9Tail Fox by Jon Courtenay Grimwood

First of the series in the British Science Fiction Association award nominated books (yes, I know they announced the winner). Despite the name, BSFA seems to often include fantasy books in their shortlists - and that's what 9Tail Fox by Jon Courtenay Grimwood is. It's a story about San Francisco sergeant Bobby Zha who gets shot and killed on duty, only to wake up in a coma patient's body in New York - a gift from a celestial nine tailed fox who appears on the moment of his death. Bobby sets out to investigate who killed him and why, and learns a lot more that in the process.

I've not read any other Grimwood's books before although we have some on the self - but I would definitely consider them after this. 9Tail Fox is very well written - I especially like the way your conception of Bobby Zha changes when the story slowly unfolds.

As you might remember, this is also the first book my book group is reading, so I'm writing a lot more detailed analysis of the book with full of spoilers that I might publish later on. I've also been reading a book on running book groups and we should have our first meeting next weekend. I really really hope it's a success and we can get a good conversation going - this book is an excellent discussion topic due to it's multilayered story and open interpretations.

Inconvenience

As part of the preparations for 2010 Olympics, the transport system in Vancouver is being upgraded. Following from this they are building new and enhancing old Skytrain stations (that's the automatic local train system we have here)... and starting from this week until "further notice" all the busses on Downtown end of Granville Street have been redirected to other routes.

Which means my bus routes. I got used now and again having to use alternative bus stops because they sometimes filmed for days on end on my stop on Granville, but this is far beyond that little inconvenience. It used to be that when changing busses from Davie to Granville I just had to step around the corner, the traffic lights worked for my favour so that the busses had to wait while I strolled on to the stop. Now the busses are on Howe, and I have to cross a street and walk - or so far run - about 100 meters to catch the next bus. And the traffic lights work against me: I have to stand and wait while my buss goes past, then run as fast as I can hoping they'll wait for me.

And going to yoga after work, I haven't quite figured exactly how the busses work for that - the busses come back on Seymour, but because that's one way, 5 and 6 are redirected to Richards which is one way other direction. So instead of just walking to the other side of the road to catch my connection, I have to walk a block and find a stop... Also - on Granville there used to be a stop every block, but on Seymour they come far apart much to people's surprise and distress.

And according to my sources, "further notice" means two years. So I better get used to this. I know this doesn't make any sense to anyone else reading this, but I had to get it off my chest... thanks for listening.

I don't drink coffee

That's what I always say. I'm not a coffee drinker, I love tea and drink several cups a day. You know my love for teapots and different types of tea - I love to try different teas, smell them, taste them, discuss them.

So it came to me as quite a shock when I realized that I actually drink several cups of coffee a week nowadays.

To be honest, for a long time I was fooling myself thinking that what I was getting from Starbucks every morning was mainly milk, until I found myself going into stronger stuff. You see, I started from tea - chai lattes and matcha lattes, then went to yummy, sweet and slightly coffee tasting beverages like white chocolate mocha with whipped cream, but lately I've started choosing the cappuccinos and the like...

I think it's time to admit to it, I've fast becoming a coffee drinker. That's Vancouver for you.

Natural nature

This morning when I was leaving to work I saw two robins attacking two crows on the other side of the road. They were making a big ruckus and swooping down on the crows so I went closer to have a look what the crows were doing. And pretty much as I feared, they were eating what looked like a robin chick... by the time I got there it was too late.

It made a bit sad, but on the other hand it's the most natural thing - the crows are having chicks of their own right about this time and will probably feed the dead chick to them. I was going to title this entry "cruel nature", but that's just anthropomorphizing the whole thing which I hate when other people do. It's not cruel, it just is.

Weak Dragon

Yesterday I returned to the gym, after 2 week break due the accursed stomach infection. I can tell you, 80 kilos never felt so heavy in the bench press. I struggle with weights that just three short weeks ago were used for warm-up. Doing more reps than 12 makes we wheeze like an ancient granma. Even though my training is lighter than ever since my teenage days, my body screams in agony as my muscles get reacquinted to physical work.

I know this is only temporary, and in just few weeks the muscle memory will have ensured that I am back in my old shape, but let me say this much: being ill sucks. I hate the feeling of weakness, and losing the hard-earned gains of all my excercise. Health is a precious thing that we don't really appreciate enough.

