Uncharted Territory

This very short novel might be a step down from To Say Nothing of the Dog, Connie Willis’s ingenious remake of Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome, but Uncharted Territory has charms of its own. Foremost of which is its delightful cover, which caught my eye as I was browsing through Dickson Street Bookshop in Fayetteville, AR. As you can see, the cover image depicts a grotesquely and delightfully ridiculous alien standing side-by-side with what appears to be a cowboy surveying a Nevada-esque terrain. Nothing warms the heart like a sci-fi western, right?

But surveying terrain is what Finriddy and Carson are on Boohte to do, two heroes struggling gamely along on ponies through both dust storms and rain, their alien guide Bult cheerfully fining them for damaging local flora and using disrespectful speech towards indigenous people. The journey is complicated when a ‘loaner,’ Evelyn–a socioexozoologist who specializes in mating rituals–comes along for the ride [a stranger comes to town]. Hijinx, as one might expect, ensue.

However, before the reports on Expedition 184 are written and sent in to Big Brother (or, affectionately, the Third Reich), there will be cutting betrayals, tussles with fauna, landmarks successfully named, and relationships broken and renewed; and above all the mystery of the Wall will at last be uncovered. All this Willis delivers with humor a la Douglas Adams, Terry Pratchett, and Jasper Fforde. A worthy afternoon read for Willis (or classic sci-fi) fans.

Finals

I’m trying to pscyhe (psych?) myself up to work on finals. I have an in-class final today at 1:00-3:00, linguistics, which I feel like I’ve already studied my brains out for; and I have two take-home finals due on Wednesday. I can write my critical perspectives final this morning, review my notes before the test at 1:00, and start my fiction final this evening before I work at 5:00.

This sounds like a really depressing day.

Fortunately I began the morning by reading some fiction by Connie Willis, and I’ll dose myself with tea (British breakfast, milk and sugar) before beginning.

Wish me luck? Or perhaps just diligence for these final finals.

**Edit.

I’ve finished critical perspectives and linguistics (I tried, which is to say either it was successful or it wasn’t), and now all that’s left is fiction, which is ironically true.  As I suspected, I’m not going to work on my fiction exam this afternoon.  Tomorrow is good enough for me.