Month: June 2010

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms

Recently, I finished reading N. K. Jemisin’s debut fantasy novel The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms.  This was a bit of a change for me since I don’t usually read fantasy books set wholly in other realms (I’m more of a contemporary fantasy guy).  But I’m glad I stepped out of my comfort zone and picked up Kingdoms.

Here’s the blurbage from the back of the book:

Yeine Darr is an outcast from the barbarian north. But when her mother dies under mysterious circumstances, she is summoned to the majestic city of Sky, seat of the ruling Arameri family. There, to her shock, Yeine is named an heiress to the king. But the throne of the Hundred Thousand Kingdoms is not easily won, and Yeine is thrust into a vicious power struggle with a pair of cousins she never knew she had. As she fights for her life, she draws ever closer to the secrets of her mother’s death and her family’s bloody history.

With the fate of the world hanging in the balance, Yeine will learn how perilous it can be when love and hate — and gods and mortals — are bound inseparably.

For me, one of the best parts of the book was the rich mythology that underlies it.  Jemisin has managed to come up with something vaguely reminiscent of real-world mythology without a]resorting to pastiche.  Her gods are striking too because of their humanity: they fight, make up, and have sex with each other just like mortals (according to the story, humans were literally made in the gods’ image, so mortals are basically the gods writ small).  Jemisin also makes her divinities memorable by turning them into slaves.  Bound in human form by another god, they are forced to serve the ruling Arameri family much like demons serve human magicians in Jonathan Stroud’s Bartimaeus Trilogy.  It’s an unusual approach and it ends up making the gods more believable since they’re forced to interact with other characters more often than your standard fantasy gods.

My enjoyment of Kingdoms was almost curtailed by the sex scene that appears toward the end of the book.  I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not a fan of sex scenes in literature.  More often than not, they tend to be poorly written.  But the scene in Kingdoms is both brief and relevant to the plot.  It’s also notable for being one of the few sex scenes I’ve read where the writer calls a penis a ‘penis’ rather than resorting to one of the many flowery euphemisms that abound.  Although it might seem overly clinical to some, I think Jemisin’s word chocie had the effect of making the sex scene seem less like a low-grade attempt at smut and more like basic narration.

I don’t want to spoil the book for anyone, but I’ll conclude by saying that Jemisin manages to produce a twist ending that doesn’t leave the reader feeling gypped.

Kingdoms is the first book in a trilogy.  According to Jemisin’s website, the second book will be coming out this Fall.

OVERALL GRADE: A

The limits of Egyptology

I came across this picture of a statue of Amenope and his wife Hathor this evening.

It’s a fairly typical New Kingdom statue of an aristocratic couple, but it made me think about the limits of the archaeological record.

As I looked at them sitting next to each other in a polite display of conjugal affection, I found myself starting to wonder what Amenope and his wife were like in real life.  Was he a bore?  Was she a nag?  Did they comfort each other through life’s innumerable storms, or did they quietly grow apart?  Were they happy with their lives, or did they want something more?

Egyptology has taught us a great many things about the ancient Egyptians.  But, alas, some things will always remain lost in  the past.

Fun with synopses

This has been the sort of day where I wish I’d just stayed in bed, curled up under the covers.  Between the sudden death of my cell phone and a mysterious water feature that started cascading down from my bathroom ceiling, it’s been an eventful day to say the least.

Being the glutton for punishment that I am, I decided to work on my synopsis for A Theft of Bones after I’d ordered my new phone and the landlord had been by to stop the ceiling fountain.  Let me tell you, you haven’t had fun until you’ve condensed a 400 page manuscript into five double-spaced pages.  It seems like it should be a piece of cake.  But it’s not.

At least I have something to show for my pain and suffering.  After hours and hours of fussing, I have a decent five page summary of the novel.  I might send it to some of the Beta Readers to get their opinion.  I might even send it to one or two people who haven’t read the novel  just to see if it can hold up even without any prior knowledge of the story.

I’m not quite done synopsizing.  Some agents want a mini-synopsis of no more than two pages.  Now, the real fun begins!

Scott Pilgrim

A friend of mine recently told me about the Scott Pilgrim series and, although comic books aren’t usually my thing, I decided to check it out.  The story follows the eponymous hero, a 23-year old slacker from Toronto, and his quest to date beautiful American delivery ninja Ramona Flowers.  But, as Shakespeare said, the course of true lover never did run smoothly and Scott must defeat Ramona’s seven evil exes before she can officially become his girlfriend.

