As you may know from my previous reviews, I loved the first two books in this series, Inda and The Fox. As luck would have it, my copy of King's Shield arrived in the mail the very same day that I finished The Fox, and I was very excited to dive into the next book. Unfortunately, something changed between the two books and I found myself not liking this one quite as much. Don't get me wrong, King's Shield is still pretty good. But I just wasn't captivated by it in the same way that I was by the first two installments.

I'm not sure exactly what it was about this one that didn't do it for me. The characters are still complex and they've grown in ways that make sense. The writing hasn't changed, and the pacing is still good, with action happening in all the right places. Maybe it was the change in focus. The first two books are very much about the principal characters growing up. This one is much more about political intrigue and war. I guess I also didn't really like the way the character Sponge changed—the changes are plausible, but I found that I didn't really care for the adult he became.

Whatever it was that rubbed me the wrong way about book three, I'm still very much looking forward to Treason's Shore, the fourth and, I believe, final episode of the series.

Started: 2009-01-31 | Finished: 2009-02-11

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A couple of weeks ago Jason finally started showing interest in solid foods, and we got some video of one of his first really good meals. These days he's up to three meals a day, and he often gets through an entire container of baby food.

On a mostly unrelated note, Jason's second tooth showed up today. Hopefully they'll be visible in pictures before too long.

Jason has been extra fussy for the past few nights, for no reason that we could quite figure out. He would continue to fuss even after being changed and fed, but unlike before, he didn't have a fever or a particularly stuffy nose, and nothing else seemed to be wrong. But he has been extra-drooly lately, so Juliette and I thought that perhaps he might have a tooth coming in.

Bingo.

Last night started off a little rough as Jason had a poop escape his diaper in a massive way—it ran all down his legs and up his back, got all over his clothes and onto his Exersaucer. A little bit even got into his hair, I think. This is mainly our fault for leaving him in his Exersaucer without any pants. I have no idea why, but being in that thing makes him poop. It's incredibly reliable. Any time we need him to poop, we just stick him in there and a couple of minutes later, it's done. Maybe he thinks it's a toilet or something. Last night he was certainly grunting like it was.

But back to the story at hand. We eventually got him cleaned up (and the Exersaucer) and managed to sit down for dinner. Lately, we've been starting to put him in the high chair while we eat, giving him a toy or pacifier or a piece of fruit in his safe feeder. When it works, it's great, because we finally get a chance to both eat at the same time, rather than trading off holding Jason and rushing through our meal. But, the past couple of nights, as I mentioned, he's been too fussy. Juliette managed to hold him on her lap while we ate last night, which of course meant that Jason spent most of his time trying to get her hand into his mouth. I was just starting to clean up when she exclaimed, "I think you've got a tooth in there!" I rushed over and felt around and, sure enough, there was the beginning of a tooth poking through his gum—the bottom left front tooth, to be more precise. I tried to get a look, but between the tooth being so small and Jason being uncooperative I could barely see it.

It's all moving so fast, it's hard to keep up. This week, a tooth. Next week, I'm betting he'll be asking for the car keys.

Whew. Seven hundred seventy-four pages in four days should tell you something about how much I liked this book. Picking up right where the first book left off, The Fox had everything I liked about Inda but moreso.

The first book gave us a glimpse at a very rich and interesting world, but most of the major characters are all from the same country, and even when we later get introduced to the wider world through Inda's sea travels, most of his time is spent aboard ship, so all we get of the rest of the world is through bits of dialogue here and there. By contrast, in The Fox, Smith brings us to all kinds of new places, each one with a strongly developed history and flavor, each with plausible national interests and goals. Smith presents them in such a way that you get an idea of the individual culture of each place, but she does it without resorting to the kind of flat stereotyping you so often see in big fantasy worlds.  (You know, where everybody from this country is a greedy merchant and everybody from that country is a strong, savage warrior.) The characters and personal relationships introduced at every new place seem genuine and relatable.

The strong character development in the first novel continues in the second, especially in the protagonist. His transition to adulthood is handled very skillfully—you recognize both the child you first met and the ways in which his life has shaped him in the man he becomes. And, as before, you get to see so much of the inner workings of even relatively minor characters that they all come to life in a really compelling way.

