freznel’s flame and flight

Ever since I got a PDA I stopped reading fiction in its treeware format and have switched to reading ebooks instead. However, a few days back (December 25) our family went to Market! Market! before going to the yearly Christmas lunch/dinner in Tipas with our relatives by affinity on the father side (okay, that sounded so law school-ey) and iI found a good bargain that broke my digital reading lifestyle: near the main entrance was a Booksale booth selling books at 99 a piece. In addition to this you get another book for free. How good could that be? So we rummaged through two piles of books and finally decided to buy the ff:

Chocolate Lizards (Cole Thompson)

From Kirkus Reviews
A debut novel recounting a young mans sudden initiation into the real world via the oil fields of central Texas. Erwin Vanderveer, like many northeasterners, believes that America is made up of two coasts with nothing terribly interesting in between. A recent Harvard grad who wants to be an actor, Erwin has just spent a profitless year in Hollywood trying to break into the movies. Now hes given up and decided to return home to Boston. Lacking the cash for a plane ticket, he decides to cross the country by buswhich is how he discovers Texas. Unfortunately for Erwin, however, one of his fellow passengers is a card shark who quickly fleeces him of his last dime, stranding him in a rest stop in Abilene. There, he meets Merle Lusky, an oil man who happens to need an extra hand to roughneck on one of his rigs. Merle is like no one Erwin has ever met: Profane and sentimental by turns, he swills whiskey for breakfast and thinks nothing of driving a hundred miles an hour in broad daylight merely to elude the cops. Now, though, the drop in oil prices have hit Merle pretty hard, and the banks are calling in his loans. He stands to lose all six of his rigs unless he can conjure up payback money fast. Merle concocts a scheme to save his skin, but it requires a low profile thats hard to maintain in Abilenes tight-knit oil community. Thats where Erwin comes in. As an outsider, he manages to steal confidential information about oil deposits, and soon Merle has staked a claim to a new field that gushes just in time to satisfy the bank. Erwin heads home as planned but notas he had fearedas a loser. Affable and fun: Thompsons portrayal of an innocent gone (very) far abroad proves irresistibly readable. — Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. –This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Alastor (Jack Vance)

Trullion: Alastor 2262 / Marune: Alastor 933 / Wyst: Alastor 1716
The Alastor Cluster: A sprawling system of thirty thousand live stars and three thousand inhabited planets, the cluster is ruled by the mysterious Connatic. He sees all and knows all, but with five trillion people contained within such far-flung boundaries, sooner or later something is bound to give.
Trullion: Alastor 2262: An idyllic world where food is bountiful, the oceans are clear, and no one is ever wanting, World 2262 of the Alastor Cluster is in for a rude awakening. The Trill, a once-peaceful race populating the waters of Trullion, are now gambling their lives away on the planet-wide game hussade. What reward could be worth such risks?
Marune: Alastor 933: Though the Connatic knows all, there is one man of whom he knows nothing, one man who knows nothing of himself. Pardero is determined to find out who he is and what cruel enemy forced him to forget his own life. But when he finally returns home to Marune, World 933 of the Alastor Cluster, the mystery only deepens.
Wyst: Alastor 1716: On Wyst, World 1716 of the Alastor Cluster, millions of people live together in harmony, work only a few hours each week, and share the fruits of their labor equally. Wyst seems a utopia. But the Connatic, knowing better than to take utopia at face value, one day decides to investigate-a decision that may cost him his life

Moongate (William Proctor and David Weldon)

Book Description
A historic international space mission explodes with crimes and crises after scientists, engaged in a moon-mining expedition, receive information from outer space about how to reverse the aging process. Corporate espionage, murders, political assassinations, and finally, the threat of a new Cold War follow a revolutionary message on the human genome from mysterious and possibly demonic beings from another dimension. U.S. Representative Scott Andrews begins to doubt the motives of these “benign” messengers and suspects that they harbor designs of biblical proportions against the entire earth. This political/sci-fi/spiritual thriller pulls the reader onto a roller-coaster plot, with twists and turns through cutting-edge space and energy technology, genetic manipulation, back-room political machinations, and international intrigue on the highest levels.

