Day 30 2021 - Zelazny Haiku - Merlin

 April thirtieth.

Time to kill Merlin. Do it

right this time, alright?

Day 29 2021 - Zelazny Haiku - Morningstar

Lidless eyes. Stone self.

Promethean Morningstar.

Waiting for the dawn.

Day 28 2021 - Zelazny Haiku - Shadowjack

Stone eater, breaker

of the Compact. Shadowjack,

Lord of Shadow Guard

Day 27 2021 - Zelazny Haiku - Dara

 Dara, not the best

mom in the world. No wonder

Merlin's such a tool.

Day 26 2021 - Zelazny Haiku - Tak, of the Bright Spear

Tak, of the Bright Spear

Former archivist, now an

ape. Bananas, please!

Day 25 2021 - Zelazny Haiku - Mary Maude Mullen, the Doyenne

 Mary Maude Mullen

immortal arbiter of

trans-society.

Day 24 2021 - Zelazny Haiku - Agni

 Agni, wielder of

the universal fire. Guy's

got a glass jaw, though.

Day 23 2021 - Zelazny Haiku - Tibor McMasters

Doc Abernathy

says to Tibor: "A legless

man cannot kneel." Mean!

Day 22 2021 - Zelazny Haiku - Deadboy Donner

 Deadboy Donner: A

bit like Guys and Dolls, but set

in the far future.

Day 21 2021 - Zelazny Haiku - Mordel

Mordel. Faustian

bargain. Short end of the stick.

Poor little robot.

Day 20 2021 - Zelazny Haiku - Jim the Werewolf

Dog-shaped death beneath

sky's eyes beast to fest blooding

moon-turned hours...Werewolf.

Day 19 2021 - Zelazny Haiku - The Unicorn

Mythical creature

seeks single white hunchback for

love and maybe more

Day 18 2021 - Zelazny Haiku - Dennis Guise

Dennis Guise. Itsa

me! Leonardo! No, wait.

Dennis Guise again.

Day 17 2021 - Zelazny Haiku - Angelo di Negri, "Angie the Angel"

 

"Angie the Angel"

doesn't know much math. You need

Angie the Angle.

Day 16 2021 - Zelazny Haiku - George & Dart

George runs a scam with

Dart the dragon. Beats Ponzi

schemes, I suppose, man.

Day 15 2021 - Zelazny Haiku - Adam Maser

 Adam Maser runs

the Psychoshop, the Black Place

of the Soul-Changer.

Day 14 2021 - Zelazny Haiku - Willy Boy

Faithless faith healer.

Preacher Willy Boy. Stinks of

evil. Bourbon too.

Day 13 2021 - Zelazny Haiku - Ovid Wiley

 Ovid Wiley, the

Dead Man's brother. Wondrously

lucky, so I hear.

Day 12 2021 - Zelazny Haiku - Tlingel

Unicorn as the

War Games AI: How about

a nice game of chess?

Day 11 2021 - Zelazny Haiku - Francis Sandow

Sandow doesn't want

to be a god. He's content

as a billionaire.

Day 10 2021 - Zelazny Haiku - Dilvish

Dilvish, the Damned did

not enjoy his time in hell.

Stupid Jelerak.

Day 9 2021 - Zelazny Haiku - Morgenstern

 A horse is a horse

Of course, of course, unless that

horse is Morgenstern

Day 8 2021 - Zelazny Haiku - Dworkin

 Dworkin Barimen.

The anagrammatical 

grandpa of Amber. 

Day 7 2021 - Zelazny Haiku - Frost

 Frost:  A cube who made

a deal with the robot

devil. (It worked out.)

Day 6 2021 - Zelazny Haiku - Eileen Shallot

 Eileen Shallot: Named

for the Tennyson poem.

Not for the onion.

Day 5 2021 - Zelazny Haiku - John Sunlight

John Sunlight had a 

great plan AND a robot. Still

got socked in the jaw.