Guru

I ordered a copy of Guru the Movie, a short documentary about Sri K. Pattabhi Jois' 90th birthday, after Julie recommended it and we watched it with the husband last week. It's only 28 minutes long but I thought it was a very nice glimpse to Mysore and Guruji's way of teaching.

Afterwards we got to talking about the cultural differences in India (and East in general) and here in the West. Firstly the guru system - the whole idea is that the guru will never declare themselves to be a guru, but students find him/her and "make" the guru. Students are then expected to be blindly obedient to the guru - Jois himself says that to him a perfect student is the one who does what he's told and never asks questions. In the West no one, or very few, would follow a teacher with these conditions - we have such a strong culture of individualism that giving up independence is undesirable and downright scary. But even in the Eastern culturess one should not take guru lightly. The student is supposed to observe and test the potential guru years, or even decades, before deciding to follow them - but once the decision has been made it's to be taken seriously. We tend to be more fickle - decisions are made in a blink of an eye and commitments are made, but then they are cancelled just as quickly.

I admire people who have the conviction to dedicate their lives to something. Yoga is a big part of my life, but I'm very much still searching for my guru - both figuratively and more literally speaking. What is it that I want to commit to life for? I would like to commit to adding years to my life with regular exercise and healthy eating. I've been even thinking lately about becoming a vegetarian, I would certainly like to learn to cook better vegetarian food and at least eat meat a little less. And I would like to become better at practicing Ahimsa (in the context of Patanjali's Yoga Sutras).

All these goals are part of yoga philosophy, but for me they are also very personal things and therefore having a concrete guru to guide me to do them seems... foreign. It's not to say I know what's best for me and won't listen to anyone - it's more like I'm in the process of observing several different gurus and likely will do so for years to come. Practice. And all is coming.

Star Trek is not dead

Not that I ever believed that... but I'm not sure of what to think of the news - while I agree with Userfriendly, I'm highly dubious about what J.J. Abrams is going to do with it. While some kind of re-invention would do good, J.J. makes me uneasy... it's probably going to be really horrible, but there's the off-hand change it'll be something quite refreshing. No details of the script are available as of yet.

Observations on a Sunday

Absolutely beautiful weekend, it's like Vancouver woke up from a deep sleep and the spring is here in full force.

Yesterday we went for a brunch with friends and then for a walk around the seawall and Stanley Park (photos). Highlights included turtles, flowers, nesting swans and tea and ice cream in the end of the walk. In the evening we got together again to play some Bang!, drink tea and watch a movie. The new teapot works perfectly on a gaming night - tea keeps hot and I just kept pouring in more hot water once in a while, even the oolong that can be used for several brews was a big hit.

Today I've spent reading all the Nausicaä manga which was breathtaking and superb and beautiful, anyone who liked the movie should definitely check them out. As per a friend's recommendation I also watched 911 Loose Change, a 9/11 conspiracy documentary claiming that the US government was behind the attacks, not Osama bin Laden. Now I don't like or believe conspiracy theories generally, but this documentary was pretty damn thought provoking and makes some awfully convincing points... I would recommend seeing that, too.

New teapot

It's been few months since I last indulged myself and bought a teapot, but I've been ogling this one particular teapot at the window of Teaz for several weeks now. Today I just went and bought it, together with some absolutely lovely Phoenix #1 Iron Goddess of Mercy oolong tea (apparently Phoenix is the best of Iron Goddess oolongs). So here it is.

My little eye

After getting referred to an ophthalmologist by my optician due to my weeping eye problem, I went to see Dr. Maberley today. Turns out there are two Dr. Maberleys on Willow Street, the other one at 2525 and the other one at 2550 - I went to see the wrong one first. When I came to the second Dr. Maberley's office first thing he asked was "did you come to see me or my son?" so I guess that's what was going on there... I had just been given an appointment to see Dr. Maberley and Alan or David never entered the conversation... and of course I left the exact address on my desk too.

In any case, I managed to be at the right place at the right time in the end. Dr. Alan Maberley is one of those doctors who does a little talking and a lot of poking, and then explains everything to you in the end. He put altogether four different kinds of drops to my eyes, looked in a bit and then asked me to go to the waiting room "to wait until the drops took effect". So I went to the waiting room and sat down for couple of minutes, got bored and took a magazine - only to find out that I couldn't focus on it at all, my vision had totally blurred. After a while one of the nurses came up to me confidently and said "Dr. Maberley asked me to put some drops on you, Lillian", to which I said "Milla?" (the names sound alike when they don't know how to pronounce my name) and the real Lillian got her drops. The nurse laughed and said "Well, I thought your pupils looked a bit dilated".

