Jirel of Joiry

Jirel of Joiry by Catherine Lucille Moore



I had never heard of C.L. Moore or her stories until Poe Ghostal lent me this book, which is a bit sad, since she seems to have been quite a figure. Specifically, she was one of the earliest women writers to enter into the sword-and-sorcery genre, publishing stories in the same magazines as Robert E. Howard and H.P. Lovecraft.

Jirel of Joiry collects some of those stories, specifically the ones that deal with...Jirel of Joiry. Jirel, the ruler of a fictional kingdom located somewhere in medieval France, is very much what you might expect from a female version of a pulp protagonist. That is to say, she's a bit like Conan, if Conan were a woman. She is skilled, strong, attractive, and angry. Oh man, is Jirel angry. A number of the stories revolve around Jirel's quests to take revenge on someone for slighting her, and in several cases, it is her rage that allows her to prevail against supernatural odds.

Which is good, because the supernatural is what Jirel spends a lot of her time dealing with. With one exception, all of these stories feature Jirel journeying to another reality or plane of existence, where she does battle with the supernatural forces that live there. Those force are often powerful, terrifying, and largely incomprehensible to Jirel. Lou Anders points out that there is something almost Lovecraftian about the realms that Jirel visits, but philistine that I am, I have not read Lovecraft, and so cannot compare. They definitely are strange places, however.

The first two stories in this collection, "Black God's Kiss" and "Black God's Shadow"are very short on human (or even non-human) interaction, dealing mostly with Jirel's wanderings through strange, alien lands on her quests. Moore's descriptions of these strange dimensions are exquisite, but by the second story, I was starting to wonder if all Jirel stories were mostly tourist narratives. Of the two, I found the first one to be much more compelling, in part because I found Jirel's motivations for the quest much more convincing than I did in the second one.

In "Jirel Meets Magic", however, we finally get to see Jirel in a confrontation with forces that, if she cannot comprehend them, she can at least interact with them. This is about as classic sword-and-sorcery as you can get, with Jirel out on a quest to kill a wizard, something which is never easy, especially in these stories. Very fun stuff.

"The Dark Land" sets up an interesting confrontation, wherein Jirel's world-hopping comes back to haunt her. Of all of these stories, this one is the most "high fantasy" of them all, featuring a very new and very weird dimension that gives Jirel no end of grief, and may give the reader a headache as well.

The last story, "Hellsgarde", is interesting in that it takes place more or less on Earth (though the castle known as Hellsgarde is hardly a normal place). It's basically a haunted house story, with a bunch of weird characters for Jirel to interact with, a ghost, and a lot of creepy weirdness.

While Conan has made his mark far beyond the sword-and-sorcery genre, I get the impression that neither C.L. Moore nor her creation are nearly as well known. Which is a shame. Jirel of Joiry is every much a sword-and-sorcery protagonist equal to Conan, and ought to be remembered better. If you enjoy this type and style of writing, go pick this one up.

Night Train to Rigel

Night Train to Rigel by Timothy Zahn



Yes, I know I am deeply, deeply behind on my reviews. In my defense, I tried to write a review of this one, but it got lost by the Interwebs, and now I'm trying to do it again. Hopefully, it will stick this time.

In short: Night Train to Rigel is a pulp/hard boiled detective novel that has found it's way into a science fiction setting. Adventure ensues. Good times are had by all.

The slightly longer version: Night Train to Rigel is the story of Frank Compton, a retired (read: fired) government investigator (read: private eye), who is hired by the Spiders, a race of mysterious entities that run the Quadrail. Which is basically a train through space.

No, that last sentence is not a typo. There is, in fact, a space train. The reason WHY there is a space train is eventually explained in the course of the novel, but I won't spoil it for you. For now, suffice it to say that there is a space train.

There are also vast interstellar conspiracies, treacherous aliens, friendly aliens, corrupt government officials, mysterious employers, even more mysterious enemies, and a fair share of fist-fights, double-crosses, and a space battle or two.

