Buffet My Body

In February we will enter our seventeenth year as an active reading group. And, while the number seventeen holds no special significance for us, we feel the need to commemorate the occasion. Serendipitously, it has become known to us that a certain local eatery, Country Buffet, will allow patrons to pay for Breakfast, and stay for Lunch and Dinner. This sounds like a challenge worthy of the Fictionados. So, sometime in the year 2009, we plan to convene at Country Buffet at 8: 00 AM, and adjourn at 8:00 PM, eating three meals and holding a marathon discussion session. Other activities will be needed, of course: I have in mind showing a movie on a laptop, playing a few games, getting up and walking around once every hour or so, etc. I am not sure just how discrete we will need to be with the staff, but I am sure we can pull it off. This will be the one event you dare not miss. Maybe there will even be a T-shirt. The more I think about this, the more I like it. Start training now.

1 Cor 9:27 Amplified Bible
But [like a boxer] I buffet my body [handle it roughly, discipline it by hardships] and subdue it, for fear that after proclaiming to others the Gospel and things pertaining to it, I myself should become unfit [not stand the test, be unapproved and rejected as a counterfeit].

HMTP Unchanged

Since we have taken delivery of Walt Brown's 8th edition of IN THE BEGINNING there is no need to implement the suggested changes to the HMTP. So, for the near future, we will follow it as it stands. Note that GOSSAMER ODYSSEY now occupies the, formerly reserved, slot on August 2009. Should the new Morgan book be delayed we will need a quick replacement, but reading THE GLORY AND THE DREAM, under the Pay Paul system, needs to commence as planned.

JUGGLER OF WORLDS by Niven and Lerner

I have completed JUGGLER OF WORLDS. by Larry Niven and Edward M. Lerner. I can only recommend this to Known Space fans. It is more enjoyable than FLEET OF WORLDS, because of the strong connection to Known Space characters and situations. The high point of this book is the new character Sigmund Ausfaller, an ARM agent, and a true paranoid. His paranoia fuels his deductive reasoning powers. If RINGWORLD can be said to be driven by The Luck of Teela Brown, then JUGGLER OF WORLDS is driven by The Paranoia of Sigmund Ausfaller. In all, JUGGLER provides much to satisfy the fan: We get to meet Carlos Wu, and see Beowulf Shaeffer in some of his fabled adventures, including the race to the galactic core explosion. Nessus again figures prominently in the story. We see Puppeteers in all their manipulating expertise, and even see them beat at their own game by Ausfaller. But ultimately, the book succumbs to the fate of all prequels: it must tread lightly lest it exceed the parameters of the sequels. I expected this going in and so was not let down when it happened. JUGGLER did provide me with a fond recollection of the other Known Space books, and that was all I was looking for. If that is what you expect, then you may enjoy this book also.