Crow Planet: Essential Wisdom from the Urban Wilderness by Lyanda Lynn Haupt, a book review

Crow Planet by Lyanda Lynn Haupt is one of the books I've been looking for. It takes urban ecology seriously, looking at the environment most people live in and the types of plants and animals that flourish there.

In particular, Haupt watches crows. Crow Planet is a study both of crows and of people in relation to crows (I had no idea that so many people found crows sinister or even scary). Crows are one native bird that has adapted well, very well, to cities. They show an imbalance (in a truly 'natural' state, there would not be quite so many), but also a beauty. They give us all, those of us who live in cities and can only hike very occasionally, the chance to see wild animals, to watch them build nests, raise their young, and grow up in our neighborhoods.

The book is a great blend of scientific study, anecdote, and, occasionally, legend. It's an easy book to read, but also full of surprises--I more than once found myself saying "I didn't know that!"

The illustrations are pen and ink, very fun, and for once I did not find myself fussing about the absence of color plates. Edit: On rereading, I think the illustrations are actually woodcuts.

Deceiver by C. J. Cherryh

Deceiver is the eleventh book in C. J. Cherryh's Foreigner series, one I've been following since it started in, oh my, 1994, with Foreigner. So, there's really two ways of looking at it: As a standalone and as a part of the larger arc.

I enjoyed Deceiver, on the whole. It's fast-paced and it was good to see my favorite characters again. The crafty Ilisidi is back, busily making plans for the good of everyone (most likely, anyway), Cajeiri is growing up and learning responsibility (but not too quickly), and Jago and Banichi are busy trying to keep everyone alive long enough to negotiate the next treaty. The atevi remain fascinating and alien, and Cherryh has developed a species that has more than one culture, so there's always something new to discover.

Deceiver picks up where Conspirator left off: Cajeiri is safe and Bren's house is secure, but he now has the putative lord of the House next door imprisoned in his basement, an uneasy neighborhood to soothe, the dowager grandmother making promises she may or may not be authorized to make, and someone else out there making threats and kidnapping one of his human guests. Like I said: Lots of action and plenty of familiar characters.

Bren has grown up nicely over the course of the series; he's a lot more confident than he used to be, which is all to the good; I mean, Cherryh's heroes are always under-slept, over-adrenalined, and operating on too little information but one would hope that an experienced diplomat would calm down after a while, and Bren has. Also, his family situation has stabilized, showing some growth and lasting change after the first six or seven books of status quo, a development I much appreciate.

On the other hand, much as I enjoy the Foreigner series, I wish the pace overall would pick up. After having finally met the kyo, dealt with Station Folk and Ship folk, and generally dealt with the wider universe, it's disappointing to be back to focusing only on atevi politics. Yes, the world as a whole needs uniting in order to deal with the kyo, but the events here were not so very different from those in Conspirator, when all's said and done, and not really that different from the first trilogy. And, what is happening with Jason? With the kyo? With all the people we last saw multiple books ago--I think not since Explorer.

So--enjoyed the book, but I'd like the series to get the move on.

Other reviews found at:
re:considering 
BookLoons 

The Broken Hourglass: A Brief , Unnofficial Look at the NPCs (Part One)

I thought I'd give a really quick overview of the joinable NPC's in The Broken Hourglass, starting with Carind, Ioanna, and Halima. Several of the characters have larger introductions over on the Planewalker Games main site--a look under "characters" or a search by name should dig them up.

All NPC portraits are by Jelina Jovovic.

Those of you who get this via reader may want to come look at the main site: This post is more formatted than most so that NPC portrait and character sketch are side-by-side, and feed tends to play havoc with formatting. And so, on to part one:

Carind Velanati has been in charge of keeping track Mal Nassrin's busy criminal element. She loves the city and takes her job extremely seriously. Two things frustrate her: She failed to see any warning signs leading up to Mal Nassrin's current predicament, and she has never yet managed to prove Sanelon guilty of anything.

Halima Phaenon left Mal Nassrin years ago to train as an Adept at the Island of Argoniss. Now enjoying the traditional break between schooling and return to the Isle, she finds herself unfamiliar with her home city. She was away from her family when the disaster struck and is eager to find whoever is behind it and make him pay.
Though she is well-trained in the use of magic, she is not experienced using it in real world situations.