The Furthest Horizon: SF Adventures to the Far Future (by Gardner Dozois (Editor))

The most important and influential SF-magazine editor in the world.”-Interzone

It is the essence of science fiction to chart the possibilities of the future, but it takes the hand of a master to capture the farthest reaches of time–futures almost unimaginably distant. The Furthest Horizon collects seventeen of the most inventive and audacious visions of the future by many acclaimed writers, including:
* Brian Aldiss * Poul Anderson * Avram Davidson * Joe Haldeman * Alexander Jablokov * Paul J. McAuley * Ian McDonald * Michael Moorcock * Frederik Pohl * Robert Reed * Keith Roberts * Robert Silverberg * Cordwainer Smith * James Tiptree, Jr. * Jack Vance * Walter Jon Williams * Gene Wolfe

“Dozois is to the 1980s and 1990s what John W. Campbell, Jr., was to the 1940s and 1950s-the finest editor in the world of short SF.”-Publishers Weekly

“Dozois is arguably the most accomplished editor in the field of modern genre short fiction.”-SF Site

I hope these are good reads. I’ll post reviews as soon as I finish reading each book and if I’m not too lazy to bother to do so:)

I just came home from worship team practice. Yun lang nangungulit lang ako sa post na ito

Yesterday, during some last minute shopping for our relatives, I finally got new glasses. My old spectacles got whacked when the block had some paintball madness at Camp John Hay (’twas so much fun). I initially wanted to buy the same frame as my old one but the sales assistant at EO told me that they don’t carry the same design anymore. I checked out other Banana Republic frames but they all look so flimsy. After a couple of test fittings, I settled for a Tyler frame with black rubber library temples:

Our family has just had dinner. And I know much has happened through the year my puny words could not encapsulate how good the Lord has been to me and my family

Yesterday while going home from our the block’s Baguio Blockout we passed by a digital media store name CD-R Frinz. Obviously, it’s name somehow related to the big-outfit that CD-R King. Just how it is related I can’t decide yet if its pure genius in using the parodied trade name or just plain goofing around on the part of the owner of the place

I didn’t expect I’d get a good read of Philip Pullman’s Northern Lights (the name was changed to The Golden Compass when it was published in the US). While the prose and the narrative are more akin to children’s book-type storytelling, I find the uncomplicated voice rather refreshing.

Although science fiction is my normal fare, which I manage to read it during my commutes from law school, I was compelled to read the Golden Compass largely because the bus line (Cher Transport buses) which I normally ride had this advert showing the trailer of the film. And for two months or so I was force-fed images of snowy landscapes, large metal-clad bears and the icy look of Nicole Kidman. My interest was piqued so I got myself an e-book.

I was not disappointed

I am in vacation mode already.

Check out my new bookshelf page courtesy of Shelfari : )

Blame it on this chilly December night. Blame it on the fact that I’m already 24-heavily scarred yet tremendously blessed. Blame it on the fact that I have received second chances, third chances, nth chances. Blame it on this fabulous song by The Skyline Drive.

Blame it on me.

“All these things that we do
I build now to point towards You
A lifetime of chasing truth
Long after this is new
I’ll stand by You”

…but tonight all I know is He’s got me where He wants me to be.

“And I’m safe as far as I can see
And there’s no place I’d rather be but right here.”

Tonight, I am reminded to give thanks for everything I have ever been given. I do not know if i’ll cry or laugh or jump or whatever: I am bursting with so many things. I think I’ll just stand… stand and see what He wants me to see. He doesn’t need what I can offer Him. He wants me.

I grew up thinking -scheming-on how I’ll go about changing the world. Bad thing is I got careless. I forget about the optimism of my childhood. I found myself down and out, the songs of my childhood missing in some point between A and B.

That stops now.

Tonight, I surrender. I let go of the reins. You direct me Lord.

It’s a holiday! A very well-placed holiday..

Three weeks into the current semester I already feel the toll of all the pressure and our weird, and monumentally tiring, schedule.. But that doesn’t matter I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me.

Last night, my mother called me to talk to my brother and teach him some important things. I told him towards the end of our talk that in life what really matters is what God has done for us and what we have done for God in obedience to His commands. Landing a good job, building relationships with people, enjoying life’s luxuries, etc. are all bonuses. Everything was created for him and through Him.

And today, the weather is weird: the sun is up and it bathes me with its glorious rays but it’s still so chilly. yun lang