[Book 42] Airborn by Kenneth Oppel (2004)

Matt Cruse, teenaged cabin boy for the hydrium airship Aurora, is the first aboard a derelict aeronaut’s balloon found floating aimlessly over the Pacificus ocean.  Lying in the gondola in a crumpled heap is a very sick man, and only with great effort is the crew of the Aurora able to rescue the man (who had been attempting a round the world solo flight). Alas, the man dies raving a few days later.

A year later, still cabin boy on the luxury airship, Matt is forcibly reminded of the man’s delirious mutterings just before the explorer died .  The dead man’s very determined and very wealthy grand-daughter Kate de Vries arrives on the Aurora with the aim of proving that the impossible writings found in a journal kept by her grandfather are true.  Her mission seems impossible, and then Matt spies a strange black-painted airship closing sinisterly on the Aurora…

Airborn is set in an alternative world where transoceanic airships and airship commerce are common because of the existence of hydrium, an inert gas more buoyant than even hydrogen and helium.   There are other changes in this alternative history; no airplanes (just primitive ornithopters), latin styled endings to some geographical place names, and it doesn’t seem that either WWI or II has taken place.  I would peg the setting as late 19th century given the dress of the characters, but I’m not even certain England exists (and London seems to have been mysteriously renamed Lionsgate). There are also notorious air-pirates, alternatively evolved life-forms, and more, and the sum of all these subtle details makes this fictional universe most interesting.

It took me a few times to get into this Young Adult novel, but in the end it was worth it for reading Kenneth Oppel’s Airborn, which won Canada’s Governor General’s award shortly after it was published.  The two main characters are likable (the stalwart cabin-boy and the dangerous nerdy-girl), the villain is both ruthless & complex, and the inner details of the Aurora are nifty to follow and are a treat for all fans of airships and dirigibles.

There are two sequels to Airborn; Skybreaker and Starclimber (latter in hardback only).  The official web-page is neat, and I live the use of a control-car engine telegraph as the inspiration for the official web-page’s navigational controls.

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It’s Your Festival, Hamilton

I forgot to mention that on Sunday afternoon,

mrs_dm

 , the Girl-O and myself all went to Gage Park in East Hamilton to attend this year’s folk-friendly music and craft-event, "It’s Your Festival".

There were rides, games-of-chance, pony rides, hippies, face-painting, and more!  While the day was overcast, we still had some fun eating some great food items (samosas, Belgian waffles, curry goat, mangoes, Jamaican patties, cabbage rolls & perogies), listen to some too-loud music, visiting vendors, playing mini-putt, and more during the 3 or so hours we were there. 

The batteries of my camera died shortly after arrival (sigh) but I managed to get these shots for posterity.

    

  

  

  

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5 UK RPG Fanzines I just lost on Ebay

Getting back from a Hamilton Festival today, I found I had lost all 5 Ebay auctions for some vintage UK RPG fanzines I had been bidding on.  My high bid in each case was 26.25 British Pounds Sterling:

DRAGONLORDS 7 1981 Rare UK FANZINE D&D/RUNEQUEST
Your max bid: GBP 26.25
High bidder: GBP 34.33 (US $56.19)
    
DRAGONLORDS 6 1981 Rare UK FANZINE D&D/RUNEQUEST
Your max bid: GBP 26.25
High bidder: GBP 57.09 (US $93.44)
 
DRAGONLORDS 3 1980 Rare UK FANZINE D&D/RUNEQUEST
Your max bid: GBP 26.25
High bidder: GBP 46.00 (US $75.29)
   
THUNDERSTRUCK 4 JULY 1982 Rare UK FANZINE D&D GYGAX
Your max bid: GBP 26.25
High bidder: GBP 27.25 (US $44.60)
   
THUNDERSTRUCK 3 MAR 1982 Rare UK FANZINE D&D/TRAVELLER
Your max bid: GBP 26.25
High bidder: GBP 32.00 (US $52.38)

(sigh) I really wanted those back issues of Thunderstruck, too, as I have issues 1, 2 and 5 already (sigh).

As an aside, multiply the price in pounds sterling (GBP) by 2 or the US prices by 1.15 to get the Canadian prices in dollars.

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moon shot

Picture I took tonight with my digital camera and tripod.

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3rd Session: Maze Campaign (July 4th 209)

Some of us got together to do some D&D 3.5 with

shadow_maze

 ’s "Maze Campaign" this Saturday night, this a continuation of our last session held on June 21 2009.

Four (N)PCs

•    Orion (male Ranger played by Daniel)
•    Memory (male Wizard apprentice to Helm played by  )
•    Fair Light (female NPC Cleric)
•    Scar Crow (male Rogue played by myself)

Our GM =

shadow_maze

 

[Book 41] The Duplicators by Murray Leinster (1964)

Link Denham awakens after a magnificent drinking binge to discover he’s on a ramshackle starship owned by a peevish and paranoid crackpot explorer named Thistlethwaite who refuses to tell Link their destination, only that while drunk he signed on board as Astrogator for his ship, the Glamorgan, and must obey his orders. 

Figuring out their destination to be Sord III with a bit of subterfuge using the ship’s hard-copy of The Practical Astrogator, Link is nonplussed to read among the terse description of the world in this otherwise sober reference work the following lines: “The last report on this planet was from a spaceyacht some two centuries ago. The yacht called down asking permission to land and was threatened with destruction if they did.  The yacht took pictures from space showing specks that could be villages or the ruins of same but this is doubtful.”