Further, for a relatively long book, it's very well paced. Events are neither drawn out nor rushed, but everything seems to happen right when it should. I was certainly never bored—I could hardly put the book down!

In fact, the only problem I had was that I was so into this book that I had trouble keeping up with the other stuff I wanted to do—the hard drive on my Tivo, for example, is getting pretty full. I thought I might get a little break after this book, but, to both my delight and chagrin, the Amazon shipment containing the next installment, King's Shield, arrived on the same day I finished The Fox. So, it looks like I'm going to stay busy for a while. The fourth book isn't scheduled to come out until August, so on the one hand I'll have a little time to catch up on the rest of my life, but on the other hand I know the waiting is going to bug me.

Started: 2009-01-26 | Finished: 2009-01-30

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This year, our best friends gave me and Juliette gift certificates for a night at the movies for Christmas, along with a promise to babysit while we were out. As you might have guessed from the steep drop-off in movie reviews over the last six months, this was a real treat for us. What with the Oscars coming up and all of the attendant buzz, the choice of what to see was a little daunting, but we were able to narrow it down pretty quickly to either The Curious Case of Benjamin Button or Slumdog Millionaire. Benjamin Button being over two and a half hours long, we opted for Slumdog. Well, I don't know how Benjamin Button would have been, but this was a fantastic choice for our night out.

On the off chance you haven't heard of this one—it won four Golden Globes and got ten Oscar nominations, so people have been talking about it a lot—Slumdog Millionaire is the story of a young man, Jamal, who makes it onto the Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? At the opening of the film Jamal is one question shy of winning the top prize of twenty million rupees but has been arrested on suspicion of cheating because of the incredulity of an uneducated kid from the Mumbai slums being able to correctly answer so many trivia questions. Much of the rest of the story is told in flashback, showing scenes from Jamal's life that explain how he knew the answers to the specific questions he was asked.

I have to say, I loved this movie. The look it gave into life in the Mumbai slums was gut-wrenching, but there were also laughs and love. None of the performances really stood out as particularly amazing—though I did appreciate Irfan Khan's turn as the police inspector who interrogates Jamal—but everyone was competent, and the story was so compelling, and both Juliette and I left the theater feeling good.

A final note: Slumdog won the Golden Globe for best score, and is nominated for the Oscar in the same category, and I heartily agree with both. The music in this film was just great, and I plan on getting the soundtrack as soon as I have some spare cash.

Viewed: 2009-01-31 | Released: 2008-11-12 | Score: A

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Jason, Jay, Jay Jay, J. J. Abrams, Jables, Jableston, Jasón, Jason von Jasonson, Jason Michaelson, Son, Sonny Boy, Sonson, Son-san, Boy-o, Booby Boy, Baby, The Baby, Baby Jay, Baby Booboo, Boo Boo Bear, Baby Boy, The Boy, The Jason, Jason Boy, Dude, Duder, Snorty Snooterson, Poopyhead, Poopybuns, Poopoo, Poopooloopoo, Poopy, Puppy, Pants, Mr. Poopypants, Mr. Moo, Mr. Moopoo, Mr. Man, Little Man, Little Guy, Little Dude, Buddy, Buddy Boy, Bubba, Bubbaloo, El Babalao, Babalaba, Ramalamadingdong, Jammalammalammalamma, Fussypants, Mr. Fusserson, Man, Manimal, Manderson, Mangia Mangia, Dr. Manhattan, Chuck Mangione.

Despite all this, he seems to be learning his name.

I have to say, I'm a little surprised by how much I liked Inda. The story is fairly commonplace—a talented young man trains to become a military commander, and in the process he gets swept up into the world-shaking events of his time, destined to become a hero. I've certainly read that one several times before, and I'm sure I will again. What's more, the writing isn't all that great. The author, Sherwood Smith, has this strange tendency to shift perspectives from one character to another abruptly and without warning, which is often jarring.