At the first opportunity I looked in the mirror and this is what I looked like:

So the drops had quite clearly taken effect. Back at Dr. Maberley's office he put something very weird to my eyes - they felt like suction cups - and looked at them a bit more after which he started talking. Looks like I've got a temporary obstruction of the tear drainage duct which basically means the tear duct gets blocked for whatever reason and tears don't have anywhere else to go but out of the eye - hence weeping. Solution is to take antibiotic eye drops four times a day for two weeks, preceded and followed by gentle massaging of the tear duct close to the nose. Sounds terribly inconvenient, but the good news is I should be able to wear my contacts as they are not the cause or an obstruction to the treatment.

Going out was scary. Because my pupils were so dilated the world was incredibly bright, and because of the suction cup treatment my vision was very blurry - so I couldn't keep my eyes open properly and when I did I couldn't see much anyway. For a while world was a terrifying place - I even got into a wrong bus because I couldn't see and just assumed it was the right one. Work was out of the question for the rest of the day - at least inside I could keep my eyes open but I still couldn't focus on the screen.

At home it was time for a nap - now my vision has mostly returned but my eyes still feel tired and uncomfortable.

Making people happy

Yesterday I gave prints of the two best photos to Jason who was delighted. Tonight we went out to celebrate Clay's birthday (postponed from last week due to, well, you know what) and we gave him a book and a gift voucher to a local gaming store and he was completely surprised and of course stoked.

Sometimes making people happy is so easy and never less rewarding for it.

Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake

I'm continuing my quest for classics as audiobooks, and my next quest is Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast trilogy starting with the first book Titus Groan. I first discovered Gormenghast some years back when BBC made their adaptation of the first two books and I really took to the bizarre and dark world and insane characters. I always got the impression though that the reason the books were never became huge fantasy classics was the reason that they can be incredibly laborious and hard to read due to the elaborate language, so I never bothered to read them.

So I've been looking trough Audible.com to look for books and authors I always wanted to read but could never find the extra time for when I came across Mervyn Peake and again remembered the BBC series. So last two weeks Titus Groan has been playing on my iPod, and I have to say that the book is indeed all that it was said to be. Firstly there's indeed the language:

Conversation was never one of Mr Flay's accomplishments and for some time he gazed mirthlessly ahead of him, and then, after what seemed an eternity to Rottcodd he raised a boney hand and scratched himself behind the ear. Then he made his second remark, 'Still here, eh?' he said, his voice forcing its way out of his way.

Rottcodd, feeling presumably that there was little need to answer such a question, shrugged his shoulders and gave his eyes the run of the ceiling.

Mr Flay pulled himself together and continued: 'I said still here, eh, Rottcodd?' He stared bitterly at the carving of the Emerald Horse. 'You're still here, eh?'

'I'm invariably here,' said Rottcodd, lowering his gleaming glasses and running his eyes all over Mr Flay's visage. 'Day in, day out, invariably. Very hot weather. Extremely stiffling. Did you want anything?'

Most people in Gormenghast seem to have the need to say most sentences three times and at first it's very distracting and made my thoughts wander quite a bit. But once you get to the rhythm of the language and it opens up it becomes like a treasure chest where you find something delightful and amazing every time you open it up. Robert Whitfield does absolutely marvelous job with narrating the book and manages to give all the characters amazing depth - my absolute favourites being Fuchsia and Dr. Prunesquallor (listen to a sample).

Peake manages to create an amazing world in this book. Gormenghast is a world were everything is done like it has always been done, with the count and countess' duties composing of meaningless ceremonies no one knows (or cares) the origin of. Book opens up when the 77th Earl-to-be of Gormenghast Titus Groan is born with much commotion. The castle is full of people in high places who hate each other and want each other's power, but most of them are too stupid and/or stuck in their ways to do something about it. Not so with young Steerpike from the kitchen - when he sees an opportunity he grabs it and never lets go. The book carries the name of Titus Groan but Titus doesn't play much of a part in the first book that follows more Streerpike's rise to power by manipulating the insane and the power-hungry.

