Shreik, an Afterword by Jeff Vandermeer

This is one of those odd, modern fantasies - fantasy without genre conventions, I guess you could call it. No wizards, dragons or wer-beasts, nothing from recognizable mythology or folklore, just settings that aren't at all familiar, with inhabitants and laws and conventions all their own. This has fungal technology and grey-capped fungal people, the Festival of Freshwater Squid, publishing companies entering all-out war, underground civilizations.

A problem I sometimes have with books of this type is that the writers put so much time crafting their setting, they seem to forget to tell a story - the characters recede somewhat. China Mieville's sometimes like that for me. But this wasn't at all like that. It's mainly a sort of memoir, a sister musing about her life and her brother, and their world is - how to put this - it's natural to them, it's where they live.

The Sons of Heaven by Kage Baker

Conclusion to the Company series, finally. And rather better than I expected - perhaps as good as it could have been, given all the disparate disjointed threads that needed wrapping up.

I still think the series could have well done without the subplot involving the strange subhuman race.

The ending was as happy as it could have been, for everyone who deserved a happy ending, except Victor. Or really, maybe for Victor too.

I have difficulty discussing this as a book. It's the end of a series, a wrapping up and farewell to this world, these characters. I don't think it stood alone as a book - it was an ending, not a story.

Anthropologie-inspired capelet

Anthropologie has to be my favourite I-can't-afford-it-but-aren't-they-pretty window shopping store. (Well, browser-window shopping mostly, since I moved back to Canada). So when I came across the pattern for a crochet Anthropologie-inspired capelet on Craftster, I had to make it.


Unlike the poncho, this is something I will definitely wear, can't wait to wear in fact. It's not too bulky to fit under a winter jacket, and cute enough to keep on inside. I've got a dress it will go nicely over, and it's just warm enough to keep my shoulders snug without stifling me.

Round the capelet

I made this following Teva Durham's free pattern for a vintage style capelet (though I'd call it a poncho). Big hook, thick plush yarn, very quick to make up.

I haven't decided yet if this is something I'll actually wear out where people can see me. It's too open to provide much protection on a cool day, too thick to look other than peculiar on a warmer one or indoors.

Earrings in beads and wire

In between working on crochet projects, I've found time to make myself a pair of earrings:

I made them by stringing size 15 silver seed beads and crystals on wire, then twisting it into shape - I was trying for an abstract floral shape. They've quickly become my favourite earrings, delicate but noticeable.

This next is a slightly more gaudy pair I made a few months ago:



They're just traditional granny squares, crocheted in silver-coloured wire, gauge 30. I'm fond of them, even if they did inspire a coworker to ask if I could make him something similar for Christmas tree ornaments.

The Ladies of Grace Adieu and other stories by Susanna Clarke

A collection of stories by the author of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell,, which I have sitting on a shelf somewhere but haven't read much of. These stories are set (more or less) in the same world (an alternate England, with magic) in various time periods mostly preceding that book.

I think I liked the fictional "introduction", a scholarly note describing the volume as a sourcebook for the academic study of magic, more than any of the actual stories.

Vintage Crochet

Since making my Asphyxiation, I've become hooked on vintage crochet. On looking at it, at least... such beautiful lacy thready things, so much patience required to make!

Crochet at about.com
Quite a bit of vintage material including a number of filet charts. I like the Roaring 20's patterns, especially the bird and rose filet sweaters, as well as the rose tam. I'm planning to make the tam and at least one of the sweaters. This site is especially helpful because the patterns have been rewritten to use modern terms, unlike those on many of the others.

Antique Pattern Library
A site devoted to scans of out-of-copyright pattern books, knitting and various kinds of lace as well as crochet, mostly from before 1922. Especially good for filet patterns and edgings. Too much to stuff to pick out only a few, but I particularly like the Corticelli series of books.

Celt's Vintage Crochet
Patterns mainly dating from the 1920s to the 1960s. Good collection of doilies, pineapple squares, filet and edgings as well as some wearables.

Vintage Stitch-O-Rama (where old patterns go to die a slow, painful death)
Knitting and crochet stockings, camisole yokes, undies etc., along with oddities like the Chicken Bone Necklace

Free Vintage Crochet
A couple of cute bulky sweaters, along with a number of hat and bag patterns, doll clothes etc. New patterns added often.

A Good Yarn
Has some vintage patterns including Fleisher's Knitting and Crocheting Manual from 1922. I particularly like the Delmar Sweater.

The Information on Making the Irish Crocheted Lace
Poor English, useful diagrams for various Irish crochet motifs.

Knitting-and.com
A few cushions etc, and a scan of the Nufashond Rick Rack Book from 1916.

Yarn Lover's Room
Assorted patterns of uncertain date and source, mostly for babies and home. Nice: ballet slippers, shawls.

Crotique
A few odds and ends under Free Patterns, including two lacy tank tops.

Soft Memories
A commercial vintage pattern site with a few free patterns, including this lovely Draped Bed Jacket.

