Book Review

Oath of Gold, Elizabeth Moon
A heroic saga with a happy ending in which none of my favorite characters die? I'm not sure how to feel about this... 😂
Just kidding, I know exactly how to feel - respect. Oath of Gold is the third book in The Deed of Paksennarion Trilogy and this last one ties all three of the books into a neat package. It was written with intent to be a trilogy, which sounds strange, but I read a lot of serials and from experience can discern when the first books were either meant to stand alone without any serious thought given to sequels, or sufficiently alone in case the publishers weren't interested in picking up a series. Neither is the case here. This book again continues Paksennarion's life where it left off in the second book having become a broken shell of her former self, lost and afraid of her own shadow. There's a lot of good psychology going on here as she finds healing and restoration through an old tree shepherd friend and finally is able to confront dangers large and small again. Then we see how the books are finding a focal point as she's able to take the second option of the two journeys she had a choice of in the first book. Both were necessary to achieve the final result which is not only her holy call to be a paladin knight, but her great quest as such to restore a lost king to his kingdom. All of this was hinted at in the opening of the first book and it's always satisfying to see the story come full circle. As you read the third book you can see the evolution of the lost king as well and how his story has unfolded. But instead of the lost king being the primary focal point of the tale, the story has always been, as I said in my review of the first book, Paks-centered. In that way, Paks is exactly the kind of character that I'm naturally drawn to - mentor to the hero who almost always dies. But in this case that character doesn't die because she's also the main character and the hero. Very clever. Damn clever. An interesting switch up of POV, for sure. And with all the other characters in the book, I was never really drawn to any of them but Paks, so it makes sense now. I'm very impressed.
Almost every review of fantasy books or series tries to compare them to Tolkien but there is, in fact, a legitimate comparison to be drawn in this case. Not only that it was laid out as a measured trilogy but also the deliberate parallels to real life without it being a bad copy of Tolkien's works. Tolkien staged an epic fantasy that worked out the broad themes of World Wars I and II with faith being central to the drive of the heroes. It was reflective of his life experiences. The Paksennarion saga is a fantasy on a smaller scale that explores the pressures and struggles of military life in general (I think I've said it with every book, but I'll say it again - military people would really enjoy these books, I think) with faith and playing a big part in dealing with the physical and psychological impacts as well as the drive to preform their heroic duties. And that's really the main point of the series instead of another Arthurian type tale of a lost king. It's reflective of Moon's life experiences in the Marines.
The recapping of story line is artful and well done from one book to the next. Since I got these books so close together within a year, I opted not to reread one before moving on to the next in each case and was still able to keep up. However the world built is a very detailed one and I wasn't able to retain every bit of information. Not a bad thing... I like highly detailed worlds. So after I'm finished with the rest of my new books that I got over Christmas I'll have to reread the three Paksennarion novels consecutively to get the full effect. And it's definitely a good book/series if I want to reread it.

Geek Eats

Looking over recipes for fictional foods and enjoying some of them.

Starting with Harry Potter Butterbeer. Many of the recipes are alcoholic, but this one is just a very sweet and simple soda shake. I don't know if I'd like it because I'm not a fan of butterscotch or cream soda, but I imagine this is what Butterbeer would taste like if it was real.

Next, Lembas Waybread from LOTR. There are varying recipes on this one but this one is visually appealing and not too complicated to make. I could see trying this out.

I've never seen Soylent Green but it's a Sci-Fi cult classic and somehow everyone knows that Soylent Green is made of people. Apparently there is a protein mix called Soylent that people use to make energy drinks and these two guys make cookies out of it to resemble the Soylent Green wafers that Charelton Heston discovers in the movie. Not for people who need exact measurements when they cook.

I don't watch Game of Thrones, nor have I read the books. Most of the food I've seen from this fandom seems like pretty straight up food that you'd find anywhere... even things like kidney or pidgeon pie, while not an American thing, are common in foreign nations or from medieval cookbooks.  But I'd never heard of Milk of the Poppy and though it seemed pretty unique so that's why I've included it. They make a pretty standard lemon cake in this video first which looks pretty good as well.