Day 4 2021 - Zelazny Haiku - Llewella

Princess Llewella...

That's it. I don't need the rest 

of the syllables. 

Day 3 2021 - Zelazny Haiku - Corwin

Today's haiku is about Corwin.

Oh  no, my eye! My

doctor told me not to get

hot pokers in it!

Day 2 2021 - Zelazny Haiku - Benedict

 Benedict! No, not

Cumberbatch. Haystacks. Sleepy

Hollow. That's the guy.

Day 1 2021 - Zelazny Haiku - Gerard

 I think I've going to keep the Zelazny haiku character-focused this year.

Gerard. Strong as an

ox. Smart as one too.  Hey-o!

Stop punching me. Ow. 

The Triumphant Return! (Part XIII)

 Okay! I'm back! For reals! I mean it this time.

Except in which case I fail, whereupon I will retroactively declare this an April Fool's Day post.

George Martin on the Roadmarks series

 Would you look at that?! Two posts in a week! Josh is back, baby!

Of course, these are low-effort reposts, but baby steps, everybody.

George Martin talks about the possible Roadmarks series

From the tenor of his response, it's looking more like those phantom Amber series that never come to fruition, but how great would this be?

George R.R. Martin Is Executive Producing Roadmarks

 

Will this be the news that brings this humble blog out of hibernation?

George R.R. Martin Is Executive Producing Roadmarks, Another Dragon-Related HBO Series

I suppose it depends if it actually comes to pass. George R.R. Martin is producing and he isn't exactly renowned for seeing things through to the end.

Cheap shots aside, I will be absolutely thrilled if it does come to fruition. Roadmarks was my very first Zelazny novel and it still occupies a special place in my heart. 

Bene Gesserit punishments cannot be forgotten

I feel like we need to take inspiration from Bene Gesserit punishments for the architects of the failed insurrection. 

 "Banquet?" Duncan was puzzled.

Tamalane swung completely around in her swivel seat and looked directly into his eyes. Her steely teeth glittered in the bright lights. "History has seldom been good to those who must be punished," she said.

Duncan flinched at the word "history." It was one of Tamalane's signals. She was going to teach a lesson, another boring lesson.

"Bene Gesserit punishments cannot be forgotten."

Duncan focused on Tamalane's old mouth, sensing abruptly that she spoke out of painful personal experience. He was going to learn something interesting!

"Our punishments carry an inescapable lesson," Tamalane said. "It is much more than the pain."

Duncan sat on the floor at her feet. From this angle, Tamalane was a black-shrouded and ominous figure.

"We do not punish with the ultimate agony," she said. "That is reserved for a Reverend Mother's passage through the spice."

Duncan nodded. Library records referred to "spice agony," a mysterious trial that created a Reverend Mother.

"Major punishments are painful, nonetheless," she said. "They are also emotionally painful. Emotion evoked by punishment is always that emotion we judge to be the penitent's greatest weakness and thus we strengthen the punished."

Her words filled Duncan with unfocused dread. What were they doing to his guards? He could not speak but there was no need. Tamalane was not finished.

"The punishment always ends with a dessert," she said and she clapped her hands against her knees.

Duncan frowned. Dessert? That was part of a banquet. How could a banquet be punishment?

"It is not really a banquet but the idea of a banquet," Tamalane said. One clawlike hand described a circle in the air. "The dessert comes something totally unexpected. The penitent thinks: Ahhh, I have been forgiven at last! You understand?"

Duncan shook his head from side to side. No, he did not understand.

"It is the sweetness of the moment," she said. "You have been through every course of a painful banquet and come out at the end to something you can savor. But! As you savor it, then comes the most painful moment of all, the recognition, the understanding that this is not pleasure-at-the-end. No, indeed. This is the ultimate pain of the major punishment. It locks in the Bene Gesserit lesson."

How I feel after surviving 2020