Books I've read recently

Kiln People by David Brin. An interesting and well-done sf novel about a society where people can create short-term "duplicates" of themselves to handle unpleasant or uninteresting tasks. (2002)

The Viscount of Adrilankha by Steven Brust. Well, this was in three volumes: The Paths of the Dead, The Lord of Castle Black, and Sethra Lavode. This is the third "book" in the trilogy started by The Phoenix Guards (and continued in 500 Years After). It tells of the ending of the interregnum, and fills in some interesting gaps in the back-history of the environment and people Vlad Taltos (Jhereg, etc) lives in and with. It is, of course, written in the expected style, the somewhat loquacious translation of Paarfi. A good and fun read. (2002-2004)

Infernal Devices by K. W. Jeter. An interesting and enjoyable steampunk novel -- strange, bizarre, twisted, but fun. (1987)

Manhatten Transfer by John E. Stith. A very campbellian tale -- humans are faster/stronger/brighter/more dangerous/more clever or whatever than anyone else out there, and triumph cause of it. Yup, here the humans are kidnapped by advanced aliens, break out, and figure out within a few days how to fight with the aliens technology better than the aliens themselves could. Yeah right. Oh ya, there's a romance between the super-competent military-leader guy and the super-competent translator/anthropologist gal, but it's pretty poorly done too. Bleah. (1993)

[edit]Warning: Spoilers for Kiln People and Earth have appeared in the comments.[/edit]

31 Flavors of ConFusion - 01/21 to 01/23 - Travel plans

I am definitely going to Confusion, and it looks almost certain at this point that I'll be driving. One customer, in Michigan, that might have caused business travel decided training was too expensive (they thought it should be free, or almost-free). Another that just popped-up last week were looking at the week of 01/24, but decided that they couldn't do that week, so are probably going to be in February. And, this is getting to be too short notice to book anything in, so...

My (tentative) plans:
-- travel part way Thursday after work. Not sure how far -- Toronto is generally pretty comfortable, usually leaving me a bit of time to socialize the evening I arrive with whoever I happen to find crash space with. Not sure who yet. KW is a bit far, though, and would tend to mean that I'd be arriving around (or after) many people's bedtimes.
-- Friday do something social around lunch-time with someone or some people in KW area. (volunteers? ideas?)
-- Friday after lunch, continue onwards to convention
-- Friday-Sunday, have fun at con; work in green room
-- Sunday evening (probably?) head back to jabeeler's place (in Sarnia). Sleep there Sunday night. (If that's ok with you Jeff, you're not also staying over Sunday at the con, are you?)
-- Monday drive onwards to KW, see Friday's KW plans. :)
-- Monday after lunch, finish drive home to Ottawa
-- Tuesday - back to work. :(

I'm unsure about offering lifts for anyone along bits of the way, due to the various socialization and sleeping at friend's houses bits -- though if someone or someones from the KW side of things wants to go to Confusion with me, I think running things as a drive back to KW on Sunday evening, then sleeping there, would be ok, too. I have no strong objection to switching cars in KW, as mine is a standard, and not everyone drives standard -- and doing the longer drive back on Sunday (sleep, what's that?) with another driver would be better. (Sarnia's about 1.5 hours closer than KW is.)

[edit] World changed, this whole post is, now, out of date. [/edit]