From The Hunger Games, in the first book, I chose the Groosling Soup. I picked it because a groosling isn't a real thing and it was cooked creatively in the wild in the book. Unfortunately, there's no video on this. The only videos that cover food from The Hunger Games are how to make some fairly standard dishes. But I did find a link to someone who tried to make the groosling soup as it was done in the book
Groosling Soup Recipe

Of course I can't leave out Star Wars and Star Trek. The problem is that both Star Wars and Star Trek fans are some of the most annoying people to share homemade videos .... if you think the Soylent Green guys and the Game of Thrones people were silly, you'd be embarrassed to see the sort of crazies born of two of the greatest fandoms ever. Also, their official recipes are harder to come by so that they can sell more merch related to cooking.
I wanted the Blue Milk from Star Wars. There are many variations on it. A lot of people were using exotic plants for food coloring, but I liked the simplicity of this milk. It's essentially a blueberry shake. They also give a recipe for granola to make Chewie cookies. And even though it's short it's Star Wars inspired eats, so it's all good.

Sadly the best I could do with Star Trek was this news clip interviewing Ethan Phillips in character as Neelix from Voyager displaying Gagh and Klingon Bloodwine.  Lots of lag time before they get to the food discussed. The recipe for Gagh isn't made clear, but the bloodwine is and it looks very tasty.

Book Review

Catching Fire, Suzanne Collins
I have to admit, I liked this a lot more than I thought I would. In fact, I liked it considerably more than imagined and I'm now sorry I waited so long to give it a try. I always hesitated pulling the trigger on sequels to The Hunger Games. Part of the problem was the composition style, that of first person-present tense. But that's not high on my list of deal-breakers if the story is good. Although I found it distracting years ago I discovered, while rereading the first book, I could easily ignore the sentence structure because the story was absorbing, and much better the second time around. Another factor was that the brief, teaser synopses on Catching Fire that I'd always read only summarized a small portion of the first third of the book. I was concerned that the teenage love triangle would supersede the burgeoning revolution in this 1984-meets-Bladerunner world. I'm all for a supporting love story as long as it's not the center focus when there's other objectives to be achieved, like stopping the madness of the Games and fighting for freedom from the oppressive rule of Capitol. Also, I've become suspicious of author motives in dystopian stories, using their work as a thin veil for lecturing about their own ideologies and biases.
But I had nothing to fear in this case. The politics are simple and evergreen and distilled down to the basics of the oppressors versus the oppressed. And instead of the love story overshadowing the narrative, it was utilized to give me more of what I wanted to see... more of how Panem is set up with the 12 remaining districts. More of how the unrest among the proletariat had found a focus in Katniss' act of rebellion at the end of the first book. More small uprisings that would lead to a full out rebellion at the end of the book. More of how this society is distasteful even to those who don't suffer. More of the chipping away at the control in Captiol City. And the love story itself isn't a bunch of silly slush either. It's sufficiently complicated because Katniss is complicated. I wasn't sure when I read the first book how to react to her personality. I'd never seen a protagonist who was smart and intuitive when it came to her survival instincts but clueless when reading other people or understanding how she was perceived in the eyes of others. I think I found it off-putting at first ... like an unrealistic naivety. But now I see that she's not naive, but blinded and numbed to empathy by the need to calculate, plan, and be in complete control of her circumstances. It all makes perfect sense within the context of a world that can strip someone of their humanity. The romance, as well as other bonds she must continue to form, is teaching her humanity and that complexity is just as interesting as the rest of the unfolding story.
At first I was little disappointed when the story reverted back to the Games a second time. I thought it would move on to outright revolts and leading "armies" of dissenters overthrowing the government. But these are relatively short books and the misdirection wasn't enough to confuse me entirely. I quickly figured out that another round of the Games was necessary to move the revolution forward at a realistic pace as well as continuing to mold and shape Katniss into the leader that I think she'll become. Character development is critical in stories about heroes facing forces bigger than they are. This second set of Games was used to augment the character development and to play with more of the science fiction which is kept simplistic and unexplained. It's refreshing. Sometimes I think sci-fi has a tendency to get too caught up in explaining how everything works instead of just taking it at face value.
As the second book of a trilogy it ends on a down note but the character I've grown most fond of hasn't died yet. A second favorite may or may not be dead; it remains to be seen and bodes ill for the survival chances of the character I'm soft on. We'll see. And we'll see soon because I intend to get the third book, Mocking Jay very soon. I like this series and I'm not putting off the finale for another 6 or 7 years. I can't wait to see how it ends.

