Best TV show ever, best author ever

[thistlechaser]

I am so very in love with Homeland, for so many reasons. I'm loving the story, loving getting it bit by small bit. But the best thing is also the most scariest: It shows how different groups can see the same situation as meaning opposite things. The CIA/anti-terrorists folks expect to see certain things, which very much colors how they interpret a situation. It's so satisfying not to even know what the reality of the situation is -- are the CIA folks right? Or are they seeing terrorists under the bed?

The show also does a handy trick of giving the viewers just a little more information than the CIA people have, which allows you to make more guesses (more accurate guesses?) than them.

I said this of last week's ep, but it holds even more true now: I love how little we know. I love how much the viewer keeps having to guess. You get a little (or not so little) clue and you have to put all the pieces together again. Sometimes one little clue changes everything. I have no idea at all if the rescued marine was really turned or not, and I love not knowing.

---

Elizabeth Moon is my new most favorite author. Remnant Population was the first book of hers that I read. The protagonist is a 70 year old woman, and while this is a scifi book, she's really 70, not "people live to 300 now so 70 is like 20". She's old, has liver spots and wrinkles, her joints hurt, all that. 40 years ago, she was one of many colonists sent to a new world. Her colony failed, and so the company who sent them there came to pull them all out. She didn't want to go. The story is about how she lives on the planet alone (and then not so alone). It's such a unique POV! Imagine a 70 year old woman alone on a planet, growing her own food, having to do all the care of buildings and the few animals on her own, and how she deals with things when she's no longer alone and untrained her is handling first-contact with an alien species.

As soon as I finished that book, I bought more of Moon's work. (Thank you, Kindle, for being able to read a new book literally seconds after buying it.) The protagonist in The Speed of Dark is actually even more interesting and less likely of a first-person main character than in Remnant Population (he is autistic). The author did a ton of research before writing the book, and it shows. To be inside the head of an autistic person is so different and really interesting. I just started Speed of Dark last night, so I'm not sure what the plot is like, but I suspect I'm going to love it even more than Remnant Population. (Amazon reviews compare it to Flowers for Algernon, which I'd second.)

Initially my review of her books was going to be totally different. The first line of Remnant Population made me frown muchly.

"Between her toes the damp earth felt cool, but already sweat crept between the roots of her hair."

Clunky, 'between' was used twice in the same short sentence. I'd rewrite the second half as "but already sweat ran through her hair", something like that. I've always been told (and agreed) that the first sentence in a story is one of the most important ones (the other being the last). I really dislike that sentence, enough that I stopped reading and frowned at it. But happily then I continued on, and I had zero further issues with the writing. (In fact, I did a rare thing: I almost never use Kindle's highlighting feature, but in Remnant I marked a few sentences that were so well written that I wanted to be able to find them again.)

So anyway, I highly recommend her books! She also has a LJ, e_moon60.

Comments

[firebyrd.livejournal.com]

Yes, Elizabeth Moon is very, very awesome. Make sure to read The Deed of Paksenarrion (I'm almost certainly spelling the name wrong, but you should be able to find it).

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

I want to! It's not around on ebook format yet though. I hope one day they'll release all the older books that way (it's not even that old...).

[firebyrd.livejournal.com]

Ugh, I was hoping that had changed. I have it, but in a book club format that means it's a massive hardback with something like 1k pages. I'd love to read it again, but my hands can't handle that.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

I used the checkbox on Amazon for the 'I want to read this in ebook format'. No idea if it actually helps or not, but maybe. I've heard such good things about that series, I'd really like to read it.

[bastets-place.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed the deeds of packsenarrion (again, I can't spell it either) but hated the ending, with a passion.

It totally ruined the entire thing for me. I won't go into any detail, but it really made me angry for rather personal reasons.

[juliansinger.livejournal.com]

Moon's a little more conservative than I am, politically (viz, this, say), but I do enjoy her books. She works at exploring niches that other folks just don't look at. She's not a gorgeous writer -- basically fairly pedestrian, in terms of skill level -- but the way she /thinks/ makes up for it.

(She wrote Speed of Dark in part because her kid's autistic.)

[veloxe.livejournal.com]

I guess it's time to add another person to the list of "Awesome people with the last name 'Moon'". Impressive list certainly. The idea of the books mentioned are certainly interesting. Not really things people would normally focus on and I guess that's part of what makes the writing interesting. It's always good to see people going off, doing more tangential type work and succeeding.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry to hear that. If it ever comes out as an ebook, I'll be able to see for myself.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Blah. I hadn't read that when I found her LJ (too wall of textish), but reading it now, it doesn't trill me.

(She wrote Speed of Dark in part because her kid's autistic.)

I should have guessed that. It feels really personal. Also, unfortunately I'm liking it less the more I read. Slow, slow, slow buildup, hopefully we'll reach an action point sometime soon.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Not really things people would normally focus on and I guess that's part of what makes the writing interesting.

Exactly, yep! It's a wonder that other people didn't think to do this sooner.

[achika-soladia.livejournal.com]

I was coming in here specifically to mention that series. And yes, you spelled it right. I have to know how to spell it. =P Makes sending FFXI mail from one main on an account to my main on the other account hard if I didn't.

My Elvaan WHM was named Paksenarrion. I chose Elvaan specifically for height (Since she was described as taller than average.) and because one of the models has a braid. My one regret is that I never leveled PLD, but that was in the works before I quit the last time. She hit 13 before I quit.

[achika-soladia.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the final part of Oath of Gold really didn't sit well for me, mostly because of the disturbing events. That's as much detail as I'm going into, myself.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

OH. I never put the pieces together! Your Pak = that Pak!

[juliansinger.livejournal.com]

I figure, I can like people's writing even if I don't always agree with their politics. Sometimes, I can't cope, but sometimes, I can. Information never hurts.

Speed of Dark is quite slow, but I just loved the mindset. (I had a lot of arguments with the ending; I'll be interested to see your opinion.)