In short, it's just about everything you could want out of this kind of novel.

It is, of course, a very Zahn novel. If you aren't a fan, this novel isn't likely to make you into one. If you are a fan, then you'll definitely enjoy it. If you're just generally into space opera or pulp detective thrillers, this one is probably worth checking out.

Marley and Me

Marley & Me: Life and Love with the World's Worst Dog by John Grogan

What I learned from this book: John Grogan is a jackass.

I listened to this book on audio CD for two reasons: one was that it was about the only thing I had available to listen to recently, and I was sick of surfing the radio. The other was that several people I knew had spoken highly of the book to me. It was a bestseller (of course, so was the Da Vinci Code)! It got made into a movie (so did the Da Vinci Code. There was a clue here...).

Marley and Me starts with a simple premise. John and Jenny Grogan are happily married newlyweds living in Florida, when they get a plant. I don’t remember what kind of plant, but it hardly matters, because the plant dies. Jenny waters the thing to death.

Now, planticide is not a punishable offence in Florida, nor is a Federal Crime, but Jenny Grogan is nevertheless distraught. After all, the Grogans want to have children some day. If they cannot care for a sessile organism that requires nothing more than light and water for survival, how will they care for a mobile, sentient, organism that requires food, drink, play, education, and so on? It seems so discouraging! But then, Jenny his upon a solution. The Grogans will get a DOG!

Let me go over that thought chain again: I cannot successfully raise a plant, so I will raise a dog instead. That’s sort of like saying; I cannot successfully pick up a fifty pound rock, so I will deadlift 500 pounds as practice. Or, to paraphrase the Internet: sense. This thought process makes none.

But hey, fine, they want a dog. At least they go out and carefully research and plan to acquire their new family member, right?

Wrong. Rather than actually learning anything about what they’re getting into, the Grogans decide that they can just flip through the classifieds until they find something that catches their eye. They chug off to buy their AKC purebred Labrador retriever without the foggiest idea of what a purebred Labrador retriever actually is. Once they arrive, they are delighted to learn that the breeder is willing to part with one of the puppies that shows interest in them at a $50 discount! Why, that’s wonderful. They not only got a new dog, but they got him at a bargain! (Never, apparently, does it cross their minds that there might be a REASON why this dog is being offered so cheaply, and that it might not be a good one.)

What follows is less a litany of the struggles of the Grogans with a bad dog, and more of a litany of the Grogans failure to properly raise and care for a very difficult animal. While the book cover makes much of Marley’s faults, the faults are most Grogans.

The book cover tells us that “Obedience school did no good. Marley was expelled”. Which is true, except that “obedience school” consisted of the cheapest class that the Grogans could find, run by amateur dog trainers in a parking lot. When the woman running the class proves unable to control the dog, the Grogans simply give up. It apparently never crosses their mind to seek out a professional dog trainer to help them. Rather, they just decide to take matters into their own hands. The gouged drywall and tranquilizers mentioned on the book cover are both related to Marley’s psychotic fear of thunderstorms, which is apparently quite bothersome to Grogan, but not so bothersome that he bothers to find a solution other than leaving the dog locked in a metal grate and cleaning the blood off when he gets home. (And the tranquilizers, but those don’t help).

At every turn in this book, I’m consistently amazed by the ability to not only be ignorant, but to remain ignorant. According to the book, Grogan is a journalist, but apparently, it never occurred to him to actually do anything resembling research either before or after getting his dog. It takes him years to read anything on the Labrador retriever, or learn that there are actually two varieties of the dog. He is completely unaware of the existence or possibility of bloat until Marley has a case of it (which nearly kills him). It’s absolutely disgusting. He ties the dog up to a table at an outdoor restaurant, and is shocked that the dog drags the table off when chasing a poodle (despite the dogs habit of chasing after damn near everything).

