A Review of Micah by Laurell K. Hamilton

Well, it's been awhile since the greybeard posted a review.


Judging by the cover artwork, I doubt that Laurell K. Hamilton's Micah has male Science Fiction geeks in mind as a core audience. Quite honestly it looks a bit like a romance novel. Despite the beefcakey cover artwork and romantic aspects of the plot, this male Science Fiction geek did enjoy the book.


Basically, Anita Blake, the vampire hunter and necromancer, has to travel out of state to animate a zombie to testify for the feds. Because of weird complications from being the human servant to a vampire, Anita needs to have sex on a fairly regular basis, so she brings along one of her boyfriends, Micah. Micah is a wereleopard, which is like a werewolf but with the transformation being from human to leopard rather than wolf.


Along the way, more about Micah’s origin is revealed. Lycanthropy, the catch-all term for shape-changing as a condition including among others werewolves, wereleopards, werehyenas, and wererats is transmitted as a disease by bites and scratches from an infected creature. Micah caught his case as result of a violent attack by a serial killer wereleopard who targeted hunters.


After a rather lengthy bit of dialogue and lengthy sex scene that kind of intermingled, we get to the animation that Anita was called out for in the first place. It goes wrong because zombies who were murdered in the first life have an unstoppable drive for vengeance once animated. This zombie died of a heart attack but believes that it was brought on by another person’s actions, so he feels like he’s been murdered. And that’s just about the end of the novel.


Why did I like this book? I think the intermingling of supernatural horror elements with other human feelings and even the sex and romance bits add up to something unique and kind of cool. It’s also interesting that Hamilton seems to have rules in mind for how the supernatural critters work in her novels even if they aren’t necessarily spelled out for us or clear to the characters involved. There’s also the fact that it is quite simply a good supernatural horror novel.

News

With a little help from the copy center at Office Despot, I have successfully published the first issue of a zine. It's about 70% recycled material from this blog, though.

There are about fifty copies left of the first print run. A secnd printing and/or a second issue are largely dependent on the response I get to this one.

Anybody who would like a copy can email me or comment on this post or otherwise contact me. There's no charge, but I will glady accept reimbursement for my time, trouble, expenses, and to increase the likelihood of there ever being a second issue. My email is either:
khyron1144@gmail.com
or
khyron89@hotmail.com

I check both fairly often.

Cheerful Idiots

I have figured something out working at the Burrito Gong. Bussiness-like, efficient customers who order, pay, and receive their food with the absolute minimum of interaction with me are the best. I don't like my job, and I'm not there to make friends. They might or might not actually like the food. I'd bet low price point and convenient location/ quick service are at least a part of their reason for going to Burrito Gong.

Second best is actually the angry jerks with complaints. They want the food a particular way, and we failed to deliver. There is justification for their behavior.

The worst customers are the cheerful, friendly ones, especially the ones who think they are funny or clever and try to make jokes. One problem is that there are no new jokes. For instance, if we are using the two window system for drive thru, and one of the cute teenage girls is the order taker at the front window, and I'm working back cash, it is inevitable that some cheerful idiot is going to make a crack about how different my voice sounds over the speaker.

In general the big problem is simply that cheerful people are simply irritating to misanthropic types.

Punctuality

If you work in food service, especially fast food, you are probably what they call unskilled labor. This means that, after an hour of training, an orangutan could do your job as well as or better than you. Since you can be replaced by any warm body of vaguely anthpropoid configuration, the most importatn thing you can offer an employer is work ethic. One aspect of work ethic that seems to get overlooked is punctuality.

If you are scheduled, show up. Show up on time. On time is at least five minutes early. That's all there is to it. If you slide through the door about a minute late, you are a lazy communist who deserves to be fired.

Lists

Don't ask me why, but I make lists. It doesn't really matter of what. My latest one is characters in superhero comic books with a costumed identity that involves the word Doctor, Captain, or Baron.



