ndrosen

On Thursday, I attended an online meeting of USPTO Toastmasters, serving as Wordmaster, so I provided a word which people were supposed to use in their speeches; the word was pishogue, meaning magic, sorcery, a spell, and it is pronounced “pies hog,” according to an Irish-sounding speaker on YouTube.

The moral of this is that even someone who has a Ph.D. and got a perfect 800 on the verbal section of the Graduate Record Exam can improve his vocabulary by reading Barbara Hambly.

Not all of my time is spent rejecting patent applications or trying to get out the word about the thought of Henry George. I do find time for reading, and in particular, I have recently read Barbara Hambly's novelette "Elsewhere," having previously read "Pretty Polly," both of them sequels to her series of Darwath novels, and both of them available for download on Kindle. It would probably be best to read the Darwath novels first, so you know who these people are and what they're doing where they are; the rest of this post is addressed to those who have read the novels.

"Pretty Polly" has a lighter touch, although when one discusses the work of a depressive mistress of letters like Professor Hambly, lightness of touch is relative. There are mysterious killings and disappearances at the Keep of Dare, and our heroine Gil-Shallos, formerly known on our world as Gillian Patterson, does some detective work. We see more of her family of origin, at least in retrospect, and also learn that she and her husband have a baby. Gil was a grave disappointment to her mother by seriously pursuing higher education, instead of a Mrs. degree, but her sister Donna cannot be accused of being excessively intellectual, or even of having an ounce of common sense. Donna is seen with a black eye and other bruises, courtesy of her latest gorgeous husband. Pretty Polly is the name of the Patterson family cat, who demonstrates sounder judgment than Donna.

In "Elsewhere," a pair of fools at the Keep of Dare have triggered a transportation device, and gone missing, together with the wizard Ingold Inglorion. They and Gil are elsewhere, on a planet with two moons and a nimeity of carnivorous reptiles. While they try to deal with their problems there, junior wizard Rudy Solis tries to deal with the problems back at the Keep. Battles are duly won, and human foibles are presented for the reader to laugh at or rue (a certain person might be considered an older male equivalent of Donna).

It's well done if you like stories with a touch of both humor and horror.