To be fair, Grogan is not deliberately malicious. This isn’t Michael Vick’s autobiography, and Grogan does honestly seem to want to help Marley a better, happier dog. He’s just to ignorant to know how to, and to arrogant to ask for more than the cheapest help.

Are there some cute stories about Marley here? Certainly. But honestly, they are a lot of the same kind of cute stories you’ll get out of any friend that owns a Labrador retriever. They’re really not particularly wild.

Grogan himself reads the book, which is a poor, poor, choice. He narrates the entire story in the same jovial tone, with no variation in his voice except for some poor attempts at an Irish accent, and one dog owner who transitions from southern hick to surfer dude in the space of a chapter.

I don’t doubt that Grogan really loved Marley, but I can’t help but be annoyed at the way he treated him. For all his talk of the lessons he learned from Marley, it seems to me that he missed the most important one: dogs are a whole lot of friggin responsibility, and you ought to think very carefully about how you go about getting one.

I wish I could recommend this book, but I can’t, except maybe as a “how not to” guide for future dog owners. Take what Grogan did, and do something different. Otherwise, the only person to blame is you.

My American Journey

My American Journey
Colin Powell

Again, I'm going to try and keep this short and sweet.

This book was a bit outside my usual reading habits, but Tony Blauer had it on his list of recommendations, so I thought it would be worth checking out. And I was right. It was worth it.

As the title implies, My American Journey is the story of how Colin Powell went from sub-average school student of Jamaican immigrants in the Bronx to being the commander of the one of the most powerful militaries in the world. It is a quintessential rags-to-riches sort of story that many Americans enjoy as children and dismiss as propaganda as teenagers (adults fall on all sides of the debate, of course). This is all nice, of course, but not necessarily worthwhile reading on its own. There are plenty of books that tell a similar kind of story, either factual or fictional, and if all you want is a feel good read, this isn't necessarily what you want.

Powell works his way through the story of his life with a level of introspection that might surprise readers who expect him to be a military-minded thug. His voice comes across as honest and genuine, and he is more than willing to admit when he thinks mistakes were made--especially if they were his own. This may be a success story, but it's not one where the author is gloating; Powell acknowledges when he screwed up, if he feels he does. And he acknowledges when OTHER people thought he screwed up, even if he doesn't think so.

And that, really, is what makes the book so fascinating; not just the life Powell has lived, which is admittedly impressive an interesting, but the way he thinks about that life. The book is a fantastic insight into the thinking of a very successful man. Even if you find his politics abhorrent, his thought processes are still worth understanding and thinking about. This is a man who knows how to succeed, and there's a lot to be learned from this.

Dragon and Liberator: The Sixth Dragonback Adventure

Dragon and Liberator
Timothy Zahn


Okay; I am way, way, WAY behind on this thing. I'm taking advantage of a trip out of town to try and catch up, but I'm trying to catch up on a couple of other things as well. So, while I will do my best to provide you with my usual scintillating reviews, I will also apologize in advance if some of them seem a bit rushed.

On with the show.

Dragon and Liberator is the final volume in Timothy Zahn's Dragonback cycle, a six-book science fiction series aimed at young adults. I started reading it because I'm a huge Timothy Zahn mark, and kept reading the series because I discovered I actually enjoyed it. It's not deep literature, but it's enjoyable in the usual Zahn fashion: interstellar conspiracies, action, mystery, and more plot twists than you can shake a stick at. In short, it's fun.

Dragon and Liberator is the endgame of the long plot which Zahn has been building over the last six books. The K'Da fleet is on its way, and Jack and Draycos need to make one final, desperate push to stop the conspiracy that plans to kill them--and is tied into the one that killed Jack's parents.

Like any Zahn series, this one has a lot of plot threads kicking around that need to be wrapped up. Zahn manages to tie everything together, and even to give readers introductions to a few new characters along the way (we finally meet the Valahgua who have been lurking menacingly in the background for the whole series). The new additions don't create any new plot strands, fortunately, and the whole series manages to tie up in a nice, neat, but satisfying way (while still leaving some room for more, if Zahn really wanted to do it).

