Until the Dragon Comes

Somebody recommended Consider the Fork - A History of How We Cook and Eat by Bee Wilson and I thoroughly enjoyed it. An easy read, but with a lot of interesting background about the history of cooking and food in different cultures. It makes very good points about how the nature of prestigious food has changed over time and how no-one really cared about labour-saving devices, until they had to actually do the work. :-)

One of the side effects of watching the Clone Wars animated Star Wars series, which I highly recommend if you are at all interested in Star Wars, is that I've actually become much more interested in stories set during the Prequel Era - it's managed to get me invested in the characters in a way the films never did.

Of course, being me, I'm most interested in the various ways that things can be fixed, or at least made less dark, and one major story type is one that sends one of the characters, or their knowledge of the future, back in time.

If I had to list my absolute favourite I'd go for the Reprise series by Elfpen in which Obi-Wan is sent back when he dies aboard the Death Star, to 40 years before. After over 400k words, the series as a whole isn't yet finished, but each constituent part finishes in a sensible place and it gives the reader a chance to spend a lot of time in the old Jedi Order, seeing how events are gradually changed by the addition of the wisdom and experience of the future.

Two completely different works I'm currently enjoying:

Double Agent Vader by Fialleril

The one where Vader turned double agent for the Rebellion about three years after ROTS, and Leia is now his primary contact with the Rebellion.

Tatooine slave stories, another perspective on the Star Wars universe and as the author tags it "truly ridiculous amounts of painful irony" A series of connected short pieces rather than a single story, but each one is a treat.


Recommended by ladyofastolat
The Rituals of Dinner: the origins, evolution, eccentricities, and meaning of table manners by Margaret Visser

A fascinating anthropological study of the origins of our modern day food rituals, how they've changed over time and how they vary around the world. It's both scholarly and readable, and really gives a sense of why we are so attached to our particular ways, and find others so odd.

My apologies for missing a day - I finally got to the cinema to see Star Wars after work, and got back too late for posting. This way at least, I get to coincide with a Reading Wednesday. :-)

So firstly a book, or in fact a series of books, by Edward Marston. Victorian detective stories, but with a twist guaranteed to appeal, to me at least. :-) Our hero, Scotland Yard Detective Inspector Robert Colbeck - The Railway Detective - is a fan of the modern new method of transport and solves various thefts, murders and other mysteries relating to the railways.


Another story relating to the railways, in a way, is a fanfic written for this year's Yuletide, based on the Rivers of London series by Ben Aaronovitch.

Mind the Gap, by maple_clef - "DCI Thomas Nightingale and his erstwhile apprentice are caught up in (un)seasonal high-jinks on the London Underground. It's the most wonderful time of the year..."

It really captures the humorous yet magical tone of the series, and I really loved the connection with the TLF Travel Alerts twitter.

Again, a book and a fanfic. :-)

One of the settings I very much enjoy for Middle-earth stories is what happens when Frodo and Bilbo reach the end of their sea-voyage and arrive in Valinor. It has something of the appeal of a cross-over, as two group of characters, widely separated in time, meet and learn to respect one another.

arrogantemu's whole series is called The Splintered Light, though the first part is a prequel that isn't finished yet. The second story, And What Happened After, though, is a wonderful tale of the effect of the Undying Lands on the hobbits, and the hobbits on the ones they meet there - including the Valar themselves. (One of my favourite tags of all time - "Gandalf and his strategic hobbit deployment".) Fëanor the language scholar, Bilbo, still as impertinent as ever, and Sam and his potatoes. :-)

The second is a book obtained for me by gurthaew (somebody was free-cycling some railway books, and he thought I would like them :-D).

The Ballachulish Line (The Birth and Death of a Highland Railway) by Duncan Kennedy, is actually less about the railway as a going concern, and more about the process of building it - the author came from the area, and was taken on as a trainee engineer, before going on to a successful international career. The line was built between 1898 and 1903, and the book has a wealth of social and engineering history, at a time long after the original railway builders, but which still feels like another age. The navvies still plied their trade up and down the country, engineers learnt their trade on the job, and could turn their hand to anything from black-smithing to diving, then think nothing of climbing Ben Nevis over-night, and back to work the next morning. The author comes over as a likeable, dynamic young man, eager to learn and with a kindly eye for the many different characters he met - well worth spending the time with.

I was talking to someone on Twitter about these, and I promised her some recs, but I really couldn't handle doing so 140 characters at a time. So I hope she won't mind me doing it here.

I love Kirk, Spock and the rest of the crew, but while I grew up watching the show on TV, what really made me fall for them was the series of original novels based on the show that were published in the UK in the later 1980s. I used to save up the money I earned from my paper round to buy each one as they came out, one a month. (Sorry, end nostalgia mode.)

One of things that I loved about the best of them was that they gave the crew their full due, but still manage to introduce memorable and interesting original characters as well - yes, Mary Sues can be annoying, but I do think it's a shame that all non-canon characters get tarred with the same brush, particular in a source where other characters are a vital part of the format.

( Recs under here )