Monday, October 17, 2011
Awesome Word (Or Phrase) of the Unspecified Random Time Period
Gallimaufry: Noun: A "gallimaufry" is either a confused jumble or medley of things or a hash made from minced or diced meats. I have no idea where I first heard this, as it is not a word in much common use. I find this to be a great pity, as it is an extremely awesome word!
Sunday, October 16, 2011
The Girl In the Steel Corset
By Kady Cross
The Steampunk Chronicles
The Girl: Finley Jayne outwardly seems a purely ordinary Victorian serving girl, apart from her beauty. What no one knows, however, is that she has a dark side--a split personality that enables her to knock out a man with one punch. A punch, or, in the case of the cruel, boorish son of her latest employer, a kick.
The Duke: Griffin King is the exeedingly rich, rather eccentric young Duke of Greythorne. His parents had discovered the Organites, tiny creatures able to exactly mimic the body's cellular behavior. Griffin takes Finley in after he runs her over as she is running from her employers' house after defending herself from their son. His friends protest, correctly believing her dangerous, but inncorrectly assuming her dangerous to their friend and themselves.
The Genius: Emily O'Brien is an amazingly talented inventor and mechanic, although unrecognised by the world at large. She lives in Greythorne House and in the course of the story creates a terrifing and beautiful mechanical cat, the fantastical corset mentioned in the title, and saves the lives of Sam and Griffin both.
The Mechanical Man: Sam Morgan was attacked and almost killed by an automaton gone berserk. Emily Saved him, but in the proscess replaced his heart, right arm, and parts of his shoulder and legs with metal and Organite. Sam now fears machines and sometimes almost hates Emily for what she did.
The Mechanist: A criminal mastermind who uses automatons, the Mechanist was behind the attack on Sam as well as several other crimes. He is currently carrying out a terrifying plot against Griffin and his band of strays, as well as stealing several objects relating the the Queen.
Will Griff and his friends survive the coming battles, and can Finley come to terms with her dark side before someone gets hurt or she loses her new friends? Read the book and find out.
I recently got into steampunk, and I must say I love it! Robots and airships and corsets, oh my! The Girl in the Steel Corset is a wonderful example of the genre, and the writing, plot, and characters are fantastic! A wonderfully shadowy London is revealed within, gleaming with rivets and steel. I love this book, I really do, and am waiting eagerly and rather hyperactively for the sequel. There WILL be a sequel, I must believe, or I shall be quite put out.
The Steampunk Chronicles
The Girl: Finley Jayne outwardly seems a purely ordinary Victorian serving girl, apart from her beauty. What no one knows, however, is that she has a dark side--a split personality that enables her to knock out a man with one punch. A punch, or, in the case of the cruel, boorish son of her latest employer, a kick.
The Duke: Griffin King is the exeedingly rich, rather eccentric young Duke of Greythorne. His parents had discovered the Organites, tiny creatures able to exactly mimic the body's cellular behavior. Griffin takes Finley in after he runs her over as she is running from her employers' house after defending herself from their son. His friends protest, correctly believing her dangerous, but inncorrectly assuming her dangerous to their friend and themselves.
The Genius: Emily O'Brien is an amazingly talented inventor and mechanic, although unrecognised by the world at large. She lives in Greythorne House and in the course of the story creates a terrifing and beautiful mechanical cat, the fantastical corset mentioned in the title, and saves the lives of Sam and Griffin both.
The Mechanical Man: Sam Morgan was attacked and almost killed by an automaton gone berserk. Emily Saved him, but in the proscess replaced his heart, right arm, and parts of his shoulder and legs with metal and Organite. Sam now fears machines and sometimes almost hates Emily for what she did.
The Mechanist: A criminal mastermind who uses automatons, the Mechanist was behind the attack on Sam as well as several other crimes. He is currently carrying out a terrifying plot against Griffin and his band of strays, as well as stealing several objects relating the the Queen.
Will Griff and his friends survive the coming battles, and can Finley come to terms with her dark side before someone gets hurt or she loses her new friends? Read the book and find out.
