Review Day: Lord and King by P.L. Stuart

There are no major spoilers in this review.

Lord and King is the third book in The Drowned Kingdom saga, by prolific new author, P.L. Stuart. There are many high points to appreciate in this excellent story although the pacing sometimes drags in its mostly episodic structure.

Prince Othrun of Atalantyx is now King Othrun of Eastrealm, vassal to Lynchun and Carthlughe. Having achieved his interim goal of finding safety for his exiled people, he sets his eye on growing strong enough to conquer the continent of Acremia -- building an impregnable fortress, protecting the purity of his peoples' religion in a land of allied heathens, and quelling the threats across his immediate borders. The sheer weight of administration required to manage his scant resources and grow his empire is shared in an engaging manner by the author, like a fun live-action retelling of a convoluted German board game.

Against this external background, Othrun continues to get lost in his own headspace as he tries to be both a good king and a good man. He gains more self-awareness of his bigoted views and the Atalantean reputation of being cruel, seafaring conquerors. This dichotomy is driven home later in the book when we're finally introduced to the dark-skinned people of Anibia, a continent that has been united under Queen Undala through collaboration rather than cruelty. The population of Anibia is so vast that all of Atalantyx barely registers. I enjoyed watching Othrun grow as a character and start to work on his flaws. The chaos of his love affairs (both requited and unrequited) was a little frustrating, but served to remind me of how young he actually is.

After the cohesive unity of the first two books, I struggled a bit with the episodic feel of Book Three. The individual plot lines, from the catastrophe in Meridnia to the siege in Celtnia, are excellent, but I felt like there was no overarching thread giving shape and momentum to this single book as a whole. Still, P.L. Stuart continues to grow as an author and is very effective at conveying the complexity of alliances, conflicts, and underlying emotions without boring the reader. In Book Three, he begins to unfold different perspectives on earlier events, making the world deeper and richer. If the tale told in the first two books gripped you, you'll find plenty to enjoy here. The fourth book, A Lion's Pride is slated for publication in 2024.

Final Grade: B

• Book 1: A Drowned Kingdom review
• Book 2: The Last of the Atalanteans review
• Book 3: Lord and King review
• Book 4: A Lion's Pride review

Easy Photos Day

Enthralled with the Ahlbins' new kitten, Layla.

Tempting fate by trying out a child-sized pogo stick (record: 8 hops).

Ian finds a place to spend the whole weekend.

Battling the heat wave at home on the screen porch.

Memory Day: Snapshots

This picture was taken 32 years ago, in the summer of 1991.

We had finally relegated the trundle bed under my main bed to the trash bin, opening up a vast expanse for storage in my tiny childhood bedroom. I positioned crates full of Lego sets along the outer edge of the bed and draped the quilt over them, leaving a small BU-sized hole to crawl into. Under the bed became my secret area where I hung out when I didn't want to be bothered by my sister. I would chew two pieces of grape Bubble Yum, play the Dances with Wolves soundtrack on my boom box, and read the novel, Dances With Wolves next to a small reading light. (When the soundtrack ended, I would flip the tape over to Handel's Water Music).

The bed is now Maia's. The quilt is still in my house today, covering the cat hair on the basement couch (Maia says the flower blooms look like Gloomholes from Zelda). The dresser made its way up to my sister's house in Rhode Island.

Review Day: Elders and Aliens by Susan Quilty

There are no major spoilers in this review.

Elders and Aliens is Book Three of the YA Fantasy series, The Psychic Traveler Society, and offers a wonderful conclusion to the trilogy. Amanda Jones continues to juggle the mundane tribulations of being a teenager with her growing stature within a secret society of people who can travel to new worlds with their minds. Internal divisions within this society (first exposed in Book Two) threaten Amanda's anonymity in the normal world and add urgency as she undergoes four separate trials to fully understand her powers.

The first half of Book Three has an overload of names and places -- where the first two books focused mostly on fleshing out specific worlds, this one squeezes in more breadth of worldbuilding in a shorter span. This mix of old and new can be a little overwhelming unless you are reading the books in rapid succession. In my case it had been over two years since I read Book Two so, for example, the reinforced details of Terra-V linger pleasantly in my memory, while the new world of Stellaria didn't make much of an impression in my initial read.