My top Ten favorite Star Trek TNG episodes, ranked.

My Top Ten Favorite episodes of Star Trek TNG, ranked.

#1 Tapestry, season 6

Almost any episode in my top five can become my number one on any given day depending on my mood or time of the year. But Tapestry is a very deep episode that I’ve always been captivated by. It’s hard to find words to describe the depth and quality of this episode. The summary of the story is that when Picard is brought into sickbay with possibly fatal injuries to his artificial heart, we’re swept into his mind to see him interacting with Q in what is possibly the afterlife. The fact that Q is running the show is enough to reassure the audience that Picard has probably not actually died as just the right amount of levity is injected at just the right time. It’s Q at his best… who else but the character of Q could take a serious matter like death and not only lighten the moment but then steer it back to perfect gravity with only a small point or two? Ever the opportunist, once Q smells weakness on Picard’s part, regretting his reckless youth that led to his artificial heart, he gives him the opportunity to relive and change the circumstances surrounding it free of the consequences of changing the timeline or anyone else’s life. This is an opportunity that you will find on the lips of almost every adult you meet -“If I could go back and change things, I’d...” It’s one of the greatest “wish” temptations next to wishing yourself a heap of money or wishing someone back from the dead, and that’s why this episode resonates with so many people. Picard hesitates at first, but after Q abandons him in his past with the promise that he can’t change anything important in the future, he takes advantage of the opportunity and successfully prevents the bar fight that ended with him being stabbed through his real heart. But almost immediately the fateful Monkey’s Paw moment occurs as he’s swept back into consciousness as a junior grade science officer on par with Lt. Barcklay as far as how he’s viewed by the senior officers of the Enterprise. The crushing humiliation is even more heartbreaking to watch than his torture in Chain of Command. He doesn’t have to suffer long before Q finds him and points out that his brush with death taught him how precious life was and that it helped him to seize the opportunities that came later in his life. He never distinguished himself as somebody who could be in charge so nobody offered him a command. Picard realizes the mistake and decides that he'd rather die as the man he was than live the life he'd just seen. Q grants his wish once more and the fight proceeds like it did in the past only this time he regains consciousness on a table in sickbay as captain of the Enterprise again. He later has feelings of gratitude towards Q if the experience was real. Riker doesn’t understand why, and Picard explains that by pulling out one fiber, he ended up unraveling the tapestry of his life, speaking the title of the episode.

When this episode was written it was supposed to play out like A Christmas Carol with Q taking Picard through several mistakes in his past, but it ended up being more like It's A Wonderful Life in which changing one important event made a life altering difference; only the change affects Picard alone, not the lives of those around him. The lesson he relays to Riker isn't a new one to anybody who has lived long enough to be in a really successful or happy place in life. Every event in our past whether bad or good contributes to who we are today. However, it also applies even if you're generally dissatisfied with life but still have one viable joy to hold to like a spouse, a child, or living in an ideal location. In both cases we realize that if we were to alter any event in our past, no matter how painful, we may not end up successful and happy, or even with that one joy of a spouse, child, or that beloved location.  This episode can have such a broad impact on people's lives if they've never stopped to analyze themselves before. It touches on a deep and complex matter of growing as a person over the years. It can also cause the opposite reflection - making a person regret that they hadn’t taken more chances in their youth causing them to feel more like a Lt. Picard than a Captain Picard in their present life. That’s psychologically valid, but I don’t think it’s necessarily healthy to take that lesson from this story. Not everyone is meant to lead and I personally don’t believe that if you’re not a leader in life or wildly successful then you’re an abject failure and there is no in between. Most of us live in between and are happier than we would probably even realize if we only had a Q to come along and to help us see our wonderful lives. For a one-off episode it’s one of the most complex ones ever made. I will always love this episode.