In all, I loved, loved, loved the book. It's bizarre and at times unpleasant, but the fantastic storytelling and the marvelous ornate language make it a joy to read.

More Miayazaki

Life goes on, and Dragon is pretty much back to his stubborn self.

Yesterday we continued with the Miyazaki series and watched Nausicaä of the Valley of the Winds which was epic-ly superb, and today it was turn for something lighter in the form of Porco Rosso (better a pig than a facist). I was so thrilled with Nausicaä, I had to go to Golden Age and pick up the first part of the manga comic that preceded the movie, and the comic is - if possible - even better.

I can't believe it's only been four days since I was last at work - feels like a week at least.

Jack is one

I was invited to Jack's one year birthday party today (some photos - I can actually see some benefits of the photography class I took). I can't believe how fast time is flying - it seems that it was just a moment ago I started going to yoga at Flow and back then Kelly was still pregnant. Birthday boy was a bit grumpy and overwhelmed by all the attention, but everyone else was having fun.

Dragon was invited, but decided to stay home just to be on the safe side. As I'm writing this, he's actually just gone out - he wanted to get some fresh air after being scooped up in bed for a week. Looks like we're finally in the clear with this nasty bugger.

Castle in the Sky

I think I dreamed of Howl last night - most of the dream is gone now but I'm left with the feeling of having flown with Howl in the night sky.

So we had to continue with Miyazaki's films, and today's choice was Castle in the Sky. It's in many ways very untypical for Miyazaki, as it's very action-based with guns and explosions and fast-paced chases, but it also has a very powerful story which we loved. Story pays homage to Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels and the mysterious flying island of Laputa that the different parties in the movie are trying to find. Characters are fantastic, some of Miyazaki's best - for a change Pazu, the energetic young boy, is proactive and involved with the story, and Sheeta, the mysterious heroine, is the more passive one.

And the mandatory Dragon update: for the first day he's actually doing well. He has eaten some solid food and his spirits are returning. What a relief.

Moving on

I think we're finally starting to get the better of this illness. Dragon is still pretty ill, but he's finally on the mend. We've tried it all... My Chinese boss suggested the age-old Chinese way to cure diarrhea, which is drinking the water rice is boiled in - that worked so-so, as did clear chicken broth. Today's victory has been two little cups of rice, and in the evening he managed to drink some black tea (another Chinese diarrhea cure) which seems to have done some good.

Real treat in the evening was Howl's Moving Castle, Hayao Miyazaki's latest film that was hardly shown in the theaters here. Oh wow, I'm still blown away - what an amazing film. I wasn't quite sure what to expect, but once again Miyazaki managed to produce something totally original and captivating, and breathtakingly beautiful. And I love Joe Hisaishi's score, once again - together they create the most wonderful audio-visual experience that touches me deeply. This one is also so full of detail I'm looking forward to watching it again and again, and soon.

Spirited Away is still my Miyazaki favourite, and one of my favourite movies ever, but Howl's Moving Castle is got to be one of his best.

Not much change

I would like to give you good news, but there isn't much. Dragon is a bit more peaceful and not in so much pain anymore, but still can't hold anything solid, and barely even liquids. I'm hoping tomorrow is going to be considerable better.

In the other news, I met the Easter Bunny and his friend the Chicken today.

Still ill

Thank you to everyone for your well-wishes. Dragon will much appreciate them when he's well enough to read them. Unfortunately, he continues to be very ill. The doctor said that this would take about five days, and we're on day four today, and then two days for recovery - for now there's no chance he'll try anything silly as he can barely walk.

Makes me feel very weak, not being able to do anything for him.

Nurse kolibri

Dragon is now ill for the third day which is really unusual. He's really modest and doesn't want to cause any trouble to the point of not keeping me properly informed - today he insisted that I should just go to yoga and when asked he did admit that he'd like to get some liquid food as he hasn't been able to get anything to stay down for two days. More I thought about it, the more it scared me, so I left work few hours early and made him go to the doctor.

Turns out he's got some kind of stomach flu kind of thing that's been making the rounds around here. Very nasty, and since it's viral there's not much that can be done about except wait. He got some ibuprofen to fight the fever and aches and pains but that's pretty much it. Poor Dragon.

Plateau over?

I've been in a bit of a plateau for a long time with my yoga . Sometimes it's hard when months and months pass by and nothing is happening, while all my buddies learn some fantastic new asanas after another. In fact it's been so long since I've seen any improvement in myself that I've become comfortable being what I am and accepting my physical self for what it is. And then, like overnight, changes have started happening.

