary

Author: jevlir

  • One Young Voice

    Tia froze in place as she saw the group of kids gathered in the High School parking lot. Normally she was happy to join any group of young people. An excellent student and athlete, as well as beautiful and friendly, she would normally be welcomed just about anywhere on campus.

    But today was different. Today was the day of the story. She had heard the whispers, and the cut off conversations as she approached. The words “hypocrite” and “slut” had come through. She had no idea what had started it, but it was clear that somewhere between first period and lunch she had turned from everybody’s friend into a hypocrite. And she didn’t have any idea how it had happened. The one good thing was that it was the end of the day, and she was about to drive home. But now between her and her car there was this group of students, and she knew she wasn’t going to be able to escape.

    (more…)

  • Experiencing the Blue Butterfly

    This is not precisely a review, but more of a personal account of experiencing this movie. Even after it arrived from Netflix, it sat on top of our television for a couple of weeks. It never quite seemed the time to watch it. Finally my wife, who is better at diving into these things than I am, said, “Let’s watch it now!” And so I braced myself, and we did.

    Why was this such a struggle for me? It’s going on two years now since our son (my stepson) died of cancer after a five year struggle. He was just 17 years old. Those last five years of his life were spent off and on fighting the battle with cancer, and even more importantly, fighting the battle against those who wanted to take away his life before he actually died.

    The biggest fight in cancer, we found, was against fear. Whether or not you expect a cure, you have to learn how to keep on living. Some friends, relatives, and neighbors aren’t going to be helpful in that line. They will either become disheartened very early, and want to spend the intervening time in mourning, or they may focus so heavily on finding a cure that all else fades into the background. The first group steal your joy from day to day; the second group simply can’t understand why you won’t try just anything, even if it does not present any measurable chance of helping.

    (more…)

  • Book: Long Time Gone

    This is billed as a novel of suspense, though it has a couple of pretty good mysteries embedded in the suspense. I have not read that much by J. A. Jance, but I do enjoy her style of storytelling, and I found this one a positive experience. The personal relationships are fairly tangled, but the characters are interesting and the story keeps moving.

    The story is set in Seattle, and brings back an older character, J. P. Beaumont, now an investigator for the State’s Attorney. His investigation will lead him through obstruction by the Seattle Police as well as by an assortment of other characters, none of whom seem to want a 50 year old murder solved. I guessed the outcome wrong on the main murder, though I caught on to the correct villain in a second murder before the secret was revealed. I usually regard it as a good sign that I can get some things right, but not all–the book is logical, but not obvious.

  • Book: Destiny’s Forge

    I enjoy the Man-Kzin wars series, but they aren’t on my list of favorites–good, but not exceptional. Thus Destiny’s Forge was an wonderful surprise. Expecting something merely interesting and entertaining, I was presented with something fascinating and challenging yet certainly no less entertaining. To put is simply, this is a great book.

    The characters are strong and portrayed in depth. You might think some character is getting stereotyped at some points, but simply continue reading and you’ll find that there are greater depths. The cultural backgrounds remain largely logical and comprehensible, but are not so simple that you constantly predict what everyone will do. Mysteries can remain mysteries, yet when their solution arrives, you can agree that the solution fits.

    The details of space battles are much more limited than in the Honor Harrington books, though I think they are just right to carry this story forward. The politics are interesting. In keeping with its setting on Kzinhome, we hear much more about Kzinti politics than human, but that only makes it more fun.

    Paul Chafe goes immediately onto my short list of authors whose books get an automatic pass to the top of my reading list as quickly as they appear.

  • Book: Dragon’s Fire

    When I read the first two books set on Pern by Todd McCaffrey I really was not too impressed. Because they were from Pern, and the stories were OK, I knew I would keep reading them, but I didn’t feel that they had the same charm as Anne McCaffrey’s own work.

    For the first few pages of this book I felt much the same way, but over time the story became more interesting and the characters more engaging, and for a while again I simply enjoyed Pern. The story is fairly simple, dealing again with the period of time just before a fall when there are skeptics who claim thread will never fall, and others who disagree on the preparations. I really appreciate the effort to deal with the implications of some of the social practices started by the colonists as we see some of the impact of the practice of shunning, something that had practically disappeared from Pern during the time of F’lar and Lessa.

    We see a bit of overlap with Dragon’s Kin, and you may enjoy seeing some further development of those themes and characters. We also learn more about the watch whers.

    All in all, this book was a good experience, and while I doubt I’ll ever rate Todd McCaffrey as the equal of his mother, I’ve definitely upgraded my desire to read his writing in the future.