 

I also have 10 honorable mentions to match my top ten favorites, so I'll throw one in every day that I post a top ten episode. These aren't ranked.

Remember Me, season 4.

I’d said earlier that the episode Measure of a Man was in my honorable mentions but I’ve changed my mind. It had a lot of good points like the first poker game, adding a little dignity to the character Tasha Yar, and finally beginning to tap the potential of Picard without the unnecessary melodrama. There were times that I forgot I was watching an episode from the second season with that one. But it still isn’t as much of a personal favorite as this one. I love the really good mind benders and I love Beverly. Beverly is my favorite female from this show.  She had a pretty unique character and it was improved on when she came back in the third season.  She balanced the role of a nurturing and loving mother with that of a competent doctor.  And up to this point they'd used her in those two roles. You see the mother thing all the time with Wesley and you see her medical skills on display frequently when there's a mystery to solve.  This episode stretches the boundaries of her character a little for the first time.  It starts with her inviting an old mentor aboard and feeling sentimental about friends and family. She goes to see Wesley who is too busy experimenting as usual to have time to talk and in the smoothest fake out ever she appears to leave engineering after he has a little mishap with his experiment. You then see her losing people beginning with her mentor and continuing with large sections of the crew and then the main characters one by one until she’s left with Picard who sees nothing unusual about any of this and has never heard of any of these people. It’s actually a little terrifying and you almost feel like you’re losing your mind while she feels like she’s losing hers. It’s not until she’s alone on the Enterprise that it’s revealed that we’ve not been seeing reality, but a reality that has been fabricated in Beverly’s mind because she’d been swallowed up in Wesley’s experiment in that brief engineering scene at the beginning. The science is definitely shaky and not something to ponder for too long. And I must say it’s one of Wesley’s finest moments on the show. His work with the Traveler to get Beverly back is exactly the sort of thing I'd hoped that they'd do with Wesley from the second they made him a bridge officer and I’ll always be angry that they didn’t think of any of this sooner. But even Wesley and the Traveler can only do so much. It’s Beverly that has to connect the dots and figure out that the dangerous looking vortexes that have been popping up in random places are actually her way out of the experiment. And that’s why this is a great episode for Beverly to shine. Instead of freaking out she calmly starts talking to the computer to try to hypothesize her way into a solution.  This is not a medical mystery.  This is entirely different and nothing that Wesley and the Traveler did on the other side would've made any difference if she hadn't figured out what was going on for herself. It's thrilling to hear the computer talk about the universe being only about as big as the ship amid other odd answers it starts to give to her questions.  This is such an exciting and well written episode. It showcases her bravery as well as she finally figures it out and realizes that she has to jump into the vortex that she’s been avoiding throughout the show. It's kind of a shame (but understandable) that Beverly was limited to medical officer and didn't get to extend her character as much.  But this is the real start of her exceeding her medical limitations and she goes on to have other moments where she shines. And I'll always point them out because I'm a Beverly fan! One of my personal favorites. 

