Back to Vessa and Patty! If you want to read their storyline from this chapter in a row, start on p.221 and read through til p.224, then jump to p.233 and go til p.236. Although… if you need reminders, it may help for context to read what Scavina and Vangaurthe have been talking about, too… oh, you might as well go and re-read the whole chapter! What the heck, right?

By the way, I wanted to add that even though I don’t always respond as I should, I really and truly appreciate and enjoy all your comments! Thank you to all of you who take the time to say a few words, and thank you also to those who just stop by to read (I know how you feel– it’s rare for me to leave a comment on even my favourite webcomics). It helps keep me going.

Your helpful link for the week: an example of the ubiquitous guards.

Next week: you will all try to strangle me right though your computer screen as we jump back to Vessa and Patty’s storyline. I figure I might as well prepare you for that now…

This must be the most panels I’ve ever crammed into one page. That’s just how it goes sometimes– it’s a pacing thing. Also, if rotary eggbeaters– or six-cylinder engines, for that matter– seem strangely retro for a sci-fi story, that’s OK. Aria hails from one of the more distant colonies, where funky stuff like that is probably actually still useful. No accounting for the six-cylinder eggbeater, though.

New blog post below!

First appearance of the Probe that was Broken. (Although it didn’t actually get broken until the next chapter.)

Life in Galaxion Central is finally back to normal after the long school break! I admit to taking an actual break for most of it, so I now have to work work work to make up for it!

This holiday turned out to be the season of games. It started with me listening to the audiobook version of Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One (most excellently read by Wil Wheaton). Having spent my teen years as a geek girl in the ’80s, I swear that book was written just for me. I am recommending it to every Gen X-er I know (but I’m not so sure how it well it would go over with anyone much younger). And then there were the board games. One of my son’s gifts was Settlers of Catan, which is an award-winning game I’ve heard great stuff about for well over a decade, but only this year finally got around to purchasing. All of us, including our 8-yr-old daughter, got addicted to it pretty quickly. It didn’t take long before we started thinking about expansion sets and fancier playing pieces! (I bought some Fimo clay to make them.) With a gift certificate I had leftover after the holidays, I also purchased another equally-recommended game, Carcassonne. We’ve only played it a couple of times so far, but it certainly seems we’ve got another winner. A weekly Family Game Night is one of those things we’ve always talked about wanting to do, but with these great new additions to the house it looks like it might actually happen. Or maybe our delight has more to do with the kids finally being old enough to a) be able to handle more complex games, and b) not throw a fit all the time if they lose. Anyway, with all the expansion sets and tons more similarly-marketed board games, I expect we’ll have lots to entertain us for a good long while.

(Actually, I should also mention that we got a bunch of LEGO Heroica games as well, which we thought our son would love since he’s a LEGO nut. We played them, and they were interesting… but I have to admit, they didn’t enchant us in nearly the same way!)

We’re celebrating the New Year with a new scene! Actually this is the continuation of an old scene: if you want a quick reminder of what Zan and Aria are up to, go to p.229 and read the following four pages.

Uh. Oh.

Well, er, on that cheerful note… Merry Christmas, everyone who is celebrating! [EDIT: And Happy Hannukah!] As I type this I can hardly believe we’re only a few days away. I would say something like “My goodness, didn’t December just fly by!” but somehow I think I say that every month. I’ll be taking off next Tuesday– my Christmas Vacation, though most likely I will be working through a lot of it anyway– but I hope to be able to post some fun thing. Regular updates will begin again on January 3rd, when we pick up with what Zan and Aria have been up to!

Yeah, I think Scavina’s done now.

Last week, reader Silvercat wrote in the comments that there is now a TVTropes page for Galaxion! If you’re not familiar with the TVTropes wiki, be warned– you can lose whole days wandering happily through the various entries. Anyway, the floor has been opened for you to add to it any tropes you eagle-eyed readers may have spotted while combing the Galaxion archives. Hand Waving, anyone?

Last week I brought up the subject of what books I’m reading, and this week I want to mention a new webcomic I’m reading.  I expect that if you enjoy Galaxion, you’ll probably enjoy this one, too.

Lucy Lyall isn’t new to the webcomics scene, having produced the lovely black-and-white comic Kaspall for five years or so, but she does have a relatively new comic called Spare Keys for Strange Doors. I finally read through the archive yesterday, and I really loved it! Great storytelling, great characters, and as wonderfully quirky as the title suggests. And since it’s still a new-ish comic, there isn’t a huge scary archive trawl involved. In fact, as the comic is told in short story arcs, it’s very inviting indeed. The stories are a little more adult than Galaxion, which I only mention because I know some readers have said they appreciate the all-ages tone here and I don’t want to give the wrong idea. Please do check it out! And tell Lucy I sent you.

(But… maybe don’t let on that I only started reading this yesterday. I mean, it’s been out for months! She’s even advertized her comic on this site! Geez, how slow can I be?)

Yes, yes, I know. Just when things were getting interesting with Vessa and Patty, it’s time to switch away. So typical! If you’d like a quick reminder of what Scavina has been up to, her plot thread started on p. 225. And if “Rautani” leaves you scratching your heads, try back here in Chapter Six and reading on a couple of pages.

However… Miesti! *dramatic music sting*

Speaking of multiple weaving plotlines, I picked up Brandon Sanderson’s The Way of Kings last week. I requested it from my local library, and it finally arrived. I had no idea what a brick of book that is! 1000 pages. Although I’ve read my fair share of epic fantasies in my time, it’s been a while since I tackled one so big. I groaned in despair when I saw it, wondering if I could possibly finish it before my three week library time limit was up.

In the first fifty pages, I grumbled about how often the author changed tack to new characters and new plot threads. Not to mention jumps in time! I had a hard time keeping track. But pretty shortly I discovered that I was thoroughly hooked and thanks to an understanding husband and a quiet rainy weekend I plowed through the book in three days. Good grief!

You see, my friends had been squee-ing about Sanderson’s newest novel, one I had assumed was a sequel to this book (which I’d known had been out for some time). That’s why I borrowed The Way of Kings from the library in the first place. As it turns out, though… it’s not. There is no second book yet. Argh.

Meanwhile, my husband is finally tackling the set of Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time books we’ve had on our shelf for some time. Myself, I have not read them. Why? Well, Robert Jordan first came to my attention when I was working at Bakka, Toronto’s sci-fi bookstore, and I couldn’t count the number of people who came in or just called up, desperate for news of the next book in the series. I think this was around the time of the 4th book. They were all so distraught! And the news that we got from the publisher– and from Jordan himself, who came for a signing at one point– was the series was not going to end anytime soon. I then promised myself that despite how much everyone told me how much they loved his books, I wouldn’t read them until the series was finished. That was 1993. And it’s still not finished!!

Jordan passed away a few years ago, and Brandon Sanderson took on the challenge of finishing the series. Which means he’s currently in the middle of writing three different epic fantasy series. No wonder the sequel to The Way of Kings isn’t out yet. How can one man hold all that worldbuilding in his head??

Next up on my reading pile is Jasper Fforde’s The Last Dragonslayer. Coincidentally, he’s also got another series going that I’m hoping he’ll get around to soon.

(Whoa. Didn’t intend to go on for so long about books. Well, you know how it is. Over to you, now– what have you all been reading?)

Else? What the hey–?

I’m not sure if I need to link back to this, but for those who would like the reminder, Chapter Five is where Patty suffered the fracture.