Frederick Busch has also died this weekend.

Octavia Butler has died.

Whoa. She was only 58! And... I mean, she just published a new book. I don't know, it just doesn't seem right for her to die. That's so sad.

So, just like the end of Mark, right?

The end of Mark, chunks of Revelation, the differences between the Gospels, why do some old manuscripts show Jesus as being angry at some points when other manuscripts show Jesus as being compassionate at the same moment. There are a lot of variants.

I'm having a hard time getting through Melusine. I *want* to like it, and the basic premise is enough to make me want to know what happens to the characters, but....150 pages in, and NOTHING KEEPS HAPPENING. It's all

Mildmay: t gritty life of a thief....

Felix: t I am FUCKING NUTS.

Mildmay: t No, REALLY -- gritty life of a thief....

Felix: t Everyone looks like an animal to me. And I see dead people. Did I mention I'm FUCKING NUTS?!?

Plus, the whole system of marking time is so confusing to me that it pulls me right out of the story. I spend about 5 minutes trying to puzzle out what a Great Septad is (I still don't know, though from context I'm assuming it's somewhere between 25 and 50 years), and then I realize I forgot what I just read, and have to go back and re-read it.

I'm serious about wanting to like it -- I really, really do. I want to see what happens, but I'm beginning to suspect that nothing ever will, except the gritty life of a thief and a crazy-ass dude.

DH read it - but sadly , I'm not sure what he thought of it. When i get his opinion, I'll post it.

Steph, stuff definitely happens. However, there's a needs-a-sequel ending, and the sequel will be out in a few months.

DH read it - but sadly , I'm not sure what he thought of it. When i get his opinion, I'll post it.

He actually posted a comment in my LJ about it.

Steph, stuff definitely happens. However, there's a needs-a-sequel ending

I can live with the need for a sequel (as long as one is forthcoming, which it is), but I'm just really impatient, I guess, for stuff other than gritty street life and crazycrazycrazy to happen.

t edit Plus, the book jacket blurb explicity says that Mildmay and Felix are brought together, which makes my imaptience worse. If I didn't know it was going to happen, I wouldn't be so impatient for the plot to just get to it already.

Oh dear. I spent the night hoping that the Buffistas were wrong about Octavia Butler's death. It was much too soon. She was on the short list of authors whose new books I would instantly buy in hardback, even when that meant eating Ramen for a week.

I just finished her latest (last) book, Fledgling, a vampire novel that isn't quite "Patternmaster Redux" although the main character in each case is a fantastically powerful young black woman with a flock of loyal symbionts.

I shall metaphorically remove my hat and observe a moment of silence while I give thanks for all the pleasure I've gotten from reading her work.

This is interesting. I'm curious about how solid their claim is, though -- I don't know anything about UK copyright law, but my feeling is that if a novel uses information from a nonfiction book as its basis, isn't that considered research, not plaigiarism?

I would have thought so!