Doctors
Dr. Doom (Marvel Villain)
Dr. Strange (Marvel Hero)
Dr. Octopus (Marvel Villain)
Dr. Spectrum (Marvel Hero)
Dr. Druid (Marvel Hero)
Dr. Fate (DC Hero)
Dr. Occult (DC Hero)
Dr. Mist (DC Hero)
Dr. Midnight (DC Hero)
Dr. Thirteen (DC Hero)
Dr. Light (DC Hero)
Dr. Destiny (DC Villain)
Dr. Light (DC Villain)
Dr. Diehard (DC Villain)
Dr. Stratos (DC Villain)
Dr. Sivana (Fawcett/ DC Villain)
Dr. Smashi (Fawcett/ DC Villain)
Dr. Arcane (DC Villain)
Dr. Solar, Man Of The Atom (Gold Key/ Valiant/ Acclaim Hero)
Dr. Eclipse (Valiant/ Acclaim Villain)
Dr. Mirage (Valiant/ Acclaim Hero)
Dr. Strangefate (Amalgym Hero)
Dr. Gade, the Invisible Man (Defunct Golden Age Timely Hero)
Dr. Mystic (Defunct Golden Age Hero)
Doc Noble (Image Hero)
Doc Samson (Marvel Hero)


Dr. Arcane and Dr. Thirteen are both kind of cheats to pad out the list. Dr. Thirteen, the ghost-breaker, is not really a superhero. He was the protagonist of horror book where he went around disproving supposed hauntings. He is legitimately an in-continuity part of the DC Universe of superheros and supervillains, though, having appeared in the original Books of Magic miniseries.

Dr. Arcane is the name used for the Swamp Thing's long-time foe Anton Arcane, a doctor, in the children's cartoon series of Swamp Thing that aired in the 1990s. In the comics, he is mostly referred to as simply Anton Arcane.

Please note that although Robert Bruce Banner (The Hulk), Hank Pym (Ant Man/ Giant Man/ Goliath/ Yellowjacket), and Kurt Connors (The Lizard) have at least one PHD, they are inelligeble because their super-identity does not include the word doctor.




Captains
Captain Marvel (Marvel Hero)
Captain Marvel (Marvel Hero)
Captain America (Marvel Hero)
Captain Britain (Marvel Hero)
Captain Marvel (Fawcett/ DC Hero)
Captain Mary Marvel (Fawcett/ DC Hero)
Captain Marvel Jr. (Fawcett/ DC Hero)
Captain Atom (DC Hero)
Captain Comet (DC Hero)
Captain Speed (DC Hero)
Captain Action (DC Hero)
Captain Action Jr. (DC Hero)
Captain Cold (DC Villain)
Captain Boomerang (DC Villain)
Captain Nazi (Fawcett/ DC Villain)
Captain Truth (Defunct Golden Age Hero)
Captain Combat (Defunct Golden Age Hero)
Captain Fearless (Defunct Golden Age Hero)
Captain Planet (Cartoon Hero)



Barons
Baron Blood (Marvel Villain)
Baron Strucker (Marvel Villain)
Baron Zemo (Marvel Villain)
Baron Winters (DC Hero)
Baron Sunday (DC Villain)

A Disturbing Thought

I work at a fast food place. We serve fake mexican food. Burritos, tacos, etc.

The most common filling for our tacos is ground beef. The ground beef comes to us in plastic bags that are inside cardboard boxes. The outside of those cardboard boxes contains an ingredients list.

Think of it an ingredients list for ground beef taco meat. One of the ingredients is carmel color. Our groundbeef needs help to look like ground beef ought to look like. Tell me that's not a little disturbing.

Another food service rant

Another great truth of life hit me recently. The reason service sucks in the food service industry is because the people working in the food service industry are resentful. What are they resentful of? Being treated as a gopher by anyone who happens to be nearby.

It starts small enough. Somebody requests something that is small and perfectly reasonable on its own. After a while though, there get to be a few too many of these perfectly reasonable requests and the next becomes unreasonable from the food service worker's perspective.

There's an easy way to combat it. Never ask for a favor from anyone working in food service whether you're a customer or a co-worker.