A Kiss Before the Apocalypse by Thomas Sniegoski

Remy Chandler is really the Archangel Remiel, who has turned his back on his true nature and come to Earth because he was disgusted by the violence of the war in Heaven during the incident with Lucifer. At least, I think that was why he left Heaven--we're told that he was disgusted and stalked off, but this isn't exactly a nuanced work. Anyway, he is living in Boston and working as a private investigator. He remains ageless, but his wife is now elderly and dying of cancer in a care facility. He lives alone with their dog, who is the most interesting character in the book.

But something odd is happening: people have stopped dying, despite fatal injuries and illnesses. The Angel of Death has disappeared, and some of Remy's brothers want him to go find their missing relation. If he doesn't, it may bring about the end of the world. Remy is conflicted about this assignment: he wants nothing to do with Heaven any more, but he feels he should try to save the world. Also, so long as no one his dying, his wife will remain alive. Nevertheless, he obviously decides to take it on, or there wouldn't be any point in writing a book about him.

The plot is simple, straightforward, and obvious. Often Remy doesn't do things so much as they happen to him--he is visited by bad guys who beat him up; someone shows up at his door with the answer to a major puzzle; he goes where people suggest he go. The writing is blunt and ungraceful. It's a simple story, and should be a lot more compelling that it is. Because ultimately what Remy is struggling against is his decision not to be an angel. As an angel, these problems would be much easier to deal with, but he insists on doing it the hard way until the end, when he embraces his powers in order to save the world, and then things are wrapped up pretty quickly. And given that the true conflict of the book is, in many ways, an internal struggle, it should have been compelling. But it wasn't compelling or even very interesting, which is a disappointment. The fact that Remy was willing to truly risk the apocalypse rather than do what would help--use the angel powers still at his disposal, especially given that he was able to go back to being a human when he'd finished--means that he's either a putz or that the reasons for his reluctance needed to be a lot more compelling that they were. And that is really too bad.

This book reads like a work of YA, and not one of the fantastically-written, compelling, mature works of YA that its proponents insist we should all respect. And like most works of YA, I found it a bit shallow and overly simple. The worldbuilding is paper-thin, and easy to stick holes through. For example, coincidentally not only does Remy live in Boston, but so do a whole host of other biblical creatures, including fallen angels and Lazarus, and of course the missing Angel of Death. It's very convenient and too easy and strains credibility. Either this is lazy worldbuilding, or there is some reason why they all settled in Boston, but the details weren't painted in properly. Likewise, I get no sense of Remy's age. We get flashbacks occasionally, but he doesn't really seem to be old in any other way. He has been living on Earth for thousands of years, but I can't get the sense whether his dying wife is the first he's had, or if he's been through this before. Presumably he's been through this before, but it wasn't ever mentioned. And if, after thousands of years on Earth, this is the first time he's fallen in love and married, then I wonder why now? This lack of depth in character and worldbuilding is something I tend to find when I try YA, and this is one of the main reasons this book reads like YA to me. It feels like a half-formed book that hasn't been properly finished.

A Kiss Before the Apocalypse is a quick read that's sort of entertaining if you don't think about it too much. The writing, worldbuilding and characterization are flat, but it's readable and has plenty of action. It isn't really bad, exactly, it just isn't good.

Frantically Knitting

I am trying to finish a sweater, so I haven't been reading or doing much else of interest lately. So here is a picture of spring:


My first tulip of the year.

Now that it's warm, let's talk about mittens

I realized that I haven't posted these here, so here are the mittens I've been knitting recently:


It is a pattern by Jorid Linvik, which in the days before Ravelry I never would have found. The internet is a wonderful thing.

They are knit on size 2 needles with sock yarn. I used Palette from Knit Picks, which is an inexpensive yarn that comes in lots of colors. The two yarns are not the same weight, though--the orange yarn is slightly thinner than the purple. I'm still happy with the way they are coming out. I haven't quite finished them yet, I still haven't added the thumb on the second mitten, and I'm thinking about lining them for warmth.

I've really enjoyed knitting them. The project is complicated enough to be interesting, but small enough to be accomplished in a reasonable amount of time.

Weekend Vacation

I haven't actually died or fallen off the earth, I just haven't read anything interesting enough to write about recently. And, frankly, I've kind of had a case of the blahs for the last few weeks. But this weekend I went out and had fun, and now I'm feeling much better again.

Every year I attend Minicon, a science fiction convention held over Easter weekend. I get together with Kristin and we have a nice time hanging out and catching up. This year was a good one.

