I'm excited that the next book in Janny Wurts' Wars of Light and Shadow series is coming out just after New Year's in 2002. Although the series is rife with interminable descriptions, tortured prose, and uses fifteen words where three would suffice, it still ranks as my favourite fantasy series. However, most everyone else I've tried to impress the books upon has found them too slow to start and too long to finish. I didn't much like the first book when I originally read it back in high school, and it took a few persistent read-throughs before I really appreciated it. To give you an idea of the length of the series, the author has planned the story to be told in five major books from start to finish, and the first book was about seven hundred pages in paperback. The second book of the series actually had to be split into two parts (each about the size of the first book) because the binding would have fallen apart otherwise. Peril's Gate, which is the volume being released next month, is part three of four of Book Three. A new volume is released every year and a half or so, so it could be years before I get to finish the story. I just hope a tragic mishap doesn't occur, preventing the author from completing the books, because that would really piss me off.

Still no word on the results of the listening exam yet. I should probably finish off the works I didn't get to, just in case, although I can say for certain that all the ones I missed on the exam were ones I knew, but forgot.

"It jumps your musical cholesterol." - Dr. Bachelder on secondary dominants