The last half of the book makes the journey all worthwhile (and since this is YA Fantasy, you'll get there pretty quickly!). Susan Quilty spins the old tropes involving trials of worthiness in surprising, uplifting directions. The main character finally gains agency in her actions and relationships, providing a great payoff for the parts of the previous books where being a young teenager kept her coddled. Amanda Jones' empowering journey through the four trials proves that you don't need a grim goose chase for seven horcruxes to conclude a series in a satisfying way.

While the first book remains my favourite in the series, The Psychic Traveler Society trilogy as a whole is a fun, imaginative trip filled with interesting worlds and positive lessons.

Final Grade: B

• Book 1: Healers and Thieves review
• Book 2: Family and Foes review
• Book 3: Elders and Aliens review

Easy Photos Day

Sometimes they just hop up on the couch and start reading, unprompted.

Ready to build a bookshelf for his room.

Collecting osage oranges in Morven Park.

Playing Wingspan while Ian naps in the thunderstorm.

Trial run of a regular car seat, since he's on the verge of outgrowing the rear-facing infant one.

Chad Darnell's 12 of 12

12 pictures of your day on the 12th of every month

5:45 AM: Showered and ready for work.

6:04 AM: Bagel for breakfast.

6:57 AM: Off to the bus stop.

9:27 AM: Signing on for the team meeting. My laptop is in dire need of dusting.

11:18 AM: Exercise break on the treadmill, watching Black Bird.

11:48 AM: "What can I find in my fridge?" for lunch.

3:30 PM: Paying off the mortgage! $46 "release fee" is a rip-off though.

3:54 PM: Maia is excited for her first ballet class, which doesn't start for another 75 minutes.

4:15 PM: Installing a new front-facing car seat for Ian.

5:03 PM: Ian builds a party.

7:07 PM: Bedtime stories.

7:29 PM: Unwinding with Starfield.

Birth Day

Easy Photos Day

This is the cabin where we stayed with friends over my birthday weekend. It was at the top of the mountain in Shannondale, just 0.4 miles from an Appalachian Trail access point so the views were top notch. Maia named her rock, "Ginormous Rock".

Of course, we had smores.

Rebecca and Ian take a walk down Rebels Roost Road.

This is Ian's current favourite face to make for the camera.

Tree Removal Day

The maple tree in our front yard came down today by chainsaw.

I don't have many pictures of the front yard from the early years of homeownership. Usually, this tree only appeared in the background of photos showing how much snow we got, when I got a new car, or when they repaved the road. I do remember that it once had full coverage of the front yard in 2004 -- I used to have to rake the front yard multiple times per year, but haven't even done any raking in about a decade.

In 2019 when the tree was in permanent decline, we planted a new maple tree nearby. The new tree sapped the old tree's spirit by shouting "Okay, boomer" and actually being able to grow leaves.

Since then, the old tree has only been useful as a perch for neighbourhood birds.

Rest in pieces, tree. You will continue to serve us by roasting our smores in our fire pit.

Review Day

There are no major spoilers in these reviews.

Doom Guy: Life in First Person by John Romero:
The autobiography of one of the creators of DOOM is a little repetitive at times, retreading ground already explored by David Kushner's Masters of Doom. However, it's a pleasant, nostalgic trip through 3D gaming in the 90s.

Final Grade: B

Ted Lasso, Season Two:
The second season of this footballer show stumbles a bit. There are still some great, funny storylines, but the episodes get longer and longer and the character arc of Nate the Great isn't sold well enough for its payoff. The episode, Beard After Hours is a boring, experimental slog that would feel more at home on Master of None or Atlanta. On AppleTV+.

Final Grade: B-

Mythic Quest, Season Two:
Season two of this gaming company show isn't as perfect as the first but still has some great individual story arcs. The two-episode tangent focusing on C.W. was really well done. On AppleTV+.

Final Grade: B

Justified: City Primeval:
This is a lackluster appendix to the excellent seven seasons of Justified. It places the great character of Raylan Givens in a second-rate cop show without realizing that the draw of the original series was the character's interactions with everyone else, not the plot. Timothy Olyphant's real-life daughter plays his daughter on the show in a grating performance that calls to mind Kim Bauer versus the cougar on 24 (Thankfully, she exits the show after just a couple episodes as if the creators realized what a misfire it was). On Hulu.

