To the Professor!

Today is J.R.R. Tolkien's 133rd birthday! As Frodo did for Bilbo, the Tolkien Society continues to celebrate Tolkien's birthday in his absence. Their tradition: at 9pm your time raise a glass and toast "The Professor!"

New Year's Eve

As 2024 rolls away I think it is only fitting to look back on this year's accomplishments:

• The Fury, Book Two of David Doersch's Chronicles of the Raven
• The Rhapsody Trilogy by Elizabeth Haydon (the original trilogy of her Symphony of Ages)
• All Our Hidden Gifts by Caroline O'Donoghue
• Sorcery of Thorns and its sequel-novella Mysteries of Thorn Manor by Margaret Rogerson
• Wish by Victoria Harris
• The Last Mapmaker by Christina Soontornvat
• Reread In the Forests of Serre by Patricia A. McKillip
• Murtagh by Christopher Paolini
• Reread The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
• The Dragonriders of Pern (Original trilogy) by Anne McCaffrey
• Echoes of Ghostwood, the fourth and (so-called) final book of J.V. Hilliard's Warminster Series
  
• Books 1-3 of The Pages & Co. series by Anna James
• The Mage Wars Trilogy by Mercedes Lackey
  

Also, on a writing note, I finished the very rough draft my latest book, a 1000+ page monstrosity titled The Sisters of the Desert that will probably be divided into a duology and has been my secret labor for literally years.

"When you find the one thing in your life you believe in above anything else, you owe it to yourself to stand by it—it will never come again, child. And if you believe in it unwaveringly, the world has no other choice but to see it as you do, eventually. For who knows it better than you? Don’t be afraid to take a difficult stand, darling. Find the one thing that matters—everything else will resolve itself." – Elizabeth Haydon

I have started The Lumen Caligo: Fallen by Lawrence C. Cobb

You know what they say, books about feathers are read together. Or at least they are in this case since, having just been up to my ears in Gryphon feathers, I have at the author's request started The Lumen Caligo: Fallen by Lawrence C. Cobb.

"There are three types of people in the world. Those with white wings. Those with black wings. And those with none. Every 350 years a 4th is born called the Lumen Caligo. One side of his wings there is white. On the other side, there is black." Then of course the last Lumen Caligo disappears mysteriously, and centuries – three and a half of them perhaps? – later a mysterious message and a somewhat charred baby is delivered to a man in California running away from goodness knows what. I LOVE unique fantasies, which is one reason I agreed to review this, and I certainly cannot remember ever reading anything like this before. I will, however, stake my soul that Cyrus' wheelchair will be obsolete when he sprouts feathers, and that surviving school, bullies, and adolesant hormones will soon be the least, or at least the least deadly, of his problems. His and Auli'i's both, I hope.

(Naturally the Official Book Review will come after I finish the book.)

Jólabókaflóð

 

I have finished The Silver Gryphon, the third and final book of The Mage Wars Trilogy by Mercedes Lackey

I have finished The Silver Gryphon, the third and final book of The Mage Wars Trilogy by Mercedes Lackey.

Frankly nameless terrors have always given me a rash, but thanks to recalling what Wintermoon and Skif encounter two millennia hence in the Pelagirs I had an idea about just what might be stalking Tadrith and Silverblade in those unexplored rain forests. And I was right, but Star-Eyed strike me the Cataclysm certainly whipped up trouble even so close the Western Coast and Haighlei lands! But "no disaster without some benefit" as the Shin'a'in say (or will say), and now at last Tad and Blade have found peace with being the children of Skandranon & Zhaneel, Amberdrake & Winterhart, and with it the peace and freedom to be themselves with their parents.

Alas that I will never hear more of their stories (except in history, perhaps)! For thus ends this lovely saga that answered many questions I had about the Mage Wars, Urtho, the Black Gryphon, Ma'ar, the Kaled'a'in in general and Clan k'Leshya specifically. For when I see Clan k'Leshya next it will be two millennia hence again, back in Valdemar with Elspeth, Darkwind, yet more k'Leshya Gryphons, and of course Kero and the rest of everyone. All dealing the same thing Skandranon and Amberdrake did: the impacts of Cataclysm, the Mage Storms.

My father and I just finished The Map of Stories, Book Three of Anna James' Pages & Co. series

My father and I just finished The Map of Stories, Book Three of Anna James' Pages & Co. series.

I have heard of binding books before, but this is ridiculous. Still, sometimes you have to follow intuition, a leap of faith, a series of clues, and a literal breadcrumb road through a paper forest to find what you are looking for...even if what you seek is regarded as a myth by the smartest and most decent of people. But Tilly and Oskar have not been wrong yet, so to save the British Underlibrary, bookwandering, and imagination and books period, that means traveling deep into Story itself to find the fabled Archivists. Along the way asking to right questions about the true Source of the problem and ultimately the real meaning, power, and purpose of Story magic. To quote Will Shakespeare, "we are such stuff as dreams are made of." Which closed the book, also literally, on two rather detestable siblings and brought their tired old quest for power and immortality to its inevitable ending.

Yet the journey is not over yet, for a favor is still owed to the owner of a certain and very unique clean-energy train.

Letters From Father Christmas by J.R.R. Tolkien

How...HOW did I not know about this before?!

Apparently every December an envelope bearing a stamp from the North Pole would arrive for J.R.R.Tolkien’s children. Inside would be letters from Father Christmas to the Tolkien household, all written in spidery handwriting with beautifully colored drawings.

Of course, Tolkien himself wrote the letters... because leave it to him to think of Santa writing to children instead of the reverse. Thus we have the book Letters From Father Christmas by J.R.R.Tolkien, filled with "wonderful tales of life at the North Pole: how all the reindeer got loose and scattered presents all over the place; how the accident-prone Polar Bear climbed the North Pole and fell through the roof of Father Christmas’s house into the dining-room; how he broke the Moon into four pieces and made the Man in it fall into the back garden; how there were wars with the troublesome horde of goblins who lived in the caves beneath the house!"

How this book's existence eluded me all these year and why I have never seen it in book stores I have not a clue, but in my mind the Lord and Founder of Modern Fantasy just got even more amazing.