Book Review

 
The Book Thief, Mark Zusak
This is a relatively new book, only a little over 10 years old, and I'm several years late in discovering it. I think it's been adapted to film already as well. But I didn't even really know what it was about when I put it on my list a couple of years ago. I just knew it had a good hook in the synopsis that I saw when I was looking it over a couple of years ago. The line about stealing a book called The Gravedigger's Handbook being the beginning of an illustrious career in book thievery. It's an artsy book, set in WWII Germany. The kind that people discuss in book clubs. The kind that could fall in to the category of "classics" after enough time has passed. And it's worth the time.
When the narrator of the story is Death, you know it won't have a happy ending so I didn't expect one, but it wasn't as macabre as one would expect it to be with such a unique POV. I was surprised at how gentle the book was. Instead of torturing the reader with morbid and grotesque visuals, the end was spoiled several time within the story so that the tension was minimal. The focus was on the characters, not the inevitable outcome. (Think of the movie Titanic without all the time spent on the sinking of the ship.)
The story unfolds from a unique perspective too. It revolves around an illiterate German girl living in a small community on the outskirts of Munich in the midst of the War. Her family and many of the people on her street aren't interested in Hitler or his war, nor do they hate Jews. They're just the people caught in the middle of it all on the wrong side and too limited to effect any real change. They're not starting a revolution, they're just getting by and thumbing their nose at the system in small ways from time to time. The father, by hiding the son of an old Jewish friend in a cellar. The kids by stealing food or being rebellious towards teachers and coaches, and later giving food Jews in defiance of the Nazi soldiers. All of the characters have a story attached to them, but the central story of the book is that of Liesel Meminger. The story of Liesel's book thievery is more personal to her character. The motivation behind each book she steals represents events during this time in which the war has effected her, her family, their income, their fates, the Jew in their house, etc. and her feelings and epiphanies that go along with each event. She learns to read in order to know what it is she's stolen and eventually goes on to write her own story in a book which Death steals, explaining how he's able to relate it all. But the end of Liesel's story isn't what you think it is by reading what I've written. I won't spoil that.
It's an easy read and it plays out like a movie, which is probably what a lot of modern authors are going for nowadays when they write. But the content is also very easy and not manipulative. As stated before, it only grazes the horrors of war so as not to overwhelm, but apart from a short remark here and there, there's not a lot of endless lecturing and preaching regarding the political or moral viewpoints of the author either and it stays fairly neutral. It's hard to do especially with a story set in this time period. Of course, I have to compromise a little when it comes to reading modern writing. I have no problems with characters cursing in dialogue because that's how people talk, but I think using cursing in descriptive narratives is cheap and lazy. However, the narrator is speaking in first person, so that counts as a character which I have to take into account as well. Sometimes I have to just dismiss the whole problem and decide whether or not it's a good enough story to justify the writing. I think in this case it is. It's a good story and I recommend it.

My Top Ten Favorite episodes of Star Trek TNG, ranked.

My Top Ten Favorite episodes of Star Trek TNG, ranked.
#2 Chain of Command, season 6
I think this is my favorite two part episode after Best Of Both Worlds. It still boggles my mind that it was in the placed in the middle of a season instead of at the end because it would've been even better as a season finale/opener. But DS9 was getting ready to air and this episode was made to set up the Cardassians as the primary antagonists. What a fabulous job it does too. Drawing on things it had written for the episodes Ensign Ro and The Wounded, a lot of effort was put into making DS9 its own show and the main writer of this script would go on to become a senior writer on DS9.
The Enterprise is handed over to another captain while Picard is sent on an espionage mission with Worf and Beverly. Not only is this another outstanding Picard episode but, I confess, a lot of what I like about this episode is Captain Jellico. His presence offsets the other side of the story in which Picard is captured and tortured. The "trouble" with Jellico soon starts. I put it in parenthesis because I saw no trouble in what was going on. I think they wanted all of the audience to think of Jellico as an arsehole, but all I saw was a competent, battle hardened commander whose experiences lay more in military affairs than exploration. He isn’t interested in bonding with the crew but preparing for a serious situation with the Cardassians and everyone (except Data, hilariously) just goes into a bunch of whiney meltdown fits when he starts demanding extra work. Seriously? How many times have they all gone out of their way to jerry-rig the ship for causes that weren't as dangerous because Picard wished it? No, I had a hard time feeling any sympathy for the crew. Maybe if they'd have picked a different actor than Ronny Cox to play Jellico, he would've come off as more of a jerk, but he played it as a real type of person that one would have a natural respect for. Their reactions to him are believable considering the history of the characters and their relationships to each other, but then the crew even goes as far to suggest with sincerity that the Cardassians may be there on a mission of scientific study. Really? This is almost too much. They were so determined to make Jellico look like a "war monger" that they only made the rest of the cast look naïve and stupid. How is any thinking person supposed to take their backlash at Jellico seriously after that? Without getting specific about politics, Jellico, in the end has to submit to Riker’s condescension and the ideology that the franchise espouses, but what makes this episode so special is that they allowed a different viewpoint to be represented in him. It's legitimate because - and this is vitally important - although Jellico is portrayed as a cruel jerk, he is not actually in the wrong about anything. And he gets Picard back without compromising his strategy. You have to understand it’s important to someone like me who doesn’t follow the franchise’s base ideology either to have a bone thrown to her. Wrath of Khan transitioned Star Trek into adulthood. This episode made it three dimensional with different viewpoints like Jellico and Madred's daughter. Episodes like this made episodes like In The Pale Moonlight from DS9 possible.
I don’t mean to diminish Picard’s sufferings in this episode though. Or the brilliant team work between him, Crusher, and Worf. Their training and mission was as captivating all the rest. Picard’s capture is related to the Enterprise’s mission on the planet in dispute. At least at first, until you see that his captor is just a sadistic sociopath. Torturing him very nearly to his breaking point before he’s returned is so intense and emotional. They almost didn’t need the scene at the end where he’s confessing to Troi that he was nearly ready to give up… you could see it in Stewart’s amazing acting skills. This is just such a great episode.