Ioanna works as a spy ("Or 'secret agent,' if you prefer something classier."). She came to the city to see what was going on and stayed to help sort things out. The PC is not her first choice of solution, but seems the best option under the circumstances

If she's asked about her past, Ioanna will answer readily, though a careful listener will soon notice that not all of her stories match. Asked about this, she will laugh and ask what you expect.

Diana Wynne Jones Week--a general invitation

Jenny over at Jenny's Books has declared the week of August 1 through August 7 to be Diana Wynne Jones week and invites everyone to read along with her. I think it is a great idea.  I suggest going to the library and grabbing any of her books they have on the shelves, but if you're feeling like being selective, aim for Eight Days of Luke, Fire and Hemlock, Howl's Moving Castle, Archer's Goon, and Enchanted Glass. That ought to be enough to get you started.

On a more sober note, now might be a good time to write to Diana Wynne Jones and let her know how much you've enjoyed her books. She's struggling with breast cancer.  There's an email address given here, or you can write to her at:

Diana Wynne Jones
c/o Greenwillow Books
10 E. 53rd St.
New York, NY 10022

The official website adds "no questions, please." So--take a minute to write, even a short note (I've seen a couple of really great letters reproduced on blogs. Mine was just a quick "Thanks! I love your work." Somehow, I always end up really tongue-tied when I most want to praise).

Huntington Beach Central Park, Photographs

Pictures from the Huntington Beach Central Park. Included are some of the many reasons I hope the plan to keep Talbert Lake year round goes through.

Falcons in Huntington Beach Central Park

I think these are peregrine falcons. Falcons, peregrines especially, have always seemed mythical birds, found only in tales; the birds of kings and courtiers. It's wonderful finding them in the local park, like stepping into a legend.

I've also never seen two as relaxed as the two in the tree, busy preening themselves. The third bird, the one alone, was calling and watching. Were they, I wonder, part of the same hatching? Or was the caller a younger bird? I have been told that falcons nest in and near the park, though I've never seen one of their nests yet.

The Broken Hourglass: Questing Continues

Writing and coding have gotten very intertwined around one another this quest. I'm moving back and forth between the two, doing the both at once, and am very aware of the possibilities as I work.  As with all writing, it is a matter of learning while I work, watching while one plot twists around another, and each element affects the next. So I'm checking and cross-checking both code and writing as I think "Hmm...but what if the player visits her first, and him next...but what if they go over there first instead?"

The most complicated, fiddly bit, of course, is the finale. I don't want people reaching the finale before they've figured out (or at least come close to figuring out) what is going on, but I also don't want to make the player run endless errands long after he or she knows what the truth is just because the code doesn't account for the possibility of figuring it out earlier.

I think I'll have the first full draft done tomorrow, but after that, I get to play-test it from all possible directions to see what happens, and adjust it accordingly.That, of course, is the advantage of doing most of the coding myself now: Changing things is relatively simple matter of going in and tweaking rather than a matter of emailing back and forth and risking misunderstanding (as happened between Paul & me early on with the outside guards). The drawback, of course, is that I lose the feedback--an outside reader can be extremely useful; I keep a head full of voices, but they don't catch every angle. Hopefully there will be people who can read and play through these quests at some point before release. Someone needs to point out the blindingly obvious ahead of time.

The characters stayed chatty for the first bit, bless them, but now, having said their say, they seem content to put their feet up and rest. "We told you what you needed to know," they say. "You know what we did and why we did it, and you know who we are. It's up to you to work out the details."  And so I circle, alter, tweak, and revise, moving closer and closer to the end.

(Yes, I'm having fun!)

Think Geek Forbidden to Market Unicorn Meat

The best ever cease and desist letter. Also proof that unicorns do exist, or why would the pork board be worried about the slogan?

Crows in the Park

Signs

Nothing like a little hyperbole.

Bolsa Chica birds

An photo I took a couple of years ago.

Blood Maidens by Barbara Hambly: Book Anticipation

In a hurry and wanting a book to take with me, I grabbed Those Who Hunt the Night off the shelves and started browsing--it's one of the books I've reread enough that I don't always start at the beginning, though today I fairly quickly ended up going back to the beginning to read it properly.