Fist of all, I feel amazing and strong. I can do Surya Namaskars and Warrior dances without resting at all, but also balance poses have come in leaps and bounds. Warrior III is steady, and even in my old nemesis the Half Moon Pose I can finally lift the upper arm upwards and move my gaze to match it.

To be totally truthful some poses have been coming along slowly. Especially the revolved poses Parivrtta Trikonasana and Parivrtta Parsvakonasana are finally starting to be stable (again, problems with the balance start to disappear). I've even got a decent Vasisthasana, and I have a feeling I'll do my first Pincha Mayurasana in any day now.

It is really satisfying to make physical progress.

But in a way the fact that I was making hardly any for a year or so taught me so much more.

Productive Sunday

It's been more productive than the average Sunday.

I decided to try out in practice some of the tips I got from the photography course yesterday, and took some LensBaby shots on the balcony. My favourite has that great falling into look LensBaby shots should have, and I'm quite happy with some macro shots too.

Then while Dragon was playing Suikoden V, I took the bull by the horns and started writing a script for the yoga class I'm going to be teaching next week. I'm scared and exited at the same time - I think I have the opportunity to do something really valuable here, and I think I can do it, but at the same time everything I haven't done before scares me. I feel much better now, after having chosen the poses I want to and written the script.

Dragon has been feeling a bit under the weather today, so while he went to have a nap I continued on my task of watching some DVDs that seem to be finding their ways onto our shelf but we never have time to watch. Dragon had earlier said that he wouldn't want to see the Finnish fan-made Star Trek parody Star Wrek: In the Pirkinning so I've been putting it off too. And to be honest, I've been extremely skeptical about it - especially when enthusiastic fans come and tell me how great movie it is and how the special effects wipe the floor with blockbuster movie stuff. Plus of course, it's a Star Trek parody which makes me careful - it's not that I can't laugh at Trek, it just needs to be done by someone who knows what they are talking about and get the joke too. Well, I shouldn't have been afraid - it's indeed a superb production. Star Trek is lovingly parodied, actors are pretty good and special effects - if not quite blockbuster quality, they are the at least the same level as an average TV series. All in all, it made me laugh out loud in several places and I'll have to recommend it to all my friends too. It's really quite an amazing amateur production.

Photographing

I went for a short photography course today at Vancouver Photo Workshops to learn how to properly use my Canon Digital Rebel XT. Quite interesting - although most of the stuff I had picked up from the manual and Henri - but still I think it was worth the $70 I spent on it. Instructor was pretty good, and I'd like to take his Creating Art with Plastic and Toy Cameras workshop in May - I've really become attached to my LensBaby and I've been thinking about getting a Holga too (they are cheap and cheerful) and would come free with this course.

Now though I'm just too tired even to think about it. This new "life" business keeps me busy as I seem to be filling my time with things I would never had even dreamed about before. For example, I've kinda volunteered to start doing lunchtime yoga/stretching sessions at work - I thought it would be a good opportunity to practice teaching, and share some love and make people feel better. And then I kinda promised Galina I would start on Wednesday, this Wednesday... so I should really think about what I'm going to teach. I reckon I'll think about an outline for the class sometime tomorrow.

Life?

In the beginning when I was meeting Dragon's friends from work I felt like an outsider. They were lovely people and were treating me really nicely, but they all knew each other and had their own circles - so I felt I wasn't part of the gang. I don't know when it changed. Maybe since the game they were all working on finished and they all got new projects, and with the latest - er - reorganization some of them got fired... result was that they didn't spend all the time together anymore and started meeting each other only outside work. However the change is most likely more in my head than anything else... I'm nowadays very careful with what information I choose share with people I don't know, and it takes a while for me to get comfortable with strangers. I have accepted that these people actually like me and are honestly happy to see me and spend time with me.

Whatever the reason, I now feel like I have friends among these people. Meeting them is easy and fun. Last night we went out for a curry (good Indian places are a rarity here, something taken granted in England), I gave out the books I had ordered from Amazon for the book group everyone volunteered for and we just enjoyed the food and each others company.