 I also have 10 honorable mentions to match my top ten favorites, so I'll throw one in every day that I post a top ten episode. These aren't ranked.
The Perfect Mate, season 5
Oh, did you forget that I’m a girl? That’s okay, sometimes I do too. I admit this plays to my romantic sensibilities and whether you’re a woman or a man, we all have preferences when it comes to love stories as they unfold within the stories we like to read and watch. This one checks off several of my boxes, “Unrequited Love” and “May-December romances” being a couple. And even though Beverly is the best choice for Picard, this episode still my favorite Picard romance, even more than The Inner Light because he got more than just a woman in that episode… the falling in love portion was glossed over.
In this episode, Picard finds himself as an advocate for a woman in an arranged marriage and falling in love with her in the process. It goes a long way towards fixing the old formulas they stubbornly clung to in the early seasons. And it's a formula they've tried many times beginning in TOS with Elaan of Troyius, which this episode most closely resembles. A similar story takes place in The Dauphin from the second season of TNG. Not to mention Riker's brooding over Troi's arranged marriage in Haven from season one. No, a crewman being in love with a woman in an arranged marriage is not new, but in this one the conflict is gentler and more affectionate as opposed to melodramatic. To my mind, it's like they finally got it right. Since the story was given to Picard, it was more special and believable than the many times that Kirk or Riker had been "in love." She's beautiful and they managed to work in a deep connection between these characters in one episode. The kind that it’d taken several seasons to build with Beverly. Kamala is exactly the kind of strong, intelligent, and mature woman that is perfect for Picard. Not a flake like Vash or the girlfriend of his youth like Jenice Manheim. Her special “metamorph” abilities are actually the abilities of any woman, or man, who is sufficiently aware of their capabilities. But Kamala isn’t manipulative with malice like a regular person would be which makes her good and even wholesome. And by falling in love with Picard, she becomes her own woman, independent of her future husband which truly makes her the perfect mate. The perfect woman that is able to please her man in every way while at the same time remaining her own person. And this plot device of absorbing Picard's personality as part of being bonded to him is not science fiction. I've often thought that if, God forbid, I ever lost my husband and someone tried to date me that they wouldn't only be dating me but him as well and all of the influence his personality has had on my own. The story is kind of hard to pull off soundly... like playing soft notes clearly and audibly on an instrument. Of course, it’s all in the great acting. The ending is so touching, beautiful, and bittersweet. Stewart and Janssen would later work together again in X Men.
As an aside, the makeup for Kamala is what the revamped Trill makeup for DS9 was modeled after, and Janssen was originally wanted for the part of Jadzia. Also in this episode the Ferengi are in the final form that they would be for TNG and ready to be further developed in DS9. Always conniving and scheming, but no longer a terrorist type of threat that they'd been classically portrayed as. It’s important to point that out because the Ferengi are a great writing comeback story and Quark is one of my favorite Trek characters which I’ll always marvel at since I absolutely despised the concept of the Ferengi in the beginning. It’s one of my personal favorites, but like I said, everyone has different tastes so it can’t be considered a top ten episode.