I recently got into steampunk, and I must say I love it! Robots and airships and corsets, oh my! The Girl in the Steel Corset is a wonderful example of the genre, and the writing, plot, and characters are fantastic! A wonderfully shadowy London is revealed within, gleaming with rivets and steel. I love this book, I really do, and am waiting eagerly and rather hyperactively for the sequel. There WILL be a sequel, I must believe, or I shall be quite put out.
Sunday, October 2, 2011
The Color of Magic
By Terry Pratchett
A Novel Of Discworld
Ankh-Morpork has just recieved its first tourist--Twoflower from the Agatean Empire--and the notoriously inept wizard Rincewind has volunteered to be his guide. Well, sort of volunteered, in the sense that he could, if he so chose, leave Twoflower to his fate, and he is not going to get paid for being his guide. He could leave the tourist, that is, if Rincewind wanted to die, as Lord Vetinari made perfectly clear. Now, Rincewind is not a wise wizard, nor powerful, nor brave. What he is, is so cowardly that he can survive almost anything, and he also has one of the Great Spells hanging out in his brain, causing him to be unable to learn any other spell and to be expelled from the Unseen University. So he is really the perfect guide for Twoflower. For, as Rincewind put it, "if complete and utter chaos were lightning, then [Twoflower would] be the sort to stand on a hilltop in a thunderstorm wearing wet copper armor shouting [uncomplimentary things about the gods]." After a misunderstanding in which Twoflower accidentally causes all of Ankh-Morpork to be burnt down, the tourist and his reluctant guide set off across the Disc, narrowly escaping dragons, Bel-Shamharoth*, trolls, and falling off the edge of the Disc. Of course, they do get--oops, can't tell you that, it would spoil the story. Go read it and find out for yourself.
Technically the first book in the Discworld series, The Color of Magic won't really give you any information on Discworld that you wouldn't get from starting with any other book in the series, so it really doesn't matter which you read first. Anyway, I loved (of course) this book! It is over-the-top funny, and just generally awesome! Terry Pratchett, as always, seems unable to write a single paragraph that doesn't poke fun at the world in general, and humanity in specific. The Discworld is a beautifully realised world with fantastic characters and well satirized cliches.Love it, read it, tell other people to read it, re-read it, repeat!
*Also known as the Soul Render, the Sender of Eight, and "the flip side of the coin of which Good and Evil are but one side." Whatever it (he?) is, it has too many tentacles for comfort.
A Novel Of Discworld
Ankh-Morpork has just recieved its first tourist--Twoflower from the Agatean Empire--and the notoriously inept wizard Rincewind has volunteered to be his guide. Well, sort of volunteered, in the sense that he could, if he so chose, leave Twoflower to his fate, and he is not going to get paid for being his guide. He could leave the tourist, that is, if Rincewind wanted to die, as Lord Vetinari made perfectly clear. Now, Rincewind is not a wise wizard, nor powerful, nor brave. What he is, is so cowardly that he can survive almost anything, and he also has one of the Great Spells hanging out in his brain, causing him to be unable to learn any other spell and to be expelled from the Unseen University. So he is really the perfect guide for Twoflower. For, as Rincewind put it, "if complete and utter chaos were lightning, then [Twoflower would] be the sort to stand on a hilltop in a thunderstorm wearing wet copper armor shouting [uncomplimentary things about the gods]." After a misunderstanding in which Twoflower accidentally causes all of Ankh-Morpork to be burnt down, the tourist and his reluctant guide set off across the Disc, narrowly escaping dragons, Bel-Shamharoth*, trolls, and falling off the edge of the Disc. Of course, they do get--oops, can't tell you that, it would spoil the story. Go read it and find out for yourself.
Technically the first book in the Discworld series, The Color of Magic won't really give you any information on Discworld that you wouldn't get from starting with any other book in the series, so it really doesn't matter which you read first. Anyway, I loved (of course) this book! It is over-the-top funny, and just generally awesome! Terry Pratchett, as always, seems unable to write a single paragraph that doesn't poke fun at the world in general, and humanity in specific. The Discworld is a beautifully realised world with fantastic characters and well satirized cliches.Love it, read it, tell other people to read it, re-read it, repeat!
*Also known as the Soul Render, the Sender of Eight, and "the flip side of the coin of which Good and Evil are but one side." Whatever it (he?) is, it has too many tentacles for comfort.
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