Within minutes of landing on this unexplored world Link is left alone inside the Glamorgan, with Thistlethwaite beetling off to meet an unknown partner. Link’s feeling of being left utterly alone doesn’t last long, however, as  Link has a a strange welcome by a pair of pig-like uffts and a more sinister one by a group of five human riders who seem to be riding unicorns and are wearing pieces of Thistlethwaite’s clothing!

The Duplicators is a humorous, tongue-in-cheek SF novel that still has some well grounded SF ideas. The ‘mystery’ at the heart of this planetary story is well exploited by Link, and reminded me how much I liked 1960s SF. The novel itself reminded me as a cross between another Leinster novel I read and enjoyed, The Pirates of Zan (formerly the Pirates of Ersatz) and H. Beam Piper’s A Planet for Texans. My copy was part of an Ace Double (No Truce with Terra by Philip E. High on the other flip side).

Murray Leinster (whose real name is Will F. Jenkins) is an unjustly forgotten SF writer that fans would be amply rewarded by tracking down his works. Despite being one of his minor efforts, The Duplicators is still highly recommended for Murray Leinster fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of fast adventure, political intrigue, and a just touch of romance.

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A Day at Wonderland

We three of Chateau Mystery spent most of an overcast Friday mid-afternoon and evening at Canada’s Wonderland, a seasonal theme park just north of Toronto and about an hour away by car where we live.

I hadn’t been there for nearly 25 years (I was one of the chaperones for a group of kids affected by the 1985 Barrie Tornado who were bussed in one day to the theme park), and since the last time

mrs_dm

  was there two years ago it’s changed hands and names once again (being formerly named Paramount Canada’s Wonderland).

We spent much of the afternoon period at Splash Works, a large water park located within the park boundaries of Canada’s Wonderland.  The weather was very chilly when the sun was clouded out, but quite nice when it reappeared again. The Girl-O had fun with us in the Lazy River, and several of the water slides, and had to be dragged away before she wrinkled up into a giant pink raisin.

  

 

We next spent a lot of time in the Kidzville and Hanna-Barbera Land.  We all went on a ride on Scooby’s Gasping Ghoster-Coaster,  a junior coaster where I sat in the very front row with the Girl-O,

mrs_dm

 seated immediately behind us.  Big mistake for me; I repeatedly banged my poor knees against the metal front of my car as I held on for dear life as the Girl-O screamed merrily along. You can see a souvenir snap of us below:

After that very long wait in line for just over a minute of heart-stopping roller-coaster action, we spelled off with each doing other rides, games, mini-putt and other activities with our hyper-kinetic 5 year old. At one game the Girl-O won a plush purple duck which she proudly showed off to one and all, and she had fun on the merry-go-round, and other kiddie rides.

 

  

By 8 pm, what with the over-cast skies it started getting dark, and after wandering around a bit more, we finally left a half-hour before closing, ~9:30 pm, making a fast getaway from the park, and then an hour’s drive home.

 

My thoughts about Canada’s Wonderland after all these years?  It’s certainly not Disneyworld, and the service (mostly goofy and clueless teenagers) and amenities (too few and far about bathrooms) left a lot to be desired. The food was very pricey and pretty lackluster, and it cost a small fortune for us all to get a day pass, or even pay for a day’s use for very tiny lockers in the water-park area.  One small relief was that package park photos were 50% off, and we got a few souvenir snaps and photo-magnets through them today.

Despite all this quibbling from her parents, the Girl-O had a tremendous blast, loved everything, and is eager to return to go on more rides and play more games. I really think her mission in life it to become a theme park commando, as she didn’t once stop all day!  From her point of view, the day was a tremendous success!

I’d imagine if you were a person of a certain age living in the Toronto area, you could go far worse than getting a Season’s Pass or Family Pass to Canada’s Wonderland. Bring lots of cash if you don’t plan to smuggle bring some of your own food / drinks into the park.

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Bowling Alley Artwork

mrs_dm

  somehow heard about a very large bowling alley in Burlington (naturally, it’s called Burlington Bowl), and convinced the Girl-O and I to go and play a game of 10 pin. While the balls are larger sized than the Girl-O is used to, there were some available that were very light (4 lb and 5 lb balls) and the three of us had a fun time playing for about an hour or so.

While the others were in the washroom washing off bowling ball hole grime off their hands after we finished our game, I wandered over to the black-lit arcade area  (filled with billiard and foose-ball tables).  I stopped, stared, and luckily had my camera handy to capture these shots :

   

  

Festooning the walls was the most gorgeously cheesy display of 1980s SF van-art I’ve seen in some time, and I’ve taken some pictures to share with you all. Also on the wall, were some bizarre silver Tron-like mannequins, and I took a few shots of them too.

  

You can view such fevered SF visions yourself at Burlington Bowl (on Harvester Road, just off the QEW at Walker’s Line) for the admission price of a bowling shoe rental!

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Green vs Red

Another day, another soccer game for the sporty Girl-O! 

The weather was looking a little grim at 6 pm, just a half an hour before game start, but things brightened up and I’m glad the Girl-O had a chance to play today.

I brought both my camera along, and my tripod, and caught these snaps using the tremendous zoom function of the new camera. I’m happier with this compared with my old camera, but I’m gonna have to take a digital photography to make the most of things, especially for capturing fast action and similar sporting play like what occurred in today’s game.

  

While the Girl-O was playing, her grandfather showed up, too, and was very happy I had brought along with me two folding chairs.  He very much enjoyed the high energy of today’s game. There’s a picture of him in this set, too, one I took from across the other side of the playing field.

    

Green won today, 2:1, and the Girl-O got one of her team’s goals, which thrilled her to no end!

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