I'm looking at smaller 3-5 book story archs for myself to read. I did the 'stand-alone' novel last time and I think I'm ready for something more epic. I already have a long-form series to read with the Dresden Files, so that's why I'm limiting to smaller archs... plus I want an ending. I'm not one, in TV or book, for experiencing things before I know they have a real ending. I'm already reading Kingkiller Chronicle(Name of the Wind, Wiseman's Fear) for something like that, and its already sufficiently driving me crazy.
Jack Vance Lyonesse and Dying Earth
I owe a lot to Jack Vance, indeed a lot of popular geek chic culture does though they might not know it. Magic in Dungeons and Dragons offshoots are "Vancian" because they relate to Jack Vance's Dying Earth series. Dying Earth is more a collection of loosely connected short stories, something I'm not looking for. He does have Lyonesse, a series based on mythical Earth with Arthurian, Atlantean and Welsh myth analogues, it is also considered outside the realm of Tolkien influence. I just got done with an Atlantean analogue after Elantris, so as much as I want to read a Vance series, he's off the table.
Dragonriders of Pern by Ann McCaffrey
This book series has one of the strongest cult followings to never break into the mainstream. They meet every year at Dragon*Con. They helped popularize Multi-user Dungeons in the 90's, leading to the basis of many of today's MMO's. My first suitibly epic book series ever was Dragonlance, and many today consider Dragonlance a shitty alternative to Pern(really, Dragonlance is thought worse than dog crap, especially with today's insistance on having unlikable, inhumane anti-heroes as protagonists, and their focus on rape and slaughter... its like 90's comic books finally caught up with novels). Anyway, there are 2 basic trilogies and I'm still tempted to start them because Pern resides right along with Lord of the Rings and Jack Vance when it comes to the making of modern epic fantasy. Almost all the basis of human/dragon relations in books today have the basis in how they interact in Pern.
Memory, Sorrow and Thorn by Tad Williams
I do not know Tad Williams aside from what I've read on the net. This trilogy is supposed to be really good, but really with today's popular opinion of what's "good" and what's "crap", its hard for me to commit. I wanted to do like I did with Sanderson and read a stand alone novel... but with William's work I'm regulated to a story about a human minded cat or a rocker that gets transported to a fantasy world. There are a surprising amount of "Yankee in King Arthur's Court" that contain rockers getting transported... almost all of them stopped being written in the 80's. Its not a genre I find compelling(though Brutal Legend, the videogame was really awesome). Let me be clear, Memory Sorrow and Thorn is not in this genre.
These have been dropped from my list, but stay on my roster as possibilities later. They aren't the "wrong" sort of books, they're just the wrong "time".
15th of Thrimidge, 2014
Finally... finally, Enterprise has an episode on the caliber of Star Trek Next Generation. Actually its the 2nd good episode this season(3rd), but the first GREAT episode out of 62 I've watched so far. Other good episodes include the first season's Dear Doctor, and 3rd season's Twilight. Episode 62 is Similtude and is worth watching even if you hate Enterprise(I still dislike it over all, as of 62 episodes). I grew up on Next Gen, so its Next Gen and Voyager style I favor, not the TOS "fluff" pieces. I want questioning of identity as an individual like Data's stories, or questioning of duty and honor like with Worf, or the balancing act that Picard has to play between fair, right, and correct. I hear many times that 3rd season is when Enterprise gets good, but so far all I've seen is that everyone gets guns, they put marines on the ship, and all but 2 episodes have fire fights for 75% of what we see on the screen. That's not my definition of "good". Oh and the plots and show structure is more like Deep Space Nine, which I'm sure tons of people like... but I do not favor.
First time for me to fry Plantains at home. I've only had plantains probably twice in my life. I remembered them as a sort of banana-potato hybrid. We had this one almost a week, and the skin was already black when we got it. Now, if you don't know plantains, then you've probably seen a stack of what looks like rotten bananas in the store and thought "gross". On the inside of that black is a nice white/yellow starchy thing that hasn't rotted like you seem to think it would. Ours was no different, but it was very much sweeter than I've had in a plantain before. It was close to a sweet potato, but without the certain horrible taste I associate with sweet potatoes. It was rather nice, though since ours was super ripe(for a plantain) they did tend to caramelize quickly before the outside got the slight crunch I associate with the food. Still, it was good with dirty rice and smoked sausage, they really cut through the spice.
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