That got me to wondering: When is Hambly ever going to write the third book she promised, ages ago? Probably never, I thought, and pessimistically searched this evening only to find that: YES! The third book, Blood Maidens is going to be coming out next year.

That's still too long, but at least it's actually on the horizon. The only thing better would be if she gave us a sequel to Dog Wizard.  Maybe that will be next?

Edit: Should've mentioned: The second book in the series is Traveling with the Dead.

I took a quick look at Hambly's blog--which I now can't find (This isn't it, though it appears to be official, and maybe linked to said blog)--after posting, and it appears that the books just haven't sold well enough for any publisher to want a sequel to the Windrose Chronicles (The Silent Tower,The Silicon Mage, and Dog Wizard, or even, til now, the Asher-Ysidro series, which has vampires in it, for crying out loud, and therefore ought to be wildly in demand, especially when you consider that it is also good.  Anyway, Blood Maidens makes me very happy.

The Broken Hourglass: Piecing Things Together

The quest I wrote about the last time I discussed The Broken Hourglass is coming together nicely. The characters are chattering away happily, and my grasp of basic code is improving to the point where adding it is no longer quite such an interruption to the writing.

I did have to stop yesterday to build a couple of stores, something I'm glad to say is much easier with Wscript than with Weidu (where, quite honestly, I only managed to make things crash when I was modding; Miloch & GeN1e built the working stores in Aurora). So, it slowed me down looking for the proper names of items they might carry, but not so much so that I lost the thread of the narrative, and I felt quite pleased with myself for getting it done.

And now, back to the narrative in question.

This ends your semi-weekly update.

Photos of Bolsa Chica

Garden Flowers!

Another columbine has consented to bloom, and the roses are in fine form.

Bolsa Chica

Love this place.

Newton and the Counterfeiter by Thomas Levenson, a book review

Newton and the Counterfeiter: The Unknown Detective Career of the World's Greatest Scientist by Thomas Levenson is one of those excellent books that evokes the era it describes. It's also one of those books that had me saying "I didn't know that!" about every other page, which is always a treat.

The title and subject sound like they ought to be fiction: After writing his Principia, Newton is appointed Master of the Mint in the middle of a financial crisis. He not only redesigns the process of coining to make it more efficient, he spends his time tracking down counterfeiters. Chaloner, in particular, proved particularly evasive and took Newton's full attention as a detective. It is not fiction: Newton really did have a second career as Master of the Mint and detective, and he was good at it.

Both Newton and Chaloner emerge as strong personalities, foils to one another (though Chaloner never quite seems Newton's equal), and worth the historian's and the casual reader's attention. I shall be looking for Levenson's other work.

The Broken Hourglass: Writing Once More

Having finished the last batch of minor quests and encounters, I have a new one to start, or finish, depending on how you look at it--it's based on some tantilizing bits left by a former writer/coder.

I've done the bit where I take a long, rambly walk and listen to the characters talk. Now I need to do the bit where I sit down and make it make sense.

The listening bit is always fun when it happens (it doesn't always); I hope they'll keep on talking while I write. Sometimes, they go all silent and stare at me with big eyes. "Remember," I'll tell the maybe-villain, "You were telling me all about your plan, and why it was a good idea, really." "That must have been some other bad guy," he'll say. "Me? I'm just sitting here enjoying my coffee." "What about you?" I'll ask the clue-giver. "Are you really going to let him get away with that?" He'll just blink sleepily and demand to be left alone.

But maybe this bunch won't do that.

Time to find out!

Bird Battles II

Once upon a time, there was a crow. He was sitting by the sidewalk, minding his own business, when a photographer came along and annoyed him.

Wanting nothing more than a little peace, the crow flew up onto a nearby roof.

There was a jay already there who did not like the idea and called him any number of insulting names.  She even flew off and scolded her mate into coming to help which, after a few minutes, he did.

The two took turns dive-bombing the crow, never quite touching him, but never really leaving him alone, either.

It was most annoying.

The Broken Hourglass: Puzzle Pieces

Progress and regress and progress again.

I spent the last couple of days discovering that a quest which I had tested in pieces did not work as a whole. In consequence, I had to take the whole thing apart and reassemble it (something that involved both revising the writing and the coding), testing as I went to make sure that each path worked. I'm not sure how many times through that took, either, since there are multiple approaches to the quest and multiple ways of solving it--I tried vaguely to work it out mathematically, but gave up early on and just kept on reloading. By the time I got it working, I was too tired to feel anything more than a distant sort of satisfaction.