Asphyxiating

This is Severina's Asphyxiation Choker, made of venetian crochet motifs in black thread. I made it to wear to work on Hallowe'en, and did - with a black dress.



I'm planning on using the same pattern to make a hairband, in off-white thread.

Tweedy cloche, or the quest for flapperdom - with pattern

The Roaring 20's are one of my favourite fashion eras - I wear my own hair in a classic bob cut, and I like the insouciant smirk that often shows up in flapper-girl pictures.

So I wanted my own 20's style flapper hat, but most of the crochet flapper hat patterns I could find online didn't have the distinctive bell shape of the classic cloche. So I improvised my own pattern, and I am really happy with the result. (Well, with version three and somewhat with two. Version one I'm not posting about.)

This one is my favourite. I made it with two strands of yarn held together, one of Lion Brand wool in grey and one of Paton's Decor in pale aubergine. I really like the vintage, pink-grey heathered effect these yarns gave me. The ribbon's off an old top or something - the colour just happened to match.



This next is an earlier version, in Paton's Decor Aubergine and Red Heart black.



I've written out the basic pattern - it's pretty simple. If anyone makes this and has any problems, please let me know.

Use two strands of worsted weight yarn held together and a 6.0mm (J) hook.
Gauge: first two rounds in dc creates a circle about 2.5" (6 cm) in diameter. I crochet fairly tightly, so some people might go down a hook size to get this.

For the first six rows, I followed Yarncat's Basic Crown instructions.

For the grey hat, I did row 7 as dc each stitch around, as I have a rather small head. The other one I made a little larger: dc in 5 stitches, 2 dc in next stitch, repeat around.

Unless your head is small and your hair flat, I suggest the latter.

Row 8 - 11: dc in each stitch around.

Row 12: dc in 9 stitches, 2 dc in next stitch, repeat around

Row 13: dc in each stitch around

Row 14: dc in next 3 stitches, 2 dc in next stitch, repeat around

Row 15: sc around. (I did this with two strands of one colour to give a nice edge.)

St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves by Karen Russell

Collection of short stories, mostly some variant of our-world fantasy (or slightly skewed our-world), very avant-guard. I wanted to like it, I really did, I liked many of the concepts. But the stories themselves didn't work for me, quite. They were more ideas, sketches... the characters weren't people.

The two that worked the best were the ones about the boy whose father was a minotaur, and the title story. They had people.

Spirits that Walk in Shadow by Nina Kiriki Hoffman

Eh. Pretty good read, but didn't quite grab me, don't know why. Well. I liked Kim (one of the two narrators) better than Jamie. I like the world (basically the same as in her other urban fantasies), the concepts of magic, the way power plays itself out among families.

The ending didn't quite work for me.

The Mirador by Sarah Monette

The third in the planned four-book sequence that started with Melusine. (My spell-checker just suggested "Limousine" as a possible correction for that.)

I've delayed posting about this because I'm not sure what to say. I very much love this series - it's dark with a deliciously decadent setting, the characters are warped and human, tormenting themselves and others, and the relationships are central and painfully well-drawn. The world has geography and history, complex politics, architecture and aesthetics, a sense that the world goes on and on beyond the fragments we're shown. Like the others, this was compulsively readable, and pushed just about all of my "most desired in a fantasy novel" buttons. And yet...

Mildmay, for one. At the beginning of the book other characters are greatly concerned about him, by how much he's changed since the incidents in the last book. But they never mention how changed, exactly, or give examples, and the inside of his head, in his POV sections, looks much the same as ever.

And Mehitabel, the new, female narrator. Early in the book, she seemed to be setting up for the same sorts of internal and external conflicts and complexities that make Felix and Mildmay so compelling. But that faded - she guarded her secrets intensely one minute, then gave them up the next. I had the feeling she was being phased out, as unnecessary for the next novel.

It's occurred to me that I have very little idea what magic is actually used for, in the Mirador. Most of the spells we see are for clearing up the effects of other spells, except for the apparently minor witchlights. And spells are cast on people, to harm or control, but those are forbidden by the branch of magic most of the characters subscribe to. So what do they do? Felix and the others read books on magic, talk about magic, attend meetings on magic and teach magic, but there doesn't seem to be any real point to it.

The Tomb of the Golden Bird by Elizabeth Peters

Latest installment in the Amelia Peabody Egyptian Archeology mystery series. This one centered around the discovery of King Tutankhamen's tomb, with the Peabody-Emersons taking part as bit players and observers.

Fortunately I still enjoy simply spending time with Peters' characters, because the biggest mystery in this book was "where's the plot?" A holy man might have been murdered (though nobody seemed to care very much) and an encrypted message sat around for a while. But the main characters weren't really involved in any of it.