  • Book: Out on a Limb

    With an endorsement on the front cover from Elizabeth Peters, and another on the back that said, “She’s hilarious . . .” I had hopes for this mystery novel. After reading it, however, I have to rate it a 3 out of 5. I do find some of the characters engaging and interesting, but the story is scattered, the mystery is a bit weak, and the jokes fall short of hilarious for me.

    The strong female lead is diminished, in my view, by her weak and apparently inept boyfriend, a police Lieutenant who can’t seem to see fairly obvious things. At one point when the lead (Claire Malloy) is making an excuse for not telling him something that she really should have as a good citizen, she notes that the police have much greater resources than she has, and that a little simple police work would have produced the result. She’s right, it probably would have, thus indicating that the police work wasn’t done. It seems that Malloy wins not through intelligence or hard work, but rather through a combination of fortuitous information and police laziness or ineptness.

    Interesting characters might get me to pick up another book in this series. The story in this one will stand against that. We’ll have to see what happens.

  • Book: Claws and Effect

    Rita Mae Brown and her co-author Sneaky Pie Brown collaborate to produce this delightful new volume in the Mrs. Murphy mystery series. Mrs. Murphy is a cat, of course, whose human is named Mary Minor Haristeen, the village postmistress for Crozet, Virginia. I’m a sucker for all things feline, including feline detectives. If you don’t like books in which animals behave intelligently and converse, though in this case not with humans, then you’ll hate this one.

    The mystery begins this time in Crozet hospital, where an unexpected target is killed in an unexpected place. It will take all of Mrs. Murphy’s senses and good sense to solve this one and keep her human alive at the same time.

    For more information, see Claws and Effect.

  • Susanna: A Transformation

    For a literal translation of Daniel 13, “Susanna” see USCCB – NAB – Daniel 13. This is not a translation or even a paraphrase. One might even call it a “transformation.” What I am attempting to do is to rewrite this short story into a modern form. I allow myself to alter the order of the telling, what is told and what is ignored, but not to alter the facts of the story as recorded. I also allow myself to add some details and to exchange telling the story for created conversations. I chose names for the unnamed players at random from Chronicles. For this story I assume that the Daniel of the story is the same as the main character in the book of Daniel, though not all interpreters would agree. You can judge the results.

    The elders gather outside what would have been the city gates, if only they had been back in Judah, and this had been a city with gates. As it was, it was a quite prosperous little community for exiles from Judah living in Babylon. Those who lived here were the elders, people of importance in the community, and many who had good jobs working for Babylonians and thus had money to live relatively good lives in exile.

    Daniel stood to the side of the group of elders, watching with interest. His position in the court of Babylon gave him entry to assemblies such as this, but he was still too young to be invited to participate. He felt his chest tighten, and anguish gripped him as he heard the elders call for Susanna. Susanna was the wife of the well-known businessman, the most prosperous member of the community, Joakim. Nothing had ever been even whipered against the character of Joakim and his wife. Behind her followed her father Hilkiah and his wife, along with other members of her family, all weeping.

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  • Book: Changelings

    This little book is the first volume in a series The Twins of Petaybee which continues the story of the planet Petaybee that was told in Powers that Be, Power Play, and Power Lines.

    Those who really like McCaffrey’s writing will really like these little books. They’re somewhat lighter than the Dragonriders series, but they still have plenty of fun and interesting characters and cultures. Don’t expect excessive depths of mystery or strategy; everything is kept on a much simpler level than that.

    The next volume in this series will appear in December of 2006.

  • Convenient Timing

    The new arrival joined the crowd in the bar of The Featherless Parrot, one of Shalem’s business inns. What was meant by a “business inn” was simply a place where it was more likely that the patrons were making deals than that they were being entertained. It suited the visitor to be in such a place.

    Those who watched him—and there were many—saw a youngish man with a slightly effeminate look. It was so obvious that he didn’t really belong in this place, that most assumed that he really did. Nobody could be as weak and inattentive as he looked, and yet alive, unless he was very competent indeed.

    It was some time before anyone decided to contact the visitor. Making contact with a stranger in a business bar could be dangerous, though this one didn’t look like he was waiting for anyone in particular. He seemed to be just enjoying a drink and some dinner, as unlikely as that might be. It was possible he was looking to hire, and was waiting for someone to contact him.

    “Welcome to Shalem.” The tone was not welcoming, but the visitor looked up into the face of a middle aged man.

    “Really?” he said, with a slight twinkle in his eyes. “I kind of doubt it.”

    “Well, as welcome as anyone is here. Why are you here?” It was abrupt, but one approach was as good as another.

    “I’m just looking around,” said the visitor. “I’m in from Malethia via Aagerinar, security consultant to the East Coast Commercial Guild.”

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