Whew! That was a tough bout with the flu. It's mostly over now. I rode to work this morning just after sunrise (quite late for me) and put in most of a day's labor - catching up with what I'd missed as best I could. I'd been whining earlier about how I used to shrug such minor stuff off, but the kid next to me at work had been similarly flattened, and as he's about 21 and a college athlete, I now feel like I didn't do so badly after all. Sorry about the dearth of posts lately, but that's how it's been. I'm still weak ... but undefeated!

Prior to the corporeal overload I'd been reading Iain M. Banks' Matter. As is often the case, the choice was due to both good reviews in The New York Times, and because I'd enjoyed his earlier novels. I hate buying hardcovers, but it had the heft, the cover, the reviews and the right author, so I did. In return I have read 410 pages (so far) of a novel that begins in an unassuming swords & wenches form, then morphs into a far-reaching novel of civilizations and interplays of power, politics, philosophies and cultures. During the height of my fevers, while unable to actually read the book, flashes of plots and possibilities from the book played loops in my brain to leave only when the fever broke long enough for me to read a bit more, to fuel the next bout, ad. (seemingly) infinidum.

The magic of this book, beyond talented story-telling, is the structure of its universe - with meta- and micro-levels in which parallel plots unroll as characters move both up- and down-universe, all along a single time-line. To read it and to follow is easy. To write such a book must have required reams of graphing paper, state-of-the-art project management software, or a brain so single-minded as to have been useless to consider anything else during the process. It is a fine read, and I look forward to continuing as soon as I quit typing.

Edit: I failed entirely to mention the density of intelligent humor and wonderful personalities the characters have, particularly the humans. And they seem to get laid often enough as well, though in that great old Rock Hudson/Doris Day manner that one wouldn't censor from even young children (should one deem censorship virtuous at all).

Second Edit (after completion on 3/7): Holy shit! Most memorable book I've read in 2008, and I read a lot. If you enjoy science fiction, read this book!

This is Emalie, whom you've seen here quite often. She is exactly as sweet, charming and playful as she appears.