Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Venge's Revenge: Children of the Sky

Great news, everyone. Vernor Vinge has finally written a sequel to A Fire Upon the Deep and A Deepness in the Sky, two novels that sit on my top-ten list. The news addition, Children of the Sky, apparently takes place on Tines World a decade after the end of AFUTD. I can't tell you how excited I am about this news.

My only complaint about the first two books is that the titles are so similar that I have to think about the difference between the Deep and a deepness, within this universe, in order to remember which is which. Vinge's only helping me a little on this front, when it comes to the latest novel's name. Oh well.

If you are wondering why I've used the "dogs" subject tag on this post, well, you need to read AFUTD to find out.

Incidentally, Vinge's unrelated novel, Marooned in Real Time, is also among my favorites. I'm currently "reading" Rainbows End via audiobook, and just this morning, I heard a fourth-wall-breaking throwaway reference to the Tines and the Unthinking Depths. Hilarious.

Monday, April 11, 2011

PR: Row 5 km

For various reasons, I haven't rowed a 5-km distance (not counting those 5-ks included 10-km rows) in about a year and a half. My current PR was set 2.5 years ago. Well, it was my current PR until 5 minutes ago. My new PR is 21:38.4, a 9.0-second improvement. I'm quite pleased with that result.