If you’re looking for a believable plot, Scott Pilgrim isn’t for you.  The series is unabashedly over the top and it isn’t afraid to deploy the occasional deus ex machina.  But it’s also wickedly funny, crammed with pop culture references and nerdy gamer humor.

If you’re looking for something funny to read that won’t take forever, I highly recommend Scott Pilgrim.  This August, you can also see it on the big screen.

Unnatural History

When I heard that Cartoon Network had a series set in a natural history museum, I had to check it out.  Unnatural History is a new live-action series starring Kevin G. Schmidt, Jordan Gavaris, and Italia Ricci.  Schmidt plays Henry Griffin, the son of anthropologists who has traveled to all kinds of exotic locations with his parents.  To give him more stability, his parents have sent him to live with his uncle and cousin Jasper (played by Gavaris) in Washington, DC.  Rounding out the gang is their Strong Female Friend (TM) Maggie, played by Ricci.  The three of them attend a high school located in the fictional National Museum Complex (which is clearly modeled on the Smithsonian).

The episode I saw involved Jasper curating an exhibit in the museum (apparently, the museum lets one do this every year).  His exhibit is about the Pony Express and his cousin Henry is eager to help him make it a success.  Eventually, they go off on a search for some missing silver from a mine in Nevada that turns out to be contaminated with some nasty bacteria.  Poor Jasper gets sick, and it’s up to Henry to save the day.

Overall, I thought the show was decent.  The plot is outlandish, but fun.  I know next to nothing about the Wild West, so I can’t comment on the accuracy of the underlying history, but I have to give props to the writers for basing the mystery around something other than a mummy or a supposedly cursed jewel.  I also like the fact that, although Jasper is portrayed as an excellent student, the writers resisted the temptation to turn him into a pencil-necked geek with Coke-bottle glasses and a pocket protector.

The show’s major downside is that Henry is in danger of becoming a Mary Sue. Because Henry has traveled the world with his parents, he’s acquired a very diverse skill set and, when he’s forced to use one of his skills, the audience is treated to a little flashback to illustrate how he acquired it.  In moderation, it’s a cool device, but the writers need to be very careful that they don’t rely on it too much, lest Henry become a perfect cardboard cutout rather than a believable character.

Beginning of the Endgame

Tonight I finished making revisions  to A Theft of Bones based on my beta readers’ comments.  The most notable changes were the addition of a prologue and a new ending to the final battle.  There were also a number of dialog tweaks and scene adjustments.  In isolation, none of the changes are that dramatic, but, taken together, I think they make for a stronger manuscript.

I’ve sent the revised manuscript off to The Physicist and, if he doesn’t see anything wrong, I’ll be ready to start querying (AKA decorating one’s wall with rejection letters).

It feels good to be done with A Theft of Bones, for now at least.  I’ve had a blast writing it, but it’s time to push it out of the nest and see if it can fly.  Now I can begin work on my novel set in ancient Egypt.

The writing cycle begins anew…

Oyako Donburi

Those of you who know me know that I hate to cook.  But because The Physicist is selfish and refuses to come over and do all my cooking for me, I’m forced to undertake the drudgery of food preparation much more often than I’d like.

Because I hate cooking so much, I’m always on the lookout for recipes that are quick and don’t require a lot of burdensome chopping.  Today, I made a wonderful dish that’s both delicious and easy to prepare.  It originally served four, but I’ve scaled it down to a single portion:

Oyako Donburi

1 chicken breast

1/4 cup rice

1/2 cup dashi

2 tbsp soy sauce

1 tbsp mirin

1 1/2 tbsp white sugar

1 egg

1 green onion (optional)

First, prepare the rice.  Then, chop the chicken into thin strips and set aside.  Next, take a skillet and pour the dashi in and turn on low heat.  Mix in the soy sauce, mirin, and sugar.  Add the chicken pieces and simmer for a few minutes on low heat.  Then, turn up the heat and, while you wait for the liquid to boil, beat the egg in a bowl.  Once the liquid is boiling, add the egg and reduce the heat.  Let the whole thing simmer for several more minutes until the egg is cooked.  Spoon your rice into a bowl and top with the contents of the skillet.  Garnish with chopped green onion.