Words – Xaviar X. Xerexes

Isaac Asimov’s Foundation Stories

by Xaviar XerexesJuly 30, 2018March 8, 2020

So I read a lot of Arthur C. Clarke and Ray Bradbury novels and short stories as a child. I did not read Isaac Asimov — not really sure why to be honest and something I had a nagging sense I should rectify at various points of adulthood. So first things first, I had to figure out in what order I should read the various novels and stories that make up the saga of The Foundation. And luckily for me, Isaac Asimov, included in his Author’s Note to Prelude to Foundation, a chronological guide to his stories: The Robot Series I. Robot (1950) Collection of Short …

2016: Year in Music

by Xaviar XerexesDecember 30, 2016

DJ Earworm presents United States of Pop 2016: Into Pieces [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XL8CpaE5T34&w=560&h=315] You Came for 2016 by Adamusic [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6X4Sjy7JngE&w=560&h=315] T10MO — Hits of 2016 [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNidh_JSkYk&w=560&h=315]

Bookmark: Terry Pratchett

by Xaviar XerexesSeptember 4, 2015

RIP Sir Terence David John “Terry” Pratchett, OBE (28 April 1948 – 12 March 2015). Forty one Discworld novels have been published. Within Discworld, Pratchett weaved a narrative with many different characters that each had their own narratives across several books. So much so that anyone approaching reading them needs a guide on how to make sense of it all. The L-Space web has put together the above graphic which suggests starting points for each of the major “series” of stories within the novels. There is an alternative version below.

Bookmark: Kim Stanley Robinson

by Xaviar XerexesAugust 23, 2015

I just finished Aurora, the latest novel from Kim Stanley Robinson. Kim Stanley Robinson is a writer of hard science fiction who brings logical, methodical extrapolation to any topic he ponders. He is, despite all of that, a fairly poetic fellow who often detours from physics to philosophy and the human condition. But still, hard science. Aurora is a very interesting but ultimately somewhat unsatisfying novel. As the book progresses it becomes apparent that the hero of the story, the true protagonist, isn’t human at all but the very interstellar ship that takes the humans on their long, long journey through …

Codex by Lev Grossman

by Xaviar XerexesNovember 16, 2014March 9, 2020

A brief entry — I just finished reading Lev Grossman’s second novel Codex — the one he wrote before beginning the Magicians trilogy. Its plot is an interesting, if not terribly new idea — a quest for secret knowledge hidden away in some manner, this time in the form of a medieval book that may or may not exist. It throws in a video game and nostalgic references to an old Atari 2600 game called Adventure. It feels very Lev Grossman-esque, even if in many ways a beta version of what he is finally able to achieve in the Magicians …

Writing a Novel

by Xaviar XerexesOctober 12, 2014

So NaNoWriMo is coming up in November. Is it NaNo-RYE-Mo or NaNo-RHEE-Mo? I’ve always said “rye” myself. I have started and flailed several efforts at cranking out a horrible first novel so why not try again? I’m “cheating” in the sense that I’m starting now and will probably not finish in November but maybe cranking out a couple 1000 words or so every week will get me a novella by the end of the year. I think that’s almost realistic if I don’t fall prey to my usual predators of insecurity, doubt and failing to meet my own standards of …

The Magicians Trilogy

by Xaviar XerexesOctober 11, 2014

Lev Grossman has written three Magicians books about Quentin Coldwater, Brakebills Academy and the magical land of Narnia Fillory. (By the way you can buy a print of the image above here) The first novel, The Magicians, took familiar tropes from a whole river of fantasy literature and invested in them a seriousness of emotion and consequence that was quite cathartic for me. In particular, the book plays with C.S. Lewis’ Narnia books which was an intense favorite of my childhood. I am almost the same age at Lev and the way the Narnia books fired my imagination and my …

A Quantum of Snow

by Xaviar XerexesDecember 10, 2013

Washington DC is known for its political gridlock. It also suffers from snow-induced gridlock and it doesn’t take much of the fluffy white stuff to shut things down. Today is one of those days, when a lightly drifting stream of snow has shut down offices, schools and induced a slightly panicked style of driving among the local denizens. I just finished reading John Scalzi’s latest novel, The Human Division, which was originally published online in a serialized form. Ten years ago I would have definitely made an effort to read it online, but life is too busy these days to …