Some sleeps later, and I'm capable of greater happiness: It may not be a big quest, but I wrote it and coded it, and it works!

Work on smaller encounters and miniquests also continues; several of them work, some probably work but need one more test before I settle them in and declare them done.

Paul's checked in at least one major quest, too, while I've been toiling away. So--yup, stuff's happening!

Bird Battles

There is a single dead tree overlooking Bartlett Park that is much loved by the crows; my guess is that they like being able to survey their domain.

Unfortunately for them, there is also a hawk who likes the same tree, and no sooner had they settled down for an evening of gossip than the hawk (a red tail, I think) arrived to spoil the fun.

They chased him away, clear over to the Albertson's parking lot, where he settled briefly in the palm trees. They didn't like that, either, so they kept on heckling him.

Whereupon, he turned around and flew right back to their tree.

Then the whole process had to be repeated, with single crows diving as near as they dared and cawing their alarm until the rest joined in, the haw flew off, they settled, he came back, and so on.

Of course, there were times when all the bigger birds were gone. The smaller birds then took advantage of the peaceful interlude to settle down on the tree themselves--and start quarreling over who got to sit on which branch.

Just because

Herons

The herons in back of the Balboa branch library are learning to fly. Soon they will be gone and about their heron business.

In the meantime, they're making short flights, wobbling a bit as they land, and thinking about it before taking off again.

Backyard Bugs by Robin Kittrell Laughlin, a book review

I started smiling when I read the introduction too Backyard Bugs, where Laughlin writes, "Sometimes I shot an entire roll of one bug, until Ifelt that I had gotten the best view, the best angle, a particular feature lit up perfectly, an iridescent part shining, a great profile. These are, after all, portraits of bugs."   That sums the book up: It is a series of gorgeous photographs of backyard bugs taken by someone who loves them. Usually the scientific name is there with the bug, sometimes there is a brief description of its preferred food or housing, an occasionally there is a quotation from a book or poem. There is always a comment on where or how the Laughlin found the bug, and what she thought of it.

It is a work of art.

The Urban Naturalist by Steven D. Garber, a book review

I mentioned a while back that I was looking for books that would talk about the kind of creatures I found in my back yard. The Urban Naturalist isn't quite the book I was looking for--I am hoping for an actual study of animal interactions--but it's a start.

Garber describes the kinds of plants, animals, and insects that typically do well in U. S. cities, everything from mugwort to seagulls and ravens. He approaches the city as another natural environment, watching to see what lives there and in what kinds of habitats. There are brief discussions of ways that we, as humans, can make cities more hospitable to more species, and comments on ways in which, occasionally, cities are better for some animals than the country (fewer agricultural pesticides ranks high on the list).

The book is an encyclopedic list of species rather than an overall study, and some entries are more interesting than others, as he varies between a more detached tone and one of personal involvement. Garber's enthusiasm for  weeds is contagious, and there are touches of humor in some of the entries, such as the one on cockroaches--In Germany, German cockroaches are "called Russian cockroaches, but in the Soviet Union, they are called South European roaches. No one seems to want to accept responsibility for the origin of this invertebrate."

The two big drawbacks of the book are its age--there is time for quite a bit of change between 1987 and 2010--and the absence of color photographs. Many of the weeds and several of the different animal species he describes are very similar in appearance, and the occasional black and white sketch is no help at all to the amateur weeding her yard.

Worth checking out of the library but not a keeper, not unless a later, updated edition is issued.

Side note: It did answer one of my earlier gardening questions: Were the yellow jackets responsible for the fact that there were many fewer fritillaries last year? Probably they were. Yellow jackets eat both nectar and other insects.

Photographs of Bartlett Park in Huntington Beach

 

Bartlett's Park aka Hidden Valley has been mowed now and is considerably less wild-looking--and also freer of broken bottles and dried dog poop than when I last visited. 

Every bird in the city seems to love it. I spotted at least two different kinds of hawks (one of these days I really am going to learn to identify them) and a number of small songbirds as well as the usual crows and pigeons.

The park still amazes me; it's such an oddity, tucked in there between the shopping center and the busy streets.