Joanna Chaplin > Recent Status Updates

Getting Babylon 5 feelings. This is a really promising new turn for the series.

Hello, this is actually Joanna's husband Jeremiah Chaplin. I am writing with sorrow to say that Joanna finally passed away after her long battle with cancer. Goodreads had become a major part of her life and I wanted to at least acknowledge her passing here for those who she was connected to and not just have the account suddenly stop. Thank you all for giving her a community she could embrace even to the end.

First day of several days sufficiently not sick to read.

Trigger warning: sexual abuse described in more detail. Yuck. If this keeps up, I am dropping it.

Trigger warning: rape.

Throw you in fantasy. I am having trouble understanding this world. It appears to be in our future but I don't understand how this current setup could have come to be.

Trigger warning: domestic violence.

The paperback I ordered arrived. I'm Joanna-come-lately this month on the Sword and Laser book pick.

Given this character's weapon choices, I have to conclude that she is a ninja.

Huh. Watchmen reference.

In an interview in Lightspeed Magazine, Nalo Hopkinson mentioned that this was her favorite novel. It's unlike others I have read. It mocks totalitarianism savagely.

The wonderful thing about a novel this long and dense is that the author can really work a recurring image/metaphor.

The theme of the first book seemed to be that one person can be the catalyst for big events. The theme of this one appears to be that sometimes you can't point to just one cause, that an event can be the sum of many small causes.

This is not a straight up sequel to Under Heaven. This appears to be maybe two generations later, maybe longer.

Several of the characters reference a song about the Moon carrying messages between two lovers separated by a great river. It gives the world a sense of shared culture. They have all heard this song.

Ill happenings in autumn appears to be a recurring theme.

Ugh. Examinations including political essays rendered in verse, with mandatory use of certain symbols like flowers or birds.

I have a blooming suspicion.

Does every guy who interacts with this character fall in love with her? It's probably the unobtainability.

So far, so fascinated.

I have seen "Le Fevre" as the last name for a mistress a few times now in different books.

A fox hunt. But it is implied that the foxes, the hounds, and the mounts are not at all like the Earth varieties. This tight viewpoint hides many details.

Ah, sneaky pun.

I speculate a speculation.

This is much more fun prose.

It's happened. End of cancer treatment. Six months expected to live. No joke.

Ah, that's what happened. I had had a suspicion way back, but forgot after all the intervening actions.

Getting sloppier with my book documentation. My capacities are starting to shrink.

That's a neat tie in to the beginning.