Final Grade: D+

Easy Photos Day

Maia is really into her educational math game, Prodigy, which she plays on her school-issued Chromebook.

Ian plays "Senor Don Gato" at Sully playground.

Ian and Maia go to a 4th birthday party at the fire station on Saturday morning.

Ian reunites with Abby at the Smith household on Sunday afternoon.

Tropical Storm Ophelia turns out to be a moderate nothing-burger, with only 2.5 inches of steady rain.

Review Day

There are no major spoilers in these reviews.

Mythic Quest, Season Three:
This season was hit-or-miss. Some of the characters become too Flanderized and there's not a lot of forward progress in the plot. On AppleTV+.

Final Grade: B-

Schmigadoon, Season One:
This show is about two people in a failing relationship who magically stumble into a musical and cannot leave until they find true love. The songs are fine and the feeling of musicals from the 60s and 70s is captured perfectly, but it just isn't very gripping. Everything they try here was already done better (and with more edge) in Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. I gave it 5 episodes then gave up. On AppleTV+.

Final Grade: Not Rated

Drops of God:
This limited series based on a manga is about the death of a wine magnate and the competition between his daughter and his best student to claim the inheritance. The show bounces around between Japanese, French, and English, and has lots of fun wine-tasting imagery. It's a pleasant ride, and very different from the shows we usually watch. On AppleTV+.

Final Grade: B

Baldur's Gate 3:
Everyone is raving about this game based on Dungeons and Dragons, but I just didn't connect with it. I enjoyed the old-school fiddly nature of this game studio's previous games (the Divinity: Original Sin series) and can appreciate the high-quality voice acting and game style in Baldur's Gate 3. However, when a game offers you so much freedom that you can do anything, it paradoxically feels like nothing is worth doing. I would play for an hour or so and spend so much time fiddling with minutia that I made no forward progress -- it doesn't fit with my gaming pattern of wanting to complete everything before moving on. I shelved the game after about 6 hours. Maybe I'll come back to it someday when I'm retired and have hours of contiguous gaming time to devote.

Final Grade: Not Rated

End-of-the-Month Highlights Day

New photos have been added to the Life, 2023 album.

• Events
  • Visited the Ahlbins in Rhoadsville, VA, F 9/1 - S 9/2.
  
  
  • Took the kids to Volcano Island on M 9/4. Dinner with the parents (spaghetti) in the evening.
  
  
  • Date night at Local Provisions on F 9/8.
  
  
  • Maia did a trial dance class at Sterling Ballet Academy on S 9/9. Went to the native plant sale at Morven Park in Leesburg where we also met up with Aunt Carol and Uncle Dave on their anniversary.
  
  
  • After church on S 9/10, Maia and Rebecca went to the Cheesecake Factory with Elizabeth and Sammy for Aunt Carol & Uncle Dave's anniversary.
  
  
  • Maia started weekly ballet classes at Herndon Community Center, S 9/12.
  
  
  • Celebrated my 44th birthday at a Shannondale cabin with the family, Car, and Jordan, F 9/15 - S 9/17.
  
  
  • Went to the HOA meeting on W 9/20.
  
  
  • Went to Nathaniel's 4th birthday at the fire station, S 9/23.
  
  
  • Afternoon visit to the Smiths on S 9/24.
  
  
  • Rebecca and the kids went to Great Country Farm with Sena and her kids on M 9/25.
  
  
  • Solo dad dinner at Local Provisions on H 9/28.
  
  
  • Forest Grove Elementary School 20th Anniversary Event on F 9/29.
  
  
  • A visit my parents with the kids on S 9/30, then dinner with Grandpa Tom and Peggy in the evening (kabobs).


• Projects
  • Continued learning Spanish with DuoLingo (175 day streak).
  
  
  • Paid off my mortgage on T 9/12.
  
  
  • Removed the front yard maple tree with my dad on W 9/20.


• Consumerism
  • Briefly jumped back into Grim Dawn again before moving on to Starfield.
  
  
  • Enjoyed watching Righteous Gemstones and This Fool this month.
  
  
  • No amazing new music or books.
  
  

September's Final Grade: A, a great month!