incandescens | A Novel

Picked up Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norell: A Novel in town today; looks interesting. (Bought the black-cover version, I admit it.) Forgot to buy new bus monthly ticket, which will cause me some mild annoyance halfway through next week.

(I have a spam email that titles itself (Naked) Dwarf Tossing. No, I didn't look.)

http://www.livejournal.com/users/koaloha/29646.html is worth the attention, for those who haven't already seen it.

Have now received new parcel from jpqueen, including a new Tori Maia, and the two "Finder" books from Yamane Ayano -- drat Aestheticism for giving me yet another mangaka to be interested in. Lovely stuff, though.

---

The Man In The Golden Mask

[...]

"But here's the pie. It is not much to ask
That they should eat their last. A little later,
When they are in a full and slow condition,
How much more easy will be our commission."
And so they put on aprons and played waiter;
They watched their victims slice and eat the pie,
Noting the rapiers quietly set by,
And made to ready their own weapons -- when
Count Athos wiped his lips and spoke again:
"A good house, goodly serviced, by this light!
But now my friend and I would contemplate;
Bring that tobacco here. Then you may wait
On your own pleasures. Leave us, and good night."
The hirelings gnawed their lips. Aramis said,
"We are grown men, and we can find a bed
Without assistance; let your minds be free.
Here are ten louis d'or gratuity."
After a moment meeting Athos's look,
The two men doffed their aprons, bowed, and took
The humidor, their money, and their leave.
Aramis said, "My friend, I do believe
Those two were gentler than their looks let on."
He glanced outside, the way that they had gone,
And from the dark he heard a dazed voice say,
"They had a quality I would obey."

"The man is an invalid!" Josserand thought,
"Can't anyone trust what his money has bought?
He must have a comrade -- a hireling or friend,
To reload his pistols and help him defend.
First one, and then two, and they still are alive:
We'll see what the pair of them do against five!"

[...]

-- John M Ford