StanleyWheeler

I won't tell you what color we painted the house yesterday, but I may take to calling the place Grey Havens, and change my name to Cirdan. It has been a lengthy project -- and it's not yet complete as we still have all the trim to do. I am entirely responsible for the great color which the neighbors admire because I let my wife and daughter make the color selection. Lacking both freakish height (which is anything over 5'8") and scaffolding, there were stretches when I spent more time moving the ladder than spraying paint. Let me recommend spraying as opposed to brushes and rollers. We still use brushes and rollers for certain spots, but spraying is about 20 times faster for me. The great plan to leave the windows covered until after we had completed the trim came to an end last night with the terrific windstorm that rattled the paper all night long which created a sound like that of 40 snare drummers practicing outside the house.

In addition to the painting, and the weekly slaughter of the green horde about the estate, I had an interview with E.G. Stone on Thursday morning (which won't post until December 14), and an interview Thursday afternoon at the Fantasy/Sci-Fi facebook group, and a reading at the same page on Friday afternoon. I was a bit disappointed that I didn't have time to read from Power to Hurt. I had selected a few pages depicting a confrontation between Alex and the dragon hunters which were a consequence of his choices in Threading the Rude Eye. Oh well.

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I mentioned last week that I would have a few more words about Nick Cole. Let me spit them out without further ado.

This book

is the cause of my return to the bitter subject of Mr. Cole. The book came up on my Prime reading list--meaning I got to read it for free, and astute readers of this blog (if there are such folks) will note that I have a penchant for reading for free. I finished it within a couple days. It has been a long time since a book demanded my attention in such a manner.

Reading Legionnaire by Jason Anspach and Nick Cole is like freebasing candy-coated crack cocaine, or mainlining bacon. Legionnaire reminds me of H. Piper Beams' Uller Uprising with the "Koobs" standing in for the "Geeks" in the same way that an Olympic luge run reminds me of a toboggan outing. It's Iran, Somalia, Afghanistan, the Sepoy Mutiny, and the Battle of Rorke's Drift where the ragged edge of present history mingles with the fringe of deep space and a republic of the future that may have crossed into the territory of corrupt empire, and which certainly has allowed even its elite forces to be weakened by political nepotism and influence. Regardless of the setting, it always comes down to the men on the ground. They're hopelessly outnumbered, and crippled by bureaucratic impediments.

My disdain for novels written in the present tense is second only to the feeling for those involving sparkly vampire romance. I've cast aside books written in the present tense because the technique strikes me like an ice-pick jabbing into my gums. Very few writers do the present tense well. Anspach and Cole used the present tense throughout this book--and I didn't even notice until I had read nearly half of it! That's how one should do the present tense! The story seizes the reader with the subtlety of a pirate boarding party and never lets go. It's a rapidly paced yarn adorned with futuristic weapons, armor, and vehicles, but founded on human foibles and determination as exacerbated by dealings with alien peoples and unfamiliar customs.

If you read only one book in the coming month--and it's not one of mine--make it Legionnaire by Jason Anspach and Nick Cole--but, of course, that's only if you can't get one of mine.