Of course, there's all the action and adventure that the previous entries into the series promise. And there's the shades-of-grey morality as well. This series is very much a coming of age story, and is as much about Jack's growth from a selfish, immature thief into an honorable, mature young adult. Not always entirely subtle, but satisfying nonetheless.

If you've been following this series, finish it. It's worth the wait.

Happy Birthday to the Bagginses

Sept 22nd, is, in fact, the day of the Long Expected Party.

For those who, for whatever reason, find this fact interesting or entertaining.

The Martial Arts Game: A New Business, Teaching & Coaching Model For The 21st Century Martial Arts-Life® Coach

The Martial Arts Game: A New Business, Teaching & Coaching Model For The 21st Century Martial Arts-Life® Coach by Rodney King

Like most American martial artists, I first heard of Rodney King (not to be confused with THAT Rodney King) some years back when he put out a series of DVDs through the Straight Blast Gym. In those DVDs, King introduced to the world his "Crazy Monkey" system, which was, to all appearances, a method of teaching fundamental boxing skills to new students. Depending on who you asked, it was either totally revolutionary, reasonably effective, or total hogwash. In other words, it was received just like every other innovation in the martial arts community.

Truthfully, I never paid that much attention to the system. Because most of my training takes place at a top quality striking school, I didn't feel like I was missing a lot in terms of training or teaching methodologies in that regard. A bit closed-minded of me, perhaps, but there it is. I did follow some of King's writings, and checked out the occasional clip on youtube, but nothing I saw leapt out at me enough to make me want to plunk down $100.

So why did I pick up this book?

A few reasons. First, the book appeared to be about pedagogy, which is something that I am far more interested in than technical material at this point (particularly in regard to empty-handed striking). Second, it appeared to have a lot to do with teaching private clients, which is something I do a lot, and hope to get some ideas from. Third, it appeared to offer a business model similar to the one I've been trying to work with, so I figured that it was probably worth checking out.

And it absolutely was.

The Martial Arts Game is a combination of business manual, self-help book, pedagogical treatise and impassioned plea to the martial arts world. King begins by outlining what he perceives as some of the major problems in the martial arts community. I think some of his observations are dead-on accurate, though they are clearly colored by his long association with the mixed martial arts community. It is through the observations that he comes to suggest a different model of coaching the martial arts.

I almost wrote that it's a new model, but the truth is, what King is suggesting is, for many arts, really a return to an older model. Small classes, with a good student/teacher ratio. Classes that focus on the student's needs, not on some arbitrary desire by the instructor to pass on the "style" to all of his little carbon copy students. It's a model that I think was much more prevelant in the arts in previous centuries, but has been lost with the growth of the martial arts as an industry.

But new or old, it is a great model, especially in today's society. It really allows teacher and student to develop in ways that are much more difficult to do in a large group class. And King outlines the whole model very well, from suggestions about how teach a specific lesson to how to market and run an entire business. At every stage, he provides some examples of the process that he's talking about, though some are more concrete than others.

The book is good, but it's far from perfect. For one thing, it's very general. King seems to have really only scratched the surface of his ideas here, and it seems like there is room for much more detail. His pedagogy and examples are focused entirely around using a combat sport as your teaching methodology, so teachers of "traditional" martial arts may have a hard time adapting his methods to their instruction.

And I confess that I would have a hard time referring to myself as a "Martial Arts Life Coach", but that is my own personal bias. I'm not sure that my skills at coaching martial arts necessarily make me qualified to help people run their lives; on the other hand, I have occasionally turned into something of a therapist in shorts for some of my clients, so what do I know? Maybe King is on to something there.

Actually, I take that back. King is definitely onto something here. If you're a martial arts teacher, whether you have one student or one hundred, this is book is worth reading.