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Random thought of the day:

Whoa. I just realized Jean Ewing Ross' Illusion makes about ten times more sense now that I've read the Lymond Chronicles.

Wow. Talk about Dunnett influences.

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Had a remarkably social weekend! Met tonapah and ywong on Sat. Then headed up to SF today to see double_helix and Alex, and had lots of fun wandering around parts of SF I haven't seen before (unsurprisingly, given how little of SF I've seen). I also spent more than I should have on books ^_^. But I now possess Ruby Slippers, Golden Tears (I lost my copy), Megan Lindholm's Wizard of the Pigeons (whoo!), and Pamela Dean's Secret Country trilogy. I also feel slightly better about doing this because a) birthday and b) supporting one of the coolest bookstores I have been to.

Innate introversion and fear of unknown people is now battling with the desire to meet all the cool people on LJ. Maybe this year I will go to a con. Yikes. I'm sort of leaning toward Wiscon because Robin McKinley will be there, though I'm kind of scared I haven't read enough to contribute to intelligent discussion. And it sounds like a smaller con, which is good and less scary. It's probably too early to ask who else is planning on going.

(Ooo, the X-Files pilot is on now! I love old school Scully and her old school laptop.)

Oh, and I had Ethiopian for the first time, and it was good (although hairless cats and flat bread will now forever be associated in my mind because Alex is evil). And double_helix tempts me with the prospect of Nepalese food.

(Hee! Mosquito bite scene!)

Of course, I came home and opened my Comcast bill and they say I haven't paid it and service might be cancelled. What?! I have it set on autopay! And the internet bill doesn't show anything unpaid. Comcast has been doing some really wonky things since we moved.

And the boy will be home tomorrow and he promises he will bring me to a bookstore and buy me the Lymond Chronicles (maybe I will be bad and sneak in King Hereafter as wll).

Smith, Jeff, and Charles Vess - Rose

I picked this up because it's apparently the prequel to Smith's Bone, which a coworker at the store recommends. Unfortunately, it has rather put me off picking up Bone.

It was a rather tedious medieval fantasy bit, with origin story and origin of evil enemy story, combined with the brave princess (Rose) who Does Something. I could also guess who the enemy was and what the ultimate sacrifice was from about the second page into the story. Lots of fantasy anvils.

( Spoilers )

They have a Gaiman quote in the back, touting the book as "a beautifully painted meditation on magic, on the mistakes of youth and the little personal tragedies that grow to decide the fate of nations." I personally think it's rather hackneyed and uses cliches in no way new to the fantasy world.

Maybe it takes on added depth if one has read Bone first.