Despite that, though, I was absolutely riveted, and when the book came to its abrupt ending I was upset that I didn't already have the sequels. (Indeed, the fourth book isn't even coming out until August.) I have, of course, always been a sucker for a coming-of-age story, but, more than that, the world and characters of Inda were quite compelling. The cavalry-based military culture of the Marlovans combined with their language (several words of which you're introduced to throughout the book) evoke images of the Mongols and the Germanic tribes of medieval Europe. But there's more than that. Much of the history of this world is lost to the characters, but a huge backstory is hinted at that seems really interesting—magic, other races, fallen kingdoms, and so on—and perhaps important in later books.

I mentioned changes in point-of-view before, which are odd and often annoying. But they are also a big part of what make the characters so interesting. By seeing so much of each character's internal thoughts, each one is invested with a depth you don't normally see in minor characters. The only problem is that I wound up getting attached to a few characters who didn't end up making it through the book.

It's rare that I read two books in a row that I enjoy so thoroughly, and since I have a good chunk left in both this series and the Black Company series, it looks like I may have a hard time deciding what to read next. Which, when you come down to it, isn't such a bad problem to have.

Started: 2009-01-13 | Finished: 2009-01-20

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After almost six weeks, Jason finally seems like he's getting over his cold. What's more, he slept through the night last night—we put him down at 7 PM and he didn't wake up until 5:30 AM. It was glorious. All three of us have been exhausted lately, and to finally get a full night's sleep was simply amazing. Granted, Juliette and I both actually woke up several times in the night, expecting to hear Jason crying, even worrying a little when we didn't. I still feel a little like I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop, but the excitement we're both feeling at the prospect of getting good sleep can't be denied.

I tell you, though, the last couple of days have been great. With all of us being better rested, we've all been in better moods, and our time together has been much more fun. I even had Jason laughing last night during a game of peek-a-boo. I'm not sure whether we've truly entered a new phase with Jason's sleeping, and even if we have, I'm sure something will come up eventually that we'll have to deal with, but for now I'm just enjoying it.

I heard about Glen Cook's Black Company books via a discussion in the forum, wherein Raja (of Strobelight Review fame) thanked another member for recommending it to him. Now I, in turn, have to thank him for turning me on to this series, because it's the best fantasy I've read in quite some time.

Chronicles of the Black Company is a collection of the first three of Glen Cook's Black Company novels, which follows the exploits of the titular mercenary company over the course of a war between the forces of good and evil. That description makes this seem like just another standard fantasy series, though, which couldn't be further from the truth. To begin with, the Black Company is on the wrong side of the war—they work for the bad guys. But there's more to it than that, because the sharply defined morality that you're used to seeing in fantasy worlds isn't present. There sometimes seems to be little distinguishing the two sides in the conflict, other than that they are fighting each other. The whole thing is presented from a ground-level view with a gritty realism that has more in common with Vietnam War fiction than Tolkien.

I can't recommend this series highly enough. The collection containing the next three books is already out, with the following collection coming soon, and I can't wait to get my hands on them.

Started: 2008-12-12 | Finished: 2009-01-08

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The other day, when Juliette picked up Jason from day care, one of the women there commented how cute it was how he "kisses" people. They aren't really kisses, of course—what he does is sort of mash his open mouth against your face, sometimes with his tongue extended, sometimes not. Jason has reached the stage where he wants to put just about everything into his mouth, and if he can't bring something to his mouth, well, he'll bring his mouth to it. Sometimes he can't reach, so he settles for licking it.

Aside from putting things in his mouth, Jason also loves to grab things. Our female friends and relatives have all discovered how much he loves to grab their hair. And I have found that my glasses are a bit of a mixed blessing—on the one hand, it's one more thing for him to go after, but on the other hand, they do help protect my eyes from his sharp little fingernails.

Every once in a while we'll have this tender moment where I'm holding him and he leans back a little and looks at me. He'll extend his arms and sort of stroke my face. It's usually just about the moment when I'm thinking how cute he is when he locks onto my lower lip and tries to tear it off my face. I tell you, the kid has a good grip.

In other news, Jason is finally starting to learn to put himself to sleep. He fusses a bit when we first put him down, but it actually seems like he sleeps better when he lulls himself to sleep rather than when we do it. The last three nights he slept for over 11 hours, only waking up once each night. By comparison, we were getting up with him at least three or four times a night before that. Now, if only I could figure out how to get myself into bed on time, the bags under my eyes would finally start to go away.