Palantir

As always - thanks for the review Stephen.Sadly, the Tassie devils are in dire straits at the moment with the spread of horrible facial tumours threatening their existence. But coincidentally, there is a special program in the town where I live on the mainland which has breeding program with about 90 disease free devils as a hedge against extinction.

ATTUNGA Part 30. *** What? Wirrin dragged his mind to a semblance of wakefulness. “Wake-up Wirrin.” Pirramar's voice? After his eyes made an uncomfortable adjustment to full strength lighting and his body registered that the relaxing field of the grav-bed was turned off, Wirrin focused on the AI. “We have a priority event and I request your involvement.” “What's happened?” A glance showed the time to be just after four in the morning. This must be important. With a jolt of adrenaline brin

Wow! That is a total feather in your cap.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MIKE!!

Writing about favorite Fantasy series is extraordinarily difficult as there are JUST TOO MANY!! Feist, Lackey, Huff, Hobb, LeGuin, Kay, Deitz, Springer, Wrightson etc. - the list goes on and on. One series I return to every couple of years is the wonderful 'Dark Is Rising' series by Susan Cooper. Among my latest discoveries are The Black Magician Trilogy by Trudi Canavon and the 'Bartimaeus' books by Jonathan Stroud.

Lol. I'm fairly certain there'll be more adventuring as Sonic seems to have caught the bug.

Wow! I thought of that too, while I was writing the story, particularly the bit where Thom wanted more obvious theatrics, but couldn't include it because space, being a vacuum, is soundless.As they say, 'Great minds...!'

ATTUNGA Part 29. *** Eyes wide, everyone stared at the display. “Someone's done this. It couldn't just happen.” Wirrin agreed with Thom. This great cavern appeared to be an almost perfect sphere seven and a half kilometers in diameter with, in stark contrast to everything they'd seen so far, unnaturally smooth walls. No jutting rocks or mini mountains here, just a disturbingly regular surface curving evenly away. “Zoom the display on the walls Calen. We might be able to tell if they're arti

YAY FOR DOLPHINS!!

I certainly don't question the influence made by the works of Eliot and Chandler. I've read and reread, with great enjoyment, some of those iconic PI stories at different stages of my life. I do question the way you equate a plea for thoughtfulness in writing with 'censorship to further a cause'. If anything, it would seem to me that both Eliot and Chandler were looking to go beyond the bounds of their current mores, fighting the strictures of their contemporaries in a kind of 'anti-censorship to further a cause'. I think the paradigm changes they wrought had less to do with their 'railing' and 'scorching' and more to do with the thoughtfulness and quality of their writing, and, to link this back to the posted topic, maybe thoughtfulness and quality of writing (as expressed in the title of our site) are essentials for positive portrayal in any genre. - Yes I certainly agree with the main thrust of your post. I am astounded by the incredible mix of wonderful words and imagery, convoluted thought and aggressive assumption in parts of your post. You have the talents to write a thoughtful, high quality story.

??? I see absolutely nothing wrong with using the term 'self-censorship'. It comes with the connotation of unforced decision making, like the marketing, personal decisions, internal censorship (surely a synonym for self-censorship?) people have described. The term, 'censorship', has a strong connotation of external and forced decision making and is quite different in meaning - as pointed out by Ashi.

It's a good question Ron but I think there might be as many valid answers as there are viewpoints. For a start, how do we decide on what is 'normal'? And then, is that what we really want to be? I remember that quite a while ago Graeme made a great post about 'norms' and 'normal'. I can't remember exactly where. Robert Owen's quote sprang to mind. - “All the world old is queer save thee and me, and even thou art a little queer” I have a suspicion that a rule like that might lead to stories becoming rather bland.

Once again, thank you.

Yes, it is quite an adventure for the trio and Sonic.I must admit I had the guilts about leaving them in the middle of an asteroid but it had been so long since the previous post I didn't want to delay things any longer. And thanks for your review mutch.

The outing isn't finished yet and Sonic seems to have caught an adventure bug.Thanks DD.

Yes, awakened is a good term. It took me by surprise too when it suddenly flowed through my pen to the page.Thanks again!

Ginger cordial, a dash of mother brewed apple cider, and filtered water topped off with soda water.

Yes, it was quite a shock for the trio to see Sonic react so strongly.

ATTUNGA Part 28. *** “It looks finished.” “It's not. Two more days.” “It's unreal. Has it got everything you wanted?” A totally proud and excited Thom was with them at the construction area to check the progress of his spaceship. It had taken a couple of months to decide on his final design because after talking with Pirramar and understanding that it really would happen, he'd gone over all his ideas time and time again to make sure everything was the best it could be. Every time Sonic s

BIRTHDAY BOY!! Best Wishes!

'The context of that statement comes right after a paragraph where I'm bemoaning that other artists don't get their rightful due in the context of music history because the context of The Beatles looms too large -- naturally in that context the next paragraph reads as a fervent hope that as the people who hold them so highly on a pedestal become less and less influential that "wrong" will be righted. It's less about what I think about music, and more of a desire to see history as a whole gain some perspective on popular music through the passage of time. That's why I feel is kind of disingenous to quote only that part as if that's the only thing I said in that post. I'm pretty certain I also won't like some of the acts that do become more prominent as time goes on, but I'll be glad to see the change come anyway.' Disingenuous? Hardly. The statement I quoted is a logical construct, complete in itself. I understand the point of your post completely and have no problems with it at all. My post was really a protest about the couching of that point in what I see as unnecessarily offensive and provocative terms.

Congratulations Andrew. Special times for you.

YAY!! HAVE A GREAT ONE! Best wishes for your birthday.

'I can't wait for the generation that worshipped The Beatles to fade away so perhaps their notoriety can be taken down a notch and they can be reassessed as the twee popular band they were who, musically, didn't really do anything all that special compared to the some of the people who came before or after them. I think I might even hate The Beatles more than Miley Cyrus.' There's nothing wrong with hating the Beatles. Anyone is entitled to do that. BUT Looking forward to the deaths of the people with a different opinion, so your own opinion might have more validity, seems rather harsh - to put it mildly.

When I was a youngster my family moved to a new town every four or five years and then when I became a teacher the moves started off frequent then steadily became less so. Overall I have had fifteen different towns for my primary domicile. No more moves now though - I've been at my current abode for twenty-six years and intend to stay here. For most of my life 'home' was where my parents lived. When I knew I was settled for good 'home' became this one.