First Fall Post

Elections season is always so crazy... August and September fly by in even numbered years and often times, I miss the fact that fall has even arrived before it is gone. My favorite season rarely spreads itself more than a handful of weeks and I have missed a good portion of them already. On Saturday, I was lucky enough to turn my phone and breathe it in.

I went to Mt. Gilead State Park- a relatively small piece of land that boasts very little besides sadly kept trails. Roots stuck precariously in my path and I managed my way across bridges that either groaned under my weight (which is not that usual) or dipped, unsupported, toward the water. Some leaves were colored around the edges, promising amazing things in the next few weeks. Other trees had already shed their reds or yellows leaving the curled, crunchy mess at my feet. The air smelled liked honeycrisps and rain and the shifting wind that will eventually bring the snow. This time of year always makes me miss home.

I've only read two books worth note in the last few weeks, both of which I had been waiting for most of the summer.

Just minutes ago, I finished Carolyn Crane's sequel Double Cross. As is typical with series, it was not nearly as good as the original book. It took its good time starting up and I found the heroine, Justine, a bit too much to bare this time around. Her neurosis grew on me again, toward the end. The series is about a group of individuals with genetic mutations, known as highcaps- that have powers that range from telekinsis to telepathy to the ability to manipulate earth or memories or understand the physiological mapping of an individual. In the charge of one such highcap, Packard, is a group of minions known as disillusionists that have an overabundance of a particular emotion or neurosis. These disillusionist are able to zap certain individuals in order to disillusion (or emotionally reboot them) so they can be reformed. After the last book, Packard's minions are tasked with rebooting bad highcaps, Mayor Otto (a highcap that manipulates earth) has kept imprisoned. Then you got your Justine, Packard, Otto love triangle, a whole bunch of dirty secrets from the past, a highcap that can wipe your memory, and a conspiracy theorist capable of producing anti-highcap glasses and there you go. I'll give Crane another whirl after this, but I'm not hoping for much.

Also a slight disappointment was the third installment of the Parasol Protectorate series- Blameless by Gail Carriger. After her witty and exceedingly entertaining Changeless with one of the best up-in-the-air-endings I had read in ages, I was a bit underwhelmed. Though this won't be the last novel in the series, it had all of the markings that it perhaps should be. The major tension in the story was released with little less than a sigh and a shrug, which was an unbelievable as it was anticlimactic. The ruckus Lady Maccon pulls her increasing weight to be sure, but the cast of characters pulling her down have turned into a hodgepodge of half-formed cliches and self righteous sense of comedy that never fully forms. I generally don't wander in the Steampunk genre often, but it is a favorite as of late. Hey, I can suspend all sorts of realities in favor of an entertaining romp... but the ludicrous nature this installment has settled for makes me wish I had stopped at two.