Thursday, March 01, 2007

Fav Pics, A book review, and a chart

Hello all-
We're still in Staniel Cay as the wifi is fast and free and Scott as a little more research to do for the last three chapters of the book (buy the book, buy the book, buy the book.....). As we like to do once in a while we offer some of our recent favorite pictures with little text for a change. Also, here is a link to a map of the Exumas. Nassau is not shown but would be nearly due west of the top of the Exumas about 30 miles. Finally, if you scroll down you'll find a book review by Scott - just for fun! We'll probably be internet-less after today until 3/9 or 10 when we return to Nassau to pick up Leah and Jason. We'll be back on line when we get back to Staniel Cay with them and report on their vacation. So, with no further adieux (ado? adeau? . . . ???)










How about a few sky pics? Sunsets at: Boot Key, Channel 5, and Waderick Wells (Bahamas), and a sliver of moon.

























Animals? There's kids feeding finches on Waderick Wells, a lizard from Ship Channel Cay, a Manatee from Boot Key, and whale bones from Waderick Wells. The whale (55') died from ingesting plastic. Floating plastic looks like jelly fish. Sad.

Finally, rare pictures of SUE! She usually hogs the camera. That's sue gettin flowers on her birthday, enjoying the Staniel Cay Yacht Club (tavern) and happy at Allen's Cay.















And finally, finally....my book report:

A book review...about time!
I was turned on to this book by my sister in law who really digs my taste in page turners (serial killer or end of the world) and as luck would have it, just after she told me about it I saw the guy on the boat next to me reading this very book which he then gave to me! An end of the world one. This must be a sign! The book in question is “Dies the Fire” by Stirling. The premise is my favorite...a white light is sweeping across the planet after which NOTHING works. No cars. No guns. No engines. No electricity. It’s back to the 10th century. Oh boy this will be great...

A book like this needs real bad guys and this one has it. They are into raping, stealing, torture, and cannibalism and after about 100 pages I was rooting for them! “Oh my by the Lord and Lady above...” Yeah, the main female character is a Wiccan ...a witch and one more weird gaelic witticism and I wanted to wipe out her and her whole lame-ass clan. Get this . . . In a matter of weeks her and her counter part (a former pilot) do the following....
Gather a herd of horses, build a fort, defeat several bad guys with swords, make chain mail armor, plant several square miles of food by hand, have babies, sing lame songs, say lame things, wish they had better food, laugh good naturedly about that, all get along (yeah, that would happen) and so forth. Of course they are able to do all this because they just happen to find a horse whisperer, a vet, a doctor, a blacksmith, a bow maker, an engineer, and farmers. Everything but a millionaire and his wife! So much for conflict! The crowning moment of this 20th century thrown back to the 10th century slug fest is when they defeat the really, really bad guys by. . . ready?... using HANG GLIDERS (where’d those come from?) which they just happen to have 5 people who are experts at! OH, in the meantime they have all become experts at riding horses, making bows and arrows and shooting them from the moving horses. This is all within a few months of the ‘change’.

Oh and remember nothing works, right? Except they do have fire but gunpowder doesn’t work. They don’t have electricity but the electrical impulses in their heads seem to work but only the lame circuits. They do have fire and they can cook but they can’t make the steam engine work! But all it needs is steam which they can make!

I suppose much of this is explained in the sequel entitled, “More Lame Sayings and Long Winded Descriptions of Food”.

I kept reading out of stubbornness as is my way. Skip this book and buy some posters with kids with big eyes. Less time and less money wasted.

Sorry Andrea!








2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sue, love your pictures,what sunsets,and Scott, Judy just finished Wicked, she loved it, so another sailor might have it for you. take care. Stan & Judy

Andrea said...

I must defend myself. You didn't read the book I reccomended, which was "An Island in the Sea of Time". I agree with the overall assessment of the book you did read by SM Stirling. I think he wrote those to continue a series, and the lack of deep research and true character development was pretty obvious.