Could this be normal life, something I was mostly lacking in England? Life here in many ways is happer... Dragon works less so our relationship is much healthier, myself too, I have a better balance between work and spare time (which means yoga, mostly), and now - friends that I want to spend time with. It's almost like I forgot how to have a life like this, for it's been so long I even forgot it ever existed, gave up on even wanting it. And yet, here it is.

Cool... or what

Last night there was a point where time was for a second 01:02:03 04/05/06 (in the North American format - for Europeans it's next month). I find it pretty cool personally, it's just the kind of random stuff I get a kick out of. However what I don't understand - and this was even said by the stupid weather man-cum presenter on CTV's breakfast program - is the people saying that this is the only time ever this is going to happen. Well, no. Firstly, it's not really year 06, that was two thousand years ago - so surely next time that number comes around (using that notation) is in March 2106, and then every hundred years. It might be the only time it's happening in my lifetime, for sure, but not only time ever.

Narnia, revisited

Narnia came out on DVD today, so the geeks that we are, me and Michelle had run to Futureshop lunch-time to buy our own copies - Futureshop even gave out a very nice decorative tins as an alternative case to go with it. And pretty much as soon as Dragon walked in through the door we put the DVD in and watched the movie again.

What a delight it is. Of course impact isn't as big as first time around, but I still thoroughly enjoyed it - this time paying attention to slightly different things. It's one of those movies that is so full of detail there's lot to pick up on the second go too. First time I was mesmerized by the cute Georgie Henley as Lucy and serious Anna Popplewell as Susan - but on the second go I have to say I really liked Skandar Keynes as Edmund the best (without leaving out William Moseley as Peter - especially in the later scenes in that handsome armor). Edmund is the most difficult part of the children, and Skandar Keynes manages to bring just the right amount of darkness and depth to the part that makes him believable as the traitor.

It's time for bed now, but the 2 disk special edition DVD includes over 10 hours of bonus materials... can't wait to see them.

The good and the bad

I finally got to yoga tonight, and oh my did I need it. All those sore and stiff places, the ones that I knew and ones that I didn't know I had, gently massaged and breath running through them. Muscles released, and most of all mind was peaceful again... I don't know how I ever made it without yoga.

One small annoyance though. I'm still wearing my new glasses and this must have been the first time ever I've worn glasses to ashtanga... and it was most inconvenient. Even my new glasses that are so light and sit so well, they start to slip when I'm starting to sweat, and when I sweat more they start to fog up and are just generally a pain. Surya Namaskars and down-dogs are the worst though, but luckily it's that time of the month for me so I didn't even go for headstands and other inversions, they would been even worse.

I'm seeing my optician again tomorrow, and hopefully I can go back to wearing contacts, very soon now. Glasses might be fun now and again, but definitely not for yoga.

Fledgling by Octavia E. Butler

One of my all time favourite sci-fi favorite writers Octavia Butler died unexpectedly in February this year so I have been holding off reading what was to become her last book. Not many writers have affected me like Butler has - I read her Xenogenesis trilogy when I was at the tender age of 17 or so and it has stayed with me ever since. Pretty much all of her books deal with very similar themes - questions about humanity, race, communities and sexuality. And so does her last novel, Fledgling.

Fledgling is a story about a young woman who wakes up badly injured and with an amnesia, remembering nothing of her past. She will quickly discover that she is a vampire, and forms a symbiotic relationship with a man who stops to pick her up on the road. While she discovers the extent of her powers, she also slowly starts to discover what in her past has been so horrible she can't bear to remember it anymore. I'm being deliberately vague - but so much of the book's fascination is about slowly discovering what Shori is and what has happened.

Butler has created a very clever alternative vampire mythos. There are no supernatural powers, but in a very Butler-esque way vampires are a separate species to humans, and live with them in symbiotic relationships forming small communities away from humans. Vampires need human blood to survive, and in return their companion humans get doubled or even tripled healthy life span. Butler picks and chooses from the established vampire rules to create something original, and her characters are always realistic and interesting. I won't say lovable, although love does motivate them - but because the situations they usually are in and choices they have to make mean that they have to be tough and somewhat calculative. Butler is without a doubt feminist and her female characters are strong and intelligent, but she doesn't preach and neither are her male characters evil or disgusting (like Sheri S. Tepper's, for example).

Another superb book from Butler, and I kind of got the impression she was planning to write another book in the series - it's absolutely tragic that she died before her time. She had apparently been suffering from poor health and a writer's block for the past few years, but this book was great comeback. I shall miss her.