First of all, the weather was pretty nice, unlike the snow we had last year. That's always a good starting place. We started out at 3 Kittens Needle Arts, where I bought yarn for a sweater I'm planning to make, plus a skein of Cascade Heritage sock yarn, because I love it and it was there, calling to me. I've never been to 3 Kittens before, but I will certainly be back. Not only do they have some really nice yarn, they have needlepoint supplies (ooh, temptation) and the staff were great--knowledgeable and really nice and helpful without hanging over your shoulder. They found more of the yarn I needed in the back room, and helped me figure out some confusing directions for the sweater I was planning to make.

Then we were off to lunch. We like to try new places, and this year we picked Da Afghan, not far from Lyndale Avenue. It was a little tricky to get there because of road construction, but we eventually found it. I had the lunch buffet, and wished I hadn't. Kristin ordered from the menu, which was the wiser choice. My lunch, from the buffet, was dried out--dry meat, dry rice. It was edible, but not that great. We both enjoyed shir chai tea and really good desserts--baklava and heela.

After lunch we had some time to kill, so we stopped at Mt. Normandale Lake and went for a walk. It was a little cool, but a pleasant way to walk off lunch. Then we were off to the convention, which was at the Sheraton. I was a little concerned about the convention this year--I'd looked at the planned programming and most of it didn't really sound all that interesting. Also, one of the guests of honor--Hugo-winning artist Stephan Martiniere-- was not able to make it. Nevertheless, I think it was a pretty good convention. The other guests of honor--author Karl Schroeder and astronomer Seth Shostak--were very interesting. And, ultimately, I think panels live and die by who is on them, not the topic. I've seen fascinating-sounding panels blow up because of the wrong panelists, and even dull topics can be quite entertaining with good panelists. I am also pleased that they returned to the one hour length rather than the 75 minute panels that cons sometimes have. 75 minutes is too long for almost every topic.

Saturday breakfast may have been the highlight of the weekend. We went across the street to the Sofitel and ate at Chez Colette. It's a lot more expensive that getting a free muffin in the consuite, but by god it's worth every penny. Kristin had fruit crepes, which smelled wonderful, and fresh-squeezed orange juice. I had duck confit hash with two poached eggs, a croissant, and pineapple juice. I do not have words to describe how good that meal was. If I lived closer to Bloomington, I'd eat at Chez Colette regularly. We then spent some time browsing in the gift shop at the Sofitel, which has all sorts of wonderful things that I fortunately had the restraint not to buy. On our way out we stopped at their pastiserrie, where Kristin got a raisin roulade and I bought an eclair to eat later. Heaven.

Unfortunately scheduling problems meant that we could not spend as long at the convention as usual. Nevertheless, I had a great time, spent too much money, and came home with a great Stephan Martiniere print that I now need to get framed. And, after a good night's sleep, I no longer have the blahs. I needed this weekend.

Muse of Fire by Dan Simmons

Muse of Fire is a novella that appeared in _The New Space Opera_ and was then published in a hardcover edition by Subterranean Press. It is set in a future in which humans are mostly enslaved by aliens called the Archons. Above the Archons are other levels of aliens, and at the top is Abraxas, the god of creation.

The story focuses on a troupe of traveling actors who fly around from planet to planet in their ship, the Muse of Fire, performing Shakespeare plays for the enslaved masses of humanity. One day the Archons want to see their play, and from there they embark on a wild journey with the fate of humanity hanging in the balance.

Simmons is a good writer, and it was a fairly absorbing read, but frankly by the end I didn't really care for Muse of Fire. For one thing, it seems to be very concerned with praising the brilliance of Shakespeare, and I'm not really a fan. I am familiar with all the works referenced in the novella, I just don't really like Shakespeare. Also, I really didn't understand the ending. Perhaps I was too tired when I read the end, but I'm not usually dense, so I'm not taking the blame for not understanding it. It was like The Hemingway Hoax by Joe Haldeman--I finished it and had to go online to see if anyone else had understood it, because I sure as hell didn't.

I like short books, and am not usually the sort to think that big books are a better value, but Muse of Fire is not even novel-length, and it can be read elsewhere. Subterranean published this as a small hardcover for $35, plus a signed limited edition that cost significantly more than that. I am a little bit curious about this business model. Obviously these are not aimed at someone who is just looking for something good to read, because it's not a good value for money in that case. So I can only assume that these tiny expensive books are aimed at collectors, who are content to pay a lot for a tiny collectible book. Presumably this is working out for them, but clearly I'm not their audience.