A Rainy Saturday

“Huh. Looks like rain.”

Indeed. We had a catastrophic flood this summer, and as we sit we’re still at about 40" of rain for the year. Average annual is about 35", and most years we’ve lived here, it’s been more like 25-28". Any way you slice it, it’s been a good year for rain.

So off-and-on today, it looked like low clouds, bright sunshine, thunderstorms, and everything in between.

Book: Embers of War

So after I couldn’t retain the will to live (see next review), I switched over to Gareth J. Powell’s excellent “Embers of War” book, the first of a trilogy

The jacket summary is solid:

The sentient warship Trouble Dog was built for violence, yet following a brutal war, she is disgusted by her role in a genocide. Stripped of her weaponry and seeking to atone, she joins the House of Reclamation, an organization dedicated to rescuing ships in distress. When a civilian ship goes missing in a disputed system, Trouble Dog and her new crew of loners, captained by Sal Konstanz, are sent on a rescue mission.

Meanwhile, light years away, intelligence officer Ashton Childe is tasked with locating the poet, Ona Sudak, who was aboard the missing spaceship. What Childe doesn’t know is that Sudak is not the person she appears to be. A straightforward rescue turns into something far more dangerous, as Trouble Dog, Konstanz and Childe find themselves at the center of a conflict that could engulf the entire galaxy. If she is to save her crew, Trouble Dog is going to have to remember how to fight . . .

This was just the book I needed after this week of uncertainty, layoffs, and general work politics. We’ve been driving, hard at a delivery date in November (itself a no-no in Amazon’s calendar), and my people are fraying around the edges. I haven’t been sleeping, with new and vibrant nightmares each day. Latest was watching pitifully as one of my cattle tried to get to its feet, but its lower front leg was broken so it collapsed each time, injuring itself further.

One doesn’t have to be Freud to see the symbolism.

In any case, the book appeared suddenly in my Audible queue. I didn’t have to buy it; it was just THERE. As I started listening to it, I recognized it. I’ve apparently heard it before, but had zero recollection. Guess I need to journal more book reviews.

The central conceit is the “Trouble Dog”, a sentient ship. The “Dog” was part of a pack of ships fromt he “Carnivore” class where their AIs are a cyborg amalgam of human stem cells, dogs/wolves, and high-level machine AI. The ships they control can house up to 300, but really require ‘0’ since the AI can run the ship.

This first book in the series balances a boatload for universe-building and a central through-line chase plot with several heel-turn moments. It times at about 9 hours of audiobook, but it just moves. Some of the characters work, and others are more background for future entries in the series.

The plot centers on a planet-side evade-and-survive narrative, contrasted with the journey of the Trouble Dog. Both weave around the redemption narrative of beings following the genocide of an entire planet.

Book: After Midnight by Daphne du Maurier

I got suckered-in by an NPR “Fresh Air” review.

This is an awfully good book, and in the moment, I find it quite entertaining. Daphne du Maurier is the author that gave us the genesis for “The Birds” (adapted by Hitchcock) and Don’t Look Now. She’s prolific, and this book has a foreward by Stephen King himself.

I used to think King’s penchant for short stories was odd. Now I just realize he was following in du Maurier’s well-worn footsteps.

In any case, the book is a collection of short stories. Listening, it’s 21 hours long, with each story being a 1 to 2 hour listen. Of 13 stories, I made it through….3?

These are unsettling, paranormal stories. If you have my brain chemsitry, they apparently make you start doubting reality. That’s….not good.

I did enjoy “Don’t Look Now” quite a bit.