the Ink Runway

Arctic Drift by Clive Cussler

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

It was as I expected. Fun read but not quite the action I hoped for.



View all my reviews

Had a great weekend. Just a few photos from today. Sam came out to visit and we painted the town. Today (Sunday) was mostly spent on the waterfront downtown and on Coronado.

I finished two books this weekend; The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym by Poe and An Antarctic Mystery by Verne.

The first was Poe’s only foray into long form narrative. It was well written and griping but leaves the reader on a cliffhanger. I surmise he cobbled it together from some chapters he had already published in the paper of which he was editor and couldn’t figure out how to wrap it. The two reasons I read it were because it was well received and unique for that poetic master and second because the great Jules Verne, years later, finished it.

An Antarctic Mystery starts by following the journey years later with a new protagonist but, without giving much away, twists the tale together with Poes Pym and gives a satisfying conclusion.

Despite their age, these books read well and remind me of the joy of reading early Cussler or Hardy Boys; low on tech, high on action and Adventure.

Presently I am reading Perdido Street Station (2002) by China Mieville. I cannot tell the time nor place this is set. I would venture a guess at an alternate world in the mid 1800s. It has unique creatures and follows Isaac and Lin, lovers; one a fringe scientist and the other an artist. The beings and descriptive narrative bear credence to it being lauded as one of the top 20 sci fi novels. But I think sci fi is a bad category. Fantasy minus the adolescent fairy drivel or perhaps Poe meets Van Vogt. In any case, I’m completely enamored with this book and look forward to seeing where it goes.

Some other recent novels I’ve enjoyed come from A. E. Van Vogt who I think is truly under appreciated in the sci fi world.

A test message

Sometimes I just want to make stuff.

While walking the dog today I found a stick. When we got home there was time to kill so I sat in the garage with a coping saw and two dremels and made all the missing pieces to my monopoly set.

tonight, after the gym and dinner I went back down and made a baby doll hand. Which is kinda creepy when I look at it. Perhaps I can make two and do something (make a doll?)

We had a wonderful day
at the Zoo. We started off our day at Praga for lunch which was
excellent. Over 4 hours we saw most of the park

Tuesday I got home and ran up to the mesa for a few flights before sundown.
I’m really enjoying getting back into flying. Yesterday i flew in the parking garage…

after a minute or so…