City of Night.

West, Michelle. City of Night. New York: DAW Books, 2010.

I'm pretty sure this is the shortest Michelle West novel since the first, Hunter's Oath, which is too bad, because no matter how long her books are (even when they'e 800 pages) I always want more. But this book was more than awesome enough for me to forgive its shortness (and, by the way, it's actually 467 pages, so not really that short).

I said when I first wrote about these books that they are about, on one level, what people will do to prevent the end of the world. In this book a character (people who have read Hunter's Death will know who) deliberately sets himself up to be possessed by a demon so as to draw the demons in the city of Averalaan out into the open, which changed my interpretation of that character almost completely--from a fool to a hero. Given that City of Night depicts the events immediately before, and at the beginning of, Hunter's Death, I knew almost all the plot points in advance, but the pleasure here, aside from the story itself, is in the additional character and background detail we learn. In particular, Jewel's den-kin Angel is given more attention than ever before, and he is elevated to a fascinating character in his own right. But then, every person in this world has their own fascinating backstory.

So, all in all, an excellent book, and I want the next, House Name, ridiculously badly. Let me just throw out a few tidbits that won't make sense to people who haven't read the books: this one has Ariane! and ringless!Evayne! And more about Sigurne Mellifas! And Kallandras! And Meralonne!

I've still been thinking about possible reading order. I think there are three:

1) Publication order. The Sacred Hunt (2 books), The Sun Sword (6 books), The House War (5 books; in progress);
2) The Hidden City, City of Night,, The Sacred Hunt, The Sun Sword, the rest of The House War;
3) The Hidden City, Hunter's Oath, City of Night, Hunter's Death, The Sun Sword, the rest of The House War.

Dinotopia: Journey to Chandara

Hey Wilmington, you might want to plow the streets on which, y'know, people live. IJS.

So as you might have been able to predict, my Delaware adventure to hear James Gurney speak was not accomplished successfully. I still intend to go see the exhibition of his Dinotopia art at some point, though. (Side note: I haven't been to Delaware, as a destination, since 1998, and now I've gone twice in the past two weeks.) I loved Dinotopia as a kid; I almost decided to become a paleontologist because of Dinotopia. What young geek doesn't love dinosaurs? I was not immune to their awesomeness, anyway. So when I found the newest Gurney Dinotopia book (Alan Dean Foster wrote some prose-only novels, at least one of which I read), Journey to Chandara, for $4.99 in Borders last fall, I bought it immediately.

Gurney, James. Dinotopia: Journey to Chandara. Kansas City: Andrews & McMeel, 2007.

I still think Gurney's first book, Dinotopia, is his best. That said, though, Journey to Chandara, which features the adventures of Arthur Denison and his friend Bix the protoceratops ambassador as they adventure across the island to the usually closed Empire of Chandara, might be stronger than The World Beneath. Certainly there are a lot of cool anecdotes in this book--I think my favorite part is the starsailors, waiting with their ships for the end of the world--as well as more up-to-date science than in the earlier books, as is only natural. The biggest thing here scientifically speaking is probably the prominence of avian dinosaurs; Arthur and Bix encounter a lot of them, both those that can speak human tongues and those that can't, but who are intelligent enough to communicate nonetheless. Dinotopia itself is obviously a utopia, where dinosaurs and humans of all colors get along more or less peacefully, but for precisely that reason it still tugs at my heartstrings in the same way it did when I was in grade school. By the same token, though, I notice Gurney's philosophy poking through more now than I did when I was a child, and I like it; I particularly liked the ending. There are always more things to learn.

Aztec gold, etc (waiting for the kickoff)

Since we were snowed in yesterday, I made these amazing Aztec Gold brownies for my dad as an early Valentine's present. Short verdict: OMGNOMNOM. They are truly amazing, and I must rec the recipe to those who like chocolate and chile in combination, because they are amazing (did I mention that they're amazing?).

Some notes:

1) I melted the chocolate and butter together in my double boiler, because no power in the 'verse will compel me to melt things in a microwave when I have a double boiler.
2) It's fine to use unsalted butter if you add up to 1/4 tsp of salt to the flour/cocoa mixture. Also, "espresso powder" = instant espresso. (Side note: I absolutely cannot find Dutched cocoa powder anymore. Hershey's Special Dark cocoa powder is partially Dutched, and I think that's the best one can do. It works fine for me in recipes that call for Dutched cocoa powder, anyway.)
3) I think you could comfortably decrease the chipotle powder to 1tsp and not get too much of a reduction in amazingness, if you want less of a capsaicin aftertaste. I also think you could probably decrease the sugar to 1 cup, if you are like me and are cultivating a sugar aversion.
4) I don't think it's necessary to have either double-strength or Mexican vanilla (though Mexican vanilla is amazing). Just go for a vanilla that isn't the supermarket brand (hint: the first ingredient listed should be vanilla, not alcohol, water, or sugar). But use decent chocolate.
5) I used parchment paper, and my oven got the job done in about 26 minutes.

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Oo, my arms ache from shoveling.

Every so often I dive into pop music and don't come back up to the surface for a while. So, in no particular order, my thoughts on some albums I have recently acquired.

Sunset Rubdown, Dragonslayer – Short version: OMG how did this band get this good, and why did no one tell me about it? I should not have had to be randomly listening to WPRB at 23:45 on a Wednesday night to hear the amazing song "You Go On Ahead." I didn't care for Sunset Rubdown before this, but this new album is amazing, with a rare thematic cohesion (seriously, listen to the album on repeat a few times; you'll find that the songs interlink interestingly). I'm bad at talking about what kinds of music people play--this is somewhere in the session jam-ish side of indie rock. They sound a little like Bell X-1, both lyrically and in the lead singer's voice.

Phoenix, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix – After hearing the band talk on World Cafe with David Dye I realized that the album is actually a rather barbed meditation on the nature of popular music (which I should have realized, given that the first song is titled "Lisztomania"). It's also pretty awesome digital indie pop, very close to Passion Pit but without the falsetto.

The Magnetic Fields, Realism – To be blunt, not as good as their last album, Distortion, and since I actually paid money for the physical CD I am miffed. But it's not bad, and since I haven't paid for any of the band's other albums, I don't begrudge Stephen Merritt the $13.99.

Björk, Debut – I can't believe I didn't own this album, but after I heard "Human Behaviour" on XPN the other week I realized I didn't. It's amazing, still, and if you listen carefully you can hear echoes both of the Sugarcubes and of Björk's one jazz album, Gling-Gló.

Spoon, Transference – Who doesn't love Spoon? They have been awesome for a good long while, and still are. The new album is more raw than their last, but equally good.

Vampire Weekend, Contra – I really liked VW's first album, and the second is a credible follow-up, though I do think the band loses a little of its shine to lack of novelty. But they wear their entitlement and their musical skill with equal aplomb.