Have I mentioned that a Steph Swainston version of the Wild Hunt is about the sexiest thing I can think of at the moment? Hell to the yeah. Modern Times wins for that alone. (Third in series with The Year Of Our War and No Present Like Time. Published as Dangerous Offspring in the US. Buy at least the first.)

I mean sexy in a platonic sense, of course. Although the obligatory sex in this book was hilarious.

I wanted more from the book. More about virtually everybody in it. And more Shift. I was perhaps not so interested in Cyan, at least until the end (now am positively frothing, chewing and Wall-building to know what happens), but Swallow's development was very good (and personally satisfying), I'd give good chocolate money to know what Lightning and San talked about, more Tern could never fail to be a good thing and I wanted to see Rayne comforted at the end, because a character who has been pushing 80 for almost 2000 years demands respect, dammit.

Jant remains a very satisfying narrator. Even Tanager, a character you'd expect me to be pretty uninterested in, towards the end was indeed interesting me. The mention of Dunlin (from the first book) was tantalising. The worldbuilder in me was left feeling especially cock-blocked and hard-done-by and emo-builder by all the hints and things left dangling about the Shift and how it works - mission accomplished, therefore, if the mission is to sell me more books. I was also surprised not to see more of how the Insect happenings turned out. Come to think of it, there was a lot that needed to be mentioned at the end and wasn't. At least this wasn't the last of a trilogy, if the author's comments elsewhere are anything to go by.

This time around while rereading the first two books I decided to introduce my own slightly counterintuitive pronunciations for some of the Awian words and place names. For no other reason than that "Avendunn" sounds prettier to me than "Aundinn" for Awndyn, "Avia" obviously makes more sense than "Aweea" for Awia, Rhydanne obviously need an antisocial shrug of a schwa ("rhuhdan" instead of "rye-dan") and fyrd is cooler as "furred" than "feared". This was only for fun and I wouldn't be surprised to learn I'm completely wrong; Swainston doesn't include pronunciation guides, and I'm not going to write and ask her (though she does seem to answer correspondence, which is awesome).

(aka "Do they even TRY to make films not based on children's toys or comic books any more?")

Went and saw 30 Days of Night last night with both brothers and two friends of the not-technically-related brother. (Slen and I cut quite a dash in the long black elven leather coats. Also, I am still extremely scared that my baby brother can drive now.)

The film was ok. I very much liked the setting, thought it was utilised reasonably well, enjoyed being several steps ahead (as usual) of the dim cast of characters in working out what was happening, thought the plot was so-so and found the villains rather uninspiring. Got to have a minor geek-out during the end credits, where one of the villains (who weren't named in the film) was listed as "Strigoi".

I have written this time off as research. Research, in the name of Science and Adventure. Yes. Mwa ha ha ha!

It is the east, and Juliet is the Weft.

Which work of Shakespeare was the original quote from?

Get your own quotes:

This thing is spooky.
"Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments / Will hum about mine Weft, and sometimes voices." SCARILY ACCURATE AND TIMELY.
"How now, you secret, black and midnight Weft!" squee.
"Come, you spirits / That tend on mortal thoughts! Unsex me here, / And fill me from the crown to the toe top full / Of direst Weft." Oh, Lady M, I luv you.
"Fear no more the heat o'the Weft / Nor the furious winter's rages." So what you're saying is, OTP.
"Give thy Weft no tongue." (...Let's not go there.)
"This above all: to thine own Weft be true." So what you're saying is, OTP.
"The tempter or the Weft, who sins most?" Mutt literally LOLd. (Slen can bear witness that am not misusing the word "literally" here.)