Magic Study by Maria Snyder

Good book, fairly quick read. Yelena was kidnapped as a child from her home in Sitia and grew up in Ixia. (Note: I wish the author had given the countries names less easy to confuse.) In Snyder's previous book Poison Study, Yelena escaped death to become a poison taster and find a place for herself in Ixia. Here, she returns to Sitia to gain control of her newly discovered magical powers, under sentence of death if she doesn't succeed. (Certainly one way of getting her to focus on her studies.)

One of the things I liked about Poison Study was the political system - the semi-benevolent, if rather twisted, military dictatorship was an interesting change from the conventional fantasy monarchy or vague ruling by some sort of council arrangement. Sitia falls under the "vague council" governing category.

The main story arc involved catching a serial killer, and the main theme was Yelena coming to terms with her roots in Sitia. She spent remarkably little time on magic study, especially given the threat of death, which seemed to have been forgotten about by book's end.

Overall, an engrossing read, but a bit too much plot. I didn't get that feeling from the previous, although it was also action-filled.

I'd have liked to spend more time with Yelena's brother.

Saffron and Brimstone by Elizabeth Hand

Short stories. Elizabeth Hand is one of those authors that I think I should like - reviews and comments on the group rec.arts.sf.written put her in that branch of literary speculative fiction I like - but despite several tries, I've never made it further than a few pages into any of her novels. So I thought I'd give this collection a try.

I had no difficulty reading it, and it did indeed fall into that area of literary SF that I particuarly like. I suppose I shall try a novel again...

The stories varied considerably. I didn't like the final quartet as much; it's a slipstream set of meditations on friendship, leaping about through time, space and nominal genre, but in at least three of them I never had enough of a sense of the people to care much about their friendship.

Of the rest... two stick in my mind. The first, Cleopatra Brimstone, is an odd, indecipherable tale of geeky but attractive Jane, a budding lepidopterist. The plot is fairly straightforward - studies entomology, is raped, becomes a predator, turns into a moth - but Jane herself is opaque. I could say it's depersonalization made literal, but really I don't know quite what to make of it. It sticks, though.

The other is The Least Trumps. The main character is an agoraphobic tatoo artist, and the world changes. The ending is lovely - it's a delicate story, I don't want to disturb it by saying more.

The Sharing Knife - Legacy by Lois McMaster Bujold

Another sequel, another car-trip book. This was readable, but... hmm. Too much in-law unpleasantness, and nothing getting resolved.

I feel like I should have liked it more than I did. I often like ambiguity, and stories where the world doesn't get saved, and in-law conflict, even. But I can't remember the names of any of the characters.

I was expecting the "sharing knife" of the series title (the particular one that featured in Beguilement) to be a more important element in this one.

Kushiel's Justice by Jacqueline Carey

Middle book in Carey's follow-up trilogy following Imriel, the foster-son on the hero and heroine of her first series. At least, I assume it's a trilogy, at first I thought it might be a duology. (Checks author's web site.) Yep, it's a trilogy.

Suffers from middle-book-of-trilogy-itis. Imriel spends a lot of time going places and doing things. I liked the first half of the book, the story of Imriel's doomed marriage. After that, though... well, he sets out on a quest, and various stuff happens to hinder him. At one point, when Imriel is interrupted yet again, this time by a shipwreck, I could almost hear the author muttering "ok, now shipwreck him, that'll fill up a few more pages..." Not that I have anything against a picaresque adventure where the hero overcomes a series of obstacles, but this just didn't work. It was dull.

Looking at that "didn't work" comment reminds me of a blog post by Sarah Monette, a fantasy writer I like quite a bit as a novelist and also as a blogger. Her fifth reason why a scene might suck is the bit I'm thinking of.

Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman

Short stories, fantasy. How to describe? A mix of good and very good, with a few poems thrown in. I prefer Gaiman's stories to his novels.

Mythic, pastiche, ghosts and fables. The introduction includes a story about mapmaking, which comments that the best description of a story is the story, itself.

I always have trouble summing up books, their plots and characters. If I say this, I think, I should say that as well, it's equally important.. and how about this other? This character is this, but not really: she's also this and this and this... and how much harder with a collection of widely varying stories.

I think they're worth reading. If you like that sort of thing, of course. Whatever that sort of thing is.

City of Bone by Martha Wells

Nice fantasy with a somewhat science-fictional feel - it's set in a post-apocalyptic world, where the apocalypse was brought about by an unfortunate combination of magic and hubris. A blurb described the setting as "Arabian Nights" style, but I didn't get that at all, apart from the desert setting. Most of the world's water was destroyed in the magical disaster, and the paired struggles for water and for knowledge of the Ancients drive the society and the plot.

Heloise and Abelard: a new biography by James Burge

Heloise and Abelard, the prototypical star-crossed lovers...

At one point, Burge sums up Abelard's autobiography roughly as follows: promising career ruined by the jealousy of his colleagues, a disastrous love affair that led to his castration, followed by exile to a land of homicidal monks. Very hard not to feel sorry for the fellow.

I'm still startled that they named their son Astralabe. I thought baby